#does not mean she is cruel to you because she quite literally would never

[trappedinafantasy37]

Since Minthara presents an exterior shell made of steel, and she's sometimes mean, and is an absolute badass in battle, she is often treated and perceived as someone who feels no emotions. And this often occurs to individuals who do put on such a tough exterior. It also does not help that many people perceive evil characters as incapable of doing or feeling anything other than evil. That love and evil are innately incompatible.

But Minthara is not emotionless, she does feel things. Sadness, grief, fear, loneliness, anger, anxiety, paranoia, vengeance, love. She can laugh, she can tell jokes, she can cry, she can smile, and she does get upset at things. If anything, she is emotionally repressed and emotionally guarded and the times where she does really express her more negative and vulnerable emotions is when it becomes too much to hold back and it comes out a little over the top. We have to remember she comes from a society in which such outward emotional expression would be rewarded with social punishment, religious scorn, or even death. So she really doesn't have the healthiest mechanisms to express her emotions.

She hides what she feels all the time as a means of keeping herself safe from punishment. She keeps it to herself cause she does not want you to see her as weak, as she would have been in the past. And she certainly does not want you or anyone else to punish her for it either. She hides behind little pet names and even using words from languages she knows you don't understand as that is the only way she feels safe being vulnerable with you. In her past, her love was rewarded with new wounds and new scars. She is terrified to open up to you, fearing that you will hurt her because she loves you. That her love for you won't actually be enough to stop you from hurting her. And she will only ever admit she loves you in contexts that have a high risk of death because there's really not much for her to lose at that point so she may as well tell you.

She also has a habit of intellectualizing what she feels and experiences so that they appear as "rational" and "logical" rather than emotional and to distance herself from her emotions. She says it takes a sharp mind to have sympathy for someone who suffers unnecessarily. She is trying to make it appear that emotions like sympathy is a matter of the mind, not the heart. That it is a mark of intelligence, because otherwise it would be the mark of weakness.

She blames herself for her own torments, like she deserved the awful things that happened to her. She frames the situation like she is more at fault and more deserving of blame, than the people who hurt her. It is the only way she can find any reason in what happened to her and any reason in her tormentors actions. That she did something wrong and induced someone's wrath upon her, rather than acknowledging that the person who hurt her is just a bad person.

She deserved what Ketheric and Orin did to her because she was "weak, passive, proud". That her emotional state had blinded her from the trap that was set, giving Ketheric and Orin ample opportunity to attack her. That if she hadn't felt those exact emotions, then it wouldn't have happened. She could have seen the trap coming, or she could have fought back.

Or if you attempt to tell her that her childhood was rough and her mother abused her, she immediately deflects by saying, "it could have been worse" and therefore, what she did actually experience wasn't really that bad. And yeah, sure, maybe she needed certain lessons given that she lived in a cruel and dangerous society like Menzoberranzan where she had to be prepared for violence at all times. But trauma is not born of love, it is born of fear, of pain, of agony, and her mother still tried to kill her. Regardless of her mother's intent, it was the first broken bond of trust and it left a mark on Minthara. Where she began to believe that her mother would torment her for torments sake, and she had doubts on whether or not her mother actually loved her.

When you encounter the first Orin imposter, it's pretty damn obvious she is terrified. And you kinda gotta squeeze it out of her to admit that she's afraid. Where it's "I'm afraid of Orin because she is capable of this, this, and this, and you should be too" rather than "I am afraid of Orin because she hurt me." And she begs you, BEGS, to keep her safe because she knows her fear makes her vulnerable to Orin.

She doesn't even truly acknowledge that she wasn't at fault for what Orin did to her until Orin is dead. She doesn't start putting the blame on Orin until Orin is dead. She doesn't go through the emotional process of sympathizing with herself until Orin is dead. And she doesn't admit that she undoubtedly has trauma, until Orin is dead. She gets so wrapped up, and so lost in her own fear and paranoia that she never has the room to properly process the things that happen to her. That her primary concern right now is keeping you, the others, and herself safe and her emotions can wait because wallowing in them will only make her weak. Only does the distance of death give her the room to start healing. Only problem is that there have always been threats and they never end, they never stop. So it is rare for Minthara to ever have a moment of peace and safety to work through what she feels and they just get backed up. Ignoring your problems does not make them go away.

So you wanna know what will happen when an embrace Durge betrays her? She will fall to her death, a knife in her belly, blaming herself for your betrayal. All her worst fears have come to pass and you were indeed a lover who hurt her because she loved you, and that she was a fool to ever trust you at all. That if she didn't love you, maybe you wouldn't have hurt her. She doesn't understand your reasoning, she can't make sense of it, she doesn't know why you'd betray her, so it must have been her fault for thinking you'd be different. That if she hadn't been so loyal, so devoted, that she could have been spared. That her belief that you would rule together is what damned her. She will die blaming herself for her own murder before she ever gets a chance to start blaming you.

[thr0wnawayy]

A Waste of Air (Why Inasa Sucks as a Character)

Reasoning

Boring quirk (wasted potential, uncreative)

Wind powers are so underutilized and Inasa's is no different. It effectively amounts to 'what Hellflame does but worse'.

Whereas Enji at least has some (albeit very limited) control over the form of his fire and where it comes from his body, Inasa can only move wind around in a spiral and also use it to propell himself.

His existance only serves to be a hindrance and an obstacle both to the plot and to the characters

Literally only exists as an obstacle to Shouto, backtracking on Shoto's previous growth just so Bakugo (authors pet-cough) won't fail alone.

His introduction downplays Momo's accomplishments and skill. Taking her top spot in the Recommendation Exam by turning it into a technicality because he raged quit. (she isn't even in the flashback)

His stupid backstory.

His backstory is so fucking contrived that I almost don't want to even bother going into it.

Firstly, his reaction to Shoto's demeanor is so disproportionate that it's pathetic

Oh boo hoo, your idol was mean to you. Yeah that would work, with anyone but Shouto. It's veery similar to the Hitoshi problem. Where he bases his opinion about something/someone he knows nothing about.

Telling Shoto he's 'just like his father' is probably the worst thing you can tell him.

Secondly, He takes Shoto's reaction/rejection in the worst way possible. If what Enji had done or said had been more severe, then his reaction would be understandable as a trauma response.

However why don't we look at what Enji said:

Presumably he knocked Inasa out of the way, while an incredibly unprofessional and cruel thing to do and say (especially to a child who just wants an autograph). It does not justify his reaction towards Shoto after the entrance exam nor at the licensing exam.

It doesn't justify him throwing away his spot at UA like a child.

And it certainly doesn't justify Inasa antagonizing him in the middle of an exam!

It makes Isana come off as short sighted and inconsiderate, ironically the very same way he views Enji and (because he can't or won't differentiate the two) Shoto.

How I would Write Them

I'm not just going to sit here and moan about how lacking Hori's writing can be at times, no.

I'm going to do something about it.

Genderbend (or trans that gender)

This show is in desperate need of female characters getting the spotlight and being allowed to show their skills.

Change her backstory to emphasize Enji's sexism:

Basically she goes up to Enji after a villain arrest and excitedly tells him about how she's a fan and has been practicing very hard. She creates a decently sized tornado in her palm to show him (not much bigger than a canteen)

He then scoffs dismissively (almost snickering at her) and says something like: "Someone of your constitution would never make it to the top, stay out of the way girl and let the heroes handle it"

he glares at her before walking off with his back turned to her.

He then tosses her notebook back behind his back, burning it's corner in the process by his careless quirk use

(bonus points if the flame is snuffed via landing in a puddle, showing how her dreams were metaphorically "put out".)

Have Shoto's (unintentional) attitude remind her of Enji's insult (by dismissing her accomplishment of besting him [while still losing to Momo)

Make her resemble Rei (but not be related):

Adding another layer of connection and trauma for Shoto.

Have him seek her out instead and make her want nothing to do with him (at least at first, with the exam later forcing them to work together and gain a mutal understanding)

Upgrade her powers to something besides (Wind go wooosh).

This could be anything, personally I'd make it varied, like she's able to both mimic Air Walk and Air Cannon but can also fly around, create tornadoes and even create air pockets. Thus showing her growth and efforts.

I will say this again, Pro. Hero. Family, Make her a legacy kid. Show just how biased Hero Society can be towards those with Heroic ties.

Don't toss her after the arc is done, keep her appearances consistent, yet spaced out.

Have her appear after the Licensing Exam, highlight both 1A's growth by having her grow with them.

I would also merge the remedial course with the Licensing Exam as a sort of second portion that involves showing restraint and kindness, as well as problem solving and situation awareness in a domestic setting.

Showing that heroism is or should be more than just "punch harder, punch with feeling".

Lastly here's the design I came up with and a little information to boot.

(nothing fancy just a head and a 3rd quarter sketch, no Hero costume yet)

Isana Yaorashi, Kanji: 勇渚 (勇: brave, strong, resolute. 渚 ripple or wave (used here as a substitute for "wave" of air) also used to represent the "ripples" Enji's insult had on her life and the she impressions that she leaves on others)

Legacy Child, comes from a long line of heroes, though her parents were not about that life. Her grandfather is the one who recommended her for UA and later Shiketsu: Yoroi Musha.

Holds an intense grudge against Endeavor for his sexism and his careless/cruel tendencies. Isana wishes to show the world that "heat" isn't what makes a hero.

Personality: Very intense, a fighter to her core. Isana seldomly backs down from a challenge, however she's more than willing to push that aside to help someone in need.

Applied for both U.A and Shiketsu in advance, left due to Shoto's attitude being to remincent of an encounter she had with Endeavor's true face during her childhood.

Placed Second in the Recommendation Exam at U.A then dominated Shiketsu's Entrance Exam with a total of 100 points!.

Probably got into fights alot as a kid. Probably for good reason too.

[johnwickb1tsch]

bittersweet ~ a yandere!John Wick x fem!reader sunshine/grump coffee shop AU... Part 39 all chapters

WARNING: NSFW, SEXUAL CONTENT, VIOLENCE, YANDERE SH!T. Plz take care. I luv u all. 😘

39. pool time  

You float in the pool, cooling off after a day of training. Not so much your body, as your head. 

John yelled at you earlier for not clearing a chamber jam fast enough for his liking–and you are tired of all of this. 

Mariko continues to kick the shit out of you every other day–but you are learning a lot, so you take it. Just when you think you might be earning her begrudging respect–she finds some new way to put you in your place–and on your face.

John drills you at the range and on the speed course, and you didn’t think you were doing too bad, until about an hour ago. But the slide stuck and the spring was tight and the checkered metal hurt your sore fingers and the guns are heavy…you’re over it.

You don’t even want to go to Argentina anymore. You just want to go home. 

The only one in the pool, you swim back and forth aimlessly, underwater and above, changing your strokes every few passes then floating again. 

This situation is wearing on John too. If they don’t show soon…you don’t know what he’s going to do. Something that will probably mean leaving you here, in safety, while he goes off to do what he does. 

Which according to Winston, is starting fires in the Underworld he doesn’t quite know how to put out, without killing everyone. 

The thought of him going on another rampage terrifies you. 

You sense the shadow of someone standing over you at the side of the pool. Expecting John, you right yourself in the water, looking up.

“I did not know the New York Continental boasted its own mermaid.”

So. Not. John.

You immediately sink again in the water, peering up at the newcomer with narrowed eyes. You’re not sure which clue put you on edge immediately: the wolfish way he looks down at you, his elegant yet flashy manner of dress–or his Italian accent. 

You say nothing in return, your heart in your throat. Somehow, you just know. 

“Allow me to introduce myself. Dante D’Antonio.” He squats down at the side of the pool, paying you a cruel little smile. A lock of his dark, curly hair falls down over his forehead; he’s handsome, but there is something missing in his hazel-green eyes as he stares you down. You’ll admit it. He scares the shit out of you. 

“Your fiancé killed my mother.” 

“Prepare to die?”

“What?”

“Sorry, I thought we were quoting The Princess Bride here.”

“What?” 

“It’s good that you’ve come, signor D’Antonio,” you say more carefully, kicking yourself for being a smartass in this world where everyone spoke carefully and in metaphor, because crossing the wrong person could literally mean losing your head. “My fiancé has been getting impatient.” 

“It was never his strong suit, so I’ve heard.” 

“And yet, you harass him. There are a lot of dead people who would tell you that’s not a smart move.” 

He waves you off with a flourish of his wrist. You are so tempted to splash him. “John Wick is an old man whose time has passed. It is a shame, he would involve a pretty little innocent like you in the crossfire.”

You glare at this man, sinking up to your nose in the water. What is he doing here, talking to you?

“D’Antonio.” 

John’s low voice draws you like a beacon. He stands at the other end of the pool, a dark pillar of death. The air positively crackles with tension, and then it dawns on you that this is d’Antonio’s purpose. Rile John Wick to the point of doing violence on Continental grounds, and make him sign his own death warrant.

Again.

You might have missed it once, but now you can see the bulge under John’s expertly tailored suit jacket. You know he’s wearing a loaded Glock on his hip, and that he could end this troublesome young man in about 1.5 seconds.

That would just be the beginning of your troubles. 

You remember what Winston cautioned you, about what John might do to a perceived threat of you. Fuck. 

“John…” you caution, swimming quickly for the ladder that is conveniently situated between the two men, intending to put yourself between them. Dread floods your system, as you fear you’ll be too late.  “Save it for the parlay,” you beg between strokes. 

If Dante d’Antonio was here, surely the others were on their way? It would be madness, otherwise, for the boy to show his face to John Wick?

“Yes, John. Don’t do anything rash,” taunts Dante with a smarmy grin, one hand stuffed casually in his waistcoat pocket.  

It all happens so fast. 

John rushes the kid, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. 

Dante balks, clearly not having thought through his life choices, facing down the John Wick with no bodyguards and no weapon to his name. 

You don’t think John actually touches the young man, but Dante manages to stumble over his own Gucci-clad feet in his panic–into the pool, in that beautiful silk suit. 

You watch this transpire open mouthed, half-hoisted up on the ladder. 

John’s iron grip on your arm pulls you out the rest of the way from the pool, snatching your towel from a chair as the two of you power-walk out, draping your dripping form with the soft terry cloth as Dante d’Antonio hurls angry Italian expletives after your retreating forms. 

“Are you going to get into trouble for that?” you hiss, your teeth chattering from the temperature change and the adrenaline. 

“I didn’t even touch him,” defends John, bundling you into the elevator. “What a little bitch.”

You snort at that. You are weightless for a moment, as the elevator rises. 

“Go to the room,” John orders you at the fifth floor. 

“Where are you going?” You try not to sound like a scared little girl, certain you fail. You’re not mad anymore. Just anxious, and you realize, a bit excited. Finally, something is happening.

“To talk to Winston.” 

Of course. 

“Hurry back to me?” 

He presses his lips to yours, then gently nudges you towards the hall. “Always.”

[snowmiserboio]

Im about to fucking lose it

schultz wasn't playing with the lives of django or broomhilda you fucking moron, this, THIS is how you should know that lily understand fuck all about media literacy. throughout the movie its made clear that schultz is repulsed by slavery as a whole, which includes the traders and owners, hell his first scene in the movie is shooting one slave trader in the head, before legally purchasing django to track down the brittle brothers(he later makes django a deal for his freedom because he doesnt know what the brittle brother looks like but django does, but it all sorta works out perfectly for django since, he fucking hates the brittle brothers. so not only does he get to kill the men who hurt his wife and humiliated him while he begged them not to whip her, he gets his freedom, and he gets 75 dollars for killing them, roughly 3'000 dollars in todays value) he then gives the other slaves the keys to their shackles, advises them to either A. help the remaining speck brother, the man keeping them in chains to the nearest doctor, which is 37 miles back the way they came, or shoot speck, bury him and his brother and then make their way to the north

at every opportunity to kill slavers schultz takes it because he despises the lot fiercely, hell in the very scene your using for a screenshot schultz is rather upset, not because calvin candie outsmarted him and got him to pay 12'000 dollars for broomhilda, 460,302.44 by todays value. he was upset thinking about the gruesome death of a slave he saw riding into candy land earlier that day,  D'Artagnan, the man was quite literally fed to the dogs. he wasnt originally going to kill candie, he wanted to get broomhilda her papers so she can legally be free with django, and the moment he got them he tried to rush the two out of the house(he briefly mentions to candie what Alexandre Dumas would've thought of D'Artagnan being fed to the dogs, considering he named his slave after one of the three musketeers, which dumas wrote)candie then forces schultz to shake his hand to complete the deal, which schultz doesnt want to do, he finds the bastard vile and disgusting, for good reason too. eventually he becomes so fed up with this that he shoots calvin candie in the heart with his hidden gun, his last words were him apologizing to django for shooting the man "Im sorry I couldn't resist"

schultz didnt play or gamble with djangos or broomhildas live to feed his own ego, he felt personally responsible for django after giving him his freedom and even agreed to help him find his wife. he sacrificed his own pride at candyland when calvin discovered why they were really there. and his last moments he spent it not sulking or pouting about his own damaged ego, he spent it thinking about a man he barely knew dying, and was disgusted by how cruel candyland and the man who owns candy land truly is.

had candie not pushed it, schultz would've been walking out of that plantation house unharmed with django and broomhilda in tow.

normally I would say "Auf wiedersehen," but since what "auf wiedersehen" actually means is "'till I see you again", and since I never wish to see you again, to you, ma'am, I say goodbye!

[sevi007]

@fortythealien

Oh that one was fantastic. Let me put that under read more because of spoilers AND it got long:

I mean, the "reveal" of the illusion really hit me like a slap to the face. This was both extremely beautiful as well as cruel, and it hits you all at once that this might ACTUALLY work on one, or both, of them.

Because, I very much doubt that it was Grausam who thought out the details of this particular illusion. As we learned very indepth by now, demons cannot understand human emotions. I don't see how Grausam could look into Himmel and / or Frieren and understand that this - a wedding - could be a good way to trick them.

So, imo, Grausam's ability rather reaches into the subconsciousness of the victim and draws out what the victim itself secretly wishes for, and then paints that world for them. For this, Grausam does not have to understand emotions or relationships - he lets the victims create their own illusions.

Meaning, this is something Himmel or Frieren or both wanted, deep down.

There was actually a moment where I was worried they would fall for it and maybe Heiter will have to wake them but of course I underestimated them:

Like, how. How are you HUMAN Himmel. Grausam himself stated that there is no way to tell the illusion from reality, but Himmel just goes and does it anyway. I feel like Heiter when his friend keeps going above and beyone here.

But still, look at his face before he stops Frieren. There is this hint of sadness again - we have seen that one before,for example in the flashback with the mirror lotus ring. I think it's the face he makes when he really briefly gets close to having this with Frieren - a life, love, relationship, whatever you want to call it - before he catches himself again because he knows it's not quite possible. He lets this illusion play out for just one beat longer before going back to the matter at hand.

Also, how gently he stops her nearly made me cry. No grabbing her, no holding her at arm's length, and he does not even ask if she realizes this is not real. His trust in her is implicit! He knows she knows, and will get them out somehow.

Also also, Frieren was into this too, you can't tell me otherwise. This was a trap for both of them, and it WORKED on both of them for a beat.

And to really put emphasis on how impossible it should be for Himmel to see through this all, Frieren confirms this once again:

(But in a way, maybe this shouldn't surprise us. It is a great callback to the illusion the beast "Einsam" created early on in the story, where Himmel appears in front of Frieren. Frieren recalls that before meeting Himmel, Flamme had appeared to her instead, and THAT apparation had begged for mercy / help. Himmel's apparation, though? Told her to "shoot me, Frieren". Not even an illusion OF Himmel was going to hurt Frieren, Himmel INSIDE an illusion obviously can break free.)

And when I said before that Himmel's trust in Frieren is implicit, I would like to point out that this goes both ways:

I mean, look at this stuff. Not only does Frieren not even TRY to break out of Grausam's spell (she knows she can't) but she instead trusts Himmel to fight despite it. She is entirely helpless in this situation, but instead of fighting or panicking (which, fair, is not her usual behavior) she instead asks exactly one question, and then quite literally puts her life in his hands. She gives no orders, no pointers, she just says "you can move right? Then move (like you always do)".

This trust, man. This (literally, hah) blind trust just gets me.

Also. When I say I forget that Himmel and party are terrifying, THIS is what I mean:

Himmel never woke up. He is still inside the illusion, eyes closed, and fighting a Great Demon (one and a half, since Solitär is giving half-assed support) blindly right then and there. Not only that, but he is putting Grausam on the backfoot even.

Now, of course, Grausam's illusion magic is probably what he relies on the most, so you could argue that he is not much of a fighter otherwise. But I don't think one becomes a Great Demon without some serious skills beyond one spell, especially considering that such an illusion which relies on the victim being intrigued by it probably does not work well on demons without feelings. To be acknowledged by his kin, he has to have SOME fighting skills beyond that of a normal demon. So this is still a seriously cool (and terrifying) feat right there!

(Also, even eyes closed, Himmel is protecting his friends - look how he destroys Solitär's sword as it goes for Frieren!)

See, now you made me teary-eyed again guys. Himmel even acknowledges - in front of Frieren! - that this was an "euphoric dream" for him. He wants / wanted this, with her. He never pushed for it, maybe because he knew it was not what Frieren wanted, or because of their differing lifespans, or whatever, but he wanted this so badly, it even pops up in Grausam's illusion. He should have fallen for this. That he did not is a testament to his skill, iron will, and his trust in and how well he knows Frieren.

Also, Frieren is really just imprinting this moment into her memory before going.

And:

The one thing Solitär - who is a master at manipulation with words, as Frieren has acknowledged - has to threaten Himmel is not "I will kill you", but instead "I will destroy Frieren's future". That's far more likely to get Himmel to let them go than anything else.

All in alll, after hitting you with such an outburst: I think this is the very best take of "protags get put under an illusion spell" I have ever seen. Once again, this manga does very well in subverting the classical tropes, because here, there is only a minimal moment of doubt, the protagnosits don't fall for it nor do they despair over being trapped, and they don't need a push from inside or outside the illusion to break free. They know basically from the start what is going on, and I quite like that they don't really break out before the fight can resume, but really just keep fighting while still being under the spell. It was a fantastic way of showing several things at once in a short span of time like:

* once more affirming Himmel's feeling for Frieren, and vice versa

* The utter trust they have in each other in this party but especially these two have in each other * How competent and strong Himmel and Co actually are

Easy to say, I was an emotional wreck after this because it was beautiful but also so painful to know they never really had this. Where's that Sein pic going "when will they get together already?!" because I need it.

Bonus in case you also need to cry a little:

Fifty years have changed absolutely NOTHING about their trust and love for each other. Okay Peace out.

[drdt-headcanons]

April Fools’ Day Headcanons!

A list of headcanons for what each DRDT character thinks of/does on April Fools’ Day!

———

Teruko Tawaki: She hates April Fools’ Day. No matter who the pranks people set up are meant for, she always ends up being the one pranked. She usually gets at least a few minor injuries throughout the day. She doesn’t want to prank anyone, since she’s worried one of her pranks will go wrong and she’ll accidentally hurt someone, whether it be physically or mentally.

Xander Matthews: He takes this holiday as an excuse to break school rules, especially the stupid ones. Running in the halls, chewing gum in class, breaking the dress code, etc. etc.. Any rule he deems a useless restriction. (He soon realized the rule of no running in the halls was not a useless restriction when he crashed into Teruko while running, making her nose bleed).

Charles Cuevas: Routinely forgets it’s April Fools’ Day…Until someone (*cough cough* Arei and Whit *cough cough*) decides to prank him and others. He thinks the holiday is dumb and immature, meant to be grown out of once you graduate high school. That’s the reason he gives for disliking it, but in reality he doesn’t like how he’s almost always the butt of the joke for the whole day.

Ace Markey: He’s been dreading April Fools’ Day for weeks. He doesn’t really like to pull pranks on anyone else (he’s terrified they’ll somehow get revenge and pull a humiliating prank on him). So the whole day he’s on edge and on the lookout for any obvious pranks. But his intense paranoia fails him and he usually falls for a few anyway and he hates it.

Arei Nageishi and Whit Young: They pull pranks together all day. They’ve been planning for months and have at least one prank for every one of their classmates. Arei usually comes up with the idea, and Whit tones it back to be less mean-spirited, because he wants everyone to have fun. They plan pranks to pull on each other, too.

Rose Lacroix: She forgot what day it was until she fell asleep in class and woke up with a drawn-on mustache, hearts, stars, etc. on her face. She thought it was kinda cute and pretended not to notice for a bit. Nico felt bad and admitted they submitted to Arei’s peer pressure and drew on the hearts, but she told them she really didn’t mind.

Hu Jing: She doesn’t usually participate in any prank-pulling, but is happy to see the class having fun. If she thinks a prank was too cruel she’ll step in, but she mostly stands to the side to let the others have their fun. She might switch up her wardrobe to wear something silly as a ‘prank’, but it only really works on Levi, who is horrified at how none of the clothing she’s wearing matches.

Eden Tobisa: She likes to pull pranks in literally the nicest way possible. She’ll give someone a cake, claiming it’s vanilla flavored, and then say “Ha! April Fools!! It was actually a chocolate cake!” once they take a bite and she’ll be so proud of herself. It’s cute, and people get free baked goods, so everyone’s happy.

Levi Fontana: He’s not quite sure how to approach pranking someone, because he worries any attempt will be too mean. He tries to look up light-hearted pranks on the internet because he doesn’t want to be left out. (I was looking up pranks for him and thought this was a vaguely fashion-related prank he could do:)

(I think this one is funny to imagine him doing).

Arturo Giles: He didn’t want to participate, but Veronika insisted he do something, or else she would prank him as many times as she could. Arturo, admittedly afraid of that threat, pulled a prank by copying dozens of photos of Mariabella Rosales and putting one copy in everyone’s locker. People were very confused and he found it quite hilarious. But he won’t ever tell Veronika he enjoyed himself, she’d never let him forget it.

Min Jeung: Doesn’t see much point in participating, and was quite annoyed to find that Whit and Arei replaced her textbooks with identical copies, just that the ones they made were blank inside. She demanded to have her books back and they eventually relented. She retaliated by pulling a prank so amazing I can’t even think of one good enough to put here. But it was great, whatever she did.

David Chiem: He enjoys playing nice pranks on the people he likes (he puts misleading compliment cards in Xander’s people’s lockers) and plays mean pranks on people he doesn’t like, except he never admits the mean ones were him and always ensures he never gets caught.

Veronika Grebenshchikova: She enjoys pulling as many outlandish pranks as possible, on anyone and everyone. No exceptions. Since she doesn’t have a Whit to tone stuff back like Arei does, her pranks are a lot more…eccentric. She really likes scaring people the best when it comes to pranks, and litters fake plastic spiders all over the school (Ace fell for at least five of them).

J Moreno/Rosales: She really wants to pull a cool prank but doesn’t know what prank to pull. But she doesn’t want to look on the internet for ideas because she wants her’s to be original. Evantually she settles for hiding behind doors and then jumping out and scaring Arturo specifically.

Nico Hakobyan: As previously stated, they drew hearts on Rose when Arei prompted them to, but otherwise were too scared to pull any pranks, since they thought people might get mad at them. They decided to just tell cat puns instead, which Whit loved. His reassurance that this was a worthy replacement for a prank made them happy.

———

All done! Hope you guys liked it, I know I don’t usually post my own headcanons. But if people wanted to ask me for headcanons about characters, ships, situations, etc. I’d be cool with that! This was really fun!

[rist-ix]

What is Valtor (tbhtbh) love language?

I wanna say War Crimes And Violence for the shits and giggles, but this has made me think and I do think it’s a little more complex than that. My second answer would have been gift giving — as someone whose entire identity revolves around taking things by force, giving something freely to someone else is the highest gesture of affection imaginable — but even that feels more like a side affect than his actual expressions of love.

I think across all my fics, and Tbhtbh especially, Valtor's love language boils down to Control. In little ways, like in Sparked, where he has this constant desire to be the one who controls Bloom's studies and progress and overall access to information. Or in big and obvious ways in tbhtbh, like literally imprisoning her in a tower and regulating every detail of her day. (Paperwork too of course, Valtor has an obvious ego-boner for being the invisible force behind bloom's throne, of being needed)

You could probably dig really deep into that too, given that his relationship with his mothers consisted of almost nothing BUT control. His experiences with “””love””” are very much shaped by being physically dependent on the whims of his creators. I don’t necessarily mean that in an “that’s the love he experienced so it’s the only way he can express his own” way, because, well, he's not an idiot. He hates them and is very aware that their control only made him more eager to kill them. I mean it more akin to “he is resentful of the idea of being controlled, so now he sees every relationship as an arms race of controlling the other / he wants to compensate for that feeling of powerless then by feeling in control now”. Add to that that he is pretty much invulnerable at this point in tbhtbh, and his only remaining weakness is his emotional dependence on Bloom — which he is aware of. Just like he was aware of his mothers' ability to decimate him on a whim, he knows that Bloom could put him back into that mad state of agony should she die or escape again. A state he has lived in for three years and has no desire to return to. I just love to torment this little freak okay? He's so tormentable!!!

I think most of his other love language vocabularies tie back into his control issues in one way or another. As mentioned before, he likes to give gifts — I could go into an essay of its own about how that ties into his canon schtick and modus operandi, but I’ll stick to tbhtbh here.

He keeps Bloom's clothes and gives them back to her? For one because he knows she likes her clothes and misses the good old days, for the other because it reminds her of how those good old days ended — with him burning down Alfea. T-pose to assert dominance, yadda yadda.

He shows Bloom the garden? Well, that one gift she can’t take with her should she run away again. He controls Domino, the garden is ON Domino, if she wants to enjoy it she is by definition tied to this place and him.

And then there’s the entire rest of it, like the pretty room and the food and the fancy soaps and so on that are in her room. He is quite literally in charge of everything she has access to, and he doesn’t fail to remind her of that.

And, of course, we cannot forget that he loves to hear himself talk, so another way he expresses affection is by saying so. Constantly. He is being objectively cruel to Bloom in everything he does, but he never misses an opportunity to express how much he missed her, admires her, respects her prowess in combat and enjoys her company. Talk is cheap and he is a big fat liar when he feels like it, but in this he is 100% genuine and he knows Bloom knows that.

Great ask, Supreme!!! Sorry for the late answer, I already had like two paragraphs written a month ago, but tumblr deleted it and I got frustrated lol

[22degreehalo]

I think, to me, House of the Dragon s2 has the same base conceptual problem as the Barbie movie: it wants to tell an aspirational story about women succeeding in ways that real women usually aren't able to, by means of a fantastical setting, but also wants most if not all of its messaging to be relevant to real-world women.

To overcome that conflict - to spend so much time making the character 'relatable' while also putting them into an intentionally and purposefully unrelatable position - you have two major options.

Firstly, you can tie in some sort of inherent 'essence' of womanhood: that a woman in that position would be kinder, more generous, and more nurturing than a man would.

House of the Dragon season 1 didn't especially try to do this, but season 2 sure did. Suddenly, characters started telling us that Rhaenyra was the kindest and most peaceful contender for the crown, despite absolutely nothing in season 1 indicating that that was an especially tangible aspect of her personality. It's not clear when or why she started 'valuing the common people', as Mysaria puts it; she simply does, because she is Rhaenyra.

Unfortunately, the most basic possible plot elements of the story struggle against this characterisation: this is about a bloody civil war. If Rhaenyra were truly peaceful, she would not be going to war at all, and if Alicent were the same, she would never have goaded Aegon as she did, or gone along with Otto's plans. Not only does this heavily constrict the action of the story - the two must continually Not Do Things to show how peaceful they are, even as the other characters and audience alike scream for some sort of action on their part - it threatens the very premise of this 'aspirational' figure: Rhaenyra can't claim the throne merely because she deserves it, just like men have done before her, because that would not be Peaceful Enough. So instead, the writers concoct the prophecy - already loosely relevant to Rhaenyra at all - so that her grasping for power can be considered generous and good. Rather than standing her ground and having faith in herself, she instead becomes a passive receptacle for men's dreams (her father's and the original Aegon's alike).

In Barbie, this conflict is less obvious; however, when we consider the next problem below, it becomes quite jarring how much the Barbies' superiority is treated as ultimately inherently kinder than the Kens', without much real evidence. Any action the Barbies take is portrayed as good because it is non-violent, unlike the Kens, despite being intentionally hurtful, deceptive, and cruel.

The second and much more concerning way to find harmony between a high-ranking, high-status female character and the real-world oppression women face? Simply ignore all other oppressions rather than misogyny, and ignore any privilege the aspirational female characters have.

In both Barbie and House of the Dragon, the main character is treated by the narrative as an underdog, despite all evidence to the contrary. Barbie is a member of the elite, of an oppressive class who intentionally keeps her lowers underfoot. That isn't a malicious reading; the Kens are explicitly and intentionally compared to real-world women on multiple occasions (e.g. when it's joked that they might "someday" be able to become Supreme Court Justices). Rhaenyra at least has Aegon and his immediate family to compare herself to, as the currently-reigning king rather than the ousted 'true heir', but she is to literally every single other citizen of Westeros (and possibly Essos, too!) a higher power.

Despite this, House of the Dragon repeatedly shows an unwillingness to consider Rhaenyra's actual, practical power. Other characters gush over her kindness to the smallfolk, but when Rhaenyra comes on to a servant who repeatedly refuses her, is nonetheless treated as the victim due to her gender. And then again, when she begins a relationship with a servant, it's never considered for a second that there might be some abuse of power or coercion, merely because they are both women.

In Barbie, this cognitive dissonance is even stronger: the societal oppression of the Kens is treated as positive, merely because they resemble our world's oppressor class. In this sense, the movie posits an extremely simple, gender essentialist understanding of privilege: Women - inherently and regardless of their material or other circumstances - are victims, and Men are villains at worst and pathetic privileged crybabies at best. There is no room for any greater examination of discrimination; the secondary-character Asian Ken is treated just as much as an oppressor to the (white) Barbie as any other. Womanhood, it seems, is defined by being an underclass, even in a world in which by definition they are the rulers.

But nowhere in House of the Dragon does this mis-match of aims become clearer than in Alicent. Season 1 does well to show the ways in which she, despite being among the heir to a powerful noble family, is nonetheless oppressed on the basis of her gender: she is coerced to marry a man far older than her and to bear him many children regardless of her wishes, and may only wield true power in the realm when her husband is indisposed.

However, that oppression is still contextual - not absolute. Where Season 2 errs is in treating that oppression as fundamental to her entire character and plotline, despite she in truth being a proactive and significant mover of the events of the story.

When Alicent gives up Aegon's life to Rhaenyra - when she is told that she has not sacrificed anything, but must do, and she hesitates and agrees, because only with this will she finally be 'free' - she is treated by the narrative as a woman who has been so thoroughly controlled and degraded she has been driven to extremes. She is presented as a war-torn victim; somebody grasping at this one, limited, terrible piece of leverage in an attempt to save herself from the Hell she has had thrust upon her. For many women in real life, that would be an understandable and harrowing story, but for Alicent, it is simply not true.

Alicent is, in fact, a powerful political operative within Westeros. She had the ear of the King for many years, and attempted to use it to turn him against Rhaenyra and her children. She is the mother to the current reigning king - now barely into adulthood - and has had his whole life to mould him into whoever she wishes he could be, which - again! - she mostly seems to have used to convince Aegon that Rhaenyra is a threat who must be put down. She was not heavily constrained or controlled by the king, and did not fear him; nor did she fear her son, who she on multiple occasions slapped (an entirely ordinary mode of discipline for the time period). When her husband died, we got an entire episode of her conspiring and manipulating to take advantage of her family's position as the first on the scene so as to place Aegon on the throne, despite his lack of will or foreknowledge, in order to further their own ambitions and protect themselves.

Alicent is not merely an innocent victim of the patriarchy, however much the writers would like her to be in order to make the feminist statement they wish they could make. She is in fact far more responsible for this civil war than Aegon himself is, and arguably maintains a high level of influence and control over him even after he was crowned; certainly, once he was badly injured and disabled, it's easily apparent that she has more power than him, something Alicent herself admits when she attempts to defend his life to Rhaenyra.

Misogyny, unfortunately, does not justify her actions. She is simply in too different of a position from ordinary women for that to make any sense at all. If the writers had committed to the aspiration nature of the show and presented her as a powerful woman using everything at her disposal to get her way, just like men have done both within that universe and in our own, they could have told a compelling and unique story. The attempt to simultaneously craft a traditional feminist narrative of persecution and triumph despite the odds, instead, falls horribly and discomfortingly flat.

[primalmagic]

letters written in incognito (2/3)

(chapter 1 can be found here. tw for a minor panic attack)

Tyler is doing… better.

Would he be doing even better if he stopped pushing himself to his limits and actually took a break? Maybe. But it’s Tyler. Taylor knows no amount of convincing will get her brother to listen to anything she has to say.

She doesn’t really know what she was expecting, but nothing has changed . The love letter took a seat at the back of her brain, and remained there. Honestly, she’d have completely forgotten about it if it wasn’t for Aiden’s text earlier in the morning- screaming for answers.

Well, that was a lie. A few things changed. For starters, Taylor found herself swearing quite a bit nowadays. There just always seemed to be a fitting occasion for it, and she wasn’t exactly the best at thinking before she spoke. It just… came out. 

And another thing, Ben.

Maybe she was imagining it, but something was off .

He would hardly look in her direction all day, speeding past her in the hallways and ignoring her texts over the weekend. Maybe, maybe, she was thinking about it too hard. Maybe he was busy, or embarrassed about whatever happened Friday night (Taylor wished she could say she was too- but all she could think of was how badly she wanted it to happen again). She really hopes nothing is wrong.

The morning goes by faster than normal, and soon she finds herself sitting down at their usual lunch table.

Today, however, all eyes are on her .

Aiden’s the first to talk, flicking a soggy fry in her direction, “Talk. Now.”

She stutters, pretending she doesn’t know what they’re talking about, “What- uh-”

Logan kicks her in the shin, “The letter? Or did you forget what you texted the group chat on Friday? Cruel, by the way. Making us wait the whole weekend? Absolutely evil. Didn’t know you had it in you, Tay.” He glares at her in scrutiny, but she knows him well enough to understand that he’s joking.

Right. The letter.

She groans, pulling it out of her backpack, ignoring her friend’s shocked stares.

When she brings it out, they all speak at once.

“You KEPT it??”

“Give me that.”

“Oh my god, I thought you were joking.”

“ Finally!” (From Tyler, because Taylor had been adamant on not telling him anything until everyone was there. Even though we literally live in the same goddamn house, Tay…)

She sighs, passing it to Logan, “See for yourself.”

Logan scans the page, eyes widening as he reads through the last lines, “No fucking way.”

Aiden snatches it from his hand, sending him a withering glance, “Way to make me more on edge, Lo. Gimme that thing!”

They wait as he examines it (For such a fast talker, Aiden reads slow ), and Taylor taps at the table anxiously. 

Aiden looks up, eyes wide, and for the first time in forever , he has nothing to say.

Until he does, obviously.

“No way. I mean, not in a bad way- you’re, uh, you’re a wonderful person, Tay. And you like, obviously deserve this and if anyone was to get a secret, anonymous love letter, I’d definitely be you. But also. Holy shit.”

“Language,” Ashlyn mutters, only seeming slightly intrigued. It seems as if she’s more into the chaos than the actual matter on hand.

Aiden flails his hands, gesturing at Logan, “He said the fuck word and you never said anything about that!”

Ashlyn ignores him, gingerly picking up the letter from his hand and giving it a once over. Almost immediately, her eyes narrow, and she glances up. 

“What?” Taylor asks, eyebrows furrowed, because Ashlyn only looks like that when there is something wrong .

She’s silent for a second, before she shakes her head, “Never mind, I thought… no, never mind.”

She looks at Ben, and hands him the paper.

He hasn’t chimed in yet, but then again, he hasn’t even seen the letter. He stares at it, glaring at the piece of paper for a lot longer than necessary. 

“Are you, uh, done reading?” She mumbles.

He jerks up, awakening from some sort of daze, and immediately hands it back to her. He’s still silent, which shouldn’t be concerning, because he’s not exactly the talkative type, but it’s just… weird.

A flicker of hope flutters through her, a “ what if…” that she squashes down quickly.

Reading into things too much has always been her biggest weakness.

“Yeah, so,” She sighs as Tyler reads through it, “I guess that’s it.”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Aiden eats a fry and stares at her in curiosity.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… what are you going to do about it? ”

“No, no, I heard you, I just… I didn’t… what am I even supposed to do in a situation like this??”

Ashlyn looks up from her phone, texting god knows who. “Taylor, I’m going to ask you a question. And you need to be honest with me. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

She says it like a threat, and Taylor knows she might as well take it as one.

“Oh, um, yeah… yeah that’s fine.”

“Do you have someone in mind, that you want it to be?”

Is that a trick question? Obviously no-

Ben.

She chokes on her milk.

“Nope!” She coughs, hiding behind her hand, “Not… not anyone it could be.”

Not anyone who would ever write me a goddamn love letter.

Ashlyn raises an eyebrow, and for a moment Taylor thinks she might push it, might wrench it out of her when the object of her… dilemma is sitting right there.

Instead, she leans backward, “What did you guys get for number 19 on the math test?”

Taylor loves her so much right now.

Aiden frowns, like he doesn’t want to drop the topic but there’s something else on his mind, “It only went to ten, though?”

They all look at him and pause, sharing silent glances.

Yeah, she’s not going to be the one to tell him.

Finally, Tyler sighs, “Hate to break it to you buddy, but there was a back side.”

He slams his hand down on the table so loudly that the other tables turn to stare.

“ THERE WAS A BACK SIDE?”

– 

Aiden catches up to her after school, something Taylor’s been dreading all day. He’s been staring at her since lunch, like he’s trying to solve a mystery but doesn’t have all the pieces.

The interrogation starts off simple. They start the walk home together, Tyler and Aiden on either side of her. They complain about the math test, and Aiden rants about how “ the hell am I supposed to know there’s a back!?”

But it only takes a few minutes for what she’s been dreading to begin.

“ So… ” Aiden starts, and she doesn’t let him finish.

“Spill it,” she rolls her eyes, “I already know you have something to say.” 

Tyler glances at her exasperation, amused, “Woah there, how do you know he wasn’t talking to me?”

“He’s been glaring at me all day , Ty,” she groans, and Aiden giggles like a fucking super villain.

“Well, for your information, Tyler , I was indeed talking to Tay, and I would really love to get back to what I was saying…”

“Spill,” Taylor repeats, her lips quirking up into a small smile.

“Thank god. Okay, okay, I have an idea.”

Well, that’s not a good thing. Tyler seems to agree, judging from his soft chuckle.

“What is it?”

“You said the letter was at your desk, wasn’t it? Fourth period?”

He’s trying to get to something, and Taylor isn’t sure whether she’s going to like it or not. “....Yes?” 

“That means that the person who kept it on your desk sits there in one of the three English periods before you!” He squeals, like it’s some sort of revelation.

“Yeah…?”

“Oh my god, Tay, don’t you get it? We could figure it out! We just need to find someone in each class, ask them to see who sits at your spot, and we’d be able to narrow it down to three people. Don’t you want to know who it is?? It’s so simple!”

Oh.

Well, she has to admit she’s a little curious. 

Aiden keeps talking, “And, and ! Logan has first period in the same classroom, he can give us our first suspect. And Ben’s in third!! I don’t know anyone in second, though… that might be an issue.”

Tyler chimes in, “I think I have a friend who might know a friend who might have a sibling in second period? I can ask around too, a few people owe me favors.”

They’re so emotionally invested in this that Taylor doesn’t have the heart to tell them to stop.

“And then, what?” She laughs, “Get them alone and interrogate each one, asking them if they wrote a love letter to me?”

Aiden frowns, then nods enthusiastically.

“And you support this behavior?” She raises an eyebrow at her brother.

Tyler shrugs, “This is information that I need to have too, you know, as my role of older brother. Gotta make sure it isn’t like… Barron who has been writing ballads of your eyes behind our backs.”

Dear god.

Aiden’s practically vibrating now, “Taylor, this is going to be So. Fun. ”

She smiles softly, “Maybe it will be.”

– 

Taylor doesn’t really think about the letter that much.

Well, that’s only half a lie.

She’s been thinking about who wrote the letter more, her curiosity overtaken by nervousness after imagining all the horrible scenarios that could play out.

And besides, what was she supposed to do?

She already lo- liked someone else, how was she supposed to react when she found out who secretly had a crush on her? Would she have to break their heart?

She hates that thought.

Broken hearts suck.

Seriously, she would know.

She bangs her head on the library table, opening up her binder in hopes of cramming in some studying. She’s been slacking off these few days, due to obvious reasons.

That’s when she notices it, peeking out from a swarm of math papers.

An envelope.

An envelope, that just so happens to be addressed to her.

God, what the hell was going on?

Her hands are shaking, but she barely registers it as she tears it open. She knows what’s inside before she unfolds the paper, knows exactly what it is and she doesn’t know if she hates it or loves it.

Dear Taylor,

I told myself I would get over you, told myself that my last letter would be it. But you found it, and now my entire world has been turned upside down. I still love you.

I’m sorry.

Sincerely, the idiot who left their letter crumpled under your desk.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, Taylor thinks she’s going to scream.

It’s too much, She wants to yell, It’s too little.

She hates that they apologized. Apologized for liking her. Because that's just it, isn’t it? Nobody could ever love her and like it. Nobody could ever be happy loving her.

Anyone who’s cared for her has only had to sacrifice.

Her hands are shaking, and this time, she notices it. Her eyes swarm with tears, quick and fast, because she doesn’t know what she’s doing and it’s too much, and it’s not fair, and it’s not worth it.

I’m not worth it.

Even her goddamn secret admirer was mad about it.

It was really messing with her head wasn’t it? The feeling of being wanted, the feeling of wanting to be cared for, of wanting to be given instead of having to give .

She’d been so blind by that hope. So fucking selfish.

Don’t cry, she begs herself. Don’t cry. Please. Hold it together. Don’t make a fool of yourself in a public library. Ben and Aiden will be here in thirty minutes. Get it together before they get here.

GET. IT. TOGETHER.

She’s working on autopilot, her head filled with sludge and broken shards of thoughts floating around, piercing her skull with a million holes.

One thought stands out to her, and she gets up, gets up as fast as she possibly can, and runs.

Autopilot.

Left, right, left, left, right, straight, right.

She wants to scream in joy that the bathroom is still in the same place (which is stupid, it isn’t like it moves, but whatever). 

As she just about enters, she feels a hand on her shoulder, and she wants to scream . She whirls around, eyes brimming with tears, head burning with anger.

“ What the fuck do you want?”

Of course it’s him.

Ben’s eyes widen, and she instantly takes it back.

“Sorry, shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you, god, I’m such a mess right now. I thought you were supposed to be here at 10?” She stuffs her shaking hands in her pocket, trying to look composed.

He raises his phone, showing her the time.

10:03.

Great.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, “Lost track of time.”

What’s wrong?

She almost laughs, because what’s wrong? Everything, everything is wrong right now. “Nothing, I’m fine. Just, uh, need the bathroom.”

He lets go of her, but for some reason, she doesn’t turn around and go inside.

Let’s sit down?

She sighs, knowing he’s seen right through her act. “Yeah, might as well.”

There’s a bench a few minutes away, near the edge of the library, and Taylor knows it's Ben’s favorite place to sit because she always finds him there.

She glances at him, and he looks almost… nervous. 

Weird.

They sit down quietly, and Taylor waits as Ben types.

Hey.

She smiles softly, “Hey.”

What happened?

She hesitates, and then gives in because it’s Ben. It’s already bouncing in her throat, threatening to spill. If she’s going to tell anyone, then it should be Ben.

“I got another letter.”

He tenses up, almost like he doesn’t like that the “mystery someone” gave her another one, and the idea gives her flutters. Maybe she’s being delusional, okay? But a girl can dream, and god , does she want too.

And that’s a bad thing?

Taylor snorts, “Yeah, I mean, if someone who apparently has a huge crush on you also agrees that you’re a mistake, it definitely says something, doesn’t it?”

He looks up at her in alarm. 

What?

She shrugs, “They basically like, apologized for liking me or whatever. I mean, makes sense, I wouldn’t want to like myself either. But, you know.”

He blinks, as if he’s never seen this self-deprecating side of her, and it hits Taylor that he hasn’t . Up until now, they’ve just been thoughts, curses, wandering in the back of her mind.

Now they’re alive.

Tangible

Real .

I’m sure they didn’t mesn it like that, Tayr. I’m sure ita an accident. Youe a great person to like.

He’s typing so fast that it’s incorrect, and the text-to-speech jumbles the sentence up so badly she snorts. “I didn’t understand like, half of that sentence, but still, thank you.”

He groans, staring daggers at the screen like it’s autocorrect's fault for not changing it.

Sorry. Look, I’m sure they didn’t mean it like that, Tay. I’m sure it was an accident. You’re a great person to like.

She scoffs and tries to play it off, “How would you know?”

He looks up at her, vulnerable, conflicted, and something about it makes her feel safe. She’s not the only one feeling this way. 

You’re an amazing person. It'd be hard not to like you.

And okay.

Okay .

She wants to ask him what that means, but he’s already stood up, annoyingly tapping at his phone.

Aiden’s spamming me asking where we are. Come on, let’s go.

Oh well, she’ll just have to ask later.

– 

Aiden might have a little issue with getting too invested in other people’s business

Scratch that. It’s definitely not little.

The entire school knows of her “secret admirer” and they’re all playing detective, apparently. Oh, and it’s also the talk of the school. Lori from period three came up to her and told her how lucky she was, some random kid asked her out, and some other guy pretended to be the one who wrote it.

Which, she was going to ask about, until one of his friends slapped him on the head and told her that he was a year younger than her, so he definitely wouldn’t be in the same class as she found the letter, even if it was a different period.

Turns out, Tyler “asking around” for someone in period two only ended up with a full-fledged rumor winding its way around campus like tendrils of gossip. 

And Taylor?

Taylor can’t escape it.

She meets up with Aiden and Tyler after school, ready to walk home, when some girl comes up to her and claims she knows who wrote it. 

People are doing that now, apparently.

She smiles sweetly, asks the girl where exactly her friend put the letter, and watches her stutter for the right answer. The locker room!

Bzz. Wrong.

She rolls her eyes and walks away, ignoring the girl’s angry huff. 

Aiden’s standing awkwardly, shuffling back and forth like he did when he admitted to losing a frog in their biology classroom.

Turns out the frog was poisonous, and they’d had to evacuate the entire school.

“Hey, uh, Tay… sorry about the whole, everyone knowing thing? I mean, you’re not mad, are you?”

She shakes her head, definitely very fucking angry, but she’s not going to tell that to Aiden . Then he’d get that wounded puppy look and Taylor would feel guilty again.

“It’s fine, I just didn’t realize finding a scribbled out letter under your desk was so… gossip worthy.”

He shrugs, “What can I say? The people need their daily dose of romance, because they’re all too lazy to pursue their own crushes anyway. They’re like, living through you.”

She groans, “By invading my personal life??”

Talking to Ben yesterday had helped her calm down a little bit, even though they hadn’t said that much. But she was getting angstier by the minute, and she felt herself craving comfort. Like, it was weird as hell, but she wanted to be held?

She wanted to cry and have someone listen .

Like… like Ben did.

Goddamnit, why couldn’t the secret admirer love letter guy be him ?

– 

The next day at school, Aiden puts his plan to action. He’s even got a little notebook and everything, helps him get into the vibe, according to Ashlyn.

The entire schools in on it too, although majority of them are completely lying when they claim to find a lead.

Oh, and also, she’s like, popular now?

Turns out being liked by someone so much they write a letter declaring their hopelessly in love with you suddenly makes you everyone else’s object of attraction too?

Like, if one person thinks you’re that awesome, suddenly everyone else does?

Taylor’s never been in the spotlight, but she was just asked out twice in the last hour.

This Is Not Normal. 

“Uhm… uh, Taylor right?”

She turns around to see a guy her age, with soft brown hair and freckles, looking at her sheepishly. He’s holding a boutique of roses, and they’re… pretty.

He holds them out, looking down like he’s afraid she won’t take them. 

“Mh hm! What’s your name?”

“Leon,” he smiles, “Uh, I, uh, got you flowers? And not because of any of this stuff that’s going on or anything, I promise I’m not trying to join the whole fan army you have!” He talks so fast Taylor can barely grasp what he’s saying, “But uh, anyway… I kinda have a huge crush on you? Like, since 6th grade. We were in the same chem class and you- uh, yeah. And I guess this whole thing made me confident enough to confess? I wasn’t ever planning too but, I mean, you’re not someone who should be loved in secret or anything, like whoever wrote you that stupid letter. I just, I just think you deserve better? Uh, yeah, anyway, that’s um. My speech.”

She stares at him for a second.

“Please say something, or I might go jump off a cliff now.”

“Oh!” She startles out of her daze, “Sorry, this is so much right now and I have to get to class, can I… get back to you later?” 

She winces, because really? “Get back to you later?” What the hell does that mean? Stupid, Taylor thinks, Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And even worse, Leon’s kind of… cute. 

Maybe.

( Not as cute as Ben , the traitorous part of her mind thinks).

“Right! Class! Sorry, I didn’t mean to catch you at such a bad time. Um,” he looks down at the flowers, “Do- do you want them?”

Right. When someone gives you flowers, you’re supposed to take them. Not leave them hanging.

She awkwardly takes them from him, and smiles. 

“My phone number is attached to one of the stems,” He rambles, “Text me whenever? I mean, if you want. No pressure or anything.”

“That’s really sweet of you,” She says softly, “I’ll definitely think about it.”

He looks up and meets her gaze, “See you around?”

She finds herself smiling. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get over my stupid crush.

– 

It’s lunch time, and her friends are bursting with information.

There’s so much going on as she enters the lunchroom that she’s finding it hard to keep track of anything. “Okay, okay, wait, slow down guys!” She laughs, “Care to let me know what’s going on?”

They sit down at their regular spot, everyone talking about various things at once.

Aiden shrugs, “We’re talking about the chemistry quiz, your letter fiasco, and the fact that Barron tripped over and fell in the parking lot a few minutes ago. All in one conversation, I think.”

“Riiight- why are we thinking about Barron-?”

Aiden and Logan exchange glances that she really doesn’t like. Tyler just looks at the floor like he’s about to murder someone.

A second of silence passes before Aiden starts, “Okay, so, Logan says there’s this girl who sits their first period, who’s name is Ava?” 

Logan nods approvingly at him.

“Good job, Lo. Suspect number 1 has been caught!”

“We’re not putting them to prison, dear god,” Ashlyn mumbles, but her exasperation is betrayed by a soft smile.

Aiden turns his attention to Ben, “Sooo… what about third?”

He looks up from his phone, like a deer caught in headlights, and blinks. No one. 

“Nobody sits there?” Logan frowns, “Huh. Guess that narrows it down to Ava and… Ba- Um. The person in second period.”

Silence.

Okay, something was up.

“What's going on, you guys?” She mumbles nervously.

“It’s Barron by the way, the one who sits in that seat second period.” Ashlyn offers, still cramming in math homework while eating. She doesn’t even look up, just casually drops the bomb and leaves it at that.

“Oh- that’s- oh-”

“It, uh, gets worse,” Tyler grumbles, “We asked the girl, and she doesn’t even know who you are. She’s a transfer student who only got here a few weeks ago.”

“Barron,” she states, numbly.

“Barron,” Aiden groans.

“Barron,” Logan offers.

“Can we please stop repeating that goddamn bastard's name?” Tyler hisses, “I’m so fucking glad he tripped in the parking lot.”

“But… Barron,” she repeats, numbly.

God, they must have manifested this with all their jokes.

There’s no fucking way Barron wrote her a love letter.

screaming it took me a month but !! here is chapter two !! hopefully chapter three will be out soon, bc i already have like half of it written. hope you enjoyed reading! feel free to comment with questions, advice, or just to let me know you read, i appreciate every comment :] on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57313345

[dopscratch]

i kid you not when i say i looked up these two at 4 am hoping for some crumbs but jere you are writing a whole fanfic ( thank you so much🤩).

I personally haven't read the httyd books only the series and movies. If you don't mind could u give a mini summary as u plan to write after book 8? If not i hope you have a wonderful day/ night!

(If uave tons of other questions but don't want to spam so ill just leave this here)

AUDHJSHDHD thank you so much for sending an ask i literally have none ever HAHA

im glad you enjoy the concept :)

the books are very different fron the movies in a large number of ways! in the books, vikings stat out with dragons, and hiccup's main problem is training his own, which he can't do by the normal strategy of yelling- a) because he's not the best yeller and b) because his little green hunting dragon, toothless, is as disobedient as it gets (and smaller than everyone else's to boot!)

in the books, vikings typically have hunting dragon(s) which are smaller and usually dog-sized, as well as a riding dragon, which is larger and obviously ridable. hiccup's riding dragon is a scraggly feathery dragon called the Windwalker who was rescued from slavery :)

one of the biggest differences as well, is that dragons can speak. most are just as intelligent as humans, some even more so, and they're generally cruel by nature. their culture encourages them to act selfishly and it's worked out pretty well for them, hence why most vikings train theirs by fear or exerting power. hiccup, who is nerdy enough to have sat out where the wild dragons are and literally learned their language has been attempting to train HIS by speaking to them, which has some mixed results. windwalker is actually quite mellow and loyal, since hiccup's probably the first person to show him kindness. toothless is just a little brat with a stammer, but he does have softness in his heart deep deep down.

characterization-wise, everyone's a lot different as well.

hiccup, as stated before is a nerd who'll rattle off dragon facts in dangerous situations while fishlegs is more of the sarcastic romantic, basically think of it like the movies swapped their personalities. he also has bright red Heroic Hair that stands straight up and they robbed that from him in the movies and i will never forgive them. hes also an excellent swordfighter and its just about the only traditionally viking thing he's good at :). also, his mother is never kidnapped by dragons- but she IS gone often, out questing. her name is valhallarama and she is an absolute beast of a woman they definitley nerfed her when they turned her to valka

fishlegs is a skinny little loser (affectionate) who's allergic to dragons, has a plethora of other medical conditions too, and is acrually an orphan and was raised by a long-eared caretaker dragon. he's also hiccup's best and only friend at the start of the series. he's arguably worse at being a viking as hiccup is and they both bond over how they wish society would allow them to not be brainless fighters. his dragon is a lazy common-or-garden-or-basic-brown named horrorcow, she's both a pacifist and a vegetarian. when he was catching his dragon, he actually wanted to grab a nadder, which is long and serpentine because nadder is a pun on adder and i have no idea why the movies didn't see that

snotlout is hiccup's cousin and hates him more than anything in the world, and not in a ha-ha funny way either. he legitamately wishes hiccup were dead or never born because he hates to see this "runt" next in line for chief instead of him. he is constantly literally trying to make hiccup's life miserable or literally murder him and once again this is not played for laughs. his dragon's a mean monstrous nightmare- a hunting dragon only the chief and descendanrs of should have- named fireworm, and she is very full of herself. hookfang is actually one of stoick's monstrous nightmares!

another main character is camicazi, who appears in book 3 onward and she was so powerful they had to split her into three characters in the movies (she's sorta like if you took the thorston twins and astrid and mashed them all together, then added another sprinkle of chaos). she's a short little kid from another tribe of all-female warriors called the bog-burgalars and an excellent escape artist. she has a mood dragon- a serpentine, color-changing dragon named stormfly who can actually speak the human language too. she's not very helpful though since shes a pathological liar.

the main villain is named alvin the treacherous and he's a ridicuoulsly resiliant guy who reaaaally wants hiccup dead for a multitide of reasons we don't need to get into now since hw won't really appear in my work haha

i think ive gotten a lot of basics down, but obviously there's a ton more! in regards to knowledge for my crossover though thats essentially some of the main points you need to know. by the 8th book, hiccup has been on a multitide of adventures (and has nearly died or gotten eaten on all of them) but the world hasn't changed irreparably yet :). i plan on writing it in a way that can accomodate people with no knowledge of httyd, since most of it will be from the touden party's pov exploring the world! you'll be getting plenty of detailed descriptions of some of the dragon species as laios's nerdiness will help show

i would absolutely reccomend checking out the books, though! you can usually find them at your local library, and there's also the entire series of audiobooks on youtube! there's a very dedicated group of people on here who love the httyd books including me who would love to help you get into them as well, if that's what you'd like!

i'll round this off with a few of my renditions of some of the characters i've drawn :)

i hope this was helpful, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me! i love getting asks but never do lol

[variousqueerthings]

feelings about "vault"

all the conversations ray and fraser have about duty and sticking up for yourself and who you owe anything to, which. i have to go into some moreeeee

the fact that meg is only Invoked for so much of the episode -- she already "ate two fileclerks" so fraser will likely be fine (he wasn't + they really called her a mean femmedomme from the very beginning huh), she's a woman of considerable character, she hates fraser (and fraser is aware of this).... and then in the very last scene the only shot she has is her going "you're fired" ohhhh she's sooooooo [insert me rotating her like a hamster in a ball]

the villain of the episode talking about how she's been dreaming of fraser since he locked her up. obvs not in a sexy way, but in a revenge way. fraser has so many bad guys gunning for him, they really oughta tell him when someone is released or escapes from jail so he's not taken unawares

okay returning to the conversations

the fact that to fraser doing good deeds and upholding the law (and attempting to create trust in institutions, which on the one hand is obvs a framing of the show, like so many good-willed shows, but is also in this show a character flaw of his, because the show points out that so many institutions are - if not outright corrupt (although many are) - totally uncaring and even deliberately cruel within the law and that the law enables that, and ray is so very right in much of this episode anyway) is just something you do, he literally says he's never even thought about it -- specifically the good deeds, he's never thought about it!!!???? sir!!!!!! people take so much advantage of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pls think about it at least a little bit 😭 (me and ray like "stop! hurting! yourself! for! others! just! because!)

the way this ties into some Thoughts I have about fraser and gender and sexuality and action/purpose, which is that to me fraser is all Action and Purpose and his body is just in service of being able to enact these, it has physical presence, but this doesn't mean it has Identity or Wants (it may have Needs, but even those are kept as frugal as possible). so yeah. fraser may be a man but only because people call him that, so may as well for sake of ease, but he's not looking to Be A Man (and this very much includes A Man who is heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or even - technically - asexual, because all of that too would create a sense of Identity that has nothing to do with Purpose) BUT! but.... ms fraser is a moment of Identity, which is part of why i find that episode so delightful. it could have been a single scene, purely played for laughs, or deliberately skewed towards "must do this For The Good Of The Case," but instead fraser is... giddy? about doing this? and gives sweet, thoughtful advice to a young girl, as a woman speaking to her and it's played pretty darn straight?

because fraser and enjoyment is something that usually happens because ray takes him out, or, that one time he was dancing in "invitation to romance," (which i will always take as an essentially aroace man saying no to the romance but yes to the dancing), but yeah. ms fraser was all her! smthsmth there's some Gender squigglies beneath the agender vibes of this Man In The Sense That I Just Work Here. if fraser didn't just work here, i think she'd enjoy dressing up more.......

the episode just got away with me, but to me vault and some like it red go hand in hand (also somewhat with other episodes where fraser "allows" himself selfishness, like how he treats gerrard or talks to frankie.....) (and also in the couples therapy sense with red white or blue)

and also, so going back to "duty," a lot of fraser to me is like. yes some people take him for granted or even treat him quite badly and it seems to roll off him like water, and on some level one could analyse this through the lens of fraser as a shield -- he can take it, because he knows why he does this, and he's got a lot of strength, and he believes in the ultimate outcome, and may even just not plain get emotionally affected so much... but this episode tells us that actually he does and he struggles to stick up for himself!!! which gives a little reframing!!!!!! and asks questions, like how often does fraser feel unappreciated? how much does he struggle to stick up for himself? has he ever really thought why he does the things he does and who he would be if he didn't or couldn't do those things? (the amount of times this show in two seasons flirts with what permanent disability might be for fraser is also fascinating, he wouldn't mind dying, but my guy has been stabbed in the thigh, shot in the back, thrown off multiple moving cars, crashed in a plane and so seriously concussed that he was blind and paralysed, [insert other things later in s2 for spoiler reasons], baby.... you are not immune

(but seriously baby, you are not immune to Having A Body, and yes this is partly projection, but he is a highly projectable-onto character, but fraser and relationship to body and self is so intensely connected to his idealistic Journey, he's such a fucking martyr-in-the-making, if it weren't for ray is2g!!!!!)

also, speaking of sticking up, glad ray called him on also getting ray in danger over and over again, fraser you're no longer a one-man show, you are actively endangering your best boy (24 times according to ray, but i think it must be more), and ray also correctly seeing it as an extension of fraser's inability to advocate for himself is soooo interesting

Fraser And Body is just. it's a Tool. it's a series of Functions. it's in Service To A Higher Purpose. it's Invulnerable To Permanent Harm Despite The Scars Saying Otherwise. it's Not An Identity. its Actions Exist Purely For The Good Of Others.

no wonder someone like victoria was able to take such easy advantage last season, fraser has no idea who he (occasionally she) is beyond what he can do for others

ofc that's a lot of what s2 is kind of circling (and also this episode in direct opposition of juliet is bleeding in terms of who understands themself better and who can make better, more rational decisions, and whose soul is in danger, and who needs some hard truths, even though ray doesn't wanna hear it........)

[liquidstar]

I've seen a lot of people in the Re:zero community hate puck with a passion and call him a hypocritical toxic father, and a good portion of them accuse him of deliberately mentally abusing Emilia so that she can be a naive pretty doll with no sense of independence and always obey him unconditionally.

How do you feel about that?

i dont think theyre wrong per say but i also do think puck genuinely loved emilia a lot- i dont think this is something up for debate. he will literally end the world if she dies. but is that what she would want??? i highly doubt it. emilia is a girl who would die for a world that has been nothing but cruel to her.

puck was never really meant to be a father, like, thats not what he was made for. hes the beast of the end not the beast of paternal love. but thats also something about him i find compelling, because he changed so much of himself because he loved this girl so much. his mentality is literally "if anything happens to her ill kill everyone in the world and then myself"

but he does baby her. extremely so. and he does treat her like a doll. remember part of their contract is literally that he does her hair, and thats why she chops off in greed:if as an act of rebellion (normal teen girl behavior honestly). he also literally never told her what sex is- shes 17 and she had no clue, and its played off as a joke at first, but subaru's "damn you puck" rings so true.

remember in wrath:if it was puck who pitched a deal with suabru to keep emilia trapped in the "princess room" away from all the danger. the whole princess room thing (in wrath:if and also in her childhood) is symbolic of her loss of autonomy in a lot of ways, especially when you remember she's NOT a princess. she's a candidate to be a KING!

and there are more damning things within their contract too, like how she literally wasnt allowed to SEE HER OWN FACE! its not made super clear in the anime, but whenever she looks at reflections she actually doesnt see anything back (not because she doesnt have one, but that she herself isnt perceiving it. and i think a lot of this also comes back to the self-recognition theme of the story, the whole reflections though eyes motif and all. remember how much of her we saw reflected only through subaru's eyes? she doesnt actually see her own reflection until she jumps inside the lake in the trial)

but i think thats also a big part of why he broke her contract with her to begin with. i think he knows she hasnt been allowed to grow up, that shes been overly babied, isolated, and kept away from things that might potentially make her feel bad. including her past, and even her present and future... breaking the contract off all at once isnt a good way to do this, i mean, her mental breakdown was so emblematic of that. but i think its important to look at what it all means for the meta narrative.

the latter half of arc 4 was absolutely emilia's arc, and a lot of it was her sort of growing up. i dont think cold turkey is a great way for a parental figure to do this to their child, but emilia was so incredibly dependent. and a lot of that was because puck MADE her dependent to begin with. for so much of her life she literally only had him... like. she was all alone in complete isolation in a frozen forest for as far back as she can remember, and everyone in the world hated her for reasons she didnt understand, and all she had was this little cat thing to be her friend. OF COURSE shes dependent on him, and of course she thinks she cant do stuff on her own (shes so fucking scared of being alone), and i think puck sort of depended on this mindset to keep her a "child" for as long as possible

but she had to grow up eventually. she's 18, maybe almost 19 by this point of the story (still unclear exactly which month we're in) and this is just as much her coming of age story as it is subaru's. (but speaking of subaru puck also guilt trips him quite a bit about emilia's deaths, even when he himself is "gone at the most important times" in emilia's words, which is not only hypocritical but also manipulative!)

all this being said i seriously love puck as a character because when he was first introduced i was like "oh god. annoying mascot character. boring" and then the beast of the end reveal happened and i was like "oh so this is going in the kyubey ripoff direction. i guess that makes sense for a dark fantasy but idrc" BUT THEN he actually ends up being like. an actual character w a lot of depth and nuance to him, a lot of it being how incredibly fucking sketchy he actually is but in a completely different way than just "evil twist mascot." between him and matsumoto from vivy, i love how tappei handles mascot characters- theyre a really hard thing to get right w/o being annoying LOL.

[sky4cherry]

DROP ANY AND ALL PAUL HCS AND IM LIFE IS YOURS PLEASEE🙏🙏🙏🙏 IM BEGGINGG

you're a godsend ily 🫶

last soc home life headcanons!! i will end up posting some for bob and cherry at some point too, but these are the last like fully original ones!! greasers coming up soon if y'all wanna ask about them :)

okay so 🧍 let's get this show on the ROAD

so i imagine paul's dad as being like a very busy businessman, who has always been somewhat absent from paul's life due to travelling for work!!

i think this leads up to a mixture of resentment and desperation for attention for paul, because he hates that his dad doesn't acknowledge him, but it's what he wants more than anything

hence all the fighting, and the drinking,,, are you guys seeing the vision

like bob, trip and chet, he acts out as a means of spite

naturally, he ends up being quite close with his mother, who is a nurse, who always patches him up after he gets in a fight

she tries to dissuade him from always getting in trouble, but unfortunately by the time she's doing that, paul has completely rationalised and normalised it to himself

he gets that stubbornness from his dad ☹️

it's also where a large majority of his arrogance comes from, because he's managed to convince himself that he's completely in the right for beating up literal kids to cope with the fact he has never felt good enough for his father,,, which is also why he joined the football team 🫶

in my head (and for the sake of convenience in my fic LMAO) he goes to a somewhat local college, though it's still a pretty good one, because he feels guilty leaving his mom on her own while his dad's away, which he is NOT happy about

i truly think he's the one who really taught the soc boys how to fight and that the greasers suck and yadayadayada 🙄

it's what he did to cope, so why shouldn't he help them cope with their own problems???

king no one said you can't help but i think literally anything else would be a better way to go about it

he's very much one of those guys who is stuck thinking about the golden days, aka high school where he got to spend a majority of his day being really cool and popular, without having to worry about how whether or not his actions would really affect his future all that much

like bob, he's a big liquor drinker, and liquor does tend to make you more aggressive, so he can be pretty nasty and pretty cruel when he's drunk

but when he's sober? he's very much a kind brother figure to all of the socs ☹️

[blapis-blazuli]

Now listen up

I am obsessed with this man. He's got so many weird details about him and I love (almost) all of them.

First, Slim's original concept fucks. Being an undead cattle rustler out for bull's blood due to being trampled to death is fascinating. I don't know how long it took before someone at Disney cried "too dark" at that backstory, but I'm surprised it was even in consideration given the mostly lighter tone of the final product. More than that, Disney could've had a literal ghost rider among their villains! Had that movie been any good, he might've joined Disney's popular villain lineup, or maybe we could've even gotten a boss battle with him in a Kingdom Hearts game. That's not what we ended up with due to Reasons, though, which is a bit disappointing, but not much you can do about that.

Anyway, onto what we did get.

Before Slim makes his formal appearance, he's only seen in silhouette, on a wanted poster, then in disguise, and is finally fully revealed when he rides in on a bison. He is huge, and I don't mean because he's fat, I mean he's a good deal taller than most of the other characters. He's set up to be someone threatening, to be taken seriously.

And then comes his yodeling villain song.

The moment it's revealed that Slim's yodeling can hypnotize cows, the music picks up and there's a literal rainbow of colors for the rest of his number. As I said, he's a big man, but he's also light enough on his feet to dance and jump on and off any of these cows while not missing a beat in his performance. When the men who got knocked out beforehand come running after him, he doesn't threaten them, he just throws his spurs at a precarious bit of rocky landscape with such force that it falls and blocks the pathway to him. That's more badass than if he did draw his gun on them.

Actually, I wanna talk about the music he performs. The movie's set in Wyoming during 1889, so obviously Slim's not gonna be yodeling A Cruel Angel's Thesis or whatever. They could’ve come up with something original for him to yodel to (which, I mean, they kinda do), but they chose music by composers such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, which aren't exactly things you'd associate with the wild west. The obvious out-of-universe answer for why those pieces were chosen is "they existed before the year this is set in, and they're recognized even today," but we've no in-universe answer for why he chose them or how he knows them. Regardless, it's kinda amazing that he knows them well enough to yodel them.

His lair in Echo Mine has an area with some nice furniture in it. How'd this shit get there? Who knows. Anyway, this is where he reveals that he disguises himself to buy up the properties owned by the people he's stolen cattle from, which includes his former employers. Why doesn't he work for any of them anymore? He never directly says. According to him, they didn't "appreciate [his] talents," which means they probably hated his yodeling. I don't blame him for being mad about that because why the hell would you tell someone that? If he's doing the job right and well without hurting anyone, then who cares? The idea that he's moved on to use a skill against the former bosses who didn't like it is kinda great though.

(Side note: a nice, small detail about this part of the lair is the faded branding on the map, which shows that Slim has been doing this for quite a while. Shame that it's not more consistent from shot to shot though. I can't take credit for noticing this myself: my partner pointed it out after I posted a screenshot as a joke on Discord. She's so cool.)

Slim doesn't like it when someone calls his yodeling "singing": he thinks singing is beneath him given the disdain in his voice when he says that's what birds, saloon gals, and children do. No, he considers what he does to be an art. He's not entirely wrong, though: it is an impressive skill, especially since he can yodel to certain classical pieces like The William Tell Overture, Ode to Joy, Ride of the Valkyries, and The 1812 Overture. (Also Yankee Doodle, because, well, American. Also maybe Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville, but I'm unsure of that one: unlike Slim, I am no classical music expert.) There's no need for him to be quite as defensive about it as he is, but his nephews calling it "singing," saying that might be why his bosses didn't like him, and calling yodeling "silly" is enough to make him get violently angry at them. Man's got issues.

Oh yeah, Slim has nephews. They're triplets named Gil, Phil, and Bill, and they're collectively known as The Willies. Unlike their uncle, they're all blond and thin, so god knows what Slim's unnamed and unmentioned sibling must look like.

Slim also has a bison named Junior. I'm not fond of the whole "he's too fat to ride anything else" angle of that, but I do like that they chose an animal that people are constantly told to not mess with because of how dangerous they are. Slim's not afraid of him: he's got this creature trained to listen when he calls for him. I can only guess that Slim is the one who named Junior, so maybe he also raised him. It would explain why Junior appears annoyed with him but still puts up with having Slim jump on his back and the like.

You know what Slim doesn't have though? Kids. Putting together the disdain in his voice when he mentions children, his seemingly low opinion of saloon girls, his big villain number turning the landscape into a rainbow of colors, the queer history of cowboys, and the prevalence of queer-coding in Disney villains... well, I think you get where I'm going with that.

Moving onto his disguise. Don't ask me why nobody figured out this was Slim sooner, given that his wanted poster shows they have the same facial hair, bushy eyebrows, and bags under the eyes. My best guess is because it's in black-and-white and he's in a different outfit, and unless someone's encountered him before they probably don't know what he sounds like. Anyway, His alias is Yancy O'del (yeah, I know), but the one sign we see him with has both "Mister" and "Esquire" in there.

Having looked this up, I learned a few things. First, having "Mister" and "Esquire" together isn't something you're supposed to do, yet nobody in-universe caught this. Second, in the United States, "Esquire" is a title only used for lawyers, so maybe that's why nobody questioned him - fear of a sudden lawsuit for something or other. Third, "Yancy" was not really a name used back then, or at least not a common one. Why'd he choose that name (besides for the pun)? I dunno.

(Also, where the hell does Junior stay whenever he goes to one of these auctions? The world may never know.)

Slim's final defeat at the hooves/wings/what-have-you of several farm animals is pretty pathetic, even by silly Disney villain standards, but I got to give him credit for not wanting to give up even after his disguise is (literally) blown and while he's stuck in a train's smokestack. I have no idea how he planned on getting out of that one, and whatever it was most likely wouldn't have worked anyway, but I admire his refusal to back down in the face of obvious defeat.

Even in his very last scene we see him struggling with the ropes they tied around him while he's carted off to jail. He does not give up.

Anyway, here he is picking up Small Black Market Dealer Steve Buscemi one-handed like it's nothing. (His name is Wesley, but Slim keeps calling him Mister Weasley. That's right, this movie used that joke before Frozen did.)

And here he is lifting three full-grown cows off the ground before tying them up faster than they can react to it. (The cows have names too, but this post ain't about them.)

He uses his left hand to write and aim his gun and seems just as adept with using it as much as his right, which is cool. (There's no frame with both his face and the gun, so you'll have to trust me on that.)

Speaking of his hands

Look at this huge-ass man and his pinkies, I can't with this dude

Look at that smile, sir, who gave you the right

If there were a whole movie about just these two, I'd watch it, I won't even lie.

I've gone on about this guy for probably too long by this point, so to sum it all up:

Babygirl

[doordaash]

as promised :3

fengqing bodyguard/royalty au‼️ PART 1

-

prince mu qing, stuck in an arranged marriage

ask anything else of him & he would gladly do it for his mother, the queen & his people

but this? he’s torn between his duty & his heart

because he’s actually in love with his bodyguard

his bodyguard, feng xin, who’s been by his side for years

his mother had no idea he had fallen for the gifted archer she had assigned to him when they were just 13, after his father had been assassinated

how could she have? he never told her..

he hadn’t even told feng xin….

yet the karma of keeping his mouth sealed so tight seems to have caught up to him

because here he was - standing next to his mother, as she explains how now that he’s 18, he’s of marrying age

he nearly lets out a small gasp, but masks it, as he realizes what she’s implying

“mama….surely you don’t mean….” he hopes his voice doesn’t actually sound as strained as he thinks it does

“qing’er….I’m sorry…..the court has my hands tied here…they demand you marry…..to produce an heir…”

“mama?” mu qings eyes widened, his composure finally cracking. he whips his head towards her, finding her head tilted forwards, a common posture she took when hiding her face

“i know, I’m sorry qing’er….they’re having candidates come to meet you as soon as possible….”

his mother didn’t raise her head to meet his eyes, as if ashamed.

his hands trembled as they curled into fists

“but i—”

he stopped himself, biting his tongue

he couldn’t tell her about his love for feng xin

yes, his mother was a caring woman, a caring queen, basically his best friend - if he was being honest

he loved her greatly…

yet, what if she found out her son had fallen for someone most consider palace staff

HE sure as hell didn’t think of feng xin as just some random staff member hired to protect him

no, he was mu qings closest friend & confidante, even if mu qing didn’t act like it at times

mu qings mother loved him & respected him greatly, always listening intently to what feng xin had to say, always making sure he was fed & had the warmest clothing for the colder nights

…yet would that change if she discovered mu qing loved him?

would she kick feng xin out?

he told himself no, his mother would never do something as cruel as that, not to anyone - but especially not to feng xin

but what if she did? what if she blamed feng xin for ruining mu qings shot at what she hoped would be a happy marriage with a complete stranger

no, he couldn’t tell her.

he bit his lip, bending slightly in a bow, before all but stomping away from his mother & towards his chambers

he had half a mind to let the doors behind him slam, but he knew it wasn’t his mothers fault - and he refused to disrespect her like that. it was that stupid courts fault after all, & their bullshit about heirs

he shut the doors behind him slowly, before turning towards the hallway & coming face to face with feng xin - whom as usual, was waiting for him

“oh. hey.” he nods, cringing at the way his voice cracks

“what’s wrong? did something happen? are you hurt?” feng xin springs into action, noticing the littlest change in mu qings usual attitude & tone

he frantically looks over mu qing, simultaneously touching him as little as possible - since he “wasn’t allowed to touch royalty” (his words, not mu qings)

once feng xin decided mu qing was not in any immediate danger nor sported any wounds, he came back to stand before him

“the hells up with you?” he asks, eyebrow raised

mu qing sighed, pulling his arms around himself before swiftly walking ahead

“h-hey! your highness!” feng xin shouts, running after him to catch up

once beside him again, feng xin bends his head slightly to match mu qings height so that when mu qing turns, they’re making direct eye contact

“what.”

“what’s wrong? what happened?” feng xin asks again

“nothing, don’t worry about it” mu qing huffs, picking up speed in order to get out of the air that smells faintly of feng xin

“it is quite literally my job to worry about you, come onnnnn, tell meeeee!”

his eyes roll “if i tell you im safe, & moms safe will you drop it?”

“no, but thanks for trying!” feng xin smiles

mu qings heart beats three times faster & he feels his face heat up

gods…feng xins smile had always had an embarrassing effect on him

it always tore down his walls & made him feel warm & safe & trusting

damn you feng xin

he sighed, eyes flicking to feng xins smiling face once more before darting to the hallway ahead

“i have to….im……mama said….”

he bit his lip, pulling his arms impossibly closer in on himself

if he said it out loud, it would be too real

he looked to feng xin once more, seeking the bravery that the archer always radiated

feng xin nodded, gesturing for him to go on

with a deep breath, he rushed out “i’m getting married”

then, seeing the door to his chambers, he sped up even more, wanting to hide away forever

h-HUH?”

he could hear feng xins heavy footsteps race after him

he was so close to his chambers, so close….

he moved to pull open the door…..yet it was slammed shut, feng xins palm flat against it as he cornered mu qing

“married?! you’re getting married?!”

~to be continued~

(being posted on twitter in thread form first, if you’d like to follow along there!)

[heliianth]

actually bc im never gonna shut up abt it while im still on this im gonna ramble abt botw and totk and maybe how i wouldve written a sequel . & i will pay u money to listen i promise

my favoritest of totks ideas are what it expands from botw. botws whole atmosphere is drowned in quiet mourning. something bad has happened but it was a long time ago. it still hurts but theres nothing to be done now but move forward. something is still missing but all you can do is find something else. nobody has resources to rebuild and you can hear deafening echoes of better times but the alternative is giving up. you are in this frozen state of not quite moving on and not quite in despair. like the numbness stage of grief. and the pivotal element of all of that is that link is alone. like, oppressively alone. its the primary vehicle of conveying this mood. and its interesting because this can be read not only as what link is experiencing through the player but what zelda is feeling as she holds back ganon. its an interesting contrast to have zelda mature faster than link in the flashbacks, only for link to pull her the rest of the way by growing himself

and the reason why i so strongly adore the light dragon aspect of the plot is because it shows how attached to everything zelda has gotten. arguably, zelda held back ganon in botw because she loved link. in totk, she becomes the light dragon because she loves hyrule, which had previously been so unimaginably cruel to her. the crux of her character is learning that attachment is good. loving is good. you deserve to leave an imprint on the world in a shape of Your choosing instead of being another factory print on a paper. on a surface level, shes making the same choice, but the motivation and growth behind it is really powerful

i could waffle for literally ever about all that and the point is that totk takes these ideas and implements them really well through in-game worldbuilding and specifically zelda turning into the light dragon. i would occasionally get extremely emotional just seeing how things have expanded because it feels like the world is finally moving on. theres a catharsis in seeing hyrule finally heal after knowing its desolation so intimately, especially because the state of the land itself is such a strong parallel to the arcs of the two main characters, so you get the sense that not only can people move on, link and zelda specifically have started to as well. thats my favorite part

thats why i think its an odd choice that they decided on a time travel plot. if zelda HAS to be the one getting saved, if she cant be a companion in some way either via sheikah facetime or spirit tracks shenanigans or whatever, there are lots of ways to do this without her being magic fruit snacked ten bajillion years into the past. why spend all this effort intertwining her and link with the land, only to remove her from the equation and have no further growth? in botw its understandable that hyrule is stagnant and only changes when link does because zelda is stagnant and link is doing the one changing during the game. in totk its the opposite. there are lots of ways to do this with out Having to play as zelda (though honestly that would be the way id go about it)

also a lot of my own ideas have to do with the wasted potential of a place like the depths???? what the hell do you mean theres this mind bogglingly big cavern underneath the entirety of hyrule which mysterious people used to live in and it has almost no story relevance beside being a cool setpiece???????? I FEEL INSANE?!?!??!?!? there are so many good ideas in totk that never get expanded dude FUCK

i think no matter how much i speculate and draft my own preferences of how i wouldve liked totk to elaborate on the things it introduces i cant ever bring myself to present them like they couldve realistically happened and gotten thru the nintendo writing room simply bc of the games format. if it were up to me doing certain story missions would radically change the open world as events happened in real time and thats not the MO of the game's design philosophy. honestly totk's biggest enemy is the memory system and i need to kill it with fire