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catskets · 8 months

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A more in-depth guide for creating visual novels, especially in the horror, horror-romance, etc circles

Some of you have seen my previous, smaller post on crafting visual novels, especially in this little space of Tumblr that a lot of us have found themselves in. Since that post took off, I've wanted to create a longer guide to help touch on some points I've thought about for the past few months.

In case you've never heard of me, I'm Kat, also known as catsket. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design. I've been making games for nearly 5 years, and I've been doing visual novels more "professionally" for 2. You may know me for Art Without Blood, 10:16, God is in the Radio, or Fatal Focus. I'm here to help you make your first visual novel.

Please note that my advice does not fit everyone, and you may disagree with what I say. That's okay! It doesn't work for all. That's why there's thousands of resources out there.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER MADE A GAME

So, you have an idea for a huge visual novel. Horror, a shady and obsessive love interest, a little bit of woo-hooing. 100k words. Maybe a million. What is this, the 07th Expansion?

I notice a lot of people getting into visual novels are artists first. That's okay! I wanted to do art for games before I realized how much I enjoyed writing. And even less of you have probably touched Visual Studio. Again, perfectly okay. We all start somewhere.

My number one piece of advice? Make shitty games.

What does that mean?! My recommendation to those who have never done games is to make a bunch of shitty ones. Think of a theme, or hell, even join a game jam, where you make a game that fits a theme in a short amount of time. Spend about a week on your game. Focus on making something polished. Polish your mechanics. Polish your output.

I recommend, if you can, to make at least 4-6, if not more, kind of shitty games before hopping into longer projects. Making a game is a skill, just like art, just like writing. And game development is combining ALL of these together into one big soup being stirred by a skeleton hand puppet. You'll get into the rhythm and see what works for you.

It also helps you learn, perhaps, the second most important thing here: do you even like making games? There are cases out there where people have created video games (not saying visual novels) just for clout. That's no fun for you, that's no fun for your players. And you might go through this process and find that you don't like making games. That's completely okay! It's not for everyone.

Also, you can use these shittier games to gather an audience. I've built my audience because, for the past few years, I've been releasing games that slowly give me growing fields of eyes every day. A success story overnight is a rare one. It takes time. It's like building a brand, but you aren't a brand, you're an artist.

REV UP YOUR ENGINES!

Ren'py is the number one engine you will be recommended. It is very beginner-friendly, with lots of tutorials, assets on itch.io to use and download, and support. The engine comes with a few tutorials in the form of games, whose code you can freely browse. This is the engine I use most often. Most visual novels you see are made in this engine.

Twine is a text-based engine that most people use for interactive fiction. You can add images and audio, though, if you don't mind messing with HTML. I use Twine for text games and for outlining for my larger games. Ever played Degrees of Lewdity? Yeah, I know you have. Don't ask why. That game was made in Twine.

RPG Maker has multiple versions and has been used for exclusively VNs if you don't mind fucking around with plugins. It can definitely give your game a super unique feel. I recommend RPG Maker MV, since it has the most resources. This line of engines usually costs money, but it often goes on sale for under $5-$15.

People will recommend TyranoBuilder, but as a user and player, the lack of options and the format the games often come in is just...not fun to navigate. It advertises itself as little to no code, but it's often evident in the final results. Some good games have been made in it, though, so if you want to use it for prototyping/practice, you can. I'm not a fan, but that doesn't mean that fans don't exist! This engine costs money.

Not an engine, but check out Ink! Super useful scripting language that's used for more professional projects.

DEMOS, DEMOS, DEMOS

You've got an idea for a long-term project, and now you want to show it to the world! But wait, wait, don't do that yet!

When should I start advertising my game? This is a personal opinion, but I say that you should not start advertising your game until 50-60% of your demo is complete. Why? As I've discussed with some fans of indie VNs, they can name quite a few projects that have been in the "working on the demo" age for 1-2+ years. I've been in the Kickstarter MMO circles. If you, making a single-player experience with little mechanics to balance and polish (aka a visual novel), are taking that long on a demo, I am going to assume the game is not coming out. There are some games I have seen out here that have been in "working on the demo" phase where I haven't seen a single ounce of what the project will look like.

What should I put in my demo? The purpose of a demo is to showcase the mechanics and the vibes and the mechanics of your game. It's a demonstration. In my last post, I pointed to the Dead Space 2 demo that was showcased at E3 (RIP), that takes place about 2 hours into the story and shows how enemies are defeated, some animations, bits of the story, etc. Usually, because it's less about mechanics and more about vibes, visual novel demos showcase a certain percentage of the full thing (5-10%.) Can you showcase the vibe of the game here and what players should expect? If not, show off another portion.

How long should I work on my demo? Before, I said 3-4 months. That can be true, that can also not be true. Think about how long the demo takes you in proportion to how long the actual game should take you. Don't put too much effort. The demo is to showcase the vibe. It's to see how much the public and fans may enjoy the game.

My game is 18+, what should I do? Make a splash screen when the game is downloaded to let players know your game is 18+. If it's going to contain sexual content, you can hide it with itch.io's adult content filter. Write it on the page itself that your game is for adults only. Don't put your demo behind a paywall. This is genuinely ridiculous. The purpose of a demo is to showcase what a game is like before a player purchases it. That defeats the point of a demo. I've seen this happen, and it discourages players from approaching, especially because most demos never make it past the demo phase. So...I'm paying you $10 for 2-3k words of a game that may never come out?

Should I make a social media for my game? YES! Go for it. These anchors are how people will find your game. Make a Tumblr and open that ask box. Make a Twitter. Go to BluSky. Advertising is not bad. Some YouTubers even take e-mail suggestions from developers. Feel free to shoot your shot. The worst they can do is not respond.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR ITCH.IO PAGE:

Getting your itch.io to a presentable state can be very challenging! There's many ways to do it. I highly recommend using this page image guide for learning how to size your images to make your page pop!

Itch.io themselves has suggested to not publish a page until the game or demo is released. You can make the page and keep it as a draft, but do not publish it until you're ready!

Your cover image is the image that will appear in the search of the website, on any front pages, in collections, and on your profile. What have I seen that works? Key art of one of the characters up close and the title of the game! If you can make it a .GIF, do it! Bitches love .GIFs!

Itch.io recommends 3-5 screenshots on your page. I recommend 1 of these 5 be a .GIF that shows how gameplay feels. This is effective, even for visual novels!

Write a 3-5 sentence summary about your game for the description. What is your story about? What is the draw?

DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO IS GOING TO SAY "This is not like other visual novels. It doesn't have that cheesy this or that or-" No one cares. Genuinely. You're putting down other games in your genre and elevating yourself to the pompous level.

TAG YOUR GAME! itch.io gives you a list of tags to choose from when you go to tag. DON'T USE THIS! Try to go for more specific tags. Arimia has a very good guide on how to use itch.io's tagging system to your advantage.

GENERAL GAME MAKING ADVICE

SCOPE KNIFE IS SUPER USEFUL! Everyone makes games that are way over their workload. It's okay to cut out features and add them later. Prioritize making a finished game before hitting those stretch goals.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Writing outlines is super helpful. I use Twine for my outlines, because you can connect your passages together and make really well-thought webs.

IT'S OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP! Whether it's from friends, professionals, or anything in-between. They can help with assets, editing, etc.

HONE YOUR SKILLS OUTSIDE OF GAMES! Write some poetry. Do some sketches everyday. Improve on your craft to improve your games

MUSIC IS HARD. THERE ARE RESOURCES. Most of us aren't musicians. That's okay. Make sure the music you get for your game is allowed to be used. You can use anything non-commercial if your game will not cost money or donations. I try to do songs in the public domain or free to use overall with credit if I don't have a musician. Consult the Creative Commons website if you're unsure how you're supposed to use a certain piece of music. If you don't use the right stuff, not only can it put you in legal trouble, but it can put streamers in hot water if they play your game and they can't upload the video because music is copyrighted.

PLEASE, DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR UI. Wanna know an easy way to get your game to look more professional? Edit the damn UI for your game. Make a new textbox, even if it's just a black box. Change the font. Eventually, players recognize the defaults and patterns of games made in certain engines and may attribute a lack of UI changes to a developer being lazy. It doesn't take very long to change the colors around and move text! Please do it to add a little pop to your game.

DEADLINES ARE AWESOME. Not everyone works well under pressure, but if you give yourself an infinite amount of time to make something, it'll never get done. Set goals for yourself for how much you can work on something.

IF YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP, GIVE UP. Making things is hard, especially long-term. Emergencies happen, jobs happen, life happens. Let your fans know that a project isn't happening anymore. Don't leave them in the dark. You don't need to tell strangers your medical history or anything, but transparency + honesty are really hot traits. You should use those in your creative work. This is one reason why I advocate for not publishing or advertising things until you know it's stable.

SHOWCASING YOUR CONTENT

People love to see WIPs for games! This is what the devlog is good for! A devlog is a post where a developer talks about and showcases some things happening in the game? What can you add to your dev log?

PERCENTAGES! How much of the artwork is done? How much of this character's route is done?

SNEAK PEEKS AT ARTWORK AND SPRITES!

GIFS! GIRLS LOVE GIFS!

Anything else to showcase your game's content! Posting consistent updates retains and even gains a fan's attention for your work.

RUNNING YOUR TUMBLR

You've joined us, and you've made a Tumblr for your blog! Link it on the itch.io page, so people can come find you after playing your awesome demo!

Do I have to respond to every ask? No. It's your blog. Delete whatever asks you want.

I got a hate comment! What do I do? Delete it and move on. I have a more detailed section on hate below.

I want to interact with [blog]! How do I do that? Reach out to the devs for silly little collabs. If you come onto a developer slightly headstrong, they might feel you are being abrasive or using them for content.

If people make fan content, interact with it! Encourage it! Reblog it. Show your love.

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS

PROFESSIONALISM IS KEY. These may be pet projects, but you want to appear some level of professional on your actual itch.io page.

Being dismissive of player and fan complaints or criticisms will make you appear childish.

If your game is broken, fix it. I have been told by some amateur developers to ignore game-breaking bugs. It does not make me, a player, want to engage with your content. It seems messy and unfinished.

With the above point, it's 100% okay to have bugs and errors upon release. Every developer and their brood mother has. To decrease these issues, get playtesters. Friends can play your games, spot any errors, and help you point out things that can be improved upon. I recommend having playtesters at every stage of development.

Make sure your game runs before you publish it. Please.

You can still be silly and giddy! There's no reason to not be, especially when you get positive comments! The point of this is to not be outright rude to potential players and fans.

IGNORE HATE COMMENTS. In this case, a hate comment is a statement that contains no constructive criticism and are only here to be insulting or malicious. People are going to leave you with actual piles of dog shit in your ask box. They are trying to provoke you. Giving hate comments any attention, even if you're there to "clap back" proves that they got to you, even if you don't take the hate to heart. They will continue to pester you. Delete any hate comments and ignore them completely. Laugh about them with friends in a private setting, sure.

THINK BEFORE YOU REFERENCE! I know one big thing in this community is adding references to other games in yours, such as plushies of other characters or putting them on posters. The best thing you can do it ask the developer before adding this. How would you feel if some random person you've never met put your character in a video game? Most of us would feel weird and potentially violated. Open communication with devs is awesome. I am usually okay with it as long as someone asks for permission.

As a complete aside, I prefer more tasteful references to other games as opposed to 523482346 plushies and posters. These have been slightly overdone. Why not theme a candy after another game's character? Maybe your characters know each other.

OTHER RESOURCES I RECOMMEND

Devtalk is a server dedicated to independent visual novel creators. You can find jobs, resources, advice, talks, and, like, everything there! Devtalk is super useful. Everyone in there is so cool. They have a really great and comprehensive list of resources that I could not even begin to cover.

Visual Novel Design is a great YouTuber. No other words, check the guy out!

Ren'py and whatever other engine you're using has documentation that's super useful to follow.

Arimia not only has amazing VN resources, especially for marketing, but she also just has? Amazing games that you should check out?

And for a shameless self plug, I'm the lead of Sacred Veins, a collective of devs creating narrative games, whether it be horror, humor, romance, or everything in-between. Come hang out with us!

#visual novels #game development

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starleska · 2 years

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Can we have your Wally headcanons please!!

of course!! 🥰💖 now, we're at such an early stage with Welcome Home that these headcanons may prove to be wildly silly or OOC, but that's okay!! i hope they make you smile regardless 💖 feel free to run with these headcanons all you like!!

Wally Darling headcanons (with a touch of x Reader 😉)

⭐ Wally has a highly reduced sensitivity to pain. that relaxed, soothing voice isn't the only reason why Wally is so calm and collected - the fella wouldn't notice if you stabbed a fork through his hand! as a puppet in a soft, rainbow-filled world, this quirk rarely causes Wally problems. however, he has been known to stay out in the sun for far too long and not notice he's become terribly sunburned, or to inquisitively examine a fun new bug and be totally ignorant of stings, bites, or allergic reactions. luckily, Wally has a wonderful set of pals by his side who are always quick to help him out when he's in trouble! 💖 ⭐ Wally has a large soft toy collection. there's not a single character amongst the Welcome Home gang who is neurotypical, and Wally is no exception! our favourite puppet artist has an assortment of cuddly friends tucked away in different nooks inside his Home: stuffed animals, plush painting utensils, and of course, his special interest: apples! Wally's a sensory-seeking guy who enjoys tapping and rubbing particular textures, and each of his soft friends caters to his favourite fabrics and sounds. many of these toys are gifts from his wonderful neighbourhood pals, and he's generous enough to let his friends cuddle any of his plushies - especially when they're not having a great day. feeling down? Wally will come to the rescue, ready with a plethora of silly jokes and an armful of squashy friends! 🧸 ⭐ Wally's favourite artistic subject is You. we all know that Wally is the resident artist of the neighbourhood, even amongst all of his craft-inclined pals. he's drawn, painted, sculpted, modelled and created every kind of item you could think of: flowers, animals, fruit, furniture, imaginary friends and more. yet the first time Wally meets you, he is immediately fascinated with your distinctive look: your style, your face, your eyes. he apologies for staring, and tells you that with your permission, he would love to paint you - you are simply made for the canvas. although at first you're flustered by the process (Wally's eyes are so dark and intense), you soon find yourself relaxing under his gaze, becoming comfortable with him and his gentle wisecracks. nothing compares to the sheer delight you felt when he gifted you his final portrait: a beautiful, flattering, colour-drenched rendition of you. you return home that night with your heart all a-flutter, thinking: if Wally painted you so prettily, how must he feel towards you? 😳 hope this is what you were looking for, anon!! these are really fun to do - feel free to send in asks, headcanons or ideas, i'd love to write some more for Wally 🥰💖

#wally darling #wally darling x reader #welcome home #welcome home arg #wally darling x you #starleskawrites #starleskasks

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opinated-user · 25 days

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... LO, do you really need to be told why lying about having cancer is bad? do i really need to sit here and explain to you, with puppets, in explicit detail why people might have an issue with that? this is like asking why should anyone care that you killed someone in the street if you already served your time in prison. caring about if the person you're supporting killed someone or if they are the kind of people to lie about having cancer, especially right after their sibling comes out to accuse them of sexually assault them multiple times growing up, is the bare minimum you should ever expect from any average person. the fact that you pretend like "even if i lied, it's not a big deal" speaks volumes to me about how little do you care about the fact people have actually deal with cancer. people have died, survived and see their loved ones be consumed in front of their eyes because of that disease. those who have any close encounter with cancer would know instantly that once you have it, you're more likely to develop cancer cell later on than a person who never did. you just selfishly put the thought "sure, she's fine now, but what if...?" in the mind of every person who for some reason still cares about you, your own wife who you lied to too, and you still want to pretend like you did nothing wrong? oh, and if anyone feels the need to ask "how do we know she lied about having cancer", to summarize. 1. ask her right now what type of cancer it was. she'll either say that she never said. she did. it was skin cancer. skin cancer on the early stages will mean a minor surgery and check ups in the future, nothing else. LO explicitely and clearly said that her only treatment was chemotherapy. the only reason she's pretending like "i'll never say what cancer i had" is because we keep pointing this out and she wants her audience to just feel bad for her. same reason why she feels the need to exaggerate her back pain during streams now.

2. chemotherapy is an extremely aggressive treatment on the body that, in order to be fully effective, has to last at least half a year. this will mean that we're all meant to believe that LO has been streaming for hours upon hours, making videos, being perfectly normal for everyone around them, while completely hiding any and all symptoms of chemotherapy. not to mention lying to both her closest friends and her wife for half a year. the woman that right now is making a show about having back pain in almost every stream she does and screaming into the mic for it. that woman you're supposed to believe could tolerate chemotherapy as it was nothing at all. i'm sorry, but you can't both be such a badass that can do that and also pretend like you're a poor little soft patootie everyone should feel bad about. 3. she said that all of this, the cancer treatment, costed her barely anything and the expenses "were minimal". consider this is a woman who can't drive and doesn't have a car, so she'd have to pay public transportation every time she goes to the hospital. this one just pisses me off because i went out of my way to research that people in her exact same city go into debt paying for their own treatment. it's not just a cutesy lie to be more interesting, LO. people have lost the savings of their life trying to survive this disease, so you so flippantly making light of that is ammoral and disgusting. (all the archives, screenshots and links mentioned here can be found on the same tag i used for this.)

#lily orchard #lily orchard lies about cancer

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httpwintersoldier · 1 year

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『night visits. || winter soldier x reader』

pairing: winter soldier x f!reader words: lenghty summary: usually people find their own interests, but when you are "forecefully recruited" to work under HYDRA, your interest found you first.

『part 2』

You thought your studies and hard work would be rewarded, especially being one of the only women in the field. You thought all of the late nights studying, all of the potential relationships lost over fear of falling behind in your studies and all of the golden years invested would be worth it. You would be praised, given numerous titles and be able to help the community and give back to Society.

Except that didn't happen.

The payment for your hard work came in the form of a kidnapping. By Hydra. After appearing in the paper, being praised for your skills and knowledge, unbeknownst to you, a target had been placed by one of the most evil forces walking the earth.

Someone as bright and qualified as you who did not yet have the influence or the contacts to generate buzz in the media or in the government when kidnapped qas rare, and Hydra recognized the fact. So one late night, as you were coming back from your lab alone, you were hit in the back of the head and next thing you knew you were sitting in a metal chair, shaking in cold, with two men standing by your side and another menacingly sitting in front of you, waiting for you to wake up.

"The world sure is cruel..." Were your only thoughs, as tears ran down your emotionless face, when you heard where you were and what your purpose was.

You couldn't even choose the easy way out and... "eliminate yourself". They made sure you knew the worst would happen to your loved ones if you did so. So you complied, in hopes there would be a way out.

They then introduced you to a soldier, one genetically enhanced, to be stronger, smarter, smoother and more skilfull than thw average soldier. A previous army man whose brain had been blended and molded into being a mere killer puppet.

You were to supervise him, make sure everything in his heavily modified and messed-with brain was in order. You conducted psychological tests as well as neurological ones.

You were handed his file before you got to meet him, so you could study him. All of his information was there, the information of James Buchanan Barnes.

Tears brimmed your eyes when you met the soldier. He was a person, with a life. With hopes, dreams, loved ones... And Hydra turned him into a monster.

"The tests work best if I am alone with him. Other presences may disturb him and alter the results." You told the other Hydra agents.

It wasn't a complete lie, but you just wanted to be alone with him so you could treat him like a human.

" But he could-"

"I will call if you're needed." You said, interrupting him by raising your finger "You have not-so-gracefully brought me here because I am good. I should know what's best."

All of the men overseeing the Winter Soldier prohect exited the room, while muttering some not-so-nice Russian words under their breaths.

You pushed a chair to sit close to the Winter Soldier (but not too close, since you were still wary).

"Hello, James."

All of the men called him "Soldier", but it seemed inhumane, like a tool to be used, so you just used his first name. You knew it might trigger memories, but you refused to keep up the bad treatment.

This made the soldier look at you through his eyebrows, acknowledging your presence, but not replying.

"I'm here to asses you. Is that okay?"

You were to make sure he didn't remember anything from his past life and that he remained in the borderline-psychotic state he was in constantly, and that was already monsteous enough, so you made sure it was as easygoing as possible.

"Sargeant Barnes I don't want to treat you like those men, I don't want to hurt you."

His eyes softened the least bit, but as you expected his walls were up, strong and solid, and once more he did nor reply.

It would be months of hard work before he trusted your words, before he revealed that there was a bit of James Barnes underneath the soldier.

"Why... Why do you do this?"

You looked up from your notebook.

"Do what, James?"

"That. Give me hope."

Your heart raced a little at those words.

"What do you mean, give you hope?"

"It was easier killing people when I thought they were all cruel..."

There was silence in the room. You knew he didn't mean to say that your encounters were unpleasant, but that they were so pleasant, there was such peace when you were with him, that it was harder to complete his job.

"Do you want me to change my behaviour?" You still had to ask, just in case.

He did not look at you when he shook his head negatively.

"I like you. You're a good one. But I don't want to remember anything."

You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion and put down your materials for a second.

"Why's that, James?"

Fortunately, the fact that he was never called "James" (it had always been "Bucky" or "Sargeant Barnes") worked in his favour, as he did not have recurring memories from his past when you called him that.

"If I am here... it was because I was a bad person. No good person ends up in this place. I am here, I must deserve it."

"Do you think I'm a bad person?" This question was genuine curiosity. You wondered, after hearing his logic, if he thought you were evil too.

The man looked at you as if you were stupid. His eyes said "how could it ever come across your mind that I think there's a trace of evil in you". But, due to his conditioned mind, all he said was a cold, harsh "no".

"Then you trust me?"

A nod was all you got in response. If you got a couple sentences out of him per session, you'd be in luck.

"I will respect that you don't want to remember, but I can tell you, I saw who you were. You were not a bad person, you were a great one."

He finally made eye contact with you, and you could almost feel emotion in him.

The soldier's eyes wandered away from yours once more, focusing on the ground.

"I will end up here." He mumbled.

"Sorry James, what was that?"

"I will end up here. No matter what I do, they find me. I know I have remembered before, they left that in my mind. They left that I escaped, they brought me back and put me back in the machine." His voice was more somber as he told his story "I don't want to remember because if I do I won't want to stay, but I will just end up here again and be tortured again. I will just save myself the pain."

That was the most he had ever said to you, and it brought tears to your eyes. It wasn't human, what they did to him, no. It was pure torture on a man that, on the pictures you saw, looked like a hopeful young man, the life of the party, the one that would make friends with any and everyone.

You placed your hand on top of his.

"I'm sorry, James."

This action caused the soldier to widen his eyes and look at you in shock.

It was the first friendly touch he had felt since forever. It was the first human contact he had that wasn't a punch, a slap, or something equally as painful.

That interaction almost made him lose composure, but he remained stiff and serious until you awkwardly removed your hand.

You were slowly bringing out the human in him, but sometimes you wondered if that was the correct choice. You didn't want him to get hurt again. The last time they used the machine you could hear his screams no matter how far your room was or how you tried to cover your ears with the pillow, the Soldier's pained and desperate screams still reached your ears.

After that particular day, Bucky realized how much he enjoyed your touch. It seemed that the spot you had touched him burned every day you were apart. Your sessions were twice a week, three times maximum, but it was the only thing Bucky looked forward to.

"Hello, James."

His gaze remained locked with the floor. You thought you had made no progress whatsoever in your mission to make him accostumed with behaving like a human, however that wasn't true. Bucky was just afraid that if he did look at you he wouldn't be able to contain his excitement.

His brain was in constant disarray - the conflict between wanting to smile and have a conversation with you and the fear of disobeying orders and being punished were constant.

You sighed and sat next to him. You did the usual job of first checking to see if Hydra hadn't permanently fucked his head, and then you moved to the part where you'd check if he still was the emotionless psychopath Hydra had turned him into. Except you bent the last task to your will.

"I don't want to treat you like the rest of them. I won't. No matter what they made you believe, you're a person still. And I want to make your situation a little better but you have to pretend, no matter how much your condition improves, that you're still the same Soldier. I don't want you to go back into the machine because of me." You had explained, in one of your earliest appointments.

"I read the mission report. What are you feeling?"

"Accomplished."

His response was short, and dry, delivered in a voice devoid of all feeling.

"Are you saying that just because you accomplished the mission?"

Silence. His silence was, most of the time, an admission. You nodded and sighed.

You stood up and walked closer to him, placing your hand on his shoulder. There it was. Bucky didn't even care about the rush of emotions flowing through him, he just focused on your touch, how warm it felt, how homely it felt.

"Now, how did it really make you feel."

There was a short silence again, as he thought.

"Confused. I don't think I like to see people suffer, I don't like their screams, but I must do it, or else I suffer." His eyebrows furrowed as he said that, as if he was trying to connect the pieces in his head.

You began saying something about how he wasn't bad, but all that was just background noise. All he could focus on was how your hand travelled down his arm and rested on his hand as you crouched in front of him.

"James? Did you listen?"

Only then did you realize how intensely he was looking at you. His icy blue eyes stared into your soul, and you noticed how beautiful the man was when there were slight traces of emotion on his face. The strands of his jaw-lenght dark hair shaped his face beautifully, and you couldn't help but look at his parted lips.

You felt your face growing hot and immediately stood up, turning your back to him and pretending you were doing something else as you tried to regain your composure.

Before long, Hydra officials came through the door to take the Soldier, You'd never get too long in his presence, just enough time to do your job.

This time you wouldn't see him again in two days, and so you walked back to your "room" (if it could even be called that) thinking about his eyes, the way he looked at you, and the way you wanted to brush back his hair and take a good, long look at his face.

It was late, very late, when you woke up with a cold breeze in your room. You stood up, to close the window, only to realize that it was closed. It was only when you looked towards the door that you saw a tall, large, dark figure standing under the frame. Before you could scream, he paced forward and placed a hand over your mouth.

You could then see who it was. The moon light coming through from the window's glass lit up those blue eyes you had come to be so familiar with, and the mask you dreaded.

Once your breathing calmed down and the Soldier was sure you knew who it was, he allowed you to remove his hand from your mouth.

You then reached around his neck and undid his mask, slowly removing it.

"Why are you here?" You asked, your voice above a whisper.

The mask fell to the ground but Bucky's eyes never left yours.

"I won't hurt you."

It stung you that he thought you'd ever think he was capable of hurting you, but that was how he was conditioned to think.

"I know..."

Those words sent a wave of relief over Bucky, and he wasn't sure how to describe the feelings inside of him if he had to.

"I came back from a mission and I should head back but... I can't. I needed to see you."

Your mind immediately went into work mode and you looked at him with a very serious face.

"Are you feeling alright? Did something trigger you in the mission?" You asked, sitting down on your bed and pulling him down so he could be comfortable.

"No, miss Y/N, I needed to see you." As he said this, Bucky slid a hand up your thigh, stopping dangerously close to your core.

Only then did you realise that you were sitting next to a very big man wearing nothing but the sheer and short nightgown you used, as it would get very hot in your particular side of the building due to all the machinery working.

Your legs spread slightly, and you didn't miss the ever so sublte smirk tugging at the corner of Soldier's lips. The man watched your reactions carefully, and took that as a green card to proceed. His face got closer to yours, and he teased your lips, brushing his own against yours, before moving to your neck and kissing the spot right below your ear.

"James..." His name escaped past your lips.

It wasn't voluntary, because you didn't know if you wanted him to stop or continue. Morally it was wrong, he was your patient (technically), but it felt so right, so good...

"Hm? Want me to stop?" He asked, as his hand made its way closer to your core and his lips bit down on your neck.

Fuck it. If you were stuck here you might as well enjoy it, there was nothing morally right around you, why would you be the exception.

"No." You said, with the upmost certainty.

"Good."

With his metalic arm, the man separated your legs far enough so he could have access to your vagina, and with the other he cupped your face and brought your lips to his.

His fingers went inside your panties and rubbed between your folds before teasing at the entrance. You couldn't help but moan into the kiss as one experimental finger went inside of you.

There had obviously been a considerable ammount of time since you had been sexaully active, so you were very sensitive, and the Soldier could tell.

You weren't sure on what to focus: the way his lips completely dominated yours, or the way his fingers fucked you.

Soon after he added a second finger and switched between curling and uncurling them as he fucked you. His thumb found your clit and he rubbed it, adding to your pleasure.

You didn't hide how good he made you feel, incessantly moaning into the kiss and calling his name.

The man pulled away for a second, kissed your cheek and then your neck.

"I love the way you sound." He whispered.

"Then... Then fuck me, I promise I will sound so much better." You said, almost breathless.

Bucky shoved the fingers that were in you inside of your mouth so you could lick them clean, and then wrapped the same hand around your neck.

"That's all I needed, doll." He whispered.

Bucky unzipped his tight pants and pulled his cock out. You admired his size before he wrapped an arm around you and pulled you onto his lap. The soldier lifted you up pulled your panties to the side and, once his tip found your entrance, slowly lowered you on his cock.

You gripped his arms and let out a long, strained moan, until he was fully inside you. He then started moving you on his cock, thrusting slightly when pulling you down.

He skillfully and smoothly removed your little sleeping gown and kept on fucking you.

"Shit." He cursed, as he watched your ass bounce on his cock.

You realised how much you loved to hear him curse, how much you loved to hear his voice in your ear.

Slowly, the soldier picked up the pace when he felt you were comfortable. He then wrapped one arm around your body to keep the movements steady, and wrapped the metal hand around your throat.

You would've guessed the man that barely spoke would've been a quiet one, but oh were you wrong. The grunts and moans in your ear brought you closer and closer to your climax, along with the way his metal arm applied a slight but noticeable pressure in your neck.

"James I'm gonna... I'm gonna cum."

With these words, Bucky flipped you two, wanting to see the pleasure in your face when you came. You laid on your back as Bucky kept fucking you with his hand on your neck, switching between the way your tits bounced and the way your face looked as you were about to reach your climax.

It wasn't long before your hands gripped the thin sheets and your back arched. With a cry for his name, you came. Soon after hearing you call for him, Bucky buried himself deep inside of you and came.

The way he looked at you had you in a trance.

He bent down, grabbed your face and kissed you, before looking down and caressing your stomach.

"You're mine. Mine. All mine."

#bucky #bucky smut #bucky fanfic #bucky reader insert #bucky x reader #marvel #marvel fanfiction #winter soldier #winter soldier smut #winter soldier x reader #winter soldier x y/n #winter soldier fanfiction #winter soldier x you #winter soldier angst #bucky barnes #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes imagine #marvel smut #bucky breeding kink

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namika-saya · 2 months

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Sctir and its multiple forms of love

After finally finishing sctir. I wanted to jot down my thoughts over the multiple forms of love shown in sctir. Bc there are A Lot. Some more healthy than others. Some more incomprehensible than others. Of course, spoilers ahead.

Familial Love:

.Han siblings : The epitome and exemplary example, the Han siblings have undying support and love for each other. The special thing about the Han brothers is that they're not just brothers, they're like parent and child. Han Yoojin raised Han Yoohyun himself shortly after hyh was born, and they continued to rely and put each other first until they were forcibly parted by circumstances. The fact that hyh is the ward and hyj is the guardian immensely helps their dynamic, as even with their differences hyh will respect and listen to hyung.

.Luire siblings: They're similar to the Han brothers and yet so different, just by a switch between the roles of guardian and ward (and their power levels). Riette is a born S-class, which means that she's unable to see things normally or have human empathy. Despite loving her brother enough to die for him, she has given him immense trauma in not respecting his autonomy and forced him to do many dangerous things that is pretty much abuse. In the end, they manage to find a balance, and Riette is still trying her best to understand Noah and have him forgive her.

.Sigma & Puppeteer: They're so interesting. One was borne bc of the other. The other can't exist without the one. They're each other's ward and guardian. Sigma allowed Puppeteer to gain sentience by continually pumping mana into him, while Puppeteer's efforts keep Sigma alive and existing. They care very much for each other and would do anything for the other.

"Platonic" Love:

. Shj & Stw : even if it's never explicitly said, their dynamic is like that of an old married couple where one is tired but used to the other's shenanigans. The Moon and its Eclipse. Fated enemies, but each of their stubbornness in staying human gives them an equal ground that allows them to care and respect for each other. Stw is literally one of the only two existences that shj can ever come to love.

. Shj & Hyj : also a lovely pair with a big contrast. The ordinary and the extraordinary. One who has it all and one who has lost everything. The man at the pinnacle and the man wading through the mud on the bottom. Hyj is literally the only person that sees shj as a human (at first). It's through hyj's love and care that allows shj to love life and carve out an existence for himself, for others to care about him like a human, and for shj to finally gain autonomy over his life. Shj's love and care for hyj allows hyj to be more confident about himself, soothes his worries, and as someone he can lean on without having to act as a caretaker.

"Romantic" Love:

.Chatterbox towards Jellyfish: now we're diving into the more unsavory forms of love in sctir. Well, chatterbox is obsessed with jellyfish. Some might say that is or isn't love, and both would be correct. (I jokingly call chatterbox an incel) Chatterbox loves Jellyfish, but he is selfish. He doesn't care about anything jellyfish cares about, he only cared about having her by his side. His attempt to turn hyj into luka peigya is disgusting, attempting to even modify his body surgically and put it in a glass cage. He's disgusting, only caring about his "revenge" and "love", neither caring about what the object of his love thinks nor if his actions make any sense.

Unconditional Love:

. Cresent Moon: this one's the most difficult one, especially if we take the difference between og cm and current cm. Cresent Moon's unconditional love should be impossible, but she manages it bc her love is inhuman at its core. A love that is equal for everyone, she will love you when you're at your highest and when you're at your lowest. She doesn't care what state of being you are in, and that love is no different than indifference. She will do horrible things to you in the name of love, as long as it's for the greater good. She is the cradle of Transcendents, just how many planets and civilizations have died indirectly by her hand as a result of that? Originally, she had a bit of humanity, loving people and still listening to them, but after morphing into a wish granting system she went mad from the wishes of those trying to live. What she did to shj mightve been the easiest way to save the universe, but it is unbearably cruel for her to try and take away his autonomy, humanity, and identity in order to do so.

All in all, the main theme of sctir is that love goes hand in hand with respect. Love without respect leads to disaster, and it is when one loves and respect one another can that love be strong enough to save the world. The end.

#this has been sitting in my drafts for months #finally finished it. some details might be off bc it's been months since I finished sctir and I read it mtl #will try to read side story and post my thoughts on that at a later time. chao~#sctir #sctir spoilers #han yoojin #han yoohyun #sung hyunjae #s classes that i raised #my s class hunters #spoilers for a lot of the novel. especially the crescent moon part. beware.#my posts

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sexy-sapphic-sorcerer · 6 months

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1: Magic is a Metaphor < 2: Morgana is a Lesbian > 3: Merlin is Gay > 4: Arthur is Bi

Building off of the whole metaphor idea, Morgana's character arc is basically that she starts to question her identity because she's having all of these dreams and thoughts that she doesn't understand. Then Gaius, who is straight up a conversion therapist, literally gaslights her and is like, 'no no, you're just going crazy, you're overreacting, here, why don't you take all of these drugs to suppress those thoughts?'

Meanwhile, Uther is saying all of this stuff about how sorcerers are all evil and should be killed, and Morgana will try to argue with him and he will just be like, 'well, why do you care so much?' And she's all, 'oh, no reason. I'm just an ally. I'm just really passionate about social justice.' Like, girl, we've all been there.

And then once Morgana does come to terms with her identity and she realises how fucked up the way that she was treated is, she goes batshit and starts a revolution and assassinates her dad. And good for her! I honestly think that all repressed lesbians deserve a little bit of murder, it's only fair, especially if they look so hot doing it.

Also, Morgana doesn't have any male love interests. I mean, she will sometimes flirt with men to manipulate them into doing what she wants, but it's very clear that that is what she is doing, she never actually cares about them or follows through.

Besides, Katie McGrath has never played a heterosexual in her life. She's basically straight up said that she played Morgana as a lesbian. You know where she said that? Here:

Hear me out.

Are they technically half-sisters? Yes. But omg the sexual tension between these two is undeniable. You really do think that they're just going to kiss at any given moment. This has been straight up confirmed. This is a quote from the same conversation as earlier between the main producer and Katie McGrath, where they fully admit that there are definitely lesbian undertones there, and not only did both actresses play it that way, but it was written that way. So I rest my case.

Gwen knew about Morgana's prophetic visions from the start and she was never scared of it or tried to deny that it was magic. Instead, she was always by Morgana's bedside (or in her bed) so she could hold her face and stroke her hair and tell her she would be okay. Gayasses.

Although, as Iori Miyazawa can attest, yuri is often best found in the absence of it. Because once Morgana accepts her identity and her magic becomes an unavoidable part of of her life rather than thoughts she could repress, she begins to push Gwen away, often in the form of telling her not to undress her anymore.

Then this tension between them is emphasised when Morgana starts having nightmares of Gwen marrying Arthur and is really upset by it for some reason. I know that she justifies it by saying that she doesn't want Gwen to take her place as queen, but if you think about that for more than 5 seconds, it makes absolutely no sense. Arthur is still going to be king regardless of who he marries, so unless Morgana is planning to follow the legend a bit too closely and marry her brother, then Gwen is absolutely not taking her place.

And yet Morgana spends the entire rest of the show obsessing over Gwen, including: planting false evidence to break up Gwen and Arthur, using necroLancey as a puppet to seduce her, kidnapping Gwen only to tenderly caress her face and force her to have dinner with her, and then of course enchanting Gwen to kill Arthur so that Morgana can be queen, and Gwen will seemingly also still be queen. And they will be two queens, together, platonically. Hmmm

#now with an added morgwen slide since I didn't have it when I first made this (like 2 years ago now) because I had not yet been enlightened #morgana pendragon #morgwen #morgcest #merlin meta #bbc merlin #merlin #the magic of metaphor

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 1 year

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May I please have a Wally with a reader that is somehow sentient and aware with knowing they've somehow got stuck in this tv show and are heavely aware Wally has something to do with it?

So they're extra closed up about themselves, stay home a lot to avoid the puppets in overly social gathering (like they can handle two or three of them but not all at once as it's too overwhelming with happy shizzles and stuff), yet that doesn't mean they don't talk at all to them. They don't keep their mouth shut either when something's bothering them, like when they get annoyed when Wally stares too long at them and makes a comment about it or genuinely admit they dislike Home with how disturbing it seems to them.

Wally somehow doesn't mind as he's genuinely interested in them and wants to become their friend as best as possible, not for any reason with manipulation, just pure friendly business. But as the reader knows he's the main star of the show they're forced to play in, they know the camera follows him almost always, thus they avoid him like the plague which causes a cat and mouse play between you two. Wally trying to get closer to you with perhaps making paintings and gifts for you while you just casually dip out of there while somehow looking like you don't hate him.

(It would be even funnier if you somehow became the second favorite character of the show as you stand out a lot with your attitude and being the only human being there, perhaps even attracting teens to watch the show with your remarks at the puppets for a certain someone not even having a nose or eyebrows and your monotone voice singing and having no energy with dancing once you somehow get stuck in a song sequence with the others (kind of like red guy from dhmis)

Funny thing is, sadly for Wally, is that you get along well with Frank and Eddie as they're the more calm ones, Eddie still joyfull a lot, but more calmer than Julie and Howdy perhaps are.

So there's Wally, staring with the most confused and slight jealous eyes as he watches you joke around and actually smile with the duo/couple(?) while you always give him a frown that's somehow even deeper than Franks.

Sorry for the slight ramble and long explanation (I'm a fanfic writer myself), just wanted to give a summary of how I see it and wondering how you'd think this would work out.

Btw, reader doesn't hate Wally, they're just warry and uncomfortable with his stares and Home in general, and with the knowledge that's he's one of the reasons they're stuck here. They soften up to him a little eventually, like letting him hug them shortly or talking more casual with him, but no way he ever sees them entering his house.

This was so long I'm so sorry.

Anyway, have a great day/night!

Oh don't worry I think this is a great idea! I like how fleshed-out it is!

...........

You have only spent a week in the neighborhood...before realizing something was terribly, terribly wrong with the world surrounding you.

At first, this place seemed like nothing but sunshine and rainbows--full of fun, joy, color, and friendship. A place that one could only dream of living in all their life, free of worry or strife.

It felt comforting and safe, so when you started having these weird feelings that not everything was as it seemed..you figured you were just nervous about settling into a new place.

But when the folks here asked where you were from, you'd end up drawing a blank...starting to question where you really did come from. So you'd simply tell them you're just "out of town" and leave it at that, although you always sounded uncertain about it.

And there's something else that was especially peculiar: every activity the neighbors did almost always stopped at the end of the day. It seemed strange to you since there's plenty of things you could do. Like campfires or stargazing!

So one evening, you asked all of your neighbors why they rarely hung out during the night, and they had relatively normal responses: Eddie says it's tricky to deliver mail at nighttime; Howdy was too tired from working at the bugdega all day; Barnaby and Sally had to plan their next stunts, tricks, and plays; Julie and Frank wanted to get their "beauty sleep"; and Poppy needed to take care of things back at the barn.

All seemed to be perfectly reasonable answers...

Until you got to Wally.

He looked as though he was ready to respond...only to fall quiet and stare off into space, as though he was in another world. But the fact that his pupils seemed to dilate gave you the chills for some reason, and you calmly tried snapping him out of his trance.

Then he did, and quietly said something about Home "disliking" it whenever he stays out too late. And he bid you goodnight before leaving.

That exchange was the moment you realized something was very off about him beyond his staring habits. It's like he didn't know exactly what to say.

As if...it's such an unusual question for him, but normal to you.

And out of nowhere, the truth hit you like a truck:

This whole place was just one big TV show, with all of you trapped inside as the unwitting stars who were meant to follow certain "scripts" during your daily interactions.

You don't know how or why you knew that, but it became clearer when you constantly got the feeling that your movements were being watched.

You could sense eyes on you even when you were alone.

And sometimes you'd hear indistinguishable voices of adults and children alike while you slept, unable to discern whether they were merely in your dream or existed in reality. It must have been the former, considering none of the other neighbors said they heard anything.

To you, these people...these "viewers", sounded like they were in a faraway land--an unreachable place where you couldn't call out to them for answers no matter how hard you tried.

You knew nothing about them, but they knew everything about you.

Your character had become so fascinating to them from the moment you arrived in the humble neighborhood. You've actually become the second favorite almost instantly, given the uniqueness you've brought to the colorful cast as a human merely wearing an average-sized costume.

They've observed that your personality makes you relatable to young teens, attracting them to the show. Many of them got some chuckles out of your dry and semi-self aware humor (in that you'd joke about how Wally's missing his eyebrows and nose when everybody else has them). It was an immediate hit.

Even when you got pulled into some silly musical number with the rest of the gang, you just spoke in monotone and put lackluster energy into dancing when the camera panned over to you--much to the dismay of your "neighbors".

The viewers just couldn't get enough of you. They adored you.

And they can't stop watching.

You, on the other hand, weren't aware that you were so popular...and quite frankly, you didn't want to be. It terrified you.

So for a while, to protect your own sanity, you began attending less and less social events, not wanting to overwhelm yourself. You've declined invitations to Sally's and Barnaby's shows, which made you feel kinda bad..but you were just so fearful of everything at the time.

Were any of them aware of their circumstances, too?

You had no idea, and it would probably make you sound like a crazy person if you told them how you really felt.

The only other person to show any sort of "deviance" was...Wally himself.

You didn't know why, but you felt like he had something to do with the situation you're in. Especially given his odd response to you that evening and the fact that...he just apparently loved to stare so much, watching you just like the audience did.

It didn't help that whenever you talked to him or he tried approaching you, you got the chilling feeling that you were being perceived by the audience--as if somebody was holding a camera over your shoulder, wanting to capture every moment the "main character" spent with you.

You'd prefer to spend as little time in the spotlight as possible.

However, being anxious about this world didn't mean you weren't a bit mouthy towards other things you disliked. You were known for being blunt and sometimes a "realist", shrugging of whatever crocodile tears the others may give you just for the crime of being honest and true to yourself.

So yes...you'd always call out Wally if he was staring at you for a prolonged period of time, or if he tried persuading you to say hello to Home if you happened to pass by the sentient house.

Your response? Straight up "no thank you, it creeps me out and I don't like how its window-eye things are looking at me."

The audience may laugh, but it's the truth.

That building scares you.

Despite all of this, though...Wally didn't seem to bothered by it. He likened your sarcastic quips to Frank's, so that was never an issue with him. If anything, he was genuinely trying to help you feel right at home in the neighborhood, hoping to become a friend you could trust and rely on if you needed anything.

It'll just take you a bit more time to adjust, and that's alright!

Sure, maybe his stares were strange to you and Home was well...Home. He understood why those things might seem scary to a new neighbor.

But then again, that's how everybody else acted when he first met them, and now they were all good friends!

He's sure you'll fit right in and find true happiness here. So he made it his mission to befriend you without coming on too strongly, inviting you to quiet picnics and painting lessons, calling you on the phone, and even showing up at your doorstep with gifts.

He even made sure to tell his neighbors to give you space, though he was really hoping you'd stop being afraid of him the longer you spent around him alone.

But while you accepted his presents and showed up to his invites...you just couldn't let your guard down around him. You never looked happy or relaxed, and didn't stay long, usually cutting your time together short under the guise that you forgot to do something important and had to leave now.

Your latest excuse was that you forgot to "walk your fish" even though you owned no such pet. You were a terrible liar, but Wally believed you anyways.

He was a patient man, so he'll wait how ever long it took to befriend you.

...........

"Alright, Home..today I'm gonna gift [y/n] my finest work thus far! Do you think they'll like it?"

Pausing, Wally listened for the creaks of approval and squeaks of reassurances, smiling when he heard them, although Home noted something else.

"Haha..you're right. Silly me. It needs more time to dry..or else the paint will just smudge and make it a not-so-nice gift. Sorry, I'm just excited, is all.." He chuckled awkwardly.

After setting the canvas back on the easel, he wandered over to the window and peered outside, humming a small tune to himself as he rested his arms on the sill.

It took him all day and all night to paint the perfect picture of your favorite animal---which he learned about from an off-handed comment you made a few days ago. His memory was sharp, remembering all the details about the creature, and he believed you'll love what he created as a result!

Surely now you'll see that he's not all that bad. Otherwise he'd be lost on how to convince you.

However, he noticed a rather...surprising sight from across the street, one that even Home had to confirm was happening so he didn't think he was going crazy.

You were actually out and about, having a casual chat with Frank, asking how he got together with Eddie before bumping into said mailman on the sidewalk.

Wally couldn't make out what any of you three were discussing, but Eddie must have said something humorous, as it made Frank groan and hide his blushing face. And you just chuckled and shook your head, patting the latter's back sympathetically.

He felt his heart sink.

You were talking to the couple--joking around, smiling, and genuinely enjoying their company. As if you've known them all your life.

Yet anytime he's even near you in any capacity, he's met with frowns deeper than Frank's and constant excuses to get away from him. Like he was some kind of pest or scary monster.

He didn't understand what he was doing wrong.

Of course, he's happy you're getting along with some of the neighbors, no longer being so shut-in...but it hurt to know he's still stuck struggling, literally begging you to be his friend.

*creaaaak?*

"..no, Home. I'm not jealous. What gives you that idea?"

*...creeak.."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Wally looked back at the easel, sighing. Part of him wanted to just throw the whole canvas out the window, but....he shook off the feeling, forcing a smile.

He wanted you to have it, even if you didn't like him that much.

So when he saw you finally parting ways with Eddie and Frank, he decided to head over to your house about an hour later, assuming you were gonna be there and needed to recharge from socializing.

He put on his best cardigan and made sure his hair was neat before heading out the door with the small canvas tucked under his arm, covered by a protective sheet. He wouldn't wanna spoil the surprise for you, after all..even if you anticipated it being yet another painting.

For some reason, the sky was grayer than usual today..meaning it's probably gonna rain on his parade.

But he didn't let that deter him.

After arriving to your house, he knocked three times, in a certain rhythm that you've distinctively recognized as him being at the door.

But he was surprised when you opened it right away. "Oh heya, Wally. What's up?"

"Ohh nothing much, neighbor." He chuckled. "May I..come in? I promise I won't stay long-"

"It's cool. It looks like it's gonna rain anyways. Wouldn't wanna ruin your "beautiful" hair now, huh?" With a coy smirk, you let him come inside the house, shutting the door behind you as you turned around to see what be brought you this time.

He looked shocked, almost, standing there like a fish out of water. You invited him in without hesitation...though he tried not getting his hopes up too high.

You're just trying to be polite. In a few minutes you're gonna kick him out for some silly reason.

Shifting your gaze away from his uncomfortable stare, you looked at the painting in his hands, tilting your head. "I guess that's for me.."

Nodding, Wally handed you the canvas, watching you remove the small sheet to see it was a painting of your favorite animal. Your eyes lit up, impressed by the amount of details that went into this one, before looking back up at him. "Wow, man..this is....awesome. How long did it take you?"

"Not very long!" He suddenly chirped, hands clasped together with excitement. "I just hope it fits nicely in your collection! A-Assuming....you...have one...that is..."

Bit by bit, his words began to fall flat with uncertainty, before he completely dropped the act, shoulders slumped.

Why did he bother trying anymore? What was the point?

You noticed his odd mood shift. "Wally? What's wrong?"

"..nothing, neighbor.." Sighing, he hung his head low, a cloud of doom and gloom manifesting over him as he shuffled towards the door. He felt like going back to Home and curling up in a corner somewhere. "I'll...see you later-"

"Wait."

"...hm?"

He stopped and looked over his shoulder, still feeling quite depressed but willing to listen to whatever you wanted to say.

You set the painting on a nearby table, approaching him with your heart constrained with guilt. "Look, Wally..I know you think I hate you or something, but...that's not true."

"It...isn't?" He blinked.

"I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. There's just been...a lot of my mind lately. Things I can't really talk about just yet..I-I don't know. It's hard to explain. But the point is...I really do wanna be your friend. I guess I'm just...a very "guarded" person if that makes sense."

Although Wally was staring at you yet again, you didn't break eye contact, wanting him to know you're being genuine here. "I don't open up easy, but I know you've...helped me a lot, and I appreciate that. I do keep your paintings and I do feel bad for being a jerk to you sometimes. So...think you can forgive me? I'll even allow this if you want."

When he saw you open your arms up to him, he was frozen for a few long moments, astonishment written all over his face.

He just...didn't know what to say. Not only did you actually like his company, but....

He was allowed to hug you??

"..c'mon, pal. My arms are kinda getting tired." You awkwardly smiled, although you blinked as he suddenly latched onto you, letting out a few sniffles.

He wanted to sob so badly, but knew that wouldn't be very "neighborly" of him.

Yet you heard how he sounded, and felt guilty for treating him as some bad guy...when really he didn't seem malicious at all. You wanted to believe he had good intentions.

Whether or not he also knew the truth behind this place...that didn't matter right now.

He just wanted to be your friend.

You'll never be happy if you kept being so afraid of him all the time. That wasn't any life to live, even if you're unsure of whether this was your only life or not.

But you let him hug you anyways, patting his back.

"Th-This is very nice of you, neighbor. I forgive you." He mumbled, cheek squished against your shoulder as he clung to you tightly, never wanting to let go-

"Thanks......okay, you can let go now."

"..o-oh! Right, sorry." Reluctantly, Wally let you go, rubbing his eyes before dusting off his cardigan, breathing a sigh of relief. "Whew! I'm glad we're on better terms now. But...if I may ask..what changed?"

"Ah, well..I was talking with Frank and Eddie earlier..and I asked them about you."

"Huh....?" He pointed to himself, raising an invisible eyebrow. "Me..?"

"Yeah. Since they're more chill than most of the people here, I feel like I can be myself around them." You explained. "Howdy and Julie are kinda too loud for me, so...yeah. Those guys pushed me to reach out to you and try to make this friendship work...instead of the other way around."

'So...that's what they were talking about..' He realized, though he beamed anyways, happy you took their advice.

"Well that's great! I think we'll become great friends, [y/n]!" Smiling, he offered his hand to you, and you shook it as a way of saying you're both willing to start over.

"I..think so, too, Wally." You smiled back, feeling this huge weight being lifted off your shoulders.

"So...do you wanna come visit Home when the weather clears?"

"...I'll pass. But I'll wave to 'em from afar if that's okay."

"It's fine by me, neighbor."

#clanask #welcome home x reader #wally darling #wally darling x reader #platonic

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kenphobia · 1 year

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HEY LOVER!

"Hey lover, won't you treat me right?"

summary. wally may be the town's darling but in his eyes and heart, you're the actual darling <3 (headcanons / 0.9k wc / see end notes)

contents. tooth-rotting fluff, kind of crackship core, romantic relationship. read my pinned post before interacting!

✦ Perhaps, you were a new neighbor or just a random puppet from the outskirts of the neighborhood— whoever and where ever you are, you were bound to meet Wally some point in your life.

✦ Wally is a curious puppet and loves putting his (imaginary) nose into places he shouldn't be putting, and you caught his eye for some unknown reason. It was fine enough, he was only interested about your life before the neighborhood and what kind of things you like. Eventually, you started asking the same questions back at him and it went on from there.

✦ There was always something that Wally would get interested in someone, no matter how pathetic and boring they look and are. It's up for your own interpretation why he was so intrigued by your person in the first place, maybe it was your personality? Your smile? Your voice? Wally loves it all regardless.

✦ Being the town's local artist, Wally takes most of his inspiration from his surroundings and sooner or later, he began adding bits of you in his paintings. It began when you happened to be one of the many faces he painted to crowd his landscape paintings until he started painting portraits of you, many and many canvases pilling up in the corner, and all of them were of you.

✦ I wouldn't exactly say Wally was embarrassed, but he was coy. He only showed you few of those portraits and gave it you, but most of them are tucked somewhere in his house aka his bedroom. He reasoned was because they're unfinished when in reality, he couldn't properly 'sleep' without having a bit of you near him, even if it's just a painting he made.

✦ Wally loves it when you spend time with his friends too, especially when you get along with Barnaby! The canine puppet was his bestest friend and enjoys spending time with you two at the same time. He couldn't help but fawn over his two favorite people hanging out and actually being friends. Seems like a dream for him, to be honest.

✦ Before you and Wally had made it 'official', everyone assumed the two of you were already a thing. It was confusing, to say the least. It makes sense once you realized how lovey dovey you two had acted around each other.

Upon hearing a knock on your door, you immediately rushed to it and opened it. Though, you were about to open your mouth and blurt out a greeting, you stopped your tracks as you saw Frank holding Wally by his collar. Wally didn't look too happy being held up like a wet, pathetic cat.

"Sorry to disturb you, (Name), but I believe this is yours." Frank began, motioning to the smaller puppet beside them. "Your little boyfriend over here was found stealing few of Howdy's apples again."

You blinked, furrowing your brows in complete and utter confusion. "I— First of all, Boyfriend? And second of all, he was doing what again?"

"He was caught messing with the apples for the 3rd time this week. Eddie's dealing with an angry Howdy right now and we have to deal with your lovebirds' troubles because we're the only other couple here unfortunately." Frank explained, doing various of hand actions.

"I'm sorry, but me and Wally aren't a couple??"

Frank made a sound of confusion and acknowledgement. "Hm, I thought you were one of us. My mistake."

"I- I have no idea if you mean if we're also gay or if we're also in relationship like you and Eddie."

"Are we though?"

"Wally, I swear to god—"

✦ Wally is extremely touch starved, like most residents, and doesn't know what to do when you do give him affection so he goes limp in your arms. It takes him a few seconds to recover once you release him though, maybe stumbling a bit when you settle him back down on the floor or even crashing back into you. The latter would definitely happen and you'd be stuck with him atop you until someone pulls him off or you do.

✦ Whenever Home locks Wally out, you'd offer him to stay in your house. He'd deny a couple of times, but he'd later come with you since he doesn't want to stay out at night. He never really liked the dark anyways.

✦ He was a little nightlight at both yours and his place, and would ask you tell him bedtime stories. He doesn't sleep, yes, but he does enjoy laying down beside you and being used as some sort of stuff animal. He also even closes his eyes, so you'd think he's sleeping. You know he isn't and often call his BS.

"You know, (Name), that was the bestest sleep I had. We should do a sleepover again." Wally sugguested once, enjoying a lovely breakfast with you. He had turned away from his plate to face you for a moment, his pupils shrinking down.

"Wally, you don't sleep." You deadpanned, holding a cup of warm coffee in your hand.

"How would you know that, (Name)?" Wally tilted his head, smiling.

"Chanting 'I am sleeping' with your eyes closed doesn't count as sleeping, Wally."

✦ You're also the first one people would go to if Wally got into trouble. He's always off messing with Howdy's apples, 'borrowing' Julie's hairspray supply, breaking and entering in someone's house, etc... As much as many felonies Wally had committed, you still love him.

✦ You just wish he wasn't so nosy to make up for his lack of a nose.

end notes. rewritten version of my previous yan!wally headcanons, friendly neighbor, although you could say this is just a normal headcanon that isn't derived from a now deleted post and it's stíll fine <33

i wanted to keep the old title but bleh, this is romantic so yeehaw (this was also queued btw lol)

requests are always open and my inbox is free for any recs (podcasts, args, etc), chatter and info dumping. ask for updates and i will burn your house like wally burned your mom /lh

#writing log!#welcome home #welcome home x reader #wally darling x reader

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nekohime19 · 2 months

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Macaque study # S3

Sooo Macaque in s2 showed us potential for redemption but again, potential remains wasted without action!

For now I like to think as Macaque evolution in LMK like this :

Macaque S1 : Full fledged villain with some obscured lore. 😈

Macaque S2 : villain but a bit nuanced and maybe a potential for more. 😡

We'll see how S3 handles this evolution and where Macaque is after it.

LMK season 3 is really the payoff of the two previous seasons. While still appearing episodic we actually delve into the main plot that has been brewing since LBD first appeared. Macaque, my main focus here, is also more present in the continuity of the season than in the previous seasons. He appears more frequently and I think what is important is that each of his appearances gives us a new layer to his character.

S3 ep1

Macaque appears in the middle of the episode to attack the team while they're fleeing on the airship. He's actually the first person to attack them after the whole LBD fiasco and it's probably why the team, at first, thinks it's LBD that is attacking them. The colors are also very bluish and turn from dawn-like yellow colors to cold-night blue very quickly the second Macaque starts to attack. I think the predominance of the blue at the start of the attack can be a reminder of LBD and her overwhelming presence on both the team and Macaque himself.

The colors change to purple (Macaque's own colors) when Macaque leaves his airship and jumps on the team's airship. Perhaps because Macaque feels more in control at this very moment.

I think what is important in this scene is the banter between Wukong and Macaque which reveals exactly what makes the two monkeys tick and where they stand exactly. We know the two monkeys know how to hurt the other, so we have to see everything they say as a form of personal spite tailored to annoy the other. It's also very interesting how Macaque reacts and how he tries to be in control of the situation.

Also it's just funny how the whole team think LBD is attacking and then they hear :

Macaque : OOOOOH WUKONG!

And they're like : Oh nvm it's Macaque.

The first exchange goes like this :

Wukong : Oh that's a relief, I thought it was someone important.

Macaque : ah, always the comedian, huh. Hey, kiddo, you miss me?

We know Macaque struggles a lot with self-worth and abandonment, especially after analyzing the shadow play. Macaque felt like he was cast away by Wukong, left in the shadows. Wukong knows it, perhaps that's why his immediate answer to hurt Macaque (while still adopting a very laid-back attitude, Wukong tends to use jokes to diffuse and control the situation) is to joke about how Macaque is unimportant.

In response, Macaque calls Wukong a “comedian”, which I think is an insult of Wukong's jokester attitude and how he never takes anything seriously. It's highly probable that Macaque knows Wukong's coping mechanism considering they were very close in their youth, so the fact he still calls out Wukong on his not-so-healthy way of handling any stressful situations might be even more hurtful for Wukong. But Macaque changes the subject afterwards to MK. Perhaps because he doesn't want Wukong to elaborate on Macaque being unimportant or simply because he's focusing on the two targets set by LBD.

The second exchange :

Macaque : ooooh, looking a lil bit banged there Monkey King. The kid too. Looks like our old friend the Lady Bone Demon really did a number on you guys.

Wukong : So what, you're her puppet now? I mean, makes sense you did always have a sidekick kinda vibe.

Again, Macaque uses Wukong's title as some form of insult, the fact he's insisting on the title specifically while also calling out Wukong's injuries might just be a way to hurt Wukong pride as the Monkey King and rile him up. Qualifying LBD as “our old friend” is also very sarcastic. In a way he's calling out how LBD is Wukong's old enemy and so, in a sense, trying to hurt Wukong by guilting him.

In response, Wukong keeps tapping into Macaque's insecurity of being a “shadow” but this time he goes as far as to call him a “puppet” and even a “sidekick”. Macaque is visibly upset by this, he leaps out of his airship and crashes into Wukong to shut him up. But the second he had Wukong pinned on the airship he smiles again, as if trying to regain control of the situation, and resume the banter.

Macaque : eh, You know me. There is a new player in town just feeling out which one is the winning side.

This line will be very important in the later episodes of s3. While it might not seem like much right now, it's important to notice that Macaque doesn't include himself on LBD’s team. Instead he qualifies her as a “player” and justify his actions (him doing her bidding) by saying he's “feeling out the winning side”. This means Macaque hadn't decided which is the winning side yet and this is an important factor to take note of to understand what happens in the later episodes of the season.

Of course, Macaque strategy after jumping on the airship is to separate both MK and Wukong and put some distance between them. But it's interesting to notice that instead of taking them both directly in his airship, he takes the time to address his mission and to belittle them. Of course, I do think this line serves as exposition for the audience as for why Macaque is attacking the team, but I do think it's also a way for Macaque to assert his dominance and try to be in control.

Macaque : the two of you are such a mess, can't imagine why the LBD wants me to bring you back. Look at you, you're all used up.

In the previous seasons Macaque was rarely frowning, he did at some points but, at least when he was fighting, he always put on a fanged smile. But in the beginning of this season Macaque slips up a lot more, his face switches between frowns and smiles. It can be an indicator about how the stress he's put under by LBD is affecting him and makes him more nervous, making his mask of nonchalance crack a lot more. Someone did point out in the comment of my last study that Macaque in general smile to be more threatening and I wholeheartedly agree with this. Macaque “smile” is a way for him to mask how he truly feels and appear more intimidating. We can link this to monkey's behavior (macaques’ in particular) who hiss/smile each time they feel threatened to intimidate their opponents.

If we take this into account, him trying to belittle MK and Wukong and put them down might be a form of reassurance for him, it would explain why he's stalling here instead of directly bringing them to his airship and be done with it.

The last bit of the scene is also very interesting because it really shows Macaque's habit of using quips and belittlement as a way to be in control of the situation and to hide his discomfort.

When Mei attacks Macaque we can clearly see his nervousness despite his smile because of the sweat on his face :

And what does he do after this attack? Immediate sarcastic insults :

Macaque : ah you must be the dragon girl I hear so little about. Lil girl you can shoot me all you want it won't do you any good.

Macaque sarcastic quips and comments are a response to any threats around him. This will be shown many times in this particular season and I think it's very important to notice it. Because he will stop being so sarcastic and smiling so much in later seasons.

S3 ep2

Macaque's appearance in the second episode of the season is very brief and he only attacks Ao Guang. His only purpose here is to be the threat the team had to flee from, he doesn't show much. I was kinda surprised to see him use his shadow staff, one of the rare occasions he does, and I might think it's because he sees Ao Guang as a real threat.

Of course this apparition is meant to establish Macaque as a recurrent villain. He was not defeated after ep1. It put an expectation in the viewer mind that Macaque will reappear a lot afterward and he's not just a one episode villain.

[This is an apparté but Macaque doens't attack Ao Guang because he feel like it. I've seen this misconception of this scene a number of times and I would like to clarify that Macaque is under LBD order here. LBD issued her order before s3 ep1 and gave Macaque the compass to track down MK and Wukong. Here, Macaque objective is to bring back MK and Wukong to LBD. Ao Guang knows Macaque is on the enemy side, and MK and Wukong are leaving. So of course Macaque is not going to pretend and try to befriend Ao Guang. He has to act fast to catch the escaping team. He doesn't have the time to be buddy-buddy with Ao Guang. My guys, Macaque doesn't attack random city in his free time bc he feels like it 😅.]

What I think is an interesting detail and something we see a lot in this particular season is the way Macaque's eyes shines with his powers :

He never truly did this in the previous seasons while it happens a lot in this particular one. The only difference between Macaque this season and the previous seasons is the stress he's put under because of LBD. Makes you wonder if Macaque mental stability influences his powers (either it emphasizes them or takes a hold over him). It could also be simply a way for Macaque to appear more threatening and hide the pressures he's putting under.

In any case, LMK doesn't really have a defined magic system so the intricacies of how spells and magic work are a bit lost on us. Macaque's powers however are the most mysterious out of all the cast's because it does not stem from JTTW. I'll come back to that in season 5 because a bit more is revealed about Macaque's powers in it.

S3 ep4

In this episode Macaque appears two times, once at the very beginning and another just after the first half. The episode immediately focuses on Macaque, with the first minutes being of him alone in the desert with the wreckage of his airship, so we can easily assume this takes place right after he was ejected from the team's airship in the first episode of the season.

We can also already tell this episode will focus a lot on Macaque based on the title, “winning side”, which is a call back to Macaque words in episode 1. So we know this episode will be pivotal in our view of Macaque in this season.

It's actually the first time that we see Macaque when he's alone and with no one watching him, all his previous appearances were of him interacting with different people or simply fighting those people. And the first thing we notice in those few minutes of Macaque being alone and how he acts when alone is that he's not smiling, quite the contrary in fact he looks weary and very angry. When he looks at his reflection in the compass (which we don't even know what is yet at this point) it's the angriest expression we ever saw on his face, with his eyebrows twitching and his screams echoing in the background as he's reminded of a memory.

These brief minutes really prove everything we already established at the beginning of this study : Macaque nonchalant, almost sadistic attitude at times, is a show he puts on to appear more intimidating. Same can be said with his fanged smile. It's a way for him to regain control of stressful situations. Proof is, none of them appear when he's alone and thus not feeling threatened.

So just after this scene we dive into a memory of Macaque. Presumably the memory takes place just after LBD took over the city and the team escaped on their airship. Since Macaque appears on top of LBD's mech, which was created in season 2 ep 10, and the staff is within her grasp, I think it's a fair assumption.

Macaque's immediate reaction is to : first try to attack the not-mayor (the one who pushed him at LBD's feet via a portal, but the portal closes) then to notice the staff and immediately put on his usual smile :

Macaque : the staff, the city… You've been busy.

The fact the not-mayor had to bring Macaque already tells you Macaque is not very loyal to LBD to begin with, which is the continuation of what we saw in season 2 ep7 where the not-mayor strangled Macaque, a physical act of violence who tells you everything about the relationship beforehand.

The confrontation that follows between LBD and Macaque is the confirmation of all the assumptions we gathered. We even have a neat lil exposition about where Macaque stands in all this when LBD reminds him of his story and why he should be loyal to her.

It's interesting to see that Macaque tries his usual method of controlling the situation (quips, nonchalant attitude, fanged smiles) the way he does with MK and Wukong, but contrary to them LBD is not falling for it and doesn't let him take one breather.

LBD is also floating above him, which is already a physical representation of their relationship, they're not equals.

LBD : Tell me, what madness overcomes you that you would forsake your oath? When did you decide to betray me?

Macaque (trying to be nonchalant) : Listen Lady Bone De-

LBD : Have you forgotten who I am? What I am? I, who returned you to the mortal plane all in exchange for such a little favor that when the time came you would free me, aid in my pursuit, but no, with the first breath of a new life you rebelled against your claims.

The second Macaque tried to hide behind his mask of nonchalance LBD cuts him and reminds him of : 1 a very traumatic experience for him, 2 what she's capable of, 3 the fact he betrayed her and thus she has the right (in her mind) to punish him. I think the sentence “What I am” is probably the most threatening thing she could have said at this moment because it paints her in a very dehumanizing, almost monstrous, way, the use of “what” generally reserved for objects or creatures in this specific context. She doesn't even let him speak nor let him diffuse the situation, she cuts right to the facts to make Macaque uncomfortable, to make him submit to her. It's interesting to see how LBD talks and shifts the blame entirely on Macaque without any speck of empathy for his situation at the time. She uses the adjective “little” to qualify her favor as if to say what she demanded of Macaque wasn't much to begin with and that it was the least he could do after what she did for him. And then she uses the phrasing “rebelling against your claims” to put the blame entirely on Macaque, and how he's disloyal (even if I don't think their deal was fair to begin with. Macaque was in hell, dead, we don't know his mental state when LBD approached him but I warrant it wasn't good and he could have agreed to anything at this point). LBD makes herself the savior and victim in this scenario, the imagery when she evokes how she returned Macaque to the mortal plane paints her as a savior, she basks in white and floats above him while he kneels before her, his chains fading away, I think it's very telling of how she view her relationship with Macaque.

Macaque : You want something?

LBD : I have one more chance for redemption. Bring me the Monkey King and his protégée and perhaps you will be worthy of my mercy.

Macaque : Convenient, alrighty then, seems like they've got a bit of headway so-

The use of “redemption” in LBD speech is once again a way to justify her actions and puts the blame on Macaque, she also paints herself as merciful by letting him go. I think it's very ironic to talk about redemption at this moment with Macaque considering what will happen after and what Macaque true redemption will be like. For LBD, Macaque's redemption is for him to obey her orders and not fail, whereas for MK, Macaque's redemption is to give him the choice by reaching out to him and giving his hand. “Being worthy of mercy” is also such a weird phrasing, normally speaking mercy is something you grant to people you have the power to harm, it's a form of leniency, there is no concept of “worthiness” in it. What LBD offers is not mercy, really.

And then the moments Macaque tried to put on his mask of nonchalance again with the use of funny terms like “alrighty” LBD cut him, again, chains him and threatens him :

Macaque : What is this!?

LBD : a reminder. It seems you cannot be trusted to willingly follow the path of destiny. But know this, if you betray me again, one misstep, one mistake, and I'll erase the very memory of you. Now bring them to me, my champion.

The threat at this point is even more menacing than a simple death threat, especially for Macaque which had already been “forgotten”once by Wukong and, likely, is afraid of being again. LBD ends her speech with a mark of ownership on Macaque with the phrasing “my champion” which really tells you everything about how she treats Macaque, he's an object to her, a possession.

It's, I think, very ironical that in LBD first speech she paints herself as the savior that wiped away Macaque's chains (the image is literally of her breaking those chains) BUT she still puts different chains on Macaque, she didn't free him at all, she broke his chains to recreate them afterwards. And we can see that Macaque is not at all fooled by her hypocritical view of herself and that's perhaps why he casted away the skeleton key when LBD gave it to him.

There is an impossibility of speech between LBD and Macaque, she doesn't let him speak and keeps cutting him over and over again. It's very interesting to notice it because it is a perfect reflection of how LBD controls Macaque : she controls him through violence. Cutting someone so hard each time they try to speak is, in a sense, a form of verbal violence. And LBD is constantly trying to dominate Macaque through violence : When the not-mayor comes to Macaque in season 2 he strangles him, here LBD cuts him everytime he tries to speak, he's put in chains at the end of the scene and the not-mayor pushes his head on the ground while LBD floats above. She forces his loyalty through fear and violence, and that's why it'll never be genuine.

After this scene Macaque reappears after the first half of the episode. He creates a copy of the van to isolate one half of the team and thus have more chances of success in capturing MK. One thing which I think is a cool detail is that Macaque modus operandi is always about tricking and putting on a performance, a show. In season 1, Macaque staged the whole attack on the city with his shadow monster. In season 2, he makes himself appear as a human storyteller and here he's staging yet another performance by tricking half of the team with a perfect copy of their own van.

It shows how Macaque is a highly cautious individual who rarely if ever rushed into situations, especially into fights. Maybe that's one of the reasons why he's feeling even more pressured by LBD, he's on a time race because of her and thus has less and less time to put on performances.

Another detail which I think is important to notice is MK's frustration just before the “copied van” scene. MK tries hard to get his powers back but nothing seems to work and he's frustrated about it. He even qualified the only power he got back, gold vision, as a “baby power”. Macaque, once he appears, will directly challenge MK about this struggle.

Of course, the first thing that Macaque does is to seperates Mei and Sandy from MK, once again Macaque is cautious enough to not fight the three of them at the same time if he has the choice to not to. It's also incredibly funny that he imitates Mo's moews to lure Sandy away, it does show he has been observing the team very closely to know their behaviors. For Sandy Macaque's uses Mo, but for Mei he knows she'll never leave MK's side so he uses a more direct approach by separating her physically without even trying to lure her like he did with Sandy.

Once MK is alone Macaque traps him and ties him up with his shadows. I think the dialogue here is very important, especially between MK and Macaque because it does reveal a lot about Macaque himself and where he stands now.

Macaque : You really think you're gonna get away from me, bud? Aw, forget you lost your powers? Careful, you might hurt yourself!

On top of appearing particularly threatening he dug right into MK's insecurities that were exposed the scene before which is his lack of powers. It does make you wonder if he listened to MK raging about the loss of his power. In any case, he's clearly trying to provoke MK here.

MK : What do you-

Macaque : want? What are you doing? Come on kiddo, do I have to explain everything? I'm handing you over, to the lady Bone Demon.

Once again, Macaque is taunting and mocking MK, going as far as to have one of his shadows take MK appearances and imitate his voice with a very ridiculous high-pitch. Contrary to Wukong, MK doesn't answer any jabs with one of his own and remains level headed. Macaque in this episode is really laying on thick with the mocking and the taunting. While he was like that in previous episodes, it was more directed at Wukong specifically, but even then Macaque jabs were more subtle. Here, he's purposefully riling up MK as much as he can.

Macaque : Come on! Fight back. Maybe I'm not giving you the right motivation. Should I bring your big blue friend in here and smack him around? What about the girl? Gold vision? Really? Enough of these baby powers.

MK : stop talking!

Macaque : That's more like it!

In this sequence Macaque is really at his peak in terms of threatening. The glowing eyes that I noted in the previous episode appear a lot more here which creates really menacing shots and he directly makes threats to MK about the one thing Macaque knows MK values more than himself : his friends. We also have the confirmation that Macaque had indeed been listening to MK at the beginning of the episode because he uses the exact same phrasing MK used to describe gold vision which is “baby powers”. But this doesn't make sense. Macaque's goal here is to bring back MK to LBD so why is he trying so hard to rile up MK and make him fight back? Why is he making himself so threatening compared to his other appearances? While it's true that Macaque had always been one to rile up people, especially Wukong, we already established most of his sarcastic quips are a response to any perceived threats around him and a way for him to regain control of the situation. But here Macaque is already in control, he doesn't have to use those quips and insults. Moreover, we established that Macaque is a highly cautious individual by analyzing his modus operandi when it came to fighting, so why is he taking the risk to anger MK?

Macaque clearly has a hidden agenda here.

I also think it's really cool how there is a parallel between MK and Wukong with this shot :

Yet MK is so different from Wukong in the way he responds to Macaque taunts, he never insults back.

MK : Why are you helping her? LBD? Look I get you're a bad guy but you know she wants to destroy everything, right?

Macaque : yeah see I had a taste of dying and you know what not a big fan so I'm choosing to be on the winning side.

MK : She's using you. We have a plan, you could help, we could stop her together.

Macaque : You can't even stop me. Now first I deliver you, then I come back for your hazbin master and finally I'll repay my debt and be free of this nightmare. Anyway I assume you won't’ be coming quietly sooo-

Okay, a lot to unpack here.

First, MK, while still acknowledging that Macaque is a villain, tries to reason with him. And while it's in character for MK to do that, I do also think MK does it because he knows Macaque can be reasoned with and that he's a more confusing individual than a mere one-dimensional villain (as he learned in season 2).

Second, the fact Macaque talks about his death to justify him “being on the winning side” is a clear indication of the drive that pushes Macaque this season : survival. It's not about powers, it's not about tormenting, Macaque this season is about survival. It was established in the scene with LBD and it's confirmed here by Macaque himself through his words. It's important for the audience to know this because it changes everything about how we perceive Macaque from now on in this season. Macaque wants to live, especially after knowing what death feels like, which means that on top of not following LBD willingly, he's also running along to assure his survival. The use of “being free of this nightmare” really drives the point about how Macaque views the situation he's in. It's a nightmare, he doesn't enjoy it one bit which we cannot really fault him for after what we saw at the beginning of the episode and how LBD treats him. It's important for the redemption processus, while it's true you cannot erase your actions, the motives behind the actions are still very important, it's not for nothing that extenuating circumstances exist in court.

Third, Macaque responding to MK by saying “You can't even stop me” is a great indicator about how Macaque currently feels. Right now, with MK powers being gone, LBD is unfortunately the “winning side” for Macaque.

Macaque : What a hero ! Two friends about to be crushed and you do nothing?

MK : Let them go, you can take me I don't care. Just let them go.

Macaque : Or what? You aren't the monkie kid anymore. Your powers are gone, your staff are gone, you're nothing.

MK : No, I'm the monkie kid.

Macaque : What was that now? I couldn't quite hear you!

This exchange right now really is the last push you need to understand Macaque's agenda better. In this moment Macaque could have everything he wanted, MK was literally serving himself on a silver plate yet Macaque still refused and instead kept taunting him with the one thing he knows MK will get angry about (as he learned in season 2) : his friends. Furthermore, the “I couldn't quite hear you!” is clearly a lie for someone called the Six-eared Macaque, we also learn later in the same season that Macaque has sensitive hearing, clearly Macaque could hear MK perfectly.

Macaque : he still has powers. Good. Things got a lot more interesting.

And that's Macaque's hidden agenda. He wants MK to have his powers, he wants the scale between LBD and MK to be more balanced. Because Macaque's agenda all along was choosing the “winning side”, Macaque goal for this season is survival. Since the beginning of the season, in episode 1, Macaque was already talking about the winning side, moreover the very title of this episode is “winning side”. Macaque is playing a two-faced game here. What I think might confuse the audience in this episode is the dichotomy between imagery and dialogue. Macaque is extra threatening here, every shot of him is taken out of a horror movie, he looks like a full-blown sadist and even goes as far as to hurt MK's friends physically. So when you see a Macaque being this menacing you do think he's in full-blown villain mode. Yet when you take a closer look at his actions and at his words you realize that he's playing a far more subtle game in this war. And after seeing how he's treated by LBD you understand why he's playing this two-faced game. LBD is not a stable ally. Her sense of justice is skewed by her perspective and even her definition of mercy is wrong. She thinks she's in the right and that makes her dangerous, because that makes her impossible to be reasoned with. Macaque knows this, he saw it first hand, so he needs to widen his options without expressly angering LBD.

Also, with the first scene of the episode, I think it's fair to assume that Macaque is pushed by a sense of desperation. He doesn't have the time to sugarcoat what he's doing, he needs MK to step up and regain his powers, and if for this he has to go an extra mile he will.

Because he wants to survive this.

Also, MK going for Macaque blinded eye to defeat him was a nice detail, especially since we can heavily speculate that Wukong was the one responsible for this injury. Everytime MK fights with Macaque, the way MK's moves and throws his punches is very reminiscent of Wukong, which is very natural considering MK is Wukong's mentee, so of course he'll pick up Wukong's habits when it comes to fighting . Yet you know MK is different, especially in this episode where instead of responding to Macaque's insults the way Wukong did in the first episode, he instead tries to reach out to him. MK could have been salty about what happened in season 1 (we know the betrayal hurts greatly based on what he says in season 4, about how everyone betrays him and he feels like a fool) yet unlike Wukong he doesn't respond to the quips.

This episode is really important in the redemption processus, it shows that Macaque agenda is different from LBD's and as such he's not really on her side, the only side Macaque is on is the “winning side”. It also shows the very unbalanced, almost slave/master relationship that LBD and Macaque has which will greatly help to understand Macaque's decision at the end of the season.

Macaque this season is running a survival game and he's trying to get all the chances on his side.

S3 ep8

Macaque doesn't reappear after this until the end of the season. The middle of the season is more focused on the samadhi fire and the different rings. Story-wise, it's necessary to involve Macaque with the rings one way or another for the progression of the plot, if the team managed to get all the rings without any difficulty on Macaque's parts it would have been quite odd. If we take into account the locations of the other two rings (DBK forteresse and the moon) which were two very difficult locations for Macaque to even enter, having him appear at Lantern City was really inevitable.

So Macaque first appears when the team are discussing the rings and what to do about the talent show. This serve as an exposition for Macaque to learn about the samadhi fire and the team's plan but it also highlights a few interesting thing :

Macaque is really tailing the team. In this particular scene he's hiding in the ceiling and eavesdropps on them and it's not the first time he does this (we established he eavesdropped on MK when he repeated MK exact phrasing “baby power” in ep4). On one hand it shows his cautiousness, but on another hand it means Macaque doesn't attack the team at every chance he gets. He could have attacked when Wukong was still meditating or when the team was sleeping, yet he never did. Once again because his goals does not align fully with LBD.

Macaque : the samadhi fire, huh. So that's how you're gonna beat the Lady Bone Demon.

Just after this line Macaque hears LBD threats echoing in his ears : “one misstep, one failure and I'll erase the very memory of you.” and mumbles “We'll see about that” with a very threatening shot. I'll like to point out that this shot is the very similar to the one used in ep 2 when Macaque is attacking Ao Guang :

So clearly it's a face that means he's going to take action. The fact he says “we'll see about that” just after being reminded of LBD threats is a way to indicate he's challenging LBD right now. He knows LBD can be destroyed by the samadhi fire and that gives him an outlet, a hope he didn't have before.

So, yes, right now Macaque decides to betray LBD. For the rest of the episode he will act for his own agenda and not on LBD's orders. Which is I think very important to point out, because if Macaque already betrays LBD this early on in the shows it means that, if given the chance, he would be willing to go against her.

He's willing to go against her.

So Macaque follows Tang until they arrive inside of the giant lantern where the ring resides.

And once again Macaque will first try to belittle Tang to assert his dominance but also perhaps to make him agree with his viewpoint and makes this easier for him :

Macaque : have more guts than I thought. It's… Tang, right? You know it's funny, I thought you're smart, I mean look at the guy he got glasses. If anyone knows where the legendary samadhi fire is, it's the guy sitting in the wing while his friends are busy having fun without him.

So first Macaque tries to adopt a more friendly approach. He's not following LBD's orders right now and he doesn't necessarily want to fight with Tang either. He tries to appear friendly by first praising Tang about his guts (which I think is very well-though considering Tang could be seen as the more cowardly of the bunch, thus by acknowledging his “guts” Macaque gives Tang a sense of validation he doesn't often hear). Then he validates and acknowledges him by saying his name and after this he praises another trait of Tang which is his intelligence. Macaque insists on the legendary nature of the samadhi fire to give a sense of pride to Tang (as if the samadhi fire was an incredibly difficult artifact to find) and he ends his lil speech by trying to create a wedge between Tang and the team.

When he sees that his speech didn't have any effect on Tang and, on the contrary, Tang pushes Macaque away, Macaque immediately adopts a more drastic method by kicking Tang away from the ring.

I think it's telling how Macaque approaches situations such as those. His first and foremost method is always tricking. It's not violence but manipulation, trying to make the other agree to his views and resolve the situation efficiently without having to fight, because fighting can be way more unpredictable than manipulation.

After Macaque kicks Tang away, we got this exchange :

Tang : Stop, the samadhi fire is humanity's last chance.

Macaque : Well humanity is gonna have to find something else. The samadhi fire is my best chance to get as far away from her as possible.

Tang : Surely even you can see that unless we stand together..

Macaque : together? Remind me again exactly what it is you contribute to the team? They seem to get along just fine without you. Don't take it personally Tang, you're buddy Wukong values people by how useful they are to him. Take it from me as an expert in what happens when you get too close to the King. Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will.

Here, Macaque is not even hiding what he's trying to do anymore. Like I said beforehand his goal in this season is his own survival. He doesn't even want to use the samadhi fire to fight LBD but to escape her. Which I think speaks volumes of Macaque's character, despite hating LBD he doesn't think of hurting her, he's thinking of escaping her, because escaping is less dangerous than fighting and Macaque is a very cautious individual when it comes to those matters.

With that being said, I think Macaque's behavior concerning Wukong spoke volumes of how much Wukong really means to Macaque. The only time Macaque is not as cautious as usual is when he's faced with something related to Wukong. In season 1, he goes above and beyond to angers Wukong and fights with him, going as far as using his mentee. For an individual as cautious as Macaque, angering someone like Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is not very in character. Except that Macaque cautiousness goes out of the window when it concerns Wukong, his logical side is being flooded by his own feelings and he loses sight of anything else. In season 2, MK showcasing the same behavior as Wukong is enough for Macaque to take a very impulsive decision and improvise his whole lesson.

Macaque is logical in everything he does, cautious with every plan, every attack, except when it concerns Wukong. Because in this case, his feelings take over.

Macaque's last line : “together? Remind me again exactly what it is you contribute to the team? They seem to get along just fine without you. Don't take it personally Tang, your buddy Wukong values people by how useful they are to him. Take it from me as an expert in what happens when you get too close to the King. Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will.” is very telling about his feelings. First, reminding Tang of his place in the team (or lack thereof) can be seen as him unconsciously relating to Tang, or at least relating to the image of Tang he got in this episode. Tang is benched, “benched” being the title of the episode, and that can remind Macaque of how Wukong also “benched” him in their youth. Then, because of course he did, Macaque keeps going back to Wukong even if Wukong didn't have anything to do with Tang being benched in this episode, it's MK who benched Tang. So not only does it tell that Macaque is not really talking about Tang at this moment but himself, it also shows that at least 70% of Macaque's brain is plagued by thoughts of Wukong (and again 70 is a generous number). Macaque is obviously feeling salty about what happened with Wukong. But beyond that he seems to have a very skewed image of Wukong he created after what happened between them.

We can say that this scene is one of the rare moments of Macaque being genuine, he doesn't smile nor try to be sarcastic, he's genuinely speaking how he feels. He paints Wukong as this cruel person that puts value on people and doesn't care about companionship. He takes his experience with Wukong and tries to justify Wukong’s behavior by saying that Wukong never cared about him. The use of “King” is at the same time meant as an insult but also paints Wukong as this power-driven person who only cared about his position. Macaque constructs an image of Wukong based on everything he lived through and fuels his own hatred with this fake image. Macaque knows Wukong is not like that, he lived with the guy, he knows him, yet he tries to lie to himself, to justify his own hurting and shift the blame entirely on Wukong.

Of course, Tang doesn't agree with this and goes on about the importance of friendship. I think it's a nice detail that Tang defeats Macaque with the help of Pigsy’s singing because it truly does illustrate Tang's speech about standing together with his friends, and winning together.

Moreover, the fact that Macaque was affected by Pigsy's singing is a great callback to his JTTW counterpart. The Six-eared Macaque is canonically described in JTTW as a being with a “sensitive ear”. Having Macaque share the same sensitivity is a nice character trait.

So after this, Tang manages to get a grip on the ring and flee while Macaque is electrocuted by the lantern lighting.

And then, LBD arrives.

Immediately, all lights within the city goes out and everything is plunged in an eerie dark blue.

She knows how to make her entrance.

What is interesting is that contrary to the other interaction between Macaque and LBD, this time Macaque is not even trying to appear intimidating or control the situation. There are no quips, no smiles, no attempts of diffusing the situation, because based on their last interactions he knows it's useless. Macaque is scared and he knows his attempts at being intimidating leads to nothing, so when she chains him, ready to quite literally erase his existence, the only thing he can do is reveal the existence of the samadhi fire.

The situation is even more terrifying because LBD is not even in the frame when she chains Macaque, she gives the illusion of being everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Then LBD gives a fraction of her power to Macaque (which literally makes him scream in pain) and we are left with this last daunting shot (image 2), with Macaque mask passing purple to blue. I like to think that the last shot is a parallel to the third image, where Macaque decided to betray LBD and work for his own goal. The fact that we get more or less the same close up with Macaque’s mask really emphasizes on how Macaque now doesn't have any choices anymore.

The third image is Macaque being determined to follow his own agenda and betray LBD, and the second image is Macaque being caught up by LBD with no choices anymore.

He's at the end of this two-faced game he has tried to play since the beginning.

S3 ep9

First with the title of the episode being the “King, the prince, the shadow” you know it's going to be about Wukong, MK and Macaque.

After the end of the previous episode Macaque is desperate and it shows. For the first time, he doesn't answer Wukong quips even when they're still tailored to pick at his insecurities.

Wukong : So you got bone demon powers now, huh ? Well it is on brand for you to have a worst version of everyone else’s powers.

This quip is made to pick at the same insecurity :Macaque feeling like he's just a shadow, that he's just following Wukong's leads and that he will never be enough. But Macaque doesn't answer, he doesn't even look at Wukong. Instead he takes the rings from Nezha and turns around. Wukong tries again to rile him up but it doesn't work. The fact that Macaque who until now always took the time to answer Wukong's quips doesn't even take the time here speaks volumes of his desperation.

Then Macaque easily sees through Wukong trick and destroys the rings, who turn out to be just hair. The fact Nezha wasn't able to tell the difference and rushed after Wukong but Macaque recognized Wukong's trick at first glance testify how much Macaque knows Wukong and how his mind works.

Macaque : I couldn't care less about what the Lady Bone Demon wants.

This line is important, because after the end of the previous episode you'll think that Macaque will never rebel against LBD, yet again he's not following her orders, he's still on the mindset of taking the samadhi fire and freeing himself from LBD hold. But now more than ever he's out of time, he's driven by despair.

And then we get this shot as Macaque slowly walks towards the mountain (after realizing the rings are with MK) :

I love this shot because despite Wukong being the one physically trapped in the ice, Macaque is also shown to be trapped in it. His reflection is like enclosed in the ice, showing how even if he's free of movements, in reality he's also trapped by the ice, by LBD, enchained by her.

Macaque's next actions are all driven by despair, he's violent, decisive, he wants the samadhi fire and will not take no as an answer. Yet still he tries to talk, still he tries to convince the others. This shows he doesn't like to hurt people, he doesn't want to hurt them, but he doesn't have the luxury to sugarcoat what he's doing. He needs the fire.

Here are some example of Macaque trying to avoid confrontations :

Macaque : Don't get in my way, kid. I don't have time for you. I'm just here for the samadhi fire then I'm done with you all.

And then when MK does get in his way he grabs him and tries to make him understand how much Wukong doesn't have a plan, how much of a mistake it is to trust him.

Macaque : This was the Monkey King's great plan? How do you still not see that he has no idea what he's doing. How about this for a plan? Stay down MK or I will put you down.

The scene is violent, and Macaque is probably upset that those people trust Wukong so much and are willing to follow his lead without questions (perhaps he sees himself in them, how much he followed Wukong without never denying him anything, how he never questioned his lead).

[This is an apparté but people always put a lot of pressure on Wukong for being the one to fix things, for being the one to lead. And I don't think it's fair.]

After this Macaque catches Mei by the throat and poses an ultimatum to Tang (who is the only one able to move and activate the fire) : give the samadhi fire or Macaque will hurt his friends. Macaque knows Tang values his friends a lot after the previous episode and that's probably why he goes with this particular method.

S3 ep10

So the samadhi fire is freed and Macaque finally achieves his goal. We can see how the ice that was slowly crawling over Macaque arms and consuming more and more of him (a symbol of how much LBD was slowly possessing Macaque) is burnt away along with blue chains, the symbols of LBD hold on Macaque.

Macaque is free!

And Macaque first reaction when Wukong rushes towards him in anger is to flee, even if he hates Wukong, he doesn't want to fight right now, his goal is to flee far away from here. I like the detail that Macaque already prepares himself from Wukong's punch and turns his head the moment Wukong raises his fist. It could be an instinctual response to Wukong's fighting stance considering Macaque was at the receiving end of it quite a number of times.

Then, after Mei is consumed by the fire, we got a particularly meaningful exchange between MK and Macaque, while Wukong tries to protect MK from the fire by placing himself at the front.

Macaque : she's completely out of control. If there is a time to go it's now!

MK : No! Mei is my best friend, I'd never abandon her when she needs me.

The fact that the camera focuses on Wukong when MK says those words and that Wukong himself looks back at Macaque with what could only be described as a pained look (most likely of regret)... It's the first time in the whole series that Wukong shows Macaque something other than spite and annoyance, and in turns Macaque looks shocked and doesn't even know what to think of those words.

They both are thinking of what happened to them at this moment. Of how, somehow, they both failed each other and abandoned the other at their time of needs. And there is a lingering regret between them of what could have been, but also of what is right now. It's important to show us this as an audience, to understand the depth of their relationship and how, despite the apparent hatred, there is still something underneath.

MK : We're heroes, it's what we do.

That, I think, is the nail in the coffin. Macaque spends a whole episode in season 2 telling MK how much heroes leave their friends behind, how much heroes chose the world over their own loved ones, how light inevitably brings darkness and that it is impossible for heroes to save both the world and their friends. And MK, here, is proving Macaque wrong. He's redefining everything that Macaque believed about heroes, everything he thought was true because of his own experience with Wukong.

But Macaque still chose to flee at the end of this, and we really cannot blame him, because from the start his goal was surviving, it was to flee far away from this mess.

Yet he comes back later on in the specials and that's something. For the guy who said “Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will” to come back even after being freed, even after achieving his goals, that says something about Macaque as a person and how much he really cares.

So, this post is already quite long and I reached the Tumblr limits on how many images I can put in one post (and I do want to show you guys particular frames and shots in the specials) so I will do a separate post for the season 3 specials!

Thanks for reading this very long rant of mine really, like always you can disagree with me it's really all about interpretations.

S1 / Previous / Next

#lmk #shadowpeach #lego monkie kid #six eared macaque #Lmk macaque #Lmk theory #lmk analysis #Macaque analysis #Macaque study #Lmk thoughts

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prismatic-starstuff · 11 months

Text

Dating mid-game Pinocchio involves...

Smiles! Yes, as your darling puppet's humanity grows, he starts to softly smile now and again; and nothing makes him smile quite as much as you do.

He's still not very expressive, but he gazes at you with so much warmth in his eyes, especially when you're alone.

His curiosity about humans grows as he experiences new things, feels new things. He has so many questions; and because he loves the sound of your voice, he'd just listen to you all day and all night if he could.

For the first time, he starts to show signs of being flustered around you, sometimes not meeting your eyes. Feelings are new to him, and he's feeling them more strongly than ever; were it possible, he'd be blushing and breathless thanks to your presence alone...

Now that he's starting to understand why he's so protective of you, and exactly what it is he feels about you, he's more physically affectionate with you than ever before.

Shoulder and back rubs. He understands human physicality more now, and he likes to soothe you and make you feel nice!

Boldness; not a lot, but glimpses. Sometimes that smile is distinctly playful, sometimes he presses just that bit closer to you than usual, sometimes he seems to be having so much fun as he deliberately teases you...

He's still got those strange little habits of his; still loves listening to you breathe, still loves resting his head on your chest to hear your heart beating.

His interest in stories of human behaviour grows; he takes notes of romantic ideas, whether from novels or anecdotes, and sets up little dates for the two of you to go on within the safety of Hotel Krat.

Your sweet puppet boyfriend is learning more and more, about himself and humanity and you; and although it's a lot for him, he's as loving and supportive as ever and more obvious than ever about showing it. He's still learning, but he knows one thing for certain: he cherishes you.

#lies of p #lies of p pinocchio #lop pinocchio #p x reader #pinocchio x reader #my writing

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total-drama-brainrot · 6 months

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TD World Tour Alenoah AU... Where Noah is immune to Alejandro's fake charm... Instead, Noah gets charmed by the true Alejandro's quirks and dorky interests like dinosaurs and puppets... How would Alejandro feel about Noah only liking Alejandro, when Alejandro is being himself?... Especially since Alejandro's family shuns him for being himself? 🦕🦖🦕

Now you're speaking my language.

One of the most common running themes in all/near enough all Alenoah central AUs is having Noah be the first person to see past Alejandro's persona and actually appreciate the person he is, or at the very least prefer the real Alejandro to his mask of perfection. It's one of the draws of the ship itself; the idea that Noah, being the blunt person that he is, can and will wage a war of attrition against the walls Alejandro has built up around himself- not just to keep others out, but also to repress the more authentic aspects of himself to himself- in order to reveal the person beneath.

I touched on this a little bit in a previous post concerning this AU, but Alejandro and Noah both see glimpses of the other that they try so valiantly to hide- in Noah's case, Alejandro sees hints of the scheming mindset he's pretty much supressed under layers of apathy and sloth (as Noah's laziness is one of his biggest character foils, alongside his snarky attitude), and in Alejandro's case he reveals tid bits of information about the Real Alejandro, not the persona he's usually portraying himself as, which is enough to humanise him in Noah's eyes.

They both become People Of Interest in each other's eyes, because they're both puzzles to be solved. Alejandro's curious and competitive to a fault so he'd dedicate himself to unravelling the layers behind Noah's stony exterior, as he'd see Noah's continued distance as a challenge. That's a given. But the topic at hand here is Noah's interest in Alejandro.

Because Noah's not exactly competitive, so why would he be so interested in unveiling the real Alejandro? That's simple; Noah values authenticity. Look at his friendship group, it consists of people who are unapologetically themselves. Noah is also unapologetically himself, in all of his sarcastic glory. So of course he's see flickers of the real, authentic Alejandro and his natural inquisitiveness would be piqued- a novelty for him, as Noah's staunch apathy generally tends to override any semblance of curiosity.

So Noah goes out of his way to make notes of the small interests Alejandro offhandedly mentions at one point or another, like palaeontology or puppetry or even his fifteen-step skincare routine- things that Alejandro shows genuine excitement or passion over that shines through the cracks of his perfect persona. He sees the dorky giddiness Alejandro experiences when Noah lets him ramble on about how Jurassic Park was incredibly inaccurate from a scientific standpoint but monumental for people's interest in palaeontology (or something along those lines, I don't know I'm not a dinosaur nerd) and suddenly the annoyingly flirtatious faker he's spent the better half of his time on the jet is A Whole Ass Person with interests and passions and a sense of depth he's been so bereft of until now. Suddenly Alejandro's more than just the antagonist of the show Noah's working on, he's an interesting person that the bookworm finds himself wanting to know more about. And, perhaps, he finds himself growing genuinely fond of the person behind the mask.

And he uses those notes to prompt Alejandro into sharing more of himself, the real authentic Alejandro, in the privacy of their interactions.

At first, Alejandro's fairly oblivious to what Noah's doing, since he's so caught up in his own enjoyment of Noah's company plans to essentially do the same to Noah that he barely notices his own tricks being used against him.

Of course, he's also just elated at being able to infodump to someone who isn't outright penalising him for doing so; not that I think Alejandro is even aware that what he's doing is infodumping, nor the fact that he's so obviously autistic, because his family is a particular brand of awful that would never let him get a proper diagnoses and in all likelihood forced him to mask/supress his symptoms.

It isn't until Alejandro realises that he's shared a lot of information about himself that he (as a Burromuerto) is expected to keep close to his chest, and he sees the glimmers of satisfaction in Noah's intelligent eyes, that the archvillain catches on to the fact that he's been played. But the thing that really catches him off-guard isn't the trickery, it's the fact that Noah's done nothing with the uncharacteristic displays of vulnerability.

Alejandro can't understand why Noah hasn't taken advantage of his "weakness" yet. Inevitably leading to him confronting the assistant, as Alejandro isn't the type to "let sleeping dogs lie" so to speak, and he's still very much so in the one-track mindset of winning the competition- thus he assumes that any show of vulnerability can and will lead to his untimely elimination. But when he practically demands that Noah reveal what he's been planning, why he's been sneakily collecting information on him, all Noah can do is shrug his shoulders and say;

"I guess I just like seeing the real you. That's all."

And Alejandro doesn't know how to respond to that. No one's ever wanted the real him, he's always had to play the role of the perfect son, the perfect brother. He doesn't understand.

And like most people when they're faced with a foreign concept they have no basis of behaviour for, he lashes out.

#ending it there on a sort of angsty note #alejandro “please treat me nicely” burromuerto when someone treats him nicely: Don't Know How To Proccess This :(#truthing autistic alejandro that's canon. not even a headcanon just canon #(they're both autistic that's why alenoah works. 50% of their interactions are parallel play)#(alejandro's an infodumper and noah's a listener match made in heaven)#honestly this scenario could be applied to most alenoah aus #but specifically in the assistant au alejandro feels there's a sense of power imbalance since noah DOES have some authority over the--#contestants. and alejandro's needling for information was him punching UPWARDS whilst noah's breaking of his walls was in alejandro's eyes-#an abuse of power. of course that's not the case but alejandro's less concerned with the morality of it and more so concerned with--#the “fairness” of noah knowing a lot about him whilst remaining fairly mysterious.#can you tell i kind of ran out of Writing Juice at the end there?#even outlines are taking it out of me lately. burnout is my enemy.#total drama #td alejandro #td noah #alenoah #assistant noah au #others' ideas #replies #💡 anon

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morgana-artt · 1 year

Text

Silent Words (P x Deaf!GN!Reader)

Note: Just a little thank you to those that commented on my previous post, y'all were so sweet in encouraging me to write, I'm not great at writing but I really hope you enjoy it! My requests are open if anyone has any ideas and I'm also open for criticism especially with things such as deafness, I want to be as respectful as I can be when writing things like that.

Note #2: The reader in this wasn't born deaf but eventually lost their hearing as a child. And pinning, LOTS of pinning because I'm a sucker for that stuff lol

________________________________________

Finally getting back to the hotel, P made his way into the main lobby and greeted Sophia with a nod and she with a wave. "Hello Gepettos puppet, I'm glad you are back safe. Did you manage to get to the factory?", she asked as P nodded in reply, "That's good. Please take a rest you deserve it" she smiled as P nodded and made his way to Eugenie, his legion arm wasn't doing good and needed an upgrade.

Upon walking to that section of the room, he caught a glimpse of a new face- or the back of the head of someone he had never seen before. Remembering how Sophia said to introduce himself to new people as a way to be polite (of course when doing this outside of the hotel he had to be careful and wary), he walked towards the piano room and saw you with your back turned reading a book of some sort. He walked closer and mimicked a cough to get your attention- you didn't react. He tried again and still no reaction making him tilt his head, his eyebrows twitched, were you ignoring him on purpose? He walked a little closer before feeling a gentle pull on his arm making him turn around and see Sophia, she smiled, "They are deaf" she stated making P raise an eyebrow causing Sophia to soften her gaze. "They can't hear you which is known as being deaf, there is different types of deafness some people can still hear although poorly and some can't hear at all. They arrived here not too long ago, still... introduce yourself they're nice" she said with a smile as P turned around and faced you, so you couldn't hear? P had yet to learn about disabilites and yet it intrigued him, while he did say a few words he was rather silent for the most part which he preferred. One reason was that his voice sounded flat and the second reason was that he saw no point in being talkitive for the sake of being talkitive.

He stood up straight and walked towards you before gently tapping your shoulder causing you to turn around, your (E/C) eyes stared at him before giving him a smile. "Hello" you said quietly, P nodded his own way of a hello. "Are you also staying at this hotel?" your voice soft and a little scratchy as if you didn't want to disturb the silence of the library. P nodded, he pointed to your ears making you blinked in confusion before realising what he meant, "Ah, yes. I can't hear, haven't been able to since I was 8" you explained to the puppet who watched you intently. "Are you...P? I've been told there was a special puppet around and I'm assuming you're him?" you asked, P as usual gave a silent nod, still looking at your ears. A voice called out for P, it was Eugenies. P bowed to you before making his way to his legion arm upgrader, you smiled as you faced back to the book in your hand.

Sometime passed and P made his way to the piano room again but found you with Miss Antonia, he watched as you were moving your hands in certain ways without opening your mouth and speaking while Antonia was chatting with you.

This interested P, you were moving your hands and fingers in certain ways towards your face and outwards. He walked towards you making you turn your head, you waved and noticed him staring at your hands, "I'm using sign language, it helps me communicate more easily without having to speak" you said, your voice hoarse which indicated that you didn't speak very often yet made the effort to explain it to him which stirred something in him. You, forcing yourself to use your voice in order for him to understand your movements made him feel a bit bad (though how is that possible? He was just a puppet after all). His eyebrows furrowed as he scooted closer to you and pointed to your hands then at him to then you, you blinked as Antonia chuckled "I think he wants to learn from you" she stated as you let out a small 'oh!'.

You smiled at him and excused yourself from Antonia and sat on the couch and waving your hand for P to come sit with you which he did. "I'll teach you some simple conversations" you said as you began to teach him things like 'Hello', 'How are you?', 'I'm feeling...', etc... It took him a while to move his hands in certain ways (especially his legion arm) he made a few mistakes but that only made you smile before correcting him. 'There you go! You did really well!' you signed and clapped, he hung his head a little as if getting embarrased and also feeling something stir in him more. 'Thank you...' he signed back, he enjoyed this and wanted to learn more but he saw the time and pointed at the clock making you turn your head, 'ah...probably should go to bed. Thank you for taking the time to learn with me P, stuff like this...means a lot' you signed and stood up along with P, 'Goodnight P' you signed before gently touching his arm making the cogs in his chest turn even more. With that, you walked off to bed. P watched you before putting his head down, he felt determined to learn more as he enjoyed speaking that way and with you no doubt.

He walked to Antonia on anything about sign language, she located him to a section of books that would help him and he set off to learn. At times through the days you would catch him reading intently, "P? What are you reading?" you said as he then quickly hid the book at his side and signed 'Nothing important. Also you don't need to talk, it's okay', you blinked 'oh? Have you been practising?' you chuckled as he stared at you, he WAS practising and he was doing it for you so you didn't feel obliged to use your voice and hurt your throat more.

As the days passed, you were still staying at the hotel and was sitting next to the fire with the hotels cat in your arms. During the days, you would converse with P via sign language and you noticed him getting better and better which made you have a sense of pride as you thought it was really sweet of him trying. Staring into the orange wisps of the fire you heard footsteps approach, turning your head you saw your puppet friend approach you as he sat next to you. 'Busy day?' you signed, 'Yes, many puppets, I can smell the oil...it stinks' he said, his face scrunching up. You could see him changing more and more every time he came back and with the biggest change of them all- was his hair. You really liked it like that and wanted to play with it, would P be okay with that? 'Hey, P...' he tilted his head at you, 'can I...play with your hair?' you signed to him making him sit up straight- he nodded a bit too enthusiastically for his liking but he liked all the little touches from you, despite not being able to hear you, you would sit next to him as he tried to play the piano with your hand on top of the instrument and feeling the vibrations with your eyes closed and your shoulder touching his. He loved moments like that.

You smiled and sat in front of him, his legs opened with you between them with your own legs at the side of his waist as you ran your fingers through his silky brown/blackish hair. His eyes immediatly closed as he felt his ergo stir inside him, he leaned closer to you pulling you closer by your waist making you blush, his head now into the crook your neck as you played with his hair. With becoming more human he could now smell so him being able to smell a soft almost flowery scent from you made him move closer into you, he pulled back after a few minutes and looked directly into your eyes for signing, 'You smell nice', ah... bless this puppet he was so direct that he forgot humans get a bit flustered at stuff like that- you included. Your face heated up more, 'Antonia was kind enough to lend me a perfume-', 'It suits you' he replied back as he went back to the position you two were in previously. You had a feeling he knew what he was doing sometimes. Cheeky thing.

With more days passing you and P would have fully fledged conversation in sign language, the only person who really understood was Antonia but she didn't take notice of your private conversations...sort of. She would catch phrases here and there. She smiled as she glanced at the two of you sitting on the floor signing away with a smile while P would stare, his gaze looking more lovingly as the more you delved into your story. P would glance at your hands and at the one that was closest to him, the more time he spent with you the more he wanted to be close to you and with this language you were speaking with just the two of you he felt so close to you. It was just him and you, conversing in your own little world and he enjoyed that.

Later one night you were looking out the window, getting to the Krat hotel was dangerous you remember almost being hit as you didn't hear puppets and it frustrated you. You can fight but you're no where near as good as P or even a stalker. You sighed but any feeling of despair was quickly washed away as you felt a familiar presence next you and knowing who it was you didn't bother to turn around and smiled as you felt a head on your shoulders. 'Hello you' you signed as P leaned closer to you, 'You aren't asleep yet? Are you okay?' he asked and you shook your head 'I'm...doing okay. The city has become so...isolating and depressing it's hard not to think about it how many lives have been lost and how lucky- or unlucky- I am to have to surived for so long.' You faced P, 'P...I know it's only been a few days but...I really care for you. I'd even call you a dear friend and even a...ahem, well, You've done a lot for the people of Krat and I just hope you know that you have my support no matter what. P, I...' you couldn't say it. The three words you wanted to say, they wouldn't come out, as if your fingers were frozen and refused to budge. You sighed, 'I should probably head to bed now...would you like to join me?' you asked shyly as P nodded not a moment after.

You were already in pj's and watched as P took his coat and shoes off now only in a plain shirt and pants (which were thankfully clean) and headed into the bed with you, laying next to you he gently moved his legion hand towards your face the cold finger tips grazing your ear making you shiver slightly as you close your eyes and lean closer into him, you could feel...beating? You could feel his heart beat making you smile as if it was like music to your touch. It wasn't long before you drifted off to sleep knowing P would alert you if anything were to happen.

Without your knowledge, P signed you something that you wouldn't be able to see but he meant every word of it. The three words that wouldn't come out of you either.

'I love you'

And with that he pulled you close, hoping one day he'll get to express those words to you but for now he enjoyed all the little moments with you and that was good enough for him right now.

#lies of p x reader #lies of p #lies of p imagines #p x reader #x reader #morganaawrites

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