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lynaferns · 5 months ago

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I wish my teachers from back then in school didn't take too much into account the age rating of books and choosed books for the class to read based on the kids interests in said class.

I'm not saying to read mature rated books to kindergarten kids. I mean in highschool or even primary school, taking more into account what could be a read good enough to make the kids want to start reading by themselves. Don't choose a book base only if it's age appropriate and if you liked the title, but about the story. I know the books the teachers course are actually from an approved list by the school, but those books are always shit.

I don't like reading, I've hated or gotten bored of every book a teacher has made me read. Fantasy, mystery, slice of life, hated them all.

The worst was when the book was in basque (hi, I'm from Basque country, it's in Spain, in case you didn't know I'm from there, now you know), those books- listen, there is a whole thing going on with the current basque that is talked here, with the thing of being an artificial amalgamation of what was the OG language. We don't have a nice catalogue of basque books to read... specially because they are all recently written, and I mean this century. The basque authors have to start somewhere, but that's all we have.

(something something people being haunted decades ago for talking basque, parents not teaching the language to their kids to protect them, losing the language, trying to bring it back by ripping out words from Spanish and the little they could save from the lost one, something something, and now there are only a few villages that can talk the original basque and can't understand shit from the new basque and that's fucking sad because the new one is so clumsy and awkward and the old one was so much pretty but anyways this could have been its own post)

This stupid book, I remember crying because I didn't want to read that book. It was so bad, so fucking boring but had to do a resume of the whole book and I only had a chapter left and I was pulling at my hair because I couldn't bring myself to read it. It wasn't even a long book, in fact, one of the shortest I've read in my life. Must have been less than 100 pages around 10 short chapters, BIG FONT FOR KIDS. I hated it with all my soul and I made sure to express that in my resume. You have no idea of how relieved I was that it was over and that my brother and mother didn't have to convince me anymore to read it.

A few years ago my brother tried to get me into Terry Pratchett's books but I got bored fast. I had people around me try to recommend books to read. Any time someone started talking to me about a book they've read my brain would shut down and I would be just like "yeah cool 🙂(<-trying really hard to fake having interest)".

Once I tried to find ways to get me into reading the books assigned from school, like 30 minutes read a day. I would put timers in my phone and try not to look at the clock. When my father found out he got really mad at me and scolded me for some reason I to this day still don't understand. My mother wasn't mad but she told me that if I had to read a number of chapters assigned, I had to read those chapters. And I dropped the book. Completely. I didn't submit the resume we had to do at the end of the year.

The concept of picking a book to read and actually reading it... I can't do that. The times I tried to read a book because someone really wanted me to read it, my brain has just stopped a few pages in, like "yeah no, this isn't happening buddy, we are not reading today."

One day suddenly, I started reading. A lecture that caught me enough to read the first 4 chapters in a row. Another time I read the equivalent of 4 books in a week. And suddenly it's not as hard as before to pick up something from the list to read and know that I'm going to read it later. It was a fanfic who made me think "Oh shit! Wait! Reading is fun!?!?!?!"

But I'm only reading because I'm familiar with the characters that are in the fic, and I want to see more stories about that specific character.

I can start watching a show, a gameplay, pick up a fanfic... I can't pick up a book and read it without losing interest.

#lyna rambles #idk I don't feel like I'll ever have a s good relationship with books

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green-loser-lover · 11 months ago

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Imitation X (au)

Im sure that you guys have heard of theories for different shows? Not the interesting MatPat kind, the horror/bizarre ones that suck the childlike wonder from kids shows? Like the Phineas & Ferb theory or the Rugrats theory (both saying that all the kids are dead except for Candice/Angelica)? Well theres one for PPG called "the imagination theory" and my au is based off of it. (if interested keep reading but it gets long and i dont want clutter)

The imagination theory while interesting doesn't get.. explored often and just gets explained by youtubers some times? If you don't want to read all of it: the girls are normal and just play pretend superhero, the villains are all people from their lives and the Professor is their dad (duh)

I think the entire concept could be expanded on without changing the whole "normal girls thing". Enter imitation X! Basically everything happening is through the girls eyes and equate to something in the real world! Monsters are like shootings/bombings, villains are ordinary people, everything that happens is just them coping with their less than ideal lives. So i want to fit all the characters (main ones at least) into that idea as well as different episodes!

For now though lets start with the girls (this post is too long bezus)

Blossom

In Imitation X her real name is Blaine (meaning yellow.. yk how the prof gives bubbles/blossom names based off of how they act and buttercup just bc it also starts with b? yeah i kinda did that to bloss bc i wanted their named to sound similar oops)

When the girls came up with the game she was the one to make the rules which really just meant she tried her hardest to make up reason after reason for her to be special while her sisters couldn't do half the stuff she could. Eventually she just started having fun with the game and stopped being so controlling. When Buttercup/Bubbles played at first the whole thing was a mess (Butter wanting all gore and Bubbles wanting all cutesy stuff) so she came up with the girls backstory and set a middle ground for them

Shes not smarter than her sisters! I'd say shes more clever/quick to think but shes not like a super genius or anything and shes wrong pleanty. In imitation X Blossom is extremely responsible as always but she can also be selfish and throw the other girls under the bus. Out of the three of them shes the most willing to deal with their real world problems without the game and is the most tethered to reality. Which is how i think she can get away with things she herself did and blame it on buttercup or bubbles!

Buttercup

Her name is Briar (meaning thorny patch/strength or exalted one)

She loves all things superheros(in this au at least), so she was the one to come up with the game HOWEVER it was a totally gritty solo game that she wanted absolutley no one else to take part in.. until she got lonely lol. 1 punching all your villians with no plot gets boring quick. Eventually she asked bubbles to draw her superhero for her (her supersona??) and bubbles wanted to play bc it looked cool. Ofc Buttercup put her through different trials to let her join,, and even then Bubbles became her sidekick at first (which led to squables)

Shes willing to deviate from their game to hang out with her friends who think its lame or whatnot (did i mention theyve been playing since they were five up until theyre 12?) She made the whole game as an escape from the real world so its pretty easy for her to get back into it after a while. Buttercup isn't a hot head in imitation X! She gets angered/annoyed easily but instead of blowing up she. freezes? up? She'll stop talking when shes been angered and isolate herself! Which is why Buttercup (in game) is so violent! Real world Butters cant express herself the way she wants so she uses the game as an outlet. Shes very defensive of her sisters (for reasons that will be revealed later) but at the same time shes very ready to abandon them when they get on her nerves. And i mean abandon, she will leave the house for days!

Bubbles

Last but not least (shes my beloved guys i just never mention it) Blair! (meaning dweller on the plains and is meant to invoke images of meadows/fields.. shes the main character if you didnt notice /j)

When Buttercup told her to draw for her she fell inlove with the idea of being a superhero and was willing to do all the trials and whatnot just to play. She ofc loved being a powerpuff and made the strongest connection with the game.She did get tired of being a sidekick though bc she got to make almost no choices so she came up with monsters and played as them until she got tired of it and started to argue with buttercup about the whole thing. Yeah it def took time for her to become a real superhero duo w/ Butters but when it happened she'd never been happier

Bubbles constantly sees things through the game. No shes not crazy she knows its not happening but she almost never stops pretending. It took a long few years before Blossom got her to stop at school (for the most part). Bubbles goes through the most in the au and therefore she likes to actively cope. Its extremely hard for her to snap into reality and when she does shes really not herself, very muted and disgruntled. It takes her a surprisingly long time to start coping again as well, awareness throws her for a loop and she will make a fuss of it. Shes more of a crybaby and is easily scared in the real world (she tries not to cry in front of others though ofc) people like her but she'd rather stay to herself than be around other people. Bubbles in the game is far more sassy than she is because she wished she did speak her mind and do whatever makes her happy whenever she felt like.

Thats! It! For the girls lol Professor, Mojo Jojo/rrb, or HIM will probably come next because they are all significant in the AU! After them probably the Mayor, Bellum and Sedusa or the GGG! Hope you enjoyed and stick around to read more :3! R&R and have a good day!

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lieutenant-amuel · 10 months ago

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What di you think of wish?

I’m neutral to this movie. I don’t hate it and don’t claim it to be the worst animated movie ever existed yet I’m not a fan either and I won’t defend it too fiercely. There are a few things I really loved about it but I suppose this is not enough for me to love it in the whole.

Those few things I love are Magnifico’s character and his relationship with Amaya. They really seemed to love each other so much, they were very sweet in the first part of the movie, before Magnifico lost his mind, and then they also were beautifully tragic. My only complaint about their storyline is that it happens too fast. We don’t see Amaya struggling with making this decision as if their love meant nothing to her, so I suppose I like their story more in theory because a couple that loved each other and then fell apart because of the insanity of one of them sounds very interesting actually.

And I think this is the reason why this movie is overall enjoyable yet I don’t care much about it. It’s kind of superficial. They really took a very strong “tell not show” approach for this movie, and it’s noticeable. We know Magnifico had a tragic past and it severely affected him but we never saw him feeling any strong emotions about it. He just states that it was terrifying but we never learn more about it. We know Sakina has such a beautiful and magical wish but c’mon why should I care about Magnifico crashing her wish if I don’t even know what she’s wishing for. And we never learn, even by the end of the movie. We know Asha’s father had a very big impact on her but we don’t even see his face. It’s like, I do want to feel something about this movie, and the movie certainly wants me to feel something too but I just can’t because there is not build-up for feeling these emotions, only empty statements.

The story on its own is fun, really, I can’t say I was bored watching it, but there’s no emotional connection built with it for me which makes it just one of the movies I’ve watched.

The songs are nice though. I don’t care much about the awkward lyrics (I let you live here for free and I don’t even charge you rent or whatever) because I don’t even listen to the English soundtrack, I’m not an English native. The songs sound great in my dubbing so I loved them all with a few exceptions.

The protagonist aka Asha is annoying. I didn’t notice it when watching the movie for the first time but when I rewatched it two more times when showing it to my family, the way she acts felt over the top. This abundance of all the little gestures, stupid faces, and squeaks is absolutely unnecessary. Like, why are you making her say that wishes are the most beautiful thing (or something) in the scene right before the At All Costs song and then grimace (ыыыыы, sorry I don’t know why I said it)? And the movie is filled with these awkward “quirks” made by the main heroine which gets extremely tiring as the story is going. I normally like this kind of characters but in case of Asha they really went too far which makes her kind of insincere and unserious even in emotional scenes.

I don’t have much to say about this animation. Sometimes it looks weird, sometimes it looks pretty. But overall I enjoy what I’m seeing on screen so I don’t think I have any complaints.

Anyway, I want to point out that I really don’t care about concept arts. Is Starboy a cool idea? Yep, kinda. Is an evil couple just the most breathtaking idea of the decade? Yeah, I think it’s cool. But I don’t see these ideas executed in the movie so I can’t judge them without seeing them in action. They could have been easily messed up in the final product so they’re not any better than the movie we got as a result.

I did enjoy seeing the fandom getting creative with these ideas but it’s got tiring over time because people really cannot judge the movie for the movie and instead compare it to something they created in their own heads and to something that basically doesn’t even exist.

People judge it based on the hype it’s got due to being a tribute to Disney’s 100th anniversary and therefore have way too high expectations which is valid, I admit I also expected something a lot different from this movie but I think it’s also important to learn how to be impartial and don’t jump into conclusions because many people hate it even without watching it lol.

I think that’s it? This movie is fine. It’s quite enjoyable especially if you ignore what was happening “behind the screen” and don’t overanalyze it. It’s superficial and is not meant to tell a very deep story but if you want to have a fun time in the evening by watching something, I think this movie is a good choice.

Thank you for the ask!

#Ask me anything

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sunset-bridge · 1 year ago

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le wise ocd philosopher has arrived

idk i can just yell my thoughts at the void so . if this realization is in any way useful to someone... awesome.

for me, ocd is .. like a small animal living in my head. the animal, like most animals.. doesnt really do things because its "evil"; it doesnt have a concept of morality or shame etc. this animal.. the only thing it wants is attention . of any kind. positive or negative its good for him. doesnt make a difference if you tell him you love him or if you yell at him; he doesnt understand what you're saying anyways but he loves having your attention.

for this he keeps showing you fun things he finds around your head and mashes them together. shows them to you. sees if this catches ur attention. if not... boo. throw it away, mix something else, try again etc. he scans things u see and takes something in your head, mix them together; BAM! new weird sparkly thing. do you like this?

it has no idea what the things its making say, or mean at all and he couldnt care less. the only thing he cares about is if the things make you pay attention to him.

this animal is your guy. please dont hate him; hes not doing this to be "evil" to you, he doesnt understand any of that or what you yell at him. but, you can train him like any cute animal : ) only engage with him and pay attention to him when he shows u stuff you like. if he shows you stuff you DONT like (intrusive thoughts) kindly just look at it, acknowledge hes showing u something, and then keep doing whatever u were doing. dont talk to him anymore and dont pay attention to him again if he keeps showing you this same thing.

he will learn showing you this particular thing doesnt get him anything .,,, throw it away and lets get something else!!

it.. will make u feel bad to not pay attention to him. maybe you feel like you need to lecture him on why its a bad thing the thing he just made. or you just want to yell at him. do not. he doesnt understand what you say to him! its just attention to him. and thats what he wants. please dont encourage behaviors you dont like... and dont send mixed signals! hes just a little guy..! hes trying to understand what he can show u to get your attention and what not. positive reinforcement and what not..

anyways. yeah. i guess you have to be a bit heartless by ignoring him when he keeps showing you the same damn stupid thing... but its better for the both of you! its like if your dog pissed on the couch and you told him "good job!" . no! thats not what you want to do.. so dont feel bad. you just want your animal to grow into a pleasant little lad. he wont die if you ignore him a bit when he shows you something stupid. he gets bored very quickly and makes another thing to try.

anyways. yup :3 i know this is hard for a lot of people with ocd to accept; that your ocd isnt some weird exterior evil entity but just your reactions to a stream of consciousness but.. i guess now that ive been dealing with this fucker for like 4-5 years i have got to learn something lol... again this may just be more personal but if any of this helps anyone.. that would be so cool.

#ocd #ocd posting #wow..

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brotherslayer · 1 year ago

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Hey, so I have a suggestion for you: not sure if you will like but at least it is an interesting idea.

Comic "Bride of Obisidian" basically is a mix of poor girl who suffers with those reality shows of "I want to find romance"

So the mc is in a bad marriage and the dude is clearly in to abuse her...and she has no friends or family to help bc of course not. She (TW: suicide) contemplates suicide but ...a mysterious card asks if she wants to be whisk away to a fairyland where everyone can find love.

Turns out it was an annoucement of the show all royals and even peasants watch "the jewerly"(sorry forget the name but the people in there show are called jewerly) and...

Plot twist: the original candidate, pink diamond (not that one) is missing. Oh she was mega popular and even married a king (had affairs and seems people were ok with that) she divorced and was supposed to appear in this new season of the show...but is gone.

A deal is make...if mc menages to convince people she is pink diamond...she will get what her heart's desire. Also, the mc and the candidates are put on a spell so...they can see their real forms "all smokes and mirrors"

The concept is cool...I admit, even more as they do have to look friendly to gain points with the audience. Its a reality show in an isekai.

I've read up to chapter 13. A dating show that can control your communication and traps you on an island until you've fallen in love with a participant sounds like a perfect setting for a psychological horror. I had hopes that the manhwa leaned more into that trope. It's a refreshing concept. Lying is permitted even encouraged, people can create fake personas in order to appeal to the audience and the heroine is forced to impersonate a missing person who is petending to be someone else. How is anyone able to find their true love under these circumstances?

I'm curious about what happened to the person our protagonist is supposed to impersonate. Pink Diamond/Marianne interests me more than any love interest does. She was the most popular woman in the show and should have gotten her happily ever after, but then her husband died? Did she kill him and then run away? Was she perhaps killed? She was said to have had engaged in a promiscuous lifestyle even while married. Doesn't sound like the love lasted long with the man she chose. And now she's missing but the show is desperate to conceal it. Does her family know? If the heroine succeeds in tricking everyone else is she supposed to continue the charade even into her married life with her new husband who will think he married Pink Diamond? What if Marianne does reappear? Will they try to get rid of the fake? I'm expecting some great secret that the show is hiding. Maybe Marianne discovered it and she was silenced. She could be participating as another contestant. Would be fun if she went as one of the men and our heroine chose her. I just hope she doesn't become a villainess because her characteristics are the ones typical of a villainess (doesn't like boring men, is spoiled, hates working) but the spoiled princess character could just be another persona she had assumed in order to become the most desired woman. I'm half expecting that she was nothing like the show painted her to be and she was just a girl who was desperate to be loved.

I find MC's relationship to her current husband poorly despicted. You say he's abusive, but to me he just seems like an asshole. He doesn't hit her or psychologically tortures her. We don't know if he forced himself on her during their wedding night. The sheets look normal and the protagonist doesn't seem like she was in pain. I kinda doubt they did the deed tbh. The taxidermy stored in the library...yeah weird hobby but is that a reason to commit suicide? Unless he also stored his dead wife there it looks like an overreaction of mc to me. The author didn't bring the desperation across in a convinceable way. Don't misunderstand he's awful and I think she was in the right to run away from him but it doesn't look like the peak of an abusive relationship. It looked more like the beginning of it. The never talked until their wedding night when he complained that she tried to postpone the sex and insulted her. That she gave up so early and tried to kill herself after one day into the marriage was strange to me. She seemed to be used to bad treatment for example her sister pushing her into a lake almost drowning her. In comparision to that her current life wasn't half as bad. The artist could have tried a little harder.

If the manhwa wento into a detective/"prison" break direction that'd be great. Right now I'm rooting for none of the love interests. I just don't want it to be the owl guy. Plus point that there are female characters and they treat MC nicely but don't worship her. The show could have benefitted from a bigger cast in my opinion. All the men (3) fighting over the heroine while the others would be only second choice feels unfair towards the other women.

#notanon #answered asks

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wildcards1407 · 2 years ago

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Travel Documents 122: Entropia

by Samuel Alexander

Genre: sci-fi, near-future, social change, cultural change

The Dust Cover Copy

When industrial civilisation collapsed in the third decade of the 21st century, a community living on a small island in the South Pacific Ocean found itself permanently isolated from the rest of the world. With no option but to build a self-sufficient economy with very limited energy supplies, this community set about creating a simpler way of life that could flourish into the deep future. Determined above all else to transcend the materialistic values of the Old World, they made a commitment to live materially simple lives, convinced that this was the surest path to genuine freedom, peace, and sustainable prosperity. Seven decades later, in the year 2099, this book describes the results of their remarkable living experiment.

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Okay, so, it happens to everyone: some books just rub you the wrong way. This is one that did for me. The concepts are good. The ideas are good. But the delivery is just. Really. Tedious. Also, it’s pompous. And this is from someone that reads Agatha Christie for fun. So yeah, I’m owning it as a reviewer: this one got on my nerves. I’ll dig into why below.

So, the worldbuilding. A private island is created with seed money and the basics of civilization, and is designed to evolve into a more sustainable future. Right there, we start with problems. I got really heavy ‘manifest destiny’, and ‘city on a hill’ vibes right from the entire setup. That is not a compliment. The concept of a group putting together an isolated island community to test a social theory is…yeeah. A wee bit cringe. Done right, it could be an intentional community. But this author, in trying to hearken to a style based in British travelogues and personal journals, instead fell right into the kind of ‘righteous community’ rhetoric that makes my brain seethe with images of the worst excesses in classism, eugenics, and paternalistic determinism from the last century. Taking the elect away to a nice paradise island? Eugh. Not a good look.

The author aimed for solarpunk, and fell right down into something uncomfortably close to ecofascist rhetoric.

Now, credit where credit is due: the basic technical ideas are good. Ripping up lawns for food production? Good. Goats instead of cows? Not bad. Circular production? Great. But tech is amoral. And in this case, all the good tech in the world won’t redeem the underlying cultural and social assumptions. And those are worrisome.

The Crowd

Characterization

Honestly? Nil. Zip. Zilch. We don’t find out who is writing this ostensibly personal diary of how Entropia was formed, not as a person. The description of the community is almost Marxist in its absolute absence of actual PEOPLE in his social descriptions. Everything is concepts, ideals, and nice clean anonymous groups. You might as well be in Stepford.

Writing Style

This is a good conceptual book, written in the Wrong Way. It should have been written as a treatise. A how to guide. It would have been a great manual. An illustrated showcase of the island could have worked. But the author chose to write a fiction work, and then couched it as an autobiography of an unknowable narrator who is pontificating on how well their community managed to create itself. Not cool. The reader feels cheated, bored, and irritated. They signed up for a story. Not a lecture. If you want to write a guide to setting up a sustainable eco-community, do it. Don’t do this.

The Moves

Plot

The problem with an autobiography told by the kind of professor you hope you don’t get stuck sitting with at dinner is that, by using it as the style, the author has washed hands of all real emotional turmoil. All problems are past tense, pat and solved. Everything is worked out. Everything is neat. And that is boring, boring, boring. It’s like listening to the above prof pat himself on the back for a career well completed during his retirement speech. And man, don’t you want to slip out the back door while he drones on.

Overall Rating

There’s good basic information in the technical descriptions. But for a read, pick up anything else.

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gremlin-time-shenanigams · 2 years ago

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'Consorting with Angels'

This drawing is based on a poem written by american poet Anne Sexton, called 'Consorting with Angels', which can be read in full here-

I studied Sexton's work back in 6th form, and ever since this poem struck a chord and stuck with me. I think partly because of the way she used Christian imagery to express sentiments that go quite against traditional conservative Christian values- I find this very appealing. I didn't grow up in a religious family, in fact, I was raised in an explicitly atheist household. But I was surrounded by cultural Christianity, attended schools where we said prayers and sang hymns, and just generally existed in a country where that is the largest religion. I love churches- I don't love going to church, I love the buildings. This is the opposite of how it's supposed to be, the church is supposed to be the people, the community, not the building, and you're supposed to love the people not the building. But I love the smell of old wood and stone, I love stained glass windows and candles. I like the idea of ritual that takes place there, even when it's boring to sit through in reality. I like the sense of divinity that exists there unrelated to actual religion or dogma. So I love things that take this sense of divinity, these images from Christianity like angels and saints and heavenly gates, and turn them into something deviant like in this poem. I love the description of angels in the poem, as weird, unique, almost conceptual,

'and the nature of the angels went unexplained,

no two made in the same species,

one with a nose, one with an ear in its hand,

one chewing a star and recording its orbit,

each one like a poem obeying itself,

performing God's functions,

a people apart.'

In my drawing I drew the angel as alien like, kinda like the classic grey aliens, and I also gave them three eyes, arms and wings. I was going to put eyes all over the body, like those fun biblically accurate angels, but it didn't feel right and was visually cluttering. I think I may have also been thinking about the angels from welcome to nightvale? It's been years since I listened and I don't remember if they ever actually describe how they look, but I liked those angel characters.

The other reason I like this poem so much is the way Sexton rejects the interminable bullshit of being a woman and expresses gender non-conformity and non-binary gender. This poem was the first thing that actually made me understand that people can just reject the gender binary and that's a fine and totally valid way to be. Honestly it was a concept I struggled with when I was younger- I broadly understood what it meant to be a binary trans person since I was pretty young, I knew that sometimes people changed their gender between male or female, and that checked out with my child brain, like yeah, some people are born with the wrong body for them and they are actually the other gender, okay, cool, makes sense. But that there was an option other than male or femle confused me. Like, how could you be neither, nothing, have no gender? But reading this poem I got it-

'The bowl was filled with purple grapes

and the flies hovered in for the scent

and even my father came with his white bone.

But I was tired of the gender things.'

It's that line, 'I was tired of the gender of things.' It just clicked like, yeah, sometimes it is just super tiring to have all these expectations put on us because of gender, and it would be so nice to be free of it. Sexton was writing specifically from the point of casting away some concept or role of womanhood, but being a man has plenty of bullshit expectations some people want to be free from too. And the older I get the more I get it- sometimes I just feel so bogged down by gender, like, my own or the concept generally. Like I just wanna shake it off for a minute and be weightless, a weird, unique being consorting with the angels.

With the awareness of non-binary genders really increasing in recent years I'm still learning about the many ways for people to express themselves and identify outside of the binary, whether it's through being both or neither or nothing or something inbetween- and I just think that's cool and interesting. Another line of the poem relating to the rejection of binary gender is,

'I was not a woman anymore,

not one thing or the other.'

But my favourite part of the poem is the last three lines, which are probably my favourite last lines of any poem, it's such a strong ending to me-

'I'm all one skin like a fish.

I'm no more a woman

than Christ was a man.'

These lines have been rattling around my brain like a dried bean in a tin can for years since I first read this poem. They really resonates with something within me, like this idea I have of divinity being unbound by sex or gender. Also just the transgression of referring to christ as anything but a man is so fun. 'I'm all one skin like a fish.' is such a good line too, and I could analyse it more in regards to the presentation of sexuality in the poem, but I am not a literature student anymore so I think for now I'll just enjoy the words and rattle them around in my own brain a bit more.

#poetry #anne sexton #illustration #poetry illustration #drawing #digital and traditional #don't mind me i'm just cleaning my brain out #poetry analysis #kinda I'm not really analysing it I'm just talking about a poem I like

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fadebolt · 6 months ago

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Personal room ranking:

1 - Silent Construct: H01 (9/10) 2 - Submerged Superstructure: bitteraeriepipeu (8/10) 3 - Rubicon: A05 (7/10) 4 - Solitary Towers: C03 (7/10) 5 - Windswept Spires: B13 (6/10) 6 - Garbage Wastes: C07 (6/10) 7 - Five Pebbles: C04 (6/10) 8 - Five Pebbles: A09 (5/10) 9 - Solitary Towers: C09 (4/10) 10 - Windswept Spires: C03 (3/10)

Extra comment: Well, it seems we have one of the few occasions of me voting two fairly obvious choices back to back. But let's be fair, none of the rooms from this poll can really match H01 (bitteraeriepipeu gets really close, due to the incredible creativity in its design… I just never really went there xd).

In terms of what we have to cover, there isn't really that much, and what we do have is fairly simple. And considering how I don't care that much for most of these rooms, I'm perfectly ok with that.

So we have one on the list, which is C09, a room that actually became less cool on the Saint version. And this is mainly due to the colors. If you open the interactive map, and zoom to the area near C09, you'll immediately notice how its background uses a different shade of beige than the rest, which the developers did deliberately, so the room can act as solid transition between Chimney Canopy and Sky Islands (further emphasised by those red plants). But when you look at the Saint version, you'll notice that this aspect of the room is just gone, and it now looks exactly like any other Solitary Towers room, despite the fact that Windswept Spires still absolutely has a unique color palette (though it's a bit less noticeable than SI's, but still). This is a room that worked fine, but was very much teetering between boring and non-boring, and this was the final push for me. I still wouldn't call it horrible, cus it still gives spots to hide from Vultures and such, but the other rooms from the poll do outclass it.

Now, since we only had 1 room for today, I've decided on including a bonus one, too. The poll is mostly Saint stuff, so this'll be one of those as well, specifically:

A43 from Silent Construct. And yeah, I'm not particularly surprised that this one failed. There's very little depth to this one, and it just has two room connections, one of which leads to a Cyan Lizard spawn, while the other leads to a Spitter Spider. And you better hope they don't find you in this room, cus good luck avoiding them here! Granted, the layout is mostly fine, but I do like the idea within the background, where you can see one of those long bridge/platforms that were previously outside, now ending up in the interior as a result of the collapse. That's a great idea, and from what I could tell, the only other room that utilizes it is B26 (…which does use the concept better for its visuals, but that's beyond the point). So this one's also probably a 4/10. Sorry that I wasn't overly enthusiastic about the rooms of today, but sometimes, fate just hands you stuff you don't really care about too much. (Except for those 1 or 2 small details, which are the things that make it so fun for me to write these. It's pretty enjoyable to gush about cool minor things I like, even if they're not enough to push a room into excellence)

Pick Your Favorite Rain World Room, Day 240 R2

This is not single elimination! Every room with at least 15.0% vote will move on to the next round.

There is a hidden slugcat in one of the rooms (they can be in any color). If u can see it comment or reblog with where they are and if u are first, u get a cookie!

Credit for game screenshots goes to: Rain World Interactive Map, Rain World Wiki and me

Congratulations for day 239 winners!

#rain world room ranking #rain world opinions

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tomatograter · 4 years ago

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New to the fandom, Could you explain June? 💯 Love and support her. But homestuck 2 doesn't have her and I'm just confused?

June Egbert precedes the concept of homestuck^2! I’ve seen a lot of people be confused about this because they weren’t active on the fandom at the time the epilogues dropped, when reading her as a trans woman got a lot of discussion going and eventually lead to multiple confirmations.

So here’s an attempt at contextualization:

Throughout Homestuck, a few key ideas about Egbert’s identity and motivation to push forward with her hero’s journey are dropped like breadcrumbs. She’s meant to play the default straight-man protagonist. Her defining traits are ridiculously… generic, when compared to how all the other kids present themselves and stick to exaggerated bits. She’s a perfectly normal, regular suburban kid with normal, suburban issues.

She may not leave her room a whole lot. She may not have a lot of real life friends in the neighborhood. She holds a comical irritation for the concept of birthdays, even though her father is extremely supportive, and is delighted to see his son grow up nice and healthy. There’s no reason for her to be so irrationally upset at cakes and gifts, and that’s what makes the setup funny! June doesn’t even know why she’s annoyed with half of the things that annoy her, what the heck.

But under all that playing around there is a sense that her life is so normal, so blasé, so unexciting and limiting and hollow and fake that she’d give anything to not be herself, even if only for ten minutes. This goes way, way back. It’s why June needs SBURB to happen.

June lives as though her life hasn’t started yet. She’s stuck in the Tutorial stage. I would argue while most kids (and trolls) play SBURB to escape a shitty environment or the end of the world as they know it, June plays for a simpler reason: She needs to escape herself, and she needs to do it before it is too late.

Being thirteen means crossing the homeric abyss between being a child with no care for the world sporting a generic hand-me-down identity and becoming a Teen (capital T) who needs to figure out how to cope with atrocious bodily changes while building the adult they’re meant to be AND deciding what the fuck they want out of life, and how they’re going to work to get it, forever and ever.

When you’re trans, and you don’t yet know you’re trans (or that this is a thing you’re even ALLOWED to be) the above feels a lot like serving a life sentence for an intangible crime.

You know what you’re supposed to do. You’ve seen it on tv, you’ve heard it from your dad, you know what are the normal trials and tribulations. You know you'll grow a few pimples and stubble and you'll need to learn how to shave, obviously, because it's basically a tradition in your family, and no one is really happy to be a teen. You know at some point you'll find a nice girl and you'll grow a hat out of your skull and then you will have to pay taxes and maybe you will have a baby daughter? You'd like it to be a daughter for no particular reason. And when you get a daughter you're going to name her Casey and she's going to be adorable and this is something you've dedicated a lot of thought to. Maybe its because you thought Nic Cage looked really cool with those long flowing locks in con air, the movie who featured a trans woman as a minor character for a few minutes (and she gets quite a bit of compliments, regardless of how the movie has aged), and he had a really exciting life, but goddamn did he love his daughter. There is no purer love than the bond between a father and his daughter.

This absolutely has nothing to do with your father and you, or how you hold no excitement for becoming an adult man, or how your father's excitement for you becoming an adult man in your stead feels a little stifling.

But i digress.

June spends her time on SBURB mostly hassling karkat, and readily following the instructions of zany, dangerous, COOL girls that seem to know what they're doing. June lets Terezi lead her to certain death without blinking. June lets Vriska dress her up as soon as opportunity presents itself. June thinks its really funny to trick this troll Who Types Really Oddly into believing she's Rose, and also into believing that she's a very silly girl. You may even say Homestuck employs a few of jokes pertaining to how her name looks like EGG !

June has a ball playing this game until it starts to get shitty. She's never able to mend her relationship with her dad, as he's one of the first causalities. She has to spend a lot of time waiting around with jade on a ship until things get cool and exciting again, but she never stops growing during those three years. Its fine, though, because there's always more things to be done and more people to fight.

Until there aren't, and they make a new earth, and while everyone cheers and claps for the birth of a new planet June realizes all her excuses are over. Her friends begin to grow up. Rose gets married. Jade is living her best life. Dave has a not-boyfriend glued to his hip. Jane has a job. Jake is on TV for some reason. June doesn't want to leave home. June's birthday is around the corner again. Here come all the congratulations for becoming a strong lad for yet another year! Vriska is gone. Terezi is gone. SBURB is over. Wacky hijinks have been swapped for real-ass, boring-ass Regular life. We watch her unsuccessfully chase after the glory of days gone by when Rose presents her the possibility of going back into the game, when things were cool and mattered, or her flimsy decision to settle down with a nice girl she hasn’t really made an effort to know and become a father and be absolutely miserable for four decades as she asserts nothing is real, not anymore, and this is just how it is.

Depersonalization, depression and general apathy towards the world are all pronounced aspects of dysphoria that seem like unrelated incidents for someone who hasn't came out yet. June's trainwreck of a life post-game, specially her feeling of hollowness and chasing after anything that could fill it struck a chord with trans readers who left the epilogues to read HS again and discovered this has always sort of been here. June being a trans woman who doesn't have the proper vocabulary to express she is a trans woman makes a lot of earlier bits from the comic click into place, now in a broader context. We settled in the name "June" because it's what she imagines Vriska is calling her at some point, amid laughs, but even that was discussed for a lengthy period last year. What would she want to be called, what are possible tags for this, etc. But it was mostly for fun and games, because the prospect of the protagonist of a 10 year old beloved cult series being ACTUALLY confirmed as a trans woman just wasn't something that was done.

Until word got around to Andrew Hussie and he was reportedly so pleased with this interpretation of events he’d be making references to it, and some time later, a box of toblerones was left in a cave as a gift for fans to find. The first person to find a toblerone thought it would be funny to dedicate it to June, because now she was an ongoing reference that was fun to make. Instead of it ending there, Hussie logs on twitter for the first time in a long while to say 'Oh yeah, i'll make it happen' and that's when the whole thing exploded. I have a post detailing this made a year ago (with pictures!) so i won't keep you here.

In the year since, June has been vaguely alluded to in Pesterquest (in jade's end card, she's having her nails painted by rose.) Has been widely adopted by the community, those making their own fanventures and continuations, and the team behind Homestuck^2. In every way that matters, she's already thriving within the community that brought her to light a year ago. But her coming out in canon is something that will take time and a proper narrative arc to happen, one that is still being set up. We know it'll come eventually, the only question is “how”.

Not that the wind waits for anyone.

#meta #june egbert #homestuck #homestuck 2

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dapperrokyuu · 1 year ago

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Ayyy~!

Oh, yeah, 1000%! Different tastes for different plates, no need to change anyone’s mind regarding this, haha. Sorry if I gave that impression at all, thats my bad. Its just fun to dive deeper into other people’s takes!

Poison’s shoes are veryyy amusing. Extra wrapped to be safe??? Or to protect the floor from the substances on her shoes, LOL, dalnfdakljn- The way the shoes squish down…theyre very intriguing. The colors are very fitting and I definitely prefer when a concept oversells than undersells! Interestingly, I think my favorite factor that contributes to it is her jacket, its a very modern design while also giving the bubbling vibes of chemicals. Thought it was very clever! The hair is really goopy, which I think is part of what pushes me away, but gotta give credit for its contribution too! Reminds me of oobleck, lol.

The goggles and mask looks really cool, ahhh! Im a sucker for gas masks myself, haha. And mad scientists can be very fun~! I can see why she appeals to you tons! Despite my major gripes with SWSH, I think the region’s Pokedex was really good, actually.

Oohhh, I get what you mean. Psychic arguably has a lot more going on with it in terms of accessories and colors, so I feel that! We’ve talked about how Psychic’s is perfectly cute, so its boringness doesnt come from aesthetic/design, just from a lack of conceptual embodiment/potential, I guess, haha. I could see how Sirfetch’d themself also limited the design by not just necessitating a swordfighter design but also one that has to be regal, so you can say the Miku got tamed down too much! I do like the leek hair as well, I think its probably Fighting’s most clever aspect, hehe-

I think your feeling towards Fighting actually is similar to my feelings towards Grass, like, it works, a cheerleader and a marching band pair, but I think the palette is flat so its kind of boring to me. Smack some green everywhere, put some leaves, totally Grass type, right?! I like the idea, but I think they got stuck on it and couldnt think of anything more interesting beyond it- I digress tho, haha. Im always easily forgiving when I cant think of a better execution and I dont hate the design, so it passes at the end of the day… Now that I think of it tho, they couldve had her as one of those baton twirlers/color guarders to better match the marching band theme and done something interesting with that…..but I guess being a cheerleader is more in line with Miku’s vocal role, so oh well!

As for Flying, its okay, youre always gonna have a hater- /J, LOL- And a lover as well tho, hehe~! 1000% respect, sometimes something’s just not your thing! Thank you for sharing your takes and thoughts with me, its very fun!!! c:

My pokémiku tier list. @dapperrokyuu we are very different people.

#dee replies #fwends

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evilzoldyck · 4 years ago

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Goosebumps

You should have taken the offer to go through the Haunted House together with your friend. The ominously decorated attraction that appeared fun and harmless from the entrance now became unnerving as you lonely walked down the hall, hands gripping tightly to your chest. It was your friends’ idea to visit this low-key haunted amusement located in the middle of nowhere, deep into the woods and far from the metropolitan area where the main entertainment took place.

Initially, you were opposed to the idea as the infamous ‘Haunted House’ your friends extolled was too far away and thus didn’t carry any signal in the area. Also, the ticket fee for one was way too pricy that it was enough to sour your night despite one of your friends, Jay, offering to spot you in which you politely declined.

The drive was far and so the place was about to close up soon when you arrived and after seeing all your friends’ enthusiasm in the pursuit for adrenaline, you couldn’t help but feel guilty for bringing the mood down. In the end you acquiesced, paid the fee and entered the house at your own discretion.

You thought it was ridiculous that company made you sign a contact beforehand, something about promising not to sue or whatever. You knew it was all just an act to heighten the customers’ anxiety instead of an actual legal precaution. Things wouldn’t be so bad inside as it was policy that their employees mustn’t directly touch or use an object to make physical contact with the customers.

However as of right now, you wished you could take those words back. For an underground seasonal business, they’ve managed to pull off an incredible event. The house was situated like a maze in which each room had a different elaborated concept which sometimes included your participation to get to the next stage.

The last room included a very convincing Witch with decent prosthetic makeup on her face and a shrilling laugh concocting a death potion in her black rusty cauldron. She instructed that you bring her the eyes of a goat, toad spit and a rotting tooth in return for your life, which generally meant she’ll show the exit. The challenge was a bit stress inducing as her ‘un-dead servants’ kept trying to grab at you while she wickedly reminded you to hurry up or else she would feed you to them.

In just a few minutes you’ve managed to collect all the ingredients, thankfully the spit and the eyes came in a jar. She begrudgingly took them from your hands and pointed to you a hidden exit before her servants came running at you in full speed, making you stumble into the small door and closing them shut. You could still hear her laughter through the door as you heaved out a sigh. Though your blood was pumping and your heart was beating out of your chest, it was a scare that left a smile on your face. Perhaps you now saw the appeal of haunted houses and rollercoasters.

In the end of a long narrow corridor was a red door. The sign underneath a glowing green exit read another in ‘blood’ to push hard for the ghosts in the mansion wishes to keep you here forever. You let out a small laugh and began to push at the handle, frowning when it wouldn’t budge. Putting all your weight against the door you whined when you made no progress.

Feeling chills down your spine, you grumbled at your Halloween costume, it didn’t help either that the place went crazy with the AC and the fog machine. Fixing your bloodied nurse outfit down and rubbing your arms to soothe the biting cold, you turned around and jumped back slightly in surprise at the sight of someone else with you.

A tall and large-build man stood imposingly from behind you. He wore dark pants and a single sleeveless shirt that was so thin you could make out the shadows of his bulging muscles and pectorals which made you blush and look away for a second. Either he was very serious about his character concept or he was just built like a Greek god. You cleared your throat and reverted your gaze to see that he was holding a large blood stained machete and a mask to cover his face.

“Um could you help me?” while pointing at the door you managed to ask guessingly. “What do you need to me to?” You asked once again, figuring out this was supposed to be the last challenge. However the man didn’t say anything, he just stared at you through the mask and though you couldn’t clear see his line of sight, you felt him raking his eyes up and down your body.

Growing uncomfortable at the stifling silence, you see a glint in his hand which revealed to be a key that he was holding. “Is that the key?” you hopefully questioned as you reached out for the key, knowing you won’t get a response anyway. “May I-“ you gasped when he held it out of your reach suddenly. You wore a tiny smile as you played this rather childish game, reaching out and jumping on your toes as he held it high above his head. You could feel the deep reverberations of his chest as he chuckled at your feeble attempts.

It was at that time you noticed you were far too close to him. Letting out another sharp gasp, the man pulled you close to him by the waist. With your hands to his chest, you could feel his strained muscles from underneath his shirt; his thumb softly rubbing your hips. You were sure this guy just violated one of the rules of this place.

When you were about to push him away, he brought the key close to your face finally allowing you to take it. Squeaking out a small ‘thank you’, you felt his grip reluctantly loosened as you turned back to the door to hastily unlock it. You noticed he was still boring his eyes into you as you closed the door from behind, not making a single movement as he stoically watched you close it. Stepping into the cool night air, you shrugged the strange the interaction off and decided against reporting him to the place. You didn’t really want to deal with the confrontation.

You heard a call of your name from the distance and smiled in relief. Reuniting with your friends around the car you joyously shared tales of your experiences inside. “I don’t know how you did it alone, I was with Mina and I almost went crazy.” Your friend Leigh-Anne exasperated, holding her hand into her still pounding heart.

“You should have gone with us!” Mina quipped. “I nearly socked the clown when he came out of the box- and when he came charging towards us I swear I nearly fainted.”

“Well you were fine enough to run and leave me behind!” jested Leigh-Anne, “you closed the door while the clown was still chasing after me. My heart was about to burst at that moment.”

“For real we were screaming so much you’d think an actual murder was taking place.” She sighed. “But it’s not as crazy as you two,” Mina pointed to you and Jay. “How could you both go alone?” you shrugged at her question and replied that you wanted to make the experience scarier for you as Jay agreed. Now thinking about it, maybe going as a group would make it more fun.

“The last one though,” you trailed. “Don’t you think it was a little weird?”

“The Witch?” Jay asked, raising a brow.

“No the last one, just by the exit.” You clarified to your friends, pointing at the door where you just left. However their expressions didn’t shift. “You know the guy with the machete and a mask? He was the one that held the key.” Your friends continued to look at you like you grew a head. You furrowed your brows in confusion. “You couldn’t possibly miss him he was so tall and huge.”

“There was no one there,” Mina laughed. “The exit was unlocked anyway why would there be a key?”

“I didn’t see anyone either on my turn too, the Witch just pointed the way out then it was over.”

“Holy shit, did you see an actual ghost then?”

“What? No, no he was real.” You awkwardly chuckled along. “Are you guys being serious right now?”

“That’s three to one, you’re being haunted.” Leigh-Anne made spooky noises and played with your hair teasingly as you rolled your eyes light-heartedly. When the lights finally shut from the establishment you all made a move to get inside the car.

“He was there.” You enunciated once more before getting inside.

“I believe you,” playfully sang Jay from the drivers seat.

The moon was at its peak, shining so brightly it made the drive just a bit easier without the streetlights to assist. Your friends were still happily engaging on sharing the stories of the place, occasionally making jokes at you and the mysterious ‘masked ghost’. Waving them off you returned your attention back on the window, it just came to you how deep inside the forest you were as trees were all your eyes could see. Not a moment later the car suddenly stopped as the engine sputtered and died out.

Jay cursed and propped the hood open before letting out another curse. “Um I’m going to go back and get help. Something wrong with the battery.” He quickly explained as he retrieved a flashlight from the glove compartment, getting ready to sprint.

“Wait! I’ll come with you,” you offered, getting out of the car. Jay refused, saying it would be quicker if he went alone. “You calling me slow?!” you called out as he was already far into the distance.

“There’s a reason why I was school’s best track and field and you weren’t!” you heard his faint yet breathy voice retaliate back at you as you scoff out a laugh at his remark.

Half an hour went by and you all started to get worried when he didn’t return. “I’m going after him,” you finally stated, getting ready to get out and run. Mina stated that she’ll go too while Leigh-Anne stayed back, suggesting that someone should stay in the car in case he came back.

Trekking down the road with your hand in hers MIna suddenly asked, “you know when you said you saw someone else in the Haunted House back then,” you hummed back in reply. “You were just joking right?” She gripped your hand tightly as you looked at her worried face. “It was just a joke to rile us up, there wasn’t actually a huge masked man with a machete?”

Knowing full well what she wanted to hear you replied back, “yeah of course.” Nonchalantly shrugging it off like it was nothing. “It was a poor joke now that I think about it.” Guilt tugged at your insides but you knew you couldn’t scare her even more, now that you were all at an extremely unpredictable environment.

You heard her sigh in relief and hugged your sides, “I knew it. You’re such a bad liar.” You weakly laughed at her jest and tried to push the thoughts of the strange man away. When you finally arrived back to the place it looked like a proper abandoned house. All the lights were off, you should’ve expected that as it was way past their opening hours, but all the cars that you assumed were the employees’ were gone too. You and Mina knocked on every door and window to get a response but your own voices echoed back at the empty place.

What’s stranger is that you couldn’t find Jay anywhere too. His flashlight, however, was found on the ground near the exit of the house. You figured there was no way that he could have went inside for all the doors and windows were barricaded shut. After a good twenty minutes of searching around the perimeters of where he could have gone, you and Mina decided to get back to the car with a heavy heart. The walk was fast but silent, neither of you had anything to say to each other.

It was when you saw the car with one of the door opened that you two began running towards it. “Leigh-Anne?” Mina gasped at the sight of the empty car. “What’s going on?” she exclaimed, tears springing up her eyes and as you were about to reply, you finally saw him. The masked man from the Haunted House with his machete freshly coated in blood, stalking leisurely towards the both of you. Mina turned and widened her eyes at the sight, grabbing her hand in yours you both made a run for it into the woods.

Breathing heavily through your nose you could hear his boots thumping against the ground, his speed gaining close to you both. At one point you both let go of each other’s hands to run faster and soon you couldn’t hear or see her anymore.

Knowing better than to call out her name and give out your location you began to look at your surroundings but it was so, so frustratingly dark. The kind of darkness that made your head ache from trying to see anything. The moonlight couldn’t offer any help for the trees’ thick foliage covered it all. Your eyes couldn’t make out anything and only when you heard Mina’s terrifying screams and a sudden silence through the dense forest did you find the strength to keep running.

Tears stung your eyes while your lungs burned like fire from overexertion. Tripping on a rock, you sobbed out a pathetic weep as you crawled forwards, not doubting that your knee was badly scraped in the process. Seeing as you were grabbing onto rocks, you glanced up to find a raging river in front of you.

Thick pairs of hands grabbed at your sides making you scream in response, kicking away at your assailant and scratching at his arms. The man grunted as he pinned your arms down with one hand swiftly and locked your legs together with his thighs. It was only then could you see your perpetrator clearly, his green eyes wide and dilated as he took in your form. Your breath was caught in your throat at how truly menacing he was up close. There was blood sprayed on his white mask and the smell of him thick with iron and sweat. For a moment you were paralysed with fear as he studied your face, fingers trailing your wet cheek softly along with your lips and nose.

The man came closer and placed his head between your breasts, breathing in the scent of you deeply. He must’ve lost himself in you for a moment as he caressed the curves of your body, relaxing his other grip on your hands. You made a quick decision to grasp onto a nearby stone to hit him straight on his temple. The man grunted in pain from your attack but didn’t fall in the end, your heart was at your throat when you realised you had messed up perhaps your only chance to escape. He glared angrily down at you and when you attempt at another swing, he blocked it by capturing your small wrists in his strong calloused ones.

“Agh!” you cried when he broke it with a simple squeeze, letting the rock fall from your hand. Nevertheless, that didn’t relent you from trying to fight him as you squirmed in his powerful hold. It was as if he knew that you weren’t planning to stop fighting him did he pick up the same rock you used to hit him with to successfully knock you out in one swift strike.

Groaning softly in pain, you feel yourself move through the air by a pair of secure arms. Looking ahead of you with your blurry vision, you saw the man stare ahead at a light that slowly came into view. There was a cabin dimly lit inside, tucked deep into the forestry and not that far from the river. You couldn’t bear to take a guess of what’s to happen to you the next time you woke up and so you let sleep cloud your consciousness instead.

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internalsealpanic · 4 years ago

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Do It Yourself Hauntings

Summary: You and Terry get extremely bored while on a group date as you walk through a haunted house. Terry has a brilliant idea that’s sure to chase away your boredom.

masterlist

a/n: Guess who is flagrantly avoiding homework to write a fic? So this is Cat!Reader x Terry McGinnis. Reader is still as gender neutral as I can make them so I went with the name ‘Stray’. A tid bit I could not write in organically is that reader is painfully shy in their civilian identity but has little to no inhibitions when in their night time persona. Another clarification is that this is the outfit I had in mind. It was legit the thing I had my heart set on when my lizard brain said Catwoman character.

Warnings: Adult language, clowns, clownery, and this maybe a tinsy bit spicy at one point (I tried) (kind of? Look, I just don’t want anyone going all mother superior on me. Just in case. ).

You were incredibly, stupidly, magnificently bored.

You shifted on your heels, letting them click and echo trying to distract yourself from the thrum of excess energy surging through your body.

It-It didn’t work.

The clicking only made you more anxious, plucking at your taut nerves like well-tuned guitar strings.

It probably didn’t help that you just came back from a dazzling night of heists and getting shot at. Adrenaline still flowing through your veins like molten ichor. Heart still floundering in your chest as if- at any moment- the cops would come rushing in and you would have to make your daring, if not dramatic, escape.

Between this and the sorry attempt at jump scares the poor underpaid actors subjected you to, your head started aching and your mood plummeted into something vile. Thankfully, your group was none-the-wiser unless all of them spontaneously decided to master micro-expressions then you were the picture of an apprehensive young adult trekking through a cheap haunted house.

Why did you agree to this again?

Pulse still pounding loudly in your ears and content with letting the others have their fun, you silently fall into the back of the group. There was a higher chance that you would encounter the cringe-inducing scares but you weren’t too concerned. Nope. You were more worried about the very real possibility that you might deck Nelson or Chelsea or Blade or whoever the fuck decided that girls need to play scared to make guys feel cool. Ok, yeah, the last one.

When Chelsea did another ill-timed flinch, scrabbling for Nelson’s arm, and Nelson ate it up, you swore your eyes would roll their way out of their sockets. Whoever popularized this needed to be shot. Twice.

There was always a possibility that they weren’t faking it, that they were genuinely terrified but you highly doubted it considering if anything actually scary happened, Nelson would be the first one to run.

Neck deep in your musings, you hadn’t noticed as Terry slowed to keep pace with you. He leaned down close enough to brush his lips against your skin and blew a light gust into your ear. You jumped clutching your ear feeling the heat spread through your body. You twitched away. The memory of his lips against your ear making your stomach dance. Your skin prickled with curiosity-

You glowered at him. You prayed that the embarrassment plain on your body language did not dampen the venom in your eyes.

“Told ya I could be scary,”

He winked.

You sighed.

Of course, he hadn’t let that go.

You rolled your head to the side and shrank into your puffy leather jacket trying to hide the bright flush of your cheeks. From the absolutely smarmy grin he gave you, he was enjoying this. Was this payback? It was probably payback. Payback for all the slag you said over the comms, the flirty little touches, or all the little kisses you dealt him every time you encountered him in the field.

Here’s a novel concept! Maybe don’t dish out what you can’t take.

“Compared to this place? Yeah,”

“Ouch, what’s got you in a mood?”

You leveled him a look. Terry leveled you with his own. You tilted your head ever so slightly to show the bruise blooming on your collar bone. He winced. His jaw clenched. You instantly regretted showing him when his brows were carved with guilt. Normally, you liked looking at Terry. Easy on the eyes kind of handsome. He only looked punchable in the Batsuit. But you could never stand the guilt and worry on his face, especially when you were the cause. It wasn’t even his fault. You took the blow knowing your armor wasn’t quite as enforced. That was on you.

You sucked in a breath and rolled your shoulders contorting yourself away from the ever-present need to apologize. Instead, you waved your hand vaguely at the cheaply constructed haunted house. “Admit it, this place is-”

“isn’t that-” He looked around rubbing the back of his neck. “-bad?”

“Terry, the scariest thing about this place is how many credits I wasted,” you deadpanned looking down at your, now, lighter wallet. It wasn’t physically lighter but you were a drama queen and you had a point to make.

Terry chuckled at your antics and rolled his eyes. “It’s got its charms,” You raised your brow and crossed your arms. His shoulders slumped then straightened, a teasing quirk to his lip curling. “Still better than doing that family studies paper,”

Ok, that you could agree on.

The rest of the walk was marginally bearable with you and Terry providing quiet commentary on each scare. It was hard to hold back laughter. Your body shook, nearly falling into a giggle fit several times. You got dirty looks from the others several times for the transgression of ‘ruining’ the mood. You were a little impressed that they had managed to make a mood for you to ruin. After all, what’s more romantic than zombie clowns and warehouses?

Your sides ached. You really wanted to just let out a laugh, a real full belly laugh but you hated your laugh. Terry, you thought, was aware of your broken plate laugh. Why did he keep trying to draw it out?

Your group made it into a large clearing. Your anxiety immediately ratcheted up with the wide-open space but relaxed after scanning the room. There was nowhere to put

Creaking and scraping of old rusty metals resonated in every corner.

Terry nudged you and pointed upward, directing your attention to the silhouette moving around in the rafters.

Your heart stopped momentarily but picked back up again as soon as you saw the graceless way the figure moved around.

A clown covered in gore and shards of metal jumped down from the rafters landing in the middle of your ragtag group. You scattered. You heard a few gasps. You even saw Nelson flinch. You took some petty satisfaction in being right.

You yawned less concerned with the crazy act he was putting on and more with how the hell he hasn’t landed on a single patron. You made your boredom plain. You’ve seen crazy. Your sides throbbed in protest of the reminder.

You looked down to distract yourself only to be met with the sight of floppy red clown shoes. Genuine, floppy, red clown shoes. You pinched the bridge of your nose and bit your lip. Your body trembled from trying to contain the laughter roiling in your stomach.

The man continued to spout something about keeping you all here for his entertainment. Blah. Blah. You crossed your ankles and leaned ever so slightly into Terry’s space, cocking your head to the opposite side. You yawned into your hand muffling the sound as best you could in an attempt to be polite. Terry had other ideas.

Terry leaned down into your ear making an exaggerated snoring sound. An ugly snort tore its way out of your nostrils loud enough to be heard over the clown’s overly dramatic soliloquy. You felt everyone’s eyes on you. You clamped your hand over your mouth to stifle the onslaught of snorts rising up from your chest. You narrowed your eyes at Terry who, at the moment, was also fighting his own fit of laughter. You couldn’t keep the smile off your face as you, in solidarity, tried not to laugh too hard at the expense of the wannabe Shakespeare actor.

You kind of felt bad.

Maybe.

Ok, you did. But not nearly enough to actually stop laughing. In your defense, Ace had more acting chops than this guy. But kudos, he was really into the bit.

He lunged at the two of you, fuming with smoke coming out of his ears. Terry grabbed you pressing you to his side and wrapping a protective arm around you. You let out an embarrassing little squeak. You witnessed as he cataloged it into the ‘stuff y/n is never gonna live down’ part of his brain. ‘Cute’ he mouthed silently. You cursed yourself. You turned to cuss at Terry-

The clown lunged at you again, murderous intent plain as day on his face. He snarled as you two dodged him easily with a quick sidestep. In the corner of your eyes, you could see the other actors look on in bewilderment. One of them shook her head clearly exasperated. Ok, so you unintentionally pissed off one of the actors. Great. Now, what?

The man lunged for you again. Dodging gracefully, you two turned on your heels and bolted leading him away from the group. You could hear the group collectively cheering him on behind you as you made your escape.

Technically, you could just knock him out and maybe go back to the group. One of you was the goddamn Batman while the other was Stray, thief extraordinaire, after all. But between the gasp of laughter and the playful grin stretching across Terry’s face like hell that was happening.

You two ducked into a corner tired and panting. You press yourself against the cool metal of the wall with Terry shielding you from view.

“You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” You whisper, shrinking into your leather jacket feeling keenly aware of your lack of undershirt as the heat radiating from his skin pressed against yours. He leaned against you, closing the gap between the two of you. His panting breaths fanning against your skin, lips brushing against the bare skin of your collar. You bit out a curse as the color on your cheeks darkened. You swallowed a lump, heart floundering again. You felt him smile against your skin.

You like to say it was anger that flared up in you. You really would but the heat suffusing in your body said otherwise. You pushed at him weakly. “We have to get back,”

Terry stepped back giving you space. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding in.

“You sure you want to? Bozo is still looking for us. That and you’ll probably still be bored,”

You tapped your foot and tilted your head considering it. You looked into his face searching for something. You sigh inwardly. “Yeah, no. I really don’t wanna go back. The scariest thing is still the amount of money we wasted and I have yet to be scared shitless,”

He smiled at you victoriously. “I have an idea,”

You blinked at him.“Ok, great job! Now, I’m pissing myself with fear,” You teased. You weren’t a fan of Terry’s ideas half the time but hell if they weren’t entertaining.

Terry rolled his eyes at you holding out his hand. “You brought your goggles, right?”

“McGinnis, I didn’t exactly have time to go home and-” You stilled, feeling his eyes trail down your chest before darting back up. Normally, when you were in costume, you left the zipper of your jacket open showing tantalizing glimpses of your soft flesh. Terry was absolutely not opposed to your costume choice unless you were in danger which was rare (thank you very much). This was what led to your current blushing predicament not that the other aspects of your costume were any less complementary. You sighed inwardly before stammering out “Yeah, I have my goggles,” Fishing them out of an inner pocket of your jacket, you waved them around half-heartedly.

“Schway! Come on follow me,” He said grabbing your wrist before you could see the flush creeping up his neck.

You rounded a couple of corners before stopping at a beam. He looked from left to right brow furrowed. He tapped his foot twice then somehow decided to go left. How the hell Terry managed to find his way around in the dark was a complete mystery to you. Your first guess is echolocation but the second, more logical guess, was that Bruce was a paranoid old man. Like a normal human, you were entirely dependent on the night vision mode of your goggles.

You stopped when Terry stretched his arm out in front of you. You squinted seeing another group of bored-looking patrons. You turn to Terry who was looking at them and seemingly analyzing the group and it clicked.

“Oh,” you whispered quietly as you understood what he was planning. He threw you a playful smirk knowing you wouldn’t be able to resist this golden opportunity to fuck around.

“I would like to go on record and say this is a terrible idea,”

“And yet you’re going along with it,”

You were about to protest but couldn’t really think of a good defense.

“You know, if you really wanted to scare them you could have just dressed up as old Brucie,”

You huffed and put your goggles on before crouching low. He followed suit bending low.

“Weeell, sorry. Your gremlin mug was the best I could do on short notice,”

You made a face of mock hurt which made him chuckle. “Am not,”

As it turns out, two vigilantes well-trained in sneaking around are actually pretty good at scaring people. In the last 5 minutes, you’ve scared four different groups of patrons all with varying reactions but all equally hilarious.

“Yanno we could probably scare Nelson,” Terry hummed innocently trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. You answered him with a vicious smile. “You just want payback for the prank he pulled yesterday,”

“And you want to see him piss himself,”

This was true.

“Ok, fine. What’s the game plan?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Terry chuckled knowing he’s got you hook, line, and sinker. You scoffed but let him lean closer to you to whisper his maniacal scheme.

“If this works I am going to cry-” You crowed ducking behind another row of boxes as you quietly trailed your group. “-Hand me your jacket,”

Completely avoiding your outstretched hands, he draped his jacket over you like a strange leather veil before giving your head a quick pat. “Hope you brought tissues then,”

“Like slag, this is gonna work,” You said quirking your brow and tilting your head to make the doubt plain on your face. Even with your vision impaired by your new headpiece, you could still admire how nice he looked in his shirt. Not that you let it show. You hoped.

“Just watch and learn nonbeliever,”

“Oh god he thinks he can pull off miracles now,” You sneered climbing on to his broad shoulders.

“Shhhhhhhh”

You pouted down at him crossing your arms. He shrugged his shoulders, the movement drawing a surprised yelp from you in turn making him snicker. You were about to open your mouth when your smoke trap was triggered.

Ok, this was a blatant abuse of your equipment but who was gonna tell you off? Bruce? Probably but the man was allergic to fun so being at a Halloween fair was, likely, safe.

Thick waterfalls of white smoke cascaded down from the rafters, blanketing the floor with a thick mist of curling smoke. The group stopped almost mystified by how well-timed the eerie effect was. You had to hold back a derisive snort when they all turned to each other confused.

Because, yes, this is what your hours of booby trap training have been leading up to.

Truly, a magnum opus of spite.

You could already see Nelson readying himself to bolt even as Blade and Chelsea hung off his arms. Petty satisfaction bloomed in you.

Ok, you may be a gremlin.

You threw your voice in a shrill cackle letting it echo and bounce in the room over the too slow circus music playing in the background. It was a chilling sound, the kind that rattled in bones and traveled up the spine. One that you’ve only ever used for pranks during long nights at the lab. You even felt Terry freeze up beneath you. His grip on your thighs getting tighter. How on earth you didn’t yelp or squeak or make any other little noise at that was the true miracle.

“Wha- what’s going on?“ Blade squeaked, pressing into the group.

"Didn’t we just pass the last attraction?!”

“Are you sure it was the last?”

“I don’t know man!”

The group shrank in on itself as the conversation grew more panicked. You felt Terry shaking from holding in laughter. You nudge him softly with your heel. He took a breath and nodded to tell you he was fine.

“Oh children, there’s no need to fuss,” You coo sickeningly sweet. You see them swallow taking in your presence heavy as it was.

“The fun’s only just beginning!” You shriek flicking on the orange lights of your goggles. Your shrill, shrieking voice transmuting over the speakers filling the room.

They screamed, scrambled, and scattered. Your nearly 10-foot silhouette hovering over them. They tripped over each other. Some of them pulling at each other. Some stepping over feet in their haste to get away. Pure terror etched themselves on their faces.

You let them all sprint to exit, watching their forms all disappear before bursting out into laughter.

“Did- Did you see their faces?!”

“Please tell me you were recording,“

“wait-” You choked grabbing for your goggles. You made a show of checking and letting your shoulders fall in disappointment.

Terry looked crushed. A vicious grin carved across your face. “Relax, I was,”

Terry’s slumped against the crate as he leaned back. He ran his hand through his black hair and began to laugh again.

You put your goggles back to your jacket pocket. You clutched at his jacket letting your ugly laugh tumble out of your lips. Terry planted a kiss on your nose making your breath hitch.

"What was that for?!” Your hands flying to your nose. Your fingers traced the small patch of skin he touched.

“You were just too cute,” He laughed ruffling your hair.

How do you respond to that? How could he say things like that so casually? Does he not know how many heart attacks it gives you?

“Jerk”

“PFFFFT”

“Don’t ‘pfffft’ me!” You bit out, throwing his jacket at him.

“Pfffft”

He stuck his tongue out at you.

“I-”

“Ahem!”

You both looked up to see a security guard and Bozo glowering down at you. You gave them both what passed for a sheepish, but not exactly, apologetic look.

The burly guard picked you both up by the scruff of your necks and hauled you out of the building. He tossed you out back as Bozo yelled “stay out” from the comfort of the guards back.

“Kick us out yourself, coward!” Terry yelled, shaking his fist like an old man. You slapped your forehead in an effort not to encourage him. Bozo glowered at him from behind his meat shield. Terry snarled. You grabbed his arm to stop him from doing anything stupid.

“I knew it was you two,” Max sighed, hand on her hip.

“How’d you guess?”

“Circus music,”

You looked at her uncomprehendingly before remembering your well-documented discomfort with circuses. You slapped your hand against your forehead. Terry, helpful as usual, snickered at you.

But before you could throw hands, Max spoke cleared her throat.

“You dumbasses are lucky they don’t press charges,” Max aggravated pinching the bridge of her nose. You had the decency to look a little sheepish at the accusation but Terry looked pleased which earned him a chastising look.

“Sorry, ma’am” You both grumbled as she pulled you both up.

All three of you walked in tandem. Max let up the responsible act.

“Not the worst group date you’ve been on, right?” Terry nudged.

“No, guess not,” You scoffed, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Stiiiiill not as bad as that time you got us caught by the Joker Gang~”

“That wasn’t even my fault,”

————————————–

Thanks for reading! Also please do not do this in real life. They will get mad at you even if their haunted house does stink.

taglist: @batarellabatarella (YOU BITCH I GOT ANOTHER BATBOY FOR YOU), @anothertimdrakestan, @lucy-roo, @multifandomgirl-us, @idkmanicantenglish,@birdy-bat-writes, @boosyboo9206, @americasmarauders (I wanna drag you into Terry hell), @l-horizon11

#batafm #dc x y/n #dc fanfiction #terry mcginnis x reader #terry mcginnis #october #my writing #batboys #spooktober

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