#if i wield this feeling properly maybe i can actually get better at art

[confetti-casual]

why do i actually want to draw??? where did the art block go????? what??????

[imjeralee]

i request that you drink plenty of water and take care of yourself !!! ·o·b after thats done, came i pretty please get headcanons with link, Kaeya and maybe Childe about an s/o who draws them one day as a confession and gives it to them? :) (maybe they already knew and saw them drawing them before ? who knows) thank you in advance!!

Thank you anon! *looks at cup of green tea beside laptop* yep I think i’m doing well in keeping myself hydrated recently hehe but thank you :3

Anyway please see below for the ask! (it’s pretty long)

Link

He was grooming one of the ponies when he saw you standing behind a tent peeking at him curiously and when he turned round properly, you quickly scampered away and he got worried so he followed you to the room you share to see you sitting on the bed with a wine red book propped up in your lap but upon his return, you immediately hid it behind your back, smiling widely at him

He wonders what it was but decides not to pry, but he later discovers it was actually a sketchbook when he’s packing up for tomorrow and you’re taking a bath and the sketchbook drops out of your pack and onto the floor, opening at a random page

He picks it up with the intention to return it to your bag but then he sees the various drawings of him in his Ancient Armour set, Hylian and Snowquill set. They’re fully coloured and it looks like you’ve spent hours on them. He didn’t know you were this artistic and wondered why you hid this from him

The date you wrote on the bottom of the page indicates that you drew all this in one day! He’s super impressed

Then he sees the note you wrote below: “To my Dearest Link, I hope you like my drawings of you. All I can think about is how lucky I am to be able to be by your side, you’ve changed my life for the better and-”

Obv half complete so now he knows why you didn’t want to show him and he respects your privacy, so he puts the sketchbook away 

Outside, he sees Beedle and goes over to see what’s new for sale. Beedle has some cool art stuff (well, it’s more like stuff that can be used for dye but can also be used as paint) so he buys some for you as a present which he will give to you later.

Next day, you get chased by a group of Bokogoblins and the book and all your drawing supplies drops out from your bag. 

You didn’t see it drop and returned to the stable, ransacking your bag like crazy only to find your stuff missing

When you realise everything must have dropped out when you got chased, you quickly leave the stable to go back to the area but it’s thunder and lightning so Link chases after you

“Link, what are you doing? Go back, the weather’s awful.” You tell him but he shakes his head, unable to leave you alone in the rain like this

He helps you with your search and you end up locating your book and your supplies which are lying in the mud

The book has been trampled over and some of the pages have been torn out. The remaining pages are soaked with dirt and grime. Your pencils are snapped in half and your paints have been left to bleed all over the grass. All of your drawings are ruined, too. This is your worst nightmare.

Link observes you silently as tears begins to form in your eyes and you look at him, sniffling slightly.

You’re experiencing a mixture of devastation, frustration, anger and exasperation - from your carelessness to the stupid bokogoblins - and this incident infuriates you so much you throw the book to the ground angrily

Before you can march away, Link grabs your wrist 

Turning round, your gazes meet and he looks at you softly, intently.

‘What’s wrong?’ he is saying. 

“I was going to use those to confess to you!” you end up roaring out by accident. 

Link looks at you, a little stunned

“N-Never mind! Everything’s ruined!!!!” 

You’re about to storm off again when Link suddenly pulls you into his chest and gives you a hug

“!” you’re so shocked you can’t speak

He pulls away though, and leads you to the hollow of a nearby tree trunk where he gestures for you to sit down to shelter from the rain whilst he glances around, then sprints back over to where the ruined sketchbook is

He picks it up and holds it against his chest as if it’s dear to him. That’s not all, you watch as he begins to pick up the remaining pages that were torn out and once he’s collected them all he returns to you, clutching the pages tightly

"Link...” you murmur breathlessly as he he kneels down in front of you before he fishes around in his pockets to reveal a random bunch of paint pots in his hand.

You’re a little confused, but realise he has some spares which he must have bought from a merchant

it’s not much but...

he nudges it to you for your offering

You gawp at him for a few moments before you smile and chuckle and upon seeing you back to your usual self again, Link smiles and helps you back onto your own feet to stand

You thank him as you cradle the paints to yourself. You will need to restart from scratch from somehow it feels ok and something tells you you don’t need to hide it from him anymore

And you return to the stable, sheltering from the rain by sharing a large leaf together

Kaeya

Let’s begin with the fact that alongside you, there is a maid who also likes Kaeya as much as you do and she’s a bit of a sneaky bugger and you don’t show your drawings to anyone or watermark your artwork until they’re complete. You can probably see where this is going

One day, Kaeya finds out you are drawing a picture of him when he comes to your office to inform you that there’s a group of abyss mages outside Mondstadt so you hurry off to dispatch it and leaving Kaeya in your office

He accidentally comes across your drawing when he sees his face on a piece of parchment and his interest is piqued so he heads over to check it out

It’s a really good sketch!!! the amount of detail is insane! he had no idea you possessed such skill and who knew that you could create such beautiful art like this? He also finds some rough doodles and sketches you made earlier on some scrap paper you had also written on so he knows it’s you

Anyway, he puts everything back to join you in battle, but not before passing a maid along the way who is heading to your room to clean up

She comes across your drawing and she’s always fancied Kaeya herself, so for some reason other than just thinking she might be able to get away with it if she’s sneaky enough, she takes your drawing and sets off with it

Meanwhile, you return to your room after the battle, take off your coat and sit comfortably in your chair, reaching for your quill

“Ah, time to get back to my drawing of Kaeya.” you say with a smile, looking at your desk.

Wait a minute.

Something is wrong.

Very wrong.

It’s GONE!

After checking the rest of your office (and its clearly not there), you rush outside, wondering what happened to it when you see Kaeya and a maid talking in the corridor

they didn’t see you, so you quickly hide

“Please accept this, captain Kaeya!” gushes the maid, presenting your drawing to him. “I drew this picture of you to show how much you mean to me.”

What in the Samachurl shit is this? 

You’re about to storm over when Kaeya takes the drawing with a delicate brow raised, studies it intently and goes, “Oh? But I’m not so sure about that.”

“W-what do you mean, Captain Kaeya?”

“There’s no watermark on it,” he points out, “....one could’ve taken anyone’s artwork and claim that it’s theirs.”

“T-That’s - ! Ah, Captain Kaeya, h-how could you think so lowly of me?”

“I’m only just stating some simple facts, that’s all. You won’t hold that against me, will you? And I’m certainly not accusing you of anything...unless you...?”

“Oh....uh....I...I-I’m so sorry, Captain Kaeya, you’re right! I-I....please excuse me!”

The maid’s too embarrassed to proceed any further and leaves, running away.

Indeed, what in the samachurl hell had just happened? 

It goes quiet and you wonder if he’s still there; you step out of your hiding place only to go nose-to-chest with Kaeya.

He greets you with a smirk. “if it isn’t the little kitten, what are you doing here?”

“Um...uh, I....that....that drawing - “

What he said is right, there’s no watermark. How can you prove it’s yours? Would he believe you if you told him?

“Hm? Ah, yes, this drawing. I was going to keep it for myself.”

“No, wait! I mean...er...it’s not finished yet-”

“So you drew this then?”

“Yes, I did. it was me.” Though you wonder if he would believe you after everything you had just heard.

“Why?”

You lamely tell him you really like him and wanted to use it to confess to him.

He watches you for a few seconds, then hands the drawing to you. “I’ll wait until you’ve finished then.”

“Huh?” You gasp. He gave it back to you so easily despite what he said to the maid! “You...you’re not-”

“I knew it was you who drew it. I recognised your style.”

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“If I said so earlier, how else would I get you to confess to me?”

“KAEYA!!!”

(from then on he’ll want you to draw him more often)

Childe

Saw you sitting on the grassy hill near Qingxu Pool drawing earlier and because he is good at sneaking up on people, you didn’t hear him as he casually leaned over to peek over your shoulder and said, “Hey girlie, what’re you up to?”

You’re like “UWAGH!” and quickly close your sketchbook before turning round to see Childe.

“N-nothing!” you exclaim, before you get up and run down the hill, leaving a very amused Childe on his own

Later, when you’ve finished your masterpiece, you nervously approach Childe and tell him, “Um....this is for you, let me know what you think.” before rushing off in a blushing mess and Childe will open the sketchbook to see that you’ve drawn a very nice portrait of him in a battle stance, wielding his bow, surrounded by his hydro blades

Childe stands, staring at the picture

Then he sees the words ‘do you like me?’ scribbled at the very bottom

Childe staring hard now

He’s used to giving people gifts but now that he’s received something so thoughtful, he’s a bit overwhelmed. he can tell you put so much effort and hardwork into this. Ah, what is this feeling? 

He closes the book without further ado and scrubs a hand over his face

he actually wasn’t expecting you to do this. he knew you were drawing him but the result is really....something else

You don’t hear him from Childe in a few days and you are so nervous and worried.

Is this a rejection? Maybe he didn’t like your picture after all...

You’re walking in the streets and sigh and sit on the stone steps of Liyue, staring at the sea, upset and dejected

But then you hear a whistle from behind and throw a glance over your shoulder to see Childe standing on a higher step, a hand in his pocket

“Hey girlie, heads up,” he tosses a paper plane into the air which makes this little loop before you stand to catch it

Looking up, Childe has gone

You unfold the paper plane to its proper size to reveal that Childe’s drawn a little sketch of you in return and he has written: ‘Yes I do’.

[houseisekai]

House Miisekai Prologue: The Adventure Begins!

House Miisekai Masterlist Here

====

Our story begins in the land of Miisekaitopia! (No, I couldn't think of a better name.)

It is a world where everyone from both storylines and unholy amounts of AU's can live in peace without worrying about wars breaking out every 4 seconds.

At least it was.

The darkness came without warning, a great and terrible shadow threatening all of Miisekaitopia! An unspeakably huge dick came and stole everyone's faces! Then, to add insult to injury, put those faces onto monsters across the land!

But, we shall follow the perspective of Sara Valestein, Instructor of Class VII and the original House Isekai...

Sara casually strolled through the hills, enjoying the sunlight and wind blowing gently across her.

(Sara) "...Goddess I am so bored."

She had been kicked out of yet another bar recently for drinking too much.

Again.

Left with nothing to do, she decided to take a trip to nowhere in particular, going wherever fate took her.

Sara continued muttering to herself, mocking the established "rules" for drinking in a tavern until she noticed something flying in the air.

(Sara) "Is...that a face?"

She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, and saw the eyes slowly float over to a nearby butterfly.

(Sara) "Uh...?"

(Sara) "GAH!"

The horrific creature began floating faster towards Sara, which prompted her to run full speed ahead towards the closest town.

As she ran out of breath, she ran towards anyone would even take a minute to listen.

(Sara) "H-Hey, there's some freaky bug thing out there with a human face!"

BE-LOP!

Tiny lines of text ran down the guide's face.

It showed too many messages at once for her to properly read it, and the person remained completely still.

(Sara) "...Hello?"

(Everyone) "..."

(Sara) "...Right."

Sara moved to the next person she saw.

...

Sara saw a platypus with a name tag 'Perry' calmly sitting on the market stall.

(Sara) "Hello, anyone here?"

The platypus stared at her, not saying a word.

(Sara) "...What in the hell is with this town?"

Next try. That would probably work.

...

(Anakin) "What did we get ourselves into this time?"

(Obi-Wan) "I'm not sure but...I do not like this a single bit."

(Anakin) "At least you're in a taller body, my head barely reaches your stomach!"

(Obi-Wan) "It's not the first time."

(Sara) "Hey, excuse me ma'aaaaaaaaaa...What in the?"

(Anakin) "Listen lady, we got our own problems right now. We're not in the mood-"

(Obi-Wan) "What my young padawan means is that we unfortunately cannot spare any help if you need it ma'am."

(Sara) "...Evidently."

Sara nervously walked away from the two grown men in a child and woman's body.

(Sonia) "Did we get transported again?"

(Gundham) "By the works of dark magic, no doubt..."

(Sonia) "Oh, looks like there's someone over there. Hello ma'am, do you know where we are?"

(Sara) "Eh?...Huh. That's a good question. Where is this?"

(Sonia) "Oh well, I'm a bit more comfortable knowing that someone I like is with me here!"

(Gundham) "I...uh...er..."

(Sara) "That's cute. Ah, to be young again..."

Sara left the two to talk amongst themselves before finding the next...person?

It was an extremely fat rabbit that was grey and white.

(Sara) "What in the hell-"

BIG BIG CHUNGUS, BIG CHUNGUS, BIG-

(Sara) "Okay, screw that."

Sara finally saw the mayor and approached him, and when he turned she almost jumped.

It was a Piranha plant. She thought so anyway, it was covered in white polka dots and bright red.

(Plant) "Ah, welcome to the town miss?"

(Sara) "Uh, Sara. Sara Valestein. Listen, there's this weird face that attached itself to a butterfly outside your place! You're gonna do something right?"

(Plant) "Did...did you say a face float down? OH NO."

(Familiar Man's voice) "OH YES."

(Sara) ?

(Anakin) "Uh, master?"

(Obi-Wan) "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

The platypus, fat rabbit, and the discord notification looked up into the skies, getting increasingly alarmed.

(Gundham) "THIS DARKNESS...IT'S...IT'S OVERWHELMING!"

(Sonia) "His voice sounds grating like Souda's..."

(Plant) "COINS PRESERVE US! IT'S..."

[Imperial Will - Final Fantasy XIV OST]

(Dark Lord Chris) "KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD, AND OFFER YOUR FACES UNTO ME!"

(Sara) "...Faces? You mean like services or...?"

(Anakin) "Maybe that's metaphorical?"

(Obi-Wan) "I'm not sure I want to find out-"

(Chris) "NO, YOU REALLY DON'T. ALSO NO. I MEAN IT LITERALLY!"

Several faces began to fly off the townspeople.

First was the platypus's face, quickly followed by the discord notification and Anakin's.

(Obi-Wan) "ANAKIN!"

Then it was Sonia and the fat rabbit's faces that floated next to Chris.

(Gundham) "AAAAAAAGH!"

(Plant) "OH MY GOD, THIS IS HORRIBLE!"

(Sara) "Can someone tell me what the hell is happening?!-"

(Chris) "THESE NOW BELONG TO ME! NOW, GO TELL THE OTHERS WHAT YOU'VE SEEN HERE, FOR I WILL BE COMING FOR THEM NEXT!"

Chris flew off into the skies, the faces following closely behind.

(Sara) "What an asshole!"

(Plant) "ADVENTURER, PLEASE YOU HAVE TO HELP US!"

(Sara) "Right uh..."

Sara reached for her sword and pistol, which was nowhere to be found.

(Sara) "Well, that's just great..."

Obi-Wan struggled to walk over to here, still not accustomed to his body and looked at Sara.

(Obi-Wan) "Ma'am, I'm afraid I cannot go into battle myself to assist with this matter. And we don't appear to have our weapons either..."

(Sara) "So, what do you reckon I do? Ask nicely?"

...

(Sara) "Damn it."

OUTSIDE OF TOWN...

Chris was floating away from the town when Sara finally caught up to him.

(Sara) "HEY, JACKASS!"

(Chris) "...Oh, you mean me. I-I mean, OH, IS SOMEONE TRYING TO BE THE HERO NOW?"

(Sara) "Don't play smart with me you glasses wearing freak! Give back their faces!"

(Chris) "Or what? You're going to fight me?"

Sara cracked her knuckles.

(Chris) "...Oh shit. Uh, here have it."

The face slowly floated over to a slime, which reattached itself and began hopping towards Sara.

(Anakin's voice) "OH MAN, I THOUGHT THE KID BODY WAS BAD!"

(Chris) "Uh anyways, LATER!"

Chris quickly flew away from Sara, leaving her and Anakin's face on a slime.

(Sara) "Alright, LET'S GO!"

Sara drove her fist into the slime, which quickly bounced off.

(Sara) "...Oh right. It's a slime."

The slime retaliated by knocking Sara onto her back.

(Anakin's voice) "Sorry!"

(Sara) "Damn, my weapons aren't anywhere to be found either!

"I AM THOU...THOU ART I..."

(Sara) "Oh, what is it now-HURK?!"

Sara reached for her head as the voice boomed thunderously.

"THOU ART...Okay, no we're not rhyming. I'm your guardian spirit, Sara!"

(Sara) "Really now? And where were you during Erebonia?!"

"ANYWAYS, it seems you're in a bit of trouble! Do you need some help?"

(Sara) "It's either getting help or getting killed by a damn slime of all things, so...Yeah, sure."

"Good choice! Now, I bestow upon you the awesome power of the guardian!"

(Sara) "You're gonna explain later where I got this from, right?"

"That depends, do you want the plot to get moving? Our other posts are slowed down as it is, and this has gotten too meta in just the first few lines of this."

(Sara) "Ugh, fine."

Sara's outfit shined forth and became donned in armor, wielding a new sword.

(Sara) "Hey, you cheap bastard, where's my gun?!"

"This is a fantasy RPG, why would you get a gun? Just kill the damn slime already!"

(Anakin's voice) "WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?!"

(Sara) "Hold on, I'll getcha outta there, HIYA!"

[COOL QUIRK: WEAK POINT]

Sara took one swing of her sword and smacked the slime into the floor, it quickly disappearing.

Anakin's face floated off the slime and back to the town.

"That was..."

(Sara) "Really anti-climatic."

"You should uh...probably go back to the town and check up on Anakin."

INSIDE OF TOWN...

Anakin's face slowly floated back onto the child's body, making him trip over.

(Anakin) "AGH!"

(Obi-Wan) "So, how was it?"

(Anakin) "I was just put into a slime's body, how do you think I feel?!"

(Obi-Wan) "Same as usual, got it."

Obi-Wan turned to Sara, who now looked like a proper knight.

(Obi-Wan) "You have our thanks for helping us, Miss?"

(Sara) "Name's Sara."

(Anakin) "Thanks for helping me out there. What are you gonna do? We'd join you but our bodies would just get in the way."

(Sara) "I'm going to uh...Hey, what is the plan?"

"What do you think? You're the only hero in a fantasy land."

(Obi-Wan) "Is she alright?"

(Anakin) "Yeah, she started doing this earlier, no idea what's up with it."

(Sara) "Might as well go after the others, see what happens I guess. Anyways, I'll be back once I restored this town, until then!"

Sara held onto her sheathe and ran out of the town, those still faceless watching her leave.

(Gundham) "Please hurry. Sonia is...unsettling me."

(Plant) "Miss Valestein, you're our only hope...!"

(Anakin) "Think she'll be okay? That talking thing is really concerning me."

(Obi-Wan) "Probably...?"

[Chase Me - Faky]

(Sara) "Right so...do I just go forward?"

"Where did you see him fly off to?"

(Sara) "Was a lot more focused on trying NOT to get murdered by the slimes."

"It was just a slime, you've killed enemy mechs and demonic beasts like it was nothing!"

(Sara) "That's when I had my weapons and ARCUS unit!"

"..Still. Should've had no problem. I probably didn't even have to interfere."

(Sara) "Good goddess, am I going to be stuck with you? Actually WHO even are you?"

"The narrator! In a sense anyway."

(Sara) "What-"

And so begins the tale of Sara Valestein and her quest to defeat the Dark Lord Chris!

What friends will she encounter on the way?

How much of the meta can we break more than we have?

How many more jokes will the writer run into the ground as this series goes on?

FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON HOUSE MIISEKAI!

(Sara) "...What?!"

STARRING:

And yours truly as the antagonist for this story!

Here's to some more god-awful written meme stories like this one, everyone!

[evolutionsvoid]

The Yale is a creature I am sure many are familiar with. A striking figure, impressive antlers and a gorgeous hide makes them impossible to ignore! They are also found in quite a few places, as they prefer grassy habitats in temperate climates. They have close relations to the cervid family, so they tend to be in environments where such creatures roam! They seek out places rich with ground level vegetation, as they are herbivorous. Grasses, leaves, fallen fruits and above ground vegetables are their preferred food, and they spend a lot of their time grazing. This plant based diet is occasionally supplemented by eating clay or even gnawing on old bones, as there are some nutrients you just can't get anywhere else! Yales tend to travel in groups, herding together for extra safety and to better secure ideal grazing lands. Young bachelor males may travel on their own, trying to find new lands and herds that they may take over. While they may gather in numbers, this does not mean that they are cowering creatures huddling together in fear! In fact, Yales are rather powerful members of their ecosystems, beasts that very few dare challenge!   The most noticeable and famous part of the Yale is obviously its fascinating antlers. These long curved blades with their sharp tines make for sleek weapons, but that is not all! Unlike other species, these bony protrusions are not rooted to a single spot! They are actually jointed and have musculature to them! Just a little ways up from the skull, you will see a joint that allows the rest of the antler to bend up and down. With this joint and a little rotational flexibility, the Yale can shift its antlers into different positions for certain instances. In their usual upright state, they serve as symbols of strength and prowess, intimidating predators and competitors. If a foe chooses to attack, they will drop these antlers into a lower position and turn them into thrusting swords! With both antlers slung below, it can stab and slash at enemies with its tines, capable of puncturing flesh and slicing skin! To make these weapons even stronger is the Yale's flexible neck and agile movements. By twisting its neck at the right time, it can swing its blades in from different angles and perform some crazy moves. They essentially become swordsmen, with all sorts of different approaches and strategies! You honestly have to see them fight to truly understand their skill, as it is wild to think such a creature can pull off such elegant attacks! It is no surprise that a full grown healthy bull has very little to challenge it! Only a starving predator would dare attack such a skilled adversary, and they may be eating a sharp antler for this desperate gamble! Not only are they great for fighting off predators and squaring off with competitors, the antlers can be used for communication. By altering their position or moving them in certain intervals, they can signal their fellow brethren. Movements of their antlers and ears can combine to create some complex messages from one member to the other, like indicating where a hidden threat is lurking or conveying the status of certain members of the herd. Females also possess these jointed appendages, but they are much smaller than the males. Instead of the long branching blade, their bony limbs end in short spikes. These growths are not good for attacking, but they can still be used for signaling. Though males possess these impressive antlers, they are not permanent. For a short part of the year, the ends of these weapons fall off and the Yale must regrow them. If you look closely at the antler past the joint, you will note a bulbous part of the antler. This is actually a pedestal, from where the rest of the sharp antler grows from. This is the spot where the old growths will break away and fall off, and where the new bone will begin to form. A film of velvety fur will grow around the pedestal, and it will stretch out to slowly create the new antler. Underneath this fur is where the bone forms, and it will shed this coating once it is ready. This allows them to slough off broken antlers and regrow new ones each year, ensuring that they have top shape weaponry every time! 

Mating season is when the prowess and skill of the Yale really enters the spotlight. This time of the year is what the males of this species prepare for! As rut begins, their fuzzy antlers stop growing and their velvet falls off, revealing their famous bony blades! Once their antlers are ready, the bulls will seek out grassy fields and other open areas to set up shop. These locations make it easier for both males and females to spot each other, and it makes for a good stage to show off your moves! Once a suitable place is found, the male will let out a long, sharp bugle to call in nearby females. They will continue to do these vocalizations for hours on end, hoping that the ladies hear it and are enticed by it. Apparently female Yales can determine a lot from these calls, and they use them to locate the biggest and beefiest bull! Interested cows will seek out the caller and move in for a closer inspection. If they like what they hear AND see, then they will remain with the male. As time passes, a big healthy bull will start to build up a harem of viable females and this is when things get a bit tougher. Younger males will have a hard time securing an open area and their calls pale in comparison to the bigger bulls', so they instead roam during these ruts. They are looking for any viable female, and this usually means they target another bull's harem. They will try to sneak in and steal a cow from the larger male, which means the intruder must be scared off! When another male comes to steal or challenge, the two will ready their antlers and fight! These duels are quite incredible to watch, as they don't just ram heads, they have a whole sparring match! They slash, stab and swipe at their opponent, frequently moving their antlers to block attacks, confuse their foe or target an open spot! Though these battles may seem intense and fierce, their goal is not to kill their enemy. Rather, they are targeting a specific spot on their neck. During the rut, a special sac located on their neck and chest will inflate to aid their vocalizations. This is how they create such loud, piercing calls, as they are forcing air through this finely tuned organ. While it is made of tough skin, it is vulnerable to the sharp tines of an opposing male! Sparring males seek to puncture this inflated organ, though it isn't nearly as painful as it sounds. Such an injury hardly affects the health of the male and the hole will heal itself back up within a few weeks. There is very little physical danger to come from such a wound but, during the rut, it is devastating. When the organ is punctured, it cannot function properly, much like how a drum cannot play right when you put a knife through its membrane. They will not be able to call out to females with the power and pitch that they like to hear, causing them to lose suitors. The pathetic yelps of a defeated bull is not at all attractive to a female, so the harem will look elsewhere if their potential mate is conquered. With this end result on the table, many bulls will bail out of a fight if they feel that they are starting to lose. Better to run and try again later than have your chances reduced to nil! So that is why you may see a bigger heftier bull run away during a scrap with a younger male, as they are sensing that they will be deflated and prefer to stay in the game!     Due to its elegant nature, skillful fighting style and impressive weaponry, the Yale is known quite well throughout the land and has become a respected symbol for many. In truth, I imagine more people have seen a Yale in family crests and heraldic symbols than those who have spotted a live one! In these sigils, the Yale is meant to symbolize both elegance and a fighting spirit. Such families that bear the likeness of the Yale are often into fencing, dueling and any hobby that involves weapons and finesse. When depicted in these crests, the Yale will often have one antler upright and the other slung down in attack mode, as it shows both sides of this noble beast. Yales are also big in the fencing community, for obvious reasons. They are used a lot in logos and competition names, and a few moves are actually named after them! For high up nobles and fancy aristocrats who take on this sport, they tend to use Yale antlers to craft the handle of their favorite foil, saber or epee. These specially made weapons are said to have the power and skill of the Yale infused into them, making them valuable and widely sought after. Those who wield them are masters of this art and are some of the finest swordsmen around, or so they say. I have seen some of these folk who own these weapons, and I can't say I am impressed. Pretty sure those fancy fools didn't even kill the beast themselves to make their expensive toy, just had their servants do it for them. I bet I could take them down with just a hefty stick, and maybe whack some humbleness into them. Going with the subject of fencing and finesse, Yales are sometimes associated with romantic adventurers, chivalrous swordsmen and swashbucklers. These creatures are said to capture the spirit of honor and chivalry that comes from such folk, especially with their famous duels. There is definitely some romantic literature out with such references, as I recall some stories starring the "Cerulean Yale" and his incredible adventures of dueling pompous aristocrats and winning over the swooning maidens. There are a chunk of young gentlemen who try to replicate such deeds in real life, an act I certainly don't recommend. They like the idea of fighting for the love of a woman, which is just like the noble Yale (though they tend to leave out the whole "harem" part of Yale courtship, and I don't think it is because they disagree with such a notion. You are going to want to avoid these wannabe swashbucklers, ladies. Something tells me all that chivalry and sweet-talking only lasts for so long). Another obvious thing that folks admire about the Yale is their impressive antlers, which make for breathtaking trophies and decoration. Pretty much any recreational hunter that walks the surface world has a Yale on their hit list, as every one of them want a pair of those long antlers on their mantle. This has led to over-hunting of certain Yale populations, and their massive range has diminished a bit due to this. Thankfully, the Yale is such a revered symbol that some regions and lands have put the species under protection and have placed restrictions to their hunting. One can still bag one of these beasts, but only during certain seasons and through the right channels. This has helped some populations recover, so I am grateful for that! The other thing that helped protect their populations a bit is the fact that Yales do not go down without a fight! The young and old may flee from hunters, but full grown bulls are quick to stand their ground. With their wicked antlers, they will charge a hunter and try to cut them down. Sharp bone, powerful legs and a hefty weight makes them a formidable adversary that can gore the foolish and unprepared. Those who hunt Yale should do so on foot, as many who hunt by horseback have wound up with their trusty steed being gutted by a swiveling blade. Being a smaller target makes it easier to dodge their attacks or, better yet, allows you to climb a tree and fire from above. Tree stands are the recommended method of hunting Yale, as it keeps you out of antler range. However, you will have to be sure to bring the beast down fast, because once it realizes you are out of range, it will turn tail and run off! Well, some times it will run off. Yales can be tricky creatures, and a bull may feign a retreat to lure you out of the tree. There are some poor souls who have left the safety of their stand to pursue their quarry only to have it burst from the foliage and drive an antler right through their gut! Yowch! On an interesting note, some folk have sought to benefit from this restricted hunting out in the wild and have tried to set up game ranches for Yale hunters. By raising them on personal property, there were no rules to how or when to hunt these creatures. For the right price any one could come in and hunt a big bull any time. It would be quite the lucrative business, until an interesting flaw showed up. As time went on and Yales grew, the antlers began to change. With each shedding and regrowth, the sleek curves and sharp tines started to warp and twist. The beautiful weapons everyone wanted were now gnarled and unattractive, and they were coming out stunted too! No one wanted a nasty looking trophy like that, so business quickly sank. Turns out that captive Yales are missing a special component to their diet or lifestyle that affects their antler growth. With the owners providing them with endless food and safety to ensure big trophies, the Yales had very little competition or danger to deal with. So perhaps the lack of stressors causes the antlers to lose their purpose, and thus they do not grow properly. Further study has to go into this subject, and it is a rather fascinating one! Well, to me it is. To the folks who invested in these big game ranches and lost a whole lot of money to these faulty Yales, it isn't so interesting. Maybe you guys should get more into research before dumping big money into such things! Understanding the animals you are trying to keep and care for seems kind of crucial to me! Perhaps then you would come to the conclusion that keeping a giant armored territorial pig monster that is famous for being insanely aggressive and destructive is an incredibly bad idea BEFORE it tears through your fence and devours the ecosystem! IDIOTS!           Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian ---------------------------------------------------------- Was looking to make some more mammals and was running through ideas. I liked the design of a deer/elk creature that had jointed antlers that could move like limbs. Further research found that the mythical Yale was a beast that could rotate its horns, so I decided to use that, but added some extra stuff to it. Something tells me that this family is going to get some additions over time, as I can already think of some fun variants! Also this has taken way more time to write than I imagined! Every time I thought I was done I recalled another fact! Goodness it has been hours! (And I probably still missed stuff)

[maximumninjavoid]

Mining for Unobtanium

Fourteen.

Omg....  Chapter 14 how the neck did we get here? 

And thank you SO MUCH, for voluntarily swimming in the filth that is my brain. 

You bastard.

Destroyed me, for days you did. Can't even think properly and all I see when I close my eyes is that.....Dear God above. I'm dripping. Just dripping wet.

W A P indeed. This is ridiculous. My thighs are sticky, my panties are ruined, and I cannot stop thinking about that concealed weapon and how well you  wield it.

You owe me a slew of sex toys. So many of those poor defenseless mechanical bastards lost their lives because of you, their numbers decimated, families destroyed..... " mum, why won't daddy ever be coming back to the bedside drawer? He's been gone so long. I'm worried.... " She doesn't know how to tell her poor insertable battery operated offspring bout the power surge that cost da his life, and how hurled across the room in frustration, he had shattered on impact, and they couldn't even have a proper burial.....

Oh I'd get so goddamned close, feel my center coiling up, tighter and tighter, nerve endings on fire...muscles tensing, cunt throbbing

, My toes would curl, and my legs would shake, and I'm making all sorts of noise.......And then.....

Slipped through my grasp, and I'm whimpering in frustration. What's worse, is I can see you doing that for little lip biting thing that you do, trying to appear sympathetic, whilst at the same time trying not to laugh, and failing that, you actually laugh out loud. A deep resounding belly laugh. The infectious kind that has everyone else laughing. Mocking me.

So I don't dare mention it.

And the tension builds. I become testy. I descend into irritated. I have genuine concerns that I will make the complete transition to bitey angry velociraptor and lose the ability to morph back, or occasionally pass for humanoid.  A best friend took pity on me and sent me this fantastic toy her girlfriend swears by. One end is insertable, it's rechargable, has a billion different intensities, and then the other part is , how do I describe it? Well, there's an indentation. More like a hole, really. And that's where your clit goes.

It isn't like it actually comes with instructions. That's fair. Neither do we.

So, I messed with it. Some of the intensities were lovely. Some of them were waaay too much. A few of them annoyed me. I've never been a fan of the start stop thing. Apparently, there was some sort of harmonic convergence, and everything lined up, nudge nudge wink wink, and between the internal stimulation and the external felt almost like sucking, I swear,

Well, the top of my head came clean off, the skies opened up, the choir of angels sang to me, and you KNOW they all looked EXACTLY like him.

I think I passed out. I'm not certain how long I was blissed out, but I can say it out a smile on my face, and restored my faith in humanity. I was also no longer evil. 

Once again fit for human consumption I resume sunshine and rainbow emails. " Hi! How's your day been? " That sort of shit. He's pretty but he's not stupid. Video call request. Uh oh.

 " Would you like to tell me what is actually going on? "

 " Since you were kind enough to give me a choice, no, I would rather not. It's embarrassing. Would you be satisfied with I have it sorted now? "

 " No, I don't believe I will. And, I love the haircut. Quite fetching"

I blushed, which was even more embarrassing. I don't blush.

 "Thank you. I needed a change. They pushed my start date back on my new job, and I was struggling a bit "

 "You've been uncharacteristically quiet about that video I sent, and that took a great deal of trust and nerve on my part..."

 " oh my stars! I can ONLY imagine and I may never have the words to tell you what sort of an effect that has.... Ummm.... Had..... I really think this is a conversation better had in person...... This is.... gah.....I .... Damn you. I used to be articulate. "

And then he laughed. I slapped the webcam away so it stared at the wall. I was going to need a minute to pull my shit together.

 "Y/n? Are you there? Where did you go?"

 " Just a second. .... "

I flipped the camera back, features all in place. " Sorry. I know. I'm hysterical. If I'd had the opportunity to do stand up school you might have seen me rather than Jon at Fringe Festival. "

 "But I want to see you. I hate that you have to quarantine."

 "Montenegro and Rwanda have no quarantine requirements. However, I don't know that either of them are a ) recommended or more importantly, safe for Kal. There's always Dubai and French Polynesia" I said laughing .

 " I'm pretty sure you just want to go home, sleep in your own bed and have your own routine. I get that. There isn't anywhere you can be invisible. I on the other hand, already am. So, if you want me somewhere, then, you make that happen. My needs are simple. Books, coffee, life water, or maybe you know someone who can actually hook me up with that botanical water I keep hearing about, that I can't freaking get in the middle of the US? It I have to stay put in one place for two weeks, ideally I'd love to smoke, I'll need to eat occasionally, and a treadmill would be the cherry on top. Don't you have people for things like that, Hero? "

And I smiled at him, with a devilish twinkle in my eye, because, now, it's ON.

Pic by @furher I think you can find their art @fuhrerdoodles​

@hxldmxdxwn​ @fishcustardandclintbarton​ @indigosaurus​

I

And I'm probably going to need a tag list, huh?

[heedra]

Exalted Secret Santa Journal: 2020

Apologies for the slight delay! My journal this year is going to be pretty much the same one as last year; I was working on an additional reference but it absolutely got away from me, so I’ll give it more time and save it for next year. Without further ado:

Daia Shan- Serenity Caste Sidereal

Once just a troublesome junior bureaucrat in the halls of Yu-Shan, Daia truly gained infamy upon her selection to accompany a strike team of Exalted heroes on a mission into the depths of the worldbody of the Yozi Oramus, and her subsequent escape and return from that impossible prison, nearly a thousand years later. The experience left her profoundly changed; even now, the spite of Oramus hangs like a mantle around Daia, ensuring that the waking world she fought so hard to return to will never feel like anything more than a dream. And then, of course, there is the matter of the power she took from the Sevenfold Peacock willingly… and how that power might be changing her still.

Daia is a somewhat petite woman, belying an athletic build. She is ethnically from the Blessed Isle, with dark grey hair that she prefers to wear up, usually in a bun or a knot. Her face, which she tries but fails to keep free of stress and worry lines, is usually found bearing a smirk or an expression of dangerous faux-politeness. Her eyes bear the iconic starry blue of the Serenities caste, but are also shot through with bands of a strange prismatic iridescence. She bears a large pair of bull horns atop her head, a mutation received during her time inside the Worldbody. The nature of the power bequeathed to her by Oramus is such, though, that her very nature is beginning to blur around the edges, and it is not unusual for her day-to-day appearance to fluctuate strangely as mutations come and go like glitches. She is a bit of a fashionista, favoring blues, dramatic and sharp femme looks (she avoids ruffles and prefers sleeker outfits), and jewelry of all sorts (a lot of it). She rarely wears the same exact outfit twice, so do not feel obligated to stick to the reference- you can get creative! She wears makeup, but prefers cool colors and an understated application.

Daia’s most important accessory is her longfang, the Sevenfold Peacock’s Tailfeather. Forged from starmetal, orichalcum, and a crystalline shard of Oramic essence, the weapon contains knowledge of every martial arts technique known by every user to have ever wielded it, and seems to hunger for more to the point where its obsession has bled over into Daia herself. Even more potently, it bears deep within its core the secret to a martial art concocted by the Dragon of Not himself, whose charms grant the power to ignore the limits of impossibility at the cost of making the wielder more and more alien to the waking world. It is a temptation that Daia has drunk deep of, despite all signs pointing to that being a very bad idea. Daia sees the spear as a trophy stolen from her greatest nemesis, but it’s very possible the Yozi himself sees it as a clever snare for hubristic Sidereals. The blade of the weapon is prismatic crystal that resembles a jagged bird’s beak, the pole is jet black starmetal shot through with an orichalcum starmap of constellations, and the orichalcum pommel is fashioned to look like seven golden peacock feathers woven together into a sphere.

While her exaltation may brand Daia a chosen of the Maidens, the elder Sid is a loose cannon, an agent of Heaven in only the most general of terms. She is mercurial, theatrical, fond of causing petty chaos, and utterly disinterested in the politics of the Bureau, unless there is way for her to stir up drama. She has tendency to get ahead of herself with her schemes, and the vast majority of her ‘downfalls’ can be traced back to her own hubris. Beneath all that, she is a lonely woman who feels adrift in a world that no longer feels real to her. She’s a terrible flirt, a huge showoff (especially where martial arts are involved) and has a weak spot for dangerous women. She’s Creation’s wildest and worst gay aunt.

Side Note: Daia is partially deaf, due to an old and potent supernatural injury. She employs the use of what magic/technology she can to aid her, but relies as well on sign language and interpreters. She’s very used to it at this point.

here’s the link to a better-resolution version of this image bc tumblr kinda fuckt it

and here’s the link to her toyhouse page, which has further images and info!

________________________________________________________________

Avenging Phoenix- Dawn Caste Solar (Formerly Ravenous Vulture Picks Clean the Bones of Creation, Dusk Caste Abyssal)

Orphaned at an early age, Phoenix was adopted by a Guild mercenary and raised as such. He spent his later mortal life as a city guard captain in Thorns, where he exalted during the fateful siege itself, disillusionment and rage at the circumstances of his death making him an easy recruit for the Mask. His path has weaved far and wide since then, a slow painful crawl from rebellion to eventual redemption; a journey that ultimately gave him a place among the saviors of Creation. Along the way, he played a role in liberating a group of orphaned children from the clutches of the Dowager, and now finds himself settling into the role of an adoptive dad to them, hanging up his metaphorical (and literal) axe and trying to live a gentler life. It’s not always easy. Violence and trauma etched in that deep doesn’t just smooth out perfectly over time. On top of that, he has impostor’s syndrome when it comes to his redemption by the Sun, and still feels uncomfortable thinking of himself as a peer to the other members of the Solar Host. Still, as long as his soul is on this side of Lethe, he is determined to fight against the Void- not because he considers himself antithesis to it, but because he has known it and survived it. And while some days it’s hard, other days it feels like, maybe, fighting against the void can be planting sunflowers for your children on a sunny spring afternoon.

Phoenix is of Western descent, very short, fat, and beefy, with warm brown skin and a round, open face.  He keeps his burgundy hair closely shaved, not fond of dealing with the mess of wavy curls it becomes when allowed to grow out. His eyes are dark brown, almost black, the outside of the iris rimmed with the faintest edge of golden yellow. His nose looks like it has been broken multiple times in the past, and never properly healed. Due to unfortunate wyld misadventures his tongue has been mutated to resemble and function like that of a frog’s, though this is only really apparent when he opens his mouth to use the damn thing. Frogs and toads are a definite motif for him in general- small, grumpy-looking, and round as they are.

Phoenix’s casual clothes tend to be simple, comfortable, loose, and in sharp contrast to his prickly combat garb. He enjoys floral patterns, and the color pink. He’s got a very ‘open hawaiian shirt and flip flops dad’ vibe, basically. He does not dress fancily unless pressed to for big occasions, and in those cases usually grudgingly follows the fashion direction of the one twisting his arm. When he’s on actual exalt business, he’s most frequently found wearing his armor; black jade full plate embellished with cruel-looking spikes, and occasionally a shaggy grey fur cloak made from the pelt of some hunting trophy. A horned skull helm, made from the skull of a nephwrack’s war-body, often completes this ensemble. The helmet is a minor artifact: when worn, it causes his eyes to glow balefully behind its sockets and makes his voice gravelly with deathly menace. He is reluctant to take it off unless he feels at ease in a situation.

Phoenix is somewhat bumbling and gruffly soft-spoken, with tendency to look more tired than he feels. Beneath this is a talent for strategic leadership and a determination that gets fiercer as the going gets tougher. On the battlefield, he is utterly terrifying when he needs to be, but would much prefer to be at home in his garden than on a battlefield these days.

His anima banner starts as burst of gold-and crimson fire that solidifies into the form of a fierce and predatory-looking phoenix, with aspects of a garda bird and a lammergeier both. It moves as he does across the battlefield, swooping and rising with each swing of his axe, its fierce eyes focused on his opponent. Additional refs:

link to his toyhouse page, which has a TON more reference images

what he looked like as an abyssal | his grand grimcleaver looks like this except made outta fiery golden light | rough sketch of his skull helmet

[midzelink]

Well, this is certainly something that happened.  

In response to a post I made stating the various reasons I don’t like the Twilight Princess manga (which was in and of itself a response to some replies I got on this other post), I got a barrage of replies from a user (who will go unnamed, they’ve already been blocked) in defense of the thing - which, ordinarily, wouldn’t be a big deal!  People are allowed to have different opinions and I never once stated anyone who liked it should feel bad!  I started writing up a reply to them in the middle of this barrage, but their replies just kept coming and got subsequently worse, yet it was all...so bizarre to the point that it would feel weird to not address that it happened.  I’m putting all of this under a read more, because wow this is a wall of text, but also this is the kind of nonsense I want people to avoid having to read if it can be helped.  At any rate, this is what they had to say:

I don’t know, this really honestly feels like reaching. It feels like criticism for the sake of criticism without actual narrative flaws being shown, but your anger seems to stem from “This interpretation is different from what I thought even though I admit all official art shows the charachter this way” and “Link HAD to be raised in ordon because of one quote from the enclosed instruction book”. Twilight Princess was literally made to be “the edgy zelda” in reponse to fan overreaction to wind waker. This is undeniable. All official art depicts link this way. He turned into a freaking wolf in the middle of the twilight craze! but no, he *can’t* be like that because of random expressions he makes when holding pets or items? First of all, even in the manga he isn’t an edgeboy all the time.

Secondly, it feels like you're merely glossing over all that was added in terms of charachterization! In the original game, I felt nothing for Ilia. She showed up, yelled at link for maybe getting epona slightly hurt, and then got kidnapped. Maybe a bit of tsundere stuff, but seriously, Midna is literally the best tsundere ever. You can't out midna-minda in her own damn game. XD In the manga, Ilia and Link actually have a warm and very close relationship, you can see them through all the slice of life in the first volume. I really grew to like her and truly felt sorry for her when bad things happened to her. She actually gets far, FAR more respect as a person and charachter in the manga than merely a trophy for link to get back. But no, you're far too focused on subtle expressions and insinuations because that is literally all anyone had to go on for the longest time. In reality, Link, as has been said many times, is an avatar as much as he is a charachter. You can't gloss over his official art depicitons any more than I can random expressions he makes when finding a heart piece.

Not to mention, you call the blog midzelink yet you make zero mention of the super obvious wlw-as-fuck zelda flashback in volume 5? It's a sad thing that Shad being straight is something I have seen people complain about, yet Zelda and Midna's relationship getting such a huge focus passes without a peep. It's a disturbing trend I see in my fellow Fujoshi. And on the subject of Shad, his relationship with Ilia is far more likely something included to give her a happy ending, rather than just seeing link off into the sunset to try to find midna and live forever alone in ordon. On that note as well, Link not being from Ordon fits PERFECTLY with the ending, Link being the only hylian, link being from there, all of this is SCREAMING that that is the place he never truly belonged, the manga simply takes it one step further and in this version says he was never from there any way, cementing that. It gives the concept that Link was using Ordon as a place to avoid being who he was extra weight. And Honestly, it makes him less of a jerk in the end for leaving ordon, as he never truly belonged.  

And It's actually a narrative flaw in the original for Lanaryu to make mention of misusing the power of the master sword and then having nothing come of that warning later. If you're going to set chekov's gun down on the table, you better use it by the end of the play. It's simply capitalzing on something that the story actually set up, and playing into the tone of the story nintendo marketed it. But really, most of my annoyance dosen't come from the fact that you don't like the manga. People can dislike what they want. It's that all your grievances seem to come from stuff at the very beginning, and you liked it for so long, when they were there just as much as they are now. This kinda reeks of someone else slowly influencing you over time, rather than your own thoughts.

Phew.  

Okay.  

First of all, what the f**k, dude.  Who leaves this kind of essay in the replies of someone else’s post?

Secondly,

(Note: a “fujoshi” is a woman who likes yaoi, usually used in a derogatory manner, but it seems to be self-proclaimed in this case.  That is to say, this person proudly announced they fetishized MLM relationships, and then proceeded to tell me my opinion was Bad and Wrong because I didn’t praise Himekawa for a scene that ultimately wasn’t WLW at all, even though I and a lot of other people liked to interpret it that way.  Do not give Himekawa credit for gay rep, ever.)

Again, I was going to reply to this person civilly...up until I read the Midzel/Fujoshi reply, which decimated me on impact. There’s a heckuva lot I could say in response to, well...everything else, but in the interest of making this post shorter, I’ll break it down into a bulleted list:

Link being raised in Ordon is not based on “one quote from the enclosed instruction book” - Ilia specifically states when she gets her memory back, “When we were young, you and I... You were always there... You were always beside me... Link.” (I already mentioned this in my original post, which they evidently neglected to read properly.) And this is to speak nothing of the familial bond between Link and all of the Ordonians that is fairly evident within the context of the game, i.e. Rusl trusting him to deliver a very important gift to the Royal Family, or all the children looking up to him as much as they do.

Saying “all official art depicts Link this way” in defense of his characterization in the manga being edgy (when his in-game persona is far-flung from that) is pretty shaky when you realize that the same can be said for Skyward Sword, which arguably has the most emotive and happy Link of any game. In all of SS Link’s official art, he is angry, mid-yell, or stone-faced.  That’s how character art works.  That’s how marketing works.  They wanted to market TP especially as a darker game, yes, in response to the critiques of The Wind Waker, but this is literally a man who smiles softly every time he picks up a dog or a cat. You can pet the goats.  You get excited about fishing.  If TP Link should be “edgy” because of his official art and no other reason, then SS Link should be, too.

it’s your own damn fault you felt nothing for Ilia, Ilia owns, suck it

MIDNA IS NOT A TSUNDERE, HOLY SHIT.  SHE’S NOT.  I WILL NEVER CONCEDE THIS. She doesn’t mistreat Link because she likes him, she mistreats him because he is nothing to her when they first meet, and this is a stance that slowly changes as they get to know each other!  She stops treating him like garbage when she stops seeing him as such, and her behavior throughout the game post-Zelda is a mixed bag of shame over how she treated him previously and a longing to make up for it.  How anyone can construe that as tsundere I will never, ever understand.

the Midzel comment is so wack I really can’t believe I had to read that shit with my own two eyes

no, Link likely isn’t from Ordon (again, already addressed in my original post, but again, I guess this person can’t read), but he was certainly raised there, see: the first bullet point

Lanayru never once mentions ANYTHING about misusing the power of the Master Sword, so that entire point is completely invalid.  I literally have no idea what they’re talking about here. Lanayru does have the famous line, “Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it,” but that’s in reference to the Fused Shadows, not the Master Sword.  Which, you know, you would know if you actually knew the source material as well as you claim to, dude.

Lastly, yes, I did like the manga when I first read it, but as I already stated, that was because I blasted through all four (available at the time) volumes in one sitting, and it was immediately after my hyperfixation for this game resurfaced (about a week or so before I made this blog!).  I was Starved For Content, and the manga was Content.  Now I’m not Starved, and two more volumes have released since, and guess what!  People’s opinions can change!  And my opinion is that the manga isn’t for me, and this entire, extremely accusatory essay of yours in the replies of a post I made stating my own opinion was entirely uncalled for and rather intrusive.  So, yeah.  Blocked.

This has certainly been a trip.

[lurafita]

Obsession - Chapter 1

Read the prologue here: https://lurafita.tumblr.com/post/184483191964/obsession-prologe

Somebody please tell me how to properly embed the previous part here, please? I’m such a noob.

Thanks everyone who liked and reblogged the prologue, it really got me writing the first chapter way quick! Also, please tell me if this is missing specific tags.

Somebody also tell me how to tag people for the update? Do I just go like this: @itfeelssogoodmrstark @the-neon-demon ?

Obsession

Chapter 1

//Tony, this isn't a joke! You can't just slip away from the tower without any security! If you don't call me or Happy in the next ten minutes, I'm sending Natasha after you!//

Tony smirked as he read the text message Pepper, his personal assistant, had sent him. It wasn't so much that he enjoyed being hunted down by his head bodyguard and former Russian spy, Natasha Romanoff, but he simply wasn't the kind of person to organize a team of stiff security goons around him, just to get out of his tower for a bit.

Which was not to say that he didn't understand Pepper's worry. He was an important, powerful and influential man, who had rivals and enemies practically around every corner. While he certainly wasn't helpless, it wouldn't be the first time he had been kidnapped. And ever since Obadiah's betrayal... well, as stated before, Tony did understand Pepper's worry. Didn't change the fact that he didn't like having a fucking battalion of suits following his every movement, or telling him where he could or couldn't go. He had already fired a bunch of those who had tried. No one told Tony Stark what he could or couldn't do. It was possibly one of the reasons why he had promoted Natasha to the head position. The woman was terrifying in every way, but she never tried to limit Tony. She simply adapted to his whims. And today one of those whims had prompted him to put on a rather atrocious outfit, a wig that made it look like he was some kind of hippie, a cap and sunglasses, all of which combined made up the perfect disguise for him to roam the streets of New York undetected.

He hadn't actually planned to stay out too long, just find some hole in the wall, unobtrusive little diner and drink a cup of coffee (which in hindsight was a really bad idea, because clearly whatever this brown sludge was couldn't hold a candle to the high quality beans used in the coffee makers in his tower), when the conversation between the three people sat at the table on his right had drifted over to him.

At first he had felt annoyed; after all, he had chosen this pitiful little diner because it's unappealing location in a narrow alley way and over all unimpressive decor, was supposed to guarantee very few patrons. And therefore, a quiet little space for Tony to relax for a few minutes, before he had to go back to people shoving papers and contracts under his nose for him to read and sign and his phone ringing every damn five minutes. He had been about to leave, when he decided to at least take a quick glance at the people daring to disturb his little break.

They seemed to be around the same age, which Tony guessed to be early twenties. One rather heavyset young man, black hair, slightly darker skin tone, if pressed, the billionaire would put him down as part Filipino. A young black woman, curly hair, a serious expression on her face that kind of reminded Tony of Pepper. And then his eyes drifted to the third person at that table and he felt... something... shoot through him.

Pale skin peeked out from under a too big sweater, allowing just a glimpse at the collarbones leading up to the slender neck. Light pink lips that, while not overly plumb, looked invitingly lush. Short brown hair that was clearly unstyled, but just seemed to beg you to run your fingers through it's curls.

Soft brown eyes. Deep and bright. And so expressive, as the young man recounted what must have been a fascinating lecture by one of his professors to his two friends.

“Professor Conners studies of cross species genetics and their possible applications in modern medicine are mind blowing, guys. I'm so deliriously happy that I got into his class! He even said that there ...” And Tony couldn't look away. At only a first glance, the brunette looked plain. Unassuming. To someone like Tony Stark, who had bedded more super models than most people even allowed themselves to fantasize about, there should be nothing particularly outstanding about the younger man. And yet...

He was cute. Slightly boyish features, a bit of a baby face. But clearly an adult. Must be. Had to be.

He spoke with such enthusiasm, such passion. His voice just that side of a little higher pitched, but smooth, pleasant.

“...which is why we could possibly be lucky enough to get Doctor Octavious as a guest lecturer sometime this semester and...”

Intelligence and eagerness was pouring off the brunette. So excited by the prospect of learning more, widening his horizons, that his cheeks had taken on a light rosy hue. It was adorable.

“...and just think about what this could mean for trauma patients, or people waiting for a transplant...”

And so Tony ordered another cup of watered down mud, kept on ignoring the messages blowing up his phone, angled his body in a way that kept the younger man in his sight, without outright staring at him, and continued to listen.

The three covered a wide variety of topics, and Tony learned not only the brunettes name (Peter, the other man had called him at one point, and what a delightfully fitting name for the cute creature), but also that beside the sharp intellect, Peter possessed a snarky kind of humor, that had almost caused Tony to snort loudly a few times.

The disguised celebrity was on his third cup of what passed for coffee in the world of the pitiful, when the three were discussing a book that the woman – he hadn't bothered to memorize her name – was reading for her literature course.

“I'm not saying that I like Richard. I just don't think that he is the personification of evil that the book is painting him as.”

And even though Tony had no idea what the books plot even was about, he felt inclined to agree with Peter. Just on principle. The woman shook her head.

“Every oracle they have come across has pointed out the darkness residing in him. He clearly can't be trusted.”

Ah, so it was some kind of fantasy book? He hadn't known that colleges even used those. Then again, his education at MIT had mostly circled around all kinds of mechanical engineering and business, with a side of physics and a bit of chemistry. He had never really been into the liberal arts and the like, so what did he know?

“But that's just it! All they ever say about him is that he carries darkness in his soul. But does this automatically make him a bad man? I mean, if the darkness can be used and manipulated, then isn't it simply a matter of the person who wields it? Like, think of the darkness like a weapon. A gun in the hands of... a robber or something, could kill you. But a gun in the hands of a good guy, like a police officer or someone, could save your life.”

What a profound thing to say. Cute, smart, funny and thoughtful.

“And, is darkness even all that bad? I know it gets linked to evil a lot in stories, but really, I mean, how do I put this? Sometimes darkness can be.. comforting? Like, have you ever tried to sleep in a fully lit room? And sure, you are more likely to get robbed when it's dark out, but it's also a lot easier to hide or escape from someone if they can't see you. Know what I mean?”

It was like Peter was speaking directly to him. Because there had been a time, almost five years ago now, when Tony had thought that maybe, he could find love with Pepper. She had been with him for years. She was loyal, she was beautiful, she was his friend, and he trusted her. The attraction was reciprocated, and they had tried. Tony Stark’s first real relationship. The media had been in a frenzy over them, had hounded him more than usual, hoping that they would catch him straying. Wetting themselves over the chance that they might be the one to get the scoop of the playboy who couldn't stay faithful. Nothing sold better than a scandal.

But Tony hadn't cheated on Pepper, and it wasn't an act of betrayal that ended their relationship. “I'm sorry, Tony. But I can't do this anymore. It's not something you did, it's just... Remember that article a few months ago, - after we brought out the new military weapon series, - that questioned whether or not you had a heart? That article was bullshit and the person who wrote it is an ignorant fool. I believe you have a great capacity for love. But I don't think that I'm the one that... Sometimes, it feels like there is this darkness inside of you. And that scares me. I'm so sorry.”

They had stayed friends, and Tony knew, even if Pepper hadn't ended it that day, it wouldn't have worked out between them. But her words had stuck with him. 'There is this darkness inside you. And it scares me.'

He hadn't denied it. How could he, when it was nothing but the truth?

How many people had called him a warlord, because of Stark Industries weapons manufacturing? How often had he been accused of profiting off people dying? How often had he had to defend himself from his would be assailants, or his would be kidnappers, and not felt an ounce of mercy or regret, when he broke their bones or put bullets into their limbs? He knew well of the darkness he carried, and he had accepted (resigned himself) that this made him a bad man. 

But now Peter, bright, enthusiastic, adorable Peter, was offering him an alternative. A second chance.

Darkness didn't have to be evil.

Yes, Stark Industries had made millions by designing and building weapons to use in wars. But it was those weapons that enabled their soldiers to protect and fight for the ideals of their country and the freedom of all.

It might be scary, but it could be comforting.

He had felt like a demon, avenging and ruthless, when he had finally hunted down Obadiah and ended him; but after that, he had held Pepper and been held by her, knowing that he had done what needed to be done, and that because of that, they were now safe.

It might harbor monsters inside itself, but it could also hide you from them.

He could remember running through the endless halls in his childhood home, his angry and drunk father screaming somewhere behind him, and slipping into a room, any room. Killing all the lights and crawling into a niche, or under a bed, or a couch, or a table. And his father, too drunk to find the light switch with his fumbling, unable to see him in the dark.

“I doubt Professor Wilson expects us to be this philosophical about it, Parker.”

The woman's voice so rudely interrupted Tony's introspection, and he wanted to yell at her to shut up. But he didn't. He wouldn't. She was Peter's friend. And while Tony carried darkness inside him, he was not a bad man.

He watched as Peter shrugged.

“You never know, MJ. Can't hurt to be-” That's when the young man caught a glance at the clock that hung on the opposite wall and his eyes widened in panic. “Shoot! It's almost six already?! I'm gonna be late!” He frantically grabbed his jacked and backpack and stood from the table. His Filipino friend shot him a concerned look.

“Think you gonna make it? Wasn't your boss really angry that last time you were late?”

Peter was rummaging in his jacket pocket and having found the few dollars in it,  quickly laid them on the table to cover his tap. He nodded.

“Yeah, I will have to run, but it's not far. I should just make it. Skype later?”

His two friends nodded, and then Peter was off like a shot.

No. No no no no no. This was too fast. Peter couldn't just leave like this. He couldn't- his phone vibrated with what was undoubtedly another angry text from Pepper about bringing in Natasha. It helped clear Tony's head, though.

This wasn't a problem. Nothing was lost. Tony had listened to the three undergrad students long enough to deduce that they attended Berkeley College. He knew that Peter had signed up for all of Doctor Conners lectures. 

And he now knew that Peter's last name was Parker.

He could find him now. It would be easy, with all the resources available to him. Child's-play.

So he breathed in deeply, and finished the last of his sludge. He laid some money on the table and stood. He had left a generous tip, because even though the coffee had been miserable, the company had been exquisite.

He took his phone out and finally answered Pepper's numerous messages, as he left the diner.

Tony Stark didn't believe in love at first sight.

He thought back to his escape from the tower, now almost 2 hours ago, and the time spent in the diner. He felt lighter than he had in a long time.

But he did believe in true love.

He remembered every detail of Peter that he had been able to gather. And he remembered that something that he had felt, when he first looked into his eyes.

And he did believe that sometimes, true love started with a something.

[gilgaemsh-a]

IM FINALLY ABLE TO MAKE MY BNHA OCS AHHHH!!!!! part one at least lmao i’m gunna make a part 2 reallllllllly soon

the style of this picrew is similar to bnha style so it’s better for me to think up my ocs (at least the girls) this way!! (i’m very picky orz)

also i’m always up for rping if anyone is interested!!!!! dm me dude!!!!!!!!!!!!

also also! quirks aren’t like final versions?? im still tryna figure out how to make quirks more... quirk-like lol.

intros under the cut!!

@bnhappreciation​ @bnha-oc-collection​

ankou fuwara (#1 & #2)

the ever blooming hero: chloris

ankou is my most loved oc and the by far the hardest to make for some reason. her and her quirk went through so many changes its insane but i finally settled on something perfect.

she’s currently an active hero having just graduated from u.a. she’s extremely popular and currently number 12 on the hero billboard (shes 19 btw)

ankou quirk is overgrowth aka chlorokinesis - the manipulation of plant life and pheromone generation. (she can do a lot with her quirk so shes my second most op character)

her range is pretty much the same as pixie bob’s earth flow.

ankou was actually a child star, a very popular actress/model. she quit when she graduated to focus on her hero career which is one of the reasons why she’s so popular.

when ankou was in school to was the top u.a. student along with two others (they’re boys so i wasnt able to make them but one day i will)

ankou quirk is actually a combo of her parents her mother has minimal manipulation over plants and her father could manipulate his pheromones

ankou is the older sister type. she’s super kind and caring and protective of people close to her.

she unofficially adopts izuku when she meets him

she also (surprisingly) has a good relationship with bakugou. she treats him like a younger brother and teases him a lot.

ankou is also the type to be really scary when angry

ankou had a really hard time making friends growing up because she couldn’t control her pheromones properly

alot of the times her classmates or even random people would fall in love with her just by her scent or other times end up being despised by it

both of ankou’s parents actually come from hero families. they grew up together since their families knew each other & they were both the youngest. neither of them wanted to be heroes.

ankou’s mother (ririka) is a pharmacist for one of the top hospitals in japan while her father (aizen) is an a-list actor.

side note! ankou’s father aizen took ririka’s last name.

i hardcore ship ankou and tomura. it literally started by me just thinking “oh hey lmao ankou has a life quirk and tomura has a death quirk! wait-”

so now their my otp.

oh btw the first pic is how ankou looks currently, the other is her older.

kurena kan (#3)

the healing heroine: nightingale

my child. my baby. she’s never done a single thing wrong in her entire life.

kurena is a mixed baby, half japanese & half american

she grew up with her father sekijiro kan in japan, her mother, charity brown is currently deceased.

her quirk is miracle blood - the ability to heal others and herself using her own blood. she can manipulate her blood as well. kurena has high regenerative properties as well! as long as her blood is flowing she can heal herself extremely fast.

as you know vlad king (her father) is able to manipulate blood but kurena’s mother was able to heal people with her quirk (empathic healing) which resulted in kurena’s quirk.

kurena is currently a first year at u.a. in izuku’s class.

she’s the tomboy type, tends to get into a lot of fights though she’s actually really mellow and cool.

she’s also the type that if she were to dress as a boy, she’d make a really hot one. (though as a girl she’s super hot too)

she’s recovery girl’s apprentice and helps out alot in the infirmary of the school

deku spends a lot less time there since kurena can heal him lol

i ship kurena with todoroki and bakugou. my beloved ot3

all three of them are p competitive with each other (don’t worry it’s all healthy competition)

kurena’s mother came to japan to further to abilities and apprentice under recovery girl which is how her and sekijiro met

she died helping recovery girl heal all might as a backlash of her quirk

kurena’s mother is full blown italian! and partially named kurena because it sounds like carina which means beloved

in japanese kurena the kanji for her name is crimson

oh!! aizawa is kurena’s godfather on her mother’s side! the two are very close

charity and aizawa were best friends before she died

miwa midoriya* (#4)

all in one heroine: alter ego

oof my most op oc you can fight me im not changing her.

miwa is actually the daughter of two high profile villains

she’s actually an “experiment”, the two villains had been working on a way to merge their quirks in the perfect way to make a strong villain - miwa was their current project until she escaped them

miwa doesn’t know how many others came before her or what happened to them when she asked she was told her ‘siblings’ were disposed of.

miwa’s quirk is gunna be the hardest to explain lol the short version is: miwa’s body can mimic and control different elements.

like... full on mimics elements. yknow like and elemental spirit? how it’s just a being made of fire or water or air etc etc? that’s miwa.

i’m actually on the fence about making the elements miwa shifts into to be alters (like she suffers from dissociative personality disorder.) so basically every time she shifts into a different element that element has its own personality? tho maybe it doesn’t even need to be DID it could just be the way her quirk works? SOMEONE GIVE ME INPUT PLS

her mother is a shapeshifter while her father could control elements

miwa was rescued by izuku’s father and then later adopted by him when it was quickly realized she didn’t want anyone else

she grew up with izuku and bakugou. her a bakugou are actually quite close since she’s the first person to beat him in stuff. he likes how strong she is.

miwa is also a pacifist! she had no interest in being a hero (it sounded like more trouble then it was worth) but when bakugou and izuku applied for u.a. she didn’t want to be left alone so she applied.

miwa is a soft bean. she hates violence but is willing to ATTACK when her loved ones are in danger

she’s also in the constant fear that her parents are watching her every move. she feels as if her parents gave her up to easy or staged the hero rescue for a reason. she’s constantly paranoid lol

miwa is classified as “looks like a cinnamon roll; can kill you”

nagi the tempest (#5)

real name: aoka arashi

currently my only villain but don’t worry i plan on making more!

nagi is the only daughter of as prostigious hero family.

the arashi family was known for its variety of powerful weather related quirks and continued to plan marriages based on quirks

the arashi family was also very abusive in its training and pushed nagi through limits she still has nightmares about; the training was due to how volatile nagi’s quirk is. which she was often blamed for

one day nagi snapped and destroyed the arashi family home along with everyone inside she was on the run for awhile before dabi found her

at that point i guess he was already apart of the league of villains? i’m not sure when dabi joined tho so this is just me guessing

nagi’s quirk is storm - nagi is able to create storms and manipulate them! it’s an extremely violate quirk that almost got her killed when she first manifested it. it’s the reason her training was so grueling. nagi needs moisture in order for her quirk to work

and while thunderstorms are something she can make she can’t actually control the lightning; not because it’s not apart of her quirk but because lighting is tricky to control in itself

she wields a katana that acts as a conduit for the lightning

when nagi does try to control the lightning more often than not it backlashes onto herself creating wounds/scars on her body in the shape of lightning bolts

dabi thinks they’re really pretty

nagi is the silent type. she very rarely talks and no one in the league of villains has ever heard the sound of her voice

dabi brags about being the only person nagi talks too

the name nagi was given to her by dabi it means the calm before the storm

though dabi gave her the nickname he often calls her aoka when they’re alone

despite her blonde hair and blue eyes nagi is 100% japanese!

her and dabi are hardly ever seen apart and if you haven’t guessed it i ship them lol

hinata enma (#6)

the beguiling heroine: enchanter

my trans baby girl!!!!!!!!

a 5th generation geisha currently a maiko of course

her quirk is heartbreaker - a succubus quirk! besides her supernatural beauty and over all supernatural condition (strength, speed all that good stuff) hinata’s real quirk is her voice; her voice has the power to control others and even alter reality.

you know allison hargreeves from the umbrella academy? that’s hinata

i’m still not sure how i want hinata to be able to trigger that power like how allison as to say “i heard a rumor” to use her power?? idk what i want hina to say

a hinoenma is a japanese yokai extremely similar to succubi which is where i got hina’s name

as i mentioned, hina is a geisha! not a prostitue

growing up hina was taught art, dancing and singing she excels at all three uwu

hina’s mother, yuuhi, is close friends with masaru bakugou. masaru usually goes to her for help with traditional japanese fashion

because of this bakugou and hina grew up together

the two are best friends even though they go to separate schools katsuki is the only one hina doesn’t use her power on

katsuki is also the one to encourage hina to become a hero though the two don’t go to u.a together instead hina attends shiketsu high

the two of them video call each other daily

hina is very mischievous!! she likes playing harmless pranks and teasing others

when she was in elementary and middle school she was often picked on for her quirk being a ‘villain’ quirk

she’s never used her quirk in malicious ways

the most malicious way she’d use is to help play a prank

she trains with bakugou when she can

[woodsofblight]

Any headcanons for the less known stuff? Like the Muse of the Poets, Father of all Globox, glob crystals, Disk of the Gods/Glorbe, Rayman's titel as "O Prince", Razoff's family (Count Zaroff (father) who killed Space Mama, Nimrod (Grandpa who killed the Abominable Geranium of the Seas of Cockatoo) and Artemis), the People of Prhys, Great Spirit Palmito and so on?

I sadly couldn’t find the time to properly answer this before, so here goes!

So these are hard questions all around. There is so little about them, and much of it is basically cut content anyway (or better yet, exclusive to specific versions of 2 especially), that it is exceedingly difficult to try and keep track of them, much less thing of anything specific. Nevertheless, here’s a couple regarding the stuff you brough (sorry for being a bit scattered, I really should collect these somewhere).

Muse of the Poets: Ancient, mostly spiritual being. In the beginning, still new to creating, Polokus sought the company of other great beings such as him. He found kinship in the Muse and while much of the world bears signs of her, especially the flora and fauna of the lands, there was a level of vanity to her being.

She sought beauty in order and the chaotic nature of dreams was an affront to how she viewed creation. The Teensies were a combined project, hers the purpose and Polokus’ the design. Their quirky nature and appearance were the last straw and seeing them as a bastardisation of sage-like people she wanted, she departed, never to be seen again (more on that later).

Father of all Globox: My guess is he was sort of a “prototype”, a being Polokus created to handle aquating things, much like Clark was set to shape the world. He turned out to be extremely effective at defusing conflicts though, which is why Polokus was more than happy to provide an entire species as his lineage. Alternatively, he may actually be a different being, whom Polokus used as a template later on (more on this later as well).

Glob Crystals: Since the minigames these are associated with have been folded into ones unlocked through Familiar Spirits in Revolution, my guess is that their purpose was accessing remote locations, think teleport stones. However, they were prone to break and warp though, which is why they were very early on discarded in favor of the Teensies handling all such matters.

Disk of the Gods/Glorbe: Tremendous amounts of exaggeration. Since Polokus is explicitly stated to have come from the Lums, I don’t think there was much fighting about them, or if there was, the Lums eventually lost their patience and, with the Heart, helped bring Polokus into the world to finally settle things down.

Since Lums purpotedly embody different aspects of creation, it is possible that some trascended beings really were intent on hoarding Lums, which may have eventually distilled into legend. And what better way to keep a legend alive, than to either turn it into a story, or a game?

Rayman as “O Prince”: I genuinely think this comes from an occasion where Rayman got a little too bigheaded for his own good, and it was a mocking terms, probably coined by the Teensies. His embarassment over it was so great, it fixed him up for good afterwards. Then again, if Rayman is genuinely royalty of any kind, he’s the person who’d sooner take a knee (har-har) to literally anyone else, than expect it in return.

Razoff’s family: I feel like he may have some very-very tenuous connection to an actual hunter-deity (though Artemis may just be a name), but whatever was up with that bloodline likely left him with very little besides a will to hunt. However, consider where and how he lives. Nimrod hunted a creature who, for all we know, may have been a humble being despite the name. Space Mama I wouldn’t call harmless in any way. I’m not entirely sure if Rayman 3 specified they’re dead or were just capture, but think of it this way.

Have you ever heard of the Winchester Mystery House? Not the crap movie from a while ago, but the actual house. Sarah Winchester kept expanding the mansion in order to appease the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles (or so they say). Consider if Razoff as in a somewhat similar situation, but for real. His family is known to hunt and capture (and maybe kill?) various creatures around the world for generations and they’ve likely made many-many enemies. Maybe the reason Razoff not only doesn’t leave the mansion, but also has it filled with traps and an intent to dispatch Rayman, is a sense of paranoia going overboard?

People of Prhys: I covered them partially in my headcanons about them and Ly in general, but I guess I may add that I believe the connection between them and the mainland were rarer than with most other regions, and that their culture very much favored both the mystic and athletic arts. It’s why Ly in general looks much more lithe and active, compared to the fairies you see in 3, for instance. I also believe their solitude (and the secrets they kept) had some things to do with the divinity Polokus possesses, though how, what, or why is anyone’s guess. Suffice to say though, it’s probably not a reason that the only person who can create a Silver Lum is from such a faraway place of mysteries.

I also think the area they inhabited is still there, it’s just the people that are missing. Ly just doesn’t want to go back there. Not anytime soon.

Great Spirit Palmito: A god-being who envied Polokus for his power to dream existence, so it would conjure eternal sleep in order to do the same. Alas, Palmito was not granted such a power, but it was MAD AS HELL when the Griskins woke him up, though his punishment wasn’t intentional cruelty, much rather someone backhanding one out of frustration when you try to wake them up. It is unknown whether it departed after this event.

Anything else: Now here is where we get even deeper into headcanon territory and how the world works in general. I don’t think Polokus was the only divine being in that world, he was simply the mos successful, in a sense.

Way back, it became very obvious that multiple gods or godlike beings trying to create a world together worked about as well as herding cats, especially in the wake of any scuffle about Lums. So in order to calm things down, the Heart of the World (possibly with the help of others) managed to secure a truce. With a few notable exceptions, god-beings CANNOT exist in the physical realm for extended periods of time. Sometimes, for some reasons, they can manifest, but for the most part they have to let nature take its course on everything. The creatures of Polokus and their daily lives entertain the gods though (or they just don’t care much) so they’re fine with how things go. It is possible that like Polokus and his 4 masks, that they also have artifacts or rituals of their own which would summon them, but as to what they are, is unknown.

One notable exception to this is Leptys, who does appear to have some influence left in the physical realm, through Gumsi and the scepter. It’s why Reflux stealing it was such a massive problem, as artifact that could summon a god or even a portion of their power, was not meant to be wielded in such a way.

Other than that though, most other gods have long departed and are either observers of merely enjoy their eternal comfort in the spirit realm.

- - - 

I think that about covers it? There’s probably more I missed, because this post has been something I’ve been writing on and off for a month now, but hopefully it’s a semi-entertaining, if somewhat nonsensical collection of headcanons. I can’t promise I can elaborate much further, but I’d be happy to hear if any of your ideas about Rayman’s world are similar to any of these!

[curiouskrp]

               “WELCOMING APT 5B TENANT, KIM YANI !

INFORMATION

age –  25 pronouns – she/her  occupation –  gs25 night manager moved into treehouse – six months ago

PERSONALITY: ISFP, THE ADVENTURER

positive –

artistic / passionate, obsessive, curious, imaginative, creative - over the years there have been many adjectives used to pinpoint yani’s ferocious obsession with the aesthetic, with knowledge and beauty. from painting to literature, film to sculpting, she’s busied overeager hands with innumerable past times. a bout of interest in sewing left over enthusiastic fingertips tinged in bloodied pinpricks, a season of interest in ceramics caked her nails in clay, a mishap with glassblowing burned her trachea and she lost her voice for a month.  her home is her workspace now, awash in warm colors and soft sketched lines, photographs strung up on the walls to examine with less tired eyes later - she’ll exhaust herself otherwise, staring at her work until a hypercritical eye begins to pick apart every minute detail, every miniscule flaw. her medium of choice in the moment, and for quite some time now has been photography, both digital and film. she works mostly with still images but has embarked on some video components. she has had her art in a few minor installations and featured in gallery shows, but has never had her own exhibit or show. 

charming / the most necessary to her success as both an artist and as a human being is the fact that yani is innately charming. warm, open, and bright she has an energy that is hard to resist. this is half by design, motivated by an obsessive need to be liked, which has prompted her to cultivate a sharp sense of humor and a dry wit to match. playful, hyperbolic, and creative, she can be a blast at parties or when in a group where she is able to play off the jokes and comments of others. however, leave her to her own devices in a one on one setting and she’s much more laid back and easy-going, preferring to let others steer the conversation. she’s got an easy grace and brightness to her disposition even when she falls into the macabre or dark, tinging it with a sense of humor.

negative –

unpredictable /  yani is not the friend you call at two in the morning for help, unless you’re looking to get really trashed and/or are okay with being left on read until a bleary and misspelled “sup?” at 4am. it isn’t intentional. yani is a slave to her emotions, moods and whims taking over each step of her life as she allows circumstance to pull her rough and tumble through the narration of her story. she seems almost a slave to impulse, which she may grandiose-ly chalk up to “leaving things up to fate” but in actuality is an effort to remove agency from her own hands due to a paralyzing fear of making weighty decisions. while she finds herself empathically able to relate to and understand the needs,  fears, and motives of others, she can easily become overwhelmed with this perceived information and find herself retreating without warning, lest she fail them in some way. her presence in life is both unpredictable and routine - she’ll flit in and out like a butterfly, appearing briefly to leave a mark before she retreats away again, always acting as if no time has passed. her personal moods are just as mercurial, vacillating wildly throughout the course of the day, or even across a number of hours. quick to anger and quicker still to apologize, she’s prone to impulse and erratic behavior that can be off-putting to those who prefer someone more stable and grounded. 

fluctuating self esteem / if you’re being kind, you’ll describe yani as sensitive. a bit empathic, too easily swayed by the emotions and feedback of others. she has a distinct lack of guard up against the world, for all her fronting to appear otherwise. the jaded exterior lasts for only a moment before it’s smashed by the reality of a girl with a heart on her sleeve. she wields a biting tongue against this like a lackluster defense mechanism, as if verbally lashing out at others can counteract how easily, how readily she can be hurt by them. while yani would often rather die than verbally express her feelings, fears, concerns, or worries in any real way, they’re very easily apparent even to the untrained eye. it frustrates her, how easily other people can read her ups and downs, of which there are many. she vacillates between an obsessive egotistical pride in herself and a damaging, truly deep set self loathing that eats up her insides. in reality she has no idea what she thinks about herself, if she’s  proud or not, and pulls all of her validation (as meager as it is) from external sources. thus, her self worth is immensely predicated on the actions, thoughts, and expression of those around her, leaving her incredibly vulnerable despite a veneer of a “devil may care” attitude that, in fact, persists long after the ruse is up.

HAUNT

how many ways can yani answer the question? 

is she haunted by her own failures? by choking in the middle of the entrance exams for university, clutching her chest in a violent panic attack in the bathroom and leaving with the test unfinished, summarily ruining her chances for higher education in the country of her birth that year? is she haunted by wasting her teenage years on booze and cigarettes and skateboards? is she haunted by pining after men and women that would never want her the way she wanted them, who relegated her to her childhood past of knobby knees and awkward limbs and dirt smudged cheeks, sunburnt and freckled from the sun that crested over the mountains?  is she haunted by the death of the one man who professed to love her, by the knowledge that she’d settled for him, had never been able to return the love he so generously gave her? is she haunted by the fear that she’d squandered her one chance of love and now it was summarily too late, and he was too far and too permanently gone, and she would now be punished for her ingratitude with years of nothing? is she haunted by her own propensity to run from the inevitable, to escape to distant locations only to realize her problems were still hers whether she be in paris or london or seoul?

it’s hard to say. 

maybe, in the end, yani is haunted by herself.

HISTORY

i. birth is an uneventful affair. she isn’t a planned baby but she isn’t unwelcome either, youngest of three by enough years that her older brothers dote on her in the abstract but aren’t really fans of actually having her around. it’s sort of a theme. her mother hires a nanny and goes back to work immediately - she took time off with the boys and she’s not willing to do it again. her father is as distant as he was with the elder two, unsurprisingly.

yani grows up this way, chasing after affection and attention, calling out for the same things that were doled out to the other two so easily. she wants her brothers to play with her - dolls or tag, she’s not picky, she’ll take what she can get. they play hide and seek but she always hides, and they never seek, just let the little girl coop herself up in the closet for a half an hour, or until she dozes off. eventually she stops asking.

 ii. she grows into the hand she’s been dealt. she wears a tan like a shield, testament to hours spent outside in the sun, relentlessly scrambling over the landscape. they live on the outskirts of a little town on jeju island, and the sun and surf and sand and rocks and mountains are her company. she takes after her brothers, athletic and enthusiastic, seemingly immune to the scraping of her knees and the scabs on her elbows, bruises on her shins.

yani feels the freest on the skateboard she inherits from her brother - or, more specifically, steals from his room when his interest in girls and his worry about entrance exams takes over his free time. in this way she learns two things: she can only rely on herself, and that she must always, always take that which she desires. 

 she spends hours on it, rolling through town to the ultimate displeasure of the ahjummas who sit outside the town hall and gossip. a girl should be more demure, she should be more careful, she’s going to hurt herself or someone else, they say, but yani is past the point of craving approval now. or at least, that’s what she tells herself, disregard is a shield she equips, straps it over a soft heart, hardens herself by hoping for little and expecting even less. when you expect the world to let you down there is a freeness in being proven correct when it doesn’t surprise you by being anything but bleak.

iii. high school treats her well. there are only so many other kids in town, so it’s not like there’s enough trouble for cliques. not when they’ve all known each other from birth. there isn’t much reason to come to the little excuse for a city, unless you’re a tourist or you’ve got a burning passion for the fishing industry, and even then there are better choices in destination. she studies well enough, but yani is prone to distraction. her attention wanders and she spends plenty of time staring out of the window, as opposed to anything else. but she’s clever, and when she does apply herself she catches up just fine.

there’s a certain sadness to a decaying rural town, and the older yani gets the heavier it weighs on her, this realization that there are no opportunities here, that the only chance for a viable future any of them have exists in some ephemeral elsewhere always slightly out of reach. it’s the cycle of poverty in action - the jobs are manual labor or hardly impressive, few remain in the town, the aging population is setting the community up to collapse in on itself, but what is anyone able to do about it? so they drink or they fuck or they whine about it, anything to carry on the way they always have. from this town yani learns denial and resignation, in a bizarre blend that ought not be properly possible.

iv.

whatever chance she had of success in school goes down the drain with truancy and delinquency, with smokes stolen from the corner store and beer she convinces neighborhood oppas to buy for her with their ids. she gets what she wants and she doesn’t look back, morality a luxury she can’t afford and frankly doesn’t try too hard to squeeze in anyway. she loves boys that don’t love her back and she chases a high that never quite seems to satisfy. climbs a little bit higher, goes a little bit further, to fill herself with the seratonin and the adrenaline that seem to evade her. 

when she finds out, in the dead of night, half drunk with her best friend, who has never seen her the way she’s wanted to be seen, that his older brother - her boyfriend, her second choice, because he sees her the way her best friend refuses to look - is dead, in a car crash, her word falls apart. it crumbles. 

v.

yani deals with her tragedies and her uncertainties in the way she has been taught. she denies it even unto herself, buries herself into distractions. it gets harder, immeasurably, when her two best friends leave for the military one after the other. she submits an application, a portfolio. it’s a long shot, but she makes it. she leaves, on a plane, in a search for more ways to bury her heart. 

it’s so easy to find them in a city like paris. in drink and drugs and then maybe even in boys and girls. she finds her redemption in sex and adrenaline and in petty, stupid actions. she is a terror on two slender legs, she is weaponized femininity and a cutting tongue, she is every bit of sharp wit and killer instinct wrapped in a devastatingly pretty package. the last distraction, the most enjoyable and the most wholesome, comes in the form of an old film camera. she buys it with money she’s picked out of the pockets of men who lean to close to her in clubs, men too old to promise her the things they do, who line her pockets and give her gifts in the hope that she’ll be foolish enough now to offer her youth to those leeches, those vampiric men that wait so eagerly and desperately to drain her dry.  it’s another way to put a distance between herself and the world; observer and artist, not integral, not intertwined. she can expose the truth of the world without involving her own truth in it, betrays herself in a thousand tiny ways. 

vi.

it is so terribly easy to get what you want in a city like this. there is always someone willing to give it to you, for a price of course. yani learns to play this game, to divorce herself from her own reality, to compartmentalize. she feels like a hundred different girls. she feels like a line of glasses on a counter, each varying levels of empty. she feels like she could shatter in a moment, or sing beneath a touch, or neither, or both. 

she feels like they can sense it on her, the sins that paint her skin. she rots herself with alcohol, nicotine, prescription pills designed for someone decidedly not her. she wears herself down with long nights, early mornings, insomnia that clings to her, a weight that settles heavy, drags her down. her moods are mercurial, she tears through the people around her like a storm, intent on destruction, pausing for the briefest moments of calm before the winds pick up once more. 

she falls apart this way, bits and pieces at first, and then all at once, like a spaceship reentering orbit too quickly, she is engulfed. 

vii. 

in the end she stays there, in france, for a little longer. longer than she’d intended. money starts to run out, her feeble language skills are put to the test. it’s sheer luck that lands her a job at an art gallery, luck on top of luck that gets her through an accelerated program. in the end, she spends two and a half years in france, eventually returning to her dismal little rural town. returns with a degree from france that means very little besides “you didn’t make it into a korean school” and “you dedicated your life to creative pursuits that will provide you with nothing.”

she returns with her camera, with a few years of gallery experience, with a couple thousand dollars saved and very little in the way of confidence or strength. she has dreams she barely dares to dream, thoughts she can hardly expose herself too. with a portfolio and no direction, no idea what to do with herself, for herself. 

viii. 

by the time she gets back, one of her friends is out of the military at last, the other long gone for seoul. she spends two months in the little town before she can’t handle it anymore. has photographed every inch of the decaying rural landscape, the town left forgotten by progress, by the government, by the future. her collection on the state of the town, deemed a cutting photojournalistic insight to rural korean poverty, becomes a minor sensation and is picked up by a gallery in seoul. it’s the boost she needs to relocate, flees the town that made her, that funded her flight, to head for the city, to lose herself again. 

seoul is much the same as any other city. she wanted it to have answers that it doesn’t. she hates her apartment, a half basement decked out in mold and wrinkled vinyl flooring over the thick pipes of the ondol. she drags herself through the day to day, gets a job and does what she can to keep herself afloat. takes pictures, sells them, does what she can. it’s unfulfilling. she’s frustrated. her friends feel distant and she feels thoroughly disconnected from the world around her, floating as if on the currents of the ocean. 

viv. 

the treehouse offers a chance at a community, the selfsame thing she has done so much to avoid, so earnestly  distanced herself from - lest anyone figure out the great pretending of her life. that she’s not half the person, half the artist she wants to be. she lives a life steeped in imposter’s syndrome and unspoken words, preserving her thoughts in notebooks and photographs, fragments of time and feeling captured without explanation, left for the viewer to infer.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND September 20, 2019  - VILLAINS, BLOODLINE, DOWNTON ABBEY, AD ASTRA, RAMBO: LAST BLOOD

It’s hard to believe that September is almost over, and we’re just sailing through the September festival season with the New York Film Festival starting (for real) next week.  There are three wide releases, but I will only have seen one of them before writing this, so instead, I’ll talk about a couple genre movies opening Friday, both of which played at Lincoln Center’s “Scary Movies XII” last month.

I remember writing quite extensively about VILLAINS (Alter/Gunpowder and Sky) when I was over at the Tracking Board, mainly about the casting of Bill Skarsgard from It, Maika Monroe from It Follows, as well as Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgwick. It’s the new movie from Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who directed the horror sequel The Stakelander and have written a pretty amazing comedy-thriller twist on the home invasion movie. Skarsgard and Monroe play a young couple who hide out in a seemingly abandoned house after robbing a store. They soon learn that not only is it not abandoned, but there is a young girl chained in the basement. The owners of the home, played by Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan, then return and things go sideways for the young couple as they find that maybe their petty crimes make them the good guys in this scenario.  Villains is getting a fairly hearty release into roughly 100 theaters across the country, so check your listings to see if/where it will be playing near you. (It mainly seems to be playing in Regal theaters across the country.)

Another interesting genre film opening Friday is Henry Jacobson’s psychological thriller BLOODLINE (Momentum Pictures), starring Seann William Scott as Evan, a high school social worker with a secret – he’s also a serial killer who tries to help his patients by ridding them of their issues. Evan is also experiencing a new baby with his wife, which might keep him from his killing habits, except that his mother (Dale Dickey) has shown up to help them, and she was the one who taught him his ways. This is a really dark and gory film that I quite enjoyed in a similar way as some of my favorite serial killer thrillers, from Hitchcock’s Psychoto Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer and others. It honestly can’t be a better time for this with all the true crime television we’re getting, and I was pretty blown away by Scott’s performance in this. Bloodlineisplaying at the IFC Center for Friday and Saturday late night screenings and probably will be available On Demand as well.

You can read my interview with Seann William Scott and the directors of VILLAINS over at The Beat, the latter posting Friday.

The one wide release I have seen this weekend is Focus Features’ DOWNTOWN ABBEY, a continuation of the PBS series with an absolutely amazing British cast that includes Dame Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton and so many more that I won’t name all of them. I feel that I’m not the best person to properly review the movie since I haven’t seen a second of the series, but I generally liked what I saw and might give it a look if I can find a good streaming source on which to binge it. I actually liked the movie enough to recommend it without having any previous knowledge of the series.

Probably my biggest disappointment of this week is that I didn’t have a chance to see James Gray’s AD ASTRA (20thCentury Fox), starring Brad Pitt, before Thursday night, because I wasn’t able to get to the press screening. It’s been one of my more anticipated movies of the year, mainly because I generally love outer space movies, but I also have been interested in seeing what Gray and Pitt do with the material, especially with such a great supporting cast.

Another movie that I only got to see just before this column posts is Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO: LAST BLOOD (Lionsgate), which I reviewed over at The Beat. I had very few expectations for the movie, as I’ve never been a huge Rambo fan. I’m not sure why, but I guess I just never got into the Rah! Rah! USA! Stuff that permeated the United States in the ‘80s, and I was more into music than movies at the time. Reading my review, it’s obvious that Stallone’s latest attempt to revive a franchise didn’t do much for me.

You can read what I think of the above’s box office prospects over at The Beat, as well.

LIMITED RELEASES

I’m not quite sure why there are so many limited releases this weekend –I count almost 30 (!!!!) over on Rotten Tomatoes– but I’ll see what I can get to this week since I’m already a little behind. If you missed, Rob Zombie’s 3 FROM HELL on Monday and Tuesday night and more importantly, missed my scathing review of it over at The Beat, well, then you’ve missed it since this column is posting after it played its last night before its blu-ray release next month. Sorry!

A fantastic documentary opening at the Metrograph this week is Jacqueline Olive’s directorial debut ALWAYS IN SEASON (Multitude Films), a stirring film about the history of lynching, circling around the death of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy from Bladenboro, North Carolina, which is ruled as a suicide but his mother Claudia is convince that her son was lynched. Olive’s powerful film provides a background for how lynching became so prevalent in the early part of the 20thCentury, including an eerie annual reenactment by the town of Monroe, Georgia that wants to make sure that the county’s atrocities aren’t forgiven or forgotten.  Narrated by Danny Glover, Olive’s directorial debut is powerful and moving and a film that must not be missed – maybe it’s no surprise that it won a Special Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival for “Moral Urgency” earlier this year. I was pretty shaken up when I saw it at this year’s Oxford Film Festival.

The Metrograph is also screening two National Geographic shorts, Alexander A. Mora’s The Night Crawlers and Orlando von Einsiedel’sLost and Found, over the next week. The Night Crawlers looks at a group of Filipino journalists known as the “Manila Nightcrawlers” who seek to expose the truth about President Duterte’s war on drugs and the number of people who lost their lives over it. Lost and Foundi s a new doc short from the director of the Netflix doc The White Helmets which looks at the Myanmar’s ethnic violence against the Rohingya people through the eyes of a man in a refugee camp seeking to reunite children with parents.

Japanese animation house Studio TRIGGER’s first feature film PROMARE (GKIDS) will get a limited release on Friday, following Fathom Events showings on Tuesday (already passed) and Thursday (tonight). It will then be opening in New York at the Metrograph and AMC Empire on Friday for a one-week run. It’s an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller set in a world thirty years after a race of flame-wielding mutant beings called the Burnish set half the world on fire an the battle between the anti-Burnish Burning Rescue and Lio Fotia, leader of the aggressive new “Mad Burnish” mutants.

Paolo Sorrentino, director of the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty and its follow-up Youth, returns with LORO (Sundance Selects), about a young hustler named Sergio (Riccardo Scamarcio) managing an escort service who sets his sights on the egotistical billionaire Italian ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Tony Servillo) who is trying to bribe his way back into power. It will open at the IFC Center Friday.

A couple other docs opening this weekend, the first two opening at New York’s Film Forum…

Now playing is Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler (Oscilloscope) about how the filmmaker received death threats from the Taliban in 2015 for running Kabul, Afghanistan’s Art Café, a progressive meeting place, so he, his wife and two young daughters must travel 3,500 miles over 3 years across four countries to get to Hungary, a journey documented via mobile phone cameras. It will open in L.A. on October 4.

Then on Friday, there’s Matt Tyrnauer’s new film WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? (Sony Pictures Classics) looks at the lawyer and power broker who was part of Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communist activities and who was pivotal in molding a young Queens developer named Donald Trump. I wanted to like this movie more because Roy Cohn is such an interesting human being in such a despicable way, but this doc really didn’t do much for me.

Opening in New York (Cinema Village) and L.A. (Laemmle Glendale) is DIEGO MARADONA (HBO Sports), the new doc from Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna), which will show on HBO on October 1. If you don’t know international football (or soccer), the Argentine Maradona is one of the most famous footballers of all time, a bit of a legend since signing to Naples in 1984 for a record-setting fee. I haven’t watched this yet but hope to soon.

Opening at New York’s IFC Center Friday is Max Powers’ Don’t Be Nice (Juno Films), focusing on the Bowery Slam Poetry Team as they head to the national championships, and there will be QnAs almost every night in its week-long run, and then it will open in L.A. on September 27.

Completely unrelated but also at the IFC Center is a full-week run of National Theatre Live: Fleabag, screening a pre-recorded performance of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show that inspired her hit Emmy-nominated show from the Soho Playhousein London’s West End. Heck, I might try to get to one of these since it won’t be on television or any other format for at least a year.

After opening for “one night only” on Tuesday, Louie (The Cove) Psihoyos’ new movie The Game Changers will get a release on New York this Friday and L.A. the 27th. Exec. produced by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan, it explores the rise of plant-based eating in professional sports along with Special Forces trainer James Wilks and features segments on Schwarzenegger, Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton, tennis player Novak Djokovic and NBA star Chris Paul.

Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Karan Soni (from the “Deadpool” movies) and Jessica Williams star in the horror-comedy Corporate Animals (Screen Media), the new comedy from Patrick Brice (Creep, The Overnight) about a corporate team-building adventure that turns to cannibalism when an office group find themselves trapped in a cave system. The movie has a great cast but the strange concept and weak screenplay really keeps the movie from delivering.

Other movies out this weekend include James Franco’s Zeroville (MyCinema), co-starring Megan Fox and Seth Rogen; Nicolas Cage’s new movie Running with the Devil (Quiver DIstribution), a drug thriller co-starring Laurence Fishburne, Barry Pepper, Leslie Bibb and more; and the award-winning Chinese drama Send Me to the Clouds (Cheng Cheng Films), opening in L.A., NY, Toronto and Vancouver.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Maybe the movie I’m most excited for this week is Zak Galifianakis’ BETWEEN TWO FERNS: THE MOVIE (Netflix), which I’m sure is going to be silly, maybe even stupid, but I’m still amused by his style of humor. I also haven’t seen the new Netflix doc Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, and I also no absolutely nothing about the movie other than what’s in the title.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

On Tuesday, the Metrograph began a series called “Bleecker Street: The First Five Years” running through Thursday withsingle screenings of Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, Sebastian Lelio’s Disobediance and Brett Haley’s I’ll See You in My Dreams with talent doing QnAs. On the weekend, the theater has special screenings of the dance film The Red Shoes   (1948) on Saturday with an introduction by Jillian McManemin – I honestly have no idea who that is. On Saturday, the Academy is back with its monthly series, this month showing Milos Forman’s 1979 musical Hair with actor Treat Williams and Annie Golden in person. On Sunday, there’s a similarly special screening of Martin Scorsese’s 1990 crime classic Goodfellas with producer Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Nick Pileggi -- $35 tickets, a little pricey for me. You also have just two more days (today and tomorrow) to see Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress on the big screen.

This weekend’s Welcome To Metrograph: Redux offering is Jean Vigo’s 1934 film L’Atalante,  Late Nites at Metrograph is showing Fantastic Planet(again) and the Japanese horror film Hausu (1977). This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is Alfonso Cuaron’s fantasy A Little Princess (1995)

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

The Alamo is also celebrating “Arthouse Theater Day” on Wednesday with Robert Downey Sr.’s Putney Swope. They’re also doing a “Rambo Marathon” on Sunday to tie-in with Stallone’s latest Rambo movie -- $35 for all five Rambo movies. Now THAT is a great deal, and there are a few tickets left. On Saturday afternoon, the Alamo is showing Almodovar’s 2000 classic All About My Mother to celebrate the Spanish filmmaker before the release of his newest film Pain and Glory.  Monday’s “Out of Tune” is Lars von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer in the Dark, starring Bjork. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the amazing Vera Farmiga thriller Orphan from 2009, and the Alamo is also playing Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown from 1988. Next week’s “Weird Wednesday” is 1995’s Tank Girl, starring Lori Petty.

AERO  (LA):

Wednesday is (or rather, was) a screening of the 1969 film Putney Swope as part of Art House Theater Day 2019, Thursday is a screening of the 1984 adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: The Year We Made Contact. In honor of Downton Abbey (I guess?), the Aero is beginning a series called “Upstairs, Downstairs,” beginning Friday with a 70mm print of 1993’s The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins an Emma Thompson, then Saturday is a double feature of Hitchcock’s Rebecca  (1940) and Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol  (1948), and then on Sunday is a double feature of Ruggles of Red Cap (1935) and By Candlelight  (1933), as well as a separate free member screening of Downton Abbey with some of the cast in person.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Robert Altman’s classic 1975 film Nashville will screen as a new 4k restoration for the next week with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury appearing on Saturday night. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Howard Hawk’s 1940 movie His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant.  Joseph Losey’s Holocaust drama Mr. Klein ends on Thursday.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad is back with another great series called “Laws of Desire: The Films of Antonio Banderas” beginning Wednesday, showing so many films starring the Spanish actor who is likely to get nominated for his first Oscar for Almodovar’s Pain and Glory.  It will even show Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming The Laundromat, which premieres on Netflix next week. Instead of going through all 13 of the movies, click on the link above and get ready to be Banderasized!

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is Tony Scott’s vampire flick The Hunger (1983), chosen by “Todd,” Waverly Midnights: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is the anime classic Akira, chosen by “Katie,” and Late Night Favorites: Summer 2019 is Satoshi Kon’s Paprika(again?)

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

This weekend begins a “See It Big! Ghost Stories” series with the Japanese horror Ugetsu from 1953, then Saturday is The Phantom Carriage (1921) – this is with live piano accompaniment! --The Ghost and Mrs. Muir(1947), and then Sunday they’re screening Olivier Assayas’ more recent Personal Shopper (2006) with Kristen Stewart.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Although Lincoln Center is preparing for next week’s New York Film Festival, this weekend it’s holding special screenings of two Gershwin films, Otto Preminger’s 1959 musical Porgy and Bess on Thursday (with panel) and then Vincente Minelli’s An American in Paris on Friday.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

“The Purpose and Passion: the Cinema of John Singleton” ends on Friday, but there are screenings of his 2000 Shaft movie, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and another screening of Boyz n the Hood before then.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Thursday night is a screening of David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai  (1957), but the rest of the weekend is the “Guadalajara Film Festival.”

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday night’s midnight offering is John Waters’ 2004 movie A Dirty Shame, starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville and Selma Blair.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The New Bev continues its “time out” at the bottom of this section as long as Tarantino uses his repertory theater to show Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, and currently it’s booked through the end of September. Since this week’s column is late, you already missed the 1952 film The Narrow Marginas the Weds. matinee, the New Bev will also show the Hanna/Barbera animated feature Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear (1964) as this weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee.” Tarantino’s Jackie Brown is the Saturday night midnight movie, and then on Monday, the theater will show David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive  (2000) in two matinees (the 2pm is already sold out).

A quieter week with only one wide release, the Universal/DreamWorks animation fantasy-adventure Abominable.

[kunoichi-ume]

Character meme

I stole this from @dingoat because it looked like fun. 

your muse’s name: Noara Starspark, she was born with the surname Lewton and will be Cadera once she and Torian get properly married. 

one favourite picture:

It absolutely has to be this one that Dingoat did for me ages ago. It’s the first piece of art, and one of the few, that I have of Noara and Torian together. When I made Noara I didn’t intend to ship her with him but now it’s hard to imagine a version of her that doesn’t find her way to him even when they are raised on opposite sides of a war and with every reason to distrust and dislike one another. They both just look so happy and at peace together in this picture I love it - enough that I had a phone case made with it printed on it so it’s little surprise it is my favorite.

faceclaim of your muse:

I hadn’t actually chosen one for her before now, I don’t draw so I never felt the need to find inspiration for her looks outside of the game, but Emily Rudd is a good representation of what I imagine for Noara. 

two headcanons you have for your muse:

Being told that love was the path to the dark side and complete loss of herself never sat well with her, she couldn’t understand how that could be. Love was supposed to be the best thing in the world, the reason to fight the never-ending war she had been groomed for from the time she was a toddler. Despite the warnings she was often given Noara has always been a bit in love with the idea of experiencing love. She wanted to be in love and, more importantly, she wanted someone to say they loved her. It didn’t even have to be romantic love, Noara just wanted to know that someone cared about her unlike her family that gave her away or the Jedi who would just replace her when she died with another like her without the freedom of choosing how they lead their life.

Fighting is a source of true internal conflict for Noara. She thrives in the heat of a fight, reveling in the exertion and adrenaline and lives for pulling off reality defying feats with the Force (impossible leaps and jumps, throwing people farther than she could physically, lifting things she couldn’t manage on her own) and the thrill of victory was the greatest thing she had ever felt (until a certain Mandalorian that is) but she hates taking lives. Whenever possible she spares her opponents but that is easier said than done when wielding a weapon that can so easily cut through flesh with a flick of her wrist. She isn’t able to do it as much as she would like, and doesn’t fault people who don’t avoid it like she does, but will always prefer opponents that are smart enough to surrender before she has to kill them. Or droids. Those she never feels guilty about turning into scrap metal.

three things that your muse likes doing in their free time:

Exercising, she works hard to keep herself in shape. Building and keeping muscle tone with her metabolism and body type can be difficult without a strict routine. Running, push/pull ups, sparring, and other similar activities are her go to ones but when she is on a planet with terrain that has features to vary her routine she always takes advantage. She loves going swimming or rock climbing when she can, if she can scale a cliff and then jump into the ocean afterward all the better. 

Reading. Noara always has a collection of books on her datapad, all romances. It goes back to her desire to experience love in all its forms, reading gives her a chance to live vicariously through the characters without taking the risk of getting herself or anyone else hurt.

Baking and cooking. Noara isn’t very good at it, Jedi don’t really get home ec. lessons because no one expects them to set up house someday, but she is improving all the time. She is determined to be able to do something she sees as a “normal” activity for a person her age, something maybe she could have learned from her mother if she’d gotten the chance. She doesn’t tell anyone that another reason she wants to know that if she is ever a mother she can teach them what her’s never did.

seven people your muse loves / likes:

Torian Cadera, no matter which version or story line of Noara is involved, there is never anyone she loves the way she loves him. 

The others depend on the version, and who is around for her to form those attachments to. In my shared Jedi Sitter story with @cinlat Noara loves her found family long before even meeting Torian. Aric she loves as a father figure, Cormac as an overprotective big brother, Elara as a stern but loving sister, and little baby Tayl as her nephew. Fynta is a mixture of big sister, mother, confidant and protector for her, someone she admires and dreams of being as strong and confidant as someday. In that story she will eventually meet her biological family, her parents and younger brother and two younger sisters, who I am sort of grouping together as the seventh. 

[pennywise-chenle]

50 Questions Tag

Letsgetit✊🏼

1. What takes up too much of your time?

P: Watching kpop mvs, listening to kpop, watching kpop broadcasts, watching kpop interviews, watching kpop- yeah you get it

K: anything that isn’t productive tbh

2. What makes your day better?

P: If I get to eat dark chocolate🤤

K: nct 🤩 they’re such crackheads I love them (also when my friends hype me up)

3. What’s the best thing to happen to you today?

P: Pressed shuffle on my phone, the first song that came up was CLC’s No (it’s really good, highly recommend)

K: I ate two eggs

4. What fictional place would you like to go to?

P: Marvel or DC universe? But maybe just visit for like a week I don’t think I could handle a new super villain popping up every week

K: the Harry Potter verse,, wielding magic sounds pretty cool

5. Do you give good advice?

P: I think I do sometimes, but rarely do I ever actually listen to it

K: only when I’m knowledgeable about the topic/have experienced it before. Other than that no lol

6. Do you have a mental illness?

P: not one I am consciously aware of...

K: nope

7. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis?

P: No, never

K: not that I remember.. I do however have a weird recollection of dreaming about bert and ernie from Sesame Street shuffling around my room when I was like 4 (lmao I just laid there in bed and watched them in the semi-darkness it was freaky)

8. What musician inspired you the most?

P: Oh god uh Sunmi because she is an artist in every sense of the word and Ateez’s Hongjoong because of his work ethic and dedication

K: this is going to sound weird but Johnny from nct. his confidence and perspective on life is something that I look up to and respect (also I feel like he’s pretty hardworking cause dam 9 years as a trainee)

9. Have you ever fallen in love?

P: with myself, love yourself babies you deserve it🥰😤✊🏼🌸

K: Me and wonhos man tiddies are in a very committed relationship rn

10. What’s your dream date?

P: Oh you know nice walk on a beach, watching movies cuddled up on a couch~

K: we’re def hitting the arcade, eating out at a nice restaurant, and if they’re also into art we could draw/paint together 🤩

11. What do others notice about you?

P: My hair and the way I look, I’ve been told (even by my own mother) that I look intimidating which I DONT GET

K: poeple comment on my deadpan humor 💪

12. What’s an annoying habit you have?

P: Procrastinating and then having to go to sleep later than I need to

K: turning off my alarm in the morning and oversleeping

13. Do you still talk to your first love?

P: Yeah- every morning in the mirror, late at night when the procrastination has become too much, etc

K: I’ve stopped playing otome games

14. How many exes do you have?

P: one

K: none 😎

15. How many songs are in your playlist?

P: I have one playlist and it currently has 416 songs in it

K: 716 (I also have only one playlist)

16. What instruments can you play?

P: I’m pretty good at playing the recorder

K: I used to play the flute and piano

17. What do you have the most picture of?

P: kpop memes :)

K: memes 😔

18. Where would you like to go before you die?

P: Greece, Australia, SoUtH KoReA

K: Japan, Maldives, Europe

19. What’s your Zodiac?

P: I’m living that Sagittarius life

K: Libra

20. Do you relate to it?

P: yes? But I’m also a cusp so I’ve been told that I have Scorpio qualities🦂

K: yeah but I’m not “social” I’m like the opposite of that

21. What is happiness to you?

P: We going✈️ deep hours -being content with where you are in the moment and being able to smile for any reason

K: unabashedly being yourself while doing things that you love

22. Are you going through anything right now?

P: I’m going through something new everyday, but recently it’s been questioning my future

K: aren’t we all tho,, that’s the essence of life

23. What’s the worst decision you ever made?

P: I can’t say it’s the worst but the most glaringly bad decision I’ve made is not taking history earlier cause now I have to take it during the summer🙃

K: not being assertive enough

24. What is your favorite store?

P: probably ulta💄

K: Hollister lol

25. What is your opinion of abortion?

P: Well that escalated quickly- to each their own, if that’s the choice you take you should be able to make it

K: if u can’t properly support the baby why subject it to that type of life?

26. Do you have a bucket list?

P: Travel the world I guess

K: id like to hone my artistic skills

27. Do you have a favorite album?

P: Hell yeah, Ateez’s Treasure: All to Zero and Zero to One album (Say My Name, Treasure, and HALA HALA are BOPS)

K: EXO’s EX’ACT album

28. What do you want for your birthday?

P: To be acknowledged😪, no but my birthday often falls on Thanksgiving so it’s like me vs. turkey day

K: a macbook

29. What are most people’s first impressions of you?

P: I kinda already talked about this but intimidating

K: extremely quiet 🦶 it’s the biggest thing about me that I wish I could change

30: What age do you seem according to people?

P: I don’t actually know, but I will always be 5 in my own eyes

K: yo I actually have no idea

31. Where do you keep your phone while you are sleeping?

P: Next to me charging which is probably dAnGeRoUs

K: across the room so I can attempt to get my ass out of bed when my phone alarm goes off (spoiler alert: it doesn’t work)

32. What word do you say the most?

P: My daily vernacular is just littered with “yeehaw” and “oh my god” and “hahah”

K: “dude” and “like”

33. What’s the oldest age you would date?

P: Probably 3 years older than me

K: depends but nothing extreme

34: Whats the youngest age you would date?

P: Anyone more than 1-2 years younger than me is a no-go

K: same answer as the last question

35: What job/career do most people say would suit you?

P: A psychologist

K: art-related career

36. What’s your favorite music genre?

P: kpop and alternative

K: R&B, hip hop, lofi, kpop

37. If you could live in any country in the world, where would it be?

P: I don’t actually know, I would need to do a comprehensive search of all my options

K: ^^^

38. What is your current favorite songs?

P: Say My Name by Ateez, Noir by Sunmi, Thrilla Killa by VAV, Victory Song by Stray Kids, Beautiful by Monsta X, and Yestoday by NCT U

K: Don’t Hang Up by Suran, Light by ATEEZ, Trauma by EXO, Home by BTS, V by Jay Park

39. How long have you had this blog for?

P: Since late November I think?

K: ^^^

40. What are you excited for?

P: I got tix to see Monsta X!!🤠

K: school ends soon 🤠 can’t wait for summer letsgetit

41. Are you a better talker or listener?

P: Neither, I’m just a mess all around

K: listener, but if I’m comfortable enough around the other person I become a lot more talkative

42. What is the last productive thing you did?

P: I ate breakfast

K: I petted my dog

43. What do you want for Christmas?

P: That’s too far in the future man, idk

K: a macbook

44. What class do you have the best grades in?

P: French and Anatomy

K: art (does that count?) and Physics

45. On a scale of 1-10, how are you feeling right now?

P: Like a 7, it’d be a 9 but I have some projects that I need to finish :(

K: 6 cause I have so much work that I need to finish

46. What can you see yourself doing in ten years?

P: Getting swol💪🏼😤

K: managing an empire of meme accounts

47. When did you get your first heartbreak?

P: We going ✈️sad hours- when someone very close to me passed away

K: I actually don’t know if I’ve ever had a proper heartbreak

48: What age do you want to get married?

P: I don’t plan on getting married I’m gonna live forever

K: it depends honestly

49. What career did you want as a child?

P: You know the usual- actress, singer

K: a doctor/ smth health-sci related

50. What do you crave right now?

P: A full 8 hours of sleep

K: more free time to watch my kpop boys

P: Wow that was a lot of self reflection

Thank you for tagging us @jenoration !

Sorry if you’ve already been tagged, but we tag-

@lushnct @ed3en @softforseo @renminculture @crackteez @jaeminjubescrack

[jeanjauthor]

Remember, writers: There's a HUGE difference between constructive critiquing & opinionated criticism.

A good critique builds your enthusiasm to write more. It encourages you to try harder at writing a better, more engaging story. It points out the bad things and the good things in your story, and makes positive suggestions for improvement.  A good critique will not say “Your hero obviously doesn’t know how to hold a sword! You can’t write combat for crap”

Instead, they might say anything along these lines:  “The way the hero is wielding his sword doesn’t seem very realistic.  Have you studied any martial arts videos, or attended an SCA fight practice?  Writing combat scenes is difficult, since it’s being done with words, while an actual fight is often very visual.  It takes a lot of effort to describe a combat scene fluidly & believably for those readers who do know how to fight. I’d work on that area a bit more, maybe get a beta reader who does kendo or something as a consultant.  You can also look up YouTubers who focus on believability in combat, and how to properly wield a sword, such as Shadiversity.  And you can always consider the option of just glossing over the fight sequence and moving on to the rest of the story more quickly...”

Editors, publishers, agents, and even creative writing teachers are human. They can have a bad day, and say the wrong thing...but the good ones will strive to give a critique with good points as well as “these things need to be worked on to make them better.”

If they drag your writing with nothing but hurtful, negative, denigrating criticisms, it’s the same as posting a fanfic in an archive and getting a flaming hurtful comment from a reader. At best they have no clue how to critique, and at worst they’re spewing shit in an effort to try to make themselves feel good or powerful by making you feel small and awful.

Don’t pay attention to the flames. Don’t let anyone try to burn your writing enthusiasm to ashes. Do acknowledge that even the best writer in existence always, always has room for improvement. (Yes, myself included!)  Best of all, once you admit that this also includes you & your writing, you’ll be in a much better frame of mind for the work of & tweaking & imrpoving your writing.

“An overnight success takes 20 years to get there.”

I’m not sure who said it first, but one of my writing friends told me this quote when I got my first novel published...and she was right.  I was 15 when I realized I wanted to be a writer “when I grew up.”  20 years later, in the month I turned 35, and only after a lot of writing, practicing, and plenty of rejection letters...I got my first novel published.

You could sell your very first book right on the very first try when writing a story.  You could also sell your very first book only after your twenty-first story-writing try.

A good critique will help you & your writing get it there.

[rwdestuffs]

How the show fails at being bad at power escalation.

Generally speaking, Power Escalation is what happens when you have a villain that has to be overpowered in order to defeat. So, by virtue of the heroes increasing their own power level, they can then defeat them.

If the series continues, in order for the next big bad to feel like a threat, the creator(s) typically introduce a new threat that is even more powerful than the heroes. This can eventually lead to the heroes going from Martial Arts to firing beams of energy that can destroy planets, or a show about people with magical ninja powers going to gargantuan avatars that can level mountains, to even something as simple and straightforward as a gang of pirates with a few interesting abilities turning into a series where having the power to destroy a mountain is normal. It basically becomes an absurd escalation of power that makes it harder to get invested because the series is likely to repeat the same formula until it becomes too crazy to follow the levels of power that the characters are throwing around.

In layman’s terms, it becomes: We just overpowered the big bad! Now we gotta do the same with the new big bad! We gotta get to a higher power level!

Now, rw/by is a show that succeeds at avoiding this for the wrong reasons. This isn’t like a franchise that started as a man trying to defeat undead foes with a magical breathing technique that eventually evolved into people wielding invisible ghost beings that punched things really hard and fast. This is a show that started as a group of schoolkids trying to save the world to……… a bunch of schoolkids trying to save the world on the road!

Unlike Jojo, which avoids this problem completely by starting each new part with a new protagonist (video detailing that here) in a new setting, rw/by fails at this because the villains remain at the same or similar power level as the heroes.

This creates a problem because they mentioned that Semblances can evolve. We have yet to see that sort of evolution in the show proper. Ruby’s semblance hasn’t evolved from super speed (or rose petals (whatever the f*ck that means)) to teleportation. Blake’s semblance hasn’t evolved  from making shadow clones to making tangible clones. Yang’s semblance hasn’t evolved from turning physical pain into power into using preexisting pain into physical power. Nora’s semblance hasn’t evolved from lighting absorption into non-physical energy absorption. Ren’s hasn’t evolved from Emotion Masking to invisibility. Qrow’s hasn’t evolved from Bad Luck to probability manipulation. Raven’s hasn’t evolved from making portals to people she’s bonded with to making portals to anyone/portals to any location that she’s seen before. Emerald’s semblance hasn’t evolved from illusions to straight-up mind control/physical constructs.

In short; the characters’ powers have yet to evolve.

But you might have noticed that I didn’t include Weiss or Jaune on this list.- That’s pretty straightforward. Weiss learned how to summon, and that was an interesting jump in power. Unfortunately, that ability became completely negated and useless when Vernal destroyed her knight.

As for Jaune……… He just recently unlocked his semblance. There’s no real narrative reason for his power to escalate as of yet. Maybe in Volume 9, but we’ll see. But by that point, everyone else’  semblance should have also grown.

There isn’t even a growth in strategy. Jaune is as hotheaded as he was before, Yang’s fighting style only added kicks to her arsenal, and that’s about it. Weiss has completely forgotten how to use her rapier when Volume 5, and that’s a nerf.

Nerfing characters to make the big bad seem more intimidating doesn’t work. It doesn’t make the big bad look powerful, it just makes whichever character you decided to nerf look stupid.

Imagine for a moment, that a bad guy is about to sneak up on an innocent, and Spider-Man can’t get to him in time. In a normal situation, Spidey would use his webbing to disarm the bad guy, and deck him for trying to hurt a bystander.

But let’s say that Spidey instead tries to run towards his foe, and doesn’t make it in time. That doesn’t make the new bad guy faster than Spider-Man, it just makes Spider-Man seem stupid. Unless it was mentioned earlier that Spidey had run out of web-fluid and didn’t have enough time to reload, that scene would just make Spidey look like a total moron.

That’s what the current series feels like. Instead of the bad guys actually feeling like a threat, it just feels more like the good guys are just getting stupider.

Unlike having bad Power Escalation in the sense of “The big bad beat the city-block busting hero because they can bust entire cities,” it’s bad in the sense of “The big bad beat this character, because said character somehow forgot how to fight with their weapon.” There’s nothing at stake, and it makes the characters hard to root for when they make multiple stupid decisions after stupid decision.

Weiss once used her Glyphs to unleash what is effectively Death of a Thousand Cuts on a White Fang goon back in Volume 2. That hasn’t shown up again. She doesn’t even bother trying against Vernal in Volume 5, where it could have been a viable option. And even if it failed, it would showcase the difference in power that the two combatants had. It would showcase Vernal as a clear threat if one of Weiss’ better fighting moments in Volume 2 proved ineffective, and it showcased exactly why Weiss tried nothing but summoning. Would the summoning still prove to be useless?- Yes, most likely.- But at least then, it wouldn’t look like Weiss dropped a few levels in the intelligence department just to have Vernal beat her.

The very little power Escalation that we do get doesn’t even work properly. Despite being completely new to the whole idea of fighting, Oscar somehow manages to defeat Leo in a single shot!- That’s the villains getting knocked down a few power levels, not the heroes rising a few levels in power.

Escalation works in the sense of characters rising in power. Not a character being nerfed to ‘showcase’ another character’s progress. Imagine if Vegeta managed to beat Goku only because Goku forgot or couldn’t go Super Saiyan Blue!- Not only would that not be a victory in Vegeta’s favor, it would be a stupid way for Vegeta to win and a direct insult to his fans who want to see him surpass Goku.

Power escalation doesn’t even have to work in the way of characters getting stronger!- It could also work in the sense of creativity, but even that isn’t utilized as much as it should be. Imagine if Blake could use the momentum from her Shadow Clones to get in some extra speed for an attack. Imagine if Yang used the knockback of her weapons for a quick boost of power. Imagine if Nora developed a technique that would create a small tremor to shake the ground to  disorient her opponents. How about Ruby using her speed semblance the same way comic speedsters do, and using it to create tornadoes? How about Weiss being more creative with the variety of Glyphs she’s got like we saw back in Volume 2?- While weapons themselves are dangerous, it has the potential to be even more dangerous depending on who is using them.

Take Okuyasu from Diamond is Unbreakable, for example. Having the ability to swipe things out of existence is deadly and dangerous. But because Okuyasu is an idiot, he doesn’t use it to it’s fullest extent. He’s still creative with it though, like how he uses the ability to erase the space and air between himself and his foe to close the distance between them and get in some melee strikes. While that is creative, it’s not dangerous, because if Okuyasu was smart enough to realize that he could just erase his opponents’ heart(s), well…

(Look, I wanted at least one image in this post, and this was the most natural place I could find for it)

Or take Chazz Princeton (Jin Manjome in the original dub) against his brother Slade (Chosaku in the original dub) from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Chazz using weaker monsters in creative ways so that he ultimately wins (spoiler?- It’s been over ten years since the episode debuted in the English dub (Dailymotion link)).

In a series about a card game can show off creative ways of using monsters that would be normally considered ‘weak’ and ‘unusable’ to win (Chaos Necromancer and Relinquished was in the well that he found for the restrictions that he had, what were the original wielders of those cards thinking?- Did they not have the required ritual for Relinquished or something?), a show about fights with interesting transforming weapons, super powers that are manifestations of the soul, and so many other things……… can’t be bothered to have the characters get creative with their movesets.

Where are the moments where Raven or Qrow use their bird forms in combat?

I mean, they showed a few faunus creatively using their faunus traits in combat situations, so why can’t the other characters do the same with their powers and weapons?

Ilia uses her color change to blend into the shadows (even though that really shouldn’t have worked for so many reasons), that bat guy (Yuma, I think was his name) used his wings to move around faster, that spider-lady pulled a Spider-Man and ensnared Blake with her webbing, and (most notably) Tyrian incorporated his tail into his attacks. I can understand faunus like Blake, Velvet, or Sun not using theirs (as they’re more or less useless in combat scenarios), but why can’t there be more characters like this?

This is what I mean when I say that rw/by avoids the Power Escalation trope poorly. Instead of the new big bad using different tactics, or having a different fighting style, the end solution is always the same: beat, cut, slash, and stab the crap out of them until they either surrender or are dead. Typically it is the heroes that need to change tactics, learn a new technique, or gain more power to defeat the big bad. But they just use the powers that they already have to defeat the big bad no matter what. There’s no change in tactics, nor is there any notable growth in power. They just beat them because they’re the Protagonists™.