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mikuni14 · 3 months ago

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Takara's Treasure - Ep 10

This will be a very critical and subjective review of this series, so if you are a fan, you better skip reading further, because I will not hold back 🥳:

I can guess (?) what the idea of this series was, which in my opinion failed. They wanted (I think?) to make a classic story of an aloof, brooding, unhinged, popular seme obsessed with his little uke and a clueless, naive uke, who with his innocence, honesty and sweetness brings the seme out of his shell - and idk, maybe it worked in the manga, but not in the series. The seme came out "flat" in general, his story was quite… melodramatic instead of real, saved only by the charisma of the actor (who carried this series for me and made it bearable), the uke came out simply like a child. As for Takara: Yamato from I Cannot Reach You beats him hands down in the matter of an unhinged, obsessive, very in love seme and what's more important, it was visible in him. We know that Takara has an obsession from the fact that he mentioned it. But there is no sense of urgency, no tension in him, like in Yamato.

The whole series would be half as long if Taishi didn't repeat every. fucking. sentence Takara said, only with a question mark at the end. And if they removed all his "Eh?"s. Every sentence, every scene, their conversation was so fucking slow and drawn out. I'm not surprised at all that people watched this series by speeding it up. It wasn't a slow burn - The On1y One is a slow burn - delicious and beautiful. No, it's just... nothing happened there, Taishi was confused and wide-eyed all the time, that was the plot.

Zero chemistry between the actors

Everything revolves around Takara, Taishin's entire being is about him. He swapped his obsession with a parrot for an obsession with Takara and it even happened on the same day 😆

We know a lot about Takara. We know next to nothing about Taishin, who doesn't exist other than as a satellite of Takara. He went to his university (we don't even know what he would really like to study and where if not for that), he went to his club to be with him, he stalks him, he's interested in glass balls because he likes them, he gives him presents, he stares at him to catch his mood, he organized the whole date so that he liked it the most and at the first hint that Takara might not like it, his whole mood dropped. He's happy crying because he's liked by his senpai, it's just so unhealthy

Takara "worrying that he's like his mom" seem very far-fetched as a problem, and Taishin's reaction to his expressed worries basically comes down to "you can't be bad because in my eyes you're the best, senpai 🤩". Even if Takara had some legitimate problems with himself, Taishin wouldn't notice or care about them, he would dismiss them with "you're good senpai because you're good!", because Takara is an IDOL to him, someone who has no flaws. Or rather - someone who can't have flaws! Impossible! He's perfect! They haven't had a single conflict. Taishin himself said that everything about Takara is great and he likes everything he does, I'm sorry but it's not normal!

It also really bothers me that the actor playing Taishin is very visibly older than the actor playing Takara (in some scenes they looked like there was like a 10-year age difference between them) and he tries very hard to look younger and sweeter, speaking slowly and in a cutesy way, widening his eyes to make them seem bigger like in the manga, pouting his mouth, which gives an effect that is partly comic, partly weird. It was so unnecessary, this exaggerated childishness, they shouldn't have done it and in my opinion the series would benefit from limiting this exaggeration in Taishin's behavior

Takara called Taishin a child, slow and dumb. He was being affectionate, but yeah, that's exactly my opinion about Taishin and I will never understand the romantic appeal of such a character, not to mention the physical one 😬. I LIKE characters that are clueless, airheads, baka, himbo and even slightly childish ones, but in an open-minded, cheerful, puppy-like, curious and carefree way, NOT mentally at a child's level, but sorry, I just don't see here, what is sometimes charming in other such characters

from the beginning this couple has never made me believe in this relationship, and certainly not in their love. I mean, I do believe in idol-worshipping form Taishin's side. I might believe in Takara liking having a simple, puppy-like person around him. But not in their love. I have also written many times about the inequality in this relationship, which I saw all the time, literally until the last scene of this series, which is a big NO for me

What did I like?

Iwase Yoji and his smile

morbid fascination with which I watched this series was somehow fun 😆🥳

I'm not sure if I will watch the spin-off, I think that will be the end of my adventure with this series. I'm happy that many people genuinely liked this series and I regret that I could not participate in enjoying it. But. Gosh, no. nope lol

#takara no vidro #takara's treasure #bl drama #japanese bl

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therantsofawriterrr · 4 months ago

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The Umbrella Academy Final Season: My Version

Part Three: Old Faces With New Personalities

Overview: While Lila and Diego keep hiding secrets from each other, Luther encounters familiar faces, that don't seem familiar in some aspects.

TW: Mature language, implied sex (idk maybe), hurt with comfort, the cafe scene except its different, tell me if i missed anything! Pairings in the chapter: Diego×Lila (Fluff alert hehe) A/N: So, I saw someone say that Five attended the Keeper meetings because he was still looking for a way to get his fam and himself back to their original timeline, which ig, makes sense, but i have established smn so yk im going with that but dw, we'll get to see that. Also, again, the Diego×Lila dynamic that we deserved to see. And a little surprise too (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠).

Masterlist

After the Keepers meeting ended, Lila and Five sat in a cafe in the next block, discussing the contents that were discussed.

"Look, if these artifacts are from different timelines and now they're showing up-" Lila started saying.

"It's possible the old man's reset didn't take," Five finished.

"What does that even mean?" Lila asked, hoping Five would have an answer.

"I have no idea," Five said in a tired voice. He looked like he hadn't slept in a while, which worried Lila a bit.

Over the last six years, she had grown closer to everyone in the Hargreeves family. She'd grown to be a caring aunt to Grace, a fun-loving sister-in-law to Klaus, a caring, supportive one to Luther, and a snarky, sarcastic one to Five.

"Look, whatever this is, don't say anything to the family just yet," Five requested. "Not even Diego."

"Absolutely not," Lila agreed. "He thinks I'm at book club."

He gave her a dirty look, not at all happy with the sentence.

"It's just easier that way," Lila said, her eyes shining with guilt.

"Easier? It's Diego we're talking about, Lila. You know how he can get."

"Yeah. But... you know how he'll get if he gets in on this. He'll jump to conclusions, and make rash decisions and everything. Don't you remember him during the 60s?"

They both shuddered involuntarily as Five nodded. "Alright. well, it's a good thing I never got married. Too much deception involved."

He took a bite of his scone, which got some cream on his mustache. Lila smiled with a sigh as she took a tissue in her hand and wiped it away. "Didn't dear old Reggie teach any of you Hargreeves men how to eat?"

He scoffed with irritation as he said, "Don't coddle me, I'm not a child."

"Yeah, well you surely eat like one," she retorted, balling up the tissue and leaning back.

Suddenly a woman slammed her hands down on the table, making them both jump as she glared at Five.

"Next time I call," she gritted through her teeth. "I expect you to pick up your phone, accept it and put the damn thing to your ear."

Five's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at her with confusion. "How'd you find out my location?"

The woman just stood up and stared at him, pulling up a chair to sit. Lila noticed she was pretty in an unconventional way, with a sugarplum balayage on her dark brown hair and stony grey eyes. Wearing brown bellbottom trousers with a tucked-in maroon shirt, sleeves reaching till just below her elbows, a beautiful vintage watch on her left wrist, and maroon kitten heels on her feet, she looked like a boss lady.

"Did you put a fucking tracker in my outfit?" Five asked indignantly.

"Do you think I had a choice?" she deadpanned, drumming her fingers on the table. "You don't accept my calls, half the time you don't even wanna talk to me."

"Because you're annoying, Clementine," Five declared heatedly.

She only sighed with a roll of her eyes, ignoring the comment. "Anyway, look, we need to talk."

Five took an angry bite of his scone, prompting Lila to throw a tissue at him with a disgusted look.

"Alone, Five," Clementine asserted.

"If it's about the Keepers, then I could help, y'know," Lila interjected. "I've been investigating them as well."

Clementine's eyes lit up as she turned towards her, crossing her arms on the table. "Really? What have you found out about them yet?"

"Oh, well, that it started in New Mexico and everyone's just flocking towards it like lemmings. Oh, also, the Cleanse," she said, mimicking Jean when she said the last word.

"The Cleanse? What's that?" she asked.

"No idea. But, Gene, one of the leaders, said that it's either the end, or a great restoration."

Clementine whipped out a small notepad, turning to a page and starting to scribble in as Five took in a breath, almost looking scandalized.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "Don't tell me you're going to be reporting that to the deputy director."

"I have to give him something, Five," she said, focused on writing in her notebook before lifting her head to look at him. "Why? Are you ashamed that she, a civilian might know more than you, a goddamn CIA agent?"

"Oh, burn!" Lila exclaimed, laughing loudly. "Oh, I like you so much."

"Thanks! You're fun, too!" She exclaimed with bright cheerful grey eyes.

Lila stared at them with a kind of a knowing smile as they continued bickering. Her phone vibrated in her bag, and she took it out to see a text from Diego.

Hey, did book club end? You need a ride? I miss you🥺

She stared at the text with a tender smile before it faded, her eyes turning thoughtful and guilty. She got up, taking her small handbag with her, slinging it onto her shoulder.

"Well, you kids stay safe now," she said playfully, even though they didn't really hear her during their conversation.

Upon reaching home, she found Diego snoring on the couch in front of the TV, making her smile as she went to push some of his hair away from his forehead. She started going to her room to change when a hand caught onto her wrist, pulling her back.

She fell onto Diego's lap with a surprised gasp, her arm automatically going around his shoulders as her legs dangled off his thighs. He smiled sleepily as he gave her a peck on the nose, making her giggle as she gave him one on his lips.

"You should've gone to bed," she said softly, nuzzling her nose against his.

He hummed, his arms hugging her waist tighter, blinking the sleep away. "I can't sleep without you beside me, Lila. You know that."

She chuckled with a shake of her head, her other arm going to rest on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

"It's alright. I know you lose track of time during book club. How was it, by the way?"

She nodded with a shrug and said, "Not very informative. But it was fun."

Diego did feel a sting in his heart at the fact that she still wouldn't come clean to him about what she was doing, but he didn't budge on his trust. She'd earned it and so he was giving her the chance to tell him about her investigation when she wanted to.

He gave out a sudden yawn, making her chuckle again. "You can barely keep your eyes open, love. Go to bed. I'll join you after a shower."

"Hmm, can I join?" he asked with a playful smile, making her slap on his shoulder.

"Yes," she said and sauntered over to their room, making him jump up after her as he took off his shirt excitedly.

Simultaneously, a few blocks away, Luther stood in front of his apartment door with a blank look on his face, wanting to bang his head on it. In the time he knew Sloane, he'd memorized the places she went to. Even if Reginald reset the timeline, that wouldn't change.

He worked part-time in a cafe that Sloane usually visited to note down places that she'd visit if she got a chance to get out. All neat and noted. He still had it and usually carried it around with him.

Every evening after work, he worked in that place. Every fucking evening, he hoped that she'd come in, get in line and ask for a latte. But, it always just ended up killing all the hope inside him.

Suddenly, the door next to his apartment burst open, making him jump with a surprised grunt, as he looked to the side.

A guy exited, immediately looking at him with concern. "Oh, hey, sorry man, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Luther said, batting a dismissive hand. "It's alright, I'm alright."

The guy heaved a relieved sigh before giving him a smile. "I'm Christopher by the way, though, I mostly go by Chris."

Luther's eyebrows furrowed a little bit as the cube from Sparrow Academy, who had the same name, flashed in his mind, but he just ignored it and smiled back, not quite reaching his eyes.

"Who're you yapping with out there?" A very familiar voice said, making Luther perk up a bit.

And out the door, walked none other than Alphonso, Sparrow Number Four. Luther's eyes widened as he gave out a tiny gasp.

"Oh, hey. New neighbour?" Alphonso asked, looking at him.

"I... Uh. No. Not really," he said, composing himself. "I just don't get out much out of work, I guess."

"Well, ya should, man! Tell you what, we're going to a bar this weekend with some friends. Not too crowded either, if you don't like that kinda thing. You wanna come with?"

"Yeah," he said with a bright, hopeful smile. "I'd love to."

"Alright. Lookin' forward to it, man," Alphonso said with a friendly grin, before they both walked away, talking amongst themselves.

When Luther entered his apartment that night, he didn't sink to the floor with a blank despair. He sunk down with hopeful tears, and the sobs that wracked his body were happy ones.

And when he went to sleep that night, he knew it wasn't because he'd see dreams of living in a house with Sloane. He'd see dreams of meeting her in a bar. Of talking to her. Of getting to know what she's like in this timeline.

For the first time in six years, Luther Hargreeves went to bed with joy in his heart.

Another A/N: Ok, ik i'm speedrunning this shit, but I just need to write it all down cause the brellie in me is not letting me write anything else. So, here u go, two parts in one day lol. I'm prolly gonna start writing the next part too, so stay tuned!!

Likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated. Tysm for reading!!

#the umbrella academy s4 #the umbrella academy season 4 #the umbrella academy #fix it fic #fix it fanfiction #tua #tua spoilers #the hargreeves

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hext00ns · 1 year ago

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What Autistic headcanons do you have for Drake and Elmo.

So I definitely hc both of them on the spectrum.

For Elmo, he didn’t start talking till he was probably around three or four. It wasn’t till he was probably around five or so that he was actually making full sentences and even then kept to the quiet side. His special interest is definitely electricity even before becoming Megavolt. He wanted to be a scientist growing up. We see how that turned out. Elmo also will only eat specific foods growing up and is very texture sensitive. He stems by pulling at or messing with his fur. He also scratches. Elmo is the kinda guy that has to keep a close eye on his stemming or he might accidentally hurt himself. I also think Elmo does that thing rats do where they just ball up like potatoes. Idk if that counts in autism hcs but like. It’s real to me

Drake is very loud. Not much volume control as a kid and definitely had to learn it. Out of the two Drake is definitely the one who had the harder time with social cues. Drake is also very blunt though so is Elmo. Drake’s just comes off harsher cause he’s also just an asshole lmaoo. His special interest was always detective and mystery stories. Like I said, Philip Marlowe, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Columbo. Etc etc. I don’t think he’s very particular of any one sense but I do think he gets over stimulated easily especially as a kid. Most his meltdowns tended to come out pretty angry. Oh yeah did I mention he’s an angry sob. Drake stems with his hands and voice more than not. Less noises and more CONSTANT talking. Dude never shuts up heart emoji. He also talks with his hands a TON and is constantly moving them especially as a kid

Honestly idk if all this fits under autism a lot of this is projection on my part and my ass got that triple threat ocd/adhd/autisms so loudly shrugs

#hex chants #drakepad-luv-2000 #darkwing duck #drake mallard #elmo sputterspark #megavolt #darkvolt

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konoa-t · 1 year ago

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GranEssex Live Konoa Reaction (part 1)

Henlo I am deciding to do a live reading of @kachikirby ‘s series GranEssex Chronicles

I’m gonna try and go through the entire series, starting with the first book, “Wings of Beginning”

This is my first full-on live blogging(?) post, so idk if theres any way I should be doing it but f*ck it we ball

Anyway there’s a lot of text so behind a cut it goes!

(SPOILER WARNING cuz i’ll also be talking about what goes down in the book to give context for my ramblings)

Chapter 1

Note: Gonna try to use punctuation for now but this will probably disintegrate as time goes on (me hate punctuation on tumblr blog ooga booga). Also this live blog is pretty summary-heavy, but I’ll try to tone that down in future posts.

I’ve technically read up until chapter 4, but I’m gonna go ahead and backtrack to look over the previous chapters again and give my reaction on those :D it would feel weird to just start it halfway through anyway. The chapter opens up with Kurabe (if u don’t know who that is you should probably go check out Kachi’s account) going on a mission to eliminate a criminal group only to see that everyone’s just been absolutely bodied by some blue toddler with a stick. Kurabe’s like, “hey I need to take u in for questioning” and the kid is like “nuh uh” and tries clubbing her to death, but obviously Kurabe is stronger so she just blocks him. Even though I was only, like, two sentences in, my attention was already grabbed; I was very excited to see what happened next :D Anyway, Kurabe gets one of her swords knocked out of her hand by the kid, and she’s just like “ah.” But then she teleports behind him and chops him in the back of the head with her hand, causing the kid to faint. I was kinda surprised that she just knocked him out like that, but I guess it makes sense because she had a job to do lmao. Anyway she gets back to her ship and Mercury is there and, upon seeing the child, is just like “HUH”. Kurabe says that he’s fine and only has minor injuries, so she goes to her room to patch him up a little. She wondered why someone would leave their kid on a planet with so much criminal activity, and I honestly agreed because I was just as confused 💀 who leaves a whole toddler on the planetary equivalent of Detroit??? Insane, bro. So anyway she cleans him up and after he wakes up, Kurabe says good morning to him and the kid just immediately goes

Anyway, Kurabe tells him to calm down and asks his name, to which the child responds, “Meta.” It was pretty much implied from the start that this was Meta Knight, but I was still like “OOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ITS HIM” Anyway cue Meta being suspicious of Kurabe and Kurabe trying her best to calm him down. I’m watching this whole interaction go down and honestly wondering if Meta’s just gonna straight up maul Kurabe, but thankfully he doesn’t. Kurabe’s maternal urges start taking over and she offers to raise Meta- err, I meannn… train him (because I can’t imagine it would be good to send him back to space Detroit 💀) and Meta asks if he can stay on her ship forever. Kurabe is like “yeah sure” and then after talking, she helps show him around his new room and then they sit down and have a meal together. The image of Meta playing with the spaghetti was really cute :D Meta makes mention of Kurabe’s sword and Kurabe tells him that she��d train him. However, she did warn him that he training was so intense that students have quit or even DIED because of it (which is…. Scary /not neg). He agrees to the training. Meta then got kinda tired so he went to go to sleep, and as Kurabe was tucking him in, he grabs onto her and they end up falling asleep together :DD Overall this was a very cute chapter and it does a great job of grabbing the attention.

#I was gonna do more chapters but i think i’m gonna start off slow for this post #Next post I’ll probably try to do chapters 2 3 and 4 #GranEssex Stuff #Live Konoa Reaction

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citrijp · 11 months ago

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Day 3

I only thought of this today so uh. Sorry. :P I know it's not very satisfying to start on Day 3, but days 1 and 2 were just "Refresh on kana" and "Wait Precure kinda slaps" anyway. So. Uhhhh yeah. This is gonna be tucked under the cut bc it's LONG.

Kana Practice

95.8%. Not bad tbh but MAN I'm rusty as hell on katakana lmfao. My hiragana is fine but katakana has always been a bit of a struggle.

Grammar

First grammar lesson(s) baby let's GOOOOO

I'm gonna be honest y'all I was feeling a little cynical about this one bc grammar has always been a whole Thing for me. Like it just. Never made any fucking sense to me. It wasn't even hard per se but like は and が? What's up with those??

My answer actually came in the form of three Cure Dolly videos. And I learned a LOT from these three videos alone. Like. More than I thought because I knew some of the basics.

For example (keep in mind that this is three lessons in and does NOT account for all forms, only the most basic of basics):

There two types of sentences in this world: A is B and A does B.

There are three basic ways to break them down: ＡがＢだ。A is B (noun). 私がアメリカ人だ。; ＡがBい。A is B (-i adjective). ペンが赤いだ。; ＡがBう。A does B (-u verb). 私が食べる。If you're wondering where the polite form, です, is, Cure Dolly opted not to use this for now.

Logical particles can be omitted if the topic is already clear. In the above example, I say "I'm an American" by saying 私がアメリカ人だ。If we KNOW the topic is 私 then we can omit that and just say アメリカ人だ。This is kind of a "duh" that I already knew but it becomes a lot more important when we get to…

は。Hey, buddy! Where ya been??? As it turns out, this funky little non-logical guy has been why I didn't know the difference between it and が—they aren't the same and it's not about choosing between them. I feel like every website and its mother has an article about "choosing" between は and が lol, but it's not ABOUT choosing between them.

は is a topic marker. Again, "Yeah, duh, Lem", but like. No. You don't understand (unless you do lol). In the sentence 私はアメリカ人。, the は is not the "I am" in the sentence. It's more like this:

私は［私が］アメリカ人だ。

As for me, [I'm] an American.

And there, the invisible が—a.k.a. the zero pronoun—makes an appearance. This shit BLEW MY GODDAMN MIND.

A better example came when I was learning を and に actually. I'm gonna use one of my friends' names in this example but the basis of the sentence comes from Cure Dolly.

私がボールをモリーに投げる。

I throw the ball to Molly.

This sentence has a subject (私 marked by が), an object (ボール marked by を), a destination (モリー marked by に) and a verb (投げる marked by its existence as a verb idk).

If you change any of the logical particles and their respective nouns, the sentence fundamentally changes.

モリーがボールを私に投げる。

Molly throws the ball to me.

ボールが私をモリーに投げる。

The ball throws me to Molly (zoinks).

Logical particle usage makes a big difference, as you can see, lol. This might be another "duh" moment but it helped me understand the purpose of は in this example.

If you use は, you can omit either 私が, ボールを, or モリーに so long as you use the noun as a topic marker. For example:

私はボールをモリーに投げる。

As for me, [I] throw the ball to Molly.

(Omitted: 私が)

An even better example is when you can equate the omitted particle to a pronoun:

ボールは私がモリーに投げる。

As for the ball, I throw [it] to Molly.

(Omitted: ボールを)

モリーは私がボールを投げる。

As for Molly, I throw the ball [to them].

(Omitted: モリーに)

If you put 「私がボールをモリーに投げる。」、「私はボールをモリーに投げる。」、「ボールは私がモリーに投げる。」、and 「モリーは私がボールを投げる。」 into a Google Translate, they all mean the same thing: I throw the ball to Molly. This is because unlike changing what nouns are in front of logical particles, as long as you have the remaining logical particles right, what you use as a topic marker DOESN'T MATTER.

PHEW sorry that wasn't supposed to be that long but I really enjoyed learning this. This also isn't meant to be informational because it's not laid out that well but I'll tag it anyway. 😅 But Cure Dolly explains it much better. The playlist is linked on my pinned post but if you want to just get to it now, it's here (my reference is the first three lessons).

Okay now that I've infodumped about Japanese grammar. Uhhhh

Active Immersion

Precure! I uhhh tripped and fell and watched more episodes yesterday but I guess that saves me some time and I only have to watch my 1~4 episodes WITHOUT subtitles. I'm starting to pick up on words—mainly, やる気 is sticking, and I wanna learn what ヤナレーダ (using katakana because that's what's used for the monsters themselves) comes from. Probably something related to procrastination considering the Witch of Delays. If I'm right about that I'm gonna be so proud of myself lol

Conclusion

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun so far. I really like this style of learning, and it fits into my schedule SO much better than textbooks and such. Plus I feel like I'm actually getting it naturally and not just stuffing a bunch of info in my brain even though still kind of am?? Idk it's neat

#; citriJP #langblr #langblog #language learning #; informational #kinda #i went a little crazy #again it is NOT explained well so don't rely on it lol #learning japanese #japanese langblr #studyblr

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tiredspacedragon · 1 month ago

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I did see that answer from him, but to be honest, it doesn't really mean much to me what Greg thinks? Idk, the Bionicle fandom as a whole has been far too reliant on Word of God in general, and it's hurt as much as it's helped. Whatever Greg's thoughts on the matter are, he never wrote about any other Toa Kaita in the official story, so anything else he has to say about the matter is more or less moot in my eyes. The vagueness of these particular answers doesn't help their case.

Okay, and I apologize for this, but can I go on a little rant here about BS01 deciding the canon shape of the Rua is a silver Hau? Because it's stupid. It's incredibly, mindbogglingly stupid, and it's a perfect example of what I mean when I say the fandom depends on Greg's word way too fucking much.

As you pointed out in the tags, Akamai, as a word, means wisdom, and Wairuha means spirit, and indeed, we know from the 2001 story bible that the two Toa Kaita's domains were switched at some point in development. Akamai was always planned to be the combination of Tahu, Onua, and Pohatu, but was originally set to be the Kaita of Wisdom, while Wairuha (always Gali+Kopaka+Lewa) would have been the Kaita of Spirit, later changed to Valour. Somewhere along the line, the decision was made to make Akamai the Spirit of Valour, and Wairuha the Spirit of Wisdom. Why not swap the names too to keep the meanings consistent? I don't know, but they didn't. And it lead to a lot of confusion in some parts of the marketing.

Most obvious is the Power Pack set, which includes a silver Kanohi Hau it describes as, and I quote: "the Kanohi Rua, the Silver Mask of Valor, worn by Toa Kaita Wairuha formed from Tahu, Pohatu, and Onua." Tell me, do you notice anything wrong with that sentence? Like the fact that it is entirely incorrect? The clear mix-up in this description, you would think, would be enough to make anyone think that it can't be taken as canon, it's too blatant an error.

But apparently not! Because some fan took it upon themselves at one point to ask Greg to clear up the issue, asking if the true appearance of the Kanohi Rua was a Hau, as it appeared in the Power Pack set (and also Bionicle Heroes, which also mistakenly called it the Mask of Valour, which is shaped like a Hau, funnily enough (: ), or a Miru, as it is depicted in MNOG and literally everywhere else. And Greg's response was, and I quote again: "The Rua on the set is canon."

The set is canon. Which is what he always said when asked something like this. Every time. Of course, this time, that particular phrasing is entirely unhelpful, because Toa Kaita Wairuha is a set. A combo model, sure, whose green Miru certainly isn't canon because we know the Rua is silver. But I think, in this case, it should take a little precedence over the Power Pack, which rather obviously doesn't even know what it's referring to! It uses the name Rua and then uses half the details of the Aki in its description. It can't be trusted! Especially not when we have several other sources from MNOG to the comics, to the Legend of Mata Nui cutscenes, to the actual Wairuha model itself to confirm that the Rua looks like a Miru! Of course it does, none of Wairuha's components wear a Hau! And if that's still not enough, Wairuha Nuva's Rua Nuva also looks like a Miru Nuva, not a Hau Nuva, and there's no bad marketing to disagree this time! But no, because the question posed to Greg mentioned the Power Pack specifically and he then gave his standard answer (likely without thinking about it for more than half a second) the "canon" appearance of the Rua is now declared to be a silver Hau, which again, conflicts with every single actual appearance of the mask in-story.

Just ugh. I'm sorry, that has nothing to do with the Kaita themselves, it's just incredibly frustrating to me personally. Because it's the most common sense thing to figure out, but someone had to run to Greg to do the thinking for them, and his vague as balls answer has led to the obviously incorrect choice being declared "canon." It's ridiculous. That's what upsets me about it the most. It's just the ruling of one fan-run website, it means nothing in the long run. It's just so obviously wrong, but you can't convince anyone running the site of that because "Greg said so," and that, apparently, makes it law, no matter how stupid it is. And it's very stupid. I know that's mean, and I feel bad for it, but it's true.

I am plagued by thoughts of Toa Kaita and how their names and titles are determined.

Is every single one unique? That leaves the most room for creativity, and means the result of each fusion is dependent on the personalities of the individual Toa components, which seems like the most narratively satisfying option. But also, if every possible Kaita is unique, how do they avoid overlapping domains? Eventually Valour or Wisdom are going to be really fitting for some other combination of three Toa, or they'll just run out of fancy mental concepts to name themselves after.

Alternatively, do the names, or maybe just the titles, of any given Toa Kaita, depend on the elemental combination used to form them? Does every instance of Ta-Toa+Po-Toa+Onu-Toa result in Akamai? Does every instance of Ga-Toa+Ko-Toa+Le-Toa result in a Toa of Wisdom? I went and learned some math specifically to determine that there are 560 different possible 3-element combinations that can be formed from the 16 Toa elements, assuming all three have to be different, because that makes the most sense to me. 546 if Light and Shadow could not coexist within a single Kaita for some reason, and 455 if you don't count Shadow at all. Those are still really big numbers! But it seems a lot more feasible to come up with 500-ish attributes for each combination to represent than for each of the infinite combinations of individuals to result in something completely unique. But then again, it seems awfully limiting to simply assign a default attribute based on elemental alignment without taking into account the personalities of the constituent Toa at all. Would Vakama, Onewa, and Whenua really result in a Valour combination rather than something more tailored to them? Could Tuyet and Nidhiki really be part of a Wisdom combination?

Then perhaps there is a set number of possible Kaita and which of the limited (but likely still beyond extensive) list of possibilities the fusion forms is dependent on the three Toa's personalities? That feels like it's getting dangerously close to personality-based categorization though, and I've seen enough bad YA to know that's never a good idea.

Is any of this important at all? Oh no, not at all, we only ever see two Toa Kaita in the entire story and even they barely matter, this absolutely isn't the sort of thing that needs to be thought about deeply at all. But here I am, distracted by it anyway.

#bionicle #toa kaita #rua #tsd rants #i think you're right about the masks btw #especially since the toa mata had their golden kanohi by that point anyway #it's not specifically those mask powers that make wisdom or valour #it has more to do with the toa wearing them #(which is another reason the rua shouldn't look like a hau but i digress...)

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screamin-abt-haikyuu · 3 years ago

Text

The Beast Within

An Asahi x fem! reader fic || Technically SFW but there’s sliiiightly suggestive content || Fluff at the end

Warnings: Violence, Anger, a veiled reference to sexual stuff?? idk what else to call it

Asahi was the kindest, sweetest, most gentle person you had ever known. Even though his ace persona took over whenever he played Volleyball, in real life he was the kind of person who wouldn’t even hurt a fly. You had been friends with him for about a year and you could have sworn up and down that you had never even seen him raise his voice at anyone.

So, it came as a complete shock to you when you heard a loud thump and a crack and you turned around to see Asahi standing over a fallen figure. His right hand was balled into a fist, and there was a look of pure, unadulterated anger on his face.

The figure, that looked like he might have been a college boy, was rolling on the ground with his hands covering his mouth, groaning in pain. Suga and Daichi ran to aid their friend and you watched in utter disbelief as Asahi lifted the man roughly by his collar and raised his fist, looking ready to strike again.

The whimpering boy, half-hanging in air, held up by his collar with Asahi towering over him and his bleeding nose, ready to strike again; the entire scene sent chills down your spine. Asahi looked like he had every intention of killing the boy in front of him and you finally realized what other people meant when they said Asahi was scary. You had never taken any heed to those words before because he had always been such a teddy bear but today, in this moment, you had goosebumps. And for the first time in your life, you were afraid of Asahi Azumane.

The terror must have been written all over your face because Asahi looked up at that moment, saw your face and his expression seemed to soften a little. His eyes still sparkled with rage but he lowered his fist. He loosened his hold on the person’s collar but instead of simply letting go, he pushed him into the ground as he stood up.

He stepped away from him and as he walked away, Suga opened his mouth to say something but he stopped him before he could get any words out. “Suga, not now, please. I need some space to clear my head and calm down for a bit.” Even though he said those words in a normal tone, there was a “no nonsense” air about it and Suga nodded meekly as Asahi walked away. You watched with your mouth half open as he walked past you, not meeting your eyes and his face as serious as it could get.

Suga and Daichi came up to you and so did Kiyoko after a few minutes.

Suga: W-What the hell?!?! W-What happened?

Daichi, staring with his eyes wide at Asahi’s retreating figure, was at a complete loss for words. “I have never seen him like this. Ever. Almost three years I have known him and I have never even seen him even talk to strangers without fumbling over his words, much less get violent-”

Who would have thought today would turn out to be like this? It was your last year in High School and you and your group of friends (Kiyoko, Asahi, Daichi and Suga) had all decided to take a weekend trip down to the beach together. Asahi had looked exceptionally hot today in his red Hawaiian shirt (which he had conveniently left open at the front) and his perfect abs had been quite a distraction for you as you tried to enjoy your time with your closest friends.

You had looked no less, though. With your maroon one-piece swimsuit with slits on the sides, showing off your waist and perfectly hugging your curves, you had looked absolutely smoking.

After a long day of frolicking in the water, splashing and chasing each other around and playing a lot of beach volleyball, you all had decided to relax and take a stroll through the beachside market. Kiyoko and Asahi had somehow gone ahead of the group while you strolled around lazily, idly chatting with Suga and Daichi. You had been browsing through a souvenir stall when the entire incident took place.

Which brings us back to the present.

“- I’m sure he must have had a good reason but for Asahi to do something like this???” Daichi said as he paced around.

It’s true. Even in your wildest dreams, you couldn’t have imagined Asahi like this.

“He deserved it,” Kiyoko said quietly.

All three heads turned to her instantly.

“You know what happened, Shimizu?” Suga asked.

She nodded.

“Tell us!”

“I- I’m not sure if he would want me to say,” Kiyoko replied. But as she said it, she was looking at you with a slightly troubled expression on her face.

“What’s that expression- why are you looking at me like that, Kiyoko?” you ask.

“It’s nothing-” Suga intervened, "It's obviously not nothing I mean this is Asahi we are talking about. It must have been something really serious for him to act like this. Please, Kiyoko. Tell us.”

Kiyoko sighed, “Well, I guess it’s not exactly a secret since that guy was really loud.”

“So, Asahi was shopping at that stall over there,” she said, turning around and pointing to the stall that was located right next to where the altercation took place, “and I was helping him choose something when these two college boys came by us.”

“They seemed really drunk and they were talking very loudly. The guy in the green shirt saw Y/N standing here with Suga and Daichi and he whistled. He thought he was far away from you so he could say whatever he wanted.

He started commenting on your body and how sexy you looked.”

Kiyoko stopped to read your expression. You could tell she was hesitant about continuing her story because she did not want to make you feel uncomfortable.

“It’s okay, Kiyoko. I want to know what he said.”

Kiyoko continued, “Then he proceeded to describe to his friend in detail - uh - the - uh - things he.... wanted to do you. It was absolutely filthy and vile and even I am not comfortable repeating his words.” You can tell how bad it must have been by the way Kiyoko shivered as she completed her sentence.

“I had no idea Azumane would react the way he did, though. He walked up to the guy and tapped him on the shoulder. I assumed he probably wanted to tell him off or ask him to go away or, at the most, threaten him with his intense expression like he usually does. But as soon as the guy turned to look at him, he just straight up punched him in the face.”

“Wow. Yeah, he totally deserved it,” Suga said, looking deep in thought, “Even so, I would have never expected Asahi to use physical force. I swear, I have never even seen the guy so much as swat a bug away. Although, it also kind of makes sense seeing that it was Y/N that guy was talking about.”

You frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

A look of panic flashed across Suga’s face before he said, “I m-mean, seeing that you’re one of his best friends! He would totally feel protective about you.”

Your eyes narrowed in suspicion and you also didn’t miss Daichi and Kiyoko glancing at each other when Suga faltered. However, you didn’t press the matter further. You were more worried about Asahi at this point.

“I should go find him and see if he is okay. You guys should look for a nice place where we can have a chill dinner. Preferably with no alcohol,” you say, rolling your eyes. The others nodded and you set off to find Asahi.

It wasn’t difficult to find him. The sun hadn’t set yet so it was still bright out and his red shirt and large build were hard to miss. He was sitting in a rather secluded part of the beach, surrounded by large rocks on both sides. He didn’t seem angry at all anymore. He seemed to be deep in thought as he stared at the ocean in front of him.

“You okay?”

Your voice broke him out of his reverie and he turned to see you standing behind him.

“Y-Yeah” he seemed almost apologetic as he answered you.

“Do you mind if I sit here with you?”

You were not sure if he wanted you near him or to talk to you since he had asked Suga for some space so you were very hesitant while asking him this.

He winced. “I knew it. I scared you. I am so so sorry.”

“W-what? I didn’t mean-” He stood up. “I saw it in your face. I saw how you looked at me when I... when I punched that guy. I saw how terrified you were of me.”

He wasn’t meeting your eyes, instead he was looking straight down at the ground and, large as he was, he seemed to shrink before you with every word that came out of his mouth.

“I-” you were at a loss of words. He was right, you HAD been scared of him in that moment. You couldn’t control how you reacted to the situation. But before you could start to speak, he continued.

“You were one person who never thought I was scary. You always treated me like a normal person. You were never scared to approach me.

But I am afraid that I ruined that tonight with my behaviour. I have seen that look thousands of times in people’s eyes whenever they look at me. But-” his voice was cracking now, “P-please believe me when I say that I did it for a reason. I cannot tell you the reason but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know you are probably going to be scared of me from now on. But please believe me, I would never, ever in my life even think of hurting yo-”

He was cut off as you threw your arms around him and enveloped him in a tight hug. He was so surprised by your reaction that it took a moment for him to return the hug. When he did, he buried his face in your shoulder and you could feel his tears on your bare skin.

“I already know what happened.”

He broke away from you and looked at you in surprise, his eyes red.

“Yes. Kiyoko told me most of it. She didn’t elaborate on what the guy said exactly though but I can guess it wasn’t pretty. And it’s true, I did feel scared at that moment. But it was just a reaction. The look in your eye was murderous and I have never seen you this way. So it surprised me. And scared me. But now that I know why you did what you did, I am not scared anymore.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really. Thank you for always looking out for me.”

“O-of course.” and after a brief pause, “How are the others doing?”

“They’re fine. I asked them to look for a restaurant for dinner tonight. Let’s go to them?”

“Yeah uh- before we do that, I - uh - wanted to give you something.”

“Oh?”

Asahi was blushing when he took something out of his pocket. You put your hand out and he placed something on your palm. Your eyes widened as you looked at what he gave you. It was a seashell pendant.

“Oh my God, it’s beautiful!! And in my favourite colour too! I had been looking for one like this since ages!”

“Yeah, you had mentioned it in passing once when we were planning this trip. This is what I was buying when, you know, shit happened. I asked Kiyoko to help me pick it out for you because I didn’t want to get the wrong thing.”

“I can’t believe you remembered that! It’s perfect and I love it! Can you help me wear it?” you asked him, handing the pendant back to him. “Y-yeah,” he blushed. You turned your back to him and held up your hair with one arm so that he could put the necklace on easily. You could feel his breath on the back of your neck as he placed the necklace delicately on you. He used his fingers to move away stray hairs and his touch was so gentle that it sent shivers down your spine (the good kind this time).

As he fumbled around with the delicate clasp with his large fingers, he spoke, “I - uh - I - I- actually wanted to tell you something.”

You could tell he was really nervous. You waited for him to continue.

“I-I know it’s our last year and soon we will probably be in different cities and this is probably the last thing you want to hear from me right now but-”

The clasp snapped into place and the necklace was now secure around your neck. You turned around to face him.

“But?” you reached your hand out to hold his.

He was really taken aback by your action and his eyes widened. It seemed to give him some confidence.

“B-But I know I will regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t ask you when I have the chance. A chance that I thought I’d lost forever today. So, Y/N, I really, really like you. I have liked you for a long time now and you are the most wonderful person I have ever met. A-and I was wondering if you w-would like to go out with me?”

“I really, really like you too, Asahi.” You were smiling widely as you said “Yes” and stood on your toes to give him a light kiss on his forehead.

Asahi was blushing furiously now. You laughed out loud at how flustered he was. It was good to have the goofy, old teddy bear back.

As you linked your arm through his and walk back to your friends, you couldn’t help but be giddy with happiness.

You were going out with the best, most gentle, most caring person you have ever known. But you now know that there is a beast within him. A beast that will do anything to protect you.

FIN.

Thanks for reading!! Hope you liked it.

Sorry if you think it is ooc for Asahi but I do think that, when it comes to it, he is the kind of person who would go to any lengths to protect the people he cares about. Case in point, when he used his looks to scare off two boys who were trying to hit on Kiyoko during the third years’ shrine visit (manga only scene).

I am kind of not really satisfied with this one but I also just spent more than half a day writing this so I didn’t want to ditch it halfway.

Reblogs, likes and follows are very much appreciated.

Buy me a Kofi! <3

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biisexualemma · 4 years ago

Text

crazy. oscar diaz

word count: 1847

warnings: bit of swearing but mainly angsty/fluff

requested: ‘Hey boo could I ask for an imagine with spooky where him and reader fight like crazy with each other like they're friends but they get on each other's nerves a lot and one/both of them realised they actually like the other? And they confess? Idk yhis is dumb I guess but I like the idea of them annoying each other and arguing like crazy before realising they like each other more than they'd like to admit🥺 thank you so much if you go with this!! 💛💛’

plot: best friends / haters / lovers?

masterlist

"suck my dick!"

"gladly!" he shouted back.

your frown deepened when he said this. you groaned with frustration. he always had better comebacks than you did, it drove you crazy in instances like this (which were pretty frequent).

you turned around to leave before the conversation could escalate any further. "you know, you should really watch your mouth, mami," he shouted before you could get to the door, and you couldn't leave it alone.

spinning around, you marched back over to him with a pointed finger. "don't tell me what to do, papi," you poked at his chest as you mimicked his little nickname.

oscars eyes widened for a split second, before regaining his composure. you faltered for a second, unsure of what had just happened. his nostrils flared a little and he closed his eyes for a second. "you're the most annoying hyna i've ever met."

you paused. "so you think i'm pretty?"

he rolled his eyes. "actually, shut up."

you let out a small smile, still kinda annoyed with him, as he was with you. he shoved you away from him, shaking his head and leaving the room.

"yeah, you go to your room mister," you teased. oscar stopped in his tracks and you knew you'd probably teased him one too many times for today. you cracked a proper smile this time, in fear of what was coming. he turned around and saw your face.

he immediately marched over, grabbing your waist as you squealed. he threw you over his shoulder before tossing you onto the couch. you let out a loud laugh as he did. your teasing worked every time, he was so easy.

"asshole," you breathed in between laughs. oscar picked up a pillow and chucked it at you.

"i can't believe it took me so long to realise how much i hate you," he towered over you, you held your hands up in defence.

"no you don't," you cheesed. oscar stared at you for a moment, you held the smile on your face, before picking up the same pillow and hitting you with it again over the head. "hey!"

"get a room, please," both your heads snapped towards the front door where cesar was now standing. he rolled his eyes, dropping his school bag at the door before quickly making his way to his room. "seriously, gross."

"at least i'm not sucking his face off like you with monse!" you shouted as he slammed his bedroom door behind him. "seriously, give the girl a break!" you heard cesar shout something incoherent back which you giggled at.

oscar watched with a smug expression as you interacted with his brother. you might be the biggest pain in his ass but there was something else there. you were the only person that could get away with speaking to oscar the way you do. he kinda liked it.

you averted your attention back to oscar, who you caught staring for a split second before he could realise what he was doing. you furrowed your brows for a split second. you noticed him do this a few times, more and more often.

"whatcha' staring at papi?" you titled your head, wearing a teasing smirk. you did kind of want an answer though.

he shook his head, a tortured smile on his lips when he did. "don't call me that."

"what? you can get away with calling me mami but i can't call you papi?" you sneered. "is it some kind of obscure double standard?"

he shook his head again, ducking. "call me that one more time and see what happens," he stood towering over you. you looked up at him quizzically. you were dying to know just exactly what he would do if you said it again. and you were exactly the kind of person to find out.

"what? papi?" you quirked an eyebrow. oscar rolled his head back, laughing a little.

"don't say i didn't warn you," your eyes widened and before you could protest, he was on top of you. his hands moved to your sides and he begun relentless tickling the life out of you. you squealed, desperately trying to push his hands away in between laughter.

"ok!" you shouted, pleadingly. "ok, ok, ok!" you kicked your feet, knocking oscar off his balance and causing him to crash on top of you. you groaned, the weight of him crushing you. you let out a strained breath. "jesus christ, what do you eat? you weigh a fucking tonne," you teased. oscar choked out a laugh, pushing himself up and off you with his arms either side of you.

he paused, his face hovering just above yours. the smile slowly slipped from your lips, your eyes darting between his as he stopped to look at you. your cheeks were flushed from all the squirming and laughing, your eyes wide and stunned, and your hair was all over the place, falling over your face. oscar pushed the hair out of your face.

you gulped, before whispering. "what're you looking at—" you choked on your words a little when oscar's lips tilted closer to yours. he took this as his cue and kissed you. your eyebrows raised, letting him kiss you for a moment before you retaliated. your hand roamed to his shirt where you balled your hand into a fist around the fabric and pulled him closer.

quickly after you pulled him closer, you came to your senses and pushed him away. you squirmed underneath him, pushing him off you and standing up. oscar sat quietly, mulling over what he'd just done, he wasn't sure whether that was something he should have acted on.

"what— why'd you just kiss me?" you had your back to him, you touched your lips with your fingers. you were breathing pretty heavily. you weren't sure how you felt about it. it felt good at the time, no doubt, but now you weren't so sure it should have happened. it could potentially mess everything up.

"i—" oscar couldn't form a sentence. you spun around to see he was just as baffled as you were. you chewed your lip, trying to think of what to do or say. "i don't know— you just looked at me and i— don't know."

your heart was beating pretty fast.

"i look at you all the time, oscar," the frown on your face softened. this was oscar, your best friend. of course you knew how attractive he was, and of course you were a little bit in love with him. but you never ever considered doing anything about it because you loved your relationship the way it was, and you would never want to ruin that.

he rolled his eyes when you said this. "why do you always have to say something annoying? you were the one looking at me with your stupid brown eyes, it's not my fault i got lost in them—"

"you got lost in my eyes?" you were gaping at him. you couldn't help but tease him, it was how your relationship worked. "jesus christ oscar. we kissed once and you're talking like a— i don't even know— like a taylor swift song."

"you're so dramatic," he rolled his eyes again, gritting his teeth slightly. he hadn't given this much thought until it happened, it wasn't something he thought about too much. he'd always seen you as a friend, nothing more. he kind of had to shut off the part of his brain that thought you were unbelievably attractive because otherwise he'd be kissing you all the time. and he liked you as his friend, so that wouldn't work out. "it was just a kiss. i'm not proposing."

"damn right you won't be," you huffed, calming down a bit now the shock of it had passed through your system. "i just don't know what this means. we're supposed to be friends."

"i don't know—" oscar huffed. "does it have to mean everything? can't i just kiss you and that's that? do we have to talk about it?"

you rolled your eyes this time. "you want to sit on this and never talk about it again like you do with everything else? like that has worked out so well for you already?"

he groaned. "i take back the kiss. you're so annoying."

you were both kinda quiet for a minute as you thought about it. you didn't know how to not mock him constantly, you'd been doing it for years, you didn't know how else to talk to him.

"do you like me?" you tried to be serious for once in your life.

oscar shrugged. "i don't know— maybe. i haven't thought about it," you nodded, accepting his answer. it was pretty similar to how you were feeling. "do you like me?"

you moved to sit next to him on the couch. "i probably would if you kissed me again," you said honestly. "it was a pretty good kiss.”

oscar tried to conceal his smirk, 'cause he knew you'd make some sort of snappy comment if you saw. he hummed. "yeah it was."

you clenched your jaw, glancing at oscar who was staring at you again. your eyes moved down to his lips and back up again. you leaned closer, inches away from his face, and when he didn't pull back, you leant forward and kissed him again.

oscar kissed back almost straight away, his hands touching your waist and pulling you closer. you deepened the kiss, your hands roaming to the back of his neck so you could get as close as possible. you were practically on top of him before you had to pull away for air.

breathing heavily, you retracted your arms and stared at him kind of hopelessly. "yeah that was definitely worth doing again."

oscar couldn't help but let out a soft smile, which you couldn't help but mimic.

"you're actually really pretty when you're not being a pain in the ass," you scoffed at his comment.

"i'm pretty all the time," you nudged his shoulder, jokingly.

he hummed, shrugging. "maybe a little."

"what does this mean?"

he shrugged for a the millionth time. you wanted to shove him and tell him to use his words but you decided against it. what it meant was that he wanted to kiss you again and again, but he didn't feel confident admitting that yet.

"we'll have to find out."

"could you be more vague—"

"alright. so i like you, you like me, we just keep this up and see where it goes."

you nodded hesitantly. he reached, touching your arm gently. "don't overthink it."

you smiled a little, rolling your eyes. "alright fine."

his hand moved to your ass, pulling you over, mumbling come 'ere. which you did, you rolled over, straddling him where he sat. you sat back, watching him take all of you in. you felt like you could get used to this. it was definitely better than a smack in the face with a pillow.

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meggannn · 3 years ago

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guerrilla does something interesting in HZD with aloy and her motivations and how they let her goals differ from the player's goals. most of the time when a main character's driving goals differ from the audience's, it means the writing has misfired and it feels jarring when you shine a spotlight on it. but it definitely works in HZD because guerilla knew what the player's immediate interests would be—they open their game with huge scenic shots of a pre-industrial community contrasted with these enormous robot dinosaurs! they want you to be sucked into the mystery of why things are the way they are—and they also knew going in that they had had to tie the player's interests to aloy's goals as a character (john gonzalez, the narrative director, talks about it a bit in this interview). and over time, the two start to bleed over as aloy starts to care about the old ones and we start to care more about her. i don't know if they'll continue this strategy in HFW, but they've set themselves up in a really unique situation with the contrast of aloy's focus on the present/future and the audience's interest (mostly) in the past.

i've been trying to find a way to articulate the ideas in this post for a while, and i am really tired so forgive me if this gets redundant or some sentences don't make sense lol. spoilers for HZD obv

in HZD, aloy, the motherless outcast, is largely concentrated on finding out the mystery of her origins. i mean hopefully we, the player, are also interested in that because it's a pretty unique set up (it's not possible for someone to not have a birth mother... right?), but i'm willing to bet that most of the audience was overwhelmingly more interested in figuring out what the hell happened to the old ones of this world (us) and why robots are wandering around everywhere, than we were about figuring out what happened to aloy's mom. (i'm aware that is a large assumption, but i think it's a pretty safe one considering the reactions i see when people finish the game usually mention APOLLO in some way, or ask if it's still around or there's a way to bring it back.)

for aloy, the status quo of robots-that-nobody-really-understands wandering around is just a constant of her life, and discovering her mother is her pressing issue. for us, this world's major differences between our world (why did we die off and why are robots now the dominant species on earth) are more fascinating. so guerrilla ties the micro and macro mysteries together so that we are also interested in aloy's journey about her origins: by making the story of her birth and the history of the world woven into the same narrative fabric

aloy even directly says "it (finding out info on the past) isn't why i'm here" and sylens replies sarcastically "of course, what's the whole of human history compared to the search of one girl?" it isn't until after aloy realizes she's a clone, that she doesn't have a traditional birth mother, when she faces the nora and decides to stop HADES because GAIA asked her to, in a sign of extreme maturity and character growth (imo), does her goal of helping GAIA by beating HADES now start to align with the player's goals of trying to "set the world right" (by helping GAIA by beating HADES).

it's interesting because if anything, sylens, the anti-hero and arguable deuteragonist, is the character whose goals most match up with the audience's own throughout HZD: he's the one who is seeking out the knowledge of the old ones, he's the one who mourns losing APOLLO the way we do. aloy doesn't really react to what became of APOLLO at all (when it's revealed what happened to it, her immediate response is sorrow over the alphas' deaths, the more human element compared to sylens's laser focus on info-hunting). sylens is... also a total asshole and might be an anti-villain in the upcoming games (i hope not; i hope he's more of a rogue agent than an actual villain, personally) so it will be interesting if the audience eventually starts feeling torn between aloy's goals (save the world today) and sylens's (recover what can be saved the world of the old ones)

for aloy, APOLLO's absence is not a loss because she's never known a world without the knowledge of the old ones. why does she care about expending energy to hunt for info on our music and art and politics and wars? how does shifting through datapoints about things she doesn't understand and tools/tech she doesn't have access to help the planet today? after discovering GAIA's origins and purpose, i'm sure she'd probably be interested in recovering APOLLO if there is anything left of it to recover—even she's only interested in it to honor samina/elisabet's memory and the effort of PZD—but a lot of the fandom (myself included) keeps hoping and speculating and wondering if APOLLO is still around because APOLLO is the audience, or rather, it's the last scraps of what's left of us. we have an interest in APOLLO but aloy never shows any interest in or sorrow over it besides to vaguely wonder what happened to it. her interests are in the here and now.

when the audience looks at her world, we see what we've lost, and we know APOLLO is a way to get some of it back. for aloy, she's definitely engaged and interested in the old ones' technology and wants to make sure PZD's work is continued and restored and rebuild GAIA, so if APOLLO turns out to be around i'm sure she'd be interested in it, but for now, she's got too many things going on to consider it a priority. and even if she did, it would have to come after she's taken care of the immediate threats of the other chaotic subfunctions; and she would have to justify the time and energy spent on APOLLO to the value it gives her world (a world that doesn't utilize focuses as much as PZD had hoped, and a world whose language has likely changed enough that they might not even understand what they were being told) because she'd have to do it for her world. her world is already here, the old ones' world is gone, and her world the one that needs saving, not the possibility of bringing the old ones' back

so guerrilla has set themselves up with something very interesting here imo where the protag and the audience have mostly aligned but largely separate primary interests and i'm very curious to see how these interests will keep aligning, or not, in the future. personally i think they'll make the main focus of the series discovering and befriending the subfunctions and restoring GAIA, while also wrestling with modern-day politics in an effort to start preparing contemporary groups of people for a more holistic understanding of nature and machines, with the hopes of preparing them for GAIA's return and a future where they 1. take care of the planet and 2. stop attacking machines for parts lol. and i think they'll drag out the mystery of APOLLO possibly still being around until the end (assuming there will be 3 or more games).

personally, when i look at what we've been given so far (everything could change when HFW comes out), i could go either way on if APOLLO is still actually around or not. it would be an interesting (if expected) twist, but i wouldn't want it as wish fulfillment; i wouldn't want it to be used as a cheat that suddenly means ted faro's harm can be negated, or brought back as a HEA in a way that implies knowledge will suddenly be used and spread equally or even easily. also we should consider APOLLO is now an AI of its own! it will have opinions and things and the will to act on them!

discounting the overwhelmingly difficult logistics of introducing APOLLO to a new world that has evolved without its involvement from its inception, if APOLLO comes back in the way the we, the audience, want it to, then spreading several millennia's worth of knowledge to several diverse, warring peoples is full of difficult challenges that you are now suddenly introducing; aloy + GAIA + co. would now be in charge of not only taking care of humans on this spinning ball called earth, but also educating them equally and fairly. it's a huge task to introduce on aloy's already very busy schedule! so frankly i wouldn't be surprised if they wrote APOLLO off and went with an "it sucks but we have to make the most of the world the old ones left us" angle—or, alternatively, have aloy (or sylens!) dedicate the rest of her life traveling and hunting down and/or spreading what remains of APOLLO'S knowledge?

idk! there's a lot to dissect here about what guerrilla is doing and where APOLLO fits in as both a possible ally/villain and a narrative tool to keep us interested (it is a carrot on the stick for the audience)! and i find it all very interesting!!

#horizon zero dawn #horizon stuff #aloy #sylens

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teecupangel · 2 months ago

Link

From @siofreed

lol poor poor Des. Bet Malik finally giving in would be glorious XD

Oh, most definitely lollol

Tags from @allegedlyrainy

#assassin's creed #several very awkward bonding trips later‚ usual plot shenanigans determining what becomes of the assassins and the brotherhood at large… #altaïr has figured out how to communicate with desmond. altaïr has also gotten... attached. (desmond was already attached.) #he is also an even greater force to be reckoned with while he has desmond backing him up. (much to malik's exasperation I'm sure.) #kadar is intrigued. very possibly too intrigued. kadar gets many ideas one could consider terrible in the face of desmond's everything #no one is surprised when he gets his way. everyone is surprised when they also join him in what should probably be considered insanity #maria wants to hate desmond. wants to hate all of them. tries to find what she has in common with these men that he also won't kill - #and is finding it harder to continue to hate them so. even the damned beast. #one could even say he was... sweet‚ if they could manage to forget just how dangerous he was. #and then finally... “malik! you were supposed to be the reasonable one!” malik's common sense has gone on leave. try again later. #(sorry desmond. you're both not winning and absolutely winning here‚ idk what to tell you.) #also also omg. chimera cuddle pile!

I’m just imagining this to be a crazy, full of detours due to being with Desmond, road trip. It only takes perhaps a few days from Jerusalem to Masyaf. The detours are long enough that they’ve been on (and off) the road for a month or so.

It would be funny though if Desmond speedruns accidentally making his harem and Malik’s common sense left the area just a day or two. XD

The true voice of reason is Maria and she’s too busy being surprised by the amount of shenanigans these idiots could get to.

Tags from @noficbyhalves

#...should i be sorry about what i unleashed? fuck it we ball #tbh i was more thinking malmar #but like either way malik is going to be dragged kicking and screaming into this by his own libido #as he should be regardless of au tbh #its just a question of the severity of the kicking and screaming #the chimera polycule makes dating a templar look sane and normal #brand new sentence right there #desmond: i am going to choose not to think about the timeline consequences of any of this #assassins creed #malik al sayf #altaïr ibn la'ahad #desmond miles #i ship desmond miles with being alive #kadar al sayf #maria thorpe

(No need to be sorry. This kind of chaos is what I live for lollol)

Malik thinking that the best course of action to not be included in the chimera polycule is to have sex with a woman is so funny. Like, the man would go through a lot of logical hoops, making mental acrobatic moves that a gymnast would be jealous of, just to reach the conclusion that what he needs is a woman to love.

Maria is offended but, at the same time, would rather bang Malik than admit that she also does, in need, want some chimera dick.

Two repressed adults trying their best to ignore their blossoming monster fucker kink.

A tragedy waiting to happen lollol.

Submitted by @saberamane

All these ‘Desmond as …’ asks with him as dangerous animals. This would be his reaction to a Templar trying to move him from somewhere. Or an Assassin he didn’t like…

=====================================

short snippet by teecup

I made it vague what kind of animal/creature Desmond in this one so if you want him to be Mr. Tunnel Fluffball, go ahead XD

“My lord… the excavation team cannot proceed with digging deeper underneath the temple.”

Maria stood quietly as Robert glared at the poor messenger who had the misfortune of informing Robert of the unfortunate news.

“What’s the problem now? We already paid off everyone to let us dig in peace and to stay quiet. This should not have gotten to Saladin’s ears.” Robert growled.

“It’s not… it’s not the Saracens, sire.” The poor messenger gripped his hat tight enough to crumple it as he tried to explain, “They… they say that the only route we can take is blocked.”

“Blocked?”

“Yes, sire.”

“And they can’t just dig around the blockage?”

“No, sire.” The poor messenger shook his head and Maria wondered if the messenger was already saying a silent prayer in fear, “They say that this is the only route. Any other places would weaken the foundation and we risk the temple collapsing above us.”

Robert was not a brute.

He was quite a reasonable man.

A wise man.

But this entire expedition had put a strain on him. They do not have complete control over Jerusalem so simply being here, digging underneath Solomon’s Temple was a danger all by itself.

But he had just received word that left him in a very bad mood and everyone was walking lightly, hoping they wouldn’t be the one to step on broken glass.

“And we can’t just… unblock it?”

The messenger hesitated.

“What is blocking it?” Robert asked with a frown.

“I… I believe it is better if you come see for yourself, sire.”

With that ominous words, the messenger led them deeper into the tunnel they had been digging. Maria did not know just how deep Robert wishes to dig nor did she know what they were digging this much more.

All Robert said was that a treasure that can change the entire world nestled deep underground.

Maria believed that Robert was talking about a holy artifact, perhaps the grail or the ark.

Something that will show to everyone that this Holy War is necessary.

That they are doing what is right and what God has intended.

As they reached the end of tunnel, Maria froze.

As the entire tunnel echoed the roar of the beast impending their holy mission.

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someonestolemyshoes · 4 years ago

Note

Hey! First of all, I'd like to say that I love your works on AO3! "Fifteen Minutes With You" (or smth along those lines) was one of the first fics of levihan I read, and I loved it!

Anyway, a couple of sentence prompts that've been rolling around in my head. I'll add some detail, but feel free to use or discard anything. Writing is tricky lol!

"What if I (insert bad deed)?"

"I'll love you just the same"

"And if I (do smth bad)?"

"I'll love you just the same."

I was feeling a childhood levihan thing goin on here, maybe angsty? Idk

And fluffiness

"Wow! It's been 4 days!"

"Since?"

"I last bathed!"

*thwack*

Aaah hello! Thank you so much, I’m always pleasantly surprised to find people who read my Levihan fics from back in the day :D it brings me so much joy, you’ve no idea.

I decided to go with the bath prompt - though admittedly, it ended up far less fluffy and far more angsty than I intended, I hope you can enjoy it regardless!

---------------------------------------------

"Hange."

...

"Hange."

...

"Oi, shitty glasses. Hange."

No response.

Levi stands in the doorway, shoulder-leaning the frame and glowering into Hange's cluttered quarters. He has been calling her name for the better part of five minutes now, but Hange, hunched over her desk with her nose mere inches from the leaf of parchment she is scribbling on, had failed to notice him.

He kicks his boot against the door, and the resounding bang is enough to catch her attention. She jumps a little in her chair, and turns quickly to the door. She relaxes when her gaze lands on him.

"You scared me."

Levi grunts. "You didn't come to dinner.”

Hange blinks at him. Her gaze travels to the window, where the sky beyond had grown dark save for a speckle of stars and the thin smile of a wispy moon.

"I forgot.”

Levi rolls his eyes, pushing off the door frame.

"You forgot lunch, too." And breakfast, and countless meals over the last few days, weeks. Months, maybe.

She hums absently, turning back to her papers. "I've been busy. Lost track--I don't know how Erwin had enough time in the day to do everything."

Levi gives a noncommittal grunt and picks his way towards the desk, avoiding haphazard piles of books and papers and discarded scrolls, small, disorganised mountains of debris that must have made some semblance of sense to Hange. Even as he watches, she twists in her chair and reaches blindly into one pile, plucking up a stack of papers and dropping them onto the desk with a sigh.

Levi stops beside the desk, arms folded over his chest to look at her.

Up this close, Hange looks tired. It isn't an unusual sight--Hange has been prone to fits of research-fuelled insomnia for as long as Levi has known her, so easily side-tracked by her every theory and scheme that basic needs like sleep and sustenance often took a back seat. But there is something unsettling to her exhaustion, these days. There is no manic glint in her eye, no exaggerated waving or yelling, no aroused flush to her cheeks; recently, Hange is always pale, skin papery at best, but waxy and sickly more often than not. Her shoulders sag over the desk, shirt hanging more loosely over her frame than Levi remembers, and there's a near constant tremor to her fingers that barely ceases even as she presses pen to paper, scribbling notes and signatures on countless forms presented by countless people.

Her gaze is fixed dully on the newest expense report, now. The low orange light of her lamp flickers in the lenses of her glasses; fire dances on a matt black backdrop over her left eye, where the patch is strapped firmly in place. Her right is half closed, exhaustion pulling at the lid, the skin beneath is puffy and bruised deep purple. Her lips, dry and cracked, shift almost imperceptibly as she mouths the words on the page, reading quickly, scratching her signature where needed and flipping to the next page.

"There's food," he says, leaning his hip on the corner of the desk. "Stew, and the brats hid some bread from Sasha. Go eat something."

"In a minute," Hange mumbles. Levi huffs, and pinches the top of the quill, plucking it out of Hange's grasp. It's a testament to her exhaustion, that her fist keeps the motion of writing for a second too long before realising she is no longer making a mark on the paper. With a tired sigh, she sits back, and levels her tired gaze on Levi.

"In a minute," she says again, holding her hand out for the pen. "Let me finish these first."

"Eat. It'll still be here when you get back."

She looks very much like she wants to argue. Levi watches the way her brow creases in the middle, the way her eye pinches, narrowing at him, the way her hands ball into white-knuckled fists against her thighs. But she's tired. She is bone tired, and the righteous energy saps from her within seconds. She deflates, and brings a hand up to rub at her eye, knocking her glasses up to her forehead as she does.

Levi almost wishes she had fought with him instead. There's a terrible, gnawing guilt, seeing her like this--seeing the way the weight of his choice bears down on her. Hange is a worthy Commander, of that, Levi is certain--Erwin never would have chosen her if he didn't believe the same.

But things have changed. The world has changed. And what it means to be Commander of the Survey Corps has morphed into something unfathomable larger and more complex than what it was before. It is unchartered territory, and Hange has been thrown into waters black and bottomless.

Hange pushes her bangs back from her face with both hands. The hair, limp with grease, sticks in place, and even Hange seems surprised, pulling her hands back and looking almost curiously at her palms.

"Huh. Its been four days."

"Since?"

She gives him a look, then, and there's a flash of something old and familiar in her eye. She quirks the corner of her mouth in a grin.

"Since I bathed."

Levi swiftly raises his arm, and Hange flinches, but the curled fist that thunks atop her head is almost gentle. She blinks up at him in surprise.

"Disgusting. I'll hose you down after you eat."

-----------------

Hange sits cross-legged in the tub, while Levi's fingers scrub soap suds into her scalp. The bathroom is mostly dark, save for the flicker of lamplight and the pale, foggy glow from the moon through the window.

She is quiet while he cleans her. She had eaten some food, though not as much as he would have liked; sipped at the stew and picked half heartedly at the bread the kids had painstakingly secured. It was better than nothing, but Levi finds his gaze travelling from the top of her soapy head to her bony shoulders, and to the knotted curve of her spine. He can see the shift of her ribs beneath her skin, and when she obediently leans her head back for him to rinse the suds from her hair, he can see twin points of bone at her hips, the skin brutally bruised from the pressure of their belts.

Something unpleasant rolls in his gut.

"Turn around."

Hange does, twisting until she is facing him and re-crossing her legs. Levi dips a cloth into the warm bath water and begins the meticulous process of scrubbing her down, starting at her shoulders. Hange dutifully extends first one arm, and then the other, and it is while Levi is thumbing at the grime between her fingers that she hums, tucking her knees to her chest and resting her chin upon them.

"It's been a while," she says, voice soft in the quiet. Levi moves on to the next finger; Hange's hands, like his, are calloused across her palms and at the tips of her fingers, from years of using the triggers on the manoeuvre gear. They are rough, but her fingers are longer and thinner than his own, and limp in his hand like this, they look almost delicate.

Levi hums in question.

"Since we did this."

Levi makes another non-committal sound. Things have been hectic, since everything that happened at Shiganshina. A whirlwind of learning, adapting, planning, everything moving at such a dizzying pace that moments like this had been all but abandoned.

Moments of peace, of quiet; moments where the world falls still and time slows to barely a trickle, they are a rarity none of them have been able to afford.

Levi dips the cloth in the water and rinses the soap from Hange's hands.

"We've been busy," he says. You've been busy, is what he thinks, but his guilt would sit too far forward, if he said it like that; it would be too brazen, and he knows already that his apology is not what Hange wants to hear. He made his choice, and now he has to live with the consequences. There is no room for regret.

Hange sits back when Levi brings the cloth down over her chest, crossing her legs so he can wash over her belly and sides.

"It's nice," she says. "I forgot. How nice it was."

"For you, maybe," Levi says. He taps her knee, and Hange hook her leg out over the side of the tub. Levi adds more soap to the cloth and smooths it over her thigh.

Hange lets out a low chuckle. "Just another floor to mop for you, huh?"

"The floors don't get this filthy."

He is careful around her knee, where scar tissue from a recent wound is still forming. It is tender to the touch, he knows, but Hange makes no complaints when he touches it. She lets out a pleasant little groan when his fingers knead into her calves, toes curling.

Levi washes over her foot, then taps the sole, and Hange draws one leg back in and raises the other one, and the process starts again. It is methodical and familiar; strangely comforting, in the mess of everything. They've been battered with new information, faced with a world that is so vastly different from anything they had imagined before, burdened with the insurmountable task of exploring it, of finding their place in it--all of this new, all of this frightening.

But this; this is an old tale. They have danced this dance for years, muscle memory leading them in each step. Shiganshina changed some things--Levi is more gentle in places than he used to be, careful cleaning the thickened, still healing skin on her back where Bertolt's titan had burned her. He used to dump water over her head like a dog, bit back smiles at the way she would cough and sputter and stare indignantly through her hair at him, but now is he careful to keep water from dripping into her bad eye. He slides the cloth over her face with more consideration, avoiding too much contact with the tender tissue above and below her clouded, milky eyeball. The swelling has lessened considerably over time, but the wound will remain raw for a long while to come.

When he is done, he helps her stand, and rinses her down with a pale of clean water before offering a hand to help her step from the tub. Standing up to full height, Levi can see the extent of the way her body has changed. She has always been a rake of a thing, all straight lines and sharp edges, but she has always seemed strong and sturdy. Something steady, dependable.

Now, she seems fragile in a way Levi has never known her to be. There is no room left for her to bend; too much pressure, and he fears she will snap, splinter into a million pieces he cannot hope to fit back together again.

He holds a towel for her. Hange takes it with a small, grateful smile, and wraps it around herself, then leans back against the edge of the tub and bows her head. Levi scrubs at her hair with a second towel, ringing as much water from it as he can.

She dries herself half heartedly and pulls on the spare shirt Levi had brought for her while her back and shoulders are still damp. The fabric sticks to her, highlights the protruding bones of her spine when she bends over to tug on her pants.

Once fully dressed, Hange stretches, popping her back as she does, and rolls her shoulders, her neck. She gives Levi a lazy, pleased smile.

"I needed that," Hange says. Levi clicks his tongue.

"I know. You stank."

Hange laughs, a light, airy thing.

"Always so kind, Levi," she says tunefully. She seems loose, more relaxed than Levi has seen her in what feels like forever. Her shoulders sit lower not bunched up about her ears, and her face isn't so pinched or strained. It's a relief.

It's short lived.

"I should get back," she says.

"You should sleep."

She shrugs a shoulder at him, waves a hand.

"Later," she says. Even as she speaks, Levi can see the tension rising in her; the respite of a bath and a hot meal had been brief, and already the weight is reloading. Her burden grows heavier by the second.

"A few hours, Hange. The paperwork will still be there when you wake up."

"And there will be more, no doubt," she says. "I'll get further behind than I am already."

There is no more room for negotiation. Levi can only count himself lucky that he managed to get this far with her, to do this much. He schools his face into a neutral expression and nods, scooping to pick up her wet towel and dropping it into the laundry basket as he follows her out of the bathroom.

Levi refuses to regret his choice. He made the right decision in Shiganshina, and he will not doubt himself for that.

But the tight, nauseous knot in his stomach does not ease. He watches Hange settle back into her desk chair, strap her eye patch over her still-damp hair, and bow herself over the pile of papers she had abandoned on the desk, and the sickening unease swells to his chest, pushing the air from his lungs.

He made the choice to condemn Erwin to death. He will do everything he can to ensure he has not done the same thing to her.

---------------

Thank you again for the ask!! If anyone else has prompts, please feel free to send them :) I can’t promise I’ll fill everything, but it’s a fun exercise

#levihan #snk #levi ackerman #hange zoe #my writing #thank you so much!! i really enjoyed doing this one ;;#i like anything that lets me just gratuitously describe....anything #asks

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galaxy-lilies · 4 years ago

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Can we hear about mermay dream team au? I'd like to think Karl and Quackity are there too, Quackity is a flying fish merman and Karl, maybe a parrot fish for the colors? Idk, I'm not very versed with fish's.

Dream is a glowsquid mer, Sapnap is a shark mer, and George is a selkie. This can be interpreted as romantic Dream Team or just platonic Dream Team

When Dream was a kid he was being attacked by some Drowned. When he was positive he was calamari, a gray ball came hurling at the Drowned. He didn’t bother to see who his savior was and swam out of there.

He hid in a cave for a while then he heard something swimming near the mouth of the cave. He cautiously peeked his head out and-

“BOO!!”

Dream yelped, accidentally releasing a cloud of glowing ink.

There was some coughing and gagging before Dream heard the same person go, “Geez at least give somebody a warning!” He turned and was met with the toothy grin of Sapnap and the head of a beheaded Drowned.

“That’s not exactly how you thank somebody who just saved you,” Sapnap continued to grouch, waving away any remaining ink.

Dream paused. “Wait...you saved me?”

Sapnap placed the head down. “Well duh. I couldn’t exactly ignore you. You’re literally a walking beacon.” Dream felt his cheeks flush. “I am not!” he said indignantly. The shark mer gave him a look.

“Dude your skin and tentacles are literally glowing, you just hit me with a glowing cloud of glittery sparkly ink. I’m pretty sure that has to account for some type of beacon.” Dream relented and sighed. He was about to open his mouth when Sapnap cut him off. “And since you’re such an easy target I’ll be your protector!” Dream looked at Sapnap confused. “We literally just met??? I don’t even know your name!”

Sapnap swam up into dream’s face. “Sapnap’s the name, and so what? I don’t have much to do and you seem like a cool guy!” Dream swam back a little.

“Don’t you have like a pod or something to return to? Why are you bothering someone who is practically prey to you?” Sapnap’s demeanor fell a little. “I um. I don’t have a pod anymore...”

That’s when Dream noticed the scars across Sapnap’s arm and tail.

“...Poachers?” Sapnap only gave a small nod. “It was a while ago now. I don’t want to think about it too much.”

And that’s how Dream found himself a new friend and pod member. They learned a lot about each other whether they liked it or not. Dream learned that Sapnap can almost kill someone if he smells blood and Sapnap learned that Dream could regenerate his tentacles.

Dream also learned that Sapnap’s teeth were sharp and his face didn’t particularly like that.

It was an accident.

Dream had run into some sharp rocks and Sapnap couldn’t swim away fast enough before his instincts took over and he bit a good chunk of Dream’s face.

Dream had swam away, blindly hiding in a cove. He was clutching his face and he tried his best to stop the bleeding. He was alone and scared for 3 days before Sapnap followed the blood trail to Dream. The bleeding had subsided at that point and the salt water helped with disinfecting a little. Dream froze when he saw Sapnap but dropped his guard a little when he saw how remorseful Sapnap looked. Instead of saying anything, Sapnap presented him with a crudely made mask, a smiley face carved in the middle.

“For your face if you want. It might help the healing process if you stuff some kelp under.” Dream silently took it and tried it on. “How does it look?” he asks quietly, his voice slightly muffled behind the material. He saw Sapnap’s face scrunch a little. “A bit funny.” Dream huffed, slightly amused. Sapnap gave him a crooked grin before it fell flat again. He looked nervous.

“Look, I understand if you don’t want me to stick around. If you want to go find another pod or something-“

There was the unsaid sentence. “Don’t leave me please.” It was a silent plea.

Dream swam forward and wrapped Sapnap in a hug.

And so it was just the two of them for a long time. They’re around their late teens when they come upon the bay where George lived. George is a selkie and a surfer. The thing is George doesn’t know about his selkie heritage. He felt a calling to the sea, but he didn’t know why. He also didn’t know why he could withstand colder temperatures or why he could hold his breath much longer than his peers.

He headed out to surf, decided to exit a little out of the mouth of the bay, closer to the ocean. He was making his way out when he saw a fin poke out of the water. It was a shark fin.

And it was rapidly approaching him.

He was like “nope nope nope not today satan-“ but he was too far out to get to shore fast enough.

He was full on panicking now. He glanced at the water again and swore he saw a flash of green-blue beneath the surface. That was the last thing on his mind though. He managed to get himself to stand on the board in a desperate attempt to get the high ground but it was too late. The board was flipped over and he was submerged underwater. He flailed a little bit, his classic goggles not on his persons. He could only make out the blurry image of a shark like figure and...a glowing squid? George made a mad swim to the surface and he managed to grab his surfboard to prop him up. He was looking around wildly when he heard someone else surface with him.

“Hiya there!”George whipped his head around to meet the toothy grin of Sapnap. He let out a (high pitched) yell and somewhat scrambled back.

“So I noticed that you’re in our- uh my territory and that’s not a good thing because I don’t really like to eat human-like creatures but that’s besides the point so if you would kindly get out of here-“ “Sapnap what the hell are you doing???”Dream had surfaced at that point. Sapnap threw up his arms. “What! I’m being honest with him! Besides any sea creature would know not to tread into shark territory.” Dream let out a groan. “Sapnap you realized that we just revealed ourselves to a human?? Don’t you think he’s gonna report us or something?”

“I’m right here you know!” George said albeit a bit shaky. Essentially the three talk a little and then George takes his leave. And that’s when the two realized “Wait. How did a human understand the language of the sea?” (For plot sake sea creatures can understand other sea creatures but humans cannot understand sea creatures).

So George gets back to his home, a house that was given to him by his grandparents after they died. He’s trying to process what happened that night but doesn’t think about it. He goes to sleep and he dreams of a chest that looked oddly familiar. George eventually visits Dream and Sapnap often and they get to know each other well.

The three of them smartly try to see how long George could hold his breath. He nearly drowns trying to figure it out lol (turned out it was 15 minutes).

George continues to dream of the locked chest and since he became in contact with other sea creatures the call of the sea was stronger than ever. He finds the chest in the attic and when he touched it he heard the sound of a lock unlock. Inside was the family selkie skin. It was locked with magic in order to prevent humans from stealing it. It was a full moon when George found it. He was almost in a trance as he put it on and walked out to the shore. Five days had passed and Sapnap and Dream haven’t seen George. Sapnap swam around Dream, anxious.

“Do you think he’s ok?” Dream hummed. “I don’t know. He hasn’t left us like this for so long.” Dream eventually proposes to explore the sunken ship a little bit over and Sapnap agrees. It’s there they find a lone seal. The seal looked scared and lost, not to mention this ocean was no place for a seal. That’s when recognition dawned on Sapnap’s face. “GEORGE????”The seal chirped, nodding and swimming around. Dream turned to Sapnap, his face in somewhat of an incredulous expression. “How-??”

“Idk he smelled like George.”

Dream sighed. “Of course.”

The two escort George back to shore where they see the other transform back. “Jesus fucking Christ thank goodness you found me. Do you know how much it sucks being stuck in a seal skin???” And from there the three learn a little more about George and his selkie powers.

Oh and George somehow having an incredible sense of balance and he managed to surf with Sapnap in his arms lmao. The shark mer was screaming the whole time

#indiewrites #dreamteam #thecatchat

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thejudgingtrash · 3 years ago

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Can you explain to me how Rachel was annoying in the series?

Well, I’ll try to keep myself short for this one (lol no, this took an hour to write). Also, let’s not forget that they’re all kids, but I’m basing this off from when I read the series as a fourteen year old because my opinions haven’t changed much (for better or for worse).

I’m not the biggest fan of Rachel. I have to admit that portrayals of her by Simi, Kit, Logan, Apollo and all the others helped to shape her into something cooler than what she had been in my foggy memories but I actually went back to take a look in the books (well, TTC + BOTL so far) to refreshen my mind about events that have happened.

Also, you should browse through @blackjacktheboss's blog as she’s a) hilarious and b) says whatever I say in like a single sentence lol. But your ask is about me and my opinions so here we go:

What I didn’t like about Rachel was that she’s rude and bold (DON’T GET ME WRONG, I love that in female characters!!!), but she doesn’t have Annabeth’s excuse of survival of the fittest (literally running off as a traumatized seven year old) and introducing us into the world of the Riordanverse.

Percy was on his way, had shit to deal with and Rachel pretty much interrupted him from the get-go and thought getting her answers was more important than letting Percy just rush forward. Yes, this is Rachel’s entrance into the series and the net Riordan threw into the sea, to make us little fish adapt to her. But it still didn’t sit right with me, probably because I would never interact that way.

I get why she did that, but it’s the way how she did it that’s just making me go ???

Even if I was seeing weird things, I wouldn’t set out to distract/interrupt someone who is incredibly busy to get my way. Rachel’s dick move seems like a Karen boomer type of thing to pull off, but guess that’s up to you.

If I were her, I’d either film/try to photograph the monsters via phone (if that’s possible) or internet stalk enough to find the other person (note: despite Riordan’s stupid rule of not being able to use phones, demigods still can use computers/the internet, I guess). Percy was national news like a year or two ago in the timeline, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to find more stuff out about him, even in like 2008 or so. Let him have a spot on Perez Hilton's shitty gossip blog, for the OGs reading this.

Annabeth was used as a tool of exposition to introduce us to CHB, the demigod life and how things roll around there. She barged into Percy’s mission as a nuisance first but a necessity second in TLT.

However, in comparison to Rachel, Annabeth was transformed into a fully-fledged protagonist within a span of a chapter or two. Rachel needed another separate book after her first appearance, so we don’t just know Annabeth better, we know that she’s an important constant throughout the story as of Rachel seems… almost random? Is she truly necessary as a character?

This doesn’t come from a shipper perspective, this is coming from a character design perspective and adds to the feeling that the way she has been introduced to me as a reader just seems off.

Yes, BOTL makes sense with her as a reborn Ariadne, but technically Sally could’ve done the job as she’s a clear-sighted mortal as well lol. Then again, Sally is an adult, went to college, had a job, was unfortunately probably working it up with Paul, did the cha cha slide with him and had overall better shit to do.

Then Rachel as the oracle, which is just super weird in general. Wasn’t Apollo himself responsible for issuing prophecies in the OG myths? Or did he both, have the oracle of Delphi as his spokesperson and issue important stuff to Team Olympus? Am I mixing things up? I’m getting sidetracked, my bad.

Either way, this oracle gig might be the only time I’d say Rachel might be important in the future (badum tzz), but Riordan fumbled the bag in the follow ups series so there’s that. Did she even appear in HOO? Can’t remember and also don’t care.

Rachel is used as one out of three choices in regard to his love life that Percy can make. Calypso literally got introduced into BOTL and was admittedly Percy’s biggest what if… But the general gist doesn’t sit right with me. We have three possible routes with Percy and the others:

Rachel: somewhat normality in the mortal realm

Annabeth: the danger and thrill of the demigod life

Calypso: ambrosia and nectar. a hint of immortality

(On one hand, literally why but on the other hand, mad props for Percy who has literally three romantic leads in the same book.) I’d cancel one of them at least out and since Annabeth isn’t going anywhere, I’m taking Rachel. Sally could literally been Percy’s anchor to a normal mortal life as she had intended until it didn’t work out anymore when he became twelve and his monster alerting scent grew stronger.

Calypso and Annabeth would’ve been the perfect opposites where each of them had a strong case. The demigod life within the realms or mortal or the demigod life ascending to Olympus/immortality. Sounds cooler and is way simpler. Three people is way too much, this truly feels like a shonen anime harem thing and it’s defo not my cup of tea (and while some Annabeth sideships aren’t my thing (Lukabeth go cry in the corner, no one likes you, WTF, Connabeth you fugly), it’s super unfair that Annabeth solely has Percy (fuck off Luke) to rely on in regards of romantic endeavors).

Rachel almost feels redundant? The option to walk away from all of that… which isn’t really true as Rachel really tries to push and insert herself into the story the very first time we meet her? But that’s just me, I’m certain that others are saying they’d kill off Annabeth or kick Calypso (I mean yeah) into the curb.

Big ALSO:

Why does Percy need another white and uber-rich love interest?

I semi-joked on Dez’ post (@sawasawako) with this response about Annabeth needing to keep up with powerful Rachel, but the core still stands.

We already have an affluent Annabeth (granted, we don’t know exactly how the Chase’s riches are divided, whereas it’s clear that Rachel can just make anyone drop dead by saying who she is. Annabeth needed that weird lotus casino credit card to make that happen, so Miss Harvard Legacy doesn’t wield that Dare schmoney. Also don’t think Annabeth can just up papa’s money and go…? Idk).

Why do we need another person needing to upstage this?

Like Rachel has to triumph in regards to standard and prestige as if it were a badly written Jane Austen AU. For what reason…? Why not make Percy friends and acquaintances with someone who comes from a normal household for once, not super rich brats (Piper, Annabeth, Rachel, technically the Graces with their TV starlet mother amongst others).

Moreover…

Important question: why should Percy actually be impressed/attracted to that? He’s dirt poor and has been sent to (boarding) schools filled with stupid rich people since he’s been twelve, probably even younger than that. As if that’s the very first thing Percy would look out for or be wowed or something. He’s used to rich douchebags. I think he’s more surprised that someone used their money for his benefit for once and not to crash daddy’s new Mercedes again.

Like seriously… Rachel did that weird art project thing in BOTL with her covered in gold and posing like it’s a super normal thing to do? Even for rich snobbish kids standards? That sounds weird to me. I don’t know, maybe Riordan’s been streaming the new Gossip Girl reboot on HBO Max on repeat and thought this girl is on fiyah (performed by Alicia Keys).

Rachel trying to separate herself from her money just comes off as super hypocritical when she’s using the very same funds to finance her lifestyle. I get it, trying to make amends and make a difference with the damage you have done but... your father still doesn't give a shit about the environment or YOU, sweetie. Kick him in the balls for once! Then you can go out about your art projects.

The concept of Percy having friends in the mortal realm is cool, but why does Rachel almost have to compete with Annabeth with her wealth and art stuff?

No seriously, the comparisons are constantly there, out and about. Roaming freely on the finest grass, needing to be feed delicious locally sourced carrots and stuff.

Annabeth is Athena’s kid. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, weaving, justice, warfare yada yada and arts and crafts. So definitely something which would affect Rachel, right (someone write that Athena messing with Rachel because she can AU and tag me please!)?

Annabeth wants to become an architect which translates to fancy building designer who is driving engineers like Leonardo Eugenio Valdez Cortes insane irl because the maths and physics don't work like that in the working field trust me I'm an engineer, which could/should be considered an art form.

They even shared some common ground while talking about architecture and design in BOTL!

Furthermore, they both share broken homes with absent parents (granted that all demigods go through that). Wealthy families at that as well. Shitty fathers that don’t care about their daughters well-being. Rachel however, is super powerful and influential in an unseen level in the mortal world. She isn’t like Matt Sloan (?) who truly messes up by destroying shit to get his father's attention, but she’s still in that circle and can easily demonstrate that. Making deals with her father and what not. We rarely see Annabeth doing that. Did y’all forget the fucking helicopter Rachel brought along in TLO?

Pan saying Rachel is just as important as her father has multiple meanings to me…

(Sidenote: I do think it’s hilarious that Annabeth is jealous/annoyed of Rachel that her remarks were she’s cute right and Percy went??? Or when Tyson said Rachel’s pretty? Or that time when Annabeth actually defended Luke and his weird behavior (because Kronos was slowly taking over, don’t forget that kids!), because f that rich artist nepotism kid that Rachel seems to be, right?)

Another note: Percy thinks Rachel is annoying in BOTL for a while and it took a while for him to admit that and he spent way more time being annoyed/jealous (for once, Lordy) at Luke for him to even notice lol.

I guess it’s really hard for me to exactly pinpoint what’s bothering me. I believe Rachel's persona just doesn’t seem to hit right, because it feels like a knock-off Annabeth who just simply isn’t a demigod, yet has two cool powers, but in even richer who still needs to be part of the story for exactly what reason?

The jumping around from the richest in the series to the poorest in the series is kinda bothering me as if the middle class doesn’t exist, like I’ve stated earlier. Why didn’t Riordan mix it up with Rachel, giving her more nuance the minute they met, not towards the end? Have her be Percy’s platonic friend from the get go. No weird oh wait she is kinda cute in the middle bullshit.

This kinda drifted more into a Perachel vs Percabeth essay, which really wasn’t my intention. Don’t worry kids, I’m criticizing Annabeth (and her stans) enough already.

And I do think that others in the fandom have softened my views on Rachel as a person like I’ve stated in the beginning. So friendship!Perachel is popping! But I do think that there are some valid points that I’ve made.

Also not gonna lie, Rachel issuing the new prophecy in TLO kinda dampened the end of PJO series but that’s more Riordan’s fault than hers.

TLDR: I’m just not a huge fan of this overbearing, uber-rich, excessively flaunting being that Rachel sometimes displays. She’s flawed, she’s broken at times, has a semi-interesting background story (although it has been done over and over again throughout the series and should be changed up for once) which is great, but it is still annoying.

We don’t need an anti-Annabeth who feels like a weird caricature of the real Annabeth.

Also if this seems super incoherent, repetitive, or whatever, I'm sorry, massive headaches + mental health going down the goo lagoon does this to ya, I hope I made somewhat sense!

#Mel answers #pjo #percy jackson #rachel elizabeth dare #rachel dare #Annabeth chase #percabeth #pjo Meta #percy jackson and the olympians #pjato #ttc #botl #tlo

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