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howtofightwrite · 4 months ago

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Now you got me thinking...I've been thinking about writing a fic where the (in-universe) desensitization of violence for the main characters is a running theme. My main issue, however, is managing the violence within said narrative because, as you've said before, violence has diminishing returns. While I don't want it to be a gorefest from start to finish, I do want part of the horror to be having to engage in it, no matter what steps are taken to avoid it. If I'm not careful, I could end up with a weaker story for all the violence in it. What could I do to maintain this theme without it losing its impact due to these diminishing returns?

So, there's two different things going on here, and ironically, it's the same term, and mostly the same process.

When I'm talking about your audience becoming desensitized to violence, it's more that they become acclimated to the degree of violence you're comfortable with exposing them to. Again, “diminishing returns,” because as you expose them to more violence, they become more acclimated to that violence, and the shock value will subside. Similarly, the ability to build tension on the threat of violence occurring falls off when you're willing to engage in violence, but that doesn't mean you can't build tension, just that you need to be a little more careful about establishing those stakes.

Also, when most people write violence, they tend to establish implicit boundaries. It may be that only certain characters engage in violence. It may that certain areas are exempted from violence. At very mechanical abstraction, with some writers, you can tell when they've introduced a location that is exempt from violence. Even if you're getting into diminishing returns, violating these kinds of boundaries can keep the violence fresher than you'd expect. The formula of slasher films put a lot of effort into maintaining shock value by creating misleading boundaries that you'll pick up on and then violating them in new and novel ways.

Outside of some genuinely stomach churning violence, you're not likely to permanently move the needle for your readers. You're not actually desensitizing them to violence; just your willingness to depict violence.

I feel like I need to make a clarification: Too much violence doesn't mean the story will be bad. Normally, I offer advice with the assumption that you'll want to manage and maintain as much shock value as you can from your violence. However, that's not the only valid approach. That said, too much violence can cause your readers to disconnect from the work, so that is a legitimate consideration. Also, this doesn't mean the story loses impact. Unless the violence is the story, which is a somewhat weird edge case, violence won't necessarily reduce the impact of the story as a whole.

The example of slasher films, earlier, really does illustrate what I mean when I'm saying that lots of violence (even gratuitous violence) isn't going to necessarily mean that a story will be bad. (Though, this could spiral into a much deeper argument about the artistic merits of that genre.) To some extent, your choice of genre already starts to prepare the audience for a more violent experience. You're preemptively trading shock value for a higher baseline.

The second thing is your character being desensitized to violence. While there is something to be said for getting your audience into your character's head space to the point that they accept it as their own, doing that with desensitization to violence is extraordinarily difficult. (And, really, it's a tricky route to go in general. In most cases, the audience will simply assign whatever dissatisfaction they have onto you or the work, rather than realizing you were being clever.)

So, how do you show someone is desensitized to violence, without trying to simultaneously traumatize your audience? You show the consequences of that desensitization. This can show up in a character's sense of humor, their overall outlook. They may be more clinical about violence, more casual about its consequences (at least, superficially.) They might have an incredibly dark sense of humor, which might not come up most of the time.

In a larger context, a character who has been desensitized to violence may come across as basically normal, outside of a narrow band where certain concepts don't bother them. This is especially true with a specific brand of military humor, where violence has been rendered mundane for the individual, and the people they interact with on a regular basis.

Now, audience desensitization to violence can create a very weird situation. Where an absence of violence is more unsettling. Not because they're worried about what could happen, but because they're waiting for it all hell to break loose. It's one thing to simply call it, “tension,” but it is a very distinct kind of anxiety you can invoke, if you're careful. In the opening of a story, when the genre is clearly established, I've seen this compared to the ratchets on a roller coaster's first ascent. Everyone knows what they're here for, everyone's here for the ride, click, click... and then the lights go out, and the screaming starts.

I'm trying to make it sound easy, but violence is one of the more challenging things to write. That doesn't mean it's impossible, and you don't need to sit down and carefully sketch out every detail before you get going. The biggest thing to be careful of are that you don't want to overuse it, but you have a lot of flexibility to tell the story you want with the amount of violence you need to communicate that story.

Though, it might take a few tries until you get a tone you're happy with.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers

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lazycats-stuff · 1 year ago

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Baby bat who gets kidnapped by lex Luthor but has no clue what’s happening like he’s being taken to metropolis and baby bats is like are we thiere yet singing and being a menace

Thiere confused on why an ugly bald guy is taking them out but Luthor gets fed up and leaves the kid somewhere and they just vibe

Alright. Again, comedy is not my strong suit, but I will try. Also, a little digression, I hit 700 followers. Thanks everyone. Also, this will be under Batfamily

Summary: (Y/N) gets kidnapped by Lex Luthor. Lex gets more than he bargained for.

Warnings: Kidnapping, (Y/N) is supposed to be a menace, but author doesn't have a sense of humor... Author has tried.

It all began on a rainy Monday. Everything was worse due to universal law of Monday being the worst days of the week. Bruce thought it would be a normal day. He dropped his son off at the kindergarten, gave him a kiss to the forehead and went to work.

If only Bruce knew that 3 hours later, (Y/N) would be kidnapped by Lex Luthor and a search for the unknown kidnapper would begin. Bruce also passed out when he got a call. The others left school to come back to the manor to help his father track their youngest.

Lex Luthor was pleased with himself as he was driving towards Metropolis. He had successfully, well, not him personally, but his men, kidnapped the youngest member of the Wayne family. Bruce was the most protective and the rest of the brothers are protective too.

The fact that (Y/N) was with them since he was a baby, amplified that protectiveness ten times more. He glanced at rearview mirror, seeing that the toddler was awake.

" Good to see you awake. " Lex said, watching as the toddler rubbed his eyes with his balled up hands.

" Where are we going? " (Y/N) asked, looking out the window.

" Don't worry about that. " Lex said quickly.

There was a silence for a few moments. (Y/N) was swinging his feet, looking around.

" Are we there yet? "(Y/N) asked, looking the back of Lex's head.

" No. "

A few moments passed.

" Are we there yet? "

" No. "

" Are we there now? "

" No. " Lex said, turning on the radio for (Y/N).

" The music is too loud! " (Y/N) whined, making Lex sigh. He turned down the volume. After a few more moments, Lex felt a kick at the back of this seat. He had to take a deep breath.

" Stop it. "

It was calm for a few moments. Then the sit got kicked again.

" Stop it! Right now! " Lex growled out loudly.

" I need to go to the bathroom. " (Y/N) asked, looking at Lex. " Why are you bald? " (Y/N) also asked.

Lex took a deep breath.

" I was in an accident. That's all you need to know. " Lex said.

" I need to go to the bathroom. " (Y/N) whined, making Lex sighed.

" Well, you are going to wait! " Lex yelled at (Y/N), making (Y/N) cross his arms. Alright.

" How much longer? " (Y/N) asked, watching as Lex was loosing his patience.

" Shut up. Just shut up. "

" Can I have your phone? " (Y/N) asked, bouncing his knee.

" Absolutely not. " Lex said, disgusted at the mere thought of it. How does Bruce Wayne put up with this brat?

So what does (Y/N) do in this situation? He starts singing loudly. What did he start singing? Frozen's Let it go. It seems that was the last straw for Lex as he pulled over. He got out of the car and left (Y/N) on the road.

" I'm not doing this. " Lex said, getting back into the car. (Y/N) watched as he drove off, confused?

Who was this bald man? And where were they going? He looked down at his shoes. He wanted to see his dad. But he couldn't walk back.

" Uncle Clark? I need some help. Some bald guy kidnapped me. " (Y/N) said, out loud, turning around to look at trees behind him.

A minute after he said it, Clark landed next to him. " Are you okay? " Clark asked his nephew, looking him over.

" I'm okay. I just want to see my dad. " (Y/N) said, wrapping himself around Clark like a koala.

" And we will kiddo. Hold on tightly. "

" Gordon, I'm telling you, that is Lex Luthor's guy. " Bruce said, rubbing his face.

" I need official conformation that there is a connection. I can understand you are afraid for your son, but I can't act on your hunch." Gordon tried to explain to Bruce. Bruce sighed, sitting down at the office chair in Gordon's office.

" I get that, but... My son is with them. I don't know if he is alive or dead. I don't know if he is injured... I don't know... " Bruce said, worry and sadness clear in his voice.

" I ca- Oh my God. " Gordon trailed off, looking through the glass windows behind Bruce. Bruce turned around, eyes widening at the sight. Superman was holding his son.

Bruce got up and ran out of the office, smiling at the sight of his son. Superman handed the little boy to his father. Bruce embraced his son, fighting tears as he held him tightly.

" Thank you Superman. " Bruce whispered, kissing (Y/N)'s head.

" No problem mister Wayne. Also, he told me that a bald man kidnapped him. " Superman said, making Bruce turn around to give Gordon a look.

" I will speed it up. " Gordon said.

" Thank you. (Y/N), are you hurt? "Bruce asked his son.

" No dad. Can we go home? " (Y/N) asked. He was tired and he laid his head on Bruce's shoulder.

" Of course we can. " Bruce said, thanking Superman once more.

#bruce wayne x male reader #dc comics #dc x male reader #x male reader #batfamily #batman x male reader #lex luthor

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vidavalor · 1 year ago

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hi there 👋 i love reading your good omens metas. i'm wondering if you have any thoughts on aziraphale's line to crowley in 1967: "i can't have you risking your life, not even for something dangerous". this always sticks out as odd to me. obviously he doesn't want crowley risking his life for any reason, so why this weird qualifier?

Hi @mybelovedismine Thank you so much. :) I am so sorry it took me awhile to get back to you. Love me some 1967 Crowley & Aziraphale and this question is great. Cheers.

1967/Holy Water Era/some S2 Aziraphale meta under the cut.

If you go back-- and I mean way back-- to the very opening bit of GO 1.01, it opens with what seems at first like it's just a quirky, funny scene introducing God and her sense of humor and the show's sense of humor. It is all of that but it also contains what I think is a really important piece of information-- especially with relation to the 1967 scene-- which is the date that Earth began in the GO universe. Crowley and Aziraphale don't know exactly when the end of the world will come but they know "about" when-- and that is a ticking clock running in the background for them for millennia.

The date that God gives us for the creation of Earth at the opening of S1 means that 6,000 years exactly would math out to October 21, 2004... but we also know that they don't know if it's going to be *exactly* 6,000 years. It could have been 5,900. It could have been 6,500 or anything in between. It winds up the super-cruel 6,004 years, beginning in 2008 in S1. What is clear to Crowley & Aziraphale is that their experience is closer to that of humans in a way because even though 6,000 years would be a very long time to humans, it's "nothing", as Angel!Crowley put it in Before the Beginning, to Crowley & Aziraphale... and there has always been a very good chance that it's all they will ever have together.

Their relationship is like someone turned over an hourglass on the wall at Eden and it's been dripping sand steadily in the background this whole time. It's partially why their relationship accelerates a little faster over the last few centuries, imo. There is a chance they're running out of time together. Armageddon means the Great War between Heaven and Hell and they are an angel and a demon. Whatever side wins the war is the one who will live on for all of eternity. The other one won't survive it-- or, even if they did, they won't be able to be with each other. Not to mention that Armageddon means that, regardless of who wins the Heaven and Hell war, Earth will be destroyed and their life on it together will be over.

Aziraphale always thinks Heaven will win. He always thinks it's him who will have to spend eternity alone. Part of this is because he has to tell himself that Heaven is still the side of good, even if it's flawed, because he can barely deal with the guilt over being part of the machine that's caused Crowley so much pain. Aziraphale also thinks, though, that maybe when the time comes, they can find a way out of it all, somehow.

In close to 6,000 years, the best plan they've got for dealing with this is Crowley's plan to just run away to Alpha Centauri and hope that no one notices that they're deserters. (So, not a great plan, but also they're up against the will of God here so kind of hard to try to work out a way around that.) In S2, Aziraphale is so desperate-- SO desperate-- for a way to not have to lose Crowley that he is willing to entertain the idea that he can trust The Metatron's word and beg Crowley to come to Heaven with him and be an angel again just so that they can be together forever. Aziraphale doesn't need Crowley to be an angel to know he's good and to love him-- he already knows and feels those things. He loves him so much that he can't bear the thought that he could lose him. He's never been able to bear that thought.

In 1967, they were running out of time and it's something that became increasingly intense for them the closer the years got to 2004 and the day they would hit 6,000 years since the Earth's creation.

In 1967, they were down to 37 years until 6,000 years were up, so the end of the world was, to them, a moment away.

It's not hard to see how Crowley wants to carpe diem and go for broke, in case it's all they'll ever have. He wants to be a little less careful. To try for the things they haven't been able to give each other while they've had to be a secret for so long. 'Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all', right? And they have loved, do love, are loving in 1967... but Crowley feels the time slipping away and his anxiety is dialed up to eleven under that cool exterior and Aziraphale knows him like he knows the back of his hand and he can see where this is all going... and it's not where either of them want it to go.

Think of this from Aziraphale's point of view...

Aziraphale is an angel. His soul is saved. He is meant to survive Armageddon. That, to him, is actually something of a curse at this point because it means that he'll live for eternity. For *all* of time. An absolutely incomprehensible amount of time. Neverending time. The kind of amount of time that would make 6,000 years feel like less time than it took you to blink while reading this sentence. And if everything goes according to what they know of God's Ineffable Plan or Great Plan or Whatever The Fuck It Is lol, he's going to live through all of this time alone.

Without Crowley.

Forget even the end of Earth and humanity (and that's hard to forget lol), Aziraphale is slated for a post-apocalyptic return to Heaven and a celestial cubicle and spending all of time with Michael and Uriel and Sandalphon and no food and no books and no music and even all of that, he could stand, if only he could just have Crowley with him and he can't.

Because Crowley's a demon. He's fallen. He's eternally damned. Heaven has socialized angels to believe that the war between Heaven and Hell that Armageddon triggers will be the big triumph of Heaven over Hell. Aziraphale tells himself he believes it but he's honestly more *terrified* of it than devoted to the idea. Heaven triumphing over Hell could kill Crowley. It's what Aziraphale is *supposed* to want as an angel but it's actually *the exact opposite* of what he wants. He adores Crowley. He will never-- in all of the infinite time to come-- ever get over Crowley and he knows it.

Even if Crowley somehow survives The Great War 2.0, Earth will still be gone and Crowley's fate is eternity in dark, cramped, literally painful damnation in Hell. There is no way for them to be together without thwarting the will of God and Aziraphale is an angel-- his entire purpose as a being is to serve God. It's what he was made *by God* to do, as far as he's been taught, and he mostly believes it... it's just that he also thinks he was made for Crowley.

This isn't just what Crowley thinks. Crowley isn't wrong that this is a mutual feeling:

Aziraphale felt that then, too, and he's never stopped feeling it. It blends sometimes with his faith in God-- something that, ironically, he sometimes thinks Crowley somehow has more of than he does. If God made him and God made Crowley and if God made them for each other, then it can't really be just to take them away from each other after such a short time, can it? Maybe they're meant for some other purpose in all of it?

But this is the same God that Aziraphale knows can be cruel...

Aziraphale has gone up against the will of God countless times over the years now and he is, for reasons he doesn't understand, somehow still an angel.

It seems unjust and honestly pretty profane to him that *he* is the holy one when Crowley's been through--quite literally-- Hell, for thousands of years, and his biggest sin is being curious. It is very hard to be told that you were created for the purpose of representing the side of good in a war against good and evil but to then, over and over and over, find yourself believing that the good guys are maybe not so good... all the while falling deeper in love by the day with a being your side calls 'demonic' and 'evil' but whom you know to be a sweet, romantic, smart, gentle, funny, kind cinnamon roll. Crowley is a demon and he's the best angel Aziraphale knows.

Now imagine you've all those conflicts and you're running out of time and staring down the end game of all of this and when you've got maybe, if you're lucky, a century and a half left or so worth of sand is still in the top half of the hourglass (mid-1800s), Crowley starts to pull away from you.

He's honestly never done it to this extent before. He trusts you with a surprising amount of himself and has since early days and, in recent centuries, you were happy together-- as happy as your situation would allow and that was more than you ever thought you'd have. This is the same being whose willingness to push through his fear of being vulnerable to have something honest and intimate with you has had you in awe of his bravery since you met. He taught you how to do that and now he's putting up walls you can't scale and slamming shut every open door.

You were happy together and then, you went on a date in Edinburgh in 1827 and suddenly, the centuries of peace and of getting away with it all ended in a literal second when Crowley got dragged to Hell two feet away from you. Hell didn't find out about the two of you or about Elspeth-- they were pissed about the human grave guards that Crowley accidentally sent to Hell for shooting Wee Morag-- but Crowley comes back a couple of weeks later and it's like it's all over already.

He's badly shaken. They hurt him. He spent time in Hell not sure if they had found out about you or if you were still alive. The anxiety, depression, and PTSD he has from being cast out of Heaven and a lifetime of trying to survive being a demon of Hell goes into overdrive and you don't know what to do. You've always been good at helping him. Nothing works. The bookshop-- your home but his, too, in your mind, the safest space he can go to to get away from Hell and get some rest-- isn't enough. He's not coming around the way he used to. He doesn't want to talk about any of it. The connection between the two of you-- emotionally, sexually-- feels like it's eroding. It hurts more than you want to admit. Your relationship de-evolves for almost 35 years as you watch the spark seem to go out of him. You don't know how to fix it and you try everything you can think of. You can understand how the ticking clock makes it all hurt more and you don't want him to be in any pain-- ever-- and you'd go away entirely if it was what he really wanted but neither of you know how to say goodbye because you both know that neither of you actually want to.

He's your best friend. He's the only one like you in the universe. You're both miserable and lonely without each other and it seems stupid to spend the last years you might ever get together apart but it also seems impossible to ever get back to where you were. Then, one day, after *years* of this, he asks you for the one thing that can *kill him*...

In the moment, all you can think about is that he wants to die because he's seemed like he does for decades now. All you can think of is that he is in so much pain and he wants nothing from you but the means by which to end it.

He's your lover. Imagine being told by the being with whom you've spent countless pleasurable hours in bed that all he wants from you now is a suicide pill.

He used to laugh. He used to be silly and hilariously dry-humored. He used to flirt with you and gaze at you from the couch on the bookshop, all pretty yellow eyes and lounging limbs, and now he's spine-straight stiff, like the pain is what's holding up. He arranges meetings in the park instead of coming over. He wears his glasses, all the time. You can't remember when the last time you saw his eyes was.

All of it says to you that you aren't enough and then he asks you to give him a suicide pill and you're broken-hearted-- you're just broken, period at the thought of him in so much pain-- and you're angry. You're furious. How dare he do this to you? You've been in love for millennia. He is your best friend. How dare he shut you out and leave you alone when you are going to be alone without him for the rest of bloody time?!

You're so in your feelings about him shutting you out that you know you have been failing at caring for him and not really helping the situation for awhile now. Your defenses have been up for awhile. Years, probably. You're caustic and, frankly, pretty bitchy in your bitterness. It's a little twisted but you've tried everything else and maybe if you could even just make him angry, it'd at least be something. He's barely spoken above a whisper in thirty years and sometimes you think about him off his head on laudanum in Edinburgh, drawing you to him magically by your bow tie to look at you over his glasses, inches away, and how you didn't know that was going to be the last time he ever really flirted with you.

So, when he asks you for holy water in 1862, you do your best to piss him off, since he won't accept anything else from you lately. You used to be wildly compatible and now you're broken and you're angry because God was always going to break your heart by taking him from you but he was never supposed to. He was supposed to love you-- those things neither of you say-- to the end.

You did get him angry. You both got angry. So angry that it felt over.

It wasn't. You saw each other again in the interim and it didn't just magically heal itself, like you wished it would, because you regretted how you reacted to the request for holy water but somehow talking about it felt too much.

Because you thought you might have understood it more afterwards.

Because you began to understand that he felt vulnerable. That he needed to feel like he could defend himself and, if it came to it, you. That maybe he didn't want to die-- maybe he wanted to live. That this was him asking you to help him figure out how to feel safe again-- something you've actually always been good at-- and you were so afraid, too, that you handled it badly.

Maybe one of the things you were afraid of in the moment was the way he talked about it going wrong, going pear-shaped, about him wanting insurance... about how there wasn't a way to reframe that in your mind to not mean that he meant he was willing to kill a demon in your defense or his-- which could kill him. It could send a legion after him and destroy him. There was so much that could go wrong. No matter what Crowley wanted holy water for, his death felt like it was the end game. You would throw yourself into Hellfire before you did anything that could cause him harm.

He had been pulling away for years but there he was saying I would kill for you. I would die for you. and that was the closest either of you had ever come to saying I'm in love with you. and you weren't sure what was more dangerous: saying those truths you both knew and felt or holy water.

Crowley didn't bring it up again and neither did you. You're useless without one another so you saw each other again within the next couple of decades. The Old West in America. Back in London in the 1920s and times in between. Neither of you ever discussed the Holy Water fight or what it meant. You secretly learned to drive, for the future, just in case, when he turned up stupidly in love with a car in 1928. You would die for that dumb car if only because of how Crowley smiled when he turned up to take you for a ride.

Over time, Crowley seemed to get a bit better and your heart burst just looking at him, even if it also ached with the knowledge that you had made it harder and hadn't known that time how to help when he needed it.

Then, 1941. The Blitz. Bombs raining down over London and the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation and maybe, just like the humans, you both thought this might be it. Time slowed to surviving each night and every moment felt like it could be the last and maybe that's why you both wanted a different ending.

Crowley always did prefer the funny ones.

In the middle of it, Crowley joked about holy water-- the first time either of you had mentioned it in 80 years-- and you heard it there, woven into his quiet, coded but undisputable, confessions of love. It was for you, it was about you, it was to keep you safe... it was because you were two feet away from me when they took me and I want to be with you to the end and it's the only thing that can help me keep you safe from them.

He doesn't ask you for it again. You know why. Things are good. He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want you to reject him again. He doesn't want to admit again that he feels unsafe. You think about giving him some after 1941 more than once but you are now afraid of what it might say to him if you do.

Because you could both be almost out of time, if everything goes pear-shaped when the clock runs out on about 6,000 years, and Crowley wants to try for more.

You both want forever. You both aren't sure that you'll even get tomorrow. The world is speeding up in 1967-- has been for decades now-- and you think Crowley is caught up in it. You both live in London, in SoHo, you'd be as safe as you could be. You'd blend in enough. It's too dangerous, though. It's not the humans you're afraid of, really-- not that the human world has ever been safe for your and Crowley's kind of love and you aren't sure that it will get there before it's all over. What you're afraid of is that you'll get caught by Heaven and Hell and you'll lose him before the about 6,000 years is up-- and then you will have no chance at all, whatsoever, of forever.

Crowley doesn't think he'll make it. He doesn't say so but his actions say so and his situation suggests it. He wants to go faster. He doesn't demand it, doesn't pressure you, but he periodically gently asks and you have to let him down somehow, you have to get him to slow down. It's not that you don't want him. If there were no risk to him, you'd never try to put up a speed bump. It's just that you are hopeful.

Ironically, you're hopefulness-- your optimism-- it comes from him.

He's brilliant. He's clever. Maybe, somehow, the two of you will find a way out of this.

You don't want to watch the world burn. You don't want to watch billions of humans and a whole planet and a whole solar system-- Crowley's nebulae-- destroyed for no reason and as much as you should be willing to go along with the Almighty's will, it's fucking ineffable and you secretly aren't sure if you believe in a God that would do this. You struggled during The Flood. You struggled over Job and Sitis' kids...

...if you are honest with yourself (and you are more than you care to admit), you struggle to be faithful to a God who has caused Crowley so much pain.

You think that, somehow, when the time comes, you and Crowley might find a way around it. How? You have no idea. None. But you think there is a chance that you could figure it out and so long as there is a chance-- even one, single, tiny, chance-- that somehow you and Crowley could survive it all and be together forever, you are not going to let him do something stupid and get himself killed trying to be together now.

You are not letting your far-sighted lover trip over his snake legs and go head-first into a faunt of stolen holy water that you could have given him safely 105 years ago, when he asked for it, and you fucked it all up...

You make him some. You use your powers and your essence and your body and turn water into a weapon for him. The real thing. The holiest.

You understand what it is to him now. It's not death; it's life. He doesn't want either of you to be in pain. He doesn't want to be left alone. He wants to feel safer. To be able to protect you from what Hell put him through and worse. He doesn't want to leave you. He wants a chance in Hell at surviving what's to come and an out for if it all goes pear-shaped and you want him to live and not to suffer and only you can give that to him.

You understand that now. It was never that you didn't trust him. It was that you didn't trust yourself.

You put it in a tartan thermos that silently says your anxious, emotional ass best thing of me before you ever decide to use this.

It also says this is for you to keep and it is of me and I know that's a risk if you ever get caught with it. I trust you to keep it hidden, like you do us, and protect me. This is for you and it looks like me and you know when the tartan started and why... you know it was because of our night in Edinburgh in 1827... you know it was the night they took you and I didn't know if I'd ever see you again and you know I've been wearing this pattern of us for 140 years and that I always will.

It's just that you also can't let him think that giving it to him is an assent of sorts. If Heaven or Hell ever found out you did this, they'd destroy you both.

So you rushed over with holy water, your tie undone, catching him before he can go any further with his scheme to pay humans to steal him some and you waited for him in the safety of The Bentley, one of the only places the two of you can actually talk with some expectation of privacy, and when he asks, you have to talk him out of it. You have to break his heart a bit. You have to disappoint him. You have to try to protect him from himself a bit or you'll lose him.

You tell him that you're giving him the holy water because you can't let him risk his life "not even for something dangerous." Dangerous is trying for more between you than there already is. You aren't rejecting him outright and he knows that. You never have, really. You see each other in secret. You have been for more years than either of you can count. You rely on each other to help each other to the right speed.

You need him to tempt you into giving yourself permission to do what you want and need but aren't sure you can or should. He needs you to help him keep from spiralling from anxiety.

He gets you to go a little faster-- not too much, at a pace you feel comfortable with. You get him to slow down-- gently, tenderly. You are both able to trust each other with your vulnerabilities and that's why it works.

He's blinded by the world changing in ways both exhilarating and also terrifying, by it breaking apart at the seams increasing his fear of running out of time.

You've been together for thousands of years.

You don't stay the night; you've never had breakfast together. You've never risked taking each other's hands in public. You've never directly said I love you.

If you can get him to see how dangerous it all still is-- because it is-- then maybe you can keep him alive long enough to have a shot of neither of you ever having to worry about losing each other again.

Somehow, it's not much different now than it was before the beginning. He's always been like this. Optimistic, progressive, free-thinking. Innovative. It might get you both out of all of it yet but it won't in 1967. He is caught up in the emerging new, human world and it's a heady cocktail when mixed with his existential terror. He's going to get himself fucking killed. You know better, just as you knew better before The Beginning. You know that too many questions, too much risk, will draw a metaphorical sniper's bead to his head. And you know that, on some level, he knows he needs you to rein him.

It's an era of freer sex and free love and wild, progressive music and art but... it's also an era of war and violence and assassinations... and Heaven and Hell are so far removed from Earth that it would take another 6,000 years to get them anywhere near close to this.

Crowley knows this, intellectually. You know he knows. He just feels the sand trickling faster and faster and there's hardly any of it left now.

You know how that feels-- you feel it, too. Every time you look at him. Everytime he slips away out the backdoor of the bookshop with a soft kiss and an even softer g'night, angel and you wonder if that was the last time.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

Crowley sees All You Need is Love but you can see December 8, 1980 coming at some point down the road. You've both been on this planet long enough to know what they do to the first ones who break away, to the ones who go against the grain, and the humans are no different from Heaven and Hell in that way. You cannot tell him yes or you will be killing you both.

You put it on yourself a bit. He goes too fast for you, you tell him. It's not untrue. He does. It's just that if it all were different, you'd never refuse him anything. You hope he hears it as your issue, not his, though you doubt he will. It is so hard to look at him and tell him no when all he is saying he wants is the chance to love you more.

God, there are days when you think he might kill you if he were to love you any more than he does. You don't know what you ever did to deserve his love. You don't know how you survived before you met him or how you are supposed to if you lose him.

"You go too fast for me" is what you say and you know he understands that it means:

You'll burn us fast and bright and it will be amazing but it will *end*. They will catch us. They will kill us. I can't lose you. If I thought all we could ever have would be just a short, few years, then I wouldn't deny you but I think we could find a way to have forever. Somehow. I have hope for that. I get that hope *from you.* I need you to slow down because I can't watch you get yourself killed. I'm not strong enough to lose you. I need you to let me pace this for awhile...

You want him to know you understand, that you feel it all, too. So, you tell him of the things you'd like to do, if it was safer, not knowing if it ever will be. The things you choose are of all of these holy water years. A picnic-- one implied to be in the daylight, in this future you're both imagining, this world you hope to one day see emerge. He had tried to take you on a graveyard one at midnight in 1827. You know that had been what that would have been had you not ran into Elspeth. The two of you sneaking around in the dark, as always, but together. Alive. Maybe, you tell him now, you could one day have that picnic together under the sun. You think you can see that world. You have no idea how it arrives but he's not wrong. You can see some things changing here and there's always hope that things could change with Heaven and Hell. He has taught you to keep the faith in how he's survived the worst and remains optimistic.

Maybe, one day, you could be angels dining at The Ritz. It is intentional that you reference World War II. It is a way-- the only way you can right now-- to tell him you love him, as you both did in your own ways during The Blitz. It is saying:

I love you. I would love that life with you. I won't give up on the idea of it-- of having more than a short burst of it. That is why I need you to slow down and stay safe. It's too dangerous for more right now. Take the holy water and take a breath. You're okay. You have me. We keep *each other* safe, remember? Slow down. I need you with me forever.

#ineffable husbands #good omens #good omens meta #crowley #aziraphale #aziracrow #you go too fast for me #good omens 1967

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year ago

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Hey Raven, are you going to watch the upcoming new Disney movie "Wish"?

I've seen mixed reviews, but i'm lowkey excited since we get to see a new Disney villain, especially since Disney got really lame villains after all the old classic movies!

Have you seen the trailer for the movie? What are your thoughts so far?

I saw Wish with a friend recently! I'll give my thoughts on the trailers here (in case you don't want spoilers for the film itself) and put my full thoughts beneath the cut (if you're okay with spoilers).

Looks-wise, I think Disney was definitely trying to go for something more stylistic and painting-esque for this?? And while I commend the effort, it definitely doesn't look as interesting as Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish. The humor also definitely isn't for me, it feels very "quirky" and "so relatable" (Asha reminds me of Mirabel in that sense), and other times too juvenile (like the goat butt joke). I do like the idea of the villain passing as a good guy in-universe and actually being vain and selfish, especially since the marketing is making it clear who the bad guy is rather than making it a "twist" villain scenario. Not sure if I like Magnifico himself though??? All the ads with him in it feel like Disney is trying too hard to make people thirst for him. From just the trailers, Magnifico does seem interesting and like more of a return to the traditional "villain" rather than the protagonist having to deal with an existential dread or concept.

***Spoilers for Wish beneath the cut!***

Right off the bat, my first impression is the narrative is SO ham-fisted. Within the first 5 minutes alone we're establishing so much information and in such a clunky, unnatural way. Like... Asha says hi to her friends but then they robotically have a dialogue where they overtly call each other "friends" just so it's clear to the audience (when in reality no one talks like that). It's telling instead of showing, and this happens sooo many times early in the film.

Could not for the life of me remember the friends or their names. There were just too many of them when 1 or 2 would have been just fine to move the plot along and to help Asha. (Yes, I know they're a reference to the 7 Dwarves but it's STILL not necessary to have so many just for a reference.)

Bruh, the makeup in this movie is on point. Every time there was a close up of a character, I was staring at their eye makeup (especially Asha and the queen's).

Asha as a protagonist was... fine? She feels very close to Mirabel and at times Rapunzel in her character. I didn't dislike her by any means, but she didn't reinvent what it means to be a Disney protag. Her motivations also come off as… really “out of nowhere”. We’re told she “cares too much”, but she initially only wants to save the wishes of her mom and grandpa; she randomly decides she has to free ALL wishes midmovie and that was jarring. There could have been a smoother transition. Instead, it was abrupt and Asha didn’t change in any meaningful way. Even her “I want” song was vague (what exactly is “to have something more for us than this”?) and didn’t connect well with her character.

I do really like her design though! Her freckles, earrings, and how her hair moves are my favorite details.

Valentino was not as annoying as I thought he would be. Still didn't care for his sass and brand of humor, but at least he helped out a few times.

I called it, the film is trying so hard to make Magnifico "hot" 🤡 I don't get it but okay, Mouse. I see your effort.

Loved his fit!! Very cool cloak and diamond/star motifs everywhere! His lab and study was also fun to look at.

I quite liked the moments when the queen talked to her husband and tried to smooth things over with him. “I can fix him energy”— Their relationship seemed very genuine at the start of the movie.

NOT THE WISH NEPOTISM...

If they were going for “sympathetic” with Magnifico, it didn’t work. He gave this backstory about how he was traumatized before + left as the only survivor of a great tragedy and so now he wants to use his magic to prevent that from happening to anyone else. Thing is, we only ever know about this via his word and staring at a half-burnt tapestry. We never see the event on screen, nor what was left of the tapestry. I was expecting a twist where it’s revealed that he lied all this time about his backstory and rewrote history so he could more easily manipulate the people of the kingdom he founded and live out the fantasy of being worshipped as a “good guy”. That was such a missed opportunity!!

Something else I was thinking of (this was during “This is the Thanks I get” was??? Maybe Magnifico started off genuinely good but became worn down over time as people’s wishes grew more selfish and they became ungrateful for what they had?? Then he could have become bitter and disillusioned by the behavior of his people.

Another idea is maybe Magnifico was “villainous” only in Asha’s eyes, since they don’t agree on how to best handle granting wishes. This would be more of a clash of ideologies rather than the traditional Obvious Evil vs Obvious Good that Disney is so known for, but hey, it could be a neat evolution of their storytelling from classic fairy tale roots.

This is to say that there were so many more interesting directions they could have gone with Magnifico’s motives, character, and portrayal 😭 but the second half of the movie never commits to any of these, they just blame his complete insanity and turn to the dark side on Forbidden Magic which is such a cop-out.

The trailers gave away the twist that Magnifico was the villain. It wasn’t revealed until like the second song into the movie. Would’ve worked better as an on-the-spot reveal rather than part of the marketing, in my opinion.

When they showed the wishes, the TWST fan in my was shouting, "OMG IT'S WISH UPON A STAR, THE LIMITED TIME STORY EVENT FROM THE HIT DISNEY MOBILE GACHA GAME TWISTED WONDERLAND!!!"

As Wish is Disney's anniversary film for 100 years, there were tooons of easter eggs scattered throughout. (I had fun looking for them!) Some were visual (I saw Aurora's dress, Snow White’s well, Peter's Pan's costume, Ursula's green smokey hands, Asha's robes resembling those of the Fairy Godmother, etc.) or extended imagery/scenes (Asha recreates Mulan's dinner and “Reflection" scenes), others were more overt lines of dialogue (Magnifico says the "Mirror, Mirror" lines along with others, a deer named “Bambi”, Valentino mentions an animal metropolis in reference to Zootopia, etc.).

In theory, the wish magic sounds cool but has so much that isn't explained??? And yeah, it's magic so it technically doesn't have to be. However, there are things not explained even when it is important to the plot. For example, Magnifico crushes some wishes and seems to absorb their power for himself (including the wish of Asha's MOM, so you'd think this would be important)? The consequence of this is that the wish's owners... become sad??? Okay, what are the long-term effects??? Why isn’t this fully explored?? But then later in the film we see the same people whose wishes were crushed... regenerate their wish??? So what, he has to keep reaping them??? And why are the wishes only taken at 18 years old? What if a wish changes? Ironically, the townspeople of Rosas have a scene where they question the technicalities of this wish magic. Magnifico essentially tells them to shut up, and it kinda felt like Disney was telling us to not question their lore www

It was weird that they never fully explored the ramifications of going without your wish. You’d think they’d show us people without ambition or hope (which would incentivize Asha to return their wishes), but everyone seems blissfully happy without their wishes?? The only exception is Asha’s friend that betrays her (cannot for the life of me remember his name), and that’s namely because his asshole friends keep ragging on him for it.

I thought the movie was going to go in a “you can make your own wish come true!!” direction but NOPE, turns out it’s just magic. Felt like Disney unintentionally wrote a whole movie about "wishes not coming true unless some big powerful entity allows it to come true” (Asha literally becomes the fairy godmother of Rosas at the end, making her ultimately no different than Magnifico)… ie a metaphor for how Disney owns so many properties it practically owns our childhoods www

"The power of friendship saves the day" ending 🤣 It was very Paper Mario ending-esque...

A song saving the day though?? It’s giving the Illumination Lorax film…

I was right about the humor. Too "quirky" and/or juvenile for me.

Animation was alright? Nothing awful about it, it just didn't feel as detailed or as experimental as other films with a similar style.

Songs were mid, which checks out with the recent Disney music excluding We Don't Talk About Bruno--

Some of the lyrics however were awful. “I let you live here for free and I don’t even charge you rent” is redundant. “So I throw caution to every warning sign” means you’ll show more caution than usual, not that you’ll forego caution. The correct expression is “throw caution to the wind”. Etc, etc, etc.

There was a cute after credits scene where they reveal that Asha's 100 year old grandpa (same age as Disney omg) wrote the "When You Wish Upon a Star" theme, which was sweet since his wish was "wanting to make a mark".

THE BEST PART OF THE MOVIE WAS STAR!! It was very cute (partly because it couldn't talk and just jingled and giggled, I was dreading another annoying mascot animal voice) and reminds me of my own pet… The way Star infused everything with glitter and formed unique shapes with the red twine was so fun 😭 I'M A STAR STAN, IT WAS ADORABLE AND KINDA BRATTY AND I'M LIVING FOR IT

Decent ideas, "meh" execution. Enchanted and Shrek did it better in terms of self-aware, fairy tale defying stories. It felt as though the movie was trying to deliver a profound message but got lost in the sauce of making as making Disney references possible and didn't fully commit to actually saying something meaningful. As a result, the film feels somewhat… hollow.

That one friend betraying Asha was the biggest surprise in the film but I still saw it coming 😂 I do get where he’s coming from though (being worried that his wish won’t ever come true) but it also felt like his conflict wasn’t resolved??? It might have gone better if the movie actually fully tried to push the “you can make your own wish come true” message (to reinvigorate the traitor to make his dreams a reality on his own) but they don’t 💦

Wish didn’t end up being “the wishing star’s origin story” because not once did anyone question where Star came from or why it was different from other stars (or what the significance of Magnifico blotting out the other stars was).

I think the people that would enjoy this movie are the people that are already highly invested in Disney and the nostalgia of it.

... Anyway, stan Star 🤩 (and the talking mushrooms 🍄)

#wish #disney wish #spoilers #question #notes from the writing raven #puss in boots 2 #the last wish #puss in boots 2: the last wish #Mirabel Madrigal #Encanto #Asha #twst #twst wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #Rapunzel #Enchanted #Shrek #Queen Amaya #King Magnifico

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fullofpossibilities · 1 year ago

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Adopted Au Headcannons for R!Leo

So this is very heavily based off of the Adopted Mikey Au and the Adopted Donnie Au done by @tblsomedoodles so if you don't know the basics that would be a great place to start. (They also gave me permission to write these headcannons to thank you again!!!!).

Basically, I was at work, and absently thinking about their Adopted Aus, and thought, "who would adopt R!Leo (otherwise listed as Blue) if he went missing in another dimension?" And first some reason the first person that popped into my head was 2012 Donatello, so this is that train wreck.

Keep in mind that Blue is, like, 3-4 yr. old in this au, and happened to get sent to the 2012 universe after being attacked in the sewers of his own dimension and doesn't go back to his home dimension until right before the Rise show starts.

Purple is R!Leo's comfort color (since it reminds him of his twin) so I can see Donnie being the first person he would latch onto.

-It helps that the reason Blue is in this universe would be a highly coincidentally timed portal on 2012 Donnie's end that transported both Leo and the mutant attacking him to the sewers nearby

Donnie goes to investigate the energy surge that happened during the fight and finds Blue, saving him from either the mutant that had been attacking him prior to the portal or the krang who might have been the reason for the portal in the first place, haven't decided yet. Donnie takes him home to patch him up, and gets imprinted on by a very lost, confused, and scared Blue who just wants his twin but hey this stranger is wearing Purple's colors so he must nice, right?

Blue obviously gets most of his sense of humor and energy from Uncle Mikey. They love to skateboard together and play pranks, usually involving a lot of messes to clean up. Both get into food competitions, where whoever can throw together the weirdest food combination and eat it without throwing up wins (Donnie always gets upset when they do that though, worried about Blue's health).

Uncle Raph is probably (read definitely) the most protective of the uncles, and even though he isn't the sensei, he still helps teach Blue how to fight. He'll introduce him to Chompy and show him to use the pinball machine, and if anyone accused Raph of going soft he'd slap their head then go get Blue for their scheduled nap (because Blue will only sleep if someone else is there). Blue likes that Raph is so big, because it reminds him of Red (even if Raph is bigger than he remembers Red being), and naps with him are the best (but he'll never tell his dad that). If I do include the fact that Blue gets plushies that remind him of his brothers like @tblsomedoodles did in their au, they were made/knitted by Raph (once again, something he'll never admit, he just claims he found them randomly)

Uncle Leo, of course, is the sensei, but they still interact outside of training. Out of all the uncles, Blue probably looks up to Leo the most, resulting in another "Splinter Junior" situation, but between Leos, and less copy but no less "hero worship." Leo is like the Jupiter Jim or Captain Ryan of Blue's childhood. Leo will introduce Blue to Space Heroes, and the two will spend hours basically fan-boying over the show.

Obviously Blue is closest with his self-assigned dad, Donnie. Donnie is the reason that Blue gets so interested in medical practices and chemistry, and Donnie has a lot of practice (cough Mikey) with grabby hands in the lab, so he knows how to keep an eye on Blue while still working in a way that lets Blue stay in the lab during the day if he wants to. Blue thinks his dad is the coolest guy ever, being able to make whatever he wants (He built such a cool car! and Metalhead was awesome!) and fixing anything that breaks (like his toys). He learns sarcasm by watching his dad talk with Uncle Casey, and boy was that something that Donnie will always regret (second only to the fact that Casey also seemed to be trying to teach Blue how to flirt). (side note: this would be in a universe that did not emphasize a lot of romance. While all of that drama still happened when they were teenagers, the only couple that I MIGHT have as canon in the Au would be Raph/Mona, because it was the only ship that didn't have some kind of problematic background). When Blue decides that his dad hasn't slept enough, he'll go and sit on his lap, and just start to fall asleep. In an effort to make him comfortable, Donnie will try to move him to the bed, and when he tries to go back to work, Blue will latch onto his arm and refuse to let go, forcing him to stay "just until Blue falls asleep." Leo walks in ten minutes later to the father-son duo practically dead to the world on the bed. On the other hand, if Donnie doesn't want to be disturbed by anyone, Blue will make it his personal mission to keep the uncles out of the lab.

It's unclear when exactly Donnie became Blue's "dad," it just happened one day with Blue walking into the room, half-asleep, and asking his dad (by his now new title) if he had seen his blanket/plushies. Donnie, understandably, freaks out internally (and later externally) but can't deny that something in him was both happy and sad: happy because he had grown attached to the little tot; sad because he knew that a time would come when he would have to send him back home (dealing with alternates has left Donnie with the very real realization that this is probably a another little Leo, especially after hearing Blue talk about his brothers). Among the infinite possibilities of universes, though, that would take some time, so maybe it would be ok for the kid to call him that? He'd ask for advice from his brothers and April, and all of them, while equally cautious, would encourage him to let it happen because dangit they're attached too (although Leo would be the most hesitant, with his sense of responsibility).

I'd like to think that Blue learned Spanish by watching tv with April and Casey. Sure, he watches tv with his uncles too, but I can't see them watching anything that might have Spanish in them. I'm imagining that April and Casey were babysiting and both fell asleep with the tv on (thinking Blue was asleep too). Some Spanish drama came on and little Blue fell in love with the accent, so he started trying to copy it. Donnie caught on and set up a system to teach him some of the words instead of just copying the accent (he doesn't know spanish, but there are a lot of learning programs online he can hack into). It becomes a bonding experience between little Blue and the humans, since they take it upon themselves to help him learn whenever they babysit (April being more successful in these lessons than Casey).

Blue was seen as very athletic in Rise!, so I imagine that he fairly enjoys sports. Watching Casey play hockey probably kick started it, which evolved into skateboarding, basketball, baseball, football, etc. He couldn't play all of these a lot, but skateboarding and basketball (or at least shooting hoops) were fairly simple to set up and do constantly. He likes baseball and football simply for the fact that it gives him and excuse to throw a ball and run around a lot, but he doesn't play them often and prefers the other two. His uncles help set up a basketball hoop in the lair for one of his birthdays, and all he did for the next week was shoot hoops.

He thinks April is cool. Leo may be Blue's personal hero, but April is a SUPER hero. She had powers and a cool outfit, and in Blue's mind that's all he needed to label his new favorite aunt as an honest to goodness superhero (followed later by Mikey's alter-ego Turflytle). He's always following her around when she visits the lair and trying to get her to make him "fly."

Instead of the lair being attacked by the mutant/yokai that tried to kidnap and eat Blue, I imagine that the event that triggers Blue's return to his original world involving the Krang. The Krang attacked the lair or there was an attack outside somewhere that Blue snuck out and got stuck in, but a Krang would attempt to drag Blue through the portal to use as bait or leverage, and Blue's ninpo messed with the portal and sent him home (without the Krang for some reason, idk its fanfiction so fanon magic). He returns to the same place where he disappeared in his world, not that he remembers that that is where he left, and instead of Tello or Angie finding him, it would be Raphie (because I'm trying not to be too similar to the original Adopted AU, no more than I already am). The rest of the Rise show continues as normal.

Maybe if I get more inspiration I'll do some headcannons for when R!Leo reconnects with his family in the 12 dimension, but for now this is all I can think of.

#rottmnt #2012 leonardo #2012 donatello #2012 raphael #2012 mikey #2012 tmnt #Adopted Au #12Donnie adopts R!Leo #It's adorable #based on @tblsomedoodles adopted aus #seriously if you haven't read those #do so

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fff777 · 10 months ago

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Watched Mark, Haechan, and Jaemin on Ddeun ddeun ddeun office with Yoo Jaesuk

You can see people working on their computers outside the door. I guess it's meant to give the show a more casual feel. And it does feel casual. The table is tiny lol.

Not that I am super well-versed in k-entertainment, but I get the sense that Yoo Jaesuk isn't doing as much stuff these days, and he was one of those guys that I felt like I saw everywhere. So I guess it's not unfathomable that he and NCT Dream haven't really interacted.

Lol asking about MBTIs and horoscopes as an icebreaker. This is so cheesy.

Haechan being left out as a Gemini but Yoo Jaesuk knows how to loop him back in lol

LOL Mark feels discriminated against for being INFJ so he just tells people he's ISTJ. Is this some kind of catfishing?

The way Jaemin got quieter and quieter like he was revealing a big secret lol

I didn't know Donghyuck liked taking photos too

Oh Jaemin is going to put on an exhibition :o He's releasing his pictures from the vault! We know he probably has hundreds of them. He mentioned in one of the US trips that only like 10-15% of pictures are usable? (I don't remember the exact %, but it was not high)

The Dreamies are so impressed that Yoo Jaesuk understood the NCT universe. On one hand, I get why it's confusing and if you ask the Neos to explain it, that can fill up more airtime. On the other hand, it is an interviewer's job to research their interviewees. Plus, NCT has been around for so long that NCT being confusing as a gimmick is kind of old. While this show has seemed a little humorous, I don't think it's meant to be over-the-top kind of comedy. So the "NCT is confusing" narrative isn't really necessary for comedy here.

Yoo Jaesuk is really nice to the guys by the way. Mark and Haechan were really nervous so I think it's nice that Yoo Jaesuk is trying to make them more comfortable.

Mark and Jaemin are both the kinds of guys who have to fill up their free time ^^;;

Accidental drooling lmao

I am the same, I prefer meeting people on a 1 on 1 basis. Anything more is too intimidating.

On the flip side, Haechan as the resident E of the group prefers staying at home in his time off lol

This is his explanation

Lol Donghyuck and Mark are both against coffeeshop culture

Mark and his brother got in trouble with their mom for looking at their phones during dinner lol

Donghyuck doesn't like when everyone's on their phones because he likes a boisterous atmosphere but Jaemin explains that being on phones is recharging for introverts

Jaemin prefers phone calls to texts because he likes listening to people's voices :3

Yoo Jaesuk thinks Jaemin is romantic eh >3

Big same

No words lol

What a change of topic

Big oof but he has a good explanation. He knows it's not easy.

New Jaemin lore. He didn't really get into the details (at least not in the English subs), just having said that he left and then came back.

Lol Jaemin and Haechan both confirming that it was because they'd ordered hamburgers

Mark got caught buying Tank Boy at the convenience store and then turned into Mark Boy ^^;;

LOL it was Haechan and a staff who caught Mark buying Tank Boy

Mark's full of questions about parenting eh

LOL Yoo Jaesuk was explaining how as a girldad, he ends up not really scolding his daughter that much while his wife will scold the daughter. But as a boydad, he will scold his son while his wife will be more lenient with him.

Mark: Later in life...if...maybe...later...(I have kids)

LOL Girldad Mark confirmed (but only in the next life)

Lol Yoo Jaesuk and Jaemin are getting DEEP into parenting. Yoo Jaesuk was saying he sees himself in his son so that's why he's more strict with him, not wanting him to repeat his own mistakes. And Jaemin was saying how everything his parents told him ended up being right X'D

Mark: The sky is so pretty~ Haechan: What does that have to do with us? XD

Doesn't surprise me

All the others feel touched that Mark knows that Haechan likes Crayon Shin-chan and Haechan is still figuring out why it's touching ^^;;

Gym talk again X'D

Mark is really excited for Dream () Scape!

All of a sudden? But basically I think Jaemin is a little embarrassed that Mark is so hyped for Dream () Scape and he errs on the side of caution by staying humble.

I think Mark is just really proud of how much work they put into this mini-album :3

Jaemin mentioned how people don't watch TV now so they have to do promos for Youtube shows and do dance challenges XD He's such an old person.

Mark said once you make eye contact, you have to do a dance challenge together ToT so don't make eye contact

Looks like their challenge is similar to Hot Sauce

Aw, we can definitely tell that Mark is really passionate about his work, and I think that comes with age and perspective. Now that he's older, he has more opinions about the direction he wants to take with his work. So his goals are more defined now that he just knows more. And now that he's older and is more skilled, those goals are also more within reach.

Haechan has brought up the graduation system on his own a few times, which is interesting. I love that they're not forced to hide that part of their history because the fact of the matter is that that affected how they grew as a group. And Haechan explains here that there were restrictions on what they could or couldn't do. In this case, Haechan was saying that they didn't release their first album until their fifth year, presumably because Dream was supposed to be a temporary group so it didn't make sense to drop as much investment in anything more than singles or mini-albums. And once Dream was turned into a permanent group and had restrictions lifted, certain goals also became more within reach for Haechan.

LOL Haechan and Jaemin were giggling when Mark said that they had a meeting to talk about how to improve. And apparently it was because it's normally just a meeting to get scolded by Mark or Jisung, which makes total sense because Mark and Jisung are the absolute perfectionists of the group!

Oh interesting, Haechan said that they've been having theese meetings for 11 years, since they were trainees. So it looks like they're like...general meetups for performance review? But now they have more substance and definition since they're actually working on stuff, and also have more opinions.

Aw Haechan sang his audition song :3

Jaemin and Yoo Jaesuk agreeing that you gotta admire yourself sometimes XD

Haechan and Mark say that they admire Jaemin's confidence sometimes :P You gotta know how to hype yourself up! It's probably especially weirdy in the entertainment industry where you simultaneously have people praising you and trashing on you. You have to learn to be confident in yourself through that noise.

So Mark's brother was auditioning for all the groups and Mark tagged along

Mark trying to shoehorn Smoothie into his answer about his concerns XD

I love this though, Mark is so confident that they're going to make a dent with Smoothie

#screencaps & commentaries #nct #nct dream #mark lee #jaemin #haechan #yoo jaesuk

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space929 · 12 days ago

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TW: emotionally immature parenting

SPOILERS!

My friend has been telling me to make something on this for a while and I finally found the words to.

Gwen Stacy is my favorite character in Spiderverse for a variety of reasons. Weird start for this but important as this is going to talk about a few things. First is characterization. Then her relationship with her father and Miles. And I'm going to point to things I relate to and why because... I don't know, that's just what I feel like writing.

Let's start with her characterization in the first movie because I find it hilarious and I want to establish it before moving on. Gwen Stacy got shot into a random universe. She has no idea what is going on. She doesn't know how she'll get home. She knows nothing.

So she gets into an extremely prestigious school because her spidey sense went off and she had to take the most difficult route possible to listen to it. I don't know about y'all, but my public school requires proof of where I live, where I've gone to school, my parent's existence, the usual. My charter school years ago took over a month to get into and their wait list was minimal.

So keep in mind, I'm pretty sure she was there for a week prior to when we met her. She got into this school because of her spidey sense. I don't know what name she was using for this because she tried to say Gwen to Miles and autocorrected to Gwanda/Wanda in a way that makes me think she just... didn't think to give the name she was using for the school? So like... does Miles just know her with a different name than everyone else?

This is especially appalling because there is genuinely no way that she is a bad liar. We see her characterized as such, but she also hid that she was Spider-Woman from a man who talked about her at least one a week for over a year while in a presumably very emotional state, got into the school - as established -, and then faked her way into an internship at Alchemax that she either somehow accomplished in a week, or somehow no one caught on to the fact that no one had seen her before, she doesn't have the credentials to be there, and she's just... wandering around. And seeing as no one noticed, they either didn't ask and she was perfectly natural in the role, or she lied. Wonderfully. To a bunch of paranoid scientists.

Let's also mention that she apparently never glitched in front of anyone. She was just chilling. Or very good at writing very strange occurrences.

Obviously, we can consider all of this as plot holes or inconsistencies or whatever, but I raise you the possibility that Gwen really likes making things far more difficult than they have to be and also being really good at lying and just occasionally deciding to mix it up and just... not. Why lie convincing when you can be strange and watch the suspicion cross people's faces as you make sure they will never doubt your more sophisticated lies in the future?

I think we should all consider that Gwen might just love to mess with people including herself. She might just do difficult things to laugh as she pictures future trying to get out of the situation she caused in the first place.

I have to say. I respect it.

Maybe I have a basic sense of humor, but I find this absolutely hilarious. Nothing in the series tops it.

Anyhow. Relationships. Enjoy this non-sequitur.

I'm someone who grew up in a household with parents who were both absent and overbearing. Parents who were, in simple terms, emotionally immature. A family who was, and is, dysfunctional.

Within the first interaction Gwen had with her father, I could see the same dynamics I have with my parents. The simple, numb answers to things that are obviously incredibly meaningful. Something that she's always wanted. His quest for justice that actively hunts her.

She's scared to open up, yet she still tries, only to get shot down (at the beginning of the movie).

Superheroes typically either have a tragic backstory or a happy childhood, something that I'm not trying to discount - I do it as well. It isn't a bad thing. But there's a certain realism to hers that makes me cry every time.

Talking to my mother will always end in her disagreeing. It doesn't matter how much proof I give her or if the topic objective or subjective - she has argued with me about whether transphobia is justified, whether I have religious trauma, and what emotions I am currently feeling.

Within the first ten minutes, they almost get into an argument that is only avoided because George shuts her down - something that he so clearly does every time she shares an opinion. The absolute defeat in her "yeah, I can tell" physically pains me. I am definitely projecting a little, but my mom either immediately argues back or says that if I share any of my emotions.

I can feel the tension rise the moment he mentions the subject. This is something that they argue about often enough that her immediate response is to guard herself. To offer opinions disguised as possibilities because it's less personal. To talk firm but not too emotional because if you show too much, you will break, and you can't do that around someone you can't even trust someone with why you left a band.

Her speech with her father is 100x better than it is in the comics, by the way.

I don't have a lot to say about that scene besides - can my mom be this open to accepting criticism? Like the character development on her father's part? I may still not love him, but I respect that. That was... bro had to have done so much introspection. Repairing the relationship is going to take so much time, but him listening? Not only acknowledging how she was feeling but respecting and validating and helping, even if just in a small way, is a very important start.

So props there. Lets see if the next section can end as uplifting as this one.

Gwen and Miles.

I have to admit, I am definitely a Gwen defender. That doesn't mean I think she's perfect, I just think that she made the best decision with the information she had at the time.

I'm just gonna jump into this part because, while I have things to say on other parts, I think this is pretty important to understand their relationship in ATSV.

Gwen told her father about who she was. And he pointed a firearm at her. She had every reason to believe that she could never go home. Miguel had a metaphorical hold over her head. He held the ability to keep her in a presumed safety, or send her to a very real possibility of imprisonment or death.

There was never an option to question what he said. Questioning it would lead to one of two things. Either she believed him and continued what she was doing, or she didn't and every action turned into one of guilt. Into one of breaking her values and morals. It was a decision of less or more pain. And that wasn't something she was in any place to make.

In the end, the decision was the possibility of death and never seeing Miles again, or the possibility of life and maybe seeing Miles again.

Whether that's the morally right or wrong decision is irrelevant, in my opinion. Now that doesn't mean Miles can't be mad, that anger is perfectly valid, it just means that this was never about him. Lying to him wasn't about him. Not visiting him wasn't about him. He was a causality, but he wasn't a cause.

Not for Gwen, at least. For Miguel, that's a different story. But this isn't about him.

I suppose this is a good point to give an idea. Whether you're a writer or not, it's something that I was thinking of. I enjoy writing complicated situations. One person's emotions don't cancel out another's.

I raise you Miles being mad at Gwen. Feeling betrayed. Meaningless. Trying to figure out how to cope with the new reality.

And at the same time, I raise you Gwen struggling with the aftermath of everything. With the trauma of her father. The rebuilding of friendships. The guilt of going along with a lie.

Resentment gets tiring. And being resented is painful. It's angering. Until both parties are just angry.

Anger causes guilt. Guilt causes embarrassment. Embarrassment turns to anger.

Do as you will with that. It's simply a thought.

Moving along, their romantic subplot.

I find it really cute. I'm not someone that likes romance, but I love the communication. It's one of those scenes that makes me think Gwen is incredibly emotionally mature. She admitted her feelings, even though that's terrifying for most people. She did that and then communicated that she wasn't ready for a relationship. She was simply saying how she felt. Allowing Miles to react as he would.

She talked about Gwen Stacy "falling for Spider-Man". I can only imagine how literally she meant this. How much trauma she admitted to without ever fully saying it. How long she must have kept that to herself, only to say it when she finally felt safe.

It's nice. It's a trust that we don't see her give to anyone else.

And Miles respected her emotions. It may be the minimum, but I'll give props anyway. It was very nice to see.

#this is long #sorry #gwen stacy #character study #idk how to tag

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anonymityisfunwriter · 2 years ago

Text

The Twin Flame - Chapter 32: "Labyrinth"

"Break up, break free, break through, break down. You would break your back to make me break a smile. You know how much I hate that everyone expects me to bounce back, just like that..."

Pairing: Sunshine!Reader x Grumpy!Bucky Barnes The Twin Flame Chapter List | The Grumpy x Sunshine Universe

The waves lap at the dock. The water pleasantly overwhelms all of your senses, the faint salty smell, the cool air the pulls in with every wave, the taste of the free blowing wind, the sparkling blue that reminds you so much of Bucky.

You sit with your legs crossed, palms up, focusing on anything but Bucky's glaring absence. But trying to forget was a lot harder to do when everything reminded you of him. Most of all, the quiet ache in your heart that hadn't lessened from the very moment he walked away from you. As though your heart was calling out to his.

You shut your eyes, shutting out the reminder that still sent twinges of pain straight to your heart.

You time the waves with your deep breaths. Slow, steady, calm, collected.

Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out...

Every time the waves break against the wooden dock, it overwhelms your senses again, each splash requires your full concentration. The tide starts to follow your slow breaths, each ebb and flow times itself just right. Each splash is careful, slow, it's almost peaceful.

"You're getting good at that."

You can't help but smile at the familiar voice from behind you, "You know, it's hard to mediate when you're watching me like that."

Sam humorously snorts, plopping down beside you. He hangs his legs over the edge of the deck, planting his hands on either side of him, "I wasn't talking about the meditating. I know you were having a hard time with control after the Blip, I knew you'd figure it out though."

Even with Sam sitting beside you, you try not to break your focus. Your eyes remain shut, legs crossed, and palms facing the sun, "It's about discipline."

"Hmm," Sam dubiously hums. "I don't think that's it."

You playfully scoff, eyes still shut though your concentration is now broken as the waves still beneath your feet. "So what do you think, Oh Wise One?"

"Ha-ha," Sam sarcastically laughs, rolling his eyes. He looks out to the water, watching as the boats come and go on the distant horizon, "I think it's about balance."

"That's what the meditating is for," you remind him.

"Are you? Meditating?" he wonders.

"I'm thinking," you honestly reply.

"Thinking?"

"Thinking," you plainly repeat.

"I used to do a lot of that," Sam replies. You open your mouth for a playful quip before Sam cuts you off with a pointed look. "After Riley died, after my parents died, it's all I did. I just thought and thought and thought some more."

"And then?" you urge.

"And then... nothing," Sam's words trail off into a long pause. He silently shakes his head, staring off into the still water once more, "There was nothing to do. A little thinking helped. The thinking I was doing, that kinda thinking, it didn't change anything. It didn't help me process it. Didn't help me grieve. And at the end of the day, no amount of thinking could bring them back."

It doesn't take much for you to understand what Sam's trying to tell you. You knew Sam thought you didn't listen to him at all. It was usually the opposite, you always took his words to heart. You took most people's words to heart.

You listen so carefully you can hear a hint of caution threaded in his words.

It didn't escape you that you had a tendency to make your worst decisions after long bouts of contemplation all alone.

"Is it just me or did you used to be a whole lot better at pep talks?" you halfheartedly joke.

"Sorry for you, I actually didn't come for a pep talk. I just - With Bucky leaving, I know you have a hard time with goodbye's, I came to make sure you were okay."

You warmly smile at Sam, "Thanks, Sam."

"Are you?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." You shrug, "At least, I think I'm okay."

"Good," Sam chuckles. You half expect Sam to stand up and amble off to do something else. He remains seated beside you, his legs hanging off the dock, hands clasped in his lap, and a conflicted look on his face. He purses his lips as his brows furrow like he's looking for the right words to say to you. Just as you're about to ask him what's on his mind, he speaks, "You know, I think it's time I call a truce."

A huff of laughter bubbles out of your mouth, you turn to Sam with an incredulous look, "A truce?"

Sam raises his right hand, waving an invisible flag, "Yup, I'm waving the white flag."

"I'm confused."

Sam finds himself at a loss for words again. He was doing his own quiet contemplation when he saw you sitting out on the dock all alone. It had been a difficult couple of days for the both of you. Sitting and waiting while Karli was likely plotting her next move, saying goodbye to a friend once again, feeling completely and utterly helpless, it never got any easier.

Even after all these years, he remembers the day he met you like it was yesterday.

Nick Fury told him that, if he agreed to be your handler, he couldn't just decide to leave one day. That what you needed, more than a handler, more than a training buddy, more than anything else, was a friend, one person who wouldn't leave. No matter what.

Sam distinctly remembers the feeling of his heart breaking when Nick Fury told him that you never once in your life had that. It was a tall order for someone he'd just met, but friendship came so easily. It was natural. And somewhere along the way, you started to feel more like his long lost sister than an asset assigned to him.

So much had happened since those early days.

And honestly, he failed to consider that one day it would be you leaving him.

And the more he thought about it, he couldn't be the one to stop you. Sam had always feared that there was a tinge of truth in what Tony said to him on the Raft, about him and Steve exploiting you as their friend. You fought hard for your freedom time and time again, he couldn't be the one to take it away this time. If what you needed was time, he would give you that.

"Tony came to see us on the Raft. I don't know if you remember that or not."

Your eyebrows furrow, you didn't know that.

You always thought that the last words you and Tony shared was at the airport in Berlin. You didn't remember most of being on the Raft. It was all a blur, a confusing meld of hazy memories that didn't follow any rhyme or reason.

Escorted by three guards, Tony slowly approaches your cell. The glass makes it feel more like a zoo than a maximum security prison. But, he figures, that's what you are to them. Nothing more than a pawn. Tony does his best to ignore the guards intensifying glare as he approaches the cell.

He sees your face dejectedly slumped against the cell wall, balled up in the corner closest to him. He looks up at you in horror. Your face is grey, sunken in, like the life and soul had been sucked from you. "Pinkie?"

It's only when he calls for you that you even noticed your visitor. Recognition lights up your face. You look up at him with the best smile you can muster, "Hey, Tony."

His heart breaks a little bit, your smile is lifeless and lacks any real conviction, he knows you're only doing it so he doesn't feel like an even bigger asshole.

"How are you holding up?"

"I've been better," you slur, finally managing to hold your head up off the wall. "How... how are you?"

It's not just your marred, garbled speech that alarms him, but he notices an IV running out of your straight-jacket. You can't reach the IV cart from where you're chained up in the corner of your cell, but he can see the IV bag filled with a yellow-ish liquid that continuously drips down into the tube leading up into your arm.

"Pinkie?" Tony calls again, this time slightly louder. "What is that?"

You tiredly exhale. You blankly stare at him for a moment like you don't understand what he's asking. It takes several long moments for the words to process, "My fault. I freaked when they put me in here...Sedating me helped."

A few things pop into his head immediately.

First, between the way they were keeping you and Wanda, he feels completely and absolutely sick to his stomach. They treated you both like weapons, and nothing more. It disgusts him.

Second, he knows how claustrophobic you are. He can only imagine the panic that must have coursed through your veins when they threw you in here all alone. He imagines all the control you once had gone in a split second.

Third, he knows it can't be healthy to keep an adult so heavily sedated for this long. This is not good for you. Not in the slightest.

"That explains why you're the only one speaking to me," he remarks.

"You're my friend, Tony." Your breathing is so slow that it freaks him out. "Know you're just..."

"Just?" he prompts, hoping you'll remind him what all of this is for, hoping you'll remind him what was worth turning his back on all his friends.

"You're a good person, Tony, always been a good friend..."

"A good friend that gets his friends locked up," he sarcastically murmurs, more to himself than to you. "I'm not a good friend, Pinkie. And I'm so sorry-"

He looks back up at you to find your eyes slid shut, breathing shallow.

"Time's up, Stark," General Ross barks. "Consider us even, and consider this your last courtesy."

Tony never did find out if you heard his apology.

A furrowed expression remains on your face as you try to piece any of the memories back together. You don't remember it at all. You shake your head, "No, I don't remember. Any of it, actually."

"He came to see us. We'd already been separated and I'm not gonna tell you what he said, but I thought about it." He pauses for a moment like the words pain him to say, "And am I really any better than SHIELD or HYDRA or the people from before if I make you stay somewhere you don't want to be?"

"You're nothing like them." That's your immediate response. Sam is nothing like the people from before. He is good, kind, he cares about whether you live or die. You never believed yourself to be anything more than a weapon, but Sam did. He was everything they weren't.

"But it's true," Sam reconciles. "So I'm not going to make you stay here anymore. You can go - if you want to."

You feel your heart break a little, unsure of what to make of Sam's words, "What?"

"Don't make that face," Sam instantly replies, though he hasn't even looked at you. He doesn't have to in order to know exactly when you were thinking, but this time, he leaves no room for you to doubt your place in his family home, "You're more than welcome to say. I want you to stay, but I think I went a little out of my mind trying to protect you, I didn't even stop to realize you were suffocating. I just - I don't want to lose you... And I feel like I've been losing you."

"You're not going to lose me," you promise.

Sam finally turns his head to look at you, "Sometimes it feels like I might."

You feel the intensity of Sam's words. You don't look at him, too afraid of what you'll see in his expression. Truth, you fear. A pill that was much too hard to swallow.

You weren't just tearing yourself apart. You were tearing those around you apart, too.

You shake your head in some meager attempt to make light of your behavior. "I don't do that anymore. I don't hurt myself, Sam, you know that," you insist.

"Steve told me," Sam abruptly confesses.

This time, you do look at Sam. Your head whips toward Sam, "What did Steve tell you?"

"About the deal you wanted to make. The deal to bring the rest of us home. Everyone except you," Sam morosely explains. "He said you saw us struggling on the run, that you thought 3 lives for one was a pretty good deal."

You take in a large gulp of air, twisting and untwisting your fingers as you speak, "That was supposed to be between me and Steve."

Sam snorts, "He told me that too."

"Traitor," you grumble under your breath. You look up to the sky with narrowed eyes, "When I get up there, I'm gonna kick your ass, Steve."

Sam dismissively waves his hand with a roll of his eyes, "Don't blame Steve."

"You know, I always knew Steve Rogers couldn't keep a secret," you remark.

"What I meant was, you might not be holding your hand to a stove anymore, but we both know you're not above hurting yourself to save someone else. And I don't want to hurt you anymore." Sam's words stun you. It hits you in a particularly emotionally raw spot. "Just think about it, okay? If you want to stay, if you want to go, whatever it is, just make sure it's what you want, not what you think other people want to hear. Think about it."

You hesitantly nod, "Okay. I'll think about it."

The silence returns and you're not sure how long you sit beside Sam. You both stare out into horizon, searching for something much more obscure than the boats coming and going.

There's still unspoken words in between the two of you. You decide that you don't want that anymore. You want to go back to how things were with your friend. "Can I say something?"

"Shoot."

"I think you know better than anyone that I haven't exactly been the most optimistic person lately," you begin.

"Really? I couldn't tell," Sam quips.

"Ha-ha," you sarcastically laugh, shoving Sam's shoulder. He laughs at your playfulness, it almost reminds him of how you were before. He can't remember the last time the two of you really laughed together. You fully turn to him as you continue speaking, "But you know what never changed?"

"What?"

"I never stopped believing in you. Even when I was so angry with you. Even when I left. I never stopped believing in you, even at my worst. And if you wanted to keep that shield-"

Sam slumps his shoulders, "Really, you too?"

Since it came into his possession once again, the shield had weighed on Sam. He wanted to believe that he could do it, that he could navigate such a precarious, delicate society as the new Captain America, but he had his doubts. He wanted to believe that society would accept him, but he wasn't sure of that either. It felt like the world had once again been placed on his shoulders.

"Just hear me out, okay? I won't pretend to get it. I know there's complexities and- and the social contract or whatever it's called, that I don't understand. And I'll probably never understand, but Sam, if there's anyone in this world that could do it, it's you. Even when I didn't believe in myself, I believed that you would make a great Captain America." Sam turns to examine your expression. He finds nothing but a genuine sincerity. He sees that you truly believe the words that you're saying. The words fall out of your mouth as concrete facts, like the words are as true as the sky is blue. "Fury saw it when he made you my handler. I saw it from the very first day that I met you. And Steve, even if he was a little misguided, he saw it when he gave you that shield." You turn to him and nudge your shoulder with his, "And besides, I knew the last Captain America, so, I'm practically an expert."

He chuckles, a grin slowly pulls at the corners of him mouth, "You know, that was actually really insightful."

You roll your shoulders back with a playfully boastful grin, "Yeah, I'm pretty wisdomous."

Sam huffs in laughter, rolling his eyes, "And you just had to ruin it."

"I'm glad we're not fighting anymore," you exhale, resting your head on Sam's shoulder. "Being angry with you is exhausting."

"I'm glad too."

Sam allows himself to relish the reconciliation for a moment before he remembers another topic of discussion he had for you. "Hey, since we're back on speaking terms, can I ask you why Bucky's sweater is on the roof?"

"Oh, wow," you lamely exclaim, lifting your head off of Sam's shoulder and sitting completely up. You abruptly stand up off the dock. You awkwardly chuckle and jut your thumb back toward the house, "You know what? I completely forgot, I was supposed to go help Sarah with that thing!"

"But-" Sam tries to stop you.

"No time to talk, gotta help Sarah!" you dramatically state, clapping your hands once as you walk away from him.

"Sarah's not even home!"

"Can't hear you!" you shout over your shoulder.

"You're both terrible friends!" Sam bellows back.

"Love you too!"

In spite of Sam's curiosity, there was a sense of relief that came with knowing that we were all okay. The three of you were finally all going to be okay.

There's a lightness in your lungs as you amble down the deck and back to the empty house.

Though you finally feel like you can breathe, the weight in your bones remains. You didn't understand how everyone expected you to bounce back like nothing happened when you were just now stitching yourself up again. You always hated how every time one wound finally felt like it was closing, you'd begin to feel the pain of another one long forgotten.

There's a strange sensation tugging at the back of your consciousness as you pad back to your room. You couldn't name it. It felt like something lurking just over the horizon, just around the corner. Watching your every move, ready to unravel everything at a moment's notice.

You shook your head as though it could shake the thoughts out of your head. You'd been here before, pacing your room like a ghost. Feeling like the room was on fire, only to find invisible smoke.

You couldn't wait for the other shoe to drop. This couldn't be your life.

You clutch Bucky's sweater as a source of comfort, having pulled it off the roof when you saw it lying there. It a silly way, it made you incredibly happy that you still had a piece of Bucky with you. In another, sadder sense, you hoped that, if for nothing else, it gave him a reason to come back. You grip it tightly, locking it in your embrace.

Even Bucky's lingering scent is enough to bring you back to what it felt like to spend a night in his arms. Safe. Secure. Loved.

It occurs to you that you can't trust yourself like you did once before. You decide that you couldn't trust yourself yet, you couldn't trust your mind to tell you the truth, couldn't trust your gut to tell you when danger lurked around the corner.

Your train of though is running in circles, until the very moment you hear Sam's footsteps bounding up the stairs.

You're placing the sweater on the very foot of your bed when Sam abruptly appears in your doorway, "Sam, I don't know how the sweater-"

"We got a lead," Sam abruptly cuts you off.

Your eyes widen slightly, clearly stunned by the news. "What?"

"Torres just called me," Sam explains. "He thinks the Flag Smashers are going to try and stop the GRC vote tonight."

Even as you stand there trying to process the news, you automatically know there was no way Sam would let you anywhere near this. Especially after everything that happened in Latvia.

Still, you nod, trying your best to pull a smile of assurance on your face for Sam. This was still a good thing. Even if you couldn't go with them to help, this meant that this whole ordeal could finally be put to rest. "Oh, alright. Do you want me to let Sarah know or-"

He nudges his head toward the door, "Aren't you coming?"

You look up at him with wide eyes and a confused, if not a little suspicious, expression, "Really?"

Sam languidly shrugs, as though it's not a big deal, "Well, I need my sidekick."

A wide grin grows on your face. You eagerly nod, "I know that was supposed to be an insult, but Captain America's sidekick? That's pretty freaking cool."

"I know! The second I said it, chills, literal chills, everywhere," Sam jokes, theatrically rubbing his hands over his arms.

"Just let me get changed," you tell Sam. "When do we leave?"

"An hour? I gotta find Sarah and let her know."

"Whatever you say, Cap."

The next hour passes in a blur. You can't remember the last time you prepared for a mission like this, let alone one that wasn't part of your self imposed exile.

There's something that sets your teeth on edge, something that sends a fluttering sensation to your stomach, and chills down your spine. And yet, there was something incredibly gratifying about being there to help stop Karli, to hopefully save Karli.

And sure enough, an hour later, Sam appears in the doorway once more. Duffle bag in hand, he asks, "Ready to go?"

"I think so. Lucky shirt, check. Friendship bracelets, check." You tap the breast pocket of your jacket. There's something doubly comforting about it. You'd had the jacket itself for so long, it was one of the first things Sam bought you in D.C., something you'd worn on so many missions, so many big moments in your life. And then tucked inside your pocket, the only picture you had of your friends and family, all resided over your heart. "I think that's everything."

"That's really everything you need before we go and try to save the world?"

"Well, we've done it like three times before," you scoff.

Sam shakes his head, his words coated in disbelief, "There's something very flawed in that logic."

You blithely shrug, "It hasn't failed me yet."

"Just one more thing, before we go," Sam adds, his tone suddenly solemn. "Before we go, I need - I need you to do something for me."

Your head twists to the side, you hesitantly nod, "Okay..."

"I need you to promise me you'll fight back."

You sigh with a dejected slump of your shoulders, "Sam, I always-"

He wanted to trust you. And he liked to think he did.

Just not with this.

Not with you.

You were too willing to let yourself go, to be the hero, to be the sacrifice. You hadn't learned that you were more than a weapon, more than a tool to win wars and political battles.

"No, I need to to promise me," he vehemently interjects, practically pleading with you. He shakes his head, "Not like the last time. For real. No sacrificing yourself for the greater good. No using yourself as bait. No letting yourself get hurt. I need you to promise me that."

You meet Sam's gaze and you stomach sinks when you see what resides in the depth's of his eyes. Fear. Pure, unbridled terror. You find yourself nodding before you regain the ability to speak, "Yeah, okay, I promise."

"Swear?" he begs.

"I swear."

"Thank you," Sam sighs in vague relief.

You pluck your duffle bag off your bed, stepping out into the hall. You playfully nudge your head down stairs, "Now, come on, Cap, we have to save the world. Again."

"Let's do it."

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sapphic-agent · 8 months ago

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It's insane the number of times Rachel is excused on the glee sub. Going back to the whole crackhouse incident with Sunshine and how they love to excuse it on there, there really is no excuse for what Rachel done. I've seen the glee sub say that it's just a throwaway joke and that it wouldn't have been as funny or the "joke" wouldn't have landed if Sunshine was sent to some place like the grocery store. Um, no. I re-watched that episode recently and Rachel's entire attitude and behavior towards Sunshine was horrible.

Firstly, starting with the scene in the bathroom where she speaks to Sunshine in a condescending way because Sunshine couldn't hear her with her earphones in, and automatically assuming that she doesn't understand/speak English because she's not from America. Secondly, paying Azimo to slushie herself, Mercedes and Kurt (attempting to bring Kurtcedes into her scheme without them knowing her motives and having the embarrassment of being slushied too - although she didn't go through with this. Mercedes even remarks that she's awful for planning this) in front of Sunshine so she can be scared of joining Glee club. Thirdly, telling Kurtcedes they will get even less what they already get if Sunshine were to join, and claiming to care about them when again she's just being selfish and thinking about herself. Lastly, feigning innocence about Sunshine's whereabouts when she doesn't show for her audition (knowing the entire time that she sent her to a place of potential harm) and lying to the entire Glee club she claims to love.

It's clear as daylight that Rachel wanted to ostracize Sunshine from the glee club before she even was a part of it. But sure the crackhouse incident was just supposed to be a joke...

When I was active on Glee subreddit, it was wild to me, the way people jumped through hoops defending Rachel's actions while simultaneously hating on Santana (who is my favorite) for the smallest of things she said/done - many which included the humor that existed within the universe of Glee. It. Was. Exhausting.

You're 100% correct.

This is supposed to be a big part of Rachel's character development. Everyone calls her out for it, even Schue and Finn, and it has real consequences for the NDs. The audience isn't supposed to be defending her. Her arc in season 2 was resonating with the fact that her ego hurts the people around her and trying to fix it by treating those around her with more compassion and respect. You literally cannot excuse it as a joke because that takes away from her entire arc.

Rachel at her core is as manipulative and selfish as Quinn and Santana. But because she gets "bullied," her actions are swept under the rug (which makes no sense if you think about it because Quinn was raised by oppressive religious parents and Santana was a closeted lesbian who grew up in a homophobic environment, not to mention how Sue treats the Cheerios. Both of them had harder lives than Rachel and they get none of the excuses she does).

And honestly, I don't care if you hate either of those characters, that's your opinion. But you cannot judge them harsher than you do Rachel. The Glee Subreddit needs to learn some goddamn media literacy.

Rachel fans don't actually want Rachel to grow and develop as a character. They see her as a poor victim who has the right to act the way she does and deserves to get everything she wants in the end no matter how horribly she acts. What a miserable way to engage with a fictional character you claim to be your favorite

#anti glee subreddit #rachel berry critical #anti rachel berry stans #loving a flawed character means wanting them to actually improve #not enabling every bad thing they do and then attacking anyone who criticizes them #anon ask

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marshmallowprotection · 1 year ago

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may I ask if you have any hcs for GESaeran but as MCs brother in law? because every route I'm so in love to Saeyoung and I really just want to spoil Saeran as my brother

So, you're in love with Saeyoung Choi and you want to help bridge the gap between him and his brother?

Well, you've come to the right place. Do you want to know the best thing you can do for the two of those brothers who don't know how to speak to each other? You can be the one who breaks the tension. It's your laughter and smiles that can help them understand what it means to see your family again without the pressure of the past that split them apart.

You bring a sense of normalcy to what would feel... strained and painful otherwise.

Whenever he feels like he doesn't know what to say to his brother, you're always there to help him see what might not be obvious to him. Because, his brother has a different way of communicating with the world than he does, and they don't have the connection that they did when they were children. Having somebody there who knows his brother as he is today allows him to fill in the gaps.

If something's a joke, and you laugh, then he knows it's okay to laugh, too.

It's not always obvious to him when his brother is trying to tell a joke to lighten the situation. He understands that that's his way of trying to deal with hard subjects and the world at large, but when it comes to other things, he's not always sure when he's supposed to laugh at stuff! His sense of humor is drier than Saeyoung’s, so they get a little lost in translation. So, laugh when something's funny, and it might be the thing that clicks.

You'd be surprised at how having someone there to help Saeran read the room makes all the difference... especially when it comes down to the way Saeyoung has fun.

He's not going to laugh right away when his brother teases Yoosung on the messenger, but hey, you’ll chuckle and explain the meaning of the joke, and it makes sense. It might not be what he’d do, but seeing these things helps him SEE his brother.

There's something poetic about getting to see that side of his brother in an uncensored way, and your being there makes him feel less lost. You're his best friend. You understand him and his brother, and being able to experience life with his best friend and his twin brother just feels right.

You don't have to enjoy gardening to hang out with him. However, let me tell you, he loves to talk when he's working outside, so if you end up just sitting down in the dirt as he works as you talk about the world, that's just a normal weekend.

It's fun for him to be able to have someone to talk to as he works. In the past, he would have spent his time talking to the flowers, but now he gets to talk to his best friend and the flowers at the same time. It's a win-win. As another bonus, you get to learn as he's working there, because he likes to teach. Anybody that's willing to listen to him talk about something he's passionate about makes him want to do more and more of it.

He's a great person to talk to, by the way. Even if he doesn't have a lot of experience with the world proper, he always knows what to say when you need to hear it for some reason. He's a great source of advice and knows just how to make somebody feel good about themselves, and having him as your friend is great whenever you feel blue.

He knows what it feels like to be blue. But, blue doesn't have to be such a bad thing, that's one of the things he'll tell you. Sometimes it's nice to look up at the blue sky, and even if you feel sad, look at how pretty the universe around you is, and then you'll smile at the blues.

#anon #mysme #saeran choi #mysticmessenger #ask #mod kait #mystic messenger #choi saeran #saeyoung choi #mm #choi saeyoung #se saeran #saeran #luciel choi #choi luciel

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dandelionsandderivatives · 6 months ago

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Oooh, tell me about Mer Lin and/or The Magician’s Guinea Pig! (your choice)

Someone else asked for The Magician's Guinea Pig, so you get to hear about both!

Mer Lin is the working title for a Tam Lin/Merlin (BBC) crossover. Merlin was a huge guilty pleasure for me and my siblings back when it had just been released, and it's a very weird show because it combines some genuinely cool ideas with some genuinely baffling creative choices (my poor Morgana and her arc). As far as I can tell, the vast majority of fic authors also feel a great love for the characters and a great frustration for the writing, and so there are a ton of very interesting AUs and fix-its and such.

Anyway, about two years ago I was listening to every interpretation of Tam Lin I could get my hands on, and somehow I came up with the idea of doing Tam Lin but in the Merlin universe – and the pun, of course, made the whole project worthwhile. (Sometimes I'm not sure if it's kind of me to subject my readers to my sense of humor, but it's not like they're compelled to keep reading if they don't like it.)

This is, like a lot of Merlin fics, set in an alternate universe where Everything Turned Out Okay, and Merlin and Morgana ended up together. Except everything's not okay; Arthur is on the throne, but everything is slightly off in Camelot. Gwen sews on the same project every day but never seems to finish it; Arthur's knights joust and play chess and never do anything else. And only Morgana seems to remember that they used to have a court sorceror, and that she was married to him. So yes, this is essentially Tam Lin + a sort of time loop (which, now I think about it, is very similar to the one from the first season of Once Upon a Time). The backstory was supposed to be a slow reveal wherein we find out that Camelot has been at war with a magical army for some time. Merlin managed to avert at least some of the danger, but as a consequence he's now magically enslaved to the queen of said army, and he's also lost his memory. Given that he's possibly the most powerful sorceror ever, this is bad news for the world at large. Morgana's the protagonist and is trying to rescue Merlin so that they can break the time loop – which will, of course, happen through faithfulness, as in Tam Lin proper.

I like many things about this idea – for one, I think that fantasy novels based on Tam Lin are almost always great. But I'm actually not sure how well it interacts with the source material. The fun of fanfic, imo, comes from making the source material work with different storylines, characters, themes, etc., and I'm not sure that the canon material adds much to this plotline. It might be better with original characters, but then it might feel uncomfortably similar to Fire and Hemlock.

I do still think the idea has its interesting points – I think the situation is the sort of thing that would have made a good episode of the show, and it fits pretty well into the formula, which goes something like this:

Magical crisis envelopes Camelot

Our protagonists (usually Merlin) have to scramble to figure out how to stop magical crisis

Arthur is oblivious

The crisis is averted by throwing more magic at it

End with Merlin, somehow, having to do some unpleasant menial labour

You'll notice I've innovated by cutting out Step 5 and having Morgana do the investigating in Step 2.

All joking aside, though, I think the real heart of this fic would be the tension and romance between Merlin and Morgana, and the idea that, as in canon, they're the only two together against the world that doesn't acknowledge or understand them. (I think this is maybe where the idea came from originally.) I think one of the issues I'm having with writing it is that a good amount of their tension in canon comes from the fact that their arcs are inverses of each other, and in this AU they would obviously have a different relationship. I'm pretty good at writing yearning, but I don't know if I can write it convincingly enough to make this story feel worthwhile. Maybe it would help if I flipped the roles? But then I think that part of the fun of this is having Merlin, who's generally rescuing everyone else in canon, be the rescue-ee. (It's a fairly popular plot in fanfics, so I'm not the only one who likes it.)

Anyway, this is one story idea that has a very cool vibe in my head, but I'm not sure it's enough to build a story on. I do like the fact that I haven't seen quite this plot in Merlin fic before, and I think it would be possible to set up some cool echoes of canon (in that Morgana would essentially be doing the same thing Merlin did in the earlier seasons). But I think it needs more justification to be set in this universe.

I still think the name "Mer Lin" is hilarious, though.

#thanks so much for the ask Mellia! <3 #fanfiction #writing #merlin #ask game #asks

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captainhysunstuff · 1 year ago

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I think that was the first time I've seen you draw any of the Wammy boys, and it makes me want to know your headcanons for them, either inside our universe or just in general.

Henh, I draw them from time to time. Probably not in the last few months, but... every once in a while~. ^__^U Oh boy, for as long as I've been in this fandom, I don't think I've ever really put my thoughts/headcanons about them into solid words before. I'll try to make this not a disorganized mess:

Mello

I feel like his rivalry with Near gives him a sense of purpose. A goal to strive for. Whenever he has a set goal, he goes for it 120%. That try hard attitude is exactly what holds him back though. Being so laser focused may stress him out and cause him to overlook things and make more mistakes or ignore simpler solutions. He forgets to take breaks, and his fatigue creates more problems, particularly with schoolwork.

We only get one glimpse of him "off the clock" where he's playing soccer/football with his classmates (and laughs after clocking someone in the head with the ball, lol). That one instance tells me that he might have a slightly mean sense of humor (he's also seen pulling some kid's hair and Roger makes him let go of them), but of course the kid was okay and he knew it. If he had actually seriously hurt someone while joking around, I'm not sure if he'd just laugh it off. Probably try to say it wasn't a big deal, but still keep an ear out to make sure so-and-so was really okay. Very tsundere. I may be giving canon!Mello too much credit, lol. Although, he does express that he didn't want to kill Soichiro in the end. The kidnappings were horrible scare tactics, but he made sure that they would be returned alive if the demands were met (fuck his mafia crew though, *snort*).

He'd be more openly caring with people he, well, cares about. Matt as an obvious canon example. I think it's very telling that Matt isn't present during the Mafia arc. Mello leaves the orphanage alone, and he doesn't seek Matt out until after his base blows up. So, he strikes me as someone who wants to deal with his own problems by himself and not drag anyone he cares about into his personal drama. The mafia and kidnappees are just tools to him, but anyone close is out of the question unless the situation is dire. Matt was probably the only person he could reliably contact at that point (he does contact and crash at Lidner's place for a while, but surely he had to have recovered somewhere after the blast before he could get back into the action). How he expresses regret over Matt dying while being part of his plan emphasizes this sentiment.

A character I really associate him with is Amethyst from Steven Universe, especially if I want to think of how he'd be without the pressure of that rivalry, and even with it. Amethyst has the kind of humor that can come off as callous that I'd think Mello would have. What really shines for me is their shared inferiority complex and how they deal with them. I see a lot of Mello's view on his rivalry with Near during Amethyst's arc concerning her conflicts with Jasper. Neglecting personal time to have fun because the complex is weighing her down and making her try harder and become a more toxic person to be around ("Who has time for any of that when Jasper is out there?!"). Her anguish at doing so much to get better and it never being enough to get what she wants ("I can't win... No matter what I do, no matter how hard I work..."). The whole episode "Reformed" where Amethyst keeps trying to make a form that Garnet (whom I associate with L) would approve of by comparing herself to and emulating other gems. Telling people to "stay out of it" when they try to interfere or stop her from doing something drastic. The difference being that she gets positive results when she finally opens up and allows people to help her achieve her goals and not hyperfixate anymore. By the time Mello finally reaches out for help and realizes that he needs to put aside his animosity towards Near to ultimately stop Kira, it's essentially too late for a happy ending.

The only aspect where this character comparison falls apart a bit is with how lazy Amethyst can be (not bubbling the Desert Glass pillow despite living right next to a sandy beach, not being trusted to catch a monster hiding in her room). However, my counterargument is that we don't really see Mello in his downtime outside of that soccer game just chilling. Also, I'd like to reference L's "monster speech" about studying even though they don't really care about grades. It shows Near there, but I think it applies to all three of them, and Mello's only trying so hard specifically to beat Near first and foremost, not because he wants to study and get smarter for a future career ("All that practice stuff is no fun.").

Matt

Hmm... He's a malleable character to me, and that's pretty cool. He seems like a "go with the flow" kinda guy. Tell him to do something, and he'll be like, "Yeah, sure. Let me save my game first." I sort of accept whatever the fandom wants him to be in the moment, no matter what it is. The fact that he's the third smartest at Wammy's tells me that he's an effortlessly smart guy. Maybe he's good at memorization and can visually remember the answers to test questions without having to study that hard (like how I was at school, lol). Maybe not come up with the answer on the spot, but if you put something in front of him, he could go, "Oh, right," and correctly answer it. He has a little characterization in the manga, but I only just recently finished reading it, his scenes included. He really only seems to be part of the Kira case to help Mello and that's it. He doesn't seem too interested in the case itself, but Mello asked for his help, and he said, "Sure, dude. I'll try." Thus, it's why we see him gripe about how much work Mello's making him do, getting sidetracked by how cute Misa is, and speculating whether or not Mogi's her boyfriend, lol. Just a chill dude overall.

His chillness makes me think that ordinarily he'd keep to himself. Probably not to the extent that Near does, but if left alone, he is more than happy staying alone. He minds his own business, thus why he doesn't dissuade Mello from his rivalry or stop him from leaving Wammy's House (not that anyone could stop Mello from doing anything). But if someone extends an invitation, he'll accept it and try his best.

Also, "Mail" is pronounced "Mile." According to the Wiki, the katakana is written as "ma-i-ru." If it was "mail," it would be "me-i-ru" or "me--ru" I believe (henh, the his name would be close to Mel). Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's "mile" for me, and it ain't changin'.

Near

The first phrase I think of whenever I think of Near is "little shit~." XD I say that in an entirely affectionate way of course. Although, that "little shit" attitude only comes out when he's actively engaged with someone else. Not necessarily hostile, but definitely a little condescending, and it's very easy for him to rub people the wrong way. Perhaps he knows he has this effect on people, either intentionally or not, and this is why he keeps to himself and declines invitations to hang out? He probably doesn't even like being around people (he judges people very harshly in the manga). Maybe even mildly misanthropic. He might resent that he's co-dependent and has to rely on people on the daily when he gets older and leaves Wammy's House.

The reason he has the best grades at Wammy's is because he can fully focus on the tests and assignments he takes and doesn't make many technical mistakes. Makes me wonder if he's a slow test taker or exactly a mid-speed test taker? Or maybe he's effortlessly fast? Then, Mello wants to be fast, too, and that causes Mello to make more mistakes due to rushing when he could probably get better grades if he took his time?

It's very hard for me to talk about Near without bringing Mello into the picture. Their rivalry is such a focal point with their characters in the story. The rivalry is almost completely one sided in my opinion, but Near probably encourages it because he thinks Mello needs that goal. So, every once in a while, he'll make remark or do something that will purposely annoy Mello, reigniting that fire under his ass to make Near eat his dust. In the harsh judgment vein, he believes Mello's identity has been shaped around the competition and that he'd be lost without it. Kind of like how Near canonically becomes a bit despondent after the Kira case ends: taking the L mantle, but just going through the motions. Detective work doesn't seem like his passion; he was just groomed for it and is good at it. He'd be more than content to just lie around, making card castles and play single-player games all day. Maybe an occasional visit from respected company, but they'd better leave in a timely manner or be relatively unobtrusive, lol.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning, I have a ridiculous headcanon where Near has psychic powers in the anime. Thank the anime’s short hand in how he singles out Mikami as X-Kira by making his eyes glow and the room spin. I stand by that he blew up a guy’s head with his mind in the Re:Light special. Hey, if Beyond Birthday being born with shinigami eyes is canon, why not humans with psychic powers? Wammy’s is good at finding these eccentricities~.

Mello and Near's Tactics

I really do love how the narrative intention seemed to be that after Light defeated L, L was essentially split into two people with those two extremes amplified to 11. It creates a pincer attack around Light: Mello aggressively hitting the Task Force from the outside, putting traumatic emotional stress on them, and Near poking and prodding away from the inside trying to gradually create a mutiny against Light while acting like he's working alongside them. Mello brings the fear and pressure (and suspense in that he's just floating around doing who knows what after the raid), and Near seeds the doubt and inner unrest. When mashed together, they wouldn't make L exactly, but a being/team more effective and terrifying than L (surpass him together, indeed). Lord help their Watari, lol.

I suppose those are my thoughts on the main three in a decently sized nutshell. Feel free to say I'm wrong or unfounded. I'm no expert with these characters, so hopefully my headcanons and interpretations don't piss anyone off too much. ^__^

#asks and answers #Death Note #Wammy's House #Mello #Mihael Keehl #Matt #Mail Jeevas #Near #Nate River #my headcanons #dreamfilleddonuts #rivalries mutinies and chillness #ARE these headcanons or am I just stating the obvious sometimes? lol I don't know #long post

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kattystripes14 · 2 years ago

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Rise Turtles x Lesbian!GN!Reader

🩶Imagine the Turtles have a crush on a Lesbian!Reader or they're Omni and prefer women or they only comment on girls in movies or smth-

🩶Generally they have the impression that the reader wouldn't like them back, but either that's not true (the reader also likes men) or the reader slowly realises they also have a crush on one of the turtles and just has this "Oh shit I like men" moment, lmao.

🩶It would go slightly differently for each of them tho:

💙Leo would probably flirt anyways cause it's Leo. If you tell him to back off tho he will.

💙He'd probably never get over you, so you'd have a long window to figure it out, but it'd be a *huge* surprise if you told him you liked him. I'm talking blinding, over the moon grin, pick you up and twirl you around kind of excited.

💙"Wait, you're serious?! This isn't a prank, right? No cameras, no Donnies, no set up, no-"

🩶"-Leo!! (Leo, it's not a set up, quiet down!)"

💙"So you really like me?! This is incredible!! So what about me brought you to the dark side, was it my handsome good looks? My awesome sense of humor? It had to be my famously humble personality. C'mon Y/N, what was it?!"

🩶"Leo, put me down!!"

💙"I can't believe you liked me back all of this time!"

🩶"Hold on, 'back'?"

💙"...D-Did I say that?"

💜Donnie probably wouldn't pick up on the fact that you seem to prefer girls just as he wouldn't at first pick up on the fact that he likes you. If you straight up tell him though, he'll probably shoot himself down before he could even get close to you.

💜Cut to Donnie locking himself in the lab and moping for a while, meanwhile everyone's trying to figure out what happened. If you were to catch him on one of the rare food runs to the kitchen and tell him, he wouldn't know how to react.

💜"You... conradicted your previous statement?"

🩶"Yeah, well, stuff like that can change."

💜"..." "...Me?"

🩶"Mmhm."

💜"...Wow.

💜He feels like you just unlocked the secrets of the universe and proven the impossible to be possible. And although he doesn't have as much of a visible reaction, he's just as ecstatic as Leo if not more.

💜All this time I never imagined you'd reciprocate..."

🩶"Reciprocate?"

💜"!!- Uh- I think my ears have picked up on Raphala calling me to the training room- berightbackY/Nseeyoulater, bye!!!"

🩶"Pfft. Goofball."

❤️Raph would respect your boundaries and understand that you don't sway that way. He'd still be a bit hurt, and still act flustered towards you, but he knows you won't like him back.

❤️The more you hang out with him the quicker you realise you have a crush on him, but he already thinks it's not possible. If you were to tell him, he would most definitely short circuit.

❤️"Wha- H-How-? Really?!"

🩶"Yeah, shocker for both of us, isn't it?"

❤️"But I thought..???"

🩶"I guess you're the exception."

❤️"Huh. Wow- and you've liked me back all of this time?!"

🩶"Back~?"

❤️"...Oops."

🧡Mikey picks up on it before it comes up in conversation. And while he respects your boundaries just as much as Raph, he's a bit torn. He knows for a fact that you won't reciprocate his feelings for you, but some part of him thinks that you might.

🧡Everyone else finds it very obvious that he likes you and the moment you realize it too is the moment you realize you *do* like him back.

🧡When you finally tell him he's even more excited than Leo and Donnie *combined!* You are in for the tightest, warmest, cuddliest hug for at least the next hour.

🧡"I knew it! I knew it!! Ohhhh you don't know how happy I am to hear you say that, Y/N!!"

🩶"Ack-! M-Mike- as much as I l-love your hugs, my lungs-!!"

🧡"Oh!! Crap, sorry!"

🧡He continues to bounce on his heels a flap his hands while he raves on about how excited he is. (As if you couldn't see it for yourself. Or maybe you couldn't because of how blinding his smile was.)

🧡"This has gotta be the best day of my life!! I can't believe you liked me back this whole time!! I knew it, I knew it!!"

🩶"Aww, you liked me too?"

🧡"Heck yeah, baby!! Since forever!!"

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angstmongertina · 1 year ago

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Make Me Write More Results/Sentences

Okay, my poll is over, so it's time to write. As i said in my little update reblog, since I didn't get all too many votes, each fic gets new sentences based on the number of votes it got, in an effort to force me to write more for all of them.

Thanks for playing, everyone (and thank you again to Jilly for the inspiration)! If you had fun, I might do this again on Tuesday for WIP Wednesday. No pressure to vote if you don't want to though. :D

Accountability sentences (and fic premises) under the cut! Please be warned that some of these sentences will probably make no sense out of context, and are also rough first drafts. :P

Letters to Nadia -- From a shared 7KPP 'verse with @teaandinanity's Valya where our characters' kids decided they were in love with each other. (4 sentences but I cheated and added an extra.)

But now, he’s finally, finally, made it back home, back to the safety of the empty study with a decanter of baijiu, free from prying and judging eyes. Free from her eyes. He groans, barely resisting the urge to dash out the door. For one thing, he’s not sure if he’s cogent enough to make it next door, and for another, she’s likely long gone to bed, never mind the fact that there is absolutely no way she’ll even want to see him in the first place. And that is a thought that stings worse than the liquor.

Evenly Matched -- The previously hinted at 7KPP Jaslen/Falon smut that I am PRAYING doesn't start a new ship in me. (3 sentences)

“My dear general,” and there’s the scowl she is familiar with, that seems to make its way across his face with almost military precision, “I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to. Are you quite well?” Her estimation of him is satisfyingly correct.

forever i'm yours, forever i do -- A retelling of Artem's second anniversary card that started as just an attempt to write out the smut and that VERY MUCH grew out of control HELP (3 sentences)

“You’d think you were the one getting married today, not me,” she says, amusement dancing in her eyes as she shoos him away. “Now go and tell my soon-to-be husband that no, he cannot come see me before the wedding; it's bad luck. Nor are you allowed back her to see her either.”

Oh Brother -- Again from the shared 7KPP 'verse mentioned above, Thomas' little sister's version of what happened. It's still in the very early stages so this is more exposition than anything. (3 sentences but adding in a fourth because it was half-finished anyway.)

The eldest daughter of the entire Galeric-Wu clan and the future heiress to the Galerford estate beyond, she could easily have humored and generally ignored a young cousin twelve years her junior and perhaps another girl, another future duchess, would have. But instead, Nadia had chosen to dote upon them all, treating her with the same understanding and love that she gave all of her friends and loved ones. Well, perhaps not all. Because it is an equally well-established fact that, despite all attempts to hide, dismiss, or minimize the fact, Nadia has a favorite cousin.

Spiral Point -- More 7KPP because the brainrot is real, but this time for Camyon's childhood friends AU. Here is their first interaction at the Summit, when neither of them actually recognize the other. :D (3 sentences)

There was no sensible reason why she should have been struck by his appearance, by the way his brow furrowed, first in search and then in recognition, but for one illogical moment, her heart climbed into her throat, only to settle back into her chest with an inexplicable twinge once he spoke. Of course it was about her cousin. He had known Cousin Jiya, a fact that her mother never failed to tease her with, when it came to her own lack of socialization at those academic events hosted by her fellow Jiyelese elite.

Dinghun Zhou -- My attempt at a fairytale AU, it's CinderLia. In an alternate universe in which there is no Summit, but there's still an event to try and find a wife for the perpetually single Duke Lyon. (2 sentences)

She pursed her lips, studying the flimsy pieces of parchment as though they might contain answers, or at least a logical explanation for her misgiving. Unfortunately, and just as expected, none were forthcoming.

Homecoming -- For the CoG story Teahouse for the Gods, because the A'Li romance was right up my alley but we didn't quite get enough of it, in my humble opinion. It's technically two different fics (I should really come up with a proper name for the other one) but I picked the one I had more inspiration for--which you may be unsurprised to learn is probably the angstier of the two. (1 sentence but I cheated again with two.)

It takes a moment for her to clear the memory out of her mind’s eye, to remind herself of the present, and in that time, he’s already stepped into view, though his head is turned, this way and that, as though cataloging every difference in the ensuing decades. Jacqueline darts to her side, half in shock, and she makes a mental note to sit down with the poor thing before his eyes fall on her and the entire mountain seems to hold its breath.

Seasong -- Back to Tears of Themis, a friend did some art for Mermay which inspired an AU in my head that I never got very far in because I am terrible at multichapter things. (4 sentences)

She knew of cages, had seen the ones that sunk, irrevocably, ceaselessly, to the bottom of the sea floor, had heard them whispered of by those unlucky few who had witnessed the capture of one of their own, and the stories of those even unluckier who had somehow managed to escape from such capture. She had heard of the fear, of the isolation, of the greed and malevolence of those humans, who hunted and tormented without need, who captured and traded without compassion. She had heard tales, once meant to frighten her away from the surface, of the many, many who were unable to escape. And now she was trapped in one.

Okay, that's everything, I think. If you read until here, thank you, and maybe see you on Tuesday for another poll? :P

#Tina rambles.#Tina liveblogs her writing struggles.

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