#little boys need to see girl characters with the same care and dignity the boys are given

[burgercheese1812]

Funniest “no beta we die-“ tags that I’ve found on A03 and what i rate them:

No beta we die like authors who wrote this in one hour

♾️/10

it’s absolutely perfect.

It’s honest.

it’s relatable

more than i’d care to admit

No beta we die like barb

10/10

hit me right where it hurts

JUSTICE FOR BARB

No beta we just die

100/10

Straight to the point

No room for disagreement

No beta we die like the mc’s hope for the future

+♾️/10

I fully snorted when I saw this one

Too accurate.

Like waaaaayyy too accurate

I didn’t go on A03 to be called out like this.

it’s not trauma it’s ✨character development✨

No beta we die like my first love

8/10

Relatable.

First loves never work I swear-

I really hope this is talking about the love for someone dying and not the actual PERSON dying

No beta we die like my sleep schedule

100/10

Terrifyingly perfect and relatable accuracy

Perfectly summed up what it’s like to write fan fics

There is no room for a sleep schedule as a writer

No beta we die like my dignity

♾️/10

Honestly enough said.

I lose a piece of myself every time I decide to write fan fic

There is no room for dignity, only fan fic.

No beta sadly we die like my motivation to do uni work

10/10

Maybe not specifically uni work but I have definitely left work unfinished while I wrote a fan fic

You have too.

Don’t even deny it.

No beta we cry ourselves to sleep

100/10

The reason angst fics take so long to write is because we can’t see through our own tears

Angst writers only write angst to condemn someone to the same fate as themselves

Change my mind.

No beta we die like izuku’s will to live

100/10

The better side of the MHA fandom

The poor boy has been put through so much already

Does that mean we as writers will stop putting him through stuff?

No.

No beta we die like my heart did watching last night’s episode

♾️/10

Enough said.

I don’t even have to see what fandom this is from

All I know is that this is always the beginning of a great fic.

It’s a canon event.

We must sacrifice our mental state for the fics.

No beta we die like side characters

100000/10

I cackled

It scared my dog.

“Now I’m going to go into heavy detail about my life even though I’ve only said two sentences and been seen only twice” is when you KNOW they’re about to die

BUT WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO DIE???

I HAPPENED TO LOVE THE RANDOM ICE CREAM GUY NAMED DAVE WHO GOT APPROXIMATELY 0.02 SECONDS OF SCREAM TIME

No beta reader we die like peeps in the microwave

7/10

This one made me laugh

I don’t quite know why

Anyone would die in a microwave?

Why are you jumping into a microwave?

Was the ending really that bad?

Was it the good omens season 2 ending?

Is there room in the microwave for 2 peeps?

P.s: I am assuming they meant ‘peeps’ as in people and not those little birds candy things from America

Absolutely no beta we die like Junpei

-100/10

You made me cry

Just 7 words and the tears were free

Why would you do this to me?

This but if JJK has emotionally scarred me for life.

I will actually rate it 10000/10 because I will admit it is hilarious

But I swear-

Absolutely no beta we go down like a faulty elevator

8/10

I mean fair enough-

No beta we die like my originality after this fic

8/10

You either have too much originality or too little originality

there is no in between for a fan fic writer

However, most Wattpad writers some how manage to both have no originality with the petite -5’5 valley girl who was just sold off to the band One Direction

But also too much originality with the amount of random bull$h!!t going on in the fic

Ya’ll amaze me on that app.

Again no beta we die like Jason!

100000000/10

The exclamation mark is the icing on the cake

It sounds so happy that Jason is dead

Like Jason’s dead! 😁

Just needs a :) face now

AKA no beta we die like our brain cells

♾️/10

Braincells?

What braincells?

I’m convinced most writer just have a fic idea and then go into a comatose and

💥 Bam💥

fic finished and posted on the internet forever

aka no beta we die of CRINGE

100/10

No writer can honestly say that they haven’t posted a fic that they look back on and don’t cringe so hard they implode

The cringe takes over.

It has a mind of its own

Almost No Beta We Die Like Uhh Bigender People

10000/10

This is so vaguely threatening??

What did the bigender people do?

Why are they dying?

Why the hesitation??

Are there more gender-ed people who are dying????

Were they’re too many from you to pick from????

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TYPE THE “Uhh”??????

Also no beta reader we die like the missing children

1000/10

Again.

Vaguely threatening?

Why are the children missing?

Did you kidnap children to be your beta readers?

Did they escape????

Also no beta we die like our favourite characters

100000/10

Just like the side character one

This is PEAK comedy

No one can convince me otherwise

Also no beta we die like ants in the mighty spiral

10000000000000/10

I love subjective humour

I can relate to the ants in the their death spiral whilst writing fics

Also ants are cool

I really hope more people get this-

Also no beta we die like cishet white men writing their first erotica novel

10000/10

Hilarious.

I have never seen this before but I somehow already know what it looks like?

And it’s funny

Also no beta we die like endeavour’s hero career

1000/10

Extra points for the MHA reference

Dabi really DESTROYED endeavours hero career

Like the guy had it coming anyway-

Also I would like to point out that there were 4 OF THESE spelt in DIFFERENT ways, like some had a capital ‘Endeavour’

And that is funny to me because it implies that 4 separate people had the same idea for this tag

Also no beta we die like every fan-favourite character on spn

100/10

I just love how we as authors can all relate with our favourites dying all the time

Like it may be worded different but we all have the same idea-

There’s 1230 or something pages of just these “no beta we-“ tags and I would love to try and go through them but yeah-

I’m lazy 🫠

Might do some more rating soon 🫡

[extreme-technicality]

Thinkin bout Rumi and how the ninjago showrunners did her SO dirty again

[wispycecilia]

hey , pretty stranger !

genshin characters as strangers you’ve met

various! genshin impact x reader. (albedo, childe, diluc, fischl, gorou, hu tao, itto, kaeya, kazuha, scaramouche, thoma, venti, xiangling, xiao, yanfei, zhongli.) - 5037 words.

synopsis: genshin characters as people you’ve encountered, and have remained in your heart ever since then.

notes: modern! AU. long headcanons. british english used. lowercase. some cliche romance tropes used. edited. semi-proofread. gn!reader. mother used in albedo’s one. father used in diluc’s one. slight cursing used. arranged in alphabetical order.

a/n: this was meant to be released way earlier but then word deleted all my work are u srs.. but anywayysss most of these are happy, i promise :) key word is ‘most’ tho. and holy moly these are long asdffghhjkl new record for me!!

masterlist

albedo

• the person who let you have the last carton of eggs. you were rushing to the supermarket in an absolute frenzy; your mother wanted to make desserts, but you used up the last eggs in the house to complete a stupid ‘rubber egg’ science project of yours.

• it was already late, and the chances of the supermarket actually having anything there at all was very slim, but luck seemed to be in your favour??? lo and behold, right there in the poultry aisle, sits the last box of eggs. you could literally hear angels singing.

• well, your glorious moment was interrupted by a third party picking it up before you could. he was observing them with a critical gaze, and in a slight moment of panic, you were debating whether or not you could win against him in a fist fight.

• but as he gave you a quizzical look at your defeated expression, you opted for the second option: begging.

• it was a pitiful sight, really. you were about to get on your knees and plead at the poor guy just for the eggs. you knew your mother would be angry if you came home with nothing, and you weren’t about to risk a scolding, not today!!

• but instead, he just wordlessly handed the carton to you. no small talk, no need for you to throw your dignity to the side, nothing. it was like he could read your mind. you stood there in awe.

• you swear you could see a hint of a smirk on his face, though.

childe

• the attractive person who was taking care of their sibling at the park. he was helping teucer climb up one of those spider web playground equipment things, and then his shirt rised up a bit and. oh. oh my god. ohhhhhh my god?!?!?

• turns out, he was your neighbour… the hot neighbour that you never noticed until now. you’ve interacted with his little siblings before, but never saw him?? and as you were having a mini crisis on a park bench, his little brother noticed you!

• you were invited to join them with a warm smile from both boys, and your heart almost skipped a beat imagining a domestic scene with the two: childe cooking a meal, while you and teucer sit at a table expectantly. ohh you hopeless romantic... imagining all these scenarios with a boy you’ve just met..

• you got attached way too quickly. you thought that childe believed the same: that you two hit it off, but apparently he didn’t. he gave you his number, but only ever initiated conversation if teucer wanted to meet up with you in the park. (the little boy had grown attached to you!) but it was never for anything else. childe never interacted with your ‘how was your day?’ texts at all.

• next thing you knew, the texts eventually faded into nothingness. you heard from a mutual friend of yours that childe started to date a new girl that moved into town, and that the two can be seen in the nearby park, acting like a sickenly sweet couple as they play tag with childe’s siblings.

• you occasionally walk by the park sometimes, and watch in envy as the girl took up the spot that you once had with the boys. it seemed as if teucer completely forgot about you; he liked the new girl more. and childe… he never once looked your way; he never saw you anything beyond a friend to begin with. childe may have never been yours, but a part of your heart still considered him to be a traitor.

diluc

• the person who helped pick your stuff up when you bumped into them. with you being the upcoming successor of a highly esteemed business company, the sight of you rushing to a meeting after sleeping in was embarrassingly undutiful.

• as if your day couldn’t get any worse, you bumped into a stranger along the way, all your files and documents spreading across the pavement like a snowstorm. he initially seemed to carry an impassive look, one that screamed ‘i hate idle chit-chat’, but once diluc saw your face fully?? you swear his eyes perked up in a slight amount of interest.

• one quick apology from both ends later, he helped to pick up all your folders off the ground. and after the situation was all said and done, diluc asked you for your number, his face staying ever-so impassive. and this… just left you shellshocked. him?? the one to initiate romantic advances?? he totally seemed like the unapproachable type. maybe out of your league. but he even called you cute!?!? how even??

• …although, you might’ve gotten your hopes too high up. later that night when you scrambled for the business card diluc scrawled his number on, the dreaded message of ‘number not in use’ popped up on your screen while you sent a quick hi.

• your heart sunk in an instant. one google search of the company written on the business card later, and you found out he was the son of crepus ragvindr, the man who your father left high and dry on a company deal several years ago.

• you seriously thought you had a chance with someone who wouldn’t judge you for your upbringing for once. but, this time round, it looks like you were the one who had gotten fooled once again. why were you involved in your father’s mess?

fischl

• the worker at a super suspicious shop you visited. fischl was there, dressed up in a half-magician half-princess get-up, with… somber music in the back. you entered the shop on an absolute whim, just trying to find a present for a friend, and instead? you get a girl trying to predict your death.

• it was oddly captivating, though, and soon enough, you were a regular visitor in this weird shop. you even managed to stick around long enough to meet the second owner, mona!

• fischl would go off on tangents about myths. in particular, shadow familiars. she claimed she had a pet eagle called ‘oz’ that would take form of a vengeful shadow, and would also do anything she asked.

• fischl dropped the act around you soon enough, and even told you her real name. she poured out secrets about her past that not even mona was aware about. fischl’s past was shrouded in more mystery than the mirror ball on her desk, and yet, she described all her tribulations with the crystal clear intent of getting you to understand her.

• as you two got closer, you realised she was just a sheltered girl that needed a friend. that all of this? this store that she set up with her one childhood friend that she had? was a form of escapism. this coping strategy was one that might be looked down upon by many, but was held in such high regard by you. fischl appreciated your presence more than you could ever know.

• and in your point of view? she was initially a stranger you met by pure accident. but now? she was more than that; fischl was someone you hold dear.

• fischl told you once that she lacked the capability to be loved by others. but, as you clutched the crystal bracelet you made for her against your chest, you hoped that fischl would understand that she was loved and cherished.

gorou

• the stranger who dropped popcorn all over you in the cinema. you two were in a movie premiere for an adaptation of the saddest novel of all time, and to say the least, you were in absolute shambles.

• sad films nowadays were filled with cliches that weren’t enough to make you cry at all. but this one? this one hit straight in the feels. a refreshing feeling, but crushed your ‘stone-faced bitch that refuses to cry during sad films’ title.

• and??? the hypothetical waterfall coming out of your eyes seemed to be so strong that it came into real life. a wave of pure salt and buttered popcorn came pouring out from behind you.

• the tearful moment you had was no longer, and turning around, you came face-to-face with a brown haired boy giving you a sheepish smile, holding an empty popcorn box. the white-haired friend next to him, panicked beyond belief, apologised on his behalf, but the damage has already been done.

• the cinema workers seemed to go heavy-handed with the butter machine today, as you were covered in the thing. great. you looked like an absolute mess; how were you going to recover from this moment socially?

• gorou came down to your row and gave a brief introduction, before offering you some tissues and wrapping his jacket around you. he escorted you to the toilets to clean yourself up, making playful jokes here and there.

• it would’ve been the highlight of your day, but it quickly became sour as he spoiled a pivotal part of the movie to you, only further adding to the pain.

• it’s okay though. gorou was cute; you forgave him. and on the condition that you two go out to watch the movie once more - just you two, alone - this encounter was later forgotten.

hu tao

• the person who was your escape. you were at the countryside temporarily to visit your grandparents for the summer holidays, and you liked to take escapades at nighttime to bask in the chirps of the cicadas.

• you first met hu tao while she was stuffing ‘help me’ and ‘come here at 3am’ notes underneath rocks at the riverbank the kids would stay at. the shock on her face as you caught her in the act is something that still makes you laugh to this day.

• after that, you two kept your nighttime meetings consistent. it would always be during a luminescent moonlight, besides the run-down convenience store that stood just above the river you first met at.

• you never caught each other’s name, but it didn’t matter. all that mattered was the picturesque memories you’d make together: climbing on top of a playground to look at the stars, watching the fish at the river, and you entertaining hu tao’s pranks by acting surprised whenever she snuck up on you.

• though, of course, good things always come to an end. you were just visiting the countryside, so you had no choice but to leave hu tao behind. you keep those memories in your heart, feeling melancholic every time you reminisce on the best summer you’ve ever had.

• hu tao gave you a ghost plushie before you left, telling you to call it ‘boo tao’. and yet, still, as you asked her for her name or any form of contact, she just gave you a smile, one that was unusually sad for her joyful self.

• ‘mysteries make the moment more special, don’t you think?’

• you hoped that the next time you came to visit, hu tao would be sitting there where you first met, welcoming you back with a tight hug and the cheerful smile you loved so much.

itto

• the stranger who got you a stuffed toy from a festival stall. it was one of those absolutely infuriating strength games. you know, the one where you’d have to smack a table super hard with a hammer? yeah. those ones. the neon sign saying ‘strong striker’ was literally mocking you. you were neither strong or a striker from the looks of things. the game absolutely was rigged.

• although you’d probably neglect the toy after the adrenaline from winning it wears off, who cares? whatever! it would fit perfectly in the depths of your closet with the rest of your carnival winnings!

• you were going broke and wasted literal hours on this one game.. you hadn’t even had the chance to try out the cotton candy stall from the other end of the carnival yet! any rational person would’ve stopped right now, but who said you had self control?

• as you were about to hand over your last coins, an unmistakably attractive and muscular stranger stops your hand. he gives you a reassuring smile, before proceeding to look at the game with a challenging glare.

• ‘leave it to me, stranger!’

• …and just like that, the stranger hit the table so hard with the toy hammer that the meter just. went off the scale. the vendor, who was once looking at you with a look of maliciousness due to literally robbing you of all your money, was now awestruck at the sheer power the man holds.

• you felt your heart drop as he claimed the stuffed toy you were so obviously eyeing, but as he looked at you with a satisfied smirk (maybe even a little cocky), he handed it over to you with little-to-no reluctance, before proceeding to return back to the group of friends who were mocking him for showing off so much.

• before he left, though, he asked you to name the stuffed toy ‘itto’, after his name. you did comply to itto’s wish, and instead of rotting in the back of your closet, the toy sits on your bed, reminding you of the both kind (and a little terrifying) stranger who you met on a not-so average saturday night.

kaeya

• the worker at an arcade you were visiting. you went to the arcade to blow off some steam after a relatively rough day, and decided to give their bowling venue a shot.

• what you didn’t expect, however, was how absolutely shit you’d be at it. a worker took pity on you and decided to put up the side railings so there would be no way you could miss a shot, and somehow?? It still never hit??

• after the 2nd set and an endless amount of disappointment, a worker, clad in the tacky uniform he had to wear, walked up to your station and just... laughed in your face. way to make the day worse, asshole.

• he then proceeded to ask you needed a ramp because of how bad you were at bowling and?? come on?? he knew you were bad; you knew you were bad. but, he could’ve at least tried to be discreet with your lack of bowling abilities??

• the stranger was at least perceptive enough to realise that you weren’t in the mood to entertain his friendly bantering, and even offered to play with you after his shift ended. just to teach you the proper ropes of bowling, of course.

• your day may have had a rough start, but kaeya, as the stranger claimed was his name, was here to pick you back up.

kazuha

• the library crush. you first saw him while cramming a project of yours; you needed more stable wifi - the mcdonald’s one just wouldn’t cut it anymore - and had to renew your library card to be able to get in.

• and… shit?? since when did librarians get so hot??? you’ve only ever encountered the stereotypical ones. the old, cranky men that would yell at you if you were ever caught speaking a bit too loud.

• soon, these visits of yours became more and more regular. you’d pretend to act like you’re studying, but in reality, you were admiring the librarian that sat so beautifully on the front desk. you often daydreamed, wondering what he would look like if the afternoon glow cascaded against his face.

• you’d constantly sit at the table adjacent to the desk so you could get the best view of him as possible. maybe even occasionally freak out whenever he would smile at the book he was reading because.. he was just so cute??

• you thought you were being slick with your admiration, but apparently not. because one day, as you were ‘reading’ one of the books you just borrowed from him for ‘research’, kazuha approached you with a cheeky remark.

• ’the book is upside-down, you know.’

• that knowing, cunning (and dare you assume, a little flirtatious?) look on his face said it all. he knew your ulterior motive this whole time, and this slip-up of yours just gave you away completely.

• but it didn’t matter, because in the end, you received a kiss on your forehead, a reminder to take care of yourself, and a number scrawled on a sticky note on the book you borrowed.

• you may have just landed yourself a prince in the kingdom of literature <3

scaramouche

• the stranger who you dubbed as the ‘vending machine rager’. you know those compilations of those 12 yr olds screaming at their xbox on youtube? yeah. that was scaramouche, but with a can of cola instead.

• you’ve never seen someone take canned drinks so… seriously before??? it was. questionable. from afar, it looked like a child baby-raging at a vending machine for not giving them their soft drink.

• this thought of yours only intensified when you went closer, and saw that yes, he was kicking the vending machine out of anger. all you wanted was a strawberry calpis from the machine, but instead, you get a boy blocking everyone else from accessing it. poor you.

• eventually, the guy’s rage was no longer humorous to you, and you just felt bad that he was going this far. usually, people would’ve left it alone already and tried a different machine?? but he was still here??

• you purchased the drink directly above his stuck one, and it knocked it down instantly… scaramouche’s 2 hours of suffering was solved within 2 minutes of your presence. boss moment.

• you handed his drink to him with a smile; he gave you a disgruntled expression. not even a thank you in return. how rude. but this is a story you tell your friends often, just to lighten the mood. after all, what's funnier than an xbox kid personified in the flesh?

thoma

• the stranger who re-enacted a drama scene with you. there was a venue opened up for a drama that was trending at the time, and the workers were handing out props and other merchandise that was featured in the show.

• you were out of money, but there was still this trinket that you wanted to buy. the friend who you came with offered to get it for you, on the condition that you shout out one of the most famous lines, all in an attempt to embarrass you, of course.

• with absolutely no shame, you yelled, ‘why do you look at me like that?’

• what you didn't expect was someone from the other side of the shop to join in with you too, completing the iconic line of the well-known show, ‘how else should i look at you?’

• you two locked eyes, and you were convinced you found your soulmate. after all, no one had looked at you with such a warm expression like that before. the boyish laugh he gave, paired with your faint laughs of amusement, captivated the entire shop.

• from an outsider looking in, you and him looked like you knew each other all your life; like you were destined to be together. you later approached thoma, making light conversation to get to know this enigmatic stranger a bit more.

• but he revealed to you that he was enlisted in the army, and was due to resume training in a week or so. any opportunities for a relationship, let alone a friendship, were completely eliminated.

• thoma settled on taking a picture together, where you and him were holding hands, backs facing towards the camera. it remains as your lockscreen to this day. you’d visit the spot once every full moon, in hopes for looking for the boy of ‘what could have been’, called thoma.

venti

• the busker who everyone was ignoring. the city was crowded and bustling in a way it never had before, but for some reason, even in the sea of people, venti managed to shine and stand out from the crowd.

• that day, you were in a rush to chase up a replacement for a kettle you owned, but as soon as you saw him pouring his heart and soul out into his performances, only for people to not even bat an eye in his direction?? what??

• you had placed to be, but you guess they could wait. and, the smile venti gave you as he noticed you watching his performance attentively, made it all worth it. the conversation you two had afterwards is one that you hold dearly, and you swore to yourself you would help him in any way you could.

• he would be there every tuesdays and wednesdays, always at the same time too: 2pm. and so without fail, you’d show up, 5 minutes early, watching him set up his instruments and the speakers so skillfully.

• venti loved having you around. little did you know, he would’ve given up had you not noticed him and supported him since that day.

• you knew diamond in a rough when you see it, and turns out, a man working in a scouting agency thought so too. you saw him giving venti a card one day, and the next, venti was no longer on the designated spot where he would play his songs.

• he was a shimmering star in the sea of talents, and you were there to watch him grow, right from the beginning. a star is nothing without the support from you, his fuel and fire, to shine.

• you smile in absolute glee whenever you see venti and his recent albums being advertised on the billboards across your city. you hoped he still remembered who you were; his first fan, the first person to see his potential to hit it big.

• but it was okay if he didn’t. you’d support him anyways.

xiangling

• the stranger who kept going for free food samples at the food stall you worked at. she’d appear like, 10 minutes apart from each visit, each time with a half-assed disguise. even the little kid who refused to leave you alone noticed her after a while??

• you weren’t allowed to give out more than 3 portions at once of the sliced chili steak you were handing out, but she was on her 15th sample… oh goodness. you’re getting in trouble, alright.

• you knew you had to stop xiangling’s madness soon, or else you’re getting fired, but as she comes up to you with a fake moustache from the $2 dollar store, an obviously fake deep voice, paired up with an equally cute laugh at the end that gave away her disguise? who were you to decline?

• she kept coming until the end of your shift, using obviously fake names such as ‘bartholomew’ or ‘margaret’... it honestly impressed you on how much costumes and disguises she owned. she probably prepared this in advance.

• after that incident, you were never placed in the food station again. a co-worker ratted you out for having favouritism between customers, but who could blame you? she was so cute.

• chances are, she found another food place to harass for free samples. good on her. who knows? maybe you’ll encounter her again during one of your mall adventures. who knows. <3

xiao

• the airport crush. it was a dull morning, and you were preparing yourself for the jet-lag that was undoubtedly going to occur. and then, in the sunlight, you see the prettiest stranger you’ve ever seen in your life.

• you thought that would be it. that after the quick, fleeting eye contact you two made, that you’d never see the man again. it did put a slight ache in your heart.

• then?? he was literally on the same flight and everything?? this is your chance?? but you were wayyy too shy and couldn’t gather up enough gall to approach him and ask for his number. the guy had a certain air about him, one that seemed unapproachable, as if he was a deity that you could do nothing besides stare upon.

• you tried every method beside approaching him, though. you got so desperate that you even tried to airdrop people, asking if they know (or are) the guy in seat 365. however, it was all futile. you were unaware that the guy didn’t even own an iphone.

• and finally, as you two, by some miracle, end up leaving at the same terminal once more, you mustered up enough courage to approach him.

• but with his response of a quick ‘i’m in a rush; you’re wasting my time’, all your fantasies of ever seeing the fleeting airport crush once more were crushed beyond comprehension.

• nowadays, whenever you see a similar shade of green hair, you hide and revert your gaze as quick as possible. that nauseating feeling whenever you think of that day was too much for you to handle.

yanfei

• your stupid friend’s legal advisor who they were crushing on massively. your friend got into some massive legal trouble after knocking down an entire aisle of precious antiques at a pawn shop, and now here you two are.

• you initially refused to play any part in this, but they did absolutely everything to persuade you to come with them because, in verbatim, ‘my lawyer is the prettiest person ever!!’

• they even sent you the whole ‘ohh lawrd im goin to jail my lawyers hot’ when they first met up with yanfei. put a leash on your friend so they don’t go and jump on her please <3

• they did end up convincing you to go, eventually. it was on the condition that they’ll go out and take you out to a restaurant you’ve always been wanting to try.

• but as soon as you saw the lawyer in question, sitting on her desk with a sense of maturity that you could never imagine having, even though you were most likely the same age??

• oops. looks like you fell for the legal advisor too. good luck to you :)

• that fluttering in your chest only seemed to increase as she sent you a warm smile, obviously well aware that you were forced here. yanfei even offered you her candy jar to keep yourself entertained as she talks business with your friend.

• you two wouldn’t be just strangers for long, and you both knew it.

zhongli

• the coffee shop stranger. you’ve imagined this scenario plenty of times before, actually. it’ll be a cute moment: you’ll forget your wallet at home, and the cute guy behind you will offer to pay for it in full, asking for nothing besides your number in exchange.

• ohhhh nope!! how wrong you were!!! as the man in front of you, clad in a crisp suit, sheepishly turns around, (all the while a disgruntled worker who was definitely not getting paid enough for this sighs in the back) asks if you had any spare change??

• you wanted to curse the universe for this. what have you done wrong to deserve such a thing? the opportunity was right there, the stars were all aligned, so what have you done? you thought you’ve been a relatively good person all your life.

• seriously. why were you the one paying for him?? it was meant to be the other way around. what made it even worse was that he ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. the bashful smile that he gave you made your anger dissipate for a second. just a second, though. annddd then you were back to staring holes into the back of head.

• as he hands you his business card, thanking you for your kindness before promptly walking off, you stare in absolute awe. you weren't shocked because of how rushed his thank you was - the only thing in your mind was that he didn’t even give you his number after all that. the fantasy in your head was completely crushed now.

• but as you flipped the card around, your shock increased tenfold. morax co. was scribed perfectly onto the black card??? even a child would know that name. it was one of the most well-known companies around.

• maybe this encounter wasn’t too bad after all.

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Margaret "Marmee" March (Little Women)

Tagged by anonymous.

Favorite thing about them: She's basically the ideal mother, who combines the best traits of all her daughters – Meg and Beth's warmth, tenderness, and compassion, Jo's strength and determination, and Amy's honesty and dignity. She's highly principled and selfless, and she teaches her daughters to be the same, yet she wants them to be happy too, and she gives them nurturing, unconditional love all the while. She's frank with her daughters about their mistakes, but in a gentle, empathetic way, and she's equally frank about her own flaws: e.g. when she confesses to Jo that she struggles to control her anger too, and when she admits to Meg that as a new mother she also exhausted herself and neglected her husband for her babies. She's competent and brave, yet she doesn't hide her emotional vulnerabilities either (e.g. her grief at the news of her husband's near-fatal illness, and through Beth's final illness and death). And by the standards of her day, she's very progressive: she doesn't believe in corporal punishment, she accepts Jo's tomboyishness, she homeschools Beth and Amy, and she doesn't care if her girls marry rich men or not, as long as they marry good men. (Of course in some other ways she's still a 19th century parent: see below.) Unless you think she's "too perfect," as some critics do, there's hardly anything to dislike about her.

Least favorite thing about them: Well, by modern standards, some of the values she teaches her daughters are slightly conservative and not exactly feminist. For example, her speech in "Meg Goes to Vanity Fair," where she openly says that she wants her daughters to be "beautiful" as well as "accomplished and good" (an ideal modern mother would firmly assure them that looks don't matter) and that "the best and sweetest thing that can happen to a woman" is to be loved by a good man (though at least she amends it with "Better be happy old maids than unhappy wives"). Or later, when she urges Meg to be careful not to make John angry and to always be the first to apologize when they're both at fault (though generously, I'd like to think if she had a son, she would advise him to treat his wife the same way). Or the fact that instead of managing her anger but still expressing it in a healthy way, she suppresses it altogether. Of course she's just being a woman of her time and place, and her intentions are always the best, but that doesn't stop me from sometimes disagreeing with her.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I try to be nurturing.

*I have a temper that I try my best to control.

*I care very much about helping the poor.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I'm not married.

*I'm not a mother.

*I don't think a good marriage is necessarily the ultimate happiness for a woman; it only can be for some.

Favorite line:

"I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo, but I have learned not to show it, and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.”

Money is a needful and precious thing,—and, when well used, a noble thing,—but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace."

"Oh, children, children, help me to bear it!" (I love this emotional honesty when her husband falls ill – so many other mothers would put on a brave face, which would neither be healthy for themselves nor for their children in the long run.)

“Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!”

brOTP: Her daughters.

OTP: Mr. March.

nOTP: Her daughters or their husbands.

Random headcanon: Like her real-life model Abba Alcott, besides her four daughters, she gave birth to a boy who only lived a few days. This loss partly explains why she and her husband allow Jo to be such a tomboy, and why she embraces Laurie as an honorary son.

Unpopular opinion: Her marriage really is a happy one. Unlike what so many feminist critics seem to assume, the anger she struggles with isn't at her husband, or at her "oppressive" life as a housewife. Abba and Bronson Alcott's marriage might have been more complex, but the March parents are truly ideal partners for each other.

Song I associate with them:

From the 2005 musical:

"Here Alone," her song of longing for her husband when he's gone off to war.

"Days of Plenty," her song after Beth's death. (I have slightly mixed feelings about this song, though – some of the lyrics seem to advocate using sheer force of will to push through grief, which I don't think is healthy and which I don't think is how she deals with Beth's death in the book either.)

Favorite pictures of them:

This classic illustration by Frank T. Merrill:

This illustration of the same scene by Jessie Wilcox Smith:

Mary Astor in the 1949 film:

Susan Sarandon in the 1994 film:

Maureen McGovern in the 2005 musical, with Sutton Foster as Jo:

Emily Watson in the 2017 miniseries:

Laura Dern in the 2019 film:

@littlewomenchannel

[notmuchofarolemodel]

music- sia’s movie

originally written on jan 24 2021

I can’t believe i’m writing about this. again.

So, if you didn’t already know, Sia directed a movie about an autistic girl, starring Maddie Ziegler. This is problematic for so many reasons, including the fact that Maddie is allistic (not autistic), Sia did next to no research on autism before directing the movie, and after announcing the movie, she took to twitter and attacked autistic people voicing their opinions. But she’s done so many more awful things since. So yay, article by me, the sequel. /s

Sia has done a few interviews over the last while about her movie and has responded to criticism about it. (very badly.)

Despite her claims, Sia was never going to cast an autistic actor in the first place. She said:

“I realized it wasn’t ableism [Casting Maddie]. I mean, it is ableism I guess as well, but it’s actually nepotism because I can’t do a project without her. I don’t want to. I wouldn’t make art if it didn’t include her.”

It was also found that Sia said had written a film for Maddie a long time ago- in 2015- which almost certainly means she never had any intentions of casting an autistic person.

The plot of the movie, and a clip have both been leaked since the release of the trailer in November.

‘Music’ falls back on harmful Hollywood sterotypes again, and again- but yet, after it was no longer fresh news, almost nobody but the autistic community was talking about it. It’s still set to be released soon this year, but stereotypes such as ‘autism = special/savant abilities’ as seen in Rain man, and ‘Autistic people don’t have feelings’ - are ones that lead to underdiagnosis, and biases in the professional world.

“We are particularly alarmed that Sia has said it would be ‘cruel’ to cast a nonspeaking autistic person as an actor. It suggests that she thinks that autistic people don’t understand our own lives and aren’t the people who should be telling our own stories. When people tell stories about autism that cut out an autistic point of view, when storytellers view us as objects to tell inspirational stories about, or when autism is treated as a narrative device rather than as a disability community full of real people, the stories that are told fall flat, don’t speak to our reality, and are often harmful to us.” -Zoe Gross, ASAN

Sia refused to refer to her main character as disabled, and only used the term ‘special abilities’ which just further proves how these sterotypes affect people’s view of autistic people. In today’s society, autism is a disability, and that’s not a bad thing. She also described the film as “Rainman, the musical- but with girls”

There are several meltdown scenes in the movie, and one of them has been leaked in a clip. In this, Music is having a meltdown in a park, and she is then held in prone restraint. Meaning she was jumped on top of and pinned to the ground. This was not only unnecessary, but potentially deadly. This film is going to be big, if it gets released, and it was very much made for a neurotypical audience’s enjoyment. People will likely see this movie, and think that restraining an autistic person is ok. It’s not. This is how people get killed. Recently a story came up about Eric Parsa, a 16 year old autistic boy who was killed at the hands of the police last year, after they used this ‘technique’ on him.

Regarding this scene Sia said, “If they [cinema-goers] watch the movie, it will allow them to touch into their compassion. That scene was so important to me, because of all the people staring. I felt compelled to put it in.”

This is why people need to listen and learn from actual autistic people. There’s so much dangerous misinformation out there, and it’s unacceptable. There is nothing ‘compassionate’ about harming people, and autistic people are people. i.e people who deserve the same rights and dignity as everyone else.

Sia continues to further dehumanize autistic people by constantly talking about ‘levels of functioning’. humans are impossibly complex, and there’s no one way to function. In an interview with Sia, nonspeaking autistic people are compared to ‘inanimate objects, like wigs’.

Sia also said “People functioning at Music’s level can’t get on Twitter and tell me I did a good job either.” This is untrue, firstly because, again- there’s no one way to function, and just because a person can’t speak, doen’t mean they don’t have a right to opinions, and feelings (and it definitely doesn’t mean they should be compared to ‘inanimate objects’), and secondly because many nonspeaking autistic people have taken to twitter and social media to tell her she’s done a bad job, she’s just chosen to ignore and insult them.

This whole thing is so infuriating, and it’s very obvious that Sia does not care about autistic people.

“Sia being ableist AF while claiming she meant well is some serious abled savior bullshit. I can’t believe so many people green-lit this project & the press team approved the ‘special abilities’ language. Disabled people clearly weren’t part of this production team.” -Kristen Parisi via twitter

She also claimed she decided to make the movie because she was inspired by a 16-year-old named Stevie that she met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. “Stevie used to sit next to me in the front row at my AA meetings. He was low-functioning and on the spectrum with echolalia; he’s the reason I wanted to make this movie,” she said. Autistic people don’t exist simply to be inspiring or make you feel good about yourself. We’re people, who just want to go about our lives, the same as anyone else- we don’t need a cure and we don’t need to fit people’s idea of what autism is, just let us be, please.

Finally, I’m just going to touch on the question ‘Why isn’t any criticism being directed at Maddie?’ This is because she likely didn’t have much say in the film at all. Keep in mind that she was only 13/14 at the start of this project. Sia also said Maddie was worried that people would think she was mocking autistic people. The film is a mockery of autistic people, but Sia is at fault.

“She had researched her role for two years, we watched movies together, and I taught her the nuances and ticks I had observed from [a] friend [with autism],” Sia said. “We did this in the most sensitive and respectful way.”

I can confirm that that is very much not sensitive and respectful- not to mention that Maddie also watched autism meltdowns as a part of her reseach too (filming a meltdown is incredibly dehumanizing) , but the fact that she learned how to ‘act autistic’ from sterotypes, taught to her by a person who just, doesn’t know anything about autism is awful, but also quite absurd. It makes no sense.

No, I do not wish to watch an abled-bodied actor wear my stims like itchy clothes. A caricature of my being.

No, I do not want to see her dance around in skin not her own, profiting from a life not her own.

No, I do not wish to support yet another film that will profit off the lives of disabled bodies without one disabled body involved. -tiffany hammond

I recieved quite a bit of backlash when I posted the first time about why casting a nondisabled actor for a disabled role is bad- from allistic people, so if any of you are reading this as nondisabled people- I literally do not care if you disagree, you don’t get to dictate how autistic people feel. Try a little harder to get out of your own head and see things from another person’s perspective xx

Now, for the love of God, please don’t watch this movie if it comes out in February, and listen to Autistic voices. : Here is a thread of positive autistic representation instead :)

click here for thread!

Sign the Petition

Filming & posting videos of children's autism meltdowns on YouTube is a clear violation of YouTube's community…www.change.org

link

Sign the Petition

Sia has announced she is directing a movie about an autistic woman, and claims she wants to represent the…www.change.org

all other relevant links are linked within the underlined text.

my original article - link

[renaerys]

Okay I've got one: Prompt 15 with Reds. 🤣🤣🤣

15. “I can’t hear a word you’re saying, I just keep thinking about how good that mouth feels.”

Somehow they can make even breathing a competition.

Send me a prompt and some characters! Reminder that the challenge is to make everything SFW, so we're getting creative here.

List of prompts

xxx

“So, we’ve called the paramedics and they’re on their way, but until they arrive it’s up to us. Remember the acronym, kids: C-A-B. What’s the first thing you do?”

Aiyeesha Simpson, a gunner in the making destined for academic greatness and social ruin, raised her eager hand. “Find a flat surface to lay him down!”

“Correct.” Blossom took Brick by the shoulders and shoved him down to the floor. A gaggle of Girl Scouts gathered around him as he wheezed for air.

“Ow,” he said.

Blossom patted his chest. “Please choke more quietly.”

I will end you, he thought so loudly he hoped she could hear him through the murder in his eyes. There was community service, and then there was cruel and unusual punishment. When his required hours were up and his record expunged, he was going to write a very negative Yelp review of the local Townsville Girls Scouts of America chapter and tank this year’s cookie sales. Supremely annoying, outrageously petty, and totally legal. That would teach Blossom for sure.

“Place your hands here between the nipples.”

Some of the Cadette Girl Scouts giggled. To be fair, Blossom of all people saying the word nipples in reference to her former mortal enemy as she trained a room full of twelve-year-old girls in CPR using him as the dummy was a perfect storm of absurd and kinky that he did not see coming. And now he was giggling himself, because he was a teenaged boy who thought the word nipples was funny regardless of the very clear contextual cues, and that pubescent shame was on him, one hundred percent.

Blossom, an ancient and inconveniently attractive evil resurrected in a lab for the sole purpose of making his life miserable, did not appreciate his amusement. “Push hard at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. Remember to put your bodyweight behind it, like this.”

Brick flexed, and Blossom pushed against his heart like she was trying to crush it in her hands. Once, twice, three times she administered compressions, and Brick’s eyes glowed red with impotent rage.

“Assist Blossom with her CPR lessons to her satisfaction, and we can forget this ever happened,” Mayor Bellum had promised Brick when he lost his temper and blew up an (empty) ambulance. Butch didn’t need his Super stomach pumped no matter how much he drank, so the ambulance and the four-figure bill that came with it were completely unnecessary. This defense did not convince the mayor, however.

The promise of the bill forgiven and his record cleared—and the deterrence of Aiyeesha Simpson filming the whole thing to upload to YouTube later—gave Brick the strength not to eye beam Blossom in front of the children.

“Okay, who wants to try chest compressions on the dummy?” Blossom offered to the girls.

You evil bitch, thought the aforementioned dummy.

After the third little girl properly placed her sticky, little girl hands between his nipples, Brick had had enough. “Hey, I’m still dying over here. Can we move on already? Jesus Christ.”

“Of course.” Blossom smiled, and she had never looked more terrifying.

Brick hoped Butch was suffering. He hoped he was hung over so bad he couldn’t piss standing up. He hoped Butch tried going online only to find that Brick had disconnected the Internet and cut him off from all his online games and porn because fuck Butch and his weak-ass stomach.

“Who knows what the next step is? Maybe someone other than Aiyeesha this time?”

None of the other girls seemed willing to stick their hands up. The carpet under Brick had scorched where his power leaked out in his building resentment for this entire situation. The smell of burned polyester just made him feel even more powerless to stop this.

“No? Okay, well, remember the acronym. A is for airway. You want to be careful about a possible neck injury, so gently lift the chin…”

Blossom’s hands were not sticky like the Girl Scouts’ hands, but they were cold where they touched his skin and forced his head back.

“Are the paramedics here yet?”

Brick got a tight fist in his short hair for that one, and he considered it a small victory. “No. Something about a shortage of ambulances, apparently.”

Biiiiiiiitch.

God, he was going to destroy her so bad.

“Once you’ve cleared the airway and confirmed there are no obstructions—”

“Then you kiss!”

Some girls picked up the giggling again. Blossom, ever the professional, cleared her throat. “Mouth to mouth is a life-saving procedure and not something I’d recommend doing to someone you plan to kiss.”

Wow, great advice.

Some girls still giggled and whispered to each other. Brick had a sinking feeling that this was only going to end with his embarrassment: everyone knew that the cold judgment of pre-pubescent girls was the absolute worst type of judgment a person could suffer.

“Are you gonna show us?”

“Well, I don’t think I need to show you all how to breathe—”

“It’s in the manual! You have to demonstrate every step.” Aiyeesha waved the CPR manual, and Brick realized his misjudgment. She was no vapid goody two-shoes in the making, but a future Honors Student with a secret, a Work Hard Party Harder, an Ivy League Early Decision candidate with all of senior spring semester to slack off because no one was ever going to touch her 4.3 GPA.

Aiyeesha beamed a winning smile at Brick, and it was as chilling as Blossom’s.

Jesus Christ, there are two of them.

True to form, Blossom had never been able to defy a good instructions manual. “I suppose if it says so in the manual…”

Locking lips with Blossom was not a big deal. He’d done it before when they were kids, and he could appreciate the irony of a gesture meant to save his life this time rather than end it. She didn’t even try to mess with him by using her ice breath, just went through the motions as described in the instructions. The girls were disappointed with the lack of hormonal fanfare of it all, which was probably for the best. Leave it to Blossom to make mouth to mouth the sexless, medical act it was literally intended to be. He was almost upset, because it felt like she’d won something here, which could only mean he’d lost.

Disappointed but more educated than they’d been when they’d arrived two hours ago, the Girl Scouts dispersed after the lesson, leaving Blossom and Brick to put away the equipment they’d used.

She held a dummy torso, and she was looking at him with that pinched, constipated look she got when she was about to say something especially snobby. Instead, she surprised him. “Brick, thanks for being mature about it. I can honestly say you surprised me.”

He stared at her.

“I’ll talk to Mayor Bellum. I’m sure you’ve done enough to meet your hours quota.”

He had not fulfilled even half of his required community service hours and they both knew it.

“So yeah, thanks. I can finish up here if you want to leave.”

Was she trying to get rid of him? Why?

“Brick? Why are you looking at me like that?”

When Blossom was winning, he was losing. That was simply the way of the world. So, if she was losing, it could only mean he was winning.

“Are you listening to me?”

Brick smiled in what he hoped was a cool, sexy way if he imagined looking at anyone but Blossom. “I can’t hear a word you’re saying. I just keep thinking about how good that mouth feels.”

Blossom stared. “I’m sorry?”

He would make her sorry.

“Yeah, you’re a great teacher. I could really feel your passion for demonstrating the lesson correctly. With your mouth.”

Her staring intensified. “Did you.”

“Oh, yeah.” He leaned his hip against the table like he’d seen in the movies. It worked for Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, and that guy had convinced Eva Green. Iconic. “I could really feel you trying to save me.”

Where was Aiyeesha with her phone to film this? There was so little he could do to rattle Blossom as they got older, and while the challenge delighted him, it was also exhausting being constantly a step behind her. Was this truly her demise? Had he won the Teenage Experience? Was this poetic justice for how she’d once killed him with a mere kiss, only to suffer the same fate in turn? He could have cackled. This was better than trolling the Girl Scouts of America reviews, although he might still do that because it was a genius idea and he had always indulged his own genius ideas when they came to him.

So infatuated was he with his own self-fellating digression that he was slow to react to Blossom sidling up to him. Her hand was still cold on his chin, and it sent a shiver down his spine. “Shall I save you again?”

Brick’s dignity drained with his blood, which was an unfortunate side-effect of being a teenaged boy that he would just have to suffer. But winning was about recognizing one’s weaknesses and working around them. He leaned into her personal space. “Please.”

He wasn’t sure who kissed who first, but it was happening and all he could think was I am better at this than you and I hate you and also Do that again. He tried holding her waist, and she fought back with her fingers in his hair. Not one to be deterred, Brick tried some tongue but pulled back when he tasted thirty degrees below zero. He immediately went back in because he could feel her superiority, her Got you, you horny idiot, but the joke was on her because he liked her cold, always had when it was hot as balls out and he’d make up any excuse to pick a fight with her just for the chance to cool off.

The Girl Scout troop leader walked in on them competitively making out in the classroom like it was an Olympic sport and put an end to things, leaving them at a frustrating draw for now. They said barely a word to each other when Brick glared at the troop leader so bad she flustered and didn’t even question them before running out of there with some excuse about getting the wrong room.

Later that evening, Brick caved and changed the Internet password back just so Butch would quit whining at him. He Googled kissing techniques and spent the next hour and a half watching YouTube videos and reading GQ articles about How to Please Her Like a Champion, because he was a champion and a winner and he was not going to lose to Blossom in this. Not a chance.

This had to be what they meant when they said kill with kindness.

“I’m going to end you,” he muttered to himself as he read about the top ten highest voted movie kissing scenes, which he would then stream and commit to memory in order to be fully armed and armored for the next time he encountered Blossom alone in a classroom. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe during their shared free period.

Truly, he had the most genius ideas.

xxx

If you enjoy my writing, check out more of my fics on AO3, link in my profile. I’m currently updating Trinity House and The Alchemy of Us. Thanks for reading!

[selkiewife]

Sorry if you have answered / discussed this before but what's your thoughts on Theons and Jeynes retionship in ADWD ?

Thanks for the ask @fandomenemy! So the short answer is: I love their relationship in ADWD. I love that they both saved each other by seeing the inherent dignity in the other. I love the care they show for each other in such a dark, brutal place. And though I do enjoy thinking about a future ship for them at times, to me, their relationship goes beyond shipping. I love how absolutely vital they are to each other. Ramblings under the cut:

A lot of the criticism that is always leveled at Jeyne’s character is that she is a plot device for Theon’s growth and that she is another one of the graphically abused little girls in the series that doesn’t get her own POV. And I completely get that and struggle with it myself. But at the same time, as graphic and brutal and disgusting as her abuse narrative is, there is so much beauty and hope in the Jeyne and Theon narrative which makes it my favorite relationship in the books. 

The thing about her being a plot device for Theon’s growth is made more palatable (to me) by the fact that GRRM undercuts this by also making her a very obvious in world plot device as well. In world, Jeyne is used by others to achieve their political plots and goals- her own dignity as a person does not matter. She an unimportant pawn with no POV chapters who is forced to pretend to be one of the most important characters in the series- Arya Stark- who comes in 3rd for the most POV chapters. And as such, she represents the lost and forgotten and innocent characters who are lives are destroyed when the nobles play the game of thrones. And the narrative does condemn that. That is why the ending is all the more incredible to me- That Theon saves her for her- just to save Jeyne. She is only important to everyone else as Arya. But he sees the humanity in her when he can’t see it in himself. But in seeing it in her he is eventually able to see it in himself. He saves her and in saving her he saves himself.

But it is not completely all due to his actions. She saw the humanity in him first. She is the only one to do that in his ADWD arc. She calls him Theon. She reminds him who he is. She treats him with respect and kindness. And she did not need to do that, especially since he hurt her dearest friend’s family- and the other friends she grew up with, speaking of which:

Jeyne is an echo of the characters that Theon harmed when he took Winterfell- such as Beth, Palla, Kyra, and the millers boys. In those other cases, Theon is always able to ignore his true feelings of guilt and to look away from what he is doing to them- to buy into the toxic classist ideas that their lives matter less, especially in war. But with Jeyne he is unable to look away. And since he is unable to look away, he is unable to let it continue. Even before Mance and the Spearwives begin plotting with him, he desperately fantasizes about helping her- even giving her a swift death, which he believes would be kinder then letting her continue to suffer.

And I love how narratively satisfying it is that Jeyne is the one who breaks Theon’s cycle of abuse. Theon is abused and imprisoned as a child so he grows up to abuse and imprison other children (Beth, Palla, Bran, Rickon etc) and killing other nameless children (the millers boys) who he passes off as Starks. Then he loses his own name and is faced with Jeyne- another “unimportant” child who is also being passed off as a Stark. Those who think she truly is Arya Stark are involved in conspiracies to save her and those who don’t, do not care that a young girl is being raped and brutalized. No one but Theon cares about her pain for herself. No one else wants to save her because she is Jeyne. But Theon does. 

I also really love their parallels. There is also such a great parallel between Jeyne and Theon and the way they both grew up with the Starks, but not as part of their family. They both have parallels of being best friends with one of the Stark children (Robb and Sansa) while bullying another Stark sibling (Jon and Arya) perhaps out of a sense of jealousy (wanting to be those siblings themselves.) And then their story together has interesting thematic parallels with both Sansa and Robb’s thematic motifs. The thematic motif of the Beauty and the Beast elements in Sansa’s arc are echoed by Theon and Jeyne in Winterfell. Where Theon is cast as the arrogant Prince who is cursed into a beastly form (Reek) and residing in a castle that has also been cursed until Beauty (Jeyne) comes and reveals his humanity to him* (I got this parallel from the Girls Gone Canon podcast but I totally agree with it.) And then there is the inverse parallel where Robb’s defending the honor of an “unimportant” Jeyne Westerling is his undoing, whereas Theon’s saving of another “unimportant” Jeyne is his own salvation and may even be instrumental in bringing down Roose Bolton and those who were responsible for the Red Wedding through helping Stannis. 

Ultimately, their relationship- where they both choose to help each other out of their brutal prison is a shred of hope in this series for me. They are both able to see beyond houses and past actions and facades in order to see their own humanity reflected back towards themselves by the other. 

That all being said I would kill for a Jeyne POV- but not a Jeyne prologue  or Jeyne epilogue POV! 😉

[thisnoodlewritesao3]

Like Dusk And Dawn | Tsukishima Kei/Reader

Characters: Tsukishima Kei, Reader, Ukai Keishin, Sawamura Daichi

Pairing: Tsukishima Kei/Reader

Warnings: Angst to fluff, TW(hints of self-harm, suicidal ideation, depression) read at your own discretion.

Word Count:  2273

Summary:  As the day shifts into night, so do you. A change so smooth and noticeable when you pay attention, and so sudden when you don’t. Your head was always wracked with the fear and doubt; your boyfriend, Tsukishima Kei, never seemed to help the situation either.

A/N: I wrote this a little while ago and didn’t really think much of it, but now reading back on it I actually cried. Thank you @satan-ruler-of-hells for basically Beta’ing for this (sowwy I made you cry bb)

----

As the day shifts into night, so do you. A change so smooth and noticeable when you pay attention, and so sudden when you don’t. Your head was always wracked with the fear and doubt; your boyfriend, Tsukishima Kei, never seemed to help the situation either. Behind closed doors he could wash away your worries for the night, but when he was in person, he acted as though you didn’t exist, ego bloating at the compliments of other women.

Your body shook as you moved closer to the gym doors, gently knocking. You silently cursed yourself when you realised that they probably couldn’t hear you over the noises inside and proceeded to push the door open slowly, “excuse me.” Your voice is so soft that even the wind managed to triumph over you.

Tsukishima caught sight of you, expression not changing, only briefly switching to annoyance as he missed a receive.

“Can I help you?” The coach stepped in front of you, you’d heard Tsukishima mention his name, Ukai. 

“I need to speak to Tsukishima.” You swallowed hard, not sure if he even managed to hear you, that thought confirmed by the confusion on his face. “Tsukishima…” you slowly pointed at the blond and Ukai followed your line of sight and nodded with a smirk on his lips.

“Oi, Tsukishima, you have another love confession,” your heart strings tugged. You’d always assumed that he had at least told his team about you, but it only confirmed that he didn’t. Worry washed over you. He grinned at Yamaguchi, who almost looked jealous, jogging over to you. Closing the door behind him.

“What is it, Y/N?” He checked the windows over his shoulder before allowing himself to look worried.

Tears pricked in your eyes as you stepped back away from him, “another love confession?” You asked. You couldn’t help the pain it caused you; how were you ever going to compete with all the women? Kei ran his hand through his hair and rolled his eyes.

“Is that really what you want to talk about right now?” His voice is so cold that you shudder, nodding and trying to keep looking him in the eyes. “Fine, we’ll talk about that.” He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Some girls told me they liked me. There, did that make you feel better?” Harsh words. Maybe he was just trying to make sure no one heard him lose his cool.

You shook your head and he looked off into the distance.

“I just wanted to know why you don’t show me affection in public.” You clenched your fists hard until you were sure you'd broken the skin, shifting them and silently repeating the process.

There was that glare he was known for. It wasn’t special for you; you didn’t want it to be. You wanted the boy you’d fallen in love with, but each time it felt like he was slipping away from you with no hope to get him back. You weren’t any better. Each time he managed to break a wall, you’d be secretly building it back up.

“This shit again?” He growled.

“It would really mean a lot to me if you wou-”

“I already do all that shit for you behind closed doors, why do you need to make it so public?” He shifted his weight. Guilt settled in his stomach when you pulled back away from him.

Something changed on your face and his eyes grew wide. Your fists were still clenched but your body relaxed, a fire seething behind your eyes. “Because I shouldn’t have to listen to the way girls talk about you like your free game; and then you act like you aren’t even taken by me. You don’t even look at me.” Your body was still shaking, you felt so sick, but you knew you needed to face him. “Because I deserve to feel loved and not just like a broken toy.” You had to stop yourself from yelling.

“I’m not taken by anybody.” He turned to face you fully. You stared into his eyes, searching for a hint of sympathy that you’d see on those dark nights.

There was nothing.

“So, what am I to you?”

“You’re just what you said, a broken toy I can play with until I get bored.” He didn’t mean it. It felt like venom on his tongue the moment that it came out but he couldn’t stop it. “Did you actually think you were special?” Another wave of guilt and he glared harder against it. “Did you ever think I could love someone like you?” One final stab and the tears poured wordlessly down your cheeks.

He knew just how to hurt you. Every single time.

You didn’t step back away from him, neither of you moved; you were still searching for the remorse that you needed to be convinced he did still care; he was waiting for the fight back that you’d normally give him to show him you hadn’t given up.

It didn’t come.

“I guess, I thought you did.” Your voice was so soft again, shaking with a thousand emotions. Kei turned his back to you, not caring that the gym door was now open and his teammates stared at him. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone this time.”

He stopped, hoping you were going to come back to him.

Instead, your head dropped low, letting the tears pour down onto you. Overwhelming numbness filled you. You could barely walk away from him. You just wanted to break down right there, but you had enough dignity left.

You didn’t see him staring after you, longing for you to turn around.

He ran his hands through his hair, biting back the tears that formed in the corner of his eyes. Everyone stared at him in shock as he nestled back into a glare.

________________________

True to your word, you left him alone.

No longer did you look at him with that intense love in your eyes that always worried him; he watched as you buried yourself deeper behind a mask. His team had said they’d never seen a girl bounce back so quickly from what looked like a devastating time, they called you strong. But he could see right through your little act. When the eyes weren’t on you, your face was empty, lacking true emotion. You hid yourself deeper down inside yourself.

The thoughts that wracked your brain kept him awake, for months he’d been worried about you tipping over the edge, he knew you’d been close before and even then he’d had to force you back.

Some days he’d managed to walk home a few metres behind you. Your eyes lingered a little too long, body moved just a little too slow, and there was a worrying smile that tugged at your lips when you crossed almost a little too late. But the car always stopped, and you seemed dissatisfied.

Today wasn’t any different. You’d walked to school with some girls; you were laughing, but it was so empty. You lingered a little too long in the road and the car honked at you, yet you didn’t jump, just sighed and followed them with the same smile.

“Tsukki!” A voice called out to him and he zoned back into what he was doing. He jumped to block the ball, but fell just short and cursed himself. The entire game he’d been out of focus, he was lucky it was only a practice match, or this slip-up could have cost him the game.

“Don’t mind, don’t mind.” Daichi patted the boy on the back, trying to gauge his emotions with a simple smile.

It wasn’t until the third time that he failed to block did he start to feel the rage boil inside of him, his movements so frantic that it almost scared the members of Nekoma. After that, he was quickly swapped out.

Tsukishima stormed out of the gym, slamming the door shut behind him. He wanted to scream, cry and punch something all at the same time. But the thing he wanted the most was to be able to see you. To talk to you. To say sorry for being a jerk. He wanted to hold you in his arms one more time, he’d kiss you a thousand times over and over until you were begging him to stop. He’d gloat and show you off to everyone. He’d put you up on that pedestal that you deserved to be on.

The door opened behind him and he lifted his head to yell, until his eyes landed on your figure, frozen.

“What is going on with you-” Ukai called out to the boy, worry dripped from his tongue. He stopped in his tracks as you stared at Tsukki, some fear danced on your face as you took a deep breath and faced him slowly. Ukai didn’t let the door close, he’d seen a scene almost too similar a few months ago and he wasn’t going to let either party walk away hurt this time.

“Ke-” You started to say, but quickly stopped yourself, “Tsukki.” He was watching you carefully; it managed to put you on edge. There was a wave of relief as you spoke to him, your voice as angelic as ever.

“L/N…” he spoke so softly that he wasn’t sure you’d heard him. “What are you doing here?” It was late after school had finished, it wasn’t like you had any club to go to, so why were you here of all places?

You paused, lips in a tight seal. That wave of sadness smashed through your eyes. How were they always so open and yet no one ever dared to look deep enough to see the horrors of your soul? “I… I don’t know.” You admitted, scratching your neck. “I just decided to come here, I guess. I wasn’t really thinking, I can go-” you started to walk away from him, the only thing stopping you was his desperate voice calling out to you. It tugged at your heart.

“Wait!” He sounded like he was in so much pain; every movement seemed to be more painful than the last, he could finally see you again and he’d never felt so much joy. You didn’t turn back to face him, your fists clenched again. Anyone could see you were fighting back tears. “Stay.” He pleaded with you.

The wind blew your hair away from your neck, revealing a few deep scars that made him want to drag you into his arms. “Why? I’ll just end up distracting you, or pissing you off again.” Your voice was shaking now, even as you tried to remain steady.

“Because I need you.” Admitting it almost felt like a deep burn. A betrayal to himself and everything he stood for; it was worth it when you almost turned to go back to him.

“What?”

“I need you, Y/N, do you want me to scream it?” You didn’t respond and he took that as confirmation. “Fine…” he grumbled, and took a deep breath. “I need you, and I miss you! I just want you back and I want to make things better.” It was working, whatever it was, it was working and you weren’t running. “I want to kiss you. And hug you. I want to show you off to everyone and anyone. I want to hold your hands and eat your shitty lunches-” you choked back a laugh, “- I’ll parade you around on my shoulders and make sure every girl and guy knows you are mine!” This was the part he’d hated rehearsing in the mirror. “Because… I-”

You cut him off, turning around with tears streaming down your cheeks. You didn’t move any closer towards him, that anxious feeling pulled at you, warning you to stay back. He watched the hesitation in your eye before you took a step towards him.

There you lingered, one foot closer to him. He doesn’t mean it, your thoughts pulled you back to your senses, bringing your foot backwards. His heart shattered at the sight.

“Please…” he begged, falling onto his knees. In front of him, you broke down one barrier at a time, vicious tears slipped out of you silently. You didn’t care if their eyes were watching you as that strong exterior you’d spent the last few months building up came crashing down in front of them. You needed to hear it. You felt so weak.

“Do you mean it?” You stood in front of him like a small child, shuffling closer to him even as your mind fought to make you stay back.

Tsukki didn’t move, only kneeling in front of you until he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, he looked up at Ukai who knowingly smiled at him. Some shared understanding flowed between the two before Tsukki finally stood up, taking strides towards you.

He wrapped you in his arms, your head planted against his chest, listening as his heart picked up speed, pounding almost too much. He leant down his own head, craning his neck just to kiss the top of your head. If he hadn’t of been holding you, you would have crumbled. “I mean it,” he whispered.

After a few minutes of crying in his arms, you finally pulled away to look him in the eyes. There was something much sweeter in them than before, so apologetic and sympathetic for the pain he’d knowingly caused you.

He leant down further until his mouth was close to your ear, “I love you, F/N.”

“I love you, too, Kei.”

----

Taglist:

@pies-writes-and-more @realcube 

If you want to be added to my permanent Haikyuu taglist, then send me an ask or a DM! 

[holylulusworld]

I still cry

Summary: A break-up sometimes leads to worse things than heartbreak.

Pairing: former Dean x Reader; Dean x Lisa

Characters: Bobby Singer, OFC Judith, Sam Winchester

Warnings: angst, heartbreak, a break-up, abandonment, low self-esteem, tears, mentions of demons, a little Lisa hate (sorry), no happy ending, sorry, not sorry

A/N: Written for @katehuntington​​​‘s 1K Celebration (Congratulations!). My song was ‘I still cry’ by Ilse DeLange. I used the song for inspiration and some of the lyrics (in Italics). The song originally is for a passed loves-one, but I decided to use it to describe the heartbreak and pain the reader feels after she got left behind.

A/N2: For my story, Sam came back with an intact soul.

Three months after he left, … 

“How was your weekend, Y/N?” your colleague asks, watching you fold another paper flower for the upcoming school festival. 

You like to keep your hands busy to stop thinking about the love you lost. All the flowers you tried to grow in the backyard died. It’s like no one wants to stay with or stay alive around you.

“Fine,” you reply, eyes dropping to your phone once again. Since he left the night Sam jumped into the pit you always hoped Dean will answer one of your calls or at least send you a message, explaining why you weren’t enough. “I tried to renovate my bedroom.”

“That’s nice,” you hate the pity in your much younger colleague’s eyes. It’s the same look people give you any time their eyes land on you – or at least you think they can see the heartbreak you went through over the last months. “If you need help, just tell us so, Y/N. You are new to the team, but we like you.”

“I will think about it, Judith. Thank you,” how you hate that you sound like a broken record. 

I’m fine. No, I don’t need your help. Please don’t ask about Dean. Hunting is over for me. Just don’t ask…

I still cry sometimes when I remember you

I still cry sometimes when I hear your name

I said goodbye and I know you're alright now

But when the leaves start falling down I still cry

Six months after he left, … 

“Kiddo, I’ve missed you,” Bobby chuckles, standing in front of your door. “Did you think you can just push me away and an old geezer like me gives up that easily?”

You huff but for a moment, you smile. “I’ve missed you too, Bobby,” you throw yourself into your friends’ arms. Ashamed you didn’t call him back you sniff silently. “I’m sorry, I just needed some time to figure things out.”

“So, you’re out of business?” watching you shake your head Bobby sighs deeply. He wishes you would’ve stayed out of the hunting business and find happiness and a nice man staying by your side. “I thought you wanted out.”

“I was – for a while at least,” choking out the words you grasp Bobby’s hand to lead him into your house. “Problem is that the monsters and demons didn’t get the memo. One day I prepare a school festival and the next I find myself surrounded by demons. I had no choice but to leave.”

“I’m sorry, kiddo,” Bobby takes the beer you offer, grumbling as he would’ve like to see you fall in love and become a mother one day. “Did he call?”

“Please don’t ask,” you plea, not meeting Bobby’s gaze. You’re too ashamed you still hope Dean will return to you. Even though, you know better. 

“Y/N,” Bobby sighs deeply, eyes sadden at the mere sight of you. Thinner than usual, eyes missing the light you sit in front of your godfather. “I shouldn’t have asked, kiddo.”

“I don’t want to sound pathetic but talking about him makes things worse. I had hoped he would explain why,” sitting on the worn-out couch in your living room you slump into yourself. “I guess that I never was enough. You know, she’s a pretty thing, has a house, a son, and a normal life to offer. And I heard yoga-instructors are bendable.”

“Did you see her – them?” you nod, eyes not meeting Bobby’s. “Oh, Y/N,” my friend, the father I never had sniffs. “Why didn’t you tell him not to go? I know you wanted Dean to have a normal life but hurting yourself shouldn’t be part of the deal.”

“I knew only one of us will make it out alive, Bobby,” you give your friend a sad smile, shrugging when he gets up to look out of the window. “I wanted Dean to be happy. If he’s happy with someone else, I’m happy for him.”

“Your selflessness borders on stupidity!” Bobby grunts. “That boy should be here, with you Y/N. Lisa seems to be a nice girl, but she’s not you.”

“EXACTLY, Bobby,” jumping up you try to explain to Bobby why you knew Dean would leave you sooner or later. “I knew Dean will leave me, Bobby. I wanted to keep a tiny piece of dignity. In the end, he would’ve kept his promise to Sam and get out of this life, but not with me by his side.”

“How’d you know, kiddo? Maybe Dean would’ve stayed by your side and you could be happy,” your friend cries. “Jesus, I can’t believe you broke your own heart.”

“I did it to protect myself, Bobby. I heard Dean call her, okay,” sniffing you join Bobby to look out of the window. “The night after Sam jumped into the pit, Dean called Lisa asking if he can come around.”

“OH,” eyes squinting toward the old car in your ramp Bobby tries to figure out how to help you. “What happened that night? Dean refused to answer my calls so…”

“It’s a blur, Bobby,” you close your eyes, try to recall the night Dean left but all you remember are the tears running down your face when you ran after his car. The rain washing your tears away – but not the pain.

It's just that I recall September

It's just that I still hear your song

It's just I can't seem to remember

Forever more those days are gone

“Dean didn’t fight for me, that’s what happened. I told him that I heard every word and he just stood there, his keys in his hand. I saw a hint of guilt in his eyes, but this wasn’t enough to stay with me,” blinking the tears away you clutch your hand to your chest. “I told Dean to go and live the life Sam wanted him to live.”

“And he did? Just like that?” nodding you turn your back toward the window, closing your eyes for a moment. “Not even a call for almost six months?”

“No call. No message. No number he sent me in case of emergency,” it’s a matter-of-fact Dean cut you out of his life. “You know, sometimes it feels normal that he’s not with me anymore and other days, I only need to remember his name and break down, crying like a stupid baby.”

“Heartbreak is never easy, kiddo.”

“Never said so, Bobby. Honestly, it feels worse than heartbreak. I know he’s out there, living his best life but to me, it feels like he died. I guess, my heart tries to cope with the loss this way. It tells me he’s gone, even though, Dean is with her.”

“Do you like to live here?” Bobby clears his throat, wrapping one arm around your shoulders. “You can always come with me, leave this shitty town behind and be my eyes and ears. Y/N, I don’t want you to be gone one day too. I’m too old to lose my kids.”

“I could come with you,” being alone with a broken heart and your self-doubts won’t do any good. “I don’t have much to pack.”

“I got a nice guest room, kiddo. If Dean doesn’t care about you, I do,” the bitterness behind Bobby’s words brings you to tears. “I thought I know the boy better…”

I still cry sometimes when I remember you

I still cry sometimes when I hear your name

I said goodbye and I know you're alright now

But when the leaves start falling down I still cry

Almost six months later, …

It’s half a year later that Sam, Dean, and Lisa step into Bobby’s house, bringing fresh tears and more heartbreak to you.

“Sammy,” the only person you greet is Sam, your best friend who magically got resurrected. “I didn’t want to believe the rumors.”

“Same,” arms wrapped tightly around you Sam watches his brother look at you. Dean tried to make you talk to him for half a day, but you just walked away, refusing to even face the man breaking your heart so easily. “I thought he would stay with you.”

“No, Sammy. Why would a man stay with someone like me if he can have yoga barbie?” you whisper, not wanting Lisa to hear. “He deserves someone who got no clue where he’s coming from and all the shit happening in his life.”

“Still-“ Bobby is the one breaking the awkward moment.

“We got a job to do, kiddo. If you want to, you can sit this one out,” nodding you look up at Sam, giving him a sad smile. 

“I will help Rufus meanwhile. You can call me when he’s gone back to his apple pie life, Bobby,” patting Sam’s chest you give your friend a soft smile. “And you’ll have a lot to explain, Mr. Winchester. I hope you will stick around so we can catch up with our shitty lives.”

You are gone before Dean gets the chance to say a word to you. He walks out of Bobby’s house to watch you drive away.

His eyes fill with tears and even when your car is long gone, leaving a cloud of dust behind, he stands outside, wondering how his life would’ve been with you by his side…

I still cry sometimes when I remember you

I still cry sometimes when I hear your name

I said goodbye and I know you're alright now

But when the leaves start falling down I still cry

But when the leaves start falling down I still cry

>> Part 2

Tags in reblog.

[tendercoretroglodyke]

... I’m interested in legitimately gay Reese (I assume one piece of evidence is “look at what they’re doing and tell me you’re not gay”)

okay this is like 2 days late but this is why reese malcolminthemiddle is legitimately gay:

(side note: did anyone need a queer media thesis paper or something... I am willing to share lmao)

so none of this is like... rock solid evidence or anything but I need to believe at least one main character of a show is gay and/or trans to maintain interest and reese is the most plausible gay character. also it’s early 2000′s so he just gets a lot of vaguely homophobic jokes lmao

first of all, yes, the biggest piece of evidence he’s gay is those lines from that episode I quoted the other day--thinking malcolm is gay, he tries to show his support by giving him a gay porno: “’Naught Pool Boys 3!’ I watched 10 or 12 of these, and this one seems to have the most stuff you guys like.” and when malcolm says he isn’t gay, reese responds “Malcolm. Check out what those guys are doing in that movie, and THEN tell me you’re not gay.”-- so, 1) reese sat down and watched like a dozen gay porn movies to ““find a good one for his gay brother”” and 2) he thinks malcolm would reconsider his heterosexuality if he watched what was in that movie, implying that HE reconsidered his sexuality after watching that movie, or at the very least found it hot

in the same episode, the character tricking malcolm into thinking reese is gay lists the following as evidence: he obsesses over his hair and his looks, loves his gourmet cooking, has a bunch of magazines covered in comically muscular men, and that he’s angry and acts like a jerk because he’s “dealing with something weird and confusing.” now obviously, the obsession with hair/looks can be chalked up to the fact that he’s a teenage boy, and there’s nothing inherently gay about enjoying cooking. the dozen magazines of muscle-bound men could certainly be taken as gay evidence, though, and it IS established in the show that his entire bully persona is his way of masking his inner feelings and insecurities. there’s literally a whole episode where he & malcolm realize they have no friends because they act like little shits to push people away because they’re afraid of rejection and/or abandonment from their peers. they ostracize themselves before they can be ostracized by the other students at school. I could probably write a whole other essay on reese’s psyche tbqh lmao there’s a shocking amount there!!

of the brothers who are actually old enough to be attracted to girls (reese, malcolm, and francis), he shows the least interest. now bear with me here. you might be thinking, “well, yeah, it’s malcolm’s show, we’re not gonna see things from other people’s perspective!” but that is actually surprisingly untrue, the show is very much equally shown from each family members’ perspectives. starting about s2, when malcolm is in early middle school, he starts getting crushes on girls and pursuing them. francis goes after a few women in the first couple seasons and then marries a woman we see a lot throughout the show. 

in the roughly... 130?? episodes I have watched so far, nearly all of reese’s “interest” in girls involve either: competition with malcolm, genuinely just liking her as a friend, or some completely ulterior motive. the only exception to this I can think of is in the early seasons where he has a crush on a cheerleader and tries to get on her good side by joining the cheerleading squad, which the writers clearly set up as a way to make gay jokes about reese. let me give you a few examples of his relationships with girls

the first relationship we see him in is with a “stupid girl” that malcolm tried (and failed) to date, and the main reason they get together is that they think on the same wavelength and genuinely seem to enjoy hanging out. they take breaks from their bro chats to make out every once in a while. eventually he gets her to break up with him because he doesn’t want to go to the school dance with her (he doesn’t want to go at all). years later, he’s dating some girl we meet for like 5 minutes, before he goes to confess to her that she’s the first girl he’s ever loved. she then breaks up with him. he’s sad, but taking it fairly well. he’s about to leave when he sees malcolm hiding under the bed, and learns that he stole his girlfriend. he then runs away to join the army. he was clearly MUCH more upset that his brother stole his girlfriend than he was that his girlfriend broke up with him. there are many more instances of him and malcolm competing for a girl’s affections, and he seems mostly motivated by the competition itself.

in addition to “stupid girl,” he also manufactures an “attraction” to his female army buddy in the last season. the premise of this episode is that his old army buddy (a girl he play-wrestles with and insults like he would his own brothers) comes to visit him, and malcolm convinces reese that she’s attracted to him, and that reese’s nervousness at learning that fact is proof he’s in love with her. there’s a misunderstanding where reese asks her if she has certain “feelings” and she says she does, but what she ACTUALLY means is that she has a crush on reese’s MOM. she’s a lesbian. reese later propositions her (saying he’s saved his virginity for this--he’s probably about 18 here), and when she says omg no im gay, he is HUGELY relieved they can go back to being friends. CLASSIC mlm/wlw friendship moment. 

there’s an episode where these cute girls pick up reese (& nerds) to kiss in front of their boyfriends to make them jealous. reese is all for it, and when malcolm argues that it’s not worth his dignity and the beating he’ll get from the girl’s boyfriend, reese counters that that’s WHY he wants to do this--he’s completely invisible at school, and thinks getting beaten up for kissing some guy’s girlfriend will at least make him known around school. at no point does he indicate he’s actually attracted to this girl, and when it comes time to kiss her, he finds the weakest excuse to run away at the last minute. 

im not gonna list all of these but there’s more lmao

the following is a random assortment of one-off gay jokes and out-of-context lines with gay reese implications, often homophobically bc its early 2000′s writing:

says “I’m gay” to a girl to give malcolm a better shot at her

(again in competition with malcolm) tries to flirt with a girl by spraying milk in her face as the punchline to a joke, which is. well. hm. self-sabotaging, to say the least!!

Reese: “Do you think it’s right to totally change who you are and turn your back on EVERYTHING you believe in, just to impress a hot guy??” [his dad gives a long, blank stare, before asking:] “...Burt Reynolds hot, or Sting hot?”

“YEAH I like clouds! I call them sky kittens :)” (I just think that one’s sweet!)

“Look, Christie, here’s the thing. When I first met you, I was just messing around. But we’ve gotten so close that, now... I really like you! I can’t keep this up anymore. I’m not the person you think I am. I’ve been pretending since the day I met you. It’s so hard having to constantly cover my tracks to keep my story straight... and I don’t WANT to anymore! I’m tired of living this lie! I’m done with it. I’m sorry.”

he catfishes some guy to blackmail him, but is implied to continue the flirtation even after the catfishing/blackmail is revealed

reese is, technically, married to a man. this particular plot point is played as a joke and manages to be both racist and homophobic, so I won’t go into it. but I believe he is still married to that man. technically.

reese takes care of a huge box full of caterpillars until they pupate and become beautiful butterflies. I feel like there’s some kind of gay coming out metaphor here somewhere.

I think there are a couple other times where he comments on a guy’s attractiveness but I couldn’t find specific instances.

In conclusion: Reese is a deeply repressed gay kid who was socialized SO thoroughly as an early 2000′s straight boy that, despite his attraction for men and his obvious compulsory heterosexuality, he still cannot admit to himself that he is gay even as he enters adulthood. Furthermore, his subconscious frustration about this fact is turned outward to form the “schoolyard bully” costume he uses to mask his insecurities and keep others from getting too close to him. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I could be convinced to come back for another talk about how Dewey is trans or about how each and every member of that family is neurodivergent in entirely different ways. Assuming anyone has read this far in the first place!!

[kinsey3furry300]

5 ships I hate, why I hate them, how to (kinda) fix them, the better ships you should be doing in that universe, and why you should ignore me and keep writing them if it makes you happy.

Note: this is done for amusement, please don’t be offended; I’m not attacking your ship, I’m just listing some ships I do not always care for, and how I think they could be improved, and maybe made brilliant, by clever writing.

In no particular order, and focusing on ships that often annoy me, with no attempt by me to say anything meaningful or popular about the current state of any particular fandom. I’m also a firm believer in the idea that there’s no such thing as a bad ship, only a badly executed ship, so my objections to these is less a dislike of shipping, or the paring, and more that they raise writing issues that I think are difficult to fix in a satisfying way. That’s why in a lot of the examples below I prefer AU ships to ones that try to messily work it into the cannon. Anyway, enjoy... I guess?

 Marco x / anyone (Animorphs)

Why I hate it: Animrophs is an intensely character-driven story, where the tension of each book comes from the conflicts, external and internal, that the five Animrophs (and Ax) face during a long, hard, traumatic war.  And while several of the character are paired off romantically, it’s always to emphasise character conflict over their different points of view. Jake and Cassie are a pair because Jake’s struggle with having to make hard, grey, morally ambiguous choices as leader is highlighted by Cassie’s burning need to make the right choice, the lesser evil, the choice that leaves some small shred of humanity and dignity and kindness left in this bleak world. Tobias and Rachel are a pair as their arcs deal with literal and figurative loss of humanity, as the slow accumulation of trauma over time turns these happy(ish), normal kids into psychologically ruined husks of their former selves and destroys them slowly, one fight at a time.

Marco’s arc, isn’t about either of these things: Marco’s arc, is about the bright, clear line between A and B, between problem and solution. Marco is a utilitarian, a pragmatist: his concern isn’t the burden of leadership, or the cost of the decision, but about how to put that all aside and make hard decisions that actually work regardless of cost. It’s not about what to do, the path is obvious: the bright, clear line of ruthless logic, but how to do it. His match, his counterpoint, the other character who’s all about the logic of taking awful decision in a way that actually works for the team, and his foil, his female counterpart in this, is not a romantic partner, but his mother: Visser one, making the exact same hard, difficulty ruthless decisions using logic and maths, but for the other side of this war. A romantic paring gets in the way of this arc because a partner doesn’t help him with that bright, clear line, and worse, any attempt to pair him of with either Rachel or Cassie breaks up not only a cannon paring, but their respective character arc.

How to (kinda) fix this: Marco’s arc is, at the end of the day, a trolly problem. So make sure whoever you ship him with is one of the people tied to the tracks. Introduce a character he crushes on, and then in the second act reveal that they are either a Controller, or in the family of a Controller or the proximity of the target of their next mission in a way that will make them collateral damage ,and let Marco struggle with what happens when that bright, clear logical line from A to B cuts through someone he actually loves; you know, like it did with his mother. See, even trying to fix this ship is weirdly Freudian.

The far better ship you should be doing: Ax x / EVERYONE. Ax in human form is described as a worryingly pretty, worryingly androgynous male of indeterminate race. He is a literally Bishonen alien hedonist with no familiarity with human senses, poor impulse control in human form, and no knowledge or understanding of human courtship rituals, and he can shape-shift, including into other members of the core team if needed to compel a mission, he calls Jake his prince,  and he is incredibly close to Tobias, the lonely outcast woobie that the LGBT fans adopted as their poster boy. Come on, the potential for shipping, both with wacky hijinks and sad, tragic star-crossed lovers’ trope is endless. Every line dedicated to Marco shipping is a line of text that could be dedicated to Ax trying to eat a Cinnabon erotically on his first date as a human and hulking out mid way because he forgot just how good they are. What could be better than him leaning into to erotically kiss a team-mate, and then fucking up due to his failure to understand human mouths, making weird mouth sounds, and then licking crumbs of the table in the middle of the mall, in front of the entire school, while his crush awkwardly tried to pretend this is normal? What’s wrong with you Marco-shipper people, do you hate fun?

 Riz/Tem (beastars) Why I hate this ship: Okay, just to quickly ask a question, to people who un-ironically like this as a serious ship and not a dark joke, just one little question: What’s wrong with you? I mean,are you okay? Keep taking the meds: the show is VERY clear on that point.

It’s like those people who say Joker X Harley Quinn is their ideal dark, edgy relationship: no it’s not, it’s abusive! Morticia x Gomez is dark and cool but CONSENTUAL and HEALTHY. This… this is a deeply imbalanced person murdering someone and telling themselves after that fact it was special and rare and magical. ITS HOMICIDE! And even if you write that out (and you shouldn’t, because that changes the character arc of every other major character) it’s still got more red flags that a soviet military parade. This is the botulinum of a toxic, one-sided teenage infatuation. Riz’s entire arc is about how he projects his thoughts and feelings about himself onto this idealised, made-up version of his and Tem’s relationship which, from Tem’s point of view, never existed. Riz never loved Tem: he loved the idea of Tem, the idea that someone would see the real him, see his inner pain and accept him anyway, but he never once told Tem this. He didn’t warn him “Hey, because of you I don’t feel I need my meds any more, do you mind if I try not taking them and we can meet and talk about this in a safe, well-lit pace?” He’s not honest with Tem, and on top of that It doesn’t make sense from the point of view of either of the characters for them to be actually, romantically in love (although  they were clearly close friends), because it undermines and cheepens Riz desire to just be seen and accepted for his real self, and the cannon Tem X Els ship. It also doesn’t make sense from a story point of view: Riz is a shadow archetype for Legosi. He’s what Legosi would have become if someone hadn’t interrupted his attack on Haru. That’s why Legosi needs to beat Riz with his own hands: because then he’s beating the darker version of himself he’s been carrying with him, and he can finally move on with Haru guilt-free. Having Riz and Tem’s relationship actually be what Riz imagined it to be undoes that. It undoes Riz’s interesting, dark inner struggle between truth and fantasy, it turns Tem’s tragic, unsolved murder that sets the entire story in motion into a just sort of weird Romeo-and Juliet suicide. It’s ruins the character arc not only for Riz, but for Legosi, and also, by extension, Louis and Haru, because Legosi’s internal angst over whether or not herbivores and carnivores can have a relationship as true friends needs this example of a tragic, flawed, toxic, failed friendship to bounce off of.

How it could (sort of) work: an AU where Riz’s attack on Tem is interrupted and Tem lives with a slight arm injury, and doesn’t tell anyone out of his complex feelings for Riz. Meanwhile, that bunny girl from the gardening club had been brutally devoured and Rz and/or Tem are so horrified with how close this was to their own near-miss, they start to investigate the murder, and in doing so get caught up in Louis’ inner struggle. Because that’s how the story needs to work, it’s about duality and struggle: and if Riz takes Legosi’s role, and by dating a herbivore he de facto takes the role, so Legosi must take Riz’s. This could be a great AU!

The better ship you should be doing: Pina/Riz (with a dash of Pina x Els), no, seriously, I’m not shitposting. You want to give Riz a redemption arc with a cute woolly boy? How about a story where Pina, out of a need for closure about at happened to him, starts to visit Riz in jail and they talk, mockingly at first, confrontational at first, but later Pina slowly becoming more fascinated in Riz and Tem’s life and asking Riz for more and more detail until they both bond over their shared traumatic experiences and their sense of loss for Tem’s senseless death, Tem’s unfished life casting a shadow over both off them. Eventually, the two of them find, from Legosi who still has the diary, that Tem had planned out an elaborate and beautiful first date with Els that he never got to take her on, and Riz, guilt ridden and sad than Tem never got this beautiful moment, decides to ask Pina take her on that date for Tem, with Riz coaching him by phone cyano-de-Bergerac style, Riz finally getting some closure that he helped one of Tem’s wishes come true and finally acknowledging to himself that Tem had a life and loves outside of him that were cut of short by his actions, and just crying over his lost friend, as Pina and Els slow-dance in Tem memory. Or if you just want to see Tem awkwardly date a carnivore boy from school, why not something less creepy and more wholesome and ship him with Jack? That would be cute AF, and more importantly, not romanticize brutal murder. Or an AU where everything is happy and nice, I’d argue at that it’s no longer Beastars at that point, but if it makes you happy, go for it. Let’s not shame anyone here.

 Snape X Lilly (Harry Potter)

Why I hate this ship: honestly, it’s not for the reason you think; I just like Snape too much as a tragic character, and making him in any way happy destroys his arc in my opinion.  The objection’s others have raised: that Snape acts in a worryingly possessive stalker-ish way towards Lilly, and that if Voldemort had gone for Nevil rather than Harry as a child Snape would have remained a loyal death eater, are true and I acknowledge them as having some validity, but that’s not why I can’t stand this ship. Snape is supposed to be a morally and emotionally complex, tragic figure. That “After all this time?” line was the best line in the Deathly Hallows.  Snape is supposed to show the equality destructive and redemptive power of  love. It’s sort of trinity: Lilly shows the pure power of true, unconditional love in her sacrifice to save Harry, Voldy shows what self-destruction and cruelty a life without understanding love leads to, and Snape sits somewhere in the middle: his one-sided  un-requited love being both the cause of his darkest, and his greatest actions. His curse, and his redemption, fall and rise. Making him happy messes that up.

How to (kinda) fix this ship: make them miserable. Make them fall for each-other only to be pulled apart by circumstance (you know, like they were in the darn original source material). You’re serious about making this a tragic, dark romance? Don’t ship them when they’re at school: Ship them during Voldemort’s rise to power, in the 80’s, after Lilly is married. Have the original Order of the Phoenix send her to meet with Snape and use their previous relation to try to milk some information out of him. Have her feel conflicted about it, have James furious about it, but have her do it anyway for the greater good. Have her meet up secretly with Snape who is angry and distrustful, knowing his must be a trap, and talk. Have the relationship slowly build over time against the backdrop of a cold-war spy thriller, as Lilly slowly realizes that she has some lingering feelings for Snape, but can’t reconcile them her loyalty to the order and her family. Make this a love story of conflicted feelings, divided loyalties, and spy-work against the background of drawing war-clouds. Have Snape offer to leave Voldemort, if she’ll leave the Order, and run away with him, but by that point she knows she’s pregnant and chooses to stay, out of loyalty even though she’s crushing on Snape. Have him show up at the rendezvous expecting for her to be there only for James to lead an Order Ambush, and a fight to ensure, on top of Tower Bridge in the howling wind and rain, Snape surviving but having his spirit crushed and fleeing before Lilly can tell him her true feelings. Make it big, and melodramatic, but above all, make it tragic.  Because that’s the only way Snape works as a character. Always.

The better ship you should be doing: Ginny X Nevil or Luna x Nevil: You want tragic lovers, at school, with divided loyalties, who never get together in the main cannon because a Potter ruins it and gets the girl? Ginny X Nevil. Write what was happening that final year Harry wasn’t at school when they took Dumbledore’s Army and make it work in earnest. Heck, you could even have Snape, as headmaster, hated by them but secretly trying to protect them as a secondary character to their secret, forbidden love. You don’t want to break up Harry X Ginny? Luna X Nevil is sweet and wholesome, but also tragic as they never get a chance, having their school life taken over by the horror of that final year and the need to fight for their very souls in a school run by Death Eaters and the trauma of the Battle of Hogwarts meaning that in order to put away the past and move on, they need to leave each other behind. Hell, do an AU where they canonically end up together, why not? They deserve happiness.

 Dean / Sam AKA Wincest (Supernatural)

Why I hate this ship: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. Several times.

How you could (sort of) fix this ship: You can’t: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. I guess a body-swap arc could fix this, as it’s less squicky if its just their bodies with someone else’s minds,  but seriously, the reasons why this shouldn’t exist are extensively covered in the show, and it was hilarious.  To be honest, I don’t hate this ship done as a joke, but I have seen some dark spots on the internet, and I can say with all honesty it’s not always treated as a joke. Some folks are really invested in this, and all I can ask is, is your home life okay?

Now, done as a joke, I’m 110% behind this. This is exactly the sort of insane wacky bullshit that makes for a good crack-fic. For example imagine that the supernatural threat of the week was book that made anything written in it come true, and the brothers are trying to find and destroy it, but they keep getting distracted by their burgeoning romantic feelings for each-other, and suddenly realise that the owner of the book is a fan on the in-universe novels, and writing slash-fic in the book. They need to find the writer before they make them do something they’ll both regret, but it’s just so distracting when Sam’s beautiful eyes are right there and- dammit, Sam, it’s happening again! Make Sam less concerned and even a little amused, with it, but make Dean hate what’s going on. Especially when the writer’s description suddenly makes Sam noticeably better hung that him. Make the villain turn out to be Becky from “Sympathy for the devil” and end with them trying to take the book away as she writes frantically to force them to do her bidding, and you’ve got yourself a good fic.

The better ship you should be doing: Cas/Sam or Cas/Dean or Cas/Sam AND Dean fic. Duh. Once again the show-runners beat the fans to the mark and pointed out that this is the best ship, and then they took it away just to fuck with us.

 Any Katniss ship that ignores her obsession with Emotional Security Logic. (The Hunger Games)

Why I hate these ships: Katniss is, briefly put, a mess before the books ever start, her father’s death and harsh upbringing have arguably given her PTSD before she ever volunteers for the reaping, and it doesn’t get better from there.  In psychology, Emotional Security Theory (EST) is a hypothesis that the heightened emotions surrounding repeated violent exposures leaves children vulnerable to dysregulated distress responses and eventual psychopathology, aka, why Kat be so messed up.  Her internal monologue makes the books completely clear that her choice in partners is not motivated by normal affections, but by deep, deep fear. A fear of loss, abandonment and death that leads her to make every decision about what minimises her, and her sister’s, exposure to potential physical and emotional harm. It’s frantic, fraught, cold survivalist thinking. And the other characters in the book notice and acknowledge it! “Which of us will she pick?” “She’ll pick whoever she can’t survive without.” Kat doesn’t like herself for it, but she does eventually admit to herself that she makes her decisions like this.

How do we fix this ship: Ship Kat with whoever you like, but give her a good reason to pick them: and in Kat’s mind “A good reason” is based on Emotional Security Logic, she needs to have a pressing reason why this ship makes her and her sister safer. Do that, and you’ve got yourself a good Katniss story. Don’t do that, and while you may or may not have a good story, the person staring in it isn’t Katniss Everdeen anymore.

The better ship you should be writing: Finick X Annie. Or, Haymitch prequel ships

FinAnn. This, this ship has some real potential to it, and is criminally underutilized. Finick and Annie’s relationship is one of the most tragic and romantic in the story, and has so much to offer. Or, if you want to have a hard-bitten character from district 12 struggling with trying to find love in the hellish combat of the games, do a prequel in which Haymitch finds love in the capitol during training, but loses then in the area and turns to drink as a result. Heck, you could even have some fun with this and turn it into a dark comedy, or a great tragic love story, whatever you like. It’s got potential, and his backstory is vague enough you could do a lot with it.

So, tell me below why I’m wrong, and have fun with your writing: just because I hate that ship doesn’t mean you should. Enjoy yourselves.

I’m off to write awful Ax/Pina/Luna Polyjuice’d into Nevil/Cas/Finick fiction set at an anime high-school that fights a magical war against other fictional schools, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[aadikted]

Burn🔥🔥

A/N - Hey guyss!!!! AAHHHH!! I just finished watching Hamilton and I fell in love with it!!! I loved everything about the musical and I am soo glad I got the opportunity to watch it!! I  loved Phillipa Soo in it and I adored watching her sing Burn. When I heard it I just knew that I had to write a fic on it! I have never written angst before but I am vey glad with how my my story turned out. People who haven’t seen the musical or heard the song can also definitely read this!!

W/C - 1,955...Whew!! My longest fic yet!!

Warnings! ⚠️- Fluff and sooo much angst!

~~~

Memories. Those damned memories. No matter how much you tried, you couldn’t get his memories out of your mind. They were swirling in your head; you were forever being taunted by images of what had been. His hand in yours, as you both walked down the Rockaway beach, smiles on your faces as you talked about nothing and everything.  You could still remember the way his curls bounced with the breeze, the auburn streaks highlighted by the setting sun. He had been constantly moving a pesky curl which wouldn’t stay in its place. You couldn’t help but laugh at his irritated expression and with a loving sigh, you had run your hands between strands of his hair. His eyes had lit up with joy and affection and you could feel a smile creeping on your face. Whenever you were with Peter or even thought about him, you would feel an insurmountable amount of love and happiness. But now, just his name was enough to make your blood boil. Instead of smiling every time someone mentioned him, a frown would be etched on your face. You couldn’t bear to think about him, not without wanting to cry. The time you had with Peter had been magical, but now you were left behind, broken-hearted and miserable. You had first started dating in sophomore year of high school. Most people say that high school relationships never last and that you guys would be over before you finished high school, but it would be well into sophomore year of college before you guys would be over.

You could still remember the early days of your relationship, the golden days. You had had partners before, but none had been like Peter. Peter was affectionate and kind and so, so sweet. Unfortunately, he used to get flustered around you and instead of being able to say things to your face, he would write you letters. He used to slip them in your locker, slide them in your desk or give it to you when he would walk you back to your house. Some people might have found it weird, but you found charming. Being a romantic at heart, this was your dream come true. Even though Peter later started being more comfortable around you he still gave you letters from time to time. You cherished every single one of them and kept them safe and secured in your drawer. Every couple had something special to them, and this was your something special. He wrote you letters and you used to bake for him. Peter loved your baking. He said that your cupcakes and cakes were heavenly. In fact, he used to joke that you would just leave the ingredients out and angels would come into your kitchen and bake the sweets. Just reminiscing about those days were enough to put a smile on your face. But, now you didn’t feel like baking, you couldn’t bear to look at the letters. It hurt too much. Peter still wrote you letters, you just didn’t want to open them. You were too scared to find out what he had written, too scared to know why he had cheated on you.

Anyone who knew Peter would say that they could never even imagine Peter doing something like that. Until a month ago, you would have said the same thing. But now, here you both were. You had gone from being that couple in love to practical strangers with broken hearts. You, at least, had a broken heart. You doubted Peter even had a heart. You weren’t even sure you knew who Peter was now. He had first been your cute boyfriend, then he became your cute (secret) superhero boyfriend, he then became your amazing, valedictorian, college boyfriend and now he was this horrible person who didn’t even have the decency to break up with his girlfriend before going off to kiss other girls. This was not the guy you knew.  This was not the guy you had dated. This was not the sweet guy who had written all those letters to you. When you had read those letters, you had known Peter was the one. He was yours. You thought he was yours. You should have known. When you had told MJ, your best friend, that you were dating Peter Parker, you hadn’t realized that your expression was conveying more deeply about your feelings for him to her than your words. She knew you were in trouble. She didn’t have anything against Peter, but MJ was a great judge of character and she had known Peter for a long time. She had warned you, she said it would be too much for you one day. But his sweet words had flooded your senses, whenever you were with him, you felt like you were on top of the world. But now you wished you were buried underneath it. You didn’t want to face anyone, your friends, your families and least of all, him. You were cooped up in your room, trying to forget everything. Trying to forget how happy you had been that day. How excited you were to see him again, after months of being apart in different colleges. You had loved every video call with him, but you missed his touch and were craving for it. So, you had decided to surprise him. You had the week off and instead of spending it with your family, you had gone straight to Peter. You were jittery with excitement, you had been imagining the kind of reactions he might have had, but for the life of you, you could have never imagined that you would walk into that room just to see your boyfriend, sitting half naked on his bed, with an equally naked girl on his lap, snogging the lights out of him. For a moment time stood still. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing, but the proof was right in front of you. They hadn’t noticed you yet. You couldn’t think of how to react. You were frozen. But, just like that, the spell broke, you released a gasp and the two people were startled out of their kissing. Peter’s eyes went wide as he took you in.

 “Y/ N – Y/N/N!” He stammered

The reality still hadn’t set in for you. You were getting hysterical and couldn’t stop your reply, “And here I thought I was going to surprise you.”

You could see the confusion on Peter’s face. “Pl-please! Just-just let me explain!”

You cut him off before he could give any excuse. You just wanted to know one thing.

“How long?”

You could see the answer in his expression, but you were still unprepared for it when he said it out loud.

“3 months”

That was the moment when you felt your heart break. The moment where you lost control of your emotions. Tears filled your eyes, begging to be released. You couldn’t keep standing there. You turned around to escape with what little of your dignity was left. You could hear Peter calling you from behind, shouting your name, begging you to stop. But you couldn’t, you wouldn’t. There was no possible explanation he could give that would make you forgive him. You didn’t want to forgive him.

So now, here you were, pathetically hiding in your room from everyone. MJ had been calling you continuously. She was the only one you had told what happened. You couldn’t bear seeing the pity in her eyes. Or in anyone else’s eyes for that matter. The letters he had sent you over the years lay scattered about in your room. You couldn’t bear it anymore. You took the first letter he ever wrote you and read it. You read it like you were a person wandering the deserts for months and had only now come upon water. You consumed every letter he had written you. Your eyes scanning every line in ever paragraph. You tried read the lines for a sign, any sign for the boy that had been yours, from when he had been yours.  The letters conveyed every one of the emotions and love he used to feel for you. Each affectionate line felt like a dagger to your heart. Every paragraph pierced your soul. You read letter after letter, and then finally you reached the ones he sent you this week, after you found out about his infidelity. With trembling hands, you forced yourself to pick them up. The swishing of the pages as you opened them felt like a daunting warning to not read them. As you read, you wished that you had heeded the warning. He had said that he was sorry. He hadn’t known what to do. He had been having a tough time, juggling college work and his duties as a superhero. He felt overwhelmed and he had needed your comfort. But you hadn’t been there. So when, another girl started flirting with him he didn’t say no to her. He didn’t know how to say no to her. God, you wished he had said no to her. He had never meant to hurt you, but he had lost all clarity and just… broke all the promises he had made to you.

You wanted to scream, to shout, anything to let the pain out. He had forgotten he was yours.

He had forgotten you were his and that you had made promises too. You would have been with him, helped him, and supported him. But he had forgotten. You were a broken mess and you were angry. Angry at the letters for reminding you of better times, angry at him for cheating on you and treating you the way he did, but most of all, you were angry at yourself. Angry for being such a mess, angry for punishing yourself by pushing away people who cared for you, and most all wasting tears on a ruined relationship. You wanted to do something. You didn’t want to sit there and waste your energy and tears. You gathered all the letters surrounding you. You collected them all in your hands and walked down the stairs with a determined stance. You could feel your dorm mates and other students staring at you, wondering what you had been up to, all these days locked in your room, but you didn’t pay attention to them. For the first time in weeks you were feeling hopeful. You made your way to the nightly bonfire the students in your college created. You noticed MJ standing there talking with your friends. You could see that she was surprised to see you, but you just smiled at her and made your way to the front of the bonfire. You looked at the letters and brushed your hands against your name which had been inscribed in Peter’s messy handwriting on the top corner. You then stared into the fire, trying to calm yourself. You didn’t want to look back at the letters again, so you just flung them into the fire. You watched as the fire engulfed the letters. You felt relieved as you let out a breath and felt as though you were breathing for the first time in a long time.  What happened with Peter was in the past. And while it still hurt, you knew that your heart would heal over time and that you would find people who deserve your love and friendship.  The flames from the fire were dancing as if they knew what had happened and were rejoicing with you. You felt a smile take over your face, brilliant and radiant, almost rivalling the brightness of the fire. The letters had burned, but your life would not burn with them.

~~~~

So..this was it folks!!! Plsss tell me how u liked it and feel free to send me asks!!! 

[dreamii-yume]

(1/2) This one is pretty dark, lets take Crowley's incompetence to the logical conclusion, also the fact that despite what everybody says I think the player is meant to be a girl disguising as a boy. Beastmen (aka the Savannaclaw students) have a very keen sense of smell and despite reader's efforts, they find out shes in fact a female. Now leaving a sole female in a place filled with aggressive, horny dudes is never a good idea. This is where the angst/tragedy kicks in (continue in second ask)

Anonymous asked :

(3/3)-→ in a pool of her own blood, her skin laden with bruises and other unmentionable things. The ‘Claw students learnt about her secret and offered to leave her alone if she had sex with them, when she she refused they took her by force, but got carried away and she died in the process. What follows is complete chaos, students screaming in the halls, the dorm heads demanding the culprit to show themselves, Grim crying and screaming as other students enter the bathroom...

Since this scenario request wasn’t specified for any character, why not write for everyone? ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ For that reason alone, I’m going to title requests like these as “Imagine a dream with Yume” for easy distinction! (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀)

Also, was this request supposed to be split into three parts? I checked my inbox over and over again but I only received two though? Hm, weird.

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

Such an unfortunate thing to happen to someone so loved...

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

Your vision was getting clouded over, dark spots slowly appearing one by one as unfamiliar hands travelled everywhere in your bare body. Who they belong to, you didn’t know and you didn’t care, you wanted nothing more right now but to throw them off you. Tears cascaded down your cheeks, struggling as someone’s grip on your throat tightened, forcing broken sobs to escape you. You tried to claw your freedom out, you tried moving your legs but each of your limbs were being held against your will. Even with the ringing that was slowly pulsating through your ears, you could still hear their awful snarls and comments, cruel laughter echoed throughout the bathroom walls.

“Hey, dude! Aren’t you being too rough? Little girly’s turning a bit blue, don’t you think?”

“Nah, she’ll be fine! God, she just feels so good, I can’t help but to lose myself!”

Bruises had begun forming on your body, anywhere your skin could expose itself to. Your usually healthy skin tone was now dirtied by these disgusting purplish marks and wounds, some still had been bleeding for a concerning amount of time now. You gasped desperately as the lack of air was seriously becoming a big problem for you, but they wouldn’t know that. No matter how much you struggle, they didn’t care, they didn’t even notice how much you wanted to voice out your complaints, but just have no way to do so. Instead, their voices got louder, more excited as the pain in your bottom region increased.

You knew there were risks of attending an all-boys magical school as a cross-dressing girl. You knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but where else can you go? It’s not like you wanted to be in Twisted Wonderland in the first place, you needed somewhere to stay. Besides, seeing your monster companion, Grimm getting so worked up after finally getting accepted, even as a half-student brought you unimaginable amount of joy. Until you could find a way to get back to your world, you’ll just stick around for as long as you can because you personally thought it was fun.

...Or at least, it was supposed to be fun even with all the risks.

But ending up at the mercy of a bunch of rowdy, good-for-nothing teenagers, coming from different dorms was definitely not a risk that you regretfully did not include to that list. They must be bored, to have taken the time to thoroughly confront you about exposing your true gender like this and using that secret against yours even though you were sure that you have been so careful all this time. The headmaster and Grimm were the only ones that know, probably the Dark Mirror as well, but you were careful enough that even Ace and Deuce who you spend so much time with have never even showed a single gaze of suspicion. You’ve met so much nice and kind individuals in this academy, even if some weren’t so obvious about it at first, that you forgot about the other side of the spectrum. This, you forgot about this, the dark side to every good side.

Night Raven College’s reputation would suffer if the word got out about it accepting a female without a single shred of magic within herself. Two automatically disqualified qualities from a prestigious school, that’s what Headmaster Crowley told you. You didn’t want to contribute to that, but you didn’t want to agree with what the men wanted from you. You may not be the most refined lady out there, but you have dignity like everyone else. Wanting to play with your body in exchange of your secret not getting out was definitely not a fair deal.

But it didn’t matter, it seemed.

Because before you knew it, they were all over you, dragging you one night in a bathroom unused when the moon is out. You were powerless, not just in terms of strength but in terms of magical proficiency, these were students who can pin you down with a single bat of their magical pens, you stood no chance. You screamed, you struggled, you cried, but it was all for naught, they got you where they wanted you. They took turns, filling you up in all your holes with no mercy, their hands fiddling with your flesh way too rough, biting you until you bleed, and even have the audacity to contaminate you with their disgusting seed. There was no love, no care, just brutality and vile, selfish thoughts they wanted to satisfy.

You just wanted them to get over with it already, to just leave you alone. It sickens you to wonder how these men could even walk again tomorrow, acting like nothing happened, acting like they hadn’t just ruined your life. You hated this, you wanted to go back to your dorm, to talk bedtime stories with Grimm. You wanted to walk to school again tomorrow with your fellow first years with a smile on your faces. You wanted to know more about your seniors and listen to their stories way back when they were still in their younger years.

You still wanted to do so much, much more in this unfamiliar world! But...

“Hey...Hey! Wait...! Stop! Fuck! She’s not breathing!”

...It seems like you were never going to live through those moments again.

Your lungs had given up on you, unable to pump any more oxygen to keep your heart pumping. You vision fades as the rest of your body shuts down, you stopped struggling and your limbs fall lifelessly. The hands on your throat loosened but it was far too late, the bone keeping your neck intact had been fractured from the sheer pressure. The panicked state of the perpetrators reflected themselves in your now hollow eyes, as they began to scramble, realizing what just happened. Funny, the rest of your body functions had given up, yet your hearing seemed to be the longest to stay up, at least enough to hear their voices, laced in fear.

“Idiot! I told you, you were being too rough! You straight up killed her!”

“H-How am I supposed to know that!? Don’t blame me! You were the one holding her down!”

“Aah...! W-What are we supposed to do...!?”

You would’ve had a sadistic satisfaction from the way they are acting, the regret building up in their minds. It serves them right but what was the point? Anyone could tell they were being regretful because they’re the ones who’s going to be in trouble, not because they regretted their actions towards you. In the end, they just blamed each other and went their own ways, teleporting without even bothering to fix your current state. Your major injuries were still fresh and bleeding without stop, they didn’t even try to at least clean that up? How rude.

An unfortunate ending isn’t it? No one would’ve expected a plot twist as gruesome as this one. This girl knew she was going to leave this world someday, this whole world of Twisted Wonderland. She doesn’t belong here and she certainly have people waiting for her in her own world. She knew that, she was a lot more aware than anyone after all. It’s just that this lone woman did not expect that she would be leaving both worlds at the same, the universe all throughout.

Ah...You just wished that this universe had given you more time, just enough to at least say goodbye to everyone first.

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

Continue the...Sweetness???

This is just sad. Yume and my Darlings needs a hug. (´；Д；`)

[eerythingisshaka]

Ficmas Day #1  “The Jabari that Stole Christmas”

[M’Baku x OC]

Word Count: 1.6K

M’Baku looks outside, over the cliff that oversees his vast, snowy kingdom.  The chilled air whips around his gear as he tightens his grip around the neck of his staff.  Below three of his children play in the snow, laughing and shouting as they dip behind boulders while kicking up the light and fluffy substance behind them in pursuit,  

He lets out a deep exhale, heavy hearted by the task put forth to him the prior week.  Adebisi’s hands wrap around part of M’Baku’s bicep to grab his attention, but his gaze remains forward.

“Don’t start,” he begins.

“What do you mean, my love?”  Adebisi responds innocently, laying her head against him.

“You still take me as a fool under your affections?  I said I will not discuss it further and that is final.”

Adebisi tuts at M’Baku, admiring the structure of his profile as she runs her hand from his neck up to the side of his face, turning his head towards her.  His jawline remained stern but his eyes glowed with a softness he held only for his love’s: his children and Adebisi.

“M’Baku…” she mewls in a tone that instantly causes him to retort with grunt from deep within his belly.  “They are only children.  They like fairy tales, what can you do?”

“I can control what is brought into my palace!  I never heard of such a story as heinous as that of a Santa!”

“Aish, come on…”  Adebisi rolls her eyes, folding her arms.  “I thought it sounded nice after thinking about it!  It’s presents for children around the world for their goodness, what’s so wrong?”

M’Baku stamps his staff down in the ground.  “A white comes into our home at night, eating our food and keeping surveillance on our youth for him to influence with greed and excess so they can expect their most hoped for play things in order to continue the cycle of brainwashed worship?”

“I told you to please be easy on Bucky for once,”  Adebisi says, holding for laughter that M’Baku doesn’t give.

“This is serious.  This western idea of accumulating wealth based on your behavior while being some of the most corrupt and taking advantage of the lives of the least fortunate and most vulnerable is bastardizing their minds!  We aren’t even Christian!”

“Christmas has a very secular view now, M’Baku.  Can’t you pretend?  Give them a new perspective on what they heard so that it fits what they want  and what you want.”

M’Baku grunts.  “Sounds like more work than I am willing to offer.  I do have other things to do as a leader of the Jabari-”

“Like stew over our children in the middle of the afternoon quietly to yourself pondering their mental capacity to learn about other cultures while maintaining their own belief set?  Yes...busy busy…”

“Baba!  I’m going to get you, Baba!”  M’Baku’s eldest attempts to throw a snowball that has now integrity as soon as it leaves his hand.  His sister’s guffaw at his attempt, trying their own with the same result.

M’Baku’s face cracks a smile at their debauchery.  “This snow is not wet enough to make into balls or whatever you all are trying to do!  I will remain untouched! HA!”  M’Baku spreads his arms out wide as his children boo and jeer, kicking snow up at him that only flies back in their faces.

Adebisi laughs at the exchange.  “See?  They want to have fun with you.  Why not make it worth both of your time?”

---

Later on that evening, M’Baku produces a set of kimoyo beads he was gifted a while back.  He is not keen on vibranium technology still, but he admits that this comes in handy for communication sparingly; especially when there’s a blizzard outside he would have to trek through.  

As he sits on his throne, he conjures up Shuri’s image.

“M’Baku?  I did not expect to ever hear from you like this!  Was this your first try at calling or did little Abeni help you?”

“Ayyye, my youngest is down for her rest, so I will accept full credit, if you must.”  

Shuri laughs.  “Only kidding, big guy.  What do you need?”

M’Baku clears his throat, fidgeting in his seat slightly as he leans forward for inner confidence.  He feels silly requesting help from anyone, much less an opinionated youth like Shuri.

“What do you know about...Christmas?”  M’Baku slowly asks.

Shuri pauses for only a second before she can contain herself.  Her laughter echoed through the halls, making M’Baku jumpy about his family hearing.  He waves at Shuri to hush, trying to muffle her sounds with his arms.

She continues, “Sorry, but...Christmas?  Why on earth would you care about that?  That’s one of the most western holidays ever.  Are you doing Thanksgiving as well?”

M’Baku looks at her with confusion, “What is that?”

Shuri shakes her head.  “Really, don’t worry about it, you’ll hate it more.  Except there is a big feast involved.”

“That sounds better than this Santa.”

“Trust me, it isn’t.  It is more of the same but with the death of native people but let’s not get ahead of yourself.  Why do you want to know about Christmas?”

“My children...they all heard about it from some other children in the marketplace.  They came to me so excited talking about a happy white man who gives gifts to good children in red and green shiny paper with bows, being pulled by reindeer over a city filled with lights wishing for world peace.  It was infuriating to listen to.”

Shuri nods.  “I see.  Now I understand your disdain for the commercialism and religious aspects of the holiday that don’t match your beliefs but I think we can at least entertain their imagination while maintaining your dignity, hm?”

M’Baku nods.  “That’s the least I could get out of this at this point.  I tried to get Adebisi to forget it but the woman is stubborn as one of those rhinos-”

“M’BAKU!  Where are you?  It is time for bed and I am growing impatient!”   Adebisi howls.

M’Baku sputters.  “I think this is where our conversation ends, Shuri.”

“Meet me in my lab at the end of the week.  I can put something together for your children to enjoy, eh?”

“Until then, good night.”  M’Baku ends the call, rushing to Adebisi’s call.

--

“Keep your eyes closed, children.  I am serious, Bisi, closed!”  Adebisi instructs her children as they walk through the shin deep snow on a clear evening.  

Aremu, their son, moans.  “Mama, I will miss the game with my friends.  What are we doing?”

“Your Baba has a surprise that I think you all will enjoy thoroughly, if you would just quiet down and practice patience.  Now!”

Adebisi ululates to the sky before patting her children’s heads to observe their surroundings.  All is dark and quiet for a moment until a bellow is heard from the carved cliff of the Jabari leader’s lair.  Suddenly a wave of lights flowed across the mountain, framing the notable ape face in stone with a glory of red, green, and white light bulbs.

“Happy Christmas to my children!”  M’Baku is seen coming from the mouth of his lair, riding atop a rhino with a holly wreath collar and some non-toxic paint that makes the rhino’s horn glow red in the night.  

M’Baku’s children cheer in excitement, exclaiming praise for Santa and Christmas as M’Baku rides the rhino down the mountain to his family.  

As he dismounts, a closer look of his outfit is not the traditional Santa suit but Santa no less.  Instead of the solid red wool cloth, aso oke of a red and white geometric pattern tailors his frame in the style of Santa, with grass trimming along the cuffs and hem.  His face is obscured by his traditional gorilla god mask, with the only recognizable piece atop his head: the red and white Santa hat.

“It’s you!  Wow!  So cool!”  his children overlap amazement as they hug their father tightly, examining his clothing and petting the red nose rhinoceros. 

“Santa, have you any presents for us?”  Chetachi, his middle child, asks.  

M’Baku removes his mask, kneeling in front of her. “Daughter, I do not have what you are asking for.”

She looks at him in bewilderment.  “Baba!  Are you Santa?  Why didn’t you tell us?  Is that why you were mad?  We know your secret?”

He shakes his head.  “I could never be mad with my children.  You all challenge, as always.  But I will not lie and say Santa is real or that I am him.  He is a character like in the storybooks Mama and I read to you all each night.”

“I love those stories!”  Bisi exclaims.

“Good!  And it is nice to enjoy a story, so this is one to add to the ones we have right?  As for a gift…”  M’Baku stands, pointing back at the bedazzled mountain behind him.  “Is this not enough for you?  The hours spent to put these lights up?!”

“Baku…”Adebisi hisses.  “Baba means that he did this for you guys to enjoy.  Plus a new pet rhino!”

“We can have him?!”  Aremu shouts.

“Or her.  Is it a boy or girl Baba?”  Chetachi asks.

“What do they eat?  Will it eat my candy”  Bisi ponders.

“Ayye, what pet?  Adebisi!”  M’Baku is flustered as Adebisi pulls him aside.  

“Be nice.  We can take care of one rhino.  The border tribe won’t mind.”

“I mind the amount of walking to the border to care for it.”

“Thank you, Baku,”  Adebisi says lovingly.

“This is what I am talking about.  Spoiling the children!”

“My husband, I love you.”  Adebisi pulls him in for a sweet peck.

“...it was very difficult going through the fitting for this costume as well…”

Adebisi groans sympathetically.  “My poor king, but you wear it well.”

“I do?  Ah yes, I do!”  M’Baku observes the children arguing over the name of the rhino, feeling his heart melt over the joy his family brings him.

[period-dramallama]

Spanish Princess Episode 5: many many thoughts

Strap yo selves in 

-WHERE WAS THE APOLOGY?? Lina’s just back with Catherine like nothing happened?? 

-Katherine, I get why you’re upset, but you kind of should be unsurprised?? Your dad was unfaithful to his wife, most kings were. Henry VII and Richard III were the exceptions, and even they had illegitimate sons before their marriages. Many kings also had official mistresses that everyone knew about, so by the standards of the time Henry and Bessie are actually being pretty tactful in at least trying to keep their affair out of sight. (Sexy dancing aside). 

-Honestly it would have been so much more moving if KoA was like “I know kings take mistresses...but I thought...I was so sure... he would be different...”

-”they gave me a purse of gold!” It’s expected that you give the monarch lavish presents, lmao Ursula and Stafford would do that even if they hated each other and you

-”everybody loves a masque” the only sensible thing Henry has said so far in this show. Also court probably had way more masques than we see in the show, and it would standard to have a masque every holiday. 

-”she is not a boy” hurry up with your character development and learn to love Mary already i am so TIRED of this miserable BS

-seems a rather depopulated masque? If the Chateau Vert pageant is anything to go by putting on a masque was a court activity, with most of the ladies performing.  

-Bessie Blount in her cute masque costume... sweet mother i cannot weave Aphrodite has overcome me with GAAAAAAAAAAAAY

-”I never enjoyed carousing...my mother scolded me” look i love the Neville sisters with my whole heart but a) Margaret was 3 at most when her mother died, how does she remember her? She’d have clearer memories of her double-uncle and double-aunt, Richard III and Queen Anne b) Isabel Neville in the White Queen was established as very prim and proper, a well-bred girl who cared about enforcing decorum, she refused to ‘carouse’ and she certainly would never bring a 3 year old to a party c) we saw little Margaret as a girl at the end of the White Queen and she didn’t seem at all shy. 

-”she died young, didn’t she” ...yes? most people did?

-”they both did” understatement of the year. Isabel Neville died young because she was ill, George died young (in the universe of The White Queen, at least) BECAUSE HE WAS FORCEFULLY DROWNED IN A VAT OF MALMSEY WINE. THESE TWO THINGS ARE NOT THE SAME! I do at least trust the writers of this show that the understatement was intentional, I’m sure even Emma Frost couldn’t forget a major character getting violently drowned.

-So the court only noticed the plague when one of their own got it so obviously and then died? Yes, plague could move fast, but if there was a whiff of plague the court would flee with the speed of the Looney Tunes road runner. If an acquaintance of an acquaintance of a cook had a cousin who saw someone with the plague, the court would flee to the country. How have these people not died of terminal stupid?! Like Compton was in the same building as the heir to the throne

-To be fair, it makes sense that they’re surprised Compton’s dead. Because the real Compton died of the sweating sickness. In 1528. Also he was involved in Buckingham’s downfall so... you just wrote yourself into a corner.

-Oh wow an actual good reason for More and Pole to be quarantined together i am amaaaaaazed

-”attend the queen” Boleyn, what do you think your daughter’s been doing all season if not attending the queen? Playing tetris?

-Katherine helping Anne into the wagon...I actually like that little moment. Like it does make sense, because the two have no reason to hate each other yet. (And who couldn’t like Anne? She’s such a babby!)

-Thomas More in the Tudor equivalent of casual clothes... much better. Shame about the 1930s lady’s wig.

-”what else should we do?” Maggie, this cannot be the first epidemic you’ve ever lived through. Have you forgotten the sweating sickness of 1485? You’ve probably lived through more epidemics than Oviedo has, you should know the protocol better than him.

-Oviedo continues to be the only man with rights. I wish we could see him crying and missing his wife and babies, but then my lil heart would break so maybe it’s for the best.

-They burn Maggie’s weird blue hood AS THEY SHOULD! IT WAS UGLY AND STUPID! I NEVER HAVE TO LOOK AT IT AGAIN NOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH! yes they also burned her nice dress with the strawberries on it but honestly it’s worth it, bc now i can rest easy, knowing the evil hood has been defeated.

-”you were a plaything” Katherine is so obviously insecure. I’m getting second-hand embarrassment. Like if she really was certain Bessie wasn’t important, she wouldn’t need to say it, would she? Except to rub it in. Which this KOA would absolutely do. 

-literally all Bessie said was good morning?? Like Bessie is doing her best?? The masque was Henry’s idea, not hers, she hasn’t shown off about her affair, she hasn’t demanded money or titles, she hasn’t demanded any status to rival Katherine’s, she doesn’t flirt with or even speak to Henry when Katherine’s around, she acts like they’re strangers, she doesn’t even react when Katherine loses her temper...someone please please stick up for Bessie!

-”the rocking of the cart is unsettling to the stomach” is Anne naive, or is she covering for Bessie? I hope it’s the latter, in which case Anne is the one person looking out for Bessie...the babby is Soft, I repeat the babby is Soft!

-the irony of Mary being cold to Bessie when she’s next in the firing line...

-”it is not the rocking” Thank you Lina, where would we be without your gift for stating the obvious?

-”where did Wolsey get his money”...He’s a churchman...at the top of the church hierarchy...how do you fuckin think he got wealthy. Have y’all not been in the sixteenth century for five minutes? Why do you think Luther is so mad at the church?

-”I know of no other man in her bed most nights” Honestly wow I’m surprised KoA wasn’t like “well :/ a girl like that :/ who knows how many men process in and out of her bed :/” KoA gets half a point for being less bitchy than usual. Also Bessie looked so uncomfortable with Henry groping her stomach in front of Katherine. I pray the next man in her life treats her right and that Fraham don’t prematurely kill her off like they did with Compton.  

-”the future king” if you’re regent on his behalf, then he’s already king! “Civilised companionship” back at it again with the Scots-are-barbarians.

-Laura Carmichael is utterly stunning this episode, with her hair down. The cinematography was beautiful in general this week.

-”freedom to speak and licence to speak are two different things” hey look at that one of Thomas More’s actual beliefs. I am giving all the credit to the historical advisor for that, I don’t believe for one second Fraham knew that beforehand.

-Maggie I love you but no, God does not sanction adultery. For any reason. 

-KOA smirking and gloating about Bessie’s pain...she has never been so punchable. I would understand, if not condone it, if Bessie was manipulative, or greedy, or ambitious, or trying to supplant Katherine. But Bessie’s been betrayed by Henry too, and there’s no concrete evidence she ever gloated about her affair, to anyone let alone Katherine.  

-”You think only of your own fate while London is struck down with plague” Earth to Katherine?? What concern have you shown for the Londoners?? Also calling Bessie selfish...Bessie’s not the one who lashed out at Lina, was jealous at Lina for having twin boys, and who wanted to continue a war for personal reasons. And then Bessie proves KoA wrong 5 hot seconds later by sticking up for Mary. Bit rich of KoA to be all “how dare you leave my daughter unattended” when she herself won’t even hold Mary. 

-”Louis didn’t last a year” What! Is! The Timeline!

-Meg in that cloak reminds me of the Scottish Widow adverts. Georgie is so greedy- she steals every single scene she is in! Even when she’s raging she has more dignity and more presence than KoA ever has.

-”YOU LYING SOD” i burst out laughing it’s really not the little two-timing shit’s day, is it?

-Mary receiving Charlie B in the most Extra way possible. A++

-Why does Wolsey look like he’s about to cry?

-”thoughts are not actions” Lina I love you but... that is NOT what the New Testament says. Jesus said evil thoughts are very very much sins. I’ll give you a pass because maybe you haven’t been Catholic as long as Katherine has? Idk your backstory.

-Aaand now she’s wishing death on Bessie and her unborn baby and Lina isn’t disgusted? At least Katherine is feeling guilty. AS SHE SHOULD.

-”must it always fall to me to be magnanimous?” Katherine, you think only of yourself, for 23 out of every 24 hours. 

-”God wants me to be compassionate to Bessie because of my sins” God wants you to be compassionate because that’s how Christianity is supposed to work. It’s not very selfless of you to decide to be selfless so that you can get what you want. 

-oh wow look at that! She’s getting some self-awareness, i never saw that coming.

-”you betrayed Bessie” 5 points to Katherine of Aragon for standing up for Bessie when Henry screwed her over. Finally, some positive character development.

- MINUS 20000 POINTS FOR BABY STEALING

-WHAT THE FUCK

-is henry so dumb he thinks that baby is Katherine’s? Katherine was so obviously not pregnant

-When a baby’s born his skin needs to touch his mother’s skin so they can bond. They should have at least an hour’s cuddle time. Katherine of Aragon is literally traumatising a baby the very minute he is born. For her own selfish, selfish desires. 

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy VII Review

 Year: 1997

Original Platform: PlayStation One

Also available on: PC, PlayStation Store

Version I Played: PlayStation One

Synopsis:

The Shinra Electric Power Company rules over the city of Midgar, and the eco-terrorists AVALANCHE stop at nothing to try and prevent the life essence of the planet from being used as energy. Barrett, leader of AVALANCHE, hires a mercenary named Cloud Strife for their bombing mission on a Shinra Mako Reactor. Cloud doesn’t care much for the greater cause and only wants his pay. But then, after a mission goes awry, he meets Aerith, a flower girl who is the descendant of the Ancients. He quickly finds himself wrapped up in the greater conflict against Shinra.

 Gameplay:

Final Fanatasy VII utilizes magic spells via Materia – little orbs that come in a variety of colors pertaining to the natural elements. You can mix and match them on your weapons and equipment, which gives you access to different spells and stats. All your equipment varies with the number of slots for how many Materia orbs you can put in. Leveling up not only upgrades the character but the equipped Materia as well.

 Final Fantasy VII also uses an ATB system but is known for introducing Limit Breaks – finishing moves that build up after the character gets hit over time. Final Fantasy VI had a prototype called Desperation Attack – but it was very rare as it only appeared when your character had 1/8 of their total HP, and there was a 1 in 6 chance of performing the Desperation Attack after selecting Attack. I actually had no idea that was a thing until long after I finished the game, and never experienced it when I played Final Fantasy VI.

Graphics:

Out of all the Final Fantasy games, I have to say that this one has not aged well. It has the worst graphics of the entire series. The battle and cinematic graphics are passable.

(Most of the graphics power seemed to be put in Tifa’s, uh, bosom.)

But the characters in towns, the overworld, and in-game cutscenes are incredibly blocky. PC versions are supposedly sharper, but the PlayStation One version makes it nigh impossible to see any facial expressions. 

The graphics are definitely a product of its time. I always say that the beginning of 3D gaming was essentially like puberty – awkward and full of zits. It wasn’t yet at that stage where it could be aesthetically pleasing. We marveled about it when it was first released, yes, but then we cringed in retrospect.

The environment backdrops however are probably the strongest points, where they capture the industrial nature of Midgar, the reactors and other such buildings.

Story:

Final Fantasy VII became legendary the minute Square released it. Every aspect was memorable. Part of it could be due to the fact that it was the first Final Fantasy game to enter the 3D realm. Another part was Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs, which hit the cool meter to the point of sub-zero.

 The cinematics blew our minds. The opening action scene with Cloud, Barrett, and the rest of AVALANCHE attacking Shinra’s mako reactor is the most memorable opening to a Final Fantasy game. Period. Final Fantasy games really do know how to start at the right spot, no matter how good or bad the overall game is. The opening is always the best part.

Then there was the motorcycle chase. Cid’s airship. The gun fights. Battles with Sephiroth. The extra stuff to find, like summons and extra bosses. So much was jam-packed into the game.

 But the story was the primary factor in making VII famous. It’s definitely one of the better ones. Man, the story became so famous that even gamers who haven’t touched a Final Fantasy game knew the major spoilers. It is the equivalent to knowing Darth Vader’s line, “I am your father” without having actually watched Star Wars.

Aerith (Aeris in the English releases) Gainsborough – the innocent flower girl who holds the secrets of the Ancients – develops a romance with Cloud and fucking dies at the end of Disc 1 by the main villain – Sephiroth. The scene shocked everyone and practically made headlines. Everybody has seen the horrible image in one way or another.

It seems to me that since Final Fantasy V, the stories have gotten more and more used to main character deaths, ultimately transforming into a heavy-hitting TV series rather than simply a video game series. In other words – it matured. Looking back, Final Fantasy IV appears to be child’s play and a prototype of later dramatic storylines with fully realized worlds.

 Final Fantasy VII was also the first Final Fantasy game to create a world much like ours – one with cars and trains and airplanes and machine guns and even cellphones. The main city of Midgar reflects industrialization at its worst, with miles of slums and claustrophobic cities. Shinra Electric Power Company is a reflection of capitalism at its worst - a single entity in charge of so much that it’s pretty much the government. For the first time in a Final Fantasy game, you play as characters who dance between the morally ambiguous line of terrorism and activism. Funny enough, the theme of neglecting the planet resonates with us now more than ever. This game ended up being rather prophetic about the uncontrollable growth of corporations.

While the story is memorable with many intriguing elements, the plot itself is a tangled web. In my opinion, they really hashed in so many things that it’s easy to forget crucial details. It’s not straightforward, but at the same time everything does connect by the end. While Shinra is the driving force as a whole as the villain, Sephiroth takes over, then you learn about his backstory and then with the evil scientist Hojo and the extra-terrestrial Jenova and then “Weapon” and then the planet’s history and this and that and the other thing.

If I were to put Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII together and contrast them, as many gamers do, I would find that Final Fantasy VII is the summer blockbuster and Final Fantasy VI is the Oscar winner. Final Fantasy VII started introducing the sappy romance subplot to the series. A love triangle forms among Aerith, Cloud, and Cloud’s childhood friend Tifa. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a love triangle, the writing is like watching middle schoolers trying to express their feelings. Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IV treated any romance with dignity and realism.

But maybe I’m being a bit harsh. After all, Cloud Strife did go through some suffering as an adolescent. His backstory clearly drives his antisocial behavior, so that becomes a good arc. 

The goofiest but memorable part of the story deals with Don Corneo and Wall Market and running around store to store doing tasks in order to free Tifa from Don Corneo. It ends with Cloud needing to cross-dress as a woman to get inside Don’s mansion. Because, you know, it’s not like Cloud can just break in with his sword and Aerith’s magic or anything like that. But whatever. It’s anime.

The recent Final Fantasy VII Remake for the PS4 seems to streamline the story, and actually enhances the emotions they were trying to deliver in the original. I will be talking about the remake in a separate post altogether since I’m almost done with it at the time of this writing. But there’s a lot that I want to say about comparing and contrasting the remake and the original.

The latter half of the plot takes a couple weird turns. At one point, Cloud became catatonic and confined to a wheelchair.

That part of the game became the sluggish part for me. Sephiroth also tries to confuse Cloud, which confused me. Cloud apparently suffers from some alternate subconscious mumbo-jumbo and like. . .ungh. I get an aneurysm thinking about it sometimes.

Complicated plotlines like Final Fantasy VII start showing up from here on out in the Final Fantasy series. The trend of bishonen characters also begin here, bishonen being the Japanese term for “beautiful boy.” Cloud and Sephiroth have that look. The series starts hashing in sappier romances and much more of an anime feel.

Final Fantasy VII ultimately marked the start of a new era for the series – introducing both cool and overused tropes.

Music:

Hands down the best Final Fantasy soundtrack of all.

The entire soundtrack of this game is memorable. The opening tune, with its light twinkle when the stars show up, is enough to make any gamer know exactly what that’s from.

With a story set in a more modern world, we have music that is more modern. After Final Fantasy VI had a more serious and operatic score, Uematsu displayed his love of progressive rock here. The motorcycle chase incorporates a lot of synth, which was fitting for zipping through the streets of Midgar. However, Final Fantasy VII is the first Final Fantasy game without that familiar starting bassline for the battle them. The battle theme is instantly recognizable but also radically different from its predecessors. It’s dramatic and displays danger.

Meanwhile, the boss theme is one of the best boss themes in the series, or any video game really. It’s an electrifying progressive rock piece, and it’s my personal favorite boss theme.

 The more instrumental pieces are somber, given the dreary atmosphere of the planet. The world map music is very different from its predecessors. It’s romantic one moment, soaring the next, and then dips into foreboding terror. I guess that sums up the story of Final Fantasy VII.

And we cannot leave out One-Winged Angel, which I will talk about below.

Notable Theme:

Without a doubt, One-Winged Angel – played during the terrifying final battle against Sephiroth – is the most memorable piece of music in Final Fantasy VII.

It may very well be the most popular song of the entire series. Nobuo Uematsu was inspired by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It’s a whopping 30 something minute classical piece. If you look it up on YouTube and browse through it, you can definitely note the similarities. However, Uematsu didn’t want some boring classical introduction to the piece. He wanted to add the destructive impact of rock. The theme has a very distinct stamping-your-foot-down quality to it.

I had noticed a certain piece-by-piece feel of the song and that’s exactly how Uematsu composed it. This is the only song that Uematsu has composed where he created several tunes in his head and then rearranged them to make a single comprehensive song.

If you want to get technical, One-Winged Angel is the first Final Fantasy song with lyrics. The chorus sings in Latin about Sephiroth’s burning anger, with some lyrics actually taken from the medieval poem Carmina Burana. It sounds fantastic when fully orchestrated.

In Advent Children, the animated sequel to Final Fantasy VII, the music is accompanied by hardcore metal. This new rendition really illustrates the destructive power of Sephiroth. Uematsu changed the lyrics for Advent Children. They are more original now. I specifically noticed the lyrics “Veni, veni, mi fili”, which translates to “Come, come, my son.” Sephiroth is inviting you so he can kill you.

 Uematsu has stated that the original orchestration didn’t sit well with him. As I suspected, Advent Children’s hardcore metal version is the one he preferred, the one he would have composed had he the technology at the time of Final Fantasy VII.

Verdict:

Another must-play for any RPG fan, even if you think it’s overrated. It’s a must-play because of its popularity, in the same way that people are wide-eyed when you say you haven’t seen Star Wars or such-and-such other popular movie. It’s a whole lot of fun, especially in the scenes that involve other forms of gameplay, such as the motorcycle chase and even a battlefield strategy game in protecting Fort Condor. 

Direct Sequel?

Yes – first there was the CGI movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

I actually watched Advent Children before playing Final Fantasy VII. I had already known most of what happened in the game and Advent Children became a monumental craze when it first came out. Everybody was talking about it. Watching the sequel before playing the game skewers your interpretation of things. My first impression of Cloud was that he was always whiny and angsty, and meanwhile Tifa kept nagging him to move on. I felt really bad for Cloud losing Aerith.

Then when I actually played Final Fantasy VII, I saw that Cloud starts as this badass mercenary. Tifa is spunky and clearly is the better choice (IMO) but Cloud is enamored by Aerith after only meeting her briefly. WHAT? Cloud. Bro. Make a move on Tifa, you nitwit. Tifa is AMAZING.

 Square Enix then continued the story with Dirge of Cerberus – Final Fantasy VII. This video game sequel focuses on Vincent Valentine, a fan favorite of the original game.

Let me remind you about something – the original game revealed Shinra’s inner deep secret experiments, namely with Sephiroth and Jenova. Dirge of Cerberus introduces an even deeper research team within Shinra called Deepground. I don’t know about you, but it already sounds like the start of a terribly redundant string of sequels, like how the Jason Bourne movies keep revealing an even deeper level of conspiracy theories. Vincent’s mysterious background is now fully revealed. He is defined by – guess what? – another angsty lost lover story, this time with a woman named Lucrecia. Now, okay, look, maybe I’m just being a dick about these types of love stories. But when it keeps popping up within the same series in the same manner, I start asking if you have anything else to offer on your menu.

Lastly, there is the prequel for the PSP – Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Of all the games in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core has received the most positive reception. If anything, play that after playing Final Fantasy VII before bothering with anything else.

 Oh, and of course there is the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which we thought wasn’t going to happen for the longest time but they finally released it in April 2020. More on that later after I finish it, and after I post my entire series of Final Fantasy reviews!