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liteisat · 2 years ago

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Altria Caster/Castoria; The meta support of the game and lovely farm girl who loves you.

Let's talk about Castoria, she is really that good as people say? the answer is yes. And she is even better after you discover she loves our master... and unlike some eggplant she will not ntr you.

While Mash is out there Ntr'ing you with goblins and furries(fuck you Nasu), Castoria is more and more showing her cute side and love for our dear master.

Before anything I see myself in the need to say, Muramasa is like a grandpa to her, and I know you may love Shiro but please, don't ship these two just because of "Saber and Shirou brainrots".

If you are one of those that don't read Fgo story, yes, I know you exist, Castoria indeed canonically loves Ritsuka and you can see that reading lostbelt 6, but I pretty much understand if you skip... "Mash Scenes." That shit makes me sick.

Let's just talk about her.

Meta-Wise;

Skill 1: Charisma of Hope B

Increases party's attack for 3 turns. (10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/20) Charges party's NP gauge. (20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/30)

Cooldown of: 8/7/6

Skill 2: Avalon le Fae A

Charges one ally's NP gauge. (10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/20) Increases party's NP generation rate for 3 turns (20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/30)

Cooldown of: 7/6/5

Skill 3: Holy Sword Creation EX

Increases one ally's Arts performance for 3 turns. (30/32/34/36/38/40/42/44/46/50)

Increases their damage against Threat to Humanity enemies for 3 turns. (30/32/34/36/38/40/42/44/46/50)

Grants them Invincibility for 1 turn.

Cooldown of: 8/7/6

Noble Phantasm: Around Caliburn The Ray of Hope That Embraces You/Round of Avalon The Promised Star Which Gathers The True Round

Increases party's attack for 3 turns

Removes party's debuffs.

Grants party Anti-Purge Defense buff for N attacks, 3 turns.

...

So, let's talk about her. Castoria is the best support on this game, she is really usefull even if you not using arts servant. One of the things that makes her that good is her NP.

Her fucking NP... alright, let's think about that. First of all, increase party's attack, good, remove part's debuffs, really good...

THAT STUPID ANTI-PURGE DEFENSE!

Let me explain to you, Anti-purge is pretty much like invicibility, but... it negates all damage, all of them, even the attacks with ignore invicibility buff. That's right It is a invicibility buff, but stronger. The buff stacks the amounts of attacks it will take, that amount increases with overcharge.

So, if you do a 200% overcharge NP, the Anti-purge will stack to defend two attacks. With that in mind, if you have castoria, or going to catch her, always, put her np on the last utilized on the NP lines so you can get me maximum amount of stacks possible, trust me you gonna need it, Cernunnos is coming.

This is, outside of arts loop, makes Castoria the best support on this game, so if you can, catch her. I pretty much prefers to take Koyanskaya now, since all my dps are buster, but if you don't need Koyanskaya, go for Castoria.

Simple.

Now let's talk about...

Character-wise;

First, we need to understand some things about Castoria, she is a girl born with the same job as us, the master, she hold a great responsability of saving a world she don't have any reason to care for. That's not my own say, both Ritsuka and Castoria have this in common, fighting for a world, because they are forced to do so, that's why Ritsuka have a better simpaty with her, and also...

That's one of the things that made Castoria love Ritsuka, and that's canon, funny right?

Castoria is a character everyone can like, she is sweet, lovely, constant memes and she really cares about you, so please, be a good master to her, that girl deserve all that love and more.

There is a lot of things coming about her now, and lostbelt 6 will show you how to love that girl, protect that smile, with every single one of your strength. There is a lot of emotion on lostbelt 6, is probably one of my favorites on FGO, so take your time, read the story, it is really good.

In the end, yes, you should take her.

#castoria #artoria caster #fgo #fate grand order #lostbelt 6 #fate series #altria pendragon

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sciencestyled · 1 year ago

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Unplugging the Mystery: We’ve Got the 411 on a Reality That’s More Code Than Consciousness

What’s up, digital denizens of the interwebs? We’ve stumbled (gracefully, of course) upon something that makes your favorite sci-fi flick look like a children’s bedtime story. Don’t worry, we’re not here to talk about another conspiracy theory. No aliens or government cover-ups here. We’re pulling back the curtain on something far more… electrifying.

Now, imagine (we know you’ve got a wild imagination, so run with it), a world where reality as you know it is as genuine as the compliments you throw at your boss before asking for a day off. Yes, darling, we’re probing the tantalizing, spine-tingling world of the simulation hypothesis. And who better to narrate this electrifying exposé than the Matrix’s own silver-tongued devil, Agent Smith?

Now, before you roll your eyes and mutter, “Not this again,” stay with us. We promise, it’s about to get juicy.

In the soul-stirring narrative spun by our eloquent anti-hero, humans (that’s us, in case you forgot) are likened to ants. Predictable, easily amused, and utterly clueless about the grandiose spectacle of existence that hovers just beyond our grasp. Cue dramatic gasp!

Agent Smith, with his penchant for the dramatic, leads us on a whirlwind exploration that’s more exhilarating than a roller coaster ride through the cosmos. Are our joys, sorrows, and Instagram-worthy moments nothing more than blips in an intricate simulation?

“Hold on a second,” you interrupt, your voice echoing with the indignation of a cat denied its favorite treat. “I’m real, thank you very much.” But oh, sweet child, that’s where the thrill lies. In the mesmerizing dance between certainty and doubt, reality and illusion, existence and...well, non-existence.

Agent Smith digs deep – and we mean archaeologist-finding-a-buried-civilization deep – into the world where pixels and code breathe life into every sunrise you Instagram and every heartbreak you tweet. We’re all stars of our own reality show, but the twist? The audience might just be a bunch of posthuman entities munching on cosmic popcorn.

And while you’re contemplating the prospect of being the Kardashians of another realm, let’s flip the script. Quantum physics, the bad boy of the scientific world, flirts with the simulation hypothesis like a moth to a flame. Uncertainty principles, qubits, and entanglement – it’s a love story more tumultuous than any Shakespearean tragedy.

So, what’s the verdict? Are we prisoners in a digital paradise, or free souls navigating a physical universe? Ah, dear reader, we wouldn’t spoil the ending even if we could. But remember, every revelation, every gasp of astonishment, every existential crisis – it’s all part of the show. And between us, who doesn’t love a good show?

With every word, every concept, every enigmatic idea, we’re not just peeking behind the curtain; we’re tearing it down. It’s reality unplugged, existence uncensored, and truth unveiled. Are you ready for the ultimate revelation, or will you scurry back to the comforting embrace of ignorance?

The choice, darling, is yours. But remember, in a world where codes might weave reality, every choice is a programmed spectacle, and we’re all stars of the show.

So, grab your front-row seats, folks. It’s about to get meta. Welcome to the reality where nothing is real, and everything is splendidly, terrifyingly, exhilaratingly possible. Who needs reality TV when you can live in a simulation this scintillating?

But fret not, in the eloquent words of Agent Smith, “just because you believe you’re awake doesn’t mean you aren’t still in a dream.” Sweet dreams, darling, and welcome to the show of a lifetime, where every second is a pixelated spectacle, and we’re all stars in the grandest performance of all.

Encore, anyone?

#simulation #hypnosis #the matrix #agent smith #reality

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shifuaang · 3 years ago

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I think the problems with fanon kataang can be because they are written in response to zk, which often likes to bash kataang. Like this has issues for various reasons, not in the least the fact that while zk can work in an au (or at least an interesting disaster) it seems the fandom at large surrounding it has no clue who these characters are and hasn’t watched the show without a bag over their head in over a decade. But even if they were somehow capable of making good points: defensiveness restricts protrayals for kataang. Overall zks fandom is best ignored because their common arguments tend to have no real meat to them anyway (but it’s weird that they fail so hard! I think it might be Kataras second most likely fanon ship, after Katoph.)

I totally agree with you and think this, along with purity culture, has made a significant swath of the Kataang fandom buckle down and be afraid to think outside of the box. Genuinely one of my biggest grievances with the KA fandom is the unwillingness to detach themselves from LOK's canon and explore other options for the characters. This is largely due to the fact that it's become the one anchor that they can secure their ship to when it comes to arguments from ZK shippers. Every bashing, unwarranted critique, and outlandish character assassination from them can be followed up with 'well Aang and Katara canonically got married and had three children together', and so that's what the KA fandom clings to.

Even though, personally, I'd rather have no canon proof of Katara and Aang post-ATLA in exchange for LOK not existing.

And this isn't to say that ZK is the sole blame for this phenomenon, but it's certainly a contributing factor. So many things are reactionary, as you said, instead of organically written. I have no problem with people indulging in revenge fic (like one of my favorite fics is a satire/commentary on the fandom saying Katara acts like Aang's mom), but it has swung so far in a 'wholesome' direction that a lot of the flavor is missing. It's become 'we must write the most non-toxic, happy, no-conflict family in order to prove ZKs wrong'. Meanwhile, ZKs know full well that their statements and metas about Kataang being toxic are bullshit because they ship one of the most potentially tumultuous pairings in the show. Which, honestly, go for it! There's nothing wrong with shipping ZK.

It's the hold another ship has on KA that drives me wild. The arguments aren't worth having let alone crafting an entire fandom around. Let's celebrate Katara and Aang for who they are, flaws and all. The Southern Raiders and Ember Island Players and all! It's time we learn to embrace it.

#atla #atla meta #kataang #i'm speaking my mind today lol #anti lok

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cobalt-knave · 2 years ago

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Unreliable Narration

Hello, I’m titanium-knave, and I will be doing a meta today on narration. The most common perspective style in fiction is second person (“You do this” “You do that”). It is featured in works such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby.

Ah, but. I should tell you. Everything I have said so far has been a lie.

Maybe you trusted me. Maybe you had prior knowledge that contradicted what I just said. Maybe you weren’t paying attention or even thinking about the accuracy of my statement.

Either way, I just told you I was lying, so how can you be sure anything I say going forward is the truth?

I am cobalt-knave, and today, I will be telling you about unreliable narrators in fiction. An unreliable narrator is any narrator that is untrustworthy, most often seen in first person perspective. There are many benefits to using unreliable narration, but the foremost is that you, as the author, can control the experience of the reader by embracing the world and characters of the story. For some examples of this, I will discuss how it can be used to match a reader’s experience with the main character, how it can be used to establish in-world foundations for mistakes on the author’s end, and how it can be used to manipulate your readers while drawing them in further.

Everyone’s experiences are unique. Truly walking in someone else’s shoes is an impossibility, and yet that is what fiction strives towards. By using unreliable narration and setting aside objective reality, the door is opened into the character’s perspective, as skewed as it may be.

An example is Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman whose main character Caden has schizophrenia. Unreality and skewed reality is essential to understanding his perspective. One of my favorite moments in the book is this:

“I think about the bartenders, and wonder what diabolical things they’ll be putting into my cocktail. Spleen of chameleon. Testicle of tarantula. Eventually I realize that I’m sitting there with a fork in the air, and food drooling out of the side of my mouth. I feel like I could have been like that for hours, but probably not, because Carlyle would let it go on only for a few seconds. […]

Carlyle takes the spoon out of my hand and sets it down. ‘Maybe you’ll eat more later,’ he says, realizing this meal isn’t happening.

‘Maybe I’ll eat more later.’ It is not lost on me that the fork has magically transformed into a spoon.”

I love that moment, and I never remember it until it comes. We do not know if it is a spoon or a fork. Caden does not know this. The objective reality does not matter. What matters is the lack of objective reality, which is the driving force of the book, shifting in and out of “the real world” as Caden’s viewpoint shifts. As Caden’s mind wanders, so too does the prose. The use of unreliable narration distills down what makes the main character’s viewpoint true to them, which is their experience of the world, not the world itself and lets the reader experience It too.

But it’s not just the main character who can make mistakes. Inconsistencies, continuity errors, mistakes in general on the author’s part can be leaned into and worked into the story through unreliable narration. Your mistakes are your character’s mistakes.

An example of this is in the audio drama The Magnus Archives written by Jonathan Sims. The format involves an archivist recording people’s personal accounts and any follow up that was done on them. It’s horror, and the recording process is something that physically affects the archivist, making him feel watched and afraid, which he is determined to deny. Several mistakes on Sims’ part were pointed out early on, and, rather than retcon or ignore the complaints, he worked them into the show.

“TIM. So, in case 8163103, it isn’t clear if Albrecht’s wife is called ‘Clara’ or ‘Carla,’ ‘cause you keep switching back and forth…

ARCHIVIST. Well, I’m sorry if I found it hard to read a 200-year old letter, written in cursive by a native German speaker. Who complained about that one?”

A lot going on here. First, this brings the audience in rather than pushing them away. The audience members who pointed out the issue are brought up as students who complained. This also introduces Tim as a character, someone who will notice and point out errors. It develops the Archivist as a character.

It also sets the precedent that any errors are on the archivist. He will not always be consistent; he’s just a person who’s stubborn and afraid and is going to mis-speak and get very defensive about it.

This is the scene that establishes on no uncertain terms that the main character is not a trustworthy source of objective information, something that is very key to his character. And this comes from leaning in. A mistake can become a pivotal character choice if you lean in. It also handily passes your mistakes onto a fiction character.

Mistakes are not intentional. Subjective experience isn’t intentional. But you know what is? Lying. A third section of unreliable narrators includes the liars and manipulators. Unreliable narration can be used on the part of both author and character to manipulate readers while drawing them in further.

An example of this I love is from the podcast WOE.BEGONE. It is fictional but mostly takes the form of a podcast in-universe, meaning that the main character is recording and publishing what we hear. Here is when the main character, Mike Walters, explains how exactly he has been using that to his advantage and throws into question everything he has told us so far.

“I was sure that CANNONBALL used the podcast to figure out what I was thinking and doing, so I started using it as a way to lie directly to his face. I know that CANNONBALL takes me for a chump who will just spill every little bit of his guts out for podcast listens, so it was pretty easy to plant lies among the truths in the story (remember that “limited hangout” thing we talked about last episode?). I mean, this is a guy who seemed to honestly believe that my name was Mike Walters.”

You may have noticed that this is the same technique I used at the start of this meta. Hooked you, didn’t it? Scenes like this, the reveal of the lie without exposing the truth, are hooks. Questions are left unanswered. In WOE.BEGONE, we never learn Mike’s real name. We simply know it is not Mike Walters. This adds a two major elements: mystery – the reader stays in hopes of getting answers – and the train wreck effect – the readers stays to see what this manipulative, lying main character is going to do next. They are unpredictable, and unpredictability can be very fun in fiction.

Fundamentally, unreliable narration will always be truer to a first person perspective because all people experience the world differently. If I asked three of you to repeat my speech without offering you my script, I guarantee there would be three different speeches given and none of them my own. Because, everyone notices and remembers different things. What jumps out to one might blend in to another and even that relies on memory and senses and very subjective experience. We are all unreliable narrators. So, using that unintentionally in writing, leaning in, can open up so much opportunity. You control the narrative. Nobody can contradict what you say.

And remember, trust no one.

#analysis #tma #woe.begone #challenger deep #the magnus archives #unreliable narration

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

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Here's a quandary I've suddenly found myself in: where do you stand on writers deleting their own works, fanfiction or otherwise? I've had this happen to me on more than one occasion - I go to look for an old favorite and find it's since been deleted from whatever site I read it on.

On the one hand, I'm inclined to think that, "Sure. The author wrote it, it's their call. I don't own the work - I certainly didn't pay for it. It's their decision, even if it's disappointing."

But at the same time I can't help but consider the alternative - if I believe in death of the author (and I do), that an author's work fundamentally isn't solely theirs once it's been published, posted, etc., then it also seems wrong to have a work deleted. Stories aren't the sole property of their creator, after all.

But then I circle back. D'you think there are different obligations between authors and readers and the works being made in fandom space? I know if I had bought a book and the author decided they wanted it back, I would feel pretty comfortable telling them no, given I'd paid for it and whatnot. But that's a different world from fanfic and fandom space generally.

So. You're insightful Clyde, I'm curious as to what you'll have to say here (and to all y'all thinking about it, don't flame me. I haven't decided where I stand here yet - haven't heard a good nail-in-the-coffin argument for or against yet).

Val are you a mind reader now? I’ve been thinking about this exact conundrum the last few days!

(And yeah, as a general disclaimer: no flaming. Not allowed. Any asks of the sort will be deleted on sight and with great satisfaction.)

Honestly, I’m not sure there is a “nail-in-the-coffin argument” for this, just because—as you lay out—there are really good points for keeping works around and really good points for allowing authors to have control over their work, especially when fanworks have no payment/legal obligations attached. In mainstream entertainment, your stories reflect a collaborative effort (publisher, editor, cover artists, etc.) so even if it were possible to delete the physical books out of everyone’s home and library (and we're ignoring the censorship angle for the moment), that’s no longer solely the author’s call, even if they have done the lion’s share of the creative work. Though fanworks can also, obviously, be collaborative, they’re usually not collaborative in the same way (more “This fic idea came about from discord conversations, a couple tumblr posts, and that one headcanon on reddit”) and they certainly don’t have the same monetary, legal, and professional strings attached. I wrote this fic as a hobby in my free time. Don’t I have the right to delete it like I also have the right to tear apart the blankets I knit?

Well yes… but also no? I personally view fanworks as akin to gifts—the academic term for our communities is literally “gift economy”—so if we view it like that, suddenly that discomfort with getting rid of works is more pronounced. If I not only knit a blanket, but then gift it to a friend, it would indeed feel outside of my rights to randomly knock on their door one day and go, “I actually decided I hate that? Please give it back so I can tear it to shreds, thanks :)” That’s so rude! And any real friend would try to talk me out of it, explaining both why they love the blanket and, even if it’s not technically the best in terms of craftsmanship, it holds significant emotional value to them. Save it for that reason alone, at least. Fanworks carry that same meaning—“I don’t care if it’s full of typos, super cliché, and using some outdated, uncomfortable tropes. This story meant so much to me as a teenager and I’ll always love it”—but the difference in medium and relationships means it’s easier to ignore all that. I’m not going up to someone’s house and asking face-to-face to destroy something I gave them (which is awkward as hell. That alone deters us), I’m just pressing a button on my computer. I’m not asking this of a personal friend that is involved in my IRL experiences, I’m (mostly) doing this to online peers I know little, if anything, about. It’s easy to distance ourselves from both the impact of our creative work and the act of getting rid of it while online. On the flip-side though, it’s also easier to demean that work and forget that the author is a real person who put a lot of effort into this creation. If someone didn’t like my knitted blanket I gave them as a gift, they’re unlikely to tell me that. They recognize that it’s impolite and that the act of creating something for them is more important than the construction’s craftsmanship. For fanworks though, with everyone spread around the world and using made up identities, people have fewer filters, happily tearing authors to shreds in the comments, sending anon hate, and the like. The fact that we’re both prefacing this conversation with, “Please don’t flame” emphasizes that. So if I wrote a fic with some iffy tropes, “cringy” dialogue, numerous typos, whatever and enough people decided to drag me for it… I don’t know whether I’d resist the urge to just delete the fic, hopefully ending those interactions. There’s a reason why we’re constantly reminding others to express when they enjoy someone else’s work: the ratio of praise to criticism in fandom (or simply praise to seeming indifference because there was no public reaction at all), is horribly skewed.

So I personally can’t blame anyone for deleting. I’d like to hope that more people realize the importance of keeping fanworks around, that everything you put out there is loved by someone… but I’m well aware that the reality is far more complicated. It’s hard to keep that in mind. It’s hard to keep something around that you personally no longer like. Harder still to keep up a work you might be harassed over, that someone IRL discovered, that you’re disgusted with because you didn’t know better back then… there are lots of reasons why people delete and I ultimately can’t fault them for that. I think the reasons why people delete stem more from problems in fandom culture at large—trolling, legal issues, lack of positive feedback, cancel culture, etc.—than anything the author has or has not personally done, and since such work is meant to be a part of an enjoyable hobby… I can’t rightly tell anyone to shoulder those problems, problems they can’t solve themselves, just for the sake of mine or others’ enjoyment. The reason I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I was discussing Attack on Titan and how much I dislike the source material now, resulting in a very uncomfortable relationship with the fics I wrote a few years back. I’ve personally decided to keep them up and that’s largely because some have received fantastic feedback and I’m aware of how it will hurt those still in the fandom if I take them down. So if a positive experience is the cornerstone of me keeping fics up, I can only assume that negative experiences would likewise been the cornerstone of taking them down. And if getting rid of that fic helps your mental health, or solves a bullying problem, or just makes you happier… that, to me, is always more important than the fic itself.

But, of course, it’s still devastating for everyone who loses the work, which is why my compromise-y answer is to embrace options like AO3’s phenomenal orphaning policy. That’s a fantastic middle ground between saving fanworks and allowing authors to distances themselves from them. I’ve also gotten a lot more proactive about saving the works I want to have around in the future. Regardless of whether we agree with deleting works or not, the reality is we do live in a world where it happens, so best to take action on our own to save what we want to keep around. Though I respect an author’s right to delete, I also respect the reader’s right to maintain access to the work, once published, in whatever way they can. That's probably my real answer here: authors have their rights, but readers have their rights too, so if you decide to publish in the first place, be aware that these rights might, at some point, clash. I download all my favorite fics to Calibre and, when I’m earning more money (lol) I hope to print and bind many for my personal library. I’m also willing to re-share fic if others are looking for them, in order to celebrate the author’s work even if they no longer want anything to do with it. Not fanfiction in this case, but one of my fondest memories was being really into Phantom of the Opera as a kid and wanting, oh so desperately, to read Susan Kay’s Phantom. Problem was, it was out of print at the time, not available at my library, and this was before the age of popping online and finding a used copy. For all intents and purposes, based on my personal situation, this was a case of a book just disappearing from the world. So when an old fandom mom on the message boards I frequented offered to type her copy up chapter by chapter and share it with me, you can only imagine how overjoyed I was. Idk what her own situation was that something like scanning wouldn’t work, but the point is she spent months helping a fandom kid she barely knew simply because a story had resonated with her and she wanted to share it. That shit is powerful!

So if someone wants to delete—if that’s something they need right now—I believe that is, ultimately, their decision… but please try your hardest to remember that the art you put out into the world is having an impact and people will absolutely miss it when it’s gone. Often to the point of doing everything they can to put it back out into the world even if you decide to take it out. Hold onto that feeling. The love you have for your favorite fic, fanart, meta, whatever it is? Someone else has that for your work too. I guarantee it.

So take things down as needed, but for the love of everything keep copies for yourself. You may very well want to give it back to the world someday.

#fandom #fic things #mymetas #never any easy questions on this blog huh? lol

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finnicks · 4 years ago

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elejah for the ship ask

Of course, my answer is that I don’t ship it. 😝

What made you ship it? Their chemistry in season 2. That’s literally why. I just remember seeing Elijah and Elena on screen together, specifically in 2x19, and thinking “Shit, this is great chemistry.” Whenever I want to rewatch Elejah scenes, this is the episode I go to. I feel like this episode is Elejah at its best. Elena is so hungry for information and Elijah’s more than willing to drip-feed it to her. Elijah’s so hungry for her to be honest with him and come back to him—and she does, because honesty is Elena’s core character trait (she is not compassionate), especially when 1) information is on the line and 2) she can benefit from keeping her word. (Also, Elena is not a horrible person despite me seemingly claiming she is by stating those two points. Elena is emotionally intelligent.)

I feel like Elijah really challenges Elena intellectually. My favourite iteration of Elena is when she manipulates people to get information so she can get ahead. To me, that’s her power—and her greatest strength. And I feel like Elijah, while being old, is someone who can be manipulated because of the fact that he has a history with her ancestors and the fact that he is someone who I personally view needs to save damsels. I also feel like Elijah is easy to manipulate simply because he does have good intentions and trusts people.

I like the power play and the imbalance, and how Elena, despite being human, is actually the one with power in their relationship. She has just as much power as he does. (I personally believe she has intellectual and emotional power, plus being an identical duplicate of the ancestors he has fallen in love with who have defined Elijah as a man, while Elijah has intellectual and physical power.)

What are your favorite things about the ship? Everything I said above. I feel like Elijah is so emotionally stunted and out of touch with his emotions to the point where Elena is someone who can bring those emotions forward, be empathetic to his own issues (i.e. his trust issues, his difficult relationship with his siblings, and even the toxic relationship he has with his siblings), and also challenge him to stop being so stoic and unemotional. I feel like Elena is so physically stunted because she’s human that he encourages her to use her wits rather than her physicality. Their first meeting is literally Elena manipulating him and using the power she has (her emotional and intellectual power) over him. I really like the fact that Elena wasn’t afraid to play her ace despite not knowing how he’d react, which was knowing where Katherine was and the moonstone.

I don’t particularly like them when Elena is a vampire because Elijah is emotionally involved with my girl, Katherine, at that point in Elena’s life (which I have So Many Opinions About), and I feel like Elena becoming a vampire not only loses Elena’s agency and fire as a character, but the narrative went all out in making her a 2.0. and poor copy of Katherine. Human Elena has fight and bite in her, and I feel like she’s Elena at her best. She knows the best way to manipulate Elijah is to not pretend to be Katherine. She knows she just has to be herself.

And because I’ve spoken a lot about manipulation in their relationship, I really like how mature Elijah is. I feel like Elijah/Elena is very similar to Stefan/Elena where Elijah will honour Elena’s decisions (as long as she articulates her intentions to him as he’s paranoid (and sometimes not justifiably) and someone with immense trust issues) and Elena has great compassion for him. I feel like Elijah/Elena is Elena at her best as a woman; she’s very mature in that dynamic. She’s unafraid while Elijah, a control freak, begins to allow himself to trust someone else’s word for a change.

I also enjoy the fact that Elena is happy to see Elijah in season 3 even though I highly disregard anything beyond season 2 for them because Elena was not emotionally intelligent (this girl should understand the nuances of her relationship and have known the cost of losing Elijah’s trust was not worth siding with Esther, who she doesn’t fucking know because she didn’t do her goddamn research! #NotMyElenaGilbert). Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? This is how I see Elijah’s character: he is someone who falls in love with the idea of women who are damsels. Elijah has a hero complex. It’s very obvious to me when it comes to Hayley/Elijah (more so in their relationship) and Katherine/Elijah (especially his resentment towards her), and it’s even prevalent in Elena/Elijah. I don’t think Elijah has a healthy relationship with love (or relationships). I’ve gone on meta rambles about this on my Tumblr before, but simply put: Klaus has always needed Elijah to be in that hero role when they were younger and dealing with Mikael, and Elijah found purpose and identity in being Klaus’ protector. He still goes out of his way to protect Klaus, even when he’s at heads with him. Elijah falls for women who need to be saved because he needs to be the saviour, and Elena is one of those people who needs to be saved.

I also personally feel like the ship cannot exist outside of Katherine/Elijah (and even Tatia/Elijah). Similar to her relationships with the Salvatores, the shadow of Katherine looms heavily over them. Elena is Elijah’s third chance with his first love, Tatia. Elena is also Elijah’s chance at rescuing Katerina (who saved herself, something that he believes is punishable because she didn’t allow him to be her hero). Elena needs saving because, as a human, she is physically the weakest on the board (...even as a vampire, which I ignore because, again, #NotMyElenaGilbert).

I do believe that there is a level of projection on Elijah’s part on Elena where he needs to save the doppelganger. He couldn’t save Tatia and, to him, he couldn’t save Katerina. I believe his relationship with Elena will always contain that shadow. (No relationship truly can be rid of it if they have a relationship with one of her ancestors tbh.) I personally find this fascinating because it requires a deconstruction of Elijah as a person where he stops seeing Elena as a comparison to Tatia and Katerina and merely sees her as herself, which would take a long time and him getting to know who Elena is. The fact that in 2x19 he expected her to be like Katerina who ran away and rightfully didn’t trust him (and even like Tatia, even though she left him because, you know, he killed her) is a very obvious tell to me that he is projecting Katerina onto Elena. He’s surprised she keeps her word and comes back. That’s Katerina Projection right there. Initially, he does not see Elena as Elena.

Elena does lose her identity at times with Elijah because of his projection of Tatia and Katerina onto her. I personally love it because I feel like that after season 2, season 3 should’ve been a deconstruction of who Elena Gilbert is (and also praising her for being a Gilbert, since fandom seems to like the “You have the Petrova fire” line which, imo, is wrongfully lauded as this great line when, in reality, it actually takes away all of Elena’s agency. I have a rant about that one for another day). Being a Gilbert is Elena’s identity, a proud identity and one that should be celebrated and cherished, and we never deconstruct it. It would’ve been fascinating to deconstruct it with Elijah who knows both Tatia and Katerina. I think he, like Stefan, would’ve given Elena that space to go through those personal motions (after a lot of self-work on his end as he’s more damaged than Stefan and isn’t as compassionate and giving as Stefan).

Elena will never have a healthy relationship with any man who knew or was in love with Tatia or Katerina. I love that shit. (I personally don’t believe fandom understands or acknowledges that Elena wasn’t initially courted for Elena but she was courted because of Katherine. It adds a fucked up element to all of her relationships. Embrace it!)

ship ask game

#tvd #elejah #my opinions #ship ask game #fandom meme #elena gilbert #elijah mikaelson #my meta #i need to be given a word limit #vorpalmuchness #emma tag

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the1312daysofchristmas · 4 years ago

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would u ever analyze disloyal order? it is my favorite fob song but much of the verses honestly confuse tf outta me, particularly the second one. lol

of course! ill do that for you now. fun fact: disloyal order is the song that 100% sold me on fob

to begin with the title, it is a reference i am far too young to get and have just figured out after years of puzzling. its a reference to an elite boys club in the flinstones. disloyal order of water buffaloes as a title is just saying "society is made for a certain kind of people to succeed and its fucked up" and that makes all of the lyrics make so much more sense. its been so long.

the prelude describes the persona coming undone, and turning themself into someone elses ideal. trying to do so leaves them feeling empty inside, since this isnt what they want, this is whats expected of them. this fits nicely into the overarching theme of the album, which is [joker voice] society and how it shapes us for better or (more often), for worse. in fact, disloyal order, as an opener, is an introduction on the essay that is folie à deux, painting broad strokes of a lot of what it covers. the prechorus also touches on this, painting the persona as just a single malfunctioning part of a whole intricate system.

the first verse points to the persona waking up, dazed and covered in wounds, and covincing themself this is normal, and that they wouldnt remember it even if they tried. it goes on to talk about them bein arrested, and them needing medical attention, and that theyre certifiably insane, but also taking care to mention how sensational their story is. this verse tells us about the exploitation of sick people, and about people running themselves into the ground for fame or money. they dont need to be sold as a story, they need to be helped as a person.

the second verse gestures to themes of sex and romance. theres a moment where the persona misinterprets something innocuous as an advance (little girl got me staring odd/or is that just a telescopic camera nod). they then goes on to talk about soliciting sex workers– they can only really interpret woman in the context of being attracted to them. one could argue the line "all the rookies leave your badge and your gun on the desk when you leave the room" could be about inexperienced young lovers being told to sit this one out.

and then, the chorus, which asks people to embrace apathy (boycott love) and to stay ignorant and repeat the same old mistakes (detox just to retox). the line "id promise you anything for another shot at life" implies someone promising to fix everything in exchange for another chance. the last two lines, however, i think are most interestingly read from a meta perspective, ie its the band saying 'no one wants to hear celebrities sing about peoples problems'

i think disloyal order points to one of the main problems i have with folie, which is that its way too ambitious. they wanted to do so much, musically and lyrically, gave themselves too little time to do it, did the whole citizens fob thing, they stuffed a lot onto every song, and i think the albums is worse off for it. dont misconstrue me, folie is a beautiful album that explores a lot of ideas in a genuinely thought provoking manner, and musically i think its extremely well put together. truly its an experience of sound. but i think the concepts dont work together in the way they could. lyrically i think its among the weakest fall out boy albums, because unlike ioh, which is specifically about fame, or mania, which is just about mental health, or futct, which is about a specific relationship and the feelings it evoked, this album is about everything, and it gets that across really well sometimes but just as often it gets that across really okay-ly.

like, in this song alone, which summarises the album, we have 3 very distinct themes– exploitation of vulnerable people, sex and relationships, and apathy being exploited for power. theyre definitely connected, but this one album feels like it shouldve been a triptych, or that one of these themes shouldve been dropped completely (i think number 2 wasnt that necessary). i love it, i really do, its genuinely amazing and its a masterpiece and is so worthy of being anyones favorite. this is just my purely technical (as in based in technique and execution) criticism.

consider buying me a ko-fi?

#dils declares #dils dissects #if youd like my longer analysis of folie please feel free to ask!#i really cant stress its very much a good album!#i just think it really couldve been better in a few places #disloyal order of water buffaloes #folie

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princeescaluswords · 4 years ago

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Scott being called an unreliable narrator is even funnier because the show explicitly showed us Peter Hale as an unreliable narrator paralleled directly with Gerard. Further proof that for all their talk about family and legacy, they don't actually care for them. It lays to rest the Left Hand theory, because why if Peter held such a significant role would he need to spy on the pack summit? Why all the sneaking and manipulating of his own nephew?

“Scott is an unreliable narrator” can be considered the ultimate expression of every single problem in the Teen Wolf fandom.

Sounds like a bold statement, eh? But parts of the fandom’s sudden lunge to embrace the idea -- based on nothing more than a single line in the last episode of the show, used as a framing mechanism for that end -- while they consistently ignore scene after scene which counters it, while their favorite characters act and talk in direct contravention of their fantasies, shows the sheer amount of privilege they feel they have.

Because the problem with the idea of Scott as an unreliable narrator is that it calls every single thing they like about the show into question. Stay with me here, it’s convoluted, but so is their reasoning.

If the whole story is told from Scott’s point of view, then the logical question we have to ask of the series is ... why? Why would the production craft this elaborate lens through which to see the show and then never stage a grand reveal? Why would they put a single clue in Episode 32 and then never mention it again, not even in Episode 100 where there is no discussion of unreliable narration but only an instance where the main character sees a new character who’s situation is very similar to his?

SCOTT: I'm gonna tell you a story. Maybe it'll sound familiar.

That’s it. What would be the goal of undermining the entire narrative in the last episode unless they were going to reveal it for a purpose? In the world of entertainment, where Bobby-Ewing-Wakes-Up-in-a-Shower is a universal meme and no one can forget the almost unanimous negative response to ‘they-were-in-some-kind-of-purgatory’ ending for Lost, why would any television executive say “We’re going to meta up the ending of this teen werewolf show, the same one where we score fight scenes to dubstep, to include an ontological meditation on truth and perception.” Does anyone in this audience think that the production would be capable of pulling off such sublime subtlety when they couldn’t even remember what grade Liam and Mason were in?

This is where the fandom racism comes in.

I asked a BNF about the theme of Teen Wolf and how that would work with the idea that everything we saw was suspect because we saw it through Scott McCall’s self-serving lens, and her response was that not every show had to have a theme. Some shows were just meant to be enjoyed.

See the problem? Her belief is that the monumental effort which would be required by the production to present Scott-as-unreliable-narrator yet have no payoff was solely done so people like her could enjoy the show. There was no greater message but that the Latino protagonist - whom the production had repeatedly presented as a hero both on screen and in interviews - was meant to be able to be seen as a self-centered arrogant villain, for the sheer enjoyment of its audience, if they choose to believe it. With no evidence, of course, because they don’t need any evidence but their own prejudice.

Accordingly, even though we see time and time and time again an adult white male serial killer presented as being utterly without morals, fond of hypocritically posturing about family while killing one of them and repeatedly using the rest, and periodically preying on teenagers to satisfy their egos by the production and transformed into a noble defender of his family’s legacy, a courageous anti-hero willing to do what’s necessary, and a corrective to the blandly moral protagonist whose accidental acquisition of power is due to the only mistake they will credit to Peter Hale and the sinister agenda of the black race. As I’ve said repeatedly ...

BUT IT’S NOT RACISM.

But it IS racism. They will conjure up any elaborate fantasy from Schisms to Unreliable Narration of an Entire Series to Tree Alphas to His Father Only Hit Him Once to Telepathic Conspiracies to Murder Teenage Chimeras to Ensemble! Ensemble! Ensemble! all to cover up the fact that they cannot bring themselves to recognize a person of color as the hero of the show that’s named after him. Simultaneously, they will ignore entire evil monologues delivered directly to the camera, entire episodes revealing duplicity, every single character pointing out his villainy, in order to argue - with a straight face, that calling Peter Hale an antagonist is a subjective judgment.

And most of all, they will create the Three Laws of Fandom -- “Don’t like; don’t read,” “Fiction =/= Reality,” and “Ship and let ship,” to justify their constant desire to create their new reliable narration where the hero of color is revealed to be a terrible person specifically for the benefit of their nearest white antagonist, and every other viewer is required - in order to be able to safely participate in the fandom - to consider it valid.

#teen wolf racism #fandom racism #scott mccall #anti peter hale #scott mccall defense squad #rant #russianspacegeckosexparty

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transhawks · 5 years ago

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how about a meta about Dabi's staples being /gold/ bc /honestly/ gold makes hellova lot of sense bc it is more hypoallergenic and I mean if you have a fucking /metal allergy/ you don't want that ALL OVER YOUR BODY

So, first off, I want to say one of my favorite things about the piercings being gold is that it really makes sense because we got the reveal around the fight with Hood vs Endeavor and Hawks, and if they are gold then it means, he used the little money Ujiko gave them for new piercings. Remember Toga got a nice winter coat? Dabi got gold piercings with Ujiko’s money. But why?

While some of his piercings are clearly only aesthetic which is great because it shows he cares about his personal appearance and even likes it add on to it like many other twenty-somethings, I don’t think the gold was only an aesthetic choice.

Further more, let’s talk about gold in general.

Like you mentioned gold itself is hypoallergenic, though - a caveat. “pure” gold would suck as a piercing. It’s soft, gets damaged easily. Generally piercings would be alloyed, especially gold ones. I don’t think Dabi would spring for just gold plated as that tarnishes easily and the material used rejects and that’s something to keep in mind. Lots of his facial piercings do run rejection risks. So let’s say it’s like 18k gold, and according to research the general alloy tends to be copper.

I’m no metallurgist, but I do know that gold, silver, and copper are all heat conductors, like most metals. What this means, in laymen’s terns, is that heat passes through them rather than stays in, as it would in an insulator material. So, essentially, the piercings cool down quicker.

I don’t think Dabi is ‘dumb’ about his quirk - he probably understands how it works and how it affects him. He would and should know how to make his life easier with it. The gold is smartly practical and this is how:

Gold is the third best conductor among conductive metals. Copper is the second (test this out with some copper cookware!). So why would Dabi not use the first one, silver? Or pure copper, the second most conductive metal?

The answer is simple; gold doesn’t tarnish. The properties of gold make it less likely to react to oxygen. Dabi’s piercings are subjected to air and heat constantly, which probably causes problems. Essentially he’d picked out the best option to help him lose heat quicker in regards to his piercings, and yet make sure there’s no issues with hygiene and upkeep.

Assuming Dabi used a primarily gold-copper alloy mix, he essentially extended the shelf life of his piercings. Not as a good as a conductor as silver, but smarter due to other factors. This also makes me wonder if the gold piercings extend to his body too - I always assumed it was surgical steel due to lack of corrosion and oxidation. While steel doesn’t cool as fast as the metals I mentioned before, it is cheaper and made to fit the body more. I do think he probably is more concerned about cooling parts of his face down quicker than his body, if indeed most of his body isn’t gold.

Anyway, I find his gold piercings fascinating and wish the Fandom embraced them instead of ignoring he clearly still has them on the cover, and probably in canon at this point. I think it’s very smart of Hori to use them if he took heat transfer and gold’s non-oxidation into consideration. Also, I’m no metallurgist, just the child of one, so if I got anything wrong please tell me, this is not my area of science.

#asks #dabi #meta

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brkfstgrrrls · 4 years ago

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@2187s LEFT A NIGHTMARE AFTER THE TONE: 🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝 !!!

@rapturcd - Where to start to describe a friend? Nox is a close online friend whom I’ve had the pleasure of following for the last few years now. We’ve been able to keep up with each other from blog to blog, and continued to do so when she revived this blog right here, a Bioshock oc. I’ll admit that when I saw her move here, I had no clue what the hell Bioshock was other than some video game. I’ve been graced with so many exciting details, passion has been poured into every message and post she makes upon the dash, it instantly made me a fan of this little franchise. Though the Bioshock rpc is small, Nox has found a way to make it her own. Her blog is filled with so much helpful information, and one look at her extremely well thought out, and detailed OC page will tell you all you need to know about this vast universe. With every OC she makes, it’s done with love and care, but something about Nicholas is truly special. Aside from being from one of the most interesting and unique fandoms, Nicholas was crafted with more detail than the gods could give any living being. Nox is also a plot driven writer, I know I am too so if that’s your thing, you’ll be glad to know not only is she a peach but she’s very fun to bounce ideas with! She helped me learn so much about Bioshock, it made plotting feel effortless and an overall thrill. If you don’t follow her, not only are you missing out, but I’ll personally be offended on her behalf.

@segadore - It’s been a few years now, and I have not been able to get Fawn off of my tail, damn you— I’M KIDDING, no but really, Fawn and I have been buddies for the last few years, and I started following her on her Steve Harrington blog. I’ve already gushed in the past about how much I love her Steve, so in the same way she’s so kindly embraced my OCs, I’d like to do the same with hers. Let’s start off with this: Fawn is the one person I see constantly and without a second thought embracing all writers, you could write an oc, canon muse from a different fandom, female oc, doesn’t matter– she will love them like her own. You speak with Fawn ooc, and you’ll feel at home, you’re never a bore nor bother. They’re one of the few people in this RPC I feel so genuinely safe around, and they make me feel like a valued writer even when I’m being ignored by others on the dash, I feel important, and it’s thanks to them. Fawn writes a very amazing muse named Mykah, from what can only be described as a non-existent fandom. I learned about Dead Like Me through her, and I’ve since been completely hooked on this concept and universe. Mykah is a very special, and well-thought out muse. He’s a soul collecting reaper from California, and he’s got so much wit, charm, and attitude, how could you not love the guy? He’s got a tough exterior, but he’s so funny as well, you can tell when you’re reading something Fawn wrote, they have such a unique tone, your eyes will be glued to the screen instantly as soon as you see a reply in your inbox. From the bottom of my heart, I hope we continue to write for years to come. If you want some fresh content you’ve never seen before, and perhaps one of the kindest friends, with the most goddamn creative mindset, please, go look at Fawn’s content. For the love of GOD go look.

@wyntered - You know how when your favorite musician or celebrity makes a post on Instagram or twitter, you go “Ah! There’s _____ again, classic ol’ _____, love them.” and you get all giddy in your seat, overwhelmed just by their presence even if it isn’t for you? That’s how I feel everytime I read each and everyone of Chantelle’s posts. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get to read all of my rp partners replies to other folks, sometimes I’m too busy, or honestly? I don’t feel like it. But the amount of effort and research they’ve put into this, how could I not? I love reading both her replies to myself and other people, I love reading her meta posts and headcanons, because I know it’ll not only be helpful but just wonderful. It’s also so nice to see how much care she’s put into writing such a complicated man like Bucky Barnes, her portrayal is uniquely her own, and she’s truly made sure to set a realistic example for others. I’ve learned so much, and it’s thanks to her. They’ve also been so gracious in writing with my own Marvel OC, Alice, and never act annoyed or bothered. That’s not something you often find with people who write popular canon muses, but it’s something I’ve been lucky enough to find with Chantelle. Do yourself a favor, buckle up, and get excited. Go and give her a follow, because I just know in my heart she’ll be more than happy to embrace you with open arms. Thanks for giving me the most iconic and kickass friendship for my daughter! It’s probably obvious to y’all by now that I love Chantelle’s work, so you know this message is genuine.

@capnsolo - I found out a few weeks ago that Kayla and I have been mutuals for years, and neither of us knew it. We’ll ignore that for now. I know Kayla as the most fantabulous Han Solo mun on the block, no really, she’s amazing. We found each other again because I writer princess Leia ( over on @/hopescorned ) and well… SCOUNDRESS! Together, we’ve managed to create our own little version of canon to their storyline, and we continue to develop it each time we speak. I’m not very good at articulating my thoughts, but my point is, Kayla is a very skilled, and creative woman. She’s smart, she knows how to use canon as a crutch, but doesn’t rely on it. She let’s her brain do the talking, and she knows how to collaborate well with others, and happens to be very open minded and flexible to other people’s muses. No matter how outlandish the idea might be for a story, Kayla will find a way to work with it. I’ve never seen someone capture Han’s tone so well, each time I read one of her replies, I can truly see and hear Harrison Ford acting each of the stories we create, out in my head. She has a way with her words, and she’s a true talent. Please, even if Star Wars isn’t your think, at least give her work a chance, it’ll be a pleasant surprise.

@nostlgic - Ash & I have been writing together since February, and the day we started speaking, they were one of the kindest souls I’ve been graced with speaking to. A passionate writer, you’ll be pleasured to see that their muse list is rather long, and diverse. Ash is the kind of writer that is always up for the challenge. You have an OC no one is interested? Cool, Ash is now interested in writing with them. You have a crazy rp idea you want to pursue? Ash is the first in line to give it a try. Whenever I write with Ash, I know it’s going to be a new and exciting adventure, each story is different from the next, and with each muse, they shift tones effortlessly; Stephen King would envy them. I made a post probably a month or two ago about how I wanted to write with an Edward Scissorhands, and within approximately 10 seconds, they volunteered to add him to her muse roster, and a mutual friend of ours even went to comment “I was going to tag Ash but it seems she’s already here” and why is that? That’s just the kind of person Ash is, and I truly love it. Go and peep her profile, because I can guarantee there’s at least one muse you’ll want to write with.

･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡♡ SEND A 🥝 FOR A BLOG RECCOMENDATION

#𝙍𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙇𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙎 ! ✧ ( answered )#2187s #rapturcd #segadore #wyntered #capnsolo #nostlgic #[ whew. i had to rewrite and remake this post three fucking times ]#[ and now i have a headache. also super dehydrated. ]#[ sorry. smoll brain not enough thoughts nor a big enough vocabulary to describe- ]#[ -what i'm thinking n' trynta say. ]#[ nirvana is also playin' so ima wee bit distracted.. ]

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amedetoiles · 5 years ago

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give me a character meme! wwx please!!

[All gifs made by me. No stealing or reposting, thank you. ♥︎]

★ How I feel about this character

I love wwx so much and he deserves so much!!! My feelings for him can be summed up by my first ever meta in this fandom, this half-crack half-shitpost, and the many many meta tears scattered across all the tags on my page that various people have yelled at me for. I love him. I love him, I love him, I love him. No character has wrecked me as much as this stupid chaotic ass, who is so inherently good and selfishly selfless it fucking hurts. Yet, for all the love and care he gives freely to everyone else, he can’t for the life of him compute any that others have given to him. He tries so hard to be good, to make the right choices even in impossible, horrendous circumstances, and it’s excruciatingly painful watching him realize again and again that even good choices paved with good intentions can cause destruction. He suffers so much because of it. He suffers before we even really meet him. @cangse-sanren wrote “Your parents were bright smears of color and laughter to you, but little more” in this beautiful fic, and I still weep about it daily.

I love how immensely protective he is of both his siblings. He just tries so goddamn hard to be what everyone needs. I could and have and will continue to cry about him every day. How his pathological tendency to repress all things that hurt him, to cover up his pain in humor and obnoxiousness and bravado, and his internalized belief that he is worth much less than everyone else, all converged into the most awful way possible. How despite losing his sect, his siblings, his friends, he was still trying up until the very end. God, what a fantastically complex fucking character. To watch him bloom again after that deluge of rage and grief and insanity 13/16 years later was the most satisfying journey anyone could possibly depict. To know that he has the chance to heal, to recover, to grow with all the different parts of his family he once thought lost forever now back in his reach (yes! even our angry grape!!). Truly amazing.

★ All the people I ship romantically with this character

WangXian!!!! These kids who came out of endless tragedy and trauma to find a love, a trust in each other–theirs is a love story that truly extends across space and time. It warms my heart to watch them rebuild their lives together into something warmer, and brighter, and happier than either of them ever grew up knowing. To watch them shed the psychological trauma on what it means to love and be loved given to them by their terrible parental figures and say, “No. We’re going to be better than that.” I love how they complement one another. How loudly and quietly they love each other. How in the warm security of each other’s embrace, they are each able to work through their own internalized traumas without judgement. Lan Wangji’s uncompromising devotion. Wei Wuxian’s fierce protectiveness. It’s hard to say who else could fit together so perfectly. What a joy it is to watch Wei Wuxian realize that he is no longer alone, that Lan Wangji is and will always be standing beside him. What a joy it is to watch Lan Wangji realize that this is not the dream he’s spent years suffering through, that Wei Ying has returned to him against all odds. What a fucking joy it is to watch them both learn to trust happiness, to trust love, to trust each other. GOD. *wails*

★ My non-romantic OTP for this character

YUNMENG SHUANGJIE. YUNMENG SIBS. YILING SIBS. A-YUAN AND HIS TWO DADS. All the different found families that permeated the story was just breathtakingly beautiful. They all fucking gutted me. It all at once makes Wei Wuxian’s story that much more beautiful and that much more tragic. For a child who lost his parents before he even had time to remember them, who then had to rebuild his family again and again, only to lose them each time in increasingly horrifying ways–it truly fucked me up. Wei Wuxian stood on that cliff in Nightless City, and it was visibly clear that he wanted nothing more than to join all the families he loved and watched die (because of him).

The beauty of his story of course is that for all the tragedy that he is subsumed by, for all the ways that he is wronged and has wronged, there are equal, if not more, number of ways that he is lifted, is healed, is shone a light through all the darkness. In the end, his families return to him. Wen Ning, who lived despite it all, carrying the memory of his sister, the best doctor in the world. His shijie shining through his bratty nephew’s heart of gold. His very own A-Yuan, kept safe and protected all these years by his soulmate, his zhiji. His angry grape of a little brother who can’t say I forgive you but tosses him Chenqing that he’s kept safe all these years and says I trust you. They’re all a little broken, a little worse for wear, but there’s something extraordinarily beautiful about these families who find each other again through the bridges they rebuild towards something better.

★ My unpopular opinion about this character

Oh man, I’ve seen a lot of debate about wwx that I try not to get into (I type this of course as I ready myself to do exactly that). Probably the most unpopular opinion (possibly?) I have is that I don’t personally feel like the addition of a second flautist and expanding Jin Guangyao’s villain-ry in CQL detracted or reduced Wei Wuxian’s complex morality–one of my favorite and best parts to his character. I still think he is very gray. His tragedy is still contingent on his naive idealism and his willful blindness that a person only needs to be righteous and honorable regardless of reputation and politics. This clearly isn’t the case. Not just for him, but for all the characters. You can do everything right and still be punished. You can do everything right and still cause others pain. You can be the most hypocritical, loudmouthed piece of judgmental shit and still remain unpunished and available to share your stupid ass ignorant opinions on matters that have nothing to do with you. (Whoops that got away from me.) Wei Wuxian learns this repeatedly. It’s excellent and heartbreaking.

The thing about Wei Wuxian is that for all that he has imposter syndrome, for all that he is unable to see that he is a person worthy of the love he receives, he is still not only extremely confident in his own abilities and in his beliefs of what is right and what is wrong, but also that he is the person who can decide that line between justice and evil. An arrogant assumption, and one that causes not only him but the people he strives to protect a significant amount of pain. This wasn’t lost in CQL. While the plot technically does absolve him of all of his crimes on a surface level, it’s clearly not as simple for Wei Wuxian himself. In the Ancestral Hall, Wei Wuxian stares at the names of Jiang Fengmian, Madam Yu, and Jiang Yanli, whose lives are heavily felt on his shoulders, and he tells Lan Wangji, “After all, the Stygian Tiger Seal was created by me. Whether Jin Guangyao was there or not, that fact can’t be changed.” The show despite its censorship still asks the audience to evaluate his actions and the role he played, both willing and unwillingly, in the deaths of so many people.

It is also shown clearly that the cultivation world only stops trying to kill him because there was now another target, another scapegoat to blame. This is something that Wei Wuxian knows and expresses on multiple occasions on the show. For all that the show may have change things, I don’t think it’s necessarily correct or fair to say that it completely washed away the nuance that was present in the novel. The overarching conflicts and questions are still there. What is moral and what isn’t, what is justified and what isn’t, who is at fault for unforeseen consequences and who isn’t, and the role of external factors and circumstances in all of this. As someone who watched the drama first, I didn’t feel that the complexity of all the characters and their decisions was lost at all in comparison to the novel I later read. The show was honestly superb and still the best version for me overall. (Please don’t send pitchforks.) I have so much more to say about this, and Jin Guangyao still being a great nuanced character foil, but alas, this is already too long.

Other things: Wei Wuxian is a good brother actually, and he knows Jiang Cheng very well. He tried his best under the worst possible circumstances, and it was a great big shit show. I hate discussions where people try to hold one brother more responsible than the other. They both very nobly (and very recklessly) sacrificed a great deal for each other, and they both, frankly, fucked up. They’re Twin Idiots, and I’ll love and drag them both equally dammit! With that in mind, Wei Wuxian’s happy ending isn’t just him joining GusuLan sect, novel be fucking damned (yes, I said it!). His home can be in Gusu and Yunmeng. *SLAMS FISTS* Let 👏 Wei 👏 Wuxian 👏 go 👏 home 👏. (Talking to you, my grape guy. Jin Ling is going to show up in Lotus Pier one day with his da-jiu, and you’re just going to have to deal with it.)

★ One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

WEI WUXIAN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HUG YOUR DIDI. Jiang Cheng has been waiting 16+ years for your hug, and he damn well deserves one, especially since he gave you such a great octopus hug, all limbs and burrowed scrunchy faces. Like, I know, I know, you were distraught, and traumatized, half-beaten to death after three days of intense surgery, then reaped by ten thousand undead souls calling for revenge, but guess who told your favorite (only) angry grape little brother that in the next life, let’s be brothers again okay? GUESS WHO IS LIVING HIS NEXT LIFE??????? Bruh. Chop chop. Hop fucking to it.

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splendorten · 5 years ago

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In the bleak midwinter

Pairing: Doyoung X Reader (ft. Taeyong)

Genre: 99.9% Angst, 0.1% fluff if you squint really hard

Warning: None

Summary: “You can love someone so much...But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.”

Word count: 2,789

Clad in a simple knee length black dress, the wind blowing through the brown locks of your hair, you stood with arms crossed, tapping your feet impatiently on the grey concrete pavement while waiting for your husband who was running very very late. He could forget dates and anniversaries but not this, he knows how important this is to you, and how badly he’ll screw up if you don’t see him in the next 5 minutes. You tried calling him over and over again, but it always brought you straight to his voice mail. Time passed, his time was up. Not bothering- or wanting to wait any longer for him, you swiftly turned on your heels and entered the memorial hall.

You were lounging on the couch with a pint of double chocolate ice cream in hand when you heard the lock on the front door click. He was home. “Darling I’m home” Usually those words would send you flying into his arms/embrace, but not today, not when you were so close to throttling him. He slowed his steps, his smile wiped off his face when he saw the expression you carried. The aura radiating off you was pure ice cold rage, it was as if he now stood in a minefield while facing off with a coiled wild beast, ready to pounce at any time. One wrong move and he was dead. “Darling, are you okay? Is something wrong?” his soft tentative voice floated towards you as he made his way over. You kept your focus on the TV screen, the programme on air wasn't very much to your taste, but anything to keep your mind off your anger towards Doyoung for now. The couch sank as he took a seat beside you, hand coming to cover your own but you snatched it out from under him like his touch had burned you. You stood up sharply and started to walk off till you heard his voice once more. “Why are you like this? I’ve had such a long day at work and I come home having to deal with your and your little tantrum!” You could hear the anger in his voice build up with every word. Is he for real? This is outrageous! He truly forgot what an important today was for you and he even has the cheek to turn this situation on you?

Angling yourself to face him, you didn’t bother to hide the scalding fire burning in your eyes. “Sure blame me! All you care about is your work, you don’t even know what today is do you? You completely forgot how much today means to me!” Matching up to your level of anger Doyoung strides over to you and shouted back “Haven’t I been coming home early to keep you company? Did I not bring you to Hawaii last week? I need to earn money to provide for us!” Doyoung had never raised his voice at you, never. The hurt and shock was evident in your eyes and you knew he noticed how you took a slight step back because in a flash all those anger and negative emotions vanished from his gaze, those love filled orbs taking over. “I’m sorry, I didn’t-” You had to get out of the house or you might just do something you’ll regret, “It’s my father’s first death anniversary today and you completely forgot!” Without waiting for his response you ran out the house. You didn’t see the way he dropped to his knees and tears streamed down his face, or how his arms tried reaching out to you, and you most certainly didn’t know how his heart broke. It wasn’t within his control, missing such an important date was only the first of many more to come.

That night neither one of you got any sleep, you stayed out till dawn while he sat by the door waiting for you to come home. Praying that you hadn’t abandoned him, especially not when his life was a complete mess.

You eventually went home, sure you could provide for yourself without the aid of your husband, but money wasn’t the issue, you loved him too deeply to be mad at him for long. Yes he hurt you but he is only human, you’ve also made countless mistakes alongside him too. Although both parties were talking and everything was back to normal again, none of you brought up that night because neither knew what to say other than apologise for your actions.

“Darling can you go get my laptop in the room and set it up for movie night? I’m just about done with the food” Doyoung called out to you, who was casually lounging on the living room couch reading - or should you say rereading your all time favorite book. Have a little faith, by Mitch Albom. Being unable to tear your attention from the said book, you merely made a sound of acknowledgement to Doyoung before unfolding your legs and making your way to the master bedroom. “Sheesh watch where you’re going or you’ll end up walking into the wall instead” Without turning around you knew Doyoung’s head was coming out of the little kitchen window to watch your retreating figure, so extended your hand and playfully sent him a vulgar gesture over your head. You had requested the contractor to install that little feature so that you could watch your husband work his magic in the kitchen. You heard him click his tongue at your actions and let your chuckle resonate down the hall.

Once in the room, you begrudgingly set the book down on the nightstand before beginning your hunt for Doyoung’s laptop. Thanks to his very successful career as the CEO of Kim Corporation, your master bedroom is huge - you could have a party of 20 and there’ll still be space to spare - and his laptop could be anywhere in the room. Walking over to the glass desk at the far right hand-side of the room, you spotted what you were looking for under piles and piles of documents. Reaching from the front of the table you tried to carefully pull out the device without messing up his work files, but life never ever goes as planned, and you pull out a few extra stacks of paper. Cursing at your clumsiness, you bent down to clean up the mess you’ve made. For a moment, the sound of rustling paper moving against one another filled the silent room. You were just about to leave after setting the files down on the table when one of them caught your eye, more specifically, one that was labeled “Seoul General Hospital''. Snatching the file off the table, you opened it and glanced at the content inside as dread pooled at the pit of your stomach. You were never really talented at science to begin with so it wasn’t much of a suprise when you couldn’t understand half of what was written on the papers, but 1 phrase and 1 name was all it took for you to figure out what was going on, for your heart to sink.

“Mr Kim Doyoung”

“Memory loss”

Suddenly the memories of Doyoung being forgetful, not remembering the times you've spent together over the past month started to make sense. You knew he was a meticulous and organised person who has a great memory, so the chances of him forgetting events, dates nights were close to being non-existent. "Darling did you find my lapt-" the words died in Doyoung's throat when he saw what you were holding in your hands. His medical report. From his spot by the threshold of the room door, he could see the stiffness creeping into your shoulders as you turned to face him with a mask of deadly calm. Your face contorted from a wave of calm, to anguish, to emptiness and finally rage. You couldn't bring yourself to believe that your husband was slowly losing his memories, all that you've been through together turning into nothing more than a speck of dust. The air was heavy as you contemplated on how you should feel, what your reaction should be. Breakdown and cry at the fact that you're going to have a husband with no memories and who might possibly not even remember who you are, or, rage..rage because he didn't trust you enough to tell you what happened, didn't believe after all that you've been through that you'll stick by him through thick and thin. Choosing the latter option, you stormed up to Doyoung, jaws clenched as you questioned him through gritted teeth "When were you going to tell me about this? Did you even plan on telling me? Your life doesn't just belong to you anymore! You can't be so selfish and keep me in the dark!" Your voice grew louder and louder with each word as tears of frustration streamed down your cheeks, chest heaving. When Doyoung didn’t so much as look at you, let alone answer your question, you raised a fist and brought it down on his chest “answer me! Were you planning to keep me in the dark?” Doyoung caught your fist in his hand and looked down at you with tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” he apologised over and over again, pulling you into a tight embrace, holding you so close to him that you knew he wasn’t letting go anytime soon. You’ll figure things out together, you always do.

“When did you know?” you finally asked once the both of you had calmed down. Letting out a breathe he didn’t know he was holding, his reply came out as a mere whisper. “The day of your father’s death anniversary.” That’s why he didn’t show up, and now that you know his reason, you felt terrible for saying all those nasty things to him. He went to the doctors...doctors..right, if anyone they’re the ones who can help Doyoung. “Let’s go to the doctors, they’ll know what to do!” you said pushing away from him to look into his eyes. “It’s no use. I’ve asked. There’s nothing we can do.” Shaking your head in denial you grip onto his dress shirt “there must be someone who can help us. Let’s get you a specialist.” You stood up only to be pulled down again “trust me, whatever you think of I’ve already thought of and tried.” Swallowing hard, you build up the courage to ask “How much time before..before you forget me”

“I will not forget you” Doyoung replied as he scrambled to kneel in front of you, holding your hands in his. Ignoring him, you asked once more. “How much time.” Seeing the look on your face, he knew better than to hide it any longer.

“A few months.”

Leaning on the cold metal railing of your shared apartment, you speedily dialed the number of Taeyong, a close friend of you and Doyoung. After a couple of rings, you hear his sleepy voice come through the speakers.

"Hey, what's up?"

You opened and closed your mouth a couple of times, trying to form a proper sentence.

"Is everything okay?" You could hear the ruffling of his sheets as he moved to lean against his headboard. For a moment no words were exchanged, only the sound of both your breathing could be heard as the situation sank in. The news of Doyoung losing his memory hit you like a flood, your emotions were all over the place, and you had no idea how to face this.

"What am I supposed to do" you asked while sliding down the glass panel to the cold ground of your balcony, the ends of your lips pulling up into a sad smile. How can you bear to lose the one person who meant the entire world to you, when your life together was just beginning. “It’s not fair Tae, after all we’ve been through, after all the obstacles that we conquered together. Why this, why take him away from me. Take away my memories too, I can’t bear this pain anymore.” By the time the last words left your lips, tears flowed down your cheeks like an endless river. “I know this is the hardest for you, and no matter what I say nothing will change, but the guys and I will be here together with you. I don’t know what to say to make you feel better and I hate myself for that. Just please, please stop crying. It’s breaking my heart to see my 2 closest friends suffer.” Taeyong’s voice was breaking with every word and you knew that his cheeks were as damp as yours. Gripping your phone tighter, you roughly wiped away your tears with the back of your hand. Regretting what you did or didn’t do these past few years isn’t going to help the situation. “You’re right, I’ve got to be strong for him. He’s going through enough, I just...just wish I can take the pain away, just wish to have more time.” Silence enveloped the both of you, only the sound of passing cars down below playing as a companion to this dark and cold night. “You have work tomorrow, I’m sorry for calling so late. You should go back to sleep, bye Tae.” You didn’t give Taeyong a chance to reply, immediately ending the call. Looking up at the starry night sky, it was as if the stars were mocking you, like a million stars shining high above free of worries, of pain and suffering. Wrapping your arms tighter around yourself, you let the second wave of tears take over. Like the title of your favorite book, you should have a little faith, and hope for a miracle.

Unbeknownst to you, Doyoung was listening in from behind the wall of the hallway. Listening to your every plea to take the pain away, to return everything back to the way it was, to give you the happiness you deserve. Every word broke his heart to more than a million pieces. To see the woman he loved so much suffer because of him was like restraining him and setting his whole body on fire. Doyoung felt like someone had ripped out his heart and stabbed it over and over again, had wrapped their icy cold fingers around his throat cutting off his oxygen supply. He bit down so hard on his clenched fist that it drew blood, and in a feeble attempt to stop the pain he started clawing and pounding his chest. Call it what you will, a mercy maybe, when Doyoung passed out from the overwhelming emotions swirling in his broken heart.

Days passed, weeks passed, you and Doyoung spent almost every waking moment together. Going to places that you guys have wanted to visit since the start of your relationship, spending as much time together as you could before the inevitable happens. Sometimes it could be just as simple as lying in bed tangled up in each other as you talked, feeling the warmth and touch of the other. Savouring the moments.

Today, you had a big day planned for the both of you. Doyoung has always mentioned how he wanted to spend a winter up in the glass igloo resort, and you had called in a few favours to get a booking for the weekend as booking always had to be made months in advance. Looking out the kitchen window as you prepared breakfast, you saw the first snowflake descend. The first snow in years, the both of you love the snow and Doyoung would be so happy knowing that he could play with them up in the resort. Smiling to yourself, you quickly finish cooking breakfast and went to wake your sleeping husband, barely able to contain the excitement of seeing the smile on his face once you broke the news to him.

Sitting down by the edge of the bed, you slowly and softly shook his shoulders, willing him to leave the dreamland. The way he stirred awake was just too cute and you couldn’t resist giving him a peck on the cheeks. However, when his eyes fully opened, you couldn’t help but feel something was wrong. His eyes scanned the room slowly before landing on your figure beside him, he looked confused, lost even. You reached a hand out to hold him, but he flinched and subconsciously moved backward till his back was pressed flush against the headboard. He looked at the room once more before locking eyes with you. That expression...you knew. You covered your mouth as tears streamed down your face, the inevitable has happened.

“Who are you.”

(A/N: Hello, I know I haven’t been writing much lately, terribly sorry for that but life has been getting in the way>< I hope you enjoyed this short piece of work, and if you’ve made it this far thank you so much for reading! As always feedback is appreciated and feel free to chat me up or leave Asks ^^)

#nct scenarios #nct 127 #nct fanfic #nct doyoung #kim doyoung #nct #nct angst #nct imagines #nct x reader #doyoung scenarios #doyoung fic #doyoung x reader

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fortunebuoyed · 4 years ago

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Meta + Daniel’s family // @caravaggiovagabond

I feel like, for a majority of people, the family you are born into is going to be the first community that truly has impact on you. Before you even know there is a world outside, with all its expectations and myriad reactions to who you are, there are the people who raise you and in some cases are raised with you. This has especially been the case with Daniel, the youngest of five, the accident, but a favored son in many regards. Daniel the neat, conscientious boy who was the pride of his unremarkable parents who produced otherwise unremarkable children. Danny was going places. No one realized the boy was born with a shovel in hand, ready to dig his own grave.

Certainly not his mother, the middle American space case that came to California on a dream. She drove until she ran out of gas money and settled into whatever nowhere town would have her. It was just a temporary pit stop on her great cosmic journey, Katherine would laugh, working odd jobs and earning an odder reputation. Back then they just called it free-spirited, and her moments of great introspective melancholy nothing more than a flash of maturity shining through. Mother is God in the eyes of a child, and Katherine knit all of her babies in with soft words and open arms, armed with books and a spontaneity that could prove downright manic. Daniel was her thoughtful boy, her fellow dreamer, and all that was derided in her she celebrated in him. She handed down that wandering spirit and questioning nature, and something more just beneath the surface, lying in wait until the very end of adolescence caused it to spring fully formed in his mind like Athena.

And maybe Daniel might have had a chance, had she chosen any other man to marry. She met an east coast stranger chasing down a job offer after the war. New in town and handsome as anything, Robert was the kind of man who could charm anyone, even if he fumbled often enough as a father. His intentions were good. Intentions don’t count for much in life, but at least he tried. God only knows what he would have been without the alcohol, other than alive. Daniel was his favorite, his Danny Boy, and for all the wrong he might have accomplished chasing competence, he is remembered fondly by his youngest. Too fondly, perhaps, for all the ways they overlap. All Bob’s surviving friends tell Daniel he looks just like his father, though Bob reached an age that Daniel never will, and Daniel is now older than Bob ever got to be. He died before Daniel graduated high school, years of drinking catching up with him. But you know, at the end of his mortal life, he understood intimately why the old man who never got to be truly old preferred to see the world from the other side of a bottle.

The pair had a proper Catholic wedding, wasted no time in achieving their marital duties. Three sons and a single daughter came before Daniel, and all things considered, they did a fine enough job. Three out of five ended up stable. The boys don’t matter so much to him -- Sure, they’re his brothers, and he likes them well enough, but he never quite connected with them like he did his sister.

First was Peter, the furthest from Daniel himself in more ways than one. Former high school sports star, now he’s a teacher living on the East Coast with his normal wife and normal kids. The kind of brother you spare a Christmas and Birthday call then shrug off the rest of the year.

Next came James, a card-carrying nerd, the kind you can find in any Hollywood stereotype, working for some IT company in SoCal to put his kids through private school. He sometimes summers on the Island, polite enough to stay out of Daniel’s hair for the most part.

Luke’s the one that took the most after their mother, drifting across the road chasing Americana and putting as much distance as possible between he and his ex. Of the three, Daniel might admit to liking Luke the best.

If you want to really know Daniel, you go to his sister, Maryanne. Two years his senior, and his closest friend in the world through all his human life. She’s always been Annie to the family, Annie and Danny being a matching pair to hear their father talk. Ash haired and sapphire eyed, she has always kept a good head on her shoulders and a protective streak towards her younger brother. The streak of Molloy independence still runs in her, no matter how loyal she is to her baby brother and mother. She eloped at 20 and made her way to Oregon, desperate to get out of Sacramento, out from the shadow of her father’s addictions, trying to outrun the codependency that their mother embraced. Her beau repaid her by ending up like her father, and she returned fire in making the decision to leave. She knew where that path ended and she knew she would be powerless next to his decisions. Maybe one day her daughter will forgive her for it.

And don’t get him wrong, there’s no bad blood between he and his family. They were even really supportive, if for the most part confused, when he came out of the closet. His family did nothing to estrange him, nor did he cut ties officially. It’s just that he got... busy. Caught up in his obsessions, in Armand, and drifted away like his mother before him. Under the urging of others, he’s begun to reach out to them again from the 90s onward, beyond Annie’s insistent presence in his life -- more on that later.

What we take from this is three important figures and their impacts: Katherine’s ‘bad brains,’ Robert’s addictions, and Annie as the safe place to land.

On some level, Daniel feels responsible for his mother in her old age, when she has no one else in the house to support her. When he sends money back West from the Island, it’s going to his mother and sister. He knows he was her favorite, his mother’s hope for a remarkable child. In some ways, he is that, the accomplished writer, the successful businessman. He can hear the smile in her voice when she’s in the background of a call, announcing that it’s ‘Danny.’ He keeps his distance largely to keep her illusions alive. He’ll make a better ideal than a son, he’s sure. His mother has always done better with her own world than reality, the same as him, even if her coping takes a different shape.

In life, even at the end of it, Daniel would often go crawling back to his sister, when he thought it wasn’t dangerous to do so. She would demand phone calls, hassle him with questions, try to stage interventions for his drinking and relationship with this mysterious man both. It was killing him, she said, and threw up her hands in disgust at his dramatic ‘maybe I’m already dead.’ Regardless of his theatrics, she made it perfectly clear he didn’t even have to come to her, if he would only call she would buy him a ticket home, no matter where he was in the world.

The only time he really felt scared about all of it, truly scared for himself rather than intrigued by his own terror, was in Annie’s presence. Somewhere between his final escape and a rainy Chicago night, he ended up back in Sacramento, as he so often did -- Annie cried to see him in such a state. Told him he was sick, told him to stay, told him she would call a doctor. She knew. She was strong enough to face what an immortal and the dying man in question had fought so hard to ignore. Many nights, she still doubts her brother is actually alive after the state he was in during that final visit. The first time he skips one of their weekly phone calls, she’ll be on the first plane to Miami. Til then, she’ll keep praying for him.

In a lot of ways, she’s the sense Daniel never had.

As for Robert, well.. One doesn’t have to be a genius to make out how he was the blueprint for his son’s later struggles. Both were beautiful men who threw themselves body and soul into what ultimately killed them. Only, Daniel was far more his father’s son before that San Francisco night, a popular boy with nothing but goodwill. In recent years, he’s started to make more of a connection between his downward spiral and that of his father, and is taking measures to try and pull himself out of the eternal overlap. He can’t help looking like the father he lost. He can, however, help walking the same path of altruistic desires muddled by mediocrity.

#yes the molloy family comes with lore this is a kadi production i have lore for every god damn member of my muse's families #i did a soup boy write up for God's sake. fuckin Soup Boy.#antidotes and revelations [ DANIEL ; HEADCANON ]#parent death //#alcoholism //#caravaggiovagabond

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