#nobody has to say anything ever again we have it. we have the most correct statement ever

[spoopdeedoop]

hi um. can I add my two cents about 11ponds. to me they are geocentric. 11 is the sun, Amy is earth and Rory is moon but they are inverted. the earth is the centre of the universe that the moon and sun both orbit. it's not ment to be like that, its supposed to be the earth and moon are just a pair orbiting the sun that has many other celestial bodies orbiting it. but. for them it's the other way round. Amy is the centre of Rory's universe, he is married to her, the closest anyone can get. but just past him, orbiting them both is a hunge firey ball of power so incomprehensible he looks small, the same size as them, from the earth's perspective. he orbits around the earth and therefore also the moon, but cannot truly get closer to them because he will burn them up. he can only shine his light and warmth on them, for better or worse. and the whole time, the sun and moon follow the earth across the universe all bound together, untill the sun gets so big and old it swallow them both up, and he has nothing but his memories of them. um.anyway sorry for being so insane I hope this makes sense<3

HELLO?/.????????????????///?????///

[luveline]

Hiii!! Could I request a bombshell reader x Spencer where someone (a local police maybe) says something rude to her about her appearance or something and normally it doesn’t really get to her, but something snaps and she kinda shuts down/is rude to Spencer until he coaxes it out of her? Sorry it’s long I had an idea and ran w it loollll

ty for requesting angel! confident fem!reader, 1k

Spencer shouldn’t expect his colleague to hold his hand, especially one so confident. What sense would that make, a woman as established as you are, who smiles without a lick of worry nor smugness, wanting to hold his hand? 

But you do it all the time, is the thing. In the car on the way to crime scenes, in the hallways of the office, under the round table. It started as a tethering for his distractedness, when one day he’d wanted to talk but hadn’t had the presence of mind to walk at the same time, so you’d taken his hand and led him to the office. You’ve been taking it at your discretion ever since.  

Spencer knows something is wrong —you haven’t tried to hold his hand all day. And even if you aren’t interested in him romantically, Spencer has come to crave the touch. He’ll accept platonic hand holding. Anything, really. 

“You’re staring very deeply, Dr. Reid,” you mutter, shades from your usual lightness. 

“I’m thinking.” 

“Aren’t you always?” 

“About you.”

“Well,” you smile fleetingly. “You should always be thinking about me.” 

“You’re truly humble.” 

His joke doesn’t land, it crashes and burns; your smile fades completely into a short, sharp line. Your gaze moves back into the restaurant, waiting for the team's food order in silence once again. 

Spencer’s pinky finger twitches across the gap. 

“Is everything okay?” he asks. 

“Fine.” 

You stay quiet, Spencer worries. He takes the bags before you can when they bring your food to the collection desk, two lumps of heat he holds to his thighs as you begin the walk back to the hotel. Tonight, the team will pick at their food together and rehash the same arguments they’ve been making all day, filling in each other's gaps, and tomorrow the work will start again. He can’t have you this unhappy again tomorrow. 

“You’re amazing,” he says, watching you turn to him from the corner of his eye, “you know you are, we all do, everyone who meets you. I know you don’t need me to tell you that, or to feel better, but… I’m here for you. If you want to talk. It’s been a hard couple of days, and talking about traumatic events as they happen and directly afterward make them easier to recover from.” 

“I’m not traumatised.” 

“Upsetting,” he corrects. “Having a shoulder to cry on is good for you, and I can be that shoulder. You know, if you need me to be.” 

He can’t know this in the moment, though maybe one day you’ll tell him, further down the line when the hand holding is better defined, but you look at him and you love him. To know Spencer is to love him. Or at least that’s how you’ve always felt. You’d love to cry on his shoulder about what transpired that morning if it weren’t embarrassing to think about, you’re upset over a throwaway comment made by nobody important. 

Spencer offers his company earnestly. He stammers. It’s amazingly sincere, as he usually is. He won’t mind if it’s embarrassing, he’ll just listen. 

You clear your throat. “I know I’m not to everyone’s taste. I know that the way I… present myself isn’t what most men like. People love confidence, but not when it’s bossy, not when it’s– when it’s vain. And I am vain. I think about my appearance a lot, I think I’m beautiful most of the time, I try so hard to have that be true.” You eye him thoughtfully. “Do you realise that?” 

He shakes his head gently, one ear toward one shoulder and then the other, as though balancing. “Sort of. I know you put effort into your appearance, but I also assume a lot of it to be natural.” 

“Right, well. It’s not natural. Not really. My natural beauty wouldn’t be all the beautiful to most people. And I’ve accepted that, I know what I like about myself, and–” You’re losing the thread of your point, an upset creeping into your melodic tone and turning it ragged. “When people tell me they don’t like how I look now, I guess it hurts because I know they wouldn’t like me before, either, and I feel defeated because I know I can’t win.” 

“Who said they don’t like how you look?” Spencer asks, confused, on his way to annoyed. 

“Officer Friendly.” You look to your shoes, watching the steps you take. “Guess he wasn’t as nice as we thought.” 

“What did he say to you?” 

You shrug. “Same story. He doesn’t like girls who wear makeup. Doesn’t like uppity women.” 

“Did he call you that?” 

“What are you gonna do if he did?” you ask without malice. 

“Morgan’s teaching me self defence for a reason.” You smile at his light joke, though it doesn’t last. He transfers the takeout bags into one hand, the other held out to you, his fingers sliding down your arm to your wrist. “You know you’re beautiful, with or without makeup. And you’re not uppity, you’re out of his league. There’s a difference.” 

“You’re flirting with me.” 

“No.” He wishes he had the wherewithal sometimes, but this isn’t flirting. “I’m being honest with you. Men like that don’t like you because they know they’ll never, ever have you, or anyone like you. There isn’t anyone like you,” he adds, sliding his hand into yours. 

He squeezes all your fingers together twice in quick succession. 

“Don’t let a jealous chauvinist halfwit make you think you’re not good enough,” he says. 

You curl your fingers around his before he can take his hand back. Slowly, you squeeze his hand. Then, smiling, you let him go. 

“I’ve never heard you say something mean like that,” you say. “Halfwit. That’s crass.” 

“I was going to say he’s an asshole, if that’s better.” 

Your laugh echoes off of the sidewalk. “That’s perfect. Say something meaner.” 

The insult he uses next doesn’t bear repeating. 

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FROM SHREK 2 *  assorted dialogue from the 2004 film, adjust as necessary

quick! tell a lie!

i can't believe you're just gonna walk away from the best thing that ever happened to you.

say something crazy, like "i'm wearing ladies underwear!"

i most certainly am not!

it's a thong!

i don't feel any different. do i look any different?

you still look like an ass to me.

nobody said i have the right to remain silent!

you have the right to remain silent. what you lack is the capacity.

stop. i have misjudged you.

join the club. we got jackets.

look, she's not seeing any clients today.

we're from the union.

we represent the workers in all magical industries, both evil and benign.

are you feeling at all degraded or oppressed?

okay, we're going to have a look around.

think of the saddest thing that's ever happened to you.

oh man. where do i begin?

they all got drunk and started hitting me with sticks, yelling "piñata! piñata!"

i need you to cry!

all i got in my room was shampoo.

i hate mondays.

who on earth are they?

that's not little. that's a really big problem.

we came, we saw them, now let's go before they light the torches.

they're my parents!

good! now's our chance! let's go back inside and pretend we're not home.

quick, while they're not looking, we can make a run for it.

you can do this.

i don't want to die!

oh sweet sister mother of mercy! i'm melting! i'm melting!

i'm sorry, the position of annoying talking animal has already been taken.

oh look! a little cat!

look out! he's got a piece!

are we there yet?

oh god help me! please!

tell the truth. will i ever be able to play the violin again?

i drank the potion and well, now... i'm sexy.

oh pick me! i'll be your true love!

someday i will repay you, unless of course i can't find you, or if i forget.

fear me, if you dare.

i had hoped you would never see me like this.

i'm sorry to both of you.

i just wish i could be the man that you deserve.

go! your lady needs you!

today, i repay my debt.

who dares enter my room?

i hope i'm not interrupting anything.

you are told correct, but for this i charge a great deal of money.

for five minutes, could you not be yourself?

it wasn't my fault! he didn't get there in time!

are you kidding? he's gorgeous! his face looks like it was carved by angels?

i see london! i see france!

why don't we drop in for a spell?

oh mexican food! my favorite!

you have forced me to do something i really don't want to do.

my diet is ruined! i hope you're happy.

they just want to give us their blessing.

who said i want to be part of this family?

look out! here comes the new me!

first things first. we need to get you out of those clothes.

did i miss?

pardon me. would you mind letting me go?

quit messing around!

almost everybody who meets you wants to kill you.

whatever happens... i must not cry.

can i help you, your majesty?

tell us about where you live.

i guess that will be a fine place to raise the children.

oh, stop being such a drama king.

i don't care whose fault this was, just get this place cleaned up.

i'm not going.

he's completely lost his mind!

we can't be lost.

i wasn't the one who refused to stop for directions.

you're so tense.

do you think you could get up there?

i've made changes for you. think about that.

i guess i gave her the wrong tea.

sorry. i thought that question was directed at me.

uh... FYI. not my fault.

we just need to work out something smarter, that's all.

i need to have someone "taken care of."

[thenarwhalgal]

Watched ride the cyclone for the first time recently. Wanted to touch on something I found interesting— namely! Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg! Resident gifted kid of Uranium!

She’s a difficult character to like, right? With how she treats everybody else around her and especially Constance, it’s really difficult to defend most of her actions throughout the musical. Luckily, that’s not what I’m doing. Instead, I want to give my thoughts on her, which I don’t think is a particularly new perspective but shut up I wanna talk about it okay?

Okay. So… here’s the thing I find really interesting about her. Ocean has no sense of self. Correction, she does have one main thing that she does know about herself, she is ‘the most successful girl in town.’ Where everybody else (besides Jane and we’ll get to how Jane and Ocean mirror each other in a second), gets a marker of how they act, Constance is the nicest, Ricky is the most imaginative, Mischa the angriest, Noel the most romantic. She’s the most successful. It’s not a facet of her personality, it’s a result. It’s an expectation. It’s external. It’s not a part of her it’s how everybody sees her. The very thing everybody else gets to break out of but she’s stuck in because she only has what everybody else sees her as.

She doesn’t have an internal self. Which is why where everybody else (again: except Jane) gets a song exploring their personal feelings, dreams, and realities… Ocean gets a song not about herself, but about her comparison to everybody else. She is the one who wants to win the competition the most, the one who needs to live again, but she can’t explain why because she doesn’t actually know. All she knows is that she’s the most successful. (Side note: The most successful would win the competition so if she loses… well there goes everything she likes about herself. This is why winning it is not just something she wants… it’s something she needs. She again, has nothing else. This will come back later in her parallels with Jane)

It’s common for kids who grew up in abusive households (as we know she did) to not properly develop a sense of self, and often they can look for that internal validation in external expectations or successes. What is Ocean if she isn’t the most successful person in town?

Basically, give her a few more years alive and when she realizes the same thing every traumatized gifted kid eventually realizes— that you will reach a point at which you begin to fail and your need to be perfect will reach a breaking point because nobody can keep up that level of perfection forever— she will inevitably fall apart and experience the worst case of burnout ever in the history of Uranium.

It’s also interesting to see how and why Ocean chooses Jane. She comments at the end that Karnak knew she could never choose herself. I’ve seen a lot of people assume if given the choice at the beginning she would have voted for herself but I don’t buy that. Ocean knows she could never have voted for herself and she says that straight, her original plan was to get Karnak (the almighty being/weird novelty machine) to pick her, then to get everybody else to vote for her. Both of these outcomes leave the choice in everybody else, because if it was her choice she couldn’t have done it. Because again, her own internal self does not exist, it is based on external success. So it only works if everybody else says she’s the best pick. Success and validation do not exist within her. This is why she’s so flabbergasted by how Ricky could concede. She assumes everybody else has nothing else besides winning either. When in fact the whole point of the musical is that they all do have dreams and wants and desires and internal worlds… except her… and Jane.

Jane Doe is… without a better term and also ignoring everything in this musical other than Ocean’s perspective… her worst nightmare. Being forgotten, not amounting to anything. Having neither an internal self or an external effect. If we consider Ocean to be the protagonist of RTC, Jane plays her direct foil. They are both empty inside, Ocean just has the illusion of personhood and ‘success’ to hide that fact behind… a name. It’s actually kind of interesting how throughout the play, Ocean discovers how much her own life she’s missed or disregarded, while Jane is the one to get a name (Savannah with the greenest eyes). One discovering their internal sense of validation with the other getting their external title. Ocean has to choose Jane because Jane shows her that she infact had her own life to be happy with all along, she didn’t need success, she didn’t need the validation of her peers because she had a life all along that she was ignoring. Jane doesn’t. Jane’s her foil because she shows Ocean the part of herself she missed, the thing she has that separates her from Jane Doe. That makes Jane Doe the only real choice to be brought back to life. Having had a life at all.

Anyway! I just think she’s interesting is all.

[coffincestuous]

i’ve seen some people say that ashley is kind of an extreme portrayal of mental illness(es), but, from my own experience…. she’s actually a very real portrayal. all of her possessiveness, her mood swings, her dependency on andrew, her choice to not think too long about super traumatizing shit, her impulsiveness; all of those are very normal, very accurate ways mental illnesses and other disorders manifest

(andrew also shows Many signs of mental illness(es) and disorders, and so does their mom, but that’s not what this post is about!!)

i’m not going to try to diagnose her or anything, and i’ll try to keep my headcanons to myself, but i believe we can all tell that the way she thinks and acts is not exactly healthy for her or the people around her. she’s harmful to herself, andrew, and a lot of others. there’s genuinely So Much that has influenced the way she is, i kind of don’t even know where to start

she wasn’t “born evil,” like her mom says. she isn’t even “evil,” she just… doesn’t really understand. that’s not a bad thing!! she doesn’t understand what’s wrong with her behavior, because no adult ever taught her. no adult ever cared enough to make sure she learned how to treat people nicely. no adult ever paid attention to her harmful behavior and tried to correct it. we see that ashley has been kind of an asshole from a very early age, and she’s always been pretty blunt with her thoughts and feelings. she hasn’t ever felt the need to sugar-coat things, to spare other’s feelings. aside from andrew, nobody has ever been genuinely nice to her, or spared her feelings, so why should she bother?

similarly, she doesn’t lie too often, unlike andrew. she doesn’t like pretending, especially not with him. she says in game, during dinner with their parents, that she can’t “keep up” with andrew’s lies. we only really see her lie of her own accord once, and she doesn’t donit very convincingly.

she doesn’t really care about anything that doesn’t concern her or andrew, which is like. The Most logical path for her feelings to take. andrew is the only person that she’s ever known who cares about her. he’s been by her side for her entire life. her parents, her neighbors, and her friends have done wrong by her, and have been driven away by her… Her. except for andrew. (we’re ignoring the chapter two decay route for this). he’s been there through everything. he’s cared when no one else has. he’s seen her at her worst and her best moments. again, no adult taught her about caring, or pretending to care. she doesn’t feel the need to mask like andrew does, and she doesn’t have a want to “fit in” to a society that has failed her and her brother. she’s been treated as an outsider for her whole life, so she probably believes she’ll never “fit in,” she’ll never be accepted, and she doesn’t need to fit in or be accepted by them.

she greatly values loyalty in her friends. we see her act this way with andrew, with nina, and with julia. she sees people chosing others over her as a betrayal. other than andrew, no one has ever chosen ashley first. that upsets her!! that would upset anyone, but it especially upsets her because no one has ever chosen her first. her parents gave andrew all of their attention, but not her. her two friends have betrayed their friendship and put andrew above her. in game, she says it herself: she should be the top priority. with every encounter, every back-and-forth, every relationship, every decision, she’s waiting to be pushed aside. she’s waiting to be discarded. with andrew, she’ll do anything in her power to make sure he doesn’t leave her, either.

i think that it’s really interesting that she really is her worst self with andrew. she’s mean, she’s violent, she’s petty and crass and acts very childish, but she generally feels safe with him. she feels comfortable with him, and doesn’t feel the need to hold herself back at all. there’s security to be found in a relationship (of any kind) that you can say terrible things and act in horrible ways and that person stays by your side. that’s a huge part what she has with andrew. she trusts him to stay by her side, despite how awfully she may act. she places a Lot of importance on his presence in her life.

even the murder and cannibalism can be attributed to mental illness (along with The Plot). the intense mood swings that she has go along with her already violent tendencies. she feels anger, frustration, annoyance, and a whole bunch of other really negative emotions that she’s never learned to cope with. a lot of people in real life use violence as an outlet for anger. plus, she doesn’t allow herself feel upset or disgusted by death, even at her own hands (if she even feels it at all). despite that, i believe that murdering her parents had to be So cathartic for her and andrew. ashley explains in the decay route why eating people makes her feel powerful and in control, and being in control is something she very obviously feels that she lacks. she’s seen as manipulative, but she doesn’t really succeed at her manipulation. she’s understandably insecure with her entire existence, so she tries to control whoever and whatever she can, and that extends to andrew, murder, as well as cooking and eating people

there’s a lot to life that is treated as “normal” and “universal,” but everyone starts with absolutely no knowledge. experiences build a person’s worldview and shapes their personality, and ashley has had very rough experiences. she is a product of abuse and neglect and mistreatment, and is a very realistic depiction of a person who has had the experiences she’s had. the game has a pretty light tone despite the content, but it being “pretty light” doesn’t take away from the amount of detail that is put into the main characters and the trauma that they’ve suffered

ashley doesn’t have to be “good” or “positive” representation to be accurate representation, and i feel like nemlei has done a fucking excellent job at making a very, very unwell person (or two or three) in a very, very unwell society, and i am so extremely excited to see more of the graves’ childhood in chapter three

[artist-issues]

Wait, hold up. You wanna run that by me again? People are saying he didn’t deserve to be turned into a beast? When he literally was rude for no reason to that “old lady”?

Yup. Like he was just a teenager, he should be cut some slack, she was setting him up.

But it’s like

Yeah

She was setting him up because she knew he had no love in his heart. Do you know how horrible a King with no love in his heart would be when the Prince grows up? Do you know how awful the “little poor provincial town” would have it in the shadow of a Prince who reaches adulthood with the kind of character and heart that shuts old women out in the cold? The Enchantress did. So she cursed him so that he’d develop into a kind, gentle, loving man. There’s a reason the curse lasted until his twenty-first birthday. That’s adulthood. He had till then to learn to love.

And you know what else?

Of course the castle and servants would be cursed too.

That’s the Beast’s first lesson: you’re being cursed because when you have no love for anything but yourself, it’s the people closest to you who suffer for it. His household is a living object lesson for him to be faced with, day after day, for ten years, about how the consequences of your actions affect more than just you—they affect the people who depend on you. Really important lesson for the King of a kingdom to learn.

And even if that weren’t enough, which it is, don’t come griping to me about the servants being cursed for something the Prince did. Riddle me this: why is the Prince answering the door? Why isn’t a footman doing that? Why isn’t Lumiere doing that?

Why is it they’re turned into furniture instead of little beasts? Why is the first scene they’re introduced in an old MAN begging for shelter from the bitter cold, and choosing to welcome him in despite “The Master?”

Why is their big number “Be Our GUEST?”

The answers to those questions aren’t given but it’s strongly implied that, instead of doing their jobs, and instead of standing up to their Master up to and including the incident with the Enchantress, they used to just stand to the side, making no sacrifices, taking no risks.

The theme of the movie is “true love is self-sacrifice.” Hospitality is one of the most self-sacrificial practices you can engage in. You’re literally making yourself vulnerable: you’re inviting someone into your home, you’re putting their comfort before your own, you’re giving them your hard-earned food and heat and drink and time, you’re allowing them to come into your sanctuary, your safe space, and judge it while you make them comfortable. Be Our Guest, indeed! Standing up to the Master, indeed! They’ve learned their lesson by the time Belle and her father are on the scene.

The thing is, we love to try and excuse away the responsibility of the main character because we love to try and excuse away our own character flaws. Blame it on trauma. That’s not the point. The point is, for the story to work, and for the fictional kingdom to have a happy ending with a Prince who’s like that, the Beast has to grow out of his character flaws. He has a problem, and it needs solving—how he got the problem is irrelevant.

And there’s just so little chance that a Prince, who has everything in life that he could ever want and is dependent on nobody, for anything, would ever feel the need for love. Or worse, he’d never feel the need to correct himself, or change, or grow in any way. He needed to have some discipline—some MAJOR discipline, some KINGDOM-SAVING discipline—in order to even be the kind of guy that could notice a peasant girl’s self-sacrificial loving nature, much less value her and fall in love with her.

Thank goodness for the Enchantress and the Curse. Or else this fairy tale could’ve turned into the French Revolution.

[thatneoncrisis]

I was just catching up on your most recent fic after a busy week and saw your AN and came here looking for more clarification.

I guess I don’t understand why you felt the need to take it upon yourself to write something that you knew would get the attention of the people you were satirizing. Your whole stance on fan fiction (based on your own personal statements in both your asks and your ANs) seems to be that if people aren’t doing it the way you personally like, they shouldn’t be doing it at all. You keep saying you want people to just talk to you about it but why should they when you haven’t extended that gesture to them?

Also it’s very odd of you to be speaking for an entire group of people you yourself do not identify with. To what end exactly? So you can pat yourself on the back and tell yourself you fandom correctly while everyone else doesn’t? Did someone come to you and ask you to advocate for them? It just doesn’t make sense why you felt like this was your responsibility to correct or something.

It kind of reeks of moral (and fandom) superiority, like you’re just doing the most to educate people (which is. Not a thing we need in fandom spaces) and keep them on your straight and narrow instead of letting fandom works be what they are which is, for most people, a fun, exploratory way to engage with the source material. Your GOTCHA attitude towards readers who were enjoying your “bland” fic was very shocking. It does come across like you just want to embarrass people who enjoy those types of stories and tropes and make yourself feel enlightened and better than them because you thought outside the box.

I don’t know. The idea of using these tropes as a tool to spring “THIS WASN’T REAL” on readers is fun but I think it would have been much better if you hadn’t actually been making fun of other people. That kind of spoils the whole experience of your fic. I’ve been a fan of your writing and art for a long time and I do genuinely understand the desire to have people write more of what you want to see/write things that feel more in-character, but the approach here is confusing and off putting and it’s pretty disappointing to see you openly hurt people just because you like dicking around and can’t just scroll past stories/ideas/headcanons you don’t agree with.

Anyway I doubt any of this will change your mind about what you did and I doubt you’ll even care about what I have to say about it. It’s hurtful and upon deeper inspection and reading and rereading the fic and your AN and asks, I’m pretty sure I’m one of the intended targets. This is kind of word vomit at this point as I try to get my thoughts out but you asked for the people you were criticizing to reach out so here I am. Discouraging and disappointing but I hope you found what you were looking for I guess.

see thats like. completely antithetical to the point ive been reiterating for like a week. i CANNOT stop anyone from writing and i dont want to this is not the take away and it never has been. if they want to write fifteen fics like that to spite me then good on them i really just

cannot keep saying enough that i dont want anyone to STOP writing. this was just me kind of screaming in the dark because i see the exact same patterns repeated over and over. you should never ever stop creating because some fucking nobody is frustrated with the content produced en mass for free as a hobby. there is no actionable Thing that can take place here i cant stop anyone from writing any of this i just kind of wanted some people to Think about what they were reading. ive gotten messages from people saying they didnt like the initial tone of the story before chapter 4 but kept reading it because they were desperate for content. thats nuts to me! but i also understand that those people just have very little to choose from. if anything i want MORE people to write

like i keep saying again and again i do not want and cannot stop anyone from writing whatever they want. im not your mom! and to a certain degree, this did come out of nowhere there was no big thing that set it off, it was just me being obscenely frustrated.

and what i am REALLY frustrated about is how presumptuous youre being! i do feel bad that i hurt people and i decided basically a day after i posted the chapter i would never do something like this ever again. theres just too much room for misinterpretation. you are actively reading me as malicious like we can just talk in dms. "im so disappointed in you" YOU DO NOT KNOW ME. THAT is the shit that is getting to me youre acting like i am incapable of acknowledging how i know this fic could have been interpreted. its up now i made my bed im not going to plug my ears and pretend a public vent wouldn't catch people unawares. i am no stupid and do not treat me as such

i am actively choosing not to post most of the asks i get in FAVOR of this because they are dumping on the kinds of fics i dont even necessarily like and i think that's just adding on. again this is why i spoke about braid tropes used, shit that could basically be applicable to any fandom, and not a particularly fic. i didnt want to go into someones comments or dms and say hey! your fic is personally, to me, bad and hard to read, might you explain yourself? like theres nothing TO explain its aet it just exists how it is. there was no nice way of doing this kind of thing, but itd be so sweet if people didnt call me a friendless clout chaser and do some "you'll never work in this town again" shit.

[cosmicjoke]

At what point do we have to accept that Isayama could’ve done a better job at portraying what Eren did was wrong when more than half the fandom think Eren was right and that he did everything for his country and friends? Isayama said he wanted people to sympathize with Eren. But by doing so, he created this whole issue where people dismiss what he did and say he is a hero for committing genocide all because he did it to free his country. It’s not a small group of people either. In fandom spaces the minority has come to be the people who think what he had done was wrong. The majority of the community on tiktok, twitter, instagram all think he was a selfless freedom fighting hero. Every AoT fan I meet think Eren was correct and justified and if you argue against that you get dogpiled.

It's not Isayama's fault that there are so many morons in the world. It's not Isayama's fault that the education system in this country is so horrible that people's media literacy is all but non-existent. Isayama did all he could to impress upon the audience that what Eren did was wrong, down to Eren himself admitting it was unjustified and horrible, admitting himself that he didn't do it for his friends or the island, but for his own, selfish desire. If people still don't get it after that, then that's on them, not on Isayama. At all. There's always going to be idiots who twist art to fit their own agenda, too, that use it to represent something which it was never intended to represent.

Eren is a sympathetic character for numerous reasons, most of all because there's a deep tragedy inherent in his own nature and his inability to escape it. Turning him into a heartless monster with no redeeming qualities, who cared for nobody and nothing, would defeat the entire premise of the story, which is that people are capable of monstrous acts, and understanding the danger in labeling people as monsters, of dehumanizing people, when human nature itself is inclined toward horror and violence. Eren is a character who was born with a monstrous nature, but he's still a person, and it was the monstrosity of others that allowed Eren to grow into a monster bigger than them.

If you're looking for a cartoon villain who does evil for evil's sake, and there's no more complex, motivating factor, then maybe you should go watch a Disney movie or something. AoT is a complex story with complex characters, all of whom have complex motivations. If people aren't willing to engage it with a more than surface-level effort, if they aren't willing to actually use their brains and think, then they don't deserve anyone's consideration, least of all Isayama's. If they can't understand what the story was about without someone holding their little hand and explaining every, single thing to them like one would a two year old child, then, again, they aren't worth anyone's time. They're just idiots and that's all there is to it.

And no matter how many people you see online, you have to understand, the vast majority of any fandom isn't represented by online communities. Most people don't spend their day scrolling around on message boards or social media apps. What you see in online spaces is rarely, if ever, reflective of the general consensus, on anything. Not understanding that is why you see so many people, for example, surprised by the outcome of the latest election in this country. But that's another issue altogether. I promise you, most people understand that what Eren did was wrong and that AoT was advocating against genocide and persecution, not for it. You'd have to be mentally deranged or mentally disabled to think otherwise.

[puffyhairedhipster]

The Greatest

A/N: this is my first "song fic" ever, I wanted something (or NEEDED) with this song. I might also do a part 2 with Levi's POV.

Based on The Greatest by Lana Del Rey

tags: singer!levi x singer!reader, no use of y/n, implication of female reader, angsty (if I need to add more or if you guys have suggestions as to what I can add pls let me know)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saying you were nervous was an understatement. This would be the first time you would perform in front of an audience in three months. For clarity, your ex was in the crowd. It was a completely new song and the first time you'd shown your face in public in a while. You held the microphone with sweaty hands, and your manager smiled at you. "You'll do amazing. Just get out there and do your thing." She says while she holds onto your shoulders.

"It has been a while since I performed, you know."

"Perhaps, but many artists have gone longer, " she says. She was correct; you couldn't let a few nerves bring you down.

"Here goes nothing." You approach the 'x' on stage where many other singers have stood. Feeling the weight of your long dress, you wait patiently for the music to start.

"I miss Long Beach, and I miss you babe

I miss dancing with you the most of all

I miss the bar where the Beach Boys would go

Dennis' last stop before Kokomo,"

The lights shine bright, and luckily, you couldn't see anyone. That is until you start walking towards the front of the stage, and the audience's faces start to pop up. You can see the shock on people's faces when they realize it's you singing again. You can see the table where your old friends are sitting, slowly making eye contact with each of them. You see Hange smiling brightly at you with tears in her eyes. Right next to her, you see Erwin giving you a nod, almost as if saying, "We missed you up there." Last but not least, you find the face of the man who broke your heart three months prior, Levi Ackerman. His stoic face was looking up at you with no emotion in sight.

You rapidly look away, not wanting to break down. As you continue your song, flashbacks of your memories with him go through your mind.

"Those nights were on fire

We couldn't get higher

We didn't know that we had it all

But nobody warns you before the fall."

You can't hold it in any longer; you start singing more passionately, and tears start spilling from your eyes. The number of times you've retraced every action that led up to the breakup left you constantly overthinking what went wrong.

Both of you were happy; you supported each other immensely with your careers. Both of you were singers, each other's muses. He wrote you songs, and you wrote him songs. He wrote songs about you, and you wrote songs about him. Everyone saw how deeply you loved each other. But where did it go wrong?

"And I'm wasted

Don't leave, I just need a wake-up call

I'm facing the greatest

The greatest loss of them all

The culture is lit, and I had a ball

I guess I'm signing off after all."

As you reach the chorus, you can see the tears forming in the audience's eyes. Hange was already crying hysterically, and the sight made you reminisce about all the times you watched romcoms at your place, at Levi's place. You can see Erwin already grabbing a tissue box for her and handing it over.

It's not like they stopped talking to you; however, you didn't feel up to socializing after the past few months. Sometimes, you didn't even get out of bed; other times, you didn't even look at your phone. Many fans and friends wondered what happened and where you went. How silly to say you were heartbroken and didn't want to do anything.

"I miss New York, and I miss the music

Me and my friends, we miss rock 'n' roll

I want shit to feel just like it used to

And baby, I was doing nothing the most of all."

You accepted this "gig" because you missed the music. You missed performing, the thrill, and the emotion; you missed the feeling of letting everything inside of you come out. Your manager told you, "I will not force you, but if you keep isolating yourself, you won't come back out." Quite frankly, she was right. You had to do something to return and continue moving forward no matter what happened. This song was born, and you knew you had to perform it.

"The culture is lit

And if this is it I had a ball

I guess that I'm burned out after all."

"I think I need a break." He says with a stern voice. "What do you mean by that?" You look at him, furrowing your eyebrows. He stands in front of you, and both of you are still in the living room of your shared penthouse apartment.

"I don't know; I just think I need a break, " he continues. He doesn't make eye contact with you; he stands there with his head down. Your eyes start filling up with tears, "but why?" He doesn't answer. Deep down, he knows he was in love with you, but something about falling too fast and hard scared him. He wasn't sure what made him so afraid. Was it commitment? Was it rejection, scared that you didn't feel the same? No, he feared you'd leave first, so he decided to go before you. He thought you were too good for him; you cared for him and were understanding, yet the fear stuck on him like a parasite in his mind.

"I'm wasted

Don't leave, I just need a wake-up call

I'm facing the greatest

The greatest loss of them all

The culture is lit, and I had a ball

I guess that I'm burned out after all."

As you approach the end of your song, you see Levi grab his jacket and walk out. Hange and Erwin both shake their heads at him. You feel a sharp pain in your chest as if he ripped out your heart for the second time. Hange looks back up at you, giving you a thumbs-up, a subtle way of saying, "Don't worry."

The tears never stopped. You kept singing, and with every word, it seemed your body decided to release a waterfall. The same question rang in your mind: "What went wrong?"

"If this is it, I'm signing off

Miss doing nothing the most of all

Hawaii just missed a fireball

L.A. is in flames, it's getting hot

Kanye West is blond and gone

"Life on Mars" ain't just a song

Oh, the live stream's almost on."

As you hear the plethora of applauses, you try to smile while wiping away your tears. You walk backstage, surprised to see Hange there. She immediately comes up to you and hugs you, and you completely break down on her.

"It's okay, it's okay. You were amazing, sweetheart." She coos.

"Hange.." you say, your voice cracking, "I'm sorry for not talking to you. I missed you so much. I just couldn't..."

"Shhh, it's okay, I understand. Don't worry, I'm still here." You feel another presence come up and hug you. From the cologne, you can tell it's Erwin. You slowly unravel from the hug. Hange wipes away your tears, and you sheepishly look at Erwin.

"Erwin, I'm so-"

"Don't even apologize. We understand. If it makes you feel better, Hange and I gave Levi an earful." He chuckles.

"Is he still here?" You ask.

"Unfortunately, he left a few minutes ago, but don't worry, I'm sure he will eventually come around." Both of them give you a warm smile.

You didn't even bother going to the after-party of the event. You were exhausted emotionally, mentally, and physically. Your manager gave you a ride back to your place.

"You were fantastic. I know it was tough for you, but many people missed you." You give a small smile, thank her for the ride, and walk into your apartment. You can't hold on any longer, so you start sobbing your heart out.

After an eternity, you change from your dress into some loose-fitting clothing. You put your phone on Do Not Disturb and go straight to sleep. You know you will receive endless texts and calls after the performance, but you won't deal with it, at least not tonight. The only thing you want right now is some rest, and as you close your eyes, the all-familiar question comes back: what went wrong?

[trekkele]

"# i think If you want a genuine critique of Batman then Leslie and her pacifism is far more interesting"

So true. Unfortunately nobody's been writing her well since the 90s or '00s. At least, I didn't come across anything featuring her in a well thought out way.

I'm split on counting War Games because 'she would not fucking do that' as people say. However, it is her position on morality taken to the twisted extreme. Still, intentionally killing or faking it, is very emotionally hurtful, like trauma inducing hurtful. Both for Steph and the Batfam and her mother.

Looked up the exact definition of pacifism and, well:

"Pacifism is a policy or doctrine of rejecting war and violence in solving disputes"

She kinda did use violence (emotional and body violating and zero consent from removing Steph from her life) to solve a dispute. Or to "free" Steph of her bat-duties, but it still counts.

Would love for Leslie to go after other batfam members and not just Bruce and argue with them about their methods.

Actually i think Stephanies death, either by medical negligence or a failure of her support system, is a natural consequence of Leslies brand of pacifism and while “She, personally, might not fucking do that” her philosophy might so its not as ooc as id like it to be.

So to discuss Leslie i think i have to establish two things 1. She suffers from being a (mostly) anti Batman character in a Batman comic* and

2. She and Jason are actually on two ends of a spectrum, with Leslie being “it is better to be the victim of violence then the perpetrator of it” and Jason being “it is better to enact unspeakable violence then be the victim of it”. With Bruce in the middle like “can we please get some nuance in here can we please get some fucking nuance” which is. Very funny actually.

(Its funny because Bruce, by being Batman, has basically decided to become the nuance - he will be violent for you, and by being so good at violence he can minimize the amount of actual violence needed)

So by letting Steph die, Leslie is essentially saying “no amount of violence can save us, isnt it better to die then without having inflicted it upon others?” Which is so very Ghandi of her, but also fucking insane and yeah Bruce was 100% right to never trust her again after that.

She is also - ok so the thing is, in-universe, being a teenage vigilante is. It’s basically like being a dance kid. Its going to have a profound and everlasting effect on the kids mental and physical health, there are side effects we still don’t entirely understand, but for the most part its just. Something some kids do!! Some of them insist on doing it (dick, damian (<-i have thoughts about why Bruce didnt want to give Damian robin ok) some of them realize it isnt good for them but cant really give it up (jason, maybe tim?) some of them are in it just for their stage moms (cissie king-jones) and some of them suffer long term consequences due to insufficient parental supervision (kon, pre-nu52) etc etc. Leslie is the mom in the corner who thinks allowing her kid to perform or even learn ballet in a studio is a slippery slide to abuse. She thinks no kid should ever be in that environment, and by Bruce allowing Dick to do so, despite Bruces reluctance in the matter and almost oppressive supervision, he has doomed an entire generation of kids.

She is never going to criticize anyone else in the batfam, because to do so would be admitting that kids have agency beyond what adults believe is best for them, and admitting that means being unable to push her “correct” views upon them.

Leslie is actually a pretty good stand in for fandom in that way; refuses to allow anyone but Bruce agency and independent thought, refuses to place blame anywhere but Bruce, insists a difference of opinion is grounds for dismissal of personhood and respect, and believes Gotham would be better off if Batman never existed.

(Once again i have no idea if i answered your question/addressed your ask. Sorry)

[uselessheretic]

When it comes to Ed and addressing his issues around things like mental health, trauma, and anger issues, I understand the kneejerk reaction to deny that he has any of those traits due to not wanting to stereotype him, but I don't think that really solves much. Ed is someone who is severely traumatized, forced into a world where he had to take care of himself from a young age, and never given a chance to learn things like healthy coping mechanisms. He's going to develop in ways that are maladaptive as he searches for a way to just survive.

A lot of the time, people will say things like "Ed doesn't have anger issues because whenever he gets mad he's valid" and I get it, I do, but it just? Doesn't work that way? When a room full of people makes fun of you, you can't just go in there and shoot everyone even if they hurt your feelings. Not just because that's a wild ass thing to argue as correct, but because it directly endangers himself and others. Even if he's fucking Blackbeard, that's still a huge risk of him being harmed. Characters like Oluwande and Frenchie would also be at risk where maybe people can't stab Blackbeard, but it's possible someone might take a chance on one of his companions if they think they're a part of this.

Denying that these problems exist doesn't do anything. It doesn't strengthen his character and it doesn't engage with him in a way that humanizes him to allow for growth. He's not gonna marry Stede and suddenly never be angry again and nobody ever makes him feel sad ever again!

I understand that the thought process here is that men of color are stereotyped to be angry and violent, and therefore, it's racist to interpret Ed as having these traits. That doesn't really solve anything though because it doesn't engage with the problem past a surface level. Moc are stereotyped as being angry... Why? Because it's a way to justify enacting state violence and control them. Sure, you can say "Ed isn't angry though so there's no need to put him through the system" but that narrows the scope down to him as an individual that relies on him never being angry to rescue him from that.

Because what happens when moc are angry? When they are violent and you're not able to just deny that and move on? Do we just abandon them?

Obviously not. When we base a person's humanity off a prerequisite that they can't embody any of the negativity the state is seeking to control, we inadvertently justify the violence imposed onto those less able to hold themselves to, frankly, impossible standards. It's another way of trying to appeal to respectability politics.

So instead of denying these parts of Ed, we can look more closely at them.

Ed's moments of anger are often prompted by him experiencing hurt. He's made fun of, he's been tricked, a snake fell on him, he feels abandoned. He has a tendency to go from zero to one hundred very quickly, and often will react to things with the same level of intensity regardless of what is actually triggering it. This makes sense though when you remember that he's a severely traumatized person who went through substantial abuse as a child! Often, people experiencing things like c-PTSD lose their ability to accurately gauge threat levels, meaning that if they want to survive, they are on constant high alert for any possible danger. Anger is a natural reaction to this, and his trigger for going off is hypersensitive as a result. Something like this helps explain why Stede leaving him, and Izzy subsequent antagonism, hit him like a fucking truck.

When Ed expresses anger, it often comes coupled with reminders of his trauma and greatest insecurities. Making fun of him for growing up in poverty, saying he can't have friends, poking at his breakup and fear of abandonment. He has direct flashbacks to his childhood with some of these, becoming forced to relieve times when he was at his most powerless. This lack of power pushes him to try and regain that control. He's not poor! He has more riches than you can shake a stick at! You can't make fun of him for how he eats, do you have any idea who he is? He's fucking Blackbeard! Choose your next works carefully, dog, and decide if you want to bring up Stede anymore.

It's instinct. As much as jerking your hand away from a burning iron. He's being hurt, he needs to make it stop.

But it doesn't work. Not only does it not work, Ed knows it too. He may have more riches, but the French captain will still view him as something vulgar. He's fucking Blackbeard, but what does it matter if the party will continue laughing at him? "There he is..." The Blackbeard who Stede abandoned, the same as always.

In a world of cartoon violence, there's little care Ed needs to afford towards the lives he takes. That's not the problem. The problem is that the harder he tries to maintain control, the more he loses it. And the less control he has, the angrier he becomes. And the angrier he is, the more desperate he becomes to keep himself safe.

Ed is playing a game rigged against him from the start. He exists in a system meant to antagonize and hurt him while surrounded by vultures waiting for him to prove them right that he does lack discipline where no matter what action he takes he loses. How could he be anything other than furious about it?

His anger is a perfectly logical reaction to his situation, and there's no point in denying that it exists like it's something shameful. Ed needs tools to help him cope with this, a support system that has his back, and an environment that nourishes him instead of constantly putting him at risk of dying.

[overleftdown]

4th and final part to my farleigh analysis. most of this one is just ranting, since all of these scenes are fairly self-explanatory. i am plagued by thoughts and emotions.

[1:12:45] farleigh: i wouldn't do this! elsbeth: james is very upset. farleigh: you know that i... why would i do this!? elsbeth: i don't know! farleigh: i swear to god, this has to be a- elsbeth: enough! farleigh: there must be some kind of mistake, here.

oliver really did hit farleigh where it hurts, i suppose. farleigh remains committedly in control of himself; he knows when and where to say something, how carefully he needs to act in saltburn. he toes a line, but he somehow manages to stay on the right side of the cattons' affection. this, however, was a breach of that line. oliver attacked the cattons' trust in farleigh, in their confidence of his ability to remain compelling and non-threatening. maybe oliver was expecting this particular offense to be the end of their good graces towards farleigh, although it clearly wasn't.

[1:37:17] felix: i mean, the idiot! he had to have known that dad went to school with the chairman. venetia: i mean, talk about biting the hand. and mum and dad would give him anything he asked for. felix: yeah, well. obviously, he got sick of asking. venetia: that's ridiculous. he's more spoilt than we are. felix: i mean, come on vee, you have to admit. it's a little bit dark, him having to go to mum and dad with a beginning bowl. venetia: oh, boo-fucking-hoo. felix: already yes, fine, it was incredibly fucking stupid.

again, the irony of this situation is that farleigh really would never do this. it's interesting, how nobody questions it.

i also think it's important that venetia assumes the money would be for farleigh himself, and felix neglects to correct her. the conversation he references by specifically saying "begging bowl" had everything to do with farleigh's mother. the lack of familial privilege farleigh has is, also, a supposed racial bias. felix also neglects to mention this. the idea that farleigh could be implicitly discriminated against within saltburn is so deeply uncomfortable, so offensive, that felix can't even mention it as an objective discussion he had with farleigh. that's not surprising, though.

[1:25:30] oliver: have they seen you, yet? farleigh: not yet. oliver: yeah, they'll go ballistic. farleigh: i doubt it. they invited me. oliver: ohhh. farleigh: mmm... mmm. god, the look on your face. oliver: they can't have invited you. farleigh: oh, oliver. you'll never catch on. this place? you know, it's not for you. it is a fucking dream. it's an anecdote you'll bore your fat kids with for christmas. olivers once in a lifetime, handjob on a hay bale, golden big boy summer! and you'll cling onto it, and comb over it, and jerk off to it, and wonder how you could ever... ever, ever, ever get it back. but you don't get it back. because your summer's over. and so you... oh... you catch a train to whatever creepy doll factory they make olivers in. and i come back here. this isn't a dream to me. it's my house. so whatever happens, i always come back. try harder next time, baby.

god, this monologue. so much for me to chat about.

"this place? you know, it's not for you." farleigh has this obsession with the fact that oliver is an outsider. it's intentional, it's instinctive, because farleigh is an outsider all the same. it's strange, though, because this is still farleigh's family. this is his aunt, his uncle, his cousins, and the house he's lived in for at least a couple years. he shouldn't, reasonably, be an outsider. yet, he's treated as one. something kills me about how hard farleigh is fighting for a place to belong. and sure, the money, the lavish lifestyle, it's all great. i don't disagree that farleigh is motivated by the fact that he's never experienced the life of lesser wealth that he fears so much. but there's also so much love for felix and venetia and i'm sure, for elsbeth and james.

this makes the final portion of farleigh's monologue so relevant. this is that kind of foreshadowing where a character implies a happy ending before receiving the opposite of that. farleigh says "this isn't a dream to me. it's my house. so whatever, happens, i always come back." and he... doesn't! he does not come back, at least at the invitation of elsbeth or james. this was a dream for him, too. oliver just had to prove it, how easy it is to destroy everything farleigh has worked for since arriving at saltburn. the pocket in time that farleigh runs to when he doesn't want to go back to america and his mom.

[1:35:58] (they find felix's body, in the maze). farleigh and venetia destroy me, in this scene. the way farleigh reaches for her hand and pulls her into him. at 1:36:56, he pulls her into him again. they cling onto each other. sometimes i think about how much farleigh must have loved them and grieved them alone. how in the world do you cope with that?

[1:37:12] (pre-curtains closing) it's the way farleigh glances to felix's empty chair. it's the way that, even now, it's farleigh sitting next to felix's ghost. and he's trying his hardest, in this moment, to be very english about his emotions. great effort.

[1:39:28] farleigh: oh, my god. may i be excused, please? james: no. we haven't finished lunch. farleigh: the lunch is cold! what, you want me to just eat it like nothing's happening? elsbeth: what else is there to do, darling? farleigh: anything! anything! james: farleigh! will you be quiet!? sit down and eat the bloody pie! just eat it! eat it and shut up! eat the bloody pie! you're not the only person here with feelings. none of us wants your bloody american feelings.

i don't know if there's any singificance to this, but the same moment that farleigh cracks is the same moment that the footman behind him cracks.

of course, english repression vs american... normal...ness. "none of us wants your bloody american feelings" is, again, such a strong indication of how differrent farleigh is. he's family, yes. but he's different for a multitude of reasons. i also find it heartbreaking, how elsbeth speaks to him in this scene. she is visibly trying so hard to keep herself together and maintain a calmness while speaking to him. i really do wonder how close they were.

[1:40:10] farleigh: what the fuck are you still doing here? what, does no one else find it weird? no one else finds that weird? oliver: i wouldn't throw stones if i were you, farleigh. farleigh: excuse me? venetia: please, stop. james: what is he saying? farleigh: i, i have no idea. oliver: what i'm saying is, i would feel guilty, too. farleigh: guilty? oliver: if i was the one racking up lines on the night that someone died. farleigh: fuck you. oliver: that's not a denial. james: is that true? search farleigh's room. farleigh: no- james: get out. farleigh: no, wait- elsbeth: what's happening? farleigh: aunt elsbeth? elsbeth? james: don't you dare look at her. get out. i won't mention to this to the police, but that's all you'll get. nothing more, ever again.

and here is all it took to ruin farleigh. archie's acting in this scene is so potent it's kind of vomit inducing. the way he fidgets with his sleeves, the way he flinches and his lip quivers. farleigh is buried in a sweater. now, more than anywhere else, he looks so young.

for the first time in this movie, farleigh refers to elsbeth as his aunt. gah. not that elsbeth seems any more motherly than what i imagine farleigh's own mother to be, but goodness, he's begging for affection. i realize there's not much else to say about this scene other than how heartbreaking it is. i'm basically writing this post for my own self benefit; i gotta rant somehow! i wonder if farleigh did feel guilty for his actions that night. if he regrets sticking to his own agenda, avoiding felix and the rest of his family like the plague. if he regrets the competitive nature of it all; how quickly his need to be accepted took precedent over the genuine connection he had with felix. there's something so hopeless about learning how to lie.

i think, out of all the cattons, farleigh understood how much it all mattered. the money, the ease of summer, the companionship during school. just like oliver, he knew how to work, in his own way. farleigh knew what it felt like to be loved and ignored by the cattons, and by his own family in america. rararararararara.

[outsideratheart]

16 Dancing to Christmas music with esme morgan

A/N: Day ten of the Christmas advent calendar.

Everything with Esme was easy, natural almost. When you told her you were in love with her it was like you were reunited with your missing half. She was your best friend, your partner in crime, the best girlfriend you could ever ask for.

When it came to the Manchester City Christmas night out you found yourself spending most of the night on the dance floor, your dance partners changing with every song that gets played.

“I’m really proud of you Ez” you whisper as you order a round of drinks.

“And I’m proud of you my euros champion” she replies with a compliment of her own.

The summer was wild but Esme remained by your side every step of the way. She travelled across the country to support you, seeing her in the crowd at every game gave you purpose, you wanted to win for her just as much as yourself.

“I mean it Esme. The way you came back from your injury is admirable and you made your senior debut. We have several reasons to celebrate”

The moment quickly became sentimental as you praise your girlfriend for her strength. She has never been good at taking compliments so when she pulls you back to the dance floor, drink in hand, you are not surprised.

Fairytale of New York blares through the speakers as the city girls sing it just as loud, if not louder.

“You scumbag, you maggot” you shout as you swing Esme round.

“You cheap lousy faggot” she sings back to you.

These are the nights you lived for. The nights were you weren’t professional footballers. You allowed yourself to be a normal 23 year old on a night out with your girlfriend and your friends.

When ‘do they know it’s Christmas?’ begins to play it’s as if everyone in Manchester is on the dance floor. Everyone singing the chorus in unison.

“You are the greatest Christmas present I could ask for” Esme pulls you close you to her as you dance to the music.

“I’ll remind you that when you have no presents to open on Christmas Day” you tease her knowing that she knew what she was getting from you for Christmas.

She has a knowing look in here eye but it was a look that was only reserved for you.

“I don’t care as long as I get to unwrap you” she knows the affect her words have on you and in this public place you cannot do anything about it, this again was something she knew.

“I won’t wait until Christmas Day” it was a promise and warning, 2 in 1.

“I say we go home now then” Esme tries to pull you off the dance floor.

When you hear the next song play you pull her back. It is a song that always get played in the Morgan household during Christmas.

Baby it’s cold outside by Tom Jones & Cerys Mathews.

“It’s our song” Esme says as the intro plays.

“Technically it’s your parent’s song that has been handed down to us” you correct her.

Like always she sings the Cerys Mathews part whilst you sing the Tom Jones part.

The moment was yours and yours alone. Nobody joined you, well they didn’t interrupt you. They watched you as you swayed to the beat, holding each other close and going back and forth with whispers that they couldn’t hear.

“Ah but it's cold outside” Esme closes the distance between you as she sings the second to last line.

“Bloody, freezin' ain't it” you laugh when you sing the last and your favourite line of the song.

[torakan]

PART 5

masterpost

previous

The human WAS stupid after all. It was quite funny to find out that he thought “Rules” was my real name. But it’s not like I was going to correct him or anything… or so I was telling myself a week ago.

At this very moment I was inside one of the kitchen cabinets where this guy stored different types of tea, coffee, some sugar and mugs. What was I doing there? Well, borrowing of course which was suddenly rudely interrupted AGAIN by this mother f… piece of sh… damn, I just realized that I didn’t even know his name. It’s not like I ever needed it of course. And right now, we were just staring at each other for five seconds straight, which honestly felt like three freaking years. My brain went numb, I didn’t have any backup plans for a situation like this. It was 3 in the morning god damn it, why did he suddenly even decide to wake up and open this exact cabinet?!

The second I thought about it, the guy blinked a few times and silently closed the cabinet door.

“What the hell?..” I whispered shocked. It was so weird and felt kind of… wrong? As every other borrower kid, I was always told that humans, when they see borrowers in the open, are always trying to grab them with their hands and who knows what they’re doing about it later if they succeed…

This young man though… he really was something. I was grateful he paid respect for the request I wrote, but that was weird. And before I could stop myself and think, like I usually do, I shouted:

“HEY! Are you blind?!”

I immediately started to regret it and anxiety filled my whole body from head to toes. My heart started racing in panic and I wouldn’t have been able even to attempt to escape right now due to my shaking hands. However, for the first few moments nothing has happened. And then I heard his sleepily creaking muffled yet still loud voice. It wasn’t as booming as I knew it could be, so I was grateful for him trying to speak quieter.

“Um… no?”

I took several deep breaths and thought about the most rational thing to say right now.

“Please, don’t open the cabinet.”

Well done dumbass, I told myself, now he’s gone all curious and he’s for sure going to open it.

“Okay.”

That’s it? Jesus Christ, what is wrong with him?! I had no idea how to act in this situation, nobody had ever prepared me to this.

“R-r-really?” I couldn’t help my voice from shaking.

“Yeah, I mean, I already took my mug, so I don’t need it. And besides, you asked not to bother before, so I won’t. Sorry for disturbing you right now.”

“Wait a sec.”

The guy didn’t say or do anything, so I figured he was waiting for real.

“So, you’re actually considering my feelings?” I asked unsure feeling incredibly stupid.

He sighed.

“Of course.”

“And you… you’re not gonna grab me or anything?”

“No. Who do you think I am?”

“I don’t know man, you’re a human. You could do anything if you wanted to.”

“Okay if that’s the case, let me reassure you that I won’t try to do anything against your will. Erm… but do you give me consent to talk to you?” he added sounding almost hopeful.

I had to think about it. It was obviously dangerously dangerous to talk to him, but at the same time, was it really? It’s not like my family members, or any other borrowers were there to scold me for it, and what’s more important, he didn’t do anything bad to me during this whole time he knew of my existence, right? Heck, even now he was being as respectful as if I was a human too… Maybe… maybe I could give it a try?

“Y-yes. But not too much.” I stuttered a bit, trying to get rid of an instant feeling of regret.

I heard how the guy hummed, probably smiling and said:

“My name is Neil.”

“Okay. Mine is not Rules” I quietly giggled, my nerves were most likely already giving in, and added. “It’s Wax.”

“Nice to meet you, Wax.”

I guess it wasn’t a bad… experience. I was still very wary of what this human’s intentions were, but again, he didn’t try to grab me, nor put me into the jar, nor kill me, nor torture me, nor take a picture of me nor… Okay, enough. I shook my head at it.

Then I herd the guy - Neil - opening the tap and pouring water into his mug. Now that I was almost sure that nothing bad will happen to me, I suddenly noticed how emotionally and physically exhausted I was. My legs were so numb, it felt like they were made of plush, so having no energy left, I, as gracefully as a hoptoad, plopped down on my butt.

“Um… I’m sorry Wax, but I really have to go to sleep right now, so… talk to you later maybe? You’re not going to move out, right?” he asked placing the already empty mug on the counter.

I wasn’t planning on moving out at all but after his question I became quite suspicious. Why did he want to know?

“W-why do you want to know?” I asked directly.

“Oh.”

He thought for a moment and said:

“I guess I just don’t want to cause you any inconvenience. You shouldn’t change your life completely and think that you’re in danger now because of me knowing that you live here. You’re safe around me, I promise.”

I pondered over his words a bit and decided to believe him. In vain, probably.

“Okay. G-good night then, Neil.”

“Good night.”

yaaay now we finally know their names 🤭

anyway, hope you enjoyed ^^

tags: @gtzel @smallsday @alserm @reddish-ash

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

Until Dawn fan theory (development theory about the gun-and-saw trap)

Ok…. Hear me out. I want to get my thoughts straight before I post something similar on Reddit.

I am wondering if Chris initially was not going to have the option to actually fire at Ashley. And I’m wondering if “do nothing” is meant to be the most “correct” decision.

A few months ago, I was trying to figure out why the fallout of the gun-and-saw trap scene was so weird. I started wondering if Chris had ever actually shot the gun. It actually makes no sense that he did. I looked at these things:

There’s no animation for him actually doing it. The gun gets aimed then the screen goes red with the gun shot effect.

No matter what, Mike and Sam can hear Chris telling Ashley he’s still deciding when they break into the room.

Chris is always surprised that the gun has blanks when he tries to shoot the Psycho. If he’s already tried to kill himself or Ash, he shouldn’t be surprised.

Chris’s choice is NEVER brought up by anyone even once. Nothing in the actual dialogue refers to him shooting Ash OR himself. (Josh mocks Chris for attempting to shoot Ashley in the face, but that dialogue is actually NOT tied to Chris making the choice to kill her. It’s tied to him aiming at her first. If Chris aims at himself but then shoots Ashley, this dialogue doesn’t happen which is actually so weird. Of course, Ashley’s behavior changes if he did. There’s no kiss, and she locks him out. But let’s note one thing: Ashley’s flashback when she kills Chris also doesn’t show him shooting. It shows her reaction to him aiming at her, even if that didn’t happen).

There’s also the fact that blanks will still kill you at close range, but it’s also possible we’re just supposed to accept that blanks are harmless in this world.

Now, after taking time to think and read more— I get that he is meant to have fired even if it makes no sense. The trophy says he did and so did the devs in their Halloween stream.

But I’m not done thinking about this.

My next thought was that the scene acts as though “do nothing” is the “canon” choice here. The story proceeding from this scene just behaves as if he did nothing, even if he fired already. I’ve seen people point out holes in this scene that I’ve already addressed above. BUT these largely check out if the player did nothing. Chris’s “I can’t decide” dialogue then makes sense. Him shooting at the Psycho makes sense. Nobody giving him shit for shooting Ashley or praising him for shooting himself makes sense.

To further this thought— the totem attached to this scene ALSO indicates the player should do nothing. We get a guidance totem of Chris putting the gun on the table.

So that’s where I am with this. The whole scene behaves:

like aiming at Ashley was really bad. It’s given an odd amount of narrative attention— in comparison with Chris ACTUALLY having shot her. Again, of course, him actually doing so triggers the death scene. But it was always funky to me that we have Josh’s dialogue and Ashley’s flashback only referring to the aim.

like Chris never shot. There’s no indication he did after you make the choice. So many things proceed like he did nothing. The totem tells you to do nothing even though Chris shooting himself also saves him.

So we come to my main point. I had a theory that, originally, Chris could only aim at Ashley but not shoot her after, and that, for some reason, the story was meant to lean into “do nothing.”

I stopped thinking about this theory for a while until I was just browsing through more PS3 footage, as one does. And saw this:

Here, Chris picks up the gun and there’s no initial aim option. Ashley just gives the “it should be me” dialogue. Then we have the following options: AIM AT ASHLEY or SHOOT.

Oh my gosh guys. I’m just— THIS COMPLETELY SUPPORTS MY THEORY FROM MONTHS AGO which I deleted off of Reddit because I got self conscious about it being wrong. I mean, I still don’t think this proves anything. Of course, I can’t know for sure because I can’t find a build where Chris does aim— but it looks like there was only a choice to aim at Ashley or fire at Chris. In any case, Ashley’s “it should be me” dialogue does not seem determinate. She just says it whereas that’s attached to a choice in the final game. Here, it looks like there is just one choice and it’s this.

Final thoughts:

I’m actually not sure how there initially being no option to actually shoot Ashley fits with all this emphasis that Chris should do nothing. I think there are still dev conversations that happened that I don’t know about, obviously.

I was thinking about when and why this was changed. The easiest answer is that… it’s way lame for Ashley to kill Chris over him just aiming at her. If he actually fired, her not opening the door is less petty (though…. Ugh I hate that scene either way).

Another thing to point out is that, in a Halloween stream, a dev mentioned that the gun trap was VERY hard to get right and took a lot of their energy. It seems as though they tried lots of directions with it and filmed different things.

If you have any other helpful info on this, tell me!! I’d like to post this on my theory account on Reddit but I’d love to talk it out with people more.

[silverynight]

Okay, but what if Tanjirou knew everyone had a crush on him? Like he doesn't say anything because he doesn't want to make anyone uncomfortable, and he also thinks it's just a "phase" (it is not), but he knows most everyone that likes him as more than a friend. He can smell it, as well as see it. His mom also used to warn him about how much attraction he gets within the village, and she told him it would happen anywhere. He didn't believe her, but this wouldn't be the first time his mom was correct. So, naturally, he knows the Hashira love him. But, once again, he doesn't want to call anyone out or anything. Until one day a slayer is asking for his help, shy and timid, while another is straight up flirting with him. He's very respectful, but the Hashira are a bit irritated.

"Ugh! I can't stand them!" Sanemi growls, picking at a scar on his arm.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Tanjirou questions after they leave, frowning at the displeased looks on the pillars faces.

"They're all over you. Pathetic." Iguro mumbles, Kaburamaru hissing.

Tanjirou tilts his head. Shinobu sighs, a fond smile on her face. "They obviously have a crush on you Tanjirou." She shrugs, expecting him to deny it. They don't usually straight up tell him, but she couldn't help herself. But, Tanjirou laughs shyly.

"Ah....I know" he says embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck. The Hashira are silent. Then-

"You know?" Giyu says, eyes wide. Tanjirou nods, a blush on his face.

"Yeah...not to sound conceded, but I know everyone who has a crush on me....it was like that back in our village too." He smiles sweetly, hands coming together in front of him. "I just never say anything because it's not my place. If anyone feels they want to address me about it, I'd be glad to talk about their feelings! No one ever does completely though, so I leave it be." He shrugs. Each pillar is red, staring with the obvious thought cycle- HE KNOWS?!

The Pillars just stare at him in silence while their minds are full of chaos, they're panicking because they don't know what to do. Should they talk about it? He knows it, but he just told them he's not going to bring it up or acknowledge it...

"You know about us?" Finally, Giyuu blurts it out.

Tanjirou nods, smiling at them.

"I know you have a crush on me, but it'll probably pass..."

"No," Shinobu cuts him off, surprising him.

"We're in love with you!" Kyojuro tells him, prompting him to turn completely red.

"In l-love? But... I thought, I mean I'm a no–"

"You're what?" Sanemi almost growls. "If you're going to say something like you're a nobody I'll bite you, Tanjirou."

"You're amazing, darling!" Mitsuri sighs dreamily. "And kind and sweet and–"

"Please!" Tanjirou giggles, cheeks turning pink again. Part of him doesn't believe it, but they look so sure...

"Now that you know how we feel," Obanai cuts in. "And you know it's not just a crush. What do you think?"

"Would you give us a chance?" Muichiro asks, hopeful.

"You don't have to, Tanjirou..." Gyomei assures him, stroking the boy's cheek. "We'll still be friends even if you don't feel the same."

Tanjirou covers his face with both hands before taking a deep breath and looking back at them.

"You mean... like... dating all of you at once?"

"I don't see a problem with that," Tengen grins before winking at Tanjirou.

"O-Okay... I'd like that."