#however it does still unintentionally end up saying and implying these things

[rxttenfish]

so ive been pecking at iHunt and god yeah this summarizes so much of my bitching about queer monster stories

[kit-williams]

I wanna know how some of the yans would react to a baseline person making moves on their darlings.

Hahahaha

(I'm sorry this took so long)

Tags:

@bispecsual @egrets-not-regrets @moodymisty @bleedingichorhearts @liar-anubiass-blog

@thevoidscreams @barn-anon @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan @squishyowl @ms--lobotomy

You're funny. I COULD just say that they'd be a body that would never get found but how would they end up dead? Also very few of these imply that the darling is against such moves being made on them.

Azazel The baseline better pray to the God Emperor for mercy for Azazel has none. Lilith is his beautiful star of the morning and while he is aware the effects she can have on others... he is aware just how unintentionally friendly she can be... she also knows her limit. Pray dear mortal pray for your mercy... for Azazel has none.

Palion Seething intense jealousy and anger as how dare you. Oh yes he would be thrilled someone else would see how beautiful his Muse is but if he saw how uncomfortable she was it would turn into fury real quick. Depending on his mood he might kill them right in front of his Muse or he might steal her away and have the baseline locked away to personally hear their screams.

Harram Harram is confident in himself because he's actively providing for his Orichalcum. He can deal with a persistent male too as he is certain his fortifications around her heart can withstand a weaker male making his attempts. However the first sign of any wavering and the male is gone, however, Harram wouldn't blame Ori but himself not doing enough for her to keep those defenses strong.

Nogai Nogai doesn't need to do anything for his Хонгор just has to do is tell him that she is tired of this baseline bothering her... and they'll be removed from her presence. And Nogai will be there the one coaxing her to utilize his skills... come now... I can rid of him for you.

Arkyn Arkyn would be chummy with the man who was making moves on his darling. Just before he would grab them and threaten them. Arkyn wouldn't want to get his hands dirty right away but if the dog doesn't understand what he is saying the wolf will put him down.

Astel Astel will get them alone... he knows where the cameras are... he'll start a conversation with them using some bullshit about how he can smell something off with them. The scalpel is buried into their neck as they gurgle softly before he snaps something on them and just stuffing the body in some corner. To rot and be forgotten about by all... especially his little Maus.

Ghosk He really doesn't care if another baseline is making moves surprisingly. Usually Rabbit just has to show her tattoo he got her and most sane men back off... only the really persistent ones he'll dispose of at her request. Its other Astartes he saves his energy for but don't you dare try and make moves on Rabbit while he's in the room and she still showed his mark of ownership on her to them... he's got a very fickle temper.

Sirus Jealousy is an UGLY thing on a Blood Angel. He would watch and not make any moves if his Moonlight just calmly and quietly rejects the advances... Sirus will easily have a snack of the baseline man's blood should his Moonlight be receptive... after Sirus sees what he does that charms his beautiful Moonlight and then happily applies them himself to woo her even more easily.

Marlos Vauth He's curious at how someone else could get so close to his Byte. Its perhaps something like this that sets him off to just keep her all to himself once and for all. Death is slow and drawn out... perhaps he turns off their lungs in intervals only turning them back on to keep them alive. To be at the Mercy of Marlos... is to look into the merciless eyes of death.

Zul Depends on which Zul... freshly returned to his senses... he would think you're trying to steal his "golden goose" so to speak and well a bloody death awaits. When Zul has become a warlord of his own? No one with a brain keeps flirting with her after she reveals who she is... if they do he makes an example of them... he's very protective of what is his.

Tulio Oh no this wouldn't do at all. That baseline would not be the first one he has killed with his bare hands. They would be another body that this son of Guilliman would have to hide... he knows how to make it look like some wild beast ripped a man apart. His whole body would tense and twitch as he would keep a stern and expressionless face as his mind switched to how he is when fighting Tyranids... cunning beasts that best be put down quickly. Just another body to be cut down.

Solos Death can't come fast enough. They better play off the fact that they were making moves on his Lovie as being an ignorant cunt and beg for his forgiveness. Oh and pray that the baseline tries to even imply that it was Lovie who started the flirting. That's death right then and there at even implying that Lovie would be unfaithful to him. (Even if she's yelling at him that they are through)

Nakht Doesn't have to worry much about Birdie as she is a capable sorceress who can handle herself. But if they somehow play the whole being macho card, that he's been playing, oh no no no... Nakht would see your utter ruin. He might be one of the few who wouldn't outright kill any competition but he would certainly ruin them.

Zhur Would be surprised you are going after Dolli. Now he knows she can handle herself but if they somehow didn't get it through their head that she wasn't interested or by the four she actually is interested... you're a bloody smear. And depending on when this Dolli is... she might be cooing to Zhur about how she... appreciates him doing such things for her.

Jihias His neverborn is howling in his ear before he even hears or sees what is going on. The way Lamb's eyes glitter and shine at the complements... the way Lamb just blushes at the kiss on the back of her hand. If its someone from the planet she is from he handles convincing them to suddenly be uninterested in Lamb with a delicate touch. Should they be someone who came to help convert the planet... they feel the draw of the ritual knife across their stomach as they are sacrificed in a display with a horrified Lamb watching as his neverborn is summoned at the death of another.

Nubin He's old and he's patient but he also knows that his darling likes to be flirty... likes to push against the chain he has on her... push the limit of what she can get away with. He won't kill the baseline but his darling is going to be reminded that he's more than enough man for her... and how much he loves her... and how much she is part of his hoard.

Raven Guard Trio Death comes in various shades but it's most likely Sor who deals the killing blow that or Kazi. Jealousy will burn bright for the young ravenguard. Moremo will keep the boys calm until he hears a jab thrown his way... he sees his age as a boon not a hinderance in pleasing their Dove... and Sor... well he's just a malevolent specter just waiting to end the interloper's life.

Omegon He doesn't even have to do anything... his little Vixen gets jumpy when people try to get close so this baseline making advances again and again... he trusts she can push them off. However, the Primarch isn't immune to being ugly jealous as he knows he is larger, more powerful, and naturally scary that perhaps his little Vixen flirts a little... perhaps meaning a bit too much into those flirts. Omegon knows that she is still coming into her title and position as his Vixen... with the man just disappearing into the night and a cozy little dinner with his darling... he can inform her what it means to be his.

Roland Death. Is what he would want to jump to. He will restrain his anger towards the baseline as there are thousands of different ways of showcasing that you are in a monogamous relationship within the Imperium. But oh boy will Roland be cuddly and touchy with his darling after it. But if somehow the fact that she was in an exclusive relationship with him as well as him being the sire of their children was not deterring them... then death.

Bonus

Tyberos Hahahahahahahaha no one within the fleet makes moves onto the Void Mother, minus of course the Void Father, but the instant someone does start making a move... it doesn't even have to be Tyberos to stop it... it would be one of the several guards that would be around her. The Chapter Master is far too busy to deal with petty attempts at slighting him... now the brothers that guard the Void Mother... they are less forgiving especially should those moves make the Void Mother uncomfortable.

Yrac H3X doesn't understand flirting very well. So it might be some time before she realizes another Heretek is making moves on her. It stops rather quickly when she goes to Yrac and simply repeats what was told to her with the additional cock of her head, "But I thought that is what we did together in private... I don't really want another relationship." She says not fully understanding the double entandres that are laced into the binary only understanding that what the other was asking for was an activity she and Yrac did together exclusively. Yrac coos and calms his darling H3X down telling her he would take care of it. "But you have your murder face on." She would say bluntly as he would pull off his mask and kiss her before taking his Omnissian Axe with him to take care of it.

[fennelrabbit]

Now that people have had time to watch and think about the miniseries, can we agree that Fionna and Cake was really bad, or at least disappointing?

I'm very happy to hear some different opinions if anyone wants to try and change my mind, but now I've had some time to digest what I watched, I can still say my bad feelings on the episodes are exactly the same.

I haven't been able to mention Fionna and Cake's characterisation much, so I'll try and make a bulleted list (read more)

° Cake didn't grow or have to change at all during the miniseries. She was selfish and never had to face any consequences for her choices. Her relationship with Fionna is not wholesome and friendly like Jake is to Finn, but more parasitic. Fionna does things for Cake, and in return Cake doesn't abandon her. Cake still helps Fionna in fights and doesn't want her to get hurt, however Cake doesn't really appreciate Fionna and all that she does for her.

It's particularly bad that Cake isn't very bothered by the fact that the trade-in for a magical world is Simon's sanity, which is another moment of selfishness. This scene is never addressed later, which unintentionally implies that if someone isn't benefitting Cake, she doesn't want to care about them anymore.

° Fionna was also poorly handled. Although the show tries to say that it won't treat Fionna in a sexist way by swapping her skirt for shorts, a large part of Fionna's story still revolves around romance and her relationships with men (platonic or romantic). In fact, there's a pretty substantial lack of female characters (barring Fionna) that have any stage presence or do anything meaningful in the story. The episode with apocalypse PB and Marcy was a refreshing addition, with an interesting conflict between the two women, but it's a shame that they couldn't be included in the larger conflict, as characters can jump across the universe and the story would've really benefitted from their inclusion.

Fionna's character started pretty strongly, introducing her boredom and apathy towards her life (that being a capitalist nightmare of endless job hunting just to pay for rent), but didn't do enough to develop this plotline. It's true that having Fionna stay in Ooo wouldn't push her to grow as a person - Fionna needs to find a way to find happiness in the life that she's given.

However, much like Simon was sent back to his shitty life and basically ordered by the narrative to 'get over it' and 'stop being sad', nothing changes in Fionna's original world. Fionna is sent back to the same old world, with the same old problems, and nothing is really resolved. No solutions are presented to Fionna inside of FionnaWorld, even though her situation is very difficult and not something that can just be fixed with 'life's not so bad'. Fionna should've found a way to experience the thrill of adventure in her world, in a way that wouldn't endanger everyone around her.

° Bringing the farmworld characters to FionnaWorld in the end was a total cop-out, and should've resulted in damaging the multiverse. They did not need to be there.

° Fionna and Cake causing things to glitch around them (damaging the multiverse???) was never resolved or followed up on after Act 1. It's like the story forgot that plot point, which really lowered the stakes.

° Scarab was a weak villain. Though his first episode had a strong introduction, he was very undeveloped, and came across as more of a comedic pest than an actual threat. The final fight between Fionna and Scarab were laughably boring, and I never felt like the characters were in danger at all. One of the weakest finales the show's ever done.

° Rip to Betty, folks. You'd think we'd finally get some backstory on her character beyond being "Simon's gf/love interest", but no. We know she has a mum, I guess? And that she's impulsive. Betty has officially been fridged by the narrative THREE TIMES, and will now forever remain as Simon's dead/absent girlfriend. This is very sad, and not to mention, very anti feminist. We will never know who Betty is outside of Simon.

(She doesn't even get to have a real conversation with Simon as Golbetty. She has a couple of sentences, and then gets on the stupid bus. Betty literally has no voice in the story).

°The dialogue was very weak. I don't have much to say here really, the dialogue was just very basic and badly paced. Subtext doesn't exist in this story. At some point, one of Finn's children literally blurts out that their dead mum made their soup. Very subtle exposition, guys.

° I don't like how Fionna and Cake treated Simon at all. The entire time they were both self centered and very annoying, and their relationship with Simon wasn't developed that much. When Simon described Fionna and Cake as his "friends", it wasn't believable in the slightest. They have no chemistry or real connection as a group.

Well, that's all I could remember for now.

Anyway, feel happy to share your thoughts Adventure Time fans, I'd be happy to hear it!

[lushlovers]

Confident, S Hubbard

summary; he knows just what to say and when to say it.

warnings; ay man sam's got comebacks for days, fluff, implied smut i think, just kissing and some grinding (gasp) actually occurs, domestic sam 😁

word count; 467

note; unintentionally another version of a joe fic I wrote a while back whoops I repeat myself sometimes without realizing it. this is for the somehow rare sam girlies, I love yall fr. however specifically for @joeburreauxsworld , @katelyn102 , and @idyllicbarb

Sam's always been one to love chilling out at home versus going out and spending excessive amounts of money on dinners that neither of you would really enjoy as much as the comfort of your own house. Being together at home cuddled up on the couch has been your first choice for a date night for as long as he can remember, and he couldn't be more thankful.

"I don't remember this movie being so boring," you groan, throwing your body across your man's lap, doing your best to over-exaggerate and get the attention you're craving. He scoffs, rolling his eyes jokingly at your complaints to get under your skin in the way he knows best, "Who do you think you're scoffing at," your voice is littered with the faux attitude that makes him laugh loudly.

You quickly lift off his lap, scooting away from him and stealing the blanket you're supposed to be sharing with him as you do so, before you even settle against the arm of the couch opposite him, he wraps a callused hand around your ankle, pulling your legs into his lap like you weighed nothing at all. However, to him, you practically did.

"Quit it," he mumbles, and in the most cliche way possible you bite back without missing a beat, "Make me," and smile triumphantly. And like clockwork Sam has another response, that shuts you up momentarily, "Been there, done that."

Your lower lip tucks itself between your teeth at his ego, "Confident, are we?" He doesn't give you the luxury of another verbal response, simply humming and nodding slightly, but refusing to tear his eyes away from the move on the huge flat-screen in front of him. Sam smiles, all bright and pearly at the silence on your end, his ego-inflating even more so, if possible.

Unfortunately for him, you're not quiet for as long as he would've liked this time around. He gives you little to no attention as you wiggle closer to him, leaning into his shoulder and wrapping your arms around his bicep and abdomen. "I can think of something more fun to do," you whisper in the most sing-songy voice you can invoke, then kissing along his stubbled jawline.

His stomach flexes so slightly, you almost don't even notice. Almost. The kisses get wetter as your lips find his neck, before he can say or do anything, you've swung your legs over his, knees on either side of his thighs. The only thing separating the two of you was a pair of basketball shorts and some boxers you'd stolen from him many months ago.

Pulling your hips flush with his as he does his best to hold you still, the lightest friction somehow has his head rolling back on his shoulders, not that he's complaining.

[thestrangestthing89]

Continuing from my post about Eddie being a manifestation of Will... Billy is another character I think Will manifested. Again, I think the characters that Will created are ones that have a similar backstory to him. So in this case: - Billy has an abusive father who calls him gay slurs, - He is from California (a place Will moves to in S4), - In the beginning of S3 we see a similar thing happen to Billy as what happened to Will in S1 - Billy is being chased in the dark by something, he runs to a phone to call 911, the lights flicker and he ends up flashing into the UD. Billy goes through a similar experience Will does - gets used and possessed by the MF (or the inversion of the MF that is in S3) and hurts the people around him unintentionally. - In El's void in S3, we see that Billy's mother abandoned him with his abusive father and that him and his mother were close at one point. There have been hints from Jonathan that Joyce checked out emotionally and didn't deal with Lonnie very well. We know that Jonathan is resentful about this and how he had to pick up the slack. But maybe there is a part of Will that also blames Joyce for the abuse he endured. It is pretty common for kids who have been abused to blame the other parent for not protecting them however unfair that may be. We do see Joyce since S1 doing everything she can to protect Will but there is some indication that this wasn't always the case and that she doesn't know the full story of what her boys went through. - They share a name, but Billy's personality is a 180 from Will. We see when he was a child that he was a sensitive kid who was close to his mother and he was happy. But then he goes through a lot of trauma and abuse and ends up being an abuser himself. Will on the other hand, is still a sensitive, kind kid in spite of the bad things that have happened to him. This reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll separates out all the evil impulses he has into a different person he creates (Mr. Hyde) so that he doesn't have to bear the burden of those impulses. He wants to achieve moral perfection and learns this is not possible. It fits in with the Freudian themes of the show nicely. Jekyll is ashamed and embarrassed about the things that Hyde does. There are homosexual undertones to this story - because Jekyll doesn't want to talk about the crimes Hyde has committed (at a time when homosexuality was illegal) combined with the fact that there aren't many female characters in the story implies that Hyde was gay and was representing Jekyll's repressed feelings. I think this plays into the reason Billy, Eddie, and El are created. Will is taking out all of the parts of himself he is ashamed of and "fixing" himself. Billy represents hyper-masculinity. He dates and has sex with a lot of girls. Will is making himself be what he thinks men are supposed to be like - dating around, being aggressive and dominating. The id. Eddie is the nerdy part of him and is created the season after Will gets made fun of by his friends for being nerdy. He is ashamed of himself for not growing up like them and Eddie becomes the cooler older kid who likes the same nerdy things Will does. Eddie is a freak but in a cool way. The ego. El is the more feminine side of Will. Will is called a sensitive kid several times and boys (especially in the 80s) would have been shamed for this. She does all the things that Will can't do because he's a boy - date Mike, be emotional (more on this in a different post). She is the hyper-vigilant protector. The superego.

Billy also says something interesting to Max when they are first introduced in S2 - "We are stuck here" in reference to why they are in Hawkins. Which is a story we never got completely. I know there is backstory in the books, but there is no indication this is canon. Being stuck is a big theme on the show and Will himself uses this to describe how he is feeling in S2 during the crazy together scene. In Billy (and Max's) case, the context seems like it's different since they don't explain it when they easily could during this conversation. It's kept a secret so I think it's important. I think Billy is stuck as long as Will is. But Will starts to deal with his trauma in S3 and starts projecting all of his problems onto the characters he's created (Billy and El). In Billy's case, Will no longer needs him so he ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone. Eddie does the same thing the next season. The each served their purpose. I think it's a sign of growth and healing that Will kills them off. He doesn't need to rely on them anymore and is getting stronger on his own. When he starts owning his nerdy side and makes peace with Mike (and Mike responds positively to the D&D themed painting), he no longer needs the external person to put that trait on. And I've said this before, but I don't think S3 is entirely real. Most of it seems like it's happening in Will's head. So Billy being the one who gets possessed and hurt instead of Will also falls in line with healing -the strong, macho guy isn't invincible. Will isn't weak for what happened to him. I think this was his way of coping - imagining a scenario where the bad things happened to someone else and realizing it's not his fault this happened because it could have happened to anyone. Once these characters die they "merge" back into Will. We know Will will be dealing with his abuse head on and that D&D and the party are a focus of the season. I think it's because Will is allowing these things to happen now. He was resisting them or ashamed of them before but isn't anymore. Which is also why I don't think this bodes well for El. But more on that in another post. (also the characters in relation to the created ones are interesting - Max, El's mother, Eddie's uncle - I will probably add more on that later too). Other things to note: - The "We're stuck here" line Billy says to Max in reference to being stuck in Hawkins and hating it there. Billy asks Max who's fault it is that they are stuck there and Max says it's his and he gets angry and tries to run over Mike, Lucas, and Dustin (Will is absent from this scene). Billy and Will don't directly interact in the same way Eddie doesn't interact with Will. El is the exception to this, but their interactions are very odd. They have limited screen time and a pretty superficial relationship.

- Steve tells Billy he talks too much and shortly after Will is struggling to explain himself with words so he uses art. He has all these memories that aren't his and is struggling to explain it. Billy acts like the inversion of Will. Billy is verbal where Will is emotional.

[palettepainter]

So happy to hear you liked the Jamie x Rand fic!

Do you have any headcanons about Jamie? Like her relationship with Janice or anything like that?

*chuckles and rubs my hands together* Oh, I have headcannons alright (and it was awesome I love Jamie and Rand sm!! They've got my opposites attract dynamic loving heart in their hands) this ended up a lot longer then I thought so I'll stick general headcannons at the top and then my thoughts on Jamie's and Janice's bond at the bottom! I discussed some of these ideas with @teds-topia who also writes Muppet works on AO3!

General Headcannons:

-I can't remember if this was said in the series but to me if felt like it was implied, Jamie is the younger twin

-Unlike Janice, Jamie's voice is very clear, she lacks that laid back, hippy drawl to her tone Janice has. She only ever sounds like that when she's drunk

-Jamie, as opposed to Janice, isn't much of a social butterfly. She's happy to add to a conversation if she feels like she can contribute something to it, but overall, she's a very driven, work focused person (picture S1 Twilight from MLP)

-Also unlike Janice, Jamie has a very straight laced job in marketing. She's a fine worker and quickly rose to the head of her department, she runs a tight ship but is actually quite fond of her work team and her job

-Despite her being the head of her department she's a very accepting person. When they where in school Jamie was one of the few who totally accepted Janice's hobbies, so she's pretty unphased by things others would consider weird or bizarre

-Always dresses very smartly, often in a blazer

-Jamie also has the ability to detect lies, however she is not allergic to them like Janice (Jamie still questions if one can actually be allergic to lies or not-)

-Can do large calculations without the need of a calculator

-She loves desk plants and is the type to give them all names. She's also heard that talking to plants can help them grow, but she gets very flustered when her co-workers overhear her quietly whispering words of encouragement to her cactus

-Since she works in marketing she can sometimes, unintentionally, come off as a little intense

-She doesn't like Floyd, it's not that she hates him, she just really, really, really, really dislikes him. She often feels awkward around him and is unsure of what to say so avoids him for both of their sakes. She also doesn't hold her tongue when she is forced to talk with Floyd, unlike Janice who often tries to see the good in every situation. Floyd tries to be nice, he's one of the few that knows of Janice having a sister, and he knows Janice misses Jamie deeply.

-She keeps an old picture in her wallet of her and Janice when they where younger

-While she does like to eat healthy like Janice Jamie isn't opposed to eating cheap microwave food or snacking on cold lasagne

-She likes routine and order, her parents never-ending support sort of back fired and it gave Jamie a strong people pleasing attitude, so when things change and she doesn't know how they'll end or how people will feel about her afterwards so she shy's away

-Behind her facade of professionalism she's actually a rather nervous, dorky individual. She enjoys documentaries on the rainforest, treating herself to an at-home spa day, going to zoo's and awing at the koala's and interior decorating

Jamie's and Janice's relationship:

-Janice and Jamie where born to two very normal, average, if a little dull and strict at times, parents. They both worked your typical 9-5 jobs with their mother taking on less hours after Janice and Jamie where born

-They where a lot closer as kids, in primary school they loved pulling the prank of pretending to be each other, confusing their poor teachers. All harmless fun, they never got into any real trouble (aside from the few times they snuck frogs and wild mice into school in their pockets). It was when the two entered their teens and went into secondary school did their bond hit a bump in the road

-Janice was a friendly student. She was bright, got along well with her teachers, and was totally unphased by classroom bullies (or so she let them believe)...but she wasn't the brightest bulb. Janice did very poorly with her grades, only really excelling in art and music. Jamie on the other hand, was very good academically! She was considered the "teachers pet". However, where Jamie excelled in her learning, she sort of sucked at making friends, preferring to instead keep to herself or shuffle behind her sister who was always the better one with talking (best way to imagine Jamie in school would be S1 Twilight from MLP)

-With Jamie being the nerdy kid with no actual friends she grew up very lonely in her later years at school, and clung to Janice fiercely. Jamie would always, always shut bullies down if she heard them muttering about her sister, she would always help Janice with her studying and try to phrase their studying material in a way she'd understand, she'd always support Janice and her weird fascination with crystals (Jamie didn't really understand Janice and her unusual hobbies relating to crystals, aurora readings and yoga, but Janice was happy and that's what mattered to her). Janice was Jamie's confidence boost, her rock to lean on and shield to hide behind when social stuff got too much, and in turn, Janice turned to Jamie first when it came to help with her homework, or to gossip about the newest energy reading she'd picked up from the new student that joined

-Years go by, Jamie graduates with high grades while Janice barely scrapped by. Over the years of the two being in school their parents ended up pushing Jamie a lot. Janice insisted her talents simply lied else where, which her parents took as her being dismissive of her studies. Janice's and Jamie's parents weren't cruel, but Janice never felt truly understood at home (it's referenced in some of the muppet movies that Janice's mum in particular often disagreed with her way of living). Naturally, their disappointment and frustration at Janice only turned into a reason to push Jamie to achieve high grades

-Jamie did genuinely want Janice to be happy, but she also wanted her sister to...well, get an actual job that paid in something other then "good vibes". Sure her crystals looked nice, and Jamie was glad they made Janice happy, but aurora readings and trapping negative vibes in crystals wouldn't pay bills. So, Janice gets a job, she bounces around a few but eventually settles into a groove of working in a hair saloon. Jamie goes off to have some high paying job, their parents couldn't be prouder! But Janice is not happy, in fact, she's utterly, down right miserable. In a spur of the moment like situation Janice quits her job and declares she's leaving to find her destiny, it didn't exactly go down well at dinner with their parents.

-Janice packs her things in a huff and despite Jamie pleading for Janice to not leave, to not go, to please just stay and they can talk this whole thing over and have a good laugh tomorrow if she'd just stay, Janice insists she's going. Both of them where emotional and may have said some hurtful things, things that neither of them really meant. (side note Jamie totally didn't spend the following weeks sick with worry, totally didn't buy some crystals meant to wish good luck to loved ones in hopes Janice would be okay and come home-). Jamie felt like Janice leaving her alone and that made Jamie scared, and Janice felt like Jamie was just siding with their parents by not believing in her

-This idea was discussed with @teds-topia: Years go by where the two don't talk but life eventually leads to the two sister bumping into each other when they're young adults, when Janice and the band are passing through Janice's home town. By some coincidence, Jamie happened to be in town for work, and the two end up wondering into each other. After their shock and unsure greetings, the two begin to relax, just a smidge, and talk about how life has been treating them. Jamie admits she's very happy to see Janice, glad that she's home, glad that Janice has come back and they can make up and be sisters again

But no, Janice happily tells her that she's joined a band, that they're just passing through for supplies, that she's on a spiritual journey discovering her calling. Isn't is wonderful Jamie?? Jamie does not thin it's wonderful, she thinks its stupid. Janice was just- just going to follow around a bunch of strangers around the world just for some dumb spiritual journey malarkey?! Jamie it crushed at the realisation that Janice really didn't come back for her, to say sorry. Janice is hurt that Jamie is being so rude and dismissive of her journey of growing. Another argument breaks out, the band beginning to awkwardly glance over at the commotion that sounds less than friendly, especially from their laid back, always happy Janice

The two sisters storm off with a huff, Janice unnaturally grumpy for the rest of the ride on the road. When Jamie gets home she promptly screams into the nearest pillow she can grab, then kicked the door and bruised her foot. She swears up and down that she is thoroughly done with Janice! To hell with Janice and her stupid soul growing journey. So what if she wanted to travel to god-knows-where with a buncha weird strangers she barely knew, if things went south it was gonna be her fault! She didn't need Janice anyway, hpmh! (Jamie still keeps that picture of her and Janice from when they where kids, often finding herself staring at it in thought when she's feeling lost herself, hoping that Janice is remembering to eat well and that she's doing okay, where-ever she is)

-I'm not too sure how these two eventually make up and become family again but I imagine it ended with the two gross sobbing and hugging

[dokidaichi]

(iii) things about HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO

pairing : husband ! kento x stay-at-home partner ! reader

warnings : TALKING ABOUT HAVING KIDS, grumpy nanami, a bit of angst BUT that's what times in a marriage so we gotta be honest here, petnames like "beautiful" and "love", implied spoilers of nanami's past (if you don't know what happened to the other student in jjk when nanami was in high school), gojo is like .. nanami's implied bestie but he's annoying as per usual, LOOK AT THE NOTE IN THE END PLEASE !!

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO unintentionally does things that make your heart flutter. like whenever he wakes up first and sits up on the bed against the headboard, muttering a soft "good morning" to the still half-asleep you, while fixing your blanket. or, when he leaves notes on the fridge like "i'll be home a bit late, you better go to bed first". his subtle care is lovely, and you're even more reminded of why you married him.

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO used to hate the idea of children. it's one of the reasons why he didn't become a teacher like gojo. however, when he thinks of you and him, having children together whether it's through birth, adoption, or a surrogate—he feels a warmth in his heart that makes him realize how much he loves you, and how amazing it would be to start a family with you.

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO is a meticulous and rather cold man, but let's a little loose with you. those who attended your quaint wedding were even surprised when he actually stood up to dance with you, even if it was a little awkward for him. for a man who fights and is probably the most agile person you know, kento shakes from the tad bit of nervousness he has when he has to waltz with you.

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO doesn't call you many pet names, and often just calls you "nanami" (he loves it so much, knowing that you're his). but when he's had many overtime shifts, physically and mentally worn out, feeling like he got ringed out like a wet rag, kento hugs you for perhaps almost a minute long, saying things like "i'm so happy to see you, beautiful" and "my love, did you wait long for me?"

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO hates fighting with you. however, given his job and sometimes aloof attitude, he knows that you're right to get upset. even he gets upset with himself at times. and as you're upset, nanami is as well. when he needs to cool down from a bad fight, he goes to stay over at gojo's (who asks a million questions about what happened). nevertheless, when push comes to shove, you know that when he comes back, you and nanami will always talk it through. he needs you, and you need him.

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO hates to look at pictures of himself from high school. the hair, uniform, and visual memories of his old friend/classmate. but, when he looks at that one picture that was coincidentally taken of when the both of you were still friends at that age, he laughs a little. he always had eyes for you.

HUSBAND ! NANAMI KENTO actually proposes the idea of having kids to you first. of course, he said that it's much better when ... things settle down with his job (if they ever will). he quickly grabbed a napkin when you choked on your water, since he told you over dinner. but after you hear him explain, and clarifying to you that he only wants kids if you want them too, you're happy to see the content look in his eyes when you nod and say "i want to have a family with you too, kento."

important note : so, i know this is supposed to be a headcanon, but would y'all like to see a little short drabble about you y/n and nanami met ??? or like idk a backstory to their marriage ??? please tell me in the replies or reblogs or ask box !!

[venusiangguk]

may we see the fight tae oc scene pls pls please!!! u can delete later🤔🤔🤔🤔😳😳😳😳 i’m really curious. i mean ofc u don’t have to. still 😧🙃

idealizations concerning real life relations: deleted scene

>>pairing: jungkook x reader / icrlr!couple

>>genre: fwb, angst, rated PG

>>word count: 2.5k

>>warnings: alcohol, implied smut

>>notes: this is a deleted scene from icrlr, that i omitted simply because of the length of the final fic!! feel free to skip or ignore, it doesn't change anything, but since u guys are curious about it, i'll post it as a lil ty for helping me hit that milestone <3 it takes place after the tattoo party scene, and before the lecture scene.

this does NOT provide an alternative ending.

>>summary: taehyung tries to make you see things for what they really are, but it's hard to see through the rose colored glasses.

Winter break has been long awaited and it is finally, finally here. The snow has coated the ground thick, making the town look like a winter wonderland. The air is sharp and cold but not to a miserable extent. Just chilly enough to bundle up, to hold a hand a little tighter and soak up their warmth.

Your favorite season is fall, but the later months are a close second. You love seeing the way everyone’s faces get red when snow flurries come down to kiss their nose and cheeks. Love the way pom poms bounce atop little hats as children play and have snowball fights. Winter is surprisingly one of the warmest, sweetest times of the year. Like the hot coco Jeongguk has been swapping your regular macchiato with lately.

There’s a greatly anticipated party tonight- a mashup of Taehyung’s birthday and New Year’s Eve. Anticipated for the simple fact that said birthday boy has steadily been ignoring you for weeks, and tonight was a night where he couldn’t evade your attempts of reconciliation. He hasn’t returned a single call or even sent a text back. You can’t even be mad at him really, you know it’s justified. You know you fucked up. The coffee date you had with Yoongi last week let you know what you did.

Over an iced coffee, you learned that you had unintentionally skipped out on your best friend's Winter Showcase. The important one that he mentioned multiple times. The one you promised to attend no matter what.

It wasn’t on purpose; you wanted to go, to support him. But you just got caught up. In life, in school, in Jeongguk. It happens.

When Yoongi asked you why you had missed it, when he told you how hurt Taehyung was by your absence, your heart dropped, sank deep within your chest as your mouth fell open before closing, a small pursed frown on your lips. You didn’t have a good excuse. You went to get tattoos with Jeongguk and then to a party where you fucked him, and then home after that? You were too tired to make it? You just simply forgot? Those excuses weren’t good enough for you and you knew they wouldn’t be good enough for Taehyung.

Whereas Yoongi was okay with distance, long periods in between hanging out and talking, Taehyung wasn’t. He was the kind of friend that needed support, reassurance that you cared. He liked quality time and hangs outs that were planned ahead so he could look forward to them. He was looking forward to you being at his showcase.

The party is packed, even more so than usual. Students, drop-outs, alumni, and randoms alike, all congregate to bring in the new year, to celebrate the end of finals, and a certain art majors birthday. Bodies are on bodies, music is loud and deafening. Cups, bottles, and small baggies litter the floor and the smell of weed is nauseating.

Jeongguk’s hand in yours is sweet, though. Enough to ebb the distaste in your mouth as you watch the stereotypical disaster that is a college party.

“I’m going to go find the drinks, okay?” you lie, squeezing Jeongguk’s hand lightly.

He squeezes back, kisses the side of your head as he says, “Bring me one back too?”

You nod, and slip out of his view. Scanning the crowd until you see a familiar face.

Jimin is laughing, red cup in his hand, eyes curled and happy. He’s sitting on the arm of a couch, legs swinging as he laughs with a group of people. He takes a drink from his cup and let’s his eyes roam the room like he’s looking for someone.

The way his face changes when he sees you approaching is like a punch in the gut. It goes from happy, and carefree to stony- only a small, irritated, close-lipped smile on his face. Eyes harsh and cold, no longer holding the mirth they were just seconds ago. He says nothing when you step in front of him, he just looks you over like he’s bored and waiting for you to get on with it so he can be done with it.

You shift on your feet under his scrutiny. “Where’s Tae?” you ask.

Jimin narrows his eyes at you and tilts his head. “Now you want to know where he is? Haven’t been concerned with his whereabouts for months. Definitely weren’t worried about it last week.”

You wince but carry on swiftly. “Listen, I know I fucked up. I’m here to apologize.” You look at him expectantly, but he holds his ground. When he doesn’t falter, you resort to begging, “Please, Jimin. He’s my best friend… I miss him.”

You must look pitiful, because Jimin’s indifferent facade fades, and he clicks his tongue like he’s annoyed at himself for giving into you. “He’s getting us drinks in the kitchen.”

A smile takes over your face as you rush out a ‘thank you’, quickly turning on your heel to head in the opposite direction, before Jimin calls after you.

“Yeah?” you ask, looking over your shoulder at him.

“If he’s your best friend, maybe treat him like it, yeah?”

You continue to the kitchen without replying, and you can’t help the little simmer of annoyance that bubbles in your chest. Taehyung has been your best friend for years. And even though Jimin had a point, who was he to tell you anything about yours and Taehyung’s friendship?

Before the thought can fester, however, you see the boy you came looking for, two bottles of vodka in his hand like he’s trying to decide which to use. You see the little party hat atop his shaggy hair before anything else and your heart aches a little. You really did miss him. He lets out a small annoyed sound, and knowing him, he’s probably trying to figure out which has the highest alcohol percentage. You come up next to him, and say his name gently. He jumps, but when he realizes it’s you, the ghost of a smile curls on his lips like he’s happy to see you.

Until it’s replaced with resentment just as quickly. His sharp eyes squint at you before turning back to the bottles in his hands, scowl still in place.

“So you decided you could pencil me in between getting your heart toyed with and your back blown out?” He gives you a side glance and sees how your jaw drops in surprise. He carries on, unbothered. “Or did this just work out because it coincides with New Year’s and because he was invited? Only because he’s Jimin’s friend might I add.”

“Tae-” you try, doing your best to keep the hurt whine out of your tone.

“Save it, __. I don’t want to hear the excuses you have. Just-” he looks at you again, and you think that maybe he softens when he sees your crestfallen features. He sighs like he’s tired. “Just leave me alone. Just for a bit, okay? I’ll get over it eventually,” he finishes, finally deciding on the vodka he wants.

You know his request isn't unreasonable. But it’s already been so long that the distance in your friendship has been eating away at it, that you’re scared ‘eventually’ might take too long and by the time he comes around, there won’t be much of a friendship left. That the damage done, will be irreparable.

“Tae… It’s already been months, can’t we-”

Like night and day, the softness that you were able to pull out of him is immediately replaced with that resentment and anger you were met with when you first stepped into the kitchen.

“Yeah,” he seethes, strong brows furrowed. “And whose fault is that?”

His words are sharp and the sting from them makes you take a step back. That is, until you feel anger of your own creep up your throat like venom. “You’re one to talk, Taehyung. You could have reached out to me, too. You’re no better than me when you’re in a relationship.”

He groans, gives an exasperated laugh before shrugging. “You know what? Maybe I am just as bad as you, but at least I’m actually in a relationship,” he spits, “You’re just fucking someone that doesn’t give a fuck about you.”

You know he’s hurt because of the distance. That he doesn’t intend to be so mean. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less, and it doesn’t stop the angry tears from pooling in your eyes.

And although you’re angry, almost shaking with rage at the feeling of being cornered and blamed, your heart aches at hearing his words.

Jimin, who started seeing Taehyung after you started seeing Jeongguk, had already made your friend official. Had given him the title, the commitment, the relationship that you had been patiently and understandingly waiting for with Jeongguk. The bitterness that bleeds into your heart makes you feel gross and ugly.

You know what they say; that labels are superficial and don’t mean that much. But when you don’t have them? It makes you wonder. If a label really isn’t that important, like everyone says, why is Jeongguk so reluctant to give one to you?

“Jimin’s your boyfriend?” you whisper.

Taehyung gives you a short nod. “Month and half ago. You would’ve known if you got your head out of Jeongguk’s ass.”

Almost like he was summoned, the topic of debate waltz into the room, coming up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist. He nuzzles into your neck.

It’s instinctual now, the way your body responds to him. The way you melt into his chest like second-nature, how your hands settle over his like they are keeping them in place. How immediately in his presence you feel calmer; the panicky, hurt feeling you were experiencing moments ago vanishing as if it were just a fleeting thought and not something that’s always in the back of your head.

Not in a possessive, ‘I need him to be mine’ kind of way, though.

More like, ‘Why won’t he be mine?’

“Hi,” he murmurs into your neck.

“Hi, baby,” you respond softly, out of habit. The room shirks around you whenever he’s near. Makes you feel like you’re in your own bubble with him.

Jeongguk’s about to reply, ask where the drinks are, but then he hears an annoyed scoff sound in front of you both. Jeongguk bristles as he looks up and sees Taehyung taking a big swig from his cup.

“Uh- am I interrupting? Should I go?” he asks hesitantly, looking between you and your friend.

“No-” you say at the same time that Taehyung says, “Yes.”

You cringe, and turn in Jeongguk’s arms, hands resting on his chest. “Just give me a couple more minutes okay? I’ll bring the drinks.”

Jeongguk searches your eyes, before looking at Taehyung one last time before giving you a stern nod and a quick kiss.

You turn back to Taehyung, ready to apologize for Jeongguk’s interruption, when he talks over you.

“You’re pathetic,” he starts, and you roll your eyes with an irritated sigh before he continues, “but I know you love him. And that you can’t help it,” he shrugs. “But as your friend, I have to tell you that it’s not going to end well. You probably don’t even need me to tell you that. You probably already know and are choosing to ignore it for the sake of the delusions you’ve made up in your ‘pretty little head’.”

You pout at him quoting you, and your brows furrow. “He cares about me. And he’s Jimin’s best friend. He’s a good person, you don’t even know him,” you argue defensively. Though you know your arguments make little sense and are flimsy at best.

Taehyung frowns. Pauses like he’s thinking.

“I didn’t say he was a bad person, and maybe he does care about you in his own messed up way. But he doesn’t care about you in the way that you want him to.” His lips are still down turned when he speaks again.

“And the difference between him with you and him with Jimin is astronomical; it shouldn’t even be a comparison, but I will humor you,” he rubs a hand up and down his face like he’s tired. “The dynamic is completely different, for obvious reasons. For one, Jimin is a safe relationship. You are not. Jimin isn’t in love with him, Jimin isn’t sucking his dick, and Jimin doesn’t want things from Jeongguk that Jeongguk cannot give, or does not want to give,” he says with a raised brow as he takes a sip of his drink.

It seems that the anger has died down some between you both, a semi-civil conversation finally being had. You wrinkle your brows in confusion at him. “What are you talking about?”

He rolls his eyes. “Cmon __. Why do you think he hasn’t made you his girlfriend? Why do you think he literally has not been in a serious relationship since high school? Why do you think he never agrees to anything more than 2 months out?” He waits for you to answer but you just purse your lips stubbornly. “He’s scared. Dare I say terrified of commitment, and that’s exactly what you want from him right?”

You stay headstrong and quiet for a moment longer, ignoring his question in favor of asking one of your own when you finally do speak up. “If I’m so scary, why hasn’t he left?”

Taehyung shrugs. “Fuck if I know? Maybe he does care about you like you say he does. I don’t think so, but hey,” He raises his hands in mock surrender, like he is throwing in the figurative towel. “Maybe you’re right and maybe I‘m wrong. Or maybe there’s some fucked up codependency fermenting between you both when you copulate. I genuinely have no clue, and frankly, I don’t care to find out. Don’t text me until you come to your senses. And don’t get mad when I tell you ‘I told you so’.”

And with that, he turns and leaves you to make your own drinks. You hope the smile you give Jeongguk when you find him is believable.

That night when you go back to his place, you voice your concerns to him in between sweet, heated kisses that taste like hot cider. You tell him hesitantly how Taehyung voiced his concerns about Jeongguk not caring about you and Jeongguk got a little irritated, a little miffed as he unlatched his lips from your neck. He asked what Taehyung knew, how he even came to that conclusion when he’s not around you both.

He assured you with gentle touches and tender words that of course he cares about you. He reminded you that he always makes time for you, he always answers your calls and your texts, he takes you out every now and then, too. He asks you what you think and when you contemplate your answer, going over what he said, you can’t really argue with him. Even if an uneasy, dismal feeling settles in the pit of your tummy.

~~~

hellooo!! again, this is just a scene and part of the plot that i chose not to use because i felt like the fic was already so long. i wish that i had ended up including it tho, so i hope you enjoyed even though its nothing special <3 feel free to do the things if you liked it: like, comment, reblog, send an ask~~ love u, ty again for helping me reach that milestone <3

[leonidas1754]

Kel and Grief

Kel having ADHD is not a new take, it's a pretty common one. But I feel like a lot of people who agree with that headcanon also don't know that ADHD can make grief a different experience, sometimes to a drastic degree. Obviously this isn't true for everyone with ADHD, but it happens to me and it's there for others too.

The thing that really gets my attention is Kel leaving his old friends behind and joining the basketball team, and how he reacts to Aubrey's assertions that he abandoned his friends. It really got me thinking on how Kel possibly experiences grief, and how those experiences might have incredibly screwed up his ability to connect with his friends after Mari's death. (Under cut for length)

The biggest evidence of this to me is what Aubrey accuses him of and how he reacts to it. Aubrey accuses him of abandoning them, and, from what we know, that's functionally what happened. While afaik we never get a firm clarification of Kel's stance on what happened, we get at least some implications about how he feels about it. Namely, it's very clear that from Kel's perspective, he firmly believes it was never his intent to abandon his friends and at first does not understand Aubrey's anger at him.

This fascinates me when combined with the commonly-seen concept of him potentially hiding his grief, because I feel Kel doesn't have many reasons to. There's always the reasoning of being in denial or pushing it down to try to be happy for his friends. That second reason, however, doesn't make a ton of sense with him unintentionally abandoning his friends. And then there's the whole Five Stages of Grief thematic of the game, and how Kel, whether by process of elimination or because you feel it's clearly the intent, is representative of Acceptance. Denial is Sunny's stage of grief, and it's a critical point the entire game hinges on, so it wouldn't make sense for Kel to also represent Denial and have no Acceptance analogue.

I think that Kel simply doesn't experience grief in any conventional way, nor ways that most would be able to recognize. This allows him to "move on" from Mari's death, or at least be perceived as doing so when looked at through a neurotypical lens, what society expects moving on from a death to look like. He does still likely have some level of grief, but it manifests differently and in ways that he's seemingly been able to handle.

He is doing better overall than the rest of them, but it's a double-edged sword. Because he doesn't experience grief in anywhere near the same ways, he doesn't understand the ways his friends are experiencing that grief, he can't empathize in the same way as the average person can. He's incredibly sympathetic, for certain, and he understands that they are grieving, but doesn't know how to relate to it or help them.

I think this is ultimately what leads to Hero's outburst after Mari's death. Hero clearly isn't an especially volatile person, and while strong emotion, especially grief, can result in unusual behavior, I don't think that grief in and of itself played a large part in why Hero ended up yelling at Kel. It certainly set him in a position for something bad to happen, but I think the reason it ultimately happened was because of how Kel tried to help Hero. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying it's Kel's fault, obviously.

Kel tries to help Hero, because Hero's been a shut-in for a year and he's clearly doing incredibly poorly and not getting any better. Kel tries to help, but what he says only hurts Hero more, likely because he feels Kel is being dismissive or otherwise implying that Hero should be over it because he's older or some other reason. The point is that it hurts and upsets him enough that he lashes out at Kel. Obviously he shouldn't have, he hurt Kel, on some level Hero is in the wrong, but at the same time, it's neither of their faults. It's primarily circumstances and their parents, Hero clearly not getting the help he actually needs (just. Please, take him to a fucking therapist). While I'm firm in the stance that Kel likely has ADHD, I also believe it's more than likely it's never been even remotely addressed due to how much their parents favor Hero, and it's not as if Hero would be able to make up for that at that point in his life.

It's likely why none of them realize what's happening and why Kel acts the way he does. And it's not like Kel is emotionally unintelligent, I think; he is relatively perceptive, as shown when he outright states that Hero is still closed off despite Hero clearly doing a good enough job to fool the people around him, even their parents, into thinking he really has recovered for the most part. He picks up on things, he just doesn't fully understand what it is he's picking up on. He knows Hero is likely pushing down his pain, he knows Hero hasn't actually opened up to him since then, but he doesn't understand the significance of it.

Kel was able to connect with his friends when they were younger, before Mari died, he was able to have good relationships with them. This was likely in part to Hero's influence on Kel and the rest of their friends and how he often played peacemaker between them, but Kel was still actively a friend between them and despite often bickering with Aubrey, it's clear that she values their friendship enough that his 'abandonment' fundamentally alters the way she acts towards him despite having little reason not to approach him about it. She was angry at Basil because of what she believed he did to the scrapbook, and Sunny and Hero had shut themselves away, but Kel was still there. He was likely mostly focused on Hero being the person he's in most direct contact with due to their familial relationship/outright sharing a room, but Aubrey still could have approached him about it. I don't think it would have been terribly out of character for her to end up yelling at him because she's upset, and while it likely wouldn't have immediately gone over well, she would have at least made him aware that she was upset with him, if not outright why she was. Whether or not it would have actually made things turn out better is up in the air- Maybe they would've been able to finally communicate it, maybe Hero would be motivated to come out and help them, etc. It doesn't really matter, what matters is that Aubrey took Kel's distance as abandonment, likely believing he simply didn't care rather than that he didn't realize Aubrey felt that way. After all, it's unlikely they hung out much on their own, so when the group stopped spending time together, Kel had no motivation to hang out with Aubrey, especially since it's unlikely he realized Aubrey wanted and needed his support.

After Mari's death, the connections he had with both his friends and brother were irrevocably changed. When Sunny finally comes out of the house, Kel outright states he didn't expect it and seems to flounder for what to do, and they ultimately roam around town, with Kel pointing out some things they used to do, along with getting a cookbook Hero used to love when they were younger as a gift. He's not ignoring the fact that Sunny's been shut away for so long, but he clearly isn't sure how to address it or even ask how Sunny is doing. Sunny obviously hasn't been doing well, he's been shut inside for four years and Kel didn't expect him to answer, but at the same time, Kel doesn't know how to approach the subject. Hard to blame him, really, it'd be a difficult subject to approach regardless, and the others don't fare that much better themselves as they're consumed by their different aspects of grief, Kel is just in the best position to be able to do so.

And that's not necessarily something that can be fixed by the end of the day. Sunny's faced the truth and told his friends, and regardless of how they react, he's set to finally, finally have the opportunity to maybe start healing. Basil has similar, with the truth being out, he may be able to finally start addressing his guilt and either making amends or accepting if his friends don't want those amends. Aubrey is able to finally be free of the weight of feeling as though her friends abandoned her.

But Kel? Kel will still have to live with not only the truth of how this all happened, but the lack of understanding he has towards his friends after all of their lives were so drastically changed. And there's no telling how that will affect both how he reacts to the truth, but how he handles the others' reactions as well.

(Hero's problems also remain unaddressed but y'know, different issues requiring different approaches and solutions. Someone help these brothers pls)

[ranboo5]

whats 'the clip' and knifetrick?

Augh. Under the cut for shipping discourse and p/dophilia ment (nothing graphic or specific). Gets long bc I discuss my thoughts on DSMP shipping in general. You are setting me up fr anon

Some quick vocab -

intimacy here is used to refer to. Well. Any kind of intimacy between characters, of any sort, as an umbrella term /r, /p, and /qp here are used as shorteners to denote "romantic," "platonic," and "queerplatonic," both as adjectives And as verbs ("to /r" = "to portray romantically") shipping here is used to refer to any focused examination of intimacy between characters

And some clarity that Should follow from the essay next but may not - """anti-antis"""" and RPF writers delete forever

The Clip is from one of if not the? most recent Discord stage(s) Mr Live has done (which I missed when it was live RIP) wherein he issues a hard ban on shipping him ("do not ship me, in any way, with anyone!") which would less influence c!beeduo (which has been portrayed/stated to be romantic AND nonromantic both conflictingly for a while until being confirmed unconfirmed several months ago, that being the last was heard) without its direct invocation if he hadn't also cited for the reason as being underage ("'Cause, one, it's straight up pedophilia") which is! a) immediately applicable to At Least his DSMP character, Partially and b) while not Strictly True (should b obvious that portraying a relationship within the bounds of what it is in canon and in a nonsexual way is not That, and /r-ing c!beeduo etc was possible to do Appropriately again by remaining w/in the bounds of canon) is Clearly Indicative of the fact that baggage-wise it IS associated with people being fucking creeps

This Really complicates things bc like okay the apparent solution is "lol just don't /r it" but it's really like. A Worse issue than that bc like.

Okay the reason shipping in terms of fictional characters is a Different Bar is bc it's an examination of Intimacy and certain lines exist in certain dynamics of intimacy that Isn't Shown (which is the whole Within The Bounds Of Canon thing) which is important in a medium like DSMP because of the smaller gap + more personal relationship b/w character and streamer. Examining intimacy beyond th bounds of the consent that has been established in that regard is Weird at best and Violating And Creepy more often and, As Mentioned In Ranb's Stage, Literally Evil at worst

Which is why writing abt like. QPR or platonically intimate Techno and Philza (characters) is smth that is fine because that's smth that has been shown and repeatedly stated onscreen; it's in the bounds of canon n thus within th bounds of what the streamers've consented 2 be done with their characters. But writing T3chza making out or whatever is fucked up because it's smth that's beyond those consent barriers

And the thing is right

Slapping a /p on T3chza makeout doesn't. Make it less violating

Like what you CALL romantic is not the measure or whether it's past those barriers yk? And if it's indistinguishable, if it's in extrapolative territory that is Past The Bounds, it Does Not Matter how much you /p it EVEN IF IT IS TECHNICALLY PLATONIC y feel? Like at the end of the day placing a moratorium on some/all forms of shipping is placing a moratorium on certain examinings of intimacy

And okay 2 go back to Mr Live and his character. What it implies taken in context w/ older portrayals of c!beeduo and said by invoking smth that both evokes Really fucked up baggage (that does unfortunately exist btw I'm sorry if you didn't know that but People Really Do B Fucked Up Abt Beeduo) AND applies to his character is a revocation of consent to examining deep intimacies:tm: with his character, which is gonna apply regardless of the nature of that intimacy (even if nonromantic)

Like I don't /r c!beeduo myself, do not, never have, but I talk to people who have and have consumed content where they r background /r; I also don't think it matters. Like I don't Actively /r it and I don't Actively Not /r it because imho w/ the intimacy regarding c!beeduo that is plot relevant and character important whether that intimacy is /p /qp or /r doesn't really matter. I don't consider myself Less of a c!beeduo shipper than someone who /rs them because that would be dumb as hell and while none of the content I've made* is Intrinsically or Intentionally /r it certainly can be read tht way as much as it can be read /qp or /p. It's be dumb and hypocritical of me to like, dunk on ppl for /r-ing c!beeduo when I'm also invested in these two and my tonetags r not gonna suddenly Delete the picking apart I've done of the dynamic @ hand

Which Has Been. Within Bounds Of Canon. It's been what's been shown (sometimes to my great distress. There is a reason that the :canon_beeduo: emote looks the way it does) Directly Onscreen and in general keeping with the tone n intensity/directions of what they've Done With The Characters

HOWEVER

As mentioned up there. Revocation of consent

It makes. Full sense 2 me that Mr Live wants to place a moratorium or fullon ban on shipping his characters perhaps where he wouldn't have before because of the Unfortunately Very Extant trends of people being Fucking Weird about shipping his characters AND of using them as a Thinly Veiled Excuse to ship HIM, which. I should not have to explain why shipping real people is fucking abhorrent

THIS creates a problem which is a. Bit of a vacuum in interacting with what is a facet of c!Ranboo's arc, decision making, and character. Like you CAN have c!Ranboo w/o cbeeduo but you Can't Really have his plotline without examining c!beeduo. And as I mentioned earlier: even if your examination of c!beeduo is fully platonic, the significance of it To the plotline means that any examination of it and its relevance to the plotline and characters IS gonna be an examination of intimacy, which. Regardless of it's platonic, Is Still Shipping

Unless some HARD retconning happens it leaves this like. Hole in an aspect of c!Ranboo's arc and decisionmaking and it's very. Uncertain? God. Fucking months ago I was already kind of :huh. Does he know what the fuck he's doing: irt c!beeduo and desperately wishing for things to be cleared up and now it's only That Much Stronger

NOW. KNIFETRICK, FINALLY

Knifetrick (or, as it’s actually listed, Bishop’s Knife Trick) is a fic about "Ran and Jackie from The Pit TFTSMP" in a "canon-typical ambiguously romantic relationship." As you can tell from the scare quotes, especially if you've seen me vague, both of these are, to put it politely, Doubtful. I've read the fic; I will not be sharing my opinions because that would be neither productive nor responsible (I will just say I can't recommend it and leave it at that) but I WILL say the following that Is relevant to the conversation:

Ran's and Jackie's characterizations respectively have very little to do with characterizations from The Pit, and bear a dollar-store-version resemblance to tropes and personality motifs found in ESPECIALLY fanon c!beeduo, especially later in the fic. I would not go so far as to say they are Intentionally Literally Ranboo and Tubbo but they are transparent expies and were clearly written at LEAST unintentionally w/ c!beeduo in mind (esp since. Ran and Jackie barely interacted in The Pit), and for a readerbase that, as far as I can tell, is HUGELY dominated by /r c!beeduo shippers. Like. Sorry. This is off-brand c!beeduo.

The dynamic between the two is pretty unambiguously romantic, also; despite what the fic's white knights claim, romantic tropes and implications/motifs/imagery from at LEAST chapter two, and is very much explicitly romantic by the most recent chapter.

FROM CH1:

"And now, with raised eyebrows and a pursed lip, the newly named General Jackie observes Ran in such a way that makes the enderman’s skin crawl. Ran reminds himself that this kid, as short and harmless as he may look, is trained to kill. [...] Jackie narrows his eyes and tilts his head a little, as if he’s trying to read in between every one of Ran’s imperfect scales."

FROM CH2:

"It makes Ran’s skin itch with discomfort. [...] 'That actually doesn’t explain much of anything at all,' complains Jackie, and he pops a few croutons into his mouth with one hand. 'Tell me what you’re thinking, pretty-boy.'

"Ran feels his face flush, no doubt mildly glowing green.

"Yes, that was the other thing. The unnecessary compliments to his physical appearance.

"They don’t happen very often, and don’t seem to have very much meaning or intention behind them— Jackie often speaks like an unthinking kid— but when they do happen… they’re embarrassing. [...] It’s annoying how the rug is pulled out from under his feet in these moments when he’s 'embarrassed'. Like the conversation see-saw has temporarily shifted weight in the general’s favor."

I am not going to include excerpts from Chapter 6 because it's just the entire chapter.

I WILL SAY, HOWEVER, STEPPING ON THIS SCORPION BEFORE IT STINGS: they are not written in an RPFy manner and I don't think there's any grounds, including Vibes, of accusing Knifetrick of being like. Closet truthing or whatever. Also, while I think there's certainly Some Weirdness ESPECIALLY around the reaction, the romance itself is Not written in any way I'd call weird or problematic pre-clip; it's nothing inappropriate or like Weirdly Fetishy or whatever. Knifetrick is not #problematic or anything and I don't have beef with like the concept of liking it intrinsically; if I thought it was like. Abhorrent I wouldn't be sharing excerpts lmao dhjfnhdsbvdnfjh. Hence: if anyone uses this post or anyth like it to send harassment or bad faith ANYTHING to anyone involved with Knifetrick I will hunt you down in the fucking night even if it WAS #problematic that'd be the LITERAL OPPOSITE of productive and as it stands it's Literally Not. Essentially: Knifetrick is a (questionably-written /mean) fic using Ran and Jackie from The Pit as a vessel for a large chunk of the dynamics and headcanons of fanon /r c!beeduo in particular

And again, I would not call it problematic in any way (aside from the disingenuity of the insistence that it's TOTALLY UNRELATED TO BEEDUO and TOOOTALLY WASN'T INTENDED TO BE ROMANTIC GUYS like own your shit please)... IF it weren't for the advent of The Clip, which is calling in2 question the Entirety of the problem of /r-ing any variant of c!beeduo or any of Ranboo's characters at all

I really do not have an answer for this tbh. I genuinely wanna hear from the streamer on this more specifically because I like,,, I got no clue where 2 go from here? Do I just consider an arc retconned? Was it an issue of speaking abt a troubling subject kneejerk wise and I'm reading too much in2 it?

I just. I dunno

Tl;dr (AT LONG LAST)

- The Clip is a clip of a Discord stage where Ranboo (streamer) loudly explicitly decried shipping in a way that implicitly applies to characters he plays - This would be all well and good but is rendered complicated by the plot relevance of c!beeduo, which does not stop being shipping if it's /p'd due to it still necessarily being an examination of a particular intimacy in a way that is in canon hard to distinguish the /p, /qp, or /r nature of - Bishop's Knife Trick is an AO3 fic centered around using TFTSMP characters as /r c!beeduo expies which is not a bad thing in and of itself unless it also is covered under this moratorium - Things remain unclear until and unless we get clearer word from streamer, but considering Mr Live seems to be allergic to clarifying anything abt c!beeduo this is doubtful

*very little if any of the content I personally have made 4 c!beeduo has been posted publicly, for related reasons. You May have seen it if you're in servers w/ me, depending on Which Ones

[parvuls]

@missellewoods wrote this post, and i wanted to respond to it, but i also didn’t want to add a thesis-length response to their post. the post was about the complexity of the parse iii scene, and i highly encourage looking at it before reading this, because it’s a direct response. 

i wasn’t sure i was gonna do it, but i’m fascinated with jack’s pov, so.

(transcripts from parse i-iii, plus visual cues from lva@pvd i)

[jack turns around, obviously unhappy/startled] "kent." "hey, zimms. didja miss me?" [smirks]

so parse shows up at the haus for the second time, after jack’s seen him last in either freshman or sophomore year. jack is not happy to see him. this is probably the part the remains the most ambiguous to us as an audience, because it leads up to parse iii: shitty’s story about parse’s first appearance is supposed to make us think that jack is jealous, and that he’s holding a grudge because parse is living his dream while he’s at samwell. however, this story isn’t included to give us more information about jack’s psych -- it is, after all, what we expect from jack after his year 1 arc -- it’s there so the impact of parse iii is more significant. it’s the first time we’re given reason to doubt jack’s heterosexuality and are given an actual glimpse to jack’s past since ‘the hockey prince’.

so is shitty’s story true? obviously ngozi is playing with the narrative here: smh all claim parse is a modest, super nice bro, but then we hear how he talks to jack in parse iii. meaning, ngozi is telling us: believe no one. you can’t actually know what he’s like, or what jack and he are like.

so our scene begins with jack, 1) either upset because his former friend shows up and triggers his intense jealousy, or 2) is upset because his former flame shows up and triggers unresolved feelings. honestly, in my opinion, jack himself isn’t sure which one it is. which is a great set up for the unfolding of the next scene.

[jack and parse are talking about jack’s nhl plans]

"...you have no clue?" "i mean... it could be montreal, it could be l.a. okay? i don't know." "...what about las vegas?" "i... i don't know, okay?" "..." [parse probably moves closer/tries to kiss him] "pars---" "..." "..." [whispered] "--kenny... i can't do this." "...jack. come on."

their conversation starts out relatively neutrally. we’re given enough clues from this update and the future of omgcp to deduce that parse isn’t over what he and jack had. this is also the very reason they don’t work and why this conversation takes a sharp turn downwards from here: parse equates his feelings and whatever sexual/romantic connection they had to the chemistry they had on the ice. to him, jack leaving him and going to play for some obscure college is just as upsetting as their ‘thing’ ending. parse spends most of this scene trying to convince jack to come play with him in lv -- the only reason we even know it’s in some way romantic is because of his reaction to the Cup Kiss in year 3. otherwise, he makes it sound like he misses jack as a liney and best friend, maybe as a sexual partner.

but the catch is, jack was in a really bad place when they were playing together, and he doesn’t want that back. does parse know how bad things were? does parse know about jack’s anxiety? how well does parse know jack, really? this is all kept intentionally hidden from us. you could say that they were best friends, so it’s reasonable that parse knew all of this (thus painting his character in a much worse light), or you could say shitty is jack’s best friend and he still didn’t know major things about him. ngozi doesn’t want us to be able to tell how aware or not aware parse is.

so in the beginning of this scene, we’re on the edge of an inevitable cliff. parse wants jack back, as a friend/flame and as a teammate, and jack’s obviously torn. he doesn’t push parse away immediately, but he also doesn’t consent. my opinion is that jack is torn between his old dream (all his 18-year-old self wanted was to play in the nhl with parse, and win win win), and knowing this isn’t what he wants. but does not wanting that necessarily means he doesn’t want parse himself? jack’s obviously not sure, because he lets parse corner him/kiss him before he decides it isn’t right. 

if anyone here has ever met an old flame, especially someone who was bad for you but you cared for for a long time, you’ll know how easy it is to fall into patterns. for a moment the idea of having that all again is so enticing. but then the illusion shatters, and...

"no, i-- ...uh." [and then much louder] "kenny--" "--zimms, just fucking stop thinking for once and listen to me. i'll tell the gms you're on board and they can free up cap space. then you can be done with this shitty team. you and me --" "get out."

here is the most important part of this scene in my opinion. kent doesn’t know jack anymore. anyone on the face of the planet could tell you that jack is a hardass, that he’s tough on his teammates, that his dream is the nhl. but jack loves his team. he didn’t necessarily always know how to be their friend, but he certainly doesn’t think of them as a ‘shitty team’ he’s stuck with.

and parse makes the mistake of shattering the illusion he’s built (with the clever use of the wording ‘shitty’, which probably reminds jack of the friends he has now). jack wakes up from the dream he had when he was 18 and comes back to reality: he’s samwell men’s hockey team’s captain, he cares for his team, and his new dream is to win the ncaa championship and go to the nhl. he doesn’t want this thing parse is offering him, because the person he’s offering it to isn’t him anymore.

and here is the first twist of this scene that op is referring to: jack starts to get angry.

"--jack." "you can't-- you can't come to my fucking school unannounced --" "--because you shut me out--" "--and corner me in my room--" "--i'm trying to help--" "--and expect me to do whatever you want--" "FUCK -- JACK!!! what do yo want me to say? that i miss you?” [twists his fingers in jack’s shirt, crowding into jack’s space. jack turns away, frowning angrily] “i miss you, okay? ...i miss you."

does parse really miss jack, or is it a ploy? honestly, i think the facial expressions we’re privy to in year 3 hint that he really means that. he misses jack. he doesn’t necessarily miss the current jack (it’s likely that he’s stuck on the fantasy of what they had when they were younger), but he means what he says. he wants jack back.

but jack is angry, because parse is complicating things for him. they were talking about playing together, and then parse insulted his choices, and now parse is talking about being together, and jack -- who took A YEAR PLUS to figure out his feelings for bitty -- probably has a hard time handling all of these things at once. for parse there’s nothing complicated here: the jack he knows wouldn’t want to play for a college team (therefore, =shitty team), and playing with jack=being with jack. 

for jack none of these things work like that anymore. they’ve grown too far apart.

"...you always say that." "...huh. well, shit. okay. ...you know what, zimmermann? you think you're too fucked up to care about? that you're not good enough? everyone already knows what you are but it's people like me who still care."

and... okay. so things go south now, and quickly. if you’re a parse stan... honestly, i hope you’re a parse stan who’s aware parse needs a shit ton of therapy. 

jack insults parse, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by being casual about parse’s declarations of feelings. to be fair, jack thinks parse was playing dirty. but parse doesn’t see it like that, so he’s offended, and apparently when he’s offended he gets angry and lashes out.

now. the unfortunate thing about knowing someone at their most vulnerable time is that you also know exactly how to kick them down to their lowest. we all hurt our loved ones the most, because we know them the best. but parse doesn’t just hurt jack here: he goes for the jugular. he kicks jack and then makes sure he stays down. and this is actually the most we see parse say in the whole comic, so... we can’t judge parse as a whole person, but. i’m sorry. he’s definitely not a good friend to jack.

(how bad of a friend? depends on how aware he was of jack’s anxiety and thoughts and feelings. if he was aware, this is a highly emotionally abusive thing to do. if he wasn’t aware, he was just being a shitty friend. either way, parse needs therapy, because he’s holding on to a lot of anger and is expressing it in a really awful way. but we can’t analyze him any further as a character because parse is not the focus of this story and we don’t know anything more about him.)

[faintly] "--shut up--" "--you're scared everyone else is going to find out you're worthless, right? oh, don't worry, just give it a few seasons, jack. trust me." [probably begins shaking] "...g-get out of my room." "fine. shut me out again." "and stay-... stay away from my team." "why? afraid i'll tell them something?" [voice growing stronger] "leave, parse." [door opening; jack and parse are surprised to find bitty outside the door. jack is visibly shaking, holding the attack at bay]

op asked how jack’s anger turns into a full blown panic attack. the answer is parse goes for his weak points faster than jack can prepare himself, just when jack was open for an attack. he calls jack ‘worthless’, which is jack’s second worst fear, and then (probably) tries for the sexuality angle. it’s unclear whether he’s threatening to out jack or to tell the team about his substance problems, but more likely the former, because the latter was all over the news.

parse is clearly upset here. is he just angry for being rejected? is he humiliated? is he heartbroken? we don’t know. the only hint we have is ‘shut me out again’, which implies he’s at least still upset about jack cutting him off after the draft. what we do know is that jack, with the last shreds of his will power, tries to defend his team. tries to cling on to the idea that he knows there are people who believe in him (this is very hard under the cloud of anxiety).

either way, jack’s panic isn’t even about parse or what parse used to be -- it’s just that parse knows where to press.

[parse clears throat, putting his indifferent mask back on] "hey. well. call me if you reconsider or whatever. but good luck with the falconers." [lands the final blow] "...i'm sure that'll make your dad proud." [jack's panic attack takes over. he retreats to his room, slams the door, and slides down to curl into himself on the floor for an undetermined amount of time]

and then parse, in front of jack’s teammate, lands the worst punch he has in his arsenal. jack’s worst fear. disappointing his dad.

jack spent all of year 2 talking to nhl teams and being watched by scouts and negotiating contracts, and consulting with his dad and his teammates to make a decision. he’s not sure about the falconers until much later, but he obviously leans towards them. which is a whole essay in and of itself: jack leans towards the falconers, a smaller, younger team with no cups, but with a lot of potential and good people and something to prove. this is a metaphor for jack’s growth as a character. he could go for a more established team to look good in front of the world, or pick a winning-streak team like the aces to feed into his anxiety. parse is taunting him with his own growth, making him doubt himself: you think you can change? you think you can really be someone new after playing in some college team? if you’re not who you were when you were 18 and first-pick at the draft (before you ruined everything for yourself and ended up here), you’re no one. and your dad will never be proud of you.

[end scene.]

[johannas-motivational-insults]

@ericamzdm I’ve read all three parts of your 5x06 pick apart and I think you made some interesting points. I’m going to respond to all of the posts at once (really just the first two, though) for the sake of clarity, and because a lot of the themes carry over and my remarks on them are more general. I’m doing this in a seperate post to avoid highjacking yours and so I’m not sending a huge ass post onto my followers’ timelines. (But interested readers should check out the original posts here: part 1, part 2, part 3.)

First of all, while I disagree with a number of your conclusions, I want to say thank you for putting into words why this episode (and in particular the fandom’s reaction to it) makes me really uncomfortable. I’m not actually sure how much of the problem is in the episode itself vs. the way people talk about it, but I agree said framing issue is there and the writers could have made it better with a few small changes.

I wouldn’t call Adora’s behavior in this episode abusive, with the possible exceptions of the mattress flip and backing Catra into the corner and pinning her arm. And even with those, you gotta remember that these two have been friends since they were little kids, and scrapping and physical aggression is just part of their relationship (remember Catra scratching Adora in 5x03?). Of course, it used to be playful/childish and now the context is different, so there’s room for disagreement there. Even if it is abusive it’s clearly unintentionally so, but Adora does have a very bad habit (we saw it in Promise too) of getting up in Catra’s face and using her superior size to intimidate, which is super uncomfortable to watch given how many times we have seen Shadow Weaver do the same thing to Catra.

Really, I think the crux of this matter is that neither Catra nor Adora is abusive towards the other, but they were raised in an abusive environment and picked up a lot of their tools for handling conflict from that environment. Further, I disagree with your assertion that Adora was abusing Catra back in the Horde. However, you are right that she picked up bad habits there and I think in a way Catra feels like Adora abused her because she was part of the system that abused her - while she tried to protect her from Shadow Weaver we know she also did some victim blaming. Adora wasn’t in a position of much influence and was trying to help, but I can understand the resentment there and why Catra felt the need to cut ties earlier in the show.

One thing you’re very right about, though, is that in this episode Adora did loom quite a bit and used intimidating body language that made me (and Catra) uncomfortable as an abuse survivor. I disagree Adora’s holding Catra prisoner but I think to Catra it might feel that way anyway, which is really the issue. As you noted there is a huge power imbalance here with Catra recovering from basically dying and being in her PJs and with no allies. And Adora definitely violates Catra’s boundaries again and again, so set on smoothing things over that she fails to realize her insistence on fixing things is making them worse. As is often the case with her, her intentions are good but she completely misreads what the other person needs from her and barges on with her way instead of listening to them. Adora’s complaint that nothing has changed is her fault as much as Catra’s imo.

I also agree the part where she is stomping around huffing and kicking things and complaining that Catra is a brat is a sign of her emotional dysregulation and Not Great behavior. Someone asked once if I found that behavior abusive and no I don’t because it’s not directed at Catra, but it is still hard to watch. I agree Adora’s categorization of Catra as a brat while lashing out physically feels a little Shadow Weaver (intentionally or not) and that specific word choice does imply that she looks down on Catra and doesn’t respect her agency/isn’t putting in the effort to understand why she is not being ‘convenient’. It’s not a good look, and it’s not clear enough that she’s in the wrong here. (Catra is in the wrong too, the issue is that Adora’s behavior is also problematic but is not sufficiently framed that way.)

This could have been such a pivotal scene if Glimmer had taken a bit of a different tack with Adora. In fact, I think that was what made the episode just not quite work the way it’s supposed to. Glimmer is a lot like Catra, and she has had a lot of similar conflicts with Adora. If Glimmer had done more to discourage Adora’s overbearing behavior and told her she needs to give Catra space and respect it could have done a lot for Glimmer’s character arc as well as the arc of this episode. Without that, you’re right, the moment when Adora backs off and gives Catra the space to choose lands more like bitterness and giving up as opposed to making a choice to respect Catra’s agency in the way she needs to if she wants Catra to feel safe to open up.

(Of course she does agree later on to trust Catra’s judgement and let her connect to the hivemind and that also shows development, but as you said it felt a little unearned.)

So yeah I disagree with your assertions that Adora is an abuser and that she’s holding Catra prisoner, but I agree with a number of your observations about the episode itself. I also agree that the framing of the episode made it seem more like it was Catra being the problem rather than Catradora having a hard time renegotiating their relationship and its boundaries. Adora is absolutely being overbearing in this episode and I don’t think it was properly addressed, i.e. it wasn’t clear enough that those problems they were both having were problems on Adora’s end too. And I think a different conversation with Glimmer could have fixed that, just a few lines. The episode showed both of them struggling but I think it does come across like more of the onus is on Catra, like she’s being unreasonable as opposed to being defensive for understandable reasons.

But like I said, some of this is actually more about the fandom’s reaction to the episode. Maybe the writers were hoping to get across that they both needed to work on their bullshit but the fandom has excused Adora because she’s the hero. To be fair, Adora’s mistakes in this episode are very in character for her, in line with her faults/insecurities in general, so maybe they expected us to understand she’s not handling the situation properly.

The fandom reaction to Adora flipping Catra’s mattress and backing her into the corner reminds me of the reactions to DT obliterating Catra with that speech in 4x13. I think on some level we like seeing these drastic actions because watching Catra spiral is frustrating and we want to see something get through to her. It’s satisfying in a way. But on the other hand, both those situations left her with this kind of body language:

And idk, I’m not sure that’s something we as a fandom should be celebrating. Especially considering that DT’s speech left Catra wanting to die and that this bullish behavior by Adora wasn’t really what flipped the switch. It’s pretty significant that the moment Catra asks Adora to stay is once she backs off and says she won’t force her to give her a place in her life. And I think we the fandom tend to overlook that.

So op, I wish you hadn’t come to some of the conclusions you did with your analysis, but I am grateful to you for starting this conversation. I was having a hard time putting it into words other than “it sets off tons of alarm bells in my head and does no one else hear that??”

[elleonmybeloved]

For the city of song, wind, and wine, it was a regular occurrence every other month to hold a music competition. Onlookers would gather around the large open space surrounding the statue of Barbatos and anybody above the age of thirteen could compete as follows: perform three songs, one of which had to be an original composition, solo in front of the audience. There was no limit to the number of instruments one could use, but since the rule was for solo performance only, it was unusual to see the use of more than one instrument.

The prize was 10,000 mora, 3 free meals from Good Hunter, and a commemorative feather artifact meant to honor the wind archon. There was of course, clout associated with the victory however, so naturally all the bards in the city of Mondstadt competed fiercely for the victory.

Lumine had the pleasure of finding out about the competition as a result of trying to buy some mint and honey and being told by Blanche that she would likely be out of stock by eight a.m. every day for the next week and a half. Mint tea with honey was one of the best ways to soothe the throat, so the city’s bards were snatching it off the shelves and shutting themselves in to compose and practice their songs without risking anybody hearing and ruining the impact of their performance.

For the young woman, it meant no sticky honey roast, radish veggie soup, calla lily seafood soup... unless she felt like picking it herself or going to Liyue just to buy some. And she sure as hell wasn’t about to attempt finding and messing with a bee hive in the wild. Unintentionally acquired powers of wind or not.

At the moment though, Amber was taking it harder than she was.

“Ugh I totally forgot that the Good Hunter doesn’t sell sticky honey roast this week because of the competition... I was totally looking forward to a nice hot plate of sweet ham after all the hilichurls I had to chase off the roads today too.”

“Why not have a sweet madame instead?” Lumine suggested. “It’s basically the same thing.”

Amber gawks at her. “How can you say that? See, this is what makes it so obvious you’re not from around here. Everybody knows the taste of those two dishes are not even remotely similar to each other.”

She’s teasing, it’s obvious from the exaggerated shock and pout of her lip, but something about what she said makes the neutral smile slip from Lumine’s face.

“Hey, if you think about it, she’s right you know!” Paimon comes to Lumine’s defense. “One ingredient is sugar, and the other is meat!”

“You eat slimes.” Amber says. “On purpose. Sorry but that automatically disqualifies you from giving culinary advice.”

“Wait a minute. On purpose? That implies a story I think I’d very much like to hear.” She turns to see Kaeya walking up behind them, a bag of something in his hands. It seems he had been shopping. And eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Oh no, there’s nothing like that.” Amber waves her hand in a nonchalant motion that would be convincing if she could lie with her face as well.

“Mmhm, sure.” He says with that smirk that never seems to leave his face.

“I should get going.” Lumine says, cutting off Amber’s reply before she can open her mouth. Once these two get started they can really argue, and she doesn’t have the time or energy to stick around for that. Especially when Charles made a deal with her to probe customers for info on her brother if she could find and bring back all of the lost business records that had been spewed from the tavern during the storm.

“Okay, see ya later!” Amber says with a salute.

“Yes, run along now.” Kaeya makes a shooing gesture.

The sun is setting by the time she is looking for the last one, hasty now that the natural light is fading. She had found some on the roof of all places, and she had all but scoured the ground, so here she was looking down dusty chimneys and clinging to the roof tiles like a squirrel every time the wind made her spook.

“Gotta be around here somewhere.” She mumbles to herself. Paimon had since gotten hungry and was presumably out eating, or looking for something to eat.

It’s a bit of a habit to use her elemental sight when searching for something, even though there wouldn’t be any traces she knows of on the documents. That’s how she ends up seeing it. At the top of the windmill, bright teal anemo energy, leaking out from the door and window in a slow trickle. Above the window, papers, caught in the gear that connects the wooden support to the spinning white blades of the mill.

“Aha.” Those must be the documents. Lumine gets a running start off the roof of the house and launches herself in the air. Thank the stars for the wind crystal Venti gave her- with a whoosh it pushes her up and gives her the altitude necessary to skip what would’ve been a sketchy climb up the curved wooden wall of the mill. Below her, she sees a young woman at the base of the mill reading and writing something in a notebook, and prays she doesn’t look up. Sure she has her license but it would still be embarrassing to be seen. Or asked questions of.

Landing with a modicum of grace, she very carefully steps across the roof tiles over to where the papers are stuck. It takes a bit of gentle wiggling but they come loose, and she puts them in her pack.

No sooner had she buttoned the flap than had the door to the balcony below her slammed open, and a “Who’s there?!” startle the absolute daylights out of her.

Lumine looses her footing.

She doesn’t hear the “oh crap” someone says because she is falling with a panicked shout, but before she can even open her glider wings, she’s being gently floated through the air. Wind carries her back up and places her gently down on the floor of the balcony. Standing above her with a distressed look on his face, Venti abandons his lyre to rush over and pat her in several places, checking for injuries.

“Oh no, are you okay? I swear I didn’t mean to make you fall!”

“I’m fine.” She says breathlessly. Behind them the door is open and there’s a small room filled with straw, crates, and some random items strewn about.

“I’m so sorry.” He says, hands still patting at her, blue eyes wide. “I didn’t even know it was you, traveler.”

“I’m okay.” She gets to her feet. In the room there is paper strewn about everywhere like a tornado hit. “...What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” He casts a glance down and behind her. “But not out here.”

He scoots back inside the room and motions at her to come in. Curious, she does so. He closes and locks the door behind him.

“So...” She prompts.

“So,” He says, “You found me! Good job. How’d you do it?”

“Uh, what do you mean found you? I wasn’t looking for you.”

“You weren’t?” He looks genuinely surprised to hear this.

“I was looking for some tavern documents blown away in the storm, I found them on the roof.” She explains. “Why would I be looking for you?”

“Heheh.” Venti laughs nervously instead of answering. “Oh! I see!”

“What’s with all the papers?” They are seriously everywhere. Lumine knows him well enough to know he’s not the scholarly type.

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

“... Okay. Never mind then.”

“Just kidding!” He’s quick to quip when she doesn’t get the joke. “But it is a secret so if you want to know you have to swear you won’t tell a soul!”

“I swear.” She says curiously. “Aren’t I already keeping one of your secrets well?”

“That you are.” He nods. “Very well. I’m in the middle of composing a new song. And practicing my other one.”

He announces it with a lot of weight, like it’s something super important and not exactly the type of thing she would expect a bard to say.

“And that’s a secret because?”

“A new song to use in the upcoming music competition. Surely you’ve heard of it? It’s a new tradition most people in Mondstadt know about.”

“Oh, that. Yeah I have heard. It’s why I can’t buy any mint or honey for the next week or so.”

“That’s right! I have some though, do you want some?”

“No, it’s okay.” Seemed like he needed it more anyways. “Is it going okay though?” She refers to the papers strewn willy nilly.

“Sort of.” He says, absentmindedly plucking at his lyre. “I’ve got my first song down, it’s one of the old ones from a few hundred years ago called Lion Heart, a ballad about the bravery of the great hero Venessa.”

“Who?”

Venti’s eyes go wide. “Who’s Venessa? You mean you haven’t heard of her? She’s the most famous hero in Mondstadt’s history.”

“... Not from around here.” She says. “Not really familiar with history yet.”

“Wanna hear the story? I have several songs you can choose from that tell it.”

“Hmm. Will it cost me?”

“Ahahaha! Of course not. For you Lumine, my performances are always free.”

“Okay then.” His enthusiastic smile is contagious, and although Lumine has no interest in Teyvat’s history beyond what could be relevant in finding Aether, she can’t help returning it with one of her own as she takes a seat on the floor.

The next hour is spent regaling her of the tales of a young woman whom she could not forget was a redhead even if she tried. Venti’s voice is beautiful, and he sings with such reverence and fervent adoration of this hero that she almost suspects a deeper relationship existed than that of the sung supporting role of Barbatos in this historic rebellion.

“You must really admire Venessa.” She says after clapping and giving a small smile at his formal bow.

“Everybody does.” He says with a shrug. “She was something special.”

Something squeezes hollowly in her chest.

“Now that I think of it, she’s the one Jean mentioned when she got sick from overworking and I had to help out.” Lumine pulls forward the relevant memory, blocking out the strange aching feeling. “She must have been a force to be reckoned with to make Jean feel inferior.”

“I could sing her praises forever.” A rare seriousness passes over Venti’s face. “So brave. Fiery hair like a flame that would never die out.”

Lumine has never seen a woman with red hair. It must be rare in Teyvat. It must be considered very beautiful.

“What about the other song?”

“Ehe, right, the other song. That is, the one that I’m composing. Well I’m not having much luck. But I think you could help me.”

“Me?” She asks. “What can I do?”

“Tell me about your most recent adventures.” He replies. “For inspiration.”

Lumine is flattered. “Wait, you’re writing a song about me- my adventures?” It’s kind of embarrassing to say from the pure self importance it assumes but she is sure she hasn’t misunderstood him.

“Heheh. Would you like that?” He’s rubbing the back of his neck. Lumine forgets about redheads.

“It’s a little embarrassing.” She claps her hands together in her lap, feeling warm. “What are you going to say?”

“Nothing weird, don’t worry!” He’s quick to say. “Nothing private either.” He’s probably talking about the unknown god and the loss of her powers.

“It’s fine with me.” Lumine acquiesces. “Just don’t get carried away. I don’t want a bad reputation.”

“It’s not that kind of song.” Venti is quick to assure her. “It’s uhhh... well, you’ll find out.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“And ruin the surprise? Heheh, nah, you’re just going to have to wait and hear it when everybody else does.”

Before she can say anything in response, she covers a yawn. It must be well into the night by now.

“Oh, you must be getting tired. Sorry for keeping you so long. Didn’t you need to go do something? I totally forgot about that.”

So had she.

“It’s okay. I do need to get going now though.” She says it with a sigh, getting up to leave. “Good night... and good luck with your song.”

Venti beams like the sun. “Thanks! I have a feeling it’s going to go just swimmingly now. Good night!”

Leaving the room feels like re-entering the world as the lights and sounds of the city surround her once more. Funny, despite the music, it had felt so quiet in there. Like they were the only two people for miles.

Weird.

[bigskydreaming]

About that last Cass meta, I wanted to correct or elaborate on something I realized in hindsight lends the wrong impression. This happens a lot with me, especially the longer a post gets, because I’m just trying to cram SO MUCH stuff in a post as is that I leave stuff by the wayside, and it typically tends to be the stuff I think is so matter-of-factly obvious to me personally, that in the moment it seems to be the most obvious thing TO leave out, as I instinctively think of it as the thing most people would figure out or connect the dots on themselves. Most of my posts I tend to write stream of consciousness as though I’m literally just speaking to anyone who follows me, and aren’t like, made with either the intention of gaining new followers or even REACHING people who don’t follow me, so like, just because I’m thinking ‘oh anyone who follows me would already know I think this’ like....that isn’t a valid assumption to make about anyone who just might read a particular post. And like, this isn’t reasonable on my part and does tend to lead to a lot of misunderstandings. So.....that’s a thing and its also a mea culpa.

In this particular case, the thing I need to elaborate on is my stance on how Cass is written speaking. When I spoke of the racist tropes I think are evident in a number of Cass’ depictions, even if unintentionally, this was NOT meant to reference or invalidate peoples’ conscious choice to make Cass have trouble with the spoken word due to various disabilities that might stem from the way her brain’s very wiring has been messed with in her backstory and appearances.

Writing Cass as disabled and having various speech impediments or trouble translating her thoughts into speech for neurological reasons is one hundred percent valid, and I should have used more nuance when describing my issue there. Personally, I tend to write her as being dyslexic and having aphasia, but she hasn’t had a specific speech or learning disability NAMED in canon as far as I’m aware, and there’s plenty that could feasibly apply.

But what I was talking about specifically is like......for instance, some people write Cass as struggling with ENGLISH, specifically, but fluent in not just sign....but say, Cantonese or another Chinese dialect as well. This is when red flags go up for me because I’m like, hmm, that’s an interesting choice that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with story logic, because see, Cassandra’s only issues with language are due to something that affects her equally with ALL languages. She only BEGAN learning languages not long after her first appearances, and the barrier that kept her from doing so previously like.....it went down in regards to ALL languages at the exact same time. 

So while it definitely is reasonable to have Cass being more comfortable signing than speaking out loud due to the fact that she prioritized learning sign language first, is less familiar and thus potentially comfortable with being part of spoken and verbal conversations period, and perhaps depending on what specific speech or neurological disabilities you write her as having is physiologically more adept at translating her thoughts into sign language without any trouble than she is selecting verbal words......what DOESN’T make sense is Cass having somehow picked up Chinese over the past several in-universe years, but its English specifically she struggles with and has a barrier conversing with her siblings in it. THAT specifically is where I would say hey maybe if this is a choice you’ve made in your own writing, this is one where you should look at what made you make that choice and second guess it like mmmm what WAS I thinking there precisely, and was that thought something I want to stand by, upon reflection.

Similarly......there is a certain WAY that people go about writing Cass struggling with speech that raises red flags for me......and that’s when they write Cass speaking the broken English I referred to specifically in that post, as in, the way Hollywood depicts caricatures of Chinese characters speaking non-fluent English. There’s a very familiar and evident cadence to that, which I believe a lot of people simply default to when writing an Asian character who has speech issues, but again, this is something that you should probably subject to more self-scrutiny. Because a Cass who has speech issues due to a neurological disability is going to display those issues in a fairly consistent way no matter how long its been since she started learning whatever language it is she’s speaking, albeit with some variance that accounts for workarounds she might have developed or learned to compensate for any issues she has there. But what she’s not going to do, IMO, is perpetually speak English in a cadence that lends the impression that she’s just not familiar with the language or struggles learning it or just hasn’t become proficient with it regardless of however many years she’s supposedly been learning or using it at this point. I’ve heard a lot of people with various speech or neurological disorders speak, but personally? I’ve never heard someone speak with a speech or neurological disorder that manifests in them speaking like a racist caricature of a Chinese character according to Hollywood depictions. THAT, specifically, is my issue there.

(And related, my reference to Cass being as much a genius as anyone in her family in that last post was meant to specifically highlight how well and how quickly Cass DOES adapt to a society she was not at all raised to be a part of, once she’s given resources and support in order to enable her to do so. Cass picks things up with TREMENDOUS speed in the comics, and so part of my ire about that last trope in particular is how often I come across fics where by their DEPICTION of Cass’ speech issues, it seems a lot more like she just hasn’t become fluent in English yet. And although its of course true that she had a very late start, if she’s been a member of the family for years at this point in your fic and you’re not bringing up any specific speech or learning disability affecting her ability to learn English, and thus it basically looks like despite years of practice Cass simply hasn’t managed to attain enough of a command of this particular language to comfortably converse in it with her family.....that’s when I go scrunchy-eyebrowed. Because like I said, Cass is SMART and she picks things up damn fast, and without any other explanation provided in narrative for why she’s struggling here specifically, I AM going to draw my own conclusions about why you’re writing her speech the way you are, and you probably aren’t gonna like my conclusions but that’s really more of a you problem at that point, IMO).

And finally, I think but don’t quote me on that, I’m a mind changer, I change my mind a lot......the last issue I have where I see red flags go up when it comes to Cass and communication is when Cass is struggling with speaking English but without direct reference made to her doing so because of a specific speech or learning disability....and at the same time, the author of the fic shows no acknowledgment of any other character’s disability or any desire or intention to depict any of the other characters with some canon disability or another as actually disabled. I’m not gonna lie, although Babs is able-bodied in canon at the moment, if someone’s writing Babs that way while writing a Cass that seems plucked out of pre-Flashpoint continuity rather than based specifically in her Batman and Robin Eternal origin......I’m not gonna be all that inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt there and assume their depiction of Cass’ speech issues is due to an actual desire to write her as disability rep. I mean, it could be that I’m wrong and they are! I don’t actually know! I’ve been wrong before, I’ll be wrong again, either way the world WILL go on! I’m just saying it like it is.....point blank, if there’s no sign of a single other disabled character in your work and Cass just so happens to visibly struggle with speaking English, I’m just not gonna automatically assume its because you’re writing her as disabled rather than just writing her while racist. And if you ever do end up called out for that and its only after the fact that you suddenly seem to backpedal and insist you were just writing her as disabled all along, my skepticism, it will still abound. *Shrugs* It just is what it is. Do with that what you will. Literally just like, my opinion dude.

But anyway! That is the nuance I should have included at that part in my already behemoth-esque post but didn’t, but that is very much a mea culpa and so please take this as a wholly necessary post script. Disabled Cass one hundred percent has my support and I should have been more conscious about implying otherwise, no matter the point I was trying to raise at the moment there.

[cybernaght]

Guardian rewatch: episode 10

The tone of this recap is going to be the crackiest so far. The production quality plummets dramatically here, in a way which is as unintentionally hilarious as it is endearing. I have very little of import to say on events of this episode, and there is nothing much for me to hyper focus on, so a lot of this write-up are snark and bad jokes. Apologies in advance. I would not be getting annoyed at a show I did not care about. 

Day two of the Road Trip starts with Zhao Yunlan waking up with a splitting headache and his own jacket draped carefully over him. I choose to believe Shen Wei left it there. 

Zhao Yunlan wakes up - and discovers that Wang Zheng had slipped a sedative into the party’s water, effectively knocking them all out. He even discovers that she left her doll-body behind as a decoy; thankfully, it’s still Li Siqi and not the blow-up doll from the previous episode. 

With the daunting realisation that he’s been betrayed, Zhao Yunlan instantly spirals into hurt and anger, and this is the moment Shen Wei chooses to appear out to nowhere. He enters offering comfort, his entire focus on making Zhao Yunlan feel better by assuring the man that his subordinate is not one of the bad guys, but rather one of the self-sacrificing ones. How SID manages to function when it’s full of people with non-existent sense of self-preservation is beyond me. 

“Professor Shen, why are you okay?”

Zhu Hong narrows her eyes. Zhao Yunlan’s look is the one of vulnerability, not suspicion, almost as if he is silently asking to please not be betrayed by his newest partner.

“I didn’t drink the water she gave me.”

Another thing I would like to question here is the reasoning behind Shen Wei waiting until the morning with this. He knew that Wang Zheng was about to do something, since he refrained from drinking the water she offered. Everyone else being unconscious would be a perfect opportunity for him to go full Hei Pao Shi on her, or follow her quietly, or do literally anything but wait for the morning. 

“What is your purpose of coming here?” Shen Wei asks because he needs to know how much Zhao Yunlan knows. He does so with a perfect set of puppy eyes. 

We cut to Wang Zheng entering the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, and witness the absolute devastation of her hearing her love’s voice for the first time in a century, as he mistakes her for the enemy and calls her a rat.

I should say that while I’m not always on board with Li Siqi in this show, props to her for acting her heart out opposite a literal pillar. Her reunion with Sang Zan is incredibly touching; she really is wonderful here.

Flashback 1. The execution of Ge Lan. 

This method of execution seems so inefficient, I actually tried to find if it has any legs in history. As my research yielded exactly no results, I am guessing this is the producers showing hanging without actually showing hanging. They kind of accidentally made the whole affair infinitely worse. People are weaker than gravity, the angle offers no possibility of the neck being broken, so this would be a very slow, and very painful death. Yikes, is all I can say. 

Flashback 2. The montage. 

Sigh.

This imagery is so carelessly contemporary it’s killing me. I’m not saying it’s completely impossible for the heart shape to have been known to represent love in this fictional tribe on a fictional planet. I’m just saying it’s a boring shorthand for romance, made worse by the fact that so much of the show’s imagery is otherwise fairly intelligent. I am not angry, I’m just disappointed.

Wang Zheng and Sang Zan’s reunion triggers another earthquake, which is felt all the way back in the village, and shortly thereafter Zhu Jiu interrupts the couple, knocking Wang Zheng out. This - her being knocked unconscious - cuts to Zhao Yunlan wincing while clutching at his temples, which almost implies that he can feel it when his people are in danger. Which would be very cool if true. 

Shen Wei, in the meanwhile is remarkably good at keeping his Professor’s mask on the whole time, offering enough information without betraying his own knowledge or motives, but it is clear by now that Zhao Yunlan starts to see right through it. 

The chief sprints into action when Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng arrive, instructing the two to join him in investigation. Shen Wei opens his mouth to volunteer to come with, but ends up hesitating before saying anything out loud. 

Zhu Hong, too, makes a move to go after the three men, but is firmly instructed to say behind and look after Shen Wei. She proceeds to loudly explain that this is the wrong time and place to be fussing over this guy. 

Shen Wei looks like he has no idea what to do with this display of emotion. 

Zhao Yunaln whispers to Zhu Hong to watch the professor for him: which could equally be him manipulating the Yashou into staying, or a sinking realisation that Shen Wei will actually try to join them either way, or genuine desire to find out what the professor will do next. Or, indeed, a combination of the above. Zhu Hong will attack her task with conviction. 

Sure enough, Shen Wei finally voices his desire to go with the group. Zhu Hong reminds him that he has his own people to look after and instructs him to return to the house with barely contained resentment. 

Shen Wei will predictably try to sneak out very shortly afterwards, and will be, equally predictably, caught by Zhu Hong. Why the man who can teleport would not just teleport out of the house before proceeding on foot is anyone’s guess. 

“He surprisingly views you as a good friend”, says Zhu Hong when she stops Shen Wei from leaving. “You surely noticed it, right?”

He certainly did, although he will always have trouble realising that he is actually cared about in a way which is anything but casual. 

Shen Wei obediently sits down and follows Zhu Hong’s instructions as she attempts to hypnotise him. Those instructions are anything but subtle. 

“Professor Shen, look at the flame closely”.

Meanwhile, the other party has successfully deduced the location of the Hanga tribe cave/shrine, and heads there, only to find no visible entrance. Thankfully, gaining access to the mountain is not particularly hard for the party. Mostly because this part of the mountain is made of foam.

This is where I want to metaphorically pat Guardian on its non-existent head, cooing, “Oh, Guardian. Baby. What have you done.”

On the bright side, this is also where Guo Changcheng accidentally shocks Zhao Yunlan with the Fear Stick, and Chu Shuzhi literally gives him a thumbs up. Those two are a duo for the ages. 

Youchu appear to fight our heroes, and after the first wave is eliminated, Zhao Yunlan decides to go inside, leaving the other two fend them off near the entrance. Considering that the beasts are all hiding inside the cave, rushing in without backup seems incredibly ill advised. Zhao Yunlan instructs Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng to run away if the danger becomes too great. Which he must know surely that they would never do: his department does not leave people behind, and his subordinates will never abandon him. 

To no one’s surprise, the cave is crawling with Youchu. Zhao Yunlan goes on the offensive, kicking the feet out of the monster, but failing to incapacitate it. I am going to do my best to ignore how the scale of the beast fluctuates as it falls down, and focus on Bai Yu’s excellent reaction when his character realises that he is about to very much die.

Luckily for our protagonist, Hei Pao Shi sends a ward his way with a note, warning him of the danger ahead and ordering him to return. Zhao Yunlan makes no move to do as instructed and uses the upper hand he’s gained on the Youchu to get out his gun. Before he can fire however, he once more experiences the painful flashback of the devastation this gun carries, and freezes.

This is when Shen Wei shows up in person, jumping in front of the gun and gutting the beast.

The jumping in front of the gun part of the action is sweet, because it indicates, albeit indirectly, the absolute trust Shen Wei must have in Zhao Yunlan’s instincts, knowing that the man will not accidentally shoot him in the back. 

The gutting itself happens in reverse grip, with Shen Wei being easily within reach of the beast’s long stabby claws, and as such really questionable to me in terms of logic. I would have not minded it if he had been moving through the space in front of the beast, slicing it while passing through. That would be at least an indicator of both speed and dexterity enough to make me believe Shen Wei made a clever avoidance of the claws. But he doesn’t: he just materialises dead-on in front of the monster and the later just.. lets itself be killed. 

Let’s just say that maybe the beast is supposed to be deliberately slow here, and park the long essay in regards to the bladework until the next episode. 

“Chief Zhao, are you alright?”

Everything about Hei Pao Shi in this moment screams of Shen Wei-ness. Well, maybe not the sword. But the obvious concern, the tone of voice, the general air: it’s all Shen Wei. It’s remarkable that Zhao Yunlan does not see it. Or maybe, I suppose, he does, without even realising it. His cheeky grin suddenly appears; the corners of his eyes crinkle, as he goes into a very long-winded, almost flirtatious away about thanking Hei Pao Shi, teasing him for not always arriving on time. 

Unperturbed, Shen Wei chides Zhao Yunlan for not listening to his warning, and Zhao Yunlan defends himself in a very playful kind of manner, adding that he’s not leaving his people behind. To Shen Wei, this is to be expected, so instead of arguing he goes into a lot of detail on how the road ahead is dangerous, as if he is not really expecting Zhao Yunlan to accept help. 

He is wrong of course: proud though he may be, Chief Zhao knows when he is outgunned and outnumbered, and only grins, happy for the Envoy to join him on his mission. 

Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan exploring the cave is interspersed with pretty damn harrowing scenes of Zhu Jiu torturing Wang Zheng as her trapped lover screams for mercy. It’s a lot; in fact it’s so much even the cave ghosts attempt to intervene, because while they may be very much pro-murder, they are evidently anti-torture. 

As the two keep exploring, they bump into another three of the beasts, which Shen Wei slays in three slick moves. It’s actually pretty cool, despite slightly sketchy teleportation effects.

“Wow!”

(Apparently, this “wow” made Zhu Yilong corpse so much he nearly laughed his mask off. Which sounds adorable)

Shen Wei proceeds to inquire Zhao Yunlan about the gun, party to confirm that it is indeed the dark energy weapon he knows, and partly having noticed that the other man failed to fire it. I wonder how many times Zhao Yunlan froze in the past, considering how easily he once again slips into his mask of playful deflection, claiming that he never planned to fire the gun at all. It’s almost tragic how this person keeps feeling like he needs to prove his own capabilities over and over again. 

Interestingly enough, in this particular case Hei Pao Shi actually does own up to a weakness. It’s calculated: he knows this is something Zhao Yunlan must already be aware of, but still, “full disclosure” is not something Shen Wei usually does when it comes to his own capacities. 

What he admits to, on the other hand, does not seem very consistent with the rest of the show. He says that he can only use half of his power above ground, which - okay. But he also states that he can’t spend a lot of time here, and I am a little bit… confused? He lives above ground. He spends absolute majority of his time here. I really don’t want to think of this as a writing inconsistency, so please let me know what I have missed; I’ll appreciate it. 

Hearing the admission, Zhao Yunlan grows serious for once, asking which they they should be going next. Shen Wei barely smothers a smug smirk seconds before he scries the surroundings with unbelievable panache.

Show off

Unfortunately, his search does not yield any result, as whatever readings he is getting are muddled by the Hallow. Luckily for them, and to Shen Wei’s great dismay, Zhao Yunlan has the Dial on him which he is uses as a compass. 

Shen Wei’s wordless reaction conveys a million questions from “what the hell?” to “are you completely stupid?”

Instead of asking any of those things, he settles for a more neutral “I’ve told you not to use the Hallows.”

“You are very much like a friend of mine”, remarks Zhao Yunlan. 

Which is, incidentally, also the title of this episode. 

Even behind the mask it’s clear to see Shen Wei’s blind panic as he realises he may have just blown his cover sky high. Fortunately, Zhao Yunlan reads the reaction as bashfulness rather than existential despair, and laughs it off. 

Now that they know which way to go, they finally make it to the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, which now has Wang Zheng tied to it. 

This show sure does like tying their characters to totems containing souls of people significant to them, huh?

In all seriousness though, as parallels go, this one is… uh… unparalleled. 

(I am so very sorry.)

Zhao Yunlan makes a move towards his trapped subordinate, but Hei Pao Shi, again in a way which is extremely Shen Wei-like, grabs at his arm, stopping him in his tracks. 

Zhao Yunlan obediently halts, and calls Zhu Jiu out, correctly guessing that the Undergrounder lured them here deliberately. Shen Wei, on the other hand, relays in a hushed tone information what he had observed so far: namely, that the Hallow stored here is the Dire Awl, and that something is incredibly fishy about Wang Zheng.

As he does so, he is staring at Zhao Yunlan’s lips. It is neither the time, nor the place, but hey, I’m not complaining.

They have a brief discussion about the next moves, in which Shen Wei just says he would like to try something, and Zhao Yunlan nods, letting him do it without asking for any details. 

Flashback 3: the Backstory. 

We hear the full tragic tale of Ge Lan and Sang Zan: how they met, representatives of the warring sides of the conflict, two people from two different worlds; how their love did not stop the awful bloodshed; how it could not be enough to overpower the politics; how it lead to Ge Lan’s death, and, finally, how Sang Zan could not bring her back to him. They hear how the man changed once he lost the only person he cared about. 

Zhao Yunlan is visibly moved by this story, recognising echoes of it in himself. 

“The most basic dignity of a man is to ensure that the person in his heart stays safe. If the person I love gets destroyed in my own hands ruined under the system I established myself, it’s very likely I’ll hate these people more than I hated the former tribe leader.”

How much did he harden after his mother was taken away from him? How much of his initial hatred of all those from the Underground stems from that day? And, of course, how much will it break him when he will not be gifted this dignity in his own future? 

Shen Wei is near vibrating with how much his very soul resonates with the tale he has just heard. He, who has met someone from the other world, who was lost that person, is visibly weighed down by his own memories.

“That’s right. Even if they’re cut into a myriad of pieces, the hatred would be hard to dissolve.”

Zhao Yunlan stares at the other man, astounded, wondering what hardships and losses the Envoy endured in his long and eventful life, as the episode draws to a close.

And I am left here trying to soothe my aching heart, bruised once more by this show’s relentless fatalism. 

Next up, episode 11: Oh Boy Do I Have Sword Opinions 

---

Notes. 

Look. It’s been a long week okay. Besides, I am basically marathoning my way through Zhu Yilong’s entire filmography. 

The normal service in terms of analysis will hopefully resume next week. 

[cosmicpines]

OTGW Dream-Unknown Comic Lore

Hey! Thought I’d make a post about the “ongoing” (now finished) post-series OTGW comic and the implications it has to the lore of the show, since I’m not sure everyone has read them.

Big Note: these comics are only dubiously canon! None were written by Pat McHale.

Other Big Note: I think assigning hard “mechanics” to how the Unknown works defeats the purpose. It is mean to be loose, fairytale like, shepherded by emotion. Putting a stamp on “this is how they get in and out” and “this is exactly what happened” doesn’t make sense -- part of the point is we, Greg, and Wirt don’t know exactly what the Unknown is.

That being said, i still think it’s fun to look at the facts presented in the comics and see if we can figure out a bit of what’s going on. This post is long because this is who I am as a person, apparently.

TLDR: Wirt and Greg can be brought to the Unknown during their dreams, potentially for multiple days in one night. They are there until they both realize they are dreaming and they solve the problem they were brought there for.

Right off the bat, in issue 1, we find out that Greg can go to the Unknown in his dreams -- in this case, because Jason told him that there was a “new case” for them to solve.

He briefly wakes up and goes back to sleep (probably because they wanted to show Wirt in issue 1.)

Greg doesn’t seem surprised to find himself in the Unknown; quite the opposite: Jason is telling him about a “new” case, implying that this has happened before, possibly multiple times. We have no idea how long after the series this takes place, only that it’s either fall or winter, judging from their pajamas.

Greg doesn’t offer us any other insight to what’s going on, but, eventually, Wirt shows up in issue 4.  He asks Greg what he’s, and later they, are doing here, implying he did not choose to come and they don’t always come here at the same time.

Wirt is particularly interesting that he seems to think they may not be able to leave again, as he brings up on 2 occasions.

However, this may just be because he doesn’t know he’s dreaming.

(Yes, that’s Sara. More on her later.)

A detail that I think is important from the show here -- then, Wirt also couldn’t remember entering the Unknown, since he seemed to think he and Greg were lost and not, you know, drowning in a river. I think it’s very possible that when you enter the Unknown, you forget how you got there. Remembering that is key to being able to escape.

Sara tells Wirt he’s dreaming, and from that point on, he no longer waxes about being trapped: he instead tells Greg he wants to go home, as seen in issue 12.

When Greg and Wirt split up to solve the last mysteries:

This implies that they don’t have to go home together and, at this point, they are more or less capable of going home whenever.

Issue 16 brings them both home, Greg after revealing Hero Frog’s intentions and getting Jason elected mayor:

And Wirt after he and Sara defeat the Shapeshifter.

(poor wirt lmao)

I think these puzzle pieces can lead to a conclusion: They can only go home from the Dream Unknown once they are both aware that they are dreaming and they solve whatever problem they were brought here for. Once they do, they can go back whenever they want. 

After waking up, Greg immediately checks on his brother.

Solidifying that they remember what happened, and, implying at least, that they don’t always get home at the same time. I can see scenarios where one sits in the other’s room, waiting for them to wake up...

We ultimately don’t know how often this happens, what triggers it, and how aware they are of the whole thing. Judging from their reactions to being there and going home, I feel like this sort of thing happens often enough, but not so often that it’s exhausting and/or terrifying... once a month, maybe?

If that rate increases, though... well, that’s just some fun fanfiction fuel.

Some other observations:

1. Greg and Wirt may not experience things exactly the same in the Dream Unknown.

When Wirt first shows up, he makes this comment:

“A bunch of nightmare stuff” seems a little... extreme, for what Wirt was doing, as said ghost was a beaver in a sheet. 

Issue 6 offers a potential explanation. The framing device for this issue is a tavern keeper asks them why they look so tired, and Greg and Wirt both tell the story of having to sit in a location all night to meet someone, but their stories vary wildly. For Greg, they were on a stage. For Wirt, they were in a graveyard.

Both stories have seriously different levels of Wirt’s enthusiasm,

and how creepy it is.

I won’t pretend that this is canon that they’re experiencing it differently; it’s definitely possible that one or both of them are unreliable narrators. Certain details, like Wirt singing, point more to that, but others, like Wirt getting eaten by a demon horse, is... a lot more extreme, haha.

This is also partly refuted later in the comic, as Greg and Wirt get separated but visit the same places, which are largely the same.

But still, it’s a fun idea.

2. Sara is here

Yeah, so, this can either be adorable or terrifying.

All Sara really says about her being here is that she thinks this is a lucid dream where Wirt is a person in it, which Wirt never presses her but come on Wirt please press her cause what the fuuuuuuckkkkk????? Sara ultimately doesn’t seem to know what the Unknown really is, since she only refers to it as a lucid dream.

Three explanations I can think of:

1. Her line “I’m having a lucid dream and you’re a part of it” could be meant to imply that the opposite: Wirt is the one having the dream and has dreamed up a Sara to adventure with him.This Sara is just something Wirt has created to join him in the Unknown, and the real Sara isn’t involved or aware of this at all. This isn’t the first time the Unknown has created a Sara, if you consider Distillatoria canon (which... ehhhhh......  I have Opinions about that lol)

2. Sara has been to the Unknown before. If that is the case, it either happened recently, since Wirt is surprised to see her there, or Sara has been doing this for a while and they just haven’t run into each other. Her saying it’s just a dream isn’t incorrect, and if she doesn’t think Wirt is really Wirt (that the Unknown created him), there’s no reason for her to be like “hey, we’re in a dream recreation of purgatory that apparently has a grasp on my soul for all eternity.”

3. This is the first time Sara has been to the Unknown, and Wirt unintentionally brought her along. This one has the least evidence towards it, but I think it’s interesting. Greg is able to bring his stuffed raccoon with him to the Unknown, so why can’t Wirt bring the consciousness of his crush and/or girlfriend?

Another thing to think about when considering this: Wirt and Greg are in the Unknown in their Halloween costumes. I like the idea that whatever you wore to the Unknown when you go is what you always wear when you’re there. Sara is all dressed for an adventure, with a cute green cape, a huge backpack, and a bee mask (specifically to trick the shapeshifter).

So I’m not sure what she might have been doing to be wearing this and then end up in the Unknown... Either she’s into LARP, she got into a hiking accident while wearing a sick cape, she changed clothes after arriving in the Dream Unknown, or her outfit is part of Wirt’s dream.

No idea which explanation is “correct;” I think they’re all interesting to play with!

3. Jason has relatives in the Unknown

Apparently the Hero Frog is Jason’s dad???

Which is... fascinating, considering they found Jason before going into the Unknown.

I think I read ages ago a theory that Jason is originally from the Unknown and got out somehow, as he is a lot more intelligent than a real frog should be. Who knows, though.

It’s probably also of note that Jason is the one who instigates them entering the Unknown, “telling” Greg there’s a mystery to solve.

4. Multiple days pass by in the dream

This is “fun...”

Day 1: Issue 1 (Greg’s arrival) - Issue 4 (Wirt’s arrival, diverging story)

Day 2: Issue 6 (morning after diverging tale) - Issue 7 (Greg sneaks around bird town, Wirt encounters a ghost)

Day 3: Issue 9 (Greg goes over a mountain. There’s a very fast day-night cycle here, but I think it’s for comedic effect. Wirt arrives in bird town and meets up with Sara.) - Issue 11 (Greg joins some “highwaymen”) /12 (Wirt and Sara help a sick goose)

Day 4: Issue 12 (Greg, Wirt, and Sara meet up in frog town) - Issue 14 (Greg spies on Hero Frog, Wirt and Sara get taken by an orphanage)

Day 5: Issue 15 (Greg/Wirt/Sara make their plan, Greg goes home before nightfall in 16) - Issue 16 (Wirt and Sara defeat the shapeshifter)

This is 5 full days they spend in the dream. Some of them are a lot fewer events than would happen in a day, and it’s very likely time is moving faster in the dream, but... jeez. That’s got to screw with your mind if this happens too often. Like, imagine the worst case scenario where they go to the Unknown every night and spend 5 days there every time! I doubt this is the case, but holy shit.

5. Beatrice, the Woodsman, Lorna, and the Beast are nowhere to be seen

This is more of an observation, but there is not even a passing mention of any of these three. Either they were all checked in on their first dream adventure, or they can’t remember that first adventure while in the dream too clearly...

There’s a ton of fun theories that you can make out of the Dream Unknown. Is the Dream Unknown the same as the Halloween Unknown? Are the boys souls claimed by the Unknown forever? Will it keep calling them back, night after night, until they go back permanently? How does this effect their healing from their trauma? Are these dreams going to increase or decrease in frequency? Do they always last exactly one night? Can Wirt fall asleep in class, spend a week in the Unknown, and wake up before the end of the period? Can Greg go to bed for the night and not wake up all day, but only have been in the Unknown for a few minutes? Does time pass in the Unknown without them there? In the Dream Unknown, will they always be the age that they originally were when they entered the Unknown? Does anyone else in the Unknown do this? (at some point, I want to do a theory post about who is from the Unknown and who is from the “real” world...)

Anyway... this post completely ran away with me. Hope you enjoyed! Send me your theories; I’m itching to hear them!