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isagamis · 2 years

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𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄

gojo satoru x reader ┊ chapter 4 ┊ wc: 3.9k

cw: angst, fluff, reader gets to know megumi a little more, one on one time with megumi, reader gets scared of feelings, stubborn reader, gojo being a cutie as always

author’s note: so sorry for the delay! been super busy with work & have had no motivation with this chapter bc for some reason is was hard for me to write. i had no idea where to take it but i think it turned out alright! please make sure to REBLOG along with liking. just liking does nothing for reach! this isnt instagram!

[ song for the chapter: 1 ]

hide and seek masterlist

I’m awoken by the gleaming rays of sun reflecting through my window. It takes a minute for my vision and hearing to adjust as I come out of my sleep. My arms stretch out in front of me, and I let out a strained groan at the pull of my muscles. My fists circle my eyes asI force myself to sit up. With a hunched back, I just sit, pulling my comforter around my body. My eyes threaten to keep closed with every second, and all I want to do is get back to sleep. I realize I’d never slept so hard, even harder than the night before. I don’t know what Gojo has in him, but it’s like he’s the fucking sandman. I wasn’t riddled with nightmares and didn’t once stir in my sleep. My brain alerts me, Gojo. I quickly look to where he was sleeping on the floor to find an empty pallet. I feel my gut fill with disappointment. I don’t know why I thought he’d stay the whole night. Silly me.

The jiggle of my door handle startles me and it opens with a struggle. “Sorry, did I wake you?” Gojo’s stupid fucking concerned smile radiates the room. I can’t help but to smile back at him. His lanky body walks with such grace as he carries two trays of food, he brought me breakfast?

“You didn’t have to…”

“Oh, please, I can’t have you missing meals,” He says handing me my tray.

“Oh, you don’t have to sit on the floor,” I unravel the blanket around me to motion to the end of my bed, “you can sit up here.”

He folds a leg under him as he sits, the mattress sinks in lightly at his weight. I scoot myself back to give him more room.

“I got you some omurice and miso soup,” He says pointing to each item with his chopsticks, “I got extra natto, too, if you wanted to try it.”

“Do you want some tea?“ I ask him as I get up to get some for myself.

“Tea sounds great.”

“It’s sweet tea, though.”

“Is all tea not sweet?”

“Gojo, it’s southern sweet tea, like iced,” I laugh as I pour a cup for each of us, “I made it the other day.”

“I would love to try your snazzy southern American drink,” he says in the most cliche American southern accent.

“Do that again and I will throw this drink in your face,” I chuckle, “We do not sound like that.”

“Okay, switch,” he offers a small bowl of natto to me as his other hand waits for the tea. We make a quick hand off and I settle back into my spot. I watch as he brings the drink to his lips and takes a satisfying swig. His face contorts as he swallows, “Christ, that is sweet.”

“If it doesn’t taste like a heart attack then it ain’t sweet enough,” I laugh as I sip my own.

“Try the natto!”

I use my chopsticks to stir the soybeans. Its mucus-like texture is quite different to me but definitely intrigues me. Its smell is also something I’ve never really experienced, it doesn’t bother me though. My chopsticks pick up a small cluster and I stuff them into my mouth. I chew slowly as I try to gather the taste onto every bud of my tongue.

“I like it, it’s different, but good,” I inform the boy in front of me.

“A lot of people don’t, the consistency scares ‘em away,” he replies, stuffing his own face.

“Where I’m from, there’s plenty of questionable foods, this is nothing.”

“Do you cook?”

“I used to, now that I’m here though, I don’t have the things I need to make the dishes from home,” my smile slowly fades as I think about it. I’d do anything for a homemade dish right about now.

“If I was able to get them, could you cook for us?”

My eyes dart to meet his, “Us as in me and you or us as in all of us.?”

“Whichever you want,” he looks at me over the top of his miso bowl that’s being drained into his mouth.

“Yeah, I’d love to, that’d be nice,” the smile I once had creeps back into my face and I can even feel a light blush flush my cheeks. His kindness always takes me by surprise. Gojo wasn’t a well spoken topic back home but he’s a well known sorcerer internationally. Word gets around eventually. All I’d heard about him was that he was kind of a player, snooty and narcissistic. But from what Gojo’s shown me of himself, he’s just a normal dude. He’s super down to earth and so caring. Makes me wonder how rumors like that even spread about him.

“Oh, by the way, do we have a library?” I ask as I finish my last bite.

“Yeah, I’ll show you where it is when I get back,” he says, picking up my tray along with his. As soon as he’s out of my room I take the opportunity to get dressed for the day. I throw on some loose jeans and a t-shirt and head to my bathroom to brush my teeth. As I exit my bathroom, Gojo is already back and cleaning up his pallet off the floor to take back to his room.

“Let me get dressed and I’ll be back,” he tells me with full arms. I leave my room after him and wait for him outside of his door. After about five or so minutes, he comes back out in a pair of sports joggers and a loose fitting t-shirt. My eyes subconsciously avert to his thighs. I hate it, but the thin fabric hugs them so perfectly and I can’t help but to look. He luckily doesn’t notice and I quickly look away once he sees my face.

“Okay, follow me~” he sings as he walks past me. He leads me out of our building and to one that’s behind the main schooling unit. “Here, we are,” He says, opening the door for me, “I have to run a few errands so I’ll be back this evening, If you need anything Shoko is always in her office.” I nod to him and catch the door from him.

“Oh and I realized I didn’t have your contact info, care to exchange?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” I reply as I reach into my back pocket for my phone. We switch devices and put each other’s numbers into them. He hands my phone back to me and leaves me with a goodbye. I glance down at my screen to see that he’s put himself in as ‘Satoru’ with a little wizard emoji next to it. It coerces a smile from me as I slip my phone back into my pocket and enter the library.

It’s empty and as bad as I feel about it, I’m grateful to finally have time to myself. It’s a rather small library, only about ten to fifteen shelves of books. A few tables are placed here and there and the lighting is fairly dim. I notice that candles line the walls in their little sconces. With a snap of my fingers I activate my technique and each wick is lit with a small flame. The room becomes vibrant from the flickering lights. I smirk to myself in pride, such a simple motion but yet so satisfying to perform.

“Hello?” a voice speaks from beyond one of the looming shelves.

Startled, my head snaps in the direction of the voice, “Uh…hello?”

“Y/N sensei?” wild strands of black hair make themselves known from behind the shelf.

“Oh, Megumi, I didn’t hear you, I’m sorry to disturb you.”

“How did you do that?” He questions, pointing to the candles.

“I—what?”

“That!” his arm sharply extends to his previous focal point, “How did you do that!”

I smirk, “You mean this?” I lift my hand, and my pointer finger extends. A flame appears just above it, as if my own finger was one of the waxy sticks that clung to the wall.

“Is that your technique?” I am taken aback by the nonchalant tone in his voice.

“Well, I’m sorry it’s no shadow technique,” A playful scoff slips from me.

“No, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” he spills apologies, “I’m just interested in what you can do.”

“Ever seen Avatar the Last Airbender?”

“That’s an American show right? I think I’ve seen it.”

“Yeah,” I confirm, “My technique is based off of the fire benders, I have no creativity so I took inspiration from things like that.”

“Why haven’t you used it around us? I think everyone else would find it pretty cool,” he leans slightly to the right to rest a shoulder against one of the bookshelves, his foot crosses over the other.

“Cons of using fire,” my palms rub together, “Dry spells tend to be a nuisance.” He just nods in understanding as his eyes divert back to the candles.

“Megumi,” his attention from the candles lands back on me, “Y’know, I’m pretty sure this is the longest we’ve spoken, and I’ve been here almost a month.”

His lips purse, and I can sense nervous irritation swirling around in that mess of a head of his.

“Quiet kid, huh?” I laugh as he groans, embarrassed I’m sure.

“I guess.”

My feet begin to explore the room, “What were you doing in here anyway?”

“I just like to get away for a bit sometimes,” He leaves his spot from the shelf and disappears back into the rows of books.

“I get it,” I answer, “If I could, I think I’d spend every day alone.”

“I’m just used to it,” I hear Megumi’s voice echo from the back of the room.

“How come?” I start to search the shelves myself for anything that may catch my interest.

He doesn’t reply right away, instead all I can hear is the sleek pulling of books.

“My mom died when I was very young,” he finally says, and I sense emptiness in his voice, “My dad abandoned me soon after. It was just me and my sister then.”

“That’s when Gojo found you, right?” I ask as my fingers scan over the old spines.

“Yeah,” I hear a strained sigh leave him.

“That must have been hard for you, things are better now though, right?”

“No, yeah don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for Gojo and everything he’s done for me, I just–”

“Wish you got the parents you deserved?” I finished for him.

“Yeah…” I can see him now through the shelf and his head hangs low at his admission.

“I’m the same way,” I sympathize, “My family wasn’t all that great either.”

He looks at me over the books, a gleam of comfort in his dark eyes.

“But I love the family I have here, now and I’d do anything for you guys,” a soft smile spreads on my face. He’s trying to hide it, but I can see the curl of his lips all too clearly.

“What is it with teachers and being able to get their students to speak so freely?” He chuckles.

I laugh in reply, “It’s just in our genes, it works on Gojo, too.”

“You got Gojo to talk? About himself? Oh, how shocking!” The black haired boy says sarcastically.

“Oh, hush, it’s different,” I wave his tone away.

As if on cue, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out to see Gojo’s sent me a message. “Speak of the devil,” I say aloud.

Satoru: *one attachment*

I unlock my phone to see he’s sent a picture of a little white cat nuzzling against his leg on the street.

Satoru: you think they’d let us keep her?

Me: absolutely not

“What is it?” Megumi asks, looking over the books as if he could even see my phone that way.

“Gojo’s found a cat and is asking if he could bring it back,” I say, turning my phone and showing him the picture.

“Principal Yaga’s already yelled at him I don’t know how many times for trying to bring cats here,” His eyes roll in annoyance at his elder.

I laugh in response as I picture this six foot two man coming up to the school with an arm full of stray cats.

“He’s so stupid, I swear,” Megumi’s voice moves from behind the shelf as he walks around to me. I spot a couple of books in his arms and raise and eyebrow at him in confusion.

“These are books about jujutsu history in Japan, I figured you’d want to know more about it,” He explains. He dumps the books into my arms and my body dips at the weight of them.

“Thanks, now I have homework,” I huff as I readjust them in my arms.

“I would get started now,” He suggests.

“Well fine, if you wanted me gone that bad,” I reply playfully, walking past him and to the door. He waves me off and I head back to my room with my new assignment in hand.

My fingers flip through one of the books. The pages are full of images of past curse users and cursed tools that are still in use today. My lips sip from the straw in my cup as I concentrate. I don’t know how long I’ve been laying here outside my window, but I’m almost to the middle of the first book, and my eyes are starting to feel dry. The urge to stretch overcomes me, and my muscles extend out like a house cat that’s been sleeping all day. I put the book down to my side and tap my phone that’s sitting next to it. I’d been so encapsulated in reading, I hadn’t even noticed that I missed lunch. My arms stretch out before me once again, this time a strained groan is forced through my lips. I sigh and lean back against the wall, feeling too comfortable to make myself get up just yet.

I look to my left to see that messy black head of hair from earlier trudging along the path in the garden. “Megumi!” I call out to him. His head snaps in my direction and he stops walking.

“Oh, there you are, I’ve been looking for you,” he yells from where he stands, “I was just about to get lunch, wanna join?”

“Please, I’m starving!” I quickly get up from my spot and jog over to him, books still in hand.

“How far did you get?” He asks as he notices the books.

“Not far at all, it’s really caught my interest though.”

“Yeah, I’ve found a lot on the Zenins in some of them, it’s taught me a couple of things if I’m being honest.”

“Oh? But you have yet to train with me?” I tease.

“After the way you took Gojo? No thank you, I’m good.”

I laugh at his response as we walk in unison to get our lunch.

“Okay, what you were saying earlier about not having a good family life,” he says, stuffing a spoonful of rice into his mouth, “I’d like to know more.”

I let out a sigh, “Of course you do.” I look away from him as I chew my food.

“Only if you’re comfortable,” he adds.

“I told myself I’d be more open,” I admit.

“So…”

“But!” My voice pitches up as I prepare my compromise, “You have to tell me what’s going on between you and Yuuji.”

His head falls back with an annoyed groan, like I’d caught him in one big secret.

“Please, it’s so obvious you like him,” I push.

“Fine, Fine! You’re right, I do, but you gotta promise not to say anything, not even to Gojo,” he bargains with a pinky extended towards me. I take it with my own knowing damn well I would be relaying this whole conversation to the white haired idiot later on.

“Megumi, you’re not as mysterious as you think you are,” I smirk at him as I take a sip of tea. He only responds with an eye roll.

“Okay, your turn,” he nods to me.

I lean back onto the wall behind me to relax myself before I open up. “As you might be aware, sorcery isn’t very common overseas. Due to that, I was treated as an outcast early on in life. Especially in the states, they just take that stuff as a psychological issue, and my parents let them do just that. They hospitalized me so young. I think I was around twelve or thirteen when someone from the government came for me. They took me out and brought me to that secluded box of a school. I’d been there ever since. I don’t even remember what my parents looked like. To my knowledge, I no longer exist legally,” I look up to see him with his arms crossed over his chest. He’s concentrated, like he’s taking in every word.

“Wow, uh, that’s a lot,” he shifts in his spot on the floor, “I thought my sob story was bad.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve got you beat there, bud,” I laugh, “it’s whatever though, I guess.”

“No, it’s not whatever,” Megumi protests, “It’s fucked up, and you’re allowed to be angry about it.”

My body tenses at his words. A spoonful of food half way into my mouth as it finally clicks in my brain. I realized, in the past fifteen or so years, I had been so busy distracting myself that I never allowed myself to be angry at my situation. I had never been given the time. I was always either training or exercising curses. They had never allowed me time to actually think.

“Well,” I falter, “I did not expect a fifteen year old to offer me such therapeutic advice.”

“I’m sure Gojo would say the same,” he vouches.

“Yeah, he probably would,” I pick around at my food as Megumi’s words settle into my thoughts.

“By the way, what do you think of him?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I look at him confused.

“I think you know what I mean,” he looks at me with lifted eyebrows as he sips from his tea.

“All of you are so nosy!” My voice disguises itself in fake annoyance, “It’s like y'all want us to be a thing or something.”

“I don’t mean to push that on you!” He clarifies, “I just…he’s different around you.”

“Different how?”

“He’s giddier, reminds me of how he was when I was younger,” I notice a small smile carve into his face, “It’s just nice to see him be so energetic again.”

“I think it’s just because we have a lot in common, maybe he’s just comfortable around me,” I dismiss, “We’re just close friends, I guess, nothing more.”

I feel my heart begin to ache at my words, and my mood changes instantly. Megumi notices my discomfort and tries to speak, but my actions are faster.

“Sorry Megumi, I’m gonna go, I’m not that hungry anymore,” I get to my feet quickly and am out the door before he can say anything.

I feel terrible. One, for leaving him so rudely. Two, for being so dramatic. And three, for making myself feel like this. It’s just too soon. The wounds of last year are still so fresh, and I’m scared to heal them. I appreciate that these kids think that we’d be good for each other, but it will never be in the cards for me. Gojo would never look at me that way. Whatever the students are seeing in him now is just hopeful imaginations. From what I’ve been told, he’s always been this way. I am not special.

I clutch my chest in hopes to relieve the ache. My feet stumble over one another as I try to get back to my dorm as quick as I can. I feel so stupid for even getting upset over something like this. A dumb hypothetical situation! My mind races with solutions to resolve these fantasies. I close myself into my room to hide away from the world, as per usual when I find myself too overwhelmed with feelings.

My feet pace the floor as I think. My mind finds every possible outcome and plays them on film. Scenarios of Gojo and I, what we would look like as a couple, how dates would go, even marriage shoves itself in there just to rub it in my face. But then I see him, I see it. Gojo’s body being pulled apart just like hers had been. My brain forces me to imagine every rib being ripped from his sternum, every organ being torn from him. I hear his blood curdling scream of agony. I shut down, unable to bear anymore. I stop pacing and make up my mind.

I won’t allow myself to get used to him. Because eventually, one of us will be thrown out like last week’s trash, and for as selfish as this may sound, I pray to a god that it’s him.

Night falls before I know it, and I notice that Gojo still hasn’t returned. I assume maybe it’s because he just got caught up in whatever business he had been doing all day. Either way it didn’t matter to me. I had been in my room since running out on Megumi so abruptly, he came by just before six to inform me that dinner was ready. I told him I wasn’t hungry without even opening the door. I’d rather just sit here in my own self pity and wallow in it. I just kept thinking about how easily Gojo had me tear down my walls, and how much that actually annoys me. I do appreciate him as a friend, but we would never be more, there was no need for him to know me any deeper. It’s best I just distance myself and continue my work as a teacher, if I have to transfer again, I’ll do it.

I can feel the small child in me screaming that I’m wrong. But what do they know? This is to protect myself. Shield me from the hurt that is the world of sorcery. You can’t just move on from watching the person you love be slaughtered in front of you. My days are numbered as a sorcerer, involving myself with anyone at this point would be futile.

I feel a hot tear slide down my cheek. I try to wipe it away, but more angrily appear. I sob quietly, my head between my knees as my shoulders shake. It’s a short cry. Just one of those where you’re feeling too many things at once and something has to be let out somehow and this is the way it chooses to release itself. I suddenly think about how tomorrow is monday, and that although I’m struggling, I have to keep working. That I have to pretend that my own loneliness isn’t killing me slowly. Despite that, I accept it. I accept that I have to wake up at six in the morning and brush my teeth and do all the things normal people do until I’m not. Until I’m teaching children how to defend themselves against monsters, teaching them how to kill.

“Jesus Christ,” I sigh exasperatedly, my body flops to lay down properly in my bed, “I wish I was a worm.”

Although I haven’t changed into pajamas or even gotten under my covers, my eyes close and my breathing slows. My body shuts down, and everything goes quiet.

#gojo satoru angst #gojo satoru fluff #gojo satoru scenario #gojo satoru smut #gojo x reader #jjk scenario #gojo satoru x reader #gojo scenario #gojo smut #jjk smut #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen smut #jjk fluff #jujutsu kaisen fluff

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ratgingi · 1 year

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some little doodles and rambles pages :-] bonus Longer Ramble under cut, goes into some general oc stuff as well as kinda how things work in my oc group set up

on the topic of michy, her name is accidentally a nod sorta to her relationship with mingus. since her last name is knight . you can make the connections there but it was Not intentional on my part i just happened to name her that (just like i. named her michelle before finding out that was mingus' original name HJSHBAVJDSAB) and my qpp cress pointed out the potential for it

speaking of names, i got inspired to pick jacksons name based on a tiktok i saw while creating him, with a character named 'chase wood'. i thought it was Really Funny but didnt want to directly rip either of those names so got to work thinking of something. i took the name jackson from the song that sort of inspired his personality (called "jackson, you are dying" by picture us tiny) and grabbed the last name coxx after seeing a randomly generated npc in a video i was watching to complete the joke

also charlie got his last name the same way jackson did in the sense of a random npc in a game video i was watching had it and i thought it was good enough. while i was trying to figure out what kind of name to give him (hed already had the name charlie for a good while, since he was a generic objecthead oc i had but decided should Become a dt one) a character named 'warden steiner' was mentioned like. once. and i thought that sounded close to frankenstein and was like. yeah thatll be cool

also kara has a second major nondateable technically. she may or may not get scrapped bc shes genuinely horrible (i hate. writing her. i made her design pretty nice but i just actually hate her BHJSJHABJD), but shes a rival from karas pageanting days who would lead to two different bad ends if she became real, one of which is. a death end for kara. i dont wanna go into full detail bc again its likely to get scrapped just bc i literally hate the rival but tldr kara gets shot(? or smth idk she eats absolute shit either way) during a performance because the rival convinced the player that the only way to help kara realize performing isnt for her was to sabotage it and it goes Wrong. the other bad end is just kara trying to warn the player that the rival isnt good to hang around and eventually cuts off from the player which would lead to the shit yourself and die end bc player probably gets thrown under the bus by the rival during smth. most likely in a literal sense

i wanna talk about mechanics some now uhhhhhhhh ok so on the topic of 'major nondateables'

i have probably explained how it works before but in order for a character to qualify as a 'major nondateable' they have to 1. heavily effect the route [to the point of interactions with them being able to change its course] and/or 2. heavily influence the route's dateable's thoughts/actions/general motivations during it, sometimes both. they also CANNOT be another dateable in a different route. if i were to apply this to in-game characters for example, mr dickens would be a major nondateable from olivers route, and mayor mingus would be a major nondateable from norms. the majors dont have to have an active presence near the dateable during the route, they just have to apply to the above guidelines. these are the reasons why characters like exie, adelaide, stephan, stop, etc are not considered major nonedateables, because while they are close with the dateables from the routes they have a presence in, they do not change the route or motivate the dateable toward anything. charlie actively changes the route and clearly has a big sway over lillith, oakey would be mentioned several times by kara as a reasoning for why she says or does certain things during her route, and juniper - despite not being close to margo - has the ability to effect the outcome of the route.

and not every route Has to have one obviously . and there are some that would Technically be major nondateables for each other (ex. murr and roe, isaac and vinnie) but Because the other half of the pair is also dateable in a separate route, they do not qualify

also smth i dont think ive talked abt much is the fact that yes outis genuinely does call the ocean his wife. i mentioned he does that a few times when i first made him but there would be several points in his route where he does this (its mostly joking but there would be points where hed be talking abt it and say smth like 'i love my wife a lot but she scares me very much'). also originally i was going to give him a shark tooth on his necklace, based on the one i have irl, but the story for my irl one is a guy punched it out of a sharks mouth and i think if outis found out about that hed start crying and would not want anything to do with it. so shell necklace it was

also the two instances the petstore would show up in are once in outis' route and once at the end of murrs. for outis, you would be accompanying him to his shift that day, and brainstorming ideas for what you can do to try and figure out how to help him overcome his anxiety. kiki would approach you once you arrive and would spend a moment interrogating the player on who they were and what their intentions with her friend were, and would occasionally chime in with her opinion while you talk to him. in murrs route, youre taking him there to introduce him to the idea of maybe getting a pet he can dote on. after he doesnt really connect with any of the animals there would be a little interaction with twerpy where he gives the two of you directions to the shelter that their sister works at and he decides hell go sometime alone. (he ends up getting a cat, her name is darling and hed kill for her. you dont get to meet her bc murr and roe still dont show up in ch3/4 but she Exists)

murrey is a firm believer in the concept of true love and believes hes found it multiple times in the past, and absolutely Despises the thought that some people have of only being able to really find it Once. during his route thats what hes chasing (there would be a point where he complains hes gone so long without feeling true love that he intends to find it again, and the player has the option to tell him you can only find it once - which would start you down one of his bad ends), and the thought that its something you can only obtain once and never again makes him incredibly miserable.

murr is also entirely aware that there are different kinds of true love, but hes been stewing in his loneliness for so long that the romantic kind is the only one his brain will allow him to focus on. this is why his good end sort of helps remind him of that along side dealing with his loneliness in healthier ways

also adelaide has a side job at the shelter as well. when you meet her with margo and juniper in chapter 4 shed mention something about murr adopting darling and inform you that hes a lot happier now that he has the cats company. also margo and juniper are doing better after your help as well bc margo is getting a bit better at communicating and juniper is trying to be less. [gestures vaguely] . shes still an ass bc thats just her but yknow what i mean

also im thinking about making michy my only dateable that shows up in chapter 3. everyone else's interactions that would be in ch3 have been moved to 'chapter 4' but she was my first gal i think she deserves her spot there. youd meet her with norm while heading down to the subway and shed run up to you two after recognizing his voice (shed talk about being on her way to a date with her partners, i Wanna make them show up in person but as they both belong to friends of mine im not confirming anything really bfhdjbfdjs) and talk about how after your help to get out of her parasocial issue shes found true love and is focusing more on her friendships and her happiness. :-]

also funfact i have partial scene scripts for stephan and stops routes somewhere on my laptop. they were both going to be dateables at one point and i wrote a little about what mightve happened + pieces of a scene from each but idk if ill be able to find them nor will i ever show them if i do probably but they are there. somewhere

also !! alex is intersex . i dont think ive ever stated that anywhere bc it isnt really relevant to the story or anything but its pride month so might as well share. good for them

also i am gonna confirm at least ONE of the library dateables is actually a vampire. probably. yall dont get to know who though (my qpp knows but cress keep that info to urself /vlh)

i had more i wanted to say but forgot to write down somewhere so. take this

#dialtown oc #jack dlc #dlc wiki #hobos creations #enjoy big dump of things idk if ive talked abt any of this before but

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the7thcrow · 2 years

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ok coming into ur ask box this time so we dont have to be confined to the comment limit LOL and dont apologise for rambling i Wanted to pick your brain abt this!! sdhfgjksdfk i see… misbelief about the world driving the plot forward rather than their own motivation, that actually Is a very common plot device in y/n fic now that i think abt it. whenever i try to make my mcs Intentionally vague, it's usually their appearance, or anything regarding their gender. like now that i think abt it i dont think ive ever even tried writing an mc that is vague as a character itself? bc to me, a vague character, a "blank slate", is still a character, just one that lacks any life to it. like, among the writers i like interacting with on here and typically enjoy reading most, the general consensus seems to be that most dont actually read y/n as themselves and see them as more of a vague oc anyway, even as a reader, as they don't actually have any interest in inserting Themselves into a story in the very self-inserty, projecting way y/n fic is known for, and thats why they prefer a really fleshed-out mc.

personally, as a reader i seem to be the niche in between where i Do like projecting myself into the story as a character, but i Don't like blank slate mcs - because theres nothing to project On. i project onto self-insert characters the same way i project onto fully-fleshed characters in regular media, or hell, the same way i sometimes project onto an idol's image themselves. a reader insert being in second person just kinda helps enable the projection, and of course im gonna feel More seen by projecting onto characters that are More similar to me whether that be in gender/pronouns/appearance/personality/etc, but like... i dont go into it expecting to see the Entirety of Myself, written by someone else. i go into expecting to see someone else, in their wholeness as a character, and have them written compellingly enough that i can slot myself over them because even if i wouldnt do things the same way they would, i can still understand them and get in their head enough to "be" them for a while, in a way? like, even if i dont Personally relate to them, if theyre written well enough i can relate to how theyre feeling. kind of. i dont know if this makes any sense. i guess i just like feeling like a part of the story as a reader rather than Watching a story happen, kind of like playing a story-based video game with a preset ending - i get to play out the story as if im a part of it, and im gonna enjoy it even more if the character im playing as is similar to me, but even if theyre not, it still feels like im them for the duration of that story. and playing as a character that has no lines or backstory just isnt Nearly as compelling as playing as a character with a motive. yk? like with video games a blank protag is more forgiving bc you can create your own, but thats what fic is for. thats intentional. but you dont write fic of fic to fill in the blanks like that, so those blanks needa be filled already, imo.

as a writer i like the focus to be on the relationship dynamic the reader has with any of the given love interests, and i don't know how to create a relationship dynamic between two characters when only one character has a defined personality. bc the first question i ask myself is "what are these two characters like together? how do they play off each other/whats their interactions like?" so at this point im like ok x is a snark and y is a sunshine so x teases a lot and y just eats that shit up and gives contrastingly wholesome responses. or something like that. just for a vague idea of what they look like interacting. n then when i start working on the actual Plot, the question is "what made them fall in love with each other?" and This is what i base the entirety of the plot around. i pinpoint the specific traits that theyd like in one another, then i craft the perfect situations for them to experience those traits and fall in love with them. to do that, i need traits for the love interest to fall in love with, and i need a criteria for what the mc will be looking for in the love interest, and such a criteria comes from personality. theyre such closely intertwined concepts to me that i cant separate one from the other, hence why my mc's are all closer to faceless, nameless oc's than a blank slate. the only thing making me hesitate from following melty's lead and straying directly into named oc 2nd person fiction is the fact that i as a reader do like inserting my own name as y/n lmfao on my pc i even have a browser extension that does it for me. but i can use that same extension to change an oc's name in someone elses story so its not a big deal to me as a reader, but i just wonder if there are readers similar to me but that would be thrown off by having a different name instead.

this is really long and rambly unprompted so i apologise SKDFJGSKDFK but ive been itching to get my thoughts out on the matter with all this talk abt how we approach writing mcs. i didn't realise how many longfic writers put so much effort into writing a character so intentionally vague for the purpose of making someone that "could be anybody." but then again, considering im personally alienated from 95% of the fic i read just as a non-woman polyamorous person (among so many other factors), i guess other readers are a lot more used to actually being able to see a perfect carbon copy of themselves in self inserts without having to squint too hard at the lines. huh. wonder what thats like. SKDFGJSDFKGKDF

adding the break as to not horribly flood the dash

i really like what you said about feeling like a part of the story rather than watching it. i’ve been extremely negative all night about this, but at the end of day, i obviously enjoy 2nd person pov. i would hope so, after the shit-ton i’ve read and written, and continue to read and write about it. there is something nice about stepping into the story and experiencing something in such a different way. i enjoy it as a reader, it’s a different kind of experience. it’s really neat.

to be clear, i don’t think i write a total blank-slate. like, to give myself a bit of credit i think all my mc’s have a personality for sure. relationship dynamics with people surrounding them, definitely. they’re usually headstrong and maybe a bit cocky, bc that’s what i like to read and frankly, am generally like LMAO. i by no means take out lines or subject matter bc it could be too much unlike someone reading it. but idk, i feel less inclined to spend as much time as i should creating a completely fleshed out character when i don’t even have an image for them in my head, and majority of readers are going to imagine that it’s themselves anyway (which frankly, as they should, it’s literally called reader-insert). it’s definitely not an everyone problem. like from what you said it definitely seems like reader-insert has helped you develop characters and dive into them, but i just don’t think it works the same way for me.

i’ve been thinking a lot about character building lately. fanfiction itself is one of the most helpful tools and greatest liabilities for character building. on the one-hand, you learn to bring an idea to life. you learn how to really embody a character or person, especially in rpf where you sorta can do whatever you want with no canon, but everyone has a sort of idea or interpretation anyway. but it also relies on the fact that your audience already loves the characters you are using, instead of you having to start from scratch to make them love them.

maybe that’s why my original oc’s feel flat in my personal writings. when people read “y/n” obviously they already care about them bc well, to a lot of people it is them. which is the literal point of reader insert, so i think it would be extremely stupid to discourage that. but for me it feels a bit limiting.

speaking of which, there’s this idea of “y/n” and god… GOD do i hate it.😭not reading wise, bc i understand the appeal and literally throw my name in there and have since i was a pre-teen, but writing wise. i stopped using y/n in my fics as a name holder bc i didn’t like it in there anymore and i couldn’t place why for a while, but i think it’s bc when people call my mc “y/n” it’s just like… in the end that’s all she is. i can put as much planning and shit into this character but she’s not really a character, she feels like a placeholder. at least when we refer to her as mc it’s like, she’s her own thing. she is the main character™️ but when people are like, i love your “y/n”! it’s like she’s compared on this scale of reader-inserts compared to an actual breathing complicated protagonist. it’s hard to explain and i think i’m doing a horrible job, but that’s how i feel about it.

you’re also someone who like, does not do this whatsoever, and comments and discusses the mc as an actual character which i really appreciate. bc you do also write, and i think you share perspective on that even if also inserting yourself into the story. i sorta do both too. you get it. i think this is in a lot of ways a me issue more than a collective issue, which is why it probably sounds a bit messy and maybe just incorrect lmao. but idk, the bottom line of what i’m feeling is if i really want to work on protagonist building and that’s my number one priority that i need to improve upon, why would i do it a genre where a lot of readers (and thus those giving the feedback that i try and use to improve upon) are going to often judge the mc solely on the level of relatability, imagine that it is them and thus view it as such rather than an actual character, i can’t (and shouldn’t) flesh out mannerisms / appearance, and overall just causes an extra level of struggle compared to a third person character that i can fully embody with none of these limits.

especially if i’m starting to realize how much i really like writing in third, it just seems like that is what’s probably the right path for me as a writer. i’m still going to write natgig because i love it and it allows me to do a mixture of all these things, i’m still going to write reader-insert. but if i’m working on individual character building and embodiment revolving around the protagonist, i think a necessary step for me is to redirect a lot of my energy into writing some third-person non reader-insert pov.

#i hope this makes some coherent sense #it’s 5am so it very well may not😭#asks #mutual pals🕺🏼#sorikkung

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cassie-moore · 2 months

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Silent prayer..gerald, pleasd hear me. Its my birthday I dont know if you went bk again and dont envision u continuing to reward her behavior with time with you, trips or experiences after she unfollowed and unliked everything, after her behavior in vegas, after her behavior every day… its thoughts that creep in that i dont understand

Its been a journey to say the least to give true and pure patience, because thats what true love is they say according to Corinthians (i honestly dont know the bible bit thats what they say)…its not because im “always around”..im trying to do it different w you bc its the dependable love that i think you deserve to feel, and truthfully with the craziness of work, a love that i feel like you prob need to feel your own kind of “safe”…in the male sense. I havent been rewarded with any amt of your time and im terrified that all the cool experiences or beautiful places are going to mask over the things that matter in the foundation i guess

….

Thats the prayer. The thought to self is

Im terrified sarah called it long ago that he’ll choose that..something that ultimately i walked asay from bc i was tired of hearing it. Im terrified that i will lose him to an “annoying sounding girl w pear fingers thats not good enough for him.” And it was like a week and a half ago that he would have agreed when they were on outs i think. Thought comes to mind that just because she smokes and chills doesnt make her cool and clean like his mom. She’d never compare to his mom. His mom was respected and regarded that way bc she was profound with her words, educated, motivated with her creative and most importantly so kind to all, that everyone gravitated to her. Everyone who met his mom loved her. I learned that about his mom in just the one simple instance. People who meet this girl say shes “not all that” I opened this app and saw the post from his choosing quality. (Well first on feed was a penned happy birthday gerald did to diddy article) I wish i could hear him say my name. I dont even know what my name sounds like coming out of him. I listen to his music to calm me but he just names other girls which makes me skip forward if its a low day. But the post just now feed is from his which is higher quality taping. He knows superior quality, which is why he keeps having whatever issues w this girl. The quality lies deep within and engrained into character of someone. It wont change if it already reared its head in the first year of a relationship. I know hes gotta know that. I know he recognizes quality as well in the areas of love and equal partnership

I was prepared to lose him if i had to. But to watch him reward a girl yet again that showed game playing and vanity and manipulation from the getgo like her intentionally doing things she did in first weeks jist shook the quality from getgo. Its who she is. She is nothing like his mom was. And every hour he spends in a tropical beautiful place w her isnt going to change the foundation.

Who doesnt fall in love when they go to amazing places like paris and st tropez and their family homes and hawaii. The love that matters is the love thats felt without games without precedence. And all the cool shit and bonding over chill and travel is the icing on the cake that makes it feel untouchable

Deliriously happy doesnt happen or sustain on the wrong foundation

I sigh. Its not the entry i wanted to write on my birthday. I just want to be awe-inspiring from our deliriously happy love because of its..

Quality.

His stripe designer shirt munching on rose lollipops is in the back of my head

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lightningfury13 · 1 year

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i promise this isnt meant as like an accusation or anything (just warning bc shits been so tense) how can you focus on the transphobia in harry potter and not the antisemitism? i would say the new game is far more neonazi propaganda than it is transphobic. id look into what jewish people are saying about it if you havent and let your husband know, too. i dont think you guys are nazis or evil or anything its just good to know what antisemitism looks like since bigots try so hard to make it acceptable

Sorry. I've never gotten an ask before I only just noticed this. Uh. I guess because I have a lot of trans friends the transphobia of JKR was highlighted for me. In the game itself however there are transcharacters and character creation was ambiguous. Which was unexpected but nice.

Watching him play and hearing the antigoblin(antisemitism) was jarring however. I had forgotten the canon perception of goblins as irredeemably evil one note creatures I guess. I've been in the HP fandom community with fanfics and headcanons where goblins are usually given respect and agency and history with fully fleshed out rounded characters and backstories and all of that. So in my HP headcanon goblins are people. Period. Over hearing the racist slant from characters in the game was shocking to me admittedly.

From a writing perspective I get it I guess. Someone has to be the bad guy in the video game and in most fantasy settings goblins are an easy villain to cast. But not in HP where fans have decided HP goblins were modeled after antisemitic stereotypes.

Which I hate btw. Like say you're a writer and you want to write a bad guy. The Bad guy is motivated by money for complex reasons that might not get revealed in the story but you the writer know why. Maybe he grew up poor. Maybe he wants to retire early. Maybe he desperately carves the security having enough money provides. Maybe he's trying to provide for some secret cause he doesn't want anyone to know about. Maybe he's fueling a secret addiction to expensive spa treatment. Whatever. Doesn't matter. While writing what he looked like you used a randomize and got swarthy skin and a big nose. In your, the writer's, head you were thinking hmm pirate? Later you publish your story and are shocked when people start calling you a Nazi because your villain is motivated by money, has swarthy skin and a big nose. Three things you hadn't connected at all. Religion hadn't occurred to you when it came to this character and this is a fantasy setting so hereditary Judaism wouldn't come in to it. Suddenly you've been labeled a Nazi. You might even BE Jewish. How bizarre.

Do you think Jewish actors get denied villainous parts because the casting directors don't want to be accused of antisemitic? And that's not fair to the Jewish actors and so by definition is antisemitic. It's insane.

As for what actual Jewish people said about the game people are divided.

One quote is such: the U.K.’s Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a statement that “the portrayal of the goblins in the Harry Potter series is of a piece with their portrayal in Western literature as a whole” and “is a testament more to centuries of Christendom’s antisemitism than it is to malice by contemporary artists. So it is with JK Rowling, who has proven herself over recent years to be a tireless defender of the Jewish community.”

This comes from this article from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

I recommend the full article for a more complete viewpoint from a Jewish news source.

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on-a-lucky-tide · 3 years

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(You dont have to answer, I know this is the kind of rant that can bring harassment and leaving it on anon is suspect, so im sorry for that. I just wanted you to know there's at least one other person that agrees with your views and is glad the fandom isnt a monolith. Im just extremelly shy)

Finally watched season 2 and I've decided I'll keep shipping the good Gerlion-influenced Geraskier that lives in my head and disregarding Burn Butcher Burn and most of the canon dynamic and characters entirely.

Im glad I follow you! it's good to see other people agreeing that the song is... evil of Jaskier and tone-deaf of the writers (they do not seem to grasp that witchers are marginalized and what this means for them). It's also motivated me to read more of the books, since Ive only managed to get my hands on the first one but what you've posted about them has me intrigued!

Im also like. Realizing this is the Teen Wolf Experience again: There's very little analysis that can be done in-universe, bc low quality writing and weak characterization are at the heart of most of the issues the characters face and not like, Jaskier being evil on purpose/by accident as a character. It feels unfair to put the song and its consequences on him when there's not going to be consequences bc the writers have not realized it's anything but "and he's mad at Geralt so he wrote a song about it"?? If they'd been going for that it would have taken one line from Lambert to show that's why he's hostile to Jaskier! It'd be dumb that the guy has been doing this for 20+ years and still has to learn to be responsible with his songs so it'd feel ooc anyway if that was his Lesson to Learn This Arc, but whatever, they could have gone that direction. But it's not that, they just dont know what to do with him.

They dont seem to want to commit, either he's the stupid, harmless comic relief everyone shits on or a famous guy affecting witcher PR on the whole continent without asking them what they want. If he'd been mad enough to purposely incite hate towards Geralt he would not have folded after that apology, and if he wasn't that mad and the apology was enough he would maybe have written it in a fit but not?? Made it popular???

And it's not just Jaskier, they do this across the board. They dont know what to do with Geralt, or his relationship with Ciri, or Ciri and Yennefer, and how they're handling Witchers as a group is a mess. It's a shame bc they have a great cast and they have a story and lore and themes (and fan base) with strong bones ready-made, but Netflix has a bad track record doing adaptations do it's not surprising either

I think this can stand on its own, Non.

It's important to have different voices and opinions in fandom. There is always a place for it here if you need a chat about it.

I agree on the cast. They really are trying to present us a banquet when all they were given was ten quid and an out-of-date Greg's voucher.

#rawrkinanswers #Anonymous #twn critical #the witcher netflix critical

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aboveallarescuer · 3 years

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#that happens even when the person isnt trying to argue that shes a mad queen/villain but that she has both 'good' and 'evil' in her#and is meant to fail#(e.g. that meta about how dany is a tragic shakespearean hero; which annoys me more bc it sounds convincing when you don't remember what#happened in the books very well...

Can you talk more about your problems with that essay? I thought that it sounded plausible... I don't want those things to happen to Daenerys, but I don't trust GRRM either.

Anon, thank you for this ask and sorry for the delayed answer. I was already planning to write several posts as a response to the arguments of “Daughter of Death: A Song of Ice and Fire’s Shakespearean Tragic Hero” (which you can read here), but I couldn't find the time or motivation for that lately, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to counter-argue it in a single answer. I tried to be brief by summarizing some of my notes and by linking to a lot of metas instead of repeating all of their points, but the response unfortunately ended up becoming long anyway.

In the context of that essay, Dany is considered a Shakespearean tragic hero because the writer thinks she fits five requirements: 1) Dany’s chapters contain supposedly deliberate references to Shakespearean plays; 2) Dany is “torn by an internal struggle”, namely peace versus violence or companionship versus rulership or home versus the Iron Throne, all of which also drive the external conflicts. Choosing the second options will lead to her demise; 3) prophecies and “influential accidents” - that is, events that “have roots in a character’s motivation”, as well as “the sense of ‘if only this had not happened’” - will “heighten and exaggerate [tragic flaws that] already [exist]” in Dany; 4) Dany will (according to the essayist’s speculations) take actions that produce “exceptional calamity” and her demise will be “her own choice and doing”; 5) Dany “[rose] high in position” and is “an exceptional being”, which sets her apart as a character that fits the mold of the Shakespearean tragedy because her reversal of fortune will highlight “the greatness and piteousness of humanity”.

I would argue that the points that the essayist made to justify how Dany supposedly fits these five requirements are all very skewed.

1) When it comes to requirement 1 (Dany’s chapters contain supposedly deliberate references to Shakespearean plays), the essayist is conveniently cherry-picking (as they often do throughout the meta). Bran Stark wants a dreamless sleep just like Dany: “Sweet, dreamless sleep, Bran thought.” (ACOK Bran I); “That night Bran prayed to his father’s gods for dreamless sleep.” (ACOK Bran II). Indeed, @marinabridgerton argues that that’s most likely tied to the fact that they’re the two characters most heavily associated with prophecies. Even Sansa is said to have a dreamless sleep: “Sometimes her sleep was leaden and dreamless, and she woke from it more tired than when she had closed her eyes” (AGOT Sansa VI). And yet, where are the essays about how these quotes are teaching the readership to interpret Bran’s and Sansa’s characters, storylines and trajectories based on Shakespearean tragedies?

2) When it comes to requirement 2 (Dany is “torn by an internal struggle”, namely peace versus violence or companionship versus rulership or home versus the Iron Throne, all of which also drive the external conflicts. Choosing the second options will lead to her demise), the essayist is right to point out that those dilemmas exist. However, they portray Dany’s struggles in a way that makes it seem that 1) there are “good” options (peace/companionship/home) and “bad” options (violence/rulership/Iron Throne) for Dany to take and that 2) choosing the latter ones will lead to Dany’s downfall. There is a lot to question about these assumptions.

2.1) When it comes to Dany’s conflict between peace versus violence, the essayist takes everything that Adam Feldman’s series of essays “Untangling the Meereenese Knot” says for granted when it shouldn’t be. I’m not going to delve into all the problems/inaccuracies/double standards with those essays. For our purposes here, it’s enough to say that they: 1) dichotomize Dany’s identity into mhysa and mother of dragons to argue that the former represents her desire for peace and the latter her violent impulses; 2) assert that the peace was real; 3) conclude that, by rejecting the peace, the Dany of ASOS is gone and from now on she’s going to be a very different person because she will have chosen to follow her violent impulses.

As already argued before, though, 1) Dany’s character can’t be dichotomized in that way because these facets - mhysa and mother of dragons - actually complement each other (as @yendany made clear in her most recent meta). Because Dany was the mother of dragons, she was able to act as mhysa way before she was hailed as such, which we see, for instance, when she kills the Astapori slave masters to free the Unsullied. Both of these identities manifest Dany’s fierceness when faced with great injustices. This is why, in ADWD, locking her dragon children prevented Dany from properly defending her human children… She needs to integrate both parts of her identity to be able to protect them. But Feldman couldn’t recognize that because 2) he accepts the peace deal that Dany made with the slavers as valid. Doing so would mean, however, ignoring the re-enslavement and suffering of thousands of marginalized people, which GRRM continually emphasizes in Dany's and Tyrion’s final ADWD chapters (read more about this here and here) to hammer home that the peace is false for prioritizing the slavers over them. Finally, 3) Dany is not a violent person nor does she have violent impulses. Feldman decontextualized the moments in which Dany uses violence from the standards of her time and place (read more about this here and here and here and here) to portray them in a more negative light than how they are actually meant to be viewed. Additionally, he conveniently left out all the moments in which Dany chooses to be merciful, from when she spares Yunkai and most of the Meereenese slavers (she didn’t do the same in Astapor because she was outnumbered and needed to protect her retinue) to when she doesn’t punish people who threaten or disrespect her to her face (such an envoy who spits at her face, a boy who tries to attack her, Xaro after he says he wishes he’d killed her), to give a few examples (read more about this in @rainhadaenerys's comprehensive meta). I would argue that Dany’s conflict is less about peace versus violence and more accurately about her tendency to be merciful versus her desire for justice (which, especially in the particular context she finds herself in, is unattainable without violence). In fact, I would go further and say that it’s distasteful to characterize Dany as someone “violent” or with “violent impulses” when, so far, she’s only used violence to a) defend and protect victims of (physical and systemic) violence and/or b) in circumstances in which her actions are no more problematic than those of any other leader of her world. And yet, the essayist portrays them as if they were (“To choose indiscriminate destruction over peace tends toward the evil”).

It’s also convenient that the essayist only talks about fire negatively (“Dany wields unmatched power that can “make or unmake at a word”—Dracarys—villages, armies and kingdoms”, “in the words of Maester Aemon, “Fire consumes.””) when it's also connected to life, rebirth, healing and enlightenment. And dracarys in particular is explicitly associated with freedom by the narrative while Dany frees the Unsullied (her decision, in turn, is associated with her future actions in the War for the Dawn). But acknowledging these things would make it harder to portray Dany as a Shakespearean tragic hero.

2.2) When it comes to Dany’s conflict between companionship and rulership … Again, the dilemma exists, but not in the way that the essayist presents it. What I mean is that they go out of their way to make it seem that Dany’s loneliness was the main factor driving her decisions, such as the liberation of the Unsullied (“She feels for the forced loneliness of the Unsullied, and it is loneliness that convinces her to commit violence in the plaza to free the slaves—just as it is in loneliness she chooses violence amidst the Dothraki Sea.”)... And not, y’know, her compassion and sense of justice (“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”), which are rarely acknowledged in this essay even though it’s arguably the main aspect of Dany's characterization. Why does the essayist do that? Because, since they are arguing that Dany is a tragic hero, they need to present Dany’s loneliness both as the reason why she achieved greatness and as the reason that will lead to her demise when she (supposedly) starts distrusting people, closing herself off and choosing violence (“the moral conviction she feels for her abolitionist crusade is part of the greatness that is also her tragic trait [...] She feels for the forced loneliness of the Unsullied, and it is loneliness that convinces her to commit violence in the plaza to free the slaves—just as it is in loneliness she chooses violence amidst the Dothraki Sea.”). As I said, however, doing so requires downplaying Dany’s compassion, as well as ignoring the fact that she does not close herself off to people in ADWD, nor is there any sign that this was seeded as a serious issue for her in future books (especially considering that her governance is meant to be contrasted with Cersei, the character who actually does close herself off to people. But more on that below when I talk about why Dany doesn’t fit the essayist’s third requirement).

Also, singling out rulership in particular as a reason for Dany to feel alone is conveniently selective (“Returning to Westeros means ruling Westeros - and ruling means loneliness”). All the major characters have reasons to feel lonely and isolated in their society because GRRM chose to focus on the underdogs. Their social standings are already enough to make all of them feel alone. As he said, “Tyrion of course is a dwarf which has its own challenges. Dany is an exile, powerless, penniless, at the mercy of other people, and Jon is a bastard”. You can also throw in Arya for being a young girl struggling to adhere to gender norms and Bran for being a disabled child. And that is just one example… There are a myriad of reasons and situations for various characters to feel lonely and isolated, but the essayist specifically chose to talk about how rulership causes that for Dany. And, considering that the essayist thinks that Dany’s rulership -> growing isolation and loneliness -> her ultimate downfall, it really feels like they’re punishing Dany narratively for acquiring and wielding power. Which leads me to the next point...

2.3) When it comes to Dany’s conflict between home and the Iron Throne, I would argue that that’s not really a conflict. Dany (like any feudal leader) believes she needs to retake the Iron Throne to stay in her homeland just like the Starks believe they need to retake Winterfell to stay in their homeland. Whether Dany finds herself at home in Westeros or not is irrelevant to that fact. And yet, the essayist only presents the former as being in the wrong for fighting for her birthright. However, as it's been already explained before, the Starks’ claim to the North isn’t morally righteous. They only have dominance over the North because, for thousands of years, their ancestors fought against, drove away and killed most of its indigenous population (the Children of the Forest), as well as multiple families who were also vying for control over the region. With that in mind, Dany fighting for her birthright isn’t any more problematic than the Starks enjoying the lands and privileges obtained with conquest and bloodshed, as well as the labor of peasants. One could argue that GRRM may have a double standard against Dany in this case (though it's been argued before that he doesn't intend to present the Iron Throne as a source of greed and evil like how fandom presents it) because of the order of the events and depending on whether he holds Dany accountable for more problems for waging her war than the Starks for having done/doing essentially the same thing, but that’s not what the essayist is doing. Instead, they a) take for granted that Dany is doing the wrong thing for fighting for the Iron Throne ("To delay the call of the North and continue to divide an already weakened realm is to give into dark desires.") and b) center all their speculations about her eventual demise based on that belief.

Ultimately, I would argue that none of these three dilemmas - peace versus violence, companionship versus rulership, home versus the Iron Throne - come with easy answers. When it comes to the first conflict, it’s important that Dany prioritizes the lives of the slaves over the privileges of the masters, but that causes more war and bloodshed. When it comes to the second and the third conflicts, it’s worth noting that the first options (which the essayist presents as the “good” ones) are actually the selfish paths for Dany to take. After all, she would rather live a normal life with a husband (companionship) in the house with the red door (home) - “She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself”. But, as the quote shows, instead of choosing these selfish goals, Dany accepts the burden of rulership and the fight for the Iron Throne because of her duty towards her people and ancestors. And, while this path leads to war (either in Meereen or in Westeros, though the former is morally righteous and the latter, while not inherently justified, is not any more problematic than Robb fighting for Northern independence), power is also the means through which Dany can make changes that benefit the common people.

With all that said, it’s ironic that Dany fans are often accused of flattening her character or her choices when it’s actually her detractors or “neutrals” (like the essayist) who do so - they are dead set on portraying Dany’s available options as either “good” or “bad” and on speculating that choosing the latter ones will lead to her downfall, but the text actually gives her conflicts in which all the options have their pros and cons.

The essayist also makes a mistake that isn’t really up to interpretation or difference in opinions. They say that, in AGOT Daenerys III, “after admitting this difficult truth [that Viserys will never take back the Seven Kingdoms], Dany assumes the goal for herself (and at the time, her son)”. That is incorrect. In AGOT Daenerys V, moments before Viserys’s death, Dany says she would have allowed him to have the dragon eggs because “he is my brother … and my true king”. Jorah doesn’t think she should still acknowledge him as such, but she tells him that “he is all I have”. So no, Dany hadn’t assumed the goal for herself at that point, she only took over his campaign in her son's name (not hers) after Viserys's death. But the essayist needs to exaggerate Dany's ambition to justify her demise, since they speculate that “in that hurt and betrayal, all that will be left - she will think - is the crown”.

3) When it comes to requirement 3 (prophecies and “influential accidents” - that is, events that “have roots in a character’s motivation”, as well as “the sense of ‘if only this had not happened’” - will “heighten and exaggerate [tragic flaws that] already [exist]” in Dany), the problem is not in cherry-picking or in double standards against Dany, but rather in the essayist’s lack of knowledge about Dany’s characterization. It’s simply not true that Dany’s distrust of people grows to the point that she closes herself off to them. Instead, I would argue that Dany is actually portrayed as someone with a healthy distrust of people. We know from the books (1, 2, 3, 4) that she finds it unlikely that Barristan, Grey Worm or Missandei would ever betray her, but that she doesn’t think she can rely entirely upon Reznak, the Green Grace, the Shavepate, Hizdahr and Daario. Do Dany’s doubts about these people’s intentions lead her to, as the essayist says, “push people away”? No. Through almost all of ADWD, she (wrongly, though understandably) believes that "until [freedmen and former masters stand together, Meereen will know no peace". Accordingly, Dany is willing to listen to the counsel of all of her advisors (both the ones she trusts and the ones she distrusts) to ensure that she makes informed decisions. To give some examples:

Dany allows “well spoken and gently born” people (i.e., not the typical condition of most former slaves, who are glad that Dany freed them) to sell themselves into slavery and imposes a tax each time men chose to do so like how it happened in Astapor (ASOS Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she agreed with both Missandei and Daario.

Dany employs the Unsullied to ask the Blue Graces if someone showed up with a sword wound and to ask butchers and herdsmen who’s been gelding goats (ADWD Daenerys I). By making this decision, she disagreed with Barristan.

Dany chooses not to punish any noble in response to the murder of Stalwart Shield and only increases the amount of gold for whoever gives information about the Sons of the Harpy (ADWD Daenerys I). By making this decision, she agreed with Reznak and disagreed with the Shavepate.

Dany gives up on banning the tokar and wears it herself (ADWD Daenerys I). By making this decision, she agreed with the Green Grace.

Dany (rightly) refuses to reopen the fighting pits for a while until she later relents in the name of the peace with the Meereenese nobles (ADWD Daenerys I, II, III, VI). By making this decision, she disagreed with Hizdahr, Reznak, the Green Grace and the Shavepate and agreed with Missandei.

Dany delays the choice of a husband until it becomes necessary later (ADWD Daenerys I). By making this decision, she disagreed with Reznak, the Shavepate and the Green Grace.

Dany chooses to pay the shepherds for the animals that they say their dragons ate (ADWD Daenerys I). By making this decision, she disagreed with Reznak.

Dany pays Hazzea’s father the blood price (i.e., one hundred times the worth of a lamb) for her death, lays her bones to rest in the Temple of the Graces and promises to pay for his children each year so they shall not want (ADWD Daenerys II). By making this decision, she disagreed with the Shavepate.

Dany allows the Shavepate to torture the wineseller and his daughters for information about the Sons (ADWD Daenerys II). By making this decision, she agreed with the Shavepate.

Dany imposes a blood tax on the noble families to pay for a new watch led by the Shavepate, takes the gold and the stores of food of any nobleman who wishes to leave the city and keeps two children from each pyramid as hostages instead of letting the nobles go unpunished after nine freedmen were killed by the Sons (ADWD Daenerys II). By making this decision, she agreed with the Shavepate and disagreed with Reznak.

Dany has Barristan and Groleo and his captains and sailors to inspect Xaro’s ships (ADWD Daenerys III). By making this decision, she agreed with Barristan.

Dany chooses not to go to Westeros despite being offered ships to do so (ADWD Daenerys III). By making this decision, she disagreed with Barristan.

Dany doesn’t kill her child hostages despite the Sons’ ongoing attacks (ADWD Daenerys IV). By making this decision, she agreed with the Green Grace and disagreed with the Shavepate.

Dany agrees to marry Hizdahr if he’s able to give her ninety days of peace in Meereen (ADWD Daenerys IV). By making this decision, she agreed with Hizdahr, the Green Grace and Reznak and disagreed with the Shavepate, Barristan, Missandei and Daario.

Dany refuses to gather the masters and kill them indiscriminately (ADWD Daenerys IV). By making this decision, she disagreed with Daario.

Dany doesn’t allow the Shavepate to continue his tortures due to their unreliable results (ADWD Daenerys V). By making this decision, she agreed with Hizdahr and disagreed with the Shavepate.

Dany refuses to use her dragons in battle (ADWD Daenerys V). By making this decision, she agreed with Reznak.

Dany decides not to take the field against Yunkai (ADWD Daenerys V). By making this decision, she agreed with the Shavepate and disagreed with Barristan.

Dany brings the food to the Astapori refugees instead of sending someone else to do it (ADWD Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she disagreed with Reznak, the Shavepate and Barristan.

Dany burns the dead among the Astapori refugees, bathes an old man and shames her men into helping her (ADWD Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she disagreed with Barristan.

Dany refuses to allow Hizdahr’s mother and sisters to inspect her womb and to wash Hizdahr’s feet before he washes hers (ADWD Daeneerys VI). By making this decision, she disagreed with the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany decides to marry Hizdahr by Ghiscari rites and to wear a white tokar fringed with pearls (ADWD Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she agreed with the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany allows Hizdahr to reopen the fighting pits (ADWD Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she agreed with Hizdahr, the Green Grace and Reznak.

Dany goes along with a peace agreement with the Yunkish slavers in which she’ll let Yunkai and Astapor reinstall slavery if they leave Meereen intact (ADWD Daenerys VI). By making this decision, she agreed with Hizdahr.

Dany holds court in order to, among other reasons, meet the Westerosi men that came over from the Windblown (ADWD Daenerys VII). By making this decision, she agreed with Daario.

Dany doesn’t accept Quentyn’s marriage proposal because she doesn’t want to abandon her people (ADWD Daenerys VII). By making this decision, she disagreed with Barristan.

Dany doesn’t ride a horse in a tokar to meet Hizdahr (ADWD Daenerys VII). By making this decision, she agreed with Missandei.

Dany decides not to sound out the Company of the Cats (even though she wanted to) because Barristan says he's untrustworthy (ADWD Daenerys VIII). By making this decision, she agreed with Barristan.

Dany attends the reopening of the pits (ADWD Daenerys IX). By making this decision, she disagreed with Missandei.

Dany allows the Brazen Beasts to guard her because she wants to show that she trusts them so that her people can trust them as well (ADWD Daenerys IX). By making this decision, she disagreed with Barristan.

Dany prevents Tyrion and Penny from fighting against lions with wooden swords. By making this decision, she disagreed with Hizdahr.

I didn’t include all of Dany’s decisions because she makes many of them on her own and/or without someone explicitly supporting them or opposing them (in fact, many of the ones above were made without any advisor giving her their feedback, but I listed them if they’re seen agreeing or disagreeing with her onpage anyway). That being said, note that Reznak is the one that Dany is most suspicious of (because he perfectly fits the description of one of the treasoners), but that five of her decisions follow his recommendations, in contrast to Barristan (the knight who she actually trusts and who keeps all her secrets) only having his advice followed twice. Also note that Dany “trusted Skahaz more than she trusted Hizdahr”, but she agreed with the former three times and disagreed with him eight times, in contrast to having agreed with the latter four times and disagreed with him twice. The list clearly shows that Dany listens to everyone’s feedback (including from people she distrusts), considers it carefully, makes her own decisions and handles dissent extremely well. Her actions reflect her own words (“A queen must listen to all. [...] One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found”, “It seems to me that a queen who trusts no one is as foolish as a queen who trusts everyone”).

There is, however, one character who is seen only listening to people who agree with her and who distrusts and closes herself off to almost everyone - Cersei Lannister. And it’s especially worth noting that Cersei is meant to be “directly contrasted” with Dany, that the author was “doing point and counterpoint” with them and that each of them is meant to show “a different approach to how a woman would rule in a male dominated, medieval-inspired fantasy world”. In other words, Dany and Cersei are narrative foils, but Cersei’s traits are being transferred to Dany in this essay.

Also, I could just as easily create an entire narrative about how Sansa will end up closing herself off to people based on what we see on canon. She thought she could trust Joffrey, but she ultimately couldn’t. She thought she could trust Cersei, but she ultimately couldn’t. She trusted Sandor, but he left her. She tried to trust the Tyrells, but they ultimately disposed of her after she was no longer necessary. She tried to rely on Dontos, but he was a disappointment and was ultimately murdered. She doesn’t trust Littlefinger, but she needs to stick to his side because she has no better option. She considered telling the Vale lords her identity, but she doesn’t trust them. All of this feeds into Sansa’s distrust of others and will lead to tragic consequences. Indeed, as Sansa herself says, "In life, the monsters win". I bet that the essayist would find this whole speculation biased considering that they favor Sansa's character. But then, why is only Dany singled out as the one who is going to meet her demise even though it’s made clear that she continues to trust people through and through?

The essayist needs to say that Dany starts distrusting people to an unhealthy degree (“As Dany gains more power, [...] her focus on the treasons causes her to push people away, widening the gap between rulership and companionship”; ”The more power she gains, the greater her isolation and likely her fear of betrayal. The fear of betrayal is, of course, human. But GRRM has stated that he likes to turn dramatic situations up to 11, which is necessary to create the Shakespearean tragic hero. Dany’s fear must be larger than life.”), as well as to judge her campaign to take back the Seven Kingdoms based on double standards (“Dany’s great sin within the story’s moral order will have been focusing on the war for Westeros against Aegon VI before she turns to the enemy of the North”) compared to the Starks. If they didn’t do so, there wouldn’t be a reason to justify Dany’s demise. If they didn’t do so, the entire speculation that she’s a Shakespearean tragic hero falls apart. But saying that something is true doesn’t necessarily make it true, you need to provide the textual evidence (which they barely do … They assume that the reader will take almost everything they say for granted. After all, since there’s a prophecy foretelling that Dany will be betrayed three times, of course she’s going to distrust people way too much from now on).

There’s also another aspect of Dany’s relationship with prophecies that the essayist portrays inaccurately. They say that “the effect of this prophecy on Daenerys is multifaceted” for “[promising] greatness” (which, along with the also inaccurate statement that “part of Dany’s pursuit of the Iron Throne is born from a sense of destiny”, implies that Dany wants to be great or that she thinks of herself as great, none of which are true) and pushing her “further from the people who surround her”. I already questioned the latter statement, and the former is inaccurate too. After all, Dany has doubts that there are men in Westeros waiting for the Targaryens to return. The birth of the dragons has to do with the fact that Dany was able to put two and two together with clues from dragon dreams and Mirri's words, not because she thinks she's exceptional. Dany is not really sure that the red comet was meant for her. She followed its direction because the other paths weren't reliable and, even in Qarth, she's unsure that it was meant to guide her to success. Then she never thinks about it again. I'd expect otherwise from someone who thinks they're exceptional. Dany is surprised when told by Quaithe that she's the reason why magic is increasing in the world and never thinks or brags about it after their interaction. I'd expect otherwise from someone who thinks they're exceptional. Dany doesn't think she won any victories in the House of the Undying, she credits Drogon for burning the Undying Ones. She only allows Jhiqui to add a bell to the end of her braid because "the Dothraki would esteem her all the more for a few bells in her hair". Dany refuses to sit on the throne inside the Great Pyramid's audience chamber and chooses to sit on a simple ebony bench that the Meereenese think does "not befit a queen". Dany refuses the offer to have a statue in her image to replace the bronze harpy in the Plaza of Purification. I'd expect otherwise from someone who thinks they're exceptional. Dany is highly self-critical and, later in ADWD, thinks that she "was as clean as she was ever going to be" after taking a bath because she holds herself accountable for the upcoming slaughter in the opening of the fighting pits. I'd expect different from someone that thinks they're exceptional. Dany doesn’t think that the people who came to the reopening of the pits wanted to see her - “it was my floppy ears they cheered, not me”. I'd expect different from someone that thinks they're exceptional. Most of Dany's titles (the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, Mhysa, Azor Ahai, etc) are given to her by other people, they're not self-proclaimed (not that there's a problem if they were, I'm only saying it to reiterate that Dany doesn't think she's exceptional). The ones that she assumes on her own are the ones that anyone who believes in birthright (i.e., everyone in her time and place, regardless of family, regardless of whether they're Targaryens) would assume.

4) When it comes to requirement 4 (Dany will (according to the essayist’s speculations) take actions that produce “exceptional calamity” and her demise will be “her own choice and doing”) … Well, we now enter the realm of speculation. It’s not impossible that Dany “will feel like a villain to the Westerosi, as she burns their villages and crops ahead of a hard winter” in the future. The problem here, once again, is in the double standards. Look at the way the essayist describes the likely reascendance of the Starks in the upcoming books - “With the death of “good” characters like Ned, the injury of innocents and moments such as the Red Wedding, ASOIAF as a story is not concerned with justice. But as the story progresses, we see that the way Ned ruled his people and raised his children contrasts with characters like Tywin and his methods. Much of the North seems to continue to rally behind the idea of the Starks, some with less “honorable” methods than others, while Tywin’s legacy begins to fall apart. Like in Shakespeare’s tragic world, there appears to be an order that arcs towards a higher idea of goodness that instills a dramatic satisfaction”. Like I said above when I questioned requirement 2, the Starks’ claim to the North is no more justified than Dany’s to the Seven Kingdoms. They have the advantage of having had their rule normalized throughout the thousands of years they ruled the North, but it doesn’t change the fact that, because they’re feudal lords, they still maintain a system rigged in favor of the nobles that promotes social inequality and extreme lack of social mobility. It doesn’t change the fact that there's no righteous form of feudalism. But only Dany is criticized in that sense by the essayist - “By nature, power breeds inequality, when one party has the ability to decide the fate of another. That inequality creates distance. As a queen Dany wields absolute power over the rest of her subjects and her court”. Which is pretty infuriating not only because the Starks are also morally grey in the sense that the essayist describes, but also because GRRM specifically mentioned that Daenerys is the ruler "who wants equality for everyone, she wants to be at the same level as her people". Additionally, if Ned left a legacy that motivated his people to fight against his enemies, so did Dany with the former slaves. But the essayist needs to ignore all of that to paint Dany as a Shakespearean tragic hero.

Even if we don’t take into account what TWOIAF reveals about the Starks’ ancestors, the main story itself often paints House Stark’s actions in a negative light. We see a peasant spitting at the mention of the Starks and saying that things were better with King Aerys II in power. We're told that Northmen looking for Jaime on Edmure’s orders burned a village called Sallydance and were guilty of rape and murder. It’s no wonder that the High Sparrow mentions the wolves along with the lions as threats to the septas. Also, thousands of soldiers died indirectly because of Robb’s decisions, as well as lots of people who remained north and became vulnerable to raping and pillaging due to his inability to hold Winterfell. And finally, when winter comes, the smallfolk will be affected by the actions of the northmen, who (like Dany might do in the future) already helped to disrupt the harvest and to leave the continent short on food. And yet, why is their future success framed as “an order that arcs towards a higher idea of goodness”? Why is Dany the only one who is said to be “giv[ing] into dark desires” by “divid[ing] an already weakened realm” when the Starks (framed as the heroes in the essay) did the same thing? This double standard gets infuriating when one remembers that Dany is the one fighting a war in the name of the disenfranchised (even though she is not connected to them by blood or lands or oath of fealty and doesn’t gain anything by helping them), while the Starks are (and will be, if they want to retake Winterfell) fighting a war because of personal injury (which, sympathetic as it may be, doesn’t justify the damage that they caused to the smallfolk). It gets even more infuriating when, as @rakharo pointed out to me, one remembers that, while Dany is trying to right the wrongs of the Valyrians by ending slavery in Slaver’s Bay, none of the Starks have acknowledged, much less tried to make amends for injustices perpetrated by the First Men against the Children of the Forest. It gets even more infuriating when one remembers that Aegon the Conqueror united Westeros in preparation for the War for the Dawn (something that GRRM himself confirmed), while the Starks’ ancestors conquered the North solely because of their greed. That's why Dany’s story can’t be effective as a tragedy: she’d be punished for starting to do what everyone else was doing after doing more than almost everyone else was doing.

5) When it comes to requirement 5 (Dany “[rose] high in position” and is “an exceptional being”, which sets her apart as a character that fits the mold of the Shakespearean tragedy because her reversal of fortune will highlight “the greatness and piteousness of humanity”), again, we’re in the realm of speculation. But there are some things to question as well. First, the essayist validates the criticisms that Dany “too easily ascends to a position of power” by using them as proof that she’s a tragic character. But that’s not really true, which becomes clear with a few comparisons: the Starks lost their father, mother and older brother throughout the story because of the Lannisters, which Dany also did; but her losses go beyond them: she also lost another brother, her first husband and her first child. The Starks had their direwolves given to them, Dany had to use her intuition and then literally walk into a fire to birth her dragons. Aegon the Conqueror used dragons to take Westeros, Dany conquered three cities without barely using hers. Jon Snow’s conflict in ADWD involves conciliating the Free Folk and the Night’s Watch after he makes decisions favoring the former group, while Dany’s involves conciliating the freedmen and the slavers after she makes decisions favoring the former group, which has a worldwide impact; Jon’s conflict has relatively low stakes (because it hasn’t involved the Others so far), Dany’s conflict leads to “half the world” wanting her dead. As these examples show, Dany suffered more losses than the Starks. Dany had to do a lot more than the Starks to find her animal companions. Dany became a conqueror primarily because of her military strategies and resourcefulness without relying on dragonfire like her ancestor. Dany faced greater opposition than her male counterpart Jon so far. As we can see, gaining power and retaining it has not been easy for Dany at all. Every single one of her accomplishments has been earned. But it sure is interesting that Dany’s supposed future tragedies must stem from her actions, but that her victories aren’t given the proper credit and acknowledged as being a result of what she also did as well.

And then the essayist declares something even more inaccurate: that Dany “overcame each obstacle that came her way” and that “Robb and Jon paid for their mistakes while Dany did not” (which, to the essayist, is evidence that “Dany’s fall is meant to stand in contrast as something grander than just one slip-up”).

First of all, Dany clearly did not overcome every obstacle that came her way. Saying so means ignoring all of her ADWD storyline (and it’s funny how Dany's detractors go from saying that she’s overpowered and hasn’t suffered consequences to accusing her of being a bad ruler precisely because she dealt with the negative consequences of her choices, lol). To recap, Dany had an indirect part in the wars outside Meereen because she left the Yunkish slavers’ wealth intact, which leads to terrible consequences - multiple city-states and sellsword companies joining forces against her, Astapor’s fall, the pale mare’s outbreak, the emergence of refugees from Astapor outside her city and the upcoming Battle of Fire. Dany had an indirect role in the wars inside Meereen because she left most of the Meereenese slavers alive with most of their wealth intact, which leads to terrible consequences - the Sons of the Harpy’s attacks and dozens of freedmen’s deaths. Additionally, Dany had an indirect role in Hazzea’s death because Drogon was allowed to roam freely and she had no way to train him or her brothers. All these problems culminate in Dany agreeing with a peace deal that, as already explained here, was inherently unjust for prioritizing the slavers over the freedmen. Dany had to learn that, as much as she wants peace and to plant trees, there are situations in which she can’t be merciful because violence really is the only way to achieve justice for the disenfranchised. (On the flip side, that’s one of the reasons why I’m critical of the theory that Dany accidentally burns King’s Landing. When she was merciful, as I just listed, great tragedies occurred (which is fine, it was a realistic exploration of what happens when you abolish slavery and try to do good). When she used fire and blood, great tragedies will occur too? Even though she would be acting just like the Starks or any other feudal lord by fighting for her birthright? The theory narratively punishes Dany in a way that it doesn't do with the Starks, which is why it's no wonder that it was created by someone with Stark/Stannis biases. Additionally, it validates the common belief that Dany is only meant to be a wartime queen, even though she’s already showed that she’s a good peacetime ruler.)

Second, is dying the only way to pay for one’s mistakes (considering that only Robb and Jon are listed as examples of characters who did)? I don’t think so. Consider Sansa. Didn’t she pay for the mistake of going to Cersei to tell her of Ned’s plan? I would say she did. I would say the author agrees - “Sansa was the least sympathetic of the Starks in the first book; she has become more sympathetic, partly because she comes to accept responsibility for her part in her father's death”. Similarly, Dany had to accept her indirect responsibility for the tragedies that I just listed (Hazzea, forgive me; No marriage would ever bring them back to life, but if a husband could help end the slaughter, then she owed it to her dead to marry.; “I should’ve gone to Astapor. [...] I am the queen. It was my place to know.”; “What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children?”). I would argue that Dany and Sansa both paid for her mistakes, which were acknowledged, made them suffer and influenced their character developments. But the essayist needs to say that Dany didn’t pay for them (or that she had an easy rise to power) to help to paint her as a Shakespearean tragic hero.

6) Now that the essayist’s five requirements have all been questioned, I would also like to mention positive prophecies and speculations related to Dany that are never brought up in this essay.

First, Dany is AA/PTWP/SWMTW. That was heavily foreshadowed (read more about it here) and built up to and, if it doesn’t happen, it frankly would be bad writing. After all, haven’t readers praised GRRM for the foreshadowing of Ned’s death (e.g., a stag having killed the mother direwolf in the beginning of AGOT)? Haven’t readers praised GRRM for the foreshadowing of the Red Wedding (which we see from Tyrion’s to Theon’s to Dany’s chapters)? And yet, the essayist thinks that Dany’s death will cause “the forces [to] become more even, making victory less sure, or the Others surpass the side of the living in strength” and that “the White Walkers gain Drogon, becoming one-on-one but with the White Walkers having the larger dragon.”

Second, Dany and Bran both have dreams in AGOT leading up to their magical awakening. Bran needs to fly to escape from the “cold” of the darkness below, while Dany needs to run from the “icy breath behind”. Both of these dreams culminate with Bran and Dany learning to fly and accepting their magical destinies, which will be important in the War for the Dawn. And yet, the essayist thinks that “by understanding that the concept of warmth is tied to companionship, we can understand that the cold, “icy breath” must represent the opposite: loneliness” to justify Dany’s demise. Instead, it's clear (especially considering the parallels with Bran) that "icy breath" is an allusion to the Others. But they can't acknowledge that Dany will have a crucial role in the War for the Dawn, otherwise their entire speculation falls apart.

Third, Quaithe was presented as the third of the three Qartheen envoys (after Pyat Pree and Xaro) that came to find Dany in Vaes Tolorro, which heavily implies that she breaks the norm and is the one person that Dany can trust. And yet, the essayist takes for granted that Quaithe’s “narrative connection to betrayal is already established”.

Fourth, Dany might as well be the prophesied betrayer, not the one who’s betrayed by three people (after all, she’s already been betrayed by more than three people - Jorah, Mirri, Pyat Pree, Xaro, Brown Ben, the person that gave her the poisoned locusts, etc). It would fit with the pattern of Dany being an active participant in the prophecies rather than a passive one (e.g. Dany is AA/PTWP, not the one who gives birth to the AA/PTWP or the one who dies as a sacrifice to AA/PTWP) even though, at first, the readership is expected to think otherwise. And yet, the essayist takes for granted that Dany will be betrayed because otherwise their entire speculation falls apart.

Fifth, Dany is foreshadowed to have a positive relationship with Jon because “the blue flower” from the “wall of ice” filled the air with “sweetness”. And yet, the essayist needs to say that Dany "[will push] Jon away [...] from fear of betrayal and hurt” and from worries that he might be a “usurper” (nevermind that they are mischaracterizing Dany as someone overfocused on retaking the Iron Throne and who closes herself off due to prophecies, none of which are not true, as I already showed above) because otherwise their entire speculation falls apart.

7) Finally, I would also like to ask: what’s the point of giving Dany a storyline like this? Not only because it would be unearned due to the double standards and the changes that would have to occur in her characterization, but also because Dany has a special place in the narrative. She is 1) one of the two women (along with Asha) claiming power in her own right and the only one that we actually got to see rule, 2) one of three Chosen Ones (along with Bran and Jon) and the only female one, 3) one of two POV revolutionaries (along with Jon) and the only female one (and the one whose storyline arguably has the most political messages since she’s fighting against human slavery), 4) one of two POV female rulers (along with Cersei) and the only one who’s been depicted as competent (because she subverts the Good Princess Evil Queen dichotomy), 5) one of two Targaryen conquerors (three, if Young Griff does indeed take Westeros) and the only female one - “Aegon the Conqueror with teats”, 6) the only major mother who isn’t sure to be doomed and/or hasn’t gone mad, 7) one of two Targaryen queens regnant (along with Rhaenyra) and the only remaining Targaryen woman who gets to have power after a long line of Targaryen women - Rhaenyra herself, but also Rhaena, Aerea, Rhaella, Daenerys (Alysanne’s daughter), Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was, Baela, Rhaena of Pentos, Daena - who were disempowered. GRRM already has a terrible history with female leaders in particular. If he causes the downfall of another one (especially one who is also one of the five main protagonists) for such unearned reasons like the ones that the essayist laid out, there would also be sexist implications. It would make the only she-king that we saw wielding power onpage overly defined by violence and destruction in a way kings don't have to be depending on their actions, it makes the only competent POV female ruler look incompetent in comparison to the other POV male rulers and it makes her conquest a disaster while the other male Targaryen conqueror (two, if Young Griff takes Westeros) gets to succeed. And yet, death by childbirth is the only speculation that the essayist calls out as problematic (“death by childbirth is a uniquely biologically female phenomenon and would be punishing Daenerys for her sexuality”).

8) What I find insidious about essays like this one is that they pretend to be unbiased (I do not argue for the death of Daenerys as a judgement on her ethical/moral goodness as a character nor of the world she inhabits. I argue it on the strength of her characterization and story, that she should be able to encompass such intensity and greatness as to be considered as complex as all these other single-name headliners in literature.) even though they really aren't. To recap, the essayist portrays Dany as someone with "violent" impulses even though she's a merciful person in general, accepts the peace deal with the slavers as valid even though it prioritizes the slavers' privileges over the lives of marginalized people, only talks about the negative connotations of fire, downplays Dany's compassion and sense of justice, argues that Dany is losing her ability to trust others even though she isn't, says that Dany is negatively affected by promises of greatness even though she isn't, argues that Dany had an easy rise to power and didn't pay for her mistakes even though she did, paints Dany's campaign to take the Iron Throne in a negative light without doing the same with the Starks having dominance over the North and ignores Dany's foreshadowing as AA/PTWP, as well as her special place in the narrative. So it’s not that Dany stans are unable to accept Dany’s mistakes and flaws, it’s that people who dislike her can’t understand her characterization or acknowledge the double standards against her or accept her particular place in the story. At the end of the day, an essay like this one is no better than jonsa metas mindlessly hating on Dany because, just like them, as @semperty and @niniane17 made clear, it also creates speculations with the intent of making Dany self-destruct and become irrelevant to pave the way for their preferred characters. The only difference is that it's more successful at appearing "neutral" to someone who doesn't remember what happened in the books very well, especially because Dany has become a polarizing character for a variety of reasons and it's easy to buy into the Appeal to Moderation fallacy.

Also, as I said before, the fact that these Twitter 'neutrals' all misunderstand Dany's characterization, downplay her struggles and judge her by different standards actually makes me somewhat hopeful that she's getting a better ending, because how can their speculations come true if they don't know Dany at all? But then, it's hard to trust GRRM.

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #answered

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symphonicmetal101 · 3 years

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Citizens of the Devildom HCs

Ok, so this isn't my normal kind of post, this is kind of a world building thing, but I think its kinda cool and is the only thing I have motivation to write- so hopefully y'all like this, I have a part two brewing in my head, and it might actually get typed out-

Anyways, I think its about time we delve into what the "citizens of the Devildom" entails-

Firstly, I believe they would be split into three main categories-

Spirit

Humanoid

Monster/non-humanoid

Below the cut is me breaking each category down farther and a bunch of stuff I came up with, hcs of how I think this works- enjoy!

Spirits

- Wisps- these are fragmented bits of souls, usually of lower ranking beings, or cursed beings. Some have enough consciousness to lead people wayward in their travels through the woods or into the outer rings of hell, thanks to legends and myths leading people to believe that they would lead them to knowledge or fortune.

- Ghosts- these guys gain more power the longer they remain this way, however they also have a closer connection with their body the more recently theyve passed. This means returning their soul to their body only works if they were an extremely powerful being, or if there happens to be an extremely powerful being nearby to assist- they go through different stages once their connection with their body is completely severed, which can vary depending on how willing they were to pass.**** Stage 1, they cannot interact in any way with the living. Stage 2, only necromancers and those who actively seek them out can interact with them for short, unsteady chunks of time. (This is like..the absolute last chance they have to maybe return to their body.) They can move small objects, like keys or figurines, but it can be exhausting. Stage 3, they can interact with more living world things, and mess with animals a bit. Stage 4, they can show themselves to the living for short amounts of time if they wish to, or remain invisible. They can possess objects. Stage 5, they can switch between being seen or not, as well as now curse objects if they were a magic weilder before they died. Stage 6, They have full control of their powers, and can possess humans. As their power grows, they will be able to possess more powerful beings, the hardest to do being an angel.

Ghosts only exist because they

1. Dont realize theyve passed on

2. Have unfinished business, and have a need/want to finish it on their own, or they have someone they need to communicate with.

3. They want to be a ghost-

**** in some cases, a ghost is aware they have passed on, but refuses to accept it. They do not meet any of the three things listed above- these ghosts are still grow in power, but are extremely unstable and unsafe for others in the Devildom, not to mention humans. They are exiled to the outer rings of hell until they change, or in rare cases, make it to the human realm.

- Shadow People- they don't quite fit anywhere else- these are often confused for stage 4 ghosts, however they are different. They flow freely between the human realm and the Devildom. They fade into the shadows, and follow people. As they grow more powerful, they can manipulate other shadows of objects. They cannot speak, but between shadow people, they can communicate through touch, but to other people, there is perhaps a type of energy they feel, but they cannot touch or speak. There are very very few shadow people that can materalize into something physical, though when they can, they can be extremely dangerous, or completely harmless and just curious- best to just not piss any of them off.

Humanoid

- Vampires- Canonically, dont think these guys exist if they had an event about it, but whatever. These have your typical vampiric powers, which I'll sum up with shape-shifting, heightened senses, hypnosis, super strength/speed, immortality, and of course though not designated as a "power", fangs. Their diet in the Devildom are compareable to human diets, blood being more of a dessert food, and when eaten/drunk, usually from a common Devildom livestock animal.

- Succubi/Incubi- again, same sort of thing as vampires- ya know the powers they got, I wont get into it if you dont, bc this is not the right kinda blog to go into that.😂

- Witches/Warlocks

ok so heres where we break this down again.

First there are witch-born and witch-learned folks, witch-born being exponentially more powerful than those who just learn witchcraft, though anybody can.

After that we have Elemental, Potion and Spell-based, Healing, Sin-Directed, and Great Witches, which know a fair amount of each magic type, and have mastered two types.

Elemental witches, as the name suggests, study the elements and usually try to specialize in one element, and then branch out. The four basic elements, (air, fire, water, earth), are gateways into learning other kinds of magic, such as earth- metal, or air- poison, etc.

Potion and Spell-Based witches, again, the name suggests, create potions and spells. Many witches do these as a source of income. This kind of ties into Sin-Directed witches, who usually find one of the sins most appealing, then focus their magic and learning to create spells/potions that relate to that sin, however Sin-Directed witches are usually the offspring of a demon and a witch and can usual make people feel a bit o the sin they study just by touching them.

So if there is a Sloth witch, their potions and spells relate to a full nights rest, to relaxation, etc.

Healing witches are on the brink of Devildoms society, almost outcasts as their magic is one learned from angels, but takes the most control and power, thus are respected nonetheless. Do I have a potential Romeo and Juliet story to go with this? Possibly

Demons

- Ok, again gotta split this up into

Demon born vs Fallen angel

As well as Elemental vs Sin

Demon born- they are inherently more aggressive. Early years are a pain....young demons likely being the most difficult children in devildom to raise.

Fallen angel- depends whether they wantwd to fall or not this isnt important rn-

Sin demons- the result of either accidental offspring from the brothers, or years of dedicated servuce to any one brother allowing their sin to slowly corrupt and invade the family line.

Elemental demons- like elemental witches.

Included under the humanoid category would be other beings like merfolk, as well as necromancers.

Demons are also ranked from nobility down to imps.

Monster

There are way too many to get into for this, but there is no way everyone is humanoid in the Devildom- thus allowing hell to be a home for goblins, trolls, gorgons, monsters without names, SCPs/other cryptids- literally, everything. If yall want me to get more into it, then let me know- I think I might be able too-

#obey me #obey me shall we date #v talks #obey me!#obey me thoughts #obey me hcs #obey me headcanons #we shall see if this motivation can be carried over to do othwr stuff

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ghosty1111 · 3 years

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ok fuck it im gonna Post My Opinion Online™️ again bc i gotta rant about this fucking movie

venom 2 had so much potential as a romance movie, and i tried literally SO fucking hard to listen to everyones view points (even viewpoints of straight people!!) but still cant agree/see it that way. the director stated it was about their relationship as host/symbiote, and i honestly believe him. and im mad it turned out that way after all the buildup from the first movie.

lets start with act 1. the 'lovers quarrel' as everyone puts it. yes, i agree they use typical tropes like 'take youre stuff and leave!' and all that, but for something to be even considered a lovers quarrel, it has to be classified as a relationship before hand. all the scenes leading up to that was about how they cant get along and cant see eye to eye (no, venom making eddie breakfast in an attempt to prove his worth to him is not an excuse for romance. i might have to watch again to confirm the exact motive, but im pretty sure love wasnt it).

rewind to the first movie, which shows a perfect example of how a quarrel should be formatted. they meet eachother, they start to bond, they have a small fight, they change their percpectives, reunite with a stronger relationship ('what made you change your mind?' 'you, eddie.') and ends with them getting along better than before.

but, since the second movie starts with the quarrel, the implication doesnt work. the pattern for the trope to be successful isnt there. what SHOULDVE happened was for them to be at the same level they ended the previous movie with, THEN end act 1 with the quarrel, which at that point can now be classified as closer to a 'lovers'. and what would continue to make it a lovers, would be the outcome of the quarrel. the first movies quarrel made them realize theyre closer than just host and symbiote, and so logically, this next one would end in them realizing theyre more than just friends.

now, how this ties into eddies arc + the apology scene. imo eddies arc went nowhere in the entire movie. the movie established in the beginning that hes not good with honesty and putting his thoughts/concerns into words (scene with anne). then, during the apology scene later, instead of having actually change and learn to properly speak his mind, he simply repeats the exact words he used against venom in their fight and apologizes for it, rather than thinking up something geniune. (again, how tf is this good romance writing? or romantic at all?)

venoms arc didnt change much either, not that he really had one. what im trying to say is that i think they both ended the movie the exact same as they were when it began.

ideally, eddie would have an arc about trust and honesty, that hes not a 'cancer' to others and just needs to learn how to adapt to the needs of the ones hes close to. venom would have a similar arc, coming to terms with human rules for living and the reasons why eddie cant just do whatever he wants all the time, and that theyre not both losers if they continue to work together. the overall main arc for them would be realizing they both actually have a lot in common, both connecting as kicked-out outcasts, but are different enough to know how to heal the others faults. their strengths and weaknesses fit together like puzzle pieces, and only together can they help the other thrive. not just in terms of staying alive, but in an emotional way. a human romantic relationship kind of way. a soulbond kind of way.

because eddie isnt exactly the most normal human, venom has a lot more human traits than the average symbiote, and they both have a lot of problems that the other has the potential to fix. thats what the movie shouldve been about.

final note!!!! im really tired.

#venom #venom 2 #symbrock #Authors Note: im gay im queer im mlm and im a monsterfucker. no i did not like venom 2. we are not the same 😑🙄#ghost talk.txt #i plan on watching it again sometime in the future to figure out if it was just bad first impressions #but damn. i do know for sure that they fucked up carnages character too. and i dont forgive them for that either 😁#they gave the guy like 5 lines and NONE OF THEM were witty one liners HOW DO U FUCK UP THIS BADDD #i wont make another venom 2 rant essay dw about it dw

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ahwait-no-yes · 4 years

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so basically my friend told me today about her dream she had that involved a demon and of course my mind went “...SAIOU AU”

here’s our convo so it makes sense:

if I had the motivation i would DEFINITELY write a fic about this- the fluff/crack/angst potential is t h e r e

and as a bonus doodle,

story is under the cut (it’s long)

“I was gonna keep this in tags but hsdf;j” is what I originally wrote here until I started thinking about this more and sorta wrote the whole plot-

-> as ouma’s killing the other monster things he flirts with shuuichi while the poor demon has never been flirted with so he’s stood there all confused and ??? (his version of blushing would be like, the fire coming from his small horns gets bigger and brighter)

-> the one he summons ends up being like. kaede and they both just end up having to lecture shuuichi on why it is that he should not want to die so easily

-> eventually kokichi and kaede wanna give him a hug so they try to but shuuichi’s Extra Hot™ (from being a demon and also probably blushing) so they both immediately regret that choice but kokichi laughs and gives an obligatory pun about shuuichi being hot which only confuses him because ‘of course im hot?? im a demon??’ while kaede explains what ouma meant

-> imagine shuuichi crying (fire tears..) at the generosity of these two strangers who a) aren’t absolutely terrified of him, b) refuse to hurt him and c) actually *want* to help him and ouma actually inwardly understanding a little bc he’d never imagine someone actually wanting to be with himself either

-> saihara now wanting to know what it’s like to live as a human with ouma and akamatsu but being unable to find a way (except for maybe being undercover?) but promising he’ll bring ouma back to him (he’s aware of the whole aging phenomenon in the lil demon world so he wants to keep their time short) and ouma finding that now he has something to look forward to

-> the 👏 mutual 👏 pining 👏 that commences after they both have to leave each other (if kaede knows kokichi in the real world she’d definitely tease him a little knowing he has a crush- this is probably good potential for building oumaede friendship)

-> it takes a while before ouma and saihara can see eachother again because getting the two to escape without killing saihara exerted a lot of energy on him, but they do get to! about once a month to be safe, and they get to know stuff about eachother like which shops ouma likes to steal from and shuuichi’s really loud demon friend he once had (aka momota)

-> one day though saihara tells ouma that if he keeps doing this he’ll die of exhaustion (it takes a lot of energy from saihara to get ouma in and out of there) and ouma calling him an idiot but really being worried. saihara tells him not to worry about him even if something happens to him, and makes ouma go back to the real world

-> ouma doesn’t hear from him after that

-> he worries he might have been killed or saihara forgot about him and feels stupid for being so hopeful in something so childishly impossible and starts trying to forget about him

-> the real world is aware of demons cause people talk about them (and obvs you can tell when someone’s gone to their.. dimension thing because you can visibly see them age) so still denying that he’s curious and likes saihara still, ouma tries to go to libraries and do his own research on demons and ends up finding out that saihara specifically comes from a bloodline that makes him quite powerful if not for that he wouldnt want to take the risks that come with it and then lowkey gets excited again for saihara while still in ✨denial ✨

-> it’s been almost a year when saihara has enough energy (and more) to ensure that his new plan is successfully carried out and that ouma (and potentially 1 more..) gets back to the real world safely. he created this plan when he figured out how to exist in the real world- by sacrificing the thing he cares most about

-> so when ouma suddenly gets that off-feeling people get when they’re leaving the real world he feels very many emotions at once (giddily going ”ohh my god its not this it cant be this no way oh heck tthisis not happening not a chance”) until he sees the face he’s been waiting 4 months for again except this time it looks.. frighteningly cold

-> ouma’s instincts are screaming at him that something is very, very wrong here especially when he can’t hear any warmth when saihara says “Welcome back, Ouma. It’s your final time” and explains the whole ‘kill these monsters then kill me’ thing again

-> ouma’s confusion inevitably turns to annoyance as he kills the dudes (there appears to be a lot more than there was last time) and fires questions at saihara (‘is this saihara?’ ‘what happened to you??’ ‘do you even remember me?’) while saihara stays silent for the whole time thinking about how he really doesn’t want to be doing this.

-> eventually ouma decides he was wrong (again) to have put his faith in a guy- a demon- he only met once a month.. even if said demon gave him something to look forward to

-> when he finally gets to saihara alone he internally notes that saihara cant look him in the eye, but he finally speaks to tell ouma that now either himself or ouma will now die (saihara knows this is for sake of the sacrifice, but he can’t let ouma know else it won’t work)

-> ouma refuses to fight him again, expecting saihara to snap back into the meek demon from a year and some months ago, but rather than that happening saihara actually says something like “if you won’t kill me, I’ll have to kill you” and swings at him

-> even if ouma was on his full guard, he still would’ve been surprised by how strong saihara actually could be when he tried to fight- and of course saihara can’t stop now that he’s started but ouma hears the hesitation when saihara asks “are you going to kill me yet?” and gets annoyed that the whole time he spent with him and even akamatsu meant nothing. saihara smiles sadly knowing he’s achieving his goal but ouma thinks he’s smiling at the thought of dying and gets somehow even more annoyed

-> during their whole fight, insert “I’m alone, Ouma, and I will always be” line from saihara, “No amount of talking can convince me otherwise, Ouma. I’m sorry it took so long, but it was foolish of you to trust a demon you met only once” or something and yes it hurts saihara too but ouma’s staying silent and before saihara can continue, ouma fires back with “You’re right- you are meant to be alone. You were always meant to be that kind of guy” and stops dodging to start finally attacking- this is when saihara knows he’s pretty much achieved his target: sacrificing ouma’s trust in him

-> just as ouma swipes at him, saihara’s lil spell thing is activated that takes saihara back to the real world, disguised so people don’t see him as a demon. but now ouma thinks he’s just killed saihara (I just attacked him. and he is gone. i dont know what that light was but i must have just killed him. oh my god im a murderer.”)

-> saihara hiding in the forest to do the lil spell thing again but on ouma (all the time he spent saving on energy was worth it) so ouma gets transported to the real world too and immediately runs to tell akamatsu everything that happened

-> saihara trying to find to blend in with humans from what he remembers of how they act but he doesnt need to particularly eat he just needs a heck ton of sleep so he basically just lives in the forest now. he’s very sensitive to water so he actively stays away from it too (it wont kill him but it does make him sick). he’s still feverishly warm but not scalding and he also decides to work at a store to fit in more

-> ouma regretting what he did to saihara even though saihara hurt him first and realising he misses him

-> saihara ends up accidentally bumping into him at the store he works at that ouma conveniently steals from a lot (”Ouma, you’d make a good demon” “Nishishi! What do you mean? I’m a perfect little angel!”) and saihara gasping when he notices ouma’s unforgettable purple hair and cute smile.

-> ouma finding something familiar about this awkward new staff with the cute face and deciding he’ll visit the shop more often to see this stranger and not because said stranger might help him get over his demon crush

-> then they get to know eachother again for the 2nd time, and as much as this guy is really cute, he clearly knows more than he’s letting on... so of course ouma’s gotta now pay even more attention to him. just so he knows what the guy’s hiding. not cause he wants to know him.

-> one day saihara is sick from trying to protect himself from the rain (cause yk, water bad) so he stays in the forest instead of coming in to focus his energy on getting better and also not blowing his cover. ouma notices he isnt there on that day and asks other staff members where he lives and they’re all like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-> it rains quite a bit after that, inevitably making saihara even more sick and in turn needing time away to himself, so ouma starts getting worried when saihara stops coming to work

-> saihara really wants to see him though, so one day he tries to drag himself to work in a terrible state where he’s actually almost cold for once and collapses after trying to run to ouma. ouma sees him and tells his manager he cant work nd takes him home himself where saihara wakes up confused

-> ouma lecturing saihara because he worried him and the way he fell reminded him of.. someone (demon shuu).. then he asks vague questions to saihara about if he’s ever met a demon and half-confesses to having met one himself multiple times and ending up falling in love and then probably killing them

-> saihara, in his tired state, tells him his story of how he was raised to believe he had no purpose other than to meet someone who would kill him, eventually finding that person but instead of looking at him with fear or anger he looked at him with admiration and playfulness, how the guy meant to kill him refused to and flirted w him instead. ouma has probably clicked on by this point but saihara continues to tell him he wanted to protect that guy with the power he had so he took time away from his first ‘job’ to find out how to be with him. saihara is probably shaking at this point while he continues telling him about how he found out he had to sacrifice the most important thing to him, so he “went and had a terrible argument with him one day and i ran away. but i’ve never stopped looking for him since, he showed me that even a demon like me can fall in love” (there’s the ✨grand confession ✨)

-> ouma saw it coming from the moment saihara started speaking, but that didnt stop him from being utterly paralysed. of COURSE saihara has to say “When I said you’d make a good demon I really wasn’t lying. Your hand is so warm it could fool even me” which possibly makes ouma completely combust before absolutely bolting out the door and calling akamatsu to tell her to get to his house (”AKAMATSU-CHAN I’M GONNA DIE RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON’T GET HERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT THIS SECOND”)

-> while waiting for kaede, shuuichi explains that he needs to be Warm™ and immediately holds kokichi’s hold again, while the other’s having a gay panic.. and he doesnt know how to feel because on one hand, his beloved demon is.. right here, in the ‘flesh’, holding his hand, telling him he fell in love with him.. but on the other hand, that doesnt excuse the confusion and hurt he put him through back then, not being able to see him for a whole damn year..

-> ouma ignores all the feelings when akamatsu arrives where she’s brought water and blankets (just in case- i feel like shes the kind of friend who would do that) so saihara takes the blankets and ouma takes the water and she calms them both down and gets them to explain everything slowly and in their own time. its awkward esp for ouma who isnt particularly close with her, but they manage it in the end

-> they decide shuuichi literally cant live in the forest so of course now he has to live with ouma but akamatsu offers to help if it ever gets too much for ouma which obviously ouma denies. she leaves soon and its just them but ouma needs some time to himself to clear his head and he only returns late to see saihara asleep clinging onto akamatsu’s blanket with his life lmao so ouma sighs and brings him more. and if he kisses the sleeping demon’s forehead, nobody has to know

-> ofc its still very much awkward and it takes ouma getting used to having even just another presence in his home, let alone his sort-of-unofficial-demon-bf and saihara’s still sleeping a lot of the time but recovering

-> they probably establish their feelings for eachother properly when they’re more mentally prepared for it, and then 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 (they kiss) and are now actually legally boyfriends. i absolutely cannot let this end in angst so they’re happy and love eachother now yay the end

nngl. i talked about this with that same friend and I lowkey want to start writing an actual fic for it now that ive written... literally the entire plot, but if i do that it probably wont be out for a while bc i take 10 years to write lmao-- plus i hardly ever finish what i start so uh yeah.. but hopefully! im not even good at writing fic this is just the plot but yello

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