#the fact that this keeps happening means I should probably come up with a default answer

[sillyuin]

hi <3! was wondering if i can get svt reaction to yn being completely oblivious to them flirting with her? subtle things like while she’s just ranting about her day they’d move closer to her and she’d absentmindedly put her hand on their chest to push them away still running her mouth, just completely unaware of what’s happening. and even the most obvious things like compliments or physical touch, yn is blind to it and it’s so frustrating to them

so yeah, hope you see this! ❤️

Hi! I'm sorry for being so late 😭 i've been very busy with job and housework, but it's finally here.

Svt reacts: Flirting vs clueless s/o. Who will win?

Yuin's note: barely proofread. I'ts 1 am and I'm tired.

Seungcheol. Staring at your face.

I mean, he likes to just stare at you as if he's watching the prettiest person in the world, but when Seungcheol wants to be especially flirty, he stares at you fondly and smiling with the whole intention to make your heart skip a beat, he even glances at your lips, as if he were trying to say something. Most of the time that's enough to make you really, really shy but when is not... Geez, he has to breathe in and ends up pouting a little (Probably one or two pecks will make him feel better).

Jeonghan. Teasing.

Is like his default love language, making harmless jokes to see you flustered all over him is just so fun to watch. But, is he really just trying to be a teaser, or is there something else behind? "I took the chair, but you can sit on my lap" he said one day, sitting at your desktop, with the most mischievous smile possible. But you didn't fall for his charm and as you kept your annoyed face, he stood up and sighed "Okay, all yours". And you better be ready because he's not forgetting so easy, and will keep teasing you just a little (yeah, a little) more than usual.

Joshua. Back hugging.

When Joshua wants your attention only and only for him, he goes where you are to hug you from the back, resting his chin on your shoulders and crossing his arms around your waist. Oh, he loves it so much is so tender, but he gets lowkey hurt when you don't react in any way because, how come you don't realize his intentions? Is really doing the dishes way more important than his warm hugs? Now, this is personal and Joshua won’t let you go, take it as a punishment for being so clueless (reward or punishment?).

Jun. Tickles.

For him, tickles is the perfect excuse to be closer to you. It's so obvious that hurts lol. Most of the time you melt in his touch, and you both end up laughing and sharing some kisses, but sometimes you're minding your business, too busy to realize that Jun wants to get your attention. Better get ready because you'll have a pouty little cat going around the apartment, and will NOT forget your offense unless you give him extra cuddles before bed.

Hoshi. Random "facts".

At the least appropriate time, he would come to find you. "Did you know that there is a minimum number of kisses that a person should receive per day to be healthy?" he says with a very serious expression on his face. And there you are, standing in the middle of the living room while you're brushing your teeth; your soulless expression says all. Hoshi turns around and pretends nothing happened, but in his mind, he's sitting in the corner staring at the walls.

Wonwoo. Making compliments out of nowhere.

He likes to pour you with sweet words, like how much he appreciates your homemade food, or that you did it great at work. From time to time, he thinks is fun to be a little sassy and his praises are very, very intentional. “New gloss?” he says, grinning at you “It looks good” and for some frigging reason you just start talking about how you got it? Babe, Wonu doesn’t care that much that you bought it because your favorite gloss wasn’t on stock, but now he feels a little shy to speak and just lets you tell the whole story.

Woozi. Playing with your hair.

When it comes to be openly flirty, Woozi tends to be a little coy. You rarely notice it since it's very common for him to be around you, caressing your hair and playing with the strands in complete silence. So when you get distracted he places a strand behind your ear, exposing your neck. But when he's so close to place a kiss, you jump like a scared kitten. "No! It tickles!" Woozi looks down, defeated, as you move away. "Sorry, be right back" and he locks himself in his room for the next hour.

Minghao. Holding your hand.

He thinks your hands are more than just pretty. Hao likes to take one of them when you're sitting by his side, scrolling on your phone or watching TV. He's so subtle that most of the times you don't feel how he traces your hand with his fingers and when you realize, it’s because your hands are intertwined and he’s holding his laughter. “How low you’ve been like this?” but Minghao just giggles. You end up doing the same and then resume your activity, letting him laughing low in embarrassment and biting his lips as a sign of frustration.

Mingyu. Resting on your lap.

He's very straightforward when it comes to flirting with you. Mingyu likes to wait patiently for you to sit on the couch or the bed and then he goes, at first making some (pretty obvious) questions "What are you doing?" "Is that a new book?" and as you're talking, his hands rest on your thigh, gently stroking your skin with his thumb, but you're so immerse in the topic and he goes completely unnoticed... And before you even notice, there's a flustered Mingyu resting his head on your lap, tracing small circles on your thigh as if he had been punished.

Dokyeom. Taking photos.

He already has a folder with your name and an unhealthy number of photos; Seokmin just never gets tired, you're so used to it that most of the time don't realize that he's actually trying to hit on you. "Just let me take a picture, you look so beautiful today!" And after giving him an awkward smile, you're getting back to your stuff.  Seokmin is a bit disappointed but with a bunch of new photos of his precious person, so is not that bad (at least is what he says to himself trying to not lose his mind).

Seungkwan. Scolding.

I know, it may sound like a bit harsh but when he's scolding you, Seungkwan tries to make it as tender as possible, it doesn't feel like scolding and actually, he uses this as a cheap excuse to be extra lovely. "Don't sleep too late, you're getting dark circles" he says in a soft voice while caressing your checks "you're too pretty for that, don't you think?". He waits for you to take the bait and when you laugh on him, saying that he's being a little dramatic, Seungkwan doesn't hide his disappointment. "Okay, keep watching your series" he says getting up from the couch "but don't you dare to complain later!"

Vernon. Placing his arm on your shoulders.

A classic that never dies and his favorite, Vernon likes to do it all the time: when watching movies, chatting, watching videos together; is a like a very subtle invitation to get closer to him, and somehow, most of the time you’re just minding your business and leave him waiting for you to notice. And yeah, he’s very patient, but everything has a limit. "Come here, babe" then he places his hand on your shoulder and brings you closer to his chest. And don't you dare to move, because there's no way he let you go now.

Dino. Calling your name.

Usually, he calls you by pet names or your name in diminutive, reserving the use of your name for special occasions. However, it doesn't always end the way he expected. “Did I do something wrong?” you ask him just after he called you by your name, and when Chan sees your big doe eyes, his smile fades. “Is just that… I feel like you’re mad at me”. At this point his intentions doesn’t matter anymore, he just hugs you and tries not cry in his disappointment.

[mikajunie]

how to deal with failure when all you know how to do is beat up yourself (as an adhder)

please read this if you are a chronic self-loather like myself.

i used to hate myself for everything i did; the way i talk and walk, my accomplishments, my daily activities, how i cannot keep up with my peers, all that jazz. and especially as a late-diagnosed adhder this gets worse overtime. i ended up getting into a 6-month burnout, failed 3 classes and have to extend one semester, and i had lost my identity as a person.

overall i was just a breathing, walking flesh with depressive thoughts every day.

but after many many months of rediscovering myself, i have come up with the conclusion that life gets easier when i don't fucking hate myself.

shocker, right? ik this is probably like a 'obviously' type of thing, but i think many ppl with adhd can confirm that this is one of the hardest pills to swallow.

but trust me, you don't need to feel bad!!! and i will tell you how to do it down below. pls read, i hope it helps.

(keep in mind im not a psychiatrist or a therapist btw i just wanna help fellow ppl with adhd)

reminder #1: adhd makes you more prone to making mistakes - beating yourself up for every failure is torture.

as people with adhd, we are more prone to making more mistakes and questionable decisions. we are just built that way. we can work on it, but that's our baseline.

self loathing encourages you to beat up your baseline. your default state. your non-productive mode.

beating yourself up for making a mistake is literally like beating up a cat for sleeping. humans are bound to make mistakes, and us with adhd are bound to make more. it's fine, let yourself breathe. im not saying we cannot do anything right or that our mistakes are permissible, but missing an alarm clock or forgetting things we want to say are not surprising. it's just embedded inside us, so either be miserable for the rest of your life or work on reframing your thoughts on failure in general.

reminder #2: you can learn how to be better even if you don't beat yourself up for it

these neurotypical adults who tell you that you should feel bad about failing are stupid. and whoever tell you that negative reinforcement is needed for you to get better are the dumbest motherfuckers ever.

you don't need to feel bad to ge better.

in fact, once you don't feel too bad about it, you can focus more on how to do better in the future instead of replaying the past over and over again.

literally after almost failing college, i only realized that i should not be hard on myself. literally. i remember deciding i should try being nice on myself and now boom! i feel better AND i actually have been working towards fixing my life more and more.

and you know whats the best part?? i can finally start enjoying my life again!!

reminder #3: not everything you do is a failure. seriously.

this is a thought pattern i keep seeing in every person with adhd.

"nothing i can do is right" WRONG!!!! you do some things wrong but you also do some things right!!!! quit discrediting yourself

now try acknowledging your failures:

cry about it first. let yourself sit in and feel your feelings first. you can continue after you finish crying about it

do some form of meditation that helps you clear out your mind. i suggest just 5 minutes or until you don't feel as heavy anymore

let yourself know that failing is an action and consequence, not a part of your identity. it is not you: you are someone who succeeds and fails sometimes. you can fail, but that does not mean everything you do will be a failure.

identify what kind of failure you're thinking about , why you feel so shitty about it, and what you should do for next time. it'd be good if you could write this down. here is an example from me:

failure: failing out of class

what happened: i failed bc i kept procrastinating and ended up sleeping in, so i could not submit on time

consequences of event: i had to retake the class, paid a significant amount of money, and now i cant graduate on time with my friends

why i feel shitty: i feel so left behind and stupid. i feel like this is such a stupid mistake that was easily avoidable.

and now i have so many thoughts in my mind right now, like "how can i be so stupid? how can i be so careless? this is such a stupid mistake."

now notice. if you also think like this, you are actively judging yourself. you are being so mean to yourself, and for what? would you ever told your friends they are so stupid and dumb for making careless mistakes? even if it's stupid, you wouldn't say it to their faces.

after identifying everything, confirm what actually happened, reframe your thoughts, and apologize to yourself:

"How can I be so careless?" -> It's not intentional, and I did try my best to work on it. It's not my fault my executive dysfunction took over the better part of me.

"How can I be so stupid?" -> Just because I cannot initiate tasks as well as the others, it doesn't mean i'm stupid. i am pretty good at other things, i cannot expect myself to be good at everything.

"This is such a stupid mistake." -> It is stupid, and that's... okay. It's fine. I accept it, I'll work on how to make it better in the future.

when you combat negative thoughts, make sure you combat them not only with facts but also with empathy and future action-focused thoughts.

the key is to focus on what you can do now, not what you should have done.

because focusing on the past is very very unhelpful.

now please focus on what you can do now:

Make small goals for the future.

What you should not say:

"I promise I will try harder to focus" -> Nope, you are relying on your ADHD symptom to not be ADHD anymore... which is impossible.

"I promise I won't forget next time" -> Same thing.

"I promise I will make a routine that I will stick to" -> This is too idealist, don't commit to anything for a long run, it's just setting yourself up for more failure.

What you should say instead:

"Next time, I will try to write it down so I won't forget next time" -> Tell yourself the clear steps on what you need to do. You cannot rely on your brain to just be better, come up with actions that can support you!

"Next time, I will set more alarms and ask a friend to remind me. In fact, I will do it now" -> Commit to things you can do immediately! The faster, the better so you won't lose this momentum. Stop thinking that your future self is 100% reliable. Always assume you need to do it as soon as possible to help yourself in the future.

"Next time, I will try out this routine and see if it works or not" -> Experiment with routines. Routines don't last long, so don't give youreelf empty promises. Instead, accept that your routine will chance every once in a while so you need to learn what works or not.

Apologize and forgive yourself

Say sorry to yourself.

It's normal to make mistakes, and it's unrealistic to think you won't make more.

Move on

Seriously. Don't sit on it too much.

Once you know what you need to do to not fail in the future and you have written it down... just let it go.

You don't need to feel bad to grow. You don't need to feel bad to be better.

You are allowed to feel good about yourself.

In fact, you should feel better about yourself now because you are showing your commitment to getting better by reading this long ass post.

Pat yourself in the back.

Failure has its consequences already, you don't need to punish yourself more. Please get something nice.

Failing is EXHAUSTING. Please give yourself a snack or some gaming time.

Allow yourself to breathe.

We are humans, we are not failures. We succeed and fail sometimes, not all the time.

Be nice to yourself, you have been through a lot.

[hinamie]

wanted 2 make a bit of an update post to get a few things off my chest bc i feel like i've been a bit quiet on here compared 2 normal and for that i apologize gsdhjgfdsj I promise I will do better at being chronically online

in all seriousness though, ever since the jjk manga ended, I've started experiencing th dilemma where I am feeling less inspired but also twice as pressured to continue living up to the standard I set for myself by being so active while the manga was ongoing. i'm finding it's taking longer than it should to finish pieces that are not challenging enough to warrant the extra hours, it's harder to come up with what I think are original concepts, and overall i'm just anxious that the high i've been riding since april has finally begun its descent.

I know logically tht these expectations i'm worried about being unable to meet are entirely self-imposed. I /know/ that not every piece needs to be a profound character tribute packed with symbolism and hidden meanings, but tht doesn't change the fact that it still feels really disappointing when I try to dig for that emotional component that I was really loving in the art that was inspired by later manga chapters, only to come up short. I'm feeling myself defaulting back to drawing My Ship Posed Cutely, or Character Lineup In Cute Outfits, whereas before I was really feeling like my art was touching something beyond just surface-level aesthetic. This isn't to say that I don't think I can ever get back to creating those harder-hitting pieces, or that I /dislike/ my more lighthearted aesthetically-driven work, I'm just frustrated at myself for feeling like I have to now dig for what used to be so readily available.

there's no conclusion to this story gfhjsgd this is rly just a vent post. i've been doing this long enough to know that this is just part of what happens with any creative hobby. periods of feeling uninspired unfortunately come with the territory, n it makes sense that those feelings wld be exacerbated now that the series i take my main inspiration from has come to a standstill for the time being. but I don't feel burnt out on jjk yet, which is reassuring in that it means I know I still Want to draw the characters, no matter how boring or overdone all of my current ideas feel. i'm in no rush to move on from jjk as my main fandom either, although I do see myself sprinkling in more art for other series to pass the time n keep me Inspired while I wait for s3. so for those of you who found me through my art (probably most of u), i guess also pls take this as both warning and reassurance that you most likely Will see me start drawing for other fandoms in the coming months, but don't take it as meaning I've abandoned drawing for jjk

and as always, thank u all for sticking with me and for all the support and lovely words on my art, it rly does make my days brighter <3

[ozzy-boy]

Jealous headcanons for your faves pls?

oh my god oh my god oh my god.

Cole:

-Jealous Jealous Jealous. The MOST jealous do I even need to say it???

-He's jealous about EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. Hell, he'll be jealous of stuffed animals on your bed or your phone if you're paying attention to it and not him. Cole will get jealous of the pillow you lay your head on and insist you should lay on him instead.

-Horrifically, gut-twistingly jealous of other people. He tries not to let it show around you too much, but he's still pretty obvious about it.

-He gets this tight-lipped smile and talks through his teeth when he's jealous. You'll probably see his eye twitch too.

-"Ah... you got coffee with them, huh? I'm so... happy you had fun, darling."

-Although he only smiles along with it when you're with him. When Marshmallow isn't around, he really lets it out.

-Pacing back and forth, fingernails digging into his own skin to alleviate all the pent up emotions inside him, all the anger. The dark expression on his face along with his grinding teeth showing a side of him you'll hopefully never get to see.

-He just doesn't understand why you waste your time with these low-lives. They're so far beneath you- they can't possibly love you like he does.

-As far as he's concerned no one else should even breathe the same air or look in your direction. Hates hates hates having to share his beloved with anyone else.

-He knows deep down that it's unreasonable for him to feel this way, but he can't help it! He can't stand having your attention taken away from him.

Scale:

-Despite how much he tries to hide it, deep down, Scale is very insecure.

-He can take lives and throw himself into training like it's nothing. When it comes to his profession, Scale is extremely confident. Relationships are another story.

-Scale is genuinely in disbelief that you like him.

-I feel like he doesn't fully understand why he's jealous of others around you.

-When Scale is jealous, he gets easily annoyed and snippy. Chances are he may say something really mean without intending to.

-He instantly regrets it and looks like a kicked puppy, so it's hard to stay mad at him for it.

-Scale kind of operates under the assumption that eventually, you'll get bored and break up with him. He's defaulted to trying to keep your relationship at arms length so it doesn't hurt as much when it happens.

-Well, that's what he tells himself. It's hard to stay distant from someone like you. Sometimes, seeing you interact so happily with other people reminds him of how temporary your relationship is.

-Little does that idiot know, he's stuck with you for life. Please kiss his dumb face and remind him of that fact.

[transmascutena]

I think it's interesting how one of the healthiest relationships in the show is Wakaba and Utena's friendship. Obviously, it has its flaws and tensions. But those tensions arise directly from the concept of being "special," from Wakaba dealing with their sense of inferiority towards Utena, who actively puts their sense of self-worth in winning these duels to keep Anthy at their side (a noble Prince...) People talk about Tatsuya being rejected as a Black Rose duelist a lot, but it's so notable that he's rejected because he's just...a more emotionally mature, less toxic person. Yeah, his heart is broken, but there is something decidedly human and mundane about how he approaches the conflict by asking, "What's wrong with me?" He sees him and Wakaba as two equals, he doesn't put their love conflicts on a pedestal, and he wants genuine solutions and hopes to confront his own flaws to understand why Wakaba rejected him.

Literally no one else is doing it like him.

A key theme in this show is critique of the nuclear family, but an extension of that theme is how said family unit breeds deep dysfunction into the characters' lives. The lack of communal infrastructure means characters are constantly putting their eggs in one basket. Everyone wants to return to their past because Ohtori and the patriarchal system doesn't offer chances to form new connections outside of the ones born of your trauma/childhood. Their lives are defined by their suffering. I view Wakaba and Utena's relationship as so important BECAUSE of how mundane it is, these 2 people met and they became friends and they eat bentos together and Wakaba views herself as non-special, but she doesn't realize how severely fucked up and lonely all the special people are.

I could go on. I want to write essays about this anime, for real. But it's something that struck me as I watch the show for the first time.

one of the reasons i find utena and wakaba's friendship so interesting and appealing is the fact that it and its issues are so mundane in the middle of all melodrama of the duels and the student council relationships and all of those things. their flaws feel very real for a teenage friendship, and they're all things i can personally relate to on some level. they obviously genuinely care about each other, but their friendships suffers from them not truly understanding each other, mostly because of their own lacking communication (utena doesn't tell wakaba any of the weird things going on in her life, probably out of some desire to protect her from it, and wakaba doesn't tell utena how upset that makes her, and ends up resenting her.) and it's completely accurate what you said about the tragedy of wakaba wanting to be special like utena is, but not realizing that said "specialness" comes at the cost of abuse and trauma. ohtori (akio) purposefully obfuscates that abuse to make it seem like something you should want. trying to disguise grooming as romance, etc. etc. the beauty of the rose hides its thorns and all that.

i'm not sure i'd call it the healthiest relationship in the show (although the bar is so low that it probably is by default) but it's important that the ways in which it is harmful are so normal. who hasn't ever been bad at communicating their feelings to people they care about? who hasn't kept secrets that they probably shouldn't? who hasn't grown apart from a middle school friend once new things started happening in their life? i'd argue that the flaws in the show's other relationships are also pretty normal when you strip away the layers of metaphor and symbolism from them (in the sense that abuse is exceedingly common.) but utena and wakaba's friendship exists almost entirely outside of that, which makes it stand out.

[eldritch-elrics]

i started playing the silent hill 2 remake!

uhh... buckle up i guess, because i have a LOT to say. probably too much to say. (and probably will have even more to say in the future - i will make a liveblogging tag!)

i got as far as the entrance to the woodside apartments and then stopped. overall, i'm really enjoying it!

i think that what surprised me most - as someone whose experience with game remakes admittedly comes most from nintendo games and the 2018 shadow of the colossus - is how much this is not an attempt to redo sh2, but to rework or remix it. i knew this would be the case to some extent, but it both surprised and excited me how little of the original game's finer details of progression are left intact. i thought i would know where to go, which paths to take, which items to look for, and then... i didn't! this is very fun! it means that even though i played the original about a month ago, and it's still fresh in my mind, i'm still getting the "new player" experience to some extent. on a meta level, it feels like the town's ever-shifting nature has caught me off guard. it's leading me to doubt my memories of the original game, and that's just very cool!

side note: there have been a handful of moments so far where the screen pixelates a little and james clutches his head. i wonder what those indicate! i know that one of these moments happened when i tried to get onto the road where you get the radio/plank in the og, so perhaps they're little hints like "hehe, you're remembering the wrong game!" (i also love all the new little mysteries: new memos, new strange photographs that have their own space in the inventory...)

even with the changes, it feels like, so far, the new/remixed levels are in keeping with the spirit of the og. for one, you've got displaced iconic moments from the og that have been inserted into new contexts - such as the "james sticks his hand in the suspicious hole" bit, which also has a fun little difference in the fact that you have to make him stick his hand further in. (does this indicate that remake!james is less unhinged?)

overall it feels like the game is taking full advantage of the fact that it has a ton more processing power to work with. it is legitimately so cool to see silent hill rendered in such realistic detail. it makes it feel like a real town! it's so beautiful, even when it's gross and run-down. i looooove being able to enter into so many of the buildings around town. i love how much it feels like people really did live here. i love the rendering of the fog and how much consideration has been given to even the smallest, most mundane of visuals. i LOVE being able to smash windows and interact with objects inside display cases. it's like a whole new layer of the town has been unlocked. that's exactly what a remake should do - reimagine the original game with new technology.

speaking of new technology... my god are the autosaves a welcome addition. by far the aspect of the og that felt the most dated!

the acting is also very good. don't have much to say on that front yet. james undeniably feels different - a little more open, vulnerable, cautious, certainly more emotive - but i still completely accept him as a version of james. there's lots of good additions here, such as the way he clutches his side when he's hurt (had me going "poor baby..." out loud way too many times, to which my friend who was watching responded "that is a grown ass man.") or the way he looks in the direction the camera's pointing. the one James Thing i sorely miss is the way he comments on random objects he interacts with. even if it's not a lot, it's a great way to learn about him as a character, and i'm sad to lose it.

i'll use this to segue into some of the game choices i don't like:

the ui decisions are for the most part quite bad. i haaaate that the main font looks exactly like the default font in microsoft word. doesn't fit at all. i also hate the way the screen goes red around the edges when james gets hurt. it's way too unsubtle an effect, and it makes it suck ass to run around at low health. (i turned it off pretty quickly - james's slow pace and stumbling at low health are more than enough incentive to keep him healthy.)

i will begrudgingly accept the general "tutorialization" of the whole game; that's probably a necessary addition to a modern game that doesn't come with a manual, even though one of the things i enjoyed about the early silent hills was how little they explain themselves to you. some parts of the remake veer close to encroaching on the "fuck around and find out" spirit of silent hill - i didn't appreciate the reminder (like 2 hours into the game) that you can break windows to find pathways and items; that's something the player can figure out from earlier tutorials. but it's probably for the best.

another "probably for the best" decision is the little dot that turns up on screen to indicate an interactable item. it's a change that i'm definitely grateful for, but it does ruin a little bit of what i might call the "rpgmaker spirit" of running around trying to interact with every item in case james has some funny dialogue about it. (hmm, maybe that's why they have less environment-thing-description dialogue now?) but overall, in a world with this insane level of detail and realism, you kind of have to find a way to signal to players what they can interact with. maybe that could have been done in a more elegant or diegetic way? maybe they could have preserved that feeling of "oh man, the protagonist could potentially have something to say about anything!" or "whoa, anything here could be important" somehow? but who knows. it's an interesting dilemma regardless.

i'm not a huge fan of the combat so far. it seems too fast-paced. wish it were clunkier. i'm sure i'll get used to it, though.

by far i think the worst decision in the game is the "over the shoulder" camera perspective. i know that this is ultimately a holdover from resident evil 4. i know that it probably makes combat easier. i do not care. it makes james feel too separate from his environment. i want to see his whole body in the frame! i want him to feel small! like he is just one more character in silent hill! it's unfortunate but understandable that the remake had to do away with the iconic fixed camera angles of the og, but, if they were willing to make that change, i don't understand why they couldn't be more lenient with player camera control. ugh.

my final thought for now is a bit of a larger scale question. as i wandered through the town, listening to the familiar, spooky akira yamaoka ambiance, i had a very strange thought: why is there silent hill music? which is obviously a silly question, but i phrase it this way for a reason. despite everything, despite all my positive feelings on it, there is some significant way in which the remake, at least so far, does not feel like silent hill. i'm not sure what it is. it might be the slight surfeit of ui. it might be the fact that there's no grainy filter, that i'm playing it on my friend's 4k monitor. the extreme level of detail creates a fundamentally different type of realism than that which was achieved on the ps2 in 480p - a world that was uncannily realistic because you could see light and shape but little detail. honestly, it might just be the fact that the lighting and shading is so, so different. the original trilogy has an incredibly strong identity, and this remake just... doesn't fit in with a lot of the hallmarks of that identity.

there's a bit of the "shadow of the colossus 2018" question in here. i've talked before about how i think the sotc remake creates a beautiful but ultimately uninspiring atmosphere because it goes for a very generic sort of video game realism, as opposed to the bright, stark emptiness of the original game. it's hard to say that sh2r doesn't benefit from the particular aesthetic it's got going on. the level of detail legitimately does so much for it. but it also loses some parts of itself too. loses some of the spookiness for sure - i talked earlier about how much it looks like it could be a real town, but there's also some important affect that's gained from the og's feeling of stylistic wrongness, the ways in which it doesn't feel as real as it should. just something to ponder...

[ryuichirou]

When did Jamil come to the realization that he was a Bottom? That he enjoyed being the Bottom? You can’t convince me that Jamil didn’t go in fully believing he was gonna be a Top.

To be honest, I don’t think Jamil has ever had thoughts about these things prior to getting intimate with Kalim (I’ll use Kalim as an example because KaliJami is the most prominent Jamil ship). His life is full of other things he has to keep in mind and worry about at all times, and even though he’s super overstressed and should probably take some time to let himself ~relax~, getting with someone close enough to actually have sex sounds like a hassle to him. It’s much easier to just masturbate.

So, if he were to imagine himself having sex back then, he probably wouldn’t think outside the “default” box, which means he probably didn’t even think about “top” and “bottom” as categories that apply to him in any way, shape or form.

But once things between him and Kalim begin to get spicier and he realises that Kalim wants to have sex with him, everything will happen naturally… because Kalim definitely wasn’t planning on being a bottom either, he wasn’t even thinking about these things, he just wanted to touch Jamil. And Jamil is someone who gets naturally good at whatever he does, even if he’s still inexperienced, so…

Reflecting on everything that’s going on between them, Jamil could justify his position by thinking that he just gives in to Kalim’s whims, like he always does; but at the same time if he tried to imagine them switching places, he would probably think that bottoming is too difficult of a task for Kalim, and preparing him for it is just going to be another headache for none other than, yep, Jamil again. “It isn’t even worth it”, “it wouldn’t be appropriate, considering my status”, there are tons of excuses Jamil can come up with not to think about the fact that he kind of enjoys bottoming.

Of course, this is our interpretation, Anon. We’re not convincing anyone.

[unladielike]

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐈 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐑𝐏 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖.

I like to be called: Livi, but I don’t mind any other nicknames used for me!

one thing you should know about me: Despite being a queue-based blog, I tend to be very fast with replies if only because I just generally don’t have a lot on my plate, meaning I very often have nothing I owe even after reblogging memes or posting open starters... to the point where it’s quite common my replies would either post later on today or tomorrow. That, though, is no fault of my mutuals! I just happen to have abysmal luck when it comes to posting at a time where my stuff isn’t easily drowned out by more active folks or when more of my partners are active. However, to prevent burn out, I’m more than happy to slow down my reply speed for those who might already be overwhelmed and would appreciate a longer turn about time when it comes to threads! I’m unable to take hints, though, so unless you request me to withhold replies, chances are high I will keep replying very fast without really knowing you’re overwhelmed by my speediness.

thing you should know about rping with my character(s): Vivian isn’t very easy to ship with. Granted, as long as she happens to like a muse platonically, chances are high she would agree to date them (especially when it comes to her default modern verse where she’s 20-22), but her actually being happy in that relationship would be another story altogether, so there’s a chance she would grow to resent your muse for trapping her in a monogamous relationship she can’t escape from.

And even in the event she does fall in love with your muse, Vivian is still a very obsessive/destructive person, so unless they happen to be fem-aligned, she will attempt to push boundaries and do very questionable/inappropriate things (like tattooing their name somewhere on her body, stealing their underwear, etc), to the point where your muse would potentially have trouble staying in love with her.

Fem-aligned muses have it way better, though, because she generally tends to be less sexually attracted towards them compared to masc-aligned muses, but her having compulsive sexual behaviour means she still might send them inappropriate texts when they’re out with friends or say very questionable things to them (ie: ‘You know, your clothes would look much better on the floor’) very impulsively.

In her older modern verse (where she’s 24+), however, Vivian is more likely to turn others down/enforce boundaries, especially since I default her to have gotten out of an abusive relationship with her ex-girlfriend and ended up having these sorts of thoughts when it comes to love; therefore, she’s less receptive to the idea of commitment/being in a relationship overall. Either way, she’s very much a slowburn oriented muse and will probably spend a long time, remaining oblivious to the fact your muse views her in a romantic light.

joy to work with: ...Gosh, that is certainly an open-ended question. Of course, those I have actually gotten around to writing with (and who I have not unfollowed/blocked at some point) are all genuine gems to me, but as of now, the ones I talk most with are @spiritpyro​ and @eliteimperialism, if only because I’ve known them the longest and find myself being the most comfortable around them. Then again, even though I have no qualms really communicating with others, I’m also not exactly much of a talker, so my social circle on Discord happens to be very small; therefore, I’ll sometimes end up feeling very lonely/inept due to this.

It also doesn’t help that I have more creative energy than social energy, meaning I often spend a long while, typing and re-reading what I wrote like a paranoid autistic bean because I’m terrified of accidentally offending someone... that trying to maintain conversations with others is very draining for me. In short, I suck at befriending most of my partners without writing with them/feeling them out for a while.

first language: Cantonese, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve lost most of my ability to actually speak it, OTL.

age range: under 13 | 14–17 | 18–22 | 23–25 | 26–29 | 30+ | 40+ | 70+

am I okay with nsfw?: yes | no | some nsfw (While I don’t mind NSFW themes, I’m very picky with who I actually write smut with.)

my favorite/most common thing to rp is: angst | adventure | fluff | smut | crack | action | plots | AUs | violence | darker themes | other

this rp blog: does contain ooc posts | doesn’t contain ooc posts | occasionally contains ooc

TAGGED BY: Nobody. I ended up stealing this from Rae!

TAGGING: Anyone who is currently wearing socks, i guess.

[uncle-fruity]

The unsettling thing about smart appliances is that the companies can control them. Or update the app so older "smart" appliances are no longer supported and will need to be upgraded to new, "smarter" appliances. Not to mention what happens when the internet is down. I mean, the fact that you have to have internet at all! It's hostile towards poor folks who might not want to spend money on something that's free at their local library, but who still need a place to keep their food cold. It's hostile towards anyone who doesn't want to buy a smartphone or download a billion apps. Are they going to pay me for the storage space they're forcing me to use on my device? Definitely not. Or, as we're already seeing with some printers: the "smart" application is to make it impossible to use a competitor's ink once you're low. So if you don't like their ink or if you find ink that's cheaper, well...fuck you! Fuck you, and pay them money to do it. Idk, I'm just saying that adding apps & shit to appliances that demonstratively *do not need them* should either have an alternative not-smart option or should be outright illegal.

I am not anti-technology, either. Like, I don't tend to keep up with the trends, and I super don't *care* about a lot of the technology that comes out (I don't find much of the new stuff to do anything of consequence aside from complicating problems we've already solved (and the stuff that IS of consequence gets so little attention)), but in general I think technology has a place in the world & makes things easier/more convenient in many ways. However, I feel that we are misusing precious fucking resources for the likes of corporate greed and individual comforts that were not asked for and are not needed. I think the people supplying the technology are fucking power-hungry goons who wouldn't hesitate to set their grandmas on fire if it would save them a buck or if her ashes turned to data by the end of it.

In short, it's not that new stuff is bad, it's just that new stuff isn't by default *better* than older models, and tbh we all need to complain as loudly as we can against these corporate chucklefucks. Make everyone involved in the process hate "smart" appliances as much as we do for how ferociously we voice our hatred and how much we complain & demand alternative options. Tbh, we probably need to do a big protest and shut down of a major company to show that the people Do Not Want these "innovations" and the companies had better fucking do something about it.

Please, kids, listen to me: it's not because we hate technology; it's not because we hate you; it's not because we can't cope with the changing times -- it's that we SEE the changes that you never saw because you're growing up in a "smart" world and so it's automatically normalized for you, and that's a dangerous precedent. These appliances are sinister and do not do anything better than the old-ass "dumb" appliances. You are trading your privacy for Nothing. For Whistles and Bells. For things that Do Not Matter.

[sweetmusingss]

Oscar smiled when you said that the two of you should have a joint housewarming party, absolutely desperate by the idea of sharing anything with you. He wasn’t a huge partier but if it had to do with spending time with you, he was more than eager. He just stared at you in wonder when he heard your fact. “Oh, yes I don’t want any evil spirits. I am already evil enough, after all. That sounds like a great idea though. And I would love to go decor shopping with you,” he said, a sad part of him wanting to one up Charles in some way. His cheeks turned pink as you said you had your own Oscar radar, that making him way more giddy than it should. “I think I have Renee radar too. I can smell your vanilla perfume from anywhere. This day got a whole lot less boring too when you walked in,” he said honestly to you.

“You’re not evil. Just murderous. There’s a difference. One is bad... one is cute.” I scrunch my nose at him playfully, always telling him on the yacht how his murderous and completely bored and lack luster facial expressions were utterly adorable and cute. “We can plan it when we have some down time... I am traveling for all of these races until the break after Singapore so we can plan for it to happen then so everyone can be home and ready to party. And since your default setting is seeming bored, it won’t be as frustrating to drag you around while looking at area rugs because I won’t know if you’re actually bored or not!” I giggle, taking another sip of Lando’s coffee before I blush deeply as he says he can smell my perfume from anywhere, wondering that when he went home after the yacht trip if his clothes smelled like me and if Sophie asked him about it. “What did we say about you saying nice things to me? I can’t handle it...” I nudge him with my elbow, giving him a fond look, wishing more than anything that things were different and that I was here wearing ugly papaya orange and cheering him on. 

__

“Well, you can swear as much as you want with me, baby. Can’t believe they are trying to keep my man from being himself,” I say, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. “I know you are feeling a lot of pressure right now and it probably means nothing coming from me who has no experience in your field but I think the way you have held onto that championship lead is impressive. Your talent never ceases to amaze me.” I rub your shoulder gently, watching you with a fond but concerned gaze. I hated to see you stress and I wanted to help you in any way I could.

Max rolls his eyes at the memory of the FIA really giving him community service because of curse words. “It’s just so stupid. I’m Dutch, how do they expect me not to swear? It’s just a word, it doesn’t hurt anyone.” Max was still pent up from all of that, finding it to be so insanely unfair and just all-around stupid. The FIA was so archaic and they needed to focus on the actual driving and not the drivers swearing. Max smiles at you, leaning towards you and pressing a kiss to your lips. “Thank you, baby. Lando is just... getting too good out of no where. Or should I say, his car is getting really good. I don’t know if we can beat them in the Constructors, not with me doing all the work and Checo being... Checo.” Max sighed, hating to talk badly about his teammate but it was just the truth - he was carrying the entire Constructors and Drivers championship, he was Red Bull’s only hope.

[uboat53]

More political strategy? The debt ceiling is probably going to make for an interesting several months.

THE PROBLEM FOR REPUBLICANS

The GOP plan, such as it is, is starting to come into focus. They will attempt to keep the debt ceiling from being raised, which would trigger a catastrophic default for the United States if it were to happen, in order to secure spending cuts, and it's becoming clear that they intend to target Medicare and Social Security.

Now, the politics of this are bad, and I mean really bad. These programs are known as the "third rails" (named after the third rail of a light rail system which is electrified and will kill you if you touch it) of politics for a reason. They are unbelievably popular and are even more so with the older voters who tend to vote Republican. In other words, Republicans, who are already doing poorly with the electorate in general, are targeting the one group that actually still supports them.

In fact, if you want to know how bad the politics are, you should be aware that former President Trump, who rarely cares much about policy, has publicly ordered the party not to touch those two programs. He's not particularly skilled at much, but he is very skilled at reading the political preferences of the kind of older, whiter Americans who form the GOP base and he understands exactly how badly this will go for Republicans.

Source

What makes this even worse for Republicans is the fact that the Biden Administration is refusing to negotiate over the debt ceiling. You see, when negotiations take place directly and out of public view, it's easier to press an unpopular demand and get it included in a bill before you experience lethal backlash. By refusing direct negotiations, Biden is forcing Republicans to make their unpopular demands in public.

Finally, as the real kicker on how bad their situation is, this isn't the platform the GOP ran on. If they had talked about their desire to cut these programs during the campaign and won they would at least have the ability to claim some sort of mandate. But they didn't campaign on this. In fact, they deliberately avoided answering questions about it over the months leading up to the 2022 election which makes them vulnerable to accusations of running a bait-and-switch since they're doing this instead of working on inflation, immigration, gas prices, or any of the things they DID actually campaign on.

More importantly, since this is wildly unpopular with political moderates and even many conservatives, they can end up looking as if their party is controlled by its most extreme elements.

THE WAY FORWARD

Well, I don't see Biden agreeing to negotiate. The GOP position is insanely bad politically and it's way better for Democrats if they express it publicly rather than in the negotiating room.

The question now is how far the GOP is willing to take this. Crashing the US economy in order to achieve something most people absolutely hate is a recipe for disaster, but do they have the wherewithal to stop before it's too late? The danger right now is that they've set themselves up to sleepwalk into oblivion at the hands of their five or ten most extreme members.

As I see it, there are three ways that the debt ceiling dilemma can end: (1) Democrats cave and give the Republicans what they want, (2) Speaker McCarthy caves and allows a vote on a clean(ish) debt ceiling bill which passes with Democratic support, or (3) moderate Republicans join with Democrats and force a discharge petition to pass a clean debt ceiling bill.

Number one is extremely unlikely at this point, Democrats are winning the politics on this one and will likely keep to their strategy as long as it's working. And I don't see it not working as long as what the Republicans are demanding is extremely unpopular.

Number three seems possible, but it requires a long time to wind up. Discharge petitions have lots of delay points and they can take months in order to get from "I propose this" to "it passed". In other words, if we don't see the first steps happening in the next month or so then it's probably not going to happen.

Number two seems to me to be the most likely and it's usually how these things tend to end. However, there's a wrinkle here.

Let's say we're a week or so from default and Speaker McCarthy decides it's time to throw in the towel, he brings up a clean debt limit bill for a vote. If even one of the extremists that's pushing this hostage taking decides to call for a vote to oust him as speaker, it happens. Now there's a bit of trouble. If even five extremists line up against him, then McCarthy can only win with the help of Democratic votes. That raises two further questions:

1) Do the Democrats help him out?

2) What kinds of impacts does McCarthy and the other moderate Republicans who support him suffer for being seen as working with Democrats against "conservative" priorities?

I'm pretty sure the answer to #1 there is "yes" which hopefully means that we wouldn't default under that scenario, but #2 then sets up a situation where our government falls further into chaos, raising the question of whether we could prevent any other catastrophe from occurring.

So yeah, all of this is still developing, but wow has McCarthy put himself in a position to lose pretty much no matter what happens.

[marshmallowprotection]

From a creepy dark and deranged perspective- which Saeran is most likely to have a creepy cult wedding / binding ritual to Mc . BE style

Ray. I don't think I need to go into detail about this, either. You probably already had him in mind when you asked the question. I think we're all in agreement that it would be Ray, if no one else. He has enough fantasies in that pretty little head of his about keeping you in this castle until the universe collapses and the sun is blowing up. I don't dare put it past him to think a wedding would be a good idea to tie you together to him forever. He can’t lose you if you’re bound in matrimony.

I can't see Suit Saeran or Unknown leaning toward this angle in the slightest. It’s not like Unknown wants to commit to anything. He doesn’t like labels, in fact, the man just lets you see him as nameless, a default setting, a man without a name in all regard. You’re a tool. You’re his eyes. Why would you be his partner? Now, the only way I could see him leaning that way would be if it hurt Saeyoung in any way. That’s about it. He would go through with it if it meant that he could hurt the RFA.

Suit Saeran wouldn’t do it. No, i can see why it would be easy to assume that he would choose this path to take something from Ray, but no. There’s something... terrifying to him about being trapped in a box. Funny coming from a guy that said your room his personal toy box.

But, marrying you like this... sure, maybe there’s room to argue that he might toy with the idea to see your expression, to tell you that he’d marry you thinking that it would placate his Savior enough to allow him to keep you, but... it’s no different than you being his toy or the party coordinator. Not even a marriage would keep you safe. You know, the very thing he realizes he wants to do after his cycle of confusion and anger.

But, you are specifically talking about the act of a marriage within Mint Eye as something that is intended to bind you to him. So, who else but Ray would want to do something so binding and tight with you in the first place? This would be a band-aid for his paranoia when it comes to losing you. If he has proof that you’re tied to him this way, should he be afraid? He can’t lose you if you’re married and the confines of marriage mean that you’re only with him.

So Ray Route Bad Ending 1, Another Story Prologue Bad Ending, Another Story Day 4 Bad Ending, and V Route Bad Relationship Ending 1 are timelines where I can see this playing out. There is a way to rationalize these endings as paths to this conclusion, though, there the way that you get to him suggesting marriage is different since these endings have vastly different angles that lead you inside of them. Like, V’s BRE1, for example.

You showed no interest in V the way Rika wanted. She shrugged and decided to give you back to Ray since she has no benefit in being interested in you if there is nothing tying you back to V’s interest. Ray wants you to forget about the RFA now and you bring them up much to his chagrin. So, he decides to lock up in the suite until he decides how to fix this. It isn’t a stretch for me to imagine that in his little fairytale fantasy brain that the way to bring you back to him would be to give you that happily ever after and show you the way to be truly happy with your real prince.

Or, perhaps, in the Prologue BE, after he takes you on his assistant for some time, his paranoia at losing you for not being able to keep up with his work ethic would bring him to realize that his Savior could take you away. He would search his brain for hours to find something that could keep you with him, and since this is a cult loaded with Catholic trauma, he might just assume that being married to you would keep you safe. Now, that hugely depends on how useful Rika thinks it might be. Hell, she’d probably agree to it if it meant that she had another pawn in her hands to incentivize Ray.

So, I very much believe that this could happen in a Bad Ending at some point if the idea is presented to Ray as something that will fix it. [Spoiler Alert: it doesn’t fix anything.]

[familyagrestefanblog]

Actually, the Noire does not necessarily imply its a female character. The french name refers to an object and a color, Griffe Noire (Black Claw), and griffe simply is a female noun in French and that means Noir gets conjugated into Noire. That's not a stylistic choice because of the person's gender the way they did with Kitty Noire in the English dub for example (whose name is Blaqueminette in French if im not completely wrong), that's just how the language works. The option of keeping it Noir for Griffe Noire was never there.

In English they theoretically absolutely could have kept the second part of Zoe's name also as Noir too because the english word 'Kitty' isn't explicitly female coded - and especially not in this show - and neither chat nor chaton are female words in French either, they are male. Conjugating the gender in the french language (and other languages) is alot of times not necessarily actually a GENDER gender thing. No one is making the active choice to gender objects etc according to gender associations or because that's what we see. Alot of gendering is simply used in a neutral way because that's how it always was and therefore that's also how it's heard.

So with Kitty Noire in English it really was just a way to put extra emphasis on Zoé being female and to probably make it easier to seperate her name from Chat Noir and his nicknames (why they didn't get more creative with her name in the first place is beyond me though), even though the english naming system on paper wouldn't have required it. Her name would have worked too if they kept it Kitty Noir and honestly criticizing stuff like that on a gender basis when it comes to animals and colors is high-key a nitpick in my opinion.

Zoé wouldn't have been suddenly less of a girl just because there was no e on the Noir, especially when it wasn't combined with a female word anyway (though for LGBT purposes it could be very useful). And the same goes the other way around. But for comparison, Lady Noire DOES need the e because lady is a female word, whereas Kitty is not.

Griffe is a French word of an object and since it's the french version everyone watching it knows that and therefore hears it more as a "titel" or, well, a hero/ villain secret identitiy name rather than making a legit name out of it the way the english speaking Fandom turned Chat into Chad and Rena (Fox) into just a first name too. Those words are animals first and foremost, not first names.

The english language doesn't gender everything the way french does so I totally get taking the Noire at face value because up til now almost all french miraculous names were chosen accordingly to the characters gender but the name goes back to Claw Noir in English, so here we most likely simply have the case that the name sounded cool in French and the show said fuck it and didn't wanted to limit the naming system by gender anymore (which, if I may point out should rather be seen as a step forward for this show in terms of equality. Why it has taken THIS long for them to stop strictly limiting the names to what object and animal words just so happen to correspond with the genders by coincidence is a loaded question)

My native language German also has claw as a female noun (Kralle) and when I image a hero/ villain name for a male character with that word it sounds cool as hell and unisex by default. That wouldn't change if the character were female either.

The fact that claw is female changes nothing about how cool the name sounds and that's how I'm reading Griffe Noire too. It's just a cool name.

Although I do have to say, "Griffe Noire" in this regard does sounds more like an hero/ villain identity on top of an already existing individual name than an actual name because of the gender thing the same way Kitty Noir would have done, while Toxinette on paper could remain a villain character of her own without a secret identitiy. Like Shego, that's the vibe.

Though im pretty sure the only reason for why Griffe Noire being for a male character now reads with the direct implication of "whoever that is, he definitely has a secret real name" is simply because the show itself trained you from the start to put more emphasis on what gender the names have than it was ever actually necessary in the first place. If the show had from the start went with more unisex names for the holders because, again, it's just animals and colors, then Adrien's name here would have never causes confusion.

if it does take place directly after destruction, that would explain the shot of adrien sitting in his room in the dark staring at his ring. the plot of the movie may or may not tie in to the two of them coming to grips (or failing to come to grips) with possibly killing a man, reflected in whatever's going on with the alternate versions. (shadybug seems to be marinette, but claw noire isn't adrien- or is she?)

I'm not counting on Shadybug being Marinette just yet - that's the most likely explanation, but we haven't seen a clear enough shot to be sure. Especially since Socqueline exists.

And as for Claw Noire... yeah, the fact that the name ends in "Noire", with an "e", definitely implies female. I'm betting that "what happened with Adrien" is gonna be a major plot point in the movie. Maybe Claw Noire is Zoe?

[saltylandland]

Random characterization for Leona

He cares so much. Part of the reason why I relate to him so much is because I can tell that he cares as much as he tries to prove otherwise. A good parallel I see is with Jamil, Leona always felt like he was pushing down any shred of energy or ambition he has, but he radiates energy regardless. With his mindset (no matter what he does he will never win/be good enough) he has to discourage himself every day because he doesn’t want to be let down again. He stifles himself out of spite, he knows he is and can be great but it’ll never be good enough for people, so why should he try for anyone? He doesn’t want their pity (bc he believes everyone knows he’s fighting a losing game) but In contrast Jamil has to stifle himself, his talents and ambition. It feels like Jamil is legitimately tired but Leona is only pretending to be tired. ‘fake it til you make it I suppose’.

He loves his family, but the resentment he’s built makes it hard to talk to them. Due to the purposeful hate from the servants but there was also probably some damaging habits done from his family. You don’t have to be an evil mastermind to hurt or abuse someone. A lot of abusers don’t recognise the damage they do for one reason or the other. (another thing I can relate to) regardless I think he definitely has self sabotaging thoughts especially when it comes to his family. Also keeping up with a little kid is exhausting lol, especially when you don’t like kids. Especially when you see that kid grow up with everything you ever wanted (load of attention, praise, love) it’s more visceral watching that happen a second time, not just to your brother. (also it strangely reminds me of those situations, say you grow up with an emotionally absent father/mother, maybe they were not ready to be a parent so they couldn’t be there for you, whatever, right? But then when you’ve grown up you visit them and they have a completely new life, giving your younger sibling the things you had always wanted but never got, so they are capable to love like that, they just couldn’t do that for you. That is just gut wrenching right?) one thing I think that makes Leona’s backstory more tragic to me than riddles (bc they were back to back Leonas backstory and riddles are compared a lot) is that riddle had friends, and he later had them help him through all this shit as he is becoming better and recognising the trauma his mother put him through. Leona had and has nothing, ruggie isn’t his friend and considering he’s freaking 20, the self sabotaging habits have probably set in a long time ago. Which means he’s definitely self isolated from anyone that could have helped. Plus he’s a prince so it’s not like making friends would be easy even if he had a good childhood. It’s also a lot harder to see a grown adult act spitefully then watch a child break down sobbing. Not to mention chapter 2 was so badly handled and written.

He values emotional and mental strength not just physical strength [going on a lil side tangent, I know the reasons why they made beastwomen physically stronger than the men but I don’t like how that was the default? Nothing wrong with physically strong women but that still petuates the belief that the only valuable strength is traditionally masculane traits like physical power and stubbornness, and twst is just a small example hollywood in general has a huge problem with this, why does any ‘strong female character’ need to always display masculane traits in order to be recognised as strong?] Even as an emotionally stunted character that he is, I think he begrudgingly (and secretly) admires those who still manage to be kind even though the majority of his brain thinks that person is just foolish. Also we all know that he values strategy just as much as physical strength.

He is kind. Despite the fact that he’s a classic tsundere, he has never really fought anyone unless he’s provoked? He’s more of a ‘scare them off’ kind of guy and he avoids using excessive force (for lots of other reasons that aren’t from the kindness from his heart, yes, but still) and he’s generous. Weirdly it’s kind of the same criticism aimed at Lottie from the princess and the frog? The ‘rich person won’t give their money to their poor friend and has them work for them ):|’ But do you really think ruggie would take handouts? Yeah I think that ruggie does way too much for leona but ruggie is the one who benefits from it. That’s how ruggie makes easy money, by picking up after leona lol

I'll definitely add more to this list as I think of more, this is just the tip of the iceberg hooooo boi. 

Also if you disagree or have more to add feel free to tell me in an ask! Just be respectful please!

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

If you're still doing the Descendants prompts? "What do you mean I'm grounded?" CJ yelled into the phone. "You can't ground me!"

I am still doing the prompts! When I have the time and when I like them, anyway.

I hope you enjoy this!

And al tinny bit of background info for this fic. There are following background relationships at play: Harriet Hook/Anthony Tremaine (Because that’s my default by now, honestly), and Ben/Harry Hook/Uma (Because it’s funny in this prompt.) If you look for it, you might also find CJ/Freddie, but, you know. Romantic relationships are a suggestion, and the only characters that appear are Ben and CJ anyway.

So, right. The story. Enjoy!

Ben takes a deep breath and presses the call button: The cheery dial tone sounds through the otherwise empty room. He should figure out how to change it, but oh, well. Still better than the Auradonian hymn his previous phone had as a default for everything.

The tone stops, replaced by mildly annoyed „Yeah?“ and a blur of gold and red appears on the screen. He stares at it for a bit.

Well.

He did not expect her to actually pick up.

„Hey? Beastie-princeling?“ 

Ben frowns at the unnecessarily elaborate and also factually incorrect nickname.

„What d’ya want?“

The camera jumps and jumbles around and momentarily focuses on the background, and, oh sweet heavens, she is running. She is running.

That, knowing CJ Hook, is never a good sign. (There are no good signs whatsoever when it comes to her, Ben thinks.)

Anyway, he gathers all his nerves and calmly states:

„CJ. You are grounded.“

The picture comes to halt and the camera abruptly focuses on CJ’s dishevelled expression, and, wait, is that soot on her cheek?!

„What?!“ she yells into the phone, „You can’t do that!“

„Why not?“ he asks, trying very hard to start calm.

She looks into the distance, frowns, and then grins: „You don’t have the authority to do so! Now, excuse me for a moment–“

The video starts jumping around again, and Ben tries very hard to ignore the faint curses and, wait, are those gunshots?!

What on Earth is she doing?!

„CJ!“ he calls out, „What is going on?!“

Harry would probably be upset if anything happened to his little sister, and, goodness, Ben himself has grown somewhat attached to the troublemaker. Against his better judgement, but hey. The other people who kidnapped him also turned out to be quite great, so honestly, cease point.

No answer, though. Just more blurry lines and more shouting and CJ‘s fast breathing. He is surprised she didn’t hang up yet, but honestly, maybe she just forgot he was calling. That happens.

„CJ!“ He calls out again anyway.

„Ssh!“ she shushes him, whisper-yelling, „Not now, princey boy! I’m running for my life, can’t you see?!“

…Is it bad that he can’t actually tell if she’s exaggerating or not? It is, right?

What did she do this time?

Honestly, as if the robbed bank from yesterday  wasn’t enough!

(The only reason why she isn’t running from the police right now is that when she robbed the bank, she proceeded to throw the money up in the air at the steps and throw a dance party to It’s Raining Men for all the bystanders and staff to attend. Oh, and the fact that he still doesn’t have a functional police force, as Uma keeps reminding him.)

So Ben is left staring at blurry colours and imagining the worst case scenario. He’d rather not, thank you.

And thankfully, it’s not too long until CJ’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts again.

„Yeah?“ she asks, „What did you want, majesty?“

Ben knows only about four other people who can say „Majesty“ like it is an insulting nickname at best. Two of them are her siblings.

He breathes out and for the second time that day, he tells her that she is grounded.

„What?! You can’t do that!“

Yep. Just like the first time. He can’t help the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

„Why not?“

„Eh, I don’t know. You just don’t have the authority to do so,“ she waves her hand dismissively, flashing bloodied knuckles in front of the camera. Oh, dear.

Now, ben doesn’t really like pulling rank, however much certain other people seem to enjoy doing so, but in this case? He genuinely thinks CJ forgot that he is the High King of Auradon.

„…And?“

„I’m the High King, CJ.“

„…I heard you the first time. I just don’t know how that gives you the authority to ground me.“

Of course she doesn’t.

„Hey, excuse me for a moment–“ She partially covers the camera with her palm and yells something Ben is fairly sure are horrific death threats in pirate slang, too wild for him to keep up. Not that he particularly wishes to hear her death threats. Just saying. She can be very creative, and, in fact, Ben would be very glad if she toned that down a little.

„Yeah, we’re good. Where were we? Oh, right! Just because you are the king doesn’t mean that I have to listen to you!“

Ben silently starts praying.

Then he says: „I’m also dating your older brother. That gives me some authority to ground you, right?“

She giggles. She giggles and giggles, like the insufferable menace she is.

„No!“ she tells him, voice chiming like jingle bells, „It does not!“

„What? But Uma grounds you all the time!“

CJ makes a face at him, sticking her lips out in a caricature of a pout: „Well, yes, but, you see, boy king, Uma is actually scary. Unlike you.“

Well. That hurt. 

But it was also true.

Uma is scary, in the best and nicest way possible.

So, you know what, fair.

But…

„And what about Anthony Tremaine?“

And she goes into a ramble. Of course she does. Ben quietly ponders his life decisions as CJ explains that no, while Anthony is not really that scary, he will bitch about her and Dizzy might overhear and Dizzy will definitely tell Celia and then Freddie will know and Freddie will then be cross with her and she doesn’t  like when Freddie does that and also Anthony knows where her blackmail book is–

And Ben would say that this whole affair has more to do with the fact that Anthony has no qualms calling Harriet the second CJ starts being annoying than anything else.

Speaking of which.

„Either you and I come to an understanding, or I call Harriet.“

She whistles and grins into the camera: „You are learning, baby beast, you are learning. You must have some good influence on you. I’m willing to lay low for, say, two days if you don’t tell Harriet.“

„That–“ In the second it takes Ben’s brain to catch up, she is speaking again, because god forbid a Hook ever gave him a time to think.

„Great! See ya later, Benny boo! Gotta go, running for my life and all that! Anyway, salutations and all that, and don’t bother giving my greetings to Harry! Byeee!“

And she hung up. 

Of course she did.

But, well, Ben tried. And two days is better than nothing, right? 

…Right?

[wack-ashimself]

2008 Financial crisis dumbed down.

Watched 'The Big Short' (again), and I wanted to sum it up for people who didn't get it (cuz I did NOT the first time around).

About 2 years-ish before this all went down, a super smart guy noticed inconsistencies in what the banks AND (eventually) the government claimed about subprime (another word for weaker credit) home loans. He noticed that the weakest that were most likely to default were packaged up so they seemed more appealing, but they were way worse than the government was rating them at (in the movie, rating approval standards and practices lady basically says if we do not give them good ratings, they'll <the banks> just go down the street to a competitor, which is NOT something you want said by a government sanctioned organization.) The banks & the raters were approving everyone cuz it made them money right then and there. Both the banks and the rating's agency which answered to the government. That means THREE different organizations set up the dominoes. Big banks, the ratings board, and the government for not keeping either in check. Maybe not knocked them down, but set them up.

The smart guy realized: the lower ones rated we will call them a C, were actually closer to E's, and thus, also brought down everything above them. AAA goes to A. AA to C. Etc. (something like that). Loss of rating, loss of money. But with the banks getting higher ratings, they would look like they had stronger assets. Thus more money. More to wager. And how did they inflate this? The casino. They took those low level packages, and took bets on if they would rise or fall. THEN they took bets on THAT bet. Seriously; it is as fucking stupid and crazy as it sounds. As the movie said, it's highly complex and hard to understand BECAUSE they want you to feel like they're the only ones who can operate/navigate it. They make it difficult so you have to come to them.

So smart guy (and a few others) convinced the banks to do the stupidest thing I have ever heard: the banks created this whole new thing for them in which they bet, HARD, that these super low level home mortgage packages would utterly fail (and some mid/top level. Because remember, if the bottom falls out, everything above is then lowered. So you can bet on all of it going down, which is what happened.) Like 25 to 1 odds. And it did take 2 years, but eventually, it did fall, and create new billionaires.

The movie exaggerated a lot, but some of the main themes are:

1-the bankers NEVER cared if they failed cuz they ALWAYS knew they were 'too big to fail' (to which I've always replied: Should have failed. And gone to the locals.)

2-the bankers were not SMART, just greedy and careless.

3-banks are casinos. I mean, the complexity yet stupidity of that whole betting scheme. And then creating a WHOLE NEW casino game without checking the odds? Geez. The House lost. Banks should not be able to gamble with YOUR livelihoods. Clearly, they have nothing to lose, but WE DO!

4-Banks do control the government. Probably the federal reserve too. That's never discussed.

5-Again, how much money was lost AND created from NOTHING but...bets? That is creating nothing.

6-The movie said a fact (I think) that fucks with my head. 2 of the younger ones just got good news about their bet. Cheering, dancing, etc. Brad Pitt's character gets PISSED, and tells them to stop it. He points how many lives are going to be ruined. Jobs lost. Homelessness. Then says 'Did you know for every 1% in the rise of unemployment, 40,000 people die?' WHAT!? Everything should be locally owned and controlled. Every business worker owned. FUCK that shit.

7-The government changed nothing to stop this from happening again. IMO-about to drop hard, same way, but with student loans and car loans. I know more people who have car loans than house loans...you think they learned? Fuck no. It's a casino, and they will never stop playing the game till we check if their games are rigged (they are.)

8-When this all started to fall apart, the shady thing banks did was take these worst of the worst low level packages, sell them off, THEN report the actual numbers they were rated at, fucking whoever just bought them. AND they initially refused payout on the MASSIVE bets they just lost until they could get the money.

I just...what bugged me was for how many people placing billions on the line, losing multi millions in losses in the 2 years till it actually occurred, why NONE of the banks looked into these people's backgrounds, histories, etc? Like, if a guy comes up to me and says 'I want to give you money for two years on a stupid ass bet', if that same guy got stupid rich predicting the market, HE FUCKING KNOWS SOMETHING. Intentional negligence.

Solid movie. A little showy in places it didn't need to be. But I think I just dumbed down banking for you, and we are dumb for allowing this to continue to exist. If we bailed them out, we own em'. That's it.

tl;dr: the banks acted LITERALLY like casinos, and lost big. So the USA government bailed them out and the banks KNEW it was going to happen which is why they could operate like a casino. And still do.

Update. 1-here's the best scene to sum up their scam part 1 (taking bets on their low levels rising/falling, and bets on THOSE bets). This is what started everything. The ratings technically did, but this made that 10x worse.

part 2 on how standards and practices rigged the ratings:

and finally part 3 explaining how it set up, and how to bet against the banks.

ps-fun note. I forgot a HUGE bombshell they GLOSS over practically. Absolutely NO LAWS saying you can't go work at a big bank after working in standard's and practices. In other words, you give them good ratings, they give you a couchy job 5 years later with a stupid big bonus. EVERYTHING IS CORRUPT! But it makes sense. If you run the country and have inside info, you can still operate in the stock market...it's a big circle jerk.