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maddiethebull · 5 years ago

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May I request a scrnario with leviathan with an s/o who's a closet otaku (like she rlly tries hard to hide it from him lmao) and how would he react when he manages to discover her otome/male idol merch (like enstars, tsukiuta or a Idolish7 lololol) hidden in some part of her room/closet

Levi (Obey Me!) - Prompt - Being with a secret otaku MC

Sorry that this took fucking forever, I had my Mid terms which was a ride and a half, but heres the story. I used the power of my own weeb knowledge to write this, hope you love it!! Thank you for making a request

You, Satan, and Asmo were sitting in the living room watching The Real Housewives of Devildom when you all heard an ear shattering seemingly female scream. Asmo jumped like a baby into your arms while Satan, who was off in his own world reading a detective novel since you got so caught up in the show that you weren’t even looking at your Spells notes anymore, looked up and straight to the source. It came from your room. The biggest problem was that you guys had no idea where Lucifer fucked off to so you couldn’t ask him to go check it out.

Asmo quivered in your arms, saying, “M-MC, go check it out.”

“WHAT? Me? You want me to check it out?” You? The weakest of the bunch??

Satan spoke up, “why don’t we all go check it out, that way we’ll have MC with us to make sure she’s okay and have two demons to protect her.”

Reluctantly, you and Asmo got up to follow Satan’s lead.

-Five hours ago-

Levi was so far ahead of you in Mario Kart : Journey into Devildom ™ that he passed the finish line nearly a minute before you.

“Hah, normie!!” he said.

You had been not only defeated, but defeated so badly that you silently declared Mario your arch enemy. You looked to Levi,

“Hey, that level was really hard, okay?” you said with puppy dog eyes, hoping to avoid his taunts about your gaming abilities.

“Nahhhh it wasn’t you’re just such a normie that you couldn’t finish it in first place like me.” He said it with a taunting smile and a sly look in those orange eyes.

You decided to repay his taunts; you stood up and then kneeled, your hand on your heart,

“Forgive me, your weeb highness.”

You grabbed his hand, you were going to kiss it to really drive the whole weeb highness joke in but he tugged away immediately. He was blushing the color of a fuji apple. He put his wrist over his mouth and avoided eye contact, he was slightly embarrassed from your joke, but it was you grabbing his hand that sent the flush to his cheeks. Of course, he would never admit that to you, so he said,

“H-hey, you don’t have to make fun of me.”

“You just called me a normie, Levi,” you said, looking up at him with a beaming smile.

He blushed more, “G-get up MC, it’s w-weird l-looking at you like that.” In a desperate attempt to hide his blushing cheeks, he wasn’t even looking at you now. This is why you loved teasing him back, he would always become so flustered when you teased him back and seeing him blush was the cutest thing you could ever imagine. No matter how much Levi called you a normie or made fun of you for being bad with the video game controller, you never turned down a chance to give him a taste of his own medicine. He didn’t even know the best part. You were totally an otaku! Just like him – well, maybe not just like him, you left your room much more than him and another tiny detail is that you had gone to the ends of the earth to hide your otaku side from everyone you came into contact with.

“Hah,” Levi laughed, “when you were being all butthurt about being a normie, you sounded like Suki from My Heartless Father Threw Me Out At Birth But It’s Fine Because He Died and Left Me With A Fortune But My Angry Mother Tried To Kill Me But I Killed Someone, Who Is It? When her heartless father threw-”

“I understand Levi.”

Realizing that maybe the name was a little too forth-giving to the plot, he tried a different reference just so he could see you not understand it.

“Okay what about this one, you sound like SHEba at the final battle when she gave a speech to the dog-humanoid overlord.”

“Pfft, no I didn’t, she was way more worked up okay. And that was the same day that she found out her father was the villain so that’s two people betraying poor SHEba. Also, what was with the ending, was that a set up for a sequel or something? I think that a sequel would be dragging it on too much just like when ‘Did She Do It?’ came out after ‘Do What I Say! : Should We Have A Courtship?’”

Levi was looking at you, mouth hanging open, “Uhhh MC, you’ve seen ‘Bone Catcher: The Planet of the Dogs’? AND ‘Do What I Say!’????”

“Oh, uh, no, not really, only a little bit of it. Just some snippets because you were talking about it so I watched like five minutes, not really my thing………”

“ASDFGHJKL only this meme can describe how I’m feeling.” It was a deep fried meme written in ancient devildom language over the picture of what seemed to be a demonic pikachu with its mouth open.

You sigh, “Levi I can’t read that.”

“Hm, maybe a NORMIE (lolololol) like you shouldn’t read it!”

You laughed, “okay, Levi.”

To this he smiled, you didn’t know why but he smiled nonetheless. In truth, he was just happy that he could have a conversation with you like this. You were the only person he’d ever met that went to such lengths to hang out with him, I mean Satan sometimes came around to watch dramas and Mammon came around to ask for money, but you didn’t want that. You wanted to hole up with him, hear his voice, see his smile, play the games you weren’t accustomed to. You just wanted to be with him and that was the most profound realization that came upon Levi after you two first began hanging out like this. You were his first best friend and his first romantic interest that wasn’t 2D, so it was a big deal when you came to hang out in his room.

He didn’t want you to leave so he spoke,

“So, wanna play another game so you can lose?”

“Very funny,” you said, giving him a smirk.

“For reals though, I have this new game and it’s a two player.”

You stretched your arms out as you stood up from where you were sitting on the ground, “maybe tomorrow, I have a big test coming up in Spells class and I really need to study for it.”

He looked down to the controller that was still in one of his hands, “oh, okay, just do your normie studying but tomorrow you have to be here to play it with me, like blood oath promise me.”

“I feel like a blood oath is a little too serious for this situation, pinky promise,” you said holding out your pinky.

He couldn’t help but blush at the thought of touching your hand again.

“Pffft, w-what a lame normie thing to do, l-let’s do a pinky promise t-then.”

“Okay,” you linked your pinkies together and looked into his eyes that were surrounded by a rose color that crept up to his entire face, “I pinky promise you that I will be here tomorrow so I can be your player two.”

He blushed even harder, “okay, w-whatever.” And you were on your way out, but just before you opened the door, “oh, by the way, I lost my headphones at R.A.D., can I borrow some earbuds for tonight?”

“Hmph, okay but JUST for tonight, the premiere of Generic Anime Name is gonna be on Devflix tomorrow morning and I can’t miss watching that.”

And with that, you were off to study in your room until Asmo yanked the headphones from your ears,

“Hey MC, guess what show is on?”

“Asmo I’m trying to study,” you put Levi’s headphones in your pocket as to avoid further ear pulling.

“But it’s ‘The Real Housewives of Devildom!’ Remember how you promised me last week that you would watch the new episode with me?”

“Asmo, not now, I need to study for this test

“MCCCC, you SAID you woulddddd you prommmisssed”

“Ugh fine but only if we bring Satan along to help me study during commercials.”

“Yayyyy!”

Meanwhile notification beeped on Levi’s D.D.D.,

“As a present we’ll be releasing the premiere of Generic Anime Name a little early for our loving fans

Levi rushed to your room and walked right in, not bothering to knock. It was a good thing you weren’t there because you would’ve punched him in the face if another person had come in while you were studying. He wondered for a second where you had gone, but that wasn’t the issue at hand, he HAD to find his headphones. He rummaged through almost your entire room. ‘Where would they be?’ ‘Maybe she dropped them and kicked them under the bed?’ So, he went looking under your bed and found tons upon tons of anime and otome merch. He saw a body pillow of Gavyn from Mr. Passion: Monarch’s Decision and that’s when he lost all composure and let out a scream. About five minutes of digging through your stacks of posters and T-shirts and yet another body pillow, the door was nearly busted open by you, Asmo, and Satan.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He was hurt, really hurt you could tell because he didn’t even have the strength to call you a normie. He figured you didn’t tell him because you didn’t think he was cool enough or hot enough like Gavyn. Maybe you even didn’t like him at all.

“Uhhhhh, I’m going to leave now, bye,”Asmo said, sprinting out of the awkward situation and Satan soon followed seeing that there wasn’t some ghost wandering about in your room.

“Levi-”

“Are we friends?” This caught you off guard, why the hell would he think you weren’t friends? He was your best friend and at the same time your biggest crush.

“Of course, Levi, we’re friends,” your head hung low, you felt slightly ashamed of hiding this side of you from him.

“Then why did you hide all of this from me?”

“Because I was scared of how you would react. In the human world, there was a guy I used to really like, he was my only friend at the time, but when I showed him these things, he stopped talking to me; he wouldn’t even look at me in the hallways. I felt so alone. He thought it was weird and childish and- and he said I was creepy. I just-” tears began rolling from your eyes from remembering this and realizing that Levi was nothing like that guy. Levi, even though he didn’t show it much, actually cared about you and he was even into some of the same things you were but you were just too damn scared of something like that happening again.

You choked back your tears, “I just didn’t want to lose you.”

He stood up and walked over to you, “MC, you don’t need to hide from me… I would never stop talking to you, even if you were into stuff I didn’t like. I just like being around you and having a friend to play video games with and watch anime with and you listen to me talk about Ruri-chan and- and,” his voice shook. Now both of you were crying as he pulled you in for a hug, you were both such softies that you couldn’t help but get worked up over your emotions. Neither of you wanted to lose the other, and Levi didn’t want you to feel like you needed to hide any part of you from him because, after all, you were his player two.

“Y-you should never leave your player two behind,” he said with his face buried in the crook of your neck. Lucifer gave a passing look in your room when he got back to see that you were alright but saw two emotional weebs crying and hugging instead.

“MC, Levi, I beg of you, whatever it is that you’re doing, just finish and go to sleep.”

You and Levi separated but instead of going to his room, Levi stayed with you to watch that new anime premiere episode. You shared the headphones even after you nodded off to bed and Levi was just sat next to you, listening to whatever was on his computer while smiling gently at you, studying your features as you lay peacefully asleep. Finally around five in the morning you were both asleep as Levi unconsciously held you close, in his arms, never wanting to let go of his Player Two.

—————————————————————————————————-

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hilltopsunset · 4 years ago

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I Regret Buying Pokémon Shield

I told myself I wouldn’t do it. I’ve seen time and again the lack of innovation from main-series Pokémon games, and I insisted nothing would convince me to buy this latest atrocity. Yet here I am, reviewing the game I said I’d never purchase. I should have listened to myself. I KNEW BETTER! Strap in, ‘cause this one’s pretty long.

Pokémon has been around for a long time—like, a long, long time—and I’ve been around for every single new main-series game that’s been released since the franchise’s first arrival in North America back in 1996 with Red/Blue. I was not yet 10 years old, and I still remember the childlike excitement of finding rare, never-before seen creatures, the stress of trying to catch a wily Abra or elusive Pinsir, and the challenging first encounter with the Elite Four and the Champion, a 5-man gauntlet of trainers with powerful Pokémon rarely (if ever) seen in the game prior to that moment. It was exhilarating in a way that keeps me coming back for more, hoping to rekindle those same flames of wonder.

While the main gist of the games hasn’t changed much over the years, one of my favorite parts of playing a new Pokémon game is seeing the improvements each game brings to the series. Many of the initial sequels made huge leaps in progress: Gold/Silver introduced a plethora of new mechanics like held items and breeding; Ruby/Sapphire introduced passive abilities and was the first to include multi-battles in the form of double-battles; Diamond/Pearl was the first generation capable of trading and battling online and brought us the revolutionary physical/special split so elements were no longer locked into one or the other. These changes all had significant impacts on how players approached battles, formed their teams, and used each Pokémon.

Those changes, combined with the addition of new Pokémon to catch, regions to explore, and enemies to fight, were enough to keep me interested. But I know I wasn’t alone in imagining all the possibilities of taking the franchise off the handheld platforms and moving the main series games over to a more powerful home console. In the meantime, each generation that followed Gen IV highlighted a new, troubling pattern that became more and more prevalent with each addition to the series.

1. Gen V: Lack of meaningful gameplay innovation

By Generation V with Black/White, not only was Game Freak quickly running out of colors, they were quite obviously running out of ideas for significant gameplay innovation. The bulk of Black/White’s biggest changes were improvements on or adaptations to existing staples to the franchise: many new Pokémon, moves, and abilities were added, and the DS platform allowed for greater graphical quality where Pokémon could move around a bit more on-screen during battles, the camera wasn’t as rigid as it had to be in previous games due to machine limitations; perhaps most importantly, they FINALLY decided to make TMs infinite. Thank goodness. While the updates were nice, they were nowhere near as impactful on the game as previous generations’ changes were and served more as needed quality of life adjustments.

I would also argue Gen V also had the least inspired Pokémon designs (like Vanillux and Klinklang) with the worst starter choices of any Pokémon game, but that’s a discussion for another time. Excadrill and Volcarona were pretty cool, though.

2. Gen VI: Gimmicks as the main draw

Pokémon X/Y (See? They ran out of colors) continued this new downward trend in innovation. Mega-evolution—while admittedly pretty cool—wasn’t enough to carry the new generation into an era of meaningful improvement because it was equivalent to adding new Pokémon rather than developing innovative gameplay, ushering in a new era of gimmicks in lieu of substantial updates.

Though the gameplay innovation for X/Y was minimal, the graphic updates were substantial: Pokémon X/Y was the first generation to introduce the main series to a fully 3-dimensional world populated by 3D characters. However, since X/Y was on the 3DS, it was a ripe target for the 3D gimmick seen in almost all games on the console, which I personally used for all of 5 minutes before feeling nauseous and never using the function again.

Despite the fresh look of the new 3D models, the battle animations were, to be frank, incredibly disappointing. Pokémon still barely moved and never physically interacted with opponents, nor did they use moves in uniquely appropriate ways. To my point, for years now there’s been a meme about Blastoise opting to shoot water out of his face rather than his cannons. I was sad to see that they didn’t take the time to give each Pokémon’s animations a little more love. But I figured, in time, when or if the franchise ever moved to a more powerful machine, they would be better equipped to make it happen, right? I also convinced myself that the lack of refined animations were kind of charming, harkening back to the games’ original (terrible) animations.

3. Gen VII: Focus on Minigames

The main innovation (gimmick) that came with Generation VII, Sun/Moon, was the lack of HMs in lieu of riding certain Pokémon. Sun/Moon also added Ultra Beasts (essentially just new Pokémon) and Z-moves (just new moves) which only added to the number of gimmicks present in the games. These changes, which provide some mild adaptations to gameplay from previous generations, don’t fundamentally change the way players go through each game, the way that updates in the earlier generations did. I personally played through the entirety of Sun/Moon without using a single Z-move or seeing a single Ultra Beast outside the one you’re required to fight to progress the main story. Ultimately, these changes were not a significant enough experience to warrant an entirely new game that is otherwise full of more of the same stuff with slightly different creatures who have slightly different stats and occupy a slightly different world.

Though Sun/Moon was comfortably embracing the franchise’s affinity for gimmicks, it brought to the forefront yet another troubling trend: mini games. Between photography, the Festival Plaza, and Poké Pelago, the focus on and attention to detail toward mini games had grown considerably over the years. Pokémon games have always had minigames and other time-sinks—which is great! Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate having more to do than trudge through the main story. But it is apparent that, with each new generation, more time seems dedicated to development of these extras. Pokémon Contests, Secret Bases, Super Training, feeding/grooming; a lot of their larger innovations after Gen IV were centered on non-essential parts of the game, which results in diminished game and story quality overall.

Admittedly, Sun/Moon did have some of the best exploration moments of any of the Pokémon games, which I did very much appreciate. More on that later as it relates to Sword/Shield…

4. Generation VIII: You Can’t Be Serious

When Game Freak finally announced they were launching Generation VIII, Sword and Shield, on the Switch rather than a dedicated handheld console, I was beside myself with excitement.

And then I saw gameplay footage like this, and my heart sank.

What is the purpose of launching the game on a stronger console if they are going to continue copy/pasting their sprites and their animations? If they aren’t going to provide the Pokémon any unique flair or create more appropriate animations? It was disappointing enough seeing the same animations/models from X/Y for Sun/Moon, but that was sort of expected since the games were on the same console. But now that the game has moved to the Switch, this is unacceptable.

When I learned that they were significantly cutting the number of Pokémon available in the game, I thought for certain that would translate to more time dedicated to the ones that made the cut, to focus on adding animations and character to the critters to make them feel like real parts of the world, rather than avatars of a child’s imagination, unable to fully process how the world functions. Alas, what was I thinking?

I thought the Dynamax gimmick would be one of my biggest gripes because it’s so pointless, or maybe the Wild Area’s severe lack of organic belonging (all Pokémon are just wandering aimlessly, weather can change drastically after crossing an invisible line, trees look like they were cut and pasted out of Mario 64, you can’t even catch Pokémon if they’re too high a level) but honestly the most disappointing part of the game for me was the pitiful routes between towns/gyms. Previous installments of the game included routes full of trainers and puzzles you needed to defeat or solve before you could progress—in Sword/Shield, the only thing that ever prevents you from progressing are some Team Yell grunts barricading paths the game doesn’t want you to take yet, for literally no reason. It completely removes player autonomy and a sense of accomplishment earned through overcoming challenges—now instead of learning that you need to find an item that allows you to cut through certain trees to gain access to new areas, you simply follow the story beats and then, upon returning, the path will be open. It’s inorganic, it’s clunky, and it’s extremely lazy.

Speaking of lazy, the story itself was another massive disappointment for me. Pokémon games are not particularly known for having deep stories, but Sword/Shield takes it to a new low. Every NPC simply pushes you to battle in gyms, and every interesting story beat that occurs happens just outside the player-character’s reach. Any time something interesting happens, you are shooed away and told to let the grown-ups handle it while you just get your gym badges. There COULD have been some interesting story moments where your character gets more involved with helping fix the havoc occurring around the Galar Region, but instead we as the player are simply TOLD what happened, why it happened, and who fixed it (usually the champion, Leon).

I honestly think having the game focus on the story of Sonia, Bede, Marnie, or even Hop (was not a fan of this kid) would have been a much more interesting game, because those characters actually had some depth to them, some bigger reason for taking on the gym challenges than simply “I want to be the very best.” Albeit those stories would have required a tremendous amount of work to add depth and details, the potential for a better story is in those characters. There is just no story at all to the main character, who is ushered from gym to gym because…because? Because that’s what kids do? I’m not even really sure what the motivation is.

There are SO MANY exciting, interesting, innovative ways Game Freak could drive Pokémon into a new and exciting direction while still maintaining its charm and building on existing mechanics, but they instead choose to demonstrate their lack of interest in significant graphical and gameplay innovation. I imagine this is largely because the masses will eat up just about any Pokémon product produced so long as there’s a new bunny to catch, and Pikachu is still involved. I’m disappointed, and I wish the Galar region could meet the expectations of my 10-year old mind’s imagination.

When abilities were added, we suddenly had to consider whether our Earthquake could even hit the enemy Weezing and adapt to the tremendous changes the passive skills added, reconsidering how we faced each battle. When the physical/special split occurred, entirely new opportunities opened up and certain Pokémon who were banished to obscurity due to their poor typing and stat distribution, like Weavile, were suddenly viable. Some even became incredibly powerful, like Gyarados, who had been hit pretty hard by the Special attack/defense split. There were also already-powerful Pokémon (Gengar, Dragon-types) who became even more so through access to STAB moves that benefited off their strongest stats.

I want new games to include updates that feel as impactful as these changes. If you’re interested in how Game Freak can improve on the main gameplay, I have some fun ideas that will be fleshed out in another article: How to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise. That article will be dedicated to explaining what those changes are, why I want them, and how they can improve future games.

#pokemon #pokemon shield #pokemon sword/shield #game review #review #hilltop sunset #streamer #gamefreak #gen viii #gen 8

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ylizam · 4 years ago

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5, 12, 18 :)

5. what is your favorite overused trope?

hm. I am a big fan of “marriage” of convenience (in which I put marriage in quotes because, honestly, legal marriage doesn’t have to be involved! partnerships of convenience! co-habitation of convenience! etc.!), like give it all to me. also friends-to-lovers AND enemies-to-lovers, bonus points for all of the above (enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, and on and on and on). huddling for warmth and/or safety or whatever! which has the bonus of being more readily available in canon. oh and fake dating is always a winner in my book.

12. if you could change one ending to a book/show/game/etc, what would you change about it?

see this presumes I ever watch the end of a thing in which I’m emotionally invested. (have I watched the entirety of the final season of The West Wing? you bet I have not! I have seen selected excerpts and I’ve read about it but that is all!)

so, okay, we’ll go with Star Wars (main trilogies version; this does not go into anything but the prequel/original/sequel trilogies okay). which is to say: do not give me the exciting new dude who leaves the stormtroopers and then, oh, decide he’s a background character and instead we’re going to focus on the bad guy who was the son of that couple you loved. (also the exciting female jedi, which is good! only, um, let’s make sure everyone is related to someone from the previous films because no one can be unrelated to the big families that way leads to something something, lightning fingers!) I mean the problem of course that to change things adequately you’d really have to go back and redo the entire sequel trilogy and also Rose should get to do things and maybe Leia goes out like Holdo (which, fine, is Carrie Fisher dying hindsight and now I’ve made myself sad) and, honestly, this is a thing I am bad at but also I’m not running a gazillion dollar film series so I can just say it: have a fucking plan for the entire storyline from the fucking beginning, holy shit, and if you use more than one writer/directer LET THEM ALL IN ON IT.

p.s. have canon queer characters and no background characters don’t count if you’re gonna have people fall in love in your stories then some of those romances have to be actually canonically on-screen queer and not just hinted at or portrayed by the actors in a way the writers/creators need to try to erase (bi characters who fall in love with someone of another gender? great! awesome! characters who have been played as in love with someone of the same gender who then have other gender love interests thrust upon them in a way that is clearly trying to erase any hint of queerness instead of being part of it? not good! bad even!).

ahem.

also, and this is again a thing I have not watched, but maybe Bernie and Serena needed to go off into the sunset together in the end because seriously that’s 100% what you fucking foreshadowed when they broke up okay.

18. characters you want to wrap in a blanket and tell them they’re going to be okay?

Serena Campbell, obvs. also Gillian Greenwood (also I’d provide booze). a young Kira Nerys. Michael Burnham forever needs to be wrapped in a blanket and told she’s going to be okay and that she’s enough and that she is loved and cared for and no seriously stay in the blanket for a minute or two. these are just a few examples, but honestly so many characters (whether or not they’d appreciate it, which is another question altogether).

[fandom asks meme!]

#fandom asks meme #anyway i was sad no one asked me anything yesterday #but no the notifications just didn't show up #this includes mentions of:#star trek: disco!#star trek: ds9 #last tango in halifax #star wars #holby city #long post #ktlsyrtis

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ckret2 · 5 years ago

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would you mind explaining "Careless whisper" "I will always love you" and "Friend please"? no pressure though!

Oh god you chose two of the meme-iest songs! Both in one post! I can’t believe it!

Okay.

This took me forever to write because I wrote half of it and then got distracted for weeks and didn’t get back to it until I got a fresh ask today with some more songs and I was like, crap, I should finish this one.

So the first three paragraphs in this post still apply here, I’m not gonna copy paste them, go read those paragraphs if you haven’t yet. tl;dr i’m answering questions about why i included songs on my radiosnake spotify playlist because i like rambling for thousands of words at a time, also the playlist is based on a fic i wrote.

Feel free to keep sending me questions about more songs on the playlist. Explanations under the read more, assuming the read more works, which I make no guarantee of because this is tumblr.

Careless Whisper (Lyrics)

… except, the jazzy version.

So lemme tell you a story about how “Careless Whisper” came up and then I’ll explain why it actually belongs on the playlist.

The only way I can outline a story is by sitting down with another person and rambling the plotline at them, copy pasting it into another document, and bam that’s an outline.

Right now, in the disjointed process of outlining a sequel to Cold Day In Hell, I’m sort of chunking random ideas at a couple friends to see what sticks. One idea is that, when Alastor is drunk, he’s 90% worse at pretending he totally doesn’t care about Sir Pentious at all. If they’re ever drunk at the same social event, he will subtly (not subtly at all) follow him around all night like a puppy and hang on to his every word, automatically playing this sort of nonsense in the background.

One of my friends announced sadness that it didn’t start off with “Careless Whisper,” so I checked Postmodern Jukebox (the fastest/easiest/most common way to translate a modern song into Alastor Aesthetic) to see if they had made a jazz cover (they had), and I reassured my friend that the PMH cover definitely played every second song while drunk!Alastor was mooning over (and/or looming over) Sir Pentious.

And then I went oh goddammit the lyrics actually fit, dammit, now I’ve gotta put it on the playlist.

So I put it on the playlist.

Here’s the great thing about song lyrics. Even if everyone knows that the lyrics mean one thing, language is inherently ambiguous and you can totally just decide to read the lyrics a slightly different way if you really really want to and the exact wording doesn’t make it impossible. Everyone KNOWS that “Careless Whisper” is about cheating, but it never SAYS it’s about cheating (like, it says “cheat a friend,” but like the singer could’ve cheated their friend at cards? it doesn’t say), so you can just decide that it’s about any other kind of betrayal in a relationship! Like, say, blowing up your ally’s steampunk airship fleet. The song never says it ISN’T about a steampunk airship fleet.

So let’s just establish right now that this song is no longer about cheating. That’s out the window.

In the original song, “dancing” is probably intended as a metaphor for having sex. In THIS context, it is literally dancing. The emotional core of CDIH, the moment around which the rest of the story rotates, is the night that Alastor and Sir Pentious dance together. And although Alastor no doubt dances plenty of times after leaving Sir Pent, he’s certainly never going to dance like that again—like he’s with a lover, like he wants to be touching his dance partner, rather than either alone or while distastefully putting up with physical contact with someone who doesn’t matter to him.

The interpretation of the line “careless whispers of a good friend” that I think is probably Most Common is that a friend of the singer’s lover warned the lover that the singer is cheating on them, and the singer thinks that the fact that the lover now knows is worse than not knowing at all, because now that the lover knows they can never go back to normal, hence why the friend was being careless. Aside from any questions of, like, whether or not that’s a sound opinion at all—I’ve always interpreted that line differently. Since the singer refers to their lover as a “friend” (“should have known better than to cheat a friend”), I’ve always assumed that the singer would refer to themself as their lover’s friend, and so the “careless whispers of a good friend” were the whispers that the singer themself made that started whatever affair it is they had.

And so that assumption—that the “good friend” that said something they shouldn’t have is the singer—is the interpretation I’m carrying into the song’s inclusion in the playlist. In this case, it’s Alastor’s decision to lie to Sir Pent about how he feels about him (claiming that he never cared & that he was just screwing around with his emotions) before running off that are the “careless whispers” because, although not exactly whispery, they do have the same effect as in the song: ever since he said them, there’s been an unmendable rift between Alastor and Sir Pent (which was, like, his objective, but he’s still not happy about it)—and, more than that, it was very careless. Alastor had intended for his actions to just push Sir Pent away, not to effectively ruin Sir Pent’s ambitions to rule hell completely. But, that’s what happened. Because he didn’t think anything through. He just said and did the very first things he could think of to push Sir Pent away. Extremely careless.

And, of course, the specific version that got included was chosen because it sounds jazzy. Yay for PMJ, making all sorts of songs Alastor-ready.

I Will Always Love You (Lyrics)

… except, the super dark version.

So I figured out at some point that the easiest way I was gonna find Alastor music was through jazz-style covers of songs a la Postmodern Jukebox, 1) because PMJ has been actually mentioned as among the limited varieties of modern music that Alastor would listen to by virtue of the fact that they do covers that sound like what he used to listen to, and 2) because Puff here isn’t actually a fan of jazz and it’s a lot easier for me to slowly wade into the water via jazzy covers of songs I already know than it is for me to fling myself into the deep end like “appreciate Jelly Roll Morton! Appreciate Jelly Roll Morton NOW!!!”

(I am slowly and laboriously training myself to be a fan of jazz, because Alastor is a RADIO HOST from NEW ORLEANS in the ROARING TWENTIES AND A LITTLE BIT OF THE THIRTIES, i will NOT be writing him while in complete ignorance of a subject that probably occupied a huge portion of his life.)

So due to the fact that I was looking for PMJ-esque genre-switching covers of songs, I drifted over to other genre-switching song cover acts like Chase Holfelder to go through the songs and go “hm wonder of any of these work." This song is an exception to the genres I’m looking for for Alastor, but it still makes the list because like, the vibe is just right.

Have y'all ever actually listened to/read the lyrics to "I Will Always Love You” before? Not just the AAAND IIIIIIIII-IIII-IIIIIII WILL ALWAAAYS LOVE YOOOOO-OO-OOOU bit but the actual lyrics. They’re sad. The lyrics are “I deeply love you but if I stayed with you I would only hold you back so i’m going to leave you because it’s for the best but i’m super sad about it and i always will be.”

Now, that doesn’t 100% line up with Alastor’s situation. Because, like, obviously, he was doing the exact opposite of holding Sir Pent back when they were together, and fearing holding Sir Pent back was not the reason he left.

But it is among the reasons he avoids the hell out of him now. The primary reasons, of course, are still “being in love is scary and i do not want to do that so maybe if i avoid him i can continue pretending that i am not in love?” and “lmao he justifiably hates me now so why try"—but #3 on his list is the recognition that, since they broke up, Alastor’s actions have caused a constant cascade of events that have held Sir Pent back ever since. (And Alastor also suspects that there might actually be some kind of legitimate curse or fate or something going on here—that part of Alastor’s role in hell is playing the part of Sir Pent’s personal hellish divine punishment.) So he didn’t leave because he’s sabotaging Sir Pent’s ambitions; but he sabotaged Sir Pent’s ambitions because he left.

And therefore, as a consequence, he should stay away from Sir Pent now. He shouldn’t beg forgiveness and a second chance—because he doesn’t deserve them, and because he might make it worse.

This particular cover of the song really kicks the anguish up into high gear. The most common Whitney Houston version is like, okay she’s brokenhearted, but also somehow somewhat empowered by the brokenheartedness—like even though she’s leaving sad and bitter, in her heart she knows that the decision she’s making is for the best for her beloved, and she can draw strength from that. There is no drawing strength from the decision in the Chase Holfelder version—just using it up. It’s like he’s burning through all of his reserves of strength to push his loved one away. When Whitney hits the big note, she’s pulling power into herself to belt that out. When Chase hits the big note, he’s pouring out every last bit of power left inside his body. You can imagine Whitney walking away from this song with her head held high and her back straight but Chase is just gonna collapse to his knees with his shoulders hunched and head bowed—completely empty, a husk. That’s the vibe I want with Alastor—that every single day of his self-imposed exile he’s losing a little piece of himself, hollowing himself out. He can’t draw strength from it.

Typically, when I’m picking songs for this playlist, I don’t pay much attention to the gender of the singer (my only main priority on this playlist is that by the time it’s done I want the genders of the singers to be roughly balanced on both Sir Pent’s part and Alastor’s part), but in this case I think the fact that the singer is male contributes to it working for Alastor the way another version with a female singer wouldn’t. Not entirely sure why—maybe because, even though the voice doesn’t sound anything like his, it’s easier to actively imagine Alastor singing the song when it’s got a male voice? Maybe because, thanks to Sexism In Society, a woman saying "I’m leaving you because I’d get in the way of your dreams” more easily comes across as “Oh… I am simply not good enough for you… I’d hold you back…” while a man saying “I’m leaving you because I’d get in the way of your dreams” more easily comes across as “I wouldn’t hold you back, I’d push you down. I’m dangerous for you.” And the latter fits Alastor better.

(But hey, if any of you know of any versions of “I Will Always Love You” with a female singer that makes her sound dangerous as hell, feel free to recommend them to me. Not because I’m looking to replace the version I’ve already got but just because I’d really like to hear it.)

Currently, it’s listed as the last song on the Alastor portion of the playlist. I recently reorganized it so that the Sir Pent portions and Alastor portions each flow from the shallowest/most surface emotions down to the deeper/truer/more hidden emotions, and even before I did that reorganization, “I Will Always Love You” has been the closing song on Alastor’s side since it was added to the playlist. That feels like the right note to leave it on: after everything else has been said, once every other layer and lie has been stripped away, the deepest and truest and last thing Alastor would have to say to Sir Pent is “I hope life treats you kind and I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of” and an anguished screaming declaration of love.

Friend Please https://genius.com/Twenty-one-pilots-friend-please-lyrics

So remember when I said that language is inherently ambiguous and if you want you can totally just choose to read words differently if the wording doesn’t actually prevent that interpretation? This song is clearly about suicide. I have decided for the purposes of this playlist it is not about suicide anymore! It’s still about depression but not about suicide! When the singer was like “Please don’t take your life away from me” what he meant is “Please don’t take your life, and also, I am emphasizing that if you do so you are removing yourself from my life to try to show you how much you mean to me,” but how I have decided to interpret it for this playlist is “literally do not remove your life from my life, as in, like, don’t run away and stop talking to me.”

So. As I mentioned in my last song meta post, there’s sort of two—not genres, but like, musical aesthetics that I’m drawing from for Sir Pent: Victorian-ish/steampunk-ish sounds, and emo stuff because Vivz said that’s what he actually listens to. Twenty One Pilots fits the criteria for emo for me—idk and idc if other people consider them emo, they toured with Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, they count as far as I’m concerned—so they’re actually among the bands I’ve been intending to specifically look at for potential Sir Pent Songs.

For the most part, they’re, like, too good at the sad millennial vibe. But that song works.

“Friend, Please” comes low on Sir Pent’s portion because it’s deep in the more genuine emotions—I’ve actually considered putting it last and may still do so, it would make a nice counterpoint to “I Will Always Love You"—actually I’m gonna go do that, gonna go shuffle the playlist, there, good—and it’s also something that he couldn’t/wouldn’t say until after he knows about Alastor’s deep thoughts. Reinterpreted so that it’s not about suicide, it becomes about a friend who’s still depressed, but the focus of the song becomes about the friend’s self-isolation—a self-isolation that’s fueled by denial and self-delusion, the friend convincing themself that they’re alone, always will be, and can’t/won’t have anyone else in their life again that they can depend upon.

Which, although he doesn’t necessarily seem to be depressed, is certainly the vibe Alastor gives off in the show—that despite his overly-friendly overly-familiar attitude, he probably keeps everyone else at a great emotional distance. In canon he might be okay with that. In fic, he’s doing that at the expense of pushing away a person he loves very much—and then pushing away anyone that could help him cope with that loss. Leaving him very alone and perpetually disguising himself as fine with that. Maybe, when he can go years without having to see Sir Pent, he can be fine with that.

But I have Big Plans for that sequel and you know item #1 on the list is "stick Alastor and Sir Pent in a position where they’ll have to cross paths all the time so that it’s like threading a giant needle with barbed wire, stabbing the needle into Alastor’s heart, and slowly dragging the barbed wire straight through.”

And after that? Living like a ghost, claiming he’s fine when he’s been completely emotionally drained, is gonna be a pretty accurate description of his mental state.

Right now, Sir Pent is in no way close enough to Alastor to know that—and in no way sympathetic enough toward him to care even if he did know. He still hates Alastor for completely ruining his life. But there’s still that part of him that used to care about Alastor and still could come to care about him again. And if that part gets revived, and if he gets close enough to Alastor to see how miserable he’s made himself by trying to push everyone away and denying that he’s pushed his own mental state into as bad a state as it’s currently in, his reaction would be “you absolute dumbass” followed by trying to shout some sense into Alastor by pointing out that every one of his problems is caused not by external factors, but by his own damn screwed-up perception of the world. Like, every one of his problems he made himself, and he can unmake them. He’s just got to uncover his eyes first.

It’s easy for fandom to just, like, characterize Sir Pent as an all-around dumbass—strategically, socially, emotionally, etc. Until and unless we see otherwise—and see it so firmly that even I can’t find ways to headcanon around it, and believe you me, I can headcanon my way around a lot of things—I choose to believe that the only areas he’s definitely a dumbass in are “understanding modern slang” and “remembering NOT to charge into battle without considering the odds the second he sees somebody he hates.” This means that I like to believe he also has a reasonable level of emotional intelligence, and a healthy level of compassion that he can deploy, when he so chooses, on someone he considers worthy of that compassion. He’s evil, yes, but self-professed evil, which means self-aware evil; which means that even though there’s gotta be something fucked up with his worldview for him to choose to be evil, it is a choice he’s making, not something he’s doing specifically because he believes it’s right/necessary. And he can turn it off when he decides he’s with someone that deserves it.

Now, is Alastor on that list? Not currently, hell no. But there’s potential for him to make it on the list—that potential for Sir Pent to care about him again, to want to see him throw off the things that he’s using to hold himself back, to want to see him become better and happier, to want him back in Sir Pent’s life—buried somewhere deep beneath Sir Pent’s burned emotions and decades of resentment.

#(i've got asks for five and a half other songs on the playlist)#(i'll get to them uhhh... soonish)#mementomori #ask #music #about my writing #(sorta?? my writing comes up)#meta #hazbin hotel #headcanons #radiosnake

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ilianchant · 4 years ago

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shxwmaster asked:

♥ What’s the WORST thing that has happened to you rp wise? Oof, difficult to say. If it’s just about this platform, probably a group of very toxic bullies joining the fandom and essentially killing it off and bullying off many of my friends and screwing with our “reputation” by talking shit to other people behind our backs - all while acting like sweet innocent flowers. You could argue that the fandom would die anyway without an ongoing stream of content, but that really gave it a solid blow. And since that also relates to my favourite muse that’s still very dear to me, it’s still.... on my mind lol

☀ What’s your rp pet peeve? A lack of effort, I suppose, if I just had to pick one? Nothing turns me away from a potential partner more than if I notice that they didn’t even read the quick summary of a muse I have on top of every biography page, or, when it comes to plotting, a “you decide / you choose”. It spells to me that my partner doesn’t care, so why should I? I don’t expect people to throw tons of ideas at me, but if I suggest things, the least they can do is to say a or b.

Oh, and not reading rules. I put so much effort in making my rules very clear without any grey zones, I don’t expect anyone to know them by heart but it’s very obvious when someone didn’t even bother to briefly skim over them.

✖ How has Tumblr RP changed since you started? Hm, it’s both how I changed in perspective too? I think I’ve become a lot more cynical when it comes to the RPC. When I first joined, I was a lot more optimistic - granted, I was in a fandom anticipating a coming sequel and everyone was in a good mood - but now? Considering I’ve only been here for 3 1/2 years and stayed in one-two fandoms for the better part of it, I can’t really give a good picture and my view is really limited.

But in general, since I started, it feels very much like policing content has become more prevalent, people actively stalking blogs to prepare callouts and screenshot everything in anticipation of catching people doing something that they don’t allow. And I don’t mean calling out a racist or homophobic mun, but losing their shit at everything that’s not soft and gentle and maybe even a touchy subject. Not making a case for dark themes here, but even with nothing to hide and my content being accessible for everyone, I really don’t want to feel stalked. (But no one has a problem with murder, oddly.)

And just... a certain feel of a lack of effort? I mentioned it already above, but it feels like now people aren’t even bothering to make a short description of their muse (even if they’re canon! i may not know them! maybe you play them differently!), whereas previously, you’d get a much better grasp of who the muse is supposed to be.

source: SALTY MUNDAY MEME | @shxwmaster

#shxwmaster #mimi coming through.. thank you..#{ SING OH MUSE // answered. }

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pinetasticapple · 5 years ago

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What if we had known each other first and fallen in love second: Princess Fragrance

Also on ffnet and ao3!

Marinette knew the news were always going to cover as many attacks as possible, but the one of today wasn't that terror inducing.

Ok, vanishing an important landscape of the entire country was horrifying for many but nothing had happened in the end. The worst so far was that she was missing science class which was way worse than a vanishing tower for a few hours.

She peeked out of the subway stairs as she went back to street level and back to school when she heard a sneeze coming out from her pocket.

"Tikki!" she gasped "you don't look well."

Did kwamis get sick? Marinette's mind started to whirl in full speed. What was she going to do?

"I know about a healer, I'll tell you where to go," Tikki was shivering in her purse. Ok that did make a little sense, maybe there was a kwami expert. But Marinette's nerves got the best of her, thinking that maybe he would get suspicious and ask around and what if he started to ask about kwamis and figured out she was Ladybug? What if he started to ask questions?

Speaking of,

"Oh no, my teacher is going to question why I'm late again" she peered down at her purse. This was important but also keeping her identity secret. She would do it right after class, if word got to her parents she was skipping class it would be way worse later.

"Tikki, can I take you to the healer right after school?"

Tikki gave her a small reassuring nod and Marinette felt bad for making her endure the…cold she had got but balancing priorities was something Marinette was slowly getting used to even after all this time as a super hero.

It didn't help that she tripped right as she opened the lab door, falling right in front of Ms. Mendeleiv's desk.

"Ah Marinette, what excuse do you have for us this time?" the teacher peered over the desk at her, Marinette pulling herself up from the floor with embarrassment written on her face "accidentally locked yourself in the bathroom again?"

Marinette hated creating excuses on the spot. Lying was never a good thing and it was a struggle to come up with something as she babbled about a dog she did not have.

The sudden aroma of perfume invaded their nostrils, the teacher moving past Marinette to the back of the classroom where Rose was spraying some on an envelope. Marinette took the opportunity to slid into her seat, noticing Adrien wasn't there either. Lucky cat, he could pull off a shoot or something as excuse. So much for their week agreement.

"Watch what happens when you play around with flammable substances in a chemistry lab," Ms. Mendeleiv called back their attention as she sprayed perfume on a vase to cover a Bunsen burner, only for it to lit up and create a small explosion inside the vase.

"Just to make sure you all remember that, I'll be quizzing you tomorrow on lab safety, again."

Marinette groaned in her desk.

The class went on and even if she was lucky it was the last, she couldn't help but to tap her fingers while she waited for the bell to ring.

"Woah, what's the hurry?" Alya held her back at the stairs "something wrong?"

"Ah? No, it's just-"Marinette smiled, glancing to a side to see Adrien running up to the school "oh, I should give Adrien today's notes, we don't want his dad scolding him for getting behind, right?"

"Ever so considerate Marinete" Alya smiled "go on then."

Marinette gave her a thumbs up and went down the stairs, checking on her purse fast to see how Tikki was holding up.

"Ok, I'm taking you to the healer now," she mumbled into her purse, not realizing where she was walking until her feet tripped on a student's bag, sending her flying the last steps towards the asphalt…

Only to be caught right in the arms of Adrien.

"You ok? Nothing broken?"

"Yeah" she stood up, dusting her pants off "I'm in a sort of hurry," she could tell Adrien about Tikki suddenly sick, but Nino was there and he was pointing at Adrien back to school, no wonder to help him catch up with notes. Ah, she'd have to tell him at night "don't worry about it."

"Alright," Adrien smiled and went with Nino back inside. He had totally missed the last class and had to catch up fast unless he wanted his father finding out about his sudden ditching.

"So," he asked Nino once he had retrieved the chemistry notes "did I miss anything interesting?"

"The usual of sorts" Nino shrugged "Marinette arriving late, Ms. Mendeleiv sending a student to the principal and oh yeah, we have a quiz on lab safety tomorrow."

"Again?" Adrien winced "who set something on fire this time?"

Nino laughed "no one dude, but Rose was with a bottle of perfume and you know how the teacher is."

"I mean, it is a flammable thing" Adrien slung his bag "but I should get going and catch up with these."

"No sweat Adrien, text you later!"

Adrien smiled and waved goodbye, making his way to the entrance where the Gorilla was already waiting for him. He fiddled with his phone on the way back, humming as he checked for any new messages.

"Honey, honey, nearly kills me" he sang as he checked out the usual reminders from Nathalie about his schedule, the few memes Nino had sent and the thread of messages he had with Marinette.

[Sun. 23:59]

Buginette: Ok but it is not implied in the movie Bill is her father

Catdrien: Genetics!

Buginette: Adrien, they are actors, besides! They all became her father :D

Catdrien: But I really wanted to know ^ↀᴥↀ

Buginette: You know what they said, curiosity killed the chat~

Catdrien: But satisfaction brought it back! (ฅ'ω'ฅ)

Buginette: Hm, we can watch the sequel if you want, for now I am going to bed, Night night!

Adrien smiled to his phone. That had been a good movie night. He made a beeline to his room to get done with catching up. He could probably convince Marinette to sneak by and play some videogames too.

Adrien sat down and turned on the tv to have background noise, working on the notes without another hitch until the news started to broadcast. Oh yeah, he remembered as he piled up the papers, the prince from Achu was going to be in town.

He was about to turn off the tv when his phone buzzed.

[Mon. 16:45]

Buginette: AÑGDHSH ｡･ﾟﾟ･(д)･ﾟﾟ･｡

Adrien stared at the screen.

Catdrien: Everything alright?

Buginette: No! Chloe got a hold of Tikki and I'm trying to get her back

Adrien looked at the tv where there was a live broadcast of the prince shaking hands with Chloe, who had just given him a plush toy and…

Oh, Adrien's eyes widened in realization. That was definitely not a plush toy.

But how did Chloe get a hold of her in the first place?

Catdrien: I'm sure if you tell the prince he will give her back to you?

Buginette: He's surrounded by the media, the mayor and Chloe, how am I going to do that?

He looked at the tv again, only to be even more confused at the sudden change in people.

"What is going on there?" he leaned forward in his seat, only to find an akuma right there, with green skin and pink hair, holding out what looked like a sci-fi kind of laser gun. Oh this was bad, very bad. He had to transform and catch up with Ladybug… who was unable to transform at the moment.

"Oh shoot, Plagg!" he looked around for the small kwami "let's go Plagg!"

"I'm still chewing!" he heard him moan from the waste basket but he was not going to waste time on this one, especially if Ladybug was compromised.

"Claws out!" he called his transformation and jumped out of the window and towards the hotel. Maybe he could help sneak out Tikki from the prince's pocket as he moved them to safety, that would give Marinette time to transform and purify the akuma.

He arrived just in time to see said prince with Chloe and who had to be the prince's assistant backing away from the akuma.

As well as a hideous stench so hard it made his eyes water.

Chat focused on throwing her away as far as he could. If her objective was the prince, then the right thing to do was to take him somewhere safe. He made sure they went down his baton just like firefighters do and took a quick glance around, but he didn't find sight of Marinette nor Tikki.

Chat jumped down and tagged along to the car the prince had arrived in, the assistant pushing the pedal to accelerate away from the place. Chat dared to take a peek behind on the passenger seat but there was no sight of the kwami on prince Ali's persona. Not to mention, the stench was getting unbearable he was glad the PR opened the windows to get some fresh air.

Part of him knew he had to get out of the vehicle and chase after the akuma, but he also needed to stall for time so Ladybug could show up.

A stumble above them made him look up to see the akuma already on their toes, and the windows didn't close in time to avoid her attack. Chat covered his nose and tried to kick himself out of his seat, but holding his breath and fighting an akuma proved to be too much, his nostrils burning from need of oxygen.

'I'm sorry Marinette' he thought right as the purple perfume invaded his nose, his mind going foggy and blank.

]x[

Marinette was so hoping the miraculous cure would put the scooter back where she had found it but this was an emergency. She caught sight of Chat handling himself fine against Princess Fragrance but they were a team. Sure, he was the shield but Marinette liked it better when they worked together.

She saw the car wreck and felt her pulse raising more. Her panic of not finding Tikki plus not being able to help Chat with this villain was starting to get the best of her.

"Tikki?" she called in the car, looking at each seat, the front and back, tears welling up when she found the small kwami underneath the driver's seat "oh I was so worried, we need to get you help!"

"We don't have time" Tikki's voice was quieter, her body trembling in her hands "you need to transform, I'll be ok…"

"No, I'm not making that same mistake, I'm taking you to the healer now" she stood up and walked in the direction Tikki said, her hands clutching tight the kwami towards what seemed to be a massage parlor. Or a tea shop. Marinette didn't have time to ponder that kind of thing.

The old man didn't ask much questions as he worked on what seemed to be meditation and working with energy. She couldn't help but to remember her mother, even if it wasn't the same way she practices meditating.

"What type of cat do you say?"

Marinette flinched, her smile freezing in her face as she babbled on something to cover up that small lie.

Lying was definitely not her thing, she sighed as the old man smiled and went back to work.

"Unusual" he just said behind a smile "we are finished; your cat's health has been restored."

Marinette glanced at Tikki, smiling as the kwami looked way better than when they had arrived.

"Oh thank you, thank you so much sir!" she smiled as she held Tikki close and dashed to the door since there still was an akuma on the loose.

Marinette made sure to be as far as possible, looking down at Tikki as soon as the coast was clear.

"Oh Tikki I'm so sorry, you were so sick and I don't know what I'd do without you,"

"You wouldn't be Ladybug for once" the kwami smiled.

"I mean more than that" Marinette smiled back "you are just more than my kwami, you're a close friend."

Tikki nuzzled her cheek, but then turned serious "oh! The Ponts des Artes! That's where they are headed! Chat was also there!"

"What? Is he ok? Was he…"

"There's no time to lose Marinette!" Tikki squished her nose.

"Right, Tikki, spots on!"

Ladybug made her way towards the bridge, her nose itching from the peg she stuck on it but it was necessary to avoid the same fate as Chat. She had to save him from the brainwashing Princess Fragrance did on him so reaching the bridge to see them all gathered there was not an easy sight for her.

Taking out of commission Chloe and the other two civilians was easy. It was Chat who she didn't want to fight.

"Snap out of it Chat Noir!" she tried to call out to him "it's me! Ladybug!"

"Give me your miraculous!" Chat sang at her.

Any other day, under any other circumstance, she would have taken the opportunity to record it. Too bad today was not that day. Also a shame because from what she remembered, that cat could pull 'Dancing Queen' without a problem.

Ladybug sparred Chat, fighting his attacks while trying not to punch him too hard, when she saw the giant pink cloud of perfume covering the sky.

"Uh, better do something before this whole thing blows up in my face," her eyes widened, a lightbulb turning inside her mind. Of course! Perfume was flammable! And didn't the mayor say there was going to be a big firework show for him?

After this she better passed that quiz.

Ladybug taunted Chat against the bridge lamppost, teasing him until he extended the baton at her, perfect chance for her to land on the boat and trample him with her.

"Cataclysm!" Chat sang again and honestly, Ladybug winced, that was so not Chat's tone at all, but it was what she wanted him to do as she sidestepped and tripped him, causing the destructive magic to hit the operation box that set off the fireworks. Ladybug smiled as the cloud dissipated above them and mumbled an apology to Chat as she pushed him to the river. She had to hurry and chase after Princess Fragrance to stop her from possessing more people.

Ladybug managed to break the object and purify the akuma, satisfied to see the cure working its way around.

She didn't stay to see what Rose talked about with the prince, her mind preoccupied with Chat as she swung back to the bridge and find him squatted near a tree, drying himself off the river water.

"Ladybug!" Chat rushed to her and pulled her into a tight hug "are you alright? Did you find the akuma?"

"I did" she smiled in the hug "I'm so glad to see you're alright."

"I'm…" he glanced down "I got compromised, I'm sorry."

"Hey," she squeezed his shoulders, turning his attention back to her "you didn't intend for it to happen, and you managed on your own too!"

"Yeah but, let's not make that a habit" he winced "it's way more difficult that way."

"That's why we're partners" she smiled just as her earring beeped "oh, right."

"Meet up later?" Chat extended his baton, his ring also beeping.

"Of course" Ladybug gave him another smile "so I can tell you how bad you sing when you try to reach bass range!"

Chat felt his cheeks flush.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #fanfiction #fan fiction #miraculous ladybug fanfiction

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sterekshaven · 6 years ago

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S, M, O, W, K, I & E (D'ya see what I did??? 😀😀😀)

*snorts* I do see what you did xD You’re the best, thank you for the ask ♥♥♥

S: Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

Yes. Several. Uh. Slavery? Does that count as a fandom trope? That’s probably my biggest weakness. But I adore fake dating and friends to boyfriends and angst and fluff and a lot of things.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

Like fic ideas? Uh. Yes. I have a lot of them. I have a folder on google drive called Sterek, and I keep all my fanfiction and ideas in that folder, and I have one folder in there called just Ideas, and it has... a lot of stuff in it.

There’s one idea I really like though, I basically have most of the fic kinda noted down, I just need to actually write it. But it’s based on a song from the book/movie Ronja Rövardotter (afaik it’s not in the Miyazaki tv-series, and I can sadly only find the song in Swedish, though I do know there are translated versions of the book and movie, so I kinda plan on watching the movie in English sometime and write the lyrics of it down), where Ronja’s mom sings about a wolf, that he’ll never take her kid, but the wolf is really hungry and that stupid song gives me lots of feels. So, basically, it’s an AU set in that world, where Stiles is a single dad taking his kid to visit their grandparents, and as they travel they hear the wolf howl and Stiles sings the song to the wolf and the wolf protects them and they give the wolf food, and yeah, the wolf is Derek, obviously, and he’s like half feral from living as a wolf and blah blah, but I REALLY like that idea, and someday I hope to actually write it xD

O: How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

I mean, I write fanfiction, so it’s pretty much always the characters. But sometimes I just get a scene in my mind and I start to write that and then I’ve written 3k and it’s an actual fic and I have no idea how I got there, but other times I have this really elaborate plot but I don’t know if it should be Stiles or Derek who does the thing, etc. Though tbh, it’s more often some vague plot-like idea-ish, and I just start writing and if I’m lucky I’ll actually finish it and have a fic? xD

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

Answered here =)

K: What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

Hm. I think that might be the one where Derek gets taken by Kate after the fire and kept (and abused) for something like 12 years before Stiles finds him by chance. If I ever finish that it’s gonna be a long one, I have something like 40k written for it, at least, and it easily needs double that. Or one of the slavery AUs perhaps... I really like angst, and I really like torturing poor Derek before he gets his happy ending with Stiles. Sorry, Derek, I really do love you ♥

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures. If I like something I like something. THAT SAID, I do feel guilty for taking so much pleasure in reading and writing about Derek having a really shitty time, so, maybe that? xD

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

Well xD

But, I’ll say this, I have 2 series on ao3 what I might continue on some time, it’s the Bob the dog series and the Coffee Shop drabbles series. The rest of my fics are pretty much one shots that I have no plans on continuing on.

Ask me things for the Fanfic Ask Meme

#yodas yo yo #ask

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paulisweeabootrash · 6 years ago

Text

Book Review: Princess Holy Aura

An earlier version of this post was published on Facebook on April 30, 2018.

PAUL IS WEEABOO TRASH; or, Paul Reviews... A Book?!

Q: A book? So, like, you're reviewing based on the first volume of a manga series or something?

A: No, a novel.

Q: A novel.

A: Yeah.

Q: Why not manga? You have a problem with it? Are you being snobby about what kinds of books are better than others?

A: No, not at all. Manga is just another kind of literature. I just felt like doing this novel because it's relevant to--

Q: How? Oh! Is it a novel that an anime is based on? One of those outrageously-long light novel serieses?

A: No.

Q: A visual novel? That seems like something you'd review.

A: No, it's a Western print novel, and there's no anime based on it. But I swear it's relevant.

Q: Relevant...? Hm.

A: Because it's--

Q: Is it something mentioned in an anime or something else you'd review? Oh! Is it "Hyperion"?

A: No.

Q: ..."Portrait of Markov"?

A: That's not a real book.

Q: Well what then?

A: It's a novel about a magical girl.

Q: Oh. Huh. Weird. Proceed. -----

EPISODE 8: Princess Holy Aura (2017)

Princess Holy Aura by Ryk E. Spoor is a magical girl story for people who are familiar with the genre and find its absurdities at least as endearing as they are frustrating. It's a sort of affectionate parody. We follow the normal progression of certain famous magical girl anime — the mascot (a magic rat named Silvertail) giving our heroine her powers, the escalating danger of fights with an otherworldly enemy (an assortment of creatures derived from Japanese and American pop culture and folklore), meeting and bonding with a whole team of magical girls (the Apocalypse Maidens) — with some added twists and an awareness of the rules of the genre that allows the main character to succeed because of his ability to deconstruct what's going on.

The deconstruction is justified--

Q: Wait, did you say "his"?

A: Yes. I'm getting to that. And the pronouns are going to get confusing.

See, the reason Holy Aura is genre-savvy is that her secret identity is Stephen Russ, an impoverished thirtysomething otaku and Air Force veteran. Chosen for his intense willingness to help others and his experience with the stresses of adult life, his knowledge of magical girl shows also turns out to gives him the preparation he needs to understand and anticipate his enemies. Why? Because, as I was going to say before, the deconstruction is justified by magic-users' beliefs about magic affecting how magic works — so it's susceptible to the magic-related memes of whatever culture(s) the current crop of Apocalypse Maidens are from. This means Holy Aura and the other Apocalypse Maidens apply knowledge of various media conventions to figure out, and sometimes anticipate, their enemies.

The other four magical girls, for magical plot contrivance reasons, are actual teenage girls, so Stephen must go undercover as "Holly Owen", Holy Aura's eyeroll-inducing normal human girl form, to find and recruit them. Stephen/Holly deals with the strangeness of abandoning his old life and adjusting to his role — not just physically, but because of how his status as small, young and female now drastically change how others interact with him. This leads to one of my favorite things about the story: how it describes Stephen/Holly's adjustment. Each Apocalypse Maiden is partially herself, but also a cumulative reincarnation of every previous version of the Maiden they are. So Holly not only has Stephen's memories, but those of every previous person to become Princess Holy Aura, all of whom up to this point have apparently been actual teenage girls. As Stephen adjusts to the radically different physical form of Holly, and the differences in treatment that come with it, he also finds himself feeling more and more "right", as if Holly is the "original" and Stephen the assumed persona. This is true not only of acting like a high school girl but also true of her physical body. Stephen's crisis of identity as he realizes he is becoming Holly to the point that his own male body becomes just plain disorienting to walk around in feels genuine and understandable.

The gradual shift from Stephen to Holly eventually leads to (sigh) an inevitable romantic subplot between Holly and another student, because the genre demands it. But I actually like how uncomfortable this is for both Stephen and the reader. At this point in the story, Stephen is in a truly alien and frightening situation. Since Holly is not just a persona adopted by Stephen but has traces of the personalities and feelings of all people who have ever been Princess Holy Aura in the past, Stephen is more and more a passenger in Holly's body rather than the "driver". Stephen is becoming subsumed into Holly, a brand new person born out of the combined experiences of many. So of course Holly has feelings Stephen feels alarmed by and does things Stephen doesn't fully control, and the reader should be creeped out by contemplating what that would be like.

As the book goes on, however, its flaws also become more apparent. Expository conversations (both between heroes and between villains) are an expected part of this genre, and given that there have been many iterations of the Apocalypse Maidens vs. Lovecraftian Aliens battle in the past to learn from there is at least an in-universe justification for them, but there are so. many. of. them. Silvertail's advice in particular gets increasingly tiresome, sometimes feeling as if we're reading "Silvertail's Walkthrough Guide to Magical Girl-ing" instead of a novel, and he has far too many conveniently-helpful magical abilities despite his alleged weakness. The premise also leaves itself vulnerable to an obvious in-universe problem, which it tries to address, but not convincingly. For reasons to do with how magic works, the Apocalypse Maidens reveal themselves to their parents, and this includes them learning that Holly was previously Stephen. As you might expect, this does not go over well. Stephen is genuinely a nice guy, not a "Nice Guy", and attempts to get that message across, but the most convincing argument he can muster is basically "your daughters are safe around me because they could kill me easily if I tried to molest them even if I was in full Holy Aura mode", and worse, parents accepting the situation is explained mainly as a mixture of that reassurance and magic itself keeping the Maidens together. There is, apparently, nothing Stephen can possibly say or do to reassure them he's not a sexual predator. Maybe that's the point of those scenes? It's unclear.

That takes us most of the way (and slightly out of order) through a broad overview of the plot, and I don't want to give any spoilers for the resolution (go read it yourself!). Suffice it to say that it continues along a pretty much "first season of Sailor Moon" trajectory. And of course, the whole book ends in a way that leaves it open to a second season-- er, I mean, sequel, but still definitely ends this particular story arc. Exactly as you'd expect. Exactly as it must, according to the memes controlling magic.

-----

[Classic] W/A/S Scores: 4(+extra) / 1 / 4

Weeb: This is very much a book by a geek for fellow geeks. Although I previously said the Magical Girl genre does not have a high a barrier to entry in terms of general cultural knowledge, and although Princess Holy Aura also incorporates tropes and characters from, and makes references to, a great deal of American media, knowledge of both Japanese and American horror and fantasy tropes is really helpful to "get" what anyone is talking about. Not only is it taken for granted that characters recognize the source material for what's going on, they also sometimes make leaps of logic that I have trouble following, and I don't know if that's a problem with the story or with my own background knowledge so that if I'd seen the right show(s) I would've caught on immediately. Plenty of things are explicitly spelled out, especially in early conversations between Stephen and Silvertail, but familiarity with several magical girl shows or manga would probably be helpful if only to know more specifically what Stephen is talking about. I'd rate this a 4 on the Weeb scale, but also at least a 4 on a scale of American Geek Media — knowledge of H.P. Lovecraft and recent internet lore, and to a lesser extent general knowledge of RPGs and major works of sci-fi and fantasy, are probably essential to not staring blankly going "what is this?" Like certain interminable live-action shows I could name, it mashes together monsters from a variety of source materials with mixed results.

Ass: As if directly responding to common complaints about men writing women in inappropriately-sexualized and deeply-implausible ways, descriptions are actually descriptive rather than gratuitous, and Stephen-as-Holly really only talks about his/her own body in the context of getting used to it, and does so in less-sexualized terms than I've heard women I'm friends with use in moderately-polite company. In fact, although Holly is understandably portrayed as having sexual feelings, Spoor rather aggressively avoids sexualizing her to the audience, which is an important distinction.

Shit: The whole "trust me, I'm not a pervert" interactions with the parents, some way-too-convenient things about the way magic works, and OH DEAR GOD THE EXPOSITION just end up making me go "is that really the best way you could think of to resolve that?". Also, the Cthulhu mythos seems shoehorned and incongruous. It's not great, but it is entertaining and coherent, unlike some things I've reviewed so far, so I'll give it a middling score. I still recommend it if you're in the target audience of "gigantic fucking geek", which, face it, you probably are if you read my reviews.

-----

Stray observations:

- The action scenes are described well enough that I can pretty much imagine how they'd go shot-by-shot in an anime. Or maybe I've just seen enough anime to know what common shots Spoor is talking about.

- SLENDER MAN IS NYARLATHOTEP. (This is barely a spoiler. It takes about one page for the characters to make the connection.)

- If "Silvertail's Walkthrough Guide to Magical Girl-ing" were a real book, I would totally read it. It would go on my shelf right next to Hate You Forever: How to Channel Your Rage Into Effective Supervillainy, which is also not that good but quite entertaining if you're the right flavor of geek (which, again, you probably are if you read my reviews).

#weeaboo trash #book review #princess holy aura

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