#i post enough complaints here and yes this counts technically but this is also a positive post. a treat post | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bananonbinary · 4 years ago

Text

Time for a Salty Meta Post about Martin!

people who’ve followed this blog for a bit know that spending six hours combing through text for some goddamn sources is my specialty, so i compiled every time jon ever talked about martin’s work in season 1. which for the record, he stopped complaining about all the way back in episode 26, where he was angry that martin of all people got hurt.

things jon gets mad at martin for:

not being able to find records that don’t exist

not being able to find someone based only on a first name

the Dog

not wearing trousers in his off-hours

being the one that got caught up in the jane prentiss thing

mag 004 and mag 012 both have jon taking potshots at martin over research that was proven accurate by outside sources

things jon has never once complained about:

martin not understanding the filing system and just putting stuff away at random

martin being clumsy, constantly ruining things, spilling tea everywhere everyday, etc

martin turning in incompetent, poorly-edited, or badly formatted reports

martin not understanding the terminology used, skills expected, etc., and generally being extremely new to the field

please for the love of god stop making martin the silly bumbling idiot who can’t do anything right just because he doesn’t have a formal education. there’s zero evidence for it in the text, and it’s really weird to act like a 4 year degree would outweigh the *10 years* of job experience he has, not just in academia, but in the institute itself by season one. my boy has worked there longer than ANY of the rest of the main cast. screw you guys.

tl;dr: martin is never once shown to be bad at his job, jon pretty much only ever gets mad at him for the really stupid first impression and also not finding stuff that no one else was able to find either. after martin got hurt, jon talks about his research basically the same way he talks about tim’s or sasha’s work.

fucking proof under the cut:

(i didnt include the s1 finale or martin’s statement bc that’s just...two entire episodes of them talking to each other, but there isn’t really any notable Martin Complaints in either of them imo)

I swear, if he’s brought another dog in here, I’m going to peel him.

[pre-launch trailer]

Well, technically three, but I don’t count Martin as he’s unlikely to contribute anything but delays.

[...] Alongside this Tim, Sasha and, yes, I suppose, Martin will be doing some supplementary investigation to see what details may be missing from what we have.

[MAG001 Anglerfish]

Martin couldn’t find any records of Ex Altiora as a title in existent catalogues of esoteric or similar literature, so I assigned Sasha to double-check. Still nothing.

[MAG004 Pageturner]

I had Martin conduct a follow-up interview with Mr. Woodward last week, but it was unenlightening. Apparently there have been no further bags at number 93 and in the intervening years he has largely discounted many of the stranger aspects of his experience. I wasn’t expecting much, as time generally makes people inclined to forget what they would rather not believe, but at least it got Martin out of the Institute for an afternoon, which is always a welcome relief.

[MAG005 Thrown Away]

Martin was unable to find the exact date the original house was built but the earliest records he could find list it as being bought by Walter Fielding in 1891.

[...]

We cannot prove any connection, but Martin unearthed a report on an Agnes Montague, who was found dead in her Sheffield flat on the evening of November 23rd 2006, the same day Mr. Lensik claims to have uprooted the tree.

[MAG008 Burned Out]

According to Martin, who was here when they took this statement, it was at this point in writing that Mr. Herbert announced he needed some sleep before continuing. He was shown to the break room where he went to sleep on the couch. He did not awaken; unfortunately succumbing to the lung cancer right there. Martin says the staff had been aware of how serious Mr. Herbert’s condition was, and had advised him to seek medical aid prior to giving his statement, but were told rather bluntly by the old man that he would not wait another second to state his case. I can’t decide whether this lends more or less credibility to his tale.

[MAG010 Vampire Killer]

“Veepalach” might also be a mishearing of the Polish word “wypalać”, according to Martin, which means to cauterize or brand. Admittedly, if Martin speaks Polish in the same way he “speaks Latin,” then he might be talking nonsense again, but I’ve looked it up and it appears to check out.

[MAG012 First Aid]

I sent Martin to look into this ‘Angela’ character - not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently, he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.

[MAG014 Piecemeal]

Martin declined to help with this investigation as he’s “a bit claustrophobic”

[MAG015 Lost John’s Cave]

There simply aren’t enough details given in this statement to actually investigate, short of Martin confirming that Mr. Vittery did indeed live at the addresses he provided.

[MAG016 Arachnophobia]

Oh, he’s off sick this week. Stomach problems, I think.

Blessed relief if you ask me.

[...]

I asked Martin to try and hunt down Mr. Adekoya himself for a follow-up, but have been informed that he passed away in 2006.

[MAG017 The Boneturner’s Tale]

MARTIN

Well, I need to tell someone what happened, and you can vouch for the soundness of my mind, can’t you?

ARCHIVIST

…

That is beside the point.

[MAG022 Colony]

Martin! Good lord man, if you’re going to be staying in the Archives, at least have the decency to put some trousers on!

[MAG023 Schwartzwald]

Martin found one other thing while combing through police reports for the Hither Green area. About a month after this statement was given, on May 15th, 2015, police were called out to once again investigate the chapel.

[MAG025 Growing Dark]

I know, but it would have to have been Martin, wouldn’t it? I mean, anything goes wrong around here, it always seems to happen to him. Anyway, we’re getting off topic. Why didn’t you report this?

[MAG026 A Distortion]

Martin made contact with the son, Marcus McKenzie, but he declined to talk to us, saying that he’d “already made his statement.”

[MAG027 A Sturdy Lock]

Tim and Martin had a bit more luck investigating Tom Haan, though only really enough to confirm that he seems to have completely vanished following his departure from Aver Meats on the 12th of July.

[MAG030 Killing Floor]

Martin’s research would seem to indicate the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books

[...]

TIM

Ah well, that’s actually what he was asking, huh! Um, apparently Martin, uh, took delivery of a couple of items last week addressed to you. Did he not mention it?

ARCHIVIST

No, he… Oh, yes, actually. I completely forgot. He said he put it in my desk drawer, hold on.

[MAG036 Taken Ill]

#the magnus archives #LISTEN #i am once again asking people to remember that martin has MORE job experience at the institute than literally any other character #(except elias or i guess maybe rosie)#he's the goddamn veteran not the newbie #fan wank /

1K notes · View notes

wonlouvre · 3 years ago

Note

hello! i see your requests are open again 😌 can i request jeonghan x reader, enemies to lovers kinda thing maybe where they have the same friends but jeonghan & reader always clash etc etc fluff at the end idk

i know you’ll come up with something amazing as always, do what you want with it 😘🥰💗

balance | y. jh.

pairing: jeonghan x reader genre: enemies to lovers (kind of), fluff warnings: heights, ski mountain mechanical malfunctions (you know, dangling in the air kind of thing) word count: 1.5k (i got carried away, im sorry)

💌: thank you so much for requesting!!! this was honestly fun to write although there was little to none banter, i’m so sorry :’( thank you for trusting me! i hope you like it <3 i will try to post at least two drabbles/requests per week :)

To you, Yoon Jeonghan was the type of person that looked like he would trample all over your principles in life. It’s a little dramatic of you but he can’t blame you for thinking so. He’s cocky, annoying and full of shit. The two of you stepped off on the wrong foot when he thought it was funny to pour sparkling water on your instant noodles as a prank during one of the traditional ski trips your group of friends always hold.

Soonyoung introduced him on what was supposed to be the best trip of your life only to get ruined when he made fun of you. Although technically speaking, your cup wasn’t the only victim of his shenanigan because the rest of your friends complained and threw it at the perpetrator before they could even finish eating. But you were hungry and stubborn, so you didn’t let it go.

Ever since then, despite not confronting him, Jeonghan’s energy and wholebeing never clicked with yours. You barely speak a word to him and you rarely hang out with him, unlike with every single one of your friends. He hasn’t noticed and even if he did, you’re sure he could care less. Which is fine by you. The instant noodle prank is history and now that this year’s ski trip will be your third with him, you have just gotten used to ignoring his existence.

“Jeonghan’s staring at you,” Seungcheol says, startling you.

Your eyes throw daggers at him, not because he startled you, but because of what he said.

The tall man nudges your shoulder with his. “I’m not lying. Give him a glance and then you’ll see.”

To set the record straight, you don’t have a grudge on Jeonghan for who he is. It’s more of what he does that gives a bad impression on you. Aside from the noodle incident, you noticed how much he takes pride in teasing and playing with the gullible younger ones and you hate him for that. It’s a good laugh every once in a while but it can hurt feelings at times and you don’t want that. He also likes to disagree and debate with everyone (you’re just glad you haven’t been a victim yet). When everyone else says yes, he’ll boldly say no. That’s how moronic he is to be friends with.

Of course you acknowledge his good deeds. Whether you like to admit it or not, Jeonghan is a great friend. He is a beacon of strength among you knowing that he’s one of the oldest in the group. He knows where and when to have fun. He knows when to be there for anyone who needs him. He’s supportive. He’s loving. He’s more than okay.

You’re just turning a blind eye because you’re still petty.

It has come to your attention that apparently, Jeonghan has been harboring a crush on you. It’s a stupid rumor and you choose to ignore it because why. Why would he have a crush on you? You try confirming if it’s true by looking at him and observing his actions whenever he’s not paying attention. But to no avail, nothing special stood out.

In fact, it seems like all the staring and observation made you develop a crush on him. Now that’s even more annoying.

You roll your eyes at Seungcheol’s nonsense and walk away from him to go to Jeongyeon who’s currently checking in everyone to the hotel. You might as well help her register everyone to all the activities you will be participating in.

“Collect their IDs,” she orders without looking up from the form she’s writing on. “And tell them to fall in line so they can sign the consent form.”

“Told you we should have filled out the online form before getting here,” your complaint doesn’t go unheard by your friend who only glares at you, scaring you to immediately obey her instructions.

“IDs please,” you ask with your hand out and your friends happily complied as they chatted through the waiting time. You walk around to make sure you have everyone’s and as you double check, one last ID was missing.

“You didn’t forget about me, did you?”

The devil himself, Yoon Jeonghan.

You take a deep deep breath before turning around and face the handsome face you’ve been sick of. Wait, did you just call him handsome?!

Jeonghan flashes his signature smirk while pulling his wallet out from his pocket, picking one of the many cards inside it to hand to you. His gloveless fingers grazes yours and it concerns you why it made your heart skip a beat. You avoid his gaze and everything else about him and run back to Jeongyeon who’s the one asking for these in the first place.

You heard his low chuckle and you wish you could wipe off his annoying grin with your fist.

Moving on from what happened in the early afternoon, the rest of the day was pleasant enough for you and your friends to continue. Everyone had lunch at the local restaurant first before doing the group activities. It’s a good thing none of you are afraid of heights (except for Dokyeom, but he manages). Soonyoung leading everyone to hike the safe side of the snow covered mountain wasn’t a problem for him.

After the quick mountain hike, you all scattered to have fun and decided to meet up for dinner in the evening. You, Jeongyeon, Dokyeom and much to your dismay, Jeonghan all went up to snowboard.

The lift was supposed to carry the four of you up to the starting point before your adrenaline descend, but Dokyeom suddenly felt a wave of fear of heights and needed to calm down for a few minutes. He tells you to go on ahead and you did. You just didn’t expect Jeonghan to be accompanying you instead of Jeongyeon.

You hide your disappointment and bewilderment as you make yourself comfortable. It’s awkward but it doesn’t matter. You’re just going to keep quiet and avoid looking Jeonghan’s way. This ride will probably not be a good ten minutes, right?

Jeonghan holds onto his snowboard while you place yours on the floor. A barrier of some sort to distance yourself from him. Your eyes are glued to your feet, watching them move from side to side. You also distract yourself from admiring the view outside the window, but it’s hard when you can feel his eyes burning holes on the back of your head.

“Y/N.”

You hate it. You hate it. You hate it.

Why does your name sound so melodic coming from his mouth?

You turn your head and raise your eyebrows, waiting for him to continue.

But the lift doesn’t let him because it suddenly stops mid-air, echoes of metals clanking and brakes screeching following suit. The abrupt stop causes the lift to shake a little, making you hold onto the metal bars out of fear.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there has been a mechanical malfunction of the lifts and our engineers are repairing it now at this moment. We apologize for the inconvenience and fear that this has caused. We request everyone to remain calm and seated…”

The announcement falls deaf to your ears because all you hear is ringing. You’re not afraid of heights at all. But you have never experienced an incident like this before. You’ve heard and read about it and not all of them ended well.

“Hey,” Jeonghan’s voice snaps you out of your dilemma.

You blink away your tears and clutch your chest to calm your heart that’s beating faster and faster.

“Y/N?” Jeonghan calls for you again, but this time he’s reaching his hand out. “You’ll be fine. Here, take my hand.”

Jeonghan probably noticed the panic in your eyes. So, after throwing away your doubts outside the window, you carefully move a little closer to him but not beside him as you don’t want to ruin the balance of the lift. You unclench your fist and finally take hold of his waiting hand.

Jeonghan’s warm palm and genuine smile calms you down. Your heartbeat slows down and your breathing goes back to normal. Your eyebrows furrow in both fear and embarrassment. You question the universe how and why did this have to happen.

“Hey, don’t cry.”

“I’m not!”

Jeonghan giggles at your outburst and you don’t know if that’s music to your ears or if it just makes you want to punch his handsome face more.

“I like you Y/N,” he suddenly confesses and you grimace.

“I like you too,” you confess back, tightly gripping his hand. “But now is not the time, Yoon Jeonghan.”

Jeonghan bites back a smile that says he’s in love and just gently caresses your hand. It’s unbelievable how the opportunity arose itself right at this moment, but it was now or never for him. He’d explain how much he likes you in detail later. For now, he’s okay with this.

“But, later though?”

“Yes, now shut up before I throw you out first.”

365 notes · View notes

olivia-anderson-fanfic · 4 years ago

Text

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 1/57, 97.7k words

I was like “hey brain I’d love to do a shitpost social media au” and then it was like r e w r i t e m i r a c u l o u s

I don’t even know if it really even counts as miraculous anymore so much has changed god damn it --

Rena Rouge had never been so excited for anything in her life.

Of course, at first glance people would find that insane. She was going to a meeting, after all.

But it was the people that were also attending that had her practically vibrating she was so excited.

All the heroes of Paris were to be gathered under Master Fu’s orders. They hardly ever worked together, so having all four (five, including her, she reminded herself) together was pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime event. She wished she was still a reporter, this was the kind of thing she would have killed to report on back in the day…

Still, a part of her had to wonder why exactly they were all there. Master Fu had been vague when he’d called. She had some theories, of course, but all this waiting was starting to shift her excitement into nerves. She attempted to smooth out her tail, but ended up just tucking it under herself to hide her anxiety. Maybe she shouldn’t have come so early.

The first person to show up after her was Carapace. He’d poked his head through the door, the hood of his sleeveless hoodie pulled so low over his face that it partially hid his face. Then he broke into a wide smile and pushed the hood up a little to show the green glint of his mask. He made his way inside and took a seat next to her.

“Salu -- Bonjour!” His confident smile melted into an uncomfortable one. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Salut,” she said, not wanting him to feel awkward.

Besides, that was kind of his whole shtick. Carapace was the relatable hero, the one you could vent about your problems to.

(Well, technically you could vent to all of Paris’s heroes, they didn’t mind… but Carapace was the only one that felt close enough to actually try it with.)

Silence lapsed between them as they sat there. She tried to remember whether she had met him as Rena Rouge or not and he seemed unsure whether she wanted to talk, but they were distracted from their thoughts when Chloe walked into the room.

Chloe just kind of… does that. If Carapace was the personable one, Chloe was the one who felt the most unreachable. She was open about her persona, had to be after everyone found out about it, and exactly how relatable can a mayor’s daughter be? She’d leaned into it, though, opting for golden jewelry and wings that glinted in the light.

Neither of the present heroes said anything to Chloe, and Chloe didn’t acknowledge them.

Was it rude? Technically. But what else were they supposed to do? Chloe had made it clear a week ago that she didn’t like them. There’s no good conversation that can come after you get shit-talked on live tv.

The last person to be on time was Chat Noir. The original hero. He gave them a smile worthy of a model as he slipped inside. “Bonjour.”

“Bonjour,” said Rena and Carapace, and even Chloe gave a quiet hum of acknowledgement.

The leather of his black suit made a high-pitched squeaking sound against the chair when he sat down that made both him and Rena’s hair stand on end (literally).

Master Fu walked in to find Carapace trying to soothe two very frazzled miraculous holders and Chloe ignoring them on her phone.

He sighed and gently rapped his cane on the ground.

Instantly, the room quieted. Chat and Rena snapped out of their shock.

“Bonjour,” chorused everyone.

He smiled tensely. “Bonjour. Where’s Ladybug?”

“Not here yet,” said Chloe. She set her phone down on the table and crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s nothing in the papers, either.”

Master Fu nodded a little bit and took a seat at the head of the table. “We can wait for her. There’s no rush.”

Carapace hesitated before raising his hand. “There’s… a bit of a rush. I was procrastinating a college app and it’s due tonight…”

“It shouldn’t be long,” said Master Fu.

This was true. About five minutes later Ladybug burst into the room, panting softly. “Bon… jour...”

“Thanks for finally showing up,” said Chloe.

No one knew for sure, because Ladybug’s eyes were completely white, but they got the feeling that she was rolling her eyes.

“There was an akuma.”

“Really? There was nothing on the news…” said Rena, genuinely confused, but she trailed off when she realized that maybe getting one of your childhood heroes in trouble was a bad idea if you wanted to have a good relationship with said childhood hero.

Thankfully, Ladybug didn’t seem all that annoyed. “That’s because the news anchor and her crew got swallowed by it before they could get any information out. Anyways, it’s dealt with.”

With that, Ladybug took a seat in the last open chair. There was a beat as she smoothed out the red and black folds of her dress and then she crossed her legs and smiled at everyone.

Master Fu sighed and shook his head, slowly placing his cane in his lap.

“Now that everyone is here, would anyone like to guess why?”

The heroes of Paris stiffened a little bit. That sounded a lot like they were in trouble. They didn’t want to be in trouble.

Rena slowly raised her hand. “Is it… because of what Queen Bee said last week?”

The heroes’ expressions soured a bit at the memory. The video of Chloe trash talking all of them to an interviewer had blown up, and now they could hardly do anything without having at least one reporter hounding them for a response.

None of them could give any, though Rena was sure at least some of them were tempted. The public was supposed to think them all friends, or at worst friendly coworkers. It gave them hope, seeing them all working together for team ups, and analyzing their friendship dynamics kept them relatively distracted from the fact that it had been six years since the first hero had first arrived on the scene and they still had virtually nothing on Hawkmoth.

But now that illusion had been shattered (and trust her, she knew a lot about illusions). Akumas had been more active this week.

“That’s precisely it. Thank you, Rena.” Master Fu regarded them all carefully. “What do you think we should do about it?”

Really, they’d had no clue what to do about their image.

Chloe hadn’t been joking, she’d made that plainly obvious, so saying she didn’t mean it or that was just the type of friendship they had wasn’t going to work…

“Act more like friends…?” Said Ladybug when no one spoke up.

Master Fu nodded.

“Oh, so more team ups or something?” Said Chat.

Carapace shrugged. “Don’t know how much of that I can do, since I’m the only one that can consistently get in the water, but…” He shrugged again. “... sure, I can do that.”

The old man drummed his fingers on the table lightly to bring their attention back to him.

“Yes, that, too, but I was thinking something more… convincing.”

Rena decided that she definitely didn’t like the way his eyes gleamed.

“So, until you manage to defeat Hawkmoth, you will all be living together.”

Everyone opened their mouths to argue but he held up a hand to silence them.

“And you’ll be doing it publicly, posting regular content about it to a social media platform of your choosing…” He put his hand down. “Now you can complain.”

The teens all immediately started attempting to talk over each other, their voices steadily increasing in volume as they tried to be the one to get their complaints heard.

Rena was silent. Part of her thought that she should be complaining. She had siblings, after all, she had a life outside of heroism… but she couldn’t help but smile. She would be living with her childhood heroes (for a long time, probably, because the Hawkmoth situation was not getting better)! And, really, her sisters could get annoying at times. She’d love an excuse to get away.

So instead of arguing she leaned back in her chair and watched everyone else.

Chloe was the most passionate about it, her jewelry flashing with every wild swing of her hand. Her voice was the loudest, but with the other voices in the room and the fact that she was literally buzzing in her anger it was hard to make out what she was saying.

Chat seemed distressed and Rena could see his mouth saying “I don’t think I’d be allowed to” repeatedly even if she couldn’t hear him over Chloe’s screeching.

Carapace’s face was set in an uncharacteristic frown as he complained. Sure, of those voicing their complaints, he definitely seemed the most relaxed, but the fact that he was frowning was in itself proof of just how upset he really was.

Ladybug was quiet, though she didn’t look particularly happy about it. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as if she was holding herself back from yelling as well and her fingers worried at the hem of her dress.

After a minute of this, Master Fu raised his hands for silence and instantly got it once again.

“Are you done?”

The general consensus was ‘no’, if the looks on their faces meant anything, but they nodded anyways.

“Good. Chat Noir, I’ve already worked everything out with your dad, we’ll discuss it more after the meeting is over.”

Chat relaxed a bit.

“Carapace, your schooling will not be affected. In fact, you’ll likely have a better college experience since all your food and toiletries will be paid for by me.”

Carapace’s expression shifted to a thoughtful one as he considered this.

“Queen Bee, must I remind you of the fact that you’re on thin ice as it is?”

Everyone’s eyes shot to Chloe, who had paled considerably. Her angry buzzing quickly lowered to a dull hum and she settled back into her seat.

Master Fu seemed sated by this, and he looked at Ladybug and Rena.

“And I’m assuming I don’t need to convince either of you?”

Rena shook her head instantly. Ladybug took her time to consider, but eventually shook her head as well.

“Great. Now, shall we talk logistics?”

~~~

Taglist:

@nathleigh @mialuvscats

164 notes · View notes

indecisive-behaviors · 4 years ago

Text

Okay so I just reblogged a thing talking about season 2 and 3 of Cobra Kai and I have some Thoughts about what they did to everyone’s character arcs in this so if you’d like a rant it’s under the cut with spoilers from all 3 seasons plus spoilers for all 3 Karate Kid movies

Okay so my issues start with one very key scene that I personally think fucked up the whole rest of the narrative, and by extension everyone else’s character arcs: which is from Different but Same. And no not that scene- not yet at least.

The first scene that I think fucked over the narrative and killed several character arcs was the beach scene. Miguel, reasonably distraught over the idea that Sam is hiding him from her dad(which she is actually doing to be fair), gets completely drunk and when Sam and Robby arrive together he loses it, pushes Sam and subsequently gets dumped. Now why do I think this ruined everything? It completely goes against Miguel’s character up to this point. Miguel is absolutely trying to mimic Johnny in a lot of key ways but also up to this point Miguel has also been Johnny’s conscience; he’s smart and kind and had not at all shown to be anything even close to what Johnny was in KK1. He’s stood up for his friends, defended the girl he likes from bullies, he’s a huge mama’s boy and a bit of a hopeless romantic. In no episode up until that point does he ever display any tendency towards unnecessary violence, despite Johnny’s “strike first” motto. Miguel getting wasted and violent does not add up in my mind. Miguel is supposed to be a narrative parallel to Daniel for fuck sake. Also, and this is my main complaint, there is no fucking reason for Miguel to immediately jump to the conclusion that Sam is seeing Robby- literally none. They look very much alike, hell Robby looks a little like Amanda honestly, he could very well be her cousin for all Miguel knows. Robby and Sam don’t even act like a couple in the shot- they’re literally just sitting next to each other at family dinner. None of this subplot makes any fucking sense.

And then, obviously, there’s the very next scene- Johnny goes with Daniel back to his place, tipsy and happy and seemingly in a very good place with each other. Then Robby shows up, Johnny loses his shit and Daniel proceeds to get pissed and kick Robby out. Now there is one thing I point out about this scene whenever I talk about it that doesn’t add up: no where in this scene is it ever even implied that either Johnny or Daniel know about Robby’s original intentions. (Also nothing up till that point ever even establishes why Robby knows about Daniel and Johnny’s rivalry in the first fucking place for the record). There is no reason for Johnny to suspect that Daniel knew and was hiding it, or even that Robby was doing it on purpose, and there is no reason for Daniel to get mad or even suspect that Robby knew what he was doing or was lying about it; and the fact of the matter is that Robby never actually lied(also Daniel never fucking asked) about his home situation. His mom was neglectful and an addict, and his father wasn’t in the picture. That’s it, and none of that was a lie. Now I’m not sitting here and denying that what Robby did was wrong because it absolutely was-- it was manipulative and unfair to Daniel and he had a right to be angry when he found out it was the case but there is nothing to suggest that he didn’t just jump to conclusions. And also, personally, I don’t think any of that justifies kicking a teenager to the curb, and one that Daniel explicitly knows has no one and nothing to fall back on. Be angry, be furious with Robby, but leaving a teenager to fend for themselves is cruel and completely unjustifiable behavior from a grown ass adult(also there’s a whole can of worms involved in Daniel never trying to figure out where the fuck Robby’s parents are and letting him live there without an explanation but that’s for a different rant).

Now assume none of that weird subplot happens, there is another way to have the Robby and Miguel rivalry that would have made so much more fucking sense and it only hinges on one fucking thing- Robby enters the tournament. It could be with or without Daniel’s approval(maybe even with a KK3 parallel, but Daniel honestly seems pretty into the tournament these days so he’d probably be down for Robby joining and reping Miyagi-do), but all we need is for him to do it. Robby gets there, and Johnny sees him, potentially rocking a Miyagi-do gi and can have his surprised/hurt moment with him and Daniel, even potentially a confrontation between them. We can also still have Miguel beating Robby in the tournament and having Johnny be conflicted about his son losing. Hawk can even still hurt him and give Johnny his “holy shit this is wrong” epiphany and Miguel not understanding why Johnny wants him to go easy on Robby. Robby can still be hurt and upset by thinking Johnny cares more about Miguel after he loses.

Okay now as for season 2? Assuming everything stays the same in season 1, I have one MAJOR complaint. Robby becoming Sam’s love interest; and no it’s not because I think Miguel and Sam should be an endgame couple when the show is over(I do but that’s beside the point) but because it turns Sam into a plot device. This carries over into season 3 where she starts dating Miguel again and apparently just never breaks it off with Robby which is such a dick move I can not for the life of me imagine Sam of all fucking people doing it. She isn’t perfect by any means but she’s also outspoken and and much more confident by that point and should not have had a problem breaking up with someone in an email. But I digress, back to season 2- the moment I saw that Sam and Robby were going to be a couple I immediately knew the writers fucked up. There was no build up for it, nothing in season 1 to foreshadow this as a possibility(Different but Same doesn’t count because that was a whiplash of an episode) and they just decided offhandedly to put her in the middle of Robby’s and Miguel’s rivalry. There was no reason to make them a couple other than to fuck with Miguel and set up the Tory & Sam rivalry which could have happened fucking anyway with the shit at the country club, the rift between Sam and Aisha, and Miguel’s ongoing feelings for Sam even after he’s dating Tory(also a dick move what the fuck Miguel??). Adding Robby as fuel to the fire was super unnecessary and all it did was set up the clusterfuck that was the season 2 finale.

And OH BOY was that finale a clusterfuck. First of all, as a prelude- Fuck. Daniel. He pulled the exact same shit as in season 1 with dumping Robby the second he does anything even a little bit wrong. But also, as a gut punch, Robby didn’t actually do anything wrong. What was he supposed to do at the party? He couldn’t stop Sam from drinking even though he wanted to, it was her (very poor) choice. But he did what he could, he kept an eye on her, and when the cops showed up, he didn’t just leave her, he put her in the car and drove her somewhere he thought she’d be safe without having to immediately face her father(who super fucking overreacted btw) while she was recovering. This scene, which could have been an excellent bonding moment for Johnny and Robby, and an introduction to Sam getting to know Johnny outside of her father’s influence, was turned into a brawl for no fucking reason.

Which leads me to the school fight. And right off the bat I’ve got to say this; even as, and maybe especially as, a person who has written post season 3 fix it fics, there is no way for Robby and Miguel to convincingly fix what happened in the season 2 finale. Yes, what Robby did was absolutely an accident and he has already done his time for it. But the elephant in the room is this: Miguel could have died. Or at the very least, been totally paralyzed. There is not a good way to come back from that. They will always have that hanging over their heads, even if they somehow reach an understanding. And I know someone is going to try and make the argument about that being a parallel to Johnny and Daniel in KK1, but if it is that it’s a terrible parallel. What Johnny did was supremely fucked up and I won’t deny that, especially with the Halloween scene and Daniel’s knee in the tournament(which actually was technically more Bobby’s doing, but I digress), but it was never “almost permanently disable/kill someone” bad. (Again there’s a whole can of worms to open about the shit with Chozen and Daniel’s seemingly pretty easy forgiveness of a man who tried to kill him because what the fuck?? But again that’s another rant.) But the writers wanted to push the envelope so now Johnny will always have the tug of war of choosing Robby, who he loves but who also really fucked up, and Miguel, who was the original reason for the rivalry in the first place but who was also the one who, again, almost died because of his son, even if he somehow fixes his relationship with both. It will always be “why did you pick him over me?” and Johnny will never have a good enough answer for either of them. And finally the big complaint- Johnny completely regressing in season 3. Season 3 honestly felt like a rehashing of season 1 because we literally had to see him progress in his arc all over again from square fucking one. He still isn’t there for Robby, he’s still fucking up things with Miguel and his family, he’s still fucking up his relationship with Daniel, he still chooses to miss his appointment with Robby to see Miguel(who would have been there after the appointment and he could have seen him then), he abandons half of his fucking students to fend for themselves and leaves the other half with a man he knows is a dangerous psychopath. And yes we get the cool scene at the end of December 19, but is it worth it?? I’m genuinely asking because, as much as I love that scene, I really don’t believe it is.(edit: Also fuck that whole subplot with Eli and Demetri- you don’t get to just break the arm of the boy who was your best friend and just have that go away with no repercussions. Fuck. That. I hope Demetri gets at minimum an actual on screen apology, and hopefully Eli actually trying to make amends.)

We could have still had the big team up- have Johnny admit to Daniel that he’s fucked up and tell him everything that’s happening with Kreese. Have them join forces to defeat Kreese in the tournament. Have the dumb fucking bet. Introduce Terry Silver in season 4. Have Johnny’s and Daniel’s tenuous truce strained at every turn because they’re idiots. Do all of it. But y’know what? We could have had all of that- all of it- without it being at the expense of at least 2 character arcs; Johnny’s and also Robby’s.

Also before I end this I just have to add- nothing and I mean nothing will ever redeem Kreese or Silver for me. I do not give a singular shit about either of their tragic backstories, I just don’t. I get why and how Chozen got his redemption- he was a teenager when that shit happened, and while the shit he pulled is personally unforgivable in my opinion, he has actively been trying to redeem himself by spending the last however many decades making it up to his community. I’d even understand a Barnes redemption to an extent, even though I wouldn’t accept it, because he was also very young and being manipulated by, again, a dangerous psychopath. But Kreese and Silver? Abso-fucking-lutely not. They were two grown ass adults who purposefully targeted an 18 year old and put him through emotional and physical for weeks, paid someone to intimidate him through both threats of physical violence but also through vandalism, and gaslighted him and isolated him from the only family he had at the time because he beat them in a children’s karate competition. Look, I’m not sorry, I don’t give a fuck about Kreese’s tragic backstory, nothing about what Kreese has done can be rationalized by just saying “oh his mom and girlfriend died and he was in ‘Nam”. And any good thing he does for Tory, or even Robby, does not balance out all the harm he has caused. Silver is even less redeemable- I don’t care that he almost died in war, I’m an army brat I know plenty of people who almost died and don’t act like this. In canon we have evidence of him being completely, unrepentantly evil- the first scene with him in it has him basically confirmed as the BP of nuclear waste, he pays people so he can beat them up, he’s been personally funding Kreese’s child indoctrination classes. They could pull out the saddest backstory for him possible and I would not give a shit. And that’s fine. We don’t need every bad guy to have a tragic backstory- sometimes an evil villain can just be an evil villain for no reason, not all of them need a traumatic turning point that the authors shove in to make the audience sympathize with them. So please, writers, stop trying to make me feel sorry for them because I really don’t and I don’t understand anyone who does.

Okay rant over.

#cobra kai #karate kid #spoilers #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #robby keene #miguel diaz #sam larusso #tory nichols #aisha robinson #eli moskowitz #john kreese #terry silver #demetri #chozen toguchi #mike barnes

9 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

WandaVision Episode 9: The Big Questions We Need Answered

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

With just one episode left in the season – and technically the series – the finale of WandaVision has a lot of ground to cover.

Its penultimate installment was not just a heartbreaking retrospective of just how terrible Wanda’s life has been and how much she has suffered, it gave us an entirely new understanding of a character that’s been part of this universe for four feature films to date. Plus, there’s the whole thing where a secret government agency appears to have reanimated Vision’s dead body to use as a weapon, and Wanda herself is most likely a legendary, all-powerful witch.

How the series plans to wrap up these dangling plot threads in addition to laying the groundwork for the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and establishing what comes next is anyone’s guess. But there are a few things that WandaVision is going to have to tell us in order for this series to truly stick the landing as the MCU’s most ambitious – and best – project yet. (Which right now, with one episode to go, is a title it wins by a mile.)

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Here are nine burning questions we need the WandaVision finale to answer.

What is the Scarlet Witch?

In an episode filled almost to bursting with surprisingly rich callbacks to multiple MCU films, the biggest moment was still probably Wanda being directly referred to as the Scarlet Witch for the first time. But what that actually means is anyone’s guess.

Sure, she’s powerful enough to literally rewrite reality and turn a run-down New Jersey town into a classic sitcom paradise. But that’s not exactly news – she did destroy an Infinity Stone and almost take down Thanos in the Avengers movies. Agatha bestows the name upon her as though it means something significant, as if Wanda’s some sort of magical harbinger that has a larger role to play in…something (and the Scarlet Witch costume Wanda sees in her vision would seem to back that up). But who or what is she?

What Does Agatha Harkness Actually Want?

Most of us have assumed that Agatha Harkness must technically be the Big Bad of WandaVision – I mean, the song says that she’s been pulling every evil string, c’mon – but “Previously On” hints that may not entirely be the case. The creation of Westview was clearly a result of Wanda’s chaos magic, so…what is Agatha doing there? And what is her ultimate goal?

Has she sought Wanda out simply to determine where her power comes from? To try and steal it for herself? To suss out another powerful witch to become besties with? (Agatha was Wanda’s mentor in the comics.)

Are we meant to read Agatha as a true villain – or something more complicated? I mean, she does put Wanda’s kids in choke collar leashes, but whether that’s out of a desire to protect herself from the Scarlet Witch or to use her in some way is still unclear.

Is Vision Somehow Alive Again?

Well, there go our theories that poor Wanda has just been puppeting her dead boyfriend’s corpse around Westview (thankfully – that idea was always dark af). Instead, it appears that this is more of a Vision 2.0, a being created by a combination of an incredibly powerful dose of Wanda’s chaos magic, her memories of the man she loved, and the overwhelming grief she can’t seem to control. But does that mean Vision is actually alive? Like, could appear in another MCU film, alive? And if so, why can’t he leave the boundaries of the Hex? Does he even have a physical body, or is his form just a Wanda-powered projection?

What is Tyler Hayward’s Endgame – and Why Is He Trying to Blame Wanda for it?

One of the biggest revelations in “Previously On” was that Wanda did not, in fact, storm into SWORD headquarters and steal back her boyfriend’s dead body. Instead, she actually experienced a quietly shattering moment of grief in which she accepted that the Vision she loved was truly gone. So…why did SWORD director Tyler Hayward not only insist that she did, he literally put together a deep fake video to prove it?

Hayward has been a fairly shady figure since he first appeared on WandaVision, but this is some next-level mustache-twirling stuff. Has he just been trying to turn Vision’s body into a weapon – seemingly mission accomplished there – or has he been crafting a much larger and more nefarious scheme?

After all, he is on record as hating the superpowered beings that he believes are responsible for both the Snap that erased half the population and the Blip that brought everyone back but ultimately devastated those left behind in the meantime. Is the White Vision his revenge on Wanda – and those like her – in some way? (Truly, so many problems could be solved in the universe of the MCU if people just got some help for their PTSD, but that’s a rant for another day.) Or is Hayward’s scheme more complicated in some way?

What is the Purpose of the White Vision?

The Dr. Manhattan-esque White Vision revealed in this week’s credits scene is both creepy and heartbreaking at the same time. The real Vision, after all, had specifically requested that he not be brought back or used as some kind of weapon after his death. And now he’s been made into what is likely some sort of soulless killing machine, using his soulmate’s magic and against his own wishes. How Hayward figured out how to reanimate Vision, what vibranium he was tracking in the Hex, and what he intends to do with this new weapon he’s made are all outstanding questions. But none of them likely have happy answers.

Look, we probably have to start preparing ourselves now emotionally for the fact that Wanda is going to have to fight the reanimated body of her dead lover, who probably won’t even remember her name. And she’ll have to do it with the magical recreation of him she made in Westview at her side, in a battle that will more than likely destroy both Visions by the end of it.

And at this point, we’re going to need a WandaVision Season 2 in order to deal with Wanda’s trauma from all of that (that’s not a complaint, by the way).

Is Wanda a Mutant Now?

With the X-Men franchise officially part of the MCU, the question has to be asked: Is Wanda Maximoff officially a mutant now? Her exposure to the Mind Stone clearly triggered or otherwise activated some latent abilities – powers that the show implied would have vanished otherwise.

Wanda and Pietro appear to be the only two individuals who survived HYDRA’s attempts to create supervillains using the Mind Stone. Does this mean that Pietro’s survival also indicates that his powers were merely latent and then “activated” by their experiments?

Does this twist give Wanda back her official mutant roots, or is it just an origin story for witches in the Marvel universe?

Where’s Monica?

When last we saw Monica Rambeau, she was getting busted for snooping by Agatha’s nebulously explained fake version of Pietro Maximoff. Since she doesn’t appear in “Previously On” we’re still not sure where she is, what��s happened to her in the meantime, or what role she has to play in the finale.

One has to assume she’ll show up to fight at Wanda’s side – whether that’s against Agatha or the White Vision or both – but how?

We also don’t know much yet about her superpowers. We’re all assuming she’s basically just inheriting her comics abilities as Spectrum, but will those abilities work outside of the Hex or without Wanda to power them?

What Does This All Mean for Pietro?

Though we journey back to the HYDRA base in which Wanda and her brother were experimented on, we don’t see any hint of Pietro in this episode (and, no, the child version doesn’t count). We know that the Evan Peters version is a fake conjured by Agatha to pry information on how she created the Hex out of Wanda – how is she powering that by the way? And how does Fake Pietro know so much real Maximoff history? – but what does all this new backstory mean for the Maximoff brother who died?

What happened to Pietro when he encountered the Mind Stone? Were his powers also latent and only “activated” by the stone like Wanda’s (and thus making him a mutant)? And does any of this somehow open a door to bring Quicksilver back to the MCU?

Who is the Aerospace Engineer?

Yes, we’ve all apparently spent weeks thinking about a throwaway line from Monica back in WandaVision’s fifth episode, in which she references an aerospace engineer she knows who might be up for the challenge of figuring out the Hex.

Maybe it’s nothing, but this is Marvel, so it’s almost guaranteed not to be nothing.

Could Monica’s mysterious friend be Reed Richards and could SWORD serve as a way to finally introduce the Fantastic Four into the MCU? It’s more than possible – it’s practically likely at this point. There are other options – Victor Von Doom and Hank McCoy are also notable Marvel scientists we’ve yet to meet in the MCU – but doesn’t Reed just make the most sense?

How Will WandaVision Lead Into Doctor Strange 2?

One of the few things we do know about the WandaVision finale is that it’s somehow connected to and will likely lead directly into the upcoming MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. At this point, it seems safe to say that Wanda is more likely than not responsible for both the multiverse and the madness parts of that title, and the finale will involve her somehow fully becoming the Scarlet Witch and unleashing some cosmic chaos powers. But where does that kind of ending leave Wanda and Vision? Will Doctor Strange himself show up – either to defeat the White Vision or stop Wanda from ripping down the walls of reality? Will Vision have to die again? And how does Agatha Harkness fit into things? (At this point, she’s more than earned a place in Doctor Strange 2, if you ask me.)

The post WandaVision Episode 9: The Big Questions We Need Answered appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3uM3kTd

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

alluremin · 5 years ago

Text

Fair Game

pairing: park jimin | reader

genre: carnival au, crytid-ish hunter au| crack turned horror (?)

warnings: swearing, brief mentions of blood

premise: “...I know our lives are technically in danger, but nothing ever happens in this town, so I’m pretty freaking pumped.”

word count: 4.4k

a/n: this is my story for @foreverpark‘s halloween writing challenge! i had a lot of fun writing this!! (i know i said this was going to be posted yesterday, please forgive me. we all know that i’m wildly inconsistent. and yes i’m also aware that halloween has long since passed)(the dialogue prompt has been adjusted slightly to fit the situation)

The screams of children fill your head as you stare absentmindedly into space. The screeching of rubber bumpers colliding with one another do nothing to pull you out of your reverie. You feel like you’re living in a never ending loop of torturous proportion.

Sweat starts to trickle down the back of your neck as the sun continues to sink closer to the horizon. You can’t even be bothered to fix the umbrella or to adjust your bun turned bird’s nest higher on your head. It wasn’t until you feel a tap on your shoulder that you finally came back down to Earth.

“You’re off the clock for the day!” Peyton’s chipper voice squeals in your ear. It’s not that you don’t like the girl, but she was always so happy to be at work and you had a hard time understanding that. After the day you’ve had, all you can do is offer a weak smile and a pat on her shoulder as you shuffle off toward the main office.

You had been working at this god forsaken carnival since you were sixteen. Sure, the extra income is nice, but now that you’re twenty one and on the verge of graduating from college; you dread going home every summer. Not to mention, there was always something foreboding about carnivals that made your skin crawl. You worked nights for one summer and have never done it since. The memories of that summer inexplicably make your skin crawl. There was just something about when the lights would go out on the rides that made you wish you could leave and never come.

The last thing you wanted to do, however, was risk missing out on an opportunity for work. You were already swimming in student loans, so it wasn’t ideal to turn down work when the opportunity presented itself. You constantly remind yourself that there were only a few more weeks left of summer, then you could finish your final year, graduate, and find a job that was actually fit for an adult.

As you collect your stuff from the back office, you can feel your phone vibrating in your back pocket. The thought of having to speak to anybody right now made your brain turn to putty, so you ignore it. En route to your car, however, you can feel it go off at least 12 more times, only adding to your irritability. Ripping your phone out of your pocket, you glare at the screen. In this very moment, you decide that you’re going to strangle your friends. Your eyes roll almost voluntarily as you scroll through the messages.

You lock your phone and throw it into the passenger seat before dropping your head to your steering wheel. The problem with this whole situation is that Jungkook knew none of you would say no to him. The thought of having to go home, shower, then get back in your car to make the journey to Jungkook’s house was exhausting in and of itself, let alone having to actually do any of those things.

Quickly into your freshman year of college, you managed to make an amazing group of friends. You became close with the boy across the hall and his suitemates. Jimin was extremely sweet, and more often than not, he left for his classes around the same time that you did. Not only that, but you often ate together and did laundry together. Before you left for Christmas break, he pulled you aside and asked you out in the cheesiest manner possible; under a mistletoe. You couldn’t possibly deny him when he looked that cute.

It wasn’t long before he would invite you across the hall to hang out with him, and his suitemates, Yoongi and Seokjin. They were both sophomores at the time, you and Jimin both freshmen. The four of you fell into the steady rhythm of having meals together, hanging out, and crying over finals (that last one was mostly just you).

Last year, you all moved into the same townhouse together. It was great and your only complaint was the Jimin never slept in his own bedroom, but his body heat wrapped around you made him easy to forgive. One night, you all were hanging out in the rec center, playing your weekly game of ping-pong when a bright eyed kid walked in and sat in the corner by himself.

At first, you all ignored him, thinking he was waiting for someone, but when some time passed and he was just playing with his fingernails, the four of you decided to ask him to play ping pong with you. You learned that his name was Jungkook, he hated his roommates, he was a freshman, and he was extremely good at ping pong. Needless to say, he quickly became a member of your makeshift family and you found a use for Jimin’s empty bedroom.

Strangely enough, his hometown was close to your own, so there was no break in any of your routines when summer hit. Jimin spent the majority of his summer with you at your childhood home and Yoongi and Seokjin traveled over every few weekends to hang out with the three of you.

When you push open your car door, you’re met with the view of your boyfriend coming out the front door to meet you. He could likely tell by your lack of responses to the group chat that you were having a long day, to say the least. Instead of attempting to make conversation, Jimin simply wraps his arms around your shoulders and holds you. You don’t fight him off.

“Jimin, I’m so sweaty,” you whine into his shoulder.

“Don’t care, I missed you.” He kisses the crown of your head before he releases you and looks you in the eyes. The small smile on his lips brings one to your own.

“I need to shower before we go to Guk’s. I feel absolutely disgusting.”

“Okay, I’m going to help your mom put away groceries! She just got home a couple minutes ago.” Jimin kisses the tip of your nose before going into the kitchen. It’s no wonder she likes him more than you or your siblings.

After a shower and a short breakdown, you and Jimin are on your way to Jungkook’s house. You could only hope that his parents were expecting all of you there to, once again, scheme about some ridiculous plan Jungkook had to catch another cryptid he found on the internet.

Since this summer started, there have been various occasions that Jungkook believed a ghoul, ghost, or mysterious creature had been located in the area and forced you and your friends to go out and look. Big surprise, you all have yet to anything.

Upon entering his house, Jungkook greets you and Jimin at the door with a smile on his face, and Yoongi and Seokjin wave at you from the couch in the living room.

“Where are you parents, Guk?” You ask.

“Date night. They’re really taking advantage of this empty-nester lifestyle,” he giggles to nobody in particular while leading you and Jimin into the living room.

You audibly gasp at the sight before you. Night-vision goggles, EMF detectors, a go-pro, and a large pile of black clothes sit in a pile on his living room floor.

“Don’t you have student loans to pay?” Jimin laughs as he crouches to the floor, staring at Jungkook in question.

“Yes, but if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right! I’m also using the excuse that I’m treating myself the only way I know how,” Jungkook picks up the go-pro that sat on the floor and grins at you. You can’t help but stare blankly at him.

“You broke Y/N with your crazy, Guk,” Yoongi says monotonously, not looking up from his phone.

“Hey, I don’t think he’s crazy. I’m just blown away at your commitment, honestly.” You sidestep Jimin, who was sitting on the floor fishing through the sea of black clothes, and ruffle Guk’s hair. If you hadn’t known Jungkook, you truly would’ve believed exactly what Yoongi had just said. Among other things, this was just one of his hobbies and all of you accepted it. Honestly, cryptid hunting gave you all an excuse to hang out and play around in the woods or abandoned buildings and act like stupid teenagers again.

“Okay everybody gather around, it’s time to debrief!” Jungook announces to the room.

“We’re all sitting right here!” Seokjin waves his arms overdramatically at Jungkook.

“I just wanted your attention and now that I have it, let’s get started.”

Yoongi sits forward at this and tries to look interested, but you could tell that he was dreading going out tonight. You stand behind where he was sitting on the couch and squeeze his shoulders while Jungkook started his rant.

“Okay, so, today I was scrolling through one of my blogs… you know the one that I track all of the happenings in the cryptid hunting world. Next thing I know, I get a message from somebody with a link to a post somebody made about a Yowie that was spotted not far from where Y/N lives! So-”

“Hey Jungkook, I hate to interrupt your speech, but can you please tell me what the fuck a Yowie is?” you question him. You could feel Yoongi’s shoulders shake under your arms as he chuckles.

“Okay so it’s basically bigfoot… but from the Outback... of Australia.” He looks at you in complete seriousness. It’s only a matter of seconds before the rest of you crack up at his confession.

Once you all manage to gain your composure, you notice Jungkook scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment, his cheeks turning a bright pink.

You leave Yoongi’s side and sit on the floor next to Jimin. “Not that I don’t believe in the vast ability of this ‘Yowie’ to travel, but it’s not like we’re in the middle of the Outback, Guk,” you reason with him. He drops unceremoniously to the floor next to you.

“Yeah, I was hoping that you guys wouldn’t think anything of it. You usually just tune me out when I go on my rants then follow me into the woods and throw sticks at each other and stuff.”

“Hey, maybe it’s out there! We don’t know, right?” You smirk at him and a smile returns to his face. “Who knows? Maybe Yowies can swim across the ocean, eh?”

Jimin joins in on your comforting Jungkook, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you into his side. “Even if it’s not a Yowie, maybe they saw something else! If there’s anything out there, we can find it,” Jimin assures.

You turn around to look at Yoongi and Seokjin. Seokjin is trying to figure out how night vision goggles work, looking around the room with them on, his mouth hanging wide open in confusion. Yoongi, on the other hand, was still staring at you incredulously.

“Right, Yoongi? We’re still going out to find whatever it was?” You raise your eyebrow at him to say something. One thing you knew for a fact was that Yoongi had a soft spot for you and you knew that you could convince him to drop his doubts for the sake of Jungkook’s feelings.

“Uh, yeah. I’m sure it’ll still be fun even if there’s no way in hell that-” Yoongi stops mid-sentence when he notices your glare. “-we’ll find it if it’s out there, kid.” You look away satisfied.

“Alright, it’s settled then! Yowies here we come!” You shout excitedly in an attempt to bring up the energy in the room.

“Y/N, what’s gotten into you? By the end of our hunts your face is usually buried in Jimin’s back. Remember that one time you got so scared when Yoongi broke that stick that you-”

“Kim Seokjin, if you finish that sentence, you’re toast. I’m willing to brave the storm if it means we make a new scientific discovery!” You exclaim. Everybody gawks at your false sense of confidence, but if they have any comments, they keep them to themselves.

“Okay so here’s the game plan…”

The five of you load up in Seokjin’s truck and head toward the place you dreaded most: the carnival. The clock read 1:00 am; Jungkook had insisted that you wait until after midnight because he was sure that every cryptid was probably nocturnal. You tried to explain to him that nocturnal just meant it would be dark outside, but he was set in his ides and you didn’t have the heart to argue with him. Instead, you all made use of the afternoon to watch movies and nap until you had to go out.

As you’re driving down the barren road, you can’t help but lean onto Jimin and close your eyes again.

“Are you still tired, baby?” He whispers.

“Yeah, I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“I can tell, you move a lot in your sleep.” Jimin kisses the crown of your head and wraps his arms around you body to pull you impossibly closer.

“Hey, no sleeping, we’re on a mission!” Seokjin shouts from the front seat. You groan into Jimin’s neck when Seokjin’s early 2000s playlist blares through the speaker. You can feel Jungkook on your left side roll his body around to “Fergalicious”. You pick your head up and give up on getting any more sleep.

Only 5 more minutes pass before you pull into the parking lot in front of the fairgrounds. In all honesty, there was something about the way the attractions look in the dark without their lights on that brings goosebumps to the surface of your skin. They look incriminating, hauntingly abandoned by the carnival goers for the day, completely alone for the night.

Since the sun had gone down, the temperature had dropped drastically. You were in an oversized black hoodie Jungkook forced you to wear (for stealth) and your athletic shorts. Maybe you’re starting to let your nerves get the best of you, but the second you step out of the car, the wind begins to pick up, almost as if it’s greeting you, or warning you.

You cling to Jimin’s arm, not only because you love his attention, but also due to your nerves. You try to convince yourself that this feeling was normal. Everytime you all went out at night, you do the same thing; you were excited to go out and have fun, but once you got to the location, or “hunting grounds” as Jungkook liked to say, you started to get scared. All of the terrifying, albeit fictitious, facts that Jungkook would tell you about the cryptid in question would creep back into your head. All you could hope was that you never would actually find any of the things he told you about.

You and your friends approach the locked gate at the entrance of the fairgrounds. They turn back to you as you fish a ring of keys out of your pocket. Perks of working at this carnival for the last 5 summers, you guess.

The heavy padlock falls when you remove the key from it, causing a cloud of dust to puff up from the ground. You drop to pick up the lock when a loud groan echoes somewhere in the distance. It sounds like bending metal, almost.

“You guys heard that, right?” Jungkook asks while pointing his flashlight down the path between the rides.

“C’mon, Guk don’t start. You know how unreliable these rides are, it’s probably just the Gravitron slowly falling apart.” Yoongi hits Jungkook’s shoulder as the two continue forward. Jimin grabs the underside of your arm to help you stand while Seokjin takes the lock from you hands and hangs it on the fence.

“You okay, babe?” Jimin asks.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. The sound just made me jump,” you say shakily. Jimin holds your hand and you trudges forward after your three friends. “Yoongi’s right, these rides are mediocre in structural integrity, at best.”

“I think it’s cute when you get scared on our hunts. You always hold my hand really tight, “ Jimin teases. You nudge his shoulder with your own.

Everybody stops near the Ferris Wheel and Jungkook splits up the equipment. You’re not sure why he hands you an EVP detector; the second the device so much as makes a peep, he knows you’re going to lose you mind. In all honesty, that probably the exact reason behind him giving the device to you. “I didn’t think that Yowie’s could manipulate electromagnetic fields, so why would we need this? They’re just animals, technically… I think.” Your question trails off with your train of thought.

“Do you think I would risk not catching another entity because I was so focused on the Yowie? C’mon Y/N, I’m not an amateur!” Jungkook jokes but there’s a hint of seriousness in his statement. You throw you hands up in defeat and choose not to question him further.

“So should we split up and cover the grounds?” Jimin asks.

“I don’t mean to ruin the vibe we have going here,” Seokjin cuts in before Jungkook can begin to speak, “but this is vaguely reminiscent of Scooby and the gang. Tag yourself, I’m Velma!”

Jungkook turns from Jimin and glares at the older man. “Dude, seriously?”

“What?”

“Now is not the time… but Yoon is Scooby-Doo.” Jungkook smirks at Yoongi.

“Why am I Scooby, I feel more like Shaggy. You’re Scooby!” Yoongi points to Jungkook.

“Does that make Y/N and I Fred and Daphne by default?” Jimin pipes in.

“So I’m a damsel in distress?”

“Y/N, you’re literally hanging off of my arm right now,” Jimin looks down at you in amusement.

“Okay everybody, reel it back in! I know that you two will at least humor me and try to find some evidence,” Jungkook motions to you and Jimin. “You two on the other hand, won’t. You’ll sneak back to the car when nobody’s watching. I’ll go with you guys.” Jungkook grabs Seokjin and Yoongi by the elbow and pulls them in the opposite direction that you Jimin start to head in.

“So do you actually believe in all this stuff?” You look up at Jimin.

“I don’t think so. I mean, we’ve never found anything before. At school or here,” Jimin reasons.

“I guess that makes sense. I like to think that I don’t either, but then I feel so uneasy whenever we go out. Like… there’s gotta be things we haven’t discovered yet, right?”

“Are you alright? You look really pale, sweetheart?” Jimin grabs you by the shoulders and slide his hands up to you cheeks.

“Yeah, I think so. I’ve just never felt this anxious before.” You look him in the eyes when you feel another strong breeze whip across the right side of you body. Another deep groan echoes throughout the grounds and all of your hair stands on end. Jimin pulls you into his side and spins the two of you around with his flashlight in hand.

A beeping noise meets you ears, growing in volume. You recognize that it’s coming from your back pocket. With shaking hands, you reach behind you and pull the EVP detector out. The lights on top of the device started to flash, the meter in the center rising with the noise it was emitting.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Jimin asks you while keeping his attention on your surroundings.

“I don’t-”

You don’t finish your sentence.

Suddenly, every light in the entire carnival come to life. Animatronic attractions and music from the booths blare to life. The music rises to a decibel that causes both you and Jimin to cover your ears. Once the ear splitting tunes lower back down to a bearable level, Jimin grabs your hand and you two run in the direction that you came from, hoping that you run into your friends on the way.

After you find yourself in front of the Ferris Wheel, you hear Jungkook screaming out for you and Jimin. Spotting him to your right, you run in his direction; toward the fun house.

Once you two arrive at the backdoor, Jungkook pulls you inside and you see Seokjin and Yoongi crouching in the corner trying to catch their breath.

“Alright, what the fuck is happening right now?” Jimin yells.

“There’s something here, I don’t know what it is! We heard a loud sound like the one we’d heard when we first got here, then everything turned on. It felt like we were being watched...are still being watched,” Jungkook trails off and leans against the wall. You can see the terror and confusion in everybody’s eyes and you’re sure your own match theirs.

“Y/N, please tell me there’s an explanation. Somebody knows we broke in and are trying to scare us off?” Seokjin ran his fingers through his hair out of anxiousness.

“The only way to turn on all of the attractions at the same is a master key in the control building, otherwise they all have to be turned on individually, also with specific keys.”

“Who has keys?” He asks you.

“Three people. The city has one, the manager has one… and I have one.”

“Okay so maybe somebody from the city, or the manager?”

“I don’t know about the city, but we were only here for 15 minutes before this all happened and the likelihood of somebody making it from City Hall all the way out here in that time is impossible. The manager left town for the weekend on a camping trip with his family…” You trails off when the severity of the situation hit you, so you sink to the ground and hold your head in your hands.

“You’re not doing it Y/N, are you? You said it yourself, you have a key!” Jungkook points an accusing finger at you.

“Jungkook, I’ve been terrified since the moment I got here, of course I didn’t! Do you honestly think I’d risk us getting arrested for a good joke?!” You throw your hands out in front of you as you yell.

“...I know our lives are technically in danger, but nothing ever happens in this town, so I’m pretty freaking pumped.”

All of you start to yell at Jungkook for his comment when you feel the ground beneath you become uneven. The funhouse is tipping.

“Everybody shut up!” Yoongi yells as he stands. Another bang and the flimsy building tips again. “Holy shit, everybody get out!”

You all file out the door you came through and run toward the gate. Only when you turn your head do you realize you’ve made a huge mistake. In front of the funhouse, a giant figure, almost appearing as if it’s made of mist, turns toward the sound of your running feet. Yoongi notices your petrified figure in front of his and he grabs you as he runs past, forcing you to break your gaze from the creature and run for your life.

You’re unsure why you thought you would be capable of outrunning whatever that thing is, but as you reach for Jimin’s hand, you feel as if your body becomes frozen in place before everything goes dark.

The sun peaks over the horizon as your blurry vision returns to you. Jimin’s hand is still in yours. You manage to sit up with a groan and your ears ring as you take in the display around you. Your friends surround you on the ground and in a frenzy, you make your way around to each of them, checking for a pulse. The tears stream down your face in relief when you confirm that everybody’s alive.

When you touch his wrist, Jimin stirs and meets your gaze, sitting up holding his temples. Your legs are covered in scratch marks from where you fell on the gravel path and Jungkook’s hoodie is ripped to the elbow. Your head landed in the grass, but everybody else wasn’t so lucky. Jimin had a gash on his forehead that would probably need stitches, Jungkook and Seokjin had scratches all over their cheeks, and Yoongi had fallen backward, so you couldn’t see what was going on with him.

Wordlessly, you and Jimin crawl from person to person trying to stir them awake. Seokjin and Jungkook woke relatively easily, but Yoongi took some more coaxing.

“Is everybody okay?” You manage to croak out. Everybody around you groans and Jimin releases a noise resembling “yes”.

“What the fuck happened?” Yoongi asks as you all begin to stand. Nobody answers his question. Nobody has an answer to his question.

When you turn around, the area is in disarray. The carts from the Ferris Wheel are either dismantled or completely destroyed, laying on the ground around the giant ride. The funhouse is completely knocked over on top of the game booths that lay behind it. Toys and string lights are thrown everywhere.

You pull your phone out of you back pocket, the time reading 6:39 am. The screen is completely cracked, but still appears functional, so you carefully unlock it. The only notification the comes across your phone is from the weather channel. ‘Flash Tornado Warning 1:32 am, take cover.’

You show the phone to everybody as you all stand there in disbelief. Everyone is silent, because whatever happened to you last night wasn’t because of a tornado. Tornadoes don’t chase you down. Tornadoes don’t make eye contact with you and change their course. You knew that and so did everybody else.

Jimin took your shaking hand and Seokjin pulled everybody together, forcing the five of you to walk out toward the gates. Outside the fairground, everything look practically unscathed. Seokjin’s truck was just as you had left it. The flags that separated the parking rows were all still in place. Everything outside the carnival was completely untouched.

Maybe you all are the only ones who know what really happened last night; whatever it was that happened last night. You don't know what you saw or why it happened. Before you crawl into the backseat of the truck, you walk back toward the gate.

“Y/N, don’t go back over there,” Jimin reaches for your hand but you slip out of his grasp and continue forward.

Without hesitation you reach into your pocket and hang your keys on the gate. You definitely weren’t going in for work later, nor would anybody else. In this moment, you knew that this would be your last time ever stepping foot on these fairgrounds. With what you and your friends experienced here tonight, you predict that the feeling is mutual.

#fpwritingchallenge #kwritersworldnet #networkbangtan #bts #jimin #jungkook #yoongi #seokjin #bts x reader #jimin x reader #bts horror au #horror au #bts crack #crack au #bts jimin #bts jungkook #bts yoongi #bts seokjin #bts fanfiction

89 notes · View notes

fountainpenguin · 4 years ago

Note

How does Longwood fit into the Reedfilter AU? Do any other pixies that we know of from Origins/Knots play any notable roles?

Alternate universe ramble under the cut.

[EDIT: From where I’m looking at it, Tumblr trashed the Read More by putting it in the ask itself again. View on blog instead of on dash; there’s nothing I can do about that. Until further notice I’ll stop using Read More links because I’m sick of this. Blacklist my Long Post tag as needed.]

Technically one of my FOP worldbuilding rules is that you have a parallel self in all [accessible] universes, even if some are more difficult to identify as “you” than others are (Ex: You might be someone’s child instead of a sibling, or you might die as a child in one universe but survive to adulthood in another). A huge portion of Fairies have parallel lives as pixies in the Reedfilter Rules verse (Ambrosine for instance). Soothsayers (Anti-Fairies skilled in reading karmic weaves) can read the options for your future, but can’t usually tell which options go with which universe. It’s still the future path of your soul, just... might be in the wrong save file.

This is where the Negaverse (Plane 16) comes into my worldbuilding, and we’ll see how this plays out in Identity Theft and the tail end of Frayed Knots; in the episode “Playdate of Doom,” Foop was able to breach the gap between two universes and this is a detail I kept in my canon. Parallel universes can be viewed by those who are skilled in that. Travel between universes is possible, but dangerous and difficult enough that even those who are desperate to run away or hide themselves rarely attempt it.

Things get even more complicated because reincarnated forms still can’t co-exist in the same universe at the same time; the soul only gets one body on the playing field no matter which universe they’re in. So when Foop entered the Pivotverse, he began pulling his alternate self’s soul towards him and would have eventually absorbed the whole soul, killing his counterpart. Didn’t happen in the end, but we’ll get to that in Identity Theft.

It’s very similar to Jimmy Neutron’s clone creating new people in “The Trouble With Clones” who nearly killed the originals simply by existing. The JN and Hartman universes are also examples of parallel universes; if Jimmy flew in his hovercraft to Dimmsdale, he’d realize the JN version of Timmy doesn’t recognize him because only FOP Timmy knows him. Post Season 5, all the Nickelodeon universes are smudged together thanks to Shirley’s Pizza being a permanent portal hub between them, as we saw in “The Pizza Place Where Worlds Collide” (Come What May Chapter 4).

None of this is what you asked, but it never hurts to explain when discussing who plays roles in which universes. All the pixies from my Classic universe exist in Reedfilter Rules AU, so you’ll see their names pop up now and again, with roughly similar personalities. Fairies too. I also feel like it’s worth pointing out that Foop’s alternate personality, Hiccup, doesn’t count as a separate entity in the eyes of the universe and he’s immune to some “universal rules” because of it. Might wanna tuck that fact away for later...

As for RR!Longwood (AKA Markell), he ran the complaints department until Sanderson took over from him, but was rapidly promoted very high in the company, so he gets a lot of suspicious sideways looks. His mother, Columbine, is known to be very loud and pushy. Fergus does not remotely get along with her and honestly has no interest in Longwood for that reason. Basically the situation is Longwood doing a great job and having great ideas and getting acknowledged and praised by lots of people, but Fergus barely glances at him.

Once Fergus becomes H.P. and Longwood gets promoted, Longwood has an itch to impress him due to not having a father figure in his life, so his reaction to winning the praise of others but only a grunt from H.P. is a constant “...’kay //Thumbs up while secretly crying.” He’s not jealous of Sanderson because he doesn’t see Sanderson getting praised either. Fergus isn’t one to easily praise. Longwood just doesn’t want to do things without his boss’s permission and he takes the unenthusiastic “yes” to mean “That’s not a very good idea, but whatever, I guess.” Longwood’s out here in Pixie World trying to find enthusiasm in a land where enthusiasm is practically outlawed, and he overthinks the monotone too much, haha.

Longwood plays a bit of a role because he holds a high position in the company, but the vice president position is not guaranteed to take over from the Head Pixie, so he doesn’t have as much power as he does in Classic. In the RR universe, the Head Pixie is the CEO of Pixies Inc. and the vice president helps them run Pixies Inc., but they’re not involved in checking in with all the other companies the Head Pixie also manages across the universe, and they’re not involved in interracial politics (Sanderson is the one who tags along for interracial meetings with the Anti-Fairies and fun stuff like that). So technically the Head Pixie has more authority and power in RR than in the Classic universe, but the vice president position has less.

In short, RR Longwood likes to please, but isn’t a total suck-up about it. He feels sad that his father figure doesn’t seem to like him, but none of the whiny desperation that you see in Classic Sanderson. RR Longwood is more obedient than Classic Longwood since there’s no clash of gyne instincts here, and there’s also no Anti-Fairy zodiac culture for Longwood to pursue either.

There’s a small amount of rivalry between him and Sanderson because Sanderson doesn’t always follow protocol and that irritates Longwood, but they’re more professional in this universe since they don’t have that sibling rivalry like they do in Classic. Sometimes Sanderson steps on Longwood’s stuff and that makes Longwood sigh, but they’re civil. Longwood is a good boy.

As for other pixies, you’ll see some familiar names and some have high positions of power, but they’re generally confined to the background. RR universe focuses on Rani, Fergus, and Sanderson mostly. You’ll glimpse the others but they’re not major characters.

#onetruthcup #asks #FAIRIES!#ridwriting #Reedfilter Rules #Cedar toothpick #Nerdy blue bat son #Alternate bat prince #Problematic Professor Particle #The Trouble With Clones #Identity Theft #Come What May #Frayed Knots #Playdate of Doom #I'm wasp dad trash #We're Pixies!#Sanderson is neat #Long post

6 notes · View notes

svtskneecaps · 4 years ago

Text

i’ve been enabled

here’s the sitch on the goddamn harry potter hogwarts mystery app game

it fucking sucks

here’s my main issues in a handy list i’ll go down later:

the gameplay

energy

art / visuals

the story

the writing

the choose your own adventure like elements (technically gameplay since there isn’t much else l m a o)

and i have receipts for most of this stuff. fun fact, i’ve been taking videos of all plot relevant events since year 1.

some context:

i’ve played up to year 3 myself. i have watched up until the very beginning of year 5 in someone’s youtube series (will bits? that was his main character [henceforth referred to as MC]’s name, however that was a year ago and it was in the background like a podcast so the details are sort of fuzzy. i have not played the game since march (it’s september, ish), but i’m loading it up as i type this just to get a feel for it

idk whether to assume my audience has or hasn’t played the game. i’ll keep my complaints as clear as possible.

i’m mainly an author so the storytelling sections are where i’m really going to pop off, since that’s something i have the most experience with and passion in, but i’ll be touching on everything else because compounded it’s all pissing me off lmao

[a couple hints at spoilers for maybe an event in year 1, and year 3, but nothing major]

let’s start with: THE GAMEPLAY

there isn’t any

literally. there’s like. zero gameplay.

you tap some highlighted figures, and then sometimes you get to trace a little shape, and sometimes you get to play rock paper scissors to fight somebody (they did manage to make duelling slightly better but it’s still not good by any standard)

sometimes you get to choose between three dialogue options, but those have barely any impact on the story or on your character. any impact they have is limited to a couple stat points, or maybe some house points, or like. some event at the end of the year. but like barely any make any real serious difference (but i’ll touch on that more later)

and then there’s the factor of stat points (and this gets kind of mathy, so feel free to skip to the bolded sentence)

for those who haven’t played the game, you have three stats (empathy, courage, and knowledge) that you can level up by taking classes, 1, 3, or 8 hours, for various rewards

back when i stopped playing, i had gained 8914 points in courage. if i recall correctly i was only about halfway to leveling up that stat. if you take an 8 hour class, you receive consistently 200 stat points, with a possibility of extra rewards that i can’t count for since those are randomly generated.

to get those 8914 points, i would have had to take 44.57 8 hour classes (while 8 hour they only take about 7, counting for the 2 hours it takes my energy to recharge to full). with 44.57 classes taking 7 hours each, to get halfway to level 24, i would have had to have done:

THIRTEEN STRAIGHT DAYS OF GRINDING, ASSUMING THAT ALL I HAD BEEN DOING WAS CHECKING ON THE HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS MYSTERY APP

and again, I WAS ONLY LIKE HALFWAY TO LEVELLING UP

I AM BARELY BEGINNING FOURTH YEAR. I AM NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THIS GAME.

i think they’ve fixed this now; it said i had 8914/1550 courage and when i got stat points it fixed itself and jumped me from level 23 to 28, so thanks for that jam city.

but it doesn’t change the fact that the grinding is fucking horrible and i’ve done my fair share of hours, and who knows what it’s going to look like when i get to a higher level again

the energy

yes, i know it’s an app game. i know they want my money. but holy FUCK the energy recharges disgustingly slowly, and every bit they expand my energy bar is an insult

“here, have another energy capacity!” they say, and then add to the amount of energy it takes to complete a task at the same time, so now shit just takes me even damn longer

it’s an insult. don’t think i didn’t fuckin notice jam city.

since it’s an app game, naturally, energy requires paying real world money or the (semi) rare in-game currency to get more if you blow through your bar. they want your money. i know they want my money, but it doesn’t make me any less disappointed by how damn blatant they’re being. app games like bakery story probably also want my money, but at least those are still fun to play.

the art / visuals

now i’m not an artist. nor am i a 3-d modeller. but if solo indie devs and 10 men teams can make video games that have to have models with a much fuller range of motion (since there’s ACTUAL GAMEPLAY and not just little cutscenes of characters moving around) and that don’t make me sick to watch, then jam city working on a HARRY POTTER GAME should be able to (jk rowling fucking sucks but her books have brought in so much goddamn money that they can afford to pay their devs enough to make the game look good; in this case i’m not entirely sure where the blame lies)

there’s like. 10 motions characters can use while in the cutscenes and talking. like 10. and i can recognize every one of them, and there is not a single motion unique to a character. the characters are something i’ll touch on later in the storytelling sections, though. just, please god give them SOMETHING even SLIGHTLY different. like make two versions of a couple of the crowd animations at LEAST, so that when people celebrate at the end of the year there’s not twenty people in the shot doing the same “pump my fists in the air in celebration” motion at the exact same time. PLEASE.

sometimes animations in story events and classes sync up too, which is. beyond distracting. like it’s completely immersion breaking and i mean please, please jam city, if you haven’t fixed that please fix it. please.

the animations that roll in flying class are fun, ONCE. when you’ve seen them eight hundred thousand times because you’re grinding up your courage stat, they get hella boring. all of the classes are like this to some extent but flying is the biggest offender since those were the longest animations. if they haven’t implemented a skip button since i last played it, they should. they fuckin should.

also the fertilizer animation in the greenhouse scenes is gross. you pick up a deformed cone of dirt with your shovel like a slice of cake and then shove it clipping through the edges of a pot, where it disappears without a trace. i hate it. jam city please make the game look good.

if you still play the game please tell me it looks better; i’ll be playing through a couple things after i post this but it’s hphm. it’s gonna take me a goddamn long time to hit all the points and confirm whether what i complained about has been fixed or not

also also, wearing dresses is so distracting, especially while dueling. the way the dress flexes around your legs is like you’re wearing clothing made from jello and when my character does the idle animation her hands clip through her skirt, and there’s all kids of glitches with hair where it clips through outfits (and why in the fuck do the necklaces float a full foot from the character’s body)

the storytelling

alright there’s a lot to cover so strap in

i’m not mad about the story having some of the same beats as harry potter. whatever, right? if it worked, it worked. having a big climax at the end of the year just works well for storytelling. having a school bully antagonist also works well for easy storytelling (it’s kinda cheap, but whatever works, right?) it’s what you DO with the archetypes you use that makes or breaks your story

jam city broke it

i don’t know how to organize my thoughts so here’s a bulleted list

it is very clearly obvious they wrote this as they went along (ex. a previously unseen character pops up in year 3 and was supposedly the best friend of your greatest enemy in previous years) and didn’t think to fix the plot holes

there’s too many goddamn characters (i love them, but with a big cast comes a whole host of problems [I WRITE FOR A KPOP GROUP WITH 13 MEMBERS, I HAVE A LOT OF EXPERIENCE WITH THAT], and we’ll get there)

there’s too much goddamn filler for the sake of forcing us to spend time and in-game energy (yes i KNOW it’s an app game and they want our money but THEY COULD BE A LITTLE MORE SUBTLE ABOUT IT)

what honestly pisses me off the most about it is that IT COULD BE GOOD

IF THE STORY WERE GOOD, I WOULD FUCKIN IGNORE ALL OF THAT OTHER SHIT

but it’s not, and here’s the biggest gripe i have:

none of the choices you make matter. none of them. to the point where it’s immersion breaking at BEST

for example, while my MC is a hufflepuff, i know a lot of people play in slytherin. scenes where snape gets upset with your character and takes away house points no longer make sense for a slytherin MC, because snape would be infinitely more likely to give you three years of nightly detentions, or pitch you off the astronomy tower, than he would be to take house points from slytherin

honestly, they should have waited. if they wanted to put choose your own adventure elements into the game, they should have planned out every single one of those story arcs in detail, and THEN released the game. they could leave some of the more basic choices in and those choices only mattering for short term effects wouldn’t irk me as much as it does right now because THERE WOULD BE CHOICES THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE.

your very first choice over how you felt about your brother’s disappearance only matters for what wand you get (which i immediately forgot which really says something about the impact of that choice :)))) ). no matter what you pick, you still end up chasing after him for the rest of the game, so who cares?

story beats don’t land different based on your house. you could absolutely play it that merula hates you regardless of your house, that’s fine. just remember that if your MC is slytherin and lives in the female dorms, she probably shares a room with merula. which makes things fucky for all kinds of reasons, none of which jam city addresses in the current game, as far as i’m aware

also, there’s the deal with rowan

rowan is a character that goes into your mc’s chosen house no matter what (and as rowan changes pronouns with your player, i’ll be using “they” [or “she” as my player is a she and that’s what i’m used to; i’ll try to refrain but i might slip up occasionally] ). as far as i can tell, rowan’s personality remains the same no matter what house you’re in. they don’t try to play up the traits that match the house, rowan is just usually a sweet bookworm. why would the hat have put them in gryffindor? rowan khanna for me has never seemed to display any gryffindorish traits; or at the very least, no traits that should be prioritized over, say, the ravenclaw traits they have VERY STRONGLY (since rowan fills a sort of hermione role; rowan knows things about things and is your go to for research)

can we just put rowan in ravenclaw? sure, it would make it hard for fans in different houses to communicate between each other about the story for a time since certain sequences of events would play out differently, but here’s the thing:

if events play out differently based on your choices, people will want to play your game multiple times to get every ending

that’s the fun of a choose your own adventure game. if events play out distinctly differently if you’re a hufflepuff or a ravenclaw or a slytherin or a gryffindor, then people will want to play through the game four times at LEAST, once for each house, to get all the fun pieces of story (WHICH MEANS, they’ll be spending more and more time and using more and more energy, so you can make the same amount of money off people buying energy and watching the ads and maybe MORE while being able to cut out some of the more shitty pieces of filler)

in the current version, your house is just, what color are your robes and who is your prefect. i haven’t watched anyone who wasn’t a hufflepuff, but i’m sure that certain scenes and conflicts play out the exact same no matter what house you’re in

as an example, your house should affect how the duelling confrontation in year one should have gone. snape and flitwick should have different dialogue based on whether you’re a slytherin, or a ravenclaw, or a gryffindor, or a hufflepuff. snape fucking hates gryffindors, so he should be far less lenient against gryffindors, and on the flip side he should be battling between himself with how strict to be if you’re a slytherin; maybe he hates your guts because of a grudge against your brother, but you’re still in his house and we all know snape plays favorites. flitwick should be more disappointed if you’re a ravenclaw, because that’s his house and he had higher expectations for you. neither of them have many ties to hufflepuff that would skew the confrontation in a drastic direction, but had this been the first version of the game, then the confrontation that plays out in the current version we have would work fine for hufflepuff; you’re one of flitwick’s favorite charms students and he taught you this skill, and he’s disappointed to see you use it in this way, but not nearly as much as if you were one of his own

AND NOW PEOPLE WANT TO PLAY THE GAME MULTIPLE TIMES TO GET ALL THE DIALOGUE, WHICH MEANS MORE TIME, MORE ENERGY, AND MORE MONEY, JAM CITY, ARE YOU HEARING THIS??? MORE MONEY!!!!! IT’S A WIN WIN FOR EVERYONE

while we’re at it, change jacob to match his house. if you’re still gonna make him have the same house as the MC, make him match it. from how all the characters describe him that bitch is as slytherin as they come, if you’re gonna make him a hufflepuff with me then give him a clear, hufflepuff motive god damnit

finally,

the characters

there’s too many.

the problem with a big cast is no one gets enough screen time and some characters end up getting shunted to the side. that’s just what happens. you HAVE to zero in on four or five side friends and let the rest of them slip to the side. looking at my friends menu there are 17 characters you can befriend, not including hagrid, the quidditch crew, dobby, talbott, and chiara (since those are, as far as i know, unlocked via side quests, which are... fine. i don’t have any particular gripes about the side quests except for the thing with lupin being twice the size of tonks which, if you’ve read the seventh book i don’t need to explain how weird that is to you)

and BECAUSE there are so many, a lot of them have to be defined by one trait. ben is a coward, rowan’s clever and booksmart, penny has her hand on the school’s pulse and makes potions, liz likes creatures, charlie fuckin loves dragons, tonks likes pranks (seriously that’s her whole personality), andre likes clothes, barnaby is a dumb jock that likes creatures

like, traits are fun. but if that’s ALL THEY HAVE, that’s when things get a little fucky

how many of these characters have dimensions? i’m in year 4 chapter 4. the first screen recording of the game i took was on december 5 of 2019, and assuming i played about a minimum of 8 hours a day (”““played”““) until the final screen recording [may 20, 2020] before i dropped the game for about six months (i know for certain it was more than that, since i had some kind of activity going on at just about all times for at least a month of that, but i’ll take the generous estimate), at bare minimum that makes 1344 hours i spent playing this game, or about 56 days (keep in mind, this is a LOW estimate)

in those 56 days of gameplay, i don’t know ANYTHING about the characters other than their utility in my quest. i don’t know penny’s favorite color or even her favorite potion to brew, or how and why she started and when [there’s a reveal in third year that i watched someone play through, but i don’t know if i ever played through it myself; i don’t have any screen recordings of the event]. i don’t know anything about ben or his family aside from the fact that he’s muggleborn. i know some basic facts about barnaby’s family, and that he’s tough and likes creatures. rowan grew up on a tree farm and i have a vague recollection of her mentioning siblings. do we know anything about them?? do i know anything about how the characters interact with each other?? are barnaby and liz friends? they both like creatures. do they talk to charlie?? do ben and penny hang out while we’re not there? are ben and jae friends?? are jae and charlie??? DO THESE CHARACTERS EXIST WHEN THEY AREN’T NEEDED FOR THE CURSED VAULTS???

why in the fuck don’t i know these characters?? why don’t we know anything about tonks other than her affinity for pranking?? there’s a sharp bias in who the writer’s favorites are (they like the characters with angsty pasts they can twist around; what do we know about ben aside from his blood status? and he’s been around since first year; he’s the second friend you unlock. i know more about barnaby and i’ve known him for a much shorter time)

if you separate the routes, you get a chance to zero in on certain characters and actually develop them. if you’re a gryffindor, you befriend ben, charlie, and jae much more quickly and they make up the closest of your friends, along with rowan, if jam city is determined to keep their tutorial character constant across all plotlines (i still think rowan should be solely a ravenclaw, but i’ll allow rowan’s house to change so long as their personality shifts to emphasize certain qualities in order to match the change in house; your house should not just determine the color your robes are)

if you’re in slytherin, maybe you befriend barnaby in place of ben in the original game, or maybe there’s an arc where you clash heads with merula (who can still be an enemy even if you’re both in slytherin; merula doesn’t like competition and the MC is exactly that) and the rest of the slytherins in your year find themselves caught in the middle; maybe there’s an arc where your MC finds themself totally alone without allies due to the conflict between them and merula (might i suggest year two, while coming up on the climax of the year?)

hufflepuffs get to focus on tonks and penny much closer. ben can also be in this plotline, but he shouldn’t take center stage (characters should cross over plotlines, but only take center stage in one, aside from perhaps rowan if rowan remains constant). maybe chiara can get implemented into the main plotline to fill out the roster, and if not, diego caplan can get implemented earlier (i haven’t met him yet and know nothing about his character)

and ravenclaws get the ravenclaw characters BUT YOU GET THE POINT, i don’t want to bore anyone by repeating myself; this is long enough as is

what i’m saying is, these characters all have a different enough base that each route will be different just by focusing on different characters; ben and jae will respond to a situation much differently than penny and tonks might, which would ALREADY shake up the storyline of each house based on which house you choose in the beginning, and then characters overlap plotlines so you could leave hints in each route to the other characters’ unique backstories and motivations that leaves the player wanting to get to know the rest of your WELL DEVELOPED CAST (((MAKE SURE THEY’RE WELL DEVELOPED OR THIS WILL NOT WORK)))

WHAT I’M SAYING IS, THIS GAME COULD HAVE BEEN SO GOOD

if they put more effort into the story then maybe i would have gunned through the hufflepuff route so quickly and then restarted to go through all the rest of them. if you want people playing your game for longer then THAT is the way to go

yes, it will take time. yes, it will take effort. but you know what?

IT’LL ALSO MAKE YOU A FUCKTON OF MONEY FROM PLAYERS PLAYING EACH ROUTE IN FULL AND THEN PLAYING THEIR FAVORITE ROUTES AGAIN SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR

anyway, what i’m saying is, i hate this game so much because of the potential it had to succeed, and the potential it had to be a really good game. even if they didn’t change the gameplay much, even if they didn’t change the models, i could get past ALL OF THAT if the story was interesting

so uh. jam city, if you’re reading this, please. i will let you take away all of my days of playing this. i will let you render all of my progress obsolete and send me plummeting back into my first year at hogwarts to go through the game again, if you JUST, MAKE, MULTIPLE, ROUTES!!! MAKE MY CHOICES MATTER DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!

i’m also willing to let you use the ideas i posited here without credit or payment. because that sounds like a legal hassle and i am far too lazy to deal with that sort of thing, i just want to play a good game. please. please give me a good game to play.

also, make energy take 3 minutes to recharge. please.

so uh

TL;DR : i hate this game. and i wish i didn’t hate this game.

2 notes · View notes

realityhelixcreates · 5 years ago

Text

Lasabrjotr Chapter 50: Shades of The Return

Chapters: 50/? Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Warnings: none Relationships: Loki x Reader (Getting There) Characters: Loki (Marvel), Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending (Canon-Divergent), He Still Wants This To Be A Date So Badly, Bonding Over Body Count, That’s A Fire Hazard Loki, Here Have Some Weird Foreshadowing Summary: You and Loki have a nice candlelit dinner

You left the library, head swimming. Saga had grilled you for information about how the laws of your land worked, so she could compare them to Asgardian law over the millennia, but you didn't actually know much about how the law worked. As far as you understood, if you broke the law, you went to jail, unless you had enough money to bribe your way out of it, which was why literal criminals ran your country all the time.

Saga seemed unimpressed.

“No one is above the law here.” She insisted. “No money or power will turn justice away. Even the prince spent time in prison, for the crimes he committed here.”

That had only brought back the image of Loki in his prison gear, glaring out of the photograph in the ultimate challenge.

You headed to the small banquet room as soon as you escaped the library, more than ready for dinner. Loki had something to explain to you; hopefully it wouldn't be too complicated. Your head was already full.

Upon entering the banquet room, you were hit immediately with the impression of heat and fire. There were candles everywhere, dozens, too many. It was like entering a creepy wizards lair. The room was a little smoky, but you could see that dinner looked very good, even if it was arranged on the table like something out of a movie.

Loki waited beside a chair, jerking stiffly to life like a marionette when you entered. He brightened visibly at the sight of you.

He looked very soft right now, all covered in plush velvet, but you still thought about the chiseled musculature you knew was underneath.

He had looked so young in your dream. How long ago had that been for him? Even soft and devoid of armor, there were lines at his eyes, and sharpness at his jaw, a maturity in his face. You had a weird feeling that part of that dream had somehow been real, that he had been speaking to you, even if he didn't know it. What had he seen after he fell? Was that what had put those lines on his face?

What if that's not my name?

“Darling! I'm glad you have decided to attend. Come, have a seat!” He pulled the chair out for you, elegantly laying a napkin across your lap, then took his own seat, across the table from you. The table was a bit long, clearly meant for a party, rather than just two. He had crammed more candles on it, which made him more difficult to see, ironically, and made him seem awkwardly far away for conversation.

The dinner itself was delicious, the food here always was. But the conversation was hard to follow, partially because Loki persisted with small talk while you were eating, instead of just talking about the reason you were at this dinner in the first place, and partly because the multitude of candle flames dazzled your eyes no matter where you looked.

When you were finished eating, you leaned back in your chair and closed your eyes. The smoke was starting to get to them.

“How do you find it, my dear?” He asked.

“Hmm? You mean dinner? Very tasty. I'm full.”

“And the setting?” He persisted. “Is it to your tastes?”

“Too many candles.” You murmured. “It's a fire hazard. Too much smoke. It's kind of uncomfortable, actually.”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. With a snap of his fingers, most of the candles went out, leaving just a few to create a dim light.

“Is this better?” He asked.

“Yeah. Can you come a little closer? It's kinda hard to talk to you when you're so far away.”

“Oh certainly!” He picked up his chair and moved it close to yours.

“Much better.” You approved. “Now, you said you wanted to explain yourself?”

“Ah yes. First of all,” He took your unmarked hand in his, staring sincerely at you. “I regret causing you distress by my actions regarding the huldra. I understand that that seemed demeaning to a prisoner. I had not yet explained that some forms of magic can only be countered or reversed by the same kind of magic, all the way down to using the same actions.”

“So what you're saying is...”

“In order to retrieve what she had taken, I had to take it back using the same method in which she originally took it. With a kiss, she stole our lives, and so a kiss was needed to retrieve them. A messy business, admittedly, but even you understood instinctively what needed to be done, when you gave me some of yourself. Thank you for that, by the way. You were very brave through the entire fiasco.”

“So that's all it was?” You asked. “Some magic reversal thing?”

“Yes, of course!” He assured you. “I would never have touched her otherwise, and I certainly would never do any such thing to you.”

So he hadn't really wanted to kiss you after all...

Oh, that's such a dumb thought! You scolded yourself. That was like being disappointed that he didn't hop out of the tub and just ravish you when you'd exposed yourself. Why would you want a kiss under those circumstances?

Was there something wrong with you? Or was it just a result of emotional overload?

“Thank you again, for your courage and selflessness.” Loki said sincerely. “I'm told you not only shared your precious living energy with me, but you also saved me from the huldra's clutches. It is an impressive feat to magically move something alive, and of that size. I'm so proud of how far you've come. I owe you a boon, truly.”

You turned your eyes away. He was so beautiful, looking at you so earnestly in the candlelight.

“You already granted it.” You said shyly. “When you agreed to spend the time and materials to fix her stone. We didn't really know it was gonna work, and, like you said; she did technically kill a man, and try to kill more. But they were restored. I guess I feel a little familiar with that. I killed someone too, and he was restored. So horrible to think about it. But you also killed people.”

Words came out of your mouth then, but you didn't hear them. They escaped you, into the air, and you promptly forgot that you had even said them at all.

Loki was looking at you, perplexed, and you didn't know why.

“What did you say?” He asked.

“That I killed someone.” You repeated. “I know it's hard to believe, but-”

“No, after that.”

“That he was restored. This was after the Return, and-”

“No, after that.”

“That it was horrible to think about. Sometimes I still have nightmares-”

“No, after that.”

“That...that I killed someone too...”

“No.”

“That...I...killed someone...”

Your head spun, spun, spun.

“But he was restored?” Loki asked.

“Yes. Did you know about that?”

“I was told about it.” Loki said.

“Oh. Well I just felt that, in light of that, I couldn't just let her die. Yeah, I was really mad at her, but I wasn't exactly innocent either. And if we could fix things without any more violence, we should.” You gazed up at him. “Loki, are you okay? You look really pale. I mean, more than usual.”

“We should go to the healing wing.” He suggested.

*****

“Your Highness, there is nothing wrong with her.” Bjarkhild insisted, as Loki fidgeted by your bedside. “Her bones have knit, there is no more bruising or swelling, and there is no damage to her brain.”

“I don't get it, Loki.” You whined, sounding frustrated. “Did I do something wrong? Why are you so freaked out? I was just trying to open up!”

“I am not freaked out!” He insisted. He was. A little. He wanted to know what you'd meant by it. He wanted to know why you didn't remember. “I'm...concerned. But since you are both so sure nothing is wrong, perhaps we should go back, and stop cutting into the lady healer's time.”

You were only too happy to leave the healing wing behind, and followed him back to your rooms without complaint.

He didn't understand. It was as if what you had said hadn't come from you at all, but was some entity of its own, that had been trapped inside you. But if those words hadn't come from you, where had they come from? Who had said them, and why?

He was a little freaked out. He was concerned. Both by your inability to remember, and by the words themselves.

“And we are just waiting for their return.”

#lasabrjotr #loki x reader #loki (marvel)#Wooo fifty chapters!

9 notes · View notes

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

Text

ASM vol 5 #9/810 Thoughts

I wrote this before the arc had finished so please bare that in mind if you read on because I recognize some of it might seem weird or redundant in the wake of the conclusion tot he arc.

Kinda sorta mixed feelings for this issue.

Okay so here are the aspects I DIDN’T like.

The recap page implies that the general public is starting to forget Peter ran Parker industries and that the heroes all think Spider-Man is in the pocket of the Kingpin.

Now recap pages aren’t actually part of a story so they don’t exactly count per se.

But if that is the intention of the author then the series has done a poor job of conveying the former. It’s just ignored the elephant in the room that was Parker Industry.

And whilst Spencer was saddled with that mess a mess it was nevertheless and he’s cleaned up a lot of other things. Whilst I didn’t consider it a mess necessitating any cleaning up nevertheless when Steven Moffat took over Doctor Who in 2010 (technically 2009 but that’s not important) very early on he established that the massive global Dalek invasion everyone on Earth knew about had been erased from everyone’s memories (mostly) meaning that now alien invasions could happen and new characters would react as though they were sceptical of the existence of wider alien life.

Again, this wasn’t necessary but the point being was that Moffat put the work in to fix something he perceived as a big problem that resulted from the prior regime. Spencer has been doing some of the same here but not addressed that biggest of elephants in the room that from it’s mere announcement the fanbase was collectively calling out as something that would fuck over the series going forward. Because absolutely not would the general public just forget who Peter Parker was in regards to PI, let alone the company itself.

As for the Kingpin thing, I never thought about it until just this issue but I kind of have issues with it now. Because even if the other heroes do not know Peter’s identity surely they DO know Spider-Man and/or Kingpin well enough by this point that they’d not presume Kingpin and Spider-Man to be buddies.

I mean there ARE ways to explain their feelings, like if they presume Spider-Man to be an imposter or something but him being on the outs with the other heroes merely because Fisk put on an appearance of them being friends in spite of their years of animosity shouldn’t make the heroes automatically resentful towards Spider-Man.

Again, it can work but Spencer needs to better elaborate upon it.

Moving in I did have a few issues with Felicia here. At first Spencer seemed to have her acting vindictive akin to stupidity of Slott’s run after SpOck sent her to jail. But then he explained why she was actually miffed at him and it made more sense.

Well sorta.

On the one hand Felicia has always been in love with Spider-Man and so if in character Felicia should jump at the chance to sleep with him if he propositions her. On the other hand though she does say Spider-Man was being creepy which and we get a mere snippet of what he was doing, so presumably he might’ve gone further than that.

The other thing I didn’t like was Peter’s attitude to Felicia. Hey I’m all for ignoring stupid continuity if you are trying to fix things, but here...that isn’t happening. Peter is treating Felicia as an old friend but she hasn’t been that since 2009 and he’s still lying to her. Maybe that will be fixed next issue and their old relationship established but right now it is problematic.

Oh and also the issue seemed to treat their old relationship as being messed up due to Felicia’s criminal tendencies when that wasn’t it. They hooked up in a monogamous relationship 3 times and whilst that was why they broke up the first time that wasn’t what happened on the second or third occasions.

Finally I wish Spencer wasn’t maintaining Felicia’s tendency to be evil. Being a Robin Hood style character okay sure. But here she is basically what she was like in 2009 (except not made into a vessel for Joe Kelly’s midlife crisis sexual fantasies) but if she’s still like that her character is still in need of repair.

Now this isn’t to say I hated every moment they interacted. Far from it. it was more on point than it’s been in a long time and much improved over BND and Slott’s run. So within the context of post-OMD Spider-Man it was good but within a wider context there are still problems. It is at least written better than before, I especially loved the acknowledgment of them making for a good team.

Finally I disliked the art. Common criticism by this point but it stands.

That’s everything I disliked but on the more positive side of things I felt that the general plot of the Thieves Guild is still a fun idea.

The Thieves Guild are an X-Men/Gambit concept but Spencer has put enough distance between them that this NYC chapter of them can be played enough as a ‘Spider-Man thing’. And the notion of them swiping all the paraphernalia of superheroes through the power of super thievery is a fun superhero plot.

I also don’t mind Felicia being a member of their ranks. I mean I feel like if she always had that tattoo Peter would’ve noticed by now, but there are numerous ways to explain that. If nothing else I love the scene between Felicia and her Dad, because it humanizes her, touches on her origin and allows her to be more her own character. I feel there is so much potential to be exploited from exploring Felicia’s relationship.

Now in spite of all those complaints I actually loved this issue because of the Mary Jane subplot. There are some feelings I’m wrestling with in regards to it though but on balance I think this was ingenious on Spencer’s part.

Okay first thing’s first. The artwork by Michele Bandini looked really nice. If you are going to have two artists work on the same story dividing them up based upon the subplot and the main plot is actually a pretty clever idea. I didn’t know there was going to be two artists actually and so when I checked out the preview pages before the issue’s release I was confused as to why Ramos’ style looked so much better from one page into the next. I wish Bandini had done the whole story to be honest.

But onto the subplot itself.

To begin with it’s just lovely seeing Spencer actually give MJ a subplot of her own and focus upon her. And it’s good focus too. So far he’s not really mishandled her in this story at all so Spencer seems to be a decent MJ writer. I hope this trend continues and the relative lack of Mj/his use of MJ within his first two arcs was more about building up Peter and also paying tribute to Superior Foes which landed him this job in the first place.

I didn’t see the Carlie twist coming. Honest of all characters that reveal could have been she was the farthest from my mind. For some reason my mind was fixated upon Bobby CCarr or Jonathan Caesar somehow.

Now Carlie is...controversial of course.

Carlie was one of the many lame Brand New Day era characters with her status made worse than many of the other ones because

a) She was at times a Mary Sue

b) She was pushed hard as the new love interest. I mean really, really, really pushed hard

c) She had an inconsistent character design

d) She was at times bland and at other times just...not nice. See her considering getting a Green Goblin tattoo to piss Peter off. Yes she was drunk but I don’t care how drunk or angry you are that’s like considering getting a Nazi tattoo to piss off your Jewish boyfriend. You are just nasty at that point

e) She was an idiot during Superior despite being the most sceptical person of Otto

Carlie to say the least was HATED by the fandom.

Now look let’s not sit here and pretend the fandom hate went beyond what was warranted by the character. She was treated as an 11 on the ‘this character sucks’ scale.

But that doesn’t mean she didn’t score a very solid 7 or 8 if you catch my drift.

Here though she is arguably written better than ever before, not in the least because most of those problems listed above are being avoided or addressed.

Rather than being an overcritical and judgemental asshole like in her last appearance who either attributes blame to Peter for the horrible things happening to her or else makes it clear the nature of who he is means he’s doomed to misery because no one could put up with that, here she acknowledges none of it is his fault and he deserves happiness.

Spencer does drop his continuity ball though by listing off the wrong reason for why Peter and Calrie broke up. According to him Carlie couldn’t handle dating Spider-Man but in reality it was the fact that he was lying to her that was the problem.

Whatever though, nobody cares why Peter and Carlie broke up, so long as they did.

Similarly, if Spencer wants to try and rehabilitate the character who neglected to inform her ‘friend’ and roommate that she might be dating a villain without realizing it, okay let’s give him and this character a second chance. If Carlie wants to say she always liked MJ in spite of her douche actions lets draw a line under it and try again.

Now we move onto the meat of the subplot. The support group for superhero supporting cast members.

This idea gives me some mixed feelings and it somewhat depends upon how it is handled going forward.

On the negative side, I do not want this to turn into a subtextually critical evaluation of how MJ handled life with a hero in a past or how older runs did. Also the story is somewhat ignoring how MJ DID have people she could talk to about this in the past, like Felicia and Aunt May. But currently neither character knows his secret, might not be finding out anytime soon so okay I guess I understand why Spencer is treating it this way.

I think Spencer’s putting in little lines of dialogue and presents a resistance within MJ to joining the group which makes it clear to us that, whilst Carlie felt alone and unsafe keeping Peter’s secret, MJ doesn’t feel quite like that even though it might be a struggle all the same.

Which is in character, remember she kept his secret for years beginning with AF #15. Similarly MJ has had issues opening up to people in the past and has seen first hand the cost of exposing Peter’s secret.

Now in spite of all I’ve said, I cannot tell you how much I ADORE the idea of a support group for super hero friends and family.

If Spencer plays this right it could wind up as one of the mainstays of the Marvel Universe’s architecture, like Night Nurse or what have you.

It just makes sense as a piece of world building for the Marvel Universe and is an emotionally engaging idea that ANY comic book series can pick up.

Moreover it highlights the innate quiet awesomeness that is Jarvis. Jarvis is like Alfred but to the whole Avengers and one of the most bad ass bad ass normals in the whole Marvel Universe so highlighting him as this proactive, helping and caring individual is appreciated.

This idea is a great addition to Peter and MJ’s relationship too as it gives Mj something to do aside from wait by a window and counters one of the most frequent weapons in the anti-MJ/marriage brigade’s arsenal.

“MJ can’t be with Peter because it’s worse than being with a cop because they get to talk to other cop’s families. It’s just so toxic for her!!!!11!!!”

See Fred Van Lente’s piece of shit MJ story in ASM #605 for proof of this.

But right here Spencer finds a solution to that complaint (which I’m sure the anti-MJ brigade just love him for) and one that makes justifying breaking them up again a lot harder.

Also guessing who all the people in the meeting was turned out to be really fun.

Over all I loved this issue because in spite of my problems with the Felicia end of things the MJ end was brilliant.

p.s. Isn’t it a little weird for Spider-Man to not remember what ‘Spider-Man’ did when they were separate people?

I guess you could argue that his memories from ‘Peter’ might be hazy too. Or that this weird science comes with ‘rules’ like that, e.g. one side has to dominate the other.

#Spider-Man #Black Cat #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #mjwatsonedit #Felicia Hardy #peter parker #Nick Spencer #Michele Bandini #Humberto Ramos #Marvel #Marvel Comics #Marvel Universe #X-Men #the Black Cat #Amazing Spider-Man

29 notes · View notes

anxiety-trademark · 4 years ago

Text

The week in review:

Raw 12/07 NXT 12/09 NXT UK 12/10 Smackdown 12/11

Raw:

Nia hyping up Shayna. That’s nice.

Shayna vs Asuka should’ve been a ppv match during Asuka’s reign. They don’t seem to care that much about protecting Shayna in tag matches, as she always eats the pin, so I’m not sure why they protect her so much in singles. She submitted Asuka (along with everyone else) in the elimination chamber, Asuka should want to prove herself better than Shayna. This is why I liked Becky’s reign, I loved the aspect of her collecting her debts against people who had wronged her, and the sideplates of the former champions she beat. That jacket was dope. The story was dope.

Man Shayna is so strong, that girl is built like a bull. I swear her bmi must be as low as Bayley’s.

How did Shayna of all people make taking a release German suplex look better than like a dozen other women in the past year? Good for her. Knows how to actually jump.

Lol so Lana willingly jumps onto Nia’s shoulders in the position of a powerbomb, and as Nia is walking her over to the announce desk, Lana sends Nia into it with a headscissors takedown. That’s great.

Lana’s just running away lmao.

Shayna just ate an L via rollup. See? Protection.

I was gonna force myself to sit through Dana’s backstage segment with Ricochet, but then Riddle popped up, and honestly? Can’t be bothered.

Welp I don’t do mixed tag matches unless they’re compelling... which this is not.

Hate: Asuka being a cheerleader for fucking Lana. She is the Raw women’s champion, does anyone remember this??? Terrible stuff.

Love: Asuka leaving Lana with some stupid mantra to repeat to herself before Lana turns to find herself face to face with Nia. Great stuff.

Nia just shaking her head as Lana slowly, oh so slowly, backs away. Fantastic. See this would all be a compelling midcard feud if the Raw women’s title wasn’t involved, is that a fair complaint? I feel like that’s a fair complaint.

Points to Nia for not breaking.

Highlight: Nia intimidating Lana backstage by merely looking at her

---

NXT:

Toni claims Ember stole her thunder, and honestly? I can see it. They both moved (back, in Ember’s case) to nxt the same night, and which one was given the promo time in the middle of the ring to start off the following week’s show? Not Toni. Who was propelled into a feud almost immediately against Dakota, a top player? Not Toni. Who got the opportunity to share the ring with former nxt champion Rhea in the main event? Not Toni.

Well apparently Io doesn’t like Toni lmao.

Io sets Toni up for the moonsault, and Toni rolls out of the ring. I criticize wwe for being predictable, but I’m gonna be honest when I say that I did NOT predict Ember running down from out of nowhere just to topple Toni. That was great. Shame this is absolutely leading to a tag match.

So Ember rolls Toni back into the ring and Io hits the moonsault... and then proceeds to pin her before she realizes what she’s doing and rolls off lol. Should’ve just committed, crowd would’ve counted to 3 for her and it would’ve been great.

That’s right Raquel, go destroy Ember in the name of Dakota. Can’t believe my second favorite performer on that roster isn’t there tonight. BLASPHEMY.

Xia out here striking wooden pegs and I can actually see the purpose. Boa getting the shit beat out of him? Not understanding the point there. They call it penance, but Wade is right, looks like torture. Guess it’s more of a mental thing though, right? Break the nerves and sensitivity?

*The Way celebrates their TakeOver victories* No.

Wow Ember gets the main event match again? Man, yikes for Toni. Cool for Raquel though, this is the furthest she’s gone in her singles career without Dakota.

That Eclipse onto those 2 chairs was brutal, Dakota is a trooper.

I really dislike Ember’s persona, and I would love to see her be humbled. She did jack shit on the MR and has the audacity to run back to nxt beaming with arrogance?

Nice, Raquel hits Ember with a boot to the midsection as Ember’s in midair, and she flies back a few feet. Impactful.

Why is Ember selling her lower back? Is that genuine? An ongoing injury, or something from WarGames?

Kind of a slow moving headscissors into a tornado ddt, but it’s such a beautiful move that I don’t even care.

Does Ember typically do her suicide dive through the bottom and second rope? If so, I’m beginning to understand why hers looks so friggin brutal. Peeps going through the second and top rope always kind of gracefully land on their opponents. Ember looks like a missile.

That’s cool; Ember’s crazy ass was climbing up some metal thing, Raquel goes over and pulls her off, Ember lands perfectly on Raquel’s shoulder in a one armed fireman’s carry, then Raquel tosses her face first into the ring post. Ember landed perfectly on the apron, too. Good spot.

Raquel is dangling through the ropes with her head near the ring post and Ember charges at her on the apron. Raquel eats a knee to the side of the head but puts her hand up between her and the ring post so she doesn’t accidentally smack her head against it. She’s very safe and aware of her surroundings, I’m noticing. That’s gonna take her really far.

That was a good match. I can see why Raquel is getting set up for a push. She’s safe, strong, sells well, has an intimidating look, and is serviceable on the mic. I can see the appeal.

Toni’s come to deliver a receipt to the receipt she received herself.

LMFAO Toni goes to pull up Ember and jumps when she hears Rhea’s music. That history runs DEEP. That was hilarious, she genuinely looks shook.

Oh that focus in Rhea’s eyes is great. Man she’s come so far this past year.

Rhea is such a solid babyface. She does all the right things as a leader of the division would without going overboard and coming off as a doormat. Asuka is the complete opposite; does nothing to help her division from unfair shenanigans, and when she does, she come off as an idiot.

Man that tension between Rhea and Toni is thick. They’re like the same age too, right? Their futures will be heavily entwined.

...Alright well honestly I was more enchanted by the concept of a Rhea/Toni feud, even though we’ve seen that like 3 times, than a rehash of Rhea/Raquel. I knew this was coming, but you’re kind of killing my vibe, here.

I actually really liked the Raquel/Rhea fight but I feel like they have subzero heat outside of an actual match. They suck at hyping a future fight between each other. Basically they’re the exact opposite as Rhea/Toni, since Rhea and Toni have like... never had a good match, yet always know how to sell one to me anyway lmao.

Highlight: Ember vs Raquel

---

NXT UK:

Jinny out here calling Piper a wild animal lol. Her in-match dialogue sucks, but I’m here for her as a promo.

“[Isla] has yet to really kick out of first gear [...] what does Isla Dawn need to do to keep her momentum moving forward?” She needs to literally move out of first gear and work on her stamina, holy shit. She’s one of the weakest in the cardio department imo.

Since I’m already being critical, Xia is super overhyped and I need everyone to calm down. She has a lot to work on before she should even be considered midcard.

Yes sure, Xia has technical fundamentals and literally nothing else. Oh she’s only 22? That makes more sense. Man the UK stars are young lol.

We’ve finally moved past wrist locks, miracles have occurred.

Imagine being a kickboxer and not utilizing that in your arsenal. Look at that, suddenly I’m actually being entertained by Isla for the first time. More miracles have occurred.

Xia “look at my fundamentals” Brookside, can you please explain who you’re yelling ‘come on’ to? There is literally nobody there. Are you hyping me up? Hm?? Hyping me up for another hurricanrana???

Xia very obviously helped roll Isla out of the ring there.

I really need announcers to stop assuming every wrestler is about to do a suicide dive/is gonna fly/do a high risk move. It’s seldom they toss out this assumption and are wrong, but every time I’ve seen it the performer went to do a mere baseball slide beneath the bottom rope, having typically never performed a suicide dive before.

That was awkward. Isla did no offense as Xia went to grab her off the ground, but Xia backed off and just looked at her. Then Xia no sells a punch to the midsection. ???

Oddly enough, suitcase luggage being delivered ring side isn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen in this match.

So they’re props for a mid-match promo from Nina meant to distract Xia. Distracted Xia turns around and eats an awkwardly slow kick to the neck, which she awkwardly sells, before Isla wins with a... back body drop?? What a finish :/

Highlight: That fleeting moment where Isla entertained me

---

Smackdown:

Sasha gets to kick off the show? That’s a first.

Saw someone today say that Sasha only works as a babyface if she’s an underdog or if she’s generally more of a “fun” character. Said there was no positive energy around her as a babyface right now. Honestly her character sucks.

Also saw someone claim Carmella was a better version of Sasha and I’m not disagreeing with that sentiment. They should probably be on different brands in their current characters.

“How fast can I make Carmella cry” Sasha sweetie, you are the last person that should be mentioning making someone cry.

God she even has that stamp. Why is this girl not a heel? What the hell are wwe doing pushing Charlotte and Sasha as babyfaces? They gonna try to turn Becky heel again if she comes back before crowds return? Imagine a world where Charlotte and Sasha are babyfaces while Bayley and Becky are running around as heels. oof. 75% of the way there.

Carmella is great, truly. One of the best promos in the women’s division, probably in my top 3 tbh. Glad to see her relevant in the spotlight once again.

They really are 2 sides of the same damn coin.

Sasha shouldn’t need Bayley to prop her up anymore. Enough of that well. It’s bone dry.

To be honest, it does still feel like Bayley’s show; it does still feel like she runs things, and that’s a testament to not only her booking and her massive success over the past year, but also to how she carries herself and how far her character has come. She’s absolutely on par with Becky and Charlotte now imo (which is why I wanted her to win the Royal Rumble and potentially main event night one of WrestleMania, but I digress) she’s beyond the need of having a title to be the main attraction. I never thought the 3 of them would all surpass Sasha in accolades, star power, and promo skills... but here we are.

Bayley back there talking shit about Bianca rofl.

Omg that captain thing was great. Bayley is creative and fun, and knows how to keep herself from becoming stagnant or dull. Points to Bayley.

Oh Bianca kept those insults from last week’s online exclusive. I love when wwe tests shit in online exclusives, sees the reaction, and then has the talent run that same promo/interview on tv the next week. This happens constantly. Love it.

Friggin love Bianca’s shirt. wwe should’ve printed out a ton of them. I would’ve copped the coin for it.

Girl has legit receipts rofl alright.

Called Nattie the boat. Subtly hyping up her coworkers. Solid.

Lmao Bianca ran Bayley off with her receipts. This is fun. This is a fun feud.

“I’m gonna beat the disrespect out of Sasha,” that’s a good line.

See Carmella has been doing that cackle long before Sasha started it up, and she’s better at it too. Sasha just needs to change things.

Why is Carmella calling Reggie ‘Tommy’? Is this like a dig at his name not mattering or was that a screw up? Couldn’t have been a screw up, she would’ve improvised. Do I have his name wrong? Am I the dumb one???

I need to start watching Raw Talk and Talking Smack. They won’t be a part of these “reviews” (ramblings) but still. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of fun.

So I know this partnership between Nattie and Billie Kay is super temporary, but I still find it curious.

Okay so Liv tags in Ruby, runs to her, and Ruby sweeps up Liv into a wheelbarrow before Liv rolls through and trips Ruby, driving her into Billie Kay’s midsection. I’m gonna be honest guys, stuff like that is cool to see, but you could’ve literally just speared Billie Kay and saved everyone a ton of time and effort. Work smarter not cooler. Maybe situationally that potentially wouldn’t be terrible, but that was terrible tonight.

“Natalya probably the most powerful in this matchup” lol SIR. Natalya is probably the most powerful in the entire main roster, and only Bianca could be a contradiction. Curious to know which one is stronger, pound for pound and in general.

...Is Ruby okay? I’m concerned. She goes to give Billie Kay a Riott kick before Liv even gets her part of their combo finisher in, and then after she delivers her Riott kick, she crawls over to Natalya’s corner. Was Natalya not in place for a spot or something? Is Ruby on 4 shots of espresso too many??

This match was serviceable. Obviously it’s meant to merely advance Billie Kay’s storyline, so.

*Mario Lopez weighs in on Sasha vs Carmella* I’m good thnx.

Was... was that sheet real? Does Carmella actually dance behind a real sheet that drops down for her to walk down the ramp??

Man I gotta hear Sasha’s awful remix twice tonight, shame.

Lol how is Carmella being a WrestleMania battle royal winner more impressive/important than her being a champion for like 100 fucking days??? She has wins over Asuka, Becky, and Charlotte. THAT is more impressive than winning that stupid battle royal.

I guess I can see why Sasha being Snoop Dogg’s cousin is more important than some of her previous accolades, but jfc Carmella resume to casual viewers is dumb.

Someone in the audience had their camera pointed up to a ceiling fan and you know what? Points to that person.

I like the countering of each others’ submissions. Both scouted their opponent well.

Carmella will always be such a natural trash talker with a snappy attitude in the ring. I’m not saying her current gimmick is bad, but the trash talking princess of Staten Island will always live inside of her.

Minor petpeeve: I dislike when wwe cuts to commercial during a 10 count.

Sasha was not manipulated into tonight’s match, nor was her hand forced. Her ego spoke for itself.

Sasha has really graceful footing. She reminds me of a cat.

“Banks might have a dislocated shoulder after that,” “and if that’s the case, there’s no way Sasha can lock in the bank statement,” fun fact: Sasha went into her elimination chamber match in 2019 with a fucked up shoulder. She also ended that match the victor by locking in a modified bank statement using one arm and a bent leg. It was creative, it was cool, and it worked.

History tells me that when Carmella starts letting her frustration in a match show, she will lose rather soon after. That’s where we’re at.

“vintage Sasha” SHE’S 28 YEARS OLD WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT

Peep that Sasha slid herself back so Carmella could grab her as she climbed up the turnbuckles. Knows her spot.

Don’t do a jackknife cover on Carmella, you’re setting yourself up for the code of silence so damn easily.

Good transition into the bank statement though.

Good progression into a dq by Sasha as well.

OH SHIT Carmella just broke a fucking bottle of champagne over Sasha’s back. Is that gimmicked? Holy hell. It has to be right? That’s why it was a different color??

What a sound effect, oof. Oh Sasha’s selling that real well.

Lmao Carmella goes over and pours herself a glass, says “that’s good, really good,” before shaking the bottle all over commentary and Sasha. Carmella’s great at every character she plays, lesbireal.

Carmella needs to hop on down to nxt and teach those women how to trash talk in a match without fucking up. She’s fantastic.

Wow here’s Greg to FINALLY announce the winner. Yikes announcer, yikes.

This was fun.

Highlight: Carmella in general was fantastic tonight

---

*Smackdown easily shined the brightest. Everything was vastly entertaining and women dominated throughout the entire show. Loving the progression of everyone’s characters sans Sasha, but her match with Carmella was fun nonetheless.

#wwe #issa review #feel free to ignore these #cuz who tf cares lesbihonest #today's props goes to:#carmella

0 notes

domeverett · 4 years ago

Text

Making The Cut. James + Cass.

Title: Making the Cut Timeframe: Sometime in the afternoon of 9.27 Tagging: @cruelboy Cassius Westbrooke and James Ashworth. Total: ~3,000 words Notes: Completed.

JAMES

James was honestly used to this sort of thing. Someone didn't make the team and felt entitled to know why. These boys, though very skilled and often competitive in impressive ways, were also entitled. They were used to being able to bully or buy their way into anything they wanted and if not? They had mom and dad come in and try a second round. Some sent their parents in on the first go round.

He had been prepared for at least one fight when he'd posted the team listing to the school bulletin board, just outside the main dining hall, where teachers sat for their meals at the faculty table. He just hadn't assumed Westbrooke would be one of them.

"As I said," James looked up from his papers, fingers slotting together over a pile of syllabi. "The decision has been made. I know that each student tries their best when they're out on the track but unfortunately there are a limited number of spots, which means not everyone will get one."

He paused, knowing compliments often softened the blow. "Yours was an excellent tryout...but there were better runners. It's that simple..." Though the intricacies of his decision weren't technically that unburdened. There was one Dom student who might not have made the cut but James assumed Cassius merely wanted to keep fit, for aesthetic reasons. He could do that on his own time. "Surely there are other physical fitness activities you could pursue....?"

CASSIUS

Cassius can be quite machiavellian when he wants to be. He’s got his preferred method for solving certain problems, but he’s smart enough to realize that a good kiss with a fist can’t solve everything. (Most things, but not all things.) He hasn’t written off the possibility that that’s what this situation needs just yet, but he’s willing to adapt to the whatever challenges Mr. Ashworth throws his way.

Cassius is invested in Cross Country. He doesn’t really care about soccer or lacrosse, though he sees their importance in keeping his demons tamed - but Cross Country is one sport that doesn’t require him to be part of a team and he is damn good at it. After the initial burst of anger that burns bright like a firecracker when the news he hasn't been picked initially drops, Cassius stops and makes a decision. He’s going to get Mr.Ashworth to change his mind.

Three seconds into talking to this man and he knows that persuasion is the poison of the night. He won’t be coy about it, nothing was ever gained without boldness but this last statement that almost makes him throw his composure out the window. This is a submissive thing, isn't it? There’s that firecracker again, threatening to go off, threatening to spark hot.

“Yeah, I'm already doing soccer and lacrosse and I’m going to fucking blow my brains out if I have to do another team sport. The other ones don’t really interest me. I want to do Cross Country.” Cassius says firmly. His gaze finds the other like a lighthouse. “You’re making a mistake,” He continues. “I made great times out there. But that’s the thing... you need at someone who can make the times and handle the stress that comes with - and at least three of the guys you picked are pussies.” Cassius states this like fact. Because it is. “What’s it going to take you to reconsider?”

And if Mr. Ashworth doesn’t reconsider, Cassius is determined to make the rest of his life at Lowell a living hell.

JAMES

James gave pause as Cassius laid out the dire nature of his self-inflicted predicament. He blinked a few times and studied the student. "Two other sports and you're aiming for a third, alongside classes?" It was true that at Lowell they pushed for excellence but the submissives were meant to focus on more of the... softer arts. Now that he knew Cassius had made two other sports he was even more concerned that he wasn't embracing his role here.

"Wouldn't you prefer more energy to... perfect the activities that you're already apart of?" James liked to work in one particular way when it came handling disagreements with students: convince the other person that what he wanted was what they wanted.

He sat back at Cassius' critique of the Dominant students. "Mr. Westbrooke, if I'm not mistaken, you've just arrived on campus, yes?" He asked. "And you're telling me you know these students very well and know how they handle stress?" He lifted his brows, almost inviting Cassius to confirm this, even though the way he'd laid out the assertion msde it clear that was impossible. "Because I have been coach of Cross Country since I began my teaching tenure here and I tend to have an ability to pick capable and competent athletes." Not a slight on Cassius but James knew the other may take it as one. "It was a close call and you would have been...a fine addition to the team, but I just don't see how your argument for reconsideration is based on more than 'I want it and I deserve it more than the ones who got it.'"

He wasn't about to reward such an argument. It was lazy. It seemed an invitation for Cassius to make a better one if he wanted to sway James for real. The Dominant could appreciate a good mental back and forth. Kept the mind sharp. "Do you see where that puts me in regard to your request?" Though, it was favorable that Cassius wanted it badly enough that he was willing to fight for it.

CASSIUS

“Yes” Cassius said, rather stiffly as he listened to the other's response. Glad this one could count. “Real kind of you to look out for me, but I know what I can handle.”

And he meant that. Cassius had spent the majority of his life looking out for only himself and Cassius would continue doing so. He really didn’t need someone who barely knew him telling him what was best for him or where his energies would be better spent. He watched the professor sit back in his chair and he settled back into his own. Cassius wanted to let out an exasperated sigh when Mr. Ashworth demanded an explanation as to how exactly he knew. There was an eye-roll, certainly not the last of the evening, but Cassius returned a steady gaze to the older man. His jaw clicked in determination. No point in lying. “I know these things because because I’ve fucked all three of them.” He said, like it hadn't meant much. It hadn't. He hadn't done them all at the same time, of course, but that would have been fun, wouldn’t it? A thought for another time and place, “or ‘knew them,’” He continued Quote, unquote, “In the biblical sense. Whatever politically correct phrasing you need in order to not write off the validity of the point here. I can confidently say from first hand they cannot handle stress.”

His eyes narrowed, gaze sharpened, though his words were the things a person would cut themselves on. Cassius leaned in, at the edge of his chair so it tipped forward slightly. He enunciated his words, a little like he was speaking to a child.

“My argument for reconsideration is based on the fact that I am better than them.” And I want it and deserve it. But that, apparently, was already a given. “I know this is about my class and I don’t know what you’re trying to prove here by protecting an archaic and regressive system. It won’t mean anything when you don’t place at regionals. Silver and bronze don’t matter, people only remember gold.”

JAMES

"It's my job to think about all students, but especially ones who I have selected to be on my team," he said confidently. He paused, cautious of his words. "It's always good to know your limits," he said, knowing the usual associations of the word.

The eyeroll. The crassness with which he spoke -- however honest -- the determination he'd made of the selections James had made. There was a part of him, somewhat dormant but ever present, that was prickling a little at the way Cassius insinuated himself into this decision. As if he knew better. As if James was mistaken. A dominant made mistakes sure, but his had been a strategic choice. He felt sound in his logic. Yet...Cassius talking back, being a little more obstinate...it wasn't the type of submissive James was used to. It reminded him of something. Almost as though a long forgotten place he had once known but rarely visited. He was catching glimpses of that place. Ghosts. Yet he couldn't quite get it to show itself to him.

"You dangle your...acceptance...as a surety of gold. You tout your talent and your grit. You seem so certain of your persecution based on your classification." James seemed to hold back just a touch of amusement. Of course he'd heard this before. It was something of a tactic, whether genuine or not, which some subs here used to get their way. There was such shame for some Dominants and such a scrambling to appear PC that they wouldn't dare to let themselves stand accused of being classist.

"No, I can see...you want this." He moved from his chair and walked around his desk to settle against it. He crossed his arms over his chest. "So, I'll give you three options. You can do what apparently hadn't crossed your mind in the first place, and ask nicely for a spot on the team." He paused. "You can ask one of those Dominants you're so sure won't get me the gold to step down so you may have their spot..." James' blues looked at the man. "Or, you can accept defeat."

In a way, James need not assert his Dominance at all in a scenario like this. It was plain for Cassius to see in the manner in which he handled the complaint. He knew this choice would not be easy for a guy like Westbrooke. It would be a true sign of character to see what he ended up choosing. Your move. He seemed to say.

CASSIUS

Cassius processed the options as they were given to him. Absofuckinglutely not, was his immediately response to the first. When had Cassius ever asked for anything nicely in his life? The second was laughable: and Cassius wanted to ask if Mr. Ashworth wanted to be responsible for a dead body. That was the only way Cassius was getting through a conversation like that with a Dom.

But the third.... the third was just downright unacceptable. Cassius wouldn’t even consider it, couldn’t even consider it. Immediately, it repelled him. Cassius stepped into this office with every intention of changing this professor’s mind and he didn’t intend to leave without it. A bitterness spread across his tongue. His lips threatened to stretch back and bare teeth, a caged animal ready for a fight. So. One or two it was.

“That’s a helluva choice.” He said slowly.

He hated this trichotomy offered to him, as if these were the only three options in the world. But that was the way of this place wasn’t it? The trichotomy of classification, the dichotomy of dominance and submission. Cassius was going to burn it all down, but that was a long con. He knew this. For now, Cassius was going to make Mr. Ashworth regret putting such an offer on this table. It was a shift in him, a simmering under the surface, like he had smoke for skin. And now, like a chameleon, he changed. Cassius’ sharp eyes, usually quick and darting, trailed slowly up to look at the other from the spot they had settled at his feet. He counted the seconds in his head — and made sure to linger just a hair too long on the Professor’s crotch. It wasn’t long, blink and you missed it. Up and up he continued till their gazes were locked. Cassius looked up at him through dark eyelashes.

In that moment, Cassius decided he wanted to haunt this man.

“But if asking you nicely is really all it’s going to take,” Cassius was all edges, but he traded them out now for poisoned honey. “Then I think you should look at the cold hard evidence presented. Look at those actual times and consider the people. I think you’ll find it the team’s best interest, in your best interest,” his eyes casually flicked to his area of interest, “to reconsider your decision, Sir.”

Your move. He replied.

JAMES

James gave a look, as though Cassius should know to expect nothing less from James than being given a choice of that caliber. And if he didn't know it yet then he did know it now. James was not one to be ruffled or trifled with. No, he'd been through dances like these before. Skirmishes of will power. Of trying to navigate and negotiate something one wanted and using nothing to bargain. He knew the tricks and there was a relative sort of ease with which he dexterously handled the other. It wasn't about classification, not really. It was an exciting grapple of minds. That's what got James in these encounters.

He'd not lost many of times against someone trying to exercise their will over him. It was partly why he enjoyed being sponsor of Debate so much. He got to test his mental muscles and exercise them regularly. Same with his use of words and handling the mental landscape. It was something he felt helped him in his study and instruction of Dominance, too. If someone was perceptive enough to see what the situation required and have the manner and will to execute it...they already had a strong foundation for Dominance.

"Ah, ah," said James. He'd noticed the look Cassius gave toward his bulge. He wasn't made uncomfortable. They were all men here. Adult men. Studied men. Let him look. He wouldn't be the first. Yet, he wouldn't be the one to touch either. James would be sure of that. "That's not what I said."

James wanted to stand in front of Cassius but he didn't. Just remained leaned against the desk with his arms crossed and blue gaze utterly comfortable. "I said you could ask nicely. What you did was suggest something to me." Did his lips curl up in the slightest smirk? Did his humor show in the near subtle arch of his brow? Did amusement color his tone? "I thought for sure you could do better than that..." he paused. "Can you?" He made it a question. He felt that boys like Cassius liked having the answer. "Would be a shame, if not."

CASSIUS

Oh this motherfucker wanted him to say ’Please.’ Now there was a foreign term for Cassius, but he was in it now. He was decided in his decision to haunt. Haunt he would.

It’s clear goading. Cassius, for all his layers and intricacies, has one very obvious button and it was clear James had found it. Looked like he was having a little too much fun pushing it too if that smirk was anything to go off. That was a good sign for Cassius. More importantly, Professor Ashworth was in no way perturbed by Cassius’ wandering gaze, which made Cassius wonder how close he could get.

He stood up, and moved to close the space between them. Till they were standing toe to toe. “Sounds like you’re looking for something very specific.” He licked his lips, grey blue eyes finding bright blue. “Kinda like you want me to beg for it.”

Fingers danced forward till they met the fabric of slacks on Professor Ashworth’s thigh.

“I’d like you to please reconsider your decision to let me onto this team, Sir.”

That nice, enough for you?

Truth be told, Cassius liked working for it. Nothing not struggled for was nothing truly earned. There was an element of fun to this, cat and mouse — though Cassius was still deciding though if James was worth the chase.

JAMES

James wasn't usually one to push like this. Only if he had a clear sense of his boundaries; but Cassius didn't seem the wilting flower type. He seemed to have just as much a backbone for this type of banter as anyone else. They were both adults though and James had set about handling Cassius, given the boy's sense of entitlement and his penchant for being bossy.

He quirked a brow as Cassius moved to stand toe to toe. Whatever he was doing James was unbothered. He was merely curious to see where Cassius would try to take this. The fingers on his thigh had James glancing down before looking back up into Cassius' eyes. His fingers gently clasped around the man's hand on his thigh and rubbed a circle over the back of it before he patted it twice and set back at Cassius' side.

"I appreciate the use of the title," said James. "And really...I can tell that must have taken something for you." James couldn't help the little lift to the corner of his mouth. He should accept the offered words. Really, they would have sufficed for anyone else. Though James wanted to see how well Cassius actually listened to direction and took to James' authority on matters such as this.

In a way this was Cassius' second try out. He may not believe this was a team sport but that didn't mean he could do whatever he wanted. As his coach Cassius would have to listen to James. Would he heed him? Would he follow direction? Even if he didn't always like it?

"But, again, that's not what I asked." James watched him. "That was another suggestion. Can you...ask me? Truly. Like you want to be on the team?" Let me hear it, he wanted to say. Let me know that this is what you want. Ask me for it. "We can take some time and revisit this conversation, if you'd like to think about it."

This wasn't an all or nothing one time deal. He wasn't a monster. Cassius could wrestle with whatever he needed to and decide if it was worth it. But James had set his terms. It was up to Cassius to meet him where he stood.

CASSIUS

Fingers circled over his skin twice, far more intimate than they had any right to be considering the resounding “no” that the gesture ultimately screamed. The pat was almost comical. Cassius let out a sound that was half scoff, half laugh.

The way he saw it, he’d given his offer. This guys loss if he wasn’t going to take it - and Cassius, as overwhelming as he was, was not the sort to force himself onto someone. People earned the punches they received without asking them for all the time, this was not the same for intimacy.

“Oh now you’re just being difficult,” Cassius all but mocked.

Still, he was no quitter. The hand that had been placed at his side clenched, still feeling the ghost of the fabric at the tips of his fingers. He supposed the process of elimination left him with no choice. He’d have to appeal to a Dom on a team. Fine. That was fine. Cassius could get away with punching one of them far easier.

With a cheeky grin, that most certainly said this was not over, Cassius turned on his heel.

“Let’s revisit it.” Cassius said, throwing the words over his shoulder as he grabbed his bag. He was already running through the team roster in his head. “Give me a second to really reflect on it, you know?”

What? Did Mr. Ashworth really think he was going to be the one to inspire personal change in Cassius? No, not even the people Cassius loved could inspire that. Yeah, the professor could just deal with it when Cassius showed up on the team next week - on his own terms.

FIN

#cruelboy #para: all #para: cassius.#para: making the cut.

0 notes

wannawrite · 7 years ago

Text

If Voices Could Kill...

Wanna One's Kim Jaehwan

The 'Our Two Lips' flower boys LDH PJH PWJ wanna one masterlist produce 101 masterlist

fluff word count: 2342 • Jaehwan is really excited about his new job • especially when he finds out you're the niece of the branch manager • but his efforts may be washed by his new flower boy persona jfosjskdjs i'm sorry i had to do you so dirty Jaehwan you know I love you 😘 I love Jaewhan and he kinda is a mess bUt THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO HIM THAN THAT I LOVE HIM SO MUCH thank you for requesting anon, youngmin's flower boy will be up soon!! - Admin L PS: this is such a mess i am so sorry, experimenting with my writing a bit, I want to improve but ofusodjsis idk

"Kim Jaehwan?" You mused in puzzlement, an amused smirk dancing on your lips. "Uncle, are you serious?" You had to stifle your laughs from pouring out of your mouth. Your hands smoothed the paper out, eyes scanning the paper and taking a good look at the man's application. Your uncle furrowed his brow, he neatened another stack of applications. "Why not? He seems like a hard worker and a good kid. Not to mention he's young and... goes to the same college as you. Have you seen him before?"

You groaned in frustration and buried your head in your hands, allowing the paper to float away. "That's the thing," you muttered. "You probably should never see him." The air conditioner was set to one of the coldest settings but that was not the cause shivers than ran down your spine. Just the mere thought of Kim Jaehwan working as a waiter or barista - let alone a flower boy - made you shudder in the worst way possible. You held nothing against Jaehwan and in fact, you shared a class with him. He was a good-hearted person, always offering to help and a smart student. The thing is, he did more damage than help..... "Why? Is something wrong?" Your uncle asked again, chuckling. "Do you like him?" You threw your hands up, eyes widening significantly. "What? No! Uncle, why-why would you ever think that?" You protested, shooting him a disbelieving look. I came here today to help you sort out the papers of applications, not to be attacked. You spun a few rounds in the cushy office chair, sighing and considered slamming your head - or your uncle's head - onto the wooden conference table to knock some sense into it. "If you don't explain the situation to me, I have no reason not to hire Jaewhan. He is very handsome, what a bonus. Aren't you glad Aunt is making you help out a bit?" He teased, eyes twinkling. "You could really use a boyfriend, Y/N." I regret agreeing to help out with this stupid thing. Who is their boss? I just want to talk. If Uncle is one of the upper-class board members- "Ahhh, I get it. You like Kim Jaehwan and you don't want him to act nice to anyone else." Your fist hit the table the second you heard that, the slam was hard enough for the piles of documents to fly but your uncle only laughed. You blushed furiously and opened your mouth to retaliate but no words could be formed. Yanking the cap off the pen, you scribbled a rough tick mark next on Jaehwan's application. "Happy?" You growled out, face still hot. "Very. All I did was ask you to explain but you got so angry Jaewhan now has a job." Realisation set in and you let out a gasp. You had ruined the damn company running these stupid cafes and your aunt and uncle had pretty much lost their jobs. "No no no no no no no." In one swift movement, your uncle bundled the documents and packed them away into a cupboard. He grabbed his coat and gestured for you to follow. "C'mon. Your aunt is waiting for us. Cheer up, you didn't do anything wrong. I'll let you sob with ice cream later," he said, a smile on his face. I suppose seeing Kim Jaehwan almost every day this Summer wouldn't be terrible. The thought floated in your mind. He is really good looking. Let's hope he doesn't screw up.

Jaewhan was bursting with joy when he received the email about his new job. Well, partially because his best friends, Daehwi, Woojin, Jihoon, Sungwoon, Ong and Baejin, pretty much his entire clique had also been hired to work at Our Two Lips. Unfortunately, Minhyun, Youngmin and Justin ( wink wonk hint hint ) were posted to another branch further away but within walking distance. He raced to call his friends about the good news. Jihoon was the first to answer this call. "Jihoon!" He yelled, unable to hide his enthusiasm. "Uh, yes, hyung? Are you okay?" Jihoon asked worriedly. If he pressed his phone really close to his ear, he could hear the footsteps of Jaewhan running. "What's happening?" Jaewhan puffed and panted, clearly out of breath. Damn, I really need to work out more. Another day. "I'm fine!" He yelled as he pushed himself to run faster. "I will be outside your house in a few!" Jihoon jumped in shock, he clutched the phone tighter. "Wha-" "See you!" Jihoon glanced at the tall, Taiwanese boy who lounged on the bean bag of his room. "Uh, Jaewhan hyung coming over. What do you think he wants to tell us?" Jihoon wracked his brains but could not think of anything. Perhaps he wrote the lyrics to a new song? No, he would go to Daehwi for that. Guanlin shrugged in response, not taking his eyes off his phone. "Not sure, but we both need to tell him about....." He was abruptly cut off by the hammering on the front door which Jihoon answered reluctantly. "Hello, hyun-" " "I've been hired as a flower boy!" The older man blurted out loudly, hopping up and down. Guanlin nearly fainted in surprise, he tried to cover up his shock by half-heartedly letting out a cheer of congratulations. "Wow! Isn't that great? We're both going to be working at the same place!" Other than MNet, Jaehwan was sure he had not encountered a faker person - in that moment - than Lai Guanlin. He smacked his chest lightly, protesting. "Yah, hyung will make a better flower boy than you." Guanlin raised an eyebrow, threaded to perfection and crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, really?" Jihoon genuinely did not need that drama, he rubbed his temples and pushed his friends further away from each other with a huff of frustration. "Guys, let's not fight," he pleaded before turning to Jaehwan. "But... how did you even get hired? Sorry, just curious." With his ego on the line, Jaehwan bragged about how his good looks and talent made the cut with ease. "The boss was probably impressed with me," he purred. "No offence hyung but you are literally the clumsiest, messiest hyung I have ever befriended," Guanlin retorted but not in a mean manner, just a... you-know-it-too kind of way. A part of him was genuinely worried for his hyung. How was he going to survive this? Hmph! Why is everyone doubting my abilities? Am I not the perfect flower boy material? Ahh, my dongsaengs are so cute, worrying about me for nothing. Jaehwan pulled the two younger boys into a hug which they happily returned. "Ahh, don't worry about me. I'll be the best flower boy there, the fan favourite. Hyung will teach you two." The boys exchanged glances which each other, faces screaming 'eek!' but they said nothing and simply hoped for the best.

You observed the current state of the cafe closely, picking at every little detail that others might have brushed off. Technically, this was your uncle's job to boss the workers and take care of the place but he was not the most articulate person and many things slipped past him. In fact, he was not even at the front counter but inside the kitchen, idling. You stationed your Summer work, laptop and a free cup of coffee in the cosiest corner of the cafe, bathing in the lukewarm sunlight. So far, all seemed to be brilliant. Daehwi and Jihoon seemed to be crowd favourites. That, you definitely took note of. They were cute but not your type. Perhaps, you did not even have a specific 'type'. It was confusing and it was not like you were interested anyway. It was a busy late morning at the cafe. Heck, there was even a queue for the place and you really wondered why. What was so great about this place? It's literally a regular cafe, just with cute, aegyo filled servers. You wrinkled your nose at that but supposed you would not boycott it since it was a business your extended family was involved in. The whole concept was intriguing and fun, you would admit. A different kind of fun... for some people.... A groan slipped past your lips and you squeezed your eyes shut, head starting to throb at the mere thought of him. Kim Jaehwan is going to be the death of me. Someday, hopefully, before finals come. The Jaehwan you knew in school and the Jaehwan that worked here were the same person yet he behaved differently. Yes, he was a mess in school sometimes but only with his friends. Other than that, he was a model university student who studied hard but played harder. The Jaehwan you knew was a considerate and helpful classmate even if his help was somewhat half-hearted. He was a joy to be around. Bonus! He was pretty cute too, chubby cheeks and all. Jaewhan was adoringly nicknamed 'boiled dumpling' by a couple of his fangirls. However, the flower boy persona of Kim Jaehwan took a 360 spin on who he was in school. Unbeknownst to the 'boss' - your uncle -, you had already received a total of two complaints from customers. They complained that flower boy JaeK ( wink wonk ) - you nearly punched someone because of that name - had uttered explicit and appalling words directed towards them. When you confronted the flower boy, he only smiled sheepishly. "What? I was learning from Ong," he had defended, keen on winning the debate. You had run a hand through your knotted hair, sighing. "What exactly did you tell them?" "Well, Ong had used 'If I were a gardener, I'd put our two lips [ tulips ] together'. So I did my own spin on it and said, 'If I were a gardener, you'd be my hoe." ( if someone actually uses that I might fight them wh00ps ) He had replied, mildly proud of himself. "Jaehwan, did you actually read the rules of working here?" "Yes. More than the pile of notes that professor dropped on us." "Can...you like....be more polite next time okay? It was rude. That was inappropriate," you had scolded. "There are other things you could say you know. Cute things? Actual pick-up lines?" I still don't understand this concept. It's so cringeworthy and creepy. It's okay. Only a few more weeks of being in this damned place. You would never forget that suave smirk Jaehwan shot you as he casually leaned against the counter, nearly messing up the decorations Woojin had painstakingly set up that morning. It made your eyes waver until they locked with his own. His compelling gaze bore into you, inevitably charming you. "You know, darling," he had begun. "I'm only saving those for you." Just remembering that incident made your face burn. JaeK was one charming asshole that you felt like you were falling for.

The more you saw Jaehwan at the cafe, the more he stuck to your side like a leech at school. "Y/N!" You could hear him from a mile away, those vocals weren't trained for nothing. The boy had an angelic voice, you had to admit that. Also, you were starting to think that his clique despised you because of a number of times he had ditched them in favour of you but he was a nice person to talk to. A good listener, only interjecting when he felt it was needed. You enjoyed his company. Often, he would walk you back after a night shift when your uncle and aunt had left in a haste. They were in on it too. It was nice to see Jaehwan in two different lights. Stripped of his makeup and flower crowns, he walked you home after school or work - even if you did not live far from both. Sometimes, he would put his talent to good use and sing a catchy pop song or one of his self-written ones. That relaxed you and made you feel at ease. Other times, a serious student yet a playful friend at university. And of course, being a messy ass flower boy. You were not even sure why he picked that job. When you asked, he simply shrugged and replied with, "I'm not even sure myself. Perhaps I wanted to try something new." The whole situation brought you two a whole lot closer. To the point where you were comfortable with falling asleep on his shoulder on one late night bus ride home. The next morning, you awoke to find a pink flower crown on your bedside table. Your hands clasped around it, brushing over the faux petals. It had to be Jaehwan's. You wore it to 'work' later on, planning to return it but as you approached the counter, you realised he had already worn a spare one. Ong chuckled and ruffled your hair. "Ahh you guys are so cute," he said. "Almost like a couple," Jinyoung snickered as he carried out another tray. "I would support it," Daehwi added, grinning smugly from his spot next to the coffee machine. Your cheeks reddened but the thought of you and Jaewhan as a couple made your heart flutter madly. "Yah, don't go around and make people uncomfortable," Jaehwan chided at his friends, shaking his head which caused his flower crown to loosen. "Oh!" You echoed, leaning forward to fix it. "It's loose. Let me help." Simpers flittered around the two of you but you paid them no mind. Just as you were lowering your hands, beaming proudly at your 'handiwork', ( me, at my C5 graded art welp ) Jaehwan's hands wrapped around your wrists. He smiled and looked you straight in the eye. "Y/N," he murmured softly, his sweet voice seemed to lull you into a dream. It felt as if his voice or presence alone had entranced you into this bubble where a universe with only the two of you existed. Disregarding the pairs of eyes trained on you, you stared back into his beautiful orbs.

“Yes?”

"Let's be a couple for real."

#wanna one #wanna one scenarios #produce 101 #produce 101 scenarios #ong seongwoo #kang daniel #yoon jisung #ha sungwoon #park woojin #park jihoon #lee daehwi #lai guanlin #bae jinyoung #hwang minhyun #kim jaehwan

102 notes · View notes

empiregalaxy · 7 years ago

Text

Don’t you love it when people reblog your posts, and then block you so you can’t reply? Love it. *sarcasm*. Either way, I’m going to respond to this whether that user likes it or not. Heads up, a lot of text.

There are so many things wrong with post and I’ve seen it just a few times too many so I needed to react. (And disclaimer: I’m not a Jalsa ‘hater’; I don’t even know what Jalsa is so there.)

You may not attack Jonsa, but so many people who are pro- Daenerys do, up to the point of calling us ‘delusional’, sending anon hate, and mocking them constantly. Just cause you don’t take part of it, doesn’t mean others don’t. So -yeah- I’m going ot have a problem with that.

“Dany tortured a child.” I presume you’re talking about the wineseller’s daughter here…? In that case, context is everything. What eventually happened to the wineseller’s daughter remains vague. Apart from that, torturing her was never Dany’s idea to start with. Throughout the series, we see her being protective of children and struggling with her ideas of motherhood. The idea to torture the wineseller’s daughter came from Shakaz. And when Dany thinks about the murder of her people - especially Rylona Rhee, a freed woman -, she agrees to Shakaz’s notion. I don’t condone that, I think it’s 100% wrong and I wish Dany acted differently here. But to take this action out of its context - a city besieged from within, while Dany tries to protect her people, amongst whom there are children as well! - in order to proof Dany is a Horrible Person is a strawman argument imo.

Well, I completely disagree with that meta linked. Context? You mean, ‘cool motive, still a war crime.’ I don’t give a shit what motivated Daenerys to torture a child. I don’t care that the city was under seige. Just cause it’s not ‘your idea’ doesn’t mean you don’t hold the power in that situation. Daenerys is a Queen. Shakaz is part of her council. Who holds the influence at the end of the day? Daenerys does. And it’s not ‘vague’ if you know what medieval torture was. Flaying, pulling out teeth, burning, snapping bones. Want a full list? Happy to provide one. I suppose the Wineseller’s daughters don’t count as Daenerys’ ‘people’. Her prior protection of people (and any “context” doesn’t make the wineseller’s daughters less tortured and brutalized. So it’s not a strawman argument at all.

Is practically an imperialist.” Nope, I don’t agree with this, sorry. There are a lot of racial issues with Dany’s Slaver’s Bay storyline but I think these stem from problems with Martin’s writing rather than Dany’s characterization an sich. There are people who can talk about this way more eloquently than I can but in short I don’t think Dany’s an imperialist and/or has imperialist motives. This post is excellent in explaining why that’s so

I never once talked about the racial undertones of Slaver’s Bay. Never did. I called her an ‘imperalist’ in relation to her wanting to overtake Westeros and imposing herself as ruler of Meereen. I’m just going to quote from a meta I wrote

She uses military forces to take Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor. She’s not simply the Princess Of Dragonstone, but the Queen Of Meereen, a title which has nothing to do with Targaryen legacy, but she creating in some Slaver’s Bay Empire. She used the Unsullied and Second Sons to do so. What Daenerys did does fit the definition of imperalism. (...)

As for imperalism and it being justified, well- you are justified in getting rid of slavery. You are, however not justified in changing a culture to see how you feel fit, you are not justified to execute whoever you feel wronged by, you are not justified to torture children, you are not justified in bringing three weapons of mass destruction into a city with the intent of using them- even if they are your ‘children’. Imperalism gives an appeal- power goes to the mightiest and in the case of Daenerys, someone with more humanity than the slave masters. But it’s not that simple. Any imperalism comes fire, blood and destruction.

(...)

Critics of Daenerys do not just call her an imperalist in relation to Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen. It’s also about Westeros. The Targaryens lost their right to rule when they committed the atrocities under King Aerys II. Back to Aegon The Conquerer, the ‘conquered’ Westeros. But the Baratheons, under Robert- conquered the Targaryens. So it’s technically a Baratheon state. Daenerys wants to change that, and revert it back to the Targaryen way. Changing how things works, who is in charge and who sits on the throne is imperalism. She wants to bring imperalism to Westeros. Therefore, Daenerys is an imperalist and more importantly will continue to be so.

“Called Ned an usurper dog.” Well, eh, it’s kinda logical Dany would think that, no? Eddard was crucial in the downfall of House Targaryen. We, the readers, know Robert’s Rebellion was justified but in Dany’s mind - the mind of a girl who had to flee her homeland, grew up with Viserys and relied on his version of events of what happened when she was just a babe - Eddard is an usurper who contributed in the fall of her House, the murder of her family and the loss of her home. I think accepting what her father has done, acknowledging that dark part of her ancestry is and will be one of the driving forces of Dany’s arc and characterization in the series. She isn’t there yet; she’s still holding onto her idealized version of her family and history. That’s rather ignorant and wrong of her but c’mon, it’s understandable; it’s human. I really don’t understand how you (or anyone for that matter) can fault her for not looking favorable upon Eddard Stark. Why in the seven hells would she, considering she doesn’t know the whole truth about her father’s reign?

Her counsel includes Barristan Selmy, who tried to tell her differently that Ned advocated for her life. She chose to not listen. Next point.

“Dishes out ‘justice’ to the Grand Masters without trial.” Lol, somehow I find this one extra funny. I would totally agree with such a complaint, if we were talking about a real life situation with real life people. However, the world of ASoIaF is not real life; it’s fantasy. A fantasy world where the capital punishment is very much a thing, where the ruler of a city, city state, state, kingdom, et cetera rules supreme, where faux ‘trials’ are in vogue and where the murder of slaves is everyday business. That doesn’t mean you can’t be bothered by the fact Dany ordered the deaths of slave holders and traders but in that case, I would fully expect you to be just as bothered with Arya’s sense of justice, or Jon’s, or basically anyone in the series who kills ‘bad’ people without a trial first. Dany is the Breaker of Chains; she wants to destroy the slave trade and free the people of Slaver’s Bay. For me, especially in the context of ASoIaF, that’s a noble enough goal to justify killing the Grand Masters and it doesn’t make me like Dany any less.

You do know that the grand masters who were nailed to the cross were picked at random? Not by measure of atrocity, or their actions.... she just grouped them all together and at random, chose 163. It is totally not comparable to Arya Stark, a fierce warrior. In the books- she wants to know the names of the Freys responsible. She just doesn’t go on a rampage like Lady Stoneheart does and kill them all. Arya is very specific in who she wants to kill- Daenerys is not.

“Can’t control her dragons for shit.” Okay, what. A) Literally NOBODY (or at least nobody Dany came in contact with) can at this point. NOBODY. B) Dany regularly reprimands herself for that very fact throughout the series. She even locks up Rhaegal and Viserion, who she considers to be her children* and who are her biggest weapons and the foundation of her power, in order to make sure the people are safe. She constantly berates herself for the murder of Hazea. *I think the fandom really underestimates this fact. The dragons are not just her ‘pets’, they are her children, her salvation, her means of going back home (the very thing she longs for most). C) May I remind you that it’s Quentyn Martell (the poor fool) who lets Rhaegal and Viserion escape at the end of ADwD? D) At the very end of her ADwD arc Dany is actually succeeding in taming Drogon. With only a whip. (Favorite chapter ever.)

Point being: she should have done it sooner. I do get what you are saying about the dragons being her children, but Hazea’s death could have been avoided if Drogon wasn’t roaming around that day. I don’t -hate- Daenerys because of it, I just find it careless on her part.

6. & 7. I’m going to combine your last two arguments, because they boil down to the same thing: a leader under siege in the world of George R.R. Martin does things like to that in order to survive. A leaders threatens people. A leader takes hostages (hostages that are in Dany’s case well taken care of by the way). And Dany took the children hostage because she wanted to stop the killings. Wow, she’s such a Jerk. Amazing. I sincerely wish Dany didn’t have to do these things but it’s not like she was in a very comfortable, safe position when she made these decisions. Once again for the people in the back: context is everything.

Yes, war and seiges put leaders in a corner. Do they have to be children, though? Just cause she takes care of them well doesn’t change the fact that they are hostages. Just cause she won’t harm them (even though it’s been established she’d torture innocent people)

Accept that not everyone is going to like your ‘fav’. We have valid reasons, and you can’t just scream ‘sexism’.

#anti daenerys #urgh urgh urgh #long post for ts

56 notes · View notes