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livlepretre · 4 years ago

Note

I started watching TVD while season 5 was airing, and I loved it. I was so excited when I caught up, but quickly started losing interest. As a person who despises pregnancy plot lines that should be impossible and make no logical sense in canon, The Originals was always a lost cause for me. I also hated the oocness of the characters. I begrudgingly made my way through season 6 of TVD and honestly couldn’t make it through the first few episodes of season 7. At that point in time, I didn’t like the conflicts, how the show kept breaking its on mythology rules, and how most characters were acting out of character. I think it’s a total shame because I absolutely adore this universe and the characters attached to it. Canon divergent fics like yours allow me to enjoy what could have been. So, did you watch TVD all the way through? Did you watch The Originals? If not, what was the straw that broke the camel’s back and what plot lines and character arcs would you have liked to see on the show/shows? How would you have preferred the show to end? Finally, what kind of thoughts do you have when you hear crazy stuff that happened (ex. Caroline having Ric’s kids and him being in unrequited love with her or Legacies having their characters fight gargoyles, dragons, etc.. throughout Mystic Falls while Damon and Elena’s kids are still in town raising their own kids) Cuz sometimes I read things and I’m like WTF? Who thought this made sense?

Okay, wow, I love that you asked me these questions, because as it turns out I have been bugging my RL friends with my tormented TVD takes for years now. I’m going to put everything under a cut though because this answer promises to be very long.

Edit: This got sort of stupid long. Read at your own risk haha.

So, I think to answer this, I have to address the things I love so much about TVD and why I’m still thinking about it/writing fic for it years and years after it lost me. I’m going to take this chronologically because there’s a lot to unpack.

What I loved

My introduction to TVD was over the summer before season 2 aired; I remember seeing the promotional materials on the CW before I left for college the fall before, and writing it off (which: fair of me, those season 1 promotions were abysmal). But luckily my sister, God bless her, understood me better than I understood myself and made me sit down and marathon the first season with her. I made fun of it pretty hard until the episode where Vicki got turned, and then an episode later got staked, which shut me up and got me paying attention. At some point over the course of the season that show went from haha laugh at it to holding my throat and there are sooo many good reasons for this. I remained hyperfixated throughout seasons 2-4, which I would religiously watch just as soon as I could pirate them.

The thing about TVD was that it was, for several years, a master class in narrative structure. What I mean by this is that it did two things very very very well:

1) one thing always led organically to the next -- the thing that actual kicks off the plot in TVD is Damon coming to town to open the tomb. From that point on, he opens the tomb, which leads to the tomb vamps escaping, which leads to Katherine taking notice, so she comes to Mystic Falls, which leads to others discovering Elena, which leads to Elijah, which leads to Klaus, and the other Originals. Very neatly done, and a wonderful, fast way of constantly shifting the action in believable and organic ways

2) they had this thing where they would announce something cataclysmic, like opening the tomb or sacrificing the main character, or even dropping the veil in season 4/again (?) in season 5, and in most shows, the whole point would be to avert those things-- but TVD has this way of announcing the doom and then forcing us through it.

There were other things-- stakes were high (ha! pun!) -- Vicki could get staked midway through season 1, Jenna could get killed in the sacrifice, and they could sweep the rug out from under you by having the whole premise of what you THOUGHT you understood about the show turn out to be untrue-- the first big instant of this was the certainty that Katherine was actually in the tomb and if the tomb was opened that Damon would save her-- finding out she was never in there at all was mind-boggling. Another really excellent moment I recall was 2x09-- so, the thing is, one of the biggest mysteries in the show up until that point was “Why does Elena look exactly like Katherine?” We knew/suspected she was a descendent, and the term doppelganger was bandied about, but it felt really shocking to have it LITERALLY be used in the mythology (to see your doppelganger is a sign of certain death, which it IS how CREEPY!) and then in 2x09, everything gets turned on its head AGAIN when we discover “it’s not that Elena looks like Katherine, it’s that Elena and Katherine look like someone else”-- the idea that KATHERINE is a doppelganger was earth shattering. This show.

Also the way that the show played with audience expectations? Like, in 1x04, the audience expectation would be for Elena to be angry at Stefan and not trust him after Damon (or was it Caroline? It’s been years since I’ve watched) says some stuff intended to set her against Stefan. But instead she figures it out fast and comes back to slap Damon and apologize to Stefan. It was an early sign that the show would jump over the expected hurdles. One of the brilliant things it does too is play with the horror genre. The characters (in the early seasons) were some of the smartest on tv because they were genre savvy, and they thought like a real person would and not like a character so often-- I remember being amazed by how often they jumped over the obvious pitfalls and came to sound conclusions. 2x12 The Descent sticks out to me-- Elena versus the mad dying vampire. Also the entire daggering sequence in 2x16 is God tier, as well as Elena’s bargain with Elijah in 2x11. Hmm and also the way the show would even play with expectations based on the fact that it’s a show? The fact that Katherine and Mason were working together is still one of the greatest plot twists of all time in my opinion, not because of how left field it is or wild or anything, but because it should have been totally obvious but our expectations of season premiers made it totally camouflaged! Like, yes, Mason and Katherine DO show up at the exact same time... in 2x01, which is a season premier, so we as an audience know and expect that new characters will be introduced in that episode. The fact that the show knew that and played us for fools will always go down as a favorite moment for me.

Well. Needless to say there are countless other amazing things. The darkness of the show and its commitment to exploring vampirism as a curse, and oddly a very human one, was mesmerizing. Damon breaking Jeremy’s neck. “I miss being human. I miss it more than anything in the world.” Elena slow moral decay. The shock and horror when Caroline is turned. The relationships between the brothers. The way that the gang can’t ever sit easy with each other-- that Bonnie sees how Damon and Stefan are a poison, how everyone lies to Tyler and it hurts him so he hurts them-- Katherine’s doomed history? Tragic. Beautiful. Amazing.

I remember the fandom was a very different space in those early seasons too. The show was just so dreamy and frightening and dark. It was like a very bad dream you couldn’t wake up from and maybe also didn’t want to. The fics were kind of gloomy and frightening and people were much more willing to explore the monstrous side of the show.

So. The issues that I had.

The very first thing I remember feeling a twinge of unease about was when they put Katherine in the tomb in 2x07 only to take her out again in 2x09. I remember her getting sealed up in that tomb in 2x07 was HORRIFYING but also??? Brilliant? Justice? Amazing? It was taking out a villain when and how they said they were going to do it and I loved it. I didn’t quite like how she kept being an active role in the story, no matter how much I adore Katherine as a character, because it destroyed the impact of her in that tomb at all. If it were me, I would have put her in that tomb and saved her as a character, only to take her out like seasons down the road when the audience may have mostly forgotten about her and she could have been a secret ace.

There were other ultimately minor things in season 2-- the sun and moon curse being a fake, for example-- which at the time ruffled me a bit but I was willing to just brush it off because, well, season 2 of The Vampire Diaries is unspeakably good.

I went into season 3 with the same level of hyperfixation as I had in season 2 (read: immense). And those first 6 episodes were pretty damn near perfect, with 3x05 being like the horrible culmination of everything I, already a klaulena shipper, could ever want.

My first sign that things were going in a weird direction was 3x07, Ghost World. I remember that episode feeling... weaker. Like, what was the point of Lexi having Elena torture Stefan? That didn’t seem to do anything at all. The Other Side stuff is something I pretty much disliked at the time but at this point I’m so used to it that I accept it as a kind of limbo space mostly for vampires (and also witches? but hopefully more pleasant and less of a wasteland of eternal wandering for witches than it is for vampires).

3x08 Ordinary People was an abomination and I still hate it and everything built on it. So, at the end of season 2, Elijah says his family comes from Eastern Europe. A nice, normal answer that makes sense. It also dovetailed really well with Slavic vampire folklore, so there was a great tie in that felt right with the meta-awareness of the show (it was for a while very much so a vampire show about vampire shows, and the diaries were part of that meta level writing). The idea that they were VIKINGS in VIRGINIA in this random WEREWOLF SETTLEMENT gives me such a migraine that I don’t think I can go into it here. I hate it with an unflinching fury. I think I used the “Mikaelson” name once or twice in FE and I hate myself for that more than anything else I’ve ever done in my writing. It makes no sense and betrays the writers as not even having a very vague idea of history and it is like fingers on a chalkboard for me. My fingers, feeling all of that horrible chalky friction. ELIJAH THERE WERE NO WILD HORSES IN AMERICA A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. WHY ARE YOUR NAMES HALF VIKING AND HALF HEBREW EXCEPT FOR THE RANDOM GERMAN NAMES. WHY WHY WHY.

Deep breath.

The other thing I really hated in that episode was Rebekah’s “it’s a protection spell of course.”

Honestly I think that was the actual sword plunging into TVD’s heart and the show just slowly bled out from there and I was so shocked and betrayed by that that it just took me years of trying to stop the hemorrhaging before I finally accepted that it was a mortal wound.

You have to understand that I continued to watch seasons 3 and 4 the way an abandoned dog will wait for its owner to return. I just couldn’t help myself. It had been my favorite favorite show (and sort of still is?)

Well. Why did I hate this protection spell thing so much. TVD had made it very clear in the early seasons of the show that becoming a vampire was BAD. It was a fate worse than death. The whole angst of season 1 relies on us feeling the TRAGEDY when Giuseppe murders his sons and they become vampires. Because vampires in TVD aren’t inhuman, per se; they’re still the same person, they still have their souls, their consciences, their moralities... they’re just also saddled with this insatiable burning thirst for human blood that drives them to commit the very worst deeds, that drives them down these dark paths of horror and soul-scouring guilt as they repeatedly succumb, over and over and over and over again, to their worst impulses, until they finally stop caring and become monsters in truth. Until they forget about the simple warmth of a human connection, of good things like love and friendship and family. TVD made it clear that to be a vampire was to be in hell. It’s why Damon promises Stefan an eternity of misery. It’s why the group responds with HORROR when Caroline is turned in 2x02. It’s why Damon’s confession in 2x12 rips at our hearts, and why the stakes are so high when we wonder whether Elena will be a vampire at the end of season 2. The show is very clear that it’s not actually becoming a vampire that makes us monsters, but the actions we take once we become vampires that make us monsters... but that those actions are also nearly inevitable and precipitous once the transition occurs. It’s really tragic.

I remember the summer before season 3 aired the fan spaces were all abuzz with speculation about “what could Klaus have done that was so bad that not only was the vampire curse inflicted on him, but also on his entire family?” (that was the prevailing theory for how he could be the “first” Original vampire-- he was the one who had actually done whatever the thing was that had precipitated what was OBVIOUSLY a vengeance curse.)

Ordinary People was like LOL! NOPE! Joke’s on you for thinking we were going to actually discuss self-destructive behavior and the human psyche through the metaphorical lens of vampirism ;)

There were definitely other things in season 3 that bugged-- the serial killer thing was hard to follow (and I tend to criticize anything that’s hard to follow for any viewer watching week to week, while also paying close attention... because that means it’s probably not well enough explained), the white oak stake bridge was LOL fine, it did lead to some epic stakings by our boy Matt tag-teaming with Elena and Stefan, and I did enjoy the idea that the whole bloodline dies... anyway, I digress.

The flashbacks started being a problem in season 3. In season 1 & season 2, the flashbacks basically all told a continuous B storyline. In season 1, of course, we have 1864, in that gorgeous blue cast. We get a little additional information of that in season 2, and it’s amazing. But then in season 2, the B story is 1492, in that golden cast, also amazing.

After that the flashbacks that start in season 3 are pretty random. We don’t have stories being told in the past throughout the season, but instead, random one-offs in random colors telling random stories. Not bad, per se, but definitely less affecting and much less cohesive and meaningful.

Here’s the big big big issue with season 3: Klaus.

The whole point of the season was to kill Klaus. It was explicitly stated.

Every other season, once the motivation was stated, the show went through with it: open the tomb, stake the tomb vamps, take down Katherine, find a way to save Elena during the sacrifice, etc.

Now, as everyone knows, I love and adore Klaus. But I also sort of hate him because I think the writers loved him too much and they wrecked the show a bit with him. They wanted to create drama with a “kill Klaus!” arc but there was never that much tension in it because I was certain from 3x12 onward that they never would. (well, I was stunned when he got staked at the end of season 3 and I just sort of whispered, “good” to my empty dorm room at the time-- but that was short-lived). It really really really took the wind out of the show’s sails when they didn’t stake him by season’s end, so the MOST major thing I would have done would have been to kill him off somehow at the end of season 3.

If they didn’t kill him off, they should have devised a way to make peace/have Team Mystic Falls need him and him need them much earlier and much more concretely than they ever did. With the way things played out in actuality, our protagonists failed to do the one thing protagonists MUST do: take defining action. All of their actions in season 3 are completely for nothing, and that makes the whole thing fall apart.

This also brings me around to something that will surprise absolutely no one: I have a lot of problems with the way that klaus x caroline was handled. I think it COULD have been done convincingly, but the writers were lazy/were very clearly just trying to get Klaus a ship because the actor is hot, and so they gave us the horse drawing, and the prom dress, and the ball gown, and frankly, a list of villain decay moments that I just... don’t know what to do with. And the ship pretty much ruined Caroline’s character because the whole point of her was that she was so much deeper and kinder than anyone gave her credit for, even than she gave herself credit for, but the ship was like LOL! NOPE! (I have a lot more on this written elsewhere in my blog) Also my boy Tyler got cut out of a HUGE amount of this show to make room for this ship, which was lousy.

My last thought about season 3 is that this is when the characters-- especially Damon-- started to really decay. Rewatching early seasons of the show is WILD because Damon is WEIRD. He is so other and off-putting-- beautiful, but very very strange-- it’s in the way smolderholder held himself, the way he spoke, all the little things that sent little alarm bells ringing. He was delightfully inhuman.

I vividly remember the stupid chipmunk argument in... 3x16? somewhere around there-- with Stefan in some back alley in Mystic Falls and I was just??? That was the moment I realized that all of those things about Damon’s acting that had appealed to me had vanished. I think the writers were trying to make him more likable/humanize him so he could be the main love interest, but it was very frustrating to me.

Moving on to season 4. I was actually into the sire bond because it was difficult and problematic and felt to me like a chance to explore more complex issues through the “vampire” metaphor the way the show had done in earlier seasons. (I know this storyline is pretty much hated, but my stance is: if you don’t want dark, problematic, uncomfortable, and toxic storylines, don’t watch vampire genre tv shows. That simple!)

I don’t mind the idea of the “cure” and I don’t even mind the Hunter thing/that Jeremy could be a Hunter (although I found the coincidence dumb).

ACTUALLY what I would have liked VERY MUCH would be for Elena to go through most of her season 4 storyline-- becoming a vampire, having Jeremy die and her turning off her emotions, then going on her evil vampire rampage and actually killing and hurting innocents, only THEN for her to have the cure forced on her after like a year of being a vampire. The defining arc of Elena’s character in the early seasons is her moral decay-- Katherine is the warning of what Elena will inevitably become if she continues down the path she’s on-- so it would be fascinating to see her go DOWN that path, very far, and then to have her become human again-- and have her actually have to deal with the horrors she committed. (I have a bit of a theory that vampires have one foot over the veil into the realm of death, and maybe this, if anything, makes it easier for them to forget their humanity/become truly monstrous, but that becoming human again would slam all of that into the front and center again)-- it would be a way for Elena to actually have to confront her story arc-- what path is she going to go down? Is she going to continue her slide into callousness and monstrosity? Or can she turn it around? Must she give up the Salvatores to do that?

I don’t really mind the season 4 Silas content. Will say that once again the inclusion of any of the Originals in season 4 is pretty useless which is frustrating to me, and their place in the TVD narrative in general is an annoying dead-end.

However, I do think that Silas introduces a big shift in TVD: their need for a yearly big bad. As I mentioned above, TVD was always “one thing leading to another” -- starting with Silas, they started introducing yearly Big Bads (Silas, the Travelers, Kai) that were arbitrary and frustrating and were the thing that most broke me out of my suspension of in-universe belief. The idea that the show would need a big bad was a fundamental misunderstanding of the narrative structure of the first 3 seasons by the writers in those later seasons.

You asked what the straw that broke the camel’s back was and I can tell you, it was this:

I laughed myself sick and that was the last time that TVD was appointment television for me. I call this the Party City Greek costume.

I did eventually marathon season 5 well after it was over, and even though a lot all of the ways the show retconned itself drove me insane, it was overall fun just to watch for the drama and the pace.

My biggest problems with season 5...

This was around the time that Bonnie was dead then alive then dead then alive... I can’t actually keep track any more at this point what’s up with our girl

Stelena pretty much disappeared.

I actually think one of the bigger problems in the show was that the show was stronger when it was mostly about Damon, Stefan, and Elena, and at some point they gave more equal screen time to other characters which ended up meaning that I spent a lot of screen time with characters I just didn’t care about (ENZO)

UGH THE DOPPELGANGER STUFF

So, if you’ve read my fics, you know I spend a huge amount of time parsing the mechanics of the doppelganger, how the magic around it might work, what the implications are, etc.

I CAN’T STAND what happened to the doppelganger stuff in season 5! UGH. HOW DOES TOM WHAT’S HIS FACE EXIST? DID STEFAN HAVE A BABY WHEN HE WAS 15?!? Seriously!!! HOW!!!! Because it’s real clear in canon that only DIRECT line descendants create doppelgangers!

ALSO. The Amara thing. Just stop it.

This actually leads to a pretty major issue: TVD had a bad habit of establishing really exquisite doomed histories and then wrecking them with too much information later.

The story of Tatia Petrova is a masterpiece in doomed, tragic, romantic mythology. Teenage girl falls in love with two brothers and so their parents decide to use her as the blood sacrifice for their creepy curse “protection spell” and so they murder her-- you get the image of how terrified she must have been, dragged out of her home in the middle of the night, trapped, maybe dying slowly, how she dies for loving too much, for being just a little too wild, a little too trusting-- and how that curse echoes down the ages. The idea that that act of savagery somehow created the doppelganger line. The Amara thing (as well as the Originals revelation that Elijah killed Tatia) gut the impact of that TVD myth-- which was a strong one in the imaginations of the viewers.

And the idea that vampire doppelganger blood is useful for anything??? I can’t. The WHOLE POINT of season 2 is that Katherine turns herself into a vampire to avoid the sacrifice! We are explicitly told-- you can’t be two things at once, if you become a vampire, you negate your identity as a witch or a doppelganger or whatever-- literally the WHOLE PLOT of season 2 centers on how useless Elena’s blood would be if she were turned! And now Stefan is in on this? NOPE. I’m out.

Anyway, another myth that got wrecked in season 5 was the Katerina Petrova myth. Part of her tragedy is that she never even gets to hold her baby. Is the idea that her baby grows up and has a normal life and Katerina never even gets to find out anything about her. That she completely loses this one thing that might have humanized her. And then of course the great tragedy in England that ultimately destroys her. I really hated meeting Katherine’s daughter, because it reversed the pathos of Katherine’s past and rendered it emotionally inert. And also Nadia sucked.

The Travelers were fun enough but also they made no sense (DOPPELGANGER VAMPIRE BLOOD) but most especially I hated the idea that Katherine was a Traveler just WHY

I got... partway through season 6, although, I couldn’t tell you where exactly I stopped watching for no particular reason.

I remember really enjoying Tyler x Liv and the way that they made Tyler human again, and brought Alaric back, etc at the end of season 5-- it felt like such a fresh reboot to everything and it’s one of the things that TVD does really well.

That Thanksgiving episode sticks out to me as a train wreck though because I realized that the central conflict had absolutely nothing to do with any of the characters I actually cared about, and was instead about the twins... whom I liked, but not really any more than I liked the Martins in season 2, you know?

Also vampire blood being unable to cure cancer sounds arbitrary to me.

As for how I would have preferred the show to end?

Hmm. Well. I think it should have ended sooner-- this “the show is really about these two brothers” is just incorrect. The show was about the two brothers and Elena. It was about that triangulated relationship. I think that even if Elena ended up with one or the other at any given point in the show, the other third point in that triangle should have stuck around-- I’ve always disliked Stefan slinking off in season 5 because it tears apart the foundation of the show.

I have no idea how it should have ended. I guess? the ending? was okay? I’ve never actually seen it.

On to the Originals... so, the magical pregnancy didn’t really bug me because there are plenty of fandoms where vampires can procreate/I guess if Klaus is part werewolf, he has a foot closer back to the mortal coil, and vampire bodies in TVD have heartbeats, are warm, digest food, etc, so it was like, fine, sure.

I would say I watched... some of season 1? and I watched most of season 2? I watched whatever I needed to watch for fic research basically, and have a very confused sense of what happened on that show. I’m always skeptical of anything set in New Orleans though because no one ever seems to leave the French Quarter which is so preposterous because the Quarter is probably smaller than Mystic Falls. But anyway. The tribrid thing has never made sense, but I just sort of rolled with what I’ve heard about the Originals? I really love Marcel and think he was actually the protagonist of the show, whereas Klaus was definitely the antagonist. (I just can’t bring myself to side with Klaus on pretty much anything...)

Okay I think this ties up all of your questions/most of my thoughts except for maybe... what I find absurd.

To answer that: every time I learn something new I am stunned and my jaw drops in a literal guffaw. For example, today reading your ask was the first time that I found out that Ric was unrequited in love with Caroline (although, former student carrying her former teacher’s children also makes me uncomfortable). As far as I know from seasons 7-8, Damon sleeps with someone named Crystal, Caroline somehow magically carries Alaric’s children with their dead witch mom (and apparently Alaric is in love with Caroline while that happens?), Matt might be a cop, Damon and Stefan fight the literal devil and Katherine is their queen, Bonnie and Enzo??, Caroline and Stefan get married, what’s a Jeremy Gilbert, maybe Damon sets Elena’s fake coffin on fire?, Damon kills Tyler (WHICH IS UNACCEPTABLE), there are witches who are vampires called Heretics, and also there are Sirens and maybe Mama Salvatore is one. The end. Every time I learn something new it’s the most amazing thing I have ever heard and I can’t imagine how it could be so, but I accept it.

Am I missing anything?

Legacies is so beyond my comprehension that I just have to roll with everything I hear. God Bless Matt Davis for leading that cast.

#anonymous #tvd meta #this got really long

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monstaxdirtywonk · 5 years ago

Text

Love Syndrome

Member : Wonho X reader

Genre : Fuff, some angst, some smut

Synopsis : A girl obsessed with Neurology takes an experiment on dating Hoseok, who has no idea this is a joke to her. Her experiment will turn against her when she’ll actually start falling in love...

You weren't like the other girls. Maybe this will turn out to be one of those memes online but no, you truly meant it. As a kid, you despised dolls and castles, pink and unicorns. You showed a great interest in mechanics, cars (mostly destroying them and notice their parts), puzzles and balls. Truth be told, you were proud of yourself and how independent you grew to be. Your friends were crying every once in a while for that hottie blondie who broke up with them, while you did your best at comforting them. Relationships were an unnecessary drama, one you did not want to take part in. You’re fine the way you are! An academic career is in front of you, traveling the world and finally, being what you always wanted...a woman of logic, of sense, of credibility. No drama, no annoying clingy boyfriends, no crying sessions. No. No. No. You know what's best in life and that’s what’s your way.

Your friend Val was over for support. There’s been a month since she broke up with the ex and still can’t let go. After hours of fake sentimentalism, you’ve had enough.

“You know what...I’ve got the perfect solution for you.”

Val raised her teary eyes and looked curiously to your side.

“You can get a dog! Yes that’s perfect, I should’ve thought about it sooner,

“okay thank you for trying to make me laugh but it’s not helping.”

“This isn’t a joke. it’s a real solution and a much more practical one than me just telling you sweet nonsense of ‘comfort’. Dogs, when in contact with humans, release a chemical in our brain called oxytocin, just like when you are with your partner. Instead of having the side effects and ups and downs of a relationship, a dog is much more devoted and drama free. Boom, you’ve got double win.”

“I swear sometimes I feel like you’re Sheldon from Big Bang theory in a female form.”

“Thank you for that compliment but I am not as good as the flawless mastermind Sheldon himself is.”

“You know what, Ima leave before we fight, the least thing I’m looking for is this.”

“Okay fine but think about it.”

You said as you made your way to the door along her. Val grinned and left without a second word. I mean you were right, even you thought of adopting a cute poodle. It’s much better than ‘adopting’ a boyfriend. Plus dogs are always happy when they see you. Maybe a dog is a good idea.

You checked the watch and it hit you.

“Damn, I’m late!” you exclaimed and took your purse heading out of the door.

----

‘When in love, you experience a rush of hormones to the brain — including oxytocin, the “love hormone,” the “pleasure hormone” dopamine, and sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. ‘

You aren’t the type to believe in coincidences but if they exist, this can’t be one. Out of all those subjects, did they have to talk about love’s effect on the brain today? Unbelievable. But interesting at the same time, no wonder everyone’s so invested in this called ‘dating culture’.

“Y/N, we’ll be in the cafeteria downstairs. Don’t be too late.”

“I won’t I promise.”

The proffessor looked at you intensely. You noticed and moved your head upwards.

“Actually I’ll close the class! Sorry about that but I have my lunch break.”

“Ah totally. I’m so sorry Mr.Jones for ‘eating your time away’” You laughed at your own pun and he did too.

You slow-run to the exit and the moment you reached the door, you collided with someone and your books fell to the floor.

“Oh I’m sorry I can’t believe I’m so careless at times.” his voice, a sweet sound contrary to his muscular physique.

“No, it’s my mistake actually. I wasn’t looking straight, per usual.” he laughed and colected your books.

“I mean, you didn’t have to.”

“It’s the least I can do for bumbing into you like that. My Hulk self should be a little more careful since I might knock out someone.”

You laughed genuinely after a long time. He noiticed and smiled in satisfaction.

“So, you’re studying Neurology?”

“Ugh? Ah yes I do! It’s very interesting. Some might find it boring but it’s so exciting to learn about the wonder our body, our mind is.”

He was staring at you in awe. Probably thinking of you as a terrible nerd. Judging by his looks, he seemed the gym guy, totally off your valley.

‘I’m sorry. It gets boring for some.”

“No. Not at all. I admire those that are so passionate with what they’re doing. I would just like to add something more to your sentence.”

“...and what’s that?”

“the wonder our body, mind and soul is.”

Normally you’d think of it as lame. Actually it was cheesy but he is a pleasant surprise. It was unfair to judge him based on his looks after all.

“I guess.” you answered semi-sure.

“Now you might excuse me but I gotta go. It was nice talking to you.”

“Bye” you waved cringing at the silly child-like act.

----

The library was surprisingly empty for a uni with so many students. You took advantage and went there to study further for your upcoming exams. Suddenly a voice interrupted your train of thought and you were this close to cursing.

“Hey!” someone shout out in excitment, earning himself agressive shhs from the few students sitting there. He murmured a sorry and came your way. It was the guy that bumbed into you a couple of days before.

“Hey” you answered as quietely as possible.

“So..” he said obviously nervous by his hand movements and red tint on his cheeks.

“I forgot to tell you my name and that was rude, wasn’t it?”

You didn’t answer because it wasn’t rude.

“I’m Hoseok.” he extended his arm for a hand shake.

You felt his pulse rising to dangerous vibrations. He was nervous for sure. Maybe you’re reading into it too much...

“Nice to meet you Hoseok, I’m Y/N.”

“You know I feel sorry to interrupt you but I’d like to offer you a drink, as a way to apologize.”

“You don’t have to! It wasn’t anything disastrous.”

“Is that a no?” he asked with puppy eyes, eager for an answer. You didn’t want to let him down, plus he seemed like a nice guy.

“You know what, let’s go but I’ll pay for my drink.”

“I insist.” you smiled at his stubborness.

----

“So..” Hoseok said while stirring his coffee.

“yees..” you answered looking back at him with curious eyes.

“I was thinking...if you’d like us to grab a snack/drink from time to time.”

You nodded hapily. You wanted a new friend especially when it’s someone as good and funny as Hoseok.

“Ah yes totally! I’d love to be your friend. You’re so funny and all!.” you replied and touch his arm playfully.

Hoseok sighed and his face seemed a bit dissapointed.

“Oh so you view me as a friend?”

“Yes...isn’t that what you wanted too?”

He moved closer and took your hand in his. It was a brave move and even tho his eyes were uncertain, his body language said otherwise.

“I mean, actually dating. You and me, more than friends.” he said and left your hand, letting you to decide on your own.

This came out of nowhere. You weren’t expecting this to be said so fast but here he is, right in front of you, asking. Hoseok had every charateristic a girl would want. Funny,smart and what seems like high levels of testosterone judging by his muscular body and prominant jawline. But, you didn’t know if this was enough. Relationships aren’t for you and you don’t want to take time off your studies. You don’t even have feelings for him in the first place. You don’t have feelings for anyone, they are pointless attempts of nature to make you birth offsprings and save the specie from dissapearing.

He studied your face for any expression that might suggest your answer but there was none. You were lost in those rapid thoughts and didn’t know what to do. When you finally came out of it and saw his pleading expression you shouted out

“YES” you bought your hand in front of your lips to shush yourself.

Hoseok smiled the brighest and most beautiful smile you’ve ever seen. His eyes were sparkling in hapiness and felt relieved to hear you, his cheeks rosy again. His beauty made you forget, the horror you just said. Did you just said...yes? How can you do such a thing? You don’t even have feelings for him.

You sighed and he noticed.

“Don’t feel pressured. We will take things as slowly as you want them to be.”

Little did he know that wasn’t it.

“Ah thank you Hoseok for being so understanding. Now I gotta go because … I gotta go. See you later.”

“Talk to you later” he said

“Oh and I forgot, can I have your phone you know...”

Typical couple things

«Yes» you said and wrote your number down.

----

“What do I do when we walk side by side?”

You asked Val while holding a notebook in your lap, making small marks to study later.

“Just be natural! Don’t study for a date too”

“How can I be natural? I’ve got no idea what’s up with all this dating thing you guys do like it’s breathing or something. I will watch Netflix series once you’ll leave, those stupid crybaby ones, to find out more.”

“Ugh, okay you hold his hand too? maybe?”

“hold..his..hand..too..” you repeated while writing it down. It’s not that hard after all, unless he takes things further which he said won’t be happening.

“Now you can leave or you can leave because I’ve got very important things to do.”

“Very important aka watching Netflix.”

“Exactly” you nodded while laughing.

“okay I’m not gonna stay any longer either you know...i’m prone to crying.”

“Yes I know plus your PMS makes things even worse, I mean it’s normal you know with all those chemical and hormonal imbal...”

the sudden sound caught you off guard, Val really didn’t seem like the type that wanted to learn. You sighed loudly and moved to the couch. You truly made a mess. You didn’t want to hurt him with saying no, but if you say no now, it’ll hurt him even more. It’d be best if he didn’t have feelings but according to his body language and days he’s been exposed to your pherormones, he is in and deep. It might be beneficial tho, it’s not the most humanatarian idea but you can make the best out of a bad situation. Maybe, if you live through a relationship, you’ll be able to grasp why it means so much to others. An experiment.

It won’t hurt anyone, right?

#monsta x #monsta x imagine #wonho #hoseok #fluff #kpop fluff #kpop imagine

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sternenteile · 4 years ago

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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: @battleshell ; we all care blue, u do, i do, we all do tagging: holy shit my whole dash because exorbitantly long memes are the BEST. i aint even sarcastic when i say that, i love this kind of shit. u GOTTA do it.

my muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [ he is in two fandoms, in fact. he is both a fan-favorite from super mario rpg, the very first in the line of mario rpgs we’ve gotten over the years, and a pretty popular smash bros. request. he even got a mii costume in 4 and a spirit in ultimate as a result of the love. he’s very beloved, to the point that i’d, even as a geno fan myself, deem him a bit overrated. why? b/c where is all the love for all the other smrpg characters!!! they are all good. i love them all. ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. [ i mean ?? i’ve met and seen many people who have/had crushes on geno so ??????? but i don’t think it’s like. that. ghfskjhgsg??? ]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. [ oh yes, he is undeniably very strong, both in personality and in battle. he is often seen as the level-headed straight man of the party in smrpg (which, in the case of my geno, is... semi-applicable LMAO), a star spirit with unwavering bravery and confidence. his in-battle stats are also pretty crazy, favoring geno as a glass cannon and enemy sweeper. he is also the only character in the game to have a move that will insta-kill any enemy besides bosses. well, and exor. idk why exor, but there ya go. needless to say, pretty much everyone in the fandom agrees that geno is a powerful mfer. why wouldn’t a literal, living star be? ]

Are they underrated? YES / NO / IDK. [ as i mentioned before, there is no shortage of him being underrated in the fanbase. i’d even say he’s a little overrated. some people treat smrpg as ‘that game with geno in it’ rather than everything else it has going for it. i love star boye as much as the next gal, but pls appreciate smrpg as a whole. it’s such a vibrant game with a colorful world of characters to love. ]

Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO. [ he is actually, completely central to the plot. the subtitle of smrpg is legend of the seven stars, which directly relates to geno’s core mission: to find the seven star pieces and restore star road. the rest of the gang had different ambitions, but they all ended up banding together over geno’s objective. one could argue he mostly is the exposition-granter and could be replaced with anyone else, but i feel he’s irreplaceable. smrpg would be so different without him, like it or not. ]

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ i wouldn’t say he is the protagonist, obviously, as that is very much mario’s spot. that being said, he is a pretty obvious deuteragonist for smrpg, given how much the plot revolves around him. he’s relevant to mario, for sure, as well as peach, mallow, and bowser. he’s relevant to many characters beyond them. he represents the fight for everyone’s wishes to be able to come true. he’s, uh... very relevant rofl. ]

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. [ the star spirits are somewhat known in the mario universe as entities capable of granting wishes, kinda like fabled gods with a tinge more evidence and reality to them. geno himself isn’t a known name, not like the seven star spirits of star haven, but his people are decently known. he, however, is not. ]

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ he is basically the epitome of ‘good’ until you overthink star society like i do lol. not all wishes can be granted, what constitutes as a ‘good wish’ is subjective, why some good wishes still can’t be granted anyway, etc. it puts him more towards neutral good with a dash of lawful and an undercurrent of chaotic, given his rebellion against his superiors. ]

How strictly do you follow canon? — i mean, it isn’t hard to be strict to mario canon when there isn’t that much of a foundation to work with anyway lol. it’s all rather simplistic until you get into the nitty gritty of it ??? that said, geno is built on a lot of headcanon. like, a lot a lot. star society and its rules for star spirits of his kind, his relationship with rosalina (a matronly figure), his relationship with the seven star spirits, the fleshing-out of his basic personality traits shown in smrpg, etc.? headcanon upon headcanon.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — a star possessing the form of a children’s toy, like toy story but with more cosmic pew-pew. a chill and sassy guy still learning the ways of how earth (and other planets) work on a more intimate level, meaning there will be lots of adorkable moments as this curious one makes discoveries. sometimes attempts to innovate with what he learns to be ‘ahead of the curve’, leading to interesting results. (he likes to sip bubble tea, but replace the tapioca pearls with star bits. good result. mopping a counter-top because it would be ‘more efficient’? not-so-good result, got him lots of stares.) straight outta the 90′s, so be ready some of that rad 90′s slang and know-how from back in the day. (what do u mean they’re bringing back dunkaroos? that’d mean they stOPPED MAKING THEM?!?) very intrigued with new technology, became stuck to his smartphone upon discovering them, fell into the time-sink that is animal videos on youtube. he’s humble and likes to relax, have a good time, and relax w/ the squad. video games, netflix binges, the whole nine yards, he’s gotchu. he is a hell of a fighter and loves to fight, as well. help him push his abilities, and he’ll help you with yours. likes being a little shit for fun, only to an extent (harmless moments of impishness, not serious, hurtful pranks). has a sense of humor that is easy to tickle, even with stupid dad jokes and classic puns. the brother-friend that will fire lasers at ur enemies for u. likes to play violin. cute. super cutie. v. tiny in his star form. almost five whole feet of sparkly, twinkly fun. likes super soakers.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). — despite intrigue to learn more about the world around him, there is only so much that he does know. societal norms are often beyond him, and there are just so, so many earth hobbies he is not aware of. without handing him a bone, it makes him a little more limited than someone who’s more savvy. he is prime slice-of-life material, but that may also make things rather dull in an rp without an extra twist to spice things up. (thankfully, his being a total SNOT sometimes helps with that.) in canon and strictly in canon, geno doesn’t really have much personality, something that this geno has plenty more fleshed out. a good chunk of fandom finds him to be incredibly boring and droll, to which i personally disagree, as there are little things in smrpg that hint towards him having more to explore.

What inspired you to rp your muse? — funnily enough, seeing smash bros. fandom railing on geno fans + hyping him up all at the same time made me revisit smrpg after having only played it as a teenager. i expected geno to be a boring slate of nothing like fandom often portrays him, but i found that i was terribly wrong. with a newfound perspective on him, noting little details that defied my expectations for this li’l guy, i decided to give him a geno whirl and see what kind of expansion i could do with his character. the amount of lore i came up with him and started wondering about piled on and on and on, and i realized that he had so much more potential than what nintendo and square properly tapped into. (some of it is also a matter of being timely, though, meaning later mario materials such as rosalina, star haven, etc.) i wanted to flex out that potential and see how much i could fill this little doll up with, and lo and behold, i rp him today with extensive amounts of development poured into him with love. to put it simply, there was so much untapped potential that i wanted to share with the world, to show geno the love and in-depth exploration that he deserved, to show that he was more than what he was given.

What keeps your inspiration going? — chattering about mario lore with pals, whether it relates to geno or not, reading, watching shows or videos that remind me of him, learning more about cosmology and the universe we live in (and boy, i’ve learned a lot of neat stuff!), revisiting my childhood (the 90′s) since it’s very geno-appropriate, drawing The Boye, literally anything to do with playing, watching, or doing ANYTHING with smrpg/paper mario 64/smg1&2, and probs a lot more. i’ve got a lot of fuel in me for this guy lol.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ on one hand, of course i hope that i do! on the other hand, i mean... nintendo and square don’t do jack for him, so i think almost anyone can do him more justice than they have, lbr. it’s... not hard... :’) ]

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO / SORT OF? [ ok i gotta just copy-paste what blue said in her response because my god, she nailed it: “you know when you have a concept and in your own mind you can see it clearly, without fuzziness or confusion, but you can’t seem to put it clearly into words without it turning into an essay because you need to connect all the other points that’s in the single concept you envisioned? yea.” basically, this but in spades, because i have a huge amount of headcanon and lore that i’ve either not gotten around to writing about yet or am purposefully staving off (wink wink). i have written a lot for him, though! it’s just... comparatively so little to what all i’ve thought up over-time. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO [ not! often! enough!!! ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO [ all i know is fine dining, breathing, and adorkable starman. ]

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF? [ funny enough, i’m pretty damn confident in my portrayal, albeit still very modest. i mean, i am at least confident that i give depth to a character that had so little, and i feel like geno is just... real. (not literally ofc i mean like, he FEELS realistic.) he’s got character perks, character flaws, strengths, weaknesses, personal issues, ongoing obstacles, relatable themes where appropriate, interests, knowledge (or lack thereof), daily routines... i could go on. if nothing else, i at least feel good about trying to make geno feel less like some exposition character and more like a person. considering he wants to achieve personhood that most of his kind never gets to find, it’s oddly poetic lmao. ]

Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO. [ eehhhhh. i mean, i guess it’s fiiiIIINE, but i often feel like i lack a certain pizzazz, something that’ll keep people interested and intrigued with what i write, giving enough material for them to adequately bounce back. on the same token, i like to babble with my prose, so i often worry about going on and on and on way too much. stale, quantity over quality, substance-less writing is what i fuss over the most. ;; ]

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO. / SORTA. [ sensitive to empathy and other peoples’ emotions, yes. i’m an insanely empathetic person, and i have a lot of love to give. that said, with only few exceptions, i have a pretty iron-clad skin. sometimes, i daresay it’s to the point that i often misjudge what other people can take, and i feel i can end up being too harsh and forward. that being said, it is also a good thing at times. harsh or not, if i feel a certain way about something, i make that shit known and i make it known as loud as it necessarily should be. i don’t beat around the bush; rather, if i have a beef, i will make that beef known. consequently, if i have love to give, you damn well better be ready to swim in a pool of hearts and your favorite kind of cookie (if applicable). ]

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal? — as long as it isn’t complaints with lack of substance/reasoning, yes! even if i may not always agree and may take things with a grain of salt, i am insanely receptive to criticism, even over the pickiest things. it’s something i’ve grown used to due to prior rp venues being particularly harsh. i will never throw a fit or act like a child if there is something i could do better with geno. in fact, there always will be! i’m not perfect, and i love to hear about ways i can improve and do better. it’s paramount in a hobby like this.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character? — LET’S-A FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? — sure, i’d love to know! it can make for some neat conversation!! c:

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it? — that’s a’ight. i’m sure there are things about my geno that won’t resonate with everyone, especially given he’s a very sentimental character for old fogies like me lol. as long as there is no disrespect thrown this way, it’s all good. this stuff is subjective, after all.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it? — oh, a lot of people really hate geno lol, but i’m guessing this means personal portrayal only. in such a case, i would be curious as to why, admittedly, but i acknowledge that i am not owed anyone’s reasoning. if they really, absolutely hate my geno, then it’s their prerogative, whether they want to give a reason why or not. again, it’s all good unless immaturity and disrespect rears its head. i won’t tolerate that and will ignore any such behavior.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors? — sure, it happens to the best of us!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun? — i’d like to think that i am! i’ve often had people tell me that i’m very nice and mature, but of course, i have no right to say how i come off to other people. that is not in my territory to judge, only theirs. that being said, it’s not easy to upset me or anger me, and i’m more often willing to listen and pal around than not. i’m the living embodiment of (shrug). i am just (shrug).

#�� ; ( ooc. )#★ ; ( meme. )#★ ; ( headcanon. )#WHHHHOOOOOHHHHH THIS WAS A BLST #THANK U AGAIN BLUE I LOVE THIS

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aedanstarfang · 4 years ago

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Welcome to Morgyn’s Drag Race

I've been away from my blog for quite a while, working on a (stupid) project that has occupied my time. And like all defiantly proud persons, I needed to see through this project to the end...and I also had fun (kinda) working on it. So without further ado, here is the Blogspot premiere of Morgyn's Drag Race: Season One!

Having made its official premiere on August 30, 2020; Morgyn's Drag Race was originally just a fun side-project that blew up into a full size in going 'The Sims' mini series. Meet the Cast

Morgyn Ember

Hailing from the Magic Realm, hidden deep within Glimmerbrook; Morgyn is a non-binary sim though that does not make him ineligible from being one of the sickest drag queens in Sim Nation (look up the real world history of Drag; trans and NB persons were the pioneers of drag culture).

Morgyn introduces himself as the 'head judge' of the inaugural season of Drag Race, alongside his co-judges; Siobhan Fyres and Izzy Fabulous, truly a stylish and LGBTQIA+ inclusive judging panel.

Morgyn's critiques of the queens come from the heart and he laces every critique with a compliment, embracing and appreciating said queen's individuality while criticizing their work. Morgyn can be best described as an fair, constructive and sensitive judge, and unlike real world judge/critics such as Rupaul or Simon Cowell; Morgyn actually critiques the queen's runway rather than barking out trendy one-liners or simply discrediting a queen's work because 'he doesn't like it'.

Siobhan & Izzy make up the rest of the judging panel acting as the defacto Michelle Visage and Santino Rice respectively; though it's a little deeper than that. Siobhan Fyres is more like co-judge 'Stacey McKenzie' of Canada's Drag Race or former Drag Race judge 'Merle Ginsberg', often giving constructive criticism while not shying away from criticizing a queen's sloppiness or lack of runway presence.

Izzy could be compared to ex-Drag Race judge 'Santino Rice', though that comparison falls a little flat when you see that Izzy's personality is less sharp-tongued and 'mean girl'-esque and more blunt and impartial on similar lines as 'Simon Cowell' or 'Piers Morgan'. Izzy openly displays boredom or disinterest within the first few seconds of seeing a queen's runway, and is often chided by Morgyn for being too hasty.

The Pilot or first episode showed us Eliza Pancakes acting as Morgyn's second-in-command as a literal expy of drag race judge 'Michelle Visage', being very quick to dismiss a queen for being weird or different, criticizing a queen's look for not being 'trendy' or 'mainstream' enough and even going so far as taking offense with an Asian queen's pun-name. She was fired by the second episode and instead blackmailed placed into a hosting position of 'What's In the Bag?', which is basically a Sims version of 'Whatcha Packin?' It's a humorous after show type of series that revolves around Eliza interviewing eliminated queens, all the while getting several jabs in at Morgyn, the producers, the company and of course shading the guest queen themselves.

The Contestants

Morgyn's Drag Race was announced on August of this year, which included a special series of 'Meet the Queens' videos focusing on all twelve of the competing queens. This season I am proud to say that it features a diverse range of queens ranging in size, nationality, gender identity and drag/performance style.

The initial twelve 'meet the queens' videos are still available to watch on my youtube channel, however they will soon be made irrelevant as newer, updated MTQ videos shall take their place - featuring a fluid, solid theme for the promo (which never got an official release oops!)

So without further ado, let's do further and get to know these twelve quirky queens shall we (in alphabetical order)? (*Note: That characters who are competing drag queens are referred to as 'her/she' and 'he/him' interchangeably via the rule of 'when a queen is in drag they are she, when they are out of drag they are he, there are of course expections).

Also, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Baga Trash

Sy Jefferies

AKA "

Baga Trash

" 34, is a well-known drag performer from Windenburg. Now I know what you're probably thinking; "he's an obvious parody of Baga Chipz" well no, not really. While Baga Trash IS a British queen (even if my impression is shite), he was inspired by several different characters and queens including but not limited to 'Tammie Brown' and 'Daphne Moon'. Baga aspires to become the world's top trash queen, and applauds 'trashion' as the style of the future. Interestingly enough, Baga Trash has little to no interest in ANY of the features from Eco Lifestyle, odd since dumpster diving is right up her ally.

Caliente

Nicholas Contreras

aka

"Caliente",

at 24 is one of the youngest competing queens this season right after Terra Ryzen. Caliente prides herself on her youth, beauty and bubbly personality and actively proclaims her "youthful vigor" to be the secret to success. Now what is "youthful vigor" you might ask? Youthful Vigor is the total tetratic composition of youth, attractiveness or beauty, personality and talent. With that mantra in mind, Caliente remains ever cheerful and confident throughout the competition. Having originally been brought up on a large farm in Brindleton Bay, Caliente was no stranger to receiving the occasional odd glance from passersby as she gallivanted down main street in her pink designer miniskirts and halter tops, and to be honest she loved the attention more than anyone could know, this of course would boost her confidence into moving out to Newcrest where she would officially compete for the title of 'Morgyn's Magical Queen'.

Crow

Corbin Corvidae

AKA

"Crow"

30, is an adventurous and experienced queen hailing from Oasis Springs. As many would point out that Crow has glaringly obvious similarities to a certain

real life queen

and I will be 100% honest, yes Crow is an homage to many former Drag Race queens. Crow's personality I think is what sets her apart and standalone from other queens, both real life and fictitious. The most obvious similarities being Crow's seemingly bitter attitude towards the younger queens (particularly Caliente and Terra Ryzen), which plays into the same trope of "

this is a competition

" and "

blame the edit

". When starting Morgyn's Drag Race, we needed an antithesis to who we figured would be the standout protagonists of the season (being either Galaxia, Lapis or Caliente) and Crow fits that bill nicely.

Crow's moniker stems from her fascination with the color black, darkness, midnight and the very bird itself while the demeanor and overall look of her character is derived from her love of the 1990's film of the same name. Crow's experience and expertise with drag make her a force to be reckoned with, while her demure and sultry demeanor set her apart from the competition. Regardless of how you feel about Miss Crow, no one can deny that she serves some serious looks each time she hits the runway

Extra

Lance Proffitt

(pronounced 'Pro-feet') aka

"Extra"

29, is a professional

"background artist"

from Del Sol Valley, and no we're not talking about the actual profession of the

same name

we're talking about an

extra

, as in an uncredited background character in a film or series. Basically Extra is really talented at not being the lead character in movies or TV. Extra's personality is kind of a composition of an egotistical and yet eerily self-aware celebrity. Extra doesn't NEED others to remind him that he's a star, because in his world he is already a star. He mentions in his initial "talking head" during Episode One/Pilot that he had background roles in such serials as;

"Touched by an Alien"

"Abducted for Real"

and

"The Great Awful Cook-off"

. He also noted in his

"What's In the Bag"

segment with Eliza Pancakes, that he is a musical queen and that his talent for the talent show challenge would have been a live rendition of his hit song;

"Boy is a Bear"

. This is a bit of a spoiler so I rupologize in advance, but even Extra's book title for episode six;

"Suck More"

must be a callback to a certain real world queen, right? Whatever the case, Extra's willing to put int the time so long as you're willing to pay the dime.

Fortuna Cookie

Shūfáng Shāncháhuā ('Shu' for short) aka "Fortuna Cookie" 25, is a young queen from Strangerville who's motto is undoubtedly "here to make it queer", has certainly came to the right show hasn't she? Shu started drag at a shockingly young age; 3, when she dressed up in her mom's clothes and makeup and impersonated 'Miss Piggy' to entertain her family, though they were more red-faced from secondhand-embarrassment than laughter.

Cookie is a very artistic and personable queen, having done drag professionally since at least high school and performed at the 8-Bells in Strangerville since her university days at Britechester. She was taken in by her would be drag-mother, 'Mint Cookie' and quickly made friends with newfound family; 'Sugar Cookie', 'Fudge Cookie' and 'Samoa Cookie'. Shu's drag name had always just been 'Fortuna' (for luck) before being adopted by the Haus of Cookie, where she became "Fortuna Cookie".

Galaxia

Cosmo Nebulon AKA "Galaxia" 28, is quite possibly the most unique queen in this lineup; not only is she the only queen from Sixam, but also the very first 'Alien' contestant in the series history (but surely not to be the last). Galaxia moved to Del Sol Valley shortly before being cast on "Morgyn's Drag Race", because as he puts it the "drag scene on Sixam is boring!" Self-described 'Xenomorph Queen' Galaxia certainly has a lot in common with real life queens such as 'Alaska' and 'Pandora Boxx', though I think Galaxia's uniqueness in both style and personality make him standout from the crowd, that and he's "a fucking alien!"

For everyone who's seen the initial airing of the pilot will know that Galaxia is here to bring it on a galactic level, having aced the "Trash to Treasure" challenge seemingly flawlessly (though editing does play a part in EVERY reality series) and unanimously impressed the judging panel, even stone-cold bitch Eliza Pancakes. Spoilers ahead for recently dropped Episode 5; Snatch Game saw Galaxia in the bottom for the first time, but little did her competition know that she was no slouch because she TURNED. IT. OUT! Not one, not two, but three reveals during the lipsync - I COULD NOT, BELIEVE IT (and I'm the one who created everything)"! Clearly Galaxia is not playing around and takes the competition VERY seriously, going so far as to plan ahead for a possible lipsync for your life with three reveals to boot, it's curious what else she had planned up her sleeve for the previous runways and if she had similar reveals planned.

Icy

Myron Frost AKA "Icy" 27, of Willow Creek came to the competition pulling no punches and dressing to impress from the get-go. Icy began drag during her teen years, and started performing professionally during college. Aside from being the series' first black queen to walk through those doors, Icy also brought her own sense of style and class to the initial competition. Professionalism, style, and class are all words synonymous with Icy; a queen who carries herself as though she has already won (because let's be honest, you NEED a fiery attitude in order to get ahead in these sorts of contests). Though behind the confident and stunning exterior, belies a person who detests drama of any sort, and can be seen at any time an argument erupts - Icy is sure to stay out of the line of sight.

When I think of Icy, I think of former Drag Race queens who carried a similar air of confidence, professionalism and style such as Chad Michaels and Jaida Essence Hall, though honestly Icy is as much her own identity as anyone else, and the aforementioned queens merely served as inspiration, vocal fry and all.

Jackqleen Qkwueeen

Jackson King AKA "Jackqleen Qkwueeen" 37, is Magnolia Promenade's premiere expert in classical theater and the bardic arts. And I'm not going to start this article off with a lie, when I conceptualized Jackqleen I had originally envisioned a different kind of queen entirely which can be seen in her original 'Meet the Queens' video, which if I'm being honest, pretty much all of the queens had different personalities and quirks that differ from their current/later personas. Jackqleen was originally supposed to be a faux Shakespearean expert who would occasionally slip into talking with her rural dialect or twang, which I disliked for a multitude of reasons and decided that making Jackqleen a legitimate, classically trained thespian of Magnolia Promenade, was more interesting. And to make her standout vocally and personality-wise, I just kept picturing Frasier Crane.

Despite having fallen into the bottom two the first episode, and let's be honest that "Trash to Treasure" challenge was not tailored to make everyone look good, which in Jackqleen's case made her look worse than Velvetta Baggins, whom was described as someone having walked out of a day spa. We can't deny that Jackqleen has a refined and sophisticated outlook to drag, and that being a professional theater actor can only help propel her career as a drag artist

Lapis

Bleau Rathbone AKA "Lapis" 31, is one of San Myshuno's most eclectic, eccentric and unique artists. Having performed drag since his nineteenth birthday; Bleau introduced himself in drag to the world of performance art for the first time and then and there 'Lapis' was born (*Note: Lapis prefers to be referred to as 'they/them', but only when in full drag). Lapis' namesake stems from the gemstone itself 'lapis lazuli', the fact that it is mostly blue and their love for the color blue, taking all of these facets into consideration it's not hard to see why Lapis incorporates everything into their drag.

If you've been watching 'Morgyn's Drag Race' since Episode One, then you're already familiar with just how iconic a queen that Lapis is, having served looks since Episode One with the upcoming Episode 7 and 8 possibly being their strongest serves yet. Lapis believes in and identifies with the individual, priding themselves with being as unique and as standout as possible all while continuing to stay on-brand with the Lapis name (everything blue, black, eclectic and electric).

Parsley

Parsley 32, is quite possibly the single-most polarizing figure from 'Morgyn's Drag Race'. Hailing from Evergreen Harbor, Parsley describes herself as being "lean, green and mean" and the "green meanie". The second she steps through the entryway she insults her competition by calling them all "douchebags" (originally calling them "motherfuckers"), and also easily dismisses them as being 'basic', 'boring' and 'not impressive'. With a raspy growly voice that would give Patty & Selma a run for their money.

Parsley was inundated into the world of drag years back when she lived in San Myshuno and roomed with a popular Drag Queen named 'Darren Leek', who at the time was also her roommate. Darren welcomed Parsley into the Leek family of drag, becoming her drag-mother in the process. Though Parsley stood out from the crowd, having picked a green theme and sticking to it, she polarized a large majority of folks she came into contact with, many finding her to be rude while others found her to be downright terrifying. Parsley's own drag-mother, Darren Leek cut ties with her because of her behavior, and quite possibly out of fear.

Terra Ryzen

Scotch Golddig

AKA

"Terra Ryzen"

22, is another queen hailing from Strangerville and is also the youngest competing queen in the competition to date. Some who have browsed the Sims reddit may remember Scotch making a few appearances

pre-drag race

as "

Florida Man

", a member of the infamous "Golddig" clan; a family of reputed 'gold-diggers' who are always looking for their next claim. His grandmother, 'Dusty Bones' made occasional appearances on reddit as a burnt-out version of '

Matilda the Chef

Terra enters the competition as the youngest queen and also the most inexperienced, asking the more experienced queens for help with her makeup and nails shortly after making her entrance. Terra is almost immediately denigrated by her older, more experiences co-competitors as being "busted" and looking a "mess", though despite all that Terra manages to maintain a confidence bordering on cockiness that she will succeed and in fact win the competition, though anyone having seen the first episode will know Terra's ultimate fate.

Velvetta Baggins

Wilberforce Armitage XVII AKA "Velvetta Baggins", is an oldschool queen from Windenburg. She speaks with a High-British or a classically 'posh British' accent, and frequently bemoans about all of the times that the French ave supposedly terrorized her and her comrades while on active duty during the war, which war you ask? She can't remember, though it was likely sometime during the ice age as woolly mammoths and spear-throwing cavemen were involved. The running gag involving Velvetta is that she is old, like really very old. In truth she is probably somewhere around 50-55 years old, however Caliente refers to Velvetta as being "90" in her talking head and Terra Ryzen speculates that she is from the Mesozoic era, basically Velvetta is the oldest queen of the season which makes her target for everyone else. A pianist classically trained in the styles of baroque, Velvetta has entertained audiences for generations and continues to do so using her oldschool style, while fellow Windenburg queen Baga Trash utilizes modern pop culture and of course 'rubbish' to entertain audiences. What's interesting about fellow Windenburg Queens; Velvetta and Baga Trash is that they are both so intrinsically different, despite hailing from the same place. It can be argued that since Velvetta has been performing drag at a time since before Baga Trash, that the two styles will naturally be different.

I think the truth of the matter is that Velvetta is just another quirky, cooky queen with a bizarre sense of humor and a unique self-styled sense of fashion, not unlike Tammie Brown. The constant callbacks to the wartime tactics and the French are either a clever joke in the guise of obfuscating reality or she actually is senile and is suffering from false memories, either way Velvetta certainly is an interesting queen to have on the stage.

So now that you've gotten to know our judges, and all twelve contestants on a more personal level, maybe you will remember to set that timer to watch 'Morgyn's Drag Race' this Sunday, at 12:45 PM Pacific Standard Time.

#AedanStarfang #RuPaul's Drag Race #Morgyn's Drag Race #Drag Race #the sims 4 #the sims

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hyunjizns · 6 years ago

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dating jisung (han)

⤷ han jisung is so cute omg pls this has me soft already

how you started dating

okay okay so basically you two met when jisung was still going to school right

and you guys were really good friends like really good

you’d always go with him to the music room and listen to his raps

and you’d try to give him as much advice as possible

and whenever he composed a new song or wrote new lyrics you always listened

not gonna lie you also encouraged him to go audition for a company because you knew he would make it big !!

you had faith in your friend because he was just really amazing

and you know what, jisung really appreciated that

he lowkey had a crush on you for the longest time but he just held back because he figured you wouldn’t like him back

clearly this boy could not see all the love and admiration for him in your eyes

so fast forward two years and he's about to debut in this group called stray kids

and your admiration for him grew after watching the survival show, seeing how he tried to help everyone else and all that

so you called him and told him you two had to go out since it had been quite a while since the last time you guys went out

he was pretty busy as a trainee okay

jisung was like sure y/n bby i’m so stressed and i haven’t seen you in forever so this is perfect

and you’re like ofc i’ll treat you out (つ≧▽≦)つ

so you two go to this lil cafe that you’d always go to back in your school days

and you ordered jisung’s favourite drink for him (ofc you still remembered wtheck)

and then you sat down and talked with jisung for hours, just like the good old days where the two of you would spend every minute you could with each other because you were each other’s back bone and support

jisung really appreciated this and after your little hang he was so smile-y back at the dorm

and all the boys are like ooohhh

and jisung can’t help but to talk about you, a lot

like he just doesn’t shut up

and the boys are like yeah okay he definitely has a crush

but gosh he would never tell you, how frustrating !!

until one day jisung introduces you to the boys and you’re talking to minho

and minho just casually slips it out like

“y/n, did you know jisung has the hugest crush on you”

this was no accident by the way

and you’re like “what”

was that your face getting hot ???

minho just smirks and pushes you closer to jisung and porr jisung has no idea what had just went t=down

by the time he realised though, the boys were out of sight

he swore he was gonna kill them when he got back

but for now, he was taking your hands in his and taking a deep breath

“yes, minho’s right, i do have the hugest crush on you, every since high school you had always been there for me-”

and you cut him off by kissing him’this time you couldn’t help by smile s wide

“i like you too idiot”

jisung as a boyfriend

okay ladies jisung is basically the most playful that a boyfriend can get

we all know that he is quite the odd one,, like no one does han jisung quite like han jisung does

so that being said y/n, prepare yourself for lots of teasing, weird outbursts and nicknames and a lot of laughter in your relationship

jisung lives for happy y/n and your smile so you better expect lots of stupid jokes and cringy puns

gosh does this boy ever stop??

surprise !

no, no is the answer

tickling is like the main aspect of your relationship

you see those days where you two decide to have a lazy date and watch movies while cuddled up under a blanket ?? expect tickling, like a lot

don’t think that tranquility will last long bc it most definitely will not

the boy just not know how to keep his hands off of you

and sorry to say y/n, but he knows aLl of your most ticklish spots so don’t think that you’re getting away easily

that being said though, you also know all of his most ticklish spots so the competition is fair and even

you both have equal chances at making the other laugh until their tummy hurts

your other dates are usually those “fun” places though

restaurants and sit down dates are not your thing

so amusement parks, water parks, laser tag, etc

you name it, you and jisung have probably done it

even if jisung is a big scaredy cat with everything and screams extra loudly on the rollercoaster

i mean,, going there in the first place was his decision

oh and hanging out with the boys...

pda??? yes

i’m sorry but jisung just does not care

he likes showing you off okay

like “hey guys this is my amazing person”

and guess what ??

y/n is mine and no one else’s

the boys honestly just wanna know how you’ve handled jisung and his ??? personality for so long

like sorry but have you met han jisung?

he loves hugging you in front of the boys and giving you little pecks

and they’re like “gross!!!”

he would literally do anything for your attention and affection

he’s like whining so much and following you around

“y/n”

pouts and puppy eyes

and he’s not gonna stop until you give in because jisung is a task

he also really loves backhugs

backhug = signature jisung move

omg but kisses with jisung are so versatile

like the most common kisses between you two are those cute short pecks with lots of giggling in between

you two love to play games where the prize is a kiss

“y/n lets play rock paper scissors”

“what’s the prize?”

“if i win, you have to kiss me but if you win i have to kiss you”

and you’re just like “ok jisung,,,, that’s literally the same prize”

but of course you go ahead with it

forehead kisses and cheek kisses are not rare in your relationship

especially not cheek kisses because they get jisung all soft on the inside

but if you two are seriously kissing like making out style the kisses are quite messy because you two just can’t help but laugh and be playful

but it’s endearing

jisung actually is a really good kisser and is very much capable, he just prefers things the other way

so if he happens to get serious you better prepare yourself for some next level shit

he’s so t o u c h y

he will always be holding your hand and swinging it or rubbing his thumb on your hand absently

it’s your guys’ trademark okay

cuddling with jisung is another story

this is like his favourite thing to do with you

and omg shh but he really likes to be the little spoon

cuddle conversations can range from teasing you about whatever embarrassing thing you’d done that day to him confiding in you all of his worries about his music or the boys

he really cherishes those days that you get to spend together because y’know he’s pretty busy as an idol

if your relationship were to be revealed he would prefer it to be in like a controlled environment like him admitting at an interview

but NO

he would have done something stupid on vlive like call you baby or be caught on camera doing something intimate

and he’s like !!! oh no

jisung.exe has stopped working

okay but stays are very supportive of you two so yay for you

i mean who could resist the jisung x y/n charm

now as far as couple outfits go, jisung deadass wants you to wear super tight jeans with and all black to pull off that badass concept

and you’re like no way

pls, not everyone likes their blood flow to their legs cut off

but somehow he gets you to agree

y/n if you do, i’ll buy you food

deal

so then you both take a bunch of photos together for your “concept day”

those pics are precious to jisung and he cherishes them and that day

they’re in his favourites :((

he also uses you as inspiration to write songs

you kinda always have been an inspiration to him

so when he composes music for either stray kids or 3racha, you’re like in the back of his mind

if he’s not feeling it, you’re his extra boost of encouragement and confidence

you mean the entire world to him

but yes you guessed it

jisung is totally, completely and undoubtedly whipped for you

he would literally do anything for you no matter how far out of his way it may be

the boys like to tease him about how whipped he is and he’s like shut up before i unhinge your foors

you guys rarely have arguments and if you do it’s over something dumb

the level of trust in your relationship is unreal

always there for each other

always a shoulder to cry on

everyone should experience your type of relationship at least once :(

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toonstarterz · 5 years ago

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #161

Ah, the After-Suspension Party. Nearly everyone expected it was gonna happen to some degree. But just because it was predictable, that doesn’t mean it can’t be meaningful. Specifically, we see the core members of the Tomoko “harem” (I use the term half-jokingly because it��s just easier) progress in ways that you might not have expected them to, but it’s all-the-more welcome simply because of how hard our girls are trying to get their “best ending”.

Chapter 161: Because I’m Not Popular, Things Will Go Back To Normal

Interesting choice to have Hirasawa and her BF on the splash page this time, considering they’re not in this chapter at all otherwise (though it’s not like Nico Tanigawa haven’t done it before). From the looks of thing, Hirasawa is gazing fondly at Ucchi’s compadres, yearning for the female friends she doesn’t have.

Could this be a preview for upcoming developments?

Your entire existence summed up.

There’s something oddly amusing about how Tomoko pointed out the dog while acknowledging Ucchi. Almost like she’s putting them on the same level.

Apology Progress: 21%

For everyone’s else insistence that Tomopup is kind of weird, it’s absolutely fitting that Nemo thinks it’s cute. I could go all pseudo-psychological about how Nemo is projecting her feelings about Tomoko onto the dog, but...

...that would be stating the obvious, wouldn’t it?

Apology Progress: 30%

“Stupid dog! You made her look bad!”

Notice how Tomoko has that extra shading on her when she pops the question? It makes the exchange feel ridiculously dramatic, and if that isn’t the mangaka toying with shippers, I don’t know what is.

Apology Progress: 90%

See? Now that wasn’t too hard, was it, Ucchi? The first step to improving oneself is admitting to your mistakes. You’re lucky that Tomoko doesn’t care that much about you to hold a grudge, but still, it took guts to humble yourself before your crush. Now you can put all that animosity behind you and move ahead to finally admitting your feel–

Apology Progress: -5%

Nah, just kidding. I knew it was going too smoothly. I’d be pissed if I wasn’t laughing too hard.

Oh, wow. Katou is actually giving Ucchi the “How would you like if they did that to you” lecture. As if her mom-level wasn’t already off the charts.

Props to the translator for finding a great alternative to use in place of “yabai”. It’s not the same word, but the reasoning still applies just as effectively as the original.

Nice save, Ucchi.

NOT.

Apology Progress: -10%

Confession Progress (Part 2): 18%

...go on.

This close. We were this close to Ucchi finally admitting to Tomoko’s face that she finds her attractive. It’s taken a mountain of digging and prodding at Ucchi’s psyche, but her inner feelings have finally skirted the surface. Unfortunately, the plot demands that Ucchi’s progress has met its quota for the day.

Hina Nemoto: Professional normie/otaku hybrid, aspiring voice actress, and now, expert wingwoman.

Hey, Nemo...

YOU WANT SOME ICE FOR THAT SICK BURN???

Oh, Katou. Your motherly tenderness transcends the species barrier.

Oh, Tomoko. I recommend you look up the word “projecting” when you get the chance. You may just learn something about yourself.

Oh, Ucchi. Your arsenal of kimoi-based puns knows no ends.

Oh, Yuri. Not so above it all after all.

So Tomoko really did succumb to a bit of cabin fever, after all. I can only imagine how much Tomoko might’ve regressed if she had to do suspension on her own.

Is it weird that Tomoko and Nemo’s passive-aggressive banter makes me nostalgic?

It’s been a while since we saw the two of them go at it like this. One key difference is that Nemo, in her growing admiration for the girl, is subtly complimenting Tomoko for how much she’s come out of her shell since the day they first met.

Take some notes, Ucchi.

Even when she’s a disembodied fantasy head used for narrative purposes, Itou still lights up whenever she gets provoked. It’s amusing how each character has their own quirk like–wait a minute.

Itou Hikari. (hikari = light). Oh...duuuuuuuh.

It took over two years, but what goes around has finally come around.

The fated first meeting between Tomoko and Nemoto may not have meant much for the former, but for the latter, it’s was the spark that made the otaku/normie into the girl she is today. From being the giver of fistbumps to becoming the receiver–it’s astounding how such a simple gesture can sum up their relationship like that.

Hey now, Tomoko. You can’t exactly judge Nemo when you’re the one who introduced it to her.

Take this with a grain of salt, but you ever get the feeling that Tomoko has memory problems? Forgetting Komi-something’s name, her brother’s school application, and now this? You could say it’s just her being a jerk and not retaining info she doesn’t care about, but maybe there’s something more to it.

(Nature documentary voice) “And here, we witness a wild Emoji Girl, commonly known as the “Ucchi”, assume the mating position as she targets her prey.”

You know what? I don’t even think Yuri is being that kuudere here. After their “date” at the recreation center. I’d say she gotten comfortable with not hogging Tomoko all for herself. Good on her, and good on Mako for looking out as always.

“As you can see, the Emoji Girl will attempt to cozy up against the elusive Tomoko by ordering the same beverage as her.”

That’s nothing new at this point, though it’s the first time Tomoko has been surrounded exclusively by the “popular” girls. (Yes, I know Yuri is right behind her, but still.)

I want to make some cheesy comment about how Tomoko and Yuri always have each other’s backs, but that would be...actually, screw it. They totally do.

I’m a sucker for shots like this where you can visually feel the “so near, yet so far” dynamic between two characters. Someone help me.

Rena, you ever think that being a repeat offender may have something to do with that? Or do you and Yoshida (not sure about Anna) have no concept of self-awareness?

Who’d of thought that Those Two Girls would someday be hanging out with Those Two Girls?

Actually, given the direction this manga has taken, it’s not that surprising. At first glance, it’s easy to think that Rena and Anna are a little too rowdy for the likes of Yuri and Mako. Thankfully, we have Yoshida acting as the “test run”, allowing Yuri and Mako to become accustomed to their delinquent atmosphere. Even if they don’t end up the best of friends (Rena, in particular, seems pretty high-maintenance), I don’t see any reason they couldn’t end up respecting each other.

Now these two, on the other hand, were secretly my platonic rareOTP. Anna's the most approachable of the Delinquent Trio, and her easygoing nature feels like it could smooth out Yuri’s rougher edges.

Yeah, I’m a sucker for Sweet Stoner x Wallflower pairings.

–discovered what hentai is!”

First off, Yuri is too freakin’ cute nibbling at her fries like that. They seem to be going for the “big eater” trope for Yuri, and I like how it’s being played with. Improbably thin girls with big appetites are a dime a dozen in manga, but Yuri feels different because it's not that she necessarily loves food. It’s just that eating is her way of busying herself when she doesn’t want to deal with social situations. As any introvert will tell you, it’s a natural habit when you can’t muster up the nerve to speak up in a group.

Yuri may fall behind the pack compared to the others, but what makes her special is that Tomoko will always look back for her.

Just, you know. Give her a week.

Smooth move, Tomoko! Calling Yuri by her first name in front of the others now? May as well have been a marriage proposal!

Nico Tanigawa are making it really hard for me to remove my (Friend)shipping Goggles when they include “long-lost lovers” dialogue like this. (Or maybe I’m the only one who sees it that way...)

Off-topic, but something about the perspective of this shot seems off. I think it’s the chairs’ different-sized legs.

This entire image just gave me Type 1 Diabetes.

There’s no grudge or snubbing that one might’ve expected from Yuri. Instead, Tomoko offered her a sincere–if not teasing–retort, and Yuri responded back in kind. The general hesitation that Yuri has when Tomoko’s being weirdly affectionate isn’t an issue anymore. But the sweetness dials up to eleven when you remember how Yuri flubbed the flirty joke Tomoko offered during the Mouseyland trip. Yuri’s learned how to banter with her, and best of all, she’s enjoying it. If that ain’t friendship goals, I don’t know what is.

You know a friendship has potential when you’re buying extra fries for the table.

If there’s an edge that Yuri has over the others right now, it’s that she’s acquainted with Tomoko’s actual soulmate, Yuu Naruse.

This chapter’s title is really misleading, but not by how it’s normally done by this series. It states that “things will go back to normal”, and back in the early days, it was meant to be ironic. It would suggest that Tomoko would return to her unchanging loneliness, only for us to be hit with the amusing realization that things have changed now that she’s made friends.

But here, it’s a double subversion. That chapter title is now being played totally straight. Everything we’re seeing now–Yuri opening up and being less possessive, Nemo’s “tough love”, and Ucchi’s whirlwind efforts of befriending Tomoko? That is the normal now. Tomoko’s improving high school life is no longer a shift in the series’ premise. It is the series’ premise.

To not be afraid of change without ignoring your roots is the true mark of what makes Watamote stand out as a coming-of-age story.

#watamote #watamote review #chapter 161 #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#tomoko kuroki #emiri uchi #hina nemoto #yuri tamura #masaki yoshida #mako tanaka #akane okada #asuka katou #anna haruna #reina #review

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readingwebcomics · 6 years ago

Text

Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 1-50

And so it begins.

The very first comic of Questionable Content, posted way back in 2003 and what would eventually be Jeff Jacques’ claim to fame, the reason why everyone remembers his name and what has made him a wealthy man today.

…’s alright.

Of course, by modern standards it’s not very good. This was the early 2000s, the wild west of online artists who had nothing more than an art creation software and a dream. The Webcomic Review has a VERY good post about it right here, which explains what the landscape of webcomics were like around this time and why exactly Marten has a pet robot (tl;dr, EVERYONE had a pet robot in ye early days of webcomics because Megatokyo).

But aside from the… awkward art, this comic at least serves to set up the protagonist (as far as we’re aware right now, we’ll get into the roles of protagonists in QC later). He’s a lanky, assumedly average guy who hates where he is in life but doesn’t know what else to do or even where else to go…

…as he goes on to spell out two comics later. He’s unassuming, not really much you can say for or against him, miserable and stuck in a rut in his life that he’s too scared to escape. Sooo basically, freshly graduated college students – the exact kind of audience a RomCom like this would go after.

Oh, did I forget to mention?

Yeah, QC started off as a RomCom.

This young woman is Faye, and she immediately cuts through the bullshit with an aggressive but to-the-point introduction of herself and her intentions.

While aggressive and to-the-point, she’s also set up as someone who meshes with Marten and Steve’s interests well enough and quickly makes friends. This is probably best exemplified in the seventh page, which serves two purposes:

Purpose the First: Showcase Marten and Faye have a shared niche interest, immediately establishing chemistry between the two of them. Be it platonic or romantic, they’re quickly hitting it off and, being a RomCom, will serve as the first rope potential shippers can grasp onto.

Purpose the Second: Jeff is a MASSIVE indie music nerd and he wants the fucking world to know it.

Also Pintsize is there doing funny robot things because 2003 webcomic.

It’s not long before this initial relationship is set up that two issues serve to sew the seeds of initial conflict:

This, likewise, serves two purposes: To show where Faye works and create a believable life for her to exist in when she’s not in the story with Marten, and as previously stated to sew potential romantic conflicts in the future. Jeff employs this tactic many-a-time throughout the course of Questionable Content, beginning a conflict and letting the implications sit with the reader while life goes on in the regular comics. Is this good writing? I honestly can’t say. Is it always done well? Oh good God no, some plot beats are outright dropped or left to sit for so long the reader straight-up forgets it’s there with this method. But does Jeff make it work? It’s all on personal taste I’d say, but personally it sits well with me.

Also, for those of you wondering why it looks like the word “hump” is just pasted onto the text bubble in post… well it was. The original comic implied sexual assault much more overtly, using the R-word instead of “hump.”

*Away from mic* Wait, can-can I say [NOPE]? Better not to risk it? Alright, fair ‘nuff.

But yeah, this was pointed out by readers to be pretty fucked up and it was swiftly changed, for good reason.

Later that night, Faye asks Marten to dinner with her. Platonically, of course. And here I believe I should point out the dynamic of their relationship as it stands – Faye is the aggressor. Marten is basically a doormat. Whenever something happens, Faye is always the instigator, be it going out to dinner or tagging along with him when he’s getting shopping done. This will feed into their relationship dynamic and sets up a decent inter-personal conflict: Marten is far too passive to reach out to Faye and make the move to start something, but Faye, despite how openly and quickly she attaches herself to Marten’s life, never takes that step into making it romantic. The two clearly have the hots for each other, but their respective personalities make it so neither one crosses that threshold.

Yes I know this is basic character writing for a RomCom 101, but the fact that so much about these characters are said in 12 four-panel comics says a lot. It hooks the reader quickly and gets them on the page Jeff wants them to be, and I respect that.

And in the next page, Faye’s aggression takes on a new level, albeit extremely briefly.

This is an isolated incident of actual physical aggression rather than implications and threats in these first 50 pages, but it becomes a trend as we go along – one that feeds into Faye’s character, mind, so it’s not just physical abuse for humor’s sake – so just keep it in mind as we go along.

Also on a personal note the actual restaurant they go to is simultaneously the worst and best idea I’ve ever heard of:

This is horrible. I should not encourage this. And yet some dark part of me finds the concept utterly hilarious even though I know I’m a piece of shit for liking it.

Actually, now some part of me wants to do the exact opposite – advertise a place as a steakhouse only serve an all-vegan menu. It feels less mean but just as funny to me.

…oh right, the comic.

After sharing dinner, exchanging banter that establishes good chemistry and parting ways, we come to this comic that I’m only showing because I’m a slut for good puns and I will take any and all opportunities to share with people.

(Pintsize totally won that round with the John the Baptist zinger by the way, if I’m allowed to judge this.)

And one page later, we get the biggest shake-up in the comic thus far:

It’s established Faye herself ended up burning down the apartment because she burnt toast, but that’s not really important. I know, the fact Faye BURNT DOWN A BUILDING isn’t important sounds completely ridiculous, but follow me here – the important thing for this setup isn’t the how, but the why. “How did Faye’s apartment burn down?” isn’t the question Jeff, nor the audience, is intended to be asking, that’s merely a vessel into the situation we’re in – the answer of “Why did Faye’s apartment burn down?” which is, of course, so Marten and Faye can become roommates and facilitate future antics and further their relationship. Familiarity breeds into both affection and conflict, and the obvious case of “Well you two are already living together, aren’t you?” will serve to further the flames of their potential relationship with one another.

…granted, a better reason to create this setup would’ve been nice, and from a writing standpoint it’s ridiculous that Faye never suffers any consequences for burning an entire BUILDING down, one that had many more people than just her in it. If present-day Jeff wrote this plotline… actually. Now that I think about it, Jeff DOES re-do this plot point and make it make a lot more sense and have a lot more impact on everyone involved.

But we’ll get to that when we eventually talk about Brun…. Three thousand and something pages from now.

Either way, my point stands: This plot thread serves mostly to create the situation we’re facing now, one where Faye and Marten end up living together. This shake-up to the early comic settles us into the new status quo, one that we’ll be riding with comfortably for the foreseeable future.

Further evidence of Faye’s aggressive and troll-ish nature… one that may or may not play into future revelations about her, now that I think about it.

Remember what I said about sewing the seeds of drama? Well here we stand now – a misunderstanding, or the beginning of genuine conflict between these two?

The answer is… they talk it out like actual goddamn adults, avoiding a stupid, unnecessary fight.

Honestly? Kind of refreshing. But what makes it better is the following page:

Honestly? This moment never fails to make me laugh. The one-two punch of complete betrayal of the reader’s expectations as well as the utter dismantling and defusal of the romantic interest subplot between these two dorks – while denying some genuine romantic conflict that may force Faye into being more upfront with how she feels about the situation – is a fun denial of the kinds of RomCom clichés that one might expect to find in this story.

Sure, there are other stories that do this better, I’m not denying that. But isolated in a bubble, this stands by itself and, frankly, works well enough for the story Jeff’s telling.

Also say goodbye to Sara, once she walks out that door she goes to join the little sister from Family Matters and the big brother from Happy Days on the twisted Island of Irrelevancy, visiting the story only when she can spare the time to craft a raft out of banana leafs and... where was I going with this?

…okay, personal story time. The Walmart I’m doing contract work for this week has a CD display of new-ish albums, and honest-to-God I completely forgot music CDs were even a THING. MP3s have spoiled us, and I now feel old for some reason.

Right, getting back on track.

I wanted to show this comic to establish three things.

1) Marten is the kind of person who sits on things that bother him and lets them stew for awhile. As established in the previous image I showed with Marten and Steve at the music store, it’s been at least a day since what happened with Sara and Marten’s still thinking about it. This, for better or worse, becomes a core part of Marten’s character moving forward.

2) Faye, for all her faults, is a genuinely good friend who cares about Marten and knows when to channel her natural aggression into support rather than ribbing.

3) This is another comic that always makes me laugh whenever I read it. Yes I know that’s much less of a real reason than my other two points but let me have this dammit.

This particular page itself isn’t terribly important to the ongoing narrative but I wanted to include it because it introduces QC’s unquestionably best character, Jim. Hi Jim! I like Jim.

(He’s a minor character at best but he’s just so earnest and fun and every time Jeff brings him back he just gets better and better.)

Oh, and for those who were skeptical that the more-than-platonic interest was mutual between Marten and Faye, the next two issues serve to showcase that… yeah, both parties TOTALLY have the hots for each other.

The first of those two comics, by the way, gets called back to much later down the line. And the fact that Faye speaks in a southern accent is more than just a joke, it’s going to be touched on more later.

Jeff says in the description of this comic that this is based on personal experience, and it shows – this is the most backbone Marten displays to my memory.

And in the very next page, we’re introduced to a new character – although you wouldn’t guess it from her appearance.

That’s Raven. I like Raven. Her personality changes a ton once she’s properly introduced as a character and not a nameless employee, but for posterity’s sake: Here’s her very first appearance in the comic.

There’s only one more important comic to touch on in this batch of fifty, and it’s about both Marten and Faye’s families:

While this could be as simple as a “har-dee-har, my family drives me up the wall,” this comic serves to say a lot about both characters once we know more about their families. Both Marten and Faye actually have very good reasons why they don’t want to see their respective families or go back to their hometowns… Faye especially so. We’ll touch more on that when we get more into her backstory.

Before we wrap things up, I’d like to do a quick comparison between page 1 and 50 to see in what small, subtle ways Jeff’s artistry has improved:

There’s not a LOT of difference, but the small details really showcases just how different they look. Small changes from the placement of everything on Marten’s face, to the size of the eyes, the width of the eyebrows… It’s good shit.

Overall, what did I think of batch 1? Well… for an early 2000s webcomic, it’s engaging. The characters are likable, the plot is progressing at an enjoyable pace, and I’m already on-board to see if Marten and Faye will get together. I mean, I know the answer, but my point stands.

Also because I’m a freak or something and like data compilation I went ahead and kept track of who showed up in what comic and made some numbers for it:

Not counting the one guest comic and two non-canon pages, Marten showed up in 45/50 pages, being in 90% of the comic so far.

Faye was in 38/50 pages, taking up 76% of the comic so far.

Pintsize comes in third place being in 15/50 comics, taking up a paltry 30% of the comic thus far when compared to the screen time Marten and Faye have taken up.

Likewise, Steve has been in only 8/50 pages, making up 16% of the comic up to this point.

Sara was in 5/50 pages, making up 10% of these first 50. That percentile will grow smaller and smaller with each update, believe you me.

Jim was in 2/50 glorious pages, making up 4% of the comic up to this point. And that was the best 4% this comic had to offer, let me tell you.

Raven, although still unnamed, I’m counting – she’s in 1/50 of the first batch of pages, making up 2% of screen time.

Tune in next week as we continue onwards to pages 51-100 where we’ll be introduced to the next major character in the series, who’s mere existence will further the plot more than anyone we’ve previously met. See you then.

#Questionable Content #Analysis #Long-form analysis #Faye #Marten #Pintsize

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robininthelabyrinth · 6 years ago

Text

Fic: The Beginning of Wisdom - Chapter 14 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: Flash, Legends of Tomorrow Pairing: Leonard Snart (Len) & Leonard Snart (Leo), Len Snart/Mick Rory, Leo Snart/Mick Rory, Len Snart/Mick Rory/Leo Snart, Leo Snart/Ray Terrill, Len Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: In which Leonard Snart is twins.

(the life and times and loves of Len and Leo Snart)

—————————————————————————————————–

Len stepped out into the Accelerator, immediately seeing the blur of light that was Barry running at top speed. He took aim, a necessary step when dealing with a speedster moving at near time-travel levels.

Unfortunately, it was a step that gave Eobard Thawne a second in which he could notice Len's presence, realize why he was there, and act.

"Don't you dare, Cold," he snarled, leaping out of his time bubble in a burst of light to shove Len up against the wall, his voice barely audible above the sound of Barry running. Len didn't recall being moved back to the wall, or dropping his gun, or even seeing Eobard move, but that wasn't necessary; he was dealing with a speedster. "You will not ruin my plans – not when I'm so close –"

His hand started vibrating, not unlike a saw.

Well, that's not good.

Len lifted both of his hands above his head to grab the ridge on the wall behind him to stabilize himself. "Kill me and Barry will stop," he threatened. "You know he will."

"He won't even notice."

"You willing to bet your precious plan on it?" Len challenged.

Eobard hesitated.

Len used that moment of hesitation (see, it's not just speedsters who can do that!) as an opportunity to swing his legs forward to wrap around Eobard's waist. Then, while Eobard was blinking at him like he'd lost his mind, Len released one hand, brought it to his lips, and – with his face inches away from Eobard's – whistled at the top of his lungs.

Eobard flinched.

He didn't run away, either, thereby letting Len use his legs to keep him stabilized in one place. Presumably because he didn't understand why Len would want to do so.

He didn't understand the reasoning, and, because of Len's piercing whistle, he also didn't hear the sound of a gun going off – not until it was a moment too late, anyway.

Iris' bullet hit Eobard right in the center of his back.

Eobard screamed and threw Len at Iris, causing them both to go tumbling.

"Don't shoot me," Len immediately told her, grabbing at her hands even as they fell.

"Trying!"

She managed not to.

Eobard staggered towards them both, his eyes red points of light, his body starting to vibrate like he wanted to hide his identity again – or to turn his whole body into a living weapon.

"Uh, that's not good," Iris said.

"Not good at all," Len agreed, minorly distracted by their apparent similar reactions to things - did Barry have a type? Len can only hope - and glancing around until he spotted his cold gun. Only a few feet away, but the equivalent of miles in speedster time.

"No, I mean – I got him, right? Aren't you not supposed to move people with bullet wounds for fear of the bullet migrating?"

Len blinked. "Good point."

"That had better not be a pun about bullets."

"No, saying that your shot in the dark was remarkably accurate would've been a pun; that was me agreeing with you. Shoot him some more, will you? I still want to stop Barry."

"On it," Iris said. She climbed to her feet and started shooting.

It didn't work, of course – Eobard leapt forward at her at once, dodging the bullets with ease, but it gave Len a split second to throw himself at the cold gun and fire at where he thought Barry might be to try to get his attention.

Eobard cried out, half-rage, half-pain.

Len looked – Iris was glaring up at Eobard defiantly with an empty-looking gun, but he was clutching at his back. Iris' bullet must have migrated.

"Iris!" someone shouted from the entrance to the Accelerator.

It was – partner-cop guy?

The one who'd been holding hands with Iris earlier.

He had a gun, too, but he was holding it at his own head.

"Eddie!" Iris screamed. "No!"

“Don’t you fucking dare, asshole!” Len shouted.

Partner-cop guy (apparently called Eddie) paused, just for a split second, but that was enough.

Eobard turned, saw, paled – and then there was a burst of lightning and he was knocking the gun out of Eddie’s hand.

"You might be my ancestor," he snarled, his face twisted in pain from the bullet, "and your life must be preserved so that mine can continue, but don't think you can threaten me – I will kill you all if I –"

Barry punched him in the face.

He appeared out of nowhere in a burst of lightning, the way speedsters do, and he sent Eobard flying back into his time-ship-bubble-thing, which in turn sent it flying – in all directions as it shattered.

"No!" Eobard roared.

"I'm not letting you hurt any of my friends!" Barry shouted back.

The next minute or so was rather confused, given the speed of the fight, but from the brief glimpses Len was able to catch, it unfortunately looked as though Eobard was getting the upper hand.

Also, Eddie was going for his gun again. "I'm sorry, Iris –" he started.

Goddamn stupid cops.

"Don't shoot yourself, shoot him!" Len shouted, aiming his own gun at the speedsters.

They were moving fast, yes, but Len had always been great at math, and calculating where they were likely to go next was as easy as breathing.

He fired.

They both tripped as their legs were iced.

Eddie was still hesitating.

Actually, Eddie was no longer hesitating, because Iris had pitched the (now-empty) gun Len had given her straight at his head.

"Ow! Iris –!"

She grabbed the (not empty) gun out of his hand, snapped, "We'll discuss this later," and then added, "Snart! Keep going!"

"With pleasure," Len said, and fired again even as Iris began firing her own, more standard gun.

Eobard tried to twist towards them, clearly intent on catching the bullets or something, but cried out again, hands going to his sides – that original bullet of Iris' still lodged in his back.

No – not in his back anymore.

His spine.

Len can see the moment where Eobard loses control of his legs. For real, this time; not that mockery of a wheelchair he'd pretended to be trapped in for months.

He began to fall.

"Barry, back out of range and hit him hard!" Iris ordered, glancing at Len.

Len nodded in silent agreement, their minds perfectly in agreement as to what had to be done.

"One supersonic punch coming right up," Barry, who entirely missed that little exchange, said, and promptly disappeared, presumably to run up some momentum for his punch.

Len focused the beam of his cold gun on Eobard, icing him even as he shrieked with rage.

Eobard was almost entirely iced over when Barry's fist came down on him at full amped-up strength, shattering him into a million pieces.

And then -

Silence.

Well, for a second.

"Holy crap," Barry said. He stared at the pieces. "What the fuck. That wasn't what I – I didn't realize - what the –"

"I'm not sure what you expected to happen there, Barry," Iris says, putting her – well, Eddie's, but judging by the ring it's soon to be their gun as long as the wedding wasn't off due to Eddie's suicidal shenanigans – gun down. “He was literally more ice than human by the time you got back, and you just hit him really, really hard.”

"First time killing's hard," Len said, not without sympathy. "Don't let it stick in your head; you end up developing twitchy fingers, kleptomania, and identity issues that way."

They all look at him strangely.

"Don't worry," Len assured Barry. "You're an adult; your brain isn't as plastic as mine was – I'm sure you'll be fine."

"...not why we're staring at you, but okay, sure. Thanks for the tip," Barry said. He looked down at the body, and adds blankly, "He killed my mother."

"Totally justified, then," Len said brightly.

"So murder is okay but illegal prisons is where you draw the line?" Iris joked.

"Yes," Len said, not joking. "Besides, this guy was literally trying to destroy the entire world; a bit of homicide is clearly a reasonable response. Speaking of which, Scarlet, if you're going to ask my opinion of something, you need to tell me the risks involved up front. The full risks."

"You already told me not to do it," Barry pointed out. "It wouldn't have changed your answer."

"Yes, it would have," Len said. "From a 'don't do it' to a 'kidnap you until you see sense'. You didn't actually do the whole time-changing thing, did you?"

"No, I was getting close when I saw you guys fighting," Barry said. "I still – I don't think I was going to do it. You were right about me not wanting to lose my life now. I just wanted to see her..."

"You ever considered waiting until your powers are stronger and go back to see her at a moment when she's not being murdered?" Len suggested. “I feel like that would be happier all around, really; few people come off in their best light when they're being murdered.”

Barry looked at him strangely again, but he seemed to be considering Len's suggestion seriously.

"What about me?" Eddie asked, still looking shaken. "I don't – he's still my descendant."

"We'll adopt," Iris said, gathering him up into her arms. "Or something. Don't you dare do that to me again, you idiot."

"Uh," Barry said. "Actually –"

They looked at him.

"Wells – uh, Eobard – had a secret future room," Barry said. "To tell him if the future was on track. And, uh, in that, Iris wasn't married to you, so, uh, I guess – if you do marry Iris, instead of whoever you married in that other timeline, you've already, I guess, averted history? Possibly enough to avoid, well, him."

There were some exclamations involved after that, some cathartic shouting, and then kissing.

Lots and lots of kissing.

Len went over to Barry. "Let me guess," he said dryly. "She originally married you, huh?"

Barry winced.

"Figured," Len said. He wonders if it was Iris Allen or if she'd gone with the hyphenation. She looked like a hyphenation girl. "Well, if you're looking for a nice rebound..."

Barry stopped wincing and started smiling. "Seriously? Now? That's the worst pick-up line ever," he said.

“I felt the pun fit the moment,” Len said. “What with you bouncing off the walls, literally.”

“That’s terrible.”

"You want a pick-up line relating to altered timelines?" Len asked, arching an eyebrow. "Because I'm sure I can come up with one – or two – or an infinite number of possible alternatives universes where I came up with another line –"

Barry started laughing.

"It's a quantum universe, baby, but all I see is you," Len said.

"No. Just - no."

"Hey, baby, is it time for you and me to get together?"

"Definitely not!"

"Not good, huh? Better go back in time and try again – and again – and again –"

"If I agree to go out with you," Barry asked, now laughing hard, "is there any chance that you'll stop?"

"Realistically? No."

Barry smiled. "Good."

Len grinned.

Leo, when informed, rolled his eyes. "I've already put in the order for the bigger bed," he told Len. "Nice Alaska king. But you have to convince him to join in on it."

"Already told him; he likes the idea," Len replied smugly. "Touch-starved childhood, apparently. Also because my superhero is better than yours."

"Ray is not a superhero."

"Uh-huh. So you haven't checked the Paris tabloids yet today."

"...what did he do."

"Ray? Nothing. The Ray, on the other hand..."

"Tell him I want to do the pro-meta positive representation thing," Barry hollered from where he was making himself the world's largest lunch. In Len's kitchen, because Barry'd been looking for a place to avoid everyone else he knew. "When they come back from France, I mean."

"I'll tell him," Leo said, long-suffering, and hung up.

"Hey, am I dating him too?" Barry asked, nodding at the phone. "Leo, I mean?"

"What? No. Just me. I'm married to Mick, both of us, and each of us have one superhero apiece. It's fair that way."

"I guess that makes sense," Barry said, a little dubiously.

“We have to be balanced,” Len explained. “This way, I have a husband and a boyfriend.”

“...okay.”

"I won't be offended if you make an error," Len assured him. "Either of us. It happens."

Barry blinked. "Okay," he said. "You know, it's weird how you switch between 'I' and 'me' and 'we' and 'us' like that – you know it's not how language works, right?"

Len shrugged. "Language is in a constant state of development. When we all have android clones of ourselves, using pronouns interchangeably will become the norm."

"You don't have a clone, though; you have a twin," Barry pointed out. "The two of you are different."

"Obviously," Len said. "We have different personality facets. But theoretically so would clones once they'd had a chance to have different life experiences...Listen, if all of this is a lead up hint that you want to talk about emotions, I can call Leo back – he's the better Leonard for that."

"No, no, I'm no good at emotions either," Barry said. "Denial and passive acceptance work for me. And I suppose that that makes sense, you know, about the multiple bodies thing – did you know, one of the first metas I fought had the ability to make multiples of himself?"

"Really?" Len said, intrigued despite himself. "Tell me more. Is he still around? Or his corpse, at least?"

"I think Wells 'disappeared' him after he dropped himself off the side of a building," Barry said regretfully. "But it was a really interesting power – even the duplicates of him could duplicate –"

Leonard, when he heard the full story, declared himself satisfied with just one duplicate, much to the relief of Mick, Ray, and Barry.

Apparently anymore and it would "get confusing".

Leonard had no idea what they were talking about; it seemed perfectly straightforward to them.

"We're coming back at the end of the week," Leo announced a month later. "The show was a massive success, no one died, and Mick made sure that my 'stalker fan' stole me a little something so that we didn't break the trend."

"The metas –" Barry started, suddenly concerned.

"Don't worry," Ray assured him. "We paid them for their parts in this show and suggested a few more places in Europe for them to visit before they come back to the States. I think they'll come back eventually – it is their hometown – but with any luck, it'll be in a nice staggered, possibly even legal fashion."

"Oh. Well, that works."

"Though when they come back..." Leo started.

"In the event they commit any further crimes, Iron Heights now has a proper metahuman wing under construction," Barry said quickly. "Which I will help monitor in the event of police, correctional and/or judicial corruption. There will be trials and accommodations for human rights."

"Good," Len said, pleased.

"Putting that aside, though, this summer's been really quiet so far," Barry said. "Four weeks of zero activity! That hasn’t happened in, uh, a while."

"Guess we'll just have to live calmly for a while," Mick said.

"We could knock over the horse-racing –"

"Please don't plan your crime around me," Barry said. "Especially if you intend for me to try to stop it."

"Quiet first," Mick said firmly. "I don't care how long we've been gone; we're taking a few weeks off for quiet. Real quiet. Fashion shows? Not quiet."

"Between the metas, the tabloids, and the show, we've all been run a bit ragged on our side," Ray agreed.

"And all we did over here was save the world," Len drawled.

"No biggie," Barry said, grinning. "That's an average Tuesday."

Len snorted.

"Maybe a short break is in order?" Ray said, hiding a smile. "For everyone?"

"Oh, all right," Len said, giving in. They could knock over the horse-racing betting box another time.

It was surprisingly nice, though, being quiet for a bit: it let them settle in comfortably.

Barry hadn't had a chance to be with the full group all that much, rather than just Len, and he had any number of questions, most of which were answered by Ray and Mick, and mostly with "well that's just how Leonard Snart works, I think."

"It's just pronoun usage that's mixing him up," Leo assured Len, his head on his brother's chest, resting in the bedroom as the others spoke in the kitchen. "Don't worry. He's in."

"He'd better be," Len said, still fretting a little. "I like him. And we need two."

"We do," Leo agreed. "We'd be unbalanced, otherwise."

They were balanced in every other way: they were married to Mick, who loved them both; they both had thriving careers; they each had skills and talents; and now, they each had a boyfriend.

Perfect.

#coldflash #dccoldwave #coldray #leonard snart #Barry Allen #iris west #eobard thawne #eddie thawne #leo snart #len snart #ray terrill #Mick Rory #my fic #beginning of wisdom

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nadiarizavi · 7 years ago

Text

yogurt to be kidding me

BAD PUN. please enjoy this plance one shot because i LOVE THEM and wanted a silly warm-up qq

read on ao3!

Her vision was blurry.

Pidge let out a weary yawn, rubbing at her eyes with the butt of her palm, letting air out from between her lips. The blue light from her computer screen illuminated the joints of her fingers, the wrinkles in the fabric of her t-shirt.

“Go to bed.”

It was Lance, naturally. He placed a mug of something-quite-like-coffee--oh, it is coffee-- next to her laptop.

“Your words contradict your actions, McClain.”

He collapsed next to her in an unceremonial heap, a yawn stifling his next line of thought.

“I was pretending to be the responsible friend.”

She pressed her lips together, a soft hum escaping her. Quickly, she typed out more of what she was working on, unbothered by the warm closeness of Lance’s body, the way he began to lean into her side, chin bobbing close to the curve of her shoulder.

“I thought you finished studying,” said Lance.

“I did. This is for a personal thing.”

“A personal thing?”

“I’ve decided to keep up a journal.”

Lance let out a hard laugh. “Oh my god. You? Keeping a journal?”

She made a face, turning to look at him full-on, brows furrowing. “What makes that so funny?”

“You’re never going to keep up with it. You drop projects all the time when you get bored. It’s just not part of your personality, Pidge.”

She let out a huff, turning back to the screen, to the word document opened in front of her. Quickly, her fingers flew across the keyboard, and she spoke aloud as she typed.

“Journal Seven. Lance brought me coffee, which I thought was very cool of him, but then he opened that stupid mouth of his and now I have to contemplate on pouring his gift right into his lap.”

Lance leaned away, eyes half-lidded. “You’re a hardass.”

“You are too. What’s on your mind, McClain?”

He turned his gaze away.

It had become routine, the late-night conversations between the two living down the hall from each other in their dormitory. Pidge’s roommate slept to the (loud) sounds of the rainforest. Lance’s roommate snored loud. And it had been an accident, the first time Lance found Pidge in the common room at three a.m., headset in with music turned up high that he could hear the guitar riffs from halfway across the room.

One accident and four months later, it was part of their weekly routine. They didn’t speak much, save for the quiet moments they had at night’s darkest hour, alone amongst themselves in the common room. If people saw them together, they wouldn’t assume they knew each other, much lest that they were friends.

“I had a blind date today.” He said it plainly. Pidge’s brow quirked up.

“And it was bad?”

“Ugh,” he slid down the couch they shared, propping his feet up on the table. “She was a total snob. Didn’t like the restaurant I took her to because everything was under twenty bucks.”

She let out a snort. “How dare you.”

“Wouldn’t even let me buy her frozen yogurt afterwards! And to think I budgeted.”

“Hey, you still have fro-yo money. That’s a plus, right?”

Lance’s pout broke into a grin. “That is a plus.”

A steady silence fell over the pair, and Pidge went back to typing, the clacking of keys the only thing disturbing the silence. Lance stared at her work, brows furrowing.

“Are you just writing about me?”

“Nothing interesting happens to me,” Pidge said with a shrug.

“This is entry seven, right?” Lance sat up straighter, leaning back into the smaller girl, chin resting against her shoulder without a care for personal space or property. “Can you read me another one?”

“No.”

He clutched at his heart, dramatically falling away from her, outstretching a hand in her direction. “Your brutal words, have fatally wounded me, Pidge! Only a maiden’s secret journal entries can save me now!”

She didn’t look away from her journal. Only typed more.

“Thank you, McClain, for this quality content.”

“You’re so mean. And to think, I, your only night owl friend, was about to ask you if you wanted to get fro-yo.”

Her typing stopped. She turned to him, brows knitting together.

“What’s the catch?”

“Ah, another arrow to the heart.”

“McClain.”

“You’ll have to actually be awake at a reasonable time. Because no fro-yo place in the world is open at this hour.”

“That’s false. It’s currently 5pm in Australia. I’m sure fro-yo places in Australia are open.”

“Have I told you that you’re a hardass?”

“Twice, now.”

Lance let out a groan. “Pidge, let me level with you, because you’re clearly not getting it. I want. To treat you. To frozen yogurt. And hang out. While the sun is up.”

He followed a rhythm, a syllabic beat, his hands pressed together and motioning towards her with each punctuation.

She beamed. “But I thought the charm of being my friend was only seeing me in the cover of night?”

“Holy Toledo, Batman. You could not get any more aggravating.”

Pidge shrugged, turning back to her laptop--and to Lance’s delight--shutting it close. “Any particular reason?”

“Am I supposed to have a reason to want to hang out with my friends?”

Pidge thought for a moment.

“I guess it doesn’t seem like our style?”

“Oh, because this--” he gestured between them both, then around the darkness of the common room. “--Is our style?”

“Kind of, yeah. It’s nice.” She was smiling again, adjusting herself to sit criss-cross on the couch, hands in her lap. “I don’t hang out with anyone else like this.”

“If you did, I’d be offended. This is our thing.”

“Exactly. It’s our thing.”

He opened his mouth to retaliate, but closed it quickly. She was smiling, natural and calm, as if she was expecting Lance to eventually ask her to hang out at another time. She was prepared to reject him, or so it seemed. She hadn’t said yes or no, yet, to fro-yo.

And it was aggravating.

Maybe it was wrong of him, to have this weird desire to see Pidge during the day and not in her pajamas, to see her looking less like a gremlin in the dark and more like a real person. He couldn’t quite place why he cared so much. Maybe because it was mysterious, to know what Pidge looked like with proper sunlight? Maybe because she was always here in the common room, that he wanted desperately to know what she did during the day. Did Pidge have hobbies? Or did she just do her homework in the dead of night? Does she have a job? Does Pidge Holt even exist outside the dorms?

Was she a ghost?

The last one was a stretch.

She took a sip of the coffee Lance brought her, letting out a content sigh. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You’re welcome. You know, I work at the campus cafe. You could come in during one of my shifts and I’ll make you another on the house.”

(And see you outside of the dorms.)

She grinned. “Gave up on fro-yo?”

“I am not giving up on fro-yo.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you what,” Pidge set the mug down, turning towards him, the corners of her lips upturned in that quiet smile of hers. “I’m going to bed. I’ll bother you after I get back from class, and you can take me on this spectacular fro-yo date you have planned.”

“Thank you,” Lance said, a satisfied groan escaping him. Then his eyes widened.

“Did you say date?”

That caught her off-guard. Without the glow of the laptop screen, it was hard to see her features. Hard to know if she was turning as red as he was.

“Goodnight, Lance.”

“Goodnight--oh my god! You called me Lance!”

“No, I didn’t, McClain. Goodnight.”

She was quicker than him, scooping up her study materials in both hands, as well as the coffee cup, scurrying quickly across the room and down the hall. Lance made a show, knees sinking into the cushion of the couch as he called after her in loud whispers.

“Pidge. Pidgey. Pidge-o. Pigeon. Pidgeotto. Come back here! We can talk about this! I’m totally flattered if you want to call it a date!”

She didn’t come back, much to his relief. He probably wouldn’t be able to handle it if her brain booted back up, if she threw a brilliant retort at him when he was completely fried. It’d be emotional warfare. She already had struck him with enough arrows tonight.

He stood up after a long moment of sitting in complete silence, letting out a quiet huff before going down the same hallway back to his own dorm. He should get some sleep.

After all, he had a fro-yo date later.

#plance #pidgance #amaje fics

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cococrazies · 7 years ago

Text

Lovestruck Series Review: Starship Promise (Season 1)

Personal playing order: Orion - Jaxon - Antares - Nova - Atlas

Warning! Minor spoilers ahead for Antares’s/Nova’s/Atlas’s routes, as well as CGs under the cut.

Orion: I’m torn on this one. I really enjoyed the story -- a lot more than I thought I would, given my lack of enthusiasm for the series concept -- and Orion himself. (If anyone ever wanted Shang from Mulan but in outer space, this is it.) The writing also had a very natural cadence and flow; it pulled me in easily, never getting too heavy-handed with sudden plot twists and cliffhangers... except for one instance, but more on that below.

And the MC! She was a pleasant surprise. I hadn’t been too impressed by her in the first-ep sneak peeks we get in each route, but she’s really cute -- she can be a bit of a space cadet at times (sorry, bad pun intended), but she isn’t dumb. Furthermore, she really develops over the course of the route, which is impressive given everything else stuffed into these mere 12 episodes.

So now to the things I didn’t like about this route: for one, the romantic development. It seemed really sudden and almost shoehorned-in as a result of the route length, which was jarring given how well-paced everything else had been up to that point.

Also, the Antares plot twist; it felt cliché and gimmicky, especially since I could see it coming from a mile away. I think I would’ve preferred for it to be a Season 2 reveal, or at least presented to us right from the start -- as it was, it just seemed like it was there for the “shock factor” + to forcibly give us a reason to care about the antagonist if we didn’t already. But since this was a pilot season, I guess I can understand how they wanted to tease at an intriguing backstory as early as possible to get players invested.

Overall, they still did succeed with the latter, because now I’m pretty curious about where they’re going with this. And also because I need more Orion/MC in my life; rushed or not, those two are simply way too cute.

Jaxon: Whoa, this story was jam-packed with action scenes and chemistry between the OTP. The pace is hella fast, but you never get the sense that we’re skipping past important details; the writing makes the most of every episode it has got. Not a single scene is wasted or filler-like.

Jaxon himself is a bit of a harder sell. His gargantuan ego, jokester personality, and YOLO take on everything make him one of those characters that you either love or hate -- although for me, he fell somewhere near the middle of the spectrum. I like his concept and find him a refreshing addition to Lovestruck’s character lineup, but he’s not really my type as far as romance goes; and sometimes he toes the line for being near annoying.

(The fact that I constantly seemed to make the wrong choices -- at least judging by the sheer amount of weird looks or lukewarm responses he gave me after 90% of my choices -- didn’t help. Heads-up: don’t try to play it cool. This MC really, really can’t do cool. I had several near-death experiences from sheer secondhand embarrassment while playing this route.)

That aside, he makes a surprisingly good team with MC. Except from some cringey non-heart options (which were brutal this route, by the way), they naturally eased into working as a combo. I like how they both are able to pull each other out of their respective emotional ruts, as well as complement the other’s shortcomings. Jaxon’s character turnaround near the end felt a little sudden, but I like the teased insight on his past, and am looking forward to learn more about it.

Antares: Oh, MC. Trust me, I of all people totally understand crushing on the hot, mysterious, and possibly noble anti-hero holding you captive for unknown reasons, but even so. Being constantly unable to focus on anything but your attration to him -- and using it as a basis for your foundation to trust him almost straight away despite how he works for the Big Bad, and is literally using you as a tool(-fixer) for whatever evil purposes the Empire has in mind for the galaxy -- is like a whole new level of uncool.

(Also, how is a sheltered colony girl’s reaction to seeing a military leader telling his troops not to leave a single ship standing “swoon, he’s so charismatic” instead of “holy shit, he kills people”? Priorities, MC.)

Beyond that, Antares’s route was very intriguing to me. Out of Lovestruck’s villain routes so far this is the one that has done the least to paint the love interest as less of an antagonist, or the side he sympathizes with as more morally grey. I also appreciated seeing another side of Antares himself that actually knows the definition of the word chill isn’t perpetually dressed in bunny-ear mecha armor that’s not completely absorbed by his thirst for vengeance against his brother.

Similar to Orion’s route, the romantic development also dropped on us out of the blue here... but strangely, I didn’t mind. In a way, it seemed to make sense for Antares’s emotionally dysfunctional personality (to the point that it gave me Chance S1 in GiL flashbacks). I think I almost preferred this to him doing a sudden 180 and going all mushy on MC when any potential romantic build-up outside of premium choices has been minimal. I’m holding my thumbs now for a gradual turnaround -- much like Chance got -- in his future seasons.

Nova: I keep going back and forth re: how I feel about this route. To again start with the positive -- I’d been worried that Nova would be a Space Medusa 2.0, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that she wasn’t. For all the kuu in her kuudere demeanor, Nova still spends a fair amount of the route bonding with MC through actual conversation, and unlike Orion’s/Antares’s routes this season the romance didn’t even seem that rushed. Furthermore, I was intrigued by Nova’s backstory (not to mention that she’s hot as hell).

But to be entirely honest, this story is also the most formulaic, “typical otome”-esque route I’ve read so far in Lovestruck -- not so much in concept as in execution. It reminds me of one of those Voltage JP fantasy routes where we spend the first 1/3 of the route with semi-slice-of-life scenes interspersed with action, the middle 1/3 of this route discovering the LI’s angsty past and them distancing themselves to protect MC, and the final 1/3 with MC dissolving into hysterics/apocalyptic depression, stupidly running after LI alone, and declaring their undying love for them after having known them for a couple of days in the middle of a life-or-death situation.

Since I do play Voltage JP games I’m not saying it’s necessarily a terrible thing, just... jarring. I might seem like I’m awfully hard on Lovestruck’s writing a lot of the time, but that’s because I have high expectations of it. In a sea of near-identical mobile otome clones Lovestruck stands out with a more Westernized and creative take on standard otome tropes, hence often avoiding common pitfalls associated with the genre. The writing in general is a cut above what I expect from mobile games as well, hence all my criticisms; I don’t balk (as much) at LIs doing sudden 180s or MCs being stupid in a Solmare game, but I do with Lovestruck because I know -- and have seen firsthand -- that they can do better.

So this route was confusing to me. Because, if I were to go for my usual standard from what I would expect run-of-the-mill Voltage JP route, for example, or a Shall We Date? one -- then I’d think it’s fine. Or even good. But for Lovestruck? I don’t know. I wouldn’t say it’s bad, just not... good. (The GiL-esque Pokémon-battle narration for action scenes -- yes, this is my official pet peeve now -- didn’t help.)

With all that said though, I didn’t dislike Nova’s route. (Hence the confusion.) And definitely not Nova herself. I just don’t really know how I feel about its writing direction, and how it measures against my expectations of a Lovestruck route.

Atlas: I fell head over heels for this route. Seriously, this was Astraeus-in-season-3-of-AFK level instant love, except without the devastating angst and with a decent helping of fluffy feels on top. Not that it was all fluff -- we had our share of prospective angst here too, if less literally earth-shattering. And hell of a lot of action, character development, and tons of other goodies tightly stuffed in a 12-episode-package of awesome.

Similar to my review for Astraeus, I don’t even know where to begin talking about this route’s good points. The prose, for one -- there were just so many beautifully worded narrative transitions, and the dialogue didn’t lose out in that aspect, either. The sass, sarcasm, and the humor were well-timed, but didn’t go overboard/seem out of character for MC or the rest of the cast.

Then there’s Atlas himself. Breaking down tsunderes is one of my favorite otome pastimes, and doing exactly that to our resident grouchy pilot was no different. First of all, I love that he maintains a healthy balance between insults that are obviously all bark and no bite, and genuinely worded criticism that should logically be voiced. In fact, there’s so little unnecessary tsun here that he could almost pass for a kuudere.

Regardless of whatever mold he’d better fit into, finally crumbling down that cranky demeanor of his and seeing him dere was a sweet, sweet reward. (I actually caved and went premium twice despite my agonizing wallet because I couldn’t resist seeing more of it.)

Or heck, even the platonic moments building up to that were great. Because the romance with Atlas was really well-paced; I love how we went from almost-hate (my favorite trope!) to begrudging respect, then to friendly equals/teammates, and finally something more -- all the while there was obvious chemistry between him and MC interlacing every interaction. I was kind of worried whether we’d get some last-minute romantic confession slapped on near the end, but thankfully we got a development that, for all its unrealistic corniness, still had me squealing. Especially with that cliffhanger; dammit, how am I even supposed to emotionally last until I get to his second season?

The main plot was really interesting, too -- probably my favorite premise out of the ones we’ve been offered so far. Even though it starts out similarly with MC on the run, I like how 1) we see the Union as evil right from the bat, avoiding having another MC-gets-out-of-her-naïve-colony-girl-mindset mini-arc; 2) rather than being perpetrated for some valuable information/artifact that the Starship crew might benefit from, MC is in a situation where they actually have no reason to keep her around, adding more tension to the intro; and 3) how all of this tied into Atlas’s own personal character arc. (Not that I minded how the other premises played out, it just made for a fresh change of pace.)

To wrap this gigantic word-vomit ramble up, I’d just like to conclude by gushing one last time how fantastic this route is -- I’d warmly recommend it to anyone interested in giving Starship a chance, because after this, the series personally had me hook, line, and sinker.

Final character ranking: Atlas > Orion > Jaxon > Antares > Nova

....This got a little longer than I intended it to be, oops. Kudos to anyone who has made it to the end of this season review. (I’ll try to be a little more concise in my next one, i.e. GiL S7.) You can follow my tag #coco reviews lovestruck for more reviews of Lovestruck games, or check out the ones I’ve done so far on this list.

#coco reviews lovestruck #lovestruck #voltage usa #amemix #starship promise #orion akatsuki #jaxon silva #antares fairchild #nova #atlas molniya #oelvn #mobile otome #otome review

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buckysgoldenheart · 7 years ago

Text

Help A Buddy Out

Words: 4066

Help A Buddy Out

--- You and Bucky are roommates and you ask for him to teach you to be better at sex so you can please another guy ---

“Y/N!” You heard your roommate shout from across the apartment. “Have you seen my shirt?!”

“Why of course, I know exactly what you do with all your shirts. What type, what color, what brand are you looking for? Wait, let me just look into my Bucky Barnes archives…” You shouted back with way too much sass.

A shirtless Bucky poked his head around the door of your bedroom. “Hardy har har.” He returned before coming fully into the room. “You’re overly sassy for no apparent reason. What’s going on?” He strutted over to the bed and took the book from your hands as he sat down. “Chaucer?” he questioned. “You only subject yourself to Chaucer when you’re in a bad mood.”

“Yea, well I had a change of heart.” You retort as you try to snag your book back. He pulled it further from your reach. “Buck, give me my book back.”

“No, not until you tell me why you’re in full sass mode today.”

“Well, then I’ll never get it back.” You sighed as you crossed your arms in front of your chest and leaned back against the headboard.

“C’mon Y/N. I’m your best friend. You can tell me anything.” He spoke as he smiled one of his killer ‘your panties just melted’ smiles. Except, you knew when he smiled like that to you, it was merely platonic. Which sucked.

“Ok fine” you huffed out. “The truth is…” you began as you sat up. “Steve is my best friend.”

Bucky let out a frustrated groan and threw your book back in your general direction. “As if. You know you like me better.” He stood in front of you and stared down; His eyes traveling up and down your body. “If you don’t tell me then I’ll just tickle you until you do.”

You made a face at that. “Don’t do that.”

Bucky started to walk towards the side of the bed where you sat. “You’ve left me with no choice, Doll.” He got closer and grabbed your arm as you tried to scramble away.

“OK, OK!! Don’t do it. I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” Bucky released you from his grip.

“There. Was that so hard? Now spill, Doll. What’s going on?”

You sat up once again and brushed your fingers through your hair. “Fine, but stand over there.” Bucky’s eyes travelled to where you pointed.

“You want me to stand in the corner?” His ‘you-can’t-be-serious’ look took over his face. “You can’t be serious.”

You sighed as you began to explain. “I need you to be as far away from me as possible when I tell you this. It’s embarrassing.”

Bucky crossed his arms and began to retreat to the corner. “Fine. Makes total sense, Weirdo.”

You ignored his comment and pulled your knees up under your chin. “Ok. There is no easy way to say this so I’m just gonna do it.” You sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know how to have sex. Not well anyway. I have this date with this guy on Friday and it’s going to be the third date. Everyone knows the third date rule! I don’t want to suck.” You finished with a deep breath, recovering your oxygen levels from your intense rambling.

“You’re still going out with that guy?” Bucky demanded as he began to near you again.

You pointed your finger back at him. “Stay! And yes I am.”

“Why the fuck--?” he started but caught himself before he revealed too much. “Y/N, look, sex is sex. Its, uh, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m sure you’ll be great.” He said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s a huge deal, Buck! HUGE! Its sex!”

“You’ve had, uh, sex, before right?”

“Twice.”

“Twice.” He repeated.

“Yes, twice. I’m going to suck. I know it.”

“You’re not going to suck. It’s not possible”

“How would you know, Buck? It’s not like we’ve had sex.” Bucky couldn’t argue with that, they hadn’t, despite how much he wanted to. “Which is why I’m asking you to help me.” You said, snapping Bucky out of his thoughts. “I want you to make me better at sex.”

Bucky’s head shot up from the direction of his feet, eyes wide. “WHAT?!”

“Please Buck, you said it yourself: sex is sex. What’s the harm if you teach me the ins and outs of it. No pun intended.” You smirked to yourself.

“You’re my best friend!” he spoke in an attempt to find an excuse.

“Friends have sex all the time. You’d just be helping a friend out.”

Bucky thought of another excuse. “What makes you think I can teach you anything?”

You chuckled “I think the plethora of random girls that scream their heads off in pleasure and beg for more is enough for me to know how good you are.”

Bucky blushed. “You hear that?”

“They’re like banshees, Bucky.”

“Are not.” He huffed

“Are too” You returned. Bucky crossed and uncrossed his arms before shifting his weight to his left foot. “Bucky, please. We are always there for each other when the other needs something.”

Bucky let out a sharp laugh. “Yea, but usually it’s when you want me to pick up your prescriptions from the pharmacy or fix the plumbing.”

“Buck, I need you. I know this is slightly different, but what’s the harm?”

“I don’t know.” Bucky pulled his phone from his back pocket to check the time. “I have to go meet Steve. Just let me think about it.” He pocketed his phone again and turned to leave the room.

“Don’t forget a shirt!” You called after him.

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

Bucky opened the door to the café and scanned the room for his friend. When he saw the over compensating build and light hair he started towards one of the window tables. “Steve.”

Steve looked up from his view of the city and smiled as he saw his oldest friend. “Bucky, it’s good to see you.”

Bucky took a seat opposite of Steve and ordered a coffee when the waitress came around. “How’s things?”

“Great.” Steve began. “Sharon is great. We got a cat.”

Bucky chuckled. “A cat? Since when are you a cat person?”

“Since Sharon is a cat person.” He smirked. “But what’s going on with you? How’s Y/N?”

“Funny that you bring her up.” Bucky said before he smiled and thanked the waitress for his coffee.

“Oh yea?” Steve smiled. “Finally tell her how you feel, did you?

“Yea right. Cause that would go over soooo well.”

“Oh, c’mon man, you’ve liked her since she moved in.”

“Doesn’t matter, she doesn’t feel the same. She, uh, asked me this morning to help her become a pro at sex.”

Steve choked on his coffee and reached for a napkin to clean the drops from his chin. “What!?”

“Yea.” Bucky sighed and sipped his drink

“What exactly does that entail?”

“She wants us to have sex.” Bucky replied nonchalantly. “She wants us to have sex until she’s good at it, apparently.

“Wow. Why?”

“She’s got this date on Friday. Says it’s the third date so they HAVE to have sex for some stupid reason.” He huffed.

“Well,” Steve started “Think of the Bright side: You’ll get to have sex with the girl you love.”

“Smooth attempt at making me feel better, pal, but there is no bright side. She wants me for the wrong reason. It’s not like she loves me back.”

“All the more reason to tell her. Maybe she just hasn’t thought of you in that way yet and telling her may open her eyes.”

“I don’t know, man. She’s pretty determined. I think if she liked me she’d know.”

“Just think about it, Buck”

“It’s all I think about. Which makes me think I can’t go through with this.”

“Oh, you definitely cannot go through with this.”

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

Bucky reentered his apartment after a long and thoughtful conversation with Steve. He had a very valid point: there was no way Bucky could go through with this, but the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t want to disappoint you. You felt insecure and that was the last thing Bucky wanted. So, he could do this just once, right?

“Bucky?” You called, stepping out of your bedroom. “Are you alright? You seem a little dazed,” You continued once you saw his facial expression.

“Yea well what do you expect?” Bucky mumbled to himself as you entered the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.

“Did you say something?”

“What? No.” He hurriedly spit out. You returned your attention to the coffee maker. “So, I was thinking…” you met his eyes as he continued. “We could try what you proposed. Just once. I’ll tell you what you want to know from that one time, but no more. Deal?”

You squealed in appreciation. “Oh Bucky, you have no idea what this means to me. Thank you so much.”

You jumped into his arms and wrapped your own around his neck. “Yea. I mean what are friends for right?”

“Right!” You smiled.

‘She is so beautiful,’ He thought, that he almost kissed you right then and there, but he quickly stepped away.

“So, uh, how do you want to go about this?” Bucky questioned as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I say we just jump into it. I mean, this is practically for science. No need to beat around the bush.”

Bucky felt his heart crumble just a bit. Hearing you say those words was the last thing he wanted. If anything, he wanted this to mean something to you in the slightest. But clearly it didn’t. “Alright.” He spoke, clearly frustrated. He reached for the hem of his shirt and aimed to pull it over his head but was stopped by your soft hand on top of his.

“Let me.” You lifted his shirt off for him and Bucky thought he had never been more turned on. You pulled yours off and slipped out of your sleep shorts then turned and strutted off into the bedroom.

“Jesus.” Bucky mumbled as he followed after you.

When he stepped through the door, you were standing there waiting for him in just your lacy underwear. He eased himself closer to you, then you reached for the belt around his hips. ‘This is so bad,’ he thought as he grabbed your shoulders and pulled you up to him. You looked into his eyes and down to his lips. Slowly, you reached up and pressed your lips to his in the softest of motions. Bucky fell completely into it and you placed your hand on the back of his neck in an attempt to pull him closer, but Bucky pulled away the second you did. He couldn’t do this. It just wasn’t right.

“Bucky?” You whispered as you placed your hands on either side of his face. “What’s the matter?”

Bucky gripped your hands in his own and removed them from his face. “I can’t do this.” He spoke so quietly; it was practically to himself.

Your face twisted in concern. “What?”

“I can’t do this.” Bucky said a little louder so you could hear him, but this time it was laced with a bit of frustration.

“Why?”

Bucky took a few steps away from you. “I just can’t.” He grabbed for his shirt, but you stepped up into his space and grabbed it from him before he could put it on. “Y/N, give me my shirt back.”

“No, Buck. Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

“Fine, keep it.” He huffed as he headed for the door.

“Bucky!” You yelled after him. “Bucky, wait!”

You chased him out the door and into your tiny living room. You grabbed his arm to keep him from getting further away from you. “Y/N, Stop!” Bucky yelled as he tried to break free from your grasp. You were deceptively strong.

“Bucky, please just tell me what’s going on.” He could hear the sadness in your voice. It almost broke his heart. “Please.” You whispered. Bucky turned to face you with a cold expression on his face. He figured it was better than showing you his true emotions in this moment. “Did I do something wrong?” He met your eyes in shock. That was the last possible problem. “Do you not want me?” Slowly, tears began to fall down your cheeks.

Bucky sighed. “That is not possible,” He whispered

“Which?” You questioned.

“Neither. You didn’t do anything wrong and its definitely not because I don’t want you, OK?” He reached up and brushed the tears from her cheeks.

“Then what is it?”

“Nothing, Y/N.”

“You’re lying.” You were starting to get angry.

“No, I’m n—” He started, but was interrupted.

“Yes, you are!” You were a full-on mix of pissed and distressed. “Tell me!” You yelled.

“Y/N.” Bucky sighed.

“TELL ME!” You screamed again.

“I LOVE YOU!” Bucky yelled in your face before he’d even realized what he was doing. He breathed heavily, eyes looking directly at you before he stepped back and looked to his feet. “I love you.” He spoke again, much quieter.

“Bucky...”

“No, just don’t.” Bucky rushed past you back to your room and put his shirt back on. When he got back to the living room, you were still standing there in shock. “I have to go.” He grabbed his keys of the hook and slammed the door, knocking you out of your shock.

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

Sharon opened the door to her and her boyfriend’s apartment to find Bucky standing in the doorway, his head hung low, soaked to the bone. It must’ve been pouring outside. “Bucky, come in.” When he didn’t make a move to enter the apartment, she grabbed him by his arm and slowly pulled him inside. “Steve!?” she yelled “Can you come here?”

Steve walked out from their bedroom. “Yea, babe- Bucky?”

“He just showed up. I’m going to go get some towels and an extra shirt,” She said as she walked Bucky over to the couch and helped him sit down before walking to the bathroom. Steve inched closer to his friend and sat down across from him.

“Buck?” he spoke, but got no response. “Bucky?” he tried again. “What happened?”

Bucky looked up from his hands, but refused to meet Steve’s eyes. “I told her.”

“Well, that’s good isn’t it?” Steve questioned.

“No, Steve, it’s not. We were about to have sex?”

“You were going to do it!?”

“Just once. She was doubting herself and you know how I get when she does that. I was only going to do it once and help her. I thought I could suppress my feelings for one time.”

“Bucky…”

“I kissed her once and I couldn’t do it. Before I knew it, I was yelling that I love her and now I’m here.”

Steve placed a hand on his friends’ shoulder as his girlfriend returned with the shirt and towels. She placed them next to Bucky to use as he needed.

“What did she say?” Steve asked.

“Nothing.” Bucky sighed. “She just stood there. So, I left. Well, actually I started to leave the second after I told her.”

“You didn’t give her a chance to say anything?”

“I couldn’t, Steve. I just had to get out of there.”

“Oh, Buck.” Steve started “Just stay here tonight, ok?” he sighed. “But tomorrow you have to talk to her.”

Bucky’s eyes widened. “No, Steve. I can’t.”

“You can. And you will. She is the only girl you’ve ever given a fuck about, never mind the fact that she and Sharon get along great. You’ve made yourself a nice little mess and you’re going to fix it so we can all still be friends. I’m too used to our little foursome now to have it fall apart at the seams.”

“Aren’t you the one who told me to tell her how I felt?”

Steve stood from his chair. “Yea. I was thinking more of a sweet scenario where you buy her flowers and don’t bolt after you tell her.”

Bucky grumbled and wrapped a bright, pink towel around his shoulders. “Well you didn’t specify.”

“I figured it was implied, Buck” Steve began to turn towards is bedroom. “Couch is all yours for tonight. Enjoy, stretch out, think of ways to get your girl. But I’m gonna turn in. My lady is waiting.”

Bucky made a face. “Steve, I swear if you guys have sex 20 feet away from me…”

“Chill Buck, Sharon and I are hardcore cuddlers.”

“That’s almost worse.”

“Oh please, Buck, if you had Y/N you’d cuddle nonstop.”

“Don’t remind me that I don’t have her.” Bucky returned as he stretched out onto the couch.

“Goodnight Bucky.” Steve sighed and retreated to his bedroom where is girlfriend waited for him. Lucky bastard Bucky thought.

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

Bucky jolted awake at the sound of 3 sharp knocks. He could have sworn he imagined it and was getting ready to settle back into sleep when he heard it again. He grabbed his phone from his pant pocket which had long been discarded onto the floor halfway through the night. It was 3:30 am. “What the hell.” Bucky groaned as he sat up and walked his shirtless, underwear clad body into Steve and Sharon’s room. Sharon was nestled up against Steve’s side and their cat sat on his chest, rising and falling in rhythm with Steve’s breathing. Bucky shuffled forward to Steve’s side and nudged his shoulder until he woke up.

Steve’s eyes slowly opened and looked into those of his best friend. “Bucky, what the hell?”

“Little early for cursing don’t you think, Cap?”

Steve sighed and laid his head back on his pillow. “What do you want, Buck?” He whispered in an effort not to stir his girlfriend.

“There’s a knock on your door” Bucky spoke nonchalantly as he pointed in its general direction.

“What?”

“There’s a knock- “Bucky started but what interrupted by the knock itself. “See?”

Steve sat up slightly, causing the cat to jump of his chest and Sharon to slowly shift in her sleep. “And you woke me because…?”

“I don’t know. Its 3:30 am. Its dark. I’m vulnerable. It could be a psycho killer and I’m not in the mood.”

Steve pushed the sheets off his legs and sat up. “Are you kidding me, Buck? You’re the fucking winter soldier.”

Steve began to walk towards the door as the knocking continued with Bucky hot on his heels. “Yea, well you’re Captain America. We are equally as capable of opening the door, but this is your apartment so I figured I’d let you. Just in case it is a psycho killer, you’d be able to say you defended your own domicile.”

“Gee thanks.” Steve huffed as he reached for the doorknob. The door opened to reveal you, slightly disheveled, in nothing but your pajamas. Bucky and Steve stared at you for a moment before Steve turned to Bucky. “Well, it’s for you. Totally get why you were scared though. She looks like a murderous demon.” Steve sighed sarcastically. “I’m going back to bed. Lovely to see you though Y/N. Sharon misses you like crazy. I mean it’s been like, what, three weeks since we’ve seen you. Crazy how time flies, we should really—"

“Steve, go to bed.” Bucky spoke without taking his eyes off you.

“Oh geez, fine. Goodnight Y/N.”

“Goodnight Steve.” You returned with a feeble smile.

Once Steve was definitely in his room, Bucky turned back to face you. “What are you doing here?”

“Bucky, we need to talk.”

“Look, Y/N if this is about earlier then there’s no need. I--“

“I love you, Bucky.” You interrupted.

---

It was Bucky’s turn to stand there in shock.

“Bucky?”

Bucky snapped back to his senses and was less than pleased. “Is this some kind of sick joke to you? That’s really low Y/N. I spill my guts and you have the audacity to make fun of me for it.” Bucky turned back into the apartment, but you followed him in, shutting the door behind you.

“Bucky, I’m not lying.”

“You are too. You are supposed to go out on a date this weekend. You don’t love me. If you did, you wouldn’t date that idiot.”

“Bucky you said you love me and you had sex 3 days ago. Not with me, I might add.” You replied, slightly annoyed.

“So? I had to get my frustrations out somehow. I’m not the one who suggested we have casual buddy sex.”

“Bucky, I was just really confused, ok? I really thought that if we had sex once that I’d get over you. I don’t even have a date this weekend. I broke up with Mike after he slapped our waitress’ ass as she walked by on our last date.”

“Prick” Bucky mumbled. “So, you tricked me into sex?”

“Tricked is such a harsh word.”

“But an accurate one” Bucky finished.

“We didn’t even have sex Bucky. I didn’t even think I’d be able to go through with it. I just wanted to propose the idea to see how you’d react. To see if you wanted me too. I almost died when you pulled away from me.”

Bucky looked up into your eyes. “Yea, well you got what you wanted didn’t you?”

You detected a hint of anger in his words. “Are you actually mad at me? Bucky, we love each other. Or at least we did a couple hours ago.” Bucky refused to speak. It lasted so long that you turned to leave. “Fine, Bucky. I’ll just go,” You said, but you were stopped by a firm grip on your wrist. You looked up and Bucky pulled you to him, kissing you like his life depended on it. You kissed back with as much ferocity as you could. It was passionate and sexy and melting. You had wanted this for so long and it was amazing. You pulled apart only to breathe and Bucky brushed his fingers through your hair.

“We love each other?” He spoke as he rested his forehead on yours.

“Yea, we do”

“I can’t believe it.” Bucky chuckled. “I’ve been in love with you since you moved in.”

“Me too.” You whispered.

“What?” Bucky’s head snapped up in shock.

“What.”

“Just…Wow.” Bucky stepped back from your embrace and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “You’ve loved me that long too? You had a boyfriend when you moved in.”

“I know, which is weird now that I think about it because he let me move in with another man. He said he wasn’t worried, but he should have been.”

“I’m the reason you dumped that guy a month after you moved in?” Bucky questioned. You only nodded in response. “I can’t believe it.” Bucky sighed. “I hated that guy!”

You giggled and moved to cup his face with both hands. “That’s what he told me.”

“Oh, yea right. How would he know?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see it either, but he insisted that you liked me and wanted to kill him with your metal arm.”

Bucky chuckled and crossed is arms over his chest. “Well, the guy wasn’t as big of an idiot as I thought.”

“You’re ridiculous.” You laughed.

Bucky grabbed your hand and walked you over to the couch. He laid down and pulled you on top of him.

“Bucky, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to sleep with the girl I love.” He replied as he readjusted his pillow.

“Um, shouldn’t we go home? You know, since you aren’t mad at me anymore?”

“Oh please, doll. I was never mad at you. Not really. More just mad at myself. Also, Sharon and Steve miss you didn’t you hear? And all I want to do is take you home and stay in bed with you for days, but I figure I owe them a favor for letting me stay and whine. So, tomorrow we can all go out and they’ll stop complaining about never seeing you, then we will stay in bed for days.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“Yea, I thought so.” He smiled his cheeky grin. “For now, we will sleep together and actually sleep. But tomorrow night…”

You smiled as he did and kissed him once again.

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

I never had tags on this because this is the first thing I ever wrote and posted on here, so I thought I would add them just in case.

Tags: @dugan365 @moonlightimagination @pietrotheavenger @marvel-fanfiction @hawkeyeharrington @dani-si @alyssiamking @wintersoldier98 @then-there-was-me-emily @prxttybirdz @tessvillegas @xceafh @jazzwoman897 @fandoms-who @meganwinchester1999 @ufffg @debra77 @rebelliouscat @anise-d-castle6 @projectxhappiness @buckybarnesappreciationsociety @lowkeysebby @stringgeek13 @quotemeow @notmyfault404 @jjamesbbarness @stangirl4eva @guera31 @sophiatomlinson23 @thisismysecrethappyplace @hiddles-rose @mywinterwolf @picapicapicassobaby @lokilvrr @private-bucky-barnes

#bucky barnes #steve and bucky #bucky barnes imagines #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes x reader #Winter Soldier #winter solider imagine #the winter solider x reader #sebastian stan #help a buddy out #Steve Rogers #captain america

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pinkipie100 · 7 years ago

Note

Hi there. I read your analysis about The Voltron Show and I really liked it! At one point in that analysis, you mentioned that you feel the Voltron fandom is too quick to feel offended over how Hunk is portrayed in the show. Do you think it's possible that you could elaborate on that, if you wanted? And do you feel that this "overly-sensitive attitude" within the fandom extends to Lance's portrayal in the show as well?

Me? 27000 years late to an ask? HA HA HA!

…Always. Sorry, @thenorthernphoenix, I’ve been absent for quite a while, and I totally forgot my askbox was a thing.

Anyway, a thousand times thank you for reading my meta! To answer your question, and I may receive a lot of heat for this, but I think the Voltron crew have handled Hunk’s portrayal well, actually, and I’ll explain why. Hopefully concisely. Definitely not concisely.

First of all, Hunk is fat. Can we just… admit that? He’s fat. THAT IS OKAY. THAT IS SO OKAY. In fact, I think it’s important for boys who are also overweight to see. They need to know that they can still be the hero, despite their size. I know that a lot of the body positivity schtick has to do with encouraging women to feel comfortable with their bodies regardless of weight, but it’s really important for men, as well! Men probably have a tough time dealing with their body image because they’re expected not to care, but they’re also expected to simultaneously having ridiculously hypermasculine, ripped bodies, or they’re not really ‘a man,’ you know? But if people see Hunk and realize that this guy, yes, is overweight, but still kicks ass and is even the strongest paladin [stronger than Shiro!], that’ll give them just the encouragement they need. [Plus, Hunk is really f*ckin’ hot.]

Second of all, HUNK LIKES FOOD A F*CKING LOT. CAN WE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS?!?!?! Okay, I apologize, I’m getting heated… I just notice that people get extremely angry when Hunk is shown going crazy over food. I just… Of course he will act that way around food, he’s a foodie! Is it funny? Yeah. Does that mean we’re supposed to respect him any less? Of course not! Look, I’m not overweight, but I’m still a foodie! I, in fact, may or may not love food a bit too much in the most weird of ways! [-Food fetish much, Pinki? -Shut the fuh!] I honestly find it laughably relatable when Hunk drools at the sight of a delicious-looking hors d’oeurvre, or climbs over the invisible maze’s walls to get to a fine alien pastry! Like, f*cking me too, Hunk! I don’t know, maybe I’m being insensitive and stupid, but I don’t view Hunk as any less of a character because he’s very food-crazy. Last time I checked, though, no one was up in arms about Po using food to motivate him to become the Dragon Warrior.

I get it, this is just my own opinion. I like to believe that I’m being sensible, though. I’ll admit that, yes, the food jokes get a little old sometimes, but hey, they are still tasteful [dammit… I… I swear I didn’t mean to pun there]. Hunk is always depicted as a master of his craft, educated in the ways of the kitchen. He doesn’t just make junk food, either, he can cook meats; pastas; god forbid, vegetables! Take a look at any other kid’s show, and tell me if you find a fat character who is treated respectfully by their friends like Hunk, is as intelligent as Hunk, and is as three-dimensional as Hunk. Seriously, lemme know, I think I’d give the show a try, if that’s the case.

*whispers* Am I getting long-winded yet…

Okay, now for the second part of your question, I could go on for days about how the fandom basically becomes a volatile gershderned cult when it comes to Lance. The fandom is sensitive about Hunk’s portrayal, no doubt, no doubt- but when it comes to Lance, oh ho, they take it to an entirely new level!

Violent discourse has broken out surrounding Lance’s race, sexuality, mental state, personality, and hell, even his g*ddamn last name! I’m not at all ashamed to say, all of it has been bullsh*t. The f*ckers Lance stans of this fandom will only accept Lance one way, and that seems to be as a 100000% Cuban, 0.00000% American, Not Straight™, mentally unstable, delicately insecure flower that a) must be protected at all costs and b) crying 24/7 unless Keith is there to comfort him. Any time the show contradicts this, it’s the executive producers’ heads.

Voltron Fandom, come close… gather round the fire… I’m about to clear a few things up for you:

One, Lance is a Lady’s Man. YEAH, I SAID IT, AND I WOULD 100% SWOON IF HE USED A PICKUP LINE ON ME, SO FIGHT ME! Heh, but seriously, he likes women. And, you know what? Women like him! Almost every time he flirts with a woman, she shows interest back! …save Allura, but I think we can tell from Lance’s vlog that it’s because he genuinely likes her and doesn’t really know how else to approach her. Does that mean he’s straight? Uh oh… Uh oh… UH OH! IT MIGHT! Well, it might not. He could still be bisexual with a preference for women, which I honestly buy a lot more than him being flamboyantly attracted to both sexes. We can’t assume nothin’ until it’s outright stated, but until then, the fandom needs to be aware that Lance’s actual sexuality is pretty much up in the air.

B, Lance is Cuban. I love this about him, but when people start to throw sh*t when people headcanon him as mixed or possibly born in America or having a Western last name, it kind of ticks me off. Like, what’s wrong with being a little bit white? Does that diminish the value he may have of his Cuban roots? I’m mostly white, but does that make me not give a sh*t about my Chamorro heritage? Of course not! My mom has a Western maiden name, but that doesn’t mean she’s not Chamorro, too! If Lance had a Cuban last name, that’s so great! If he has a Western name, it’s not ‘giving in to the White Man.’ It’s probably just the result of some intermixing with Western people somewhere along his family line, and it could have been generations ago, anyway. About him being Cuban-American… Look, I think Americans can be pretty sh*tty and our country is f*cked up, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. So there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Lance being American-born and proud to be it.

III, stop. Making. Lance. Helpless. Nnkey? I like Langst. I do. But please, administer it in moderation! Write/draw it sensibly! I’m incredibly tired of seeing Lance portrayed by fans as some unstable, immature, dependent crybaby who is unable to control his emotions or stand without the constant support of a Love Interest™ [it’s usually Keith, and as a stalwart Laith shipper, I am sick of this]. I think that, even beginning from the S1-S2 hiatus, the fandom read a bit too deeply into Lance’s impending insecurity arc, and we all got so hyped up to see it, we were disappointed when it wasn’t immediately addressed. I’ve probably said it a thousand times, but once more, with feeling: Lance’s arc will be slow-burn. We’ll get snippets of his insecurities here and there, just breadcrumbs that will lead up to the climax of his arc, and it’ll be awesome. But, the fandom needs to have patience until then. I hold faith upon faith in the creators, especially Joaquim dos Santos [Mr. Lance-Is-My-Favorite-Paladin himself], to deliver a delicately laid story unfolding around Lance that we will all love once complete, and wonder why we were ever upset.

In conclusion, I very much agree that the fandom is WAY too overly sensitive about how Lance is portrayed in-canon, and it’s actually warping their perceptions of reality. They think that they’re the only ones who know what Lance is really like, and that the writers of the actual g*ddamn show are ‘doing it wrong.’ In the show, Lance is friendly, dorky, funny, cocky, emotionally mature, perceptive, and realistic. Fanon Lance is emotionally unstable, dependent, unconfident, incapable, tortured, bullied, and underrated by his teammates. This is not to say that Canon Lance isn’t insecure and somewhat misunderstood by his friends, but he is mature in managing those insecurities and confiding in others [e. g. seeking solace with Keith, believing in Allura]. I just think Lance is a LOT tougher than his stans give him credit for, and I really love that about his arc; he won’t have to be that tough forever, and when he finally lets his barriers down, it is gonna be. Just what the doctor ordered.

ANYWHALE! I apologize for writing basically another meta in response to your ask, especially considering you sat through my whole ‘Voltron Show’ meta! I am so glad you asked, though. I know my wording here is very strong, but I think it’s better for me to be analytically bold than to be apologetically opinionated.

Seriously, thanks again for reading the meta and facilitating discussion about it; you’re an absolute dream! Sorry for being late to answer, and enjoy the rest of your ventures through fandom and meta thereupon!

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askmicrowaveayem · 7 years ago

Text

MAYEM: A Different Way Pt. 1

[Previous]

[Archive] [Cast]

The rest of the week went by pretty uneventful. Gaster and the boys travelled to another timeline where Chara didn’t show up, spending a few days sitting around and waiting for their device to detect them before hoping back home and then gathering up some supplies before they made their way to a more familiar time.

Gaster was sure to bring his double some tech magazines from ‘the future’, as well as scripts of his old rune studies. They compared magic and tested the differences between them, then of course had to sneak away one night for a dumb fight between them in order to prove who was the best goop. The only rule this time, of course, was to not… ‘merge’ into each other. Because that was absolutely disgusting and the mere thought made Gaster wanted to puke.

The Papyru had a lot of fun cooking and nearly destroying the kitchen and the Sanses tormented them with puns all the while. Overall, it was a very pleasant weekend to get away and make sure everyone was doing well.

It was the best Gaster slept in over a week.

The weekend was far too short and Gaster was once again about halfway convinced it couldn’t have happened, simply because three days of him being with his sons and all three having a good time with people who actually understood them on some level was borderline impossible. It was also interesting, looking through the information and magazines his double had brought--it definitely gave him something to do while helping his twin sleep, a duty he’d taken over from the alternate Papyrus for as long as they were around.

(Gaster won the goop fight, and he would accept no other answer.)

It was over far too quickly. Even if they hadn’t made much progress on deciphering their souls’ images or improving his twin’s sleep pattern. All that aside?

He wished it could’ve lasted a little longer, even though he knew it couldn’t. Before long, it was time for his double to leave.

Gaster and his sons said their goodbyes with promise to return. This time leaving wasn’t nearly as difficult. There was no finality to it. They knew they would meet again. Maybe not so soon like another week, but… maybe a month? It was good to slowly ween yourself off rather than cut cold-turkey, right?

It had been nice to sleep, that was for sure.

The trio climbed into the machine and set their course for home. Things were going smoothly until there was a sudden jerk and everything was flung towards the sides. The boys panicked only slightly this time and Gaster made sure to grab onto something so he wasn’t flung out of his harness.

Here we go again.

He hoped it wasn’t one of the ‘worse’ Gaster’s he had discussed with his double.

The machine crashed.

-- #

Gaster was waiting for them to pass by.

They were being stupid and taking forever, though.

He guessed that’s what he got for always hiding out back here, huh. People were starting to figure out where he liked to be. He’d have to find some other places. Maybe higher off the ground. The little offshoot alley by the repair shop's junkyard and next to one of the larger multi-level stores was full of good hiding places.

Or, it was, until something flew out of the sky and totally wrecked about half of them.

He flinched down and moved closer into his chosen spot beneath some plywood, watching the--....piece of shit that had just fallen out of the cavern ceiling.

...at least it looked like the kids who’d been following him ran away after that crash.

Now he’d just sit and wait and see what was exactly going on.

He might as well.

“Everybody alright?” Gaster asked, having kept himself from being flung around this time.

“yeah.”

“I’M FINE.”

“Good.” The doctor sighed, “We’re going to have to put bumpers on this damn thing.” He paused and looked at the door before walking over and reaching for the handle. “Let’s assume another Gaster sent us here.”

With a heavy clunk he opened the hatch and peered outside.

… A dump?

Well. He did like the dump. It had cool shit.

He stepped out and looked around while his sons wrestled with their harnesses.

Gaster’s eyes widened as the monster stepped out of the piece of shit. He’d never seen one that looked like that before.

Maybe he could get closer and get a better look…?

He glanced around the area and decided he’d probably have his best chance slipping a little closer by running to one of the other piles of spare parts while the monster was looking around. When the monster looked further up the alley, he darted out behind another pile, a bit closer to the shit.

He hoped this monster relied on sight to find things, haha…

You didn’t live as long as Gaster had to be snuck up on by a child.

He spun around just a little too late to see what had moved. What if this was one of those evil Gasters? Him. But… actually evil.

Shit. Yeah, no.

“Boys, stay inside.” Gaster said, reaching up and slamming the door shut on Sans’ face.

“wh-”

He waved his hand and opened a prompt, slowly turning it in front of him as he rotated in a small circle to see if he could ‘see’ anyone nearby.

There was a Gaster nearby. Startlingly close, possibly--not far from the ship, clearly able to see him, but completely out of sight himself.

The list of names and recent encounters would have all been foreign. There was no Sans or Papyrus to be seen.

But his LV level was unaffected, at the very least. But that only meant he hadn’t dusted someone.

(Gaster shifted a little, trying to get a clearer look at whatever that thing was the other monster had summoned. Should he try to duck away from it? Was it some kind of attack…?)

Gaster turned until the information on the other Gaster nearby popped up in his prompt, then quickly did away with it. He was standing facing them now, the white dot of his eye scanning the area in front of him.

“Come out before I start throwing shit.”

Gaster stiffened.

He didn’t know how the other monster knew where he was, but--did he? Was this a bluff? Maybe?

It didn’t sound like a bluff.

He sat there, tense for a moment, before proceeding with the only obvious course of action.

He threw shit first.

Three large, long femur bones materialized in the air above his hiding place and with a swing of his arm, he sent them hurtling towards the other monster without hesitation. They weren’t aimed to be fatal, but they were certainly aimed to hurt, flying through the air towards the other monster’s legs and shoulder.

While the monster was dealing with those, he shifted his position, preparing to run.

Gaster ducked the one aimed for his shoulder, but one speared him through the leg. It was easy to go all the way through even when you didn’t intend to when you… had no bones or actual real flesh.

It didn’t seem to effect him much at all, Gaster summoning a pointed bone in one hand before turning and teleporting behind the spot where the bones had summoned.

As the hit landed, he moved to get up and did manage a few steps before realizing his target had vanished.

Speared through the leg or not, no one should be able to move that fast!

He fell back when the air ripped open behind him, summoning a half-formed frantic shield of bones as he stared up at the monster above him.

...he was so much bigger up close.

Gaster looked angry, but only for a split-second before it softened. The arm that had started to raise upwards with his attack stopped and he blinked upon looking down at the child.

“... Oh.”

He dismissed his attack. “Well. That’s… not what I expected.”

The bone was still lodged in his leg, poking straight out the other side.

Gaster heard the words, but ignored them. He’d gotten good at that. And he was much, much busier flicking his eyes between the monster’s face, the weapon in his hand, and the bone goring his leg.

Slowly and shakily, he lowered the hands he’d raised to form his shield, planting them palm-flat on the ground--two holes were present in his hands, but not nearly as wide or smooth as they would grow to be--and tried to look up at the other monster, smiling a little for a moment, hoping he looked harmless.

Four bones burst up through the ground aiming to gore both his legs and pin him in place.

Gaster got up and ran before he could see if it worked or not.

It didn’t look harmless at all.

“Don’t y-”

He watched his legs get speared before the child ran off.

Why.

Why was it always his legs.

Gaster groaned and yanked his legs off the bones to turn and teleport in front of the kid again. His own attack was long gone. He wasn’t about to fight a kid.

“Fucking STOP a minute!” He yelled once he was in front of him again, agitated enough to sign it at the same time.

Gaster was pretty good at ignoring it when people shouted at him to stop.

He was less used to ignoring the sharp, familiar motions of the other monster’s hands.

Even then, it was more shock than actual obedience that made him come to a wobbling stop, half a second away from bolting again.

Still wary and moving slowly, Gaster looked up at the other monster and began to raise his hands again. This time, though, he didn’t attack.

...you can talk?

The doctor sighed and went straight to signing. He should have known better than to yell at himself. Singing was always a sure way to gain his trust since it was so rarely used.

‘Yes.’ He signed, then started to again but paused to yank the bone attack still in his leg out, the void pulling at it before retracting and filling up the hole a second later. He tossed it onto the ground.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you. Thought you were someone… thought you were an adult.’

Gaster gave him a flat look, trying to ignore the panic crawling up the back of his skull as he watched the monster yank the bones out. He couldn’t fight someone who didn’t care about being impaled, but that didn’t mean he could stop himself from saying, haha, fuck you too after that bullshit dismissal.

Wait fuck.

He probably shouldn’t have insulted him.

This is weird.

He wasn’t exactly used to censoring his hands and let out a smaller stream of oh fuck damnit.

‘Those are some vulgar hands you have there.’ Gaster smirked, apparently not bothered by the insult. ‘Does no one else speak wingdings here?’

Gaster scowled up at him. What do you mean ‘here?’ No one speaks wingdings.

Oh right. He wasn’t used to having to explain this, it was usually Sans.

‘I’m from pretty fucking far away, but no one really uses it there either.’ He looked back the way they had run from. ‘Why were you in the dump?’

Gaster’s eyes went wide, but then narrowed sharply, his scowl not fading. Not in the dump! Junkyard. Mandrake’s Junkyard. None of your business.

He debated summoning bones again, but considering his track record so far, held off a moment longer. Where you’re from. Take me there.

‘Dump, junkyard, same shit.’ Gaster shrugged, then raised where his brow would be. ‘Eager to get the fuck out of here? No family?’

Fuck you, Gaster said, which seemed to be his default response to most things thus far. My family’s none of your business. Show me where they speak in hands!

Somehow, he seemed even more angry than before.

‘They don’t speak in hands. I’m the only one, outside of my sons. No one fucking knows it for shit. They’re all dead.’ He added, ‘It’s a rare thing everywhere.’

Gaster wilted. The anger seemed to drain out of him, and he just looked tired and sad. Oh.

He finally took his eyes off the strange monster, looking down at the pavement beneath him instead.

Gaster frowned sadly. Maybe he had been a little too direct with the kid. But… then again, he wanted direct answers, surely.

‘Sorry kid. Wingdings and skeletons are a rarity everywhere I’ve seen… and I’ve been to a lot of places, trust me.’

That caught Gaster’s attention again, though he was more cautious this time, side-eyeing the monster as he asked, You’ve met skeletons?

Oh right. He wasn’t… really a skeleton anymore. A part of him was saddened by that, but he didn’t show it. ‘My sons are skeletons. Do you want to meet them?’

No, Gaster said, and winced, and then decided it was probably true. N o .

He edged away again.

That was a… curious reaction. He raised a brow again and signed a simple ‘ok’.

Something about this felt… familiar.

His hands raised again, ‘Is being a skeleton here… bad?’

Gaster snorted and shrugged, How am I supposed to know? There aren’t enough around to give a fuck.

He knew his parents always kept him out of sight of the King and Queen when they could and he never wanted to see the old warrior from Waterfall ever again, to the point where he’d completely rerouted how he got to the Dump, but if this stranger wasn’t old enough to know?

Gaster wasn’t going to fucking tell him that there was apparently something wrong.

Gaster seemed to only pay half attention to the kid’s answer. Maybe it was the specific way he signed or just something about him, but this world was feeling very familiar to his double’s. He could remember what he had been told about skeletons from there and suddenly grew worried.

‘... Right.’ He signed eventually, then turned back to his tiny double. ‘You have a family, right?’

He just wanted to know that this version of him wasn’t completely alone. Hanging out at the junkyard wasn’t a very good way to tell.

This time, Gaster just nodded. Why are you being so nosy?

‘I gotta make up for not having a nose myself.’ Gaster said without missing a beat and smirked. ‘Just… trying to judge where I am, is all.’

Gaster blinked and made a face--he wasn’t. Was that a joke? What. How was he supposed to react to jokes when people could actually understand his reactions??

Change of subject, change of subject!!!!

He quickly crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, snorting at the tall stranger and said, Wow, are you stupid lost or what? You’re in the Captial.

He told the stranger exactly where he was, too. The same neighborhood and series of blocks that, in another time, were nothing but rubble.

‘I can guess that much. It’s less a place and more a time I’m wondering about. Do you know what year it is?’

Once again, Gaster gave him a long, confused look, before saying the year. Or. About what he thought the year was.

He didn’t pay a ton of attention.

Oh. That was… yeah.

If he was going by his double’s timeline that would make sense, not his own. It lined up pretty well.

‘Okay. And you never did answer me about parents.’ He gave the tiny him a pointed look. ‘I just wanna know you aren’t living alone at the dump.’

I’m Not Living At The Dump! The anger was back and his eyes flashed indigo. I answered you! I nodded!

He could nod! People usually understood when he nodded--it was about the only thing they understood from him so wow that was infuriating, to have this bastard just ignore him like that, he was--

Aaaaaagggghhhhhhhhh

Oh. Whoops. Wasn’t paying attention. Too busy worrying about whether or not his kids would be lynched, maybe.

‘Calm down, Gaster.’ He signed without really thinking about it, but didn’t look particularly intimidated by the sudden flare of magic.

Gaster’s anger froze and he tensed, taking a few steps back and hunching down again, as if about to run. He’d been standing relatively at ease for most of the conversation, but now--

I never told you my name.

Bone attacks weren’t working.

He took a shallow breath and tried to summon his skulls.

They were small and malformed, and wouldn’t be able to do much, but they looked frightening, and that’s what Gaster needed, right now. He couldn’t win.

So he’d have to look frightening.

Gaster froze too. Oh. Oh shit. He was… not good at this. The lights of his eyes vanished and he put his head in his hands.

Fuck. Fuuuuck.

‘Okay.’ He signed, rubbing at his eyes and mostly ignoring the blasters. ‘Okay, okay. Put the blasters away and I’ll explain everything. Those are tiny anyway. You’re just going to tire yourself out.’

Gaster grit his teeth, but… did as he was told, this time.

There were too many blasters out, anyway. As much as he hated to admit it, he could already feel the strain of having them out. He let out a ragged breath when he dismissed them, but didn’t take his eyes off the monster.

Explain.

‘Okay, well give me a minute.’ Gaster said before reaching up to the side of his head.

“You two can come out now.”

“what the hell was that about?”

“I was worried it was an evil-me, but it turns out it was a mini-me. A mini-me who’s full of piss and vinegar and likes to stab me in the legs.”

“oh great.”

“You can come out. Check the machine over. I need to talk to the kid.”

“gotcha.”

With that finished he looked around, found an old stool, and turned it right-side-up so he could sit on it.

Gaster narrowed his eyes at the conversation, but stayed still otherwise, watching the other and waiting expectantly. Well?

‘Believe this shit or not, but it’s going to sound nuts either way. When I said I was from really fucking far away I meant that I was from another time. Another world entirely.’ He began, ‘I knew your name because I’m YOU from another world.’

‘That’s a time machine. It gets pulled towards other versions of myself sometimes.’

He paused there to see how the kid took it.

He was trying to keep his face impassive. He might’ve been succeeding for the most part. On the inside, though, he was wavering.

This monster didn’t look like him. This story was ridiculous. He said he had two kids who were both skeletons, which was even more ridiculous. Time machine. ‘Gets pulled towards other versions of myself,’ gee, that was convenient.

(he almost wanted to believe it.)

His eyes flickered in and out and he said, I want proof.

Well, Gaster only knew one other world with another version of himself and this world was clearly not his own. He hadn’t been living in the capitol as a child.

‘Your name is Gaster and you can’t talk and you’re adopted by a dragon and a plant thing.’ He signed as flatly as he could.

Gaster waved his hand dismissively. Anyone from around here knows that. For all I know, you’re one of the ones pissed about it.

Gaster frowned and seemed to be fighting with himself about something, but eventually decided to go with it.

‘You’re the body of a dead human.’

The lights of his eyes vanished.

He took one slow, shaky step away from the strange monster.

Too much conformation. He signed quickly--with jerking movements that weren’t used to lying like this--wow what the fuck who even says that to someone you sicko

Gaster sighed loudly and rubbed his head again. ‘Sorry kid. I’ve met your older self and didn’t have much else to go on. He never really talked about his childhood that much. But I knew that would be one thing you would definitely know.’

‘Like I said, I’m you, but not the same version of you. I know I don’t look like you right now. I’m not a skeleton anymore. But…’

Fuck.

He didn’t know what to say. Gaster hung his head and pressed his knuckles to his eye sockets.

This kid was going to stab himself in the fucking head. He was going to lose his parents. He was going to live in fear. He was going to get shattered into the void.

Fuck.

Oh.

….Gaster knew that kind of look. And that body language. He wasn’t used to it being shown around him, but--he knew it. His dad did it when work at the shelter was getting too much for him. He did it sometimes, and one of his parents would hold him until he could stop.

He wasn’t touching this guy.

But… he couldn’t hurt someone looking like that. Well, he could, and that--that was a big problem. But he also didn’t have to, so… so he didn’t, just then.

He snapped his fingers to get the other’s attention, waiting until he had eyes back before saying, look, fine, I believe you. Go find your fucking kids and get a hug or something, holy shit.

...it was pretty pathetic, talking like that, and he was pretty sure concern and discomfort lingered on his face, but he didn’t know what to do about it right now.

People. People didn’t show this stuff. Normal people didn’t do this kind of thing in front of strangers. Normal people probably didn’t do this stuff at all unless it was hidden away, and then it passed quickly, and they didn’t pull bones on random monsters who happened to come close to them, and--

I believe you.

He didn’t know what else to say. But he had questions.

They could wait. For a little while.

Gaster looked up at him, reading his hands before that stress melted away for… laughter.

Holy shit. This really was his double’s younger self. There were just some things that were too damn obvious. ‘Go get a hug from your kids, holy shit’? That just… screamed his double.

It took him a few moments to calm down.

‘Sorry, sorry. Just… damn. You’re someone I know alright. I’m fine. I’ll get hugs later.’

I thought I was you, Gaster said, flat faced.

The laughter had laughed the concern right off his face.

What an asshole. He’d been trying to be nice.

Dick.

‘No, no, yeah you are. But there are some pretty big differences between me and the… uh, older you. He tells me to hug my kids all the time. It was just funny. I’m sorry.’

Gaster sighed, his expression slipping just enough to show that the laughter had really just been a way for him to hide the fact that he was tearing himself up inside knowing this poor kid’s future.

...he didn’t like that. He didn’t like that expression that the other monster had for just a split second. He didn’t like that at all.

Keep them talking, that’s what mom always said, right? Just keep people talking. He wasn’t very good at that, but he could try to get answers as fast as he could, anyway.

How old am I when you know me?

If this other monster knew him as well as he claimed, he’d probably be able to translate that into ‘how long do I live?’ at the very least.

Gaster thought about that for a moment. His double had said he was 30 when they met or something like that, right? Then Sans had aged about 20 years, so…

‘50ish? I’m not sure. I met you when you were about 30.’

Gaster’s eyes widened again. But that’s too long!

How was he going to live for fifty years??

Was he super frail now? Did he figure out some way to live a long time? How old could skeletons usually live???

His internal screaming was a lot more high pitched than usual.

Gaster smirked, ‘Sorry kid. If it’s any consolation at least you’re not as old as I am.’

Gaster almost didn’t want to know. ...how old are you?

‘Somewhere over 1,000. But I think I might be a special case.’

He hoped so. Damn he was old.

Kill me now, Gaster said, staring up at the ridiculously old monster.

Gaster laughed, ‘Sorry, I’m not looking to kill myself anytime soon.’

Gaster was tempted to summon up a bone bludgeon and offer his assistance.

The magic was half-formed in his hand before he caught himself. He jabbed a thumb inside the hole of the still-glowing hand, scraping the bone painfully until he felt a little better.

He couldn’t talk while he did that. So he just noddd slowly at the other. And hoped he’d wait a minute as Gaster tried to turn his body away a bit so the ongoing chipping wasn’t noticeable.

‘Don’t hurt yourself, kid.’ Gaster said, able to pick up on the small gesture easily enough. ‘Although I guess there isn’t a point in telling you that.’ He sighed, thinking back to his double telling him about stabbing himself in the face.

It would happen no matter what he said, one way or another, wouldn’t it.

Gaster scowled. He brought the hand he’d been picking at up and bit into it in plain view for the other monster to see, glaring at him.

His other hand in, rapid succession, signed, Fuck You; Don’t Tell Me What to Do; What Do You Mean By That?

Gaster only frowned a little, but didn’t stop him. ‘You’re going to do what you want anyway and I’m not your dad. I’m just saying what a worried parent would say is all. Pay no mind.’

Slowly, Gaster stopped biting his hand, and returned it (trembling with new long trenches in it) down to his side.

Don’t worry, I won’t, he said, and pretended he didn’t feel a little sick inside.

Why’d you come here? Change subject. This was awful. Change subject. He wanted to go home.

‘I told you, my machine flings me into other timelines with Gasters sometimes. It isn’t intentional.’

‘You’re only the second I’ve found so far and you’re a younger version of one I already know, I think.’

He considered that. So, I guess you’re leaving, then.

He kept his tone and expression as flat as possible.

‘Eventually. The machine probably needs a few minor repairs.’

Oh, Gaster said, and left it at that. I’ll leave you to it, then.

Gaster gave his little double a somewhat pained look before nodding and standing. ‘Yep. Nice meeting you, kid.’

Gaster nodded and shuffled around the other monster to the wall of the taller building across from the junkyard, found the fire escape, and proceeded to climb from the lowest windowsill onto it, heading up to the rooftops rather than walking on the street level.

He didn’t look back at the only monster he’d ever met who spoke wingdings. Who he’d been able to have a full conversation with.

That monster’d already met a version of him he clearly liked better. There was no point. He should get out of that monster’s life and let him get a move on. Since apparently his mere existence had caused his shit ship to crash.

As he climbed, a few photos slipped out of his pocket and fell to the alleyway below. They were the old sort of photos with faded colors, stains and blurs around the edges, and definitely none of them were of his own family.

Gaster didn’t find the photos until later. He had left to go help on the machine a little before coming back to the alley, hoping that the kid had come back or something. He wanted to help him. He wanted to talk to him. He wanted to tell him everything was going to be okay even though it very much wasn’t.

He wanted to help him live. But he didn’t know how.

The photos caught his eye as he walked along where he had been sitting and he reached for them.

None of the photos contained the small skeleton, or anyone his older self had ever described from his childhood. Most of them didn’t even contain the same handful of monsters. For the most part, they appeared to be just photos of groups of monsters, posed and smiling into the camera. Groups of friends, perhaps. Many appeared to be of families.

Some had names or dates scrawled on them around the edges or on the back. But they had definitely been dropped together, recently, and the only one who could’ve dropped them was young Gaster, who’d vanished over the rooftops.

Gaster flipped through them a few times and then stared at them.

… This was a good excuse to go find him.

After informing the boys he was leaving he tucked the photos into his chest and started to walk along the streets of the capitol. Some of it looked a little familiar while others didn’t. Occasionally he would stop to ask where ‘the dragon and plant-monster’ lived. Talking was a lot easier when you didn’t have to worry about the consequences. If shit went sour he could just hop into his machine and fuck off never to be seen again, right?

Most people on the street were friendly enough, even though there were quite a few who were confused at first about who Gaster was asking for, but soon enough, there were people who figured it out and happily gave him directions, telling him good luck with whatever he needed, but those two could probably sort it out for him.

All in good nature. A happy, functioning underground that made the angry, violent little skeleton definitely stick out.

The building he was directed to was a large apartment building, and several floors up, there was an apartment rented to a ‘Mr. Semi and Mx Chxlxthx,’ with a ‘please knock’ sign on the door, decorated with thin lines of paint and cheerful-looking colorful spirals.

Cozy.

Gaster had the forethought to pull the photos out of his chest before knocking on the door. He was starting to get a little nervous. Talking to himself was one thing, adults that he wanted to make a decent impression on was another.

“Coming,” came a garbled voice from beyond the door.

A moment later, the door opened, and a giant set of teeth greeted him.

A set of extremely large, sharp, pointy teeth that were attached to a mass of thick vines, a curled brown shell, and four bright red eyes.

Chxlxthx looked more like a creature from the deep ocean than most monsters, but she said, “Sorry for the wait, can I help you?” and looked over the stranger with plenty of patience and good cheer.

Most people were used to her by now.

It had been a very long time since he had seen a monster quite like that, but that wasn’t what he was anxious about. He was anxious about talking.

He couldn’t stop himself from signing as he spoke, much too nervous as he held out the photos with the hand that wasn’t twitching in front of him. “Yeah, I think your kid dropped these.”

Chxlxthx blinked and reached out to take the photos, holding them up to get a better look at them. She sighed. “Thank you. We’ll make sure he returns them.”

She noticed his hand movements, but didn’t comment on them. If there was one thing she’d learned with her boy, it was how self-conscious he got when his hand movements were brought up, and she’d gotten used to paying attention without comment. It’s not as if he was the only monster in the underground who moved his hands oddly.

Gaster hesitated a moment, part of him wanting to spin around and scream internally at having to talk to someone while the other part… really wanted to help the kid out.

Dadster won over Stresster.

“How’s his hand? He bit it earlier.”

She tucked the photos away somewhere in her mass of vines, shuffling backwords somewhat. “He’s with Sem recovering. It’s been a busy day, apparently. Would you like to come in?”

Nope. No way. Nuh-uh. Not a chance. Never.

“Sure.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Chxlxthx stepped aside, giving Gaster plenty of room to come in. “Do you want to see him, or do you have time to talk to me a little? I’ll get you something to drink.”

Her guest seemed tense.

So it was time for simple either-or questions, and taking charge of other things. She kept her tone calm but certain, and hoped it was enough to help settle his nerves some.

He wondered if he could melt enough to seep through the floor.

“I’ve got time.”

She nodded and ushered him to the kitchen. The apparment wasn’t especially large, but there were multiple rooms. The kitchen wasn’t far from the front entrance, but if Gaster glanced in the opposite direction, there was a door opened just a little through which a large, orange dragon was holding a tiny skeleton close to his chest and not letting go.

Chxlxthx put on some tea and gestured for Gaster to sit.

“What’s your name, dear?”

Fuck. Shitpissfuckmotherfucker.

Gaster sat down to give himself a few extra seconds to think. Gramps wouldn’t work, he didn’t look old enough.

“Treb.”

His father’s name would have to do.

“That’s a nice name,” Chxlxthx said, getting a mug out. “So you met Gaster earlier today, it sounds like?”

“Yeah. I sorta stumbled onto one of his hiding spots.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

She sets some tea down on the table in front of him, along with a cup of honey, if it’s wanted.

“He came home pretty distressed. We were worried.”

“Did he?” Gaster asked, his anxiety melting away slightly. He sounded worried.

“I… shit. That’s probably my fault.” He stared down at the tea.

Himself or not, this Gaster was still a kid. He was a sucker for kids these days.

How terrible.

“It’s all right,” Chxlxthx said, sitting down at the table. “Gaster’s a tough kid; sometimes it’s hard to know when he’s upset or even what’s going to upset him. We just want to know what happened so maybe we’ll have a better idea of how to help him, now.”

She was calm and didn’t at all sound like she blamed Treb for what had happened. At least, not until she found out Treb had been harassing her boy or something. But he seemed concerned for Gaster, and he’d come to return the stolen photos. That automatically won him some points.

“Yeah, no kidding…” Gaster mumbled slightly and rubbed at his head again.

Shit. Should he tell them too? Maybe… maybe it would help little G out? Maybe it would save them from getting killed? Maybe. Probably not, but. Maybe.

Maybe was enough. He had failed once. He could try again. Knowing him he would keep on trying even if every time failed. Maybe he just needed to find the right things to say at the right time and all of this mess could be avoided.

He couldn’t stop himself from laughing nervously. “Okay, so… I told the kid a lot of stuff he… probably didn’t want to hear. That’s my fault. I had never intended to. I’m fucking terrible when it comes to lying to kids.”

Chxlxthx listened, settling in for the long haul. It sounded like this was going to be something longer than expected. “He’s hard to lie to... and it’s not a bad thing to be honest to kids. What sort of things?”

“Things that only he would know.” Gaster looked down at the cup of tea and finally took it, pulling it a little closer and staring down into the liquid swirling inside the mug.

“I had never intended to tell him or you or anyone anything, but…” He was still signing along with every word he said, nerves running rampant. “Uh. It’s gonna sound pretty nuts.”

‘Things only he would know,’ well, that sounded ominous.

“I’ll try to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she said, trying to smile a little bit in encourangement.

Gaster was screaming internally as loud as he could. But… this was for the tiny little version of himself sitting huddled in the other room. Maybe it would help him. Maybe.

Maybe.

“My name isn’t Treb. It’s Gaster.”

Chxlxthx paused.

She looked at her guest.

And she looked at his hands. The gestures weren’t exactly the ones she was familiar with, but the shape of them was. The intent behind them.

“Go on,” she said.

“I’m obviously not YOUR Gaster, but I’m A Gaster. From… another timeline. It’s… sort of my job to go from timeline to timeline hunting for something. Sometimes I run into another Gaster. We’re not all the same, but… well. Life isn’t kind to us.”

He looked down at the tea again. “My machine always gravitates me to another version of myself.” He was lying, but only enough to make things simpler. “This was the first time I met a kid. I didn’t want to tell him anything but I slipped and called him Gaster and then I had to explain myself and that’s just a fucking mess because I can’t fucking lie to kids anymore and like fuck if I can lie to myself and-”

He was rambling.

He stopped.

He awkwardly drank tea he couldn’t taste.

“It’s okay,” Chxlxthx said, though she didn’t specify what, exactly, was okay. One vine came up and hovered beside Gaster’s shoulder. “May I?”

Whether she believed his story or not was irrelevant. He clearly believed it. He was clearly distressed by it. And whether he was really an alternate-timeline version of her son, it didn’t matter.

He was hurt, and he was familiar enough she cared about that.

Gaster instinctively shied away from her vine. “May you what?”

“Touch you,” she said, but pulled the vine back when he shied. “I don’t have to. But this is clearly rough for you to talk about. Some people like to have physical support. I…. ask first. But if you don’t want that, it’s fine, and I’ll just listen.”

“Oh.” Gaster laughed a little nervously again, “No, that’s… that’s alright. I’m fine. I’m a mess but I’m fine.”

He inhaled sharply, collecting his thoughts. “I’ve actually met an older version of him before. He’s a good friend. He grows up to be a nice man.” He looked at the monster across from him and offered her a smile.

She pulled the vine away more fully, nodding, but--smiled, wider than usual, at the mention of her boy growing up. “...that means a lot to hear.”

She wanted to ask more, but didn’t. Knowing her kid, he was going to be eavesdropping at the door the moment he realized someone else was in the house, and it wouldn’t do for him to hear how wonderful he’d grow up to be and feel inadequate to a self that didn’t exist yet.

“I’ll trust his taste in friends, then,” she offered the other Gaster another smile.

Gaster smiled a little as he looked into his mug. It was nice to think of his double. It was nice to think that he might be able to help this version of him somehow.

“I told him this, but Gasters are rare. I’ve been to a lot of different timelines and yours is only the second I’ve met, who’s another version of the only one I know. The universe is kind of against us, so I want to help. I don’t know if it will do anything, but…”

He trailed off and shrugged. “No harm trying.”

His eyes stayed trained on his tea.

Chxlxthx nodded again, listening intently. “So what exactly is it that you’re trying to do?”

Gaster laughed bitterly and put a hand over his eye, leaning heavily into it. “I don’t know. At first I was hoping to just slip away without telling him anything. I hadn’t been able to save the other Gaster from what always seems to happen to us. I thought the best thing to do was not tell him. To just leave.”

“But… I can’t. I know his future. I don’t know if I told you all everything if it would help or not.”

It might make it worse. It might cause them to worry about things that weren’t preventable. It might walk them right into the very things they hoped to avoid. You couldn’t go around worrying about the future more clearly than you worried about the present. At least, you couldn’t worry about a future you weren’t actively building towards.

“Just tell me what you told Gaster,” she said. “Nothing else. But I need to know what’s troubling him.”

Gaster drummed his fingers on his mug. “He wanted me to prove it. I didn’t know enough about his childhood beyond who his parents were. The only other thing he told me was that… he was the product of magic and a deceased human.” His one good eye looked up at the monster.

#mayem #a different way #goop #kid #young kid #sans #papyrus #undertale #RP log #semi #chxlxthx

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furederiko · 7 years ago

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"Boy! I'll put my faith into your words." Kyuranger episode 29 heralds the arrival of the show's big bad, while delivering a fatal blow to its audience's heart...

- The goal of 'Save Naga' team has to be put on hold, because a much dire problem has arisen. As shown last week, the ORION spaceship has 'returned' to the present day as a wreck, an ancient wreck. It's been sitting there for 300+ years, and nothing inside it had seemingly changed. Even Horologium Kyu Globe is still stuck on its cockpit. - Leaving behind Balance and the others as they continue looking for a way to bring Naga (who gets a special day off) back into the light, Lucky heads out solo with the Leo Voyager to check on the 'Time Travel' team. I'd argue that they should've just form Kyuren-Oh and go all together, but Naga is equally a critical issue that needs to be taken care of right away. Otherwise Echidna would reach and eliminate him first. A Kyuranger without a core member like Naga can't actually be called Kyuranger, right? - Arriving 333 years prior in the past, Lucky is greeted by two things: his friends all unconscious on the ground, and a hostile-looking mysterious man in white. Unlike Lucky, audience should have met the latter last week. But this time we finally hear him introducing himself as... Orion, the Strongest Warrior of the Orion Constellation System. He's not being hostile to Lucky though, but to a Deathworm that jumps out behind him. The Deathworm then runs away after swallowing one part of Argo Kyu Globe's component. Before you think that this scene is not important, do remember how Puppis was found in the present day... Fun fact: In case your Math is a little worse than mine, 3 + 3 + 3 equals 9. So the 333 years time jump must be a fun little nod as well. Hmmm... who would've thought Puppis was hidden on the Deathworm's body that long? - Hahaha... OF COURSE Orion - who reveals he's on Earth having just placed Tsurugi in the cold sleep - doesn't easily believe anything that comes out of Lucky's mouth. It would be delusional nonsense to him. Particularly the part about Don Armage being alive in the present day, because the warrior had just witnessed his death not long ago. Trivia: Can't believe it took me 29 episodes to realize this stupidly obvious pun: Don Armage is an anagram for the word 'Armageddon'. How could I have missed that all these time? *smh* - Lucky's statements are immediately confirmed by Tsurugi, who (along with the others) conveniently comes to his senses. Not only Don Armage is still reigning to the present time, he was also the mysterious attacker than assaulted ORION and the 'Time Travel' team. His death in the final battle, was nothing more than Past-Tsurugi and Orion's false assumption. Yes, the 'Time Travel' did mess around with the flow of time by showing up there (which resulted to the ripple effect we saw last week), but they weren't exactly responsible for the Don's revival. He was never defeated to begin with! - The same with the Vice-Shoguns. Tecchu, Akyanba, and Kukuruga... all three shows up safe and sound to ambush the ORION, eventhough Past-Tsurugi and Orion believed they have defeated them before. I wonder if there's a hidden secret for this, then? Also, these are not the ones from present time. These look different, less monstery, so they must be the originals! Gotta admit, I really much prefer this more 'natural' plain look of them. Aside from Akyanba's horrendous chest piece, of course... - Hold on... if Raptor is able to fly ORION to a safer place, does that mean the past has just been changed again? I mean, geographically-speaking, now it shouldn't be in the spot where 'Save Naga' team found it before, right? That means, the 'Time Travel' team was meant to die at that moment, but Lucky stepped in and somehow messed up the rule of nature once again. Hmmm... this is why the logic of time travel tends to be... confusing to figure out. - Goodness grace, how I LOVE seeing Orion in action. Particularly that hexagonal 'Crystal Shield' that complements his 'Crystal Club' weapon nicely. His actor imbues him with this angry, brash, roughness, but also mature heroic aura, which feels different to the youngsters (including Commander Xiao, who acts like a teenager every now and then) of Rebellion. It all fits with the mythology of Orion being the 'Great Hunter', and the unpopular theory that he might actually be a disguise of Herakles! - His 'old-man' chemistry with Leo Red is fun as well, to the point Tsurugi is calling them as quite a combination" later on. And that might not be a coincidence. After a brief disagreement between Orion and Lucky, Tsurugi has a friendly heart to heart river-side talk with the former. Yes, we finally understand why Tsurugi had that 'sudden change of heart' during the Reds Rivalry episode: because Lucky somehow lit a fire inside him! That's right, proven over and over again, Lucky does serve as the motivator of the team... - Their conversation gets more interesting, because it leads towards... Orion's newborn child. While Orion makes a detour on Earth to deal with Tsurugi, his wife has taken the child to safety in her home world. Where? The... *drumrolls* Leo System? Yep. By comparing this to Lucky's un-lucky past, then this is pretty much a confirmation to my theory (as well as that latest spoilery rumor). If you ask me, he is most definitely Orion's son. But how is Lucky NOT 333 years old then? Let's see... perhaps time travel has anything to do with that? - By the way, Over-Time might have refered to Orion's child with a male pronoun 'HE' in their subtitle, but as far as I can tell, the dialogue NEVER explicitly stated the gender. Both Orion and Tsurugi only uses the word 'Kodomo' that vaguely means 'Child'. A most likely intentional choice, to keep the reveal a surprise, so that critical audience like yours truly don't catch the twist much earlier than it should be. However, there's also the possibility that Orion himself is still unaware of the gender. That makes sense since he hasn't returned home yet. - As for the disagreement, it's about Lucky's decision to change the past, by tracking Don Armage, and ending his threat right away, once and for all. Much like Pyxis, it seems Holorogium also has a limited energy, so it can only be used one more time to get the team back to the present time. That means the team isn't allowed to do other 'sidetrips'. Anyone can say and complain as much as they want about Lucky, about him being TOO optimist in this situation (Orion even calls him STUPID, clearly being a metaphor to some audience right now... *grins*). But even I have to admit, he has a really strong and logical point here. Waiting around to heal before taking down Don Armage, means giving him a chance to recover as well. In the end, the difference in power level between the two parties would only stay the same anyway. So why not just... go for broke, right? If they succeed, then the present universe will be rid off Armage's wrath. If they don't, they die a hero and things just continue the way it mostly was. - Looks like the other Kyurangers are also thinking the same thing. They won't abandon Lucky and letting him fight on his own anyway. It's an inspiring heroic moment, until Orion steals the show once more by lending his hand. He can even singlehandedly fend off Kukuruga's attack, the proof of being the strongest man from his star system. It seems a fire is lit inside him too, as he becomes convinced after hearing Lucky's rousing speech. Aaaaw... this is the part where I wish Orion has the ability to become a Kyuranger too. - Draco Commander summons Ryutei-Oh with Aquila Pink (LOL at that stylish wing commentary) and Dorado Yellow to deal with giant Tecchu; Scorpius Orange, Taurus Black, and Phoenix Soldier tag team to face Kukuruga; and Leo Red joins forces with Orion to defeat Akyanba. As their resolutions resonate with one another, the combination of Leo Red and Orion's power begins to... unify and form a NEW POWER. What a giant tease though, because the process is halted halfway before fully resulting anything. LOL. Fun fact: The episode itself is keeping this new power a mystery, but then an official Bandai commercial for said item was aired as soon as the episode ended. Someone from either Bandai nor TV Asahi didn't get the note, huh? LOL - Only Kukuruga is left, so giant Don Armage decides to show up and enter the battle himself. The Kyurangers send an "All Star Crash!" attack, and blast him away. But if Phoenix Soldier's attack didn't work the last time, will this one, with just 7 out of 12 members do much better? NOPE. Armage reveals his true form instead, and it's a no brainer! I mean... an ugly-looking brain-infested winged-skeletal alien creature, like one would expect from a B-level horror flick (or "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle". Kraang, anyone?). And he debuts with a chilling warning shot! A bullet of darkness that pierces through Lucky's gut, paralyzing him instantly. OH NO... yet another cliffhanger!

Overall: If I didn't know anything about Kyuranger, and you came to me saying "Old-man, episode 29 is the show's penultimate!", then I think I would've believed you. In older seasons with smaller scope and lesser quality (like... Ninninger, perhaps?), this episode COULD likely serve as one. The team was already facing the show's big bad, hence the intensity and stakes involved here DID feel like a climax. But we all know that's not the case, because there's still around 19-20 episodes after this. Yep, THAT MANY! Meaning there's still more coming ahead of us, eventhough this episode alone was already a beast to unpack. If there's one issue I had with this episode, it's the whole time travel paradox thingy. Thankfully, the action and general tension totally made up for it. And of course, that shocking cliffhanger too. Holy Moly indeed... Next week: Seeing White... PS: TV-Asahi began airing special announcement by Lucky and Sentou regarding the Super Hero Time's timeslot schedule change, that will come into effect October 1st, 2017. You can also catch it online. Meanwhile, a promotional video for "Kyuranger Bluray Collection Vol. 1" has also been released. The extra feature looks real fun! Dang it, if only I have an abundant extra money to purchase one... *sigh*. And that "Special Event" DVD too! Aaaawww... T_T

Episode 29 Score: 8,4 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: September 5th, 2017 - Version 2.13. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

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