#the reasons for why john was Like That aren't excuses
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lovetransaction · 1 year ago
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I know I’m talking into the ether with this lol but okay Devil’s Trap and The Scene
The dialogue is generally taken very literally but to me that doesn’t cast much light on the John-Dean relationship, because it’s a demon and it waggles the truth however it needs to in order to get the desired effect. ESPECIALLY because it’s Azazel and it gets off on incest/taboo family shit. It counts on Dean having an encyclopaedic knowledge of John like this:
Dean: You’re not mad? John: For what? Dean: Using a bullet.
Dean already knows that John would be mad as shit about it! But it’s a bizarre reading to me to take this as “John would be pissed about Dean saving Sam” because like ... what the fuck else have these two yahoos done for the past twenty years except save Sam. John would be pissed, sure, but at the situation that required Dean using a bullet. At himself even for getting captured and necessitating it. Just WHY would he ever be mad at his son for saving Sam?? He got mad at Dean for the very opposite thing in the striga episode. 
John: Mad? I’m proud of you. You know, Sam and I, we can get pretty obsessed. But you – you watch out for this family. You always have. Dean: Thanks.
That’s just a weird line (contextually for the characters) because why would John be drawing similarities between himself and Sam at this point and particularly about being obsessive when Sam was technically the reason Dean had to use a bullet. Paired with telling Dean he’s the thing keeping the family together which is exactly what he wants to hear. Seeds of suspicion being slowly sown for Dean. But anyhow--
Dean: Dad, Sam tried to shoot the demon in Salvation. It disappeared. John: This is me. I won’t miss. Now, the gun, hurry.
--that’s the part that sounds like Azazel actually injecting some true-blue John in there bc John is arrogant as fuck lol and Dean respects that for the most part
Dean: He’d be furious. John: What? Dean: That I wasted a bullet. He wouldn’t be proud of me, he’d tear me a new one.
By this point Dean’s super agitated because he’s figured out it’s not actually John so he switches from ‘used’ a bullet to ‘wasted’ a bullet because he can say what he wants and not worry about getting his dad more riled up. And he’s letting Azazel know in no uncertain terms that he’s onto the demon now. But also if John was never ever ever proud of Dean how would Dean even know to compare it? 
It’s so much messier and more interesting imo to read it as a series of behavioural cues that tip Dean off, because as he says -- ain’t nobody knows that man better. It’s not that John’s never been proud of Dean, it’s not that John all of a sudden doesn’t gaf about keeping Sam alive. It’s that John would be furious at the mechanics of how Dean saved Sam, for not finding a way that didn’t involve using/wasting a bullet. The bullets that are their only chance for killing the YED that killed Mary and wants to kill Sam, that took John squandering their entire lives in order to find and that they’ll never get any more of. 
It wouldn’t be fair to Dean ofc and I think after some browbeating, Dean would probably agree that he fucked up (partly in earnest bc he blames himself for all kinds of shit and partly to pacify his dad) but I don’t see it as cut-and-dried as most of the fannish takes I’ve read. Certainly not to the extent that John was SO fixated on the bullets and intent on being angry with Dean that he begrudged one being used to save Sam’s life??!?
The ugliness of it to me is that John held himself to impossible standards but that was kind of okay bc he’d given up on having a normal or good life ever again, without Mary. What was awful is that he held Dean to those standards too -- not Sam, not the baby, which was evident to Dean at least if not to Sam -- so Dean didn’t have many options outside of becoming a perfect Hunter, constantly trying to achieve what Dad thought was a commendable level of skill. He SHOULD’VE found another way to save Sam, isn’t that what his entire life is for? idk I just think “John’s mean and never said he was proud of Dean and also thinks Sam should’ve died, and Dean is a victim with zero agency” is a really boring interpretation
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starkeysbaby · 1 year ago
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I just thought of Rafe with a sleepy gf reader who falls asleep anywhere anytime. His truck, midsummers, party’s, in the middle of a convo. Idk why but I love the concept
omg i absolutley LOVE this concept!
A/N: I APOLOGISE FOR LATE UPLOAD. I HAD MAJOR WRITERS BLOCK, BUT IM BACK NOW!
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Sleepy Girl
request are open <33
pairing: rafe cameron x sleepy!reader [est. relationship] 
warnings: none i think lol? [lemme know if you find any]
summary: numerous scenarios of when rafe cameron takes care of his sleepy girl
navigation ⋅˚₊‧𐙚‧₊˚ ⋅ obx masterlist
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in his truck
It had been half an hour since you had told rafe that you were tired before ending the two hour long facetime call you two had been on. It had been half an hour of you trying to get to sleep. Despite being tired, you couldn't manage to fall asleep which was surprising for you as you'd usually be out within minutes after your head hit the pillows. After a few more minutes of struggling you decided to see if rafe was still awake.
*messages with rafe*
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About ten minutes later you got a text from rafe saying he was outside. While he would usually come get you himself, at night you told him it'd be best if waits in the car so you guys don't wake your sleeping parents. "Hi beautiful" you heard him say as you got into rafe's truck and put your seatbelt on before he could ask you to. His free hand immediately found it's place on your thigh like it always did during your drives. "Hi, thanks for this" you blushed at his compliment from seconds ago. "Anything for you" he smiled as he started driving with no indication of where he was going. This wasn't the first time the two of you would go on drives when one of you was restless (almost always you) so as usual he would just drive around the obx until you both called it a night.
You continued on your drive having small, random, meaningless but interesting conversations as some random song quietly played through the speakers in the background. As you heard rafe talk about his new project with his dad at cameron development, you couldn't help but smile at him, feeling proud and happy at how much his relationship with his dad has improved and how his attitude towards life in general has changed for the better. The sound of his voice and his thumb rubbing against your thigh lulled you sleep causing rafe to gently pull over and place the blanket he kept in the back over you. He looked over at your sleepy form at a red light and couldn't help but to admire you "love you, my sleepy girl"
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at parties (imagine this in a reality where kooks and pouges get along lol)
Kelce had thrown yet another end of school party despite it already being halfway into summer. The teens of the obx were always looking for an excuse to have houseparties, keggers, get togethers, you name it. If it had booze, drugs and people their age, they were down. Not that you were complaining though, you loved having a reason to get all dressed up and spend a night with your best friends and boyfriend. Although you were quite tired today and when vocalising this to rafe and your friends they all replied with something along the lines of "when aren't you". JJ in particular begged you to come and dared you to not fall asleep before 2 am. After a little persuasion and a bet formed between you and jj stating that the loser cleans the others car/bike for the next month, you were down.
At around 1:00 am you all (you, rafe, sarah, kie, cleo, john b, jj, pope, kelce, topper, barry and some other mutual friends) had found yourselves sitting on kelce's rather large balcony alternating between random convos and playing stupid party games such as truth or dare. You were sat in rafe's lap with his arms around you, one of his hands stroking your thigh whilst the other held a beer.
Feeling yourself grow tired you moved your face to bury it into rafe's chest almost forgetting about your bet with jj before you hear barry's voice booming. "YO THORNTON" causing jj to divert his attention away from a clingy kie "looks like mrs country clubs called it a night, pay up" you heard causing you to jolt your head up earning a groan from barry and a chuckle from jj and rafe. "Are you guys betting on me?" you asked putting two and two together. "Hey it's not just us, everyone is, even your boyfriend" jj pointed above you at rafe to get the blame off of himself.
This pulled whatever sleep you had in you away as you sat up and looked at rafe who had a sheepish smile on his face. "Explain" you said staring at rafe. "Well um-" he stuttered earning giggles from kelce and topper who rarely saw rafe at a loss for words "we all bet on who we think is gonna win the bet between you and jj" he explained. "Topper, kelce, john b, and cleo think you're gonna win and kie, barry, pope and sarah think jj's gonna win" he finished. "And you? who do you think is gonna win rafe?" you asked interested to hear his answer.
Some giggles from sarah and john b had you guessing you weren't going to like his answer. "well... baby you know i love you, but my money's on jj" he smiled down at you again with that sheepish smile. "really?" you laughed "you're betting against me?" you fake pouted, not really caring about something so silly. "Sorry baby" rafe laughed kissing your forehead. "Well imma stay up now just so i can see you lose" you smirked up at him "and so i don't have to clean jj's bike for the next month" you added on.
A while later you began to feel sleepy again as you drowned out the conversation between rafe and a few of the others. You looked up at rafe with sleepy eyes and he could swear that he'd never seen anything cuter. "Is it pass two?" you asked him in a pleading voice that had him send a quiet prayer to God that it had passed two so you could stop torturing yourself. He checked his watch, annoyed to see that it was 1:41 am meaning you couldnt sleep for another twenty minutes. Not having the heart to break it to you he just nodded causing you to bury your face into him as you layed against him, sleep immediately taking over you.
He bought his finger up to his lips and looked at everyone else with a death glare, a silent threat to everyone to not ruin it by telling you the actual time or else. He looked back at you sleeping then to jj who had a smirk on his face as he'd just won the bet. Little did jj know that there was no way on earth rafe was gonna let his girl wash jj's bike causing rafe to smirk to himself thinking of how he would deal with jj tomorrow, not caring how annoyed the blonde would get, you won't have to lift a finger. And that money he won from the other bet? He was already planning on how he was gonna take you out with that money and treat you the following day. "goodnight my pretty, sleepy girl" he whispered as he placed one final kiss into the top of your head before resuming his conversation with everyone else.
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at midsummers
So far, midsummers had been everything you dreamt and more. You wore a stunning emerald green satin dress which complimented your skin tone and eye colour so beautifully. Your parents were so happy to see you with rafe enjoying midsummers remembering their own first midsummers together whilst the camerons wouldn't stop complimenting you. You had always been family to them being sarah's bestfriend since you both were three but they loved you even more after you started dating rafe.
The hours flew by as you danced with your parents, kie, sarah, wheezie, rafe and a few of your other friends. You even shared a dance with ward as he thanked you for bringing his son back to him. After a while you, kie and sarah went to grab a drink away from your parents hoping to get something alcoholic into your systems. After a while, not many people were left. Your parents had gone home without you once you told them you'd be staying at tannyhill with rafe and sarah tonight. You, kie and sarah were talking when you saw sarah roll her eyes at something behind you before feeling a pair of hands grab your waist. You turned you head to see rafe smiling at you pulling you away from sarah and kie leading you to the dance floor.
A slow song was playing as you both slowly danced to the music with your arms wrapped around his neck and your head was rested against his chest. Rafe's hands stayed at your waist and hips as he moved your body with his bringing his lips down to your ear "have i told you how beautiful you look tonight?" he whispered. This caused you to giggle "only about a milion times". He chuckled at that and you felt butterflies emerge in your stomach at the rumbles from his chest "well that's not enough, lets make it a million and one" he started before peppering some kisses into your hair "you look gorgeous princess" he finished with one final kiss. You smiled feeling nothing but comfort in that moment in that calm atmosphere "i love you" you whispered earning an "i love you more" from rafe. You continued to dance as you felt your eyes get heavier, sleep taking over you. Rafe also felt your body get heavier as you gave into the sleep leading him to gently carry you to his truck, "let's get you home my sleepy girl"
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at a picnic date/mid convo
"oh my god rafe, this is so cute" you beamed at rafe as he took out a little picnic blanket and placed it over the grass "i know, you want some strawberries?" rafe smirked in a cocky tone, proud of himself for coming up with a successful date. "yes please" you said sitting down next to him. As soon as you sat down you felt rafe's arms pull you into his lap and before you could say anything to object, he stuffed a strawberry into your mouth.
You two proceeded to talk about many things going on in the obx particularly your night at midsummers just yesterday. With your head in rafes lap, you looked up at him whilst he sat upright against a tree peering down at you and mindlessly playing with your hair. When rafe started describing his favourite moments from midsummers, trying find a few pictures topper had managed to snap, he heard your hums get quieter and less frequent as the seconds passed. Shrugging his brows he moves his phone away so your face was no longer blocked, only to find you sleeping with a small smile on your face. He couldn't help chuckle, not only at the small bit of whipped cream on your nose, but also at how his sleepy girl had fallen asleep on yet another date. Slowy, he quietly snapped a picture of you before putting his phone to the side whilst dropping his head down to place a gentle kiss on your forehead, bringing it back up as he continued to admire you.
This was a picture rafe loved.
An image he wanted imprinted in his mind.
His favouite sight.
"sleep well my sleepy girl"
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vanillablankcanvas · 6 months ago
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Headcanons - The Ultimate Combo!
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Brozone - drastically changed their looks coz they hate that they used to dress the same.
Brozone - All the brothers definitely hold doors open for the ladies and then close it on John Dory.
Brozone - All of the brothers share habits and mannerisms without even realising. E.g. tapping their chin when they're thinking hard, cracking knuckles when they're about to really get into a project, tapping toes when anxious.
Brozone - they became world famous, argued and left BEFORE the cage went around the Pop Troll Tree. (Canon?)
Brozone - there was a rumoured 'unfinished' Brozone song that was supposed to be released after that tour. John finally finishes it and the brothers offer to sing it for Poppy's bridal entrance song. Poppy immediately faints. In my head the song is 'Helpless When She Smiles' by The Backstreet Boys
Brozone - whatever the Trolls equivalent of the Superbowl is, I feel like Bruce and JD would be very into it. Jerseys and face paint and everything.
Brozone - when the brothers weren't sure how to reconnect, they ended up playing rummy together.
Bruce - one of those dads who would get a new barbeque and show off all the cool features to the other local dads.
Bruce - "No kids, we're not keeping that stray animal, end of story, no way..." - 1 week later and he's giving it kisses and building it an over the top kennel with a heated blanket and a water fountain.
Bruce - (canon?) carried all their eggs, indirect reason why his hair is so big. (Side note - I read somewhere someone called all their kids 'The Bakers Dozen' and I frigging love that)
Bruce - absolutely gets into the trashiest reality TV shows. "If Alejandro doesn't confess his love in this episode I will flip this table"
Bruce - makes Troll cuisine for his kids
Bruce - there aren't any Troll sized clothing stores around so Bruce sometimes has to make his own clothes.
Bruce - has considered getting his kids hug time bracelets
Bruce - the restaurants kitchen is set up like in Ratatouille (ladders, ramps, bridges, pulley systems) for Bruce to navigate.
Bruce - keeps every one of his kids drawings, their refrigerator is absolutely covered in them.
Bruce - his go-to excuse is "I can't, I've got 13 college tuitions to save for."
Bruce - has given 'love coupons' to Brandy before
Bruce - theorizes that his daughter LaBreezy will be the one to take over the restaurant.
Bruce - tries developing and inventing his own recipes, Brandy has to remind him that not everyone can handle as much sugar as a Troll can. He reels it back a bit.
Bruce - makes specific food for different reasons. E.g. makes bread when he's angry so he can take it out on the dough, makes lasagnas so he can use the leftovers as an excuse to visit someone, makes spicy dishes when he wants revenge.
Bruce - cameras make him self-conscious. If he is in a group he can tolerate it but hates being the only one in the photo.
Bruce - has caught his kids trying to do the Brozone dance routines. He tries to stay out of it best he can and let them have their fun but then they ask him to teach them and doesn't he just melt.
Bruce - has a wedding ring but it is Vacationer sized. He keeps it in his hair mostly but will braid it into his hair like an accessory for special occasions.
Bruce - 100% certain Poppy and Branch's first born would be a boy. "We're a family of five brothers! It took Brandy and I thirteen tries to have a daughter. Trust me, I have no doubt your first egg will absolutely be a boy." *They have a girl* Bruce 😑
Bruce - all the kids now request Brozone songs instead of lullabies.
Bruce - opened the restaurant before he met Brandy. Used all the money he had left from Brozone to open it.
Bruce - teaches his kids about body positivity.
Bruce - mortifies his kids by trying to use slang. "That was so very lit!" "Daaaaaaaaaadddddd"
Bruce - just starts being a Dad to everyone without realizing it e.g. cuts food into smaller bites, starts randomly folding people's clothes, licking his finger and wiping food off faces, always having snacks and bandaids in his hair.
Bruce - sleeps wearing a hair bonnet and continues his extensive skincare routine into adulthood.
Bruce - grew a full beard once. Then he had babies. They became obsessed with pulling his beard. No more beard.
Bruce - his kids have buried him in the sand more times than he cares to admit.
Bruce - has attempted to set up John Dory on a date with Brandy's sister.
Bruce - kept having kids because he and Brandy wanted at least one daughter. When they finally had LaBreezy they decided to stop.
Bruce - learned to surf to get Brandy's attention when they first met. Ended up falling in love with surfing before Brandy fell for him. 😁
Bruce - can and will reorganize someone else's kitchen to what he deems is more efficient.
Bruce - always the first to volunteer to babysit other Troll's kids. Not that he doesn't appreciate his own children, he just loves being about to dote on kids he can actually hold on his hip and carry in his hair. Just being able to do the little Troll things he can't do with his own giant kids.
Bruce - noone on the island knew about his 'past life' except for Brandy. (Canon?)
Bruce - has the world's best hangover cure but it's a secret.
Bruce - there have been times when he has muddled up his kids names and he hates himself every time.
Floyd - his hair is naturally pink but JD made him make it redder because 'we're a boyband and pink is a girls colour'
Floyd - absolutely judges you for your star sign
Floyd - knows exactly how to pop away that pain is someones back/shoulder/hips. Grabs JDs shoulder "Relax John. After three. One...two.." CRACK
Floyd - moves back to Pop Village for what JD calls 'early retirement' works in a sort of wellness center that has music therapy and yoga and stuff.
Floyd - in a desperate last resort he once mentioned he was part of Brozone to be noticed by a music producer. It's one of his biggest regrets.
Floyd - has volunteered at homeless shelters and performed at benefit concerts.
Floyd - was 100% sure he was going to die in the bottle. He now has a new outlook on life after being given a second chance.
Floyd - wants a long term relationship but is afraid of getting attached and being used.
Floyd - practices advanced yoga
Floyd - has developed claustrophobia
Floyd - released one solo album, one limited run, it was mentioned he is a former member Brozone on the cover to boost sales. It was a flop. This crushed Floyd.
Floyd - plans to get more body mods in the future.
Floyd - when asked about his past he describes it as 'colourful'. People are yet to find out what he means by this.
Floyd - kept two copies of his own album. He was going to give the other to Grandma Rosiepuff for her collection.
Floyd - when performing solo he does 10 push ups and drinks tea before going on stage. (Apparently Troye Sivan does this and I could see Floyd doing it too 😁)
Floyd - has tried on dresses and corsets before. Prefers overskirts.
Floyd - in a desperate attempt to try and forget V&V, Floyd nearly shaved his head.
Floyd - he actually wrote all of those songs for Velvet and Veneer!
Floyd - after the Mount Rageous incident he gets a little bit reckless without realizing it. He has an "I just survived death so cliff jumping isn't scary anymore' kinda attitude.
Floyd - can read palms and tarot cards.
Floyd - went through the seven stages of grief over his own death.
Floyd - can mix drinks. Messily. Was dating a bartender once and picked up some things from him.
Floyd - used to busk to earn extra cash (based on that one concept art)
Floyd - felt he needed to start a solo career because he wrote a lot of songs that JD didn't pay attention to.
Floyd - did in fact live with the other Troll tribes for a while. Hard Rock Trolls were the last ones he met. This was where he met his manager/mentor.
Floyd - high pain tolerance and godlike levels of patience.
Floyd - has been to rehab for hard candy, is currently 10 years sober. Now advocates for health and wellness in Pop Village.
Floyd - Broke up with several ex's when he found they were all only using him for his fame. 💔
Floyd - can only sleep comfortably near an open window. Sometimes can only sleep sitting up.
Floyd - will randomly stare off into space or mutter to himself.
Floyd - *clears throat* I ship Floom! 💕🏳️‍🌈
Floyd - can't stick to new hobbies for very long, he hyperfixates for a week or two then gets bored. Macrame, candle making, soap making, jewelry making, photography are some examples.
Floyd - did a few red carpet appearances during his solo era, he felt very out of place. @ssippingwaterfalls 💕
John Dory - has embarrassing baby pictures of his brothers as leverage
John Dory - over-exaggerates his retellings of stories "I fought off 30 no no no 40 snakes with one hand behind my back."
John Dory - always casually asking Poppy, Brandy and Viva to marry him, over small things too "Brandy, these pancakes are delicious, marry me."
John Dory - freaky level spice tolerance, looks people in their teary eyes as he bites a raw ghost pepper
John Dory - says "Gotta get home to the missus" when referring to Rhonda
John Dory - narrates himself "Against all odds, the brave and handsome Troll was able to tame the ferocious beast" he says as he's washing a purring Rhonda
John Dory - the Uncle that buys Bruce's kids toys that are either loud or that make a huge mess
John Dory - didn't finish school, made sure his brothers did
John Dory - has not kept track of his age and is in denial when people remind him.
John Dory - met Rhonda when she eats him. He just walks right out the door confused.
John Dory - has been arrested before, he changes the reason everytime someone asks.
John Dory - occasionally uses 'chewing tobacco' (which honestly in the Trolls-verse would be some kinda chewing gum 😂)
John Dory - serial flirt (very bad at it, he thinks he's great at it)
John Dory - does weird stuff because of his isolation e.g. will eat what's left over on the plates when Bruce's customers leave, will ask when the baby's due but they're just overweight, will go into detail about gutting a fish in front of Trollings.
John Dory - can open a wine/champagne bottle with his machete and light a match with his teeth
John Dory - does not own pyjamas, falls asleep in what he wore that day.
John Dory - has a midlife crisis when all the Trollings in Pop village thought he was Branch's dad.
John Dory - has had several concussions and plenty of broken bones. Got very good at applying first aid to himself.
John Dory - makes his own Moonshine
John Dory - sworn off ever having children.
John Dory - pretty scrappy at self defence, can hold his own when boxing.
John Dory - always has some kind of weapon on him at all times.
John Dory - tends to manspread when sitting.
John Dory - has been targeted by Bounty Hunters before, resulting in a gnarly injury on his hand he now covers with his glove.
John Dory - for a time he was convinced that he was the last Pop Troll
John Dory - sometimes refers to himself in the third person. "John Dory doesn't need a map!"
John Dory - doesn't 'get' modern art, pretends he does so people don't think he's dumb.
John Dory - will try to use fancier sounding words in a sentence, thinking it makes sense. It doesn't.
John Dory - when doing outdoor work, his brothers silently bet how long it takes before JD is unnecessarily shirtless.
John Dory - ends up helping with raising and handling the critters kept in the village. E.g rearing orphaned Cuddle Pups, shearing the Puffalos, breaking in the Adorabulls, taming wild flyer bugs.
John Dory - when living on his own, he would only come back to civilization just before the start of winter when it would be harder to forage and hunt food. He would spend a week or so stocking up on supplies, interact with the locals, then disappear again.
John Dory - takes night classes to finally get his highschool diploma. Is too embarrassed to tell anyone until he graduates.
John Dory - doesn't get sick often. But when he does, he keeps going to the point of exhaustion.
John Dory - has indeed crossed paths with Delta Dawn before. Both of them have very different versions of the story. "I serenaded her." "The fool was whining something from the inside of a jail cell."
John Dory - has been known to sleep with his eyes open. Freaks people out.
John Dory - will drink milk straight from the carton and put it back in the fridge.
John Dory - teaches Bruce's kids all the swear words and does in fact tell them his rendition of where eggs come from.
John Dory - claims to be holding back grey hairs with sheer will power
John Dory - believes in love at first sight, just not for himself.
John Dory - will wrestle and roughhouse to bond with people.
John Dory - if there was a couple sitting on a couch, JD will sit between them and not even realize what he did!
John Dory - he doesn't let it show but his ears are constantly twitching to check for danger, a side effect of living in the wilderness alone for so long.
Clay - writes long and very detailed critical reviews of restaurants
Clay - has reading glasses. Probably the ones that attach magnetically at the nose ridge.
Clay - labels everything (labelmaker is to Clay as Gary is to Branch)
Clay - very into color coded itineraries and always know everyone's business "Poppy is currently at Smidge's pod doing her hair" "How could you possibly know that?" "I have my sources."
Clay - also a notary and registered marriage celebrant
Clay - hair was always naturally green but JDs hair was already green. JD said he had to be yellow for the band, they needed that color coordinated group vibe.
Clay - has drafts for his own book series
Clay - actually plays golf
Clay - gets clumsy when trying to impress someone he admires (imagine him meeting King Peppy and he just knocks things over)
Clay - competitive af - brothers know better than to verse him at anything - has an over the top victory dance
Clay - receives special recognition alongside Viva for protecting the Putt Putt Trolls. (Knighthood? Trollstopia's official CFO?)
Clay - has a stupidly complicated coffee order
Clay - plans to move the Hole N Fun between Pop Village and Bergen Town. Imagine the business!
Clay - refers to Viva as his 'Work Wife'
Clay - knows how to use a stenograph
Clay - absolutely did not roll around the putt-putt course like the others.
Clay - everything must be neat and organized, after living with four brothers he values cleanliness so I imagine he would haaaaate glitter.
Clay - studied hard at math to set himself apart from his brothers.
Clay - occasionally tutors math to Trollings.
Clay - has a decent sized nest egg
Clay - graduated highschool early
Clay - has business cards stored in his hair
Clay - knows how to tie different knots for neckties.
Clay - can spin a pen around his fingers
Clay - is thinking of getting his own critter transportation
Clay - has no fuss, no fun breakfast. Plain toast or fibre cereal.
Clay - itching to hook Pop Village up with electricity.
Clay - was definitely the problem child. Being the middle child in a house full of teenage boys, coupled with the constant threat of Bergens with a sprinkling of John Dory as an older brother results in an angry little Troll boy.
Clay - his hardcore fans were known as Claydies.
Clay - the Putt-Putt Trolls didn't have a sad book club as they had no books! After the reunion Clay was very excited about the vast new collection of books he could get his hands on!
Clay - finds out that he was Poppy's favourite Brozone member when she was little and doesn't he just boast about it any chance he gets!
Clay - for Clay to finally forgive John Dory, JD agreed to perform for the brothers+Poppy and Viva in ONLY the funderdrawers. "Do you feel like you're having 76% more fun yet John? Cause I am!" *Camera snap*
Clay - bruises like a damn peach.
Clay - Viva made him co-leader after she gave up on the notion of being immediately rescued and realized Clay was already constructing and implementing long term settlement plans.
Clay - like the other Putt-Putt Trolls, he has basically become Nocturnal. Even with this, he pulls 'allnighters' to finish any work he has, so his sleep pattern is very inconsistent.
Clay - has a lot of energy. When he isn't dancing, he fidgets, taps his foot, bounces his knee, drums pens.
Clay - has many, many of the same sweater romper. All of them are different shades of green.
Clay - eventually hires an assistant. The assistant is mentally prepared for Clay to be a dictator of a boss. They are shocked when Clay keeps saying things like "Have you had a break yet?" "I think you need a day for your mental health." "Yes, that's how much I'm paying you. How are you going to save for your own pod if I pay you any less?"
Clay - had to quit being the Fun Boy cold turkey so that the Putt Putt Trolls would trust in his leadership.
Clay - I imagine a running gag that random Trolls keep calling him Viva's boyfriend/husband, and he keeps trying to correct them, but he is always cut off or they immediately forget. At some point a random Troll is like "What, is Viva not good enough for you?" And he is so exhausted from fighting it, he just gives up and rolls with it.
Clay - will stay up to sunrise reading 'just one more chapter'
Clay - his brothers collectively tried to convince him that he was the adopted brother.
Clay - is quite squeamish. The sight of vomit, open wounds and bodily fluids; Clay will absolutely pass out. Snotty babies make him very uncomfortable.
Clay - gets Viva to braid his hair out of his face only when something really serious is happening *cracks neck* "Viva?" "Yah?" "Braid me" "Yes, Sir." Shwoooop
Clay - Found out the Classical Trolls have a library larger the Pop Village. "Viva, they have a whole wing dedicated to tragedies! Tragedies, Viva!"
Clay - okay, so he and Viva have never been a couple, even if he ever considered it, their work came first and he didn't want to jeopardize what they had. Buuuuuuuttt the thought that another Troll could one day be Viva's person, that she would go to them instead of him for comfort or ideas or laughs or safety or hugs... it makes Clay feel... weird.
Clay - at some point is named some kinda Troll magazines most eligible bachelor. Bro was in a boyband, co-runs a society of survivors, runs a business, is close friends with royalty, has been knighted, has a license to practice accounting and was part of the only known Perfect Family Harmony. He's apparently a hot commodity now.
Clay - tells John Dory that some appliances are voice activated when they aren't. Will watch JD yell at the coffee maker. 😈
Clay - gets random nosebleeds.
Clay - is writing an autobiography. It will not be kind.
Clay - can read Latin.
Clay - overachiever. Was good at academics and sports in highschool.
Clay - a gambler, can count cards, good poker face and good at reading people's 'tells'.
Branch - for Pop Trolls - being in a famous singing group is the equivalent of being a recognized expert in your field. So, the fact that Branch is in TWO famous boy bands is like he has several PhDs.
Branch - Kismet formed inside a group home for Trollings
Branch - toying with the idea of building plans for a Pop Village Castle. (Secretly a fortress)
Branch - he is very, VERY aware that by marrying Poppy one day he would become King. In secret he plans. And plans. And plans. Mr. Survivalist Troll handles this new fear the way he usually does; with over-preparedness!
Branch - Kismet were the ones that originally got him hooked on ring pops.
Branch - learns phrases in other languages to build relationships with subgenre tribes of Trolls. E.g the K-Pop and Reggaeton Trolls.
Branch - started building the bunker while he was still living in the group home with other Trollings.
Branch - will hold onto Poppy in his sleep like she'll disappear if he lets go.
Branch - all those times that Branch thought the Bergens were coming? It was actually Creek harshly pranking Branch to make him look like a fool.
Viva - that concept art of tiny Viva is the age she was when they escaped the Troll Tree. So like 15 maybe?
Viva - wants to make up for all the missed holidays/birthdays/parties with Poppy so she is constantly popping out from places with gifts yelling SURPRISE!
Viva - does not knock on doors and absolutely will walk straight in when someone is changing clothes
Viva - snorts when she laughs too hard
Viva - biggest Broppy shipper. Already has their wedding planned in her head.
Viva - adrenaline junkie
Viva - no sense of personal space
Viva - rubs it into Clay's face that the ONE time he leaves is when Bergens show up. Uses it as leverage for the most petty of things. "Oh you want the last cupcake? Remember that time you left and Bergens came?" She's not even mad about it she just wanted the cupcake.
Viva - has made a list of all the things she's wanted to experience with Poppy. Makeup, planning parties, dealing with heartbreaks etc. they may not be the first times they've both done these things, but their excited to try them together. 😊
Viva - she reeeaaalllyyy wants to braid all of Bruce's hair. And Brandy's. And their kids. And oh look how much hair Vacationers have!
Viva - is worried that Clay doesn't need her around anymore.
Viva - wants to have children. Lots of them!
Viva - tries to hide sadder feelings from Poppy. Worried that Poppy won't want to hang out with her if she isn't fun.
Viva - calls the older brothers Mr.Bruce and Mr.JD (Clay told her to)
Viva - blows raspberries on peoples cheeks/arms/stomachs to show affection.
Viva - likes to collect 'things'. (Canon?) Never know when you might need the thing again. It can be reused for a different purpose. Side effect of trying to survive. Borderline hoarder. Clay does it too, he is just more organized about it.
Poppy - wishes that Branch would initiate physical contact more often.
Poppy - When something is wrong and the brothers don't want her to know, she can immediately tell because they call her 'Queen Poppy'.
Poppy - besides giving Clay and Viva their titles, she considers the other brothers unofficially part of her 'court' as well. (She might knight them later on, who knows?)
Poppy - sometimes feels guilty, if things had been different, Viva would have been Queen. Viva tries to reassure Poppy that she is "The right Troll for the role." 👍🏻 Also Viva tries to argue that they both technically get be Queens now anyway.
Poppy - would have many pillows and plushies on her bed.
Brandy - has swaddled Bruce before. By accident or on purpose, she will never tell.
Brandy - after watching Bruce, she now puts little things in her hair. Nothing huge, maybe a pen and a food order pad, a snack and bandaids for the kids. Depends on the day.
Rhonda - you know in Frozen, how Sven really wants to eat Olafs nose the whole movie? Imagine that but Rhonda wants to eat Mr.Dinkles
Rhonda - locks JD outside when she's annoyed with him. "Who needs you, I wanted to sleep on this rock anyway!"
Rhonda - when she was a baby she was more like a big suitcase than a vehicle.
Rhonda - really likes rolling around in mud, especially after she's just been cleaned. JD > 😑
Trolls - in general Trolls are pretty rare outside their usual kingdoms and it's considered good luck to meet one.
Trolls - letting another troll touch your hair is a very huge sign of trust.
Trolls - have their own version of godparents. Museparents.
Trolls - Can you imagine how many shades of foundation a Troll makeup store has to stock?! I mean, they probably don't need foundation but could you imagine?!
Trolls - having an egg on the way is known as an 'Eggnancy" 😂
Trolls - varies amongst the tribes but hair length and thickness is a good indication of their physical strength and health. So long, thick hair means they're healthy and can lift heavy weights. E.g. Smidge, Bruce, Boom. Whereas short, wild or thin hair means they could be older, unhealthy or just not physically strong. E.g. Peppy and Thrash.
Trolls - eventually a hybrid Troll (e.g. Techno/Funk) is born in Trollstopia and the parents name the baby after Poppy.
Trolls - JD and King Peppy do the same pose in some stock images. I like to think it's like a Pop Village salute. (It probably has an actual meaning)
Trolls - Hard Candy = Hard Drugs 🍭
Trolls - King Peppy invented all these bizarre holidays when they were trapped in the Troll tree to keep hope alive and to boost morale.
Trolls – teenage Pop Trolls wear eachothers hug time bracelets when they're dating. Like wearing their boyfriend's school pin or their jacket.
Trolls- Trollings can't make their hair into a gradient style until they are older. (survival/camouflage situations they can do, but only temporarily)
Putt-Putt Trolls - all delayed having Trollings worrying for their future safety. The very few eggs that hatched are hidden and protected by the whole tribe. (Putt-Putt baby names: Birdie, Par, Ace, Caddie, Fore, Eagle, Divot, Links, Scramble) Clay and Viva were present for every one of them hatching.
Putt Putt Trolls - all of them are wearing the same outfits because they used Bergen sized socks from the golf courses souvenir stand.
Putt Putt Trolls - use the courses tokens as general currency.
Putt-Putt Trolls - that coordinated attack to capture Bridget and Grissle? Clay was the one who planned and trained them.
Yodelers - Hickory and Dickory had a brother named Dock. He was the one that was rumoured to be crushed by an avalanche. He was the one to hunt down John Dory when everyone thought he was the last Pop Troll. While chasing him down a cliff side, he swung an ice pick straight through John Dory's left hand.
Sugar Gals - SPICE GIRLS TROLLS! I absolutely can picture young JD being so frustrated if BroZone was overtaken on the charts by a rival group
Crimp - goes to work for King Gristle and Queen Bridget after TBT.
Guy Diamond - Trolls have eggs when they have powerful feelings of love. Guy Diamond was able to have Tiny because he loves himself so much.
Tiny Diamond - checks on Branch and Poppy's egg daily asking if his new BFFL is here yet.
Tiny Diamond - the best wingman! E.g. He's hanging out with JD and starts playing up the baby image to lure in the ladies. "I wuv you Uncle John. You're my best friend!" And the ladies are like "Aww!" Tiny whispers "You're welcome"
Cloud Guy - gave Branch 101 reasons why he should officiate his and Poppy's wedding.
Queen Barb - messing with the Rock String made Thrash lose his mind and made Barb more aggressive. Notice they both seemed to be more level headed after the strings were destroyed?
Riff - studying to work in Aged Care. His studies are sponsored so that he can look after King Thrash.
Boom - Floyd's solo music helped Boom when he was coming out. 🏳️‍🌈
King Peppy - Didn't tell Poppy about Viva because he was in the early stages of dementia. (Canon?) For a while he thought Poppy WAS Viva. By the time he realised his 'mistake', Poppy was already grown.
Vacay Island - the brothers sometimes help Bruce at his restaurant. They have name tags with funny 'work names'. Flood, Big Fish, Classy, and Big Brunch. Viva and Poppy have done the odd shift as well, as Pinky and Diva. 😝
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thebibi · 2 months ago
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I'm not saying Van Helsing is actually jealous (or maybe I am?), but I think he doesn't have the kind of friendships that Jack, Quincey and Arthur have. Which is why he makes comments about jealousy in a novel where three suitors blatantly aren't jealous for being in love with the same woman.
Like, just look at Van Helsing's introduction. He dropped everything he was doing as a professor to go see Jack. He immediately starts reestablishing their dynamic from university. He wants to not only treat Lucy, but also see a friend he hasn't seen since graduation, presumably, several years ago. I feel like that explains his extreme enthusiasm in the letter on Sept 2nd.
Then of course he meets Lucy, and he realizes that this is not just an excuse to hang out but she is very much in grave danger. And also, he is charmed by Lucy and grows to really like her. The same thing happens with Arthur. He comes into the house interrupting Van Helsing and Jack's discussion, and the professor furrows his brows at him, but quickly relaxes. Jack is very astute to notice it.
As of now, it's taking Van Helsing some time to come to terms with it. Hence the comments like "Arthur would be jealous if John gave blood to Lucy" or (vague spoilers for tomorrow) "Arthur wouldn't want Lucy to wrinkle her nose." Perhaps someone as loyal and geniune as Arthur is a rarity for Van Helsing, so he's held in disbelief for a while, even though he obviously likes him.
It wouldn't be a far stretch to imagine Van Helsing thriving academically but feeling lonely for personal reasons.
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cupid-eclipse · 8 months ago
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Unrequited Love (F!Reader x Price)
A bit of angst
   Summary: Reader has been a member of the 141 for so long, long enough that she's loved her Captain for more than 2 years. But is she allowed to be with someone in the military, let alone her own Captain?
A/N: Reader's nickname is Lass. It's not reader's real name.
    "Mornin', Lass." Gaz yawned, reaching for a glass cup before putting it on the coffee dispenser. "How'd your sleep go?"
    "Fine, I guess," You sighed before giving him a small smile. "Ay, what's with the sad face?" Gaz raised his eyebrows, looking directly at you while grabbing his cup of coffee before wincing and letting go of the cup onto the table immediately.
    "Ow! Why's it hot?!" You watched as he shook his hand a few times to loosen the pain. "Of course it is; you didn't use the holder to grab the cup!" You chuckled slowly, watching Gaz's movements.
  "Lass?" While you were having fun watching Gaz, a voice calling your name from behind made you freeze. You knew who that voice belonged to all too well. Turning around, you saw Price watching your movements intently. "My office, please." He ordered–pleaded, you fought with your own thoughts. His voice sounded too soft—unusually soft—for it to not be a plea.
    You turned around again to look at Gaz, giving him one last smile before standing up from your seat and following Price to his office. Upon arriving, you took a small, deep breath before entering his office with him as he closed the door behind you and walked in front of you.
    "...Why'd you wanna see me?" You spoke first. Price stood a few meters away from you, but not too far away for you to not be able to reach him with your hands.
    "...I realized you've been acting a little... off lately. Your performances have dropped both in training and on missions. I rarely even see you eating, as if you're in distress. Mind to share it with me?" Price spoke softly, his gaze searching yours.
    You gave him a tired smile before replying. "I'm okay." You reassured him. "I guess I'm just stressed with work."
    "Stressed with work to the point you've not eaten anything for two days?" Price exclaimed. "Don't act like I don't know. I've been watching your movements these past few days, and I noticed all of the untouched food on your plate. You didn't even drink a single drop of water!"
    "I know work can be tiring, but that's no excuse for you to neglect yourself. And I know you've been skipping sleep, too." Price said, his voice full of worry and concern. "Please, tell me what's wrong." He begged.
    "...what are we?" You muttered quietly, looking down to the floor. "What?" Price breathed, his eyes searching yours. "What are we, Captain John Price?" You spoke, calling him by his full name.
    "Are we really just "superiors" and "comrades"? Do you really not have any feelings for me?" You said it, your voice trembling with emotion. "I've been acting like this because of you, Captain. You're the reason for my behavior right now." You confessed.
    "..." Price looked at you before giving you a small smile. "...I do feel the same way, Lass. But you do know it's not allowed for us to be in a relationship here in the milita–"
    "Then why did you kiss me that day? To give me false hope?" You interrupted, looking up at him intently. "To play with my feelings and then break my heart? Is that it?"
    "Lass, please—don't go there." Price warned softly. "Go where? I'm right, aren't I? You only kissed me to play with my feelings. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today."
    "I know it's wrong, Captain, but if you really do feel the same way about me, then you would try. But I'm not seeing your efforts." You sobbed. "I've loved you for so long, and when you kissed me that day, I thought my dreams were finally coming true. That I could finally be with you. Yet I was wrong." You avoided his gaze, turning around before twisting the door handle and opening the door.
    "I hope you know that what you did really broke me." You said this before walking out of his office and closing the door to his face before he could run after you.
Part 2?
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themultifandomgal · 1 year ago
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Arthur Shelby- Learning A New Way To Communicate
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When Arthur left for war with his brothers, his daughter was only 1 1/2 years old. Her mother had passed away so it was left yo Aunt Polly to bring up the young girl. 4 years later and the wars over. Arthur has been reunited with his little girl, which of course he's excited to see, but it also a little worried to how she will react to seeing him again since it's been so long. Unfortunately during the war YN got meningitis, which has caused her to loose her hearing. Polly learnt sign language to communicate with YN. Of course Ada and Finn have also picked it up and use sign language.
YN waits with her aunts and uncle Finn at the train station. She sighs 'will daddy still love me' to which Polly responds 'of course he will'. The train stops and out comes the men who physically survived the war, but maybe not mentally. Around them are many wives, mothers, girlfriends, children crying and screaming, but YN can't hear, she just watches what's going on around her. Polly takes the little girls hand and walks her over to Arthur, Tommy and John
"There's my little girl! Look at you now you've grown so much!" Arthur yells smiling. YN looks at her aunt to help her understand what was just said. Of course aunt Polly let's go if YNs hand and signs what Arthur just said "Polly what are you doing?" he asks
"Why don't we go home and I'll explain" frowning Arthur follows Polly with his brothers.
"2 years ago YN got sick, meningitis they said. She lost her hearing. YNs deaf Arthur she can't hear you talking"
"What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I think you had your own things to deal with"
"So how do we communicate with her?" Tommy asks
"With sign language, Polly learnt it and has been teaching us" Ada tells her brothers
"Will you teach me?" Arthur asks
"Of course" Polly responds just as YN walks into the living room. She goes straight to Ada signing for her to come upstairs and play dolls with her
"What does she want?" Arthur asks
"For me to play with her"
"Fuck. I'm her own father and I don't even know what she's saying. She doesn't want to come near me"
"Arthur, she wasn't even 2 when you left for the war. It's going to take time for you to get used to each other again. You'll be fine though" Ada replies getting off the sofa
"Try taking her out, learn the basics. She'll come round"
Over the next few months Arthur has to build up the relationship with his daughter since she doesn't really remember him. She's seen photos and knows that Arthur is her father, but for obvious reasons they aren't close. Arthur's been learning sign language, but still needs help with certain words, especially words that aren't used that often
"Polly how do I sign cake shop?" Arthur asks his aunt who helps him. He then signs to his daughter asking if she'd like to go to the cake shop for some treats. She nods her head going to get her shoes and coat on.
Outside Arthur does his best signing to YN to communicate
"Arthur! How are you?" A man walks over taking Arthur's hand in his "is this your little one? She's gotten so big. Haven't you. Got your dads eyes" YN looks at Arthur then back at the man feeling confused
"She can't hear you Bill"
"Can't hear, what a load of shit. Cause she can hear me"
"No Bill she's deaf" although YN and Arthur are still getting used one on another again, YN already feels safe with him so she moves her body closer to his
"Never used to be. She's got ears hasn't she" Arthur gets angry feeling very protective of his little girl, but since she is here he holds it in
"Excuse us" Arthur says nudging his daughter to move forward. Once away from Bill Arthur signs that he's sorry that she felt scared or confused. All Arthur wants to do is keep his daughter safe and loved in a world where if you were different in any way you would struggle.
Arthur and YN grew closer as the months went on. Arthur got more confident with sign language and YN started showing her personality more and more. Tommy and John also learn sign language and then their significant others would learn it. YN never felt isolated once with her family.
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scoobydoodean · 9 months ago
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the thing about emma vs amy is they’re literally not comparable at all really!! one HAS KILLED PEOPLE WITHOUT REMORSE (arguably, it’s been a while since i’ve seen the episode) and the other… HAS NOT! a comparison i have never seen people make that is actually so much better, so much more interesting? emma and that dude in metamorphosis, the rugaru. both are supposedly “monsters” who will inevitably kill somebody and thus deserve to be killed as a preemptive measure (even though they haven’t actually hurt anybody yet), as argued by sam about emma and dean/the other hunter about the rugaru. the difference? DEAN DECIDES TO TRUST SAM AND TRY TO HELP THE DUDE. sam on the other hand disregards dean’s wishes and any possibility of emma making the right choice.
i’m convinced that the only reason people compare emma and amy is because “dean admits he was wrong to kill her” (which isn’t actually what he says but people don’t really care about the exacts). if they were to look at any other episode where the definition of monster is argued, they’d see that sam is usually on the side of “give them a chance” (and ftr dean is too almost all of the time) UNLESS it’s a “monster” associated with dean… why are sam’s morals different for these people? for emma?
sorry i know that’s a long rant, but every time i see the emma vs amy debates it boggles me that metamorphosis dude is never brought up too! also i hope this all makes sense haha
Emma and Amy aren't even remotely comparable. In any way. Emma and Amy's son who Dean didn't kill? Yep. They are directly comparable. But Amy and Emma? Get outta here! Jack Montgomery (Metamorphosis) and Jack Kline (two Jack's!) can both be interesting Emma parallels. Especially when comparing how desperate fans are to coddle Jack Kline from so much as experiencing a negative emotion when he's brainwashing people from the womb, bursting out of his mom's body like something out of Alien, and actively strangling innocent black store clerks to death.
Contrary to the belief of people who don't watch the show but are always making wide-sweeping claims about what happens in it, Sam and Dean have a long history of trying to protect "good" monsters (including from other hunters!) from 2.03 "Bloodlust" and onwards (2.03, 2.17, 4.04, 5.06, 6.02, 8.04, 12.04, 12.16). There's a weird disk horse that's opened up in the last several years that Sam and Dean are always indiscriminately killing monsters who don't deserve it all of the time because "supernatural power bad" and that just isn't true. Like. Actually look at the cases they go on? Sam and Dean kill murderers whose crimes are committed supernaturally which is going to allow them to get away with it and/or continue doing it. They don't kill people just because they're "different"—in fact, the entirety of season 2 is about not killing people just because they're different, or because of some alleged inescapable dark destiny.
I've spoken before about how "Bloodlust" is treated by fandom as an episode where Sam stands on some sort of moral high ground from the beginning about the existence of good monsters, but that isn't what actually happens in the episode. Sam ends the episode with zero remorse about any previous hunts John ever took them on while Dean thinks back and wonders if they hurt people who didn't deserve it at some point (no questionable hunts in season 1 FYI—and the majority of them are ghost-related).
The way that Sam can compartmentalize/let go of his past actions and move on is useful in their field of work, but in contrast with Dean's tendency to feel eaten alive by guilt, it often results in fandom disk horse where fans follow Sam's lead by compartmentalizing and burying and excusing his actions as if they never happened, while putting everything Dean does under a microscope because his visible guilt implicates him in the eyes of fans. Because Dean spends several episodes feeling bad after 7.03, he must have done something super duper bad and horrible and is the worst person alive, and Amy didn't deserve to die. But because Sam doesn't ever show a single shred of remorse after 7.13 and Dean doesn't ever talk about it again, Sam must have been in the right. It's actually bizarre when you think about it—Sam's lack of guilt ought to be chilling to fans, but instead, it's often used to absolve him of wrongdoing... and for all their flaws that everyone is always harping on, I do think Bucklemming intended Sam's actions and his attitude after to be chilling. They don't intend him to be seen as "in the right".
Dean buries what happens with Emma down deep, and it's obvious why. He can't take another hit like this in season 7. Not after Cas and Bobby. He buries it deep down like he buried Lisa and Ben deep down. In addition... if Dean wanted to bring Emma up, who the actual fuck would or could he have talked to about her? Bobby's dead. Cas is dead. The only person left in Dean's life is the person who killed his daughter, and Sam made it very clear that he didn't give a shit how Dean felt about her being dead. In fact, he lectured Dean for hesitating to kill his own biological child, and said she "wasn't really his". Then when Dean disputed that claim, Sam immediately called him crazy and acted like Dean's actions (trying to push a monster kid who hasn't hurt anyone off a terrible path) are out of character when they ARE NOT (2.03, ALL OF SEASON 2, 4.04, 5.06). Even 7.03 itself supports Dean's actions with Emma as in character, because the ACTUAL Emma analogue, Amy's son, is not killed by Dean. So yeah. Who the FUCK was Dean going to talk with this about? Given Sam's long and storied history of behaving as the thought police, if Dean had so much as looked too sad in his presence, Sam would have lit into him all over again, and what fucking good was that going to do?
And yeah teehee Sam doesn't want Dean to have too many friends. More than one often-dead close friend is too many.
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mirroredmemoriez · 1 year ago
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Cecilia thoughts-
Obviously, I don't think Cecilia is a good person, nor do I ''like'' her as one. However, from a character standpoint I can appreciate her! I think a lot of people's perceptions of her are clouded by obviously loving the pre-existing characters like John and Amanda... Which you can't blame people for!
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However, from a story telling perspective? I enjoy the fact she's just an evil woman. She's money hungry and willing to step on anybody (whistles) to get what she wants. There are no excuses for what she does, she's just horrible. Of course disliking her for this is justified, I just think that it's interesting how people are willing to gloss over one evil act and condemn others. I also believe we need more unapologetically terrible women on screen, because even Amanda who is building death traps isn't actually evil- More so a deeply misguided and traumatized woman. Yes, torture and killing is morally incorrect, but a lot of the time we look at why don't we? Amanda does so because that's what she's been taught will help people and with Gabriela's death? Her reaction shows she's not desensitised to certain aspects of what she does. Cecilia on the other hand, makes people THINK she'll help them, but she knows that's not what she's doing... She's scamming them. Which to be fair is interesting, because if you compare her to John? He thinks he's helping, but obviously that's up for heavy debate, in a sense you could almost says he scams people. What I mean by this is that Amanda has not been helped, she's just a survivor. She still suffers from PTSD, shown by her grabbing her head in Saw 2 to check if the bear trap is there and also her general emotional instability throughout the entire franchise.
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We've also got that fact that both women are murderers, in a ''passive'' but also hands on sense. Amanda killed Adam and Cecilia killed Gabriela, however once again it's the reasons why that we look at.
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I don't know really, as previously said I'm just happy we're finally getting some more evil women on screen who aren't evil because of a traumatic or tragic backstory. Not to say those types of characters are bad, it's just overdone when it comes to female villains at least because of the way media generally portrays women.
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(Also these are just my opinions! Nothing I say is gospel obviously. I’m someone with free time and way too many thoughts is all.)
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layce2015 · 2 years ago
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Supernatural (Dean Winchester x Female!Reader)
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Bloodlust
Masterlist
"Whoo! Listen to her purr! Have you ever heard anything so sweet?" Dean asked Sam and I as we roared down the road in the newly fixed up Impala. "You know, if you two wanna get a room, just let Sam and me know, Dean." I teased as I lean forward on the backseat and Sam laughs.
"Oh, don't listen to her, baby. She doesn't understand us." Dean said and I rolled my eyes but I laugh. "You're in a good mood." Sam pointed out.
"Why shouldn't I be?" Dean asked. "No reason." Sam said. "Got my car, got a case, things are looking up." Dean said. "Wow. Give you a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows and you're Mister Sunshine." I said and Dean laughs at this.
"How far to Red Lodge?" He asked. "Uh, about another three hundred miles." Sam said. "Good." Dean said and he floors it.
"The murder investigation is ongoing, and that's all I can share with the press at this time." The sheriff of Red Lodge said to me and the boys, since the three of us were acting like reporters. "Sure, sure, we understand that, but just for the record, you found the first, uh, head last week, correct?" Sam asked and the Sheriff nodded.
"Okay, and the other, a uh, Christina Flanigan..." I said. "That was two days ago. Is there --" The sheriff said but then there was a knock at his door and he looks up at her and nods.
"Oh. Sorry, time's up, we're done here." He said. "One last question --" Sam started to say until Dean talks over him. "Yeah, what about the cattle?" He asked and the Sheriff looks at us, shocked. "Excuse me?"
"You know, the cows found dead, split open, drained ... over a dozen cases." Dean said to him. "What about them?" The sheriff asked.
"So you don't think there's a connection?" I asked him. "Connection...with...?" The sheriff said, confused. "First cattle mutilations, now two murders? Kinda sounds like ritual stuff." Sam said. "You know, like satanic cult ritual stuff?" Dean said and the man begins to laugh but realized our serious faces.
"You - you're not kidding." He said, stunned. "No." I said. "Those cows aren't being mutilated. You wanna know how I know?" He said to us. "How?" Sam asked. "Because there's no such thing as cattle mutilation. Cow drops, leave it in the sun, within forty eight hours the bloat'll split it open so clean it's just about surgical. The bodily fluids fall down into the ground and get soaked up because that's what gravity does. But, hey, it could be Satan. What newspaper did you say you work for?" The sheriff said and the boys and I exchange a look.
"World Weekly News..."
"Weekly World News."
"World -"
"Weekly... I'm new." Dean said to him as we give nervous look towards him. "Get out of my office." The sheriff growls at us.
The boys and I enter the morgue, still wearing our shirts and ties with some white lab coats over us. The intern on duty was sitting at the desk and Dean looks him over before he approaches the man. "John." He said and the man stands up, quickly. "Jeff." The man corrected. "Jeff. I know that." Dean laughs.
"Dr. Dworkin needs to see you in his office right away." Dean said to Jeff. "But Dr. Dworkin's on vacation." Jeff said, confused. "Well, he's back. And he's pissed, and he's screaming for you, man, so if I were you I would..." Dean said before he whistles and Jeff runs away.
"Okay." He mutters and we go towards the lockers where they keep the bodies. "Hey, those satanists in Florida, they marked their victims, didn't they?" Dean asked us. "Yeah, reversed pentacle on the forehead." Sam replied. "Yeah. So much f'd up crap happens in Florida." Dean mutters as he hands Sam and I a couple pair of latex gloves and puts on a pair of his own.
Sam opens a compartment and wheels out a corpse; there's a box between its legs. "All right, open it." Dean said to Sam. "You open it." Sam said and Dean rolls his eyes. "Wuss." Dean grumbles and he carries the box over to another table and flips off the lid, grimacing. Sam and I approach it, this made both of us cringe as we look at the head.
"Well, no pentagram." I said once I look over the body. "Wow. Poor girl." Sam mutters, sadly. "Maybe we should, uh, you know, look in her mouth, see if those wackos stuffed anything down her throat. You know, kinda like the moth in Silence of the Lambs." Dean said. "Yeah, here, go ahead." Sam said as he pushes the box to Dean. "No, you go ahead." Dean said and I roll my eyes.
"What?" Sam said, confused. "Put the lotion in the basket." Dean mimics, quoting the Silence of the Lambs. "Oh, for God's sake." I said and I take the box then glare at Dean. "And Sam's the wuss?" I said then I start poking my fingers into the mouth.
But then I furrow my brow as I noticed a hole in the gums. "What is that, a hole?" I said and Dean leans in a bit then presses on the gum and a narrow, sharp tooth descends. "It's a tooth." Sam said, shocked.
"Sam, that's a fang. Retractable set of vampire fangs." I said as I look at the boys. "You gotta be kidding me." Dean said, exasperated. "Well, this changes things." Sam said. "Ya think?" Dean said, sarcastically.
We pull up near a local bar then we enter the building and go towards the bar. I look around the bar and noticed an African American man sitting at a table, staring at me and the boys. I nod at him as we go up to the bar and look to the bartender.
"How's it going?" Dean asked the bartender. "Living the dream. What can I get for you?" The bartender asked us. "Three beers, please." Dean said and the guy nods and hands hs our beers.
"So, we're looking for some people." Sam said to him. "Sure. Hard to be lonely." The bartender said. "Yeah. But um, that's not what he meant." I said and I pull out a $50 bill, fingering it, and drop it on the bar. The bartender looks at it, then takes it. "Right. So these, these people, they would have moved here about six months ago, probably pretty rowdy, like to drink..." I said. "Yeah, real night owls, you know? Sleep all day, party all night." Dean adds.
"Barker farm got leased out a couple months ago. Real winners. They've been in here a lot - drinkers. Noisy. I've had to 86 them once or twice." The bartender replied. "Thanks." Dean said and we leave our half-finished beers on the table and leave.
We head outside then go down an alley, then we hid just as we see that African American man following us. He comes up to the alley and looks around for us. We go over to him and pin him up to the wall, Dean had a knife at his throat.
"Smile." Dean demanded and the man looks at us, confused. "What?" He asked. "Show us those pearly whites." I said. "Oh, for the love of --you want to stick that thing someplace else? I'm not a vampire." The man said to Dean and I frown. "Yeah, that's right. I heard you guys in there." The man said.
"What do you know about vampires?" Sam asked him. "How to kill them. Now seriously, bro. That knife's making me itch." The man said to Dean, who  cocks his head. The man starts to pull away but Sam pins him harder.
"Whoa. Easy there, Chachi." The man said and he slowly brings his right hand to his lip, pulls it back, revealing normal gums. "See? Fangless. Happy?" He asked us and Dean lets up. "Now. Who the hell are you?" Dean asked him.
"Sam and Dean Winchester. (Y/n) (l/n). I can't believe it. You know I met both of your fathers once? Hell of a couple of guys. Great hunters. I heard they passed. I'm sorry. It's big shoes. But from what I hear you guys fill 'em. Great trackers, good in a tight spot --" Gordon said. "You seem to know a lot about our family." I said, curiously.
"Word travels fast. You know how hunters talk." Gordon said. "No, we don't, actually." Dean said and I shrug. "Kinda sorta." I said. "I guess there's a lot your dads never told you, huh?" Gordon said and I roll my eyes at him.
"So, um, so those two vampires, they were yours, huh?" Sam asked him. "Yep. Been here two weeks." Gordon replied. "Did you check out that Barker farm?" asked Dean. "It's a bust. Just a bunch of hippie freaks. Though they could kill you with that patchouli smell alone." Gordon replied.
"Where's the nest, then?" I asked him.  I got this one covered. Look, don't get me wrong. It's a real pleasure meetin' you three. But I've been on this thing over a year. I killed a fang back in Austin, tracked the nest all the way up here. I'll finish it." Gordon assured us.
"We could help." Dean chimed. "Thanks, but uh, I'm kind of a go-it-alone type of guy." Gordon said. "Come on, man, I"ve been itching for a hunt." Dean said, desperately. "Sorry. But hey, I hear there's a Chupacabra two states over. You go ahead and knock yourselves out." Gordon said and he gets into his car. "It was real good meeting you, though. I'll buy you a drink on the flip side." He said and he starts his car and drives off.
We followed Gordon to a mill and see him enter the building. We get out of the Impala and run after him. At one point, we heard the sound of an electric saw and we run faster. There we see the vampire had Gordon pinned down and was bringing the saw down towards him.
Sam and I pull Gordon to safety while Dean attacks the vampire. He pins the vampire under the electric saw, lowers the saw and decapitate the vampire. Sam, Gordon and I stare at this in shock as Dean turns to us, blood splattered over his face.
"So uh, I guess I gotta buy you that drink." Gordon said while I give a worried look towards Dean.
Later that night, we were sitting around a table in the bar and a waitress brings us another round. Dean reaches for his wallet l but Gordon holds up his hand. "No, no, I got it." He said. "Come on." Dean said to him. "I insist." Gordon said then he turns to the waitress. "Thank you, sweetie." He said to her and hands the money to her.
She walks away and Gordon raises his shot glass. "Another one bites the dust." He said. "That's right." Dean said and both he and Gordon drink a toast but Sam and I just sit back. I can't help but feel that something is off here but I'm not sure what it is.
"Dean." Gordon said before he laughs. "You gave that big-ass fang one hell of a haircut, my friend." He said. "Thank you." Dean said. "That was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful." Gordon compliments. "Yep." Dean said then he looks over at me and Sam. "(Y/n)? Sammy? You two all right?" He asked. "I'm fine." Sam and I replied, flatly.
"Well, lighten up a little, you two. Just celebrating a little. Job well done." Gordon said. "Right. Well, decapitations aren't my idea of a good time, I guess." Sam said and I nod. "Yeah, same here." I replied. "Oh, come one, it's not like it was human. You've gotta have a little more fun with your job." Gordon said and Dean nods and points at him. "See? That's what I've been trying to tell him." Dean said as he gestures towards Sam. "Sometimes (y/n) gets it. You guys could learn a thing or two from this guy." Dean said as he looks at us.
"Yeah I bet we could." I growled at Dean and Sam sighs. "Look, we're not gonna bring you guys down. (Y/n) and I are just gonna go back to the motel." Sam said as we start to stand up.
"You sure?" Dean asked us. "Yeah." We said and we start to walk away. "Guys? Remind me to beat that buzzkill out of you two later, all right?" Dean said and he tosses Sam the keys.
Sam and I return to the motel room and Sam drops the keys on a hook. While he does that, I pull out my phone and start to dial a number. "Harvelle's Roadhouse." Ellen's voice replied as I put the phone on speaker so Sam could here. "Hey, Ellen, (y/n) (l/n) and Sam Winchester. " I said "(y/n), Sam, it's good to hear from you. You three okay, aren't you?" Ellen asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. Got a question." I said to her. "Yeah, shoot." She said. "You ever run across a guy named Gordon Walker?" I asked her. "Yeah, I know Gordon." Ellen said and Sam and I share a look.
"And?" Sam asked. "Well, he's a real good hunter. Why are you asking?" Ellen said, curiously. "Well, we ran into him on a job and we're kinda working with him, I guess." Sam said to him. "Don't do that, guys." Ellen said, quickly, and I look at the phone.
"I - I thought you said he was a good hunter." I said, questioning. "Yeah, and Hannibal Lecter's a good psychiatrist. Look, he is dangerous to everyone and everything around him. If he's working on a job you three just let him handle it and you move on." Ellen said.
"Ellen -" 
"No, Sam and (y/n)? You -- just listen to what I'm telling you, okay?" She said to us. "Right, okay." We said and we listen to what she had to say about Gordon
After talking with Ellen and getting the information about Gordon, Sam and I head over to the ending marching and start to buy a soda. We start to head back to the room but I pause and look around. "(Y/n)?" Sam asked me and I look around, cautiously. "Could've sworn..." I muttered as I scan the parking lot then turn back to Sam. "Never mind." I said and we head to the room and open the door.
We get inside and lean against the door, relieved. Suddenly someone jumps on Sam from behind. He knocks the attacker down, then the second come but I go and fight the second attacker.
I heard a crash then a thump and I look over to see Sam knocked out on the floor. "Sam!" I called out but the second attacker punches me across the face and knocks me out.
I groan, slightly, as I start to wake up, only to find out that there was a bag over my hand and a gag over my mouth. I nudge to my side and realized someone was next to me, which I figured was Sam. We were also moving so we were captured an taking somewhere and I don't know how long I've been out.
Eventually, the car turns and continues on for a few more minutes before it slows down and stops. I hear a couple of doors open then close before the doors next to me opens and I was dragged out. 
Moments later, I was bound to a chair then the bag was pulled off. I blink and look to my right to see Sam next to me, also tied up to the chair. He looks at me and I give him a look of relief then I turn my head and my eyes widen as I see the bartender, from earlier, standing before us.
He shows a lot of fangs and advances on us, and we began to struggle. As the vampire advances on us, a woman appears in the doorway. "Wait! Step back, Eli." She orders. Eli pulls back, his fangs retracting. The woman walks over and pulls off mine and Sam's gag.
"My name's Lenore. I'm not going to hurt you two. We just need to talk." She said. "Talk? Yeah, okay, but we might have a tough time paying attention too much besides Eli's teeth." Sam spat as he and I look over at Eli. "He won't hurt you either. You have my word." Lenore said.
"Your word? Oh yeah, great, thanks." I said with a sarcastic laugh. "Listen lady, no offense but you're not the first vampire we've met." I said to her. "We're not like the others. We don't kill humans, and we don't drink their blood. We haven't for a long time." Lenore informed us and I scoff at this.
"What is this, some kind of joke?" Sam asked. "Notice you and your friend are still alive." She pointed out. "Okay, uh, correct me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't you be starving to death?" I asked her. "We've found other ways. Cattle blood." She said and I raise an eyebrow at this.
"You're telling us you're responsible for all the --"
"It's not ideal, in fact it's disgusting. But -- it allows us to get by." Lenore said, talling over Sam. "Okay, uh, why?" Sam asked her. "Survival. No deaths, no missing locals, no reason for people like you to come looking for people like us. We blend in. Our kind is practically extinct. Turns out we weren't quite as high up the food chain as we imagined." Lenore said.
"Why are we explaining ourselves to these killers?" Eli asked her, annoyed. "Eli!" Lenore exclaims, firmly. "We choke on cow's blood so that none of them suffer. Tonight they murdered Conrad and they celebrated." Eli growled. "Eli, that's enough." Lenore said to him. "Yeah, Eli, that's enough." I repeated and Eli glares at me. "What's done is done. We're leaving this town tonight." Lenore said.
"Then why did you bring us here? Why are you even talking to us?" I asked her. "Believe me, I'd rather not. But I know your kind. Once you have the scent you'll keep tracking us. It doesn't matter where we go. Hunters will find us." She said. "So you're asking us not to follow you." Sam said to her. "We have a right to live. We're not hurting anyone." Lenore said.
"Right, so you keep saying, but give us one good reason why we should believe you." I said to her. "Fine." She said then she gets in my face. "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to let you two go." She said and I give her a started look. Then she stands up and turns to Eli. "Take them back. Not a mark on either of them." She said then the put the bags back over our heads. 
We were then lead out of the building and pushed us into the car. Once inside, I hear the door closing then the car starting and we start to move.
About half an hour or an hour later, the vampires dropped us back off at the hotel. They removed mine and Sam's bag off of our head and untied us. Eli stares at us for a moment then he gets back in his car and they take off.
Sam and I exchange a look, a silent conversation between us, before we head back towards the hotel room. Sam opens the door and I enter and see Dean and Gordon in the living room area.
They turn to look at me just as Sam comes in and closes the door. "Where you two been?" Dean asked us. I look over at Gordon, who gave me a suspicious look. "Can we talk to you alone, Dean?" I said and we stare at each other for a moment before he turns to Gordon. "You mind chillin' out for a couple minutes?" he asked and Gordon nods.
We exit the motel room and walk into the parking lot as Sam said. "Dean, maybe we've got to rethink this hunt." Dean looks at him like he's crazy. "What are you talking about? Where were you and (y/n)?" Dean asked. "In the nest." I said and Dean's eyes widen a bit.
"You guys found it?" He asked us, shocked. "They found us, man." Sam said to him. "How'd you two get out? How many'd you guys kill?" Dean asked us. "None." I replied. "Well (y/n), they didn't just let you and Sam go." Dean said, disbelief.
"That's exactly what they did." Sam said. "All right, well, where is it?" Dean asked. "We were blindfolded, we don't know." I said, shrugging. "Well, you guys have got to know something." Dean said, exasperated.
"We went over that bridge outside of town, but Dean, listen. Maybe we shouldn't go after them." Sam said to him. "Why not?" Dean asked. "We don't think they're like other vampires. We don't think they're killing people." I said and Dean scoffs at this. "You're joking. Then how do they stay alive? Or undead, or whatever the hell they are." He said, confused. "The cattle mutilations. They said they live off of animal blood." Sam said.
"And you believed them?" Dean asked and I held my arms out to them. "Look at us, Dean. They let Sam and I go without a scratch." I said. "Wait, so you're saying..." Dean said then he looks between us then shakes his head. "No, man, no way. I don't know why they let you two go. I don't really care. We find 'em, we waste 'em." He said.
"Why?" Sam asked. "What part of vampires don't you understand, Sam? If it's supernatural, we kill it, end of story. That's our job." Dean said, firmly. "No, Dean, that is not our job. Our job is hunting evil. And if these things aren't killing people, they're not evil!" I shout at him. "Of course they're killing people, that's what they do. They're all the same, (y/n). They're not human, okay? We have to exterminate every last one of them. You know it as well as I do." Dean said to me.
"No, Dean, I don't think so, all right? Not this time." I said. "Gordon's been on those vamps for a year, he knows." Dean said. "Gordon?" Sam and I said, questioning. "Yes." Dean said.
"You're taking his word for it?" Sam asked. "That's right." Dean said. "Ellen says he's bad news." Sam said and Dean looks between us. "You guys called Ellen?" He asked and we nod at him. "And I'm supposed to listen to her? We barely know her, guys, no thanks, I'll go with Gordon." Dean said and he starts to turn around. "Right, 'cause Gordon's such an old friend." Sam grumbles and Dean turns back to us.
"You don't think I can see what this is?" I said and Dean looks at me, his eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?" He asked me. "He's a substitute for John, isn't he? A poor one." I said and he glares at me. "Shut up, (y/n)." He growls while I could see out of the corner of my eye, Sam giving me a nervous look. "He's not even close, Dean. Not on his best day." I sneered.
"You know what? I'm not even going to talk about this." Dean said. "You know, you slap on this big fake smile but I can see right through it. Because I know how you feel, Dean. John's dead. And he left a hole, and it hurts so bad you can't take it, but you can't just fill up that hole with whoever you want to. It's an insult to his memory." I said and Dean glares at me. "Okay." Dean mutters and he turns away then I noticed his fist clenching but he seemed to be thinking things over.
"You know what, Dean, if you want...you can hit me. I can take it, I'm a big girl. Hell, you can hit Sam if you don't want to hit me. It won't change anything." I said, firmly, then he looks over his shoulder at me before he turns to face me. "I'm going to that nest. You and Sam don't want to tell me where it is, fine. I'll find it myself." He said and he starts to walk away.
"Dean?" Sam calls out and we go after him towards the hotel.
We return to the motel room, only to see that Gordon is gone. "Gordon?" Dean called out but no answer. "You think he went after them?" Sam asked. "Probably." Dean said. "Dean, we have to stop him." I said. "Really, (y/n)? Because I say we lend a hand." Dean said. "Just give us the benefit of the doubt, would you? You owe us that." Sam said.
"Yeah, we'll see. I'll drive. Give me the keys." Dean said to him and Sam points to the table where he'd set them earlier. But they were gone. "He snaked the keys." Sam said and Dean sighs.
"I can't believe this. I just fixed her up, too." Dean grumbles as he hotwires the car then it starts up. "So the bridge, is that, uh, is that all you got?" Dean asked Sam. "The bridge was four and a half minutes from their farm." Sam replied.
"How do you know?" I asked Sam. "I counted." He replied and I give a small smirk at this. He then starts tracing a path on the map in his lap. "They took a left out of the farm, then turned right onto a dirt road, followed that for two minutes slightly up a hill, then took another quick right and we hit the bridge." Sam said and Dean looks up at him.
"You're good. You're a monster pain in the ass, but you're good." Dean said then he looks up at me through his rearview mirror. "Same goes to you, princess." He said and I roll my eyes. "Jackass." I grumbled. "Weirdo." He remarks back and I stare back at him through the mirror and give a slight smirk before we take off.
We finally come up to the house and burst through the door. Inside, we see Lenore tied up to a chair, she was covered in cuts and she was pale and sickly looking. Gordon was standing next to her, holding up a blade, covered up with Dead Man's blood I presume.
He had just sliced the blade across her chest just as we come in and he looks up at us. "Sam, Dean, (y/n). Come on in." Gordon greeted.
"Hey, Gordon. What's going on?" Dean asked as he stares at the scene before him. "Just poisoning Lenore here with some dead man's blood. She's going to tell us where all her little friends are, aren't you?" Gordon said as he looks at Lenore, who looked beyond terrified. Then Gordon looks up at Dean. "Wanna help?" He asked.
"Look, man --" Dean started to say but Gordon talks over him. "Grab a knife. I was just about to start in on the fingers." He said and he drags the knife across her arm; veins trace away from the cut and this started to make my blood boil.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, let's all just chill out, huh?" Dean said to him. "I'm completely chill." Gordon said, calmly. "Gordon, put the knife down." Sam ordered and he steps towards Gordon, but Dean stops him with a hand on his chest. "Sounds like it's Sam here needs to chill." Gordon said.
"Just step away from her, all right?" I said as I take a step forward. "(Y/n)." Dean said to me, warningly, but Gordon stares at me a bit. "You're right. I'm wasting my time here. This bitch will never talk. Might as well put her out of her misery." He said and he pulls out a larger knife. "I just sharpened it, so it's completely humane." He said.
Then he turns towards Lenore but Sam and I step up to block him. "Gordon, we're letting her go." Sam said, firmly. Then Gordon points the knife at Sam's chest, stopping him. "You two are not doing a damn thing." Gordon growls as I glare at him.
"Hey, hey, hey, Gordon, let's talk about this." Dean said, trying to calm the situation down. "What's there to talk about? It's like I said, Dean. No shades of gray." Gordon said to him. "Yeah. I hear ya. And I know how you feel." Dean said to him.
"Do you?" Gordon asked. "That vampire that killed your sister deserved to die, but this one..." Dean started to say then Gordon laughs. "Killed my sister? That filthy fang didn't kill my sister. It turned her. It made her one of them. So I hunted her down, and I killed her myself." He said and we stand there in shocked silence.
"You did what?" Dean said, obviously shocked at this revelation. "It wasn't my sister anymore, it wasn't human. I didn't blink. And neither would you." He said and I gasped. "So you knew all along, then? You knew about the vampires, you knew they weren't killing anyone. You knew about the cattle. And you just didn't care." I shouted at him, angrily.
"Care about what? A nest of vampires suddenly acting nice? Taking a little time out from sucking innocent people? And we're supposed to buy that? Trust me. Doesn't change what they are. And I can prove it." Gordon said then he grabs my arm, slices the knife across it which made me let out a pained groan, then lays the knife against my throat, dragging me towards Lenore.
Dean pulls his gun just as Sam starts to do the same. "Let her go. Now!" Dean growls. "Relax. If I wanted to kill her, she'd already be on the floor. Just making a little point." Gordon said and he holds the cut on my arm over Lenore, so the blood drips on her face. She hisses and her fangs began to extend.
"Hey!" Sam and Dean exclaim and Gordon turns to them. "You think she's so different? Still want to save her? Look at her. They're all the same. Evil, bloodthirsty." He said but then Lenore starts to control herself, retracting her fangs, and turns her face away. "No. No." She whispers, breathless, and I look over at Gordon. "You hear her, Gordon?" I said either a floating smile.
"No! No!" Lenore shout then I push the knife away from my throat, and push Gordon away then Sam comes up to me and pushes me behind him and Dean as they advance on Gordon. "We're done here." Sam said.
"Sam, get her out of here." Dean orders. "Yeah." Sam said and he puts away his gun then he picks Lenore up in his arms. Gordon takes a step towards him, but Dean still has the gun trained on him. "Uh-uh. Uh-uh!" Dean said, warningly, to Gordon just as Sam takes Lenore out.
"Gordon, I think you and I've got some things to talk about." Dean said  as he starts to walk towards Gordon. "Get out of my way." Gordon threatened him. "Sorry." Dean said as I go to pull my gun out. "You're not serious." Gordon said, exasperated. "I'm having a hard time believing it too, but I know what I saw. If you want those vampires, you gotta go through me." Dean said and I step forward with my gun raised. "And me." I said.
Gordon nods then he looks at his knife, then jams it into the table. "Fine." He said and Dean and I look at the knife then Dean looks at his gun. He pulls the clip out of the gun and sets it aside but I just lower my gun. But then Gordon knocks the gun out of my hand then punched me across the face.
"(Y/n)!" I hear Dean yells as I fall to the ground. I shake my head and look over to see Gordon and Dean fighting. "What are you doing, man? You doing this for a fang? Come on, Dean, we're on the same side here." Gordon said as I run my hand over my nose. "I don't think so, you sadistic bastard." Dean said then Gordon throws Dean across the room.
"You're not like your brother or your girl there. You're a killer. Like me." Gordon said as I get up and run towards him and jump on his back. I wrapped a arm around his neck, he grabs my arm then walks backward and slammed me against the wall. I yelped in pain as he grabs the back of my collar, throws me over him and I flip over and land on my back, knocking the wind out of me.
Then Dean goes over to Gordon and kicks him down. Then he hauls him up against the wall, and elbows him in the face, knocking him out. Pinning him under his elbow, he slams Gordon's head into another wall. "Oh, sorry." Dean mutters as I start to get up. "(Y/n), you okay?" Dean asked me as he comes over to me.
"Yeah...my back might be sore in the morning but....I'll live." I said as I get up but Dean helps me up. Once I get to my feet, I look up at Dean and the two of us stare into each other's eyes for a few seconds then I look down. "Thanks." I said and he nods at me before we look over at Gordon's unconscious body.
Later, as the sun was rising, we had set Gordon in a chair and we tied him up while he woke up. "You know, I might be like you, and I might not. But you're the one tied up right now." Dean said to Gordon, who glared at the two of us.
Sam returns and sees the scene before him while Dean was pacing. Gordon and Dean watch each other and Sam looks over at me. "Did I miss anything?" He asked me. "Nah, not much." I said then Dean looks over at Sam. "Lenore get out okay?" He asked. "Yeah. All of 'em did." Sam said as he glares at Gordon.
"Then I guess our work here is done. How you doin', Gordy? Gotta tinkle yet?" Dean asked him and Gordon looks at him. "All right. Well, get comfy. We'll call someone in two or three days, have them come out, untie you." Dean said then he jams Gordon's knife into a table behind him.
"Ready to go, Dean?" I asked him. "Not yet. I guess this is goodbye. Well, it's been real." Dean said then he hits Gordon, knocking him in his chair to the floor. Sam clears his throat. "Okay. I'm good now. We can go." Dean said and we walk out of the building.
As we exit the farmhouse, the three of us wince at pur recent injuries - Sam's left arm is wrapped in a bandage. Dean stops, setting himself on his feet like a boxer. "Guys? Clock me one." Dean said and we turn to him. "What?" We asked.
"Come on. I won't even hit either of you back. Let's go." Dean said as he gestures to his face. "No." Sam said and I shake my head. "Let's go, you guys get a freebie. Hit me, come on." Dean said and I shake my head. "You look like you just went twelve rounds with a block of cement, Dean. I'll take a raincheck." I said and Sam nods in agreement. "Same here." He said and Dean sighs.
"I wish we never took this job. It's jacked everything up." He said, sadly. "What do you mean?" Sam asked. "Think about all the hunts we went on, Sammy, our whole lives." Dean said. "Okay." Sam said.
"What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing? You know? I mean, the way Dad raised us..." Dean said. "Dean, after what happened to Mary, John did the best he could." I said to him. "I know he did. But the man wasn't perfect. And the way he raised us, to hate those things; and man, I hate 'em. I do. When I killed that vampire at the mill, I didn't even think about it; hell, I even enjoyed it." Dean said.
"You didn't kill Lenore." Sam said to him. "No, but every instinct told me to. I was gonna kill her. I was gonna kill 'em all." Dean said. "Yeah, Dean, but you didn't. And that's what matters." I said to him. "Yeah. Well, 'cause you and Sam are pains in my ass." Dean said and Sam and I smile. "Guess we might have to stick around to be a pain in the ass, then." Sam said and I nod.
"Thanks." Dean said to us. "Don't mention it." Sam and I said and Sam gets in the passenger's side and I get into the backseat. Dean stood outside for a moment then he climbs in the car, starts it and we drive away.
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bb-enablefreebuild · 8 months ago
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NTN opinions
so I haven't read NTN very recently (or the other locked tomb books) but its the most recent installment about Nona I think about a lot.
Muir said that she was splitting Alecto the Ninth into two parts, NTN and then ATN. She explained that Nona already had a complete story arc and could be its own separate book. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that.
But to be quite honest, I feel like most of NTN could have been cut. The most important parts of Nona are these:
More detail about the Blood of Eden
Nona's relationship with Varun the Eater
Her dreams of John Gaius
Now don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Nona going to school as a teachers aide and making friends! The problem is, the relationships she develops with the kids like Hot Sauce aren't...very important. I think it would have been better if Nona developed relationships with characters that she already knew, like Crown (Coronabeth) for example.
If Nona being friends with a group of kiddos is important, then maybe she should do it specifically with kids from the Blood of Eden. Out of all of Nona's friends, her relationship with Noodle the dog is the most important, and maybe Hot Sauce. She could be another niece of Wake, the same as Pash. It would explain why Hot Sauce is so suspicious of necromancers and why she shot up Nona in that one scene.
Also, If Nona is the secret weapon, why isn't she more involved with B.O.E? It's implied that the Blood of Eden is on the struggle bus. Wouldn't the inception have more depth if Nona was among their ranks right before their eyes, it'd be a major example of why they've failed for so long to stop Mr. Jod.
Cam and Palamedes could have gathered a few trust worthy relationships used to protect Nona too. Heck, the Blood of Eden could have a "school" of their own where they teach the kids of their soldiers propaganda, look at how Pash was raised!
I genuinely believe that all of the stuff that happened could have been condensed to a feasible first part. As an author, cutting things we're proud of writing is like shooting yourself in the head then doing it again. But I think if I was in Muir's shoes, I would've done it. I love Hot Sauce, Kevin and the other kiddos so much but they're just...not important enough for the over all plot :(
Lastly, and this is where I'm getting super nit picky, but I wish there was more world building. I 100% appreciate Muir's trust in the readers intelligence and for us to put the pieces together. I understood that Steles were used to travel far distances and "flip" planets to be colonized for necromancers. I VASTLY prefer this instead of five hundred pages of exposition (Fourth Wing) slammed into the beginning of the book.
That being said, a little bit of exposition is fine. Gideon The Ninth does this perfectly with explaining thanergy and other necromancer related info. We learn more in HTN as well. I think Muir was thinking that "Nona wouldn't know these things, so it can't be expressed in the book" which I totally get, but Nona has a canon excuse for just Having knowledge! Her uncanny reading of body language and understanding of different languages? Her ability to draw animals from Earth that were lost to public knowledge? Nona just casually absorbing information and thinking about it in her internal monologue is completely reasonable. I say this to point out that Muir was too vague with the world building in NTN. Yes, I could fill in the gaps but I would have loved more information about the colony planets outside of the House system! She's doing too much showing, which I think is precisely why NTN got much too long.
Anyway, PLEASE take all of this with a grain of salt. I love Nona the Ninth and I think the way it was written is digestible and good! It's just not how I would have done it. Please Tamsyn I'm begging you for lore I am BEGGING YOU FOR LORE.
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queerprayers · 2 years ago
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Hi! Could i ask you about your thoughts on judas please? Do you think he knew he had to fulfill the prophecy? Do you think he went to hell, if so, why wasn't he forgiven as well? Sorry if these are stupid questions, i'm a bit new to bible study and the bible in general
Thank you, beloved, for an excuse to talk about Judas! Here we go! And these aren't stupid questions at all—actually, they're questions continuously debated throughout history by even experts.
*This is a content warning for mentions of Judas's suicide and discussion of its motivations/implications. No explicit/violent details.*
To my knowledge, here are the main interpretations/readings of Judas:
Judas is the ultimate evil. He betrayed our Lord and Savior and killed himself in shame. His possible motivations could be: personal hatred/jealousy, theological/ideological issues, greed, possessed/tempted by devil, political issues/felt a duty to the empire, and/or selfishness (fear of arrest/execution by association).
What was meant to happen happened. Judas was a necessary part of God's plan, and whether he knew it or not, he helped complete the mission. He didn't do the right thing, per se, but he did the necessary thing.
Judas had good intentions—he thought if he willingly handed Jesus over, less harm would be done to Jesus, his followers, and the wider Jewish community.
You could back up many of these views with Scripture. And all of them are valuable to consider. Here are my thoughts:
Judas was handpicked by Jesus. Jesus called those he wanted, that they might be with him and send them out to preach. Judas was not a spy from the beginning, impersonating discipleship or scheming to destroy his Master—Luke says he became a traitor. He had joined Jesus's followers, and became close with his teacher. There is much we don't know about him, but we know he was supposed to be there. I do believe Jesus loved Judas as a dear friend, as well as a child of God. Jesus knowing someone would hurt him did not prevent him from seeking out all the love he know he would also experience—this is a microcosm of his relationship with every human. Jesus seeks out relationships with people he knows will betray him, over and over. "Do what you came for, friend"—even at the end, he was beloved.
In John, Jesus tells Judas, "What you are about to do, do quickly." Some have interpreted this as Jesus wanting Judas to carry out his plan, because it's necessary for Jesus's mission. You could also hear it as a plea, though, and this is how I hear it today. "Judas, I know what you have done, and will do. I know your heart. Go. Do it. Great things will come of it, but it will hurt me. At least do it quickly. Don't sit here with me any longer."
I don't know how much Judas knew. It's clear in Jesus's conversations with his disciples that Jesus himself is the only one who knows the whole story. Killing yourself after a betrayal doesn't scream confidence in the necessity/goodness of the act to me. And killing yourself before the story is over doesn't seem like you know the whole story. Perhaps a prophecy like that can only be fulfilled when it happens, not when someone tries to bring it about. Or maybe he did know. Maybe he sacrificed himself, knowing someone had to bring this about. I don't think we can know.
The Satan/demonic possession angle is interesting to look at. Luke and John both say that Satan entered him—you could be literal, but for me this doesn't describe a supernatural event, but a human one. Satan is the adversary, the opposite of God, evil. Evil enters us all the time, whenever we carry out something that is adversarial to God. Satan entering into Judas is him making up his mind. It's him giving in to evil, the moment of evil overpowering his heart.
Greed as a motivation is present in Matthew, where Judas explicitly asks how much money he would receive if he betrayed Jesus. In the other Gospels, the silver seems to be more of a reward/payment after the fact.
Whatever reason he had, however he convinced himself that it would be okay, whether he wanted money or safety or a new beginning, he had a hand in the execution of a (by most metrics) innocent man, and it wasn't worth it. He was filled with remorse and tried to return the money. No matter how much Satan Judas had in him, he still had love, too. And it wouldn't let him rest.
This is the biggest tragedy of Judas's story, and the reason he sticks with me: if you'll permit me to quote a favorite sitcom of mine, he quit before the miracle happened. He heard Jesus's sentence, and killed himself before the execution. Yes, he spared himself witnessing/hearing about/processing Jesus' death, but he also prevented himself from witnessing Jesus' resurrection. He couldn't deal with the guilt, and so did not witness redemption. If only he had stayed three more days. If only he could have seen that he didn't ruin everything, that there was hope. If only he had reached out to his friends, begged for forgiveness, mourned with them. I do not know what would have happened, or what Jesus would have said to him. He took away that possibility of earthly forgiveness with his own hands. He removed himself from the story.
I reread some relevant passages to answer this ask, and I noticed a couple things I've never considered before. First, that Judas received the first Communion. I guess I just never thought about it, but this strikes me today. Jesus also washed his feet at that supper. And then, reading John, I wept reading all that Jesus tells his disciples after Judas has left. If he had stayed, he would have heard, "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." He would have heard, "Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." Maybe his heart would not be changed, but perhaps, later, he would have remembered those words, and held on.
Over and over again, I just think, if only he had stayed. Lingered at the table a few moments more. Mourned his teacher and friend properly. Permitted himself life a few days longer. Left himself open to miracles. May we remember this lesson in our darkest moments.
Oh, a bonus point: We all know Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. But in Luke, as Judas approaches him in order to kiss him, Jesus asks him if that's what he's planning to do, and it seems he never ended up kissing him. Forgive me for this lack of commentary, but I can't emotionally process this. Let's move on.
We are not told by the gospels whether Judas is forgiven. We are not told where his soul rests. We're given the facts, but not much else—no clear motivation, no moral, no epilogue. We don't know how the other apostles reacted, or if Jesus visited his grave. He does what he does, disappears from the narrative, and we are left with the pieces.
I have complicated thoughts about Hell, but however we imagine life after death (something I don't think is even possible for us to process) I can't see any child of God being abandoned, much less one picked and known intimately by Jesus. Judas received the first Communion. He embraced the living, breathing God. And yes, he threw it all away, in more than one way, but he is not forgotten.
I sometimes see Hellfire as love that we aren't able to accept. Rejecting life and the possibility of forgiveness the way Judas did, and then meeting God? That would burn. That sounds like the most painful thing of all. 
But there are miracles on the other side. Maybe it's taken him two thousand years to exist with Jesus peacefully, but I pray every day that he is.
Here are some things that make feel things about Judas:
Judas by Jeff Loveness and Jakub Rebelka (graphic novel)
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis (play)
The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988 (movie)
Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (musical)
Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally (play)
"The Ballad of Judas Iscariot" by Robert Williams Buchanan (poem)
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde (poem)
"Judas" by The Reverent Marigold (song)
this post by illuminirk
this post by apriki
this post by notbecauseofvictories
everything boykeats has ever posted in his judas tag
"The Betrayal of Judas Iscariot" by overwhelmed (short story) (You're gonna have to bear with me as I link you to a fanfiction website on a Bible post. It's good, I mean it.)
God be with you as you study the Bible, and come as you are. Bring your baggage, and your weird feelings, and your compassion for the villains of the story, and your "stupid" questions.
<3 Johanna
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heyteenbookshey · 6 months ago
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Turtles All The Way Down by John Green
So this came out when I had started grad school and was struggling big time with my undiagnosed OCD. I read one chapter and it freaked me out so much I gave it to my friend to read. Like a year later I decided I wanted to try it again and asked to borrow it, but she had gotten BED BUGS and had to throw it out and THAT freaked me out so bad I waited another five years and one severe OCD diagnosis to try again.
Turtles All The Way Down feels exactly like what it's like to be inside the mind of someone with OCD. John Green discussed* his own experiencing with OCD in a vlogbrothers video a few months prior to release saying, "it seems to me that the stuff happening way down inside of us is difficult to talk about, partly because those experiences aren't really accessible by the senses.  You can't usually see or hear psychic pain and it's difficult to describe without simile or metaphor..."
I can't be anyone but someone with OCD reading this book, already armed with knowledge of the psychic pain, but reading it feels like you are inside Aza's anxiety wracked terrified mind from start to finish.
Oh, here's the Goodreads summary:
Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
WEIRDLY I am not going to talk about this whole mystery thing more than to acknowledge that it's part of the plot and I don't know why? It's such a strange plot that doesn't feel fully realized. I couldn't help but read it in terms of how it highlighted Aza's OCD (contact with things that scare her like a germy river, struggling to connect to others) more than the plot itself. Which I can excuse, I always feel internal conflicts are more interesting than external ones but in this case internal is SO MUCH bigger and more compelling, having an elaborate and strange mystery surrounding it just felt odd. The campy nature of the mystery in conflict with the gritty realism of mental illness felt unbalanced, like you couldn't process both at the same time.
It is a testament to how compelling Aza's struggle with OCD is that I'm still giving it 4.25 stars. I would recommend this book for anyone with a friend or family member who is struggling with OCD and want to understand more completely what is happening. Green doesn't shy away from the gross and scary and honestly OCD can get really gross and scary. It's awesome to read it done so well.
Possibly the best thing about this book is Aza's relationship with her best friend Daisy. Daisy is a highly successful Star Wars fanfic writer (fanfic portrayed right by the way!) who works so freaking hard--she works at a Chuckie Cheese type restaurant and does all her schoolwork on her phone, working hard to get to college and willing to go to great lengths for her friends and her personal goals. She's awesome, and I would pay any amount of money for to read Daisy Ramirez spin off.
While I could have done without the PLOT of it all, I can always do without the plot of it all. It's possible that having such a sticky strange plot to occasionally cling to balanced things out. Without something happening outside of Aza this book could have been one big long thought spiral.
I do recommend my fellow people with OCD be thoughtful about reading it (I recommend that of anyone reading a book that they will read in some way as being about them). There's a reason I ripcord ejected from it at the height of my illness. But reading it from a balanced (if not cured) place? It's just EXCELLENT
Date Published: October 17, 2017
Date Read: May 17, 2023
Rating: 4.25/5 tuataras
*possibly for the first time publicly, but I no longer have an encyclopedic memory of vlogbrothers videos
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audreydoeskaren · 2 years ago
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How accurate is the book East Asia? (Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion) Volume 6 editor John E. Vollmer (the Qing- modern era parts about Han Chinese fashion)
I looked it up just now and oh god it's the worst flaming pile of trash I have ever seen. Great way to spend the afternoon with rage. The format itself immediately raises red flags since it's a borderline ethnographic account of 'national' dress which necessarily will omit details about individual periods in fashion history in order for the narrative to work. It's doing research ass backwards in that it uses modern representations of ethnicity and identity (in things like haute couture and period dramas which have no authority on history) as a starting point, and then backtracks to find historical precedents that justify its legitimacy. A good, critical fashion history text will provide a linear account of the development of fashion in the region we now know as China that also includes discussions of when current representations of ethnicity or nationality became popular and not fucking regurgitate their propaganda.
Like, the section about the cheongsam by Valerie Wilson Trower is an unironic copy of the origin myths that cheongsam tailors and shops use to sell their products, which is not surprising considering that the author seems more interested in the afterlife of the cheongsam in Western haute couture than its actual life in the first half of the 20th century. Some of the information about the cheongsam in the Republican and Mao eras is objectively incorrect, like the wild assertion that cheongsam with a symmetrical dajin was invented in the 1940s (! wtf), and shows a mind baffling level of ignorance about modern Chinese fashion history.
Take the overview about Han Chinese dress by Juanjuan Wu and John E. Vollmer, it jumps from Antiquity directly to the Ming 'restoration' of Han dress (yeah just taking that at face value aren't we) and then to the Qing and then to the 20th century IN 11 PAGES. How uncritical of history do you have to be to think you could summarize Chinese fashion history (or, well, 'ethnic Han dress') in this embarrassingly limited space. The conflation of court dress and fashion was a recurring theme, and apart from the lack of knowledge about civilian fashion it also calls into question whether court and ritual dress that served political and ideological purposes could even be considered ethnic dress, and if so, why. Because Chinese identity deserves to be conflated with political leaders and ideology? The severe lack of images anywhere also isn't helping---almost as if the authors knew that if they provided images some of their talking points would banish themselves into the shadow realm.
I think it’s just unbelievable and outrageous that Vollmer when writing the ‘historical evidence: China’ section was straight up LYING when he claimed that civilian fashion was not well documented unlike official dress. There are comparatively fewer resources yes, but he treats them like some rare unicorns when I, an amateur, can usually find plenty of visual evidence from the Ming and Qing from looking on the internet alone, and from reliable websites like museums. Instead of admitting he doesn’t know much about civilian fashion he just pretends like information about it doesn’t exist. Wow that’s a useful tactic I should use that sometimes when I don’t feel like doing research. I can think of no reason why a professional would have trouble finding visual evidence, it’s either a skill issue or he wants to exoticize Chinese historical fashion by pointing to its artificially raised entry barrier, like many colonizers have historically done to mystify China. Another reason is probably that this book is from the now ancient year of 2010, before the bulk of good Chinese language literature about historical (particularly Ming) fashion was published.
That does not, however, excuse the methodological problems with this book. I think the problem here isn’t whether this volume is ‘accurate’, but its approach and framework, i.e. why the authors chose to investigate Chinese dress through the lens of ethnicity and identity rather than, say, technological innovation, class difference, aesthetics or, you know, actual chronological descriptions of fashion. The individual objects represented don’t matter as much as the logic behind the representation, why certain objects are chosen and others not. Though I can certainly say with confidence that this turd masquerading as a book is not accurate. It's treating Chinese fashion history like a joke, and if this is the average quality of research in this 'encyclopaedia' all the other areas covered aren't looking promising either.
The purpose and history of ethnographic encyclopaedias like this as colonial modes of knowledge production popularized in the heyday of Western colonialism and scientific racism should be sufficient to alert us to their unreliability. The chief goal of projects like this is not to initiate or foster a scholarly interest in non white fashion history but to teach white Western people how to think about non white places, and encourage them to use the arts and cultures of said places as they please. This is made evident in this volume by the authors’ preoccupation with how Chinese ‘ethnic dress’ is used in Western media and grand narratives about Chinese dress that cater nicely to existing Western ideas about China rather than a factual discussion of fashion driven by fact based research. There are no construction diagrams of garments, no explanation of the layers or sequence of dressing at any moment in time, barely any images of fashionable clothes themselves. Instead, we are treated to colonial treasures like Trower calling the cheongsam ‘Suzie Wong dress’, which is so unbelievably racist since not only was The World of Suzie Wong a Madame Butterfly type Orientalist movie, she also only referenced it because it was responsible for bringing cheongsam into the Western popular consciousness, making it very clear whose perspective she was coming from. Vollmer’s utter silence about the colonial routes through which Chinese artifacts landed in Western museum collections (he credits them to ‘adventurers and business people’) is honestly uncomfortable to read and tells you everything you need to know about the power imbalance behind this book. The authors are likely not actively being racist, they nevertheless appear to belong to a long Orientalist tradition that manufactured knowledge about the Orient for Western consumption. It’s funny because in some places the authors show an awareness of how ethnic dress was a social construct that inevitably intersected with things like class, but then go on to discuss the fashion of no social class in particular detail. This is, for some reason, quite a common phenomenon in anglophone Chinese fashion history literature where the author lays out a very promising framework in the introduction that aims to be intersectional and critical, but then spectacularly fails to deliver in the body text.
Well, excuse me for the long rant again, I have to get it out of my system. The only redeeming factor for this book is that it’s by no means unique in its mediocrity and caucasity, it’s a condensation of most English language (and oftentimes Chinese language) literature about Chinese fashion history. Cringe is the norm not the exception.
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scarfacemarston · 1 year ago
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rdr2 isn’t super historically accurate and using the argument that working girls wouldn’t have slept with multiple people at camp because that’s not what happened in actual 1899 is kind of silly
if dutch says that they all had her, they probably did and he knows it’s something that upsets john in some way
i love abigail as a character and talking about theories and history but i don’t think it’s that deep
But that was one out of multiple reasons why it likely didn't happen and if it DID, then Dutch is even more awful a person. You're really going to take a LIAR who is trying to distract John from bringing him to justice over all the other proof that I and many others in the fandom have written about? Over those who were actually present in the gang and the reasons why people wouldn't have slept with her? It's literally not possible. Have you played both games? Bill is a closeted gay man. Javier wasn't in the gang yet. Arthur was still hung up on Mary and after dealing with Eliza, wasn't going to make that mistake again. Hosea never slept with sex workers that we know of as he was devoted to Bessie and her memory and even if he did use sex workers, he wasn't the type to creep on someone like Abigail. Abigail CAN say no to some, especially someone like Pearson. Who does that leave you with? John.
The Callander Brothers aren't even there. Sean isn't there. Charles, Lenny, Micah, Swanson, none of the others.
It is deeper than that because first of all, the game is based on gangs like Butch Cassidy's and Doc Holliday's. If you google Etta Place, for example, a lot of her life is the same as Abigail's. Second of all, it's an excuse for people to be misogynic and be anti-sex work while a woman - a very young one - suffered and was dragged through the mud for years.
Also, it's a well known fact that gangs paired up with women and no one else. It's the truth. They wouldn't dare pass around one woman and risk stupid things like fights over her. Would you feel the same about Arthur and tuberculosis? I have and I believe others have written about the realistic aspects of tuberculosis and how they relate to Arthur. Finally, media literacy and meta is exactly to explore or debunk certain things.
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omnipah · 10 months ago
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for the ship ask meme: john and arthur malevolent?
haha. you have caught me at possibly the best/worst time to ask this because i have just started catching up on malevolent and had to stop 1/3 of the way through an episode cus i was so mad. so. schroedinger's ship.
Ship It
What made you ship it?
the inherent eroticism of a parasite, obviously
What are your favorite things about the ship?
there is such a fascinatingly blurred line between 'toxically codependent because they literally have to be around each other with no breaks 24/7' and 'weirdly healthy relationship because they have to figure out their differences because they have to be around each other with no breaks 24/7'
also the specific mechanics of the body-sharing, not just the basic idea of mutually excusive control of the parts of the body (though that's also just really cool), but also the fucking Symbolism of. he's your literal left hand man. he's your advisor because you can't make decisions without the information he provides but you cannot know if he's trustworthy. he's also a better person than you ever will be because he has reason to prompt him to try, whereas you have the privilege of thinking you're good by default. he has all the control he can't do anything without you. he has to beg you to see his point of view to be able to act on the world and make choies. this is just turning into john doe propaganda i'm realising
Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?
i mean. if i really have to pick just one then it's gotta be that i cannot understand people who ship them in a way that has bodily separation as an end-goal. like. first of all if you aren't here for the gay possession why are you listening to the gay possession show. secondly they are a system and that's good and interesting. they shouldn't have to be separate for you to see them as whole, functioning people. thirdly, and this is more corollary than directly to do with their separation, if i have to see one more person give arthur his sight back after they separate i'm gonna start biting
Don’t Ship It
Why don’t you ship it?
if harlan wanted me to be interested in this ship (and i know he does because he's baiting everyone to hell and back) then the least he could do is actually respect both characters in it, and not treat one of them as if he's always right despite him being objectively horrible, while treating the other like he's not a full person and can't make decisions or be trusted with his own emotions or growth
What would have made you like it?
JOHN. DOE. DESERVES. BETTER.
in particular i do think it'd be good for both the ship and the story if someone other than arthur knew about john and talked to him and allowed him to have relationships. i mean we can still have the codependency and the jealousy as a treat but. also john needs friends so he's not entirely defined by arthur, and i think it'd be interesting to see how he learns to communicate with people who can't hear him
also just fucking once i would like to see arthur concede to john about something important rather than the story constantly treating john like he's hysterical and needs to grow up whenever he has an issue with what arthur does or says
Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?
listen to me. i am taking you by the hand and looking deep into your eyes. these characters have so much fucking potential. they're so fascinating. it's so good. just please actually do something with it. and also have some basic empathy.
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mayimkjs · 2 months ago
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FOOL's MATE Update Post #4
Master Post  Last Update
School Date: Summer, Term 8, Week 9
Honestly, not much has happened this month. I've just been busy with PT. On the bright side, I might finally get tested for POTS.
But anyways, This next month is going to be another strange month. I have finals, I'm trying to work on a joke cover of Double for my MV class and I'm going to Florida for an early 21st birthday present. I mainly wanna go to Florida for SPACE. Sadly, I'm probably going to miss the launch at Kennedy.
About the Double cover, I might post some WIP or BTS of it here. The reason why it's a joke cover is because I'm mainly using Meika Mikoto for it. Hime's going to be in there somewhere too. I bought their V5 and talk just for this lamo.
Milanote & Research
I've finally started to finish some things in Milanote that have been unfinished for months. My research is also significantly slowing down which is a good thing. I means that I've looked at almost everything. There's still a few small things here and there that I have to do, but I'm saving most of that for my early birthday vacation so I'm not board out of my mind on the plane.
Also, I decided to look into playing cards in tarot because a diamond shows up in Double. And I might have found something.
Logo
I've made a prototype logo! I made a post about looking for input a bit ago but I also wanna mention the logo here too.
Input Form Input Post
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Here's an older version of the logo.
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Prototype Intro
This was for my Motion Graphics 3 class. This is my most recent export and you can tell there's things missing. The string needs to be replaced, I need to add the glass, I have to find a font to replace the one I was going to use since it doesn't work in Illustrator and the entire title sequence is missing. I might mess with some effects like the noise. The glitches need to be fixed as well. Also, that rectangle isn't suppose to be there. I know what it's from though. So it'll be easy to fix that. There's also some issues with the lighting.
Props & The Script Books
I finally found out why the keyframe goods have been delayed. The shipping date changed to late August, then because of typhoon season, it was delayed some more. Also, since I wanna include some props that aren't exactly MILGRAM related but related to the people who work on it, I found out I actually have like, 3-5 mangas/books that, in the anime adaptation of them, Hanae Natsuki voices a main character lamo. And since I'm not strictly sticking to MILGRAM props, I'm using this as an excuse to buy the CD of Transform.
Technically, I bought the Script Books for a prop and research. I bought them to add to the section about Mikoto and John's speech habits.
Other Shit
Finished the FOOL's MATE page on my site.
I'm also starting to plan the first promo video.
I'm finally going to finish going through all of the voice dramas next Friday since I have a 3 1/2 hour flight.
Changes
Added
T2 Summary clarification from Yamanaka
Playing cards in tarot
CMYK/HLS meanings
Birthstones
Edited
DID Info
Expanded
Foils
Links
Research Doc (Comments on like always)
Milanote
Reddit Post
Feedback Form
Commission Form
Volunteer Form
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