#kinda surprised no one has written at least a variation of this

[my-insanity-is-an-artform]

Hold my Baby

(So this idea has been living in my head rent-free for months despite never actually sitting and watching the whole film. But in this house, we take canon out back and put it out of it's misery.)

So clearly in Across the Spiderverse, Peter B. Parker got nerfed a bit. This story is about Miles so Peter B. had to get at least a little nerfed.

How'd they nerf him? Give him a small baby he has to prioritise.

Another idea I kinda subscribe to is that Peter B. is mostly Comics-based Spider-man, the one we know best. So you could say Peter B. Parker is the most Spidey Spider-Man. Spider-Man Prime, so to speak.

So when he tells Miles to hold Mayday, Miles gives in. He holds Mayday.

Peter B. Parker is no longer holding the baby.

Peter B. Parker is no longer bound by the need to personally protect Mayday.

Peter B. Parker is real fucking sick of people chasing his kid and disparaging the best thing that ever happened to him.

Peter B. Parker is The Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man.

And it's time the Spider Society and Miguel O'Hara realised that.

[thewardenisonthecase]

Finally, some overall thoughts on Veilguard

I want to begin this by saying I only got into DA back in June of this year. I don't have much of a dog in this race as the people who have been here since 2009 or the people who have been waiting 10 years for the conclusion of the narrative set up by the ending of Tresspasser.

But I have been obsessively playing the three past Dragon Age games since June and I was extremely excited for Veilguard, in part because I wanted more and because I needed a new distraction from the world.

All in all, I enjoyed the game way more than I expected. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my expectations were on the floor but who knows. I did like the game a lot but I do have many criticisms for it.

There some things that, at the begging, i didn't like but grew to enjoy. The combat is one of them. At first, when I was still learning, I really hated the combat system, but with time, I got better at it and now I enjoy it quite a lot. I will say, I still prefer the DA2 combater overall, and I miss being able to control my companions. While I prefer a more tactile style, I thought the combos were pretty nice.

Let's talk about characters. I was quite surprised that I ended up enjoying all the companions. Even if there were some I didn't bring out as much, I still liked them, and I enjoyed most of the personal quests, with Emmrich and Bellara's being my favorites. I like that the companions talk amongst themselves and it really seems like a group that is actively living together.

I do wish, however, that there was more...variation? to how some of their personal quests ended. I feel like only Emmrich's quest had a final choice that severly impacted his character, while the others, sure, I can see how internally they can impact them but it didn't feel like either outcome made a lot of difference. Also, Taash's quest of choosing to be more rivaini or qunari sure is...weird, but other users have gone more at lenght at this than me.

Side note, while the Hardened mechanic is really interesting, I was a tad dissapointed it only happened once.

I also really liked Rook, and after struggling to connect with the Inquisitor, Rook was what I needed. I like that for the most part, they're just some guy who has to shoulder all these responsabilities. I like their dynamic with Solas, and especially with Varric.

What I'm not the biggest fan of is the lack of actual roleplay/choice. See, in RPGs, I tend to play the typical good guy because being rewarded for doing good is like a power fantasy to me, so Rook being that was great for me. However, I can totally see why not being able to just be kind of a dick sucks. It takes away some nuances that a player can choose to give to the character, and it can kill replayability if you can only kinda of always play the same personality type.

Also, even thought the diplomatic/sarcastic/aggresive wheel is back, I think it was just for show. In DA2, even if the 3 options led to the same outcome, each response was written in a way that made them unique. A diplomatic Hawke is very different from a Sarcastic or Aggressive one. With Rook, it was remeniscent of DAI, where they don't have a lot of variation (by the way, I mean variation in how they were written, not at how they're acted out). I ended up varying a lot between all three options and never really noticed a lot more difference than an "aggresive" Rook is a little more curt/to the point.

And I must say, while I think most dialogue scenes are pretty good, and some even being amazing in my opinion, there were others that felt very...therapy talk. Lucanis's Inner Demons quest was the one that came off as that the most to me, which broke my heart since I romanced him. It just felt jarring. I think the game could have benefitted of having a quest focused solely on Rook, kinda like how DA2 has the 'All That Remains' so that at least for once, it wasn't Rook having to do therapy talk to all their companions. I also think the beggining of the game should have been Varric recruiting Rook, kinda like in Origins, mostly because I would have personally enjoyed that more than a wall fo text.

When it comes to the overall story. I am of two minds. I think, taking the game for what it is, I like it a lot. The ending made me cry, there are a lot of high points, and I liked the conclusion. However, when you take into consideration the previous three games, that are things that make me pissed.

I always knew that the lack of custom world states would piss me off, but I didn't expect to be so infuriated. There were MANY chances for this game to make references to the Fifth Blight and they don't, and yes, that pissed me off because it would have tied Veilguard with the beggining of the series, which would have felt quite nice. Althought the lore is interesting, I hate that everything is tied to the elves and that the mystery of Andraste, the Maker and the 7 magisters was explained and is now gone. I knew that was the direction of the game was going but personally, as someone who's not that invested in elves to begin with, I was sad that all of the plot points I enjoyed the most were tied back to the Evanuris. But again, that's a personal thing.

The lack of teeth in this game is real but more people have gone in detail about this so I won't go long.

In comparison to the other games, there are not a lot of actual, world impacting choices to be made, but at the very least, the ones that are there are indeed very impactful.

Like I said, I romanced Lucanis and while i LOVE the scenes we have, for a game that was marketed as 'the most romantic', it felt lacking. I think just being able to directly talk to the companions at any time like in DAO and DAI and spam a kiss button would have made it for me.

Even though I have...complex feelings about the Varric reveal, I think the endgame portion of the game is the strongest. I do wish there were actual epilogue flashcards. Also no, i'm not going to talk about the post credit scene, don't remind me of it.

All in all. For what it is, I think it's an amazing game. For a DA game, however, it was lacking. I still enjoy it a lot, and it's better than Inquisition in my opinion (but I just really...really don't like Inquisition).

[dgcatanisiri]

Have fully assembled the Veilguard, so I'm taking some time to organize some thoughts.

Seriously, OF COURSE Isabela would be leading the Lords of Fortune. It really does not surprise me, despite being surprised by her cameo.

I do like Emmrich more than I was expecting as a first impression, but I don't think I really vibe with him on a romantic level enough to ever really give that a try.

I do kinda regret not romancing Lucanis on this first run, because I do like the Crows. I'll probably roll him a Crow boyfriend next run.

Assan hits me in the heart, considering... Well, losing my dog. So yeah, of course I'm romancing Davrin. Or at least in the process of flirting with him.

I am pleased that there's plenty of opportunity to just not accept Solas's "good intentions." I particularly liked getting to throw the line "spoken like a god" at him.

Oof, choosing between Minrathous and Treviso was emotionally hard. Like I had a solid reasoning with opting to go to Treviso - no standing army, the waterways, as the Prologue showed, Minrathous has defense capabilities that Treviso just doesn't... But oof, it was hard on the heart having Neve take Rook to task for not backing up his city and fellow Shadow Dragons. To say nothing of the aftermath.

I DO need to address something that's really sticking out as a problem for me, and that really is the understandable but still sore point of the fact that the three choices of carryover from Inquisition really are just NOT. ENOUGH.

In universe, I feel like AT LEAST acknowledging WHO Divine Victoria is would be important, and Morrigan drinking from the Well or not really SHOULD be a thing, considering her featuring somewhat AS all this ancient elven knowledge is coming to light. On top of that, going further back to Origins carryover issues, despite how Kieran would surely be old enough at this point to be on his own, you would think that Morrigan would maybe MENTION her son.

And then there's my personal bugbear, in that not just with the cameo of the Inquisitor, but even Harding talking about the members of the Inquisition... By having the game written to assume all the characters possible being part of the Inquisition, this does not feel like a continuation of the game world I've played. I don't recruit Dorian, but he uses a mention of being at Adamant during the battle against Clarel to make the First Warden back down. The Inquisitor then outright refers to him as an ally, even though, again, he's NOT one in my games. Harding shares a story of Sera making Reiner laugh, when neither of them were part of my Inquisition, so she's talking about two people she never met, one of them who never actually HAD his hidden identity revealed, so she shouldn't know him by that name.

Is this being finicky over a relatively small part of the game overall, considering that these are minor lines in minor cameos, or a reference line that impacts nothing in terms of the game proper? Sure, I'll grant that. BUT it still leaves me feeling like... Why do my choices in the prior games matter if this game comes alone and says that they didn't? If they didn't matter, why did that game matter? Which was there a choice in the past?

It's the choice to undermine player choices when they could have worked around them. Like, sure, statistically, they could say that (probably) most players would probably bring in all possible characters, especially when the ones I'm specifically upset about are romance options. But... I mean, that's the same kind of logic that led to Jacob being written to cheat on a Shepard who romanced him - just because "most" players do a thing, it doesn't mean that the players who do something else don't deserve acknowledgement.

And yeah, I do recognize that having any variation options involve the cost of recording and animating any line being spoken, so if something had to have variation cut down in the name of allowing anything else, yes, I do understand this being where it falls, because it's not actually impacting anything of this game specifically. It's just a choice that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even if I recognize that it has a reason that I DO fully understand.

I can understand WHY a choice was made without agreeing with why it was.

[piracytheorist]

tagged by @priscilla9993!

ff.net is considered "old"? Especially for my standards it doesn't, like, I made an account in like 2015... but I also stopped updating there about four years later so XD

If the comment box isn't mean from screaming and keysmashing what is it meant for. How else am I supposed to convey my feelings when a fic rips my heart out and stomps on it for good measure?

I've written self-indulgent fic alright. Most of them are on my whump account, cause I go all out there, lol.

Most of my fic is unbeta'd, lol. Even my latest multichapter wasn't a "typical" beta-read, cause I didn't give my beta the full chapters, only asked them about specific phrases I wasn't certain about.

About the researching thing... I kinda like it? But it's half-and-half, like it's VERY tempting for me to just wing it and half the time I just wing it, lol. But other times I research quite a bit before writing something.

As for "multifandom writer"... it's again kind of. I have written for four different fandoms up to now, but rarely at the same time. I usually move headspaces for the different fandoms, and it confuses me if I jump from one to the other too quickly XD

"At least one unpublished or unfinished story" if only it was only one T_T

Getting fanart for my fic has been among the best things to happen to me. I remember how fucking giddy I was, waiting to get on a long bus trip, and getting a notification about a mention, and it was someone surprising me with fanart for my fanfic. Best feeling ever.

I not only get ideas in the middle of the night anymore - I record them. When I'm too sleepy to have my phone in my face and type, I open my voice recorder app and record my idea with voice. There's been some fun incidents with this (like me saying "character sees this and goes like whoa what the fuck" when this specific character would never say "whoa what the fuck") but it's been a very interesting exercise. It's how half my ideas for Macabre Theme and Variations stuck to memory so I could use them in the fic.

I both do and don't want to be a professional writer. Idk. I have an original idea for a show, but it would never ever be picked up, especially in my country. It would be so fun to see it acted out, but I'll have to be satisfied with it staying in my memory.

uhhh tagging some pals cause I'm curious to learn more about you but no pressure! @lentachorum @maimaktes @prettyblubox @samatedeansbroccoli @delicatebluebirdruins @smoresbythefyresyde and whoever if you see this and want to do it consider yourself tagged

blank template, sorry I forgot to post it lol!

[monsterhunting]

2022 year in review

thank you @quillsmora for tagging me!!

Number of stories posted to AO3: 13!

Word count this year: according to my ao3 stats it’s 274,715

Fandoms I wrote for: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Stranger Things 

Pairings: Sam/Bucky and Steve/Nancy/Jonathan (or some variation of it, plus one Steve/Jonathan fic) were my main ships, but I also tagged several fics with Steve & Robin. (Do platonic tags count as pairings???)

Stories with the most: 

– Kudos: secrets i have held in my heart, which i posted the first chapter of almost directly after vol 2 came out, so, makes sense. i was still surprised by how many people liked this story given stoncy has faded a bit out of popularity with S4, so i was v happy people wanted to read this!!

– Bookmarks: same as above

 – Comment threads: we could call it even (you could call me babe for the weekend), which makes sense given it has 6 chapters. also chapter 5 (i think?) ended on a kinda angsty cliffhanger so naturally i got an influx of comments yelling at me lmao. (fun fact: this fic has the most comment threads out of anything i’ve posted on ao3!)

– Word count: who you gonna call? takes the cake with 65k+ words. also, by far the longest thing i’ve ever written! 

Work(s) I'm most proud of (and why):

– to live for the hope of it all: i have loved stoncy for yeeeeears (since i first watched s1 of stranger things) and i’ve read a lot of fic for it and wanted to write fic for it but never did until i wrote this one shortly after s4 vol 1 came out! and since then i’ve written tons more stoncy fic and had a lot of fun doing it and made several pals because of it so i’m v glad i finally tried my hand at it!!

– who you gonna call?: as i just mentioned, this is the longest thing i’ve ever written but i also think it’s one of my favorite things i’ve written period!! i put a lot of work into this fic and honestly had a really fun time writing it. i also implemented a lot of horror vibes in this fic (the vibe overall was folk horror friends to lovers romcom), which was unlike anything i’d ever posted on ao3 but since i love horror i had a lot of fun writing those elements too! 

– Sharon Carter’s Guide to Dealing With Oblivious Superheroes: maybe not my favorite sambucky fic i wrote this year but i loooove reading outsider POV fics and think they’re so fun. however, i’ve never actually tried my hand at writing one so this was really fun to try! i also love sharon and i think she deserves more love so it was really fun to get inside her head and write about her perspective on sambucky

Work(s) I'm least proud of (and why): idk if there’s anything i’m not proud of??? there are maybe a few fics i wouldn’t consider my best writing though. for example i was rushing to finish this fic and if i’d taken longer to write it, it could’ve turned out better maybe? but i wouldn’t say that means i’m not proud of it

Share or describe a favorite review you received: I really love any review I get even if it’s just a simple “this was good!” But I love when people point out their favorite parts or tell me they think I did well with the characterization. A couple times I had a comment where people said they could like hear the characters’ voices as they were reading my fic which is a HUUUGE compliment i think <3

A time when writing was really, really hard: the holiday season was super busy for me so i didn’t have much time to write over christmas. also frankly...smut is hard to write. i get too embarrassed in the middle and then have to go walk away from the screen from a few minutes lmao

A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: i simply did not expect i would’ve written as much as i did about jonathan byers in the year of our lord 2022 nor did i expect i’d have fun with it. and yet! 

A favorite excerpt of your writing: from chapter 4 of who you gonna call

Suddenly, Steve thinks about sticking his feet in Jonathan’s lap during movie nights or ruffling Jonathan’s hair in the office. He thinks about the way it feels to make Jonathan laugh, the way his heart skipped in his chest that night all those months ago in Nancy and Jonathan’s kitchen when Jonathan said to him, quiet and incredibly honest, You’re not too much. He thinks about kissing Nancy in that same kitchen and kissing Jonathan in the woods only a day later, and thinks about how the most terrifying places in the world have never felt all that scary with Nancy and Jonathan on either side of him.

And then he thinks back to standing in the forest with Nancy only hours ago, when she had asked, Was it just me? When Nancy had stared deep into him and demanded to know not if he loved her, but if he loved Jonathan, too. When she asked him to tell her if all these years it was only Nancy he ever felt that way about.

And God, of course it wasn’t. It never was. Of course it’s always been Jonathan, too.

How did you grow as a writer this year? hmmm i wrote a LOT in 2021 but i wrote even more in 2022 which is wild. i kinda used to write a fic every now and then -- like every few months or so or whenever inspiration struck -- but in the past year or so i’ve been writing very consistently in my spare time which has been really fun!! also everything i wrote this past year, specifically in the latter half of the year, was LONG. i wrote 4 multichap fics in 2022 alone (i’ve only ever written 7 total on ao3 and one was never finished lol.)

How do you hope to grow next year: CONVERSELY...i would like to master the art of being able to write things under 10k lol. maybe even under 20k!!! crazy idea i know but it’s a goal !!!

Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc): i literally would die without allie and getting to ramble about fics and fic ideas with her in texts and on snapchat lmao. also shoutout to annie and the numerous writing springs we did together this summer!!!

Anything from your real life show up in your writing: i include little nods to things i like in fics pretty often...one thing that shows up a lot is references to moe’s, for some reason? it started off as an accident but has slowly become on purpose as time has gone on. tragically i haven’t been able to reference it in many stranger things fics because unfortunately the first moe’s didn’t open until 2000. other than that, i wrote a whole scene in a sambucky fic this year that referenced percy jackson (specifically the titan’s curse aka my fav percy jackson book), so that was fun

Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: this is more practical advice than wisdom but for all my besties who write in google docs and then post on ao3: to keep the ao3 formatting from screwing up your italics (i.e. when ao3 formats your “Hey.” to “ Hey . ”) italicize the symbols surrounding the word you’re trying to italicize (i.e. for the previous example, you would italicize the quotes and the period AND the hey). learned this trick very very recently and probably other people have already figured this out on their own but i figured i’d pass it along! 

Any projects you're looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: i have sooooo many WIPs in my google docs but the projects i’m most looking forward to posting this year are the spider-man!steve stoncy fic, the steve gets vecna’d (but it’s ok he’s fine) stoncy fic, and i would also love to be able to write some gotg fics this year (kate cheers and applauds in the background somehwere). specifically would like to write some mantis/nebula fics bc as we know i love a good ship that has zero actual screentime together!

Tag some writer's who's answers you'd like to read (y’all are under no obligation to do it tho): @miiyumei @pensbridgrton @anniebibananie ❤️

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Cheryl//maple syrup

Request: Can you do the secret and sins when Veronica comments on the Cheryl’s twincest and the reader defends Cheryl even though the reader kinda diss likes Cheryl.

hey! how is everyone? i hope you’re all well and good! i may have slightly cheated a bit and copy and pasted a previously written out bit from another request where they’re playing secrets and sins. but that’s only because i didn’t see the point in writing the same dialogue again. anywayyyy enjoy! 

It seems that whenever Cheryl Blossom arrives at a party, the party atmosphere disappears. Maybe it’s her grating personality or overbearing need to be liked, whatever it is, within ten minutes of her and Chuck gate crashing Jughead’s unwanted birthday party, there’s already tension. 

Which is not made any better by the suggestion of secrets & sins. Your friends are gathered in a circle in the living room, while you sit off to the side. You want to eavesdrop, but you don’t want to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets, not to your best friends and definitely not to Cheryl. 

It’s clear everyone that’s been roped into this stupid game doesn’t want to be there. Betty shifts in her seat uncomfortably and stares at you with pleading eyes. You shoot her an unsure smile back before taking a sip of your drink and she drops your gaze, glancing at Archie before staring down at the floor. 

Cheryl is the only one that looks like she’s enjoying herself, but you’re not surprised. Chaos and the chance to get dirt on everyone so she can control them even more than she already does is what Cheryl lives for.

You glare at the red-head, who’s smiling brightly as she looks around at her victims and when her eyes land on you, her eyes narrow and the smile is replaced by a smirk. 

“What’s wrong Y/n? Did nobody pick you to be on their team?” She asks, her bright red lips forming a perfect pout and you can’t help but stare at them for a few seconds longer than you should. You feel your face heat up and look away, blaming the alcohol for the affects you’re feeling and refusing to believe that you’ve just thought of Cheryl Blossom as attractive. 

A shiver runs up your spine at the thought and you lips pull into a pout as you stare down at the now empty cup in your hands. You scratch at the plastic and listen to the mumbles and whispers of the teenagers stood and sat around you. 

Whoever isn’t partaking in Secrets and Sins, have gathered around to watch and judge, and you can’t help but lean in a little closer, they may be some of your closest friends, but you can’t help wanting to know what they’ve been hiding from one another...you’re only human and at least you’re not as bad as Cheryl. 

Cheryl lives of rumours. Like Gretchen Wieners with smaller and redder hair. 

“What the hell is Secrets and Sins?” Jughead asks, all eyes on Cheryl as she moves around in a circle, eyeing everyone suspiciously as she starts to explain the rules. 

“Its a variation on Truth or Dare…in which we own our truths by telling it like it is. I’ll start the game with…Veronica Lodge.” She smirks and you roll your eyes at her. 

“Naturally.” Veronica sighs and you pat her shoulder. 

“Let’s begin with the day you and your mob wife of a mother came to town for a so-called fresh start.” She says, her eyes filled with accusations and anger before she’s even gotten to her question. 

You really don’t know why so many people like her, well you do, it’s because she’s rich and she bullies people into being her friend because she’s unable to make them any other way. 

She’s snobby, spoilt and just plain mean, but that doesn’t stop you from sometimes staring at her for longer than you want to and definitely should. 

“Tell us Veronica, what’s so fresh about defiling Archie Andrews in a closet?”

“That was your doing.” She replies confused, her arms crossed defensively against her chest.

“Moving on to dear Daddy Lodge…” She interrupts, getting more and more angry by the second. “Isn’t it true that your father, from prison, illegally purchased the drive-in land? Which makes me wonder, what else is he doing behind bars?” She continues and you glance to your side at Joaquin, who shares a very suspicious look with FP

“Well, I can’t speak for my father…but I can think of someone with a very dirty secret. Specifically, Cheryl killing her very own brother.” The tension in the room shifts and your eyes widen. 

As much as you dislike Cheryl, you know how close her and Jason were and you knew how much it hurt and how she’s still hurting now because of his death. You’ve seen her crying underneath the bleachers after school, you see how her eyes are a little more dull than they used to be. They don’t sparkle as much when she talks and when she’s not spreading hate, she’s just not saying anything at all. 

She smiles less when with her friends, and sometimes you think the only reason she’s horrible to people is so she can feel something. But that doesn’t excuse it and so you shake your head and earn a few confused looks as you try to stop yourself from defending Cheryl Majorie Blossom. 

“Everyone knows how much I loved my brother.” Cheryl defends herself.

“Exactly.” Veronica replies. “But did you love him, maybe in ways that a sister shouldn’t love a brother?” She continues and you watch as Cheryl becomes more and more upset. “And as you got older, Jason started to think it was strange, unnatural. So he chose Polly over you. So you shot him between the eyes with one of your father’s many hunting rifles.”

Her shoulders slump a little and her bottom lip quivers as she looks around the room helplessly. The confident look she usually has, has slipped off like a mask, revealing a very sad girl underneath and suddenly you find yourself standing up. 

“That’s enough Veronica.” You say, surprising everyone, including Cheryl. “Just leave her alone, it’s not worth it.” You add quietly and slowly sit back down again. 

Veronica hold her hands up in defence and you force a smile before going back to picking at the plastic of your cup. 

“I don’t need you to defend me.” Cheryl seethes, her eyes full of hatred as she looks at you, and for some reason it stings. You’re used to her not liking you, but her hating you, hurts you for some unknown reason and you have to take a few deep breaths in order to stop the ache in your chest. 

“This game is sick.” Dilton adds and Cheryl uses the distraction to wipe away the tears on her cheek. “I wanna go next.” He adds making everyone look at him.

“Thats the spirit, Doiley. What secrets do you have to reveal to us?” Chuck grins. 

“I saw Ms. Grundy’s car by Sweetwater River the day Jason went missing.” He says and everyone gasps. People mumble and whisper around you and Cheryl stares straight at Dilton, her eyes narrow. “I told Betty and Jughead, and then Ms. Grundy quit her job and left Riverdale, like, two days later. And let’s not forget that Archie was also at Sweetwater River that morning.”

“Oh, my God.” Cheryl whips her head round to look at Archie. “Colour me shocked. Archie Andrews, is that why you became a mediocre musician overnight? Because you and Ms. Four-Eyes were pulling a Mary Kay Letourneau?”

“Don’t say anything. Don’t get in the gutter with them.” Veronica mutters while glaring at Cheryl. 

“Wait, what? Andrews was banging a teacher?” Chuck asks, his tone a mix of surprise and impressed and you roll your eyes at him. “I wish I would’ve known. I would have added you and Ms. Grundy to the book of conquests.”

“Classy, Chuck, as always.”

“Wait a second.” Cheryl interrupts. “That also explains why Archie can’t seem to keep a girlfriend to save his life. He’s got serious mommy issues. Anything to say for yourself Arch? Were you a victim or a perpetrator?”

“Dilton Doiley plays with guns.” Betty tries to change the subject but she’s immediately shut down.

“Big whoop, Betty. So Doiley’s a psychopath. Everyone knows that.”  

“Well, I guess it’s my turn now. Boy, do I have a twisted secret to reveal, starring Betty Cooper.”

“Leave her the hell alone, Chuck.” Archie threatens.

“Shut up, Andrews.” He replies. “Look, you may get a free peep show every night, but you do not know her. Hell, Betty doesn’t even know herself. Everybody knows why I got suspended, but what you don’t know...she dressed up like a hooker, in a God-awful black wig, drugged me, handcuffed me in the Jacuzzi, and well, I almost drowned until she got me to say what she wanted to hear. And then she really lost it. She actually thought she was Polly. But, hey, you knew all about this right, Jughead?” He asks. For a second, the question hangs in the air, everyone trying to figure out what to say next and how to process what they’ve just been told. 

But then Jughead leaps forward at punches Chuck in face causing all hell to break loose. Everyone stands and FP shoves races forward to grab Chuck and throw him outside. 

While everyone else follows them outside, eagerly awaiting a fight, you stay back and watch as Cheryl disappears upstairs, quietly sniffling as she goes. You look at the front door and then at the stairs and sigh, knowing that this is not gonna end well. She’s gonna insult you and tell you to leave her alone, but at least you can say you tried to help and then you won’t feel bad. 

So you glance at the door one more time and pray that at least one person is filming whatever is happening out there, before wandering up the stairs in search for Cheryl. 

The slight scent of maple syrup and the sound of faint cries coming from the bathroom lets you know where she’s hiding and you quietly creep along the slightly creaky floorboards, trying to remember which ones to avoid after years of practice when sneaking into Archie’s room in order to break him out. 

You stop outside of the bathroom, light coming out of the cracks of the door and your hand hovers over the handle. 

“Whoever is out there, go away.” She sniffles and you roll your eyes. 

Turning on your heel, you start to walk away, but then you hear her sob and it makes you freeze. 

You let out a quiet groan and curse the side of you that can’t leave people that are crying alone, before making your way back to the bathroom and slowly opening the door. 

The first thing you see as you duck your hear around the door is Cheryl sat on the side of the bath. Her hands gripping the edges so hard that her knuckles have turned white. He hair has fallen in front of her face and you watch as she her shoulder shake and tears drip onto the bath mat. 

“Cheryl?” You whisper and she looks up, her eyes wide as she quickly scrambles to wipe away the tears that have ruined her makeup. “Are you okay?” You ask and walk into the room. You close the door behind you and lean against it and her expression hardens. 

“I’m having the best time.” She deadpans and you resist the urge to roll your eyes. God is she stubborn. 

“Look, I know we’re not exactly best friends. Most of the time, I don’t really like to be around you-” 

“Is this supposed to be making me feel better?” She asks and you shrug. 

“But you know that if you need someone to talk to that won’t judge you or really know anything about you, you can. I’ll just sit and listen and you can cry or rant or I dunno. Just, know you’re not alone. You may not get along with everyone in this town, but we will all be here for you if you need us, all you have to do is ask.” You say honestly but anxiously while playing with your fingers. 

She looks at you surprised, her lips part as if she’s going to say something and you’re sure she’s going to tell you to shut up and leave her alone, but instead she says thank you and you feel yourself relax a little. 

“It’s okay.” You nod. “And for the record, what Veronica said was out of line. Everyone knows how much Jason meant to you and for her to say that is just wrong. We all know you loved your brother...a normal amount.” You add the last bit quietly and she stares at you for a few seconds before a smile twitches at her lips. “Would you like me to leave you alone now?” You ask and she shakes her head. You look around the small bathroom, trying to figure out the best place to sit and she moves along a little so you can sit beside her. “Would you like me to sit with you until you feel better?” You ask and she nods slowly, her lip wobbling again. 

You sit beside her, place a gentle hand over hers and the two of you fall into a slightly awkward but not as bad as you thought it would be, silence. 

After ten minutes, Cheryl stands and makes her way over to the mirror. She swipes her fingers under her eyes to try and get rid of her ruined mascara before messing with her hair to try and get it back to looking like normal. 

“Do I look okay?” She turns to you and stands with her arms by her side. Your breath hitches when you look at her and you wonder how she looks so pretty even in the most unflattering light that is Archie Andrews’ bathroom. 

You stand in front of her and slowly tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and you watch as she takes a shaky breath. 

“Can I?” You ask, your fingers centimetres away from her cheek and she nods slowly, her eyes locked with yours and you feel yourself growing warm from the intensity. “There.” You smile once you’ve wiped a bit of mascara away from her cheek. 

She grabs her bag and pulls her lipstick from it, but when she goes to apply it, her hands shake and you take it from her gently. 

Your lips darts out between your tongue as you concentrate on keeping the lipstick in the lines, and you can feel her warm breath on your cheek. 

“There!” You smile proudly once your finished, but she grabs your arm before you can pull away properly as her lips connect with yours in an almost frantic kiss.

You gasp a little and then relax and kiss back just as frantically, but she pulls away after a few seconds and the two of you stare at each other wide-eyed and breathless. 

“Your lipstick’s ruined.” You whisper and her lips curl into a smile. 

“Worth it.” She replies before pulling you close to her and kissing you again. 

support my writing! if you want! 

[lucarisdelnorte]

you know what, I didn't think I would ever publicly share my opinion full (mainly out of fear of harassments by gamers)

BUT

FromSoftware needs to learn how to write endings for their npc side quests..

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And before we continue I'm gonna get into some npc spoilers if you'd rather not read that, finish the game, come back(or don't this is mainly just a really... really long think piece lmao)

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And I'm not saying their side quests are bad by any means, it's just the fact they always end up one or two ways, a) they go insane and snap and you have to kill them OR b) they're doa

there are some variations, but ultimately end the same

and I know this has been a thing for almost every game thus far, I've played through all of bloodborne and, yep, it's there, too (why can't we, the people who are "trained"... kinda to do this, can't guide a LITERAL CHILD to safety). However, I feel like in Elden Ring:tm: it's a lot more... apparent.

It's not EVERY single npc, but it's absolutely a majority of them. Before 1.03 dropped I was genuinely surprised Diallos WASN'T going to snap, wasn't going to die, I was getting MAD Alfred 2.0 vibes but he just... accepted that revenge wasn't the right way, and that was refreshing, even if the revenge was justified BUT GUESS WHO DIES POST 1.03.

and it kinda makes no sense. Why couldn't we help jarburg? why couldn't we help Diallos track who the thing that was ultimately going to end up killing almost everyone in that town Including Diallos?? We Knew it was coming, why couldn't we help prevent it?

It feels like a complete and utter lack of player agency They could have 10000000000000% done a split ending for this side quest(and I'm using this one quest as an example cause it's what really made me Angry about these quests, like, it opened my eyes to how badly written they can be),

lets say, you get to this point in his quest and you can find the thing that is killing everyone, you can either go find it, Diallos can be a summon or whatever, and you kill it he's a hero to the town and he gets a good ending you decide not to, you get to a certain point in the game boom, death. And, that may seem a little punishing to the player who may not know, but.... THEY'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!! POINTS THE BLOOD MOON IN BLOODBORNE!!!! this is Exactly what NG+ and just, a new file is for!!! And honestly, that's really what made bloodborne feel, impactful? At least, from the npc stand point, they're actively affected by the world (and, yes there is a point in Elden Ring this does happen... but that's another time and another post). Here's the list of the fate of npcs(tallied by my friend): dead w/o player control: 11 determinant/difficult to keep alive: 7 survives (unless you specifically kill them): 6

Eleven... that's a pretty big number... and then 7 more you can keep alive but you have to kinda bend over backwards to do... making that number potentially 18... Hello??

It's always been a thing that from has suffered from, poor endings for npcs and unjustifiably so... "Oh but it's unrealistic that every npc survives!! It's SUPPOSED to be grim dark" that's not what I'm saying at all! but if we're talking about realism in.. Elden ring... lets just take away the dragons..... or the magic.... or the giant dogs with knives(we can make them tiny dogs with knives).

and I cannot stress enough, I don't want all of them to survive, but them just dropping like flies when you have to go to the ass crack of no where to get this specific item after fighting 700 bosses... only for them to have a last pieces few dialogue... and drop dead just like that... It's an incentive to not even Do these side quests because we know the ending is always gonna be the same...(Ranni's quest is probably my favorite side quests to do because we know she'll be okay BUT we still have to sacrifice The man Blaidd to do it... and first of all... how dare you).

And GRRM's influence absolutely did not help with this issue that has been around for a long time, in fact I'm utterly terrified he made is a thousand times worse.

I could go on and on about this, but you get my point by now I'm sure.... It's just, what's exactly the point of doing these side quests when you know Exactly how it's gonna end... Every. Single. Time.

[whump-town]

A Cumbersome and Heavy Body

Chapter Five: They Told Me That The End Is Near

Summary: Stubborn until the very end, Aaron Hotchner isn’t going to go down without a fight. It’s just getting hard to tell the difference between fighting them and fighting the cancer.

Word count:  3195

Author’s Note: I’m about to fuck yall all kinda of ways-- buckle in babies cause shit is GETTING FUCKED

Warning: the subject of this fic is cancer and it’s treatment, cursing, maybe out of character (idk, man. hotch is weird)

Welcome to the final show Hope you're wearing your best clothes You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky You look pretty good down here But you ain't really good

She hates everything about labeling his days as “good” or “bad”-- this stupid emphasis on each thing that he does and how well he can perform it. The doctors will ask how he is, nearly expecting to be told something other than like he’s dying, and that always frustrates her beyond words. She can feel Hotch tense each time, looking to her in his desperate attempt to conjure a lie they will believe. “Good” or “bad” and he wants to say “okay” so that they don’t poke him more. So they don’t stand him up in the room and run their hands down his sides feeling for more swollen nodes and inclinations to infections or whatever other bad nonsense will rear its ugly head.

Mostly, she hates how there are “bad” days and there are days that aren’t gut-wrenchingly horrible but they aren’t “good” either.

Tuesday he’d smiled and sat for three hours with Reid. The genius turned on the sofa to face Hotch in the recliner, rocking himself gently as he spoke about anything and everything on his mind. Emily had watched them for a moment from the kitchen, shocked at the painless ease Hotch was sitting with. Enjoying something close to normalcy as Reid doesn’t look at Hotch and see the sickness overcoming his pale skin. Doesn’t see how tired he is or how weak. He’s just Hotch and they’re sitting in the living room talking about quantum mechanics and then attachment theory and diagnosing schizophrenia.

For three hours there is so much normalcy to their chaotic lives. For three hours there is “good” and for the remaining hours after Reid leaves there is something close to right in the middle. It’s fighting tooth and nail over some supplements he’s supposed to have in this meal replacement that tastes like chalk. She chases the fight with vodka and he locks himself in his office to drink the meal replacement in the sort of isolation that affords him endless frustration with no outward consequence. He ends up sitting in there and hoping she forgives him for being such a pain in the ass. He knows she probably will.

Then he does something stupid, something entirely brought on by impulse.

“You’re a fucking asshole.”

He can’t finish the job on his own, the clippers shaking painfully in his grip. His arm hurts and he can’t stand long enough to get the whole thing even. “It’s falling out, anyway.” He tells himself that it doesn’t matter, that he should be lucky he made it to this age without losing it. He tries not to think about it, mostly. To the way that his father used to smile at him and rustle it just to see the strands sit in all kinds of directions. How Haley would curl against him, arm over his shoulders, and brushing the strands as they talk.

But it’s just… hair. Mostly.

And “good” had melted into bad as Emily stood over him, running the clippers through his remaining hair. She’d cried and he had too but he had the free hands to wipe those tears before she could see them. She’s always the strong one, the least he can do is pretend for a moment.

Standing behind him, she can see every bone in his back. His pale skin stretched over each vertebra, like the hard pressure across knuckles clenched tightly. The plethora of scars in various stages of healing-- several from tubes and wires and tests and others from the childhood he refuses to speak of. A canvas with a story right there for her to see. There are no real secrets between them anymore.

The last bit of hair falls and she looks at what they’ve done. “You’ll have to wear a hat,” she tells him. She steps out of the tub, using his shoulder to balance herself. “I always thought you had a weird-shaped head but now I know.” There’s nothing abnormal about his head, she’s just thinking about how cold he always is. That at least now he’s got an excuse to wear a beanie inside and how he’ll look like a dork with the assortment of color and variations Garcia’s going to knit the second she catches wind of this.

She offers him her hands so that he can stand too and it’s a testament to their proximity that his shirtlessness isn’t strange. She’s watched his skin ease apart under the pressure of a scalpel. Sat beside him on the bathroom floor, head on his shoulder as the night moved on but they both knew he’d be back here all together too soon to get up. The scars are nothing to the vulnerability that he’s shown her.

Standing she… she sees the protrusion of his collarbone. Of the harshness, the invasion of the central line snaking into him. It overcomes her and she pulls him into her. Throwing an arm over one shoulder and around the other, pinning him against her. “I love you,” she whispers turning her face into his neck.

Her warmth seeps into him, in every place that her skin rests against his. The desperation in her tone makes him smile, the way that she holds him. He’s empathetic to her pain but it feels good to be held, to be loved like something someone is terrified to lose. “You know,” he says. “I kind of figured. You’ve stayed around too long for someone who, supposedly, hates me.”

She laughs. How many times had she gone out of her way to mumble “I hate you” at him? For waking her up to make her go back to bed so that she doesn’t spend her whole night on the floor as miserable as him. To have something to say in the face of the scary things that happen, when he squeezes her hand too tight or when he’s that numb calm she knows is no good.

“I do hate you,” she sniffles.

He laughs. An actual laugh. “Good,” he replies, wrapping his arms around her. “Good.”

Wednesday he makes her French Toast with a black beanie pulled down over his ears, one she’d seen only in the winter to stave off the threat of the ear infections the icy fingers of the wind give him. They talk while they eat and it’s a truly monumental thing to be shared between them-- a meal.

There’s something about sitting there and watching him perfect some glorified egg bread that annoys her. Knowing that likely, tomorrow this will be like a slap to the face. A taunt to see him now and then. Today he will the Aaron that she knows. The Aaron that peers over her shoulder while she’s trying to do things, baiting her into pointless arguments with his bad French and even worse German. To the Aaron who walks soundless and who grins when he turns up silently behind her and makes her yelp with a jump.

She watches the ease in which he takes to his french toast bleed away like the color in his face until lunch brings one of those meal replacements and he can’t do it. Then she finds the french toast she thought he’d eaten in the trash where he’d purposely tried to cover it. Knows that next week they’ll find the meal replacements didn’t work and do something else to his poor body. Cut another hole, insert another tube.

She hears him fall that night.

After hearing him laugh loudly over some stupid thing she’d said.

After playfully fighting with him over stealing one of his sweaters-- he has so many it’s not going to kill him to let her borrow one.

After just sitting with him on the couch for hours listening to music and sitting in the dark.

She hears him fall and, worst of all, she hears how hard he tries to cover it up. The sound is not as distinct as it should be with no crash that rattles dishes or a harsh thud. A stumble, really, a softer thump as he leaned into the wall for support but found none.

“Aaron.”

He’s sitting up against the wall, shoulders sunk in and head hanging. When he looks up she sees the blood pouring down his face, the tears pooling at the corner of his eyes. “...can’t stop it.” He coughs, wiping at the blood across his lips. “It won’t stop, Emily.”

She runs to the bathroom, grabbing a wad of toilet paper and not thinking twice about manipulating his face in her hands. One hand holding the back of his head while the other dabs the blood up. “We’re supposed to go to the hospital when this happens,” she reminds him. He’ll need platelets or something invasive but more than likely he’ll be submitted to an hour-long wait in the E.R. to be told it was the right thing to come in but altogether unnecessary.

He groans, not in pain but in the general theme of the awfulness he knows will ensue if she makes the decision they will be going to the hospital. To the cold beds and the wheelchairs.

“Water and bed,” she says, instead of what he’d thought would be her asking where his shoes and coat are. She smirks at him, knowing what he’s thinking and seeing the surprise written across his face. “We’ll tell them Tuesday about it,” she assures him. Tuesday when they’re probably going to tell them he needs to come back in another day. When they see the supplements aren’t working and he’ll probably need something invasive and painful. Then they’ll deal with the nose bleeds popping back (and that cough she’s noticed but has let convince himself she hasn’t noticed).

“Bed,” she says again when the words seem like they haven’t processed.  

“Bed,” he repeats thickly, her fingers clamped over his nose thickening the nasally quality of his voice.

They shuffle down the hall, Emily’s fingers curled around his hip and his arm over her shoulder. Heads bent in towards one another. He whispers an apology, feet hardly leaving the ground, and leaning on her a little too much. He imagines the beginning. When he’d laid on his bed, thinking about her and thinking about his father. The way the cancer had eaten his father away and he can see in the mirror, he watches closely and knows the same thing is happening to him.

His father had done what he can’t-- ended it.

It had been Aaron who found him. So strange to see such a violent man seemingly… peaceful. His memory is a patchwork of things, his childhood full of too many greys of undetermined moments, but that sight. Seeing his father’s lifeless body in the high-backed office chair he’d spent so many waking hours in has been unforgettable.

He can’t do that. He won’t make Emily see that or leave that sort of memory for Jack. It’s important to him that it be like this.

“You have to sit up.” She props him up on pillows, ignoring his complaints. The blood has slowed and there’s nearly no point in wiping it away. He just watches her, vacantly staring back as she tucks the blankets around his chest. “Sleep,” she instructs, kissing his forehead. “Do you want me to stay?” He knows she will. She’ll sleep right here beside if he asks but… no. He’ll be okay.

It snows.

He watches it from the only window in his room, she’d pulled the curtains back before she fell asleep. He sees her and her giant shadow with the yellowing light from the street pouring in, eating out the deep consuming darkness looming over him. Until today he’d only ever suspected she was dragging his office chair into his room but he’d never caught her, always waking up after she’d moved the chair back and gone back to her own room. Leaving behind only the three deep dents in the carpet where she’d sat for hours. There had been so many nights he’d spent sitting and watching Jack sleep as a baby-- some irrational fear that the baby would stop breathing in the middle of the night and so long as he was watching Jack would keep breathing. He needn’t ask silly questions, he knows she’s using the same irrational approach.

Clenching his teeth he tries to bite down against a cough breaking out, afraid to wake her some such peaceful slumber. He pulls himself upright, curling down as his temples throb, and his body shakes violently beyond his control. A goal in-sight-- the water on his nightstand and getting Emily back to bed-- he powers through it and overcoming the weakness of his body feels so satisfyingly familiar. To days when there was pain but no cancer and he loves the triumphant that washes over him.

The water is warm and stale, left there by Emily yesterday when she’d forced him to take his medicine (even though he thought he’d throw it back up and he had). It kills the ache of his throat, dry and bitter, and he clears his throat softly to take the rest away.

“Emily,” he whispers. Moving his lips cracks the dried blood on his face he grimaces as he smells the thick scent of the blood. “Emily, get up.” He won’t leave her to sleep in this chair all night. He’s made the mistake plenty of times, knows it’s no good. “Come on,” he touches her arm, palm against her bare skin. She jumps his touch is so cold. “Sorry, sorry--”

She really sees him and jumps even harder. Yelping in shock. “Oh! Oh, God!” She wraps her arms around her chest, breathing quickly, startled. “Fuck Aaron,” she shouts. “You scared the shit out of me!”

He rubs his nose, tries to dislodge the blood.

“Is-- Is something wrong?” She pushes her hair back from her face, “are you okay?”

God. He’s hurt her irreparably, hasn’t he?

“Nothing.” He offers his hand, even if the hand trembles visibly enough in the low light. “Nothing, I promise.” She takes his hand, allowing him to guide her up. “You shouldn’t sleep in that chair,” he informs her softly but still with that distinct fussiness to his voice.

She looks back to the chair and up at him, “I guess I’ve finally been caught.”

He smiles. The first time he’d put two and two together he was angry. Overly frustrated, seething over something so… sweet. She’d sat with him through the night, watching him sleep, just trying to be close and he’d been mad. Not now, though, now he can see how tired he is. He can feel her hand still clutching his. “It’s okay,” he shrugs. “It’s late, let’s go to bed.”

She frowns, brows crinkling as she looks around them in confusion. Sleep riddled brain torn between the rational thought that concludes he’s right, she should go to bed, and the worry she’d felt hours ago about leaving him in this room. She’s not sure what to do now, which thought to travel and act upon.

“Do you--” he looks down at the thrown back covers on his bed. Remembers this wouldn’t be the first time she’s slept in that bed beside him. Likely more than just the memories he can think of now, unprompted. He blushes, embarrassed he even had the thought but she looks down to and nods.

She doesn’t want to leave him alone.

He doesn’t want to be alone.

They start side by side, neither entirely comfortable. She falls back to sleep first. He can feel her breath even back out and within a few minutes she turns over towards him, her hand resting over his wrist. He looks back to his office chair, the giant back of the old thing. She’s so afraid to lose him, they all are. He can feel it in every little thing that they do. How Dave lingers a little more after each visit, hugs him a little longer. The way Derek looks at him, how close he stands. Even in Spencer and Jack who soak up his attention like flowers to the sun. Turning and facing him, finding him wherever he is to enjoy just one more moment. Hanging on to his every word.

He wakes soaked in sweat, shaking as Emily talks to someone rushed, too quickly to sound anything but frantic. Afraid.

He opens his eyes as a sea of red flushes through the room, the shrill of an ambulance breaking up the serene silence the snow has muffled the Earth with.

“Aaron?”

She’d woken to him struggling to breathe. Both had turned over in the night and while she’d turned toward him, he’d turned away from her. Her arm over his hip, her head against his back, they were nearly welded together. If not for the proximity-- his arm pulling hers closer, her leg in-between his, she likely wouldn’t have heard him at all. But she’d felt him jerk in his sleep, fighting his body for air.

And he wouldn’t wake up.

“Aaron?” she calls a second time. She should go open the front door, let the EMTs in but she’d seen a sliver of his eye. His cheek is cold against her palm but she cries, tears streaming when he opens his eyes. When he turns his face into her palm. “There you are,” she beams. His eyes slide back shut. “Stay awake,” she asks, her nerves getting the best of her and she shakes him. Pleased when his eyes open back up and find her. “Stay awake, don’t you want to see the snow?”

The stretcher is cold and he mourns the loss of his thick comforter but the drugs flooding into his blood makes him loose, pliable. He doesn’t fight being taken from his bed, even if he longingly looks back for it. Lets them strap his legs down place an oxygen mask over his face. The snow means nothing to him. He hates it, honestly, but as they step outside, Emily tossing his winter coat of him like a blanket, he looks up at it falling down on him.

Her hand slips away and he looks back for her, confused. She stands in the street, face turned to the fat snowflakes falling around her. All the light coming from street lamps high above her head. He’s reminded of a lifetime ago. When she’d gone against his orders and gone to investigate Michael’s death with a ferocity he hadn’t seen coming. When she’d avoided his eye and said she’d understand if he wanted her badge and gun after that little show. She’d forced his hand, made him call the Vatican, and consider his own allegiances. To when they were two very different people than they are now-- younger, naive… alone.

She catches up to them, slipping her hand back into his. Her fingers freezing cold as they curl around his. “Don’t you love it?” she asks. She looks back out, watching until the doors shut behind them and all she has is a tiny window.

He doesn’t but she does.

She looks young, weightless.

In a way, yes, he does love it.

@laiba-the-person, @emily-hottie-prentiss, @unionjackpillow, @clockedstar, @baumarvel, @blakeprentiss, @qvid-pro-qvo, @aaron-hotchner187, @ssalavellan, @lazyhater 

[kickingstonesandbones]

What I’ve gathered from the 3 Episodes bc some of y’all seem confused or asked

Disclaimer: For the past 10+ years, I've made it a hobby of mine to thoroughly analyze fictional characters and plots, so I feel pretty confident in predicting characters. There rarely are plot twists that can surprise me. BUT that is obviously no guarantee that I am absolutely perfect at it and never wrong! Nor do I believe that I am always correct, just quite confident in reading between the lines with characters.

There are some theories and posts I've seen (on different platforms) that, I think, are doing a good job of getting the general gist of stuff, but nonetheless, they all seem to be overlooking minor details that can turn around meanings (like the way Hoshino acts). Also, many of you seem to either be ignoring or unaware of the mindset of older JAPANESE generations (of Insanely Rich Families™).

So yeah, I am just going to put statements/theories I’ve seen and go through them one by one. They’ll be obviously marked, so just read the ones you’re interested in? (Also, I absolutely love a good discourse, so if you have something that would challenge my own theories, or would like to discuss something that I haven’t touched up on in this OR want me to elaborate on something, feel free to comment, reblog, or dm me with your opinion or question! Whatever you’re more comfortable with 😊)

#1 Haru killed the woman. (I see this as a kind of side-comment a lot?)

#2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now. (Why it’s more complicated than that and also different than you think – explained more lengthily than I intended to, but still shorter than I could’ve lol)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists.

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now? (Just brain farts, pls kinda ignore this one haha I just wanted that one theory written down to get back to it)

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General... (aka Daisuke’s behavior in Ep 3 explained)

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected. (I haven’t seen a single post about the 1998 Files and the Parents in this context, for some reason, and was wondering.)

I’ll put a Read More here because this is going to be long, very long.

#1 Haru killed the woman.

Absolutely not true. (I do see people mention that like “he killed her in self-defense” in case you're thinking "well duh, Sherlock.") Choice of words is ALWAYS important.

In Episode 2 when Haru and Daisuke talk on the stairs, Daisuke relays information about Haru. He says, "you misfired and seriously injured the target" when talking about the reason why Haru is not in First Division anymore.

Now, Daisuke does not seem the type to sugarcoat facts, which means he would not leave out "which resulted in their death" at the end, or just straight up say "you misfired and killed the target." Now, 'seriously injured' means that the woman's life WAS in grave danger and she was close to dying, but she DID NOT DIE in the end. She survived. Being shot in the chest does not mean inevitable death. In fact, you can survive injury to any organ (even the brain) EXCEPT for the stomach (bc inner walls are covered in a protein that protects the stomach from digesting itself -> injury that would let the acid leak from it -> acid will burn away other organs -> you die of multiple organ failure bc you cannot stitch up a stomach)

It hits her in the right side of her chest, maybe even right below the shoulder. It’s hard for me to tell the exact position from the frames. But anyway, it most likely pierced through her right lung, which in itself is already deadly enough. But yeah, she did not die. No one in the anime ever even alludes to it.

I think some people believe he actually accidentally killed the woman because Haru was so devastated by it IMMEDIATELY. No, it wasn’t because of that per se. He was absolutely devastated because he. LOVES. PEOPLE. (As shown by his entire conversation with the boy on the train before he gets off and his faith in the good in people in Ep 3.) And it just left him so shaken that he (seriously) injured an innocent person. (In his eyes innocent because someone who is about to shoot you out of anger/other strong emotions is not necessarily innocent to me but that is an entirely different discussion.) Anyway, I think he was most shocked about the fact that he had pulled the trigger on her out of reflex (because he instinctively knew she WAS going to shoot him DEAD in that moment and his body reacted before he could think about it – as his immediate reaction to shooting her shows).

See the absolute shock in his eyes? Like he only realized what he did right after shooting her. Reflex.

 #2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now.

Yes, but no. I don't quite agree - and I don't agree mostly with the explanations given why (but also parts of the statements). And the reason for that is simply Hoshino's different facial expressions and exact choice of words in the interactions between them. To me, he seems like the type who would have an indifferent kind of face most of the time since I literally screenshotted every single scene with him (solely for this analysis lol), and he does have variation in expression, but only a little bit most of the time. His feelings are kinda subtle.

But before I explicitly explain what I mean, let me define something. 'Being torn' about something in general means that one cannot decide between two things, mostly two opposite (or at least quite different) things. And since some say Hoshino 'feels torn,' it would mean he would have two opposing feelings towards Haru, which I honestly don't think is true. It is just one very complex feeling that manifested over time.

Let me start by how Hoshino views Haru.

Haru is Hoshino's senior (senpai). Hoshino is Haru's junior (kohai). As we can see in the flashback in Ep 3 on the rooftop, Hoshino admires Haru. Like, this baby has complete and utter admiration in his eyes.

(He likely also thinks in that moment that Haru is insane, but that is besides the point right now.) He admires Haru for being able to do things fearlessly that he hesitates about. He looks like he’d like to be just like Haru as well. He looks up to him.

Then, the incident of Haru shooting the woman happens. Haru leaves the First Division and 'gets demoted' to the MCPTF. The two of them only speak to each other with higher level (distant relationship) honorifics. (I have a point about Hoshino calling Haru senpai in the first episode, but I will get to that.) Why they fell back into stranger honorifics will get more obvious in my second main point.

In the flashback we get in the third episode,

we get a Hoshino who stays on the side, also looking kind of dejected. I do not think that he is disappointed or angry at that moment. He just stares at his senpai in silence. Since he admires Haru so much, I guess he always wanted to be a cop JUST LIKE Haru, so he is... grieving? with Haru. I don't really know how to put it into words, but you could say he is HURTING by seeing his amicable, precious senpai BEATEN. Do not forget that Takei (Haru’s former superior) also puts a reassuring hand on Haru's shoulder. This interaction shows that they DO NOT blame him. (I am saying this bc I've seen people angry about what Hoshino says to Haru in Ep 3, saying "why would he hate him so much now and be so mean" - he doesn't. He absolutely. Does. Not. Hate. Him. He is frustrated and disappointed, but not hateful towards Haru.)

Having explained that, let me get to my first main point here:

I don't think I need to lay out Haru's work ethics for you guys because they're so clearly shown in the anime. So considering those work ethics of his, I truly believe that Haru ASKED to be removed from the First Division (which is why I put gets demoted in '   ' earlier) and be switched to one where he does not need a gun. Hence, he's now in the MCPTF. We do not SEE him getting demoted after that incident, which is why I firmly believe that that was Haru's decision and that he was persistent about it. When he packs up and leaves

he does not seem sour to HAVE to leave the division, but rather that he still seems to dwell over the reason WHY he's packing his stuff up. (You can see turmoil in his eyes. And that he’s lost in thoughts. He seems regretful, but also kind of set on something.) I mean the train scene really shows just HOW MUCH it still affects him

so I am pretty certain that he's thinking about exactly that and that he does not deserve to be a cop because of what he has done in that exact moment, and so on.

My second main point:

My first main point is exactly the reason why I think Hoshino acts the way he does towards Haru. It explains his expression that we see as Haru packs up his stuff.

He does not look angry.

He is hurt. And disappointed.

He feels let down.

In a sense, also betrayed. Like this isn’t reality.

The oh-so-great senpai, whom he has always looked up to all this time, who seemed so amazing, is pulling in his tail between his legs. Giving up. And running away. Just like that. Just because of ONE mistake. One mistake ALL of them probably would've made in that situation if they had been in his shoes. It made him realize that the senpai he had idolized all this time might not be as invincible as he had thought.

And. It. Hurts. Hoshino. To. No. End. (I mean, just zoom in on the pic and look at those eyes.)

I don't think he has ever let Haru know just how hurt he was just watching him leave and accepting the work he'd do in MCPTF (which is literally just desk work and filling in missing men force, as far as we’ve seen), which probably would mean that he let the hurt foster and foster inside of him until it slowly started to turn into coldness/curtness towards Haru. (Also could be that they fought before Haru left, which would also explain some remarks Hoshino makes.) He was hurt, and he somehow needed to show it.

Hoshino looked up to Haru, and was left feeling let down by his former partner. That stings. Deeply.

(I mean you can literally see the small changes in his eyes. His expressions slightly soften and harden. But the words tend to be more direct and harsh. And honestly, that is the result of disappointment and hurt speaking. But nevertheless, he still lets Haru and Kamei listen in (bottom right corner) even though he does look slightly annoyed; probably because he knows that he won’t be able to get rid of them, especially Haru. So the admiration is still there – probably had never left – which can give him moments where he “gives in”. Also, look at the bottom left corner.)

I mean Hoshino probably used to ALWAYS call Haru senpai for a longer period of time because he NEVER ever calls Haru senpai in the anime except for that one time when Haru startled him in the first episode. People in general react out of reflex and instinct whenever they're startled because reflexes and instincts are not a thing your brain CONSCIOUSLY processes. Those are subconscious responses.

If you don’t believe me, here is the other times Hoshino has called Haru – and when he did, it was literally only “Kato-san” (there aren’t a lot of other examples bc he literally only says Haru’s name like four times so far, but when he is NOT surprised, he addresses Haru like this):

(Completely taken aback by Haru just stealing the ear-piece, surprised face, afterwards not even aware that he did call Haru senpai, which he never does again (so far))

Which means Hoshino did not (more like COULD NOT) think about the way he'd call Haru, so that "senpai" slipped past his lips out of pure old habit. (Which goes to show that they used to be really close.) I'm not crying, you are.

.

I also have to bring up that first conversation on the train in Ep 3.

Kato: “That was rather fast.”

Hoshino: “Why are you here?” (he says Kato-san in Japanese, not “you”)

K: “I happened to be on the train. The perp is male. He said he failed the college entrance exam, so his age is somewhere around 19 or 20. I’m guessing he’s from somewhere around Hyogo.”

H: “How do you know-”

K: “I was sitting next to him, until moments ago.”

H: “Any other information?”

K: “No. I only started talking to him when I was close to getting off.”

H: “Understood. We at First Division will be handling this case. Kato-san, please take your leave.”

K: “It’s alright. I’m not a stranger in his light. Let me do it.”

H: “Do you have any authority to be on this crime scene?”

K: “What do you mean?”

H: “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

Look exactly at the changes in their eyes in each single picture here. Notice how Hoshino goes from surprised to somewhat indifferent to challenging? Someone might even argue that he looks angry, hostile, or that it’s resentment in his eyes, but considering that he is asking “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” it is neither of those, because he is challenging Haru to defend himself. But Haru doesn’t answer, and they just stare each other down for a few seconds.

Just by the way Hoshino says it, and the way Haru reacts and how it immediately triggers the flashback/memory afterwards, I think this might actually be something Haru has said TO Hoshino (about himself) back then when Hoshino might've tried to change Haru's mind on leaving the First Division (that he does not deserve to be a cop, investigate crime scenes like that, etc). At least that interaction and just how Haru reacts to it seems to be implying that to me.

I refuse to believe Hoshino did not try at all to persuade and hold back Haru back then (I mean just that pic of Hoshino staring at Haru when he was packing his stuff and leaving the division literally SCREAMS INTO YOUR FACE), so I believe Haru told him at least SOMEWHAT how he feels about the whole thing, and I think Haru probably definitely said something along those lines. Like, he “did not deserve to investigate crime scenes LIKE THAT” (I mean the trauma and the train scene are literally the same hostage scenario with the culprit having a firearm (even if the kid's was a model gun and not real)) nor that he “deserved to be a cop any longer (because cops wouldn’t hurt the innocent).” He might’ve said something like that to Hoshino, which only frustrates and disappoints the latter further.

So in this complicated mess, what is it that Hoshino is actually feeling? That mixture of hurt, disappointment, betrayal and being let down has manifested itself into frustration. Hoshino is frustrated with Haru.

He’ll probably explode (in Haru’s face) at some point in the anime, too.

(I think Hoshino is an interesting character.)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists

I was so confused about that scene in the beginning and had to check whether I WAS actually watching the third episode lol

The main thing I get from it is that it's entirely about INFORMATION. That is probably entirely because the Hong Kong episode got deleted and instead we'll get that in a drama CD? In Hong Kong, Haru probably would've learned that HEUSC is an AI butler, not a real one, and how to use him. (Among other things.) I mean, he somehow needs to first get to learn about HEUSC before he can use him for the whole train scenario later in the episode? And that hadn't been done yet, and probably would've happened in Hong Kong, but we aren't getting that in the anime so that information needed to be given another way. Which is probably why that first scene even exists. If anyone knows well about script writing for that and how that in general works, and knows more about this, please let me know, I am interested in learning lmao

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now?

I do not want anyone to comment that it was confirmed that they are siblings or some shit. NOTHING has been confirmed. She still could be his wife. She also just could be his sister. Or a cousin. We will get to know eventually, but as of right now, NOTHING AT ALL HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. REMEMBER THAT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU HATE IT.

I, in general, do not really care for ships. So idgaf if she is his sister or wife, but I DO have a theory of my own. And it is all because of how Daisuke's grandmother introduced herself.

DAISUKE'S grandmother. Not THEIRS. Not Daisuke's AND Suzue's grandmother. ONLY Daisuke's.

So this either means a harsh canon awakening for shippers, or it MIGHT mean something entirely else. (And I have 3 points to make here.)

(1) That she does not accept Suzue as a grandchild. Now, she did not look like she harbors resentment towards Suzue and wished she wasn't present at all or didn't exist. Buuuuut.... Suzue might be an illegitimate grandchild? Like, I know that sounds wild, but hear me out.

Children sometimes look more like one parent rather than the other (or a parent’s side). Sometimes, not always, but often enough. Animes in general do not make love interests or parents look almost identical. (But then again, you could never know with the devs of this one lmao) Soooo... It could be that they either look like their father, or their mother. And the respective parent had an affair, resulting in Suzue. And why I believe it would be Suzue, if one of them actually would be the illegitimate child? Because she is younger than Daisuke, and the way the grandmother treats HIM. (Honestly, if Daisuke would be the illegitimate child, 1. Grandma wouldn't claim him 2. Why would the other parent stick around for two more years to have another child with a cheater?) Which could be why - considering the mindset of older Japanese generations - why she only introduced herself as Daisuke's grandmother. And also why she is so immensely strict with him. In her eyes, he would be the only heir to the family. So she has to raise him to be a responsible man whom she can hand over the company to with peace of mind.

(2) Daisuke and Suzue are actually married. So get over it in this case. (And don't you DARE hate on a great character (again) because of that, otherwise I'll only refer to ya'll as salty hoes from them on.)

(3) We all (read: I) might be interpreting too much into it and it literally means nothing at all, and she just introduced herself that way because they were going to talk about Daisuke because of his new work place and since Daisuke and Haru are partners. For this case, I already have my wig, red nose, and make up ready 🤡

If I am being honest, (1) does not seem too likely to me – just something I randomly thought of. I actually think it’s just simply (3). But I am presenting it for the VERY small chance that (1) could actually be true lmao I bet I will cringe hard at it later

Highly likely: Since Haru would be more involved with Daisuke than Suzue because of work, it could be that she just found it more logical to introduce herself as his grandma, rather than theirs, so yeah… like I’ve said, these are just brain farts and I just wanted to have them written down lol

EDIT: I’ve been made aware that there seems to be an error in the translation. Since it is too much of a pain to add even more pics on mobile, I will just relay the information of the tweet. You can find the link to the tweet in the comments though. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I am dependent on the translation, so errors can occur, which makes me happy when people point something like this out to me. Basically, what Kikuko is actually saying in Japanese is that she’s the grandma, but she leaves out the pronouns - therefore not really saying whose grandma she is - so it could refer to both of them. Like I said, (1) doesn’t seem likely to me anyway lol

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General...

Are strict. Are very conservative. Especially insanely rich families like the Kambe's. Kikuko is NOT strict with him because she has a bad personality or because she is inherently mean or something. (Though she does seem to consider him a bit irresponsible because she calls him selfish)

(Also notice how she asks “so hasn’t he” instead of “he hasn’t been, has he?” which means she always expects him to cause trouble for everyone. This goes to show that Daisuke can never do enough or do good enough for her, which also explains his character a bit since his grandma took care of him since his parents died, but my point here is not to analyze his entire behavior.)

The Japanese have a culture of respect. Respect your elders. Unconditionally. And grandparents of insanely rich families like Daisuke's also demand respect, which means not talking back, or DISOBEYING THEIR ORDERS. Which brings me to the next point (for which I have written this one because y’all might be misinterpreting Daisuke’s behavior, which is exactly what I meant in the beginning with “ignoring or being unaware of the mindset of older Japanese generations”)...

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Sorry to burst the bubbles.

I see everyone going on about them now being partners, and Daisuke trusting his life with Haru’s judgement.

The second part, yes… kinda at least.

The first? Not so much.

Let me talk about the first half of the sentence first. Like the point before this clarifies – unconditional, non-questioning respect, and no disobedience. Which means that Daisuke would NOT go against the orders of his grandmother. By helping Haru with that case and listening to him, being coached, is literally just him obeying Kikuko. (He might also think that it would be better to just follow before Haru rats him out to his grandma for a second time.)

(I do bet though that that will soon change and be genuine!)

Now, with the part about trusting his life to Haru’s judgement… I am not sure whether I can properly explain this the way I mean it, so I just hope it will make sense. I think Daisuke kind of trusted Haru’s judgement on the boy, but also trusted his own judgement just a little more than that. I think he just made logical deductions from what he witnessed inside (reported that a person was down and that they were probably killed by the boy, then it turns out he is doing all that for his sister’s surgery, then it turns out that gun is not real (after causing a distraction) and nobody is actually injured, but then he gets his hand on a real gun (Hoshino’s) and points it their direction in a panic, and Daisuke notices Haru cannot shoot the boy, so he deducts that if the boy knows that his sister will be safe, he will calm down and the situation will be completely de-escalated, so he steps forward and states he will pay for it (he does not really care about spending money as we all know lol) and stands with confidence because he knows flinching or getting nervous – or even blinking – would make it look like a lie and he would definitely NOT want that). Does this make sense? Like, Daisuke is such a calm and collected person, I doubt he would just absolutely BLINDLY jump into something because of someone else’s judgement BEFORE making sure that their judgement is correct by his own observation of the situation, which would be why he stayed behind Haru and just observed until a certain point where he was absolutely certain that it would be safe to do so.

Though what that DOES mean though would be that Daisuke would probably trust Haru’s judgement without being too skeptical about it soon. (I feel like this might’ve been that part in the Episode 3 Hong Kong PV 3 where a person (looks A LOT like Daisuke, so I’ll just assume it was him) was cuffed and Haru comes to the rescue. It might’ve been that Haru judged that person who ended up doing this to Daisuke to be shady, but Daisuke went ahead anyway and got himself in trouble, which was why he ended up cuffed to something, or something of that sort that would show Daisuke Haru’s judgement can be trusted.) [Edit: I used this simply as a theorizing example of how this could be done in another way with a scene that actually DOES exist (though we won’t be seeing that in the anime anymore it is still canon material) instead of having to make something up, and Hong Kong was just a good example to further show my point.]

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected.

In short: Yes, I think so.

In long: (This theory might be a far reach hahah)

The first time we see Haru enter the office of his division, he is carrying files.

'Unsolved Case Files 1998,' it specifically reads. We know Daisuke's parents have died and he says “it was in Japan” when that one day turned his life around (though we do not have any indication of year yet). I assume they were killed (and that it wasn’t an accident at all) and it is the true reason why he came back to Japan (even though yeeeaaars later bc he needed to be trained)

and why he specifically asked to be in the MCPTF BECAUSE Haru is in it (I’ll explain why soon), instead of the First or Second Division - as the superintendent general had suggested for him to be put into, which resulted in Daisuke declining the offer.

But we don't know much about Haru's family. Actually, NOTHING AT ALL. Now, I think that his parents are dead as well, and that their deaths are connected to Daisuke's parents' deaths. The fact that Haru looks through cold cases (or well, at least old cases), which is only briefly shown by showing the files he carried in the first episode, most likely is meant to be some "foreshadowing/hidden info given” kind of thing. Haru is possibly investigating his parents' (or at least a loved one's) death. His parents' death (if none of his parents were police officers themselves and therefore influenced him in that way) is possibly also the reason Haru became a police officer in the first place (even though he tells Daisuke that it is simply to "nab criminals," maybe specifically the criminals who have to do with that?).

Now, I said before that Daisuke asked to be in the same Division as Haru, not the MCPTF (though he names the division, not Haru’s name but you'll know why I'm saying that by the end of this. I don’t think he has immense interest in the division itself but WHO is IN IT). In the second episode, we get to know that Daisuke has a lot of information about Haru. During the case of Isezaki, we get to know during the interrogation that Daisuke obtains information about a person by having HEUSC scan a person's documentation item

or simply by asking HEUSC. 

We never see him doing that with Haru though (I also seriously doubt Haru would hand him any kind of ID, especially in the beginning lol), which brings me to the point that Daisuke probably already had obtained all of Haru's information before he had arrived in Japan; or maybe at the latest after the Bridge incident though I am pretty certain it was BEFORE arriving in Japan, just that maybe he didn’t know the face? Or maybe he even knew the face but didn’t care. (He probably knew more than just about the trauma and why Haru left the First Division, but Haru did not let him speak any further in that scene. It is unclear though, whether Daisuke would've kept talking or that being all of the information he would have delivered in that moment.)

Because Daisuke might already know from the start that their pasts are connected, while Haru is oblivious to it.

So, Daisuke wants to solve the murder of his parents, and he might think that the key to solving it might be by being around someone/doing it with someone who is also connected to it.

(I have no clue whether I am still making sense bc I haven’t slept and worked on this all night, going through the episodes again and again and at this point I am just extremely tired lol)

Like, I know by the fact that we are only 3 Episodes in that this might sound like a far reach BUT I seriously would not be surprised by this. The thing about storytelling is that at one point you would need to introduce the Motive™ of the story. Since animes have very limited time to tell the story in only 20 minutes, at least ALMOST everything in an episode sooner or later needs to give us that information; and honestly? They could’ve started this anime in ANY other way, but they chose to start by Daisuke telling us about his parents. And I honestly just think that it would be odd if that is not of greater importance in the whole story, so I think that that might be the motive that should be revealed within the first half of the anime. The devs seem like the kind of people who would give small hints for something like this (Daisuke’s parents, the 1998 Files) throughout the entire show and then SLAP it into the face of the ones who are unsuspecting in the second half of the anime, ESPECIALLY since they are so secretive with everything lmao I love them.

I am going to bed now, I’m so fucking tired lol

August 3, 2020

[just-ornstein]

Capp siblings, Tybalt, Juliette & Hermia ❤️💔🌈🔮🌷🍕

Ahhh my children! <3 Thank you for this ask!

Tybalt Capp: ❤️: OTP Mercutio/Tybalt... I mean is that even a surprise? Besides the enemies to friends to lovers trophe that I absolutely adore, reading Shakespeare, the play "Tybalt and Mercutio are Dead", watching the movies and their Sims bios/memories, I felt like both may have way more in common than they might think! Both the black sheep of their family, ton of responsibilities placed on their shoulders from a young age and in reality both simply want to be told that they're doing a good job. I think that once they'd put their Monty/Capp status aside and have a genuine conversation they'd quickly come to realize they're not that different at all!

💔: No OTP Honestly, I'm not too big on Tybalt with anyone but Mercutio (even though Puck/Tybalt can be kinda cute). However, I cannot for the life of me imagine Tybalt in a straight relationship, even makes me mildly uncomfortable because I so strongly headcanon him as gay. To anyone that does like him as straight, totally cool, more fun to you! In the end everyone plays Sims differently and as long as you're having fun that's all that matters. :D I just cannot imagine Tybalt as Straight myself haha.

🌈: Sexuality Ohhh, this dude is gay, very, very gay. He didn't realize for the longest time, just thinking he hadn't found the right girl yet, until well... He got to know Mercutio properly and he was shot with Cupid's arrow. A lot of frustration piled up that he didn't even realize had to do with the fact he was developing feelings for someone.

🔮: Something Random With some Occult ancestry on his father's side he may have more magic running in the family than he might think. ;) He's also amazing at fencing, something that was taught to him from an early age on and often used for self-defense... And sometimes simply to show-off. Cares a great deal about his family as well, like his sisters are his everything. A secondary Family Sim for sure!

🌷: Flowers or Plants They Like Tybalt has a lot of internal turmoil but he has some fond memories of picking flowers with his mom as a child. Forget-Me-Not was a common flower to be found and sometimes he still likes to be near them to be reminded of his mom. Amaryllis is also a flower he loves, planted in the Veronaville gardens his mom would sometimes pick a few pretty ones to put on his room. They represent pride and self-confidence. The name meaning 'to sparkle' because Cordelia loved seeing her son blossom into the young and loving person he was turning out to be. Sadly when she died his self-confidence went down the drain and he became way more agressive about trying to keep up that pride. These flowers are some he does keep on his room, or pick out when he sees them blooming in the garden to bring to his parents grave. Lastly Wolfbane also known as Aconitum. A beautiful purple flower often associated with Occults. This one I picked for him because I feel like that while they are beautiful, these flowers are often associated with a warning sign, to remain cautious. But even misantrophy and death. The colour purple is also associated with magic, richness and royalty (and all 3 of these flowers have pinkish-purple colours, or at least variations that have it). The reason why I picked these in particular? Well... It will later on become more apparent as the story progresses. ;)

🍕: Pizza Topping Onions, pepperoni and extra cheese!

Juliette Capp: ❤️: OTP I don't really have an OTP for her, but I do like her with Romeo and while I'm actually pairing Romeo with someone else for the first time. They're still a pairing that I think is cute and could definitely work on the long run. But they need to remain open and honest with each other. I don't interpret Romeo being a Romance Sim as him being unfaithful, but rather that he cares a great deal about romance, loves affection and may, be polygamous. Once they talk everything out I think they would literally die for each other, I mean hey, they're Romeo and Juliette! They'd be the type of super cutesy couple you'd see on the street, sharing ice cream, laughing, etc.

💔: No OTP I don't think I have a pairing for Juliette that I genuinely dislike. At least I haven't ran across anything that made me go: Ehhhh.

🌈: Sexuality As Straight as a pole! She might be bi-curious, but I think she would lean way more to men. She's also asexual!

🔮: Something Random Is actually very good at writing poetry and keeps several collections in her room, she would likely send them to Romeo or read them for him. And Romeo? Has kept every single one she's written for him in a specially assigned book in his room. He keeps them very close to him as they're very special. Juliette also probably doesn't even want to be the Heiress, but it appears she doesn't have much of a choice. She was raised to carry on the name, something she had been prepared for since birth. But she doesn't dare bring it up, most of it is probably placed in underlying insecurities. If she had someone she could talk to she would probably feel way more confident in her role.

🌷: Flowers or Plants They Like Sunflowers! Their brightness and colours just bring so much happiness to her and if it came to her she would probably have grown them in the garden of their mansion as well. Sunflowers also stand for faithfulness, loyalty and adoration, something which in my opinion greatly represents Juliette who's probably of the most supportive people you can have in your friend group.

🍕: Pizza Topping Tomatoes, cheese, olives, onions and mozzarella! If she's feeling especially daring green peppers on top of it as well.

Hermia Capp: ❤️: OTP Hermia/Puck or Hermia/Puck/Romeo! I wasn't too sure on Hermia/Puck at first until a friend of mine really managed to sell me on the idea. They're soulmates, very much meant to be together, loving to share knowledge with each other, tarots, fortune telling, magic, etc. They also love each other for everything that they are, even the flaws, trusting each other with everything. I cannot really say why I love Hermia/Puck/Romeo yet as it would be a major story spoiler, but I do think Hermia and Romeo have way more in common than one might think as well. c:

💔: No OTP Hermia/Mercutio, I simply cannot see it happening. While I think she may have held feeling towards him, they weren't deeply rooted and in the end Puck had always been her first love. Mercutio does eventually understand and move on from it as well. They remain close friends.

🌈: Sexuality She's bi and falls for someones personality. While she can develop crushes easily, she only falls in love deeply after developing a deep and emotional bond with someone.

🔮: Something Random Hermia is a trans woman, something she knew very early on. Her family and friends have been nothing but supportive! Hermia, despite what her interests may reflect is actually fascinated by magic, occults, sci-fi, etc. Similarly to Tybalt she's got magical ancestory and if stimulated it's very likely she might become one of the most powerful Witches the world has ever seen. She's always been interested in nature and Puck's fairy ancestory and likely would want to become a part of that world in the future as well.

🌷: Flowers or Plants They Like Unlike her siblings Hermia is moreso a succulent type of person. Being into magic and dating Puck she's started making herself more familiar with them, as well as herbs and spices, to try and get into making medicines and potions. Succulents are also way easier to take care off than flowers which can decay rather easily. If she had to pick a flower she'd like (although she would mostly use it for her hair or decorations) it would be a Sea Holly, which despite their prickly and torny exterior have beautifully dark colours, which is also great to be used in medicines.

🍕: Pizza Topping Mozzarella pizzas are her favourites, she also likes herbs on top of it for some additional flavours.

[faraway-in-headspace]

I?? I searched Chicken Choice Judy on google out of curiosity because it sounds oddly familiar like there’s a similar-sounding name and I found 4 websites selling the shirt design. But the descriptions on these pages are BUCK WILD??

Written version of the descriptions under the cut (very long).

[Begin ID

First image states:  Long ago, when I had hair, I was an undergrad living in a house with nine other men. Near as I can tell, three of them (not sure which three) never bought food, just lived off what they stole from the Chicken Choice Judy shirt But I will love this other seven. We had several house meetings about it, but nothing changed. One day, I came in from grocery shopping. By coincidence, all 10 of us were in the kitchen. I started putting my stuff away. 1st thing I pulled out of the bag was my half-gallon of milk. I opened the carton, took a couple of drinks from the carton, then gargled some of it, and spit it back in. I opened my tub of margarine and licked the whole surface. By now, the room chatter had stopped because the other nine jaws had dropped open.) To your original question, those specific topics would take several years to build, as they depend on several layers of pre-requisites, which would require either that more advanced topics such as algebraic topology to be taught in elementary school, or that the buildup process happened blazingly fast during high school – both of which probably stretch the biological limits of what pre-teens and teenagers can reasonably be expected to accomplish. I spit on all my veggies, took the bread out of the package, and licked and spit on it, then carefully put it all back in the plastic bag. Remind teenage daughters to look through them before going on date with the boyfriend, in case they want to use one. I labeled it all and put it away. None of it was stolen. I never said a word, but I made it a point to repeat the performance anytime anyone was around to see it. Others began to emulate my approach and food theft stopped. Even I found it revolting, but it solved the problem. Works even better if you are sick or can at least make your thieving roommates think you are. While some cities are starting to reopen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the country are continuing to wear masks in public and practice social distancing. Vogue is committed to staying safe, and offering hopeful, optimistic content that highlights moments of camaraderie and exceptional acts of heroism from around the world. We are all looking for a little comfort too—be it a soothing Instagram account or a stylish creator on TikTok. It reminds us of the power of little things.

Second image states:  A couple of guests informed me my office was too minimalist and that they expected more things to be hanging on my wall the Chicken Choice Judy shirt besides I will buy this next time they visited my wife’s and my home. I kinda hope they held their breath while they were waiting for our next invitation. They both went on to backstab me and my wife pretty bad a few years later. Another set of guests tried to squat. I had driven them all the way from Florida to Massachusetts under the impression that they had jobs and a place to live lined up. They offered no money for gas, hotels on the three-day trip, or compensation for the inconvenience and effort. He even tried to weasel out of the dinner he offered as a thank you by forgetting his wallet. The dude got me off the streets years ago and I wanted to pay him back in some way, but my wife and I were in no position to have extra residents in our home. We just don’t have the room or money. I made all of this VERY clear and told my old buddy that we could only house them for a couple of days max. There are MANY other details, but the disrespectful thing my former friend said was wordless. As I was kicking them out and they were angrily loading stuff into my car to bring them anywhere but here, my buddy left his gigantic knife right in the center of my wife’s desk. Like that was supposed to make us change our minds and let them stay? In the days of dial-up, I had a family call and not be able to get through because we were online. They decided to show up unannounced. They literally caught me in my underwear as they were let into the apartment before I could even react to being rudely surprised. Some of my family members have a history of abuse, violence, and stalking, something at least one of the visitors, my mother, was quite aware of since she lived through it with me. Her tagalong friend decided to put in her two cents and tell me I should get a call waiting or a second line because they were trying to call me. That did it! I suddenly forgot I was just wearing underwear and angrily asked my mother’s friend if she was paying my phone bill. My mother-in-law, stepfather and mom’s friend beat a hasty retreat and NEVER did the pop-in ever again.

Third image states:  That was why when we did get to reality shows, Etro and then Dolce & Gabbana plus Jacquemus later in France, it was wonderful. Clothes are all about contact: As a wearer, you feel them on your skin, and as a watcher, you process them with your eye. The watching part can be done secondhand, but the Chicken Choice Judy shirt in contrast I will get this impact will always be second to the real thing. I read some commentators in the U.S. saying, “Too soon” or “Wear a damn mask!” which I always did, but these opinions while valid enough lack perspective. Milan and its surrounding region Lombardy went through what New York did but earlier. Through sagacious governmental management much more effective than that of the U.S., Italy has managed dramatically to flatten the curve across the rest of its territory. These shows just like the reopening of flights, stores, factories, and restaurants were symptomatic of recovery that, far from being taken for granted, is being tended to with vigilance and cherished with gratitude. The digital Fashion Weeks were better than no Fashion Weeks at all, but as an upgrade on the real thing? Nah. Like everyone, I missed the shows in the experiential sense this season. But for the first time since I began covering the collections several years ago, I didn’t miss a single brand or designer’s contribution to Paris Fashion Week. Which is to say, thanks to the Fédération’s online platform, I was able to watch every name on the haute couture and men’s calendars. This brand on-demand convenience not to mention being spared the logistical headaches of zigzagging across the city was pretty great. Also, everything was on time, from the films to the manner in which we filed our reviews. While efficiency can be satisfying, it’s not necessarily exciting. Ultimately, we had to accept that the focus this season wasn’t going to be the clothes but rather the brands conveying some combination of identity, process, and values. And in the absence of standardized criteria as in, showing a minimum number of looks, specifying a time range, it was interesting to observe how heterogeneous these experiments proved to be quasi–ad campaigns versus short films, conceptual or fantastical visions versus raw and documentary style. A proper kimono takes nearly an hour to put on – I’m sure most Japanese girls would much rather spend a few seconds and slip on a dress. Get survey responses from targeted consumers today.

Fourth image states:  Around a decade ago, not long after he started his own label, Massimo Alba made a great mistake. A batch of shirts and T-shirts he was working on that had already been garment-dyed one color were mistakenly exposed to another. Speaking at his showroom presentation this weekend, Alba said: “It’s very interesting to me that so many good things start out as mistakes like this.” That accident was to Alba what the Chicken Choice Judy shirt moreover I will buy this mold-infected petri dish was to Alexander Fleming: a stumbled-upon eureka that led to a career-defining course of the investigation. This collection featured a series of softly tailored jackets, corduroy pants, and shorts, plus light cashmere sweaters that were hand-overdyed two, and sometimes three colors. It’s a process that led to variations in tone that included acid-trip floods of purple on purple to subtle bleeding of magenta across mustard yellow. Like most of Alba’s garments, these dyed pieces appeared at first glance conventionally prosaic. The more attention you gave them, however, the more their exceptional qualities became evident. Take a pale blue jacket, for instance, which at that first glance seemed passingly related to a surgeon’s scrubs. To the hand it was light and almost textureless in its softness: The fabric was a cotton mousseline developed for Alba by Albini. Long-sleeved, in a delicately mottled finish of washed-out sky blue, it made for an ideal mid-summer shake in pink, sleeveless, it was an impactful shirting second skin. Other interesting developments this season included a cotton pant named the Myles with acutely kinking stitched gather at knee-level on both legs and another handsome pant, baggy in white poplin, with patch pockets. A blue tropical weight jacket named the Lenny, after Bernstein, was Alba’s interpretation of a bohemian creative’s ideal piece of workwear. Collarless shirts in ripstop linen and button-up short-sleeves in terry were further finely effective coups de théâtre. Alba is a self-deprecating yet dangerous designer: Try just one carefully chosen piece and that’s it, you’re spoiled for good because nobody else quite compares. The museum in Prague where this portrait is held describes the ring on her first finger as the ring given to her at her wedding. It’s not comfortable. Maybe a lot of girls think that a see-through blouse can attract the attention of boys or they think that it will make her look much smarter. Meghan has no dress sense: no knowledge of fabrics, fit, styles that flatter, proper tailoring, Her father raised her in L.A. Enough said. Her idea of dressing for an event is “dress up” like a little girl dressing up as a princess. Shiny! Tight! Celebrity “fashion” not elegant, just flashy.

/end ID]

[bigskydreaming]

how do you think the batfam might react if they find out about Mirage and Tarantula?

Tbh, I’m kinda all plum tuckered out on the Batfam finding out about Mirage and Tarantula against Dick’s most fervent wishes that nobody ever find out about that ever. I’ve talked about this a little in the past, but a survivor having the chance to CONTROL when and where they disclose about what happened to them and to whom, is like......soooo much more important for a lot of us than fic about this stuff tends to like....allow it to be. Its one of the most pivotal and powerful ways many survivors even just START to actually recover and come to terms with what happened, by choosing when and how people find out on THEIR terms, taking back control of their own life and their own agency one major choice at a time. And having that choice taken away from Dick too, with him usually not only having ZERO say in who finds out and when but with it more often than not happening in direct opposition to what he wants in that regard....

So like.....personally, I would just really like to see some more variety here. Some more narratives where people finding out happens because Dick’s READY to tell people, because he’s already done a good deal of healing on his own, been to therapy or like....he’s the one who survived this, so let him SURVIVE it and like.....give him a chance to be viewed as a SURVIVOR by his family and not just a victim when they do ultimately find out. Because he doesn’t need them to save him or patch him up, all he really truly needs is them to support him, and they can do that just as well if he’s already made inroads towards his own recovery by the time they find out or he tells them, rather than it just be like...what we so often end up seeing in fic. Where its like treated as matter-of-fact and a given that Dick’s just flat out self-destructing from this no matter how long its been since it happened, and he’s just refused to deal with it or even try to and he’s been running away from facing it ever since it happened, until....enter the family in fic, as they’re like, no, you gotta face it, and you haven’t been able to do that on your own and that’s why its a good thing we found out even though you really didn’t want us to or not yet or not like this, because you’re not handling it, you’re not coping, so you need people like us to like.....show/tell you how to do it right.

You know what I mean? I don’t think its intentional, but there’s a looooot of tendency in fic to like......just take it for granted that despite the fact that Dick has survived so many traumas and been one of the key figures in helping so many other people survive and process their own traumas as well, there’s just this kinda default assumption that in regards to this he’s just flat out broken and always will be....at least so long as he’s just trying (and failing) to handle it on his own, and that’s where the family comes in, even if Dick would really rather they didn’t, or at least not yet anyway.

And its not that Dick can’t benefit from his family and friends finding out so that they can support him and push back against the things he’s come to believe about himself as a result of internalizing his feelings that those situations were really his fault, etc.....its that there’s only so much he can benefit from their support when he only gets it because of...essentially, another kinda violation that compounds the pre-existing ones, as he’s denied the opportunity and the control/agency to be the one to decide who finds out about this and when and why. 

Like, there’s never gonna be an “Ideal Way” for it to go down, but the one thing that IMO is guaranteed to never be ideal and yet so often seems the only way we ever see this happening in fic is like....Dick yet again having no real say or decision in how his life is upended yet again, since this reveal would inevitably change so much about his dynamics with his family one way or another. 

And the thing is, at the end of the day, nothing about this narrative or how it plays out in fic is set in stone or an inevitability or like...the one true or right way for it to happen.....and yet....it only EVER seems to happen that one specific way: aka, against Dick’s expressed desire to have them find out while he’s still actively either trying to repress it/deny it ever happened or just he’s not denying it happened but he’s not remotely ready to face other people KNOWING.

Because like.....he’s not a real person. He’s a fictional character. And just like every other narrative he’s written into or the ways he’s depicted in both canon and fanfic....no matter how much we talk about characters being in character or mischaracterized, at the end of the day, the reality is there is no Core/Immutable TRUE choice that Dick would make in any given narrative or situation....

Because like every other character, he will only ever make the choices or behave in the ways that like....a writer chooses to write him.

So like much of my complaints/criticisms/whines-in-need-of-some-complementary-cheese about trends around and about him in stories.....

The problem I have isn’t with any one single specific way people choose to write him behaving or reacting in regards to this or any other narrative situation....

It lies more in just......how often there seems to ONLY be ONE way, singular, in which he’s ever shown reacting to this or behaving in regards to this, just like is true of the only like ‘one dynamic/backstory’ we tend to see in regards to Dick and Jason’s relationship in the early years before Jason’s death. Or the ONE way people seem to view the aftermath of the Forever Evil and Spyral situation, or the ONE way that people focus on the Tim and Damian and Robin/Red Robin situation playing out.

Its not that like, there’s NO room for any of these takes or narratives surrounding Dick’s side of things.....

Its that there only ever really seems to be ONE take on any of these extremely complicated and messy events and points in his stories and life, and like....one ONLY. And that’s it. That’s all there is to it, everything for the most part tends to be just a hundred, a thousand minutely diverging variations of what amounts to the one big “True Dick Grayson Reaction/Choice” where its just taken as a given that this is how it would happen here, when it comes to each and every one of these major story arcs/plot points. Fics mostly just seem to differ in execution while the core decisions or behavior driving the story action or acting as a catalyst for the confrontation/conversation a fic seems aimed at showcasing.....like, there’s this underlying sameness to so many of them. Where its treated like a given that There Can Only Be One when it comes to ways Dick might react or behave in regards to a certain event or choice.....that his characterization is so formulaic, so like....rigid and allowing for little to no flexibility in how he’s written because in the eyes of so many in fandom his true characterization is so immutable, so....predetermined that there just isn’t ROOM in his character concept for him to end up making any other choices than the ones its taken for granted he’d make.

So I guess ultimately, much like with every other similarly framed point or event in Dick’s life and stories, my ideal preference here is just more VARIETY. Writers actually flexing their creative muscles and stretching to EXPLORE new ways of Dick reacting to various things and new ways of other characters reacting to Dick. Mixing up dynamics more, subverting the expectations that are SO expected in so many things pertaining to him that like, we often can predict exactly where Dick’s character is going to go next in a fic or what his next move or words are going to be, and there’s a certain point at which something crosses the line from someone’s characterization being spot-on and someone’s characterization being......limited. Confining.

Personally, and this is 100% at the root of my frequent criticisms of Dick in fanon and why I won’t just let it go, lol, is that I’m never remotely surprised to hear fans of other characters say that they find Dick’s character dull or one-note or two-dimensional or just not as compelling as the other characters, not as......packed with potential to be taken in a hundred different directions or to react to things in surprising yet surprisingly-still-fitting ways that readers don’t see coming but don’t feel is like, out of left field when viewed in hindsight either.

Why should it surprise people that so many readers and fans view Dick this way when......he’s so often WRITTEN this way, only ever falling into extremely predictable patterns and sticking to a lane that’s clearly defined as not just HIS lane but like....the ONLY lane most people can - or at least are willing to - imagine for him.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. People find fanon Dick to be dull and uninspired because like.....he’s pretty much oftentimes written TO be those things, particularly in comparison to his more ‘vibrant’ fandom favored brothers. Nobody’s ever going to find themselves pleasantly surprised by a depiction of Dick Grayson when Dick Grayson’s depictions are so frequently limited to being just exactly what most people expect and not a single thing besides that.

So to bring this back around to your initial ask, I think the Batfam’s reaction to finding out, much like is true of any situation if tackled creatively enough.....can be literally anything a writer wants it to be. I would hope most of us would want that reaction to be supportive, lol, but even more than that just in general, for me, personally, I would love to see more where they’re supportive, yes, but that support is expressed not by them taking CHARGE of the situation, but by them, y’know....SUPPORTING. Standing back, waiting for DICK to tell them what he actually needs from them, wants their support to look like or take shape as, because he is in fact a grown man who is extremely capable in his own right and prides himself on being tremendously self-sufficient, and personally, I wish writers would just STOP TAKING THAT TRAIT AWAY FROM HIM. Or worse yet, like....punishing him for it.

It honestly does seem to me like there’s this unspoken undercurrent in so many fandom posts and fanfics where you can kinda just FEEL an author or poster like.....wanting so badly to just come out and say that in their opinion, Dick’s precious autonomy is actually his own worst enemy, and if he’d just stop being so stubborn and insisting on doing things his way or on his own all the time, he probably wouldn’t end up enduring half as much of the traumatic shit he does.

Which, I mean.....kinda inevitably leads directly into the victim-blaming we SO, SO often see with his character, where fans and other characters are both equally in a hurry to blame himself for anything and everything from Having Amnesia Wrong to being tortured, killed and then emotionally and physically browbeaten into making a Bad Decision He Should Feel Badly About but also Totally Responsible For Cuz No One MADE Him Do It, etc, etc. 

It all spills forth from and feeds back into this endlessly repeating loop that people have kinda penned him into with intent, because what better way to imply that Dick should always just do what his friends and family want him to do and tell him to do instead of like, kicking up a fuss and making a conflict out of it.......than by showing without telling that "see what happens when Dick DOESN’T just let his family tell him what to do and go along with their ‘suggestions’/what they want gracefully?” This. This is what happens. Poor guy ends up traumatized YET AGAIN because he insists on making his own choices and those choices as we can all clearly see are so often the wrong choices, so really, stepping back from the driver’s seat of his own life and letting his family take the wheel is only in Dick’s best interests as much as anyone else’s.

After all, whether its Bruce firing Dick or Dick ‘staying away for years’ or not being the best/ideal brother for Jason right there on the page in no uncertain terms or giving Jason carte blanche to do whatever he wants upon his return or making Damian Robin without asking Tim first and not believing Tim when he said he was sure Bruce was still alive or not just refusing to go along with Bruce’s plan to keep everyone believing he was dead after Forever Evil but at the same time also not just caving to Bruce’s wishes and instead fighting Bruce on that so hard that poor Bruce HAD to get physically violent with him to get Dick to do what was right until it wasn’t right later when everyone else hated him for it, as well as not just deciding he was instantly and fully 100% on board with believing these total strangers when they told him, as Ric Grayson, just who he was now and what his life as a superhero was like and how he should have no problem just seamlessly stepping back into the roles and shoes he according to their claims usually fills effortlessly and thus has no reason to object to now, despite having literally no memories or internalized awareness of the decade and a half of life experiences that serve as the foundation all of that was built upon.....

I mean, when you think about it, 100% of Dick’s conflicts with his family (and coincidentally, also 100% of the source of most other fans’ gripes about him) come from one thing only: him making up his own mind about what to do or feel or think instead of just automatically prioritizing whatever one of his family wants him to do or feel or think about any given situation.

So wouldn’t everyone just be so much happier and pleasant if he would just stop being a silly goose and give up making such a big deal about his vaunted independence and personal agency?

BUT I DIGRESS.

LOL, no, but you get what I mean. So going back to topic for the second time, hopefully with a bit more staying power this time.....I think there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever that the Batfam can’t be realistically and believably written as being every bit as supportive of Dick when they find out about Tarantula and Mirage as Dick is supportive of them at other times and in other ways.

So really, its just a matter of WANT, and personal prioritizations of what that support might or should look like.

And for me, personally, on this topic and pretty much every other potential Dick Grayson-centric story topic, but ESPECIALLY on this topic......I personally would just like to see more of the Batfam being supportive of Dick while he’s dealing with a trauma, but with that support taking the form of them stepping BACK and like....waiting and listening for him to tell them what HE needs from them, what HE wants from them, what form their support can take that will be of most use to him according to HIS wants, aims and attempts at recovery. Instead of them - as they so often seem written as - stepping invasively INTO his space without so much as pausing to see if they’re welcome, or like, if they’re just making things worse or potentially just retraumatizing him by barging in all bull in a china shop even while still having only the vaguest clue what the situation even is at this point, which makes their certainty they have a better idea of what Dick needs and should be doing right now than he does himself, like.....pure, unbridled arrogance and nothing else. Hubris.

(Y’know, kinda like how I make a big deal about Jason punching Dick upon his return from Spyral, because its almost like its not even just that Punching Your Family Is Bad And People Should Stop Making Jason Do It, but there’s also the pesky little implications of how Dick might perceive that no matter how calmly he took it......given that like.....he was literally beaten by his father into doing the thing that pissed off and hurt the rest of his family just as Dick had always expected it would.....and now here he was literally getting beaten by his brother for......caving to doing the thing Dick always knew would piss off and hurt the rest of them and thus he only submitted to doing after being physically and emotionally beaten into it by his father. Of course I harp on Jason punching Dick there, it was him punishing Dick for doing not what Dick wanted, but what he had to be essentially punished by Bruce into agreeing to do it in the first place. It wasn’t just gross as fuck victim blaming and heaping further physical violence on a guy who’s been decked by four out of five family members as is, it was literal on the page proof that Dick simply can not win where either the other characters or most of their fans are concerned, because he was literally damned if he did, damned if he didn’t in that situation, and sure enough, he managed to end up damned by everyone around and still without so much as a single “how are YOU doing btw, given everything you’ve been through, are you okay?”)

So just....my plea, my wishlist, my Big-Asks-R-Us inventory manifesto:

Can we get even just a few more fics where Dick’s insistence on his own independence is viewed not as a character FLAW to be excised or failing that, punished for at any possible opportunity, but as something UNDERSTANDABLE, something VALIDATED by his family for Dick even wanting it in the first place, let alone NEEDING it as much as he does, not because he doesn’t love his family or want to be around them, but because wanting to be his own person at the same time is in no way actually in opposition to that and it never was.

And in that vein and in light of that, I would happily give away my non-existent imaginary kingdom and crown for even just a few fics where the Batfam only end up called upon or tasked with supporting Dick about Mirage or Tarantula because he voluntarily GOES to them and says hey, there’s something that happened a long time ago that I never told anyone because I wasn’t ready to, but I feel like I am now, I need to and its time. 

Or like, fics where maybe he’s still not quite ready to tell them voluntarily yet,  reely and of his own volition, but then on a case they come across a rape survivor in considerable distress and empathizing with them and what they’re feeling, opening up about his own past experiences and offering his own story as a talisman for this victim to cling to as a sign it’ll get better for them eventually too, they can heal from this and one day call themselves a survivor instead of just a victim the same as he does......like, that’s still the most natural thing in the world to Dick, the most Him thing he could possibly do in a situation where the tool most relevant to the task before him is pulled straight out of his own treasure chest of trauma, it not even fazing him in the slightest that his family is there with them right now too and that means they’re going to know now, it won’t be a secret anymore......because Dick Grayson does things he’s not happy about all the time, things he doesn’t necessarily like, that aren’t ideal or his first choice, but when it comes down to Do The Thing and thus maybe help someone, or Don’t Do The Thing and instead turn around and consign himself to a thousand years of solitary confinement in the world’s stankest oubliette cuz its what he deserves, says his Brain all Judgingly.....like. I’m just saying. When the choice is clear, so is the resulting Dick Grayson decision: He does the thing, consequences be damned, and just deals with whatever those may be later. Which in this case would be oh crap, my family all knows now, ugh, they’re gonna want to TALK about it now, booooooooooooooo. But also, oh well. I had to Do The Thing.

And like, the thing there is, it might not be his FIRST choice, but unlike scenarios where he just flat out gets no choice in the matter whatsover as his agency is just reviolated all over again by Tarantula or Slade or someone else taking the choice away from him and just telling people what happened to further fuck with his head and retraumatize him.....

THIS STILL LETS HIM HAVE A CHOICE.

And like. There’s just so, SO many ways you can play with that or places you can take that because the more you ALLOW characters to have a choice, to MAKE choices that are beyond just the one singular most obvious or expected choice, the one so predictable there’s barely an actual choice to be made at all when steering a character like Dick towards that....

MORE choices equals MORE avenues of exploration you open up in your story. More roads less traveled, more surprise reveals or unexpected epiphanies, more new ground to unearth and feelings to uncover rather than just more of the same already extensively traveled plot of land and story and reactions/aftermath already so done to death even Jason Todd would consider them low-hanging fruit not worth making a “but I died” jojke about.

Just....MORE. In general. Across the board. In every possible permutation. New. Different. As yet unexplored. Still capable of surprising. Stretch. Reach. Dig deeper. Find the story direction that makes you laugh nervously and say wtf self, where did that even come from, am I Wild One for even daring to contemplate that such a thing could be written? 

And then go, why yes, YES THE FUCK I AM THAT WILD ONE, and plot twist, I LIKE IT!

Or, y’know. Alternatively, people can continue to write how once upon a time, there was this guy named Dick, and he was kinda a dick, see, so this one time when bad things happened to him it was like, do we even care, or should we just like....cut to his family and see how this is affecting them and therein just maybe we might find an actual story worth telling? Ahh yes, good, that’s the ticket. So anyway, once upon a time, there were these guys named Jason and Tim and you will never believe what happened to them on the day their walking dildo of an older brother tripped and skinned his knee. Now buckle up, cuz THIS is quite the story!

[artificialqueens]

What's Her Name? (Gigi x Nicky) - Mina

A/N: I’m working really hard on a fairy au right now (go to @goodemornting for updates on that lmao) but in the meantime I wanted to do something different! I hope you all enjoy it :)

Your soulmates name shows up on your arm when you turn 15. Gigi’s only problem is that her’s is in French, and she doesn’t speak a word of it.

Soulmates are a pretty common thing. Realistically they shouldn’t be; even with someone’s name written on your arm, what are the odds you’re going to find them in a sea of seven and a half billion people? Not only is it unlikely, it’s improbable. What if you have a name on your arm like John Smith? How many John Smiths do you have to go through before you can find the “one and only”? Soulmates were romanticized, and frankly unnecessary in Gigi’s humble opinion. She wouldn’t have had the slightest interest in finally finding her own but it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t at least have some idea of who their soulmate is. There are a lot of tells, like what language the name is written in, what gender the name is usually assigned to, stuff like that. Probably the biggest reason why so many people in the world have managed to find their soulmates is because they care so much about it. Apparently there’s also like, a gut feeling you get, when you meet them. Like you know for a fact that they’re the one and only. She’d never experienced it herself, but according to the people in her life who had met their soulmates before, there’s just some kind of pull, like on an instinctual level. This subconscious feeling you have that they’re the right person for you. And when the names match up - well, there’s really no way to deny it, at that point.

It’s kind of a sweet notion, in a way. To know someone all your life by a set of letters and then when you finally get to meet them, that they’re the right person, and they’ve been thinking of you too. Gigi was independent sure, career driven and logical, but she would’ve been lying if she wasn’t the slightest bit interested in what her soulmate might look like, what perfume they might use, what their favorite band might be. It was drilled into her since she was younger, in her defense, but that yearning feeling that encased every bone in her body whenever she accidentally glanced down at the cursive words delicately engraved on her arm made her wish that she could just find them already, so she could focus on more important things than the love of her life.

The only problem was, that the name imprinted neatly on her arm just happened to not be written in English, but some terrible variation of French.

Truth be told, she’d started studying French ever since google translate had helpfully informed her that’s what language the name was written in. She knows it starts with N, probably ends in L or Y, but her soulmates parents must’ve decided to give their child the most unique spelt name on the planet because the letters every French person had told her that the name possessed didn’t form anything that has much of a ring to it. She really hoped it was a girl’s name, because, well, it would be pretty inconvenient for her if her soulmate was a guy (Considering that she’s, like, a lesbian, and all). But other than that there were absolutely no indicators as to what it could say.

It used to bother her a lot more when she was younger. Being seventeen and knowing absolutely no characteristics of your soulmate is both pretty rare and pretty sad, but it’d never been her primary concern. She had other things to fill her life with, like good friends and family, school, art, overpriced coffee. It was frustrating that she couldn’t read it, but also extremely easy to distract herself from. Besides, having no way of knowing what the her soulmates name was gave her plenty of time and energy to spend helping her friends with their soulmate problems, and there’s plenty of those to go around.

Gigi stirred her tea, poking her tongue out slightly from between her lips. She hated that all the tapioca pearls end up sinking to the bottom, she didn’t want to put the straw in only halfway and get a mouthful of tea, but at the same time she didn’t want to drink all the boba all at once because it’s all pooled at the bottom. There were probably more important things that she could be focusing on right now, but this was a major pet peeve of hers. She cares a whole lot about how her bubble tea is consumed! The tapioca should be dispersed evenly throughout the drink, anything else is a disgrace.

Jan looked between her own two multicolored drinks, narrowing her eyes in contemplation. She was probably trying to decide which one to drink first, but it’s still pretty funny to watch. After Gigi had given up on fiddling around with the tapioca pearls, she sipped her tea and laced her fingers together, leaning forward to look at the blonde closer.

“You could try drinking the one they gave you for free.” She remarked, Jan’s golden brown eyes sliding up to meet hers with a sheepish smile. They’d been best friends since grade school but she still got way too easily embarrassed when Gigi gave her advice, it was pretty stupid. “Since you like the other one more, right?”

“I mean,” Jan pouted again, cocking her head like an upset puppy. “I like taro and lychee evenly, I just wanted lychee this time.”

“Hmm.” Gigi hummed, chewing her lip. “I’m trying to decide if you’re an immediate satisfaction kinda girl or the kind to bide your time. Or you could alternate between the two. Get a good mix of the one you’re in the mood for and the one you’re not in the mood for to keep you going.”

“That’s pretty gross, Gigi.” The older pointed out, wearing a wry smile. “It’s weird that I even have two to begin with.”

“Business as usual for you,” she chided, taking another sip of her single strawberry flavoured tea. Jan was lucky, generally. Gigi didn’t mean that in a jealous way, it was just true, and a little unnerving, at times. The fact that whoever ordered the taro bubble tea had completely took off, prompting the worker to offer it to the blonde, wasn’t even surprising to her at this point. Jan was even lucky in the soulmate department, kinda. The name on her arm was Jacquline Cox, pretty basic, and apparently they’d already met - though Jan hadn’t given her a lot of information about the mystery woman other than something about long dark hair and Persian food.

“It makes me feel awkward,” Jan complained with a sigh. “Who comes to a cafe and orders two boba teas?

“People who are really thirsty, probably.”

“I guess you’re right,” She conceded, but she still looked apprehensive, so Gigi reached across the table and grabbed the taro drink to take a long sip of it. She wasn’t the biggest fan of taro (It’s hard to describe, it’s too earthy for her taste?) but the eyebrow raise from the older woman was funny, so it was worth the slightly unpleasant flavour. “Gigi?”

The brunette glanced up from the tea, watching as Jan’s lip curled up harshly, thinking about her next choice of words. “You said wanted to catch up today?” She asked after a moment, and Gigi buffered briefly before nodding.

“Yeah. It’s so weird not going to the same school.” Gigi smiled sadly, drawing a smiley face in the condensation of her cup, “I’m not used to not seeing you every day, but you said the new school is better, right?”

“It’s not much different than the one we went to last year,” Jan shrugged, “But it’s a good school. It’s nice going somewhere where people don’t all remember me from primary.” She chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. “It’s how I met Jackie, so I can’t be too mad about it.”

Gigi can’t help being a little bit more attentive after she hears the name, but she’s not very expressive at the best of times, so there probably wasn’t much more than a slight shift in her expression. The shorter woman was pretty good at picking up on that stuff, though, so she wasn’t surprised at the knowing smirk smiling back it her. “You know, you could just ask if you want me to tell you about her.”

Gigi winked, leaning forward on the table and resting her head against her hands. “Tell me then, what’s Miss Jacqueline like?”

“She’s from Iran, transfer student, stupidly funny, super smart, tall,” Jan sounded wistful, smiling serenely. The expression was generally deceiving, but thankfully Gigi had a pretty good idea of how to read her, too. It comes with being best friends for so long. She chewed her boba, waving a hand to encourage the blonde to continue. “I’ve been so happy lately, she really completes me. I don’t think she likes me much yet though.”

Gigi swallowed, narrowing her eyes. “Hmmm, maybe she’s just nervous. Does she have eyes? You’re pretty attractive.” She hesitated, “Probably.”

“Thank you,” Jan giggled, “But that’s not really what I meant.” She sighed, swirling her tea with her straw. “It’s complicated.”

“I’ve got time.” She hinted, rather than say that she’d been waiting on this tea since Jan had first mentioned meeting her soulmate, and that she’d been starved of this kind of thing in her own life so she was more than happy to be hearing about it in her friends.

Gigi had never been good at any of that… romantic stuff, which people often found surprising given how confident she was normally. She didn’t read often, but on the rare occasion that she did, and she got to the romantic part of a book, she felt terribly flustered the whole time through. She had no composure. She’d just have no idea what to say, or what might be tactful to do in any situation. Sure, holding hands and cuddling sounded nice, but beyond that- things like communication, and physical gestures of affection, were intimidating. Not scary, necessarily, or unappealing (because wow Gigi loved to be kissed by g… girls…) but definitely intimidating. A large part of her was worried that when she eventually met her soulmate, she’d embarrass herself with a total lack of expertise in that area. Then again, the whole point of a soulmate is that they’re your one and only, so maybe they’d both be completely unequipped to handle what being a soulmate might entail. In general Gigi was most worried about identifying them, though. Who’s to say that they’d know English? Maybe they don’t know what the name - which was hopefully written nicely since her handwriting could be terrible at times - on their arm says either.

Jan groaned. “She’s so nice to me but she’ll never initiate it? Like if I compliment her she goes along with it otherwise it feels forced?”

Gigi scoffs, picking at her nails, the answer is fairly obvious. “It sounds like she’s doing that thing that people do in the movies.” She dipped her thumb in the puddle of water that’d formed on the table from the drips of condensation dripping off her drink. “What’s it called, playing hard to get?”

“Y’know, that does sound kinda accurate,” Jan smiled, which told Gigi that shes completely right. She’s glad for that, too, because she really just repeated platitudes. “Why don’t we talk about something else? You haven’t told me how you’ve been, recently.”

By the time they’d both finished their bubble teas (as well as the taro one in the middle of the table), they figured it’d be a good time to head home. Gigi begged the shorter woman to keep her posted on the Jackie situation, and Jan swore that she would with a roll of her eyes.

The brunette’s text came in while she was at the mall. When her phone vibrated, she stopped for a second to check the notification. It was Jan, of course, the paragraph of emojis next to her name lighting up Gigi’s lock screen.

The blonde has texted her a picture; she doesn’t recognize the subject of the photo, but she can only assume that it’s the Jackie Cox soulmate woman, or else there’d be no reason for the candid shot. She’s facing away from the camera, looking off into a cityscape, but her head is turned very slightly, and there’s a fond smile practically glowing off of her face. From what Gigi can see, her eyes are a deep wood brown, she’s freakishly tall and probably towers over Jan, and her hair is dark and curled slightly at the tips. She nods sagely, this woman and Jan would look like a cliche Pinterest board aesthetic together. The Persian woman is beaming, which probably means that the two getting along just fine- which is contrary to what Jan had told her so mayb-

Someone (or something? But she’s pretty sure it’s a someone because whatever it is is warm) collides into Gigi’s shoulder, and knocks not only her phone out of her hands, but also her feet out from under her. With an undignified sound, she watches the ground get closer to her, and then blinks in confusion when it suddenly stops roughly a foot away from her face.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!” it’s a woman’s voice, Gigi thinks, and vaguely accented, but her English sounds pretty okay. When she turns her head she is accutly aware of of pale blonde hair brushing against the woman’s shoulders, the sweet scent of honeysuckle perfume, a Lana Del Rey shirt tightly hugging her chest. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, are you alright? Mon dieu, your phone..”

Huh? Gigi followed her line of sight and noticed that her phone was on the floor some ways away. As soon as her eyes landed on it, the blonde woman kneels and lifts it up delicately, wiping it off with the silky red scarf she’s wearing. It’s at that moment that it occurs to her that she’s still being held up by the other girl, and when she’s pulled to her feet, she takes a step back and chews her thumbnail, blinking at the vision before her.

This girl is fairly tall, definitely has an inch or two on Gigi. Her hair is shiny, concealed by a stylish black beret, and her eyes are sharp and seemingly all knowing. She’s remarkably pretty, Gigi’s heart beginning to get that fluttery feeling she gets whenever she makes eye contact with an unfortunately attractive girl her age. She tries to calm it down, though, because she can’t imagine that going all ditzy-highschooler on this girl will help the interaction any. It’s awkward enough as it is.

“I’m fine,” She says quietly, before the blonde girl can begin to fret about her phone. “I shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the walkway on my phone, so it’s my fault, probably.” Gigi wipes down the wrinkles in her shirt, watching relief cross over the girl’s features. She’s looks French, the brunette concedes. Like she stylishly sell you a baguette on the side of the street, and her accent further hints at it. She’s probably around Gigi’s age as well.

“I’m happy that you aren’t mad.” The girl smiles. “But it’s still my fault.” She clears her throat, rubbing the back of her neck. “Could I make it up to you?” The way she asks it is curious, like she has some sort of other reason for asking, but Gigi holds her tongue. “I was going to this restaurant- pardon me, my name is Nicolette — are you free right now? – Not that you have to be, we could do it later – they make a really good stir-fry.”

For a pretty girl, Nicky stutters more than Gigi would’ve expected. It’s cute, charming almost, and the offer sounds great right about now. “That sounds fine.” She smiles, suddenly forgetting whatever she had come to the mall for because stir fry and French woman definitely sounded like her cup of tea.

“Perfect! I didn’t catch your name, by the way,” Nicolette - that’s a long name, maybe she could shorten it to Nicky - remarks thoughtfully, and Gigi realises that she’s a fool.

“Gigi.” She replies, and then adds, “Goode. My name is Gigi Goode.” Inwardly she scolds herself, that introduction could’ve been much smoother. For a minute she thinks she was so weird about it that Nicky has been thoroughly unsettled, but it crosses her mind after a bit of thought that the French woman’s comically widening eyes probably isn’t on account of her stuttering.

“Gigi Goode?” Echoes the girl. “Wait, uhm,” she shakes her head quickly, eyes frantically flicking between her arm and Gigi’s own, which is concealed by her coat sleeve. “Do you-” Nicky fumbled with her shirt, yanking it up with one hand. When Gigi looks down at the girl’s arm, she sees some incredibly familiar letters written, tiny hearts dotting every i. “Do you spell your name with-”

“Yeah. Yeah - yeah I do.“ The brunette interrupts, vision suddenly becoming blurry. She pulls up her own sleeve, feeling like she’s in some kind of a stupor, and holds out her forearm shakily to the taller woman. “Is this your name? I’ve never been able to read it.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“That is certainly my name,” Nicky replies, voice high pitched and frantic. “It’s spelt weird, you know, with the q and u and stuff but - merde that’s my name.”

Honestly, Gigi isn’t really capable of thinking clearly right now, but by the sounds of it she might’ve just found her soulma-

She gets knocked off her feet for second time within five minutes. This time, though, Nicky isn’t able to catch her, because though Nicky is again the reason she goes down, the blonde’s arms are occupied by being thrown tightly around Gigi’s shoulders.

“I’m so glad to meet you!” The woman bursts out, and the brunette’s face warms at the close proximity. “I came to America to look for you, did you know that? I suppose you wouldn’t, as we’ve never met before, but I- well- I’ve been searching for so long and some days I felt like I would never find you- that is a bit too much information for a first meeting, sorry, - and I’ve knocked you over again too, oh-”

“It’s okay,” Gigi dismisses quickly. “I don’t mind.” She doesn’t, though her face is definitely like a thousand degrees right now. Nicky beams at her, strands of angel blonde hair falling in front of her eyes, and Gigi swallows down a bit of flustered anxiety. Her heart is beating hard, she can hardly hear anything through it’s ringing in her ears, and Nicky can definitely feel it, but it’s not so embarrassing when she realises that the other girl’s heart is beating just as fast. At the same tempo, even, though it might be a bit presumptuous to say as much. She clears her throat a few times, trying to figure out something cool to say. “Uhm, well, how about that stir-fry then?”

Not quite, but close enough, because Nicky’s responding smile feels like a billion dollars.

[concerningwolves]

I'm really sorry for this question but I kinda need an opinion from a writer. Basically I've wrote this story and it's basically finished. I edited it, re-read it, polished it. Generally speaking it's finished: the story is consistent, the pacing is okay, the characters work. Everything should be fine, but I find lots of gripes with how it's written, with the style itself (except for a few scenes which I think are okay). So I want to ask: in a situation like this, would you rewrite the story?

Hey Nonny, there’s no need to be sorry! I am a writing blog, and I never mind giving advice :) 

WHEN A FINISHED STORY FEELS UNFINISHED

Rewriting it again is one option - and if that feels right, definitely go for it! But a very real problem with writing is that everything exists inside your own head, and it’s difficult to work out how it feels to approach it as a reader. When I find myself in this situation, I like to follow one or all of these three steps: 

rewrite or recreate your story in a different format

Take a break and work on something else 

Seek out beta-readers 

To expand on these points: 

1) REWRITE/RECREATE IN A DIFFERENT FORMAT 

Taking your story out of its original context helps you to get a new perspective on it, which is exactly what’s needed if you want to work out what doesn’t feel right. This can be anything from drawing a story-board to rewriting in a different medium. If I originally wrote the story by hand, I type it up; if I wrote it on a laptop, I rewrite it by hand. But that’s just how I like to do it. You could also try breaking down the scenes you’re unhappy with into a script or as a dialogue-only story. Since your gripes are more about style, this method might not appeal to you so much - but it gives you space to think about the story without worrying about your writing style, which is extremely liberating. Sometimes you just need to separate your storytelling from your writing style and that’s okay.

There’s also this idea that if you rewrite something, rewrite it entirely or not at all. This method has its uses, (I find it great for moving on to second drafts of longer pieces), but sometimes it’s only one section or one scene that you want to meddle with. Drafting several variations of the same scene is a totally valid way of rewriting - which is also why I like to use different formats when rewriting. Back when WDWW was just a collection of short stories, I re-drafted one of them as a flow-chart, because that was a versatile medium and let me work out what I wanted to change and what I wanted to keep without cutting into the story I had already written. 

This is also supposed to be a fun exercise: you don’t have to recreate your story perfectly, you just need to get it down so you can see how it all comes together. You might make a sketchy story-board with stick figures and realise that the order of events is wrong, or you might write out the dialogue and realise it doesn’t fit with the action. Try different approaches and find out what works for you. 

2) TAKE A BREAK AND DO SOMETHING ELSE 

The key to a successful rewrite is a clear head. Period. You can’t force yourself to keep working on a story when you’re completely saturated with it and expect good results. This is particularly true of the finer craft details like your writing style and word choices. Working on some other creative endeavour for a bit lets you come back to your story later on with a clear head. It also stops you getting burnt out, which kills a story faster than anything else. 

How long your break is is entirely up to you. Stephen King, in his book On Writing, says he leaves his novels for at least a month and does the first draft of something else. Granted, he was talking about how he wrote so many novels, (not just how to write them well), but it’s solid advice. I usually leave short stories for at least two weeks. If you come back to your story after a break and you still feel like you can’t get a good persective, then you may either want to 

a) repeat step one

b) try step three, or

c) extend your break. 

It’s also worth mentioning that printing out your story (if it isn’t already written by hand) and attacking all the bits you’re not sure about with a chunky black marker is very satisfying. Don’t think you like the word “that” in that sentence? Black it out! Feel like the simile you chose is too cliche or sounds wrong? Black it out! I use this method for rewriting my opening paragraph(s), but it’s fine for all sorts of writing.

3) GET BETA-READERS 

Asking people to read your brain-baby is a scary, but hugely worthwhile, experience. As I’ve already said, stories get stuck inside your head; you need to work out how to tell them to other people. An outside perspective is crucial.

“How” and “Why” are probably the most important questions you can ask: beta-readers will think critically about your story, and then you need to think critically about their answers. Ask them questions about HOW certain story aspects made them feel and WHY they felt that way. If their answers catch you by surprise, that could show you what isn’t working in your story. I’ve always found with beta-readers that when a beta’s comment makes me go “Wait, you thought WHAT??”, it’s like my eyes get blown wide open and I can see exactly why I was dissatisfied with a certain passage or scene. Sometimes it didn’t convey what I thought it conveyed, and sometimes it was extra information that added too much clutter to the narrative. 

Remember that a beta-reader’s comments will come from personal opinion. This isn’t a bad thing - you want their opinion. It just means that their comments aren’t going to magically fix your story. You need to weigh their opinion against yours, and decide what you want to do about it. Betas also shouldn’t get too critical of your writing style, but they can point out anything that makes little sense, or that reads confusingly.  

Once you’ve mulled over what your betas think, either use step one or plunge straight into a re-write, keeping their feedback in mind. Their fresh perspective’s might be just what you need to work out how to finish your story. 

Happy writing! 

[Ko-Fi | FAQ | Patreon]

[tsuki-chibi]

Passionfruit (November) Day 5: Indulge

See the full story on AO3: Passionfruit

————

Marinette bounced on the tips of her toes as she entered the school. In spite of her disastrous run here, and the fact that only one macaron had survived, she couldn’t help thinking it was going to be a great day... because today was going to be Adrien’s first day of school.

‘I’m on my way,’ Adrien told her; the words came into Marinette’s mind accompanied by a flash of pure excitement that made Marinette smile.

‘I’m waiting for you!’ she replied, heading for Madame Bustier’s classroom.

She entered, looking around. Most of her classmates were familiar to her, though there was a new face seated in the front row. Madame Bustier was pointing Nino to a seat perpendicular to where Marinette always sat. She took her usual seat quietly, looking forward at the spot where Adrien would soon be.

Naturally, that was the moment when Chloé walked over and said, “I want to sit here.”

“This is my seat,” Marinette said patiently. Adrien had told her he’d talked to Chloé. This was the first time Marinette had encountered Chloé since the party. She clenched her hands nervously in her lap.

“Not anymore!” Sabrina said. “Chloé wants to sit there, so -”

“Sabrina, please!” Chloé barked without taking her eyes off of Marinette. In a strained voice, she added, “You can sit beside the new girl. I want to sit behind Adrien.”

Ah. Marinette should’ve figured this was going to happen. She was frankly a little surprised that Chloé hadn’t outright ordered her to move. She was considering how to reply without provoking Chloé into a huge fight when a new voice spoke up.

“Hey! Why don’t you sit there since she’s already sitting?” the new girl said, standing up and crossing her arms. “I’ll sit here.” She grabbed her backpack, stalked around the desks, and threw herself down beside Marinette with a challenging glare.

Chloé’s jaw twitched, eyes narrowing. Sabrina winced.

“Sitting across the aisle from Adrien is as good as sitting behind him. In fact, it’s even better. He won’t even be able to see me,” Marinette said quickly. “If you sit there, he’ll be able to see you and talk to you way more easily.” She gestured to Chloé’s usual spot.

“... Fine,” Chloé ground out, sounding anything but happy. She shot a glare at the new girl before spinning away.

“Wow, who was that?” the girl whispered to Marinette. “She sure has a bad attitude.”

“Actually, for Chloé, that was pretty good,” Marinette admitted. She was honestly surprised that Chloé hadn’t snapped and verbally flayed the new girl. Maybe Chloé really was trying. And all because Adrien had asked her to. He really was amazing.

“Seriously? She was downright nasty! I sure hope you weren’t planning to move.”

Marinette shook her head. “No. My friend is coming... it’s his first day. I want to sit behind him too.”

“First day, huh? I’m glad I won’t be the only newbie around. I’m Alya.” Alya thrust her hand out towards Marinette.

“Marinette,” Marinette said, shaking Alya’s hand.

‘Damn it!’ Adrien swore mentally.

‘What? What’s - oh no!’ Marinette groaned inwardly as she glimpsed Nathalie through Adrien’s eyes. She immediately knew what was happening.

‘I’m sorry, Mari,’ Adrien said mournfully. He sounded so crushed that her heart ached.

‘It’s not your fault. It’s your dumb father,’ Marinette replied, biting her lip. She’d hoped that for once, Adrien would get to indulge himself by getting what he wanted.

Adrien sighed. ‘I’ll try again at lunch.’

‘Okay. I’ll take good notes in the meantime,’ Marinette said, feeling bad for him. He’d been looking forward to this all summer!

She looked down at her lone surviving macaron. She’d lost the others pulling that elderly man out of the way of traffic. This one was chocolate, and she’d hoped to be able to give it to Adrien as a welcome-to-school gift. But she could always get more when she went home at lunch. She picked up the macaron, broke it in half, and handed it to Alya.

“Thanks girl!” Alya said, surprised but pleased.

“No problem,” Marinette said, biting into her own half. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Chloé look at Adrien’s empty seat with an impatient look, then turn around and stare at Marinette.

There was no harm in being honest. Marinette subtly shook her head. Chloé’s face visibly crumbled in disappointment for a few seconds before Chloé collected herself and turned away. It was probably the first time in Marinette’s life that she could honestly say she knew exactly how Chloé felt.

Madame Bustier took roll call and then dismissed their class to their next period. Marinette was vaguely aware of Ivan and Kim having an argument with each other, but she didn’t pay them too much attention. Alya wasn’t sure of the way to the library. Marinette grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, leading Alya out of the classroom.

“So tell me, have you found your soulmate yet?” Alya asked eagerly.

Marinette tripped and would’ve gone down on her hands and knees had Alya not grabbed her arm. Alya steadied her and laughed lightly. Marinette flushed with embarrassment, straightening her shirt and pretending that she was fascinated by a poster on the wal.

“Sorry about that. I’m really clumsy,” she said.

“It’s okay. Have you, though?” Alya asked.

“No, I haven’t,” Marinette lied, feeling a tiny twinge of guilt. She didn’t like starting off a new friendship with a lie, but what choice did she have? Besides, she’d spent all summer lying to her parents so what was one more person?

“Too bad. I haven’t met mine either,” Alya said. “I was kinda hoping I’d find them at this school.” She peered around like she was expecting her soulmate to leap out of a closet.

“Rose and Juleka are soulmates,” Marinette volunteered. When Alya looked blank, she added, “Short girl, short blonde hair wearing a pink dress, and the tall girl with the long black hair wearing purple.”

“Oh!” Alya said. “That’s so cool! How did they find out?”

“It was a long time ago. Back when we were kids,” Marinette told her, finally walking again. “I’m sure Rose would tell you all about it if you asked her someday.”

“I might do that. I find soulmates fascinating,” Alya confided, easily keeping pace with Marinette. “My words are ‘Dude, you okay?’.”

“Romantic,” Marinette said with a giggle. “Mine are no better though. It says, um, ‘It’s okay, passionfruit is my favorite.”.” She flushed, remembering how embarrassing that moment had been. Thank goodness Adrien had such a kind heart. If he’d been more like Chloé, who knows what Marinette would’ve had written on her chest!

Probably some variation on the word ‘ridiculous’.

Alya scrunched her nose. “Mysterious words suck. Though I guess at least it means you’ll know your soulmate immediately, right?” She pushed open the door to the library. Marinette started to follow her in.

A sudden sharp wave of grief and frustration made her pause, because those feelings definitely did not belong to Marinette. She froze, startled, and nearly got smacked in the face with the door as a reward. She got her hand up to stop it just in time, though still got jolted in the shoulder.

“Shit, sorry!” Alya exclaimed. “You okay?”

“I, uh, bathroom!” Marinette said quickly, backing away. She hurried out before Alya could ask or try to come with her, running back towards the girl’s washroom.

Marinette barged inside, checking quickly to make sure it was empty. There was no one else there, so she whipped her phone out and hit the button to video call Adrien. Something else had happened and she would bet good money it had everything to do with Adrien’s asshole father.

The call clicked through, showing her Adrien’s miserable face. Marinette leaned against the wall and reached out for their bond, sending a wordless surge of comfort and affection pulsing through it. If Adrien were here in person, she would happily give him a hug.

“Thanks Mari,” Adrien croaked, wiping his face. “I could use one of your hugs.”

“What happened?” Marinette asked gently.

“Just my father being his typical self.” Adrien sniffed. “He said that the word is too dangerous and I have to stay inside because it’s safer. He says I’m not like everyone else.” His lower lip trembled. “I hate this! I’m not special! I just want to be a kid!”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Marinette said, wishing she had something better to tell him. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live with someone as controlling as Gabriel.

Her parents were a little flakey sometimes, and they didn’t always have as much time for her as she would have wished, but there was never any doubt in Marinette’s mind that they loved her. They would love Adrien too. For the first time, she doubted whether their plan to keep things secret was really the right choice.

“He was really mad,” Adrien went on. “He told me I was never going to school. What are you even supposed to say to that?!” He flung his arms wide, giving Marinette a dizzying flash of his room.

“I don’t know,” she said softly.

“He’s going to keep me locked up here forever! I’ll be a prisoner until the day I die!” Adrien exclaimed dramatically. He fell back on his bed and finally brought the phone back around to his face.

“Well, maybe not until you die. But it certainly sounds like he plans to keep you locked up until you’re eighteen,” Marinette said with a sigh. “Maybe -”

She cut herself off with a squeak as the floor shook, tremors running through the school. Marinette fell to her knees, nearly losing her grip on her phone, and felt Adrien’s alarm even as he cried out her name. In the distance, she heard a familiar voice.

“KIM!”

“Mari? What’s going on?! Are you okay?!” Adrien said frantically.

“Um... I don’t know,” Marinette said, unsteadily getting back to her feet. “That sounded like Ivan...”

“Your classmate?” Adrien said.

“Our classmate,” she corrected automatically. “Adrien, I gotta go. I need to see what’s going on.”

“Be careful,” he told her worriedly, and she managed a smile before she ended the call.

Marinette burst out of the bathroom and ran right into Alix, who excitedly told her all about the monster that was terrorizing the school. Marinette stared at her in shocked debelief. A monster who could pick up cars? It sounded like something out of a comic book!

“They’re sending us home,” Alix added. “We better go.”

“Oh, but what about Alya?” Marinette cried, looking back at the library. She felt guilty now for leaving Alya alone.

“The new girl? She said something about superheroes and super villains and ran off after the monster,” Alix replied.

Ran after the monster? Alya was officially crazy! Marinette shook her head and moved to follow Alix, mentally filling Adrien in on what was going on. He was as shocked by the prospect of a monster roaming the streets of Paris as Marinette was.

She joined the students leaving the school and quickly rushed across the street to the bakery. Both of her parents were preoccupied with customers. Marinette waved at her maman and hurried over to the stairs. She burst into the apartment and immediately headed upstairs to her room.

“Don’t be bemused! It’s just the news! Paris is being attacked by a super villain!” Nadja Chamack stood in front of the camera. Behind her, the police were waging war on a big stone creature. Marinette gasped at the sight of it.

‘Wow, this is crazy!’ Adrien said through the bond.

‘I can’t believe it. A super villain here?’ Marinette said. She clutched her favorite plushie to her chest and sank back in her computer chair.

‘The police will take care of it,’ Adrien said, but he didn’t sound or feel very confident.

‘I hope so,’ Marinette said, worried. ‘Hey, you feeling any better?’

‘Kind of. This is definitely a distraction but - oh. Hey, what’s this?’ Curiosity pulsed through Adrien’s mental voice.

Marinette was about to ask him what was up, or maybe even peek through his eyes, when she caught sight of a strange box sitting on her chaise. Baffled, because she didn’t remember having anything like that around, she reached out and picked it up. The smooth edges fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. She opened it up.

[fabianocolucci]

Language family VS Sphere of influence: comparing Europe with East Asia

I’m a student of East Asian languages and cultures at the university of Naples L’Orientale. Most specifically, I study everything about Japan and China, with standard Japanese and Mandarin Chinese as the center.

However, I am also an Italian who has been studying English since preschool and, during high school, got to learn more and more about Latin and Greek, which got me into my passion for languages.

In fact, Europe and East Asia are basically my biggest points of focus when it comes to language history, development and influence, and I love how we can see different aspects of these points.

For instance, what do we find in those regions, when it comes to languages?

EUROPE

The majority of Europe speaks a language from the Indo-European family. The only European countries where the main language does not belong in this family are Turkey and Azerbaijan (both languages are Turkic), Georgia (because Georgian is a Kartvelian language), Malta (their language derives from Arabic, and it’s the only Afro-Asiatic language among the official ones in the EU), Finland, Estonia and Hungary (their languages are Ugro-Finnic) and the Basque countries between Spain and France.

Excluding the Indo-Arian branch (where Persian, Hindi, Urdu and so on come from), the Indo-European languages are divided into:

Romance languages, the ones deriving from Latin. Main examples include Portugues, Spanish, Catalan, French, Occitan, Italian and Romanian;

Celtic languages, once spread throughout the continent, but now confined to the British Isles and the French region of Brittany. Gaelic Irish is even an official language in the European Union;

Albanian, Greek and Armenian form three branches on their own. Studies have tried to pair at least two of them together, but with little to no results;

Latvian and Lithuanian are Baltic languages, often paired with the next ones;

Slavic languages, spread throughout the majority of Eastern Europe. We can find Russian, Polish, Ukranian, Serbian, Bulgarian and many others here;

Germanic languages, the branch English belongs to. Other important languages in this branch are German, Dutch and the languages from the Nordic countries (except for Finnish);

Europe has had a common history and culture, even though there has always been some division between East and West, ever since the Roman empire, where you could divide it into Latin culture and Greek culture.

Therefore, it should not come off as a surprise that languages from different branches went on to influence eachother. The Balkan sprachbund is often used as a modern example, with Greek, Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian and other languages sharing common aspects that aren’t found in other languages of their branches.

Another example is found with Germanic and Romance languages. Ever since the Barbarian invasions of Rome, those two branches have come in touch and started sharing vocabulary, features and similar aspects.

For instance, the word bank derives from the Italian banca, which in turn derives from banka, the Longobardian word for bench.

Also, before English was considered the “lingua franca” of the World, this role was filled by French, which inherited it from Latin (kinda like a father passing the torch to his son). As other idioms have now plenty of anglophone words, it makes sense that, back in the day, Romance vocabulary made its way to Great Britain.

Okay, now let’s see the situation in East Asia.

EAST ASIA

For millennia, China has been the central power of this region, which is why the East Asian Cultural Sphere is often called Sinic world.

Said sphere includes China, the Korean peninsula, the Japanese archipelago and Vietnam. And that’s where we can see the main difference with Europe, as those languages aren’t probably even related to eachother!

All varieties of Chinese, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, belong to the Sino-Tibetan family. Then, we have Vietnamese, which is an Austroasiatic language. Said family can be found scattered throughout South-East Asia.

As for Korean and Japanese, those two languages derive from the Koreanic and Japonic families respectively, even though there have been theories that may suggest that these two are related. One believes that Japanese descended from Korea, but the other sees those two groups as belonging to the huge Altaic family, which includes other groups and languages such as Turkish and Mongolian.

However, as for now, we don’t know yet if those theories can be proved right.

Now, despite that, those languages all shared the same writing system at some point.

Chinese characters are still used in Chinese-speaking countries, with the sole distinction of those using Traditional ones and those using the Simplified.

Korea did use them, but switched to the hangul alphabet. 

Vietnam still used them until about a century ago, but the huge rate of analphabetization meant a switch to the current variation of the latin alphabet they still use today.

Japan is the only other country that still uses characters, albeit alongside their two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana.

Chinese culture unified those countries to the point that a Westener could see them in a similar situation as Europe.

Now, let’s compare them.

A RELATIVE AND A MASTER?

When you compare English to a Romance language like Spanish, French or Italian, you may meet words that look and/or sound quite similar. However, there are two differences:

Some words are cognates, meaning that they originate from the same root. For instance, the Italian word for mother is madre;

Others are actually words that “jumped” from a branch to another. As I said earlier, English has plenty of Romance vocabulary, but the other way around is as usual;

In fact, you may compare Indo-European branches to relatives. Imagine you and a brother or a cousin of yours, and those traits you may share: how many of them derive from you two being from the same family? And how many are a consequence of the two of you constantly interacting with eachother?

Meanwhile, the Chinese cultural sphere makes China look like a master. For instance, Japan didn’t have a written system until the VII century, when Chinese (and Korean) buddhist monks came to the archipelago.

Therefore, when you see similar words in Chinese and Japanese, it’s usually because the second one is actually the first one but adapted to fit the local pronounciation.

As such, it comes clear how different the relationship between languages from those two regions of the World are, and I hope you can see why I love them.