#muse-pitch

[toranoya]

Jack’s rage

@chaoticxgays​

"You have Jamie?" Jack mumbled, staff lowering. How? He was just with Jamie a few hours ago!

Jack's face again contorted into anger. But he relented, lowering his staff.

"Fine. If you let Jamie go. What do you want, Pitch?" Venom laced the others name on Jack's tongue. Last time he fell for this, Pitch double crossed him and didn't intend to let Baby Tooth go. If Pitch does that again....

=

Pitch smiled as he stroked Jack’s cheek almost condescendingly. Oh the rage in Jack’s eyes made him want to humble the newest Guardian even more, not to mention the revenge for his hand in helping defeat him all those years ago.

Of course, Jack should have known that the Boogeyman would always be back in time. Humans would always have fears and nightmares after all, just as well as they had hopes and beliefs.

“Well that is not a very congenial tone Jack, how about you start by going to your knees and apologizing?”

[kailoraurelius]

I’ve been crying over “Falling in love with Chloe was an accident.” for the past 10 minutes wtf lmao 😭😭 thats so her I cant

That line alone needs its own story

Beca tried to read the dictionary once, back in elementary school. Her classes were boring and the kids around her were boring and she figured—with the logic of a child—reading the dictionary would mean she knew what everything meant and she'd be smarter and could finish school faster. It was a brilliant, flawless plan.

She didn't even make it through the A's, because reading the dictionary was boring too. Obviously.

But she remembers some of the words she read pretty well. And one in particular has been bugging her for a while now.

Accident—An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.

There's other, less cool definitions that pop up when she googles it to make sure she remembers right. But this is the definition that sticks out to her.

A lot of things in her life have happened by accident, she thinks. Accepting her dad's college deal to get him off her back accidentally led to her finishing out her degree. Landing the job in New York accidentally led to her and Jesse breaking up. (There was another, more pressing reason, but they've silently agreed to let this be the story for now.) Not being able to afford the ridiculous rent on her own accidentally led to her having to roommate with Chloe and Amy. And, related, not being able to afford more than a studio apartment, even with the three of them chipping in, accidentally led to her sharing a bed with Chloe. For the foreseeable future.

Which brings everything back around to that more pressing reason for her and Jesse's breakup...

Falling in love with Chloe was an accident. There was Jesse and he was cool. Not a great boyfriend, but a good one. And a great friend. Which felt like a good enough balance back then. It should have worked for her.

But there was also Chloe and she was...everything. Shockingly bold, hopelessly optimistic, and undyingly kind. And beautiful. The kind of beautiful that artists desperately attempt to create. The kind that makes Beca's stomach flutter when it's too close.

Jesse noticed it first. And it wasn't until he flat out said, "You're in love with Chloe" that she was able to fully accept it herself.

Falling in love with Chloe was an accident. Except...she doesn't think it was. Because how can there not be "apparent or deliberate cause" when Chloe is constantly running her fingers along Beca’s forearms just the way she likes or waking her in the mornings by shaking her with soft hands and even softer whispers. Is it "chance" that Chloe always knows exactly how Beca wants the music she makes to be interpreted? Just chance that Chloe can sense Beca's mood without her even speaking?

It can't be, Beca thinks as she sits on the end of their bed, watching Chloe. It's just the two of them, Amy out with Bumper for the evening, and Beca's just staring as Chloe dances around the kitchen while she cooks. She hums and sways her hips to whatever song is stuck in her head today. When it comes time to add the cheese to her pasta, she opens the fridge and pulls out the cheddar. Amy's favorite is cheddar. Chloe's is pepper jack and Beca knows for a fact that there's a bag of it in the fridge, right beside where the cheddar was. The spoon taps gently against the side of the pot, musically, as Chloe stirs with one hand and conducts a silent orchestra with the other.

And that can't all be chance. Can't all be without apparent or deliberate cause. Because Chloe was made to be loved. Designed to draw people in and make them want to build a home in her presence. Everyone falls in love with her, because how could they not? And Beca, in particular, feels targeted. Because it can't be an accident that this girl who is Beca's opposite in so many ways harmonizes with her so perfectly. It just can't be.

And maybe that's why Beca speaks up.

"I love you, you know."

Chloe nearly drops the spoon as she spins around. "What did you say?"

Another time, another version of herself, she may have taken it back. Or turned it into a joke so nothing would get weird or awkward. But right here and now, she's so certain that none of this is happenstance. It was inevitable. "I'm in love with you," Beca says, shrugging. "I have been for forever. And I don't know why the hell I decided to tell you right now, but uh." She shrugs again and stands up.

Chloe hasn't moved from her place at the stove and she watches with wide eyes and trembling hands as Beca crosses the distance between them.

"I don't know, dude. You just..." Awkwardly, Beca motions to the dinner on the stove and the kitchen in general that Chloe has been dancing in for the last hour. "I just wanted to...say it. I guess. And it's totally cool if you—"

Chloe kisses her like she was made to do just that. Her arms wrap around Beca's neck with the kind of ease born of years and years of friendly hugs and maybe cosmic design. And when Beca grabs her hips to pull her in closer, Chloe’s sigh sounds so much like, "Finally".

When Chloe eventually pulls back, it's with a smile Beca knows well. She saw it that day in the showers of Barden, on stages around the world, and almost every morning since they moved in together.

"I'm in love with you too. Totes ridiculously in love." Chloe laughs against her lips as she steals another kiss. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

"You should tell me." Beca grins when Chloe kisses her again for it.

"I will. But first." Chloe winces apologetically as she removes one arm from around Beca's neck and reveals she's still holding the cheese sauce-covered spoon. "I think I just got sauce on your shirt." She tugs Beca to the side to check her back. "Shit, I totally did. I'm sorry!"

Beca just laughs. "It's okay. It was an accident."

[nadsdraws]

God does not play dice with the universe... but Metatron does

[lookmomitsmytmblr]

I just realized... In Partners In Crime we have Donna explaining why she and the Doctor wouldn't be a couple:

And then four episodes later in The Doctor's Daughter we have her explaining why they couldn't be a couple:

It seems to me like she's putting a lot more emphasis on external factors and deflecting her own feelings about it??

Then in the next episode they kiss and episode after that she calls him pretty ("Oh that came out a bit quick...")

Okay girl, whatever you say. Sure you went from "You are the most repulsive unattractive person I could possibly imagine, and an alien to boot" to "Well if we got together someone might arrest us so we're just friends." But I'll take your word for it.

[jennycalendar]

God. I just recreated willow rosenberg w marigold. btvs mutuals imagine willow if the need for validation was for some reason replaced by an aversion to it WHILE STILL being an academic overachiever with a desire to earn love and you will understand my wizard baby

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

@bcasais on TikTok and Instagram is my Zoya Zabini fancast now because

…

[starlit-eudemonia]

Recently, I was learning abt birds came across the fact that most birds have a syrinx as their voice box responsible for vocal production. This can allow them to harmonize w/ themselves. I think that would be really cool if Mhin has that ability in both their human and monster form?

And they just- have the ability to speak in two different pitches at the same time and they kind of just resonate it as one voice when speaking. Also, when out of control their voice box is more distorted or harmonized? Just a thought.

[kazeofthemagun]

[Did someone say biting.]

[This is a man whose mouth you rarely see, but should he ever get the opportunity, he will take your fingers off in a brawl. Get your hands near his face at your peril. This man does not fight cleanly. Kumo will strike you down in one blow, Kaze - give him even a sliver of leeway in cqc and he will tear you apart, between dagger and fangs and fan blades. This man's whole body is a weapon.]

[instantartific]

Thinking about 1010 and sentience.

And the concept of them learning it from Neon himself. Gradually, as their intelligence grew, they began to pick up certain qualities that he has and each one developed their entire beings around different parts of their Captain. The concept of them all just being different versions of a younger, far more impulsive, him.

But to a certain degree, they share certain qualities across all of them. And the thought of one of those qualities being J's paranoia.

Because they were made to perform. They were made to sing and dance and make people swoon, that's all they're meant to do. And they were meant to obey.

They were meant to obey.

Without thinking. Without wanting.

Yet, gradually. Something changes with that. They begin to have different responses to things than they're used to. Different trains of 'thought,' if it can be called that. They begin to have the slightest inklings of urges to question what they're told.

Maybe to the degree of urges to disobey. To hesitate. To want.

And the thought of these new things they begin to feel and urges they begin to have. The thought that they began as behaviors that they copied from Neon long enough that they became a part of them, too, a part of their unique identities.

And yet, even then, they have doubt.

Doubt that it's good for the unit. That it's good for their purpose. Good for their cause.

And it starts to eat away at them, little by little, until they begin to doubt everything.

Can the others tell that I've changed?

Would they tell him if I asked?

Does he already know?

And this worry, this knowledge that in the past they've been reset and overwritten over things far smaller than that. Knowing that he can alter their memories. Take things away if need be.

And it begins to drive them insane.

And they begin to lose faith.

And they begin to lose trust.

Until eventually they hold on to these new sensations and new experiences so fiercely that they choose this new sense of awareness and this new sense of identity over their fellow men.

Over their unit.

Over their captain.

Over their father.

And the thought of them being willing to do anything to keep hold of it. Just to have something that's unique to them. Something that is theirs, something that isn't forced or meant or made or programmed. Something that they own. Something that is a part of them.

And the thought of the first thing they decide to do without being told is run away.

And all of this simply because:

Like father like son.

They were born paranoid.

[thenextchapterbegins]

Points at you

"your cringe"

[protect-namine]

I am about to start a neji route (because I feel that I need at least three playthroughs to fully understand neji and his plays, so I can't leave him for last). so my thoughts on this may change, but for the moment, my thesis is that neji and kisa are the same kind of thespian, just in different fonts.

(I am slightly exaggerating kisa'a character here. there are hints and I do think pushing the envelope of what her character could be is part of what makes kisa... kisa. as I'll explain later, for better and worse, kisa is constrained by the conventions of being an otome heroine.)

anyway. in essence. neji turns Other Persons into stories,

and kisa turns Other Persons into performances,

while they both simultaneously run away from, avoid, or sacrifice Becoming Persons themselves, for the sake of theater

or maybe it's the other way around. something something discovery if not recognition of the self through the other... except they're both unreliable narrators so who's to say if the recognition actually takes hold, really. kisa at least is a little bit self aware. neji, on the other hand, deals with realizations of the self through writing, without actually processing them (e.g. ms robin, domina, etc).

I keep thinking about (novel) kisa closing her eyes and feeling like her sense of self would melt away until tsuki centers her and gives her theater as a way to heal from the grief of losing her mother. it happens again during tsuki's univeil performance: kisa curling in on herself and tsuki pulling her back to theater as way to help kisa move forward with her dreams. pretending to be others is more fun than being herself.

and then there is neji (insert spiderman pointing at spiderman meme). but in his case, he would rather play eccentric roles, caricatures, comic relief, than be a Person With Depth on stage. neji is always either a seer of some kind (a fortune teller, a ghost who sees 10 seconds into the future) or a bit character (employee A), or... whatever he initially planned for domina. he is the mechanic behind the stage, but never the lead actor. his vulnerabilities do not need to "stolen" for the story, though others' are fair game.

kisa does not think about gender as it applies to herself in her daily life (mostly) and only sees it through the lens of acting and theater. how does she act mukai vs maiden, charles vs chicchi? the same way that neji does not think about the motifs and characters he writes as a window to himself, but rather as objects to be put on stage. rukiora is based on a younger neji, mary jane is I Am Death: Revisited (mary jane is to takihime as gashadokuro is to jacob), sissia is always meant to be the foil to I Am Death. but neji doeen't really understand that just like how he didn't understand oh rama havenna. sissia (kisa route, jack jeanne ver) is to kisa as domina is to neji.

literally kisa at her most extreme is just theater thoughts 24/7

kisa "I don't like being me; I'd rather be other people" tachibana 🤝 kokuto "I need to experiment and witness visions I can't create or I'll die" neji: this is a totally sane and Normal way to cope with abandonment and grief 👍

(it is not implied in the game, but since kisa turned to theater to cope with grief as a child, I wonder if the reason she never looks too deeply into tsuki's disappearance is because she's once again using theater as an excuse to conveniently Not Think About It. out of sight, out of mind. tsuki must be doing well, wherever he is, whatever it is he's doing.)

there is also the meta perspective of how kisa in-game inhabits a role where the player can (and is expected to) self-insert. otome dictates that protagonist kisa must be malleable to the player (who can choose to focus on a variety of relationships in her stead), and the plot dictates that actor kisa must be malleable to her stage roles (jack or jeanne, maiden or hero, flower or vessel), and novel kisa dictates that kisa must malleable to pretending to be other people because it's more preferable to being herself.

every thought she has about herself must be tied to acting, somehow. kisa's personhood is defined through stagecraft. she is the maiden, and mukai, and charles, and chicchi, and sissia. she can romance anyone in the school, of the player's choosing. she can be jack, and jeanne, and jack jeanne. don't get me wrong; kisa is her own character and has a strongly defined personality, but the story also demands for her to be malleable. a painting and a blank canvass at the same time.

neji externalizes where kisa internalizes. where kisa Must Perform™ to function and to avoid herself, neji Must Create™ to function and to avoid himself. scriptwriter neji dictates that neji must use everything at his disposal — his memories, his classmates, his obscure knowledge — as inspiration for stories. director neji dictates that he must use everything he knows about his actors — their complexes, their relationships, their weaknesses and strengths — as inspiration for stories. from the cook (mitsuki) needing apricots for a recipe and wanting to harvest honey from a beehive, to mary jane (fumi) being good at sewing and wanting an equal in jacob. suzu and sou fighting and developing a rivalry leads to jire and fugio fighting over chicchi. kai limits himself as a vessel in hasekura, and kai learns to embrace his desires as the priest. from the water/ocean/drowning themes, to rukiora being based on neji's younger self, and her family life and relationship with domina.

every thought neji has must be tied to stories, somehow. neji's personhood is scattered through stagecraft. the more you read his plays and lyrics, the more you get a glimpse of who he is. it is to the point that neji himself doesn't... really see how his stories reflect himself. ms robin being a "random" song the jazz lounge singer sings thay hasekura and ando can dance to, oh rama havenna being a so-so throwaway play that neji doesn't understand why it's entertaining. lmao. neji, please.

and this is why when problems arise, neji becomes a demanding director and kisa becomes a chameleon actor with a shaky sense of self (we don't really see this a lot because jack jeanne is not that dark of a story and kisa is still an otome heroine of an uplifting game, but it's a reasonable conclusion if you push hard on the kisa from neji's "good morning" exercise, or kisa going ham on method acting as charles. kinda wish the game explored more of that. I think a very stressed kisa can get lost in method acting, just as a very stressed neji is almost paralyzed by the fear of the death of talent).

idk where I was going with this. just. them. they have the same issues, just in different fonts. and I think that's actually what first attracts neji to kisa. kisa "steals" (to borrow neji's own words) just like him. kisa is a fountain of inspiration, an ever changing muse. and neji provides kisa with an endless amount of prompts and characters for her to inhabit. kisa does like to play pretend a lot. that's why she's in theater!

kisa and neji: Art Imitates Life people stuck in a Life Imitates Art video game

ANYWAY usual disclaimer that I'm jotting down livebloghing thoughts and I know some spoilers to neji's route but I'm only just about to actualy start his playthrough so. yeah. this was drafted all the way back in may lol, opinions may change and all that

[entriprises]

FLEW THE COOP ! when a model finds herself suddenly in the hot seat of a criminal investigation, she puts all her hope into an out-of-work singing detective to clear her name.

an affiliated verse with @lvebug

[feralchaton]

The rain washes the snow from the pavements. Stark contrast of softness locked onto the grass to the hard, practical, asphalt. This storm has fallen into the same rut as the surrounding people with grey and cloudy faces. A world of black and white hiding tones of gold and green if you look closely; white cocooning the pigments and hues, a promise to reveal more in time. Softer to fall in, easier to walk through, depictions of blanket and down. The road cleared it all, permanently. Flashes of mysterious vibrancy cast upon, slickened, bone-breaking, blankness; distorted reflective shimmer upon unfeeling stepping stone. Follow the steps in the grass.

feralchaton

[spxcemuses]

Is fortunate that he didn't attend the ball for the most part. Even if he did have the potential to be murdered, he would've stopped the killer (unless they were somehow more powerful than him). Pitch observed the open mic event from a distance, keeping to his shadowy form so as to not draw unwanted attention. He still has a dance to make up for, when the time is right.

@qveenofgluttony | @infernal-general/ @phoenixborn

[fever-pitches]

One thing I love about anime and cartoons is them including people sneezing when someone is talking about them somewhere else.

It just goes unspoken but we all know what it means and I think that's so cute and human of us.

[darabeatha]