#it’s never addressed ad assumed totally normal

[heyyallitssatan]

(I’m sorry this wouldn’t all fit in the tags)

Okay so just my opinion on a way it could go down

(Very long post under the cut)

A Uchiha clan lives au

Sasuke is an honestly really happy an positive/optimistic kid (I’m gonna compare his attitude to canon Naruto’s) but occasionally we get to see moments where we realise how much pressure he’s under from his parents after his brother disappeared and never returned (in this au itachi couldn’t complete his mission to kill his clan and so he ran away from the village in the dead of night and became a rogue shinobi, no one ever found out why so they just assume he’s either dead or a deserter, either way Sasuke becomes the only son and his father puts all of his high expectations on him and he’s struggling with his allegiance to his clan and village a lot like itachi), kakashi will still be team sevens sensei (he is exactly the same trauma filled mess he is canonically, and as such he is a train wreck with train wreck students but hey it works out in the end, but also he still has the one sharingan, but he has to teach himself to use it because the uchiha clan hates him for stealing obito’s eye and they don’t think he deserves it, so they hate him and treat him worse than scum, they petition the hokage to Sasuke moved off his team because of his but third refuses in one of his few half decent acts, so Sasuke and kakashi have some issues but get over it eventually) (side note: itachi was once asked by the clan to steal Kakashi’s eye because they were together in anbu, in a rare show of spine from itachi he refuses, citing how valuable kakashi is to the village)

Naruto (who will be red headed because I said so and they said all of the uzumakis have red hair and I’ve decided he should too, it also increases his relation to negative later on and I want even more obvious parallels between them) has his canon backstory but the bullying took a lot more of a toll so he has a lot of sasuke’s canon attitude, aloof but also just kind of angry and mean, (maybe here he also knows why the villagers scorn him, or at least has put together some context clues from how he’s treated, and he knows getting angry will only make him more like nine tails, so he spends a lot of time trying to repress his emotions so they just blow up later)

Sakura stays basically the same, except she doesn’t have a crush on anyone, so some of her craziness and jealousy aren’t really present (she’s still kinda boy crazy, but it’s like a new guy every week and no one can keep them straight, she kind of grows out of the weekly crushes eventually as she becomes more serious about her training) so she seems more chill in that regard, acting a lot more like an irritated sibling with both Sasuke and Naruto (inner Sakura is definitely a thing, mostly just a way more extreme version of her current frustration) and she’s a lot more of a girls girl because her and ino were never driven apart so they stayed besties forever (she still cuts her hair just as a pledge to start training harder and keep up with everyone and has nothing to do with Sasuke, ino does it with her in camaraderie)

Inoshikacho stays exactly as they are because they are wonderful perfect babies and I love them (without the Sasuke crush for ino)

For a little bit of spice, neji and hinata switch so that hinata is older and more experienced like neji as the next hyuuga heir, and neji is younger and trying to learn from hinata, he’s still branch and she’s main, but he’s okay with the fate laid out for him as her protector but hinata isn’t, she absolutely fucking hates the idea of him dying for her and she regularly fights her father about it, it’ll get to the point where neji dies for her in the war and hinata is so devastated that she comes home and completely changes the family structure, finding a way to disable the crest/seal on their foreheads and declares that both families are one equal one now and everyone can get over it, her father fights her so hard on it until she reminds him of his brothers sacrifice and he relents to let her do as she pleases

On that note, team gai and team kurenai switch places, so kurenai is the older team that held back a year from the exams and all of them are older and only slightly more experienced than the others (also, in this au, Shino was taken to the root instead of his cousin, he eventually leaves to become part of kurenai team while technically spying for danzo but he quickly decides he likes these people a whole lot better than the root, kakashi recognises him from his time in anbu and gives kurenai and warning and uses his old anbu contacts (Yamato) to get him officially transferred to lord thirds anbu and then discharged so that he’s officially a genin with team kurenai), their personalities (besides hinata being a lot more confident and not crushing on Naruto) stay the same, team gai is a year younger and leaves school with the rest of the teams, and their dynamics are pretty much the same (except neji being less proficient and still learning and a little less cold and angry, though still somewhat with some of the coldness that comes with being part of their clan)

So some additional story notes

Because Sasuke isn’t traumatised the same way, he doesn’t run with orochimaru, choosing instead to stay a learn from kakashi in spite of his fathers orders (kakashi also knew a fair deal more about itachi in this au, so eventually he tells Sasuke what really happened on that mission and Sasuke resolves to hunt down his brother, his team refuses to let him go alone, so kakashi convinces Lord third (who is still alive for a bit because orochimaru had no reason to come destroy the leaf if he isn’t recruiting Sasuke) to make it an official mission to track him down. Along the way they find tsunade when one of them gets injured, and Sakura bullies her into training her, so they leave and travel around while tsunade teaches her medical ninjutsu and Sakura definitely doesn’t pick up her gambling habit (she’s way more subtle about it tho) and tsunade sees Naruto and the fox chakra thing and recommends jiraiya and then helps them track him down, and they convince him to train Naruto and they disappear for a bit to mount miyoboku (Naruto is really reluctant to leave Sasuke but he does after Sasuke convinced him to go) where he finally learns to talk to kurama while he controls nature energy, he already found out about the fox and what happened from kakashi, and when kakashi found out he wasn’t being taken care of he was more than a little angry about it, (he didn’t know because he basically wasn’t in the village during his anbu tenure and when he was he was avoiding the shit out of his mentors kid because he was expressly forbidden from talking to him about the incident or who his parents were because he was told it would help him have a normal childhood, lies lies and more lies, kakashi eventually apologised and explained everything he knew and told him stories about both of his parents and how they helped raise him and he gave him every picture and note and everything he could dig up of them, Naruto felt like he really knew him after that)

So then it’s just kakashi and Sasuke on this mission to find his brother and they do, as part of the akatsuki, itachi wants nothing to do with his brother he abandoned or the captain he disappointed, luckily for him they are easily pushed away by mean words (kakashi didn’t believe that shit talk for a second) and he explains that after he left he had to do something, and he thought the best way he could protect the village was by infiltrating the akatsuki and finding out what they were up to, they’re after all the jinchuriki including Naruto, Sasuke vows not to let them get him and they go back (itachi stays to continue collecting info) and find him to tell him what’s happening and why he has to stay hidden for three years while he trains

Sakura returns with lady tsunade in tow and tsunade is convinced to take over the position of hokage after third dies peacefully in his sleep (no one can prove that isn’t what happened /hj)

So now we’re basically on track with the series and it will play out pretty similarly (no one besides the konoha twelve really change all that much, except itachi I guess) only Sasuke is with the village so orochimaru is a player in the game but he’s kind of background and just another antagonist to deal with

It all plays out basically how it happens in the show after this, Naruto is still definitely the main character even if my post is mostly about Sasuke I promise

What Would You Do With the Konoha 12?

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve attempted to rewrite Naruto in the past and one of the first blockades I found was, surprisingly, how many different interesting directions the different characters could be taken in.

Let’s take Sakura Haruno for example. Would you keep her a medic ninja, a genjutsu master, a wood release user, or something else? Would you lean into how emotional she is or would you make her less sensitive over time? Would you make her a civilian child or from a prominent clan like Sasuke and Naruto? Would she keep Inner Sakura? How would you handle her rivalry with Ino, if you keep it, and her motivations? How would you handle her relationship with Sasuke? Would you lean into her femininity or make her more of a tomboy? Would you make her more like Naruto like in the original or would you try to make her more of the earth to Naruto and Sasuke’s sun and moon or some secret third option? And there are many more questions and decisions you could make with her character and role in the story, of course.

Because there are so many options for all of the Konoha 12 (plus others, but let’s not get in over our heads), I’m curious to see what choices different people might make. And now that I have an account on a very creativity-driven website, I can ask. So,

What would you do with/How would you write the Konoha 12 if you were rewriting Naruto?

[bugsinshoes]

ok so i just watched @fordtato and @hkthatgffan 's respective videos about their interview with THE alex hirsch and i wanna just say OH MY GOD like SERIOUSLY

im gonna put my thoughts under the cut so theres no spoilers if you havent seen it already (BUT GO WATCH THEM NOW PLEASE !!!) + its gonna be LONG so BEAR WITH ME

ok, so i have MANY thoughts so sorry if none of this is coherent 😭 (this is not in chronological order of when the questions were asked, just me spewing out my totally normal thoughts about this interview so apologies for that)

starting off:

THE BABY IS SHERMIE?!?!?!? IM SO SO GLAD WE FINALLY HAVE CONFIRMATION WE CAN FINALLY LEAVE THIS TO REST !! I WAS RIGHT THOUGH SO HA !!! ACTUALLY SCREAMING !! TIMELINE BE DAMNED (also another thanks to hana, your timeline video is genuinely awesome. i never shut up about it. ever. any time i talk to my friends abt gf and i need to refer to the timeline i go: "IN HANA'S VIDEO-") anyways, i do understand it was a last minute decision on the writer's part of "oh. dipper and mabel need a grandfather, its not ford, and its sure as FUCK not gonna be stan sooo... third brother?" and i do understand alex being like, "oh, this is about ford and stan only having eachother" so i think making shermie younger was a GOOD THING? like, stan and ford had 18 years of just them so shermie wasnt in the picture, so stan and ford technically grew up on their own so ig it works? also, when stan got kicked out, he never got to see shermie grow up, probably only saw him at events when he had to pretend to be ford (post-1983) and as for ford himself, he was too busy in college and gravity falls to really visit the family so... it works! (despite everything)

that aside, lets talk about THE CRUMBS??? like i have some quotes here because i have a LOT to say:

"theyre both so damaged and they desperately need each other" - alex hirsch (talking about stan and ford)

LIKE SUIUHUSHUSH i HATE these brothers SO MUCH (LIES) i cant actually properly express my thoughts because WOW like its clear that they both have their own trauma and they NEED to address it but theyre both too STUBBORN to do so. theyve both been alone for 40ish years so of course they need each other. they grew up by the hip, so theres no surprise that they both need each other (whether they like it or not)

"[ford's] grateful for the forgiveness he thinks he doesnt deserve" -alex hirsch

ford thinks so lowly of himself at times it HURTS. like the lines in the journal about "only then would the freak return a hero" or about his guilt with bill and everything its just so important to his character im so glad we got so much ford content in this interview. like i am EATING ALL THIS UP RN

"[ford] has to always have a mission in front of him, because if he doesnt have a mission in front of him, hes thinking how have i treated people in my life?" - alex hirsch

ford distracting himself with things instead of facing his problems. probably something he had to do a lot, especially with his time in the multiverse. but it really hurts because i can imagine in the 60s, they never had any great coping mechanisms? so i can assume ford was just conditioned to distract himself from stuff so he never learned how to deal with things. and i KNOW in the journal hes like "i meditate!" and im sure that does help somewhat, but it doesnt address the issue itself soooo... sorry ford, but you cant just breathe your way out of everything

ALSO alex calling ford and fiddlefords falling out a "BREAKUP" (air quotes used) BUT A BREAKUP??? this is just adding fuel to my fiddauthor-infested brain rn. i CANT

and alex saying mcgucket is thinking like, "oh i gotta be a better partner" is HEART SHATTERING like the whole talk about fiddleford being "the building guy" who is kind of just there to make machines and please ford. its honestly so heartbreaking because fiddleford loves ford so much he'd leave his wife and child to go to absolute nowhere, oregon and the fact ford is too arrogant to see fiddlefords admiration and overall love for him its just IUIUAHHAS

and i do wanna say, i KNOW bill played a big part in this, by stroking fords ego and buttering him up with his kind words because he knew exactly what ford wanted to hear and that really affected how ford and fidds' relationship was like but THATS A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER TIME. all i know is that ford isnt entirely to blame, but he still is a massive arrogant asshole and he wasnt the best person to fidds at times (love him tho <3)

but im actually so happy because this interview sheds SO much light onto FORD bcs we BARELY got to know him, and hearing it from MR HIRSCH HIMSELF is just so good because we KNOW its a reliable source because its coming from ALEX YK??? like he wrote ford so he probably knows "oh yeah, that man is guilt-ridden as FUCK" and im so glad we get some crumbs of this guy i cant get enough of him !!! (impatiently waiting for the book of bill)

ANNNDD THE TALK ABOUT MAYBE GETTING A SEA GRUNKS SPINOFF/MINISERIES??? I WOULD EXPLODE GENUINELY ANYTHING WITH MY FAVOURITE OLD MEN PLEASE !! i would genuinely love to see more of their dynamic and how everything is after weirdmaggeddon and like dealing with trauma and UGHHH i would kill for stan/ford content PLEASE

also...

hippie ford.

hippie. ford.

i am never getting over this (im internally SCREECHING)

ANYWAYS THAT WAS MY RANT ABT MY FAV THINGS FROM THE INTERVIEW THAT WAS A LOT GODDAMN

im genuinely so happy with all the questions that got answered, as well as getting some deeper insight into characters and stuff. IM NEVER GETTING OVER THE AMOUNT OF FIDDAUTHOR CRUMBS YOU GUYS

im gonna end this by saying another MASSIVE thank you to hana and hk !! you both put so much effort into your respective videos and it was super super cool !! this was totally worth the wait !!! :D

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[leaguesbottombitch]

Riot talks about what a mythic variant is, and the drop rate and costs here. 

TL;DR, this mythic variant is a mythic chroma meets variant skin. Literally think the mythic chromas like Star Guardian Jinx meets the variant skins like Cosmic/Dark Cosmic lux. Its a different color with slightly different VFX. It’ll come with a unique splash. As well, I assume his icon and boarder are exclusive to getting him via this FOMO method of gatcha loot capsules- the same way prestige icons and boarders are limited to when it is initially pushed to live. 

The official claim is they are experimenting with ideas to fulfill the small niche percent of players who love super exclusive content, since prestige skins were too FOMO and were made easier to get. (But this is totally different than fulfilling other small niche percent of players, like those who were buying skins for xayah and rakan who wanted unique paired recall animations.)

The drop rate is indeed 1% The price per capsule is indeed 750RP. (This making the pity guarantee for the Mythic Variant 200$ - which would match the pity guarantee price tag of the Skin Chibi Legends from TFT.)  You do not need to own Dark Cosmic Jhin in order to get this Mythic Variant.  This is a TIME LIMITED CONTENT. It will only be in the shop for a set amount of time. In 2024, this Mythic Variant will be added to the pool for skin shard rerolls, because the rich (and pros) who have all content to reroll once and get this Mythic Variant easily are “a small enough group that it won’t impact the feeling of exclusivity.“

As you can imagine, there was a lot of feedback about this. Already, riot has made Rioter Brightmoon step up as face and address it here. 

Tl;DR there is that they hear us, but they’re going to proceed. Saying that they provide a range of content- from free to “more premium,” They reiterate that the goal is to explore creating content that fulfills the small niche of rarity and exclusivity, and they want to push this through to get feedback from that small percentage- the social media/ out of game feedback/data they’re getting now is a bigger, different crowd than the feedback/data they are looking for in game from that crowd, (likely in purchases data) basically. 

Brightmoon goes on to clear the air about two things, the first being that league intends to never become pay to win, and that this content being made will not stop other content like normal skins, prestige skins, legendary skins, etc, from being made. 

Honestly, a bullshit excuse to cover up something greedy that is likely being pushed by Riot as a company, or even further above.  I had feared something like this when TFT introduced the Skin variant of the Chibi Legends/Tacticians being locked behind low drop chance in eggs. Shit, when TFT was initially released and it’s tacticians were locked behind randomized eggs, period. 

If they wanted to create content that is rare and exclusive, they could take more inspiration from content like Urfwick being in the BE shop, or from the method of unlocking KDA All Out Seraphine- making a currency that is earned through some sort of fulfilled requirement- even if behind a paywall- that must be specifically sought out and gathered over a period of dedication that would set the owner apart from the rest. This idea is similar to the Prestige Points, ME, and Prestige skins as a whole, while not taking away from the fact that those currencies prevent a player from getting additional content that is in these event battle passes to begin with.  I have only ever encountered URFWick once myself, via someone who had owned the skin from before the BE Emporium update. 

According to Julex Gameplays, Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin is allegedly only available through loot capsules - either at about 1% chance per capsule, or guaranteed at 30 capsules which will cost 22500RP or ~US$200 - for what is essentially a mythic chroma with a new splash art. The emote is new but the two icons are just recolours of already existing icons. In my opinion this feels like such a disgusting blatant cash grab by Riot and shows how greedy they are by taking advantage of 'exclusivity' / FOMO.

[obsidianpen]

I know each author have a unique perception about the sexism in the wizarding world but I think canonically, sexism doesn't have much to say in the wizarding world than in the muggle one and witches and wizards aren't particularly sexist (or less sexist than muggles). In FB1 the president of MACUSA was a witch and in FB3 one of the candidates for the minister of magic post was also a witch. Grindelwald and Voldemort both had several female followers and nearly half of the order members were female too (of course Dumbles was an equalist in every aspects but still...) . And I think JK once said that the first female minister of magic was elected in 18th century.

I'd really like to know your opinion on this aspect because I've noticed you mention about sexism in the WW and I'd like to know what you think of this .

Hi anon, I'm sure I've touched on my opinions about this topic before, but it's an interesting one, so I'm happy to ramble about it again. I should preface this by saying that I don't really draw any inspiration from the FB movies. I've done a little bit of research on them specifically because of where B&G has gone, as well as some research on Ilvermorney on Pottermore for the same reasons, but for the most part I write based only on the canonical books 1-7.

I don't really care what JK Rowling 'says'. I know she's 'said' that her wizarding world isnt sexist and apparently never has been, isnt racist, isnt homophobic, etc. She's pretty much 'said' that it's a world and culture that exists outside of such terrible things, with the exception of being anti-muggleborn, sort of, sometimes. I don't really buy it. Later adding in details like 'the first female minister of magic was elected a million years ago, how progressive' or 'Dumbledore is actually gay!' does not a perfect world suddenly make.

Yes, Voldemort has one very powerful, female follower. But she didn't become one of his ranks until much later compared to his otherwise almost exclusive male following. She's the exception, not the rule. Also, apparently they were fucking, so that's annoying. Just another moment where it seemed like a woman was just a badass in her own right but no, she also had to be the romantic interest of the big bad guy. I feel like the series could have done without that, but oh well. When it comes to TR and his general following, though, it was shown in canon that he, as a young guy in school, was surrounded not by a good mix of witches and wizards in the earlier version of slughorns little club, but all slytherin boys. that reeked of old school sexism to me, which was probably totally normal back then, because, oh yeah, it was totally normal back then IRL.

Sure, many order members are female. Tonks is probably the best example of a badass witch doing the thing, but if you recall, in canon, harry is surprised when she says shes an auror. maybe thats because shes young, hard to tell. but i remember it.

Anyway, I suppose my biggest issue with JK simply saying 'nope no sexism/racism/etc here' is that it feels 1. like its an easy out, attempting to say that her magical characters/world are above such things when they are so clearly not if other -isms against muggleborns exist, and allows her to simply not address major, important topics, and 2. i dont see how it could be possible. If sexism (since that's the one we are focusing on now) existed in the much more populated muggle world, how could it not exist, or at least be acknowledged, by the magical one? I don't recall any wizards being burned alive. And while the real witches supposedly just got caught for fun because they could fake their burnings, real ass women were actually burning alive, often, I would assume, in the stead of real witches. Innocent women, and I'm sure not all of them were terrible people. I find it hard to believe that the real witches would be cool with that.

That isn't touching the topic of muggleborns. If muggleborn witches and wizards were welcomed into magical society, happily or not, then surely the -isms of the muggle world came with them. Unless certain muggleborns were not invited into the magical world, because maybe it would be really hard to explain to an older family that their daughter, who was considered property and maybe already promised to some other muggle, was magical and was invited to get a real education, just like their sons, except not really because it will be in a freaking castle far away. But even if they managed to fuck up everyone's memory who would be involved in that transaction, the young muggleborn witch in question would know what was going on, and how can someone not draw attention to issues like that if you experienced them? Unless such girls were NOT invited into the magical world, because it would be too hard - lots of girls were not allowed to learn how to read and write, for example, for a long time; how would they possibly fare in a school where that was required? Maybe they just weren't allowed in. And if that were the case, that would, in fact, make the wizarding world quite sexist indeed, even if it were combined with the anti-muggleborn situation.

I wonder the same things about any muggleborn child born as a slave in the muggle world, but that's a whole lot more to ramble about and I'm getting on a plane soon. Those are my abridged, early morning sleep deprived thoughts.

[tornrose24]

Another addition to the RE8 Happy AU:

Transportation to the village can be done by the Duke, since he has a cart and all. Or Ethan can trade the duke something valuable or interesting so the Duke can build him a functioning cart.

To address Alcina’s dislike of men, how about when it is her turn to see Rose, Mia is the one who supervises instead of Ethan (although this does not stop him from worrying very much because he nearly lost his wife once in RE7). Ethan maaaaaaay have snuck into the castle a couple of times just to check, and Alcina has to pretend with every ounce of self control she can muster to pretend she does not notice (but she totally knows).

Heisenberg would totally teach Rose how to swear. Also I imagine he once accidentally static shocked Rose with his poofy hair, causing her to cry, and after that Mia is comforting Rose while Ethan starts screaming bloody murder and straight up starts beating Heisenberg with a metal pole (Or Mia beats him up while Ethan holds Rose). Alcina never let Heisenberg live that one down.

Donna definitely puts on puppet shows to entertain Rose. And has a new doll for Rose every visit, and soon Rose has amassed a collection of varying dolls. Angie likes to play patty cake with Rose, which always makes Rose laugh. Also tea parties are a must.

Moreau was allowed to carry Rose using a crate since they weren’t sure if he could carry Rose without accidentally dropping her in his reservoir. Sometimes she would fall asleep in the crate and Moreau would use a cloth sack as a blanket so she doesn’t get cold.

@xx---locketdragon---xx

Honestly I’m not sure how transportation normally works between the outside world and the village. I’d see The Duke involved, but I think he’d have his own things going on/stuff to do too. If the lords left the village they’d need their own customized modes of transportation (though I can’t imagine Moreau being able to leave if his transformations happen without warning, and I don’t know if he’d be down with just leaving the village for too long).

Yeah, I think Mia would be more welcomed in Castle Dimetrescu (hopefully she was treated alright while in captivity, because whatever DLC you guys get probably won’t be forgiving for her). She won’t worry about being added to Lady D’s wine, but there’s still a slight uneasiness on her end. And it’d get awkward if Alcina finds out about Mia’s involvement with the ‘sort of but not quite fifth sibling’ a few years back.

I could see Ethan doing that, but I think Alcina would eventually snap and kick him out since she’s not always patient. But at least its Rose’s father and not yet another disgusting man-thing with lustful intentions, because THOSE guys aren’t as lucky as Ethan.

Rose learned a few curse words from Heisenberg, and unfortunately for the Winters, the first one she spoke was the dreaded ‘F***’ word. And since neither of them curse around their daughter, it doesn’t take them long to figure out who imparted that knowledge to her.

I’m not sure the full effects of Heisenberg’s power, but him static shocking Rose at some point on accident would make sense. I think it’d be funnier if Mia beat Ethan to the punch and was the one to beat Heisenberg’s ass. Oh, but it’d get better–one of Alcina’s servants was nearby at the time and actually recorded the beat down with her phone to show her Lady in addition to recounting what happened. And after Alcina has a good laugh, she’d look at the servant and says “I will give you a significant raise in your salary if you can find a way to give me a replica of this recording so I can watch it whenever I wish.” 

I don’t know if Donna would give Rose too many dolls, since she’d be too small to properly care for them for awhile (and I’m sure those dolls would be expensive for a reason). Plus Ethan might put his foot down at first given what happened last time he ran into any of Donna’s dolls. The idea of Angie herself playing with Rose is adorable, though since Angie is Donna’s special doll, Donna would be cautious with how Rose interacts with Angie. Yes, tea parties are a must. ^_^ The ultimate tea party with the dolls. (I admit a part of me has imagined the monster baby in that scenario too, but I’m not sure if it’d actually work or not if is an actual hallucination).

Moreau would absolutely need something specially designed to keep Rose secure around the water, and it’d need to float if it ended up in the water (actually, maybe she’d need a little life vest and floaties to be safe). Assuming he started hiring workers to help with the reservoir, he’d have some help on hand. (Also, the sack as a blanket is oddly cute).

Also, I just remembered he has a TV and ‘supposedly’ a PS4 if the puppet show holds some canon. And there’s a lot of potential with those in mind, like he’d try to get her to play ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ or whatever would exist in the Resident Evil universe, but she’s way too little and tries chewing on the controller instead.

[organic-guacamole]

episode 210 here we go

awww seb doing the intro

congratulations to milky white and her baby chocolate milk😌

seb is so funny

but seriously, clean up that milk fast or else it will smell so bad in there....

was that Lauryn just randomly doing cartwheels? idk any theatre kids irl but that seems like it's a common thing...

is it just me or has ms Jenn been getting more harsh to Ricky and Seb mainly-

like what did they do to her

no because I actually snorted with laughter at the "you came back" WHAT IS THAT VOICE-

AND THE MASK OMG

yeah so my throat hurts now

I'm dying over here

KOURTNEY'S FACE

SAME GIRL SAME

Ricky's fake death got the whole place in tears /s

he looks like an asthmatic walrus

Seb's on piano, I love

we all know if he was the beast we'd all actually be crying✋

ok but I listen to Julia's version of home on Spotify when I want to cry-

right so gimme a second

is Ricky scratching his face.....while he's dying?

"belle i-" *flop*

round of applause to Ashlyn for trying to make Ricky's earthworm seizure look less.... yknow

Kourtney's just dying there

WAIT IS THAT NATALIE

did she really just disappear for 9 episodes just to come back and stare dramatically into the camera

WAIT SCRATCH THAT SHES HERE TO MURDER ASHLYN AND RICKY

oh so Ricky's wearing a gay shirt now too

so that's the real reason why Rini broke up, see y'all next season when Gini and caswen become canon /j

wait that was a long intro scene-

what was that look Carlos-

TALK TO MY BOY OR ELSE

carlos' run is so funny to me

therapist Ashlyn to the rescue

"that is...super" son you good?

ms Jenn call Benjamin, he would willingly put his loved ones on a rocket and blast them into Venus for you....

maybe

"I don't want you kids to be disappointed" girl you do realise you're the one that's most invested in this?

"a smooth opening night" wasn't there just 1 show though-

like their opening night was closing night too

"I think I was Troy at one point" PLEASE THATS THE MOST ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE SEASON 1 FINALE

me Jenn looks like a serial killer during that clap and I'm lowkey scared for zacky

"I have notes"

oo if you're taking suggestions, lemme get my list

"mother is freaking out" uhhhhhh

right....'mother"

"is everyone sitting down?"

*looks around awkwardly*

*big red slowly sits*

"no..."

please seb was the only one sitting-

does that mean Carlos looked at Seb as soon as he walked in and assumed that everyone else was sitting too or am I a seblos clown🤡

"is this about the transformation"

WOW MAYBE OT IS RICKY

WOW HES A DETECTIVE FOR FIGURING THAT OUT SO QUICK🤩

YO WHY IS NATALIE HERE-

she just shows up when it's convenient? is she gonna be at the sleepover too?

Seb's heavy swallow after Carlos shouts at him makes me so sad

"I never learned how to lie but I figure if I keep my mouth closed, I can't tell the truth" *nods and smiles at Nini when she asks*

why are they casually standing up all over the pizza shop, just sit at a big table and talk instead of blocking passageways and blocking off at least 6 tables-

"how about I invite myself" WHY DO PEOPLE ALWAYS FEEL THE NEED TO INVITE THEMSELVES TO ASHLYN'S HOUSE-

YOU CAN ASK BUT JUST FORCE YOUR WAY IN?

so Cash Caswell has a bigger house than... Dennis Caswell.... who would've thought

ah yes there's the good old EJ 1.0

Nini: "boys vs girls"

Gina: *looks devastated and glances longingly at EJ*

way to be inconspicuous

"but north high should be" *cracks her knuckles in the most uncomfortable way*

good for Ashlyn for getting more confident though

oo bossy big red

"i get bossy around the power tools"

is that why Ashlyn was holding up the drill in episode 8 orrrr 🤠

oh

Lily, leave him alone please

she's literally not blinking, is that what makes her creepy?

the diss at big red and his face afterwards is priceless

isn't that similar to what Gina's mom said to her in season 1? hmmmm

but seriously please don't try to redeem lily, let us have a character to hate, or to love because they're evil.

not everyone's a good guy.

"im not liked here and I don't know what to do"

let antoine finish his salad and it'll fix everything

"hug emoji" *gags*

y'all realize Lily's literally 14?

why is she calling a 16/17 year old from another school for personal advice-

"he gets weird around tools"

I shouldn't be laughing so hard

"deja vu maybe?" awkward silence

I'm dying here I love EJ so so so so much

"where's seb"

*cuts to seb being held hostage hoping that they'd notice he's missing and go look for him*

"don't ask"

"oh ok"

"100% real faux fur" as you should queen

sponsored by target

Kourtney is singlehandedly saving the entire show.

Seb making finger guns make me happier than it should

why is this kinda making me want to have a co-ed sleepover with my non-existent theatre friends

YES YOU DO NEED TO TALK/SING TO SEB CARLOS THANK YOU FOR KNOWING THAT

wait what-

you haven't talked to him all WEEK-

Carlos are you stupid /hj

Benjamin is so adorable I can't

he turned around to come back for her instead of going home. you're "what do you want Jenn🙄X act isn't fooling anyone Benjamin 🙃

10101

1+4+16= 21st?

they placed 21st?

or do I just not remember how to convert to base ten

GIRL DON'T BE RUDE TO HIM, HE'S GONNA SAVE YALL

no ms Jenn, the kids are not eccentric 35 year olds.

aww sebby

is he thinking that Carlos is only with him cuz he's the only other openly gay guy at school-

son you are a perfect little bean don't put yourself down

yes they all ship portwell as they should.

they'll be throwing risotto at the wedding.

not the chocolates. stop there are no chocolates. please stop I'm dying.

Gina you don't have to explain yourself to her

it was a misunderstanding and it's in the past

why is Ashlyn still laughing-

exactly it wasn't a big deal please just move on Nini

Kourtney really be out here saving everything

WHY IS ASHLYN STILL LAUGHING

why do I feel like when Gina finally told Ash about it, she didn't think it was that funny but wanted to feel included in the inside joke so now she brings it up randomly to show that she's in on it....I totally don't do that...

"idk, the farmer type" oh son...

Ashlyn and big red are just spilling the secrets back and forth huh?

OOO EJ AND GINA SITTING IN A TREE K-I-S-S-I-

cmon guys don't look at me like that-

"she is the best" and "we're buddies" don't sound right together

"pretty boy" "sweet boy" best ways to describe EJ

I love him.

and aw he's scared of rejection so he'll hold back just to keep her happy and not awkward how sweet

is Ricky wondering if letting her go(literally his song from last episode) was the best thing he did for Nini because he doesn't feel like it now? hmmm this is getting good

why is everyone so invested in Kourtney and Howie's relationship

PACK UP THE LAZY RICKY THING

oh yes Benji, that's exactly what she's doing

she couldn't follow her dream or whatever so now she's using the kids to gain some of the success she craves. why else would she have that massive hsm poster with her name on it in huge letters in her office.

just casually grab his hand with both your hands and stare at him creepily 🥰

ship jennzzara y'all

the first bump was a missed opportunity to do the baymax "falalala" as a reference to the fact that they watched big hero six while committing arson✋

wait so big red and EJ just left Ricky in the basement and now Ricky invited Carlos when they're supposed to be at the stage?

help no Ricky looks like he's about to tell Carlos he likes him (I know it's about writing the song for seb but still, look at his body language and tell me it doesn't look like that)

Ricky is so mature about this, he really just wants Nini to be happy even though he's hurting-

baby you deserve love, maybe Nini isn't the one for you but don't say you don't deserve it

why does he keep adding bro to the end like he doesn't know how to address Carlos

PLEASE CARLOS HAVING TO ADDRESS THE BRO THING

"let's write a song when we have like 45 minutes to get to the place and help our friends possibly win $50000 at the show in 2 weeks"

"can you hit a high C?"

"that's like the bottom of my range"

why am I laughing

this is so cool to see friendship interactions that we don't normally get to see

Nini why are you being like this-

Gina did nothing wrong??

I saw that, EJ and Gina being the only ones going in the same direction👀

right so obviously Kourtney's waiting until after the menkies to get back with Howie just in case he really is just using her as a way in to east high... obviously... right?

CARLOS

OK ITS COMING GET READY YALL

Why is portwell so awkward all of a sudden

OMG EJ

OMG GINA SAY YES or not, do what you want.

the way she doubts that EJ would genuinely ask so she has to make sure it's not Ashlyn behind it

OH

THE "NOT THAT I KNOW OF"

LIKE WHAT GINA SAID TO JACK ABOUT EJ BEING HER BOYFRIEND

GUYS THEY'RE SOULMATES

I want risotto now please

THEY'RE SO SWEET AND ADORABLY AWKWARD ITS LIKEEK LITTLE KIDS

OOOOOOO what is this place that seblos is in, looks fancy....and secluded

oh wait no Ricky's just standing there

wait is it the bomb shelter

it looks so good what

HSKAGSJAGAJAGWISGSKAUASBWKSVAIWBAISBQKSHIQBWOABWOABDOQBZIQBAIAQBSIWBQISVQKSIANSGOQBSAISBKASBKWBAIABQOSBBSJAHAJAVAJSBAJHSKAHSJAHAJAJAAJAHHHHHHHH

@youranxiousnerd ARE YOU OK?

CUZ IM NOT OK

LOOK AT SEBBY'S FACE

LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE IT IS

THE LYRICS ARE KILLING ME

SEBLOS IS KILLING ME

I AM DEAD

PLEASE SEND HELP

I like to imagine that Frankie and Joe practiced this in their apartment and just had a blast with it.

or maybe that Frankie practiced in secret like what Joe did for the climb

OH THE SUITS

THATS WHERE THAT CLIP IN THE PROMO WAS FROM

AWWW SEBBY'S SO CUTE

HE'S A LITTLE MARSHMALLOW

they're still so awkward with the dance I cant

let's appreciate Frankie's voice though

this episode really was made just for the seblos and portwell stans and you gotta love it

BIG RED GET OUT

WHY DOES HE ALWAYS DO THIS

Seb's little "yeah" IS ADORABLE

you can't tell me that wouldn't have been the best time for them to say I love you....IF FREAKIN BIG RED WASN'T THERE

ok but wait Ricky needs more hugs like that, look at his face

the boy needs love

"bro" please don't let Ricky and Carlos go back to not talking because their friendship is amazing

EJ laughing at Ricky sounding like a cat coughing up a furball is so funny to me

RICKY'S FLOP GETS ME EVERYTIME

I knew it was too good to be true

ok so Ricky's dead, next in line please

this episode was so short but I love it so much. this is what I signed up for for season 2✋

[toraodwaterlaw]

Heart to Heart

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

This is the final part of a four part AU fic set just after Marineford. Law is the latest Corazon, but Rosinante is still alive.

1681 words (6638 total for all four parts), angst with a happy(ish) ending

-

Whenever he returned from a mission, Law would appear like clockwork as soon as night fell. Normally. This homecoming was anything but normal. Rosinante didn’t think much of it that first night. Law had looked worn to the bone. Rosinante had hoped he was getting rest. When Law didn’t turn up the next night, Rosinante started to worry. He checked carefully with Viola and found out Law hadn’t left his quarters once, even to eat.

That settled it. As soon as he was sure there was no one around to interrupt, he slipped into Law’s room and closed off the outside world with a snap.

Law was at his desk, medical charts and texts spread before him. Rosinante assumed Law was reading until he got close enough to see those golden eyes were fixed on the window. He was staring beyond the edges of Dressrosa toward the distant horizon. A single black feather was clutched loosely in his hand.

“Hey, kid.”

Law’s fingers twitched. For him, it was about as good as jumping in surprise. “He still hasn’t put the strings in your lips back.” This didn’t seem to be addressed to Rosinante. It certainly wasn’t directed toward him, as Law continued looking out the window. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I noticed.”

Every word continued to be a struggle for Rosinante but he would talk until he could no more if it got some reaction out of Law. As it was, there was an emptiness in Law’s eyes that was far too close to the look he’d had those first meetings on Spider Miles.

“Would you look at me?”

“You shouldn’t talk so much. You still need time to heal.” Law reached across his desk to place the feather on the windowsill. He replaced it with a quill and scrawled something out on a scrap of paper. “Here’s a list of teas and other natural remedies to help your throat.” 

Rosinante took the note as it was passed back to him. “I appreciate it but—”

“I’m working on a salve for your lips.” Law rooted through bottles on his desk and on shelves to the side. He pulled open drawers on a cabinet and picked out different packets of fragrant herbs. They were all arranged carefully across the desk. “Some of the ingredients need time to cure before they’re ready, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer. I’ll write out instructions so that you know just what to do.”

Rosinante hugged his arms to himself to keep himself from grabbing Law to put a stop to all the anxious movement. The boy already had his movements controlled enough as it was. And it wasn’t what Rosinante really wanted.

“Law. Look at me. Please.”

Law sighed and turned slowly in his seat. His eyes immediately flicked to Rosinante’s chest. Rosinante had pulled on a light sweater for the meeting. The telltale hole in his chest couldn’t be visible but he knew it was all Law saw anyway. Law reached a hand toward it before quickly pulling it back to himself.

They were facing each other, which was a start, but Law didn’t seem any more inclined to talk to him. Rosinante frowned and then immediately winced at the pain it brought. At least now, with Law looking at him, he was free to us his hands to sign.

Are you okay?

Law scowled. “Me? I’m— you’re the one with a—” His frown deepened further and looked away again. He clutched at his own chest. For a while it seemed like he wasn’t going to say another word. In the end, voice low, he added, “I took your heart.”

His voice sounded as raw and pained as Rosinante’s.

Rosinante placed a gentle hand on Law’s face. He turned it so that he could get a better look at the bruising. He wished he knew what else Law was hiding because he was certain that there were other injuries. Law was no more one for covering up than Doffy was, so his crisp, black shirt doubtless covered injuries to his torso. Rosinante wished he knew what else was being hidden from him. He knew by now, though, that Law would simply brush off any such inquiries, so he’d try another approach. 

What happened?

Law waved him off. “I was stupid. Straw Hat had a nightmare about his brother and I was too close when he woke up. Seems he wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of me trying to hold him in his bed so he wouldn’t reopen his injuries. I’m fine.”

Rosinante must have looked dubious because Law’s frown deepened.

“I am,” Law insisted. “I did a scan to check for serious injuries to be sure. I’ve had much worse. I’d be healed up by now if I had a chance to actually get some rest.”

Then why don’t you rest?

Law crossed his arms. He’d grown so much. He was a man now but there were often times Rosinante couldn’t help but see him as a child. Shrink him down a number of feet and he could have been ten again with as stubbornly sullen as he looked. Not that Law hadn’t had plenty of cause to be sullen, but Rosinante did sometimes wish he’d make more of an effort to smile from time to time. The boy’s face was really going to stick like that someday.

“I had two patients with life threatening injuries and then I had to work overtime to get here as soon as possible. I haven’t exactly had time, you know,” Law said with a tone he usually reserved for Trebol. It was a voice that said he thought he was speaking to someone who was being exceptionally dull.

Rosinante frowned at him in turn, disregarding the pain it caused to do so. You’re back now. He resisted the urge to add a request for Law not to take that tone with him. One of them would be an adult here.

Law’s eyes flicked over to his bed a few times. His hands absently fingered at his bangs in a sure sign that he was unconsciously hoping for his hat. It was a habit he’d never managed to grow out of, even though he usually didn’t wear it these days. Not having his hat to hide beneath, he turned around once more.

“I tried to sleep, alright? It didn’t stick,” he said.

Rosinante waited for an explanation that didn’t come. Law had to be absolutely exhausted if he hadn’t gotten a single good night’s sleep in weeks. It was amazing he didn’t just keel over on the spot. Law did excel at existing on spite alone but this was pushing it, even for him.

Rosinante placed a hand on Law’s back and found it was trembling. He rubbed soothing circles and waited. He wanted to demand Law tell him what was wrong. The urge would always be there, to search out all of Law’s ills and try to cure them through stubbornness alone if he had to. However, there were times to talk, to push, and then there were times to wait. Getting Law to open up about anything was so often a game of patience. If it was up to him, he’d bottle up his emotions until that bottle burst and destroyed him. Rosinante wasn’t especially inclined to let that happen.

Law became so still that Rosinante might have suspected he’d nodded off if not for the irregularity of his breathing. Rosinante stilled, also, and waited.

“Every time I try to sleep,” Law said, “I see you. I see Doflamingo with your heart and all the things he might do to you because of me.”

“Not because of you.”

Law looked up at him. “Your voice—”

“My voice be damned,” Rosinante all but growled. “And Doffy be damned. This is on him.”

Law’s face fell. “I didn’t have to give in. I could have resisted more. I should have. And I didn’t have to act on some stupid fucking impulse at Marineford. I’ve been so careful. I threw out over a decade of work and for what? Some kid who thought he could take on the entire World Government and a rival Warlord. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were thinking you could help,” Rosinante said. “You saved their lives.”

“Their lives aren’t as important as yours.”

Rosinante didn’t try to dispute that. He knew it wouldn’t do any good. And besides, he knew the feeling. He’d burn the world down if it meant keeping Law safe.

Instead of arguing, he knelt down and pulled Law into a tight embrace. Law’s breath hitched. All the emotion he’d stubbornly shoved down finally broke through and he started to cry in earnest. Even someone as bullheaded as Law had his limits. Rosinante was only glad to be there to hold Law together so he didn’t break apart.

“I’m proud of you,” Rosinante murmured.

There had rarely been truer words. He’d been scared for Law’s sake, of course, but he’d been so proud when Law first called him to say what he’d done. There were times, despite all his faith in Law, where he worried this life would be too much. It would be easy for Law to let this all change him. Perhaps it would even be better for him if he did. Less painful, certainly. But when he had a chance to show who he really was on the inside, he’d done something amazing. Something neither he nor Doflamingo nor even Rosinante himself had expected.

Not that Law would hear any of that. “You shouldn’t be,” he muttered.

Rosinante rested his cheek on top of unruly black hair. “Well, I am.”

“Well, you’re an idiot.”

Rosinante laughed and pulled Law closer. “Maybe. But I can be an idiot and rightfully proud of you, kid. They’re not mutually exclusive.”

Law let out a strangled sound that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t been so drowned in tears. Then, in a voice so quiet Rosinante had to strain to hear, he said, “Then I’ll try not to let you down. Idiot.”

[jawritter]

Unlikely Places

Request: Hi! I love your work! Can you do a ABO? One where the reader is Beta, and Dean Alpha, and she’s his true mate/soulmate, but they don’t know it, and he gets possessive and goes into almost a feral rut where he tries to claim, and it almost kills her but Sam and Rowena save her and give Dean his Omega back? You come up with the plot because you’re amazing at that!! Please! I’d be forever in your debt!

A/N: This is the first time i have ever written ABO in the context. So please take it easy of me if some of the information isn’t isn’t normal ABO dynamic, or isn’t necessarily something seen in specific AU’s before! This is not a series, just a one shot! As always feedback is golden. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous about posting this one. It’s the most “Non-Con” I have ever written, and it took me weeks to get this written out in a way that I thought might be acceptable. I hope you all enjoy this one!

This one was Beta’d by @squirrelnotsam! Thanks so much hun! <3

Please heed the warnings on this Fic!! Warnings: (((TRIGGER WARNING!! This fic contains Non-Con, borderline rape implications! Please take caution when reading this if something like this affects you! ))) 

Other Warnings: Smut, almost non-con, angst, possessive Alpha, ABO Dynamics, knotting, forced claiming, forced knotting rut, almost feral Alpha, true mates, soul mates, knotting, mentions of first heat, language, scenting, non consensual scenting, disturbing Alpha behavior. Aggression, Pain, scared reader, Dean can be pretty scary in this one. Massive age gap! 19 year old reader x 41 year old Dean! Mention of parental death of reader’s parents. Language I’m sure because it’s me. 

Word count: 5244

Want More? Check Out My Masterlist!!

***MASTERLIST***

“That will be $8.97,” you tell the woman standing in front of you. She pays you for her purchase, and you hand her bag to her as the door opens and closes with a dinging chime. 

Your eyes train to the large Alpha male that just walked into the filling station you were working at in Lebanon, Kansas. The Omega you were just checking out wasted no time in straightening her blouse by pulling it down lower, and making quite the show of herself as the Alpha grabbed a basket near the door, and lumbered his way over to the beer cooler, not even giving her a second look.

You had to suppress the snort as the Omega harshly grabbed the bag from the counter where she’d laid it when the Alpha had walked in the door, and made her way quickly towards the exit, leaving you alone with the Alpha as he made his way around the store, filling his little basket with things he usually buys every time he came in. 

Pie, beer, jerkies of different types, sometimes toilet paper, the odd Playboy as well as the next copy of Busty Asian Beauty, lube.

You weren’t worried about being left alone in the small store with the rather large and very attractive Alpha. It’s not like it was the first time he’d ever been there, and it wasn’t like he would have any interest in you, a beta. 

By law, you weren’t even allowed to speak to him unless he spoke to you first. Betas were considered even lower than Omegas and weren’t allowed to address an Alpha directly. You had to choose your words wisely when it comes to Omegas too, but they weren’t nearly as hard about that law as they were with the Alphas. 

You watched quietly from behind the counter as the Alpha picked up the newest porn magazine from the rack and placed it in his basket after thumbing through a few pages. 

You wondered if the Alpha lived alone. He carried himself like a bachelor, you never saw him with an Omega, nor had he expressed any interest in any Omega that was in the store the same time he was, male or female. Maybe something was wrong with him physically that prevented him from having those hormone-driven urges that seemed to rule the Alpha and Omega community? 

Whatever the reason, the Alpha seemed to be almost done with his shopping, so he made his way over the counter with his basket, setting it down before finally looking up at you, giving you a tight smile before grabbing a few candy bars and adding them to his pile of stuff. 

You returned his smile with a little more enthusiasm than what was probably necessary, but you couldn’t help it. Alpha or not, the man was sex on two bowed legs, and you weren’t dead. 

Instead of speaking, when you had his total, you turned the screen to him so that he could read his total. This was your usual routine with the Alphas that came in the store; it was just safer.  

His piercing green eyes seemed to burn a little as he tilted his head to the side and looked at you, or as much of you as he could see through the counter. Something in his stare made you want to blush; even though Alphas and Betas were not compatible physically, you felt like he was sizing you up. You had no scent strong enough that he would be attracted to, and you weren’t anatomically able to take his knot, which from what you understand was necessary to fulfill his needs. 

You were 19 years old. If you were going to be anything other than a Beta by now you were positive you would have presented. You still had not, so the Alpha staring at you made you literally take a step back away from the counter, your heart rate spiking as hungry eyes watched you curiously, like he was noticing you for the first time even though you’d rang up his items a thousand times before. 

“What’s your name?” he grunts, and his baritone voice sends a shiver down your spine, landing somewhere deep in your stomach, making it do a flip of sorts. 

“Y/N,” you answer shortly, utterly unaccustomed to talking to Alphas. There was no one Alpha that you could recall that had ever spoken to you, and you had been working at this filling station since you were 16.

Your parents were killed by a demon when you were very small, and you were delivered to an Omega compound when you were only 12 by the man that saved your life. It was assumed you would present as an Omega because you came from what they all called a “pure” bloodline.  

Much to the community leaders disappointment you never presented. So they kicked you out on your ass to fend for yourself, and you were lucky to have landed this job, and the Omega owner let you sleep in the back part of the storehouse. 

Finding a place to live on your own as a beta, and at such a young one was virtually impossible, and you would have been dead by now if it wasn’t for her. You never told her about your past, and you never intended to, after all, who else in this twisted world would believe in demons.

The green-eyed Alpha leaned forward slightly, breathing in deeply, his nostrils flaring as he attempted to scent you from a distance, and you put your finger on the panic button just under the cigarette counter you were leaning against, ready to push it if he tried to cross the counter. Sure, you would probably be dead before the cops got there, but at least they would be able to find the security footage and maybe track him down. 

You didn’t know what triggered this behavior from him, he’d never done anything like this before, and you wondered if he had just scented the Omega that was previously here, and just thought it was you.

The Alpha placed a large hand on the counter, about to start making his way around it when the door dinged again, and a skinny Beta man you thought you’d never see again entered the store. 

“Dean! There you are? What’s taking so long buddy? Sam’s ready to get back to his Omega?” he said as he approached the green-eyed Alpha you now knew was named “Dean”, smiling as he noticed you standing behind the counter.

“Y/N? Little Y/N Y/L/N is that you?” he asked as he shoved the large Alpha aside, and leaned against the counter to talk to you. Earning himself a very disgruntled look from the Alpha and the Beta’s boldness. 

“Hey Garth, it’s been a while,” you said, smiling at him warmly. You had met Garth years ago when he showed up to the Omega community you were living at not long after you’d been dumped there, taking a few Omegas there for safety after he wrapped up a hunt in Salt Lake City. 

“No kidding! Look at you all grown up. What are you doing here?” he asked, totally ignoring Dean as his eyes narrowed, looking swiftly between yourself and Garth as if he was annoyed that he was missing something.

“Well, I never presented, so they marked me down as Beta when I was sixteen, I’ve been living and working here ever since. What are you doing here? There’s not another Demon around is there?” you asked, and before Garth could answer, Dean spoke up directly to Garth, who, for some reason, seemed completely unfazed by the large, and brooding Alpha leering at him.

“Wait a minute, what’s going on here? She knows about the life?” Dean said, pointing at you as if you were a piece of furniture, and you weren’t standing there at all. Typical Alpha male behavior, but you knew better than to call him out on it. 

“Yeah! A group of hunters saved her from a particularly nasty Demon when she wasn't but twelve, and dropped her off at the hunting Omega compound. Looks like that didn’t work out though.” Garth said, giving you an apologetic look. 

Dean turned his gaze to you, that same hungry look burning just below the surface as he took you in from head to toe. A deep growl low in his chest that made Garth burst into laughter, and you look at Garth as if he had finally lost his damn mind. 

“Just ignore Dean, he’s an old Alpha who’s on the edge of a rut for the first time in too long. His brother and his Omega just moved into their bunker up the road here, and it’s triggered his hormones again.” Garth said with an eye roll, totally ignoring Dean as his eyes widened, and he looked at Garth like he could rip his throat out with his teeth for divulging that little bit of information. 

“Come on Dean; we need to go, Sam’s gonna kill you if you wait any longer,” Garth said, grabbing the card from Dean’s pocket and throwing it on the counter for you to ring up his stuff. You quickly bagged his items, handed them to the Alpha along with his credit card as Garth blubbered on about something you weren’t even really listening to, doing all you could to ignore the burning, tingling feeling that the Alpha’s skin left on yours as your hand touched his. 

The rest of the day progressed much as every day would. You could have sworn you saw that black Impala he was driving when you closed up that night, but you thought you must be imagining things, and locked the door before making your way to your makeshift bedroom in the back of the warehouse. Falling into an uneasy sleep, that seemed to be haunted by green eyes. 

The next morning you trudged your way over to the front door to open up for the day, still rubbing your eyes and yawning widely. You didn’t see Dean until he pushed the door open almost on top of you before you could step back as if he was waiting on the door to open. You stumbled back out of his way in surprise, fully awake now. Dean said nothing, just came very close to you, scenting the air around you before tilting his head to look at you curiously. 

You didn’t speak, you didn’t move, hell you were too afraid to do anything but stand there holding on the counter next to the coffee pots. 

Leaning over your shoulder, Dean brushes his body against your own as he reaches behind you, and grabs a coffee cup, filling it with black coffee all while keeping you virtually pinned to the counter. His body moving over your much smaller frame made an involuntary shiver roll through your body as he pulled away from you, and made his way over to one of the small booth seats next to the window before making himself comfortable there. His green eyes followed your every move as you quickly made your way to hide behind the counter. 

Your entire body was shaking as you tried to get a grip on yourself, as well as your imagination that was running wild in your head. It was effectively putting all kinds of thoughts that shouldn’t be there, thoughts that were not only so far fetched they were laughable, but thoughts of Dean’s hands on your skin, thoughts of Dean’s powerful body moving above yours in a way that made you almost whimper. 

Shaking yourself,  you continue about your day, choosing to ignore the large Alpha once you have calmed down enough to move from behind the counter. Dean never left his booth except to go to the bathroom. He stayed there literally all day long, just watching your every move. Never speaking to you, never getting close to you again, just watching. When you closed that night, you had to finally speak directly to him, to get him out of there, even though you knew you weren’t supposed to address him without being addressed first. 

“Dean, I’m closing, you have to leave,” you tell him in a voice you hope sounded more confident than you felt. Dean said nothing, his green eyes racking over your body before he stands and leaves without so much as a word, and you lock the door quickly behind him.

The next week went on much of the same. Dean would be there as soon as the door unlocked. Thankfully you had learned to move when you opened the door. He’d take his seat in the booth after scenting you, then would stay there until you made him leave, just watching you. 

You knew Alphas could become possessive of Betas, it was rare, but it did happen. You also knew that possessive Alpha’s could be dangerous, and had the tendency to be violent towards the Betas they have become possessive over, or they could become brutal to people around them in general. 

Dean was an older Alpha. If you had to guess, he was in his early 40’s and unmated. Things like this happened when Alphas went unmated for too long. 

You tried to text Garth, but he didn’t answer, he was probably on a case somewhere. You knew Garth said that he was about to go into rut, and with Dean’s behavior as of late, you hoped that Garth was just joking. Cause a rut could mean he’d try and hurt you. 

The next day you didn’t see Dean all day long. You thought maybe he found something else to be focused on or obsessed with. That or Garth got your text, and alerted this Sam they were talking about to Dean’s strange behavior. Part of you was relieved, and part of you was disappointed. Sure, you knew you and Dean could never be a thing, and staring aside, he did make you feel a little safer when he was around, and he definitely made you blush every time he looked at you like he wanted to touch you. 

Three more days passed without Dean making an appearance, and you had all but gave up on ever seeing Dean again. You check to make sure everything is off before trudging your way towards the little bedroom you had made for yourself. Your mind on Dean, and not really on your surroundings, you almost miss the large man standing in your room when you turned your light off, almost, a possessive growl let you know you weren’t alone pretty quickly. 

The hair stood up on the back of your neck as you turned slowly to find Dean, standing in the middle of your room with nothing but a low hanging pair of sweats that were doing very little to hide his thick length that was straining against the fabric. 

Your core clenched around nothing, and a shiver ran through your body as you took in the Alpha, his broad shoulders and strong chest on full display as it rose and fell rapidly with each quickened breath, sweat prickling his skin as he stood in the dim light. His tattoo shines boldly on his chest,  you knew of as an anti possession tattoo from your time at the compound. You backed up and he took a step towards you, a deep purring coming from him as his lust blown eyes scanned your body. 

“Dean, you need to leave,” you tell him, knowing full well that wasn’t going to happen. He was in rut, and you were the object he’d chosen to fixate on, and now you were pretty sure he was going to kill you.

Dean, back you slowly towards your bed, growling low in his throat as his body came down over yours as you fell onto your bed. He was nuzzling his face deep in your neck, scenting you and purring as his teeth ran over your throat. 

“Dean, you need to stop, I’m not an Omega. We can’t do this, you will hurt me,” you beg him even though your body was screaming for the Alpha hovering over you, now nipping at the skin of your hroat.  

“Not an Omega, still mine. You want me, I can smell it,” he said as he ripped your shirt from your body as if the materially wasn’t made of anything at all. The cold air hitting your skin made you gasp, large hands roaming all the free skin as his mouth claimed yours dominating you easily. His tongue sliding over yours as his huge hands pulled your shorts and underwear from your body. He threw them to the floor before he discarded his own sweats. 

“Dean, think about this, I can’t take your knot, this isn’t going to do anything but frustrate you further,” you attempt to make him see reason, even though your body was arching into him as if he couldn’t get close enough, his thick cock sliding through your dripping folds, gathering as much of your slick as he could. Purring and licking at your throat as he did so.

Dean was huge, you had heard that Alphas were large, but Dean was so big that you weren’t sure he’d get in all the way. You’d only ever been with Betas before, and you were convinced that he was twice the size of any of them without his knot.

“Mine,” Dean growled against your skin as he pushed into you, fully seating himself inside of you in one thrust, surprising you. The stretching was almost painful: you had never felt so full in all of your life. Dean’s mouth fell open in an inhuman growl as his lips latched around your nipple, sucking and biting as his hips began to snap into yours. He pulled himself almost all the way out before fully penetrating you again. Each powerful thrust on the edge of pure bliss and too much. 

You were almost sure that you could practically scent him as he continued to pound himself into your body, over and over again hitting that stop deep down inside of you that no one had ever been able to reach before. Purrs and growls falling from his lips as teeth repeatedly grazed the same spot on your neck. You could feel the coil tightening in your stomach with each powerful thrust, and before long, you were coming undone around him. Dean continued to fuck you through it. Groaning and sucking a mark onto your shoulder as spots appeared before your vision. 

Your head lulled back as you came down from your high. Dean’s body continued to slam into your own. 

That’s when you felt it, the stinging pain that was the beginnings of his knot. You knew he was about to split you open, and you did everything you could to get him off of you, scratching, and biting seemed to only push him on. Possessive growls left his lips with each thrust into your abused heat.

“Dean, please stop, I can’t,” you begged him as you felt his knot start to swell further, and pain began to radiate through your body. Dean was too far gone, an animalistic look on his face as he quickened his pace. 

You screamed as his knot popped, locking the two of you together as he came, his teeth sank deep into the skin of your throat as your mouth fell open in a scream that never came out. Your vision goes black as indescribable pain radiated through your body. The last thing you remember was Dean purring above you as everything faded to black.

Time seemed to be moving at a strange pace after that. You would get flashes of what you only assumed could be reality because of the blinding pain radiating through our body. You could have sworn you heard Dean apologizing to you between whining noises as he carried you somewhere. Then there was the sound of the Impala starting, after that, you didn't know much. Except for pain, you knew pain because it felt like it was burning through every fiber of your being. 

When you woke up again, the pain was gone, but the first thing you saw was fiery red hair, making you jump, which caused pain to shoot through your body again.

“Easy there, dear, you’ve been through a lot; let’s not move around too quickly,” her thick accent and motherly voice seemed soothing to you, and you slowly tried to calm your breathing.

“Where am I? Who are you?” you asked, eyes shooting around the room that looked like an old infirmary. 

“You’re in the Men of Letters Bunker. Poor Dean brought you here after he almost killed you.” 

Your heart rate spiked up at the thought of Dean. You didn’t know if you were afraid of him, or more anxious to see him again. The whining sound he was making as he carried you to his car was still so clear in your ears, and even though he did this to you, something in you told you that he didn’t mean to do it. That he wasn’t in control, he would have never hurt you of his own free will. If so, he wouldn’t have brought you here, but instead left you there to die. 

“Where is Dean?” you asked her as she fussed over your neck bandages where Dean had bitten you. 

“He’s locked in his room until he is out of his rut, not by choice mind you, he’s not happy about being kept away from you. He should be out of it by the end of the day. Last I checked on him, and he will be happy to hear you're awake, the name’s Rowena by the way, “ she said as she walked over to the old book sitting at a table in the corner of the room. 

You watched as the older Omega woman flipped through the old book's pages in front of her, adding ingredients to the bowl sitting on the table next to her.

“Why did he do this to me?” you asked her just as the door opened and closed with Garth, and another very large Alpha entered the room with long brown hair.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Rowena here is the best witch in the business, and if there’s a way to solve this, she can.” Garth said as he flopped down at the foot of your bed. “This is Sam, by the way, Dean’s little brother.” 

Sam nodded politely at you before making his way over to Rowena. 

“What we don’t understand is why my brother tried to claim and knot a beta. He doesn’t understand it either. All we can get out of him is that you're his mate and that he needs to see you. I'm sure you don’t want that to happen, especially after what he did to you, so we’ve locked him in his room.” Sam said, his eyes barely leaving the book.

“I’ve heard of a lot of strange things, but I’ve never heard of an Alpha trying to claim and knot a beta as if she was an Omega, and then calling her his mate,” Garth said. 

“He’s been following me around for days now, and then he just showed up and…”

You were cut off by a banging on the door, followed by a loud whining, you recognized as Dean. Rowena’s eyes flashed a purple color, and she turned to smile at everyone in the room as the incessant whining and banging continued. 

“Don’t worry, he’s not getting through that door, you should rest Dear,” she told you as the room started to get fuzzy, you were sure she was the cause of your sudden drowsiness in attempt to keep you from further agitating Dean, but you didn’t have time to respond to her before you fell back into a deep sleep. 

------------------------------------

The next thing you remember is feeling warm, very warm, as if a body was pressed against yours. That’s what made your eyes snap open to see Dean’s worried gaze as he lay in the bed next to you, your body scooped up and pressed tight against his own, holding onto you as if he could protect you from all danger. 

Deep whines mixed with purrs filled the room as he nuzzled himself into you gently, scenting you deeply as if he could scent you.

“This is a Bad Idea,” Sam’s voice came from the other side of the room. He was clearly keeping his distance from the Alpha that was holding you. 

“He’s not going to hurt her, Sam,” Rowena said. Shifting very close to you, setting a bowl down next to you with strange ingredients inside. 

“I’m so sorry Y/N, I swear I would have never done that if I could have stopped, I would have, I never wanted to hurt you,” Dean mumbled, kissing your forehead gently as if you were some fragile thing. His large body all but covering your protectively as you fought against your groggy state. 

“We think we know what the problem is,” Garth said from somewhere behind Dean. “See all those years ago, that Demon must have done something to you, sort of like what Azazel did to Sam. You were an experiment. One that intended to turn Omega’s into Beta’s before they even presented. There are traces of the Omega gene in your blood. Crowley mentioned something about it a long time ago, but we didn’t know he was successful. The only explanation is that you were Dean’s true mate, and he can somehow still sense it, which is why he went almost feral and tried to claim you.” 

You could almost feel the anxiety rolling off of Dean’s body, and you instinctively nuzzled his hold, earning purrs of approval from the Alpha above you. 

“See that, she senses he’s nervous, and she’s trying to comfort him. She’s his Omega, I just got to get the spell right to fix this,” Rowena said, shuffling around in her bowl.

“So what are you all gonna do to me?” you asked as Dean tightened the covers around the both of you, pulling you deeper into him.

“We’re going to turn you into an Omega,” Sam says, handing Rowena a strange vile of something to add to her bowl. 

You look up at Dean nervously, and he places his lips softly on yours in a chaste kiss. 

“It’s gonna be okay; I wouldn’t let them do this if it was going to hurt you. They’re just gonna fix what that sick asshole did to you all those years ago.” Dean said, his deep baritone voice was comforting to you, and you could swear that you could almost feel the bond between the two of you, and you were still technically a beta. 

“Okay, dear, we’re ready,” Rowena said as she placed the bowl on the bed next to you, and you buried your face in Dean’s throat. 

You could hear her making incantations, and things first. Then a strange tingling started to stretch through your body. Scents became stronger; you could smell Dean first. His own mouth-watering musk, mixed with evergreen and gunpowder, then Sam, and Rowena.

Your skin started to heat up as Dean’s body tense above your own, purring as Rowena ended her spell. Pressing his nose to your neck he scented you deeply. 

Your body felt new, refreshed even. The soreness that was there from what Dean had done was gone, and you could feel everything Dean felt. Every emotion, every fear. It was all so overwhelming. Reaching up, you pulled the bandage away from your neck, revealing the mark Dean had left there. His claim still shines against your skin, as even though you knew he thought it would be gone.

Rowena clapped her hands behind you as Dean ran his tongue along the claiming mark on your neck, and slick started to gather at your thighs in response to your Alpha. “Well, my job here is done. Call me if you all need me, oh and enjoy, dear,” she said, patting Dean on the shoulder as she made her way to the door. Dean picked you up bridal style, making his way towards his room that would now be your room.

Not stopping until he had you laid down on his bed, lying down close to you before pulling you into him, purring as he nipped at the skin of your throat. 

“My Omega,” he purred against you, an overwhelming feeling of peace washing over you with each touch of his large, warm hand against your small frame.

“My Alpha,” you tell him, nuzzling closer to him, letting his scent wash over you in waves. 

“I thought you didn’t exist, I thought I was doomed to die alone. Then when I found you, I thought I had lost my mind. Then when I came to myself in your room… I’m so sorry, Omega, I will never hurt you again,” Dean said, his voice cracking as he pulled his clothes from his body, throwing them to the floor as you did the same. Desperate to feel your Alpha’s skin on yours. Heat roars through your veins as his body wrapped around yours, his half-hard cock resting on your thighs as he settles himself to lay between your legs. 

You place your small hand on his chest as his lips claim yours in an intoxicating kiss before rolling himself on top of you. Grinding his hips against yours, rutting his hardening length against your clit as the first wave of cramps rolls through your stomach of your first heat. Slick gushing over him as he pressed himself against your entrance, knowing what your body needed, and ready to give it to you. The foreplay could come later; right now, he just needed to be as close to you as possible.

“It’s okay Alpha. In a lot of ways, I’m so glad you found me. I was sleeping in a storage closet for fucks sakes.”

Dean growled as he entered you slowly in one smooth thrust. The amount of slick your body was creating made a smooth entrance, and he held himself still inside of you as his lips claimed yours. Your walls fluttering around his throbbing length as your body welcomed him like a missing piece that finally was in place after being lost for so long. Both of you groaned in relief as he filled you.

“Gonna take care of you Omega, no more sleeping in storage rooms. I can’t give you much, but I can give you all that I have, and I can protect you with everything in me.” 

Dean hips snap into you in a rough thrust as his instincts begin to take over, and your heat starts to take the forefront of his attention.

“I’m all yours Alpha. Always will be.”

There was a lot you still had to learn about being an Omega, and you still didn't even know your Alpha really, but you knew one thing, you were so glad he found you. Pain and all, it was worth it.

Fate always finds a way, even with everything against you. In the most unlikely places, even after you gave up hope. That’s one lesson you will never forget. 

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[franki-lew-yo]

I really hate 2d purists. No, not 2d animation. Not 2d animators.

2d purists.

The sad thing is it’s gotten to the point that I really cringe hearing any pro-2D sentiment at all. I hate the arguments I agree with because how often they're misused and weaponized by idiots.

Let me make my stance here clear - 2d is NOT appreciated and 3d is used for everything! The layman Karen-mom who doesn’t have an artistic bone in her body looks at stupidsmooth 3D Grubhub ads and assumes quality cause it “looks more real” (aka ‘rendered’). I know as much is true because I literally have a member of my family who told my sister and I that she thinks 3d is better (and also that she “tolerated THOSE movies for us kids”. Touching words. My sister was taking an animation course by the way). Combined that with the studios either using 2D for cheap stuff or finding good 2d animation too “costly”, I get it and I’m not even any animator. I'm just a worm an illustrator.

but holy HELL -

There’s a backlash from the artistic community that's it's own kind of insufferable and deserve to be addressed.

“(insert2Danimatedfilm) is better BECAUSE it's 2D!”

followed by: "Animation is a visual medium and the quality of the art affects how much the story means !!!!”  

Yes. Totally. Animation is a visual medium and the look and style is important. Sadly, people use this excuse to really obnoxious ends, insisting that design being pretty is '' everything ''. When you treat a movie more as a special effects demo I get why you talk about the artistry at hand; but I’m sorry, visuals are not the only thing important and it’s why I’m also getting sick of the sameElsafacesyndrome rants too! There’s this attitude that's reads as "but it LOOKS better fromaproductionimage/teasertrailerwhichapparentlyisindicativeof all themovieactuallyis so it MUST BE better".

-“3D should only be used to make things look realistic!”

I think I know the logic this criticism is made in response to, and that’s the Sony + Illumination films which look just as good in 2D as they do in three dimensions. I know it feels like people are twisting this medium to try and make it like a classic cartoon when by all means people can and would love a classic cartoon being a classic cartoon. That I get- From the unsung 2D animator’s perspective, that’s more than valid !

But it’s a huuuuuuge slap in the face to 3d in saying it should only be used for "realistic animation" because

1: It’s not like realistic animation could age badly or look uncanny in the next few years. It's almost like technology is constantly improving, which I guess 2d animation never did and it was always the same technique and quality as every film that came after it.

2: The industry does treat 3d as a magic-moneymaker for this reason. Just listen to these people call the 2019 LION KING “live action” as if they’re embarrassed to call it animation. It IS animation! It would be impressive if you acknowledged that what it is, but like the CATS, you basically are treating it as just a neato tool to better your live action and not it's own artform - which it is!

3: By this “three-deeonly gud when real liek in da toystories” non-logic I guess 2d should ONLY be for flowyflowy SPACE JAM cartoons and maybe some Disney*. Just that though. You can’t do anything more with 2d. It’s never supposed to be realistic I guess. Good thing Richard Williams only did 'toons' and just toons that’s why we need 3d in the world I guess.

Wait no - that’s stupid.

"I HAVE to see the “Land Before Time 14″ when it comes out! I mean it’s a 2D animated film!"

Lost in the aether that is Youtube comment chains removed from kid's videos is a stream of this very VERY stupid argument supporting the buying of the 14th LAND BEFORE TIME film because it’s supporting 2D. My sister and I can be found on that chain arguing against this stupidity. All you have is my word, but trust me: it really did happen.

I’m sorry but...no.

Unless you have a friend or a family member who worked on these movies there’s no reason to see this and ESPECIALLY no reason to insist it’s a win for the 2D community if you buy up this crap - and I'm not judging if you do like it, but come on! LAND BEFORE TIME 14 isn't where your money should go if you really like this medium.

What’s so infuriating about this argument is you can tell it’s made by nonanimators. Real animators will tell you to support their movies cause they want some respect for their artform which is why there’s such a push from the PRINCESS AND THE FROGcrowd that you SEE and LOVE every 2d thing out there, regardless of how good it is because any recognition for it is k i n d o f what they're after!

Kiddy sequel schlock isn’t even in the same ballpark as KLAUS or WOLFWALKERS; these films DID have very limited theatrical runs (Klaus so it could be nominated; Wolfwalkers in places where theaters opened up after Covid) and should have been supported because they were labors of love made by people who love animation.

As other people have already pointed out, one of the reasons for the lack of interest in 2000sera2D animation is that the only films released alongside critical+financial 3D hits were cheaper 2D films that either coincided with daytime tv shows or should have been just direct-to-video. It’s not to say art couldn’t come out of these flicks, but dayum if it wasn’t abused as much as the texture software that era's CG used... Point being, should the world ever go back to normal: If you hear about an out-of-town showing an acclaimed 2D animated film, make time to trek out and see THAT!

Don’t give your money to see yet another made-for-tv movie on the big screen because all that tells the studio is: “yeah 2d IS cheap and only good for cheap stuff let’s just keep it cheap. Only 3d is important 8D 8D 8D !!!"

“I don’t understand how it works. So it sucks.”

This text is from an ANIMATOR btw.

“I don’t understand how it works” and “it’s just some computer rendering” is the exact same wave of logic the people who prefer cgi use.

The plebian Karen I mentioned earlier? She understands the basics of 2D animation as much as you did from one of those cruddy flash classes you took in middle-school. She 'understands' the basics cuz she watched how it was made on the DVD features or maybe back on the WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY. To her, the illusion is broken and she’s not impressed by 'just some drawings on paper'. You, an animator, know the process is more complicated and is intrigued by knowing how it’s made - not bored or disinterested -

Neither you nor Aunt Karen have really good cg-animation software at your house and unless you ARE a 3D animator you probably DON’T know all the ins-and-outs of how these movies are modeled, rendered, and animated.

Aunt Karen is bedazzled by them cause she doesn’t know how it works and the technical aspect makes her brain hurt so it might as well be magic and she can feel like a cool kid sharing Minion-memes. Aunt Karen is the nonartistic type who just wants to feel safe. You're not. You want to feel challenged.

I get it: you’re pissed off cause you’re in a field no one, including Aunt Karen, appreciates; told to work in cg which it's an artform you didn’t devote your life to and told to learn it cause THIS style sells! 3D is everywhere and is starting to look like 'garbage' even if you don’t animate 3D models yourself you just KNOW, I guess. Besides, you know all there is to know about 2d!! You know all there is to possibly know about this artform and have to fight this 'war' against "r e a l" animation! And I mean even when 3d software is there to use, it's not like you can actually make anything worth while in it, especially not anything that transcends the medium. Right Worthikids?

TL;DR: This argument is basically just " BWAAAAH I’M NOT GONNA USE IT I HAVE STANDARDS (a chip on my shoulder cuz art should be what I deem it to be) "

“PRINCESS AND THE FROG is-”

There’s a reason I can’t say I truly like PRINCESS AND THE FROG even though it's not even a bad movie! Like, stop reading this and watch PATF if you haven't it's good. It's my 'FROZEN', in that; I see a lot of potential in it I just think it needs some serious rewriting and that bugs me. Always have felt that way, tbh.

I dislike this movie because the response from the animation community seems to be it was perfect and the Academy was just Pixar-crazy with UP ((ftr, the Academy IS Pixar’s bitch and I personally advocate a sequel be made to WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY about Mike Eisner’s sabotage of the 2D department at Disney which is still in place now!- but that’s a story for another day)). I’m sorry but UP was just a better story. So was CORALINE. So was FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Honest to god it feels like poor PATF is brought up as just a talking point and never for it's own worth as a labor of love - which it was! I'd like to honestly know: had PRINCESS AND THE FROG come out now and been cg if it would have even half the defenders for it because now it doesn't "look" like how a Disney movie "should" look...

If you like PatF more than the currant Disney lineup because of it's culture, it's music, it's feminism, it's black representation? Awesome. Great. Those things should be appreciated and I never want that taken away from you. But if you seriously think PatF is better just for how it was animated and looks - I lowkey may hate you.

“ALL OF DISNEY’S LATEST MOVIES SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2D! THEY ALL LOOK AWFUL IN 3D!! ALL OF THEM!”

TANGLED, FROZEN, and MOANA? Yeah. Sure. But um, e x c u s e y o u- WRECK IT RALPH sooooo doesn’t work in 2d! It could have used different between the various worlds but it’s about hopping through different video games. I’m also of the opinion that ZOOTOPIA and BIG HERO 6 are fine the way they are. Their 3d is awesome.

The latest fairy tale Disney films are really big on their place alongside the 2D canon esp in marketing. They keep trying to mimic 2D to varying results though I don't think it works as well as the movie's I'd previously mentioned. Me personally, I would love a mix of 3D and 2D technology, like if the backgrounds in FROZEN still got to be 3D but the characters were handdrawn and shaded ala KLAUS ((sweet sigh)). But even then are they truly unwatchable just based on how they're animated to you?

MOANA would have been incredible in 2D but for the record - I don't think it feels out of place in it's style. It reminds me more of a Pixar movie with the heart of a Disney classic which is it's own just as good.

“2D is the oldest form of animation and it’s being replaced.”

Actually, if we’re talking animation in film, stop motion is the earliest form of animation. The stop motion animated THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED and TALE OF THE FOX predate Disney’s SNOW WHITE. And yes: stop-motion IS still a form of animation even if it’s a serious of pictures taken of real life things and not drawings, so don’t you dare come at me with the "but that's not animated"/"Technically it’s LIVE ACTION" crap or I’ll envoke the spirit of Sandman to get you at night.

“Every animated film would look better in 2D! Even PIXAR would look better in 2D!”

Again, Stop Motion.

No, I mean it.

Lemme ask: Would ISLE OF DOGS or FANTASTIC MR. FOX carry any of the same effect if they were generic 90s toons? I know NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS wouldn’t. Christ, don’t even get me started on Svankmajer!

Sometimes the problem is that a movie is envisioned with a specific artform in mind. Pixar started out with toys and bugs for a reason and that’s cuz they were always gonna be a 3d studio and they needed to first overcome the placisity of the models. Over the years they’ve gotten really good at effects and blending unrealistic proportions with real textures (and also not so much- ONWARD and THE GOOD DINOSAUR really needed some different character designs and yeah, I do think would have looked better with a 2d artstyle, but not the ones they had in their films. THE GOOD DINOSAUR needed more realistic-speculative looking dinos and ONWARD needed a grittier HEAVY METAL/BLACK CAULDRON appeal to its designs.) My point being that the problems with these movies aren’t even inherently the animation as much as it is a problem of style. As someone who runs a group speculating different styles and designs for movies and tv shows I’m all for envisioning a 2D ZOOTOPIA or Bluth-inspired FNAF. That’s amazing!

But that’s also the talk of fan artists and nerds and not the professional artists working on visualizing their stories!!

Since I ate, slept, and breathed NIGHTMARE in my youth I’ll use it as an example: All the concept art ever done for TNBC was on paper and 2D was used in the final film. However, even when Tim Burton was thinking of making it just a tv special it was always going to be stop-motion. NIGHTMARE’s puppet cast do work very well in two dimensions, believe me, but the film was made as a love letter to Rankin/Bass and the art form of stop-motion. Skipping to another Henry Selick-helmed project (haha), JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH was also always envisioned as a multimedia film to give it a truly dream-like atmosphere. If you know anything about Henry Selick you’ll know he’s 1) a perfectionist, and 2) loves mixed media and different types of animation and puppetry at once. That’s why he was the perfect pick to direct TNBC at the time, why JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and CORALINE are so beautiful and why MOONGIRL, his only fully 3d film, doesn’t have the same appeal.

As for what films I couldn’t imagine NOT being 3D? Probably; 9, Padak, Next Gen, Soul, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story films, Wreck-it-Ralph (as previously mentioned), Wall.E, Waltz with Bashir, Robots, Inside Out, Arthur Christmas, The Painting, Happy Feet, Shrek, Enter the Spiderverse, Megamind… just naming a few here.

“I want a traditionally animated film [and by that I mean a 90s-Disney/Don Bluth looking movie] of ‘x'-popular live action/stage thing!”

Okay I’m cheating a bit but it’s my blog and so I’m gonna stick this one in because it’s related.

When I see musings about wanting live-action or CGI shiz to be in 2d again a lot of the time this argument actually boils down to " I want this to look like a 90s Didney movie ". Or, if it’s about animals - " I want it to look like a Don Bluth film! "

Like...there ARE other styles of animation out there...you know that right?

Frack, Disney themselves tried different styles throughout the 90s it’s just that the peak of the Disney renaissance films (LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING) and the many imitators that followed tended to have the same look to them where only film/animation nerds kept watching into the era that was TARZAN, HERCULES, and ATLANTIS along with the kids. Aunt Karen wasn't singing Part of your World in the carride with you every day.

The Don Bluth argument is especially irritating because...what exact feeling do you WANT from a movie if it looked Bluthish? Each of the four ‘quintessential’ Bluth movies (NIMH, AMERICAN TAIL, LBT, and ALL DOGS) have such a different feel to them that’s complimented by that style; SECRET OF NIMH is a drama about wild animals trying to understand humans; LAND BEFORE TIME is even more squarely about an animal’s perspective as there’s literally no humans around; AMERICAN TAIL uses animals stowing away on the ship to tell a story about refugees; and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN is ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

What the frack are you even asking for with that because I think there’s a certain flavor to the Bluth-styled oeuvre as well as the 90s Disney catalogue that would clash too much stylistically with some films.

Also come on! Like some Bluthian-style 2d would really fix THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS or SCOOB!, bite me.

I think this fixation solely on these two hand drawn styles and nothing else is based on nostalgia goggles, refusing to step outside the norm and discover different films and feelings than Disney and Bluth, and just preference. Goin back to NIGHTMARE there will always be a special place in my heart for Henry Selick’s stop motion, but I couldn’t imagine CHICKEN RUN or ANOMALISA in it's unique style.

Also I’m tired of every time there’s a "lets make an animatic to ‘x’ musical theater song" it’s reliably just Disneyesque or realistic. WHY envision an animated version of the show at all if it doesn’t have A STYLE to it??!?! I’m sorry but 90s-Disney does NOT fit CABARET!

“3D is so CHEAP now! Why can’t they just do 2D again?”

I think - on the cusp of the 2020s and the Grubhub hatedom, there ARE changing times ahead for 3d and 2d. The general public are starting to get tired of the same looking 3d films and wanting some 2d back, but they don’t have the best resources or opinions on animation to know what it is they want. Meanwhile, the animation community + industry is trying to figure out what to do and you have a lot of turmoil between the monopoly that is the industry, the high standards of the artists, and the mixed wants of the animation fanbase deciding what art needs to be.

It’s a tough business. And in the spirit of that tough business - maybe DON’T act like the means of a film’s production is solely your control, that you know best, and know definitively what the artists should have done....cuz you don't. Sorry my fellow criticalfanomanalysist-folks we DON'T and in an age of standom where fans and critics think it's okay to hackle indie animation studios about not getting their pitched cartoon out fast enough - we need to reserve these discussions to our circles and not treat them as gospel.

3d animation and 2d animation have to share this world. Stop acting like they’re either interchangeable in terms of budget, means of production, or artistry or that one has to be superior to the other.

The industry already says one art form is better (spoiler: it’s always live-action), we don’t need anymore of this purist garbage. Just stick to what you like while trying new things on the side. Be critical while also being compassionate. And remember:

[ineedglasses]

VK Character Analysis: Rido Kuran

Rido is a complete, messed up, SOB, but I still like him as a character because he is simply such a fun villain. If I were to place him in that alignment chart thing, he would be “chaotic evil” without a doubt.

While he is generally seen as a creepy, sister-obsessed, maniac, I really believe he was different earlier in his life. 

This analysis is based off the Rido we see in the manga and the light novel, NOT the Rido in the anime, since the anime was trash and deviated from the manga when it came to his arc. Anyway, at the start of the post, I will go over the info from the light novel and manga, next will be my headcanons of him as a young man and at the end is my interpretation of him when he was crazy, as we see him in the original series.

                                                               XXX

The Deranged Love story in the Fleeting Dreams light novel talks about Rido’s obsession with Juri and gives some info on their past. However, when compared to the original VK series there are several points that don’t add up, and some parts of the light novel simply make no sense.

First, Both VKM and the light novel mention that Rido killed his parents and presumably devoured them to take their powers. That makes sense, it seems like something he would do. What doesn’t make sense to me is the timeline. When exactly did he kill his parents? 

All the light novel tells us is that he killed them immediately after they engaged him to Shizuka. Is this around the time Haruka and Juri got married? I always assumed Haruka and Juri have been married for a while, like at least 1000 years. If this is the case, within that time period, how can they not notice that their parents are dead and that their brother killed them? 

Or does their murder occur closer to the time Juri got pregnant? But this doesn’t make sense either because Rido referred to Shizuka as a “small child” when he killed his parents, and by the time Juri was pregnant with Yuki’s real brother, Shizuka was probably already at least one or two thousand years old. Unless Shizuka is much younger than we thought? So when exactly Rido kills his parents is quite the mystery.

Secondly, How did he kill his parents? 

I assume the older a pureblood, the more powerful they are. So how can he, by himself, kill his parents, both of whom are older and more powerful than him? I doubt his dad was a weakling because as former king of vampires, he should be quite powerful. In the light novel, it seems his parents were already wary of him and wanted to keep him away from Juri. Thus they wouldn’t completely let their guard down around him. And its not like Rido could carry around a hunter sword with him without it being noticed. Even if he was carrying something small like a dagger, his parents should have been able to overwhelm him in a fight since its 2 vs 1. 

Kaname has commented that “purebloods have equal powers, so they would only exhaust each other in battle”; basically it is hard to kill another pureblood unless you have some advantage (e.g. Shizuka being already wounded by Zero’s hunter gun). So the only logical way Rido can kill his parents is if he catches them off guard, such as when they are taking a centuries long slumber in the family mausoleum, basically doing what Sara did to Hanadagi. 

Thirdly, another point that makes no sense is that Rido in the light novel says:

“My parents had taken my precious Juri far away from me and made it so that we could never meet.” 

How exactly did his parents take Juri away and stop them from ever meeting again? Send her abroad with no intention of ever letting her return? And yet the manga clearly contradicts that, because Rido is still in contact with Haruka and Juri, he was there to see their firstborn baby!

Fourthly, this is a small detail that has always irked me: In the manga, when Yuki’s brother peed on him, Rido mentions that he used to change his siblings’ diapers when they were babies. 

However the light novel kind of contradicts that, because young Rido upon being called in to meet his baby sister says: “I will confess that newborns seemed very uninteresting to me at that time”; does this sound like an older brother that would change his younger siblings’ diapers? It sounds like a guy who would leave baby care to the nannies and stay far away from soiled diapers. 

Finally, we get to the biggest illogical point in the light novel: Rido was a psychopath that just randomly developed an obsession upon seeing the newborn Juri.

“ It was in that moment – somewhere in the depths of my being – something abruptly flared to life. […] I was overwhelmed by the urge to devour her.”

No normal person just out of the blue feels the urge to consume a baby, only crazy people do. The rest of the light novel story continues depicting Rido as a psychopath. Their parents notice there is something wrong with their son because the mom slaps Rido and starts to keep him away from Juri. Adding on to this portrayal of him as batshit crazy, after he (somehow) kills his parents, he says the following:

“That’s what you get for getting in my way, you naughty things…” 

LOL, who in their right mind would call their parents “naughty things”?

My issue is this: I highly doubt Rido was crazy from the start, because it would make no sense. If Rido was crazy, how the hell could Juri and Haruka not have noticed for over 3000 years?! Even the dumbest person would get a clue that their brother was crazy after just 30 years, much less 3000 years. They trusted him enough to let him hold their baby, so they clearly believed Rido was not crazy. There is no way that Juri and Haruka were that stupid and blind. Thus, I doubt that Rido was crazy at the start of his life. So, this aspect of the light novel is just total BS to me.

IF Rido really was crazy from the start, then his mom and dad were bad parents. Yes, it makes sense to keep Juri away from Rido if he really were a psychopath, but their other actions were just extremely irresponsible and selfish. If you know your son is dangerous, maybe you should address this issue properly. After all, he is a pureblood and if you don’t deal with the problem, there will be huge repercussions for everyone given the destructive powers of purebloods. 

But instead of taking their son to see a mental health professional like any decent parent would do, Papa and Mama Kuran decided to solve the problem by engaging him off to a “tiny child”. I’m no parenting expert, but I’m sure if your son has mental issues, you definitely should NOT marry him off to any girl. Even if they didn’t get him some help, they should have at least locked him up like Shizuka to ensure he didn’t harm anyone... but they just let him roam free.

If this is the extent of their problem-solving ability, then it’s for the best that they ended the monarchy because they must have been cruddy rulers. But who knows, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they believed the “tiny child” they chose for him has a PhD in psychology and can provide their son with the help he clearly needs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I consider the light novel to be only pseudo-canon since it was inspired by Hino but written by someone else (Ayuna Fujisaka), so I will just ignore the parts that don’t make sense and keep the parts that do.

                                                              XXX

This following section is what I believe Rido to have been like when he was a (sane) young man, based on the info in the manga and the few bits that do make sense in the light novel.

Since Rido was the oldest son and born in a time when the Kurans were still the ruling family, he probably grew up with a lot of pressure and expectations as he was the crown prince. Given these conditions, he was most likely serious and hardworking, doing his best to live up to those expectations and preparing to be the next king (kinda like Eins in The Royal Tutor LOL).

He was also probably a bit older than Haruka and Juri (because according to the manga he has experience changing their diapers and taking care of them). And since he was probably busy with his princely duties, he did not spend a bunch of time with his siblings and thus Haruka and Juri were naturally closer to one another than Juri was to him. She probably saw him a respected older brother but not as reachable and easy to connect to as Haruka.

Rido was probably arrogant, possessive, and entitled even at the start (though at much milder levels than towards the end), which makes sense given his background. Not only was he a pureblood, but the crown prince too. And since he was prince, he probably had to deal with the dog-eat-dog world of politics from a young age, so that probably made him more cynical and darker than his siblings who had much less pressure and responsibility. It would almost be shocking if he was a humble and kind person instead.

Anyway, according to the custom of primogeniture, both the throne and Juri should have been his. Since it was tradition of the Kurans to marry their siblings, it only makes sense that as the oldest son and legitimate heir, he was the one that Juri should have married. Yet for whatever reason, their dad decided to end the monarchy, which must have been a huge blow to Rido who spent his whole life preparing to be the next king. He probably drove himself to despair questioning why and if there was something wrong with him that his father would pull such a move.

Then Rido probably got another big slap to the face: Juri choosing to marry Haruka instead of him, with his parents probably giving them their blessings. So not only has he lost the throne, he also lost the fiancée that should have been his according to precedent. And Juri choosing Haruka probably made Rido lose face among their society, since people would naturally wonder why Juri spurned tradition and married the second son instead.

(Actually, it wouldn’t matter if the monarchy getting dissolved took place first or if Juri choosing Haruka took place first, the point is both happened and it screwed him up.)

Rido most likely didn’t love Juri, but simply believed he did. He probably conflated Juri with what he lost/ what should have been his by birthright and became unhealthily obsessed with the idea of her. It didn’t help that the one Juri chose was Haruka, who we know has a mild and kind personality. To someone like Rido, those are traits probably considered “weak”, and thus he probably never thought of Haruka as his rival. Therefore, the fact that he lost to Haruka of all people shocked him, and there might have been some anger and sorrow at being betrayed by a sibling. So anyway, Rido’s emotions as well as his ego got clobbered.

But fate is not done with him yet! His parents most likely decided to engage him to Shizuka “without his consent” around the time that Haruka and Juri got engaged/married. They might have rushed to engage him off to whoever was available at that time (unluckily for Shizuka it happened to be her), hoping to get him out of the way of his siblings’ happiness. Rido probably was pissed, since not only does he not get to choose his new fiancée, the one chosen for him hails from a clan with a history of supposedly going insane, instead of someone with a less problematic pedigree. His parents really doing him dirty lol.

I think he really had some deep-rooted problems with his parents. Sometimes parents just don’t like their child, because of personality and ideological differences…Anyway, they were definitely in a strained relationship which would explain why Rido could go so far to kill his own parents and feel no guilt over it.

                                                                XXX

Finally, towards the end of his life he really just lost it.

Rido probably tried to keep up appearances and act like everything is okay and that his world is not falling apart, thus allowing Juri and Haruka to still trust him. But over the years he just stewed in his anger against his parents, his siblings and the world in general and turned into a very bitter and hateful person on the inside. And although he probably tried to suppress his growing darkness, his bad traits got amped up while his better traits died. It was probably extremely infuriating for him to see his siblings so happy in their pink glittery world while he himself was drowning in darkness.

(Even Kaien was annoyed by Haruka and Juri’s “pink world”, imagine an already salty and bitter Rido seeing this type of scene for centuries and just frothing with rage on the inside LOL)

So Rido became a sadistic ass towards the end, taking his anger out on people that have nothing to do with it. He tried to make Shizuka miserable and force her to be docile and had no luck with that but succeeded in breaking Senri’s mom and driving the poor woman crazy. Though if you think about it, in a way he did succeed in breaking Shizuka too… he caused her lover’s death and when she lost her lover, she basically lost her will to live.

Hino showed how talented Rido is at antagonizing others. While he possessed Senri, he intentionally hurt Senri’s body to toy with Takuma.

Even after his death, his dregs were tormenting Kaname by pointing out all his inner concerns, taunting Kaname about how he has no hope left. 

In VKM, Yuki mentions Rido as someone “with overwhelming desires that only plunge the world around [him] into misery.” Overall, Rido probably got his giggles by making others miserable.

Besides getting high off ruining the lives of other people, he was just a bastard in general. He used everyone around him as tools, even his own sons. Unlike Shizuka or Kaname, he did not care about his subordinates at all, to him they were just “appetizers” and expendables. He also had zero reservations about forcing lower vampires to submit to his will.

Anyway, Rido probably was already a bitter jackass but he really snapped when he found out Juri was pregnant and would start a happy little family with Haruka. Maybe he was idiotically holding onto hope that as long as Juri didn’t have a kid, he still had a chance? Regardless, it was at that point that he gave up any vestiges of humanity he had left and decided to just pursue power instead.

With no hope left he just decided to give in to his primitive instincts and lust after power, at the expense of family ties. In a way, he might have felt betrayed by his family, and reasoned with himself that unlike the throne and Juri, at least power won’t be stolen away.

BTW, I think his decision to sacrifice Yuki’s real brother to ancestor Kaname was spontaneous and not premeditated. After all, crazy people are unlikely to plan things in advance and just do as their whims dictate...

Maybe it came to him right when he stared at Juri holding her newborn. 

“It’s such irony that this baby was named ‘Kaname’ like you. That’s what got me started thinking of this.”

Because his plan (if he had one) sucked. He should have known that the famished, revived ancestor would attack him, since the blood of a tiny baby was clearly not enough. And yet he made no preparations to fend off such an attack and ended up getting drained by Kaname.

As a side note, Haruka could have killed Rido right then, when Rido was badly wounded by ancestor Kaname. 

But he didn’t, and chose to have Rido imprisoned by the Senate instead. Haruka should have known that Rido would never give up on destroying his family as long as he lived, so the logical thing would have been to kill him. Even Rido mentions this later when he returned for Yuki.

While Haruka’s pacifist nature played a part in this, I think he also restrained himself from giving in to vengeful rage partly out of the fact that they are family, and more likely out of guilt. Perhaps Haruka had always felt guilty for marrying Juri and realized that he was partly responsible for driving Rido insane.

Anyway, Rido crossed the line by killing a helpless baby and basically burned all his bridges. At this point he didn’t really give any fucks anymore. 

Asato mentions how Rido was like a child, even though he has lived so long. I think the analogy fits, because Rido acted like a child throwing a tantrum, trying to destroy everything and doing whatever he pleased with no regard for consequences or others.

In a sense, like Shizuka, Rido had already lost his will to go on living. The only thing keeping him hanging on was the need to lash out. Even though he acted like he was pursuing greater power, aiming to consume Kaname and Yuki to become more powerful, he wasn’t actually trying. 

If he was serious, he would not have gotten easily distracted, suddenly deciding to have Yuki replace Juri instead of continuing with the plan to devour her. Rido also didn’t bother trying to fight seriously at the end and Zero comments on this.

Otherwise Zero and Yuki together could not have beaten him, given how Rido is much older/powerful and consumed at least 2 other purebloods. Even Sara said that Rido was acting foolishly reckless, saying he was just having fun.

                                                             XXX

Overall, given this interpretation of Rido, I actually feel bad for him. I believe that he drove himself crazy wondering why his parents ended the monarchy instead of letting him be the next king, and wondering why Juri chose Haruka over him. Those questions probably haunted him for centuries.

That feeling that you tried your best, did everything you were supposed to, but still ended up with nothing is something I can relate to. Sometimes one just wants to watch the world burn given how unjust life usually is (even though logically we know it is wrong to feel this way). So yeah, these are my headcanons and analysis of Rido, who I prefer to see as a deeper/more interesting character than just a sis-con psychopath LOL.

[ssa-daddyhotchner]

Undercover - Chapter 20

Chapter Selection

I woke with Aarons wrapped around my waist. I let out an exhale and he held on tighter. I put my hand on his and turned to face him. He was pretending to sleep, running my hand through his hair he fluttered his eyes open. 

"Morning beautiful", he smiled at me and pulled him closer. Grabbing my thighs and pulling me on top of him, "Ok you have energy this morning." I said chuckling, he brought me down to his lips and kissed me softly. 

I grinned into the kiss pulling away and looking around. "We got to sort through our stuff today, but before that what do we want for breakfast." He shrugged and held onto my hips moving them. I didn't notice the movement until I let out an involuntary moan. 

I smirked down at him, "Really." I raised my eyebrows. I moved off of him and got in between his legs. I pulled his boxers down to reveal his already hard cock. I placed my hand around the base and stroked him. 

Running my finger over the tip spreading the pre cum. "Y/n", he groaned as I licked up his shaft wrapping my mouth around his tip, hollowing my cheeks. 

I took my time pumping matching my movements to my mouth; His hands traveled from my cheek to gripping my hair. He was guiding me, not forcing. Aarons eyes stayed on me, he was trying to keep them open. 

I swirled my tongue around his tip, he gazed at me in admiration.  

I pulled my mouth off, "Baby, just enjoy it." He tossed his head into the pillow and closed his eyes. I picked up the pace pumping him. His hips bucked forward, forcing himself in deeper. He hit the back of my throat gagging around him.

"Y/n...", he pulled my hair into a ponytail and held my head still while he used me. Jerking his hips upwards he started doing to work. I could feel him pulsing with every stroke. He was letting me know he was close. 

I was bobbing my head, taking deep breaths. I closed my eyes, stopping the tears from spilling. I could feel him tensing up and I swallowed every drop. I let him ride out his high slowing down but not stopping all together. 

He cupped my face, bringing me to his lips, "Better?" I said giggling. He tried putting his hand into my waistband but I put my hand over his. He looked up at me, "Do you wanna stop." I nodded and he understood. 

I got off his lap and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Aaron followed me pecking my shoulder and resting his head. "Thank you for telling me." 

"You know I'd tell you", he places his hands on my hips. "I know just saying." We finished up and headed to the living room and we saw everything. All of my stuff huddled in a corner. They offered to help but I didn't wanna bother them. 

We needed to do this ourselves. I unlocked the door and stepped out to get the mail. I sorted through all of it and walked inside tossing it on the counter. I saw a little envelope; I opened it and took out a card. 

The front said congratulations It read: 

Bear, 

How's my baby, I called the doctors a few days ago. 

I called out for Aaron and he rushed into the kitchen. "What is it?", I handed him the letter. 

"He knew I was pregnant", he scanned the card. It was hand written and there was no address; it was hand delivered. I knew he wanted to get me pregnant, judging that I checked the mail yesterday there wasn't a note or card he doesn't know I got an abortion. 

He wasn't gonna take it lightly that I 'killed his kid'. Within those few seconds I was terrified; I didn't know what he was going to do. "Aaron", I choked out. He dropped the letter down and walked over to me. He held my head to his chest and whispered in my ear. 

The brimming tears never left my eyes, I refused to let them fall. "You got to get your mind off of it. Until we can do something about this lets just continue like normal", he mumbled. I held onto him not letting go. 

He finally pulled away and we started to go on with our day. Organizing which of our stuff is worth keeping to make room. We ended up splitting the furniture in half; keeping a bit of both. Jack was dropped off by Jessica. 

I put a nail in the wall about to hang one of my photos when Jack was underneath me tugging on my pants, "Y/n, can I help." 

"Sure buddy", I picked him and he hung the photo. As Aaron was in the bedroom organizing he heard banging a laughter, he grinned to himself. "Daddy!", he heard from down the hall. He dropped his stuff and walked out. 

He saw me holding Jack by one of the photos, "Look what I did."

 Aaron turned and saw my pictures, "Buddy you did so well." He showed a toothy grin. I set him down and he ran into his bedroom. He brought out some toys, "can you play with me." I nodded and he dumped it on the carpet of the living room. 

Aaron went into the kitchen and made some mac and cheese for Jack. When he finished it he brought it to the table and all of us started eating. Jack was happy, and I stuffed my face. I was finished with the food first and I put my bowl in the sink. I felt eyes staring at me, I glanced over and saw Aaron staring. 

"What", I was chuckling as I walked over to get the other dishes. He cracked a smile, "Nothing." I shook my head and started to do the dishes. Jack was feeling tired from the food and he went to his room to sleep.                                                                    

 Aaron made sure he was asleep before he walked up behind me putting his hands on my hips. I was scrubbing one of the pots; he was being distracting; he lined kisses up down my neck. I let out a quiet moan thinking he wouldn't have heard me. 

I was too focused on Aaron. I didn't realize the water was just running. "Don't let me distract you." I continue to work, "Now?" I felt him nod into my neck.

"There's not a better time, he's sleeping and we have work tomorrow. As much as I would love to bend your pretty little ass over my desk I don't think our coworkers will like that very much; hearing you scream my name. And of course I didn't get to pay you back for this morning." 

His hands slipped into my waistband; he trailed a finger over my pussy and laid a cold finger over my clit. He set a pace of slow circles, I leaned back into him trying to focus on the task at hand. His arms secured around me holding me up a bit. 

I finished on the pot and was washing the last few dishes. Aaron added more pressure and made quicker movements. I rested my head on my shoulder, "Aaron." 

"What do you want", his voice lowered. I reached out and turned off the water setting the bowl down. "I want to cum", he hummed and dipped his other hand in my pants ghost over. He teased me and slipped in two fingers into my pussy. 

I gained enough to dry off my hands and I reached back and held onto him. My moans were getting louder, "Shh shh, You got to be quiet baby." 

I was whimpering, Aaron pushed in a third finger and spread them out, stretching me. "I'm so close." He kissed my shoulder, collarbone, and up my jaw. "You can cum sweetheart." My stomach tightened and I finished on his fingers. 

As my breathing regulated I grabbed his hand and sucked on his fingers twirling my tongue around them. The sight in front of him made him let out a groan. He grabbed my waist and pulled me towards him. 

He set a needy kiss on my lips, "Love you." I grinned walking into the living room getting comfortable. "I know." 

________________________

The baby would've been two months today assuming Mark was the father. I was standing in the kitchen heating up some food I had made the night before and I felt hands on my hips. It was 2am I wasn't sure why he'd be up. 

I tensed under the man's touch and he realized so he stepped in front of me. "It's just me", Aaron's voice was low and raspy. He reached out and cupped my cheek; I subconsciously leaned into. I still hadn't said a word. 

"You okay?", he knew what day it was. I closed my eyes and sat on the counter. My eyes filled with tears that never fell. Aaron stood in between my legs; pulling him into a hug my head rested on his bare shoulder. 

He was whispering into my ear letting me know I wasn't alone and he was there for me. He pulled apart when my food was done in the microwave. I hopped off the counter and carried the hot dish to the living room. 

I settled on the couch turning on tv. I saw Aaron give me a weak smile as he was turning the corner to go back to bed. "Aaron, can you stay?", he started back towards the couch. 

"Of course princess", he sat in the corner pulling the blanket onto us. 

__________________________

I woke to my arm getting tugged; my eyes fluttered open and Jack was staring at me, trying to get me to wake up. "Fuck", I said quietly but my jolt woke Aaron that was asleep on the couch with me. "Y/n, you gotta get up. I have school." 

My eyes opened fully and I saw the clock. It was 8:30, Jack had school at 9:30. "Shit Aaron get up, come on buddy let's get you ready." I smacked Aarons arm and he sat up rubbing his eyes. I helped Jack get dressed and brush his teeth while Aaron gave him some food. 

Aaron got ready for work putting on his suit and I wasn't ready at all. We were already late, "I'm gonna head in, can you take Jack to school?" I nodded, I forgot the time and Jack came back from behind me. 

"Y/n, we gotta go. Bye daddy", he gave him a hug and a kiss and we were out the door. Luck was totally on my side; I had hit practically every light. Having to constantly stop. 

We got to the school 20 minutes late, they had already locked the doors. I had to buzz in, the door popped open and we went to the office. The woman at the desk gave me a smile and she looked at Jack. 

I say the late sheet and I started filling it out. Once it was done we were about to part ways but the women stopped me. Jack stopped also; he noticed I wasn't following. "Forgive me but how do you know Jack?" 

For some reason this was the awkward part, "I'm his dad's girlfriend. He said I'd be able to drop him off." She gave me a puzzled look.

"You can but I'm going to need to call Mr. Hotchner." I let out a sigh and bend down. I pulled him into a hug and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"Honey, you can go, I just need to sort something out." I smiled and walked to class. 

She got Aaron on the line, "Hotchner." 

"Hi sorry to bother you but I have a." She so I could tell her my name. "Y/n Y/l/n." 

"Y/n Y/l/n here, she dropped off Jack. I was curious if I should add her to the list." 

"Thank you for letting me know and yes please." The women at the desk hung up the phone and put me on the list for Jack so I could pick him up. I signed some papers and I headed home to get work. 

I was still tired, I threw on a white dress shirt and some black pants. I had to drive myself which was weird; I had been riding with Aaron for the past 11 months. I was an hour and thirty late for work. I walked into the elevator. 

Going into the bullpen I was getting eyes from the team, some small smiles and winks. I ignored them, I walked to my desk. I was pulled from my work again, "Y/n can I see you for a moment." I tossed my head back and sighed. 

"You two okay?", Morgan said from behind me. I nodded and walked up the stairs into Hotch's office. "What is it?" He gestured for me to sit. 

"The thing I'm about to tell you... I don't know how you're going to take it so uh I'm just gonna say it. I just got a call from the hospital in Hawaii. I was wondering why they didn't send the rape kit... it's because they don't have it." My heart fell into my stomach. I held it together on the outside but I was cracking on the inside. 

Without that kit the court can't do anything. The only 'evidence' he raped me was my word and that doesn't work for women. The kit would've changed everything, It was going to send him away. I was patiently waiting to just be told that my only chance on getting the son of a bitch was lost in another fucking state.  

He followed me, got me pregnant and stole the one thing that'd put him away. I knew he stole it, it wasn't hard; Mark was already following us all he had to do was 'come with us'. 

Hotch was now sitting in front of me, "Y/n." A single tear fell from my eye onto Aarons hand that was now on my cheek. "Thank you for telling me, I uh... have some work to do", I wiped my face and opened the door walking from his office to my desk. 

The team could see that something happened and I was upset. Hell anyone could tell, I was struggling to not let go; you didn't need to be a profiler to know I was having a bad day. The rest of the day was me burying myself in paperwork and files. 

There was a tap at my desk, "We need to work on some profiles, come on." Morgan waited for me to get up. He set a hand on my lower back and I caught him off guard pulling him in tight. He let out a gasp as the air left his lungs. 

He took soft breaths and wrapped his arms around my body. Morgan looked up at the round table room and saw the team looking back at us. Specifically Hotch was staring at him; he wasn't mad... Aaron was just hurt. 

Hurt that I felt this way, he knew there was nothing he could really do to help my case. No one was going to listen to what I had to say without the physical evidence. 

Derek held me for a few minutes speaking softly, "You wanna talk about it." I nodded and we walked into Aarons office. 

We sat on the couch, "The hospital in Hawaii called... Aaron had brought me after what happened and they did a rape kit. Well the one thing that was gonna help my case is now missing. The hospital has no idea where it went. So now I need to live knowing that fucker is gonna get away with it. You wanna know the worst part? I was- I was pregnant." 

Morgan sat there in front of me processing the information that I threw at him, "Was?"

 "Yeah", my voice was small. He reached a hand out and held mine. "Did you-." 

"Yeah"

"Baby", he gently pulled me towards him. My head rested on his shoulder. I closed my eyes and was calming down. I heard the door open and footsteps walk in, "You guys need us?" 

He tapped my back and I pulled away meeting Aaron. I grabbed his hand and we all walked to the round table. 

I sat down and they were going over the profile. Sometimes police stations only need our profile rather than having us fly all the way over there. The stations would send us every little detail about the case and we'd help them that was. 

Usually I hated it but at this moment I liked not having to leave the office. 

____________________

@mac99martin @appleblossoms-posts @donttellanyoneireadfanfiction @oreogutz @wanniiieeee @marie1115 

[vickyvicarious]

idk if this is controversial or not but, i don’t think it’s all that important to meta analyze media to death. like if it’s fun i think that’s great but analyzing all the ways a show may or may not be problematic seems pretty silly to me. i mean it’s a tv show? not activism? (this isn’t me saying you shouldn’t analyze stuff btw if that’s what you enjoy, more in response to some of your statements saying that it’s important/a responsibility)

(to be fair though i’m just kinda upset that people seem to spend so much more time talking about problematic tv content than about the real life issues happening)

(also not saying you need to talk about irl issues on your fandom blog, just that grouping them under the same umbrella makes it seem like they’re equally important when stuff in media isn’t as big a deal as the stuff happening irl you know?)

I agree with you to an extent, but not completely. When I was saying it's important or a responsibility, I didn't mean quite for everyone to meta in depth or have these big long discussions I've been having lately. It's totally fine to just want to enjoy media without getting into what's problematic about it, and it's not as important as any real life events. I mean, I personally don't really like to talk politics and real world stuff on this blog just because that generally is a stressor for me, and I come here to destress. I actually don't even get into critical meta myself very often either, for similar reasons at times. So I'm definitely not throwing any stones here if individual people don't enjoy metaing or dissecting the media they consume. Having a break from that kind of stuff is important.

(And like. If you only ever worry about problematic stuff on TV and never ever real world stuff, then that's not the best priorities obviously. But people online always have personas and compartmentalize. I mean, Vicky isn't my real name. It's my fandom name and I answer to it as well as my real name and have for years, but I have a real-world life that's mostly separate from my fandom life, and I personally like to keep it that way. So I always assume that even if I only see people online talking about media, it doesn't mean they don't care about RL concerns. This may just be where they take a break from that.)

At the same time as all that is true, I do think it is important to recognize themes in media that we're exposed to. Critical thinking is a skill that has to be actively taught (which it isn't as well lately, it seems, which I know I ranted about like last year or something on this blog) and it's one that can be applied all over the place. For example: double-checking sources on news articles; noticing the ways an ad tries to manipulate your perspective; spotting logical fallacies in arguments; noticing propaganda in media. There's no such thing as a person totally immune to propaganda or manipulation, and a lot of corporations actively try to use stuff like color theory and certain phrases etc. to manipulate consumers into choosing their product or associating it with a certain thing. Food, technology, medicine, toys- pretty much any industry you can think of I'm sure it happens. There's also a lot of propaganda and tropes in media that can absolutely inform your opinion if that's all you see and you just accept it at face value. There's all sorts of levels of extreme to that too - blackface or straight up slurs in older films, or the tendency to only ever depict Africa as a monolith/small villages instead of many different cultures with different identities and levels of wealth, or even stuff like the cast of mostly guys and one girl or primarily white/straight casts with only one or two other identities represented. Dolls being primarily white-skinned, or the marketing of "boy toys" and "girl toys" affecting representation and consumption in children. I've been watching a lot of youtube essays lately on colorism, and have seen a good number of people cite negative body image directly to the kinds of things they saw represented on TV and in toys not matching their skin as they grew up.

I'm not saying all of this stuff is deliberate propaganda. Some things are, for example if the army sponsors a war game then uses a tournament for it as a recruitment strategy their motive is pretty clear there. But a lot of the time it's simply the media reflecting and perpetuating the culture in which it was created. Maybe it's something like the Hayes Code, which among other things didn't allow for heroes to be shown as gay-coded but didn't have all the same restrictions on villains, so there were a lot of gay-coded villains cropping up. Which may be better than no gay-coded people, but also associates those characters with certain other negative traits that can actually influence peoples' opinions in real life. Or maybe it's just something like all the cop shows that are popular for their serial mystery/monster of the week format, but which always hail their cop heroes as being honorable and good even if they have to break the rules/law sometimes. This reflects a society, and can reinforce it also, where cops get away with a lot of awful stuff because the bias is always in their favor. Or maybe even the trope where you give a villain a reasonable stance to begin with or at least a sympathetic background (movie Magneto was a Jewish kid put into a Nazi camp, and then as an adult people start talking about registering and restricting mutants) but have them go too far and their methods be deplorable enough (he decides that mutants are the superior race and all normal people should be killed or turned into mutants against their will) that they must be defeated - and their reasonable point is never actually addressed.

So I do think that it is important to be at least aware of stuff like this, even if you don't want to talk about it. That's more on a personal level, it's good for an individual to know how things may be affecting their own opinion beyond the obvious. On a larger scale, racist tropes that go unaddressed in canon and are just blithely accepted and perpetuated in fanon can lead to a fandom experience that locks out people of that race. Or really that goes for any minority.

So... I don't think people have to discuss this stuff to death or anything! But at the same time, I do feel being at least aware, even if it's not what you focus on, is somewhat important.

[selchwife]

idk if ive mentioned this before but the cool thing about fallen london for me is how little the player’s gender actually comes into the writing. your character doesn’t get gendered very often, if ever, and when that happens it’s just like, you’re being referenced by the title you chose. it never describes your appearance for you or assumes anything about your anatomy or gender presentation, and you’re free to wear any of the ingame articles of clothing no matter what you pick. 

you can also be nonbinary! and aside from the typical gendered titles there are plenty of occupation titles to be referred to with. you can also CHOOSE to have people be confused about your gender as a mode of address, which i think is hilarious because back when i was IDing as nonbinary i absolutely loved that as a concept.

none of the titles or anything are locked to your gender either. you can choose to play a male character and have him be called lady, or sir, or ma’am, and so on. you can have a “feminine” portrait for a male character and vice versa. You Can Marry Anybody, none of the romance options are limited by gender AND people of all orientations are treated as totally normal in the writing AND failbetter has recently been adding more poly NPC spouse options and i think a QPP spouse

AND!!!! in sunless sea you have to have a kid as a game mechanic (to be your next captain ingame if your guy dies), and you choose your character’s gender and so on, but you still are given the option to choose whether your character MADE the kid, whether they CARRIED the kid, or whether they adopted, and what they’d like to be called by the child. so in no way does having a child cis-lock you. i just love that so much.

in terms of games i’ve played this is definitely the game i’ve felt most welcome to be trans and gay in, if that makes sense. being trans is very normal in-universe and the gameplay treats it that way too. being gay is very normal and the writing bears that out. i've never felt like i was being forced to play a cis character or like there wasn’t room to interpret my character as trans, OR like i was being forced to play a character of a certain sexuality. nor have i ever felt like my characters would be unwelcome in the setting because of those traits. i can’t really speak to other marginalizations (i do think the game sometimes kind of assumes you to be able-bodied) but as far as LGBT stuff goes it feels very comfortable.

[the-sunshine-dims]

birds for birthdays

okay so its logan’s birthday still for me so have this birthday fic! 

words: 1807

ao3 link

Summary: Patton, roman, Virgil, and Janus, have a plan for Logan's birthday, and their plan, Logan doesn't even consider, instead thinking they just forgot his birthday, and Remus, whos not included in the plan gives Logan a bird.

contents and warnings: miscommunications, hurt Logan, slight hurt/comfort, possible pre-intrulogical, birds, repressing emotions, being overwhelmed,

if i missed anything again please tell me its late so i wouldnt be surprised if i missed something

____

Okay so patton and the others had a plan, and they were excited it was coming out how they wanted it to so far, 

distract Logan away from the commons and kitchen

Get logans gifts ready

Make sure it’s a total surprise for Logan

Of course they sadly had to exclude remus because it wasn’t an overreaction when they say he would immediately tell logan, he wouldn’t really mean to, but anything he thought about he would blurt out so sadly they had to hide it from remus too, though when Logan came down to be surprised he wasn’t gonna be excluded from that, he couldn't really ruin a surprise while the surprise is being revealed.

Patton smiled proudly at the three sides who had been getting ready in the living room, he was ecstatic he had even gotten Janus to help out.

___

Logan sighed as he tried to work, he knew technically they didn’t have birthdays, but it never stopped Patton from trying to celebrate perceived birthdays and, as he had told everyone before, this was one of the perceived birthdays, logan's first appearance on vine, and while he knew stuff was honestly kind of stressing because thomas got a new boyfriend and everyone was still healing from POF,

But.. he noticed quickly that he was looking forward to the birthday, as loud as it was going to be, but then as The day progressed no one even came to his room to even tell him happy birthday.

-which was fine. But still, it hurt, he was sure this was the date Patton made a celebration last year.. but no one seemed to even notice or care.

And as he tried to focus on literally anything productive and failed he realized with dimming hope that they had forgotten.. he couldn’t blame them, of course he couldn’t, he understand how hectic everything’s been and he wasn’t as selfish as to be mad, they had more important stuff to worry about then his ‘birthday’, afterall technically while they did sometimes have days they celebrated as such they weren't born and there was no way to tell when they formed so he didn't have a true birthday.

And After all, Logan didn’t have feelings so they probably assumed he wouldn’t mind if they didn’t forget and just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

He sighed again, louder, and slammed his head against the arms that were resting on his desk, this really shouldn’t bother him this much, it was fine.

He took a moment and just gave up on working, surely they wouldn’t mind if he just.. took a small break, just a short one, to rest up and just.. get his emotions in check before he had to go out of his room to get the papers he forgot on the counter, he groaned, why had he forgotten them on the counter? That was a dumb thing to do.

He took another moment and just decided that he can take a break day, the others really couldn’t blame him for needing one since they had taken a couple after the recent video, so he just decided to hell with it and after loosening his already looser than normal tie he just stood up and went over to rest on his bed, maybe he could read a book? He had recently gotten a promising looking book, so maybe that would be a good thing to do with his time.

He didn’t know why he still seemed to be.. disappointed? Was that the emotion? After a second he decided he didn’t care, but he was still confused, why would he be affected? It was fine.

He groaned before startling as he heard a loud repetitive banging on his door, and after a moment he quickly got up and fixed his hair and tie before going to the door and opening it slightly, revealing a grinning remus with hands behind his back, which was slightly worrying knowing remus, and also confusing because if he had both his hands behind his back how did he knock- but, of course Logan wasn’t gonna be rude and instead just offered a small polite smile before asking “do you need anything?” 

Remus frowned at that, “no I don’t need anything- but! I wanted to congratulate the birthday boy~” he told him, and while there was definitely some underlying crude massage Logan didn't get he could tell Remus was trying hard to make sure it stayed underlying and wasn't blatant so he wouldn’t end up making Logan uncomfortable.

Which Logan did appreciate, he.. really didn’t think he would be able to handle a lot of crude stuff right now, which he was kinda disappointed in himself for since that was a lot of the stuff remus spouted unless remus worked 100% to make sure he didnt end up accidentally saying something like that , but regardless, he was happy at least someone knew it was his side appointed birthday, he knew it didn’t matter but still, it made him feel better and as Remus quickly brought the sloppily wrapped present from behind his back his heart dropped as a thought entered his head.

Was remus the only one who remembered?

Remus and Logan weren’t that close, they were all still getting used to each other, so the idea that Remus, who wasn’t close to Logan, was the only one who remembered his ‘birthday’ was saddening, the people who were supposed to be his friends.. they forgot, they didn’t care.

He schooled his expression and made sure remus couldn’t tell the thoughts going through his head, so he just allowed himself to smile as Remus loudly encouraged him to open up the gift, and after a moment or two he began to, he was happy if at least one person cared enough- he heard a small chirp from the box and he froze and turned to remus “..did you give me a bird?” 

Remus grinned minically and motioned for him to keep opening it, which he did and he found an adolescent crow or raven, he couldn’t tell yet, but it was definitely a bird, it was surprising it looked pretty normal- he put his finger near it and it’s face opened up like a demogorgon, okay that made since, not normal, but he smiled as he gingerly picked the thing up, it looked like it was old enough to be away from the parents which was good, after a moment he looked to remus “thank you remus.”

Remus seemed happy as he came to the conclusion that Logan indeed in fact like the gifted bird, “no problem dork!” He said happily before continuing “also if you need anything for the bird just tell me,” 

Logan nodded and after deciding screw it he just opened the door up more and went “would you wanna hang out with me and the bird for a bit?” 

Remus perked up and nodded eagerly, and Logan smiled softly before heading fully into his room and setting the box down, the chick along with it, after a second of checking Over his shoulder to make remus came in he closed the door and gathered some books from his shelf about birds, specifically ravens and crows and just birds of the like before sitting down on the floor leaning his back against his bed.

Remus happily chatted as he sat down on the bed, above his shoulder, occasionally asking Logan questions that didn’t relate at all to the topic at hand as Logan researched what the raven or crow would need, especially at this young stage.

It was maybe an hour or so later, Logan has accepted that the others had just not cared enough to remember and while it.. hurt.. he just decided it wasn’t worth it to be upset about it, after all he now had a bird to take care of and possibly a new friend, so everything was fine.

Then he heard Patton calling for him saying that someone got hurt and they needed his help and just hearing that they needed his help and someone might be hurt and on reflex he got up, quickly pulling Remus up as well before practically running down stairs because what if they were really hurt.

And then suddenly as he practically flung himself down the stairs with remus following he heard a loud “surprise!” From a bunch of voices and then there was confetti everywhere and he just froze, slowly processing everything and slowly becoming overwhelmed from the fact they hadn’t forgotten and he was wrong and also the loud sudden sounds were adding to him becoming overwhelmed.

And after a full moment of silence he realized he should respond so he just went “oh-“ and then he noticed that there were tears falling down his cheeks and he just saw everyone begin to panic and even Remus seemed extremely confused and concerned and after a moment logan just quietly goes “they didn’t forget..” to himself.

Which they seemed to of heard because he hears patton make a heartbroken noise and remus, deciding that he’s going to try and help his new friend out, just kinda goes in front of him to be in between him and the others and kind of hesitantly opens his arms, which, Logan happily collapsed into, much to remus’s surprised, no matter who it was logan wanted the support and after another silence the others approached and Logan just kind of hid away.

Causing even Janus to look sympathetic before Patton kinda just went “you.. thought we forgot?” Sadly and when Logan nodded Patton made another hurt noise “oh lo, I’m so sorry I should’ve.. I should’ve realized that not addressing it made it seem like we forgot, I’m so sorry.” Patton said genuinely.

Logan just went “it’s fine” quietly and Patton shook his head.

“No, it’s not fine, we should’ve actually made sure not to make you think we forgot, we should've made sure that you knew we care enough to remember, i should’ve.” he paused before deciding that while its good to admit mistakes it wouldn't make the birthday any better so after a second he continued “so what about this, let’s watch a movie, whichever movie you want, and it’ll be quieter and we can give you our gifts, hows that sound?” Patton asked, his tone a tad hopeful.

Logan nodded, pulling himself away from remus’s hug, though still holding on slightly to remus, having decided this was his emotional support side now, and after a second everyone walked logan to the couch where he picked out a movie and and after a bit turned off the lights for the person to come in with the cake.

And honestly now he kind of understood why he was so sad when he thought they forgot.

[tough-bit-of-fluff]

"Self-Reflection on My Self's Reflection or, Do Foxes Tire of Time-Worn Tropes?"

“Pink...everything is...pink. By. The. Twelve. Has all the world….gone pink!?”

Aly flipped her hair out of her face, laughing in her normal voice instead of the overly-theatrical faux-masculine one she had used a moment before. Glancing in the mirror and seeing her attempts at styling were already mussed beyond easy repair, she scrabbled at her hair with both hands, to tease it up into further heights of disordered fluffitude. Pink strands tinged with light blue now stood out in all directions from her head, the points of her long, furry ears barely visible above the mass.

“Okay, Fetch.” She crouched down to address the fox sitting primly on the floor of the small, slightly ramshackle airship, The Four Winds, beside her. “Remember to make a wish, before you blow the seeds off this unusual but strangely alluring pink dandelion, and scatter its seeds alllll across Eorzea.” She pointed at her recently-enfloofened hair, and gestured broadly with an open palm to indicate, no, really, ALL across Eorzea. 

“Just imagine, little me’s sprouting up in every city-state. It’ll be the cutest AND most combat-ready invasive species!” She laughed again, imagining the potential mayhem. “Unless you somehow managed to like. Send out fox-spores or whatever. Then that one wins, hands-down. No one will suspect the lethality and sheer cunning of the adorable fox-weeds until it’s toooo late! All of Eorzea will be within the grasp of your many slender snoots!”

Fetch lifted aforementioned snoot slightly, perhaps to watch a moth fluttering past the hanging lantern, or perhaps to affect a more majestic air befitting a conqueror. Whatever the motivation, the effect was achieved nevertheless.

Alyona grinned wide and tossed Fetch a hearty thumbs-up, before bouncing up out of her crouch, stretching her arms and tail as far as they would go, arching and flexing her back, and then turning to look in the mirror. 

“I know you don’t need my approval, Fetchie, but I need yours,” she said, raking her fingers this way and that in an attempt to tame the fluffy pink mane. “Do you like my hair parted on the left side? Or the right?”

The fox tilted her head in apparent consideration, and then began scratching her left ear with her hind paw.

“Left side, got it! Your advice is invaluable as always.” Aly wasn’t sure where Kail Gerrad, the tough old pirate who was Fetch’s person, had wandered off to, or why the fox was roaming around the airship on her own, but she was glad of what company the oddly attentive animal could provide.

The miqo’te leaned forward to examine her reflection more closely, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she struggled to open a barrette with a resin paissa affixed to it. Her eyebrows raised in realization, and her mouth opened in a wide grin, showing her fangs.

“Oh! This is that part of the story where the heroine examines herself in the mirror, so the readers can know what she looks like and what is on her mind. It’s a well-worn literary device, Fetch. Some might say TOO well-worn, but you know what? I say it’s a classic for a reason!”

Aly clipped her hair into place and gave an “eh, good enough” shrug at her reflection. “Here’s the important question, Fetch: what IS on my mind?”

The fox paused her scratching to give a huff that sounded almost scornful. “If you don’t know, woman, how on earth am I, a fox, supposed to?” is what it seemed to Aly to convey.

“Ha, fair enough, Fetchie, fair enough,” Aly said, as though replying to an actual statement the fox had made. 

“Well, let’s start with the appearance then! Okay so. I have these big ol’ gray eyes, which are great at noticing things. They’re not shrewd gray eyes, or flinty gray eyes, so that tells you something about the nature of my character. They’re,” she paused to make a series of increasingly bizarre faces in the mirror, furrowing her brow, arching one eyebrow, opening her eyes so wide it looked like they might disengage from the rest of her head. 

“Soft,” she wrinkled her nose, dissatisfied with what character traits that might denote, “And curious,” she nodded. “These eyes say to the onlooker, this person does not NECESSARILY know what is going on. But, she is canny enough to *know* she doesn’t know, and savvy enough to try and find out.”

Aly gave another thumbs-up and a grin. “Yeah! We’re doin’ it, Fetch! Introspection Experts Beg Protagonists To Identify Their Defining Traits With This One Weird Trick.”

“Umm, what else. Rounded cheeks, perhaps denoting my youthful enthusiasm?” She smooshed a finger into the soft curve. “Or at least my enthusiasm for like, cheesecake?” She shrugged. 

“And a cute little chin signifying,” she paused a moment, frowning. The chin, what did it signify? Was a chin sometimes just a chin? “Oh! That I am agreeable but can be very decisive when necessary!” 

Aly beamed and pumped her fist in the air. “Man, I am a natural at this! I should open a consulting business, telling people what character traits they have, based on my assessment of their appearance!” Aly sat with that idea for a moment, arms folding across her chest. She shifted from foot to foot.

The woman grimaced, and scratched the back of her neck. She looked chagrined. “I….should NOT open such a business, for reasons that should have been immediately clear to me, but, now revealed, are better left unsaid.”

She waved away her embarrassment. “That’s not how these scenes work anyway! They have to emerge organically. You can’t force someone to undergo character growth,” she laughed. 

She narrowed her eyes and growled into the mirror dramatically, “Though by the Twelve I try.” She slapped her fist into her palm for emphasis.

Aly beamed again at the fun she was having, and her tail waved merrily behind her. “What next. Ears? I have pretty ears. They’re real soft. Though not as pretty and soft as yours, Fetch, no no no, I would never suggest! What inner complexities do you find that they reveal to the perceptive, Fetchie? Or has anyone even taken notice? Don’t worry, the right ones will come along,” she reassured the animal, nodding. The fox’s tongue lolled from the corner of its mouth. Fetch’s face was not that of a forest creature who was overly concerned.

Aly turned her head at various angles, watching the shifts in light and shadow on her face. Her hand wandered up to stroke the edge of one of her own ears. A goofy grin spread across her face, in both recognition and enjoyment of the absurd gesture.

“Mmm,” she said, closing her eyes and smiling. “It actually is pretty nice, even this way. Though still not the same.” She opened her eyes and tapped her cheek thoughtfully. “Oh! The takeaway here is perhaps that I am the kind of person who is aware that her ears are soft and pretty, and cares which way the light falls on her face to create the desired dramatic effect. I am surprisingly filled with artifice!” she observed cheerily. 

She held up a finger, adding, “AND self-awareness! And and, winning! I am full of winning, Fetch.” 

Fetch gave the woman a flat look that indicated she was certainly full of something.

“I can’t see what look you’re giving me right now so I’ll have to assume it’s more of that approval,” said Aly, who, with the mirror, absolutely could see that was not the case.

“Of course,” she said, lifting up her shirt, “This callback serves not only to point out my delightful cheeky sarcasm,” (the shirt covered Aly’s face at this moment, so she could not see Fetch’s reaction to this declaration) “But to recognize that I am not entirely kidding about craving recognition and even acceptance from a fox, which really calls into question a number of my other judgment calls.”

“Oh well!” She chirped, casting her blouse to the floor. “Now we get to see how many paragraphs we spend discussing the appearance of my br-” Aly broke off, tilting her head curiously, and running her fingers over a spot on her side.

“Huh,” she said. “I have a scar there. A small, cute scar. But totally a scar.” She used her thumb and forefinger to measure its size, then brought the measurement up in front of her face. Her eyes crossed a little as she looked at it. 

Aly pursed her lips, then reached down to her thigh-high boot. She pulled out a knife, which she held up first to her fingers, then to the old wound.

“Oh, yeah. I definitely got stabbed,” Aly asserted, nodding confidently. Sheathing her knife, she pressed her fingers into her side with her left hand to feel her ribs, and put the palm of her right hand flat against her chest, over her heart. “I almost got stabbed to death!” The miqo’te’s level of enthusiasm for this macabre revelation might have seemed to Fetch to be entirely out of proportion, had the fox not been absorbed with the pressing task of worrying at her svelte right haunch with her tiny teeth.

Aly was ready to move on with her whimsical self-assessment, but her fingers kept wandering back to the scar. Probing it, examining it. Imagining what it must have felt like. She frowned slightly. Well of course she’d been stabbed before, there was nothing significant about that. She’d been injured in combat multiple times in the past month alone. Scrapes, bruises, cuts. That desperate Ala Mhigan’s spear had taken a while to heal from. But the fact was that she had healed. She was fast to recover, and not prone to developing lasting, visible scar tissue. Not prone to taking a hit someplace so vulnerable, someplace she would have rolled and twisted and fought to protect in combat.

She moistened her dry lips. “I think,” she said slowly, “I wasn’t stabbed in combat.” She took a moment to mull over what that might mean.

“They said I was a spy, Fetch,” she said, crouching down to retrieve her discarded blouse. “In those folders and files we found at the secret base. Dossiers! That’s the word. It, it was the Garleans! It could have been a trick, or just plain wrong. But…” Aly twisted the fabric in her hands. Fetch yawn-whined, and padded to Alyona’s side, resting her tawny chin on the girl’s thigh.

Aly had already averted her gaze from the mirror, but it was too late to stop the tide of unbidden reflection, as ever more stories about herself came flooding into her mind. You’re the kind of person who can’t tell friend from foe. You’re the kind of person who lets her guard down even when it doesn’t make sense to do it. Someone tricked you into believing you were safe with them. You probably tricked other people into thinking they were safe with you, too. You’re the kind of person who tells lies and gets lied to, do you even know which of your stories are true? You’re the kind of person who can’t leave well enough alone. You refuse to look at what’s in front of you, and when you finally do, you won’t look at anything else. How many people are going to get hurt before-

Fetch whined again, and Aly absently stroked the fox’s head. The feel of the fur against her fingers grounded her, interrupted her racing thoughts. Impulsively, she hugged the creature, an act which the elegant fox bore stoically. Fetch gave the miqo’te an appraising look, as if to say, “Well? What have we concluded?”

Aly rose to her feet, and pulled the now-wrinkled blouse back over her head. “We’ve concluded,” she answered the imagined question, “That I’m the kind of person who almost got killed, maybe in combat, maybe by someone close to me, but, that’s not going to stop me from fighting. That’s not going to stop me from getting close to people! I love people, I will never stop that!” She stamped her foot for emphasis, and her booted heel thudded against the wood of the floorboards. She liked the dramatic sound it made, so she did it again.

“The girl smiled,” Aly narrated aloud, breaking into a grin on her own command. She didn’t turn to look at it in the mirror, however. “She didn’t know a lot about who she had been, but, little by little, she was finding out, who she is.”

Aly nodded in satisfaction. “Well? Whatcha think, Fetch? Would you read a book about this character? Or is she consigned to the discount bin?”

The fox was nowhere in sight. Perhaps the stomping had scared her away, or perhaps she had found the scene too self-indulgent by half.

Aly heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Everyone’s a critic,” she lamented, but she said no more about it. This time, she was not even talking to a fox. @teahousetales @erstwhile25