#so take a great big guess as to WHOSE benefit thats for

[gingerbreadmonsters]

if i get one (1) comment, ONE SINGLE COMMENT about making a listener character say 'biscuits' instead of 'cookies' in this next one, i swear to GOD you will never have seen anyone delete their blog as fast as i will

[trickstarbrave]

lily orchard arguing "civil rights activists are always 100% justified in any form of violence whatsoever and the only reason why they arent depicted as wholly justified in any and every scenario in fiction is because cishet white men writing them want to preserve the status quo" is really uhhhhh not great

dont get me wrong i understand fully oppressed people resorting to violence. sometimes violence is all you are left with to get the point across. sometimes violence is necessary if people are facing overwhelming violence. im not here to lecture "it is never okay to use violence ever" because thats a fucking stupid position to take. sometimes violence is necessary for people who are oppressed, or as self defense in abusive situations.

but irl a lot of movements are co-opted by horrible people who then perpetuate the systems of inequality they said they would destroy. dictators have used "helping the common, oppressed people" as a way to rise in power. even for people who are well intentioned its not so simple you can just kill all the bad people and everything will be fine, because undoing systems of oppression take a lot more work than just killing everyone in charge (like a lot of white leftists for example have it in their minds there will be one big revolution where all the rich people are executed, resources perfectly distributed, and everything will be peaceful and just and great once the revolution is over we just have to wait for it which. is laughable at best)

but there is also a pattern of behavior where lorch does seem to think if you just kill everyone in charge all oppression will go away. money can be redistributed, racism and homophobia and transphobia and everything else will go away, and everything will be fine. so long as the people using violence are the victims of abuse or oppression, whatever violence they use is completely justified because in her worldview victims cannot be perpetrators. you are either a victim or you are a perpetrator. your violence is justified or unjustified based onto which category you fall into.

zuko is a character she likes, so he cannot be someone who perpetuates violence and harmful systems he has to unlearn, nor someone who benefits from rampant imperialism despite being... an imperial prince. because he was exiled (with an army of imperial soldiers and a war criminal uncle) and was a victim of abuse. zuko's arc cant POSSIBLY be about redemption from the horrible actions he took, because he was a victim of abuse, it has to just be about him learning he was abused and escaping an abusive situation.

she shows kuvira an example of "interesting ideas to explore in the avatar setting that is ruined bc white men have to validate the status quo and cant let oppressed people challenge that" which is uh. interesting. not to say the avatar universe doesnt have real issues of racism but kuvira is def not. a good example of that shes a military dictator and a foil to early story korra. and also has been a very violent person since she was younger lashing out at everyone without a care of what she destroyed and who she hurt but whose actions were excused when she was younger bc "shes been through a lot". but i guess lorch would see kinship with her in that regard

[halodbethyname]

Planets Through the Houses Part 1

FIRST HOUSE: (the house of self, self expression, personal viewpoint, initiave, life direction.) energy of planets here are felt strongly, being so close to the ascendant, which represents our personal perspective on the world. Planets in the first also have an affect on ones appearance, though this is more thoroughly explained by sign placement as well as house and planet placement) this is a quick post and ive never really done a big post like this before (my lil 8h mercury is shy about sharing my insights) but as i move into my first house profection year, this feels like a great place to start, so here we go!

🌞THE SUN: in the first house, the sun endows an individual w/ great personal ambition and prowess. These are naturally upbeat people, and give off a sense of wisdom regarding the themes of the sign of the first house (i.e. libra sun+ rising- relationships/partnerships). 1h suns are confident, with natural leadership skills, but should work to employ rational thought in their decision makin process. Planning ahead can maximize the possible gains denoted by this placement.

🌕THE MOON: keyword: emotional. But thats not necessarily a bad thing! Individuals w natal first house moon are very expressive about their emotions, and will make it clear how they feel about something. This is one person whose emotions you don’t have to guess, given other chart factors are favorable to self expression. These natives can have a heavy concern for their own personal interests and emotions. They are advised to watch their tongue with others, as quick words can be damaging, even if they feel true. There is increased passion and positivity with this placement, but the lesson remains to listen before one reacts. Natives tend to have a youthful, jolly disposition, and are quite beautiful. They can grab the attention of the public.

🫧MERCURY: the thinker. There are few better ways to encapsulate this placement in words. They can seem consumed with their own thoughts and ideas to others, even coming off as self centered at times. These people are intellectual, and known for the communication and technical skills. The lesson here is to learn to consider others opinions to build on one’s own perspective.

🪷VENUS: the pretty one. Venus in the first is remarked for their noticeable beauty and grace, and others tend to find them very attractive. Venus in the first loves adornment (jewelry, self beautification, finery/fine clothing) and even has a tendency sometimes to detriment itself to achieve these things. Venus in the first can be an overspender in the pursuit of aesthetics, natives of this placement are urged to start a budget and work within it, the longevity of your finances will greatly benefitted. These natives are also quite romance/partnership focused, and in relationships, should take care to make careful relationship decisions if they are looking for a long term relationship.venus in the first adds a level of impulsivity to romantic matters.

💥MARS: two words: HIGH energy. (Mars in taurus and pisces are still affected but it is stronger w/ other signs.) ambition and drive characterize these natives, and they can seem to always be active. Those w/ this placement are encouraged to employ stategic thinking and patience to their willpower, to minimize accidents and maximize potential! With mars placed and aspected well, this is considered a lucky placement.

🌟JUPITER: creativity and confidence can come naturally to this placement, and others are drawn to their optimism and joviality. They adapt well to almost any social situation, fitting into the biggest of pictures. These natives are abundant w opportunities for self expression, and may become enraptured by their hobbies. They are encouraged to explore these hobbies, find new ones, and if possible, do some world travel and extra-cultural exploration. Risks taken can be very positive for these natives. (Check other chart factors before adhering to that one😂)

🪐SATURN: the greater malefic, people tend to hesitate with wide eyes when saturn comes up, and for good reason. Saturn does not play around. Saturn in the first can endow an individual w/ many responsibilities at an early age. Saturn repesents limitations/structure one must overcome or work within, and thus being in the first house, a native may struggle with self expression and exerting personal boundaries. That is the lesson here however, and the flipside to saturn energy is that those who can integrate this energy healthily almost always benefit greatly from their hard work, which saturn rewards.

🌬URANUS: the individual. One is enouraged to actively define oneself. This placement can be somewhat of a loner, feeling most comfortable with their own opinions and like minded individuals, but is ENCOURAGED to go out into the world and find new people/experiences. Uranus is the planet of shock factor, and brings completely unforseen surprises both good and bad. Uranus in the first is encouraged to socialize and exert their personal energy, but advised to think carefully about the things they discard from their life, as they are often want to return. The natives are often seen as being ahead of their time, and very unique as people. Last but by far not least, one is encourage to open up their perspective, allow the opinions of others to color your own and broaden your ideas, one cannot revolutionize if one cannot grow.

🌊NEPTUNE: the sensitive one. Neptune in the first can spend a lot of time questioning their perspective and desires, and it is best for them (in most cases) to allow this development to occur naturally without attempts to force it. One is encouraged to take good care of their mental health, possibly with therapy, and explore their spritiual side. Meditation can be beneficial. This native has the opportunity to discover endless creative development in their own talents and skill. Natives to this placement are generally attractive, with an elusive quality about them that generates curiosity around them.

🌪PLUTO: these people have a notable intensity, in their gaze, in their presence, in their passion. Pluto in the first gives strong willpower to the native, inherent ability to achieve one’s goals. Natives may have had several or many formative experiences as a child that drastically shaped them today. With this in mind, pluto in the first is encouraged to direct this great willpower into personal gain, where it will be most beneficial, as there is a tendency to use it instead for manipulative/controlling purposes against others. Try to avoid this, the potential here for personal gain is grand if one keeps the power they have in check and perspective.

Alrighty so there’s my first post! Im thinking about either doing a post on the ascendant through different signs, ORRRR continuing in this vein and doing planets through the second house next, lmk in the comments what youd like to hear about, even if it isnt these two!!

[camelely]

TFATWS Spoilers under the cut

Literally the following is my thoughts and opinions, and there are probably some unpopular opinions lol. It's kinda really long lol.

Starting with some positives.

I loved how the two leads had storylines that mirrored each other. Sam needed to become Captain America and gain a title and Bucky needed to move on from The Winter Solider and loose a title.

Sam. Just Sam I loved him before but now I love him more.

Sam becoming Cap.

I loved Isaiah and his story.

I loved Sam's family, how they welcomed Bucky and the struggles Sarah had.

I really liked how they spent time with both Sam and Bucky and didn't forget the show was supposed to be about both of them. Often times shows tend to lean into the more popular or fan favorite lead and this show didn't do that. When Sam took center it felt natural and when Bucky took center it felt natural.

The Wakandans were great. I love Ayo and her friendship with Bucky.

Zemo was fine and fun enough.

John Walker was incredibly done. Wyatt Russell did an amazing job and the scene with the blood on the shield will forever be in my memory. Hands down one of the most impactful MCU moments.

I like the genderbend on Karl/Karli and the direction they took her character. People that go from sympathetic ideas to unforgivable means, make good villains. I think her more boring elements come from the lack of development she got.

Now on to the negatives.

This show could have been like two hours shorter and still told the same story with the same impact. Also earlier episodes, (maybe later episodes too I might have just gotten used to it and stopped noticing lol), had some weird ADR moments. IDK what happened behind the scenes but it was noticeable.

I would have loved it if one of the episodes was a flashback episode. The Sharon twist was obvious from the first episode she appeared in but like they thought it was good enough to save confirmation for the mid/end of the finale? Both her and Karli would have been benefited from a flashback episode.

Karli should have fought Bucky while Sam was focused on Walker. Sam could have had a moment where he tells him he will never be forgiven and Walker would responded with something similar to "I do what is right. I don't need forgiveness." Then when he becomes USAgent it lands more like the next progression in an arc rather than the redemption arc this could be interpreted as. I personally think this is a stepping stone and not a redemption but the MCU (and Disney) doesnt have a great track record when it comes to handling anything with nuance and the fans have an even worse track record when handling things that arent black and white. I guess my point is they could have handled the John Walker set up better.

Speaking of set up, this entire show was set up. This is my main and only real problem with this show. Nothing felt like it was resolved at the end. Karli even says she was part of a bigger movement. Killing her didn't change the fact a lot of people felt the un blip ruined their lives. People always shit on Tony for wanting to bring people back five years later instead of going back in time but like it had been five years, while some like Steve and Natasha hadn't moved on, others had. Some had better lives. Assuming everyone wanted to back to the way things used to be would also be a mistake. This has consequences too, as we see in these shows. But ruining the lives of the people who had bettered themselves would have been shitty too. And yea some people who had been bettered were worsened once again when the un blip happened but my point is going back and erasing the five years would have been shitty too. There is not really a right answer here as the right answer would have been to either stop the snap before it happened or to come to terms with the fact that the snap can never be undone. Leaving everyone as dead might have hurt, but it was the best thing for a community that had five years of mourning and moving on and counseling ETC. Ooof that was a tangent lol and I could probably write an essay so going back to my original point about set up. The flag smashers, or at least people who think the way they did still exist, Sharon Carter is the powerbroker but Sam and Bucky dont know and now shes back as agent 13, John Walker went from war hero to committing war crimes and his journey as USAgent is just starting, Sam has taken the Cap mantle and is ready to begin acting as Cap, and Bucky is both coming to terms with and moving on from his past. Nothing is actually resolved in this mini series. I know it's supposed to make you excited for the next movie/show/season whatever but have six episodes of little to no payoff IMO made for a flat show.

Building off the set up problem. This show had too much going on. Sam and Bucky each had their own personal journey (The A and B plot depending on the episode), Sam and Bucky being friends and their shared journey (C), John Walker and the Flag Smashers (the D and E plot depending on the episode), Zemo and the Wakandans (F), The PowerBroker/Sharon (G), The boat and Sarah which could be considered part of Sam's plot but since if you cut it out the only thing that actually effected Sam's journey would be the bank in the first episode and yet it still went on till basically the end I'm calling it it's own plot (H), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, which might be part of John Walker's story but since it's all set up for her to take a bigger role in the future and his set up could be completed without her I'm counts her separately (I), then you have the big meeting at the end, the senators and policy makers making choices the vote that they keep mentioning and once again more set up... (J). 10 ideas by my count, all needed their own set up, follow through, and payoff. And yes some stuff like Valentina the pay off will come later but still... It's all too many plots! And thats not mentioning side characters that were new to the show that they wanted to spend time with but couldn't.

Even though I think the shows aren't comparable/two different genres WandaVision had two more episodes (and yes some were shorter but I already mentioned I think FATWS could have benefited from that), completed all the main plots and had Wanda's journey (A), Vision's journey (B), Agatha, Pietro/Ralph, and the citizens of the hex (C), Outside the hex Monica (D), Outside the hex everyone else and sure you can separate Darcy, Jimmy and Heyward but none of them were setting up future stories or had their own distinctive plot outside the hex thing like Monica so she is the only one I am separating (E), the kids who could be counted as an extension of the Wanda and Vision plots since they didnt really have their own arc or story (F). 6 total. And some of those could be combined. Like I think we should separate Wanda Vision and the kids but technically they are just an extension of Wanda. And same with Monica, her story was mostly intertwined with Darcy, Jimmy and the outside the hex stuff. I separated her since I think she had enough moments to herself and she set up secret invasion or whatever, but like Valentina being a part of John's story it is arguable. Of these plots only the missing witness Jimmy thing, Wanda's post credits moment a moment seperate from everything else, Monica's mid credits i think? moment another one separate from everything else, and white vision were unresolved. They gave Agatha an opening ending but it was still an ending. And yes Darcy Heyward etc will probably come back but the plot they had here was finished. So arguably they had 2/6 unfinished plots. And if you don't count Jimmy's witness as a plot and just count it as an unanswered question then 1/6. And technically white vision is just half a vision and the other vision got a complete plot so really it's 0.5/6 At best they completed 92(ish)% of the plots and left 8 (ish) % for future stuff.

In contrast FATWS only finished Sam's journey into becoming Cap, Zemo and the Wakandans, and arguably Sam and Bucky's friendship. You might be able to argue that Bucky had a full circle moment with the guy whose son he killed, but that is one guy and Bucky has been carrying around a list of people like that guy. It's not the end of a story it is the start of a journey. And maybe it is possible to say the boat thing had an ending kinda. 2/10 completed. maybe 3/10 if you wanna push it 5/10. IMO at best they completed 50% of plot set up.

Clearly FATWS is meant to be this way and thats why it bothered me. They want you to watch Cap 4 or whatever they decide to call the theatrical movie that will come after this. I guess I was just expecting it to stand on it's own, and other than Sam's journey into becoming Captain America, which was amazing and deserved in every way, nothing this show did felt like it could have stood on its own. I know it's arguable that was the main story and only story that deserved to end. But I've already pointed out all the other running plots this show had, and I think at least two or three of them should have had follow through in the show.

Someone who plans to never seen an MCU movie after these shows could have watched WandaVision and enjoyed it. That is not the case for FATWS. If you don't plan on watching any MCU stuff in the future you won't know how over half the plots of this show will end. THis isn't even how the movies work. They each tell their own story while also setting up other things, so it is clear they know how to do this.

I can see why Disney decided to submit it as a series and not a mini series. Not only do they not want to compete with themselves (nominating WV as a miniseries) but also this isn't a miniseries.

I guess to conclude I'll say I did really enjoy watching this show. It was fun and there were some great moments. It featured amazing character and amazing actors, but I wish it had bothered to finish more of what it started.

Thank you so much for reading till the end of a post that has surely become unintelligible gloop by now. If you disagree I'd love to hear why!

[tumblunni]

Why is gyan amakano so cute. It should be illegal. I hate how he has such a huggable design and then his character is totally wasted on being half super evil jerkman half Every Fat Stereotype Simultaneously. Like seriously how did this even HAPPEN

Artist: ok so ive drawn this round softman in a cute lil fancy tuxedo who always carries lollipops in his back pocket

Writers: ah yes, the perfect Irredeemable Murder Cannibal Man

Or like..

Writers: we need an Irredeemable Murder Cannibal Man

Artist: dont worry bro i got ya *draws a big circle with a happy face*

Or of course theres the alternative universe where nobody involved in this project ever noticed that this character design looks fuckin precious, but i dont want to live in that world

And then he's only in!! Two episodes!! And theyre so weird and not great!! Its like they kept changing their mind whether he was meant to be funny or scary. Goes from "ha ha a fat man enjoys cookies" to "he literally wants to make cannibal cookies out of humans" to "but ha ha look he's cosplaying as the genie from aladdin, lets go back to laughs now".

And also they made him be a huge jerk to Are Bacchino and that pisses me off!! Its already a bit shitty that they made a character whose entire "joke" is that he has ocd/germaphobia and its meant to be funny? Somehow? That he has this mental illness? And is frequently exposed to stuff that terrifies him?? Funny how???? But then theres a really rather disturbing montage of Gyan punishing his sidekick by straight up triggering his phobia and YIKES MAN sorry thats even more evil than the cannibalism! Also why was it drawn all overly detailed and Saw-esque?? Why did we need so much art effort put into showing dirty feet and a guy being forced to stick his hand in a shit filled toilet. Was this someone's goddamn fetish or something???

So yeah. Upset.

U P S E T T I. R E G R E T T I.

I'm so mad they wasted a cool character deisgn and cool concept on such a shitty execution. Like even the plot could have been cool? They could have got a lot more episodes out of the idea of these two runnibg thru fairytale books and cosplaying as different classic villains. And if theyd just made a damn decision and gone with either funny cute or scary bad then it could have worked! Personally i am voting for funnycute obv course. But also thatd work best with this plot, it would have been better if it was just a low stakes goofy adventure with something like "oh this dude wants to find the legendary magic wish thingie to wish for a lifetime supply of chocolate and our heroes wanna wish for something actually important so thats why they fight". Could have even added some drama cos like he doesnt know the thing is actually dangerous and then what if he ends up possessed by it and you still get a fight with him thats pretty high stakes without having this weird inconsistant personality thing. Could be quite a dramatic twist to suddenly have comedy villain man as a genuine threat! Ans could be a way to resolve it all with friendship cos you could have Are Bacchino teaming up with the heroes to save his boss and then Gyan is like "whoa i guess you guys were 100% right all along" when he gets saved from his own bigass mistake and all. And then THE GAMES COULD ACTUALLY MAKE HIM PLAYABLE PERHAPS, JUST SAYIN

Also PLEASE rewrite like every single thing about the relationship between the two of them. Please take whoever said "yeah gyan should outright torture his one and only friend with a messed up Saw movie ocd-triggering machine" and throw them out the window. Consider this: what if..they were actually...friend. Like i feel they'd have enough comedy potential already just from being a "rival mafia" thats literally two people who are ludocrously incompetant at everything they do and only ever succeed at (literally) stealing candy from babies. Play up that side of things more! No need to throw random super evil shit at the funnymen to make them seem more intimidating, theyre at their best when theyre not intimidating at all. And you could still have the same gag of the fairytale world forms always being Gyan as some sort of classic villain and Are as a talking carpet or whatever, like just say thats how the magic works instead of Gyan doing it on purpose to be a jerk. And you could even still have Are being the funny underdog just from sheer bad luck instead of being purpisely mistreated by every single character in the entire cast. Or have it that Gyan is just a bit of a bumbling idiot boss who doesnt notice his mistakes and Are is like the hypercompetant sidekick who always ends up taking the consequences of those mistakes because he's like an overportective bodyguard. Which could also be a way to establish some cute friendship moments! Like i dunno someone's about to throw a pie at Gyan and Are does an overdramatic diving save and a whole fake death scene from the sheer horror of getting banana cream frosting on his suit. "Boss...go on without me..." *cough choke* And Gyan is like *equally overdramatic tears* "He made the ultimate sacrifice! I will avenge him!!" *charges forward to fight the heroes and just gets easily beat up like usual* And then its like *even more continually dramatic narration* "and the boss was beaten and bruised, but he carried me for miles through wind and storm" *over footage of like ridiculously impossible heroic adventures thay clearly didnt happen* And then it just cuts to the two of them sitting at like...ye olde fantasy laundromat. Are sobbing like "oh boss i'll never forget this" and Gyan is just like *thought bubble* "i wish i got to eat that pie tho"

I dunno maybe im naive but i just think shows are generally more fun when characters actually like each other and have motivations beyond self interest. Obvipusly not EVERY character has to be like that, but nobody is ever kind at all in the damn anime whether theyre villain or hero. And also specifically these sorts of minor role villains can benefit a lot from being fleshed out this way to become way more memorable! Like gin and kin became way better in Psychic Specters when they got the added trait of loving and cherishing their little brother. (To the point of it being a literal battle power that made their horribly hard boss fight even worse, lol!)

Also just...plz dont make a man so cute if hes meant to be big badness. Like seriously Are looks scarier than him and Are is like the least scary man to ever have those scary ass eyes! Smol depressed man with ocd and tol round lollipops friendo. I WANT TO LOVE THEM

Im gonna just cross my arms and sit here stubbornly hoping for The Anime/Game Effect to kick in. Like 99% of all characters in the anime are jerks and even when anime originals end up cameoing in the games they tend to become generally nicer and more well developed as people. So fingers crossed for a yw4 appearance thats full cute and 0% cannibalism!!!

Seriously fuckin.. CANNIBALISM

Why does the anime do that so much as a "funny" "joke"? The episode where Jerry murders a sentient dessert yokai in graphic gory detail still haunts me. "Ha ha its funny because technically theres no blood so we can show her gasping for breath with a hole in her lungs as a man eats her corpse" Did they put the entire budget into that one death animation??? Oh no cos they saved at least a little of it for the Herbiboy Gets Murdered By A Lawnmower episode T_T

Anime why u be this way.

[rosyerim]

fwb↠ lovers!yukhei

warnings; obvi sexual stuff, some cursing, 16++!!!

listen i am a HOE for lucas

but lbr so are u 

who isn’t like have you SEEN that man GOD

anywho letzgetit

lucas aka wong yukhei was one of your friends ever since u two got paired up for a presentation in college

super cocky when u approached him first 

u were like

“hi so will we go to yours ?”

he was like

“( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) oh we’re goin to mine huh? that fast u must want me bad( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)“

u just rolled ur eyes and was like

“listen here u damn TREE i meant so we could work on the presentation!!”

he’s like “yea sure whatever u say babe”

so u just rolled ur eyes again and was abt to leave before he grabbed ur hand and was like im jk!! gimme ur number so we can sort out a day

so u do bc i mean who wouldnt give lucas their number

when u get home u already have a message from him

“hey it’s lucas :)”

“lemme know what day suits u, im p much free all week!”

he actually wasn’t free all week but would have cancelled any plans for u in a heartbEAT 

little do u know, homeboy been lowkey crushin’ on you ever since he saw u strut into the same lecture room as him

then u tripped but thats BESIDes tHe poInT

u text back and are like

“i’m free tommorow if that suits u?”

you didn’t expect a text back so quick

you put your phone down for 00.02 seconds before

WHA-PING

its ya boi lucas double texting u

“yeah i’m free haha said i was free all week :)”

“that came off as kinda passive aggressive im sorry thats not what i meant??”

hehehe u just smile to ur self what a cutie

you set up to meet at the campus cafe the next day at like 2pm bc god knows ur ass won’t be up before 1pm

again once u put ur phone down thinking the convo was over

WHA-PING-DING

its lucas again 

“so..what are u doin rn? i’m just workin out haha :)”

wong yukhei rlly out here bein all fuckboyish and shit but u bein ur good, sin free self ignore the DEVILS calling and go do ur own things around the house

ignoring the WHA-PINGS

next day rolls around 

you’re at the cafe like 10 mins early because u didn’t want to b late 

and woahh whose already sitting inside at the corner table w two chairs??

and two steaming cups of coffee??

yeah u guessed it lucASS

looking fine as heLL in literally just a white hoodie??

you know THIS look

that whole ass look

okay stop staring at his beautiful self and go i n s i d e

bby boy does a lil jump of surprise when u walk up he was so immersed in his phone

he was not looking up “how to get someone to like u” fucjakjks

he’s all smiley and is like

“ (✿◠‿◠) i didn’t know what drink u liked so i just got u a coffee, hope its okay(✿◠‿◠)“

ssjdhsjd ofc its okay baby!!

u just nod and say you’ll pay next time

he gets a lil blushy bc your both gone meet up again aw

so you both start working, he has ideas so do you, so you both compromise and wow u two make a great team

at some point the convo turns from school to sharing drunk stories of ur friends

a few coffees & lots of laughing later u suddenly realize its gotten rlly late bc of how dark it is outside!!

cue lucas using this as an opportunity to be all suave & gentlemanly 

“wow it’s gotten late, i’ll walk you home!!” 

so ur both on course to ur apartment 

he tries to be that boy and put his jumper on u because he saw u shiver for 00.001 second

but ur like lol no thanks im not cold

the tips of ears go red & poor bby is embarrassed  so he goes all pouty :((

then u feel bad bc homeboy was jus tryna be nice :((

so u end up wrappin yourself up in it and now hes all :))

now ur all :))) too

when u get to ur apt he kinda awkwardly shuffles outside so u invite him inside so he can “warm up” before he leaves

and whooo did u two “warm up”

he takes a seat on ur sofa & is kinda mindlessly babbling as u put on some music and bring him over a warm drink 

so ur both just sittin there bbq sauce on ya titties

and then its like some sort of sudden tension arises??

he stops babbling and just stares at u 

u stare back, slowly putting down ur drink

then ur leaning in oh so s l o w l y

he places his big ass hand on the side of ur face, eyes hovering from ur lips to ur eyes, asking for permission 

you give him a lil nod and he s w o o p s the fuck in

his plump lips are soft, a lil chapped and the first kiss is tender, he pulls away after a few seconds

he looks at you thru half lidded eyes and oop you pulled him back to ya lips hehe

from there it escalates 

he leans back onto the sofa and pulls you ontop of him, in a straddling position

one of his hands moves from your face down to your waist holding u tightly against while the other is rubbing circles on the exposed skin below your shirt

his tongue pushes past your lips, to meet yours and you thread your fingers through his hair, tugging lightly at the ends

this elicits a deep ass groan outta him and he pulls back suddenly, tilting his head up towards you

you’re slightly panting as you take note of his swollen lips and slight blush dusting his cheeks

he notices the same things about you and smirks before your face back towards him

to ur slight disappointment it’s not as heated as before, just a lil soft kiss and hes pulling away again

ur like 

“<(｀^´)> why’d u stopp <(｀^´)>“

he just chuckles w his deeper than the ocean voice pinches ur cheek lightly

“because as much as i’d like to keep goin, it’s a bit too fast paced don’t you think?”

you flush again as u didn’t even think about what he was feeling and nodded, burying your face into the crook of his neck

but the hypocrisy of this bOY

the next time u two meet up to “work on the project” u end up goin to his place and oop hes got u beneath him on his bed, both of ur shirts on the floor 

his mouth is set on marking your neck, collarbones while his hips are lightly grinding down on you, you feeling his bulge from beneath his tracksuit pants

you wrap you legs around him, pulling him even closer before flipping him over somehow

he’s a lil surprised as you take ur turn to pepper his neck and collarbones w love bites but he’s not complaining as u can tell from his quiet moans beneath you

you make your way lower on his body, stopping just before the waistband of his pants, looking up at him

“can i?”

u ask him first because consent is important kids

he nods so fast ur afraid his head is gona pop off 

you pull his pants & underwear down and wha-ping there he is

you grasp him at the base and lucas throws his head back, almost banging it off his headboard but does he care? nope.

so after ya know, suck the soul out of him

homeboy needs a phat minute to get his breath back

but ur pulling ur top back on, ready to go bc u felt like he woulda kicked u out but nOPE

the second he catches u ready to leave, he grabs u and pulls u back down onto the bed w him

ur like??? but in a good way

he ends up peppering ur face w lots of kisses and u gigglin bc aw

but then the kisses end up getting more heated as he makes his way down ur body, ur shirt leaving u once again, as well as ur pants and oops ur underwear too??

he ends up giving back what he received :)))

after that night, you both agree to keep it casual

basically friends w benefits

lucas loves the idea 

at first

like the thought of him bein’ able to text you whenever he was horny and not block him? great. gettin’ the occasional nude from you during his classes and ending up hard for an hour? not the best, but he’ll take it.

bUT the sight of you coming down off your high that he gave you while still panting his name softly??? 100000% HERE for it

wearing his shirt as you tumble around his bedroom, your neck covered in lovebites from him leaves him 97% soft and 3% sorta kinda horny

but he wants to be able to text you abt how your day was or what you’re doing for the day him or just listen to you rant!! not just when he pops a boner or you’re in the mood

he also wants to experience holding you in his arms, filled with love and not lust, kisses that are just innocent instead of heated 

to wake up to your sleeping face, no matter how funny looking, in the morning instead of an cold, empty space in his bed

but lucas knows you won’t return his feelings so he does his best to hide them (read: fails miserably at hiding his feelings for you)

then you begin to notice subtle changes in his behavior 

he goes from choking you out w a dark look in his eyes to caressing your cheeks w heart eyes in 000.02 seconds

he gives you his shirt to keep even after you leave his apartment and insists on driving you home

he texts you pictures of cute puppies he saw on his way to college instead of his usual boxer pics 

safe to say, u knew wtf was up

but u didn’t want to sound conceited abt knowing lucas liked you, so you didn’t say anything

and you both kept up the facade of hiding your feelings for the other behind by taking your frustration out on each other, sexually

and it stays that way for a while, but lucas was becoming more agitated each night you left and vice versa

until he broke the unspoken rule

neither of you had stayed overnight at the others for fear of having to deal with the truth of your emotions in the morning

but that night as you lay beside him, breathing heavily, the thin covers barely covering your naked bodies, he slipped his hand into yours and pulled you close

and you both lay there for a while, content in each other embraces, listening to each others heartbeats

then, you shifted to move away, to leave another night of unspoken feelings for another day

but he pulled you back and whispered, “stay”

you knew what that meant, you thought it over in your head

if you stayed, you would wake up and finally face the music, finally talk about how much you’ve fallen for him

how much you want to give him kisses all over his face to make him laugh

how you want to go on cute little cafe dates and study dates and dinner dates and basically every kind of date with him

how you want to introduce him to your family as not just your friend, but your boyfriend, your lover

a few moments passed

lucas’ forehead creased slightly in worry

he placed a tender kiss on your knuckles

mumbled a soft “please”

you took a deep breath 

and relaxed against him, letting your eyelids flutter shut as you let sleep overcome you

missing how lucas’ eyes literally shone as he looked down on you

“finally” he whispered against the crown of your head as he placed a kiss there, his grin almost splitting his face in half

he sent a bunch of keyboard smashes into the nct gc later bc he was so happy sjdksjd

and thats how you and wong yukhei fell in love

he also still gets butterflies every time he sees you and screams internally every time u kiss him fucjskjd <33

le fin♡ 

this is my first bullet scenario, hope it was okay (〃▽〃)

[xyfanficarchive]

The Length Of A Minute

Pairing: DBH Connor x Gender Neutral Reader

Warnings: angstttt

Summary: One dead android. Months later- nine more. Same model, same face, same death. Nobody in the reader’s life quite understands their guilt, or why they throw themselves headlong into an unhealthy obsession towards solving this case.

Word Count: 4422

Author’s Note: HERE SHE IS! My fic for @deviantramblings 500 followers prompt challenge! This is literally the culmination of me writing from 3:45 pm right up until 12:15 am, and let me tell ya, my brain fell out of my ass somewhere in between. But it’s finally here. My first Connor fic, and another fic thats like 4.5k words...  bro. wtf. anyways i hope you guys like it! as always, any feedback is welcomed and encouraged!!

Prompt: “I don’t need to go to bed, I’m not tired, I’ll be fine.”

It was supposed to have been a break, that night. A repose from the world of blue blood and biocomponents, of plastic parts and processors that you had lived in for the past few months. You had at last gotten the partners you had been begging for weeks, and with the addition of two more great minds you had made whiplash progress on the deviancy case you were working on.

Perhaps you weren’t quite there yet, but you could smell a breakthrough on the wind. Nobody would blame you for wanting a bit of an early celebration.

And it was just as you were ambling out of the bar, just a little bit past tipsy that you saw it – a dark figure rushing past, hunched posture, eyes darting side to side – a flash of blue underneath a hood. A checklist of items spelling “deviant” to your brain.

You were always on the hunt for that “good job” sticker of elementary school days. That rush of pride from a pat on the back, an acknowledgment of your skill from someone older and wiser than you. Sometimes it overrode your common sense. So, you, in your gently inebriated state, began to tail this android, not giving a single thought to the fact that this was a being stronger than you, faster than you, and more scared and more desperate than you.

When you had backed him into a corner, he turned to fight as all scared and desperate and cornered things do. You drew your gun and within seconds you were without it now, too, cornered into a fight you couldn’t win or run from. When he saw his chance to flee, you received a rush of determination in the form of a shock of adrenaline. The predator turned prey turned predator again. Before either he or you inside your drink-intoxicated brain could process it, you were on him, you were straddling him, you couldn’t let him get away, go for the most vulnerable part, the most vulnerable part.

Your fingers, now, tore through the buttoned front of his shirt, and locked around that cylinder in the centre of his abdomen. It came out with a plastic click, and all the android’s strength was gone. The acrid chemical smell of fresh thirium in the air. You were on your feet, and backing away now, still gripping the vital component in your hand as he flipped over as best as he could, now crawling towards you.

“No… no…” A static-laden breath, as he looked up into your eyes. “…Please… Please…”

You stood in silence for a hot few seconds, the android making his pitiful crawl and plea the whole while. You dropped the biocomponent at your feet.

Under your heel, it came apart with a cracking plastic sound.

“No-! Why…?” A breathy whimper. “Why…?”

You had no answer for him. He collapsed, and wept silently, face contorted in anguish until a minute had passed and suddenly it wasn’t, and he was still. The pavement was blue.

After the investigation that night, Hank drove you home.

“Hey, good job facing that deviant all on your own, kid,” he said just as he was pulling up in front of your apartment.

“It’s a shame you didn’t apprehend it in a functional state. Nonetheless, it will be a great benefit to our investigation. As of yet the only deviants we’ve seen have been relatively old models. This AP700 is the newest model deviant we’ve encountered outside of reports,” Connor added from the back seat.

There was your sticker. You sat in silence for a breath, staring out the windshield before you turned and exited the car. And then turned to lean your face underneath the roof to look at the two remaining occupants.

“He cried,” you said, and tiredly continued your way into your apartment.

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

You never took your coffee black before. Now, it was easier to go from cup to cup when you would just ignore the bitterness of the shitty precinct coffee rather than taking the extra time to sweeten it. Every second was precious, was worth something. You were standing in front of the coffee machine in the break room waiting for the pot to brew silently, going over the case files in your head again when you heard a voice approach you from behind.

“Well, you look like shit.”

You smirked a little and turned around. “Good morning, Hank. I wasn’t aware I had put on a mirror today.”

Hank scoffed, grabbing a paper cup and moving to stand next to you. You shifted to face his tall form and he made eye contact with you, quirking an eyebrow. “Morning? It’s one in the afternoon.”

“Well it’s morning for you, evidently, considering you’ve just arrived,” you teased and grinned, and as you heard the telltale low spluttering of the machine having finally expelled all the brewed coffee into the pot you picked it up and poured some out into both of your cups.

You lifted the cup up to your mouth and blew gently on the surface of the liquid as Hank was preparing his. “Fuckin’ Gavin’s MIA again today, the motherfucker…” You spoke up, and carefully took a sip. “Fowler’s said nothing so I guess he’s called in sick or something. Man, I don’t know how he gets away with having so many sick days.”

“As much as we all hate to say it, Gavin’s really, really good at what he does. When he decides to do it,” Hank admitted, eyes turning up from the coffee he was stirring to meet yours again. “That’s why we all put up with his bullshit.”

“God do I wish he’d do something now,” you chuckled lowly. “But there really was no other outcome huh? Serial killer whose victims are androids. Of course he’d drag his feet, and I’m left to pick up his slack.”

“Yeah. How’s that going for you, by the way?” There was an edge of concern slipping into his voice and you bristled. “When I said you looked like shit earlier, I meant it. You don’t look well, kid.”

You paused; too long, now he was certain to know something was up. “I’m fine,” you said curtly as your gaze flashed down to the floor.

“Listen,” he said as he leaned in towards you slightly. “I’m an old man but I’m not an idiot. You’ve changed in the past few weeks. And we- Connor and I are worried about you.”

You remained quiet, growing ever more uncomfortable under his scrutiny with the passing of the seconds.

“This case is wearing you out. Thirty years and I’ve seen it enough times before to know what’s going on. I know you’ve got the passion, but you’ve always known how to pace yourself so you don’t burn out. But this time - it’s like you’re obsessed. You’re starting to neglect everything that isn’t this case.” He looked at you in earnest. “What’s different this time?”

The hand that wasn’t holding your coffee curled up into a white-knuckled fist at your side. You were still as stone and just as silent, eyes still firmly locked on the linoleum tiles at your feet. You felt cold all over. What was different?

It was the thirium smell. Cobalt blue -  the crunching of plastic and metal. Oh how you spent bullets so carelessly. They were just machines. Their bodies hung in rows like your t r o p h i e s - you weren’t meant to be a killer. You weren’t a killer until a few tears were shed and suddenly you were tossed into the reality that you were every bit as depraved as a common criminal with a body count higher than most of the people you put in p r i s o n. And you enjoyed the hunt too, you sick fuck - you’re sick. You’re so fucking sick-

“This…” You looked up as you spoke under your breath, but not at Hank: just over his shoulder, and his eyebrows drew together at your thousand-yard stare. “This is atonement.”

You used his stunned silence as an opportunity to quickly steal away from the break room.

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

Your next door neighbor was a trusted friend. You tended to keep to yourself when it came to those cohabiting the same apartment block as you, but you were glad you allowed her the chance to enter your life.

You were sat curled up in the big chair in her living room that evening, and she across from you, laid feet up on the couch. She was in her early 40s and single, but seemly unconcerned about it. She was a wine mom without the “mom” aspect - lounging in a satin nightie and silk house robe, tucking locks of swept blonde hair behind her ears as you both sipped rosé from crystal glasses.

She could be blunt, and her advice tended to be dubious, but she was a keen listener - that was something you admired her for.

“I just feel so worn out. I can’t stop though. I can’t rest. I can’t let up until this fucker gets his justice,” you confided, staring up at the ceiling. “Nobody seems to get it. And it doesn’t help that I ended up partnered with fuckin’-” you shook your head in frustration “-Detective Reed. I’ve told you about him?” You looked over at her face and she nodded before you tilted your head back up. “Cunt, he is. Good detective but - God I couldn’t have been assigned a worse case with him.” You sipped from your glass.

“Tell me the details of this case,” she said, and you heard the flick of a lighter, and the smell of cigarette smoke hit your nostrils.

“I don’t think I could give you the details,” you said, “but - strong anti-android sentiment coming from Reed. And this killer targets androids. Nine bodies found so far - all AP700s with the same face. All killed by removal of the thirium pump regulator.” You shut your eyes. “God, it’s like this guy is mocking me,” you said. Of course it was odd that this killer killed in exactly the same way as you did on that pivotal night - exact same model, exact same method. It was a constant, chilling thought at the back of your mind, but you tried not to pay attention to it. There was no way it wasn’t just some fucked up coincidence. You weren’t so self-absorbed as to immediately assign yourself relevance in places where you didn’t belong.

You shifted in your seat, sitting up straighter from your lounging posture. “The crime scenes are almost immaculate… He leaves clues, but I’m positive he does it on purpose. Selects evidence to leave that bring me just close enough, but never quite there. Doesn’t let me connect the dots - whenever I get close, he throws a fucking wrench in the whole system that sends it all collapsing to the ground. And Gavin Reed sits on his ass while I do all the work.” Your eyes followed the tendrils of smoke coming from the end of her cigarette as they danced, raising up into the air before dissipating into the room.

“Okay first thing,” she said, and you met her green eyes as she sat up, taking a kindly expression. “I think you’re getting way too stressed out over a bunch of androids.”

You straightened in your seat, brows furrowing as you began to speak, hesitantly as she took a sip from her glass: “...What do you mean?”

“I mean, come on. Really, all the same model, and all the same face? It’s not like there aren’t a million androids identical to that! There’s only one of you. You can’t be replaced like they can in the event that you stress yourself to death. I mean, look at you! You look sickly.”

You took another sip from your glass, quick and nervous as you got up and turned around. You pursed your lips tight as a deep pit of disappointment began forming in your chest.

“I mean, it’s not like they can either. And- and beyond the fact that it’s my job to solve this case, I - I operate on the predication that all life is precious, and valuable, and irreplaceable, I -”

“Ask yourself: are they really alive? Maybe you’ve gotten yourself all mixed up in all this post-revolution confusion. Weren’t you the one who was just months before working so hard to understand and contain the whole deviancy thing?”

A face flashed through your mind - brown eyes casting an intense gaze, a stubborn lock of dark hair flopped over onto a forehead. A smile; one with teeth, one that reached all the way up to the corners of his eyes past cheeks just barely dusted blue. One that you looked forward to seeing and experiencing the warmth that it spread through your chest.

And another, tear streaked, pressed into the concrete in the November chill.

You whipped around. “Of- of course they are! Of course they’re alive!-” Your hands fidgeted, not quite knowing what to do, before you turned back again.

“God, I knew it. I knew it. Nobody understands,” you squeezed your eyes shut, your strained voice mumbled under your breath and you sighed, raising your face up to the ceiling as you blinked hard, trying to keep the frustrated tears at bay.

Your voice raised in volume, but it quivered. “You know, there- there was another AP700. A human gave him his body. A human gave him his mind. And we think- we think a human probably gave him whatever scrap of code in his programming that let him have… insight into the reality of his existence.”

You began to pace the length of the floor behind the couch, still holding the glass of wine, your voice raising and cracking, try as you did to contain it. “He- he risked everything- everything he ever had on the… vague hope that there might be some small corner of this fucked up world where he could experience more than the life of servitude he was born into.”

You stopped at the mirror she had hanging on the wall of her living room, and leaned in close. “And it was a human-” you reached out a shaky hand to the reflection of your face, before closing it into a fist, “-who stole all of that away from him in a moment of animalistic violence.” By this point your eyes were wide, your voice almost loud enough to be yelling.

In an instant all the intensity was gone from you, and you fell to a near-whisper. “Who watched, expressionless, as he died, weeping and hopeless on the ground.” Your eyes slipped closed, and with a shaky hand you raised the glass to your lips, quickly gulping down the remaining half-glass of wine. You turned around and walked to the coffee table where you set down the empty glass.

“He wasn’t the first, either,” you made direct eye contact with her face, her eyes wide, eyebrows raised as her mouth hung slightly agape. “Nor was he the last. And that’s the weight I have to carry for the rest of my life.” You gritted your teeth and sucked in a sharp breath, squinting your eyes as you reached the back of your sleeve up to wipe away the hot tears you now felt rolling down your face.

“Now another human is doing it again, and again, and again, and it’s like nobody cares but me. So that is why I am getting so stressed out over a bunch of androids.” You shut your eyes, and when you opened them you had broken the eye contact you held.

“I’m sorry. I have to go now,” you said, and you left her apartment.

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

The clock read 2 am. You were sitting at your desk at the precinct, once more throwing yourself into the world of brown file folders and clear glass tablets, desk terminal glowing blinding blue in your eyes in the low light. You were bothered endlessly by your vent-session gone wrong earlier in the day, and you were left restless for the remainder of the night, so you did what you always did now when you were unsure of how to occupy yourself: ruminate over the case files. Analyze, agonize, again and again.

You could feel the pull of exhaustion, even into your second cup of coffee, but you willed yourself to stay awake. You were afraid you would dream.

You were growing agitated now, but for a different reason than before. By this point, you saw perfect replications of all the photographs taken in your brain, could probably recite all the reports and analyses by heart, but still you made no progress. You got nowhere, endlessly spinning your wheels for the slight chance that you might gain some sudden, magic insight that caught the killer.

One thing you never found intact were the androids memories, so therefore you had no record of the killer’s physical form. The processor and memory units were both destroyed after the android had shutdown following the removal of their thirium pump regulator. Performing only the former action would suffice to kill an android, but this murderer made sure they suffered for those few minutes before wiping them not only of any trace of himself, but of themself too. An identity hidden, an identity destroyed. It was all so infuriating-

“Y/N?” A voice called from behind you, footsteps echoing throughout the still silence of the night. You took a sip from the coffee mug you held in your hands before leaning back in the office chair and swiveling it around to face the person approaching.

“Connor,” you beamed at him, and he shot back that warm half-smile that crept in along the edges of your mind, fighting off the frustration consuming your consciousness. “What are you doing here?”

He was carrying his coat folded over his arms that were crossed in front of his stomach. You could see, vaguely through his white dress shirt, the outline of his arms and chest, you caught a glimpse of his collarbone peeking out from behind the undone top two buttons - he never did that. You liked it. “Hank sent me to check up on you. He seemed especially worried about you today.” He laid his jacket over the rolling chair sat at the desk opposite yours and brought it over, sitting leaning his front against the back of the chair. “I went to your apartment but you weren’t there. Given the information Hank told me, I thought you might be here otherwise.” The corners of your lips drew out, and you gestured your hands outwards to match.

He glanced briefly down at the mug in your hands, before looking back up at you. “You shouldn’t be drinking coffee this late. It will disrupt your sleep schedule.” You contemplated throwing a smart remark at him, but as you looked down into the deep brown liquid you decided to slowly set it down onto the desk - in all truth, that small expression of concern woke some kind of feeling in you, fleeting but warm all the same, and you didn’t want to argue with it. Your eyes followed the mug, and then flitted back up to meet Connor’s gaze - more deep brown. He looked at you so sweetly, and you swallowed thick and heavy, feeling like you would melt in his vision.

His voice took on a softer tone: “Are you alright, Y/N? Although your stress levels have decreased since I entered the room, they are still quite high. It isn’t ideal for humans to endure this kind of strain for so long.”

You averted your gaze to the floor. “I’m alright. I promise,” you muttered, and attempted to smile, but you cursed internally as you felt the fact that it didn’t reach your eyes. Connor wouldn’t be fooled.

“You can trust me, you know,” he spoke slowly, and you heard the shuffle of clothes as he reached out across the desk. You startled slightly as you felt his hand clasp over yours - he was warm, god, he was warm. “...I’ve noticed your overall health and wellness decline since being assigned to this case.” He paused, thinking, contemplating his next words. “I would be lying if I said it wasn’t hard to watch, as you are someone… important to me.” Neither of you moved for a hot second. You felt your face heat up and your lips part as your pulse and breathing began to quicken, before Connor spoke again: “Maybe you should go home and rest for now. You need sleep.”

“I don’t need to go to bed. I’m not tired. I’ll be fine,” you said. Slowly, you pulled your hand out from underneath his before standing up and crossing your arms over your chest, shoulders hunched over guardedly. “I’m just so… defeated. I’m at my wit’s end, Connor. I work and I work and I work and I get nowhere on this case, and Gavin’s doing jack shit, and god knows how long until the next victim turns up!” You exclaimed.

Connor stood and moved in close to you, raising his hands to gently place them around your upper arms, and you dropped your defensive posture - he always had such a way of calming you, of bringing you back down when your emotions mounted high. You met his eyes and he asked earnestly: “Is that the whole truth?”

You tilted your head, eyebrows drawing slightly together. “What do you mean?”

“Hank told me you said something about this being ‘your atonement’,” he said. “I know the murders in this case bear a striking - almost identical - resemblance to one of the androids you apprehended on the deviancy case. One that you were particularly emotional about.”

You narrowed your eyes. “I want you to know that you don’t have to work yourself so hard because you feel the need to right what you did wrong that day. You don’t have to let your guilt take hold of your life like this,” he continued. You straightened in his hold, not yet pulling away but-

You closed your eyes. “How long do you perceive a minute to be, in comparison to us humans?” You asked, opening them again and staring directly into Connor’s gaze.

“I don’t know how to answer that, since I have no other frame of reference to compare it to.”

You paused for a split second. “I remember this thing I read, this concept I kept hearing about. That it was likely that the faster a being processes information, the slower they perceive an objective measure of time to be,” you said. “I think about that so often,” you shook your head, still not breaking eye contact. “It only took a minute for him to shut down. I just wonder: how long was he in that minute for? In that state of having given up, the defeat, the crippling sadness, after I stole from him a life of freedom he hadn’t even tasted yet?”

“Perhaps you don’t understand, but I have to do this. For myself, and because nobody else other than you, me, and Hank in this whole godforsaken police force gives enough of a shit about androids to seriously investigate their murders,” you said.

“You shouldn’t let it get to the point where it affects your wellbeing,” he said kindly.

“It’s not. I’m fine, Connor,” you said, a little exasperated.

“It’s two in the morning. At the very least will you go home tonight and sleep?-”

“I told you I’m not tired, and I don’t need to sleep right now.” There was a frustrated edge creeping into your voice that you tried to keep at bay, but you were growing annoyed with his insisting.

“Fine,” he said, his grip tightening just slightly, enough to accentuate his urgency. “You want to solve this case? Well I’m telling you that there have been measurable, observable declines in both your mental acuity and physical functioning since you were assigned to investigate this killer. You are jeopardizing your investigation by continuing on this path where you obsess over the case and refuse to take measures to take care of yourself.”

You jerked yourself out of his grip. All the warm feelings at last entirely gone from you, you backed away a step as you narrowed your eyes at Connor. “Oh, so you’re going to be like that now? I don’t have to fuckin’ listen to you, Connor! So either you drop that tone or kindly piss off, thank you-” You were moving to sit back in your chair when Connor’s hand darted out and held your arm tightly, a hold that was almost bruising, and you whipped your head back around, face twisting in clear anger now, as he spoke this time with more intensity.

“Y/N if you do not go home and rest I will have no choice but to come in tomorrow and report to Captain Fowler that you are too emotionally compromised to effectively carry out this-”

“-OH, fucking REALLY?” You had an incredulous expression on your face. “Wow, that’s- Okay. Fine.” You spat, and gathering all your strength you took hold of his wrist and ripped his hand away from you, throwing the extended limb back in his direction with enough force that you surprised him and caused him to stumble back. There was a smile on your face you couldn’t contain, but you were sure you looked absolutely deranged, eyes wide and trembling with anger.

“Wait, Y/N, please-” His voice and expression softened now, but it was too late.

“Nope! Whatever! I’m going home!” You turned to your desk and quickly, angrily, you stacked the files and all the tablets, and less pushed and more hit the power button on the computer terminal, at which point you began hastily shoving the materials you’d brought from home into the backpack you had sitting under your desk. You ignored Connor’s pleas as you threw on your jacket and slung your bag on one shoulder, making a point to shove past him as you made your way out of the grid of desks.

“Y/N, please, I’m begging you to listen-” An edge of desperation was now creeping into his voice, but you cut him off.

“Good night, Connor,” you seethed from across the room, and hurried your way out. He didn’t make an effort to follow you.

When you arrived home, you went straight to bed.

[stopsubstanceabuse1-blog]

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whatever happens, ONE of these rivals has a route where they join the evil team. this, this is canon. one of these fuckers joins the bad guys. alright. we’re square. the fucks with the other guy

like, alright. if you treat the first guy well, they stay on your side as a good friend. you treat them ehhh, s’aight, they’re an acquaintance, aint going out their way to help you. treat em like shit, and they join the evil team with the direct intention of fucking up your shit. goes good. goes great. fantastic.

so, THE OTHER GUY. whats up. same basic set up. treat well, friend. treat aight, acquaintance. treat shit, enemy. alright. now, the idea of them have an essentially opposite progression - where if you treat them WELL, they join the Org - is kinda neat. like, you treating them nicely inspires them, i suppose. puts the fire cracker up their bum and sends them off into the world to do good. whereas if youre an ass? they simply dont participate. like they just dont interact with you past a certain trigger point, just like how after a certain threshold is passed, your rival is going to be in the Team no matter what. many thresholds. and that could work? i dont see why it couldnt.

what would be the effect, though? like, for the Team guy, the effect of these things changes the amount of battles you have in some of the story moments, since pissing them off has them join the team and fight you. would treating the Org guy nicely instead remove a battle? like, ok, the way it works is that the ‘base’ is a neutral route, in which the Org and Team rivals are just chill. admittedly in the neutral route the Org guy participates, but thats down to innate character so whatever. point is. in neutral/neutral combo route, lets say there are 10 fights. if you piss of the Team guy, this rises to 11 fights, assuming the Org guy is neutral/pissed. if the Org guy is your FRIEND, meanwhile, the base 10 goes to 9 (OR LESS???) are they talk some grunts down from fighting you. these would be at different sections of the ascent, of course. the Team additional fight comes in Rhia/Elliot’s route climax, whereas the Org lesser fights would come in its lead up, as you enter the tower. ooh, actually, that could be it. You work your way through the city in chaos to reach the tower, and once you do, friend!Org will appear at the door to let you in, negating a confrontation at the door. you still have to fight as you work up, but the immediate fight at the door is removed by Org. thats kinda neat, i think?

plus then there are other benefits/bad times for each permutation, independent of each other. friend!team accompanies you up the tower, presumably healing your pokemon. bearing in mind that in the tower, you are ALSO accompanied by Elliot. so maybe your pokemon are kept healed no matter what?? lets say thats the case. Elliot keeps your pokemon healed. so what does friend!team do? perhaps there are a few double battles on the way up, which otherwise you’d do alone (meaning Elliot is doing something else, like maybe fighting off someone else who appeared, etc). or, at least specifically in that Room Where Shit Occurs, theres almost definitely a double battle, possibly multiple! which youd have to do alone without team (because this time elliot is definitely preoccupied, as the grunts were given VERY SPECIFIC instructions to fuck with him), but if team is there, then bam! you’ve got a buddy! nice.

neutral!team doesnt appear at all in the tower sequence. they COULD be out in the city, but it would be minor at best and not really mentioned, or they’d be at home, safe and sound. and, of course, enemy!team is in the tower sequence and offers a mini boss battle during the Room of Horrors, where they fight you solo after your double battles. itd actually be a kinda grueling gauntlet. sounds kick ass. im into it.

friend!org, of course, is at the door to the tower, lets you in, negating boss battles. they do NOT accompany you up the tower, however. because their ‘arc’ is focused more on them impacting others, rather than impacting you, if this makes sense. uh....... ooh, or maybe they actually help you throughout the city. if the ‘10′ fights include fights on the streets, those are the ones removed, rather than the fights in the tower itself. they basically escort you to door and says ‘good luck, stay safe, im gonna stay out here and help people!’ and off they go! cya, friend. and if you actually backtrack, the fights they stopped will stay stopped - it wasnt one time. they totally disabled those fights. i THINK that works? though the people on the streets should be Team members...... though Org likely has no idea theyre the same org, only that shits gonna batty. maybe what they did was they’d actually been fighting those trainers after hell broke out at the tower?? yea, that’d be it! like, you leave the pokemon center and work your way towards the tower, and you’d encounter friend!Org fighting a team grunt, then coming over to you and explaining that they’re holding everyone off and that the route to the tower is clear, even though they don’t really want you to go there. but they send you on your way with wishes of luck and some curatives, and then they rush off into the city to fight more Team Grunts and help more people. godspeed, ya bastard.

neutral!org.... doess.... hmm. theyre still in the city, i think, because its in their nature to help others (unless youre a cunt, but we’re getting to that). but they havent fought off the trainers. instead, they’re at the pokemon center, maybe guarding the door or just inside with some younger people keeping them in check, smth like that. you chat, they wish you luck, but no items. off you go, buddy.

enemy!org is just not there. they just are not present. not at all. the idea HERE being that their default nature is to help others, and that by you treating them like dirt, they get this idea that people are ungrateful and dont deserve help. as such, enemy!org is off sulking at home. probably posting platitudes on twitter and doing jack shit. good on you.

i THINK those two arcs generally work. with both, they have a ‘default’ nature, them without having met you. for org, is that they like to help people. by being nice to them, you encourage this worldview and they take it to a higher level, joining the Organisation and directly helping you in the tower sequence by making a clear path to said tower. by being mean, you give them the idea that people are ungrateful and undeserving, and they go off and sulk and are just generally kinda bitter. for team, its that they think you’re ok. by being nice, they think youre Really Cool and want to help you succeed! they wanna see you achieve your dreams! by being mean, they think youre a Righy Cunt and want to destroy your dreams.

team does seem pretty shallow there.... there is more to both, of course, its just their routes revolve around these specific aspect. for instance, org is almost definitely a naive character, perhaps an out of towner. team, contrarily, is a little more worldly and their view of the world is more stabilised - its their view of INDIVIDUALS that can be altered. so orgs view of society is altered by your actions (they see you as a sort of rep for it all), while teams view of individuals is changed. thats the difference. i like that.

now, which one is which. is your Rival org, or team? if the other player team, or org??? hmmm.... well, a naive rival who grows more worldly has sorta already been done, with Wally specifically. so on that front, having Rival be the team one is more interesting to me. on the other hand, having a more neutral character whose sole big changes are player based makes more sense for the other player, and them going the Team is frankly really interesting as a sort of fulfilment of player dreams. mmm.... on the other hand, the other player being org keeps them as a more neutral force on the story, akin to a character like Ethan/Lyra, which leaves room for the Rival (silver/hugh) to breathe. minimises the other player as a character while not completely removing them and keeping them as part of your starter set squad. i kinda like that? that feels like a better way to deal with the other player character. i guess actually what’d really compare to is Brendan/May and Wally, except that in this case you meet brendan/may and wally at the same time rather than slightly staggered. but brendan/may still falls off the map in terms of actual rivalry towards the end to be replaced by Wally. in this case, no matter what, Rival is still your rival, its just the CONTEXT for them fighting you is different. in friend!rival they fight you to improve you. in enemy!rival, they fight you to fuck you up. nice! fucking nice.

i think i prefer that. Rival joins the team, ‘Alex’ joins the org. i dig it. also they wont be called Alex, since now they can be two ‘separate characters’ who are largely interchangeable but with minor changes. whereas if they were like a gym leader or elite they’d need to be REALLY interchangeable to make shit easier. im into it.

[viralhottopics]

The problem with Magic: the Gathering no one is talking about | The Daily Dot

Two weekends ago, Magic: the Gatherings Pro Tour, the seasonal capstone of its organized-play system, kicked off in Madrid. The decks were creative and diverse, the matches were strategically interesting, and the new cards were sweetat least to people that already really, really like Magic cards. When the climactic last round before the playoffs went down, only 27,000 people were watching, andfull disclosureI wasnt one of them, despite being a hardcore Magic player in the past.

On the same Sunday the most recent Pro Tour wrapped up, Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that makes Magic, announced itd be cutting benefits to Magics top competitive players by some $11,000 per player per year. By Monday, a backlash had begun among some of the biggest voices within Magic, and the following Tuesday, Wizards relented, pledging to restore the funding for next year.

Behind the numbers and the news, however, theres an even bigger problem that no one is addressing: Magic is a bad spectator game, and to truly save the Pro Tour, Hasbro might have to kill it first.

Magic: the Gathering is an enormous commercial success; its annual revenue, upwards of $300 million, is greater than Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 combined. However, Magic is a game from a different era, and nowhere is this more evident than its system of organized play.

Theres an even bigger problem that no one is addressing:Magicis a bad spectator game.

The Magic Pro Tour, which has existed since 1996, has been overshadowed by esports, whose prize pools regularly exceed the Pro Tours modest $250,000 purse. Magic is somewhere around the 30th-most popular offering on Twitch.tv, and it is hemorrhaging market share to Hearthstone, whose revenue roughly matches Magics $300 million a year and whose rank on Twitch is usually number two.

The Magic Pro Tour, saddled with small prize pools, low production values, weak commentary, illegible cards, and a game thats difficult to follow, appeals only to a narrow audience. If its top-tier tournaments appealed to a broader audience, Magic could be much, much bigger. To do so, Magic will have to implement some drastic changes.

Over the last few months, these changes have been set in motion. Though Magic has been growing by some 30 percent a year for the last six years, Hasbro announced in April that Wizards was switching CEOs, from Greg Leeds, an international marketing executive, to Chris Cocks, a sales guy from Microsoft. That followed another announcement from the head of all Hasbro, Brian Goldner, extolling the digital ecosystem, branding through storytelling, and a product called Magic Digital Next, to be released in the next few years. On top of that, at Hasbros 2016 investor day, the company called Magic a top 5 esports brand.

The last announcement was surprising for two reasons: Its untrue, and Hasbro has, since around 2007, been loath to spend any money on promoting competitive Magic. Magic pays its pros very little to do something very hard, and in this context, taking away $11,000 from Magics top players looks like yet more shortsighted cost-cutting. This is the prevailing interpretation among Magic players, who are right when they add that Hasbro would benefit hugely from professional Magic being a real thing. The problem is that Hasbro and Magic players have completely different ideas about what the competitive future of the game actually looks like.

Wizards original pay-cut announcement explained itself like so: The appearance fees we awarded for Platinum pros were meant to assist in maintaining the professional Magic players lifestyle; upon scrupulous evaluation, we believe that the program is not succeeding at this goal. Well, who would disagree with that? Magic doesnt grant its pros a living wage. The recent Magic documentary Enter the Battlefield stars two top players who live with their parentsnot a great incentive for players aspiring to be the best in the world.

Magicpros are, with a few exceptions, not the people Hasbro wants representing its brand.

This is crazy, because Magic makes its owners a ton of money, and there have been calls for a steep raise for the pros for over a decade. Indeed, later in the pay-cut announcement, Wizards revealed the Magic World Championship purse would increase from $150,000 last year to $250,000 this year, then $500,000 in 2017. Hasbro has a lot of cash to throw around, and creating a real professional class, via larger prizes and appearance fees, wouldnt cost much more in the grand scheme of things. So why not do it now?

Its simple: That wouldnt address the real issue. Very few people watch Magic. More than million tuned in for Dota 2 during the International, by contrast, and roughly 100,000 tune in regularly to watch Hearthstone on Twitch. And judging by its continuous attempts to defund the Pro Tour and marginalize the pros, Hasbro must think part of the problem is the current cohort of Magic pros. In Hasbros eyes, the current Magic pros have demonstrated a willingness to work for little money and few professional prospects, and they lead a lifestyle few would envy. If your final goal with organized play is to attract stars and engage a broader audience, then youre acknowledging the current crop of pros youve hired and retained, at a lower rate, is part of the problem.

Its true that a steep raise today would help legitimize Magic and improve the lives of the pros, who deserve it. But it wouldnt change the fact that Magic pros are, with a few exceptions, not the people Hasbro wants representing its brand. Under Leeds and Goldner, Magic achieved its high growth rate by moving its branding towards storytelling and resonance, and away from the pros. To casual players, the faces of the game arent Owen Turtenwald and Gerry Thompson; theyre the in-game characters Jace and Chandra.

For the most part, the pros are hardcore gamers, a holdover from a previous, less populist era of gaming. Comparing Magic pros social-media followings, streaming incomes, and cross-brand appeal with top esports competitors, its clear almost all of them struggle to attract mainstream viewers. Magics Pro Tour, which puts its competitors through a grueling schedule, doesnt even cater lunch, and draws an audience of hardcore Magic gamers only, faces the same problem.

Greg Leeds once tried to eliminate the Pro Tour entirely, but he was rebuffed by Magic R&D. Im guessing Chris Cocks will be more persistentand Magic R&D, already subordinate to Magic branding, will be brought further under control.

To call Magic a bad spectator game isnt a knock on the design. Even though I dont play much anymore, its still my favorite game, ever. Plus, it came out in 1993, and no one knew itd be important to appeal to huge digital audiences decades down the line. But Magic also has a bunch of weird timing rules that are delightful to junkies like me and baffling to the casual viewers Hasbro wants. Magic has over 13,000 unique cards; Hearthstone has under 1,000. To succeed as an esport, Magic will have to be radically simplified.

This sounds more difficult than it really is, and Magic Digital Nextwhich Goldner described as a new digital experience leveraging contemporary technology to create a seamless digital experience that meets all the players needs from new players to pro playersis likely to be Hasbros first attempt at making a modernized, simplified Magic.

To succeed as an esport,Magicwill have to be radically simplified.

The digital platform can not only give the brand a distinct identity from paper cardsit also has many advantages over them. With Magic Digital Next, Wizards could stop worrying about card stores, gambling laws, and a secondary market thats profitable for barely anyone. Paper cards are expensive: With a digitized Magic, casual players could be engaged and retained without having to spend fabulous sums just to play. The whole catalog of old, archaic, or confusing cards could be cut at once. Game-design mistakes could be retracted or revised. Cheating could be contained. Short animations could tell the story of the game to a casual audience.

And almost anything would be a better story than whats currently being told by the Pro Tour, which draws a tiny audience, or the small-print cards and buggy interface of Magic Online streams.

No one knows how the story of Magics overhaul ends. My best guess is that the game will exist both as a simplified Magic Digital Next and as a traditional paper product. Though the paper product will still be supported, allowing collections to retain value and addicts to justify spending the huge per-capita sums that make Magic so profitable, the digital will quickly outgrow the paper.

A big part of this will be competitive play, which will be conducted over Magic Digital Nexts pleasing new client. This will let streamers make a living catering to mainstream audiences. Hasbro will then increase spending on premier Magic events from $500,000 to $1 million and beyond, since doing so will actually attract a larger viewership, as well as premier gaming talent. And Magic will at last grow beyond a niche audience and afford its representatives a decent living, which will grow the audience, which will increase the prizes, which will grow the audience. And so on.

Of course, the plan could fail. It necessitates drastic changes in gameplay and personnel, which will take time and money. But Magic, which has been drifting towards making these moves for the last six years, isnt that far behind: Its prizes and revenue are on par with Hearthstones. And, though Hearthstone is a formidable competitor, with big events and stars of its own, all the pieces are in place for Magic. Its already a great game, with many skilled designers, a long history of profitability and innovation, and a handful of players whose cross-cultural appeal would be right at home in the esports world.

The exciting thing is that Magics barely begun to tap its potential. If Magics revenue can exceed $300 million with peak viewerships of 27,000, how big will it be when it monetizes digital platforms like Clash Royale, harnesses elegant watchability like Hearthstone, and draws real esports audiences?

In the words of Wizards founder, Peter Adkison, the Magic Pro Tour was created 20 years ago as a lifestyle opportunity for a young generation of Magic players to be professionals. This vision has been lost. But if Magic becomes an esport, it could once again be realized.

CML, a freelancer in Seattle, has written for Gawker, the Seattle Weekly, and several other publications. He maintains a website at cmlwrites.com and a Twitter at @CMLisawesome.

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from The problem with Magic: the Gathering no one is talking about | The Daily Dot