#loosely. i think it counts and thats what matters

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

do you have heart palpitations over a puppet or are you normal

[familyagrestefanblog]

I find it... kinda irritating how saying that Hero Gabriel is still a failure of a father even if he's not a bad person is apparently somewhat of a hot take.

It is irrelevant at what extreme end of the moral spectrum Gabriel is - sadistic villain or heroic saint - fact still remains that you wouldn't notice either with Monarque or Hesperia that they are fathers at all, while simultaneously both Adriens are clearly depicted as teenagers who basically have to re-settle themselves into their lives after they were emotionally orphaned in every sense that matters.

It is irrelevant that Alt Gabriel is a hero, not a bad person or that he wasn't outright abusive like our Gabriel, nothing will change the fact that Griffe Noire Adrien's path to healing goes the same route as our Adrien's.

And that is AWAY from his father, not WITH him.

Griffe Noire at the end was roughly were our Adrien started off at the beginning of the show, just this time with a better path ahead Ladynoir wise since they know their identities.

He changed for the better when our Adrien gave him the self-acceptance, understanding and sympathy he didn't receive from Alt Gabriel or anyone else for the matter.

Helped him overcome the grief of loosing their mother and accepting that the self-harming behavior he's acting on (or both of them) is not something she would want for them.

There are 2 reasons why Alt Adrien couldn't get over his mother's death, and that's 1) because unlike our Adrien, Alt Adrien didn't try finding new happiness in friendship, and 2) because he too couldn't count on his remaining parent (Gabriel) which made him feel his mother's loss even worse.

Alt Gabriel could be the greatest hero of all time and he still would be a fucked up father because he was so busy being a saint that he apparently barely was a father. When alt Gabe cries in the sewer one would think he'd bring up his child as one of his main motivations, but no, he doesn't.

Because Hesperia is just as little characterized as a FATHER as Monarque.

That aspect of Gabriel didn't change.

Hesperia didn't even fucking know that his son is Griffe Noire either, how attentive to you think this man IS??

Alt Adrien goes on the same path as our Adrien and that's away from being emotionally dependent on his father - the way a 14 year old should normally ALLOWED TO BE bc thats NATURAL and how it's supposed to be - to make friends, but most importantly he sure as hell went on being emotionally dependend on HIS Maribug the way our Adrien was/is

Especially the last picture is extremely telling (and one would think our Marinette would finally start paying attention bc Griffe Noire's change right in front of her eyes is literally all she would need to help her fully understand HER Chat Noir's behavior and how that came to be. But apparently we can't ever have Marinette pick up on the most obvious stuff about Chat Noir's problems).

Unlike Toxinelle who is waving goodbye while holding Griffe's hand, HE is not acknowledging our dimension anymore even when he's the last one to enter the portal by a good bit, bc he's so fixated on his Maribug as his whole world bc just like our Adrien he's literally emotionally an orphan and needs an anchor like everyone else.

Good chance that Toxinelle thinks they're just normally holding hands and she's merely going in first, but no, he is letting her lead him out. He doesn't care whats behind or ahead of him, he's just seeing her.

Alt Gabriel is an awful father and you can tell because Alt Adrien literally has to re-settle in life similar to an orphan while his father is still alive and living in the same damn house!

THAT'S what decides if Alt Gabriel is an awful father, NOT him running around as a charming hero. The quality of parenthood is NOT measured by how "good of a person" the parent is, it's measured by the child's fucking well-being

And I don't know if you noticed it by now, but this is the same logic as our Gabriel being hailed a hero after his death. The special already elaborates on this new angle of Gabriel suddenly being a "hero" while he very clearly was a monstrous failure of a father (and person).

So what side are YOU gonna be on here?

Are you going to victim blame Adrien by just declaring Gabriel Agreste a great, blameless and loving father now because that's what you're being told at face-value while the narrative conveniently plays the case in Gabriel's favors by removing all of them from the dimension they are actually from so his faults are being mostly covered up, and Adrien's looks worse without its proper context of their home-dimension and father-son dynamic

Or are you going to fucking LOOK at the child this amazing hero is emotionally abandoning on a daily in way too many ways and ask yourself if that's the result of a competent and attentive parent?

[oddballwriter]

can i get something with DadKnight being the designated parent to play tooth fairy when your child loses their first tooth and they have to sneakily hide cash under their child pillows in the middle of the night 😭

The Tooth Fairy

Summary: Marc takes on the mission of being the tooth fairy and making the switch with the tooth and money when you daughter is asleep.

Warnings: None that I know of honestly 

Author’s Snip: Wholesome indeed, thank you, anon.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

Word Count: 933

“Okay, that’s the end of tonight’s chapter.” Marc concluded as he closed the book that the system have been reading to Abi before bed, looking over to your daughter.

“You nice and comfortable?” He asks, to which the little girl nods as she picks at a part of her mouth. “Don’t pick at your gums, sweetheart. If you do your adult teeth grow in funny.” Marc says as he gently pulls her hand away. “How about that tooth? Where is it? The tooth fairy’s gonna be coming tonight for it.” Marc asks.

He’s mostly asking because this is her first lost tooth and one of the kids in her class told her that means the tooth fairy is coming when it first started getting loose, so now he’s gotta do the whole act for her.

Abi sits up and lifts up her pillow showing the little tooth in a plastic baggie that was used to hold the snacks in her lunch box. Marc nods, knowing where exactly the tooth is meant to be.

“Dad.” Abi was looking towards him and getting a simple “Yes?” in return. “Do you think the tooth fairy is real?” she questions. Marc blinks in surprise but keeps a normal face “Why do you ask that?” he asks. “Well, because, no one ever actually sees her and she also visits all the kids who lose their teeth. But there are a lot of kids losing teeth, so how does she get them all?” she explains.

Marc thinks of something to say and settles on one thing. “I used to wonder that too. But I figured that maybe there was more than one tooth fairy and they’re all meant to take care of the kids in different places. And maybe they’re all shy and don’t want people to bother them.” Marc says. He can see Abi think about it before she nods with a smile “That makes sense.”.

Marc smiles and is about to say goodnight but Abi asks another, less explainable, question. “Why do they collect teeth? And why is it only kid teeth?”. Marc gets up from the end of Abi’s bed upon hearing that. “No idea. But how about we head to sleep so the lady can do her job, yeah?” Marc says as he carefully tucks Abi into bed, kisses her on the forehead, and says good night. He closes the door gently as Abi shuffles in her bed to get comfortable and fall asleep. Marc walks to the living room where you are. "So what's the game plan again?" he asks as he sits in the armchair next to the sofa you're seated on. "Just the normal thing you do when you play tooth fairy. You go in when she's asleep, so maybe about an hour from now, take the tooth, quietly replace it with the quarters, and then get out." you explain matter of factually. "And I have to do it why?" Marc asks.

You shrug "I don't know I figured that you would like to do the honors of doing the first tooth.". Marc looks at you for a second with a puzzled look, "That's a weird honor to do." Marc comments. "Well, I can do it if you want." you say, but Marc quickly says "No, I'll do it." which makes you do a smug thats-what-I-thought look.

"Okay, but we aren't going to be one of those gross parents who keep the teeth as creepy souvenirs, right?" Marc questions. "We are keeping her teeth, but that's for if she develops anything and they need stem cells. Baby teeth are good for that." you clarify. Marc smiles at you for a second and says "That was Steven's idea wasn't it?", you look away with a blush and remark "It's a good idea. Just in case she needs it down the line.".

After about an hour since putting Abi to bed, Marc stands outside her bedroom door. He feels a nervousness in himself that feels similar to when he goes on missions. It feels silly but he finds that thinking about this process like a mission helps him feel more confident. He goes over the plan in his mind before taking a breath and quietly opening the door.

He peaks in and finds Abi soundly asleep and cuddled up in her covers. The light from her rotating lamp, the one Steven bought for her that cast stars around the room, provided enough light for Marc to see and navigate around her room. He carefully made his way to her bed, avoiding the creaky parts of the floor, quietly kneeling down to be able to make the switch more clean.

Marc always wondered just how nerve-racking it actually is to be Indiana Jones when he's making the switch with the statue and the sack in the temple as a kid, now he actually knows as he carefully worms his hand under the pillow and pulls out the baggie.

That's one part complete. Now he has to make the replacement. So he takes the small sheer pouch that holds her tooth fairy money and carefully maneuvers it under her pillow, freezing when Abi stirs slightly, but continuing and moving his hand out once he knows she's still asleep.

Marc quietly leaves and closes the door behind him a second time, this time having done the most high-stakes switcheroo he's done in his entire life. He takes a second before quietly pumping his fist in success knowing that in the morning Abi's going to come running out of her room excited about her prize at breakfast time.

[persesphonestears]

More cod incorrect quotes

A/N: There is an obvious pattern cause I used a generator lmao anyway

C/W: uh swearing? i think thats it for once

Ghost: Favourite horror movie?

Soap: It

Price: Saw

Gaz: Annabelle

R/n: High School Musical. after watching it I spent all my middle school years terrified that the entire school would start singing something and I’d be the only one who didn’t know the lyrics

-

Price: You're a loose cannon, Ghost.

Ghost: No, I'm not. I'm a cannon maybe, but a loose cannon? Is that what you think of me?

Soap: I think you play by your own rules.

Gaz: No way, they think rules were made to be broken.

Price: Those are all attributes of a loose cannon.

Ghost: No, I'm just a reckless renegade. R/n is a loose cannon.

R/n: *smashes a chair*

-

Price: Good morning.

Ghost: Good morning.

Soap: Good morning.

Gaz: You all sound like robots, try spicing it up a bit.

R/n: MORNING MOTHERFUCKERS

-

Price: Where's Ghost, Soap, and Gaz?

R/n: They're playing hide and seek.

Price: Where?

R/n: I don't think you get how this game works.

-

Price: You really put aside everything and came all this way for me? How did you even get here so fast?

Ghost: Several traffic violations.

Soap: Three counts of resisting arrest.

Gaz: Roughly thirteen cans of energy drinks.

R/n: Also, that’s not our car.

-

Price: Nothing in life is free.

Ghost: Love is free!

Soap: Adventure is free.

Gaz: Knowledge is free.

R/n: Everything is free if you take it without paying.

-

R/n: We need more help. Maybe I should call my friends.

Ghost: ... Your what?

R/n: My friends.

Price: Are they saying “friends”?

Gaz: I think they're being sarcastic.

Soap: No, no, no, this is delirium, they've cracked from being awake all night. Hey, R/n! All of your friends are in this room.

R/n: I have other friends! You asked me to make new friends, I made new friends! It was a task. I complete tasks.

-

Price: Good responses for being stabbed with a knife?

Gaz: Rude.

Soap: That’s fair.

Ghost: Not again.

R/n: Are you going to want this back? Or can I keep it?

-

R/n: Is having a penis fun?

Ghost: It has its ups and downs.

Soap: Sometimes it’s a little hard.

Gaz: It’s a pain in the ass.

R/n: Oh, Jesus, fuck, guys, come on.

-

Gaz: That's it, we're gonna go out and find what we need!

Price: To the city?

Gaz: Yeah, no matter what!

R/n: Well- How exactly do you propose we do that, exactly?

Gaz: I... I don't know!

Ghost: Oh come off it, be serious!

Gaz: I am serious!

Ghost: You're insane!

Soap: Why, if only we were all wiener dogs, our problems would be solved!

Everyone:

Price: What???

Soap: Or maybe it was a basset hound!

R/n: no no maybe Soap is onto something..

Ghost, panicked: YOU'RE ALL INSANE!

-

Price: We’ve been conducting an ongoing study to see what R/n will and will not eat.

Ghost: Grass? Yes!

Price: Moss? Yes!!

Ghost: Leaves? Ohh, yes!

Price: Shoelaces? Strange but true!

Ghost: Worms? Sometimes!

Price: Rocks? Usually not.

Ghost: Twigs? Usually!

Price: Soap's cooking? Inconclusive!

Gaz: How did you… test this?

Price: You just hand them stuff and say ‘eat this’ and if they eat it, they eat it.

Gaz: ... I don’t know how to feel about this.

Soap: IS THAT WHERE ALL MY SPARE SHOELACES WENT?

-

Price: Are we really going to let R/n keep the cat?

Gaz: Hey we kept R/n.

-

Price: Why isn’t the statue smirking at me?

Ghost: It isn’t smirking at anyone, they’re all just imagining it.

Price: Three of us saw it, Ghost. How do you explain that?

Ghost: *points at Soap* Sleep deprivation. *points at Gaz* Paranoia. *points at R/n* Delusional personality disorder.

-

Price, trying to convince R/n to join the task force: You know... I thought it'd be good to have someone alongside us who's really... smart!

Gaz: And loud!

Soap: And grumpy!

Ghost: And oblivious to reality

R/n:

-

Price: Bridge the generation gap by combining old and new slang into one!

Gaz: Tubular AF!

Soap: Mood to the max!

Ghost, annoyed: Groovy, I hate it.

R/n, just as annoyed: If she breathes, she’s a square.

Price: Tf

-

Price: Imagine if someone handed you a box full of all the items you have lost throughout your life

Ghost: Self-esteem, haven't seen you in years

Soap: Oh wow, my innocence! Thank you for finding this!

Gaz: I knew I lost that potential somewhere!

R/n: My entire childhood and happiness, is that you?

Price:

Price: I was just gonna show you this cool trunk my mother left me but do you guys need a hug?

-

Price: What does 'take out' mean?

Soap: Food

Gaz: Dating

Ghost: Murder.

R/n: IT CAN MEAN ALL THREE IF YOU'RE NOT A LIL BITCH.

-

Price: Anyone d-

Ghost: Depressed?

Gaz: Drained?

Soap: Dumb?

R/n: Done with life?

Price: -done with their work... need to get Laswell to get you all therapy …

-

Price: So uhhh... question: my ‘friend’ keeps on going into the pantry and grabbing handfuls of fettuccine... uncooked...

Gaz: I would hope they're not grabbing handfuls of cooked fettuccine!

Soap: In your pantry!

Price: Yeah... and eating them raw, and they keep calling them 'chips'. ... How do I make them stop?

Ghost: Is your friend here?

Price, motioning to R/n: Yeah.

Gaz, to R/n: You're a monster! Words MEAN things! >:(

Soap: Does anybody remember- I haven't been to Olive Garden in many moons- but they DO have a like- fettuccine bottle that you can just- grab em out of and chew-

Soap: HOLD ON. WAS THIS A PRANK YOU GUYS PULLED ON ME WHEN WE WENT TO OLIVE GARDEN AFTER THAT MISSION?!

Soap: NO, STOP. EVERYBODY SHUT UP. DO THEY GIVE YOU RAW FETTUCCINE TO CHEW ON IN THE LOBBY OF THE OLIVE GARDEN

Everyone else: No.

Soap, to Gaz and R/n: YOU FUCKIN BASTARDS

Gaz: YAAAAAAAAY!

R/n: THE PRESTIGE!

-

Price: What did you guys get in your yearbook?

Gaz: 'Prettiest Smile'

Soap: 'Nicest Personality'

Ghost: 'Most likely to start a bar fight'

R/n: 'Least likely to start a bar fight, but most likely to win one'

-

Price: What if the person who named Walkie Talkies named everything?

Soap: Pregnancy tests are Maybe Babies

R/n: Socks are Feetie Heaties

Gaz: Forks are Stabby Grabbies

Soap: Defibrillators are Heartie Starties

R/n: Nightmares are Dreamy Screamies

Gaz: Stamps are Lickie Stickies

Ghost, annoyed: You are disappointments

Price to Ghost: You agreed to join the team.

-

Soap: I’m an idiot.

Ghost:

Price:

Gaz:

R/n:

Soap:

R/n: If you’re waiting for us to disagree, this is going to be a long day.

This stupid long omg, uh anyway I used a incorrect quote generator cause I'm lazy but edited most of them so the make some more sense :>

[nol0nger-human]

MAG146: Threshold. An Excruciatingly Deep Analysis. Word Count: 6702 .

The Final scene in mag146 is something i think about often. It wasn't a scene of the three assistants confronting Jon at Martin's behest, it was a scene of desperation for a tangible target that couldn't overpower them the way every other monster had, that could be loosely quantified as deserving every ugly emotion they've had to direct inwards. I think a large part of season four as a whole, is the lack of a "big bad guy" and how the absence of one big pure evil enemy can actually. make things worse sometimes. because back when Elias was present everyone had someone to blame. all their anger about their respective situations could be tied back to Elias and so everyone had common ground in their hatred for him, they had an outlet. Tim and Melanie both lashed out at almost everyone but in the end it was Elias Melanie tried to kill multiple times. It was Elias that Tim's rage always traced back to, and they he held as the true evil until his bitter end. Basira could blame Elias since he's the one who practically forced her into joining the institute to save Daisy. It made things easy. It was simple because it's so easy to direct all your hatred towards the person who's the obvious big bad antagonist. But as soon as Elias was not present anymore, none of them had that outlet anymore. That's a large part of the reason that Jon’s the one being scapegoated. He's the only one with no connection to them all. And the only one they can safely turn their rage towards. Basira and Daisy have a bond near unbreakable due to their history, Melanie and Basira went through the trauma of the Flesh attack together, Daisy and Melanie have the common thread of both being people attempting redemption despite it being what feels like their nature. And through this, they all have something connecting them all. With Jon, there's a lacking in that common thread. Especially since it was Tim who saved everyone from the unknowing. Plus, what makes Jon easy, is the fact that they can trace even just the littlest something involved with him. The point is, when Elias was there, everyone had something they could tie reeeally directly to their issues. But now thats he’s not. Jons the next closest thing. And many aspects about who he is as a person makes it ever so easier to put blame on him. Not only is he non confrontational and self blaming, so he doesn't have it in him to be a danger to anyone who may confront him. But, with the rapid deterioration of his mental state, he's been making bad decisions. He's been unintentionally hurting a few innocent people. And those two things combined are just enough to make him the perfect replacement outlet. Because god with everything they're going through they need something. Because, all in all, it's nobody's fault. And that is the hardest fact for anyone in their situation to accept. Because blame is easy. Blame is simple and blame lets you cast all your misfortunes onto one person without having to take painful responsibility for them. And right now? Fate is the one at fault. Everything is being subtly influenced by the web in a way that simply makes it so fate was the sole decider all along. The end was decided from the beginning. Nothing could have helped that fact. Everybody wound up in their positions because fate deemed them unlucky souls and no matter what they hoped or dreamed or wished to do there was nothing that could have been done because every single one of them was just a plaything for destiny to reel at. And that is the absolute most excruciating thing to accept in their circumstance. Because none of them can handle what they've gone through. And to accept that there's absolutely nothing that ever could have been done about it is. Devastating. Because why should Jon have been born to suffer, why should Melanie have had to live a life built off a burning stick tower of shaky rage, why should Daisy have had to live the life of a desperate predator that she can barely redeem herself for, why should Basira have to dedicate her life to something that-

has only ever backfired on her, and went through so much trauma because of. Every single one of them is at the absolute worst possible spot they could be at for one reason or another (except possibly Daisy), so what other option do they have besides creating blame when the alternative is accepting it was hopeless all along. They're all desperate. Now, to further explain my next point i'm going to bring in some historical context for the term "scapegoat. Based in the Bible, a scapegoat is one of two baby goats; the other is sacrificed, while the other is sent into the desert, carrying all of the sins and impurities with it. The idea is initially mentioned in the Book of Leviticus, where a goat is assigned to be sent into the desert in order to  carry away the sins of the community. Historically, this can be seen in many concepts. All of which are corrupt, and yet simultaneously used as one massive coping mechanism for the ways things are. The term though, interestingly (and ironically seeing a trend in historical scapegoats) enough, is rooted in ancient Judaism. Once a year, during Yom Kippur, Cohen Gadol sacrificed a bull as a sin offering to atone for all the sins he had inadvertently committed during the year. Then he took two goats and brought them to the door of the tent. Two goats were chosen by lot: one offered as a blood sacrifice, and the other as a scapegoat to be sent into the desert and pushed down a steep chasm where he died. The blood of the slain goat was taken behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the closing plate, the lid of the ark of the covenant. Later, the high priest confessed the intentional sins of the Israelites to God and figuratively placed them on the head of another goat, the scapegoat Azazel, who would symbolically "take them away". Now this is a very important analysis of a "scapegoat" because of how it narratively fits into the magnus archives you'll notice, that in the more ancient torah based description, it's abundantly clear that rather than simply an instrument for atonement, the goat is a sacrifice. The sins of the world were all placed on a rather innocent creature, and due to this, it met its untimely demise for reasons none other than fate. I like this specification, because I think it shows a really important context for the situation Jon is is. He isn't just being blamed for other people's problems, he's being utterly destroyed by them. Jons mental deterioration throughout the season has been nothing but noticeable in every way possible. And really? It's mostly due to that. He has an i n s a n e amount of survivors guilt at this point as pointed out by Daisy in Scrutiny, "And of course, for John, there’s survivor’s guilt in there, too. He thinks he’s not human. Makes him very… self-destructive.". So to have such an immense amount of guilt, and then have all the people around you, who you strive to have some sort of trust with, place all this blame on you, is detrimental. Not only is it a punishment perfectly tailored to match what Jons weakest point is, but it's also one that puts him in a cycle of agony that makes the entire situation worse. A sacrifice. It sends him into a vicious cycle of [ deteriorating due to being blamed -> not being able to sustain the pressure and agony of it and needing more statements -> taking more statements -> scapegoated for taking statements -> deteriorating due to being blamed ]. He's caught between a rock and a hard place with the situation because the ways the assistants are coping with their situation is directly contributing to exactly what they get on him for. They see him as a monster for doing what he does, and continue to deliberately try and make him feel worse, which only makes him need to do more of what they hate him for and no on and so forth. It's a vicious cycle full of unhealthy coping that none of them know how to withstand.

So, now that we have down the motives for scapegoating Jon and where Jon stands in the situation and what narrative role he's playing, we can now move on to the scene itself and the fundamentals of each character's stance in it. 

Coping: and how it interferes with regression of development. 

Firstly, I'm going to be starting with Daisy and there's a chance it's because she's my favorite and there's a chance it's because her stance is the most interesting. I lied, it's because she's my favorite! But either way, Daisy in this scene is the most conflicted character, and for extremely good reason. You'll notice that in her speech, she's almost desperately trying not to take sides, because she's the most aware of all the characters. She's undergone the most development and because of it is able to understand perspectives to a point where taking one is just something that's too difficult for her. After escaping the grasp of the Hunt, she's dedicated herself to atonement. Daisy has done terrible, inexcusable things in the past in order to feed the hunt. And since escaping it has done every single thing in her power to make up for it, no matter how hard. But the thing is. She's just as affected as all of them. And that's what makes her actions in this scene so interesting to look at. Because she can. not. blame Jon. She was Jon not too long ago she sees herself in him to a point where its painful. Because she too was caught in a place where she had to do things she knew were wrong simply to satisfy the desire of the hunt. She knows just how hard it is she knows the agony that Jon’s having to go through so she can't stand to see Basira and Melanie acting like he has full control. And yet at the same time, she can't bring herself to go against Basira. Because just as much as she knows where Jon is, she was on the police force with Basira. And cant help but see the justice side of the argument. She can't help but see how her circumstances differ from Ions in a way that Basira points out. So as much as she can see herself in where Jon is, she's incapable of not also being able to understand the points being made by the rest and where they are coming from due to how she knows that the logic for herself cant be applied to Jon. Since Jon knows what he's doing and she didn't. Since Jon hasn't been able to resist but she has. And a part about that fact is that it's Basira making it. She also still has a loyalty to Basira that makes it. Very, very difficult to fully go against her. So she becomes caught in a place where taking full, distinct sides, becomes a difficult endeavor. In the interaction, she's never the one making the points against Jon, but she's also not the one ever advocating for him. She makes a single comment about how Jons situation was similar to hers to try and reason was Basira slightly, but shut up about it after a few vague comments once she saw how driven Basira was in her convictions. BASIRA - You’re a danger, John. A monster. You’re hurting innocent people. ARCHIVIST - So did Daisy. BASIRA - Shut up. It’s not the same thing at all. DAISY - Basira. He has a point. BASIRA - You didn’t know what you were doing. [DAISY MAKES A PAINED SOUND, AS IF TO CONTRADICT HER, BUT STOPS.]. In this interaction especially, you can see just how tied she is between her understanding of both sides. She knows what Jons going through, but she also knows the differences in their circumstances, and it's not something she has solid ground to argue for. Now, bringing the regression topic in, I'll talk about how playing into this coping regresses her development as a character. Daisys current arc, and the one she's been having, is about fighting against her own monster hood. It's about resisting herself. About recognizing what she's done and atonement for it. It's about trying rather than succeeding. It's about fighting against your nature for what you know is right. So when upon seeing someone whos in as pained and monstrous a condition as she was, she cant bring-

herself to fight for them due to inconsistencies with what she believes, she regresses back to the person she was. The one who let their own morals get in the way of what was right. The one who allowed people to get hurt simply because it was "for the greater good." The way that regression is highlighted for her in this scene is how a blinding sense of morals and justice becomes too bright for her to act on the right thing. Even when staring at a pitiful version of the person she used to be. Character regression here works in the way where when tasked with empathy and understanding, she instead prioritized her own personal way of seeing things. 

Second, and much more simple of a spectacle to observe: Ms Melanie King. Melanie is a lot simpler to talk about, and mostly since her motives and ways of thinking are very direct and straightforward. Melanie is a character plagued by anger. She drew an unlucky hand in life, and the only way she was able to rise up to become a person she could be proud of was through fighting her way there tooth and nail, scratching and kicking and biting. So when everything comes crashing down on her. When everything she fought with her life for is suddenly destroyed, she can not blame herself. Because if she admits to herself that it was simply fate's fault that her career collapsed and that it was her fault that she joined the institute in the first place, then it means that everything will have been for nothing. And that her absolute rock bottom in life was all and only because of her. That. is NOT something she can face. And the rage that was once used to build her up in life, is redirected towards the ones who she sees fit to blame. First it was Elias. He hired her, he's the one commanding under the name of the eye, he's the one whose fault it is, and he's the one who she's going to take her rage out on. And so she did. And then Elias was gone. And her rage was taken over by the slaughter. In the time Jon was in a coma her anger festered, it grew, it empowered her and became more a part of her than ever. So once Jon was back, she had an outlet again. And boy did it make it ever so easy for her, though all through good intentioned. Jons surprise little surgery to help release her from the slaughter, the fact that it was her statement she made to him that got her involved with the institute at first, the fact that he's becoming less and less human. So many things about what Jon was doing and had done made it horrifyingly easy for her to place her rage on him. And so, all her anger was redirected towards the archivist that ruined her life. I think at this point it's also worth mentioning Melanie's pride and how it plays into her as a character. She's undergone a l o t of character change. But aside from her frustration the one thing that's stayed stagnant about her as a person is her pride. She took great pride in where she managed to get herself in life back when Ghost Hunt UK was up and her life was at its peak. It was her pride and joy and it's what boosted her ego so high because it's something she did for herself with her own bare hands. So when that collapsed, one of the massive reasons that she needed to blame someone so bad was due to the fact that if she admitted that it was her fault, then all that pride would have collapsed with the rest of her life. Navigating blame away from herself and avoiding acceptance is her way of preserving her ego, which is the only thing she really has left after all she's undergone. And due to this ego, it's also what makes her the most stubborn and fierce during this scene. And so, so willing to go against Jon at any and all costs. But tracing back to this pride of hers, I think it's an aspect that's actually quite a lot during the intervention. The moment Jon refers to her as being a character in an explanation of his she immediately assumes he's trying to blame her for it all. [ ARCHIVIST - The second was… it was after I got stabbed by Melanie. MELANIE - You are not putting this on me ]. She does this again, but this time when Jons agrees with her, this being a blow to her ego that someone like him could even think to agree with an idea of hers. [ ARCHIVIST - She does have a point. MELANIE - I did NOT ask you.] So now that motives and reasoning are out of the way, it's time to explain how regression is doing its work on Melanie here. Melanie's key point in her development as a character is. actually almost hilariously obvious to a point where she's actually seen as reasonable for a split second of her life. She got therapy. 

An honestly hilariously smart solution to the arising problems but. It was impressive for Melanie. Because her getting help after never once leaning on anyone around her was a massive step for her. It was a release of her pride, a recognition of her needing help from someone, of realizing she wasn't ok, and going out and getting it. Which god is more than can be said for most characters but essentially what therapy meant for her character development, was that she was finally taking a step to acknowledge her irrational anger and work to fix it. What happened in this scene for her, was a messy entanglement with the automatic unleashing of anger that she's always been so accustomed to, and the fact that she just took a massive step to stop that habit of hers. Regression is present here in the way that here, it's that automatic unleashment that ends up dominating, and becomes what overtakes her in this scene. The person she's been trying too hard to become fades away, and she moves back into the bitter, angry, spiteful person she was at the beginning of season four, still infected with the slaughter.

Basira is. undoubtedly the most complicated one. Daisys motives are the most contradicting, but Basira is the most dominant figure in what's happening, making her actions the most intense, and controversial. Basira is. complicated. She's extremely justice oriented and will do just about anything if it's for the wellbeing of the innocent and good of the world. She doesn't have the same "maul and kill the bad protect the good '' philosophy as Daisy, and is much less violent, but nonetheless lets her judgment of if people are good or not define her actions. And this goes for just about everything she has an opinion on, even changing what she thinks drastically if someone's morals shift. The only exception to this rule is Daisy, who seems to always have some affection towards whether what she's doing is good or not. The only time she's ever intervened with Daisy's immoral behavior is when she was going to kill Jon, who was someone Basira saw as moral. This type of mindset of hers got to the point where she completely turned on the police force the moment she recognized it as corrupt without even a second thought or dilemna about what she had sacrificed years upon years of work for. Unlike Daisy, who's developed to be able to see in shades of gray, Basira is still stuck at a point of black and white thinking. Deeming people as either "good" or a "monster." However over time, what went from just a mindset, became an utter and absolute crutch for her. She kept having to save herself from more and more situations. Rayners incident where she had to save herself from the chaos of the situation to when she had to rely entirely on her own head and wits to survive the unknowing, Basira slowly yet surely gets to a point where she can only trust to rely on herself, and her logic. After being through hell and back in Section 31 and then the institute she longs for stability, and gets this by having a rock solid state of mind that develops into the one and only thing she can depend on This gets especially reinforced in season four, when she's forced to take a leadership position. After the unknowing, her one, true last anchor besides herself disappears. Daisy was the one thing she could always count on, the one thing that was always there as an undeniable constant no matter what. But after Daisy was gone, she was left truly alone. So with Jon gone, Elias in prisoned, Martin out on his own agenda, and everyone else besides Melanie dead, she's forced to take leadership of the operation that is the archives. This in itself makes her extremely self sufficient. Becoming more and more self reliant and she increasingly loses anchors. This is likely around the time that she started really looking up to Gertrude, someone who all by herself did an unbelievable amount of justice for the world no matter what it took, or who had to be sacrificed to do it. Gertrudes self sufficiency, her effort, her efficiency, her image, everything Gertrude was, Basira strived to be. She's entirely independent, researching her own things and going all around the country without telling anyone about what she's doing. Leading all the operations such as the stopping of the dark ritual and now, going to investigate hilltop roads. She's undeniably retreated into herself, and no longer is used to being anything but autonomous. Because relying on herself for everything is how she copes. She turns herself into a pillar of stability which she must never leave, terrified that she would otherwise collapse. However despite seeming logical, she also greatly uses Jon as just as much of a scapegoat as Melanie, albeit more subconsciously. The problem that arises with Basira a bit more, is bias. Bias towards what's helpful to her personally, bias towards stability, and a strong bias against things that both destable her, and don't fit her view of justice. 

I'm going to have to try and word this simply because Basira is a little complicated, but essentially, her black and white view of the world mixes with her biases very badly. Being either extremely tolerant, or extremely intolerant. Due to her self sufficient development, she has automatic favor towards anyones who's useful to her. Aka: Melanie. During the flesh attack, Melanie saved her life. Melanie got Helen as an ally. Melanie helped her research and upkeep of the archives when nobody else was around. And otherwise, has stayed out of her way. Due to Melanie having been useful to her, she sees Melanie as a person on her "good" list. And is willing to excuse Melanie's emotional outbursts, and justifies them. She also has automatic favor towards people who provide her stability: Daisy. Daisy has had her back for likely at least a decade. She's always worked together with her, always helped her, always provided a sense of stability for her to rely on, and was a powerful unstoppable force that Basira found comfort in depending on. Daisy was also someone Basira became extremely trauma bound with, enforcing the fact that Daisy would constantly be relied upon. Because of this, Basira looked past her immoral behavior on the police force. Daisy also earned a spot on her "good" list. However, Jon has ever provided for her in a way where she can have this favor towards him, and if anything goes against the exact things that she values Melanie and Daisy for. Unlike Melanie, Jon has never helped her or been of use to her. He's never saved her, never gotten her in the nick of time, never assisted her in something great, and overall has really never been a person that has been of good use to her. Unlike Basira, he's extremely unreliable. He's messy, jumps into action without thinking, he's self sacrificial in the stupid way, always gets himself into danger, is sloppy with plans, puts himself and others in danger, and is the last person you can rely on as a sturdy boulder. So not only does Jon not possess the qualities she tends to favor people over, but similarly to Melanie she associates him with being put in danger due to him being unhelpful at some of the most dangerous places shes ever found herself in, including the unknowing, the stopping of the "dark ritual". And most other scenarios where she's been put in danger, and needs someone to assist her. That being said, this means that she's not willing to look past anything he does due to lacking in the favor that people like Melanie and Daisy have. This especially works in the opposite of Jons favor when the things that he happens to be making mistakes on, is exactly what Basira values. Justice of the innocent. So when you combine ALL these factors. 

Combine her need to be bold, black and white, stubborn and unmoving at all costs [ BASIRA - How many. ARCHIVIST - Basira…BASIRA - How. many. ] [ BASIRA Enough. ]. [ BASIRA -Then we go. Now. Unless, anyone has any objections. ] 

With her newfound need to be independent, autonomous, self sufficient, self reliant at all costs [ BASIRA - No. if he is being controlled, we need to know. And we need to know now. Tell me where she is. ] [ BASIRA - Fine, I’ll go, then. I’ll do some recon on my own, and update you. ]

And finally, her biases towards those she favors mixing with her strong sense of justice [ BASIRA - Why do you think? Because he was ashamed. ] [ BASIRA - You’re a danger, John. A monster. You’re hurting innocent people. ARCHIVIST - So did Daisy. BASIRA -  SHUT UP. It’s not the same thing at all. DAISY - Basira. He has a point. You didn’t know what you were doing. BASIRA -And since you did, you’ve spent every waking hour resisting. He knows exactly what he’s doing. ] [BASIRA-  You don’t get a vote. ]

Now that I've discussed the individual characters and their stances and motives, I want to give my personal review of this scene and it's mostly just. My goodness. Jonathan Sims is scarily good at writing characters. I feel like a lot of writers often don’t go into the messy details of what trauma does to you as a person. A lot of the time characters will go into scarring events and come out only slightly affected. But what's really done so, so well, is the realism put into the coping styles and reactions of each character. They don't react to their trauma in pretty, romanticized ways. Melanie especially depicts this. She has rage outbursts that have ruined her almost all her relationships, she becomes violent out of fear, she reacts irrationally due to defense mechanisms, shes messy and shes vengeful and shes angry and the ways in which she acts in order to protect herself whether its stabbing Jon and other violent outbursts, or a general inability to communicate without thinking the other person has bold intentions to hurt her. She screams at Jon, blames him for all her problems despite him being responsible for dead zero of them, and turns fearful and livid at the sight of him. She's traumatized and it's not depicted in a way that's supposed to get the point across while still preserving love for the character. They aren't afraid to make characters genuinely unlikeable for the sake of realism and it's represented s o well. And she isn't the only character who does this when faced with trauma. Tim becomes bitter towards everyone around him and vents his rage on anyone who comes too close. Martin becomes hateful, spiteful, and self isolating. Basira takes complete domination in order to be in control of situations, and becomes accusatory, cold, selfish, unfair. I could go on and on but there isn't a single characters whose reactions art brutally honest to what anyone would say or do. they are unpleasant and messy and excruciating but they're human, they are unapologetically human. heres a perspective that wasn't so easy to see coming, but it actually fairly crucial to this entire scene and what exactly it means. Martin. Martin was the one took the tape of the bystanders interaction with jon, and left it out for the others to see. A silent instruction to intervene. Which. Dear god shows a lot about who he is as a character and just why the lonely is benefitting so much from him. Martin cares about Jon. It's undeniable. Daisy and Basira and Jon and Martin have always worked quite well as foils because as Daisy is Basira source of stability despite Daisy being rather uninvolved, Jon is Martins source of stability, despite Martin purposefully not involving himself. We already know that one of the main reasons Martin is working with Lukas in the first place, was a promise that doing what he's doing is protecting Jon. Everything from his self isolation to his purposeful self sabotage with his peers to every ounce of work he's doing..is really just all for Jon and the promise of his safety. However, despite his care he refuses to get involved. He digs himself in such a deep self sabotage hole that he refuses to even try and do what Jon really needs from him due to being so deep into what he's doing that he can't really turn back. He's so incredibly focused in on his own agenda, that he ends up endangering what he says he values. He's so uninvolved with the happening of things that he sent a tape containing an example of jon acting “evilly”, to the exact people that push him to do so and without considering the danger that may put him in with his coworkers.Martins perspective on this isn't really something you can tell? So it's hard to guess if i did that knowing what would happen and thinking that would be for the best, or did it thinking things would end differently, not realizing what he was doing. is really just all for Jon and the promise of his safety. However, despite his care he refuses to get involved. 

He digs himself in such a deep self sabotage hole that he refuses to even try and do what Jon really needs from him due to being so deep into what he's doing that he can't really turn back. He's so incredibly focused in on his own agenda, that he ends up endangering what he says he values. He's so uninvolved with the happening of things that he sent a tape containing an example of Jon acting “evilly”, to the exact people that push him to do so and without considering the danger that may put him in with his coworkers. Martin's perspective on this isn't really something you can tell? So it's hard to guess if i did that knowing what would happen and thinking that would be for the best, or did it thinking things would end differently, not realizing what he was doing. Either way, it's very interesting to see just how dedicated Martin is to Peter Lukas’s plans to a point where even the main motivation to what he's doing in the first place becomes something he avoids at every single cost he can, even when attempting to better things. Of course there's a lot about Martin I could talk about, but it wouldn't be relevant to this episode. Instead it's just interesting to focus on the action Martin takes, the inaction he takes, and just why he does these things. 

Martins. certainly an interesting one right now. I keep trying to decipher his motives by leaving the tape out but it's honestly near impossible to fully know what he was counting on happening or not.

Now when you think about this scene in the context of psychologist "Leon Festinger's" cognitive dissonance, it gets even more interesting. For starting context, cognitive dissonance is when ones belief differs from physical evidence at hand. You may have heard of musical dissonance, when two notes in different keys are played in a rather jarring timeframe, made to make the listeners uncomfortable or shudder. Cognitive Dissonance is just this. When someone's belief doesn't line up with the evidence at hand, it creates a jarring discomfort quite similar. An example used by Festinger (1957) may assist in elucidating the theory. A habitual smoker who learns that smoking is bad for health will experience dissonance because the knowledge that smoking is bad for health is dissonant with the cognition that he continues to smoke. He can reduce the dissonance by changing his behavior, that is, he could stop smoking, which would be consonant with the cognition that smoking is bad for health. Alternatively, the smoker could reduce dissonance by changing his cognition about the effect of smoking on health and believe that smoking does not have a harmful effect on health (eliminating the dissonant cognition). He might look for positive effects of smoking and believe that smoking reduces tension and keeps him from gaining weight (adding consonant cognitions). Or he might believe that the risk to health from smoking is negligible compared with the danger of automobile accidents (reducing the importance of the dissonant cognition). In addition, he might consider the enjoyment he gets from smoking to be a very important part of his life (increasing the importance of consonant cognitions). Cognitive dissonance is seen here, particularly in Basira, very starkly. Basira and Melanie believe Jon is a monster. An inhuman thing that's instinct is to only harm others. She views him as this broken twisted thing that needs to be handled and managed so he doesn't destroy the people around him. However, at the same time she's still wholly devoted to Daisy. She holds no blame towards her, and excuses her every action due to her repressed feelings for her and the loyalty she feels towards her, despite Daisy having done far, far worse than Jon. but despite the hypocrisy, they make her feel safe. They give her stability. Because this way, she has a clear opposing force (Jon), and a clear allied force (Daisy and Melanie) and having that gives her the groundedness she longs for. However, cognitive dissonance comes into play. very quickly with this. For example: the evidence of Jon trying to be better. The fact that Jon does everything in his power to help others, the fact that Jon continuously resists using his power if he can't help it, the fact that Jon has a kind heart, the fact that Jon has worked tirelessly for others, the fact that Jons intentions are never once bad.

Basira sees this. Basira sees every. Little bit of this. But she denies. She feels that uncomfortable dissonance between what she believes about Jon and about what's in front of her eyes. So in order to close this gap between belief and evidence, she makes excuses. She convinces herself that Jon is barely trying and that things would be fully better if he actually cared, she convinces herself that Jon is against her and is being manipulative, she convinces herself that he's deliberately doing what he is. All these beliefs that convinces herself of help close that uncomfortable gap between her belief and logic, making that dissonance go away. As Lauren Slater said in her book on Leons Psychology "Opening Skinner's Box": “dissonance is really not about looking at how people change. The theory just didn’t concern itself with that.” Which describes her feelings towards Jon, really quite well. Its doubt of progress. Doubt of character. Doubt of the human ability to change and grow and live. Someone else along with this happens with her relationship with Daisy. 

Now for this part if we are to take a look at some more excerpts from Lauren Slater's "Opening Skinner's box:” "Did Festinger ever consider how our justifications are to save not only ourselves, but others too? Did he ever consider how lies and love are intertwined?” This part relates. Incredibly directly to Daisy. Basiras Justification of Daisy's past actions, every single time she says "It's not the same" when talked about Jon and Daisys inhumanness, it's out of pure love. She doesn't want to admit to herself that Daisy may be as in the wrong as she is, but she also doesn't want to admit it to Daisy. She cares about Daisy deeply and doesn't want her to have to face that pain of truly seeing what she's done. She lies to herself out of protection of Daisy, and out of preserving her morals. Because Basira wants to be a good person. She needs to be a good person she needs to stand for the name of justice as a totem, as a symbol. She can't do that if she stood by someone and let them murder countless people, and excuse it, and love that person deeply, and continue to. So she lies to herself. She tries to close the gap in dissonance by justifying Daisy's actions, because god she just needs to. Now, for how Melanie comes into this. It goes without saying that Melanie pretty much also can be directly applied to all of Basiras cognitive dissonance, except for some details. She experiences the same cognitive dissonance as Basira just in an angrier way, with different motives. And it's exactly this that makes the dissonance with Basira and Melanie worse.

“We spend our lives paying attention only to information that is consonant with our beliefs, we surround ourselves with people who will support our beliefs, and we ignore contradictory information that might cause us to question what we have built.” "Soothing can come only if more and more people sign onto the spaceship, so to speak, because if we are all flying this thing together, then surely we must be right.” Companionship. Because if someone believes the same thing as you you cant be crazy. If someone sees what you see then it affirms you, makes you feel like you must be right since you aren't the only one who thinks this. That's what happens with Basira and Melanie. They both experience with dissonance, and find companionship in it. They think. "Oh, well I'm not alone in this belief, so I doubt it's wrong." Their beliefs are affirmed, and they strengthen due to this. There's no room to doubt yourself when everyones telling you youre right. Another variable when it comes to companionship, is just how much both of them long for it. Melanie and Basira are in such lonesome, excruciating places in their lives. meaning that the companionship that comes with this common dissonance is strengthened simply by the fact that they both long for allies and for support. “The psychological opposition of irreconcilable ideas (cognitions) held simultaneously by one individual, created a motivating force that would lead, under proper conditions, to the adjustment of one’s belief to fit one’s behavior��instead of changing one’s behavior to fit one’s belief (the sequence conventionally assumed).”

[sillyxaly]

hi hello talk to me about junmei :3

i prefer post-canon stuff but i will gladly take anything!! also. do you perchance know of any jun wu redemption fics because i could only find one on ao3 ;;

yes he’s a villain but. it’s fanfic! he comes with a complimentary sad backstory! he’s stuck under a mountain to think about his actions! he’s stuck there forever, he has plenty of time to reflect on his behavior

First up @witch-is-writing do you know?

I only remember ones that vaguely count as redemption really but in my defense I woke up a minute ago, saw "Junmei" and scurried to write this text. Also do tell me which fic you found so I can check if I read that pls :3

Jun Wu is just the personification of 'hurt people hurt people' for me and if you wish I may write an essay about that thazs vaguely structuered and more of a ramble. I do however very much consider mei nianqing to be important to his healing. I dont even call it a redemption arc but oh boy that man needs some Healing. Mnq does too and they really should do that together because their issues are so intertwined. I have so many loose thoughts about this right now oh ma god.

The path to Jun Wus redemption or healing will always lead through the vassal that stayed longer and the vassal that left in the end. The one man he couldn't kill in two thousand years. The one man who knew him before he put on one mask after the other.

And truly they have all the time in the world for that post-canon. Let nianqing (...nian...nyan....nya... Yeah i didnt sleep enough.) visit him in the mountain. Return day after day to make it stick a little. That hes there now. Bring tea, bring books to read, whatever really. They are both so incredibly hurt it makes me sick (positive) and it would be a journey. One thats hard and rocky. One where JW still falls back to lash out and bite because its what saved him for hundreds of years but MNQ stays now no matter how he growls.

Yes JW is just a rescue dog to me and I will never get that thought out of my head ever again but I have one and the similiarities of it are striking. Funnily enough that also means most people should just ignore him (for now). Let one person get closer for now, more than that would be too much and if he starts to feel cornered he will growl and then he will bite. Its an intricate play ot trial and error to figure out when to actually step back and give more space and when to take him by the scruff even if he tries to bite. So MNQ got a lot of work and figuring that out ahead because thats his rescue now (has always been really) and JW will always remain a little more at ease with him than the rest of the world.

At last those who caused the pain have died and after that, by all means, it was all a grasp for control because for as long as he has control he can never be hurt. I believe we all try to hold control over at least something in our lives and its natural to do so. We are all scared to be hurt. But nobody can control everything (much less forever) and he needs to learn to live with that fear and uninternalize the mask of anger that hides it.

No matter what he needs to feel safe first. Not ultimatly safe but at least safe to show that hes afraid. Safe enough to stop wearing a mask of stirkes to hide the vulnerabilty. He needs to be scared and he needs to be vulberable and it need to be safe and okay for once.

And who better to grant that safety than that started the whole tale of his demise and his crimes by telling our main character to the face that this man shone so much brighter than he ever did. A fact i will never get over. The contents of what MNQ tells XL and us is like: War crimes, attempted murder on me, wiping out the heavenly capital, bringing ruin to Multiple kingdoms and how does one start such a tale best? Logically by refering to the man in question as the sun. But thats not enough. He wasnt just any source of light. He outshone you and all of us and all the other gods which are now dead because he murdered them.

MNQ is crazy for that and I absolutly adore that and that is literally all it will ever take for me to ship this. You can not tell me that is not a subtle love confession?? JW attempted to murder him multiple times i don't think people normally talk about such a guy like that??

Uhhhhhhhhhh anyhow

*subtly slides discord link*

I also made this where witch is also inside and so far nobody else but uh yes in case you want that because I dont know how to tell people.

[skzoologist]

Okay so similarly to that ask you got, the chan comfort one, what about some miho, like you said they dont seek eachother out, but they can often be seen together (I think thats what you wrote..?)

So what about some Minho/Bae moments, comfort either way would work! (Minho being comforted by or comforting Bae, don't matter to me! 😌)

word count: ~1.1k

warnings: none

genre: fluff, comfort

a/n: Hey-ho anon dear, you're right, these two are like sassy cats, you'll see what I mean haha. None of them are the 'let us talk about this problem' kinda person, which doesn't really help with the whole situation 😅 Either way, they still find ways to rely on the other, so I hope you'll enjoy this!

Please let me know if I left a warning or anything out, I will add it in! Reblogs, likes and feedback are greatly appreciated!

!I don't condone anyone stealing my work and posting it anywhere without my permission, or feeding it to AI!

!This is just fiction, my interpretation of Stray Kids. By no means is this how they are and how they behave in real life!

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‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

It was a regular day for the worldwide known idol group, every member busy with their individual schedules, their day fully packed with different interviews, practices and photoshoots. Bae was no different, having just set foot back in the company building, his previous appointment having required him to go to a different location to be used as a background for his photoshoot. The shooting had a more natural, gentle theme, all the clothes Bae had worn woven with pastel coloured silk and cotton, wonderfully complementing his long hair, the dark strands left freely flowing in the soft breeze.

Through busy hallways he went, slipping free from a packed elevator efficiently, having mastered the art long ago, despite his ridiculous height.

The moment he had stepped foot into the practice room he knew something was amiss, the air shifting around differently, compared to its usual, cheery self.

Two pairs of eyes met with each other, one searching the other carefully, not wishing to accidentally set off a landmine and cause irreversible destruction. Yet, the taller dancer had no time to fully worry about that, his hyung looking away much too fast, not even slowly blinking at him in his usual, silent greeting.

That was the first red flag Bae had noticed, something that settled heavily in his stomach.

The younger took his bag and hoodie off, already fully changed into some loose clothing he could freely dance in long before having arrived at the company. Although, he had to say, even after so many years, he still couldn’t get used to changing in the car hastily, usually not having enough time in his tightly packed schedule to do so in a proper locker room or even a restroom.

Minho silently waited for the otter to be done, eyes watching him through the mirror like a hawk, something sharp in the older’s gaze that usually didn’t reside there. It caused a slight crease to nestle itself into Bae’s forehead, its presence uncomfortable.

Still, Bae pushed through the feeling, opting to instead keep a watchful eye on the older as they started practising an older choreography of theirs.

As the day went by, so did Minho’s patience thin, the man clearly frustrated over something, bottling the emotion up and letting it simmer inside, only to inevitably blow up in everyone’s faces like a devastating bomb.

Bae wasn’t blind, he had noticed the little signs. How his hyung’s moves were more forceful than usual, how his lips dipped down just a tad bit further into a barely noticeable scowl, or how he kept carding a hand through his hair, the strands on the verge of falling out from the repetitive, forceful motion. The younger noticed these easily, having carved everyone’s habits into his very soul. 

The two idols were similar when it came to things like this, never seeking help on their own. Which was also the exact reason Bae knew, he knew Minho wouldn’t just open up to him or to anyone, the man too stubborn for his own good.

A reason that created an interesting dynamic between the dancers, as if they were two temperamental cats, only going to the other on their own terms, allowing the other to catch little glimpses of vulnerability only occasionally. It was a never ending cat and mouse game, only, sitting down and never chasing that mouse being the sole winning condition of this infuriating game.

And so, Bae waited patiently, staying by his huffing hyung’s side silently, even as the man’s aura screamed pure violence and murder, scaring everyone else away and rightfully so. Nobody doubted that Minho could end someone’s life with a single spoon alone, one he was eating his beloved pudding with.

Time crept by as the two just sat there on the sofa, a space left between them that would be considered much too wide on any other day. A stupid little show was put on the TV, a mere background noise no doubt, since none gazed at the device securely mounted on the wall. Instead, they were both scrolling on their phones, a rare occasion for the artist, the man quickly using it to check as many fanarts as he could, all created by their beloved STAY.

Shuffling of clothes could be heard, the little ‘thunk’ following it as the now empty plastic container was placed onto the table, its delicious contents already eaten long ago.

A soft touch reached Bae’s hand, a limb he had purposefully left resting on the pillows closer to his hyung, not fully tucked into his side.

By the time he had locked and put away his phone -not like he had been actually paying attention to it the last 5 minutes-, another hand had snaked itself into his, a head heavily falling onto his lap. That same, clutched hand of his was led to a nest of fluffy hair, no request needed to be gently buried there, drawing little symbols into the skin.

Bae could feel the tension leaving Minho’s body, those hunched shoulders sagging, taut muscles resting at last. A barely audible sigh could be heard, but the younger knew better than to comment on it, letting it silently disappear in the peaceful silence enveloping the two.

With every stroke and every gentle scratch the other melted more and more into him, practically turning into putty in his hands. Not a single word was exchanged, the serene atmosphere never broken, only enhanced by the quiet, satisfied hums that occasionally left the older’s mouth.

The moon was high up in the sky by the time Bae had finally fallen asleep, Minho curled up by his side, head still comfortably laying on his dongsaeng’s thigh. When Chan had noticed this scene, having come back from another long session of songwriting, a smile so soft sat onto his face that it seemed unreal. He gazed at his dear members, his family, for a few more minutes before grabbing a blanket from his room, covering the two as much as he could. The cat stirred, making the wolf still in his place, earning a relieved sigh once he had settled back and started softly snoring once again.

Even the strong needed some time to recuperate, to rest and gather their strength, and Bae felt honoured to grant that for his beloved, cat-like hyung, the one who always cared for him quietly. He would always be by his side, to provide some silent support, no matter what.

[hughiecampbelle]

Irresistible (Shiv Roy x Tattoo!Reader)

Character/s: Shiv, Logan mention

Word Count: 981

A/N: This was not requested, but I did get a Shiv request and I want to be sure I can do it justice. I feel like I know her the least besides Kendall, so I'm a lil scared to post this lol. It's a teensy bit short too, don't come for me y'all!! I just know she'd love tattoos so much. Maybe not on her, but her partners? Definitely!!! Feedback is always appreciated 💜💜💜

She runs the tips of her fingers across the ink of your skin. Starting innocently enough, your fingers, your hands, west and elbow. Some new, mostly old, still raised on the surface of your flesh. Up, up, across, tracing your collarbone, your chest, your neck, until she’s got your chin tipped up, examining the ink on the underside of your jaw. Her eyes are delicate, but intense. She’s dissecting you as you sit, wait, and you let her. You’d let her do a lot of things. She lets a smile slip, letting go, instead grabbing for your hand, giving it a squeeze. She’d always been a lover of art, of expression, but her favorite was your body. Covered head to toe in tattoos. The drama of it all. The pain, too. It gave you an edge, a shield. It makes me look a lot cooler than I am, you joked, but she just shook her head. Not cool, elegant. Elegant as fuck. You laughed, not expecting that certain word choice from an angel like her. The more you got to know her though, the more you expected it. The more you could rely on it, on her.

She started appearing everywhere. Not just around the office, at her fathers table, but in your corner, in your space. She hadn’t noticed you til an office party ran late. Past midnight, everyone drinking, celebrating. You never showed skin at the office. It wasn’t professional anywhere, but especially Waystar. Parties, parties were another story. Your co-workers knew what you looked like, who you were outside of work. You let loose a little, sipping at your drink, watching your peers make mistakes for tomorrow morning. Thats when you spotted her, watching you. Of course you knew who she was. Your heart fell into your stomach. She was powerful, a Goddess among men. She had power. You? You’d only been working there a year, almost two. That was all. You doubted Logan knew your name. As long as the work was done on time, he didn’t really care. She hadn’t taken her eyes off you, her gaze burning right through you. You hadn’t spilled on yourself and your fly wasn’t down, you checked. You looked behind you, too, but there was no one. No, she was looking at you. Was that a smile? You could see it in her cheeks, in the lines of her face, no matter how hard she tried to hide behind her glass. Heat rose to your face. The boss’ daughter was looking at you, staring. You tried not to let on that you knew, turning your attention elsewhere. Co-workers dancing, people you didn’t even know knew one another mingling like old friends. Every time you looked, out of the corner of your eye, there she was. 

There she was. 

You’ve been staring. It takes every ounce of courage in your body to speak those words. Flirty, just loud enough for her to hear. Maybe I like what I’m looking at. She says cooly, not looking at you directly. You’d disappeared. The crowd thickened and you took your chance, moving from one end of the room to the other, so close to her you could smell her perfume. She didn’t jump, you hadn’t shocked her, like she was always prepared for anything. Everything. Maybe? Ouch. What were you doing? You weren’t this person. You weren’t sexy or spontaneous, you definitely didn’t think you had a chance with any person, let alone the Siobhan Roy. She either didn’t notice the moment of panic or chose not to, instead shrugging her shoulders. Yeah, maybe. Where have you been hiding all this time? Accounting, you want to say, but that isn’t right. You’ve been here all along, in plain sight. Is she noticing now because of your skin, or she’d had too much to drink? She doesn’t seem drunk, not even a little tipsy. So she liked your ink. . . That made you smile despite yourself. Scary, powerful, Siobhan Roy liked tattoos? That’s pretty cute. You can touch them, if you like. You held out your wrist to her. That startled her, how you’d figured her out, how forward you were with her. She touches you as if she’s afraid you’ll break, so delicate, so frail. She traces the images, the shading and linework, getting lost in the patterns, the intricacy. She doesn’t ask what they mean, like most people. She doesn’t ask if it hurt, how expensive it was, or who you went to. She just traced. When she came to, as if coming out of a haze, she blushed. You liked it.

Her touch tickled. 

She did it when she was nervous, too. Tracing the image on the back of your hand, your knuckles, absentmindedly. She rubbed whichever arm she held, the two of you a long established couple after that night. She always get embarrassed when you bring it up. Not to tease her, rather in awe of her. She was stunned by you, by the artwork, even if she couldn’t put it into words. She buries her face into you, begging you to stop talking. Too late. You’re stuck with me, you want to tease. She can’t help it, the second she saw you, she knew things would be different. Not love, something more complicated. Something more permanent. She didn’t believe in love at first sight. That night, though? That night, maybe she’d come close. When you get new ones she studies them, hypnotized by the process. Going through all that pain for something so beautiful, so forever. She knows what her father thinks of you, of your body, but she couldn’t care less. You weren’t just beautiful, you were stunning. The artwork was just an added bonus, the cherry on top. One day you’ll get something to represent her, your wife. For now you wear your ring. For now, that’s enough.

[jaybutnotthebird]

I found a conexión between my two latest obsesions and its an overlooked detail that I think It's so important and cool and underrated

SO IM GONNA BITCH ABOUT IT

Atlas May and Johnathan Brisby

Characters who are very important for the story, but are no longer there.

They are long gone. They are dead. We never hear them talk, we barely catch glimpses of them, we know them for what others tell us about them

The protagonists live in their shadow and the wreckage left behind by them, no matter how good or powerful they were, no one expected them to die and once they did everything fell apart without them

Johnathan was a hero. He was smart, selfless, self sacrified, never afraid to take risks. He knew the great owl, he owned a mysterios pendant that saves the day, he got killed taking a great risk for the rest of the comunity

The moment his name is mentioned everyone stops and listens and their whole demeanor changes and they are suddenly willing to go out of their way to help his family

After he died his widow and children were left in the dark about an important secret they have inherited and hey must fend by themselves in a dangerous enviroment. The rest of the comunity strugled to fill his role at a critical moment with a traitor on the loose.

We are told he went out of his way to save others when he could have just saved himself by just opening a gate but thats the least of It, there are so many other things he did that we are not told about

Atlas May is general y disliked by the fandom

Maybe It is the way Zib talks about him, with resentment, or that he wasn't in good terms with Mitzy, or that he was into nasty business practices, and got everyone arround him stuck in them

But we cannot deny that he acomplished great things

He buildt and empire and the people arround him greatly benefited from him, hell, Ivy's family is still rich after doing business with him in his prime.

I bet he wasn't perfect, no one in lackadaisy is but Its easy to blame It all on the bastard when he is no longer there

Why do I think we should have more characters like this?

Well, we all think we are the protagonist of our own story, but anyone can have an accident.

Nowourdays you hear of death but most of the time you don't trully understand It. You hear of a catástrofe that took hundreds of lives and you imagine for a moment how bad that is but you don't trully understand It, you can't

You can't possibly take in what It must be for every single family and friend who lost each of those persons, every child that will be missing a parent, every friend that will be thinking of them three or ten years from now, every unexpected little thing or big acomplishment each one of them could have done throughout their life wich we are now missing.

How many of them had a dificult relationship with someone they loved and never got to make peace? (boy am I glad Im alive)

Too often in media we see a lot of background characters die and we dont think about It becouse the protagonists have plot armor, the ones that count are fine.

I call these 'ghost characters' but theres also 'semi-ghost characters' wich give ya a glimpse by leting us know them before they are gone, so we know what we will be missing

Thanks to characters like this we see the consecuences of death. The way they impact people's lives arround them, the things they did and the things they could have done, we wonder what their personslities were like...

I think that is important, and we don't see that often enough

[ladybeug]

Alright so

It has been about 24 hours since i finished @peachcitts fanfiction metamorphosis and i spent at least 3 of those hours making a fanmix.

Listen, Im sorry, this is just who I am, Im someone who wants to make a playlist about a specific iteration of ml characters. Especially if there are some grey morals up in there.

read the fic, listen to the fanmix, follow me under the cut thats where the party is

...and by party I mean analytical summary of each song.

I'm about to talk about some of these choices I made in depth, as a treat for myself. An indulgence. I'll keep the fic references high level but there may be some theme/tone spoilers so real talk go read the fic and meet me back here.

@peachcitt I know I tagged you but this will get long you do not have to read it or acknowledge this homage just know I appreciated your story and thought a lot about it.

so.

the whole playlist is meant to be listened to start to finish, its half the tragedy and half the hard work to get your life right side up and the rewards.

I actively tried not to put Cry for Judas on here and i did ANYWAYS

its on so many of my playlists already, I'm loose with this song. But frankly if i could only keep it on one I would keep it on here. I mean I just don't think any other adrien iterations do things just to see how bad they'll make him feel QUITE like this one and i just HAD to have that as the first line of lyrics in the playlist.

I'm just also obsessed with sad and angry, can't learn how to behave?? The tragic acceptance of being unable to be good??

find me a better match. this song had to be on here and it had to be first.

Your Ghost - this might be the only song thats only about Marinette which is a crime because I really connected with her pov but the truth is that this is an adrien fanmix and i need to accept that.

But for real the acceptance but inability to move on in this song is just perfect.

Can't Lose - maybe the angriest song on here? A little angrier than I was going for but I had to keep this one though because, I mean, "I'm thinking I can't move if there isn't somewhere else to go?" like, the, 'sure what im doing is bad but what else IS there' of it, I mean, what can I even say. It had to be on here.

If you only listen to one song on here listen to Animal Mask.

It's a song about partners in a wrestling match written as a metaphor for when John Darnielle's wife was in labor, and its so tender and sweet, and frankly it sounds like it could have been written for metamorphosis for like every single flashback of ladybug and chat noir.

I could quote every line and be like 'this is them' but like, 'hold on,' I cried, 'I'll be right there', pulled your mask down through your hair. they won't see you, not until you want them to. What am I supposed to say?? It moves me deeply I'm having emotional problems please come join me. Every other song on this playlist doesn't matter.

Anyways intermission, while we're here, let me share this experience that I had today with you:

I did then proceed to count, was appropriately ashamed that about 25% of the playlist was mountain goats, and extremely painfully chose to remove 'oceanographer's choice'.

[tangent about Oceanographers Choice vs Haunted House]

As obsessed as I am with going straight from the unbearably tender memory in animal mask to oceanographer's choice, first line: "well, guy in a skeleton costume, walks up to a guy in a superman suit, runs through him with a broadsword", the anxious switch in music, and then straight into a song about a fucked up guy fighting the woman he is still complicatedly in love with.... and he doesn't know how else to be....

oh no, listen, as I typed that I half convinced myself to add it back in again

but I won't because I even more love the transit of animal mask to the shrill and tense line in Haunted House, "I was buried in the summer, all those parties ago", and then a confused and hysterical song about dissociation and loss of control in a world where nobody seems connected to what you're going through. The tone is more ungrounded, and scared, and less resigned. Which matches what I was going for - I tried to avoid songs that were just like... "yeah i'm evil >:) thats my identity"

[end tangent]

Little Pistol I feel like I barely have to justify, but I will say what really sold me is the reference to 'I want what's best for me, and I think I know just what that means'. But then also the slight change in tune at the end? Delicious?

The Run and Go, just read the fic ok

I Wanna Get Better is one that honestly feels like it doesn't fit perfectly but I'm really drawn to a sharp turning point in the playlist from 'bad and spiraling' to 'desperately clawing my way up' which is how reading the fic felt at a certain point, and this song feels like the perfect tonal shift and has the end-of-a-movie screaming conviction that I want. Its also just so good

Do it Anyways might be the second most important song... third most important? on this fanmix. The frantic, panicky music matched with the unwavering conviction to improvement is so unmatched honestly and if we're talking about how hard it is to be your best when you feel your worst, oh my god. Read the fic, listen at 2:44 and meet me back here and there's nothing else I even need to say

Absolute Lithops Effect.... I tricked you, this is also a mountain goats song :) its a cover though so I'm not counting it.

This is one of the most beautiful songs about hope for the future and growth that I know its very important to me. The title of the playlist comes from this song. Here's what you need to know about it:

Lithops are these:

They grow so slowly they don't look like they're growing at all. But they are.

Love Love Love: Ugh don't talk to me about love love love. I'm not going to explain how this connects to the fic. It does, I'm right. There's nothing I can say about this that can't be said better by Mr. Mountain Goats himself:

"The point of the song is, you know, that we are fairly well damaged by the legacy of the Romantic poets--that we think of love as this, you know, thing that is accompanied by strings and it's a force for good, and if something bad happens then that's not love. And the therapeutic tradition that I come from--I used to work in therapy--you know, also says that it's not love if it feels bad. I don't know so much about that. I don't know that the Greeks weren't right. I think they were--that love can eat a path through everything--that it will destroy a lot of things on the way to its own objective, which is just its expression of itself, you know. I mean, my stepfather loved his family, right? Now he mistreated us terribly quite often, but he loved us. And, you know, well, that to me is something worth commenting on in the hopes of undoing a lot of what I perceive as terrible damage in the way people talk about this--love is this benign, comfortable force. It's not that. It's wild, you know?" — NPR interview with Linda Wertheimer, 14 May 2005

Metamorphosis: okay this one I added to make myself laugh but I also stand by it thematically

SUPERBLOOM: Don't we all deserve a little celebration for the hard work we do?

Anyways this is my fanmix, if you read to here I love you and you're welcome for all the mountain goats songs I peeled off of here that I didn't even tell you about. I didn't even put heel turn 2 on here. Whoops ok now i've told you about that one.

[helluvabossrewrite45]

Hello, I just wanna say that your scene rewrites are amazing. Seeing Stars has got to be one of my favourites.

On the topic of Octavia, I agree that Viv and her team missed an opportunity with Via. To me in the context of the narrative, Octavia can be a tragic character that is screwed over by the writing. It is implied that she takes after Stolas with her love of astronomy as their form of bonding. Yet, she slowly watches her father drift away from them and is probably wondering if they—she even matters to him. You’re just watching a parent that you had a close bond to just leave you behind because they found someone else that captivated their interest. On top of the divorce that is currently going on would leave a child feeling doubtful.

I also just never understood why the writers want to keep having her being mad at her dad, even though they say that Stella has clearly been ruining the family, yet it’s his fault? Half the time the writing seesaws on Stella and Via’s dynamic because the only time she does care is when Stolas is there and…I get that could be counted as gaslighting, but the character lacks subtlety that it’s hard to tell when she’s always yelling. More often she doesn’t even care for her with two episodes implying this.

I just in general feel frustrated with this family because either avenue could be interesting if the writers took it seriously enough but they don’t and instead choose spur of the moment scenes that we have to use as jigsaw puzzle with some pieces not fitting because world building barely matters.

Sorry for the ramble. You’re version or fix it is probably one of my top favourites for the characters because I can definitely see the use of the loosely outlined jigsaw puzzle. Have a nice day/evening.

Thank you anon, im glad you like my rewrites

I agree 100% with via, they did the same thing with moxxie to her, that being repeating the same arc again of her being mad at her dad but forgive him in the end. It kind of shows that just like moxxie, they didnt know what to do with her which is a shame because the small details she has are there to be fully explored, but they never explore them. Like her and music, she oftens listens it even at the dinner table and with stellas reaction to the cheating affair, we can peice a puzzle of her doing it as a coping mechanism; escaping her problems through distraction. And with seeing stars main plot is around via running away to see a meteor shower, it would've been perfect to explore that side of her along with more knowledge of the family in general to piece this puzzle their giving (like the relationship with her mom, her uncle, the rest of their family, how they react to the situation, how their currently dealing with it, etc...) through flashbacks (since the whole point would've been that these issues wont go away no matter how much you try to ignore them) And yes, her closeness with her father drifting away is definitely tragic and its sucks that it wasnt futhered explored, especially with the entire goetta situation as a whole since were in season 2 and we dont even know how they reacted to it. It makes me wonder why even give us these pieces to solve properly if its so little that it makes it pretty impossible without theorizing from any vague info we have and thats not how problem solving works.

And yes, its odd that shes only mad at stolas but never to stella. I mean, i get she would be on her moms side because of him cheating but still with how stella is written, you'd think she'd hate her too. In this rewrite, stella would actually be subtle in her abuse to stolas in a way where you can still recognise it but also understand why other (like via) wouldnt. An example of this would be my first post where her and stolas confront each other about the divorce, the quote; '-or did you forget? Like you always do?'. Its meant to showcase her most common tactics, shaming. From her background (that i'll explain further in her own post), she oftens picks up things from her family, which shaming is included. She would shame stolas whenever he makes a mistake or does something she doesnt approve of (like if he wore a suit she didnt like, she would say; 'you know were meeting your family right? You think they want to see their son of royalty in that sort of wear?' or them arguing on how much time via should spend on her astronomy lessons; 'Shes going to be a future you and what, you wanna just, make her lazy, huh?!' (or even 'I didnt think you'd care that less for your own daughter....') See these are what you could recognise as shaming but also understand why people may not consider it so, potentially using excuses like 'oh shes probably right because its royalty/she just cares about looking good enough for her family' or 'oh she just cares for her daughter and her future' (ironically enough, those are kind of what fans AND the show itself use as an excuse for stolas lmao) but just because via doesnt recognise stella's abusive tendencies, doesnt mean she isnt upset with her. She very much is, mainly with stella's aggressiveness as stella developed anger issues throughout her life and didnt have anything to help it. Via hates it whenever stella yells because of course she would be, no one likes angry loud noises! Its just that unlike with stolas, shes not as open with her frustration to her mother because shes genuinely scared of her from that aggression that makes it much more harder to truly express her feelings about her, instead keeping it to herself along with her feelings towards how the rest of the family is reacting to it given that it just feels too much for her to be involved in. So the reason why shes only open on being mad at stolas is despite what he did, he's the only one she feels safe in being mad about (I mean, she does have andrealphus as someone safe to an extent though he's very dismissive of telling her whats going on with the goetias and definetly doesnt take being wrong well like stella so hes not much better) that way, it'd be more understandable and futher peice the puzzle of their family and their dynamic. Family itself is quite complicated because of the nuances it has behind it and i wanna incorporate that to the goetias were their not fully evil but tend to care about their statuses rather then whats right in front of them (that being them as a family) since i think its interesting to explore and wouldve suit stolas, stella and octavia really well.

No need to apologise for rambling, i like getting asks of peoples thoughts/ideas on helluva. Hell look, im rambling too. I hope you enjoy the future rewrites i have in store, have a nice day/evening too

[system-of-a-feather]

So I'm starting to get back onto being mindful about my eating, and when I mean mindful, I actually mean that and not "dieting"; ie being aware of what I am eating and making more intentional and active decisions on what I am choosing to eat and when.

I don't believe in dieting, I don't think it's sustainable and I don't think it does me much good mentally. I'm also pretty sure a lot of research shows dieting in the sense of "cant eat certain things" and "must stay under calorie amount no matter what" is not really effective or sustainable.

But I am calorie counting for a bit less to "meet a goal" but more so to actually make sure I am actively paying attention to what I'm eating and to make sure I actually look at what I'm eating and actually prompt myself to Make A Decision rather than just going through the motions

And honestly? Not to be Buddhist (but yes), I honestly kind of really enjoy it even if I'm almost like... slashing my food intake in half since I picked up a number of unhealthy eating habits when things were more chaotic in life since it wasn't important enough to bother with then

But I do actually think there is a lot of value in mindful eating in the sense that when you try to not over indulge, food ESPECIALLY fun and nice treats actually start to feel like TREATS again and its kind of the same thing why I very much enjoy letting go of desire and enjoy challenging myself to live without some luxuries and comforts because it really sets me up to be satisfied in almost all situations that could be handed to me, and then when good things happen, they actually feel REALLY good.

Something something, over stimulating and saturating our senses and needs makes it so that we loose the ability to notice and appreciate the good as the high saturation becomes the standard.

Anyways, thats a lot of words to say I'm enjoying this attempt to get back into more mindful eating habits and that one of the reason mindful eating > dieting is because in the former, you can fucking ENJOY that ice cream cone and cake or whatever because you not only 1) made the decision to enjoy it and 2) its an actual TREAT

[horrorknife]

what are your fave most out-there fringe headcanons? like it does not matter what narrative (saw, hs, etc) i just wanna know i love unique readings of things.

GAHHH i am suddenly forgetting every single headcanon i have ever had. Um. fuck my life......................

well actually ok i've had some pretty niche headcanons before, like for 10 years i've had a hc that sasuke uchiha has long hair that he wears in a bun. when i was into [redacted source seriously it's like way too humiliating to admit how much time of my life it took up] i had a hc that one of the characters had a big puffy orange cat and i treated him like a canonical fixture. heres a pic of the sasuke hc i drew in 2021

for saw i have a few like loose ones but these are not so much "i just feel like it" and i do have actual reason and backing for these ones. i love my "he WAS and IS at the club" strahm hc as well as my "strahmrez are both bikers and ride together" hc. i also hc that brad/ryan/dina's trap was done by lawrence because it makes a lot of thematic sense for it to have been him but thats like not a fringe headcanon or anything its pretty directly about the source material. Hey man i think i might be bad at answering questions. club girl strahm attached . oh yeah his tattoo is visible in this i forgot about that one, that counts right? i think he has a dragon tattoo and had a matching one with andie while she was alive

oh i mean theres my favorite hoffheight hc which is that hoffman is an ipa drinker he loves ipa but everyone around him hates it because ipa is disgrossting but adam is super down with it and actually digs it cuz he's so used to drinking whatever cheap piss booze he can get his hands on. this of course endears him to adam x1000. adam does not realize he's just signed the devil's contract

AND OF COURSE theres the gender exploration hc i put onto yosuke hanamura because i wanted to do a character study fic where i focused on his queerness and his relationship to it (if you ever see me talking about or getting asks about hana-chan au it's this lol) but it centers around him (tmasc) deep into testosterone pretending to be a girl so he can stand in as a dancer for one of his friends and it leads him down the road of Being Nonbinary

[wavetapper]

Hi reyn, one quastion! If you don't mind sharing, what's your VSRG recommendation? I've mainly played osu!mania and while I love its accessibility and its community-created charts, I want to try something more curated. I don't mind either way if there are leaderboards/internet connectivity (it might be nice to not have to connect actually), and key count doesn't really matter to me—I've played 4k and 7k in osu. Are there any games on PC you think I should try? Thanks!

HI SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWR i lost the original essaypost so here is a slightly quicker and less thought out one

tl;dr djmax respect v and ez2on reboot r are good paid options, though they're sadly both always-online for some reason. musynx is a decent third, which iirc doesn't require an internet connection and is a fair bit cheaper even with the full dlc pack, but the timing window situation is ridiculous (normal greats being way too loose, and pgreats being genuinely inhumanly tight) so i hesitate to give it a full recommendation. more people should get into bms so check out bemuse.ninja for an in-browser bms player (free), or get beatoraja for an objectively better experience (also free)

more ramblings under the cut if you want to know my thots on each game individually (FLASHING LIGHT WARNING FOR ALL VIDEOS. They're youtube so they shouldnt autoplay but still)

DJMAX RESPECT V is probably the easiest rhythm game to recommend to anyone. it's got a good balance of difficulty (timing window is fairly wide, but not overly generous) and the soundtrack is really good. there are 4k, 5k, 6k, and an "8k" mode which is still 6 lanes but with two extra buttons (kinda like the fx notes in sdvx if you have any experience with that game), which all also involve this side-track mechanic (two extra buttons only used for holds at certain points in the song)

it also has a ladder match and competitive seasons, if youre into that sort of thing. ladder matches make me grind my teeth to dust they get so close sometimes but thats a skill issue on my part, they are fun. plus you can do open matches with your friends for something more casual and party game :) yay

downsides are it has to be online for it to run, theres a lot of songs locked behind paid dlc (although the dlc does go on sale fairly often, as does the base game), and there's a weird difficulty spike between regular charts (normal, hard, maximum) and sc charts (sc)- sc charts use a different scale nowadays but i guess just keep in mind that an sc1 is equivalent to like.... mx11ish, nothing lower. also theres NO EARLY/LATE DISPLAY!!!! i have no idea why they didnt include one!!!!

moderate/hard difficulty for reference

and a high-level sc chart if you wanna see how this game charts something difficult

EZ2ON REBOOT : R broke into my house and put my wrists in a saw trap and they never fully recovered from them. i will admit the main thing i have to say about this one is its like djmax but harder in just about every way. It also has 4k, 5k, and 6k modes, but their 8k mode actually has 8 lanes which makes it a lot more challenging. The timing window is also much tighter (a KOOL is about twice as tight as a MAX100%) and i might be making this up but i feel like the health drain is also a bit tougher. theres also a basic mode which widens the timing window if you want, but scores are saved separately.

there is no scaling difference between hard and super hard, which is a point in its favour, and the scale goes from 1-20 rather than 1-15 which means it can get a lot more granular. the charts can also get stupid hard, with a lot of stuff even in the 18~19 range making the highest-tier djmax sc charts look tame. its also charted in a different way which you can only really tell if youve played both games but like idk it feels a lot more arcadey.

theres online multiplayer in this one, but afaik they don't have the same competitive season thing as djmax does. you can do open lobbies though.

downsides are always online (again), song list is a bit more hit or miss imo but thats a personal taste thing, and its a lot harder to get into than something like djmax because the difficulty can get a bit silly sometimes

hard/moderate 8k chart

upper level 4k chart. one of very few 4k charts to be rated 20

MUSYNX can be a little bonus interlude here. The charting is mid and the timing window is stupid, but it's priced fairly and the soundtrack is fucking insane if you like bms. So many good licenses in there.

(spongebob pointing .png) look they have upshift i love upshift

as for BMS, i answered an ask about it here and I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CHECK IT OUT...

tl;dr on bms, it's a community-led rhythm game with entirely original music created by and for the players. a lot of bms songs get licensed for other games (conflict is probably the most famous example), and they have yearly music contest events where a bunch of cool new music and videos and charts get released- its worth keeping up with those, even if you dont click with the game itself

you can try out some bms songs IN YOUR BROWSER RIGHT NOW on bemuse.ninja (although the player is a little janky imo), or check out the beatoraja english guide and set up beatoraja to play charts that way. beatoraja is what i use, and the player is super customisable with custom skins and stuff. i edited a little tbh creature as my lane cover :)

heres someone playing new york back raise which is a banger song with a banger music video and a banger lv11 chart which i cant clear yet

[ask-mortarion-the-death-lord]

Bretonnia in AoS concepts:

for fun mostly, but i do think that when warhammer the old world comes out we'll see a not unusual amount of flexible use between models allowed to be used in TOW and models in AoS. either way my guess would be bundling them into cities of sigmar or making a roaming knights kingdoms bretonnia proxy army like how soulblight gravelords are just blatantly the vampire counts.

THAT SAID!

AoS also provides plenty of opportunity for new weird wacky or interesting concepts to play with thanks to its far more fast and loose hyper magical setting. So, what could a 'bretonnia inspired' faction of humans look like to sell as an AoS exclusive and charge exorbitant prices for...

IDEA: AVALON GRAIL KINGDOMS

grail knights+++, everyone even the peasant eating dung gets a blessing in avalon! heavily diluted mind, but enough so that everyone born in avalon has higher then average physicality and slight magical resistance regardless of class. to be a true grail knight though ya gotta go on a grail quest which involves sallying forth from avalon [the renamed haven lileath came up with thats been taken over as a new home for the grail knights now its completed its original purpose] and right wrongs cure injustices and do heroic deeds in the mortal realms. unlike the world that was however, anyone in avalon can undertake these [though nobles have more success in the matter] regardless of status or even gender, though as such only a few succeed such grueling quests. in times of war grail knights rider forth supported by avalon knights, the nobles in their finest armour and animal, nature or grail inspired heraldry, and avalon soldiers, peasants who have trained in war acting as the footsloggers, their diluted blessings and avalons excessive amount of master blacksmiths meaning they stride out significantly better equipped and armed then the men-at-arms of old [even getting their own plate armour, think elden rings soldiers but with bretonnia aesthetics]. in particularly dire times peasant mobs will storm out to support their brave defenders or if riled up enough embark on grand crusades with them. well most avalon battles tend to be in defense of their realm, that is not to say they are a peaceful or idyllic lot. simply that because of their realms unstable nature and seemingly capricious whims of abducting people and even whole cities or armies, they need to fight off many more incursions then they do get to embark on their treasured crusades. as the avalons are a highly competitive and glory seeking lot however they will happily go on crusade whenever the option arises, their entrances full of grandeur, light and noise as their armies seemingly emerge from the air of a battlefield itself into the mortal realms already into a full charge in preparation for running down any foe foolish enough to remain still. even when traveling alone an avalonians emergence into the mortal realms are marked in great amounts of noise and light as if a trumpeter and a lightshow is always ready to herald their arrival. after arriving they will pursue crusade objectives with bloody minded focus and with great pomp and effort, going as far as building magnificent castles to act as staging grounds and command centers should a crusade be big and long enough to require it, yet once the crusade is over just as quickly dismantling the castle and returning its pieces home. for a crusade is only done when its objectives are complete. avalon itself is a wild place, full to the brim of magnificent natural beauty of a dizzying variety, yet what is in one spot today is as likely to be halfway around the realm or even gone completely the next [due to the realms ever-increasing instability]. this has led the peoples of avalon to be careful where they build finding those places unlikely to shift or change or building their habitations into natural landmarks themselves as means of grounding the realm in a more orderly logic, though the realms magical nature makes these efforts questionably useful at best. as well, well the people of avalon might all hold a natural resistance to foul magic they are not immune to it and the realms magical nature and its peoples own natural blessings as seen some of the most dangerous sorcerors and witches emerge from the realms of avalon. thus are the avalon people especially suspicious of 'unlicensed magic users', the only notable exceptions being the ladys prophets and the 'lake witches' who well fickle and self taught still owe their allegiances to the realm of avalon and grail itself. people outside of avalon find avalon people bewildering and hard to deal with, as even the lowliest peasant will take matters of honour and chivalry with great gravitas, yet at the same time be prone to wild bouts of superstition

[trans-xianxian]

3, 17, 26, 30!!

3. how you feel about your current WIP

positively I would say!! I love to write about wei wuxian as we can tell from the 28.6k words and counting, but I do often find myself wanting to Also write from jiang chengs pov whenever he's in a scene lmao so that's been a struggle. I've also become writers blocked w this fic even tho the end is so close and I have so many more fun scenes I want to write/have started writing... I think I took a break and then just sort of lost wei wuxians voice and need to rewatch at least a teeny bit before I get back to writing in earnest, but it's summer, which means summer camp, which means all I do is go to work, sleep, and work on those damn tarot cards 😭

17. talk about your writing and editing process

oh god it's truly the least efficient and personally helpful one possible. I don't make outlines. I'm trying to make a "graphic novel" right now and am Struggling to make a real actual helpful outline. my """outline""" for my current fic is a list of a series of events I Maybe want to happen in a loose order I'm not particularly attached to. I just start writing sentences I think are good in the notes app of my phone, and then once there are enough of them, I put them in order in a google doc and try to string them together coherently. I don't finish fics before I post the first chapter which is obvious by the nearly half a year gap between now (chapter three of my current fic still unfinished) and when I posted chapter two. I Do edit while I write which I know is the devil talking but I can't help it. when I'm writing a chapter, every time I come back to it no matter how short the break was (hours, days, weeks), I read through everything thats written so far and edit it, then once everything is Done I go back and edit it again, and then I do that another time, and then by then I'm so sick of it I don't want to look at it anymore so I post it

26. are you able to write with other people around?

I am and often do!! I go to local coffee shops a lot to write/do art because when I go to a location for a specific purpose it forces me to actually do the thing, but I have to have headphones in and music on or else I get distracted, but I can't listen to music with english lyrics when I write so I have a special playlist for it 😭😭😭

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

I already answered this one w a different fic hehe but you know what, everyone also go read no charming smile to violet eyes, my 28.6k words and counting love letter to wei wuxian