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theomnicode · 2 years

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Indomitable minds

There seems to be a theme with few characters in the series which depict a certain type of element in their eyes.

Eyes in OPM are very important factors.

Each of these characters seem to possess indomitable mind, a strong ego, which won't bend under any type of brainwashing. As commented by Amai-mask in the chapter titled "Indomitable" where Garou monsterizes, but Amai-mask notably resists the monsterization from occuring, despite being angry.

Where he calls Darkshine's mind weak. Because Darkshine submitted to Garou's superior ego.

A very important feature to have if you fight against a being like OPM God, indeed, as Blast does. Who's very existence seems to threathen the psyche, the minds of people. Resisting monsterization with a strong ego and seemingly not giving in to their hearts desires and impulses would be a big deal. Possibly, more than likely, a hereditary trait too OR capable of being taught to others, which might become important later when speaking about Blast and I wonder...Tatsumaki too? She did resist OPM God after all.

So, to become a companion of justice to vanquish evil aka OPM God, one must have this trait. Otherwise they will just fold like paper.

When Fubuki fights Super sadist for the first time, Do-S comments about her strong ego and her incapability of being able to dominate her and make her surrender her heart.

Once the ego resists the attack on the mind, they can fight back with fervor.

Notably, Fubuki is also the only person who does not submit under Saitama's willpower in a battle of egoes, at least not without a good fight. Garou did fold after a good fight...notably OPM God does not fold easily either.

(And wouldn't that be quite the drama if Saitama has been unconsciously just exerting his ego ideals and divine power over other people. One would start to question if they're actually the good guy and if his friends and acquaintances are actually truly there because of him and because they want to be there and interact with him or because he forced them to essentially obey. Ouch. That would shatter anybody's ego in a heartbeat.)

(It begs the question; is Serious Saitama an alter ego? With a much stronger, forceful ego than normal Saitama? In all honesty, it starts to feel like it, their personalities are vastly different, there's probably a reason why they look very different too.)

(There's gonna be a mirror fight down the line with Saitama vs representation of Heroism Saitama isn't there? The internalized Serious Heroism. I can already see a divine power construct of Saitama's hero suit in my mind's eye and his Hero suit getting pissed at him if he was to ever reject the notion of heroism and this alter ego. The most OPM style mirror fight ever, duking with your own clothes inside your inner universe and the winner er, gets to be the dominant ego or...destroy the other ego. That's an inner struggle if I've ever heard of one.)

Brainwashing can occur by exploitation of cognitive dissonances in the mind, aka not indomitable mind, to create vulnerabilities in the heart. People who have indomitable minds have less inner struggles within themselves than most, it would appear. Inner struggle being the conflict of who the person actually is.

Garou is notably an individual who is also conflicted about himself and who he is.

It is the series theme that Saitama has...quite large inner struggles. It is the key point in the entire series. It means that his ego is actually very fragile, because he postures a lot and tries to appear to be very strong when in truth, he has not let go of the notions that he feels weak. Traumas from childhood upbringing aren't easy to solve and will only fester when left unchecked.

Saitama is not actually very self-confident or has good self-esteem or self-image at all and when thrust into an unfamiliar situation where he is unsure how to proceed, after he got a major ego blow that his heroic intuition is actually not working properly (which he probably still subconsciously recalls), he doubts himself. Though it is a classic INFJ personality trait to doubt themselves.

(As much as I can gather, he feels like INFJ personality type to me but I could be mistaken. But a lot of what is said about the INFJ type ring true for Saitama. Grain of salt here.)

(If the heroic ego of himself, ENFJ personality type and hilariously called "Protagonist" which is extraverted personality type, got a major ego blow and he essentially threw it into the trash bin, it would mean the other ego asserts itself as the more dominant ego.)

Therefore, Saitama is very vulnerable to brainwashing and being exploited that way, at this point in time.

Who's to say he's not already BEING brainwashed though or there is not an attempt being made? We've had plenty imagery and metaphors to go, like where Saitama stands atop monsterized sun and where God's gaze is fixated on his bald head. Though in that image where Saitama stands as the pillar of society, the lazer like focus is reflected from his head.

(I should go back and read that chapter, maybe Saitama having light-bulb moments of clarity because he's more assured of himself is means of protection for himself.)

Who doesn't love some good ol' metaphors. Serious table therapy to fight cognitive dissonance and then OPM god was like "nah I don't like where this is going, it's timetravel time".

Then exerted more control over Garou's mind and his emotions, made him see threats where they did not exist and messed with Saitama's intuition on purpose, to deal a major ego blow, so the more vulnerable personality comes to the surface.

Basically, Serious Saitama is an ego-boost and a defence mechanism for his mind.

Saitama unconsciously defends his physical form with his divine powers, he has apparently unconsciously constructed something to defend his mind too. But the lack of confidence is very telling of what happened. Ego loss that can lead to ego-death.

In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism (American English: defense mechanism), is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors. Defence mechanisms may result in healthy or unhealthy consequences depending on the circumstances and frequency with which the mechanism is used.[4] Defence mechanisms (German: Abwehrmechanismen) are psychological strategies brought into play by the unconscious mind[5] to manipulate, deny, or distort reality in order to defend against feelings of anxiety and unacceptable impulses and to maintain one's self-schema or other schemas.[6] These processes that manipulate, deny, or distort reality may include the following: repression, or the burying of a painful feeling or thought from one's awareness even though it may resurface in a symbolic form;[4] identification, incorporating an object or thought into oneself;[7] and rationalization, the justification of one's behaviour and motivations by substituting "good" acceptable reasons for the actual motivations.[4][8] In psychoanalytic theory, repression is considered the basis for other defence mechanisms. Healthy people normally use different defence mechanisms throughout life. A defence mechanism becomes pathological only when its persistent use leads to maladaptive behaviour such that the physical or mental health of the individual is adversely affected. Among the purposes of ego defence mechanisms is to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety or social sanctions or to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot currently cope.

(Again a personality trait of INFJ is being extremely introverted intuitive, being able to read patterns and picking up details and feelings to the point it is said they can guess and almost predict the future. Saitama has the added superhuman factor bonus so...he probably can actually and that's how he seems to fight.)

Extraverted intuition however, just will not work for Saitama, because it will just confuse him and make him doubt himself even more and susceptible to outside influences as form of validation to what he's doing. Then cause executive dysfunction because he's conscentious and pressured to do the right thing, but not knowing how to proceed. The reason why he did not go to Garou's aid when other heroes were attacking him and he was prone on the ground.

An excellent example of executive dysfunction is found in the WC scene where Garou demands Saitama to explain his brand of heroism to him, when literally everyone is watching with expectations and Saitama yells back that he doesn't fucking know.

(It is interesting that both wc garou and manga garou make note that Saitama doesn't seem to have everything at home inside his head, at least when manga Saitama has reached beyond god status. The visual effects are also interesting and found from multiple occasions, like when Pig god ate evil natural water and during ce vs phoenixman. Then Saitama conveniently steps in and says "Becoming evil doesn't give you glory at all.")

(Genus is right on the money, to become a god, one also becomes insane. Manga Saitama did teeter on the brink of being unhinged yep.)

For INFJ, there is a need to have external confirmation from others to feel good about doing what they wanted to do anyway. They just go by feeling it out and grasping social cues is something they do subconsciously and it's not something that can be really explained. But self-doubt can make such a person really rely on other people validating what they are doing is right. Even routine actions and having someone watch over your shoulder who is in a position of superior authority (like a boss for instance), can easily disrupt executive functions of such a person and make their brain do apple load screen and fall back on defense mechanism and any possible avenue of learned behaviour and actions to salvage the situation.

Which is to say that Saitama's true personality seems to be coming through more now, the one he had really repressed as a defence mechanism, after Garou fight and ONE keeps crafting masterfully done scenes to illustrate many things very subtly. The fallback on executive dysfunction for manga Saitama seems to be to empathize. It's something he has learned on his journey, where at the start he had forgotten his humanity to the point he did not empathize.

WC Saitama on the other hand...he learned from the past that when that happens, when he doesn't know how to proceed and how to do the right thing and how to empathize, the solution becomes...

Bullying the other into submission.

Learned and adopted at an early age of how he can defend himself.

An extremely worrying factor if you ask me. That's the dark side of the personality shining through. Garou's entire self shattered at that point in the WC and he gave up completely.

That's to say, the lack of empathy, compassion and kindness, is a hallmark of humanity. Becoming godlike, we're being shown that one is detatched from these qualities of humanity.

(INFJ personality type with no empathy...has the capability of becoming very dark. Just putting that there.)

Anyways...

Saitama's inner struggle is going to be a major weak point. It will be exploited. By opening his heart, he opens himself up more for vulnerabilities.

Strong willpower does not mean indomitable mind after all.

Yet it is apparent that if he does not do this and open up his heart, his true personality would be hidden away and then dissolved or...worse.

But there are people out there who can teach Saitama to be at ease with himself and who he actually is. He only needs to reach out.

(There's a reason why Blast is dad and Sekingar is married. Self-confidence, being very handsome and having heart are all very attractive traits for raising family after all.)

(I want the epilogue to feature Saitama with his new family, holy shit, I need this wholesomeness.)

#opm #one punch man #opm meta #saitama #amai-mask #fubuki #blast #opm god #brainwashing #ego #intuition #infj personality #inner struggle #super sadist #do-s #garou #opm manga panels #long #opm wc panels

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birlwrites · 2 years

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heya! so, you’ve explained how people outside of his circle perceive regulus in general, which i find really interesting because it’s clear that he is actively trying to paint himself in a certain way, and it’s working. (because of course it is. it’s regulus black we’re talking about. outside of performing charms and being in touch with his emotions, he can do just about anything).

but i’m curious about how people closer to him see him (namely barty, who is his best friend and therefore probably knows him better than anyone), like his friends and the people who have already joined his cause. like, who was surprised to see him turning into a budding dark lord, and who was like ‘well, if anyone’s going to do that, of course it’s regulus black.’, and who was like ‘finally. took you long enough.’ who genuinely understands the kind of person he is and how he works (i’m guessing barty, obviously. and sirius, to an extent, or at one point in time, at least. but is anyone else observant enough to understand?)

i’m just. curious about what conclusions are drawn and expectations are met once he lets people see a little more. <3

the biggest benefit of regulus's public image is that it's something that's fairly easy for him to keep up - it's very tailored to what his personality is actually like, combined with what's expected of him as a black/heir black in general

oooooo okay so i'm going to go through what barty, evan, marlene, heather, lily, and sirius think/will think, in that order! (why that order? idk lol that's just the order in which they came into my head)

BARTY:

so, we know from chapter one that like. barty wasn't really... *expecting* regulus to do this, at least not anytime soon - he was kind of resigned to a future in which all of *his* connections would be swept up into the death eaters and in order to get ahead of that, he'd need to do it too

the main reason that barty didn't expect it is because it's an oddly broad course of action for regulus, who usually likes keeping his actions confined to the fairly narrow scope set out for him by his family. in that conversation, regulus doesn't actually *state* that his parents broached the subject of him taking the mark over the holidays, but once barty puts that together, he's like 'actually this makes perfect sense. this is exactly the sort of 'i don't want to go through, so i'll go around' thinking that i expect from regulus, just in an extreme way'

he never once questions whether regulus is CAPABLE of making it work, though. in barty's years of friendship with regulus, he has come to the conclusion that regulus is very much a 'still waters run deep' sort of person - he really likes not letting people see all his cards, but he still knows how to play them, you know? barty has a lot of faith in regulus's ability to just. appear out of nowhere and take over, such that it looks organic and even spontaneous, but was actually being carefully set up for quite some time

so despite barty's mild surprise at regulus suggesting it, he's immediately on board, 100% confident that regulus can and will pull this off

i also think in general, barty is most aware of how regulus just... thinks through possible courses of action and picks his favorite with absolutely zero regard for questions like 'is this remotely reasonable.' he thinks 'will this get me what i want' and 'is it feasible' and 'what is the cost-benefit analysis' and then he decides. so 'is it reasonable for a fifteen-year-old student to take on two incredibly well-established wizards with their own devoted followings' never factors in. and honestly, i think barty admires that? just. no fucks given, i can do it so i will

EVAN:

not surprised. not even remotely surprised. gleeful over being right, though

evan's lack of surprise actually comes from not knowing regulus as well as barty does at the beginning of the story. he's been witnessing regulus's creative problem-solving strategies since they were little, and when they arrive at hogwarts, evan is better equipped than barty is to identify shifting power structures and significant actors. he sees the nuts and bolts of what regulus has been doing all along, so his perception of why regulus can pull this off is a little less 'he just always does this' and a little more 'he knows exactly what he's doing and this is calculated,' in comparison to what barty thinks

like, barty is also very aware that regulus is calculating stuff and not just magically taking over, but evan sees those processes, if not from the exact beginning, then from pretty early on. so they don't seem as natural to him - he's watching the gears turn all along and not just seeing the end result and reverse-engineering the process

so, like barty, evan is confident that regulus knows what he's doing. evan also thinks that whether regulus wins is somewhat dependent on luck and HIGHLY dependent on who he recruits and how effectively he does it.

the reason evan is so unsurprised by regulus doing All Of This is because he kind of... okay, you know how in this post i said regulus gives most people the impression that he's just biding his time until he inherits? evan got that impression very strongly, but rather than 'until he inherits,' evan looked at all the machinations in slytherin (totally unnecessary if you're heir black, really - slightly more justified for the spare, but still, why put in all that EFFORT when you're already on top) and went 'oh, he's not just waiting around to inherit a lordship.'

like, what evan gets from regulus is a sense that regulus is PREPARING. for what, he doesn't know exactly, but it must be big. and as soon as regulus goes against the junior death eaters (afhskghjsfh the more i call them that the harder it is not to call them that in the text of ttdl, but IT REALLY DOES GET THE POINT ACROSS), evan goes 'ah. targets are future death eaters, so regulus is clearly not planning to be one of their colleagues. anti-voldemort? anti-servitude? either way, not pro-dumbledore, and in control of our dark arts study group, AND a future lord, so.... why shouldn't he chart his own path?'

and evan, who also would like to chart his own path but is well aware that it's incredibly difficult and risky, is HOPING that 'dark lord' is in fact regulus's goal and that evan can take advantage of that for his own purposes. and then he's proven right!! wooooooooo

MARLENE:

definitely falls into the 'if anyone's going to do that, of course it's regulus black' camp. envision an absolutely massive groan. marlene, unlike barty and evan, does NOT believe (at first) that regulus can pull it off - she just thinks he's deranged enough to think he can, especially now that he's heir black. being a black does weird things to your ego. she's friends with sirius she Knows

once marlene gives it some more thought, she stops groaning about it, especially since lily is SOLD and regulus did make some good points when marlene went to talk to evan. marlene's kind of like 'once you realize it's not totally an ego trip, it actually starts sounding doable......... which is a terrifying concept, but if he can pull it off, i'm in, so might as well take the risk instead of letting lily do it on her own'

and she's somewhat comforted by regulus's fairly subtle approach that we're seeing atm in ttdl - he's not trying to do anything wild like actually go fight actual death eaters, he's focused on cutting off their recruitment by making the junior death eaters the most unpopular kids in school. and that seems downright reasonable. marlene isn't sure yet how *effective* it'll be, but at the moment, it isn't costing her anything except some uncomfortable conversations with slughorn (and let's be real - she would have been delighted to stuff stinging nettles down mulciber's robes anyway)

HEATHER:

sees regulus's dark-lord-y ambitions as a very political goal and less of a...... magical/legendary one. this is partially because that's how he's framed it when he's talking to her. really, she's told him her thoughts about what he needs for it to play out

i think heather is still a little bit skeptical about whether regulus is actually going to really go all the way with this, or whether he's going to make some progress and then peter out before actually taking it public, you know? like, when push comes to shove, regulus is going against his family in doing this - the official stance of house black is still toujours pur. so heather has some doubts about whether regulus is going to be able to stick to his guns when he reaches the point of needing to make that official, or if he's going to end it rather than risk being in conflict with his parents

politically, though, the only really surprising thing is that regulus is so willing to hitch himself to muggleborn advancement. and maybe it's really a power play, and regulus doesn't really feel passionate about supporting muggleborns but he sees the political opportunity in supporting them and intends to take it. that would not surprise heather at all

but in the meantime, he's doing something, and heather is going to use that as much as she can

LILY:

figures this is no less insane than everything else that's happening in magical britain, politically speaking. the war is... a hot mess, really, with no clear victor in sight. it's exhausting to keep up with the news and if sirius's little brother has decided to do something about it, and is almost uniquely well-positioned at hogwarts to do just that? more power to him. literally, because lily wants to DO SOMETHING, and if signing on with regulus means she can feel a little less helpless, she's all for it.

(marlene's admittance that it's plausible that regulus could actually win makes a big difference for lily - they talked about it a lot before lily was like 'ok i'm joining' and marlene was like 'ok then i am too')

and finally...

SIRIUS:

wishes (will wish - i'm putting all of this in present tense for simplicity, but as you're well aware, this Reveal hasn't actually happened yet in the narrative) he could be surprised.

he is, a little - mostly in the 'regulus, this is the least efficient way you could pOSSIBLY address your situation, what the fuck' way, and regulus being a blood traitor is new, but regulus being a budding dark lord? nah. the contents of regulus's trunk are obscenely valuable in terms of dark arts knowledge to just be.... carting to and from school with you? multiple times a year? and regulus has been doing that since literally first year. he entered hogwarts for the first time EVER with a trunk full of illegal dark arts books. just for funsies. he wasn't even old enough to join the slytherin study group and he still did it

mostly, sirius is surprised because this is so....... much? like it's a really over-the-top reaction to walburga being like 'hey join the death eaters once you come of age'?

(but to regulus, running away is the *more* extreme reaction, compared to his very reasonable 'my parents want to support and preserve dark arts, i don't want to torture muggleborns, Let's Compromise' approach)

once sirius talks to regulus enough to really gauge that thought process, he's going to be like 🤦‍♀️ i don't know what i expected

like. regulus has A Way of coming at things, which barty knows about and sirius does too - the 'i don't want to go through, so i'll go around' approach. it can get convoluted. he likes to sneak around the real conflict (often substituting in smaller, mini conflicts) and pop up on the other side, semi-victorious. he very rarely comes at anything head-on.

sirius hasn't *witnessed* a lot of the goings-on in slytherin, though, which is why his lack of surprise is more about 'of course regulus would think this was a reasonable response' and less about 'regulus is well suited to this course of action.' sirius, being the heir right up until he wasn't, hasn't actually been in a position to witness many of regulus's machinations. he's going to be surprised by the strength of some other people's convictions that regulus *can* do it

#ok this one is for the reading and response for one of my classes #should i make an inbox tag #dark lord wip #afsjglhskfhg i feel like there's so much more to say but this post has already gotten SO LONG

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lilikags · 3 years

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Kamisato Ayato HCs

a/n: ik we know next to nothing about this man but here are my thoughts on him. no i do not believe in the scara = ayato theory. (its fine if u do tho just i don’t)

Ayato is also a truly gentle soul but has to be tough in politics work. At home, he treats all servants with respect and gives them reasonable schedules, unlike some other heads in Inazuma. He allows them to take days off, and as long as they do their work, he’s happy. When meeting with other officials, he’s headstrong and blunt, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone and strives to keep meetings short. He keeps his points till he is forced to step down or gets his way. Many of these old men see him as a hot headed young man, but he just cannot afford to see injustice in the people. He will show respect to Baal, but he will voice his opinions that represent the citizens of Inazuma.

ayato works better in the morning and night, afternoons are a bit of a drag to him. The thought of being able to work alone comfortably allows him to work best. The factor that allows him to work best is the fact that he is alone during these times; he prefers to get his thought process finished before showing it to anyone, with fear that he will be judged negatively before the idea is fully fleshed out. Everyone is awake in the afternoon, and only from evening to early morning is when Ayato can truly focus, for the fear of being judged is minimal. He is often treated like he’s lazy in the political courts, however there is no disputing his policies are quite thought out.

he often stays up late and tries not to sleep in the early afternoon, but sometimes he just ends up falling asleep at that time. The schedule that allows him to work best is to work till lunch, sleep till the evening, then get back to work.

When Ayato takes his naps in the afternoon, he puts his hand protectively around your waist and snuggles his face into your neck. He puts the curtains up but a bit of light comes though, when it’s summer you can feel a light breeze through the windows and the sound of birds chirping from the gardens. It smells like afternoon dew, and the fountain in the garden is what you can hear most clearly. Within minutes, you can hear Ayato lightly snoring, his breath slowing into a steady rhythm.

Ayato loves traditional Japanese gardens, he finds serenity in walking through them alone. He’ll often find himself in he garden his grandfather built and he’s just listen to nature when he has the time. Oftentimes, he’ll be found doing this in the early afternoon, before getting ready to take his nap in the afternoon. He’ll stroll in the evenings too, to help him properly wake up from the sleeping haze he was in before.

Ayato wants to believe the other heads of clans care about the people of Inazuma, but he knows they’re just sucking up to Baal. He doesn’t want to show disloyalty, but he also wants to help the citizens in his line of work. He’ll often switch between what Baal wants and what he believes is best for the people, and he’s known for his brilliant policies on both sides. If he’s feeling up to it, he can convince a unanimous vote in his favor for the policy made for the people. Sometimes, he’ll disguise it to be one of their liking, but in due time, it’ll turn on them.

Ayato is very good at predicting the future. No, he’s not any sorts of prophet, but he often runs simulations of everything. This allows him to see what might happen in he future, and he will make decisions accordingly. Of course, he can’t truly predict using anything else than logic and reason, and sometimes, he could be wrong. After all, he doesn’t know everything and he’s still human.

Ayato is very proud of his sister. He admires how she can help the people directly in her own way and is proud of her success. His sister is more important to him than his parents, though his parents are still important to him. He often tells her to take care of herself, but he’s the one that needs to be told that.

Ayato often stays home for his line of work and only goes out when he needs to attend a meeting. As the head of the Kamisato clan, he does have things to take care of in the clan as well, though his and Ayaka’s younger sister tries to help him on that. His family has been pressuring him to marry a woman to take care of these affairs, but he’s not ready yet and as the head of the clan, he has the power to refuse. Though, he has lost support within a few factions attempting to gain power through marriage or connections.

Daughters of faction leaders have often been introduced to Ayato in an attempt to gain his favor through them, though he’s shown to be fair to everyone and showing no favoritism. He’s quite closed off and only truly cares about his siblings and parents.

Ayato often walks barefoot in his room, where he usually is. He works and sleeps in the same room, and he wears his slippers when he goes out of his room. His room’s a mess and the servants are only allowed to sweep the floors and do maintenance. There are lots of books and papers scattered, and it’s an organized mess.

Ayato knows that sometimes, violence is inevitable to solve certain problems, but he’s rather not in all occasions. He’s not at all inept at fighting, but his strong point is in politics. His attacks are quick and forceful; if one must engage in violence, it should be done quickly. He probably has a hydro vision. He has little defensive capabilities but can dish out lots of damage quickly. His skill set would most likely make him a main dps. As he gets tired quickly, his stats make him very strong in the beginning and decrease slowly until he is swapped off the field.

Modern!AU: this man knows all the laws and has never gotten in trouble. He drives very carefully and simply sighs when he sees someone not following them. He is always cautious and always prioritizes safety over everything.

taglist; @paradise-creator

#kamisato ayato #genshin #genshin impact #ayaka #kamisato ayaka #ayato #inazuma #kamisato clan

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meili-sheep · 3 years

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The Leyline!Diluc au Anon here!!! So glad you got my ask im so happy ajdbdn

But!!! I'm still here to talk about Leyline Diluc!!!

Anyways, He knows many things, ancient knowledge in a forgotten language, and the forgotten language itself

Maybe he's gotten in contact with the Leyline's memories of the Primordial one and their shades? And also lemme say this: He would absolutely know about Kaeya's secret before he was even told.

And I'd like to think, because irimisul trees mayhaps play a huge factor in a domain's existance, Diluc has a whole library domain within the Leylines itself, only he can enter it as there's no physical doors to go in, he just connects to any Leylines around and so can immediately transport himself to other domains or his own private domain

And Maybe there's like, an Entity within the leylines who's sole purpose is cataloguing the information within, and maybeee helps a much younger Diluc how to manage these abilities, I'd like to call this Entity: "Dial", Diluc would probably mistakenly call them either mom/dad on many occasions, and within the private domain where they usually hang, Time doesn't go on, Diluc can stay there for as long as he likes and come back without much difference in Tevyat's time.

Also!!! Apperantly, places like drapgonspine and the thunderbird's island in inazuma(i don't remember the name) have messed up leylines, even more so in the thunderbird island as it's replaying the same events over and over again, those places would probably give him a sensory overload and probably trigger the Entity coming out of the Leylines to asses the situation, which is of course, a sign of messed up leylines in the location

And Diluc won't get overwhelmed by info in his private domain, which is basically a huge endless library in an equally endless spire. Here, The leyline's info is instead catalogued into books, the walls or the floor platforms move up or down according to info Diluc wants or needs!

Leylines are also connected to the elements!! So Diluc being able to handle various elements at once would be so op holy shit. Maybe he can use Celestial magic and Abyss magic as well! Basically- as long as a type of magic existed at one point, even if it is limited to one being(such as the abilities of the Istaroth maybe?) as long as it existed at one point, The leylines know it and Diluc can use it

Oh my god this opens up the idea of this:

The traveler is currently just, tired of having to set up a team of certain elements to solve puzzles in their journey and so expresses these woes to Diluc, who then casually says "Well why didn't you say so? I hope Dial won't mind me resonating you with the rest of the 7 elements if you want" which prompts the Traveler to go "I'm sorry WHAT"

I have another au as well but i may send it later if i deem it good enough who knows :)))

Also: Diluc would absolutely know what happened to Childe, he would. Albeit unintentionally, he can't exactly control the amount of info the leylines flow through him, he can only control the topic but sometimes the Leylines would just give him a person's whole life story, like it did with Kaeya

And that's all I got for this ask sigjssk if i send it twice then that means I thought it got eaten, i will info dump more next time >:]]]

Please do continue to share. I honestly love the idea. Though it would just absolutely make Diluc so ridiculously op. A little balancing might help make it a little more inserting. Especially if you ever want a write it out. A really easy balance would be for him to have frequent migraines or a cost for using abilities not tied to his vision that he is just pulling for the ley line. To remind us, Diluc is just a human.

Also with Diluc and Kaeya's story, it would make their whole dynamic a lot more interesting. Same with Childe (though I imagine Childe helping through Diluc getting sensory overloads)

Ah, sorry you got my inner editor going, lolol. But I really look forwards to your other ideas!

#Leyline!Diluc #diluc #diluc ragnvindr #I do really look forwards to hearing more from you #I don't wanta say too much #as i love your idea and don't want mess with your vision #Leyline!Anon

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lovelylogans · 3 years

Text

the himbo chronicles

part i | part ii

part of the wyliwf verse.

warnings: kissing, underage drinking, kissing with consent while under the influence, please let me know if i’ve missed anything else!

pairings: roman/logan, offscreen patton/virgil

word count: 8,877

notes: i simply could not resist writing about these good good boys for a moment longer. i love them. this work takes place in the late summer/early fall between logan’s freshman and sophomore year of college, or almost four years after the main storyline. if you need a quick rundown of the characters (i know seven new characters might be a lot to digest!) here’s a quick guide to each of the boys. please enjoy!

⁂

one had a certain expectation when it came to many college-aged boys living in the same house together. partying. general revelry. chaos. messy surroundings. the loud blaring of video games. more than just a touch of hedonism, certainly.

logan sanders is a rather atypical college-aged boy. in his past reveries when considering college, he'd thought of the libraries he'd spend hours in, the books he'd pore over, the professors that would come to mentor him. perhaps the occasional errant thought of a party he'd be dragged to, but then his brain had moved to college newspapers and their framing on pieces when it came to excessive drinking and how to interview fraternity presidents concerning their unsettling hazing rituals.

during his senior year, a fair amount of his fretting had transitioned into how to handle the distance from his father, patton, and pseudo-father, virgil, back home in sideshire, which proved itself solved quite handily; yale is close enough that it's not even a notably long drive. the other worrisome part, though, were how to visit his long-term boyfriend, roman, who was no longer even in the same state. but they'd made it work, over the past year, and logan is currently sitting in an armchair he'd dragged over to the front window of the house, trying and miserably failing to pay attention to some of his class reading.

once he'd gotten to college, though, those social expectations for the rest of his peers had certainly been proven, if simply by virtue of examining the rest of his classmates. his life, however, seems ill-contented to have left it at that; he can safely say that his social circle is not entirely like he'd expected his college friends to be.

for instance, as he hears the creaking of the old wood floors behind him—

"if you start making fun of me for waiting by the window for roman again i will take points from your good noodle chart," logan threatens, and adam scampers off with barely-contained snickering.

he had not expected to have to say that sentence during his college years at all.

there's a hastily-stifled laugh, and logan swivels around to see jordan, who is certainly paying very studious attention to his own class reading.

logan's eyes narrow at him.

"you usually study in the kitchen," logan says, just barely keeping an accusing tone out of his voice.

"more natural light in here," jordan says, nodding to the window, his lip caught between his teeth.

logan scowls.

"...okay," jordan relents, "and—"

"i knew it."

"c'mon, none of us have met him before!" jordan protests, even as logan is calculating the chances of being able to kick jordan out of here. they are not particularly good; he can hear andrew, derek, and edward loudly talking about their SQUH-SQUH-SQUH SQUAT CHALLEEEEEENGE! in the living room, which is open to the kitchen. the counting of the squats they can do is very noisy, not even factoring in the trash-talk.

"privacy would be appreciated," logan says.

"in this house?" jordan says skeptically, which is a fair point; there are nine of them crammed into five rooms. logan's room is technically a single only by virtue of it being an attic that can barely fit a lofted bed with a desk and a dresser warring for space underneath. logan is fairly certain that janus's shared room with matthew in the basement was never intended for long-term human habitation, either.

"i knew i should have met him at the station," logan says, ruffling the pages of his book.

"is logan talking about us?" matthew shouts from the living room. his feet pound against the hardwood as he poked his red head around the corner, his eyes going as teasingly pleading as jordan's. "you're not gonna make us miss meeting our step-daddy, are you, mom?"

the "mom" thing is somewhat new, too, and also an aspect of college life that logan had not foreseen. perhaps logan should have seen it coming when he started instituting a chore chart and a chart for good behavior with plastic dinosaur toys as rewards. for reasons that elude him, the boys named it the "good noodle" chart.

he had mostly started the chart after what might have been a joke from janus, in retrospect, but he certainly isn't going to stop now, not when it's been proven to be so effective.

what he says instead of respond to matthew's question is "have you finished the dishes?"

matthew hesitates, looking back over his shoulder to the countertops.

"...yyeesss...?"

logan arches an eyebrow at him. "if i walk in there, will there be dishes in the sink?"

matthew attempts to model his eyes after jordan, widening them and trying to look innocent. he isn't as gifted at it.

"it would be a shame if you had to be demoted on the good noodle chart because you didn't finish your chores and—" he glances at a notecard— "chirped me about roman."

a pause.

"was that accurate?" logan says. "is it 'chirped?'"

"cory!" matthew bellows over his shoulder.

"yeah?" cory shouts back.

"hockey trash-talk is chirping, right?"

"yeah!"

"thank you!" matthew shouts back and turns to face logan. "yeah, it's chirping."

"hockey," logan mutters, scrawling this onto the notecard. the influx of sports-related slang to his notecards is another unforeseen aspect of college life. "it's hockey-specific, that's what i was missing."

a beat.

"the sooner you can get them done you can pass it to the next person on the chart. do the dishes," logan adds severely, and matthew stumps off to the kitchen, grumbling something under his breath that sounds a lot like “ugh, mom.”

say what one will about the good noodle chart—it certainly is a successful motivator.

perhaps the plastic bag full of dozens of mini bubble-wands that the boys saw logan receive in the mail this week is doing more of the persuasion rather than the necessity of the chores, or logan himself, but it works.

“logan?”

“hmm?” logan says, distracted by wondering if derek vacuumed the living room or if he dragged around a dining chair make lines in the carpet again.

jordan, grinning, nods to the window, and logan whips his head around just in time to see a taxi pull into the driveway.

the sudden surge of excitement and happiness and eagerness is enough to make him stand up, because roman is right there, logan can distantly see him in a red shirt in the back of the taxi. logan hastily tosses his book onto the nearest table and goes for the front door as quickly as he can without running outright.

by the time he is near enough to roman to see the details of how he’s styled his hair that day, a piece of lint on his shoulder, the way he’s slung his bag on his shoulder, he’s paying the taxi driver.

he turns around to face logan, and logan loses his breath.

god he’s so handsome.

logan doesn’t know if it’s a month’s absence, or if roman has indeed grown more beautiful by the day, but roman is so lovely. his skin glows in the late summer sun, grinning at logan wide and bright, and logan can’t stand there and drink in the sight of him, chronicling every single miniscule difference that he can, because roman grabs logan in a hug, pulling him close.

logan wraps his arms around roman as tight as he can, burying his face into roman’s shoulder and inhaling; the familiar scent of his cologne, his floral body wash, the gel he uses in his hair.

“i missed you,” roman whispers, breath warm against logan’s ear.

“me too,” logan mumbles, squeezing him tighter. usually, roman hugs him even tighter back, but today, he falters.

“um.”

logan pulls back enough to see the quizzical look on roman’s face. roman nods at something behind him.

“i think we have a bit of an audience.”

logan glances back over his shoulder in time to see all seven of the boys—plus a peek of janus in the back, surely egging on the chaos—jostling for the best view at the window where logan had just been keeping vigil.

“it’s not too late to call the taxi back and go somewhere private,” logan says, turning to face roman again. “i could show you the library.”

roman grins at him. “are you kidding? i’ve wanted to see if you were exaggerating about them for ages.”

logan scoffs. “as if i’m the one prone to exaggeration in this relationship.”

roman’s grin widens, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. “fuck, i’ve missed you so bad.”

what else can logan do but pull roman in by the waist and kiss him?

even muffled by the closed door and the thick glass of the window, logan can hear the boys hooting and hollering and yelling “GET IT, MOM!!!” and “ow OW!” and roman laughs against logan’s lips.

logan smiles into the kiss, and he thinks that roman’s weekend visit probably couldn’t have gotten off to a better start if he’d tried.

⁂

the first thing that someone says when logan and roman walk into the front door is “what the FUCK, mom, you didn’t tell us he was HOT!”

roman swivels to face logan, offended.

“of course i think he’s hot,” logan says, bemused. “i’m dating him. he’s obviously my type.”

“yeah, but,” adam says, and he gestures to roman’s body at whole. “he’s fucking hot, though.”

there’s a rumbling of agreement from the other boys—sans janus, who has obviously met roman before—and roman immediately preens at the attention.

because roman is undoubtedly hot. his brown skin is glowing—logan has seen him wearing facemasks on their video calls enough times that he knows it’s not incidentally clear, perfect skin—and he’s maybe not quite as bulkily built as, say, derek, who can pick up logan and janus simultaneously without breaking a sweat, but roman is strong by virtue of his profession and it shows.

“thanks,” roman says, grinning.

“i mean,” adam adds hastily, “all respect to you and logan, i mean this in, like, the bros-appreciating-bros way, not the i’m trying to steal your man way.”

“i figured,” logan says dryly, considering that adam, notably lacking in a sense of impulse control, has never offered any romantic inclination towards men before.

“well, roman, this is—everyone,” logan says, and points at each housemate as he says their name.

“adam rothschild—”

“hi,” adam adds belatedly.

“—matthew van doren—”

“'sup,” matthew says, with an upward nod of his red head.

“—cory hollingsworth—”

cory flashes a peace sign from where he stands beside janus.

“—jordan arlington—”

“nice to meet you, man, logan’s been looking forward to this for fuckin’ ever,” jordan says.

logan, refusing to blush, continues with, “edward morton—”

“shalom, bro,” he says.

“—andrew de loughrey—”

“hey, dude.”

“—derek carmichael, and you remember janus, of course.”

“nice to finally meet you all,” roman says, an arm wrapped comfortably around logan’s waist.

“you’re fucking yoked, bro,” derek says, appreciative. “what does your leg day look like? your quads are insane.”

“thanks, man,” roman says, extending a denim-clad leg with all of his typical grace. his legs are insane, to be fair. “part of the job—has logan mentioned i’m a ballet dancer?”

there’s a chorus of agreement, and so as they relocate, unspoken, to the living room. all of the other boys listen to some of the exercises roman discusses, and roman offers demonstrations of barre warm-ups upon request, his hand on the kitchen island, to great enthusiasm.

logan probably should have guessed that hearing about the workout regimen of a ballet dancer would go a long way in convincing this house full of “jocks” that roman was worthy of their adoptive, same-age mother. he’s pleased that by the time this line of conversation is winding down, it has been proven to be a very effective icebreaker.

even if he is a little grumpy to lose the warmth of roman’s hand where it had been resting on his knee.

however, once that conversation does trail off, logan gets to his feet.

“how about i take you on a tour of the house? i can show you my room.”

“ooh, mom, get it,” andrew says, to great whooping and a wolf-whistle which elicits more laughter from the other boys.

“remember, house rule, sock on the doorknob!” says someone who can surely only be adam.

“i’m making a bad noodle chart now,” logan says, attempting to fight the blush that’s surely creeping onto his face, “all of you have been demoted to the bad noodle chart.”

roman reaches out and takes logan’s hand. “you actually have a noodle chart? i thought you were kidding.”

“i am not kidding,” logan says sourly, directing a glare toward the boys.

jordan, mercifully, provides a very handy distraction by order of shouting out “MARIO KART TOURNAMENT I CALL ROSALINA,” which immediately descends into chaos as the boys fight over who gets peach, or yoshi, or else fighting over their “lucky” switch controllers.

janus meets eyes with logan, rolls his eyes, and promptly siddles his way into one of the four coveted spots to play as wario. somehow janus never has to engage in this arguing, even though logan, the house mother, has to fight with the boys to get to play with isabelle—

whatever. it’s fine. as adam launches himself at jordan to literally wrestle him to the ground for the honor of playing as rosalina, logan takes advantage of this to slip further into the kitchen with roman.

“we could probably make a getaway attempt now, it would be an ideal time,” logan says, a touch anxious; this is roman’s first time meeting the boys, and logan knows better than most people that being in the (boys-and-janus-dubbed) himbo house can be overwhelming.

“no way,” roman says warmly, squeezing logan’s hand, and logan’s heart flutters in its chest. “show me the rest of the house, c’mon.”

logan shows roman the good noodle chart in its place of pride in the kitchen, taking a moment to detract a gold star sticker from adam for tackling jordan, writing unnecessary violence (mario kart) on the line beneath specifically meant for the reason for the latest detraction in red dry-erase marker.

he adds a star for jordan without writing exactly why.

roman takes a moment to survey the chart and immediately barks with laughter at the bottom line.

“don’t,” logan grumbles.

“but c’mon!” roman says, delightedly pointing at the section of the chart that has special microscope stickers instead of gold stars.

it says logan workaholism

and then, in different handwriting and a different colored marker, (and drunk shenanigans).

“yes, well, you’ve seen the chart now,” logan says evasively, tugging roman along, and roman follows with a smile on his face that’s a bit too big for logan’s liking.

logan hadn’t even been on the chart. but no, he listened to adam’s recommendation for a drink one time (he should have realized that would turn out to be a horrible idea) and now he was on the good noodle chart, specifically so they could detract a sticker. he shouldn’t be on the chart, he runs it!

he still has the most stickers of anyone, though, so there.

logan shows roman their kitchen, which is more well-stocked than one would expect a stereotypical a college kitchen to be. there’s two mini-fridges so that edward can keep kosher. within the normal fridge, and in the cabinets, there’s an overwhelming supply of protein bars, shakes, and powders, in addition to plenty of fruits and vegetables.

he slips with roman up the stairs, unnoticed by everyone screaming at the four lucky players of the first leg of the mario kart tournament. from a glance at their ridiculously oversized flat screen, janus seems to be swiftly overtaking the lead due to taking advantage of a secret passage.

logan gestures vaguely to the rooms leading off the landing, telling roman who occupied which, as well as the communal bathrooms, but as there are no common spaces on either of the floors that roman has not already seen, he essentially leads roman straight up to the attic.

his room.

he tentatively opens the door for roman to look in and behold it, which roman immediately does.

logan’s lofted bed is crammed against the wall that divides the attic at the apex of the roof, as the opposite wall slants with the angle of the roof. everything is lit by the window opposite the door; logan debates flicking on the overhead light, and decides against it. the afternoon sun does just fine.

logan’s bed is made, his indigo duvet tucked neatly over his white sheets. his desk is pushed beneath the bed, with his laptop, a notebook, and a mug from remy’s café full of pens resting on it, the shelves above the desk that the boys had helped logan install nearly toppling under the weight of all their books. logan’s backpack sits in his desk chair, logan’s dresser shut. the rest of the floorspace is overtaken by a comfy rug and a pitiful excuse for a beanbag chair, which roman promptly sits on, wiggling to get comfortable.

“i like it,” he proclaims. “it’s cozy.”

logan tries to smile at him. the room is cramped and logan knows it.

all the other occupants of the house come from, to put it in plain terms, the same world of wealth and status that his grandparents occupy. as a matter of fact, his grandparents had been incredibly pleased that logan’s roommates had been “up to snuff,” a roundabout way of saying they’re of an appropriate caliber for our ivy-leaguer grandson.

logan knows that it was no coincidence that his roommates offered him his “cozy” room and therefore a lower amount for rent, all of them reasoning that as he had the smallest and least convenient room and if he was not there to supervise the house would surely explode, as part of this offer was surely due to the fact that they knew that his budget did not stretch as far as theirs did.

for one, he is the only roommate with a job. for another, he is the only one who knows how to budget.

well, janus would likely be able to figure it out, but he’s never needed to, which is the point.

derek hadn’t even recognized what “those little slips of paper” in logan’s hands were when logan attempted to discreetly coupon during a grocery outing.

educating them on what coupons were was... an experience, to be sure.

logan’s musings are interrupted when roman takes hold of his hand and gently tugs at logan. logan obligingly sinks onto the ground to join him, settling practically on roman’s lap.

“hey,” roman says, voice husky.

“hi,” logan says, in a tone that strikes him as strangely shy.

roman reaches out and makes a grabby hand, to which logan rolls his eyes and settles more decisively on roman’s lap, unable to keep the smile off his face, which roman can surely see, given the way that logan is now directly facing him.

“better?”

“much, thank you,” roman says graciously, settling his hands at logan’s waist and gently squeezing.

“i must agree,” logan says, resting his hands on roman’s shoulders and squeezing back. roman offers him a slanted smile.

“love, what a long way, to arrive at a kiss,” roman says, pausing to pick logan’s hand off his shoulder and press a kiss to his palm, achingly soft, “what loneliness-in-motion, toward your company!”

“you can’t just quote neruda off the bat, it isn’t fair,” logan complains, despite the fact that his heart has been sent aflutter, but he is cut off when roman’s lips meet his.

oh, how logan’s missed this. he’s familiar with the pressure of roman’s lips against his, the warmth and breadth of roman’s hands wrapping around him, the way logan’s hands fit perfectly on roman’s shoulders, and missing it has been like an ache.

languid, unhurried afternoons in the summers by the town’s lake; inexperienced hands slipping up shirts in their childhood bedrooms; illicit kisses in the gazebo when they were both meant to be at home; his memories seemed to pale in comparison to having the real thing, right now. roman’s heartbeat and the rush of logan’s pulse in his own ears and the sweet, perfect slide of their mouths. they break to breathe, staying forehead-to-forehead.

“but you and i, love,” logan murmurs, “we are together, from our clothes down to our roots: in the autumn, in water, in hips, until we are together—only you, only me.”

“you skipped a few lines,” roman teases.

“i editorialized,” logan says. “taltal is not particularly applicable to our situation, is it?”

“and i suppose it isn’t raining,” roman says, mock-thoughtfully. logan smiles and leans in for more.

roman responds, sliding his hands down logan’s back and eventually coming to grip at logan’s thighs, and logan arches into the touch—

—"ow!”

—and logan leans back, careful to avoid the slant of the roof he’d just hit his head against, putting a hand on where his head throbs in complaint.

“oh, i’m sorry!” roman says frantically. “i’m so sorry, c’mere, c’mere, let me look—”

“it was just a bump, it’s not so bad,” logan says, but he squirms and twists so that roman can see the point of impact.

roman cautiously runs his fingers through logan’s hair, paying close attention, and gently presses his fingers down. logan winces.

“tender?”

“a bit.”

“i’m sorry,” roman repeats, now running his fingers through logan’s hair, careful to keep his touch light.

“i hit my head getting out of bed and getting up from my desk for a full week before i got used to the angle,” logan says with a shrug. “kissing you is the most pleasurable way this could have happened.”

“well, now, still don’t like that clever little brain of yours getting bumped around,” roman says, frowning.

logan points to where, at this angle, roman can see the protective pool noodle secured to protect himself from hitting his head against his bed while standing up from the bed. janus had cut it for him with an exacto knife. logan is unsure where janus keeps this exacto knife. he hopes it’s hidden somewhere safe; sharp implements were just asking for trouble in this household.

“better now,” logan says, then, when roman’s still frowning, “i’m used to it, really. and besides, i’m the second-shortest in the house; no one else would take this room. well, janus would be the only other person who wouldn’t be constantly hitting his head, but i think he prefers the basement.”

“like an evil lair,” roman grumbles.

“precisely what he said,” logan says dryly. “can you imagine derek in here?”

they both take a moment to imagine derek, who stands at six feet and seven inches tall, slouched over at most points of the room.

“yeah, that’d be a bit of a tight squeeze,” roman acknowledges.

“besides,” logan says. “there are plenty of ways to be comfortable.”

he adjusts to sit on the comfy, fluffy rug—bought specifically for floor-sitting in mind—and pulls roman along. roman, getting the idea, moves the beanbag to use as a pillow, and lies back against it. logan curls up on the ground with him, resting his head over roman’s heart.

roman takes a moment to switch to scratching his fingernails against logan’s scalp, and logan tries not to shudder with pleasure too obviously.

“i like it in here,” logan says. “i like that i can go out of the window to sit on the roof, if i wanted. i like that i have the clearest view of the night sky. i like that i have a single room. and—”

he points to the side of the rafters that would not be visible to someone standing in the doorway of the room; only from within it are the stick-on, glow-in-the-dark stars surrounding the photographs of logan’s loved ones are visible. the one most visible from here is himself and roman eating lucy’s at the winterfest where they had their first kiss.

“—i like that there are unique decorating ideas i could only put into function in this room.”

roman kisses logan’s head, and, with that, curled up together on logan’s bedroom floor, they start talking about everything and nothing at all, and logan’s heart feels full and fit to burst with happiness.

⁂

look. matt’s fully aware that he’s cynical about love. it’s a bit hard not to when, growing up, his primary example of love was his dad and his revolving door of brides.

he’s pretty sure he’s on stepmom number eight, by now, he isn’t really sure, he hasn’t met the latest one.

(dad scheduled the wedding during peak crew season and matt’s dad, a yale alum himself, is all proud about him being on the team of the first rowing club formed at an american college. so matt didn’t go and his dad might have just assumed he had a regatta then. whatever. matt isn’t too fussed about it, seriously. he thinks her name might be tina? tara? fuck, he should probably work that out before thanksgiving break, shouldn’t he.)

(wait. goddammit. the last girlfriend was trisha. did he end up marrying trisha? he thought his dad dumped trisha because trisha got pissed at him for doing something in a dream of hers. fuck he seriously needs to do some googling before thanksgiving break.)

(wait. shit. it was tori who did the dream thing, because she was super into the astrology-dream-palm reading deal and she’d tried to figure out matt’s birth chart, so now he can flex that he knows he’s a leo sun taurus moon sagittarius rising to the girls he tries to pick up. that happened years ago, god damn it, who the fuck is his dad married to right now?!)

ANYWAYS. he doesn’t really have an optimistic view of love, especially at their age. so back when he’d first been getting to know logan, he’d been pretty surprised to hear that logan had a long-term boyfriend. logan didn’t really seem like the stereotypical college kid clinging to their high school sweetheart, like, at all.

there had been a girl on his floor freshman year who woke up half the dorm during her kicking-and-screaming fight with her high school boyfriend that she’d tried to long-distance with and ended up dumping after a month. he’d kind of been expecting to hear that logan was going to break up with his boyfriend, because, like, how many childhood sweethearts actually make it?

but no, no screaming fights for logan—honestly, matt’s pretty sure if he heard logan actually yell it would be the scariest thing ever—and now the boyfriend is here.

who is, like, not exactly what matt had expected? he’d thought roman would maybe be a copy of logan, someone else crazy smart and crazy dedicated to school, and, in the kindest way possible, a major nerd.

roman seems... cool.

like, first of all, he’d immediately understood and talked training routines with the rest of the house, which, like, respect to logan, who goes on runs and keeps his shit pretty tight, but he isn’t exactly the most gym-rat kind of dude.

roman’s routine sounded really interesting. matt’s got pretty good legs himself—you kind of have to, to be on the rowing team—but roman’s calves and quads and glutes look unreal. man could probably beat them all in a squat challenge tournament without breaking a sweat.

also, logan keeps himself looking like a eighteen-year-old tax accountant, with his polo and tie, but roman is dressed, like, suave. casual enough, sure,but his short-sleeved button down shirt looked like it was made of silk or satin or some fancy shit like that. it’s unbuttoned to show off the gold necklace he’s wearing. he’s wearing dark jeans at the exact right place on his waist.

logan has not exactly stepped into “going out” clothes, except for like combing his hair and wearing blue jeans. they’re going the pub that logan invariably picks on the rare nights he goes out with the rest of them—a coffee shop by day, a bar by night, and very unfancy.

logan is absently fixing roman’s collar so it sits straight as roman examines himself in his phone’s camera to check out his reflection. he flashes a smile toward logan in thanks.

logan smiles at him, something in his eyes going soft that matt’s never seen him do before, and—

and, okay, if anyone he knows is smart enough to figure out how love works this early on, it would probably be logan.

⁂

"you sure, bro?” andrew says, leaning against the open car door, not yet sliding into edward’s bmw. “’cause i can dd this time, i think it’s my turn anyway—”

edward’s already shaking his head. “shabbat’s tomorrow, dude. gotta get up early to go to temple anyway, gramps would derail the whole service if i turned up hungover.”

andrew shrugs. “if you’re sure,” he says, and at last he slides into the car that is absolutely filled up with people over the legal capacity.

usually, logan picks a fit about this, talking about things like seatbelts, but right now he’s perched on his boyfriend’s lap and doesn’t seem to mind at all.

janus, sitting beside them in the very back, is eyeing them like he’s ready to start elbowing them if they get too lovey. which like. logan, getting lovey? unlikely.

(however, the seven of them have made a pact to be as obnoxious as possible if the boyfriend gets too lovey. they didn’t include janus on this, because apparently janus and roman had a brief rivalry Thing in high school and it would probably piss logan off if they started fighting, but anyways. bros take care of bros.)

“are ya ready, kids?” edward asks as he starts the car.

“aye aye, captain!” the other six of his bros and, a little surprisingly, roman, call back. logan looks confused at this, as he usually does, and janus rolls his eyes, as he usually does.

“to the pub!” edward declares, and so they’re off as cory and jordan frantically play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets the aux cord.

jordan wins and as such immediately puts on his playlist, a few of the boys starting to sing along to nicki minaj—oh, sick, it’s the pump-up playlist. hell yeah, that means that beyoncé is coming up. edward fucking loves beyoncé.

edward peeks into the rearview mirror, and he sees roman pressing his face into logan’s shoulder, like he’s hugging him, and logan smiles, looking very pleased.

and as edward drives on, everyone joining in when “love on top” comes on, even over the raucous performance of ther rest of his bros, he could swear he hears roman’s voice, floating up to the driver’s seat even from where he’s singing in logan’s ear.

“baby it’s you, you’re the one i love, you’re the one i need...”

damn, edward thinks to himself, impressed. he’s got a good voice.

logan’s cheeks go a little bit pink, and he smiles, ducking his chin; roman takes a moment from singing into his ear to kiss him on the cheek.

also, that’s cute as fuck.

⁂

“shots?” cory demands. “shots, shots, shots?”

“we just got here,” logan says, usually the sole voice of reason and also being boring, but he doesn’t seem to be standing as firm as usual. that might have something to do with his boyfriend, who has an arm going over his shoulder, saying “hell yeah, dude!”

“getting shots my treat!” cory says, and he rushes into the scrum in front of the bar before logan can protest and try to pay for himself.

janus catches his elbow and allows himself to be pulled along with him, which is cool. janus is probably cory’s closest non-sports friend ever, because he and jan are, one, roommates, but two, kids adopted from other countries as symbols of their white parents’ supposed generosity (he’s chinese, janus is haitian, they handshake meme over white people misunderstanding the culture and history of their countries of origin) so they tend to get each other’s deal more often than other people in the house.

they’re already planning their “oh so sorry we’re busyyy” excuse and activities so they don’t have to go home over thanksgiving break.

cory leans down to talk into janus’ ear—it’s a friday night, so it’s as busy as it gets here—and practically shouts, “how long have they been dating again?”

“four years,” janus says back; cory has no idea how, but janus can always be heard in any crowd, he never has to shout.

“are they, like,” cory says. “i mean. are they like. i dunno what i’m even asking. is their relationship, like, nice, i guess?”

janus arches an eyebrow back. “do you happen to remember my previous relationship?”

mm, yeah. asher fleming, resoundingly shady, but very willing to dole out the cash whenever janus so much as pouted at him. which janus seemed to like, so good for him, cory guesses, even though asher fleming was sketchy as fuck, in his opinion. dude could rest in fucking pieces.

“what about that makes you think i am a good person to ask.”

cory opens his mouth, closes it. opens it again.

“hey, what can i get started for you?”

oh thank god. “uhh, nine—wait, ten—ten shots of vodka? boyd and blair, if you’ve got it. and open a tab,” cory adds, forking over his card.

“you got it,” the bartender says, taking it, and then pauses, taking a moment to take stock of cory.

cory flashes a smile at her. she smiles back, and turns for the bar, going to hunt down ten shot glasses and a tray, her brunette ponytail bouncing as she goes.

janus nods after her. “she’s cute.”

“yeah, but she’s working,” cory says, turning to lean back against the bar and scan the pub to see where the rest of his dudes have gone. “i’m like ninety percent sure not asking out a girl when she’s trapped at work is part of bro code.”

janus follows his lead, leaning against the bar.

“they’re adorable,” he says abrubtly, his eyes fixed on the table that the rest of their roommates have claimed, jostling each other for space.

“huh?”

“logan, when he’s with roman. they’re adorable. it’s disgusting. he gets all,” janus’ mouth twists. “sappy.”

“really?!” cory says, stunned. logan, sappy? the closest they’ve ever gotten to sappy logan is after running the full gamut of logan’s stages of drunkness.

“bet you fifty bucks logan initiates pda within ten minutes,” janus says.

“i’ll take that bet,” cory says immediately.

as he approaches the table with the tray of shots, logan reaches over to squeeze roman’s hand and then just hold it on the table. he realizes what he’s started to realize every time he makes a bet against janus, which is that he probably shouldn’t have made a bet against janus. cory literally never wins.

⁂

"hey, man, they made this wrong,” andrew lies cheerfully, setting the glass in front of logan. “you like peach schnapps, right?”

this is a thing he and the other dudes like to do, and logan gets into a snit when they do, but c’mon. andrew has literally unlimited access to cash, why shouldn’t he use it to spoil his friends?

and then logan usually says something about taking care of himself, but like, it’s covering your drinks, dude, it’s not a big deal.

logan gives him a look, a i know what you’re doing here look, a i am about to throw a fit because you paid for me look, but before he can say anything roman breaks into the conversation.

“oh, damn, i was gonna pay for logan’s next drink,” he says, sounding a little disappointed that he couldn’t treat logan to his drink of choice. “how much was that? i’ll cover it and you can get my next one, l, like we’re on a date.”

andrew, skeptical, waits, because this kind of tactic doesn’t work with logan, but—

logan relaxes back into the seat, turning his eyes to andrew.

“oh,” andrew says, and turns to crane at the menu. “uh, since it’s wells night, five or six bucks should cover it.”

“nice,” roman says peaceably, and forks over a ten. “just to cover my bases for my next drink on the tab—hey, who opened that, anyway, and what’s their venmo? i wanna be sure i have it so i can pay my share in the morning.”

“cory did—i’ll pull it up,” logan says, taking roman’s phone from his hand and searching for cory’s venmo profile.

huh. crisis averted.

andrew gives roman a thumbs-up over logan’s head, and roman grins back at him.

⁂

look. there are certain stages of drunkenness, right.

derek could be called a party—what was that word janus said? cone-is-sour?—connoisseur. like, he knows these things, okay. he knows that people have certain telltale signs of what they do when they start getting drunker.

for him, he gets all overheated and red-cheeked first, then he kind of stops having the concept of volume control, then everything sounds like the funniest thing in the world, there’s a bit about hugging his bros and singing along to whatever song the bar’s playing super loudly thrown in there most nights, and then he gets really sleepy, and after that his memory gets blurry. easy, simple way to tell how drunk he’s getting.

logan’s stages of drunkness are... pretty wild. like, holy hell is logan a lightweight. he got, like, very past tipsy after drinking two wine coolers once. they’ve all kind of taken it upon themselves to improve his drinking tolerance, gradually.

anyways. derek thinks he’s got logan’s stages figured out by now, along with the rest of the dudes, and the stages are as follows:

rambling when he talks

Science!

I Love My Friends

wandering off, most likely to fall asleep in a weirdass location

it turns out there might be a stage 1.5, but this stage might only be unlocked when his boyfriend is here.

stage 1.5 of logan drunkness is cuddly.

they’ve been playing the “who can pay for the most drinks for everyone but mostly for logan” game, which means that they’ve been mixing their alcohol (careful to steer clear of beer, though, ‘cause that could turn to beer before liquor during the next round, beer before liquor, never been sicker; liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, derek knows his fuckin’ booze) and trying drinks of what everyone else is trying, seeing if they can come up with a new favorite drinks combo before the night ends.

with one hand, logan’s currently stirring his plastic straw in a cocktail called a bramble. with the other, he’s got his arm flung across roman’s shoulders, occasionally adjusting his stance, and any time he catches anyone’s eyes during a conversation he beams, like, this is my boyfriend, isn’t this so great?!

and, like, look. he knows it’s basically dude code to kind of haze each other a little bit, whenever a new significant other comes around, just to make sure they’re up to snuff, but c’mon.

their uptight, workaholic house mom, drinking on a friday night like he doesn’t have a care in the world? practically unheard of.

derek’s pretty sure he can pin the sudden lack of tension in logan’s shoulders and jaw on the man that logan is currently staring at. roman is telling a story about a drag show he and his girl friends went to see in new york, and logan’s looking at him like roman hung all the stars in the sky, grinning whenever roman looks over at him.

like. come on. how is derek meant to haze that. it’s too fuckin’ cute.

⁂

logan is putting in an order for waters at the bar because while the boys are good at remembering to hydrate for sports reasons, no one ever remembers to hydrate for drinking reasons. a hand gently touches his waist, and, with a whiff of familiar cologne, roman slides in next to him at the bar.

“hey,” logan says, a little too aware that this is the closest they’ll get to a private conversation for the rest of the night.

“hey,” roman echoes, loose and easy with alcohol. something low in logan’s belly thrums pleasantly at the sound.

“check-in?” logan requests. “i know that this can be a—a lot.”

to put it delicately.

roman grins at him. “your friends are cool, this bar is cool. you’re cool. i love you so much.”

logan, who would later put this decision down to being plied with alcohol, pulls roman in by the collar and kisses him hard.

roman seems surprised, just for a moment, before he responds in kind, pulling logan in at the waist and kissing him back, equally enthusiastic.

his boyfriend is visiting, he’s making out with him in a bar like a normal college kid would make out with a significant other, and everything seems wonderful.

roman, looking thoroughly kissed, handles the ribbing and joking the boys start as soon as they get back to the table with good humor, grinning at logan like it’s a private joke between the two of them.

god, logan’s so in love with him.

⁂

"hey, babe?” roman says.

logan hums around his straw, looking at roman with half-lidded eyes. fuck he’s so hot.

roman shakes himself a little, trying to focus, before he asks, “on a scale of one to ten, how chill would the guys be if i suggested we go somewhere we can dance?”

logan swallows, and roman’s eyes follow the of his bobbing adam’s apple.

“probably very chill about it,” he says dryly.

roman smiles. “and how would you feel about going somewhere to dance with me?”

logan bites his lip, but still smiling.

“probably very enthusiastic about it,” logan says quietly.

roman grins at him. “yeah?”

“yeah.”

with a swiftness that probably belies how eager roman is at the very concept of holding logan close in his arms, roman calls out to derek, “hey, dude, is there a good club around here? i kinda wanna see y’all dance.”

derek puffs out his chest.

“oh, bro, you are not ready,” he says gleefully.

adam leans across the table.

“hey, wait, you’re, like, a professional dancer, right? maybe you can teach us a routine!”

oh, now roman has the perfect routine in mind.

⁂

adam has been known to get down at a party, okay. he’s a pretty decent dancer. his party trick is being able to swing around on poles installed into frat basements for “structural integrity.”

but, like, adam also knows that a literal professional probably has some tips, so he’d asked, right, which has now turned into—

“okay, again, from the start, ready?” roman asks, standing at the front of the group. janus and logan are at the edge of the room. adam’s pretty sure janus is recording this on his phone.

they’re also, like, in the center of most of the club’s attention, but roman seems very cool with it. which, likes, makes sense; dancing professionally, crowds come with the territory. the other six of his roommates are standing in loose lines, spaced out so they don’t kick each other in the heads.

“five, six, seven, eight,” roman starts, then, over the sound of six dudes who are all over six feet tall jump-kick then drop rapidly into what roman called a grand plié, which you would probably do slower for a stretch but this is CHOREO, sings, “now from the top, make it drop—”

⁂

logan, after trying so hard not to laugh at the sight of his boyfriend teaching tiktok dance choreography to what, ostensibly, looked like a group of typical frat boys, is attempting to catch his breath and hydrate at the bar.

well. dehydrate, technically. a vodka soda is certainly working to dehydrate him.

“hey,” roman pants, appearing from the crowd, flushed, with at least two more buttons popped than he’d had when they entered. “hot over there—can i—?”

before he can ask, logan offers his vodka soda, and roman says “thanks” before he gulps down a good portion of it, fanning himself.

“i love dancing,” he says happily.

“i know, dearest,” logan says, perhaps not as dryly as he would if they were not both intoxicated.

“oh! and i love this song!” roman says brightly, as the dj transitions into a new song.

logan smiles at him; the song is not a recent release, and logan thinks he might be able to place it.

“dance with me?” roman says, his eyes pleading. logan finds himself helpless to resist, and so he drains the rest of his drink.

roman smirks at him and takes hold of logan’s tie, gently leading him to a corner of the dance floor, rather than in the midst of the scrum of it, which logan appreciates; while he is perfectly willing to dance with roman, he is not so adept as to not make a fool of himself in the case of any impromptu dance circles.

there is, logan realizes once he listens to the lyrics, perhaps another motive of roman’s for dragging them into a less populated corner.

i’m telling you to loosen up my buttons, babe, but you keep frontin’, say what you’re gonna do to me, but i ain’t see nothing...

roman’s hands slide from logan’s tie to wrapping around logan’s shoulders, pulling logan so that they’re pressed up against each other, and logan grips roman’s hips, which are shifting sinuously to the beat.

“couldn’t dance like this at the chilton winter formal, could we?” roman says lowly into logan’s ear, and logan snickers.

“not unless we wanted to be lectured by mr. gardiner, no.”

“ugh, he was a fucker, i still haven’t forgiven him for being so strict about your math quizzes,” roman says, scowling. then, with a laugh, “no drawing lots to see who gets breathalyzed, no snooty rich kids to judge us—”

“i’m still surrounded by rich kids.”

“yeah, but your rich kids seem nice,” roman says thoughtfully. “‘cept for janus.”

“he’d take that as a compliment.”

“why did i bring up janus when i’m trying to grind on you,” roman mutters to no one in particular, and he then proceeds to handily distract logan by pressing impossibly closer.

roman’s hands slide up logan’s shoulders to briefly cup logan’s face, then slide back down to squeeze his shoulders, using the movement to roll his hips against him, and logan’s world narrows down to the heat of roman’s body, the scent of roman’s sweat and cologne, the beat of the song thrumming through to his very bones.

roman twists in his hands, leaning forward, then standing back upright to lean against logan, swaying his hips all the whlie. he reaches a hand lazily back, dragging it down logan’s face before cradling logan’s jaw.

logan twirls roman back to face him again, his grip on roman’s hips tight and possessive, and logan leans in to devour roman in a kiss. he can feel the pounding of hearts against his chest, and they’re so close he’s uncertain whose pulse is whose.

⁂

“—I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHO TALK BEHIND MY BACK ‘CUZ A BITCH KNEW BETTER THAN TO LET ME HEAR!” jordan screams at the top of his lungs, along with the rest of his bros. all ten of them have piled back into edward’s car, and roman has taken over the aux, which is actually a phenomenal move, he has put on banger after banger.

edward—the sole sober one in the car—is grinning to himself even as he turns into his parking spot near their house.

they all groan when he turns off the car, and therefore turns off the music.

“yeah, yeah,” edward says, good-natured. “everyone out, i wanna go to bed!”

everyone pours from the car, logan stumbling slightly when he jumps down from the suv.

“i’ve got you, my love,” roman says grandly, and squats before logan. logan snorts, slightly, but then proceeds to clamber onto roman’s back, accepting his piggy-back ride.

“onward!” roman declares, and jordan grins a bit, shaking his head, before he jogs ahead so he can open the front door for them. he watches logan giggle and mash his face into the side of roman’s neck, and he watches roman’s face glow.

the rest of the dudes kind of split off, from there. edward, true to his word, goes to bed; adam, derek, cory, and and andrew sit in front of the tv to start up a drunken game of mario kart; matt pours himself a glass of water and starts chugging it; jordan goes to grab his own water bottle from his room, because he has dish duty next and he doesn’t want to give himself too much trouble.

by the time he’s changed into more comfortable clothes and gotten his water, he runs into roman on the stairs.

“oh! hey, dude,” he says.

“hey,” roman says. “uh, hey, do you guys have spare blankets and pillows and stuff, and where do you keep them? i figured i’d probably crash on the floor or the couch or something.”

jordan surveys him.

“yeah?” he says, in a tone that’s carefully neutral. they continue down the stairs together.

“yeah,” roman says casually. “uh—i know he’d wanna cuddle, but we’re both a bit drunk, so. got him some water, got him into bed, he fell asleep pretty quick.”

jordan knows it’s the bare fucking minimum to take care of your drunk significant other, but he feels his respect for roman rise, even just a little bit. that’s a bro move.

“yeah, man,” jordan says. “uh—we’ve got blankets down in the living room, but some of the dudes are playing mario kart, so you might have a while to wait to free up the couch.”

roman brightens.

“oh, sick. does anyone play peach?”

jordan snorts. “you’re gonna have to fight someone for it.”

“bring it on,” roman says.

⁂

roman hums to himself, quietly, as he ascends the stairs. he has to take a couple minutes to juggle the plates in his hands to be able to open the door, but he succeeds eventually.

“rise and shine, nerdo,” roman sings, careful not to be too loud.

he sees logan stir, and, before roman can say anything in warning—

thump.

“fuck!” logan snarls, flopping back in bed with a hand to his forehead, glaring up at the ceiling that has grievously injured him.

“oh, baby,” roman says, setting down his plate on logan’s desk before he rises on tip-toes so he can see logan’s face. “lemme see.”

logan groans and pulls his pillow over his head.

“still a morning person, i see,” roman teases, before he nudges a plastic water bottle into the bed. “drink that, baby, it’ll make you feel better.”

“nerdo isn’t your best work,” logan grumbles, muffled by the pillow.

“yeah, well, i stayed up until three with the dudes playing mario kart,” roman says dryly. “birdo, nerdo?”

logan peeks out in time to grab the water bottle, squirm as upright as he can, and proceed to chug it as mechanically as possible.

“how’d you sleep?” logan says, once he’s drained about half of it.

“eh, fine,” roman says. “the couch is pretty comfy.”

logan frowns.

“it was couch or floor,” roman says, before logan can say anything. “i think we could maybe squeeze to fit up there, and considering we were, y’know—”

“i get it,” logan says.

“i was gonna make you a big breakfast, but,” roman says and hands over a plate with two pieces of toast sliced into triangles and slathered with crofter’s. “figured you’d like this better.”

logan smiles, taking the plate, and then leans wildly out of his bed in order to cup roman’s face and kiss him good morning.

the kiss is good. it’s very good. but—

“your breath stinks,” roman says, and logan chucks a pillow at him.

“you aren’t exactly a morning rose, either,” logan grumbles, and roman snorts, taking a bite of his own crofter’s with great fervor.

over their breakfast—logan in the bed, roman on the beanbag—they talk about their plans for the rest of the weekend; going on a walk around campus, going to see logan’s favorite spot in the library, getting tacos from the best little spot in town for lunch.

“granted,” logan says thoughtfully, “i have these ideas in place today, but we’ll see how the boys interfere with it.”

“i’d be fine if they did,” roman says.

“yeah?” logan says.

“yeah,” roman says. he grins up at logan. “wanna explain why they kept calling me step-daddy when i was making us toast?”

logan flops back on the bed with a groan, and, even with all of his theatrics, roman can tell logan’s very pleased that his boyfriend and his friends get along.

(they absolutely get along. roman has already promised to record a dance tutorial for them to “dancing queen” next.)

⁂

notes: major thank yous to @teacupfulofstarshine and @airiervessel for helping me flesh out the boys! songs in the order they’re mentioned: “love on top” by beyoncé, “wap” by cardi b. ft. megan thee stallion, “buttons” by the pussycat dolls, “thot shit” by megan thee stallion, “dancing queen” by abba.

#my fic #my fanfic #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides fanfic #the sideshire files #wyliwf #logince #logan sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 3 years

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I played these games with my sister (she's never played before now) and I got SO FRUSTRATED with her bc she liked louis in ep1 but then got pissed at him when he was mad at aj for killing marlon 💀she brushed off when I explain it to her but she didn't forgive him and let him get captured... it makes me sad that people still don't bother to care about what he went threw with marlons death. let him fucking grieve GOD...

Oof, I'm sorry, anon. It is frustrating. Hell, remember when ep2 first dropped and so many people were butthurt and pissy that Louis was upset? At least there were a ton of people out here defending him and trying to help explain why he behaves that way.

It's kinda funny though that there are still people in the community who dismiss him in ep2. Not nearly as many as when the ep first dropped obviously, but I still come across posts and comments about it.

Like when I snoop around on reddit [because apparently I just never learn] there'll be posts where this gets brought up and you see shit like "Louis was a dick and he betrayed us!" and other various things of equal dingus quality. I assume at this point it's either new people saying this or people who willfully ignore the Louis side of things.

Like yes, random reddit dingus, I'm aware that Marlon wasn't the best guy around. We all know that he gave the twins away and murdered Brody, we were all there. But this whole idea of "Louis should just get over it because Marlon sucks and Clementine is perfect" is dumb?

It's like when people go back to S1 when Lilly lost her father. Yeah, Larry's a piece of shit and no one liked him, but he was Lilly's father and she loved him even though he treated her bad, and watching Kenny smash his face in was traumatizing? it fucked her up pretty good? and stuck with her and is a major factor in why she became terrible in tfs? and like....... No, Lilly, don't you get it?

Larry was garbage, so you should just get over his death. Why can't you just get over it Lilly, he was only your abusive father who treated everyone like shit, including you. Who cares if he was the only family you had left and your relationship was way more complicated than what we're initially left to believe. He was a terrible person, therefore your feelings about his death are completely invalid and Kenny was right all along.

And yeah, I know it's a little hmmm to use Lilly as an example due to what they did to her character in tfs but you get me.

because Marlon sucks and Clem can do no wrong, Louis' feelings and grief are invalid and he sucks too........... but like no.

Marlon was Louis' best friend for 8+ years. Louis had complete faith in Marlon, and blindly trusted him. He was heartbroken when he found out what Marlon did to the twins and Brody. He didn't wanna believe it. I mean, would you? Your best friend gets accused of murder and giving away the twins to become soldiers for some raiders, and is now threatening to kill your new friend? You wanna believe him because you don't want to believe he could do these things. It's a lot, and I don't doubt that Louis was overwhelmed with all this information and what was happening before him.

But when Clementine appeals to him, Louis gathers all the strength he has to step between them and try to solve this peacefully, to deescalate the situation because yeah, what Marlon did was fucked up and Louis isn't trying to excuse that? He's not trying to justify anything?

But then AJ murders him, and Louis witnesses the whole thing. I don't know about you, but that would fuck me up pretty good. He has every right to be upset and want both AJ and Clem the hell away from him.

God, and then the damn funeral.... yeah, great idea, bring Clementine and AJ to the funeral, that probably won't cause any issues, yep.

Honestly, I don't blame Louis for leaving when AJ starts talking about wanting to atone [or if you said he's justified, but like why would you?]. He's not thinking rationally, he's grieving, he's acting this way because he's hurting.... but hell, he doesn't even have time to properly do that. It's not like Marlon died and then he had weeks or months or years to work through that before the raiders came pounding at their doors.

Plus, he's got Violet constantly invalidating his feelings and grief because "fuck Marlon just get over yourself Louis you can be such a shithead" and the others probably aren't helping him much given how he's viewed and treated, and he can't talk to Clementine because things are still uncomfortable there...... so he's by himself coming to terms with everything.

Throw in his guilt over AJ getting shot and well..... it's not great.

But no.... Louis should just get over it. Marlon was a liar and a murderer and that means everything you had with him in the past 8 years doesn't count so..... get over yourself, Louis.

I cannot roll my eyes any harder.

Sidenote, but if you look through some of these people's other posts, they'll comment about how Luke didn't react to Nick's death in S2 and how bullshit that was, or how Clementine's behavior in ANF was understandable and we give her a rough time, or how Violet's grief over losing the twins or being captured is often misinterpreted and we should be more open and empathetic with her...

Now I'm not saying that these people only use certain arguments when it helps the case they're trying to make and ignore these same things when it comes to characters they don't like..... all I'm saying is that it's a little funny that you got what you asked for, but since it happened to come from Louis, you suddenly change your mind and decide he reacted TOO MUCH to Marlon's death and was just too mean to Clem and AJ.

#asks #twdg louis #twdg marlon #twdg clementine #twdg aj #💚

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familyagrestefanblog · 4 years

Text

Shadow Moth forshadowing detail + S4 Theory

I kinda just noticed something about Gabriels design concerning his Miraculous and I'm a bit mind blown right now tbh

I always thought it was odd that the character designers chose to hide the quite small butterfly brooch under a much bigger tie

Of course, as one can see in the transformation sequence, that "problem" gets solved when Nooroo activates the Miraculous. In the active Form the butterfly miraculous would indeed require a bigger hiding place such as a tie but the thing is, when the miraculous IS activated Gabriel doesn't wear the tie. So that "solution" is invalidated.

Its nothing that ever really bothered me much, I just found it ODD because they could have chosen anything for his casual wear but they stuck with something unnecessary big concidering the size of the object they want to hide with it.

But THEN I just remembered Shadow Moth from the upcoming s4 and... dude, the tie covering so much more space underneath than needed for the Butterfly miraculous was totally not a random decision.

The placements of the butterfly and peacock miraculous' actually line up perfectly with the size of the tie.

As I said the butterfly miraculous increases its size quite alot, it would probably cover almost half of the hidden area. But half also indicates that there is still space left and that remaining space is just right for the peacock miraculous

Looking at Natalies design both as her civilian self and as Mayura one can clearly see that the peacock is placed on a lower point as the butterfly.

And I just noticed how brilliantly they included the turtlenecks and "around areas" into her designs. Mayura doesn't need the same "upper space" as Hawkmoth does so she has all of that neck fluff. Whereas with Natalies normal clothing the red shirt area now looks actually "well used" and complete, where formerly it looked quite empty. Not too much to be off putting but seeing the peacock there on her civilian design feels like the missing piece of her design finally was added

But let me come back to this in a second, there is something else I wanna finish up first.

Thinking about the fact that the butterfly miraculous get alot bigger I noticed that it certainly is no coincidence either that Mayuras Miraculous stays the same size

As I showed right at the beginning the activated butterfly would take up so much space that, with taking Gabriels clothing layout into account, the peacock miraculous (as the second one added to his character) wouldn't be allowed to change in size because it wouldn't look visually appealing anymore. So both Natalies and Gabriels civilian designs were modelled from the get - go in a way that the peacock can stay the same size.

But all of this still leaves open some big implications. The way I am showcasing it implies that:

1. Gabriel is going to wear the peacock often and for long enough to justify setting up his character model with it in mind. I was always certain that Shadow Moth is not a combination we will only get to see 1 or 2 times but when I now realize that him wearing the peacock as well is apperently such a crucial aspect of his character arc that they set it up on this scale, I do have to wonder what's the plan here and how it'll correspond to

2. Unlike Gabriels civilian design, Natalies "completed" one including the peacock miraculous straight up implies that she won't be hiding it AT ALL. That's actually the most interesting aspect about this when I think about it. Sure the other miraculous from our heros aren't hidden either but one would think that Natalie would know better than to just wear a peacock pin out in broad daylight at the same spot Mayura does. Especially considering that Gabriel IS going to hide both Miraculous. There needs to be a reason why for it's okay for Natalie when it's so obviously not for Gabriel.

And I might actually have an answer for this

Ever since the Fandom very early caught onto the hints that Emilie was the former peacock miraculous holder a very specific thought came up and kinda stayed with some fans (me included) and I think we actually weren't off with that assumption at all.

The thought im talking about is of course the idea that in "the collector" Adrien didn't reacted to the peacock miraculous because for him it is simply a very dear and special jewelry of his mother. So seeing that his father is keeping it in his safe is not something that should come with much of a surprise. Hence why he didn't.

"But what does this have to do with Natalie?", you might ask and I say it actually could be quite simple at this point.

The show is making no secret out of Gabriel starting to fall in love with Natalie as well. The new york special even had him placing a PINK rose onto Emilies coffin instead of a red one, which as we know from "Weredad" symbolizes a platonic love.

Gabenath is happening (how it'll end is another question tho). With all of the set up and development to this point I actually DO would say that Gabriel will start moving on with Natalie (but will of course stay Hawkmoth and terrorize Paris because his quest has become less and less for his family and more for his own selfish and sadistic ego) which makes her suddenly wearing a peacock pin actually not suspicious at all.

In the eyes of the public and especially ADRIEN it would simply mean that Gabriel has fallen in love again and that Natalie has now reached the level of belonging in the Agreste family that she is now wearing the very special jewelry of Emilie. Bonus points if Adrien gives his blessing for her wearing it as well and ends up being the factor why she wears it from then on all the time because if we are gonna rip his heart out with the reveals, let's at least do it properly

But that still doesn't explain the paradoxical set up of Natalie wearing the miraculous permanently openly and Gabriels model being designed to wear the peacock much more often than we initially thought.

Well this is where I will go once again even deeper into theory land, if your interested in that, read further under the cut:

A possibility here is that Gabriel Miraculous jewelry collection comes into play.

It's an aspect of the show that has hardly been used til now and it would provide a solid solution for the problem. The piece of jewelry Natalie wears draws no suspicion to itself if it's seen at the same time Hawkmoth wears both the butterfly and the peacock.

I definitely don't think Natalie will wear it right from the beginning of the season, it'll most likely come through development and a special dedicated episode. My guess is on the forshadowed Sabine as "Verity Queen" and it'll be a mother's day episode.

Marinette has so much to do because of her duties as Ladybug and guardian that she can't spend the day with her mother because she has to leave constantly, leading Sabine to just want to know what her daughter is doing so important that mothers day isn't important anymore. Cue akumatization. In the same episode I see Adrien (after the Marinette& Sabine reunion scene) really welcoming Natalie as his new mother right up front to her and maybe even taking the peacock pin (his mothers "dear jewelry") out of Gabriels safe to give it to her as a symbol that she's for him his new mother figure.

Prior he would have seen Gabriel with the pin in his hand and thinking which Adrien interprets as "Father is thinking about moving on with Natalie" but as the peacock pin is not just that (and Gabriel refuses (but actually does want to) to move on properly) that interpretation is not quite all of the truth. So Adrien is the one to (ironically) give Natalie the miraculous permanently because even if his father still refuses to move on and take the opportunity to be happy again, that won't stop Adrien from having a new mother. You can have a new mother (figure) without your other parent making the official move first.

This is so sweet and heartbreaking and HORRIBLE at the same time, it’s totally something Miraculous would do! The show never hold back really using the double identities for stark contrast or set up for a brutal pay off (especially with the Agrestes which can only result in a disaster at this point).

Of course this is just one idea, not saying it'll 100% happen like this, it's just a possibility I really really like (Also for Sabine).

"Varity Queen" imo being near the middle of the season Gabriel and Natalie would afterwards definitely need the fake peacock miraculous from Gabriels jewelry line (A fake Peacock IS something said in a tweet a while ago I just can't find it anymore) as a cover up because Natalie will have to/WANT to wear the pin Adrien gave her from then on permanently. So while Gabriel brings chaos as Shadow Moth Natalie wears the fake Miraculous as civilian.

Or... You know...

Since Natalie was the one parent in the forshadow episode "Chat Blanc" who was shown to be genuinely upset and shocked that Adrien turned out to be Chat Noir (whereas Gabriel skyrocketed his cunt level to a new level) and then wasn't to be seen anymore later with Hawkmoth in the fight, maybe after finding out about Adriens identity which is forshadowed like crazy Gabriel thinks he's gonna have to take some... precautions concerning Natalie loyalty since Adrien and her are forming a strong mother/ son bond (while Gabriel himself becomes a more and more horrible father. And Him being the “loving family father who would do anything for his family” is what Natalie loves him for) and he fears Natalie will choose Adrien over him. So a fake Miraculous will definitely come in handy while he can properly hide the real one under his tie (which of course doesn't mean he'll be the one to keep the real Miraculous in the end)

It's a possibility. Something like this is VERY likely to happen in my opinien because I personally can't see how this family tragedy is supposed to end up as anything else than in flames after the reveals (including Adriens and Natalies bond) so this is the way I see their future.

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml season 4 theory #ml spoilers #ml theory #Shadow Moth #Gabriel Agreste #Hawkmoth #natalie sancoeur #mayura #adrien agreste #Chat Noir #Mama bear Natalie #Mamayura and Son Noir #Dadmoth can go and fuck himself #Natalie is on THIN ice right now #Their mother/son bond is gonna be beautiful so it can rip everyones hearts out later

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janetbrown711 · 4 years

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Do you think you could write a little something for your "Angelina I lives" AU where maybe we see one of Angelina I's lessons with Yakko, but AFTER the whole fiasco of when he bit her? To see how they would interact? Love your AU btw <3

Yakko wasn't one to use the word "hate" lightly, but he could say with all the confidence in the world that he hated his grandmother.

At first, he had been willing to give her a shot. After all, she was his grandmother and people were supposed to respect their elders and those they were related to. He had been willing to listen, to take part in her lessons, and see if what she said made a little bit of sense.

However, the moment she hit Wakko, all of his respect for her evaporated.

He lashed out and bit her. He didn’t think when he did it, but afterward, he had no regrets. It was only fair.

Sure, his mother told him he shouldn’t do something like that ever again, but Yakko knew that if she were to try and lay a finger on Wakko ever again, he wouldn’t hesitate. After all, it was his dad who told him an older brother’s job was to protect.

So, naturally, when his mom informed him that he still had to take lessons with his grandmother, he was upset. However, his mother reminded him that none of them really had a say in it and Yakko understood it was just something he was going to have to do, especially when he saw the pain in her eyes. He didn’t want her to worry about him any more than she already did, so he agreed to do it.

However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do this his way.

“Remember what we said: you aren’t going to try anything with your grandmother,” his father practically read his mind.

“Why not?” Yakko sighed dramatically. “She deserves it.”

“Because we care about you very much and don’t want what happened to Wakko to happen to you,” William explained softly.

“So no biting?” He asked.

“Definitely no biting. Her arm is still healing from last time,” Willaim suppressed a chuckle.

“Just... remember, it’s often better to fight with the pen rather than the sword. Much less blood is spilled that way,” William said.

“So... you’re saying it’s never okay to bite?” Yakko asked.

“Not exactly... there are certain situations...” William said cautiously. “It’s just... your grandmother is one who prefers the sword over pen, and it causes people to fear and hate her, and none of the issues actually get solved,” he explained. Yakko nodded.

“But that’s not to say there aren’t moments where your hand is forced... like, for example, if invaders were in the castle and people were attacking. Then it’s okay. Self-defense is perfectly fine,” William said, nodding to himself.

“Or if someone were to attack Wakko?” Yakko suggested. William caught onto what he was doing and smiled a little.

“Or if someone was attacking Wakko, that’d be alright too,” He winked.

“I’m not saying what you did was wrong, Yakko. I’m just saying that there’s a very large risk factor in attacking your grandmother. Whether or not we like it, she’s in charge, and if you attack her she’ll likely attack back. That’s why words are better than getting physical with her, because no matter what, you won’t be ready for those consequences,” William explained, and Yakko finally understood.

“Okay... I won’t bite her,” He said. William gave him a side hug as they finally arrived at Angelina’s study.

“Well... we told her we wanted someone to go in with you at all times, but seeing as she has no respect for us or our wishes, there probably won’t be,” He sighed. “But you’ll be on your best behavior, correct?”

“As best as I can,” he chose his words carefully, still intent on doing it his way.

“Good,” William smiled. “You’ll be alright then, won’t you?”

“Bye dad,” Yakko gave his dad a hug before going in.

“Yakko. There you are,” Angelina looked at him with an unsettling smile.

“Here I am,” He said, not knowing how to respond, and he quickly sat in his usual spot.

“We’ll begin with dining etiquette- What are-?”

“Salad, then dinner on the left. Salad knife, spoon, soup spoon, then oyster fork on the right,” He grinned.

“That wasn’t what-”

“Oh! Hors d’oeuvres, amuse-bouche, soup, appetizer, salad, fish, first main course, palate cleanser, second main course, cheese, dessert, and mignardise,” He listed off. Angelina shot him a look.

“Your impertinence is dually noted, Yakko. Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing,” She said.

“Whatever do you mean? That was what you were going to ask me, was it not?” He said. Angelina huffed.

“It’s not proper to-”

“-to speak over one’s advisor, yes, but I argue that this is a much more efficient way to get through lessons,” he shrugged.

“I’d argue otherwise,” She said dryly. “Now, how do you-”

“Fan folds are done by folding a large square napkin in half to create a rectangle, creating pleats, then folding in half again so pleats are on top, then folding upper left corner down and tucking behind the center pleat, which creates a triangle, then releasing and letting the pleats fan out,” He said with his eyes closed. “However, I don’t really know why you’d want me to know such things, as napkin folding is traditionally done by servants of the castle and not done by the host.”

“I instructed you to only read until the third chapter,” Angelina pointed out.

“Why? So you’d set me up for failure so I wouldn’t know anything of what you were going to quiz me about?” Yakko smirked.

“You forget who you are speaking to,” Angelina’s eye twitched.

“I’m speaking to the queen, am I not? Or is the real queen somewhere hidden, because that would explain quite a few things-”

“That is enough, Yakko,” she glared, and Yakko wisely pulled back.

“Well, seeing as your already so far ahead, why don’t I quiz you on your knowledge of history instead. What can you tell me about King Winston?”

“He’s dead,” Yakko said.

“No-”

“He’s alive? Why isn’t he in charge then?” Yakko looked around the room.

“No, he’s not-”

“Make up your mind, is the man dead or alive? Goodness,” He shook his head.

The queen growled. “Did your mother put you up to this?” she asked, borderline fuming. Yakko raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

“Don’t lie to me, boy. I’d recognize that smartassery anywhere,” She glared. “If that impertinent child doesn’t stop, I swear-”

“No! I did this all on my own,” He quickly said. “Mom had nothing to do with this.”

“Trying to be the hero now?” She raised an eyebrow, before a little smile grew on her face.

“Perhaps this will get you to pay attention then,” She said, going to one of the shelves and selecting a book. Yakko bit his lip nervously.

“Tell me, Yakko, what do you see here?” she said, showing him an illustration in the book.

“A really tall tower? Why are you showing me that?” He questioned.

“It’s a special room in the castle for those who disobey my orders. However, seeing as you love to play hero, if you don’t stop with the smart talk, I’ll throw your little brother or maybe even your mother in there for a week with no food,” She explained coldly.

“You wouldn't do that to your own daughter,” He said.

“I’ve done far worse than your little head can imagine,” She said, taking the book from his hands.

Yakko felt a wave of empathy for his mother.

“So... are you going to let me talk now? Or are you going to continue with the smart talk and have your brother and mother punished?” She grinned.

“Dad would free them. He’s strong,” Yakko pointed out.

“Oh? So you’re saying I should lock him in the dungeon underground while they remain above? What a splendid idea,” Her eyes shone.

“No!” He protested.

“Then do we have an agreement?” She asked. Yakko bit his lip once more, partially considering just biting her again. If he could just even the playing field just a little bit...

“Whether or not we like it, she’s in charge, and if you attack her she’ll likely attack back,” His father’s words from earlier rang in his mind. He probably should’ve listened so this threat wouldn’t have happened. Yakko sighed.

“Yes,” He said, taking a silent vow to make up for this minor setback in any way he could- to attempt to lower the playing field just a smidge.

“Good,” She smiled. “Let’s return...”

Queen Angelina then began to lecture, and Yakko stopped paying attention. Instead, he thought about what to do next.

Perhaps him and Wakko could set up elaborate pranks around the castle, and watch her go mad trying to figure out who did it.

No, she’d probably know it was the only two children in the castle, and Wakko would be punished.

Maybe he could talk back in a more subtle way.

No, that was him trying to be subtle. It was very clearly not his strength.

Maybe he could try talking her into giving him different tutors?

That wasn’t likely to work, as she made it clear from day one she was to be in charge.

Maybe if he let her choose?

No, she’d never agree to that much.

He was stuck with her. For the moment anyway... perhaps he’d think of something better in time when she cooled down and wasn’t expecting anything.

Yes, that was what he’d do; wait a month or two for her to relax, act like her perfect little prince, and then start back with the quips, but not too strong like today. He’d work on his “i’m not technically wrong” strategy too, it clearly needed work.

Yes, that’d work. Maybe if he wore her out or drove her insane over time she’d leave him and his family alone.

He could only hope anyway.

Yakko sighed, feeling bad for his mom and dad. This whole protector business was hard work, and they’ve been doing it as long as he’s been alive.

That was why he had to do it though, they deserved a break. Yakko could handle the responsibility.

He was going to wear her out so slowly but effectively she would no longer want anything to do with any of them, and then they could all be happy and his parents would never have to worry about her ever again, not if he had anything to say about it.

After all, it’s a big brother’s job to watch over and protect, and that was what Yakko intended to do.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

#i cant believe its not angst #my fics #angelina 1 lives au #animaniacs #yakko warner #sir william the good #william warner #queen angelina i #xD #a tiny break from angst but buckle up bc next time is much much worse ;))))#you'll see #aldjfjjwjfdjjzhdsjk #i love william

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asianhappinesss · 3 years

Text

The Untamed (2019)

Summary

Wei Wu Xian and Lan Wang Ji, two talented disciples of respected clans, meet during cultivation training and accidentally discover a secret carefully hidden for many years. Taking on the legacy of their ancestors, they decide to rid the world of the ominous threat. But in a dramatic turn of events, Wei Wu Xian dies. Sixteen years later, Wei Wu Xian is brought back to life through a self-sacrificing ritual. He conceals himself behind a mask and assumes the identity of his summoner. Soon, Wei Wu Xian reunites with Lan Wang Ji and they start working together to solve the mysteries of the present and unravel the truth behind the events in the past.

Review

Is This A Chinese BL Drama?

Many people have asked about the extent of the BL factor in The Untamed. Some prefer more explicit romantic scenes between the 2 male leads while others don’t. To me, the BL scenes are very subtle. All you will get are just longing stares and teasings. Unless you have read the novel, you probably won’t even get the love message behind some of these conversations and scenes featuring Wuxian and Wangji. I guess they did get the balance right. It doesn’t offend those who are more conservative while it still has enough subtleties to excite fans of this novel. If you can’t get enough of them, you can also listen to the theme song, Wu Ji (无羁), which they sang as a duet. The Acting Xiao Zhan is a joy to watch as he managed to bring the Wuxian character to life. Wuxian is a pretty well-developed character with a wide range of emotions. He can be cocky, playful, sweet, and dark. You can see his change in demeanor from his body language and facial expression that it is very easy to become invested in this character. On the other hand, Wangji’s personality is very reserved and expressionless. Hence, I feel it is a much more challenging role to assume. But thanks to the great chemistry between Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo, they managed to show that Wangji is capable of deep emotions although he might look cold. I have not much to complain about regarding the rest of the cast. Some are great such as Paul Yu Bin who played Wen Ning while others are passable. But the highlight is still the 2 main leads and this is what I find pushes the drama up a notch. Overall Verdict I have to say that The Untamed can be a bit difficult to follow especially for those who have not read the novel. There are plenty of characters that somehow tie up to one another to create a chain reaction that can be confusing in the initial stages. There is also a lack of explanation on certain important aspects such as the flute that Wuxian wields and the Stygian Tiger Seal. The ending is open to interpretation and viewers are never really told how and why the ultimate mastermind arranged the whole scheme. The clues are there but you would have to piece them together and make some guesses. However, I wouldn’t say that the whole drama and its ending are disappointing. In contrast, it is very much worth a watch. You just have to be patient to gradually pull off the layers and understand the full picture. After all, about 30 episodes are flashbacks to give viewers the back story of Wuxian. It is certainly not as straightforward as TVB’s Deep In The Realm Of Conscience or so heroic like the Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre. My overall verdict for The Untamed review would be to watch it for the plot and chemistry between the 2 male leads. Be patient and after about 10 episodes or so, you will be able to get into the story and can’t let go from there. The BL factor is not as strong as the feeling of brotherhood which supercedes any romantic notions to me. While others might interpret it differently, it doesn’t detract from the overall plot and enjoyability of this xianxia drama. So, go and watch it!

#cdrama

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human-enthusiast · 3 years

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Absurd Person #1 - Monkey D. Luffy (kid)

Let’s start with not only the main protagonist of One Piece but also the first character to give Luffy any sort of injury...

...his dumb, seven-year-old self...

*Disclaimer: I don’t own this image - screenshot from Episode of East Blue

The last time I wrote this, I forgot to hit save and my browser just reloaded the page and lost everything. After that I just went “I’m done” and rage quit Tumblr for the night (which I normally don’t do). That’s how my Sundays usually go😒🥴

Now Onward!

Basic Classifications

Real World Ethnicity/Nationality: Brazilian

Class: farm / country / lower class

Culture (the one he grew up around): Dawn Island - Sea-side village

Fishing community

Farming / Ranching community

Hard work ethic

Small and close community members; relatively friendly; little to non-existent conflict

Selective mix of being open towards strangers (especially with merchant vessels for better trading opportunities) and weariness towards those they expect to be harmful (likes Pirates; I’d imagine the people of Windmill Village were understandably unnerved with the Red-Haired Pirates first showing up).

Core values (personal to Luffy): pride, physical strength, adventures on and outside his home village,

Relation to authority: neutral - shifting slightly towards negative (no clear basis of opinion; can only go off on Luffy’s fascination with pirates as the main viewpoint)

(The added information feels a little scatter-shot but figured I give it a try based on little information from the manga panels and how it lines up with real-world similarities. Most information is based on logical speculation and could change with new information in later chapters.)

I know that the Romance Dawn arc consists of the chapters up until he meets Coby and Alvida (I think...), but the depiction of Luffy’s character in the first chapter seems different from when he is seventeen and setting out to sea. So, I’ll treat kid Luffy as a separate character for the first analysis.

First Impressions and Introduction

Now, I am an anime watcher, first and foremost, so my first impression of this character stems from the Anime. My introduction towards this ball of chaos was when he popped out of a barrel, that he put himself into after realizing that a whirlpool suddenly appeared (how he missed it? - It’s Luffy), and then inexplicably took a nap in. That was the absurd reason I was able to stick with One Piece in the first few arcs (until Baratie became one of the major reasons I stuck with it - I’ll explain why when we get there).

And since the first chapter was used for episode four in the anime, I was already somewhat familiar with how the story started and who Luffy was as a kid. However, reading the first chapter felt....different than what I would’ve expected. And because the anime cut out a few details from the chapter, there definitely are some things to take from kid Luffy at that point.

So my first impression was, as follows:

The kid is unhinged...That explains some things...

Complete wild child of a backwater village from Day 1.

LIKE-- The anime episode DID NOT explain how he got that scar and the guy didn’t bring it up ever. To be fair, that wasn’t a big focus because the anime didn’t make it a focus. Reading that part though did more for his character and a little of his upbringing, through speculation, making it a rather slow-building but also fascinating introduction into this series.

Just a bit of an add-on, but if the manga introduced Luffy in the same level of neutrality as what the Anime did, It may not have fully made it clear if Luffy was going to be the main protagonist. Then again, it’s a shounen manga, maybe it was rather obvious to everyone else. Regardless, his introduction served to

(1) Make his entrance memorable

(2) Establish his character that could either compare or set him apart from his teen self.

(3) Act as a sort of precursor towards the introduction of Luffy’s world and upbringing (which isn’t completely established until the last few arcs of Pre-Time Skip)

Personality

The best way I could describe Luffy at this point is a stereotypical kid...

Energetic, short-tempered, adventure-seeking, easily impressed, and ignorant...

That last description is actually something I brought up in a separate post about the “Fluid themes” of One Piece. Because I found that a small but overarching part in many (almost all) themes and world issues that One Piece reflects has some level of unawareness or apathy. Jimbe put it best during the Fishman Island Flashback when they found Koala (paraphrasing)

“They are afraid of us because they don’t know us.”

Know us referring to acknowledging them as people on the same level as humans.

Because of that and plenty of other instances from the East Blue, it can be a potential center for many characters who go up against or wish to explore the world and find that they are a frog in a well.

And that’s what kid Luffy represents. A rather aggressive frog in a well that wants out.

Granted, he is a seven-year-old, whose schooling has a closer equivalent to the 16th and 17th centuries of our world, living in what appears to be a farming community, so I’d imagine his education only focuses on at least the basic levels of reading/writing, mathematics, etc. A small, unexciting farming village probably has more concerns over their melon crops rather than what the world has going on. Adding in Luffy, you get a kid who dreams about being a pirate and adventuring outside the isolated village, making him avidly interested in a world he has no experience with. Or in a world he thinks is all fun and games.

That’s pretty standard for any child that has a mild and peaceful life. No doubt Shanks and his crew would tell him stories about their adventures. Not as a sort of attempt to make him a pirate, but because he was easily entertained by it, building up this expectation with stereotypical pirate personas. And whether he has his “destructive” tendencies before they became a fixture in Windmill Village, they definitely seemed to amp it up enough for Luffy to try and prove he was “man enough” to be a pirate at seven years old.

Then when you add in this idealistic expectation with the selfishness of a young child, it creates an opportunity to learn. Because, as any kid may go through, will find that their fantasy of the world won’t be what they expected, and will often react negatively. Luffy’s expectation of Shanks is that he is the strongest man worthy enough to be a pirate.

Now, Luffy’s view of a “real man” stems a lot from this stereotype of men solving their problems through fighting only. Which also embodies this rather damaging philosophy of never running away or backing down from a fight (which I refer to as stupid bravery - something that comes up in a certain other character).

The amazing thing about all the combined aspects of this kid is the ability to create a learning lesson for Luffy. Which can become a motivational factor in his pursuit as a pirate.

His easily impressed nature makes it known both when the Red-Haired Pirates talk positively about piracy adventures and when Shanks leaves the village. The difference between the moments can be showcased by the difference in determination and will to make an effort to achieve his dream. As he declared he wants to be King of The Pirates, he sets himself to work at it, rather than try and go with others.

How He Shapes the Story / World Around Them

I don’t know if anybody else made a similar connection (I wanna say someone DID but I can’t remember where) but in combination with Luffy’s general enthusiasm growing up hearing wild stories, his narrative reminds me so much of Don Quixote De La Mancha.

It’s been a while since I last read that story-- and by read I mean translate some paragraphs from Spanish to English during my Spanish I class in freshman year of high school. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Part I entails an old man who, after indulging himself with various stories of knights and valor, decides he wants to partake in his own adventures. Under various delusions and misadventures, his story becomes a rather well-known one.

Don Quixote was called the first “modern book”. That was something my Spanish teacher mentioned regarding its acknowledgment by the world and always stuck with me. It was one of the first stories of the early medieval period to focus on a regular man. Other stories before this tended to be about legends, gods, demigods-- individuals who often were referred to as legends because they were born into high status (often above humans). Either through original texts (often for religious purposes) and then through varying interpretations (such as the Arthurian Legends), these tales were a part of the status quo.

Kid Luffy is a person that reflects so much of the Don Quixote story (And not just because his village has windmills-- the most iconic scene about the knight’s story). He is that simple, normal boy that longs for his own adventures when there seemingly is already a well-talked-about story about someone who achieved infamy. In place of that is a man named Gold Roger whose execution we see in the manga’s opening. At this point, we don’t have much understanding about how it impacts the world as of yet, we just know it is setting up for something significant to the story.

Luffy becomes that “regular” person from a small-town with big expectations for a grand adventure.

That perspective can slowly build into the story by starting in a simple setting with a character going through one of the first dynamic changes in his life. Luffy’s experience with Shanks’s sacrifice sets a course in his own adventure. A story that trails into a rather bonkers adventure at the end of chapter 1.

His development is what shaped his world. It’s the way he learns when as it stems from the consequences of his actions. Especially ones where the smaller ones turn out to be very costly, making it a hard lesson that ingrains into the young kid. His actions created by his old ideologies sparked an intense reaction in the people around him. Especially Shanks, who felt he was worth losing an arm towards.

How The WORLD Shapes HIM

So, for the sake of the fact that kid Luffy’s “World” in Chapter 1 mostly consists of Windmill Village, I’m adding in Shank’s and his crew’s influence to extend and further give credence to his influence. Because, as of this point, Shanks represents a glimpse into the life of a pirate that Luffy strives for.

With Luffy being in a quiet environment all seven years of life, there is growth through basic schooling and healthy child development (theoretically since Makino seems to be the most likely one acting as his guardian), instead of doing things outside that norm. Now Shanks is the odd factor that creates new development into Luffy’s dreams and future ambitions.

The crew’s stories, charisma, and connection towards the kid actively (and probably unintentionally) created a positive expectation if he chose to pursue his dream. While that sounds inspiring, there were also negative aspects. Such as driving his ignorance and impatient nature to seek it out too early in his life.

Shanks then became a mediator. Luffy often has mixed feelings with Shanks as the man begets a level of encouragement while verbally making fun of Luffy for being a kid constantly. Despite that, it doesn’t completely deter Luffy’s ambitions. All it does is slowly drop his high expectations in Shanks after the first bar incident. This is again done by his childish outlook of physical strength and bravery equating to his ideal of a real man.

With Higama, Luffy learns about real-world dangers, and how bravery won’t always be enough to win battles. The same can be said for physical strength but at that moment it doesn’t apply to Luffy.

Shanks’ and the crew’s involvement helped Luffy’s views change. His expectations are fulfilled, which in turn reveal that he was wrong about them.

Finally, seeing Shanks’ sacrifice unfold drove Luffy into a pang of newfound guilt. By then, he was able to change one part of his world views from a childish fantasy into the beginnings of a mature way of thinking.

He gains some level of patience. Along with a set goal to work with. Attributes which are identifiable with Luffy in the chapters last few panels.

Patience = Luffy took time to train and learn to set sail at age seventeen.

Set goal = Be King of the Pirates

Add-Ons

When I say that kid Luffy, after Shanks’ sacrifice, gained a level of patience, it is meant as a deduction during that chapter. By no means am I insinuating that it became a permanent trait for his character. Because as of chapter 1, all of Luffy’s personality has yet to be revealed.

And this will apply to other posts for various characters. They may behave in ways during or in response to a particular event but it doesn’t necessarily equate to that becoming a whole personality trait. Calling Luffy patient, with having full acknowledgment of his personality during the bulk of One Piece, is completely off. But, there can and will be moments where Luffy will act patient when he deems it necessary.

This is a little hard to articulate but I hope it makes enough sense.

🏴‍☠️🐒

After-Notes

Here’s my first attempt at this analysis. It felt scattered even after editing everything. Breaking down characters sounds easy (and most times it is) but articulating and connecting things takes a lot of work.

Here's to hoping it gets easier with the next character. And maybe shorter paragraphs.

Up Next: Shanks (East Blue)

#OPA #One Piece #East Blue Saga #Romance Dawn Arc #Monkey D. Luffy #Chapter 1 #One Piece Characters #Worldbuilding #Analysis

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