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keeryhours · 1 month ago

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wildflower chapter ten

Eddie Munson x Henderson! female reader, Steve Harrington x reader

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Series Masterlist

Eddie Munson Masterlist

Steve Harrington Masterlist

Summary:

No more answers are had, and some news comes out.

Warnings:

Pregnancy, secret baby, kissing, conflicting feelings, angst

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N:

I’m so excited for the final joint chapter of Wildflower! Please be sure to let me know if you want to be on Eddie’s list, Steve’s, or both! I truly hope this doesn’t suck. Thank you @punkrockmlchael , @lesservillain , and @the-witty-pen-name for your help!! I love all of you!

Being pregnant changed everything.

For one, the guys were so far up your ass now you could hardly breathe. Someone was at your apartment constantly - usually Steve - like you couldn’t take care of yourself anymore. You’d think they’d forgotten you’d already been through this once.

Before you knew it it was time for your ultrasound. Steve insisted on taking you, Asher at your mom’s.

“Do you think they’ll tell us anything?” he asked nervously, fingers tapping at the steering wheel.

“About the father?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know, maybe.”

He didn’t say anything else. He could tell you were irritated with him, and he didn’t want to push it. He drove you to the office, parking the car close to the door so you didn’t have to walk far.

You walked in without him, and he trailed after you once he got out of the car. You checked in at the front desk and sat down to wait.

“Are you nervous?” he asked quietly.

You didn’t really know the answer to that question. Were you? Maybe a little. You were certainly nervous to know who the father was, but this appointment might not even tell you that. You shrugged in response.

He looked dejected. You felt bad - you knew he was just excited at the potential of being a father. “I don’t know, Steve. I’m a little nervous. I just want to know.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I…I understand.”

The nurse called you back, and Steve followed. “Are you dad?” she asked with a smile.

“Maybe,” you answered, which made Steve blush and the nurse stop talking real fast.

The appointment went on as usual, checking your vitals and weight, then the ultrasound machine came in. You were nervous - would this tell you anything? Were you ready to find out if the baby was Steve’s or Eddie’s?

The nurse squirted the gel on your stomach and began moving it across your abdomen, the picture appearing on the screen. You saw that little blob appear - and it was like all your worries went out the window. That was your baby. You pictured Asher with the tiny bundle in his arms, playing with a little brother or sister.

Steve looked at the screen with awe. He had seen Asher’s ultrasounds, but this was different. He was acutely aware that this could be his child - the thought was so exciting. He wanted that more than anything.

“Is there a way to tell, uh…when the baby was conceived?” you asked, feeling awkward.

The nurse looked at you with something like pity. “Not for sure. It’s not exact.”

That was pretty much what you’d been expecting to hear, but it was still disappointing. You could tell Steve was disappointed, too.

You left the appointment with a strip of ultrasound photos, a prescription for prenatal vitamins, and a card with your next appointment. There was an awkward silence as the two of you sat in the car.

“…Are you okay?” you finally asked Steve as he started the engine of his BMW, pulling out of the parking lot.

“I’m fine,” he said. “…Are you?”

“I mean…it would have been nice to know.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed immediately. “It would have.”

Another awkward silence settled over the car. You watched the scenery as you drove past.

Steve thought about having a family with you, a real one. You, him, Asher, and the new baby. He let himself picture the baby with his hazel eyes, your lips and his nose and a head full of brown hair. Signing the birth certificate as the father - the last name Harrington on the document.

He imagined Eddie’s face when the baby turned out to be his. Then maybe he’d finally back off. Not out of Asher’s life, but as out of yours as he possibly could be.

But what if the baby was Eddie’s? He could feel the ache in his chest already at the thought of you having another one of Eddie’s babies, now with Eddie here wanting to be involved and, let’s face it, wanting you back. He couldn’t handle that. He pushed the possibility from his mind.

“You know I’m going to love this baby either way, right?” Steve spoke up, looking at you with his big sad eyes. “Even if it’s not mine. I love Asher like he’s my own, so if this baby is Eddie’s again…I’ll love them just as much.”

You smiled sadly at him. His words did make you feel better. “I know. I know you will.”

Steve dropped you off at home. Asher would be spending the night with your mom and Dustin, and you were relieved to have the time to yourself, to think about things.

Steve watched you walk into your apartment, desperately wanting to go after you, to be with you. To kiss you again. But he gave you your space - it was what you needed.

Halloween rolled around, and it felt like chaos. You got Asher into his ninja turtle costume - Leonardo - with great effort. Your back and feet were killing you after a long day at the diner, and you were grateful you didn’t have to leave the house tonight.

Eddie had asked to take Asher trick or treating, which you gladly said yes to. He’d never gotten to take him and you did not feel up to it. Steve was coming over to watch some horror movies he was bringing from Family Video, and you were attempting to paint your belly like a pumpkin.

It was a lot harder to do by yourself, but you had missed out on this with Asher’s pregnancy and you weren’t going to miss it this time, even though the bump was still small. You painted the cool orange paint over your stomach, and you were attempting the black parts when there was a knock at the door.

You went to the door, wearing your leggings and a sports bra, leaving your belly and the wet paint exposed. Eddie’s eyes widened at the sight, then a grin spread across his lips.

“Whatcha doin’?” he asked.

“Attempting to paint a pumpkin on the belly,” you said, looking down at yourself. “It’s not going great.”

“Need some help?” Eddie offered. “We’ve got a little time before me and Ash meet up with the guys.”

“Really? You want to help?” You raised your eyebrows at him. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “I missed out on this stuff last time.” He walked past you into the apartment, and you closed the door behind him.

“Daddy!” Asher cheered, jumping up from where he’d been watching TV. He ran into Eddie’s arms, and he laughed as he lifted his son in the air.

“Hey, buddy! Look at you!” Asher showed off his swords. “Woah! So cool!”

Asher went back to the TV as you and Eddie headed for the paints spread out on the kitchen table. He picked up the orange paint and repainted the mess you’d made of your belly, the strokes much more even and pumpkin-like.

“You sure this is how you want to spend the first part of your night?” you teased with a raised eyebrow, watching Eddie work with his tongue poking out between his lips.

“Of course,” he said again. “Like I said, I didn’t get to do any of this with Ash. And this one might be mine, too, so…” he winked up at you, and you rolled your eyes.

He moved onto the black paint next, painting a face on the pumpkin. When he was done, it looked perfect.

“I didn’t know you could paint,” you said, looking down at the art on your body. He’d done an amazing job.

“Just something I picked up in my free time on the road,” he smiled gently, eyes still on the bump, like he was lost in thought.

“What’s up?” you asked him, head tilted to the side. “Something’s on your mind.”

He shook his head. “I just…I’m just thinking about stuff.”

“Like the new baby?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “I just…I hope it’s mine, you know? It would be a second chance. To do things right.”

You looked at him sadly, reaching forward to take his hand. “I know, Eddie.”

He looked over at Asher with a wistful smile. “He’s a cool kid.”

“He’s the most important thing to me. He made me a mom,” you said, smiling at Asher playing with his toys.

“Well, actually I made you a mom,” Eddie said, a goofy grin on his face.

You laughed - “I guess that’s true.”

Eddie smiled at you, then, as if he were snapping out of his reverie, looked down at his watch. “Shit. We need to get going.”

You turned - “Ash, you ready?”

You didn’t have to tell him twice, as he came galloping to meet you both. He had his plastic pumpkin in his hands, pretend swords strapped to his back.

Eddie picked him up and sat him on his hip. It made you smile how natural he looked with his son. “We’ll be back by 9:30. Tell mom bye!”

“Bye bye!” Asher said, excitedly bouncing in Eddie’s arms. You walked them both to the door and watched them leave, shutting it softly behind him. The room felt immediately lonely in Asher’s absence.

You didn’t have to wait long before there was another knock at your door and Steve let himself in. He had three movies in his hands, holding them up as he dropped his jacket over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.

“I got us A Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Evil Dead,” he said. His eyes dropped to your stomach - “Did you do all that yourself?”

You looked down at the artistry on your skin. “I started it, but it wasn’t looking too good. Eddie did it for me when he came to pick up Ash.”

Steve was struck with a pang of jealousy. He had wanted to help you with this. That could be his baby in there. Just because Eddie wasn’t around the first time shouldn’t mean he gets to take over this time. “It looks cute.”

You smiled. “Thanks. I wanted to do something special. The bump isn’t even that big yet, but…”

“I think it’s adorable,” Steve said, giving you a reassuring smile. “Very festive.”

You put together all the snacks you’d prepared for the two of you while Steve picked a movie and put it in the VCR.

“Fuckers didn’t rewind,” he muttered to himself as he hit the rewind button. “Now I get to watch the whole movie backwards first. Awesome.”

You laughed as you placed the various bowls of snacks and candy on the coffee table. You had decided to do something actually fun for Halloween, since Eddie was taking Asher and you didn’t want to mope around the apartment alone.

But you weren’t sure you were going to get that. Steve looked distracted, lost in thought. When you’d question him about it he brushed you off, insisting he was fine.

He started to warm up about halfway through the first movie. He scooted closer to you, both sharing a blanket in the cool living room. Your bowl of popcorn rested on the baby bump like your own personal table.

“You really like these movies?” Steve asked, wincing as Leatherface killed his next victim.

“Of course,” you said, popping a piece of popcorn into your mouth. “If I want to relax after a long day…”

“You find this relaxing??”

You laughed at him - “You get used to it.”

At some point, you dozed off leaning against Steve’s shoulder. The knocking at the door startled you both.

“Do you want me to get it?” Steve asked.

“No, I’m sure it’s just Eddie and Asher. You can go turn his white noise on?”

“Sure,” Steve said, leaving the room just as you opened the front door.

Eddie smiled at you with Asher asleep on his shoulder. He looked so cute, so peaceful.

“How’d he do?” you whispered as the two of you transferred Asher into your arms. He barely stirred, continuing to sleep on your shoulder now.

“He was great. We had a lot of fun.” Eddie leaned forward and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Asher’s head. “Thanks for letting me take him.”

“Of course,” you said. “Look, I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah, sure. I know you had plans.” Eddie’s eyes scanned behind you, like he was looking for Steve and signs of what you’d been doing. “He’s here?”

“Steve?” you furrowed your eyebrows. “Yeah. He’s getting Asher’s room ready. What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, like he was clearing it. “Nothing. I’ll see you later - goodnight, buddy,” he whispered the last part, even though the boy wasn’t awake to hear it.

You closed the door as you took Asher to bed. He stayed mostly asleep as you changed him out of his costume and into some pajamas, and Steve tucked him in when you laid him in bed. He was so peaceful. Worn out.

Steve followed you back into the living room. You rubbed your tired eyes. “I don’t know if I can do another movie,” you admitted.

“That’s okay,” Steve said. “Do you want me to go? Or I can stay?”

“You can stay the night if you want,” you offered. “But I’m probably gonna go to bed now. Sorry, I’m not as much fun these days.”

Steve smiled gently. “Hey, I get it. I’ll head home.” He stepped forward and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “I’ll see you.”

You had barely seen Steve go when you went into your own room. You cleaned the pain and makeup off your skin, the most effort you had as you passed out in bed right after.

You dreamed of both Steve and Eddie - your heart had never been good at choosing.

You hated going to the grocery store. Especially now with a toddler on top of being pregnant and exhausted. But you had to do what you had to do.

You pushed Asher in the cart through the store, gathering the things you needed. He reached for the candy when you got to the checkout counter. “Candy!”

“Okay, one candy,” you conceded with little fight, moving to the rack to pick out a chocolate bar for the toddler. But just as you began to reach for it, a magazine on the rack caught your attention, making your stomach sink.

Corroded Coffin Frontman Eddie Munson’s Secret Baby?

Below the headline were photos of Eddie with Asher on halloween. Holding hands as they went from house to house, Eddie holding Asher with the baby’s arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Eddie laughing with the guys as he held his son.

This could not be happening.

How had paparazzi made it to Hawkins? It’s not like people local to Hawkins didn’t already know Eddie was Asher’s father. But someone absolutely could have snapped the pics to make some money.

You felt sick as you paid for your groceries, grabbing one of the magazines. You hurried from the store, getting Asher into his seat and heading back home. You plucked the phone from the receiver as soon as you got Asher settled.

It rang a few times before a sleepy “Hello?” came from the other end.

“Have you seen what’s in the tabloids?”

Eddie groaned. “What this time?”

You picked up the magazine. “Corroded Coffin Frontman Eddie Munson was spotted Halloween night with a child sources say is his son-“

“Shit,” Eddie hissed. You could hear as he sat up in bed, practically see the blankets pooling at his shirtless waist, lithe tattooed body with his disheveled hair hanging down his shoulders-

“Fuck,” Eddie said. “I have like 50 voicemails from the label. Can I, uh, call you back?”

Before you could say anything the line went dead. You cursed as you slammed the phone back down onto the receiver.

You had wanted to keep Asher away from this. You didn’t want his face plastered all over the whole country, the whole world. With everything, it had been so easy to forget who Eddie was now - famous. Really famous.

You knew you had no right to be mad at Eddie, but you were anyway. You were furious, and you had to take it out on someone. You looked at Asher, playing with his toys on the living room floor - and realized his life was about to change.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” Eddie muttered as he paced his room, the ringing phone held to his ear. When his agent answered, there was no relief.

“Eddie, what the fuck?” he said in lieu of a greeting, his voice angry. Eddie had a headache already.

“Look, I can explain-“

“Is that kid yours?”

“Just let me-“

“Is. That. Kid. Yours?”

Eddie ran his hand over his face. “Yes, but I swear-“

His agent let out a laugh that sounded more fed up than joyful. “Just typical, Munson. Do you know how much of a disaster this is for us right now? The phone has been ringing off the hook for you all day. Why have you never mentioned this?”

His head was pounding. “I haven’t known myself for very long.”

A sigh. “Well, congratulations, I guess.”

“There might also be another one?” he added on, wincing as he said it.

“Another…what?” Another disbelieving huff. “Eddie, what the fuck are you getting into over there?”

“Long story,” he mumbled.

“But this one is yours? In the media?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to need to make a statement,” he said. “We’re going to have to spin this and say you’ve been trying to keep him out of the spotlight.”

“That’s the truth.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll leave out the part where you’re just now finding out the kid exists at all.” He scoffs. “I can’t believe you, Munson. You’ve been more trouble than anyone I’ve ever worked with. Better be glad you sell records.”

The call ended abruptly, Eddie letting the phone dangle from his fingers as he buried his face in his hands and thought. This was bad, but it wasn’t the worst thing to happen. The fans were bound to find out about Asher eventually, with the way cameras followed their every move. This was okay. He could handle this.

It wasn’t the end of the world.

The end of the world came the next day.

Eddie woke up again to his phone ringing off the hook, a million missed calls from the label and from you. This time he jumped up in a panic, preparing to snatch the phone when there was a loud banging at his door.

Panic struck him. What if someone had happened? He threw the front door open to see you, looking absolutely furious. “Eddie.”

“What…?” he asked, utterly terrified of what your best words would be.

You didn’t say any. You slapped a magazine against his chest instead, pushing roughly past his shoulder and into the house, phone still ringing. Eddie reluctantly looked down at the magazine in his hand - and felt like he would be sick on the spot.

“So, another baby?” You said from behind him, hands on your hips. “You sure do get around, huh?”

Eddie couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A woman he didn’t particularly recognize, holding a small brown haired baby. The words below her picture - “Another woman steps forward with a baby claimed to belong to Corroded Coffin’s Eddie Munson.”

His hands shook as he numbly walked back into the house, collapsing onto the couch. You were about to say something, but the phone began ringing for the millionth time. He picked it up this time. “Hello?”

“Another one?”

Eddie could hear his heart beating through his ears. “I don’t know anything about-“

“Did you sleep with this girl? Linda?”

Eddie gaped down at the magazine, examining the girl’s picture. “I…I don’t know.”

You snorted.

“You don’t know. He doesn’t know.” His manager laughed humorlessly over the line. “God damnit, Munson.”

Eddie was trembling. He really couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen this woman in his life. It was possible. He’d woken up plenty of times on the road unable to remember who, if anyone, he brought to bed.

The way he’d drown his emotions in alcohol, until every girl throwing themselves at him looked like you. Your name tattooed on his body as he slept with these other women, poor substitutions for the real thing. The thing he’d given up, and now probably ruined for good.

“The girl wants money,” his manager continued. “So the next step is a DNA test. You better pray, boy, this isn’t looking good for you.”

The phone call ended abruptly. Eddie lowered the phone from his ear, not looking to forward to facing you, either.

“Did you sleep with her?” you asked him, and the hurt in your eyes broke him more than anything.

“I don’t know,” he said again, feeling like the biggest dumbass in the world. All these things he’d done, these stupid mistakes he’d made, ruining the one thing he’d wanted more than anything. Even if he hadn’t always seen that.

You shook your head. “Eddie, if that woman’s baby turns out to be yours, that’s it. I don’t want anything with you, I don’t want to be your friend. I’ll finish this bullshit in court and co-parent with you as much as I have to. But I’m done with you.”

Eddie’s heart kept breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. Even if he had slept with this woman, he didn’t care about her. He wanted you. He would do anything to have you.

He was about to say something else when you left the trailer with the door slamming behind you. He was left alone with nothing but his thoughts, his heart having followed you out the door.

You hadn’t even realized you’d started crying until you were knocking on Steve’s apartment door, tears streaming down your face that you wipe away as you wait for him to open the door.

When he did, his expression immediately changed from confused to concerned. “What are you doing here?” he asked, pulling you inside. “Are you okay? Is Ash okay?” His eyes darted down to your stomach. “The baby?”

“We’re okay,” you sniffled. “Have you seen the tabloids today?”

“No?” His eyes widened. “What do they say?”

“Some other girl has come out and said she had Eddie’s baby. And he can’t even remember if he slept with her or not.” You scoffed as the tears began to fall again.

“Jesus,” Steve said. He pulled you into a hug. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

You shrugged, crying as your head lay on his chest. “I don’t know. I figured he probably slept with other girls on the road, but I didn’t want to know. I don’t want him to have a baby with some random girl.”

Steve wished you didn’t care what Eddie got up to, but he knew you did. He knew a part of you still loved Eddie, and there was nothing he could do about that.

When you looked up at him, it was with red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks. He still thought you were so beautiful like this. So beautiful, that as you stared into each other’s eyes, feeling your hearts beating against one another’s chest, all he could think about was kissing you again. So much so that he leaned in, so so slowly, until he was pressing his lips against yours.

He was surprised when you kissed him back, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him closer. His arms slid around your waist as you kissed deeply, picking up in intensity quickly. When you pulled back slightly he instinctively chased after your lips, pressing two quick pecks to them as you pulled away.

“I love you,” Steve said, and then he opened his eyes and he saw the look on your face - the horror, guilt, and panic.

“I should go,” you said, pulling away and out of his reach, even as his hand reached out towards you.

“Please don’t,” Steve said. “Please just talk to me.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry, Steve,” you said, and he watched you leave, heart breaking as the door shut behind you.

You were nearly hyperventilating as you reached your car. Your thoughts were spinning so fast you couldn’t keep up, you thought you were going to be sick. It was like a ride you really did not want to be on. You hated how much you liked the kiss with Steve. You hated how much you still loved Eddie. Why were you always fucked?

Chapter 11 Eddie’s Route - coming soon

Chapter 11 Steve’s Route - coming soon

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seunghyunjigglers · 5 months ago

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mama, a stray kid behind YOU ★ @seunghyunjigglers

ot8 skz members as brainrot memes!

author's note: we even included links for some of the less chronically online divas out there (generous much?)! a lot of thought and effort went into this and we hope you love and appreciate our firstborn child. tw: dark humor. betas, do not interact!

chan ★ "i'm the leader, i'm the alpha, i'm the one to trust"

unironically watches bad edits of himself and goes "ayeee" to hype himself up about being edited

comments under them on his secret account

his fyp is now most definitely infiltrated by alpha chan edits

let's be real the whole trend was probably what inspired wolfgang to be released

bites his lip bc he thinks it makes him look sexy and he just looks like he's eating his bottom lip

tries to do that thing where guys put their necklace between their lips and take pics to be sexy but the necklace falls down his throat and he starts choking

would deliberately start doing aegyo followed by serving face to show his 'duality' since apparently the fandom love it (poor guy doesn't understand irony still)

LOVES when stays talk about his gyatt and starts using it bc he thinks its just another normal word for ass and seungmin and felix almost throw up laughing at him

minho ★ "queen never cry"

genuinely thought 'lock in' was something to be taken seriously and does NOT take it lightly when chan tells everyone to lock in

his kinky ass also probably thought it was some kind of jail roleplay (jisung had to explain it to him)

has mewing competitions with himself in the mirror

makes 'minho never CRY 💜' the note on his alarm in the morning

thinks it’s funny when he recommends the ki sisters manga (where the meme comes from) to people as his favorite series and the poor author has to actually go on a talk show cause he blew it up with the internet

checks his notifications EVERY day hoping someone will edit him with that baby

accidentally comments “queen NEVER cry” under a sentimental skz edit on the official account and wakes up with several calls from his managers.. let’s just say it didn’t go over well

changbin ★ "gadagadegadagadao" (omega nugget)

he stumbled across this meme on felix's fyp one evening and thought it would make the best vocal warmup for his raps, didn't realise it was a joke and actually uses it before recording tracks

when he discovers its a meme he thinks its hilarious and makes it his whole personality

stops mid convo with people and makes the face and thinks he's so funny (everyone is tired of it)

orders mcdonald's for everyone and takes the time to draw the face on EVERY chicken nugget and couldn't be prouder of himself

genuinely thinks the song is an actual banger and has it saved as a sample for a potential title track

hyunjin ★ "donatella VERSACE"

only types like THIS 💜 and felix and seungmin are the only ones who get it

chan finds out and secretly changes his name in a groupchat with their managers and staff to "hwang HYUNJIN 💜"

he is tired but donatella is not

his gag christmas present for secret santa is boxers with ms versace herself covering his chocolate starfish and he has a wardrobe malfunction while wearing them at a show and EVERYONE sees

is actually really embarrassed when he has to explain what it means to her and she just nods and tries to smile with all her botox

after this she comments it on all her posts and he accepts that he’s never escaping it

jisung ★ "jiafei 'in my head' remix" (floptropica)

this man is always singing his lungs out in every skz code and somewhere along the way he saw an edit of him with jiafei's vocals in the bg

was actually impressed by her vocal skills and tried to hunt down her ig page, ends up on some fake floptropican fanpage but he doesn't know this because he has minimal survival skills

dms some loser message like "wow your voice is sooooo nice haha...i also like to sing lol...so do you like korean boys haha..."

owner of the jiafei fan account is a stay and thinks this is hilarious and catfishes the hell out of him for WEEKS, sends vocal edits and jisung unironically eats them up, he def sends back vms of him doing vocal covers to impress her

felix hears him singing a jiafei remix one day and almost shits himself laughing, jisung gets angry and defensive until felix reveals that jiafei is literally a meme

realises he's been catfished

blocks the account and gets sulky whenever any floptropican edit pops up on his fyp, but still sings the jiafei remixes quietly to himself (some habits are hard to break)

felix ★ "oi oi oi...baka" (freaky larvae)

recreates it and everyone takes it seriously and he has to make a video telling everyone it was not in fact a thirst trap

breaks up serious arguments like "we need to calm down...you're all being a bunch of...heh...bakas..."

searches it up one day to see if there's any other lore and accidentally discovers a yagami yato audio and gets traumatised

seungmin gets fed up by felix constantly repeating it so he comes up with a master plan and during one of their japan concerts says "oh, felix has been practicing his japanese lately...what's that thing you keep saying?"

i feel like he'd perfect that freaky expression and everyone is sick of him and changbin for randomly using them

picks larva on his turn to choose something for movie night and everyone comically (see what i did there) groans and gets up while he’s just there cracking up

seungmin ★ "saddam hussein hiding spot"

this guy saw a 'saddam hussein hiding spot' comment under jeongin's post and fell down the rabbithole (or rather, the entrance covered in bricks and rubble)

thinks its HILARIOUS because it's a historically accurate meme (nerd!)

definitely whispers it every single time he sees someone or something laying down and everyone is so fed up with it, also gets felix to do the voice since he can imitate it perfectly

uses it as an excuse to randomly start lying down during dance practices and when everyone complains he just says "why am i lowkey serving saddama hussein hiding spot?"

he'd take this shi so seriously like he'd be doing the math to figure out how much time to spend on each app each day so he can make his daily screen time average look like saddam hussein JUST to make the reference

jeongin ★ "that feeling when knee surgery is tomorrow"

someone makes a comment about how they tore their acl and have to get knee surgery and he goes "that feeling when knee surgery is tomorrow" and starts laughing

it wasn't very funny to said someone

probably has to make one of those formal instagram apology posts because of it (he sets the music as the bg for the original post but his manager makes him delete it and post again)

fake falls at practice and when everyone crowds around him all worried he says he feels like he might need knee surgery tomorrow and gets kicked out of the room

pays an insane amount of money to get everyone matching knee surgery knee pads for practice and absolutely loses it every time someone actually needs to use it and has no other choice

posts a fake hospital pic with “do NOT get your knee surgery from shein !!” on his secret account

asks for permission to change his pfp to the grinch and considers outing jyp when he gets told no

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ballowvalence · 5 months ago

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finished jentry chau last night and i have a lot of thoughts. SPOILERS AHEAD.

the good (broad strokes because there's so much to like in general!):

production quality is off the charts: fantastic animation, beautiful fight scenes, lovely character and world design, music perfectly complements the whole vibe. great style as well!

satisfying narrative arc: no cliffhangers, we get an A to B story line with character growth and progress. jentry ends the series as emotionally more mature than she starts.

interesting characters and engaging exchange and dialogue between them that mostly felt believable and realistic for teens this day and age.

the bad (my gripe in a nutshell):

the showrunners' decided to favor making the show work to what they'd prefer over cohesive character choices. (like they were trying to manipulate jentry's character around hitting plot points, instead of vice versa.)

jentry's forgiveness isn't consistent for her character.

the showrunners decided that the narrative would be more dramatic when/if she didn't forgive others.

gugu lied to her all her life about SO many things. we're given her reasoning, which we're meant to understand and relate to (she didn't want jentry to hate her/her parents), and because jentry loves gugu, she forgives her. i do not forgive gugu! she lied to jentry for 16 years about EVERYTHING.

this ties into how moonie is still alive as well. gugu knew! she could've EASILY have tracked her down. so she CHOSE to never try and reunite them. and MOONIE knew she was jentry's mother. how could you do that to your daughter? and jentry forgives moonie because she loves the POTENTIAL of her mother. what the fuck! i do not forgive moonie! she CHOSE not to be part of her life.

then we come to the only other person who begged for forgiveness for their secrets hurting her.

kit. he lied about who he was and his intentions. however, out of the him, gugu, and moonie, kit is the only one who does not intentionally obscure jentry's ability to figure out his secret, as in jentry is not forced to act for him to confess his truth. with gugu's secrets, she had to work to uncover them, and with moonie, jentry had to work to find her.

he is the only one who comes clean to her after putting his life in danger to save hers, and there's no way he doesn't know how fragile his painted skin is. he KNOWINGLY went to save her from the fire and risked his identity being blown because she was that important to him. (i remind you his death words started with "everything i did was for me." LIKE SAVING HER THEN??? THAT WAS FOR YOU???)

and how does jentry react? poorly, yes, because she hates lies (because of gugu).

but even after that, kit is never actually forgiven. in fact, jentry uses him, and then abandons him when she achieves her goal. it felt so drastically out of whack for her character that i wondered what was happening. then he is ostracized by her, and she rejects even his friendship and acts cold to him. she cuts him off.

it really doesn't make sense for her to not even want to be his friend. she bonded with him during the doppelganger experience. they WERE friends then. then she says she wants to be normal and pursues michael even when he admits to her HE isn't normal. so that's not it either.

only the narrative is what forces her not to forgive him because the showrunners need to hit the plot points of him betraying her and him needing to sacrifice himself later. (which i would argue his sacrifice really doesn't make sense at all. if you watch that scene when kit dies in her place, WHY would he even pretend to be her? if jentry had just worn the robes instead, she would've been able to defend herself as quickly she donned them as is shown after kit-jentry is attacked. it was a needless sacrifice!)

gugu is forgiven in this same episode for her lies. why can jentry forgive gugu and not kit (prior to the betrayal)? it just doesn't fit for her character.

jentry then goes on to immediately forgive moonie for never getting into contact with her. moonie ALSO lied to her her entire life. but somehow this is forgiveable now because it works with the narrative and the plot points.

anyway. that's my biggest gripe with the show.

instead of building the narrative around jentry's character, the show built a narrative and manipulated jentry's character to make it work.

also...

the mogai-human-form design was weirdly sexist?

when possessing mr. cheng, the mogai-cheng form is ugly and malformed and disproportionate. he is not conventionally appealing or attractive. he is not the same size or shape as cheng appeared. he is wearing clothes.

when posessing jentry, the mogai-jentry form is curvaceous and slim and appealing to look at. this form is conventionally attractive. she is the same size and shape as jentry appeared. she is not wearing clothes.

all of these are choices the showrunners made. they could've made mogai-jentry much more unappealing, but they didn't. for some reason, keeping her "attractive/cool" was the choice over what the design could mean. they did make her look dangerous, i guess?

#jentry chau vs the underworld #my thoughts #narrative over character mistake #spoilers #jentry chau

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cherrifire · 1 year ago

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Please share your thoughts on the other 5 cutie marks, I'd love to hear!

Hi everypony! I got like 20 asks for the Dogwarts cutie mark lore so I'm here to speak my truth!

Before we start, I would like to write a quick reminder that a pony's cutie mark is not always their "special talent", but can also represent who they are, their personalities, and a possible destiny. Different cutie marks have different meanings and interpretations, but they're not just about representing what you're good at.

That being said, let's start with the cutie mark design I'm proudest of!

Ren's Cutie Mark

Ren's cutie mark is of a sunrise and looks pretty simple at first glance but there was a lot of thought that went into this one.

First of all, I bet you're wondering why a sunrise? Well, in the show, it is pretty typical for unicorns with great magical abilities to have one relating to space (examples being Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Sunburst). And I figured since I wanted Ren to fall into a similar position of potentially becoming an alicorn, I gave him a cutie mark following the same trend. And I chose a sunrise to reflect the way Ren seems to glow when he enters a room. The way he carries himself is very warm and bright it just catches your eye in a similar way the sun would.

Also, Ren wears sunglasses. So a sun-themed cutie mark seemed appropriate.

Additionally, there are a couple of smaller details I want to point out too. Like the sun rays, if you look at them for a moment you'll see they're shaped like little crowns! I of course had to put a crown in thanks to how much Ren likes to play royalty, so I snuck it in there. And then the red spots underneath could both be interpreted as the sun reflected over water or blood. (But of course, this is a kid show AU so there wouldn't be any blood in Ren's destiny, just a fun reference to the red king and his whole thing about blood dyeing the snow red)

Martyn's Cutie Mark

I explained this one in an earlier ask but I thought I'd explain it again here for anyone who didn't see it!

Martyn's cutie mark is of a chopped log and a small stick.

This one is mostly a play on the name "Littlewood" but has other meanings too. As a character, Martyn tends to travel and explore quite a bit. In the Life Series specifically, he is usually the last one to find a permanent base and even then doesn't spend a lot of time in one place. Always on the move. Additionally, he's more of a wild card compared to other characters, always trying to be as unpredictable as possible.

The smaller detail here is the little swirl on top of the log is the same as the one on his Minecraft skin's shirt.

BigB's Cutie Mark

Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! BigB's cutie mark is of 3 cookies where one is trying to eat the others. There are also a few sprinkles there made to look like action lines.

We all know BigB loves cookies so of course I had to give him a cutie mark with cookies in it. For this one, I decided to follow the cutie mark trend of "symbol/item important to the pony duplicated 3 times" (examples being Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie) but I added a bit more creativity to it with the top on trying to eat the others to represent just how tasty they are 😋

Additionally, rather than the first cookie trying to eat the others, you could interpret it as opening its mouth to talk. Because BigB can not keep a secret to save his life! In Double Life when he started "secret soulmates" with Grian, he didn't last a day without opening his mouth. He told Ren about it immediately because he felt bad for keeping things from him.

Also worth quickly mentioning: People pointed out in my original post that they don't think BigB would be the element of honesty because of his behaviour in Secret Life. But that's just Secret Life. I think Secret Life to BigB was like that episode of My Little Pony where Discord makes the main 6 act the opposite of their true element. BigB was just going through a weird phase of telling very obvious lies because a book told him to.

Skizz's Cutie Mark

Skizz's cutie mark is of a lightning bolt from a couple storm clouds hitting the ground.

I think this is the cutie mark with the least thought put into it, unfortunately. There was still though just not as much as the others. The big thing I thought was fun was I made the lightning bolt shaped like an "S" to stand for Skizzleman. But other than that, this cutie mark sort of has the same meaning as Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. Quick like lightning, loud, bold, dangerous, and powerful.

Impulse's Cutie Mark

Impulse's cutie mark is of a lit-up lightbulb.

I absolutely crowded this cutie mark with the letter i. If you look closely, there are 6 of them. Impulse's design also has an i-shaped pattern on the belly if you look closely enough. But that's more of a fun easter egg and doesn't exactly reflect Impulse as a character.

There are a couple of reasons I chose a lightbulb for Impulse, the first and probably most obvious is that he's a redstone guy! He's a technical guy who likes to work smarter, not harder. So I figured the My Little Pony equivalent would be a light bulb/electricity. The second reason for the lightbulb is that it's usually used as a visual representation when characters have that "eureka!" moment in cartoons. When someone has a brilliant idea a little lightbulb turns on above their head. So since Impulse is the ideas guy, I figured a lightbulb would work for his cutie mark.

Etho's Cutie Mark

Etho's cutie mark is of a snowflake with a missing branch.

I promise there is more to this cutie mark than just "Canada is cold" even if that's part of the reason I wanted to give him a winter-themed cutie mark. While it is fun to make a nod to Etho being Canadian, I thought a winter-themed cutie mark would be fun to represent how he sometimes presents himself. Cold and a bit mysterious. I think deep down once you get to know him, those attributes melt away, but for people who have never met him, he may be intimidating that way.

I'll be honest, I don't watch a lot of Etho content, but I do have a few friends who identify as Etho girlies so I did my research. I was told in his Minecraft Let's Play World, that he has a snowflake build somewhere. I believe they said it was an iron golem farm? (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but I thought that was perfect for the cutie mark. And if you're wondering why there's a branch missing, it's because one of my friends said he was incapable of finishing builds sometimes so I thought that would be fun to include.

-=+=-

Alright. Rant over. To celebrate, here are a few pony doodles so I can put this post in my art tag.

#cherri.speaks #cherri.draws #trafficblr #my little pony au #renthedog #inthelittlewood #bigbst4tz2 #skizzleman #impulsesv #ethoslab #Third Life x MLP #mclp

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souliebird · 2 years ago

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[[and then i met you || ch.1]]

Series: Daredevil || Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader || Rating: Explicit

Summary: A one-night stand years ago gave you a daughter and you are now able to put a name to her father – Matthew Murdock. Everything is about to change again as you navigate trying to integrate your life with that of the handsome and charming blind lawyer’s.

a/n: Reader is an extremely anxious person. That’s the note.

words: 5.6k

You hope Matthew Michael Murdock is a good man.

You tried to research him online, but you didn't find anything that could sway you one way or another.

The news articles say he's some sort of local hero - not only for being a lawyer who does a lot of pro-bono work but for saving a man from being hit by a truck when he was a kid. They all give his tragic backstory before praising him and his law partner for helping the underprivileged and going after some big shot corrupt businessman - twice. The comments are mostly from people he's helped, singing about how Nelson and Murdock saved them in their times of crisis.

You want to trust them, but you can't.

The news also claimed Hitler was Person of the Year and deserved praise, too, and you know how that turned out. Not that you think a blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen can be compared to a genocidal leader, but your mental point to yourself still stands.

You know nothing about Matthew Murdock except he's blind, he's a lawyer, and his dick changed your life.

You doubt he even remembers you - a one-night stand from years ago, before his name even started appearing in the news again, and to be fair, you didn't remember him at first, either. Not until four months later when you went in to get your anxiety medication adjusted and the doctor made you take a routine pregnancy test. Then you remembered the handsome blind lawyer who flirted with you at a friend's holiday party you had gone to. You could remember the silly conversation you had about white elephant, that he had the most charming smile, and he could do things with his tongue that made you moan just thinking about, but you could not remember his name.

You had tried to find him, you really did, but your energy and attention was quickly needed elsewhere and the search for your daughter's father lost steam.

Until you saw him on the television while at the local diner, giving an interview with his law partner.

That was yesterday and now you are standing outside the door of his firm, trying to work up the courage to go in.

There's too many scenarios in your head, all of them bad- he's not going to want anything to do with you and your daughter, which you can deal with, or maybe, just maybe, he'll try to take her away from you. He's a lawyer and you work in billing for a transportation company. There's no doubt who the courts would choose and it wouldn't be you.

The thought makes you want to turn and run but you know your daughter deserves the chance to know her father - and he deserves to know she exists. It's his choice, once he knows, if he wants to be in her life or not, not yours.

It scares you so much it's not your choice.

You scrub at your face, trying to work up the courage to actually open the door in front of you when it does just that.

A kind looking woman with strawberry blonde hair is standing in the doorway and you recognize her from the firm's website - Karen Page. She's the third partner in the firm and you didn't really look into her in your hunt for information.

She offers you a smile before speaking, "You look like you're debating coming in." You shrug, unsure what to say because that is exactly what you were doing but don't want to admit it. She looks you over without it feeling judgmental before focusing on the manila envelope in your hand. She steps back slightly and gestures for you to come into the office. "You made it this far. Whatever it is, we'll do our best to help you."

The sentiment is so kind and you know she means well, thinking you are a potential client, but it just causes your throat to get even tighter.

It has been you and your daughter for so long, is this really the right path to take?

You hug your file to your chest and take a hesitant step forward. Then another and another until you are in the office. It's not big or fancy and you didn't expect it to be. There's a little waiting area in front of the reception desk, with another desk shoved against a wall, and on either side of the room, doors leading to what you suspect are the private offices.

Karen goes around to the back of the reception desk and picks up a clipboard holding some paperwork and offers it out to you.

You take it and stare down at it, unsure if you would fill it out or not. When you look back up, Karen is still smiling at you and you don't want to come off as a problem, so you take a seat in the waiting area and start filling out the requested information. As you write out your address, it finally occurs to you that you have no idea how to have the conversation you need to have.

Do you ease into it or drop it on him like a bomb? You had only ever thought about finding him and never about what you would say when you did.

You should have taken more time to plan this out. You're such an idiot - you just jumped right into running towards him like you might lose track of him if you took so much as a second to think. You know his name now, who he is, you can take time to get things sorted out properly.

Would it be weird to leave in the middle of filling out paperwork you shouldn't even be bothering with?

Probably not, but you're already here. There is no point in running.

This is for your daughter, not you. You have to keep telling yourself that.

You don't fill out the information asking about your 'case'. It honestly makes you panic a bit if you start thinking about it all in a legal sense - you know nothing about law and the man you're meeting with graduated at the top of his class from a top law school. Your hand is shaking as you add your signature to the bottom of the page and date it. Reviewing everything takes just a moment, since there's barely anything written to begin with, and your eyes drift up to the logo at the top of the page.

Nelson, Murdock, and Page.

You trace it with your finger.

Matthew Murdock has to be a good man. This firm helps people and he wouldn't be here if he didn't want to help people. He graduated top of his class; he could work anywhere he wanted to. The papers said he is good, too - they win most of their cases.

Unless it's all a weird front to hide something like money laundering.

But if they were money launders wouldn't they have enough money to afford an air conditioner?

"All done?"

Karen is in front of you, smiling politely. You are surprised by her appearance, but you don't feel pressured. It's like she's checking in so that she can break you out of your thoughts and you appreciate that. You nod and hand her the clipboard. She takes it, giving it a once over.

"Foggy will be out in just a minute."

Your head jerks up at that.

"No, I need to see Mr. Murdock."

You can tell Karen is surprised by that and her eyes narrow just a fraction. She searches your face, then she looks towards the door on the left.

You turn your head to follow her gaze.

"Matt!" Karen calls out.

A few moments pass before the door opens and you feel like you're going to throw up.

The cameras don't do him justice.

Matthew Murdock is gorgeous. He was handsome before and somehow, he just got hotter. He's a little taller than you, still as lean as you remember, and looking crisp in a gray suit - like some model walked off the catwalk and into a sweltering office. His hair is shorter than you remember it being. You have the distinct memory of being able to grab onto it, but it's too cropped to do that now.

But the thing that catches your attention the most is that in person and in the light, you can see Matthew's hair has an auburn tint to it.

Just like Minnie's.

The realization shakes your entire world.

This man is the father of your child. He's real. He's no longer a concept of a person, who you knew nothing about, who just existed somewhere in the world.

You have to look away before you start to cry. You don't know where this surge of emotion is coming from - it feels like this wave of relief. This question you have always had finally has an answer.

You tell yourself to take a breath, you know getting overly emotional isn't going to help anything. It might actually make things worse and spiraling into a meltdown is not a good first impression.

You can see Karen in your peripheral vision, and you look up to her, trying to regain your focus.

It's Matthew who speaks first, "Yes, Karen?"

"We have a walk-in who is hoping she can speak with you."

You introduce yourself, standing up as you do. You know he is blind, so you don't offer your hand. Instead you clutch your folder to your chest.

He doesn't seem to remember your name. He turns towards you and gives a polite smile. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Matthew Murdock, but you seem to know that. I have some time right now, please come in. Karen, can you grab us some water before you join us?"

"Yeah, sure," Karen says as she turns to do just that.

Your throat gets tight again.

You don't want to have this conversation with someone else there. It's already going to be hard enough. You'll definitely start crying if Karen is in the room. You cannot deal with two people's reactions. The mere thought of you having to do that is making you sweat.

Matthew's voice breaks you out of your panic. "If that is okay?"

You rush out your response, "I would prefer to speak alone, please." You're too panicked to feel embarrassment.

Karen doesn't seem phased by this. She is still grabbing a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and offering one out to you. You take it.

"Not a problem, let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks, Kare. Please, come this way," Matthew motions for you to follow him into the office.

This is it.

Once you go through that door, you aren't leaving that room without telling Matthew Murdock he is a father.

You surprise yourself by not hesitating and just charging forward into the office.

This isn't about you or your fears.

This is for Minnie.

You keep your gaze forward because you can't bring yourself to look at him. If you stop and look at him before you tell him why you are here, you will just start over analyzing everything once again. You silently beg to whatever gods will listen that everything will be okay, and this man won't destroy you.

He doesn't look like he is going to break your heart.

But you know that looks mean nothing when it comes to pain.

He closes the door behind you with an audible click and the weight of the moment starts to come down on your shoulders.

You take the seat in front of the desk quickly, worried your nerves might catch up with you, placing the water on the ground beside you with your purse when you sit. Matthew doesn't rush, he walks to his desk with an air of quiet confidence and if you were a client, it would be comforting, but you aren't and all it does is remind you why you fell into bed with him.

"What brings you in today, Miss..?" He trails off, prompting you to say your name again. As he reaches his desk you watch as he trails his fingers along the edge, using it as a guide, before moving his hand to brush over the back of his seat before sitting in it.

You chew your bottom lip, wishing you had taken a second to actually plan what you would say instead of jumping in. As far as you know, there isn't a step-by-step guide on how to tell a one-night stand that he's the father of your child - not that you actually looked into that in your desperate research the night before.

Matthew doesn't push as you gather your thoughts. He moves some paperwork away from the center of his desk, then folds his hands there, waiting. You keep your gaze on his hands, needing something to focus your eyes on while you force the truth out.

"I saw your interview last night," you say, deciding to start there, as it seems the most relatable.

Matthew's brows knit together and he tilts his head to the side and you are one again reminded of Minnie. It's a gesture she does often, tilting her little head left and right as she tries to understand something. It always reminded you of a dog and now you wonder if it's not a learned behavior, but genetic.

His lips turn down into a frown and his head stays cocked as he asks, "Do you have information about the Lynch case?"

Heat rushes to your cheeks - of course that would be the question to ask after bringing up the interview. The whole piece was about a specific case they were working on and how it would affect Hell's Kitchen and you hadn't paid any attention to what was said - not after you realized who was on the screen.

You shake your head, resisting the urge to look away and you curl your fingers tighter around the manila folder in your lap. "No, I'm sorry. I saw you and…recognized you."

He straightens up and his demeanor shifts to something less…friendly. It's minute but your messed-up brain screams at you about body language - his shoulders have squared up and you can see where he's clenching his back teeth. You quickly continue on, wanting to get through with your explanation before your anxiety makes you clam up.

"We met nearly five years ago," your voice is firm and factual and you're proud of yourself for that, "at a holiday party."

The words leave your mouth and you know he knows. Every part of him seems to go still - even his breathing seems to stop. The crease between his brow smoothes out, like he's gone from squinting to wide eyes behind his dark glasses. Your heart is pounding in your ears and your throat is getting stiff, but your voice remains steady as you push the words out.

"I think you are the father of my child."

All the color seems to leave Matthew's face and he looks nearly as gray as his suit. The reaction makes your stomach turn. He looks like he is going to throw up.

You bite into your lip, waiting for Matthew to do or say something. All you can do is mentally chant to yourself: he's a good man, he won't take her away.

You know it's probably just seconds, but it feels like hours pass before Matthew moves.

He leans slowly back in his chair, reaching up with one hand to rub at his mouth.

"Are you sure?"

He doesn't sound upset, at least to your ears. His words are cautious - tentative - and it makes your heart go tight in your chest. You don't know if it's fear or hope or everything crashing into you at once now that he knows.

You force out a nod before you remember that the man in front of you is blind. You find your voice and words creep out.

"I'm pretty sure," you start. Your eyes drop away from his hands back down to your lap and you have to lick at your lips to wet them before continuing, "I didn't go out much after that party, I got so busy with work. I didn't…find out until the first trimester was over. By then, I couldn't remember your name. My friends who I went to the party with didn't know you either. I tried to Google you with what information I had, but 'blind lawyer' just got me a lot of disability lawyers." You take a shaky breath, "I understand if you want a paternity test."

You know Matthew is probably taking everything in, but now that you've started talking, it's like you've lifted the dam on your anxiety. You squeeze the file in your lap - just because you hadn't known how you were going to tell Matthew the truth did not mean you hadn't extensively thought about the consequences. Words start to spill out of you.

"I also understand if you don't want anything to do with us, I get it's a big shock. I'm not looking for anything from you." Matthew drops his hand to the desk and if you didn't know better, it would look like he was staring at you. "I just wanted you to know and I thought it would be good for her to know you, but if you don't want that, I get it. All I ask is you fill out some paperwork, medical history mostly so I know if there's anything I need to look out for. I printed it out for you, it's all in braille."

You get up just enough so that you can place the manila envelope on the desk, then sit back down. Your throat is getting so tight and stiff you feel like you're struggling to breathe.

Matthew runs his hand over his desk until he can feel the envelope. His fingers move along the edge and you stare at them, like they are going to be the one to reveal what Matthew is thinking instead of his mouth. He finds the lip but doesn't open, instead flattening his palm against it.

"...her?"

His voice is so quiet you barely hear it. You lift your head to finally look at him and your heart skips a beat.

Matthew looks so soft. The corners of his lips twitch a few times before a smile slowly spreads across his face.

And you know.

You know without a doubt he is your daughter's father. They have the exact same smile. You can't help but to grin as well.

This is good, isn't it? He looks Happy.

"I have a daughter.."

"Winifred.. Winifred Love," you offer. Matthew lifts his head and tilts it towards you, brow wrinkling slightly.

"Love…?" He asks, no judgment in his voice, only curiosity.

You close your eyes in a bit of embarrassment, as you always do during the story, "I meant to put Grace, but I was out of it. I even put a big heart next to it on the paperwork." You aren't ashamed of the story and you love your daughter's name, but it's always a 'oops I was high' moment, even if it was done with the purest intention.

If possible, Matthew's smile gets even bigger.

"Winifred Love," he says, his voice dropping back down to the barely there whisper.

"She goes by Minnie. Like, um.. Like Minnie Mouse," you say. That gets an amused yet fond chuckle. You find yourself relaxing at the noise - like some of the pressure squeezing on your lungs has been lifted and you can finally breathe.

He repeats her nickname and you feel your lips start to turn up.

"How old..?" His voice cracks with emotion and Matthew has to clear his throat before continuing, "how old is she?"

"Three and a half," you answer quickly, "her birthday is a few months away." You bite your lip then hesitantly add, "She wants to go to the zoo. It's all she talks about."

"Yeah?" Matthew prompts. His smile is so so soft and it makes your stomach turn in this pleasant way. However, you were expecting him to act, this is not it. In your heart, you think the best you were going for was acceptance, but this seems much more than that. There is a stinging in the corner of your eyes and you have to take your own steadying breath continuing on.

"Yeah, um.. She…likes maps right now. I got her a map to the zoo and she's got the whole day planned." Which is very much true - your coffee table has been the home of a makeshift zoo diorama for a little over a week now and the itinerary has changed about twenty times.

Matthew ducks his head and nods a little, taking all the information in. You squeeze your fingers in your lap, needing a way to release the nerves still buzzing inside you.

A few moments pass before Matthew clears his throat again, "What else does she like..?"

The question makes you chuckle just a little bit, only because gushing about your daughter is something you're very good at. Since you work at home, it is just the two of you ninety percent of the time, you don't get to coo over her very often.

"She loves arts and crafts - anything she can get her little hands on. Right now she loves pipe cleaners and paper, things she can bend and fold, you know? I set her next to me while working and she'll just fold paper into little shapes. Not origami or anything, just abstract things, she doesn't plan it. She always wants to help, too, whatever I'm doing. Cooking and cleaning. She is the best helper for grocery shopping." You pause, looking over Matthew's smile for a moment before continuing on, tears starting to gather in your eyes.

"She looks just like you," you admit, fondness clear in your voice because it is so so true. Now that you are properly looking at him, Minnie looks just like Matthew, and telling him that makes him light up even more. "You've got the same smile. The same hair. Hers is a little more red, but it's definitely from you."

You watch Matthew lick at his lips and you want to know what is going on in his head. You think everything is going well, even if you are on the verge of crying. They are tears of relief - relief you weren't told to fuck off or to go get your own lawyer. You don't fully know if Matthew Murdock is a good man, but you're over the first hurdle and the prospects are looking good.

Matthew leans back into his chair, inhaling deeply, as if centering himself, then asks, "Why now? Why find me now?"

"Like I said, I couldn't find you, I didn't know anything about you, really, except what you looked like and you were a lawyer. I did try, I really did, but…" you trail off with a shrug, "I had a newborn."

Matthew seems to accept that answer - it is the truth after all - and continues on, "But you saw the interview... Last night?"

You nod, "I was picking up some dinner and they were playing the news at the diner. I saw it and looked you up and now…now you know."

"Now I know…" Matthew repeats slowly, his smile dropping a little and you wonder if is hitting him in different waves, like it did you - the realization he is a father. You know it is an intense roller coaster and you are not going to try to guide his ride, especially after just kind of dropping it on him.

He taps the manila folder in front of him, the crease returning to his brow, "What is this?"

Your cheeks get hot again and you turn your gaze away from him and back to your lap, "Requests for family medical history and information about how to establish paternity, if that's what you want."

"It is," Matthew rushes out. Your head jerks up and his expression looks serious, "I want that. I want to be in her life."

He sounds so sure of himself that it makes your head spin a little. You built up in your mind he either wouldn't want anything to do with you and Minnie or he was going to try to take her away - you hadn't really considered the obvious option that Matthew would just want to be involved. At least, that is what you are hoping he is implying.

"I won't abandon my daughter," the conviction in his voice startles you, but it also makes your heart twist but in a good way because in that moment, you believe him. "And I won't abandon you. I used to question if I had the right to bring a child into my life, but this isn't a hypothetical anymore…. And I can't.." he trails off and leans back into his chair, rubbing at his mouth again. You don't press, you have no right to when you've come out of the blue and changed his entire world. He takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. "I can't step away now that I know she is out there."

You quickly shake your head at his words, "You don't need to rush into anything, I mean it, I don't want anything from you but for you to have the chance to know her. We can go slow, she's still little, you know? She can't handle a big change. Start small?"

You're more worried about how he is feeling versus what you are. You have at least prepared yourself to have a reaction - he thought he would be having a normal work day and you've given him a lot to process in the last five minutes.

"We can go at your pace, Matthew."

He drops his hand from his face, a smile coming back to his face, "You can call me Matt."

You repeat your preferred name, then apologize, "I'm sorry for coming out of nowhere. I didn't want to lose track of you again, but I could have scheduled an appointment."

Matt shakes his head a little, "No, I get it." His hand goes back to the envelope, like touching it is grounding him like squeezing your fingers is grounding you. "I'm glad you came…I'm glad…thank you. Thank you for telling me."

Part of you wants to reach across the desk and squeeze his hand, to give him comfort and let him know everything will be okay, but you don't dare. He's still a stranger, despite everything. You decide pushing past the emotional to the practical might be the best approach for now. You need to get your anxiety to settle now that you know your world isn't going to end and the best thing for that, in your mind, is getting an action plan.

"I don't know what the steps are for doing this," you start, trying to think up ideas as you talk, "but I think maybe we could…get together again and plan things out? Give you time to adjust to the idea and let you think about how you want to move forward?"

Matt nods along with your words, "That sounds like a good idea."

You bend down to grab your phone out of your purse, "I put my contact information in the packet, but could I get yours?"

He waits until you are ready, then gives you his personal number then the office number. You do the quick song and dance of calling his phone, so that he has your number and you wait patiently as he adds you as a contact. Hearing the voice commands to navigate a phone is new to you and once he is done putting in your information, you let your curiosity get the better of you.

"Do you prefer texting or phone calls?"

"Phone calls would be preferable," Matt says as he sets his phone on his desk, having held it up to speak clearly into it, "I have text to speech but it's not always the easiest for texting."

You nod in understanding, "Got it." You squirm in your seat, unsure of what comes next, so you say the very first thing that comes to mind. "You can call anytime. I work from home so you don't have to worry about interrupting anything…like I'm doing with you."

He hums, then asks, "What does Minnie do during the day?"

"She stays with me, mostly. There's a daycare down the block she goes to if I need someone to watch her. That's where she is now."

That makes Matt frown just slightly and part of you panics that he disapproves. "Is it just the two of you…?"

"Yes."

You say it with confidence. You've worked hard to get where you are alone and despite all you've been through, you are proud of that. "My parents passed when I was in college and I don't have any siblings. We've managed to do pretty well on our own. It's not the biggest, but we have a little place in Chelsea."

The little frown stays and you don't know what it means - you hope it's over you not having a big support system and not something else. Matt looks like he is going to respond but a knock at the door cuts him off. You jump at the noise, having totally forgotten there were other people in the office.

Matt looks slightly annoyed when he calls out, "Yes?"

The door opens and the final partner for the law firm is there. "Pardon the intrusion," he says to you with a nod before addressing Matt, "They've got that guy from last week at the 15th. He's asking for us specifically."

Matt openly scowls before running a hand over his face, "Okay. Give me a few minutes."

Foggy nods before stepping back out and closing the door.

"I'm sorry," Matt says sheepishly.

You cut him off before he can say more, standing as you do, "Please don't be, I really did just barge in on you at work. I can call you later? Or you can call me?"

Matt gets up as well, starting to come around the desk, "I can call you." He hesitates just a second, then ducks his chin, that little smile reappearing and your heart does that funny flip again. "Maybe we can get lunch?"

You smile back, "I would like that. We can start planning." You bite your bottom lip, then add, "I can bring Minnie…?"

Matt's entire face lights up and the awkwardness of trying to end your talk evaporates. "I would like that. A lot." He motions to his desk, "I'll work on getting that back to you. I want to…I want to do this right."

"I do, too."

It feels like a promise. You want to believe Matt - that he wants this and won't disappear at the first minor inconvenience. You've read so many horror stories about bad parents and you don't want any of that for Minnie.

You grab your purse and the water Karen gave you, then finally give Matt a proper look over.

You enjoyed your night together with him. Not only had he been a phenomenal lover, but he had made you smile and laugh. You weren't nearly as anxious then as you are now, but you had been rather nervous being flirted with by a handsome lawyer and he had made you feel at ease. Bringing him home with you had been an easy choice.

He must sense you smiling somehow, maybe you giggled or something, but his smile, which had started to fall, brightens back up.

"Can I ask you something before you go?"

You nod to his question, catch yourself and reply, "Of course."

"Can you tell me what she looks like?"

Guilt courses through you and biting your lip turns painful, "I'm so sorry, of course. Um, I included pictures in the packet with descriptions but, of course." His face drops into something a little nervous so you launch into the description of your daughter, emphasizing how they have the same smile because you can’t get over that. You can't help yourself and start describing some of the pictures you included.

"She has this big noise canceling headband so she can sleep comfortably - she doesn't like loud noises - but because she is three, she refuses to wear it unless it's cute. So we crochet little sleeves for it. One of the pictures is her asleep on our couch, face down, because that's how she sleeps, wearing her favorite sleeve. It's Spider-Man the-"

There's a quick series of taps on the door before it opens again.

"Buddy, we gotta go."

You start to apologize, but Matt speaks over you, his voice a little firm as his expression drops, "I'll be right there, Foggy."

A silent conversation seems to go through them, as Foggy raises his eyebrows at Matt and Matt does the same right back. Foggy steps out of the office, closing the door behind him.

"Let me walk you out?" Matt asks, motioning to the door.

"Thank you."

You let him open the door and you follow him into the reception office. Foggy is looking at his phone while waiting by Karen's desk as she finishes packing her laptop. You cross the room in silence as Matt leads you from the office. Once you are in the hallway, he speaks to you in a soft voice.

"Can I call you tonight?"

"Yes, please."

"Does eight work?"

"That's perfect."

"I'll talk to you then."

You force yourself to be the one to turn away and start walking towards the stairs. As you get to them, you pull your bottom lip between your teeth to try to suppress your smile.

Maybe the papers are right and Matthew Murdock is a good man.

You really hope he's a good father too.

#matt murdock x reader #daredevil #matt murdock #fanfiction #soulie writes

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criblovr · 2 months ago

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｡‧˚ʚ caregiving for dummies ɞ˚‧｡⋆ - the series

In a world where classifications exist— regressors, caregivers, flips, and neutrals— Agatha has been classified for years, decades. Shocking news for her friends, she was classified as a caregiver. Too bad every little she’s met has run for the hills.

Episode one: The decision

tags: classification au, caregiver agatha, gender neutral reader, cg!agatha harkness x little!reader, social worker lilia

notes: here’s the first episode! i’m so excited to start my very first series on here and hope you guys are too :3 i’ve gotten so much support for this idea and feel so loved! have fun reading, then come to my inbox and tell me ur thoughts :p

It was warm today. The first time in months that Agatha didn’t feel the need to put on a coat. It was still chilly, a little breeze that made you shiver so often, but the sun was out and warmed you right up, after.

Agatha always liked taking a morning walk, she felt so much more awake after.

Today was no different. She threw on an outfit and left for her walk. Sometimes, she’d bring Señor Scratchy in his stroller to accompany her. But her bunny thumped and ran from her, telling her, bluntly, that he wasn’t up for a walk today.

She walked slow, sipping a cup of tea. The warmth of the tea filled her tummy and comforted her. From a distance, she could hear a family laughing together. Shut up.

It was too early for that much noise. They’ll wake the entire neighborhood soon enough. Urgh.

Agatha was such an asshole.

She actually really adored those neighbors kids. Even if they screamed each time Agatha tried to make them smile. Their caretakers would awkwardly smile and speed away. Some neighbors were nicer about it, trying to make a lame excuse why their little yelled ‘witch!’ straight to her face.

Agatha was classified at 22 years old. 28 years ago. She waited until she was nearly 40 to register as CWOA (Caregiver with open arms.) It was a worldwide organization. Of course it had different names for different countries but it was nearly all the same. Once classified as a caregiver, you had a choice to register right then and there or— register when you were ready. Same went for flips and littles.

When Agatha registered, she was full of excitement. Her agent gave her all the paperwork she needed once her home was ‘open’ for potential littles. They sent her pamphlets, magazines, books, and a small gift basket when she was done. All of it preached how wonderful caregiving was, how your life feels complete once you have your little.

Ten years later… her house is empty.

Agatha was optimistic at first. Everyone told her that the first year was just waiting, then the next year— when she got her first call of a potential match— her dreams were crushed.

A little girl, tiny age: 5. Big age: 21.

She approached the little girl slowly, smiling hard. Then… “WITCH! MISS!” The girl called out to her social worker and ran behind her. Her throat felt like it was closing up on her. She wasn’t going to cry, but she wanted to.

After that incident, she rarely got any calls from her agent. They must’ve flagged her status. Potentially ill fit caregiver.

She had a few meetings after that, all went horribly. They were terrified of her. She considered just dropping out. She was just scaring these children anyway. She felt like an odd one out. (Which is true.)

A good amount of West View saw Agatha Harkness as a baby eater, an evil witch, and an outcast. Her town didn’t like her. She embraced it most times, walked through the streets with confidence. And she had a few friends at least.

Wanda.

Which…

She wasn’t a person she’d usually spend time with. Wanda was very upbeat, always giggling. She’s surprised she was classified as a caregiver than a little. But she couldn’t deny that Wanda was a good friend. She goes out to town with her, gives her advice, and respects her. Like Agatha, Wanda, too, has a reputation.

A lot of the townspeople think of Wanda as a lunatic. Mostly because Wanda is a over-paranoid caregiver when it comes to her little. She’s insanely protective, as Agatha would be too.

xxxx

You nearly trip when you attempt to put your shoes on. You were late, as always. Your alarm hadn’t rang at the time it was supposed and now you’re 15 minutes late to your meeting with your social worker. You weren’t even sleeping, you were lying on your couch scrolling through the movie section for an hour straight.

You had been classified last year and hadn’t registered to CWOA. You hadn’t felt like it was the time. (Or if it was ever the time.) Your teachers had always scolded you for being so reckless. So irresponsible.

They made you feel like it was impossible for anyone to tolerate you.

Then you get classified as a little. It made sense, you didn’t hate yourself for it. It was inconvenient sometimes but you handled it the best you could.

As a classified little with no caregiver, you were required to meet with your social worker every month. Sorta like a wellness check. It went well most times, just standard questions.

Have you been eating minimum of three meals a day?

Have you found yourself in a potential dangerous situation while regressed?

Have you kept up with cleaning, laundry, and hygiene?

They want to make sure you are okay with taking care of yourself. The meeting lasts an hour maximum.

With no time to spare, you leave out the door in a rush, catching the bus just on time.

The commute there was about 15 minutes or so. It gave you time to catch your breath and relax. This meeting in particular was going to be different. The month prior your social worker had suggested registering you to CWOA.

It was completely out of the blue. Every meeting with Miss Lilia went quick and right to the point. You hadn’t expected something different from her usual routine.

As the bus moved, you cracked your knuckles, nervously. You didn’t even the thought of it.

It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t particularly fun either.

Once you’re registered with the organization, you’re made a portfolio. All your personal details are put onto several different papers for random caregivers to see.

Of course you only shared what you wanted to share. But still— scary.

Littles get called into the office of the organization to meet different caregivers, sometimes they get to play in the playroom as they wait. Which does sound fun.. you couldn’t lie about that. Still, It felt very weird. It was too exposed for your likely.

But. You trusted your social worker. She was caring and understanding, she didn’t make her meetings unnecessarily awkward or boring. Sometimes, she’d bring along her kitty with her and let you play with her as you both talked.

After getting off the bus, you walked a short distance to the office. There were several of these offices around the state— the entire country. This one was the closest to your home, hence being assigned Miss Lilia when you were classified.

“Hi, sweetheart. You have Lilia at 3?” The front desk lady asked.

You nodded, peeking above her desk.

“Are you looking for some candy?”

“Mmh… yes?”

The lady laughs, sweetly. “We’re all out but I promise we’ll have plenty next month, ‘kay?”

Just as you were going to whine, Miss Lilia peeks her head from the hallway.

“You know whining won’t magically give you candy.”

You turn to her, your ears turning warm. Without speaking, Lilia turns back and starts walking to her office, you following behind.

Once in her office, she sits down behind her desk. The absence of her kitty makes you frown momentarily, then Lilia speaks.

“How are you feeling?”

“I don’t get a hello?”

Lilia smirks, “Hi, baby. How are you feeling?”

“I feel.. nervous. And I didn’t get to watch a movie before I left, so upset too.”

Lilia hums, acknowledging you as she logs into her computer.

“I’ve given you plenty of movie recommendations.”

“Yeah, but you know I’m super picky when it comes to finding the prefect movie for the prefect time.”

Lilia playfully scoffs and continues to type on her computer. She’s finding your file, based on her focused look on her face. Once she does find it, she looks at you, fully engaged now.

“We’ll go over the usual questions then we can talk about CWOA, or would you like to talk about that first?”

You fidget with your fingers, wanting to whine again but knowing Lilia wouldn’t appreciate that. She does not tolerate whining in her office.

“I’d like to go over the questions first, please.”

The questions went smoothly, your answers not changing from the last time you were here.

“I’ve been skipping dinner…”

“I felt small when I got lost in a parking lot last week.”

“I sleep good! I did fall asleep at 12 last night.. but I was finishing The Little Mermaid.”

Lilia sighed, her hand resting against her forehead. You weren’t clueless, you knew you hadn’t been taking care of yourself the best as you use to. You knew your answers were definitely a call for concern. You just really needed to start picking up your slack. That’s all.

“Honey, what’s happening? You’ve done so well at taking care of yourself. CWOA are going to be banging at my door by tonight.”

You melted into your chair, sighing louder than Lilia. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no. Don’t apologize. This is normal, okay? So—what’s changed?”

You look down at the chair you’re sitting in. Its cheap leather is peeling, you pick at it. “I’ve been feeling… lonely.”

“In what way?”

“Um… I don’t know. Lately, when I feel small, I’ve been getting a little emotional… a little smaller than usual.”

Lilia looks to her computer, clicking a few buttons before finding the specific folder. “You’ve been regressing to.. 1-3? By yourself?” Lilia’s face is full of concern.

“Yeah..”

“I believe CWOA is the direction we should take, hon.”

“I don’t feel like doing paperwork today,” you groan.

“It’s just a few signatures and answering a few questions,” Lilia says, looking at you with a no nonsense attitude. “Do you remember the procedures related to it?”

You sigh again, what feels like the millionth time today, “yes.”

After almost two hours, you have a shiny portfolio, a few stickers, and a pamphlet.

Littles don’t usually leave the office with more than that. The more important stuff is dealt with for you by your social worker.

Instead of hoping on the bus again, you decide to walk home. It feels warm outside for the first time in a while. You let yourself drift off to the thought of possibly having a mama.

Your stomach does a flip. A nervous, excited one.

#bev’s fic #agatha all along agere #marvel agere #fandom agere #agere #safe agere #agere blog #sfw age regression #age regressor #agere art #agere community #sfw agere

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tiger-moran · 7 months ago

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It was one of those books where it felt pointless, where I couldn't find the plot, where it was literally just jumping from one random thing to another. Like what was even the point of the... hunting vampires? Demons? Zombies? What even was that chapter? Something about exorcising a demon or whatever the fuck that was? So she needed the money, but that was it; it didn't need a whole chapter for her to do a one off job to earn some money quickly. What a waste of time that chapter was. And it's like, now she's in England, now she's jumped to Japan, now she's jumped into this book, now she's jumped into this... library... thing? Now she's jumped into a... washing machine instruction manual????? WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON. Also the supposedly main plotline was never resolved in it and it ends on a ~cliffhanger~ but I don't actually give a shit about that being resolved ever since that's about her boring husband who's vaguely more interesting in her memories but had almost no actual character development ever when he was a (supposedly) real person and not just a figment of her imagination.

And her character is just... kind of crap too. Like I said already I liked her in the first book up until the shitty end where she gets married off to the guy with crap characterisation who she has no real chemistry with and then everyone starts going on about her having babies. But now it just feels like through the entire book the author really thinks the way to write a realistic woman is to have her going on and on about her husband and being pregnant, and that's mostly it.

Also multiple times stuff happened that referenced something else that presumably had already happened but I have no memory of that at all (what ring that Miss Havisham gave her? I don't remember any ring. And there was other stuff where I had no idea what it was talking about. I don't know what are plot holes and what is the book being too boring for me to take things in but either way I don't know what was being referred to in it multiple times. Also there are these little things in it sometimes that you think are going to lead to something, but they don't seem to actually ever lead to anything? Like why did her arm hurt suddenly? I don't get it. (I also realised I have absolutely no idea what something during one of the time-jump scenes in the first book was about, I cannot remember at all if the author actually ever bothered to address that or that was just another thing that was left hanging and unresolved.)

Also it's another one of those annoying books where the author keeps constantly name-dropping people and things from other people's books all the time and it just sounds so smug and irritating, like 'look how smart and well-read I am'. And it's supposed to be funny! People were saying it's like Terry Pratchett, it's like Discworld, that's how I found out about this series. But it's just not funny, I think I was mildly amused once in it, with the line about Lord Roxton shooting someone. That was it.

Oh I finally finished the second Thursday Next book by the way

I definitely won't be reading any more of that series

#also what's the thing about Larry the Lamb #it says that on the back cover blurb but I don't remember anything about that in the book #this was SO BORING sorry #the series had a lot of potential to start with but it went bad even before the end of the first book #this is the point where I bail out of it I'm afraid #Thursday Next #Lost in a Good Book #(I wish I could say I was lost in a good book with this #alas I hated it)

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robin33r · 1 year ago

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TAURTIS.

Taurtis isn't talked about enough. He's genuinely gotten drowned out and it's golly awful!!! Everyone's so focused on Sam and grian and their stuff taurtis gets drowned out.

Taurtis is such an anomaly and he is MORE than just some silly guy who's Sam's best friend. I'd argue he's just as bad or maybe even a tad bit worse. Hear me out.

Straight up at the beginning of the series, no one mentions (outside of like 2 people) that taurtis has killed someone and made it on TV while getting away with it. Bros the first murderer we see in the season revealed and hey, this can imply he's done it before and never gotten caught. Taurtis knows damn well how things are and id argue hes the result behind Sam's behavior. Not Yuki, while she did also heavily influence him, he did a lot more damage.

No one ever mentions ot though because he's just a "silly little guy"

Even from the start Taurtis has been seen making these decisions for Sam but the way they work is making it look like the others independent when I can argue they're both codependent on eachother in a way. Taurtis even convinces and forces the idea of Sam doing things for to a sense someone can see "for his (Sam's) own good" When Sam was in love with Sookie and found out she was into women, he was bummed out, however Taurtis was the one who suggested he could chop her up or get Sam to dress as a girl in which; he even protested at first and kept denying. Taurtis in the beginning had a small weird obsession with when things went wrong; they could resort to "chop chop" It is known and we all talk about Sam and Yuki being a yandere but what about Taurtis being one potentially? I know this can be diminished by the nice treatment Salex (I have a whole another yap session about salex and him and sam) The second Sam said he had no chance with Sookie, Taurtis asked about using force and deceiving to help get Sam what he wants. Also for whatever reason he has a TON of images of Sam on his phone canonically?? Am I the only one who's taking that into acc?

Sam is EASILY one of the most quick-to-influence characters in the series and can easily be manipulated, despite being described as a manipulator himself. And the person who's been with him the most in life and who's been living ALONE with for who knows what time? For Sam to having gone down the rabbit hole he is, the person who'd have tk influence that would have to be Taurtis. He encourages and excuses everything and I'd argue he even partakes in stuff in his own time. There's also the fact he has no problem hurting his own friends as well, he's CONSTANTLY being physical with Sam and he doesn't even care with Stabbing him off a building as a friendly gesture to a sense. There's also the fact he literally doesn't care if someone (coughs SAM) plays dress up with him whenever they want, it's fine its whatever right?? He could care less about that stuff

HOWEVER in the end he's still a teenager, he's a genuinely insecure teenager. It's not directly stated however it is very much implied with his reactions and interactions and his need/drive to impress others and for them to be impressed by and to want him. He almost needs people to need him and that's probably part of what makes him happy about Sam's codependency because he knows Sam needs Taurtis. Taurtis needs someone to need him, which is probably what started his infatuation with salex because she always praised and flirted with him and fueled his confidence; that's what he wants or "needs." That's part of where I think not only Sam but TAURTIS is also codependent in his own way. It's an eye for an eye. He gives what he wants and expects that to be given back in its own way. He's more than happy with being popular and having Sam do so much, hell that helps boost his confidence. He's got his own demands and we've seen instances where he makes Sam supply hjm or give him his own food (which my friend has pointed out that Sam's willing to even starve for taurtis if it meant taurtis could feel full/get what he wanted.) We see Taurtis even being insecure when Sam and Grian point things out (like when he went bald and how horrible it looked) and he instantly jumped on trying to find ways to quickly grow his hair back. He doesn't want that imperfection. He's quick to jump to conclusions too because when Sam makes a small comment he INSTANTLY retorts. (Example; "you have a great chewwy/ you'd be a great chewwy-chewbaca" "are you saying I'm hairy/fat???) He's still an insecure teenager, despite his popular and having someone straight up need him to be even the slightest bit okay, I dont think he'd willingly abandon that

I have so much more to say but rn this is what I'm giving, I could go into his relationship with Sam, his acts/interests, hus family and childhood but that's for another episode

#sam gladiator #samgladiator #samgladiator yandere high school #samgladiator yhs #yandere high school #yhs #yhs taurtis #yhs rambles #taurtis #this bitch is a red flag too!!!!#yhs sam #grian mention #tokyo soul

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howlsofbloodhounds · 17 days ago

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Book anon here (the one who sent you that book link)

What the hell is up with fandoms always villainizing trafficking victims

Ex: Killer, Eveline (from resident evil), (there's probably more but I can't think of any...)

Like, I think people forget that people actually go through those things.

I don’t know anything about Resident Evil or Eveline, so I can’t say for certain on that character’s case or that games’ fandom.

I also could say what I think about some things about irl people about irl trafficking, such as the lack of knowledge or knowledge being based on certain media portrayals that make them forget that trafficking is a real thing with real people hurting and exploiting and killing real people. Ruining real lives.

But because it’s about fandom, I’ll focus on that. I wasn’t there when Killer was being developed and gaining popularity, I came after Rahaf quit and deleted a lot of things. So this is mostly speculation.

For Killer, I think it’d be important to remember two things: he’s a character associated with the UTMV/Undertale AU/Sans AU fandom, which is also associated with Undertale and the character Sans. Most of Undertale’s fandom were kids went it came out, and still were when fandoms for Undertale AUs were made.

Most kids don’t understand what trafficking is. Killer is named Killer, and he is an alternative timeline of a Sans who made a Deal with the human to kill everyone else, and he is associated with the big bad Nightmare Sans and the evil/bad Sanses gang and they hurt and kill people. And so he’s a villain.

And number two: there was a lot of misinformation spread about Killer in the fandom, possibly starting in the early days after Rahaf made and posted her first Something New comics.

Killer gained popularity within the fandom that Rahaf never expected or anticipated, and people wanted to see more content of Killer. And so Rahaf started making more Killer and Something New content.

Some were obviously thoughts and ideas she had/made herself with her character (possibly when working alongside or talking to other active Creators at the time like JokuBlog and Superyoumna, taking part in conversations, collab comics/series like Sans Hazard, and possibly roleplays), and some when fans gave her an idea or requested something.

For example, the comic where Nightmare hurts one of Killer’s cats was in response to an anonymous asker requesting something about “nightmare being angry at his team.”

This means there could’ve been gaps of time between old and new content, giving fans time to speculate, headcanon, and write or draw their own stuff involving Killer that would likely gain attention from those who wanted more content with that specific character.

This all could have led to the spread of misinformation, people confusing headcanons and personal interpretations that got popular as completely canon and true, and this is something Rahaf eventually started supporting.

Giving vague answers to questions about killers canon character and story, dismissing canon even as she kept stating some canon facts about killer and making official content.

Seemingly not realizing that this only frustrated and confused some people, and led to arguments involving conflicting information that each party believed was the truth.

It also can’t be overlooked the effect joku seemed to have had on the fandom perceptions of killer, with her interpretation of killer in Dreamtale.

Thats where we get things like “killer joined nightmare willingly,” “killer doesn’t want to feel,” “nightmare takes away killers emotions and that’s why his soul is like that,” “nightmare is killers savior and he’s helping him in his own way,” etc.

I suspect there’s a lot of ideas about killer that were accepted as fact that can somehow be tied back to joku and her interpretation, or potentially the times where joku and rahaf collaborated on things with their characters.

Like, up until about 3-4 years ago no one even seemed to know that Nightmare kidnapped Killer and that Killer did all of Nightmare’s dirty work because he thought that there would be absolutely no hope—he was hopeless. I didn’t even know this as I was gathering canon info until someone sent me a link to the comic.

No one even knew about Killer’s other 3 SOUL Stages. No one knew that his timeline wasn’t destroyed or gone, no one knew that Papyrus was still alive and looking for his brother—Sans.

No one knew about Color, Othertale, or his friendship with Killer. No one knew there was an official Good Ending where Killer turned on Nightmare and left the gang with Color.

No one knew that there was an official alternate ending where Killer turned on the human and gained control of the Reset, and the one person I spoke to who did know this a few years back told me that Killer was still an awful person because he proceeded to go on his own multiple mass Genocides after.

That he only stopped when he got bored and joined/left his timeline with Nightmare to go kill more people.

(Sometimes the other reasons given for why he left and joined Nightmare is that his timeline is completely barren after a Genocide and he’s the only one left and can’t Reset himself, that his timeline was destroyed somehow, that he agreed to join/do a deal because he wants something new. Logical and decent reasoning, but doesn’t seem to be what his creator depicted.)

They couldn’t provide any official proof or evidence by or from rahaf to support this claim, and I have yet to find any. What I did find was that, after gaining the Reset and turning on the human, it’s implied that he’s going to do/did awful things to the human specifically—that he was going to make them suffer. And possibly spammed the Reset button to keep doing it to them.

After that, Killer is in Stage 1 the next time we see him. He’s more like the Sans we know than he’s likely been since he woke up in that bed of golden flowers as a different person. He goes to tell Papyrus goodbye, that he’s leaving and Papyrus can’t come with him.

He pushes Papyrus away when Papyrus hugs him and shortcuts away, says something like Papyrus doesn’t need him, ignores his brother calling his name, and the next we see him he’s standing over Chara’s bloody dead body.

Talking about he’s going to fix what he and the human did, give Papyrus a happy ending, and we later learn he was going to somehow erase himself after the Reset. Then Nightmare shows up, ruins everything, takes Killer’s choice, hope, and—what he viewed at the time—“happiness” away.

The things we all know now about Killer and UT: SN was not widespread fandom knowledge even five years ago, during a time where most in the fanbase were children who didn’t know or understand what trafficking was or what it could look like or how it effects victims, was engaging in content for a fandom that is known for not having strict ‘canons’ and readily & easily accessible info to said canon, and was exposed to conflicting information and different interpretations.

Like Killer, they could not tell what was or wasn’t “real.”

On other matters not specific to Killer, I also just think people don’t know or understand what certain types of abuse—even outside of trafficking—can look like more than we think, or—a lot of people don’t realize that something is abuse, and what could “count” as abuse.

In Killer’s case, in regards to the moments leading up to the first proposal of the Deal to the moment Sans accepted it in one outcome, people did not even know or recognize this as abuse, physical emotional and psychological torture (killed and brutalized when said no (aka hurt or punished for saying no in general), constant resetting, gaslit, made to doubt and question self & intentions & reality & emotions & thoughts & wants, watch loved ones be hurt or killed, being isolated from loved ones, etc), coercion, even arguably “brainwashing” and conditioning.

Hell, Sans himself didn’t recognize what was happening to him. He thought that because he agreed to the Deal, that human wasn’t “forcing” him to do anything despite what Alphys thought.

Doesn’t matter that the human (Player) still held the Reset button, control over everything and everyone in the entire timeline (game), and didn’t matter that he never wanted it before, didn’t matter what happened anytime he said no or rejected them. He said yes eventually, right. Just needed some..convincing.

He came around, eventually, and started seeing things from our (Player) perspective.

And maybe kids reading all that at the time, especially before the comic revealing the Player’s influence, took that all uncritically at face value.

Could even go into topics like the idea of the “perfect victim” and how that could effect these types of characters who aren’t considered “perfect” victims, or are both bad people and victims at the same time, but it’s probably getting too long already.

Now as to why else people would be villainizing Killer now, with what most of us know, I’m not exactly sure. His treatment of Swap specifically is one reason I can think of, Papyrus too.

And his treatment of others’ souls + his potentially perceived disrespect towards the remains of the dead + potentially unethical experiments + plus him calling what he does to Swap ‘fun’ + his treatment of Dream. And him keeping blood and monster dust and souls in jars potentially viewed a serial killer keeping trophies of his kills + potential blood drinking.

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 3 months ago

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A friend started watching Miraculous a couple of weeks ago; he was curious, and I accidentally sold it by spoiling him S5's finale. "Oh! I really enjoy the twist when the bad guy wins!" he said... I swear I tried to save him!

Anyway, he went through the honeymoon phase with S1 and S2. Now that he has watched half of S3 (btw, in our country, both Disney+ and Netflix DO NOT have the episodes in order, save for each season's 1st one and the finales), he went on a rant on Kwamibuster saying "c'mon! So, Marinette can hold all the trinkets without any consequence, why they do that?! Is a nice stand alone chapter, but there is no great consequence!" I just told him "welcome to the fandom!" and he went "OMG! I turned to the dark side!"

He still has Gabriel on a 8.5/10 scale, since he finds saving his wife as a noble if twisted reason to turn villian. Though he doesn't understand why Gabriel found Lila useful at the end of Oni-chan. I... don't have the heart to tell him about Chat Blanc nor Gabriel's later actions.

Were S1 and S2 really the best of Miraculous? I remember enjoying S3, but now hearing his fresh pov, I'm starting to have my doubts about when it all went to worse.

I was also relatively late coming to the fandom, so I got to see seasons one to three all in one go. I watched them over a series of a few weeks and my memory of that process is this: I thought season one was mediocre with a handful of truly bad episodes, but the premise was a lot of fun and had real potential. I started reading fanfiction after watching the few episodes because I love identity shenanigan romances and I wanted to see people tell this one without being held back by the show's format and intended audience. This is probably the only reason I finished season one. I didn't like the show so much as I thought it was good enough to watch so I could fully understand the fanfic.

Origins is where my opinion changed. It was legitimately good and even felt like a soft reboot for Alya, Adrien, and Chloe. I thought this indicated that the first season had done really well and so the show had been cleared to have a true overarching plot and serialized elements in the coming seasons.

Season two initially seemed to back that up with the Chloe stuff and Marinette meeting Fu, but then Queen Bee happened. That's the moment when I realized the show was never going to live up to its potential. It was incredibly disappointing to see Chloe go from finding the bee to revealing herself on national television within a few minutes. That is the least interesting way you could possibly play her finding the bee. I have referred to this choice as the canary in the coal mine before and I stand by that. If they couldn't handle something as tried and true as a mean girl redemption or do something interesting with Chloe finding the bee, then we were not in for a good time.

The introduction of Carapace just further confirmed that read. Nino wasn't carefully chosen for his miraculous. He was just in the right place at the right time and got the best miraculous for the situation. Chloe getting the bee felt more fitting and she wasn't even chosen for it! She just got to keep using it for some reason even though identity reveals were supposed to get you benched. It was weird and was also another warning sign of things to come. Identity reveals and their consequences would just become more and more confusing as the show went on.

While all of these things were disappointing, I don't fault anyone for being willing to keep watching because it wasn't all bad. Season two showed us that the show was going to suck from a long-form perspective, but it could deliver solid short-form content. Your friend put it really well:

It's a nice stand alone chapter, but there is no great consequence!

The early seasons of Miraculous had a lot of fun standalone chapters that had no greater consequence. Disappointing for those who wanted a serious story, but you don't need to tell a serious story to be good. If the show had stuck to a more lighthearted tone and just put out disjointed, but fun mini-stories, then it would have been fine. Not amazing, but serviceable. An endless series of writing prompts that don't really fit together, but that allow for a ton of fun fan content as people pick and choose which episodes to play with. I would have still had issues with some of those episodes, but because they didn't actually connect, I would have just shrugged and focused on the stuff that was fun. In fact, that's what I was doing for the first four seasons! There's a reason this blog didn't exist until mid season five even though I've had issues with the show since season one.

For example, does Chat Blanc technically ruin the love square by establishing that Adrien's love for Marinette isn't strong enough to keep him from killing her? Sure, but when it was just a random what-if episode, I could ignore it as one-off bad writing. Season four then chose to have Chat Blanc show up in Marinette's nightmare and also featured Marinette promoting Alya instead of Chat Noir, leading me to assume that Marinette was keeping Chat Noir at arms because of Chat Blanc. This changed how I viewed Chat Blanc. That episode suddenly mattered to the entire show and wasn't a one-off thing I could ignore.

The official word is that Chat Blanc had nothing to do with the season four conflict, but that's really not clear in the actual text to the point where I almost want to call BS. Why did you give Marinette a Chat Blanc nightmare if he doesn't matter to her mental state? That makes no sense!

Even if we embrace that official word, Chat Blanc is still not a one-off episode. It apparently haunts Adrien and kept him from the season five final even though Adrien never actually learned about Chat Blanc, which is frankly even more damning than my initial read of season four. It's now super official that Adrien's love for Marinette isn't enough to save the day and I'm not interested in a show that's sticking to that choice and repeating it ad nauseum (Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, and the season five ending). The one-off bad episode has now poisoned the entire show and it's not the only episode that did this.

We've reached a point where there are multiple choices haunting the show, making it so that there really aren't any more fun standalone chapters. Even if season six is written more like those early seasons, are any of us going to be able to enjoy love square hijinks when we're also waiting to see if Adrien will ever learn the truth of sentistatus or his father's death? And what about the knowledge that love will probably never win? It's hard to forget that, especially as more and more people learn the love square's secret identities, endlessly cheapening that reveal. Combined that with them maintaining the statue quo of Marinette being unable to act normal around Adrien and it's hard to picture season six being anything like a good time.

While I can't picture it, maybe you can! Seasons one to four all had episodes I enjoyed even though I was aware of the large scale flaws. Season five is the one that ruined that for me because, while there is no real overarching plot for the season, there was enough connective tissue that no episode felt like it truly stood alone no matter what the writers say. That connective tissue made the problems impossible to ignore and, now that my brain is in serialized mode, I can't go back to episodic. The season five cliffhanger of the lies is also too serious a point for me to mostly ignore it like I did with the other bad cliffhangers. The lies aren't just a dumb plot point, they're an incredibly serious character beat that I can't overlook. Every time the love square is on screen, I'm going to feel a little sick because I know canon isn't going to give this massive betrayal proper weight.

There's also retroactive rot at work here. Because the show has serialized elements, the more the show poisons its plot and characters, the more the rot creeps backwards, ruining the early stuff to the point where the flaws feel glaring. Knowing Chloe's ultimate fate makes it hard to enjoy her early canon writing. Knowing that Ladybug will fight Gabriel alone makes it hard to enjoy Ladynoir's big "you and me against the world" moments. Knowing that Gabriel will eventually win makes it hard to enjoy more moments than I can count.

So, to answer you question:

Were S1 and S2 really the best of Miraculous?

I'd say that the first four seasons all have good standalone episodes and even some good setups that would just never pay off. Season three and four just feel worse than the first two because that's when it started to become really clear that those payoffs would never come since the show had to finally own that fact with things like Chloe "damnation arc" and the lack of consequences for the mass identity reveal.

They also have more setups than the first two seasons and those probably stand out in your mind as being bad. That's how bad writing tends to work when that writing issues are more structural than scene-based. The longer the story goes, the more the cracks in the foundation show. The writing is rarely getting actively worse, there's just enough of it to properly show just how bad it is.

I do think season five was worse than any of the others, but only because the episodes had that awkward thing where they were try to be both episodic and serialized, really highlighting how bad the show was at long-form content. It wasn't so much that the writing got worse as it was that the show focused on the writing style that highlights its flaws. Season six going back to more truly episodic story telling may make it work for some people even if they hated season five. Only time will tell.

#anon ask #formula show problems #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

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thebrainrotsreal · 1 year ago

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Invincible Fic Recs

Also bored as hell so here's Invincible fic recommendations because I can, in no particular order. This fandom's weirdly small (from what I can see) but there are people making fics and I will treasure and cherish them until the sun explodes. Thank you fanfic writers, I love you fanfic writers, doing incredible work, fanfic writers <3 Maybe you've read all these already, or hopefully you can find a fic to adore! TBH a lot of Mark-centic fics because I am biased <3 Feel free to add on!!!

something better, pushed right back by umanta | Word Count: 13k | Tags to Note: PTSD, Homophobia, Racism, Child Abuse | Oneshot

Being invincible has less to do with the body and more to do with the soul. Mark's friends use the power of teenage shenanigans to help him find his feet again.

Notes: Literally one of my fav Invincible fics of all time. They're just teens and I love all of them so much.

me and myself by avisisisisisissss (joyfuldreamlandcheesecake) | Word Count: 4.6k | Tags to Note: AU, Torture, Evil Mark, Dimensional Travel | WIP!

Mark is dealing with Angstrom's death and the stains of blood on his hands. Meanwhile, Mark has been captured by Cecil, who is torturing him to get him to answer to him. ...It's complicated. Or, when his evil version from another universe ends up in this dimension, Mark starts to feel like someone threw gasoline in his dumpster fire of a life.

Notes: Me biased? Pshhh, not at all. But AU based on a post of mine, please read it, it's really incredible already :)

in the end, you're all i have by orphan_account | Word Count: 1.4k | Tags to Note: Post-Season 1, Hugging, Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Oneshot

Amber’s incredulous look is only brief before she reaches over and grabs the book, opening it to the last page that she was reading. Mark’s eyes are fluttering before she even makes it through the first page; his body goes slack against her, breathing lulls, attention wavers. But she keeps reading the words on the pages, brushing her hand through his hair until she hears soft snores whistling through his nostrils and he finally succumbs to his exhaustion.

Notes: I love Amber and Mark and this is such so soft and good. Truly lovely.

Architect of Your Own Demise by Marzi | Word count: 7k | Tags to Note: AU, Role Reversal, Canon levels of violence, | Oneshot

A lot of his dad's stories were about a beautiful wizard saving a prince from a tall, lonely tower. His dad had a whole series of adventures they went on once the prince was rescued. Though he still seemed to get into plenty of trouble, the wizard always helped him escape. Finding out the stories were true had been thrilling. His mother did save his father when they first met, but she hadn't used spells. She was an alien. She was a superhero. And one day, Mark would be too.

Notes: In all honesty, Marzi writes so many epic Invincible fics, it's had not to list them all, please check them out if you somehow havent' already??? I am weak for Role Swaps though and this is does it so well.

Cold Snap by Marzi (series) | Word Count: 11.9k total | Tags to Note: what if debbie was also allowed to make bad choices, possession, potentially disturbing mutilation based impulses | WIP!

The edge of her mouth twitched again, like it was caught on some hook. She was smiling. She was laughing at him. That wasn't his wife. He moved forward, hand outstretched and on her throat. He had her pinned against the counter before he finished blinking. "What are you?" She leaned into him, unconcerned with the threat against her. It also clearly didn’t care about hiding anymore. "Think you have time to find out?"

Notes: Another Marzi fic because I love Debbie. POSSESSED DEBBIE LIKE HELLO??? I had to share.

Spill the tea boy by mandaree1 | Word Count: 1k | Tags to Note: Set After "It's Been A While", | Oneshot

Mark is visited by friends on Thraxa.

Notes: Crying sobbing begging for more GoG & Mark interactions like these. They heal me ok, thank you, op.

all the things left behind by cadastre | Word Count: 28K | Tags to Note: AU, Captivity, Forced Cohabitation, Aftermath of Torture, Survivor's Guilt, Nolan Grayson's A+ Parenting | WIP!

Mark is invincible. When the world ends, that becomes William's problem.

Notes: Omg fucked up Mark and William interactions??? HELLO? Yes PLEASE? No one is having a good time <3 I haven't seen a fic quite like this so please read!

from a body that used to be yours by thislittlebagofdreams | Word Count: 30K | Tags to Note: Angst, Self Hatred, Alien Biology, Binge Eating, | WIP!

After his dad reveals the truth, Mark returns home to find half the silverware missing. Or: After his dad reveals the truth, Mark reminds his mom too much of his dad.

Notes: I haven't seen an alien bio fic either for this fandom and this is STELLAR! I love the change that Viltramites can't cry, that's such a epic idea???

All Alone Now by YingYangKay | Word Count: 2k | Tags to Note: Solitary Confinement, Dissociation, | Oneshot

Imprisoned and alone, (Evil) Mark has plenty of time to self-reflect and think about his life choices.

Notes: ILY EVIL MARK! I just adore his POV as he reflects, entrapped, and alone. Angst my beloved.

Again, feel free to add on! :D I hope someone finds a new fic to read and adore!!!

#long post #fanfic rec #fic recs #invincible #invincible series #mark grayson #invincible fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #invincible rotating in my mind #invincible show #oooo you wanna read these fics so bad #solid chance everyone's read this already maybe??? but i'm bored so check them out anyway!! leave a comment!! show some love :)#begging keep this fandom alive asjkfdjfkd

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nipuni · 1 year ago

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Some various lighthearted life updates 🏃‍♀️

It's been a very busy last few months! in a good way mostly. We had a friend visiting us from overseas so we showed him around the city and took him to all our favourite places. We also met new people and were invited to a bunch of events so it's been very fun! We are all out of social battery tho so now we are slowing down a bit and getting back to work. Nicolas is on a short work trip to Berlin and I'm back to painting. We also started running! aaand we are also back to watching a bunch of shows and to me talking about it here to like five people 😌

Under the cut cause it's a lot as usual!

We finished watching S13 of Doctor Who! (we still have the specials to go but after that we are all caught up!) I haven't updated in ages so here are lot of opinions!

We really did not enjoy S11 😞 I was aware it wasn't very popular but we were hoping it was for all the wrong reasons, sadly we found many to be valid. Some of the episodes were baffling, Rosa? Kerblam?! the writing of the whole season in general felt like a rushed school assignment. The first part of Spyfall was a strong start for the next season but that ending in the second part was really not it. We did love Sacha Dhawan's Master tho!! and we really love Jodie too, 13th is adorable and reminded us of Ten at times! Jodie is such a fantastic actress that it makes the quality of the writing and everything else around her even more frustrating 😫 S12 was an improvement in general. In the last few episodes It felt like the writing team suddenly remembered the companions could have a personality and agency lmao. Highlights for us were Spyfall one, Fugitive of the Judoon and Haunting of villa Diodati, tho we did also enjoy most other episodes of the season despite their issues.

The timeless child plot reveal felt a bit underwhelming? The idea on itself has potential but it felt mishandled (and it had a bit of a Moffat flavour to it? and not in a good way). I think it was meant to add more depth to the Doctor's lore but in a way it ends up having the opposite effect. Then the flux was just a complete mess. It read like a Marvel sort of plot, very comic book like which is alright I suppose if that is something you enjoy but it felt out of place. But mostly it was just way too much, it got out of hand. Anyway we still have the specials to watch! and I think the Master is in them so we are looking forward to it 🥰

We also watched Broadchurch!! and we LOVED it. We ended up binging all three seasons. Chibnall's writing on this is surprisingly great and Jodie's acting is spectacular she really shines here. Olivia and David are always brilliant!! honestly everyone's acting was amazing. This series had us both tearing up every five scenes. The direction and the music are outstanding. I could watch Hardy and Miller solve crimes forever I really love their chemistry and dynamic. We went into it expecting the usual detective fiction but it ended up being a whole study on grief with such a focus on family and community and trauma and a ton of touching interconnected character arcs, just really really good!!

Then we also watched Taking over the Asylum!! MAN we were not expecting to have our hearts wrung out like laundry by this!! We thought it was a lighthearted show!! GOD we are still not over it, what the fuck!! It was so good we loved it!! but we were not prepared lmao what do you mean 'the end'?? we'll be thinking of this for months, I was expecting an extra scene after the credits or something. Excellent characters, refreshing depictions of mental illness and trauma and so crushingly realistic. Every character is so loveable I really wish this was longer 😭

And our quest to watch everything with David Tennant on it continues. We watched Decoy Bride on Valentines day too and it was terrible but such a hilarious fever dream kind of bad that it was fun, it has David on it and he never disappoints. I feel so lucky that Nicolas and I are both in love with him, get yourself a man who shares your celebrity crushes lmao it's so fun!! We feel like teens again chatting about him and drawing little hearts next to his pictures haha 🥰 We watched the BAFTAs just for him and speaking of the baftas!! I was not expecting that last drawing of his outfits to get that much attention oh my god 😭 thank you!! you are all insane and I appreciate it so much!! and thank you for all the support in general, about my art and photos and just everything. I feel very lucky and grateful 😭 anyway I'll end this before I get sappy, that is all for now! I hope this week is kind to you all, I'll be sharing some more art soon 😊

#personal #DW report #doctor who #broadchurch #taking over the asylum #nips blogs

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sakuraonsaturn · 2 months ago

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The entity is protecting Amanda (theory)

I was just thinking about the entity (the one that is tied to Amanda) and the role it plays in the series and I had an epiphany...

Is the entity protecting Amanda (and maybe even the other kids in the tapes?) Or at least, does it think that's what it's doing?

See, the entity appears and attacks us whenever Amanda is extremely upset.

When we tell her that everything rots, when we say we won't help the lonely kitten, when Amanda is upset about the "treasure", and when she's really upset and having a bad day.

When Amanda tells it to stop, it is hesitant but stops regardless. Notice how these are moments when Amanda is the MOST upset. It's interesting especially in the first game because these are both times we end up telling Amanda that there is no hope for her or that we won't help her.

Now, we all know that Amanda has been through a lot of trauma and her heart is "unfixable" (at least that's what she believes). But what if the entity is trying to protect her heart from more damage. It sees us as someone who is upsetting her. In it's eyes we may be someone trying to hurt her like the people at Hameln, and it sees it best to make us go away.

Furthermore, when we find the "broken tape" and play it, the brokenness of the tape clearly seems to cause Amanda and Wooly pain. Joanne said it was protecting the tapes. It attacked her when she broke one. Is it possible that breaking the tapes hurts Amanda and Wooly (and by extension all the other children in the tapes)? Is it possible that the entity is protecting the tapes from being damaged in order to protect the children trapped inside?

In accordance to this theory:

Did anyone else see this scene in the official Amanda the Adventurer song's music video, Play My Way as somewhat protective. Amanda holding the hands of the trapped children with a sorrowful look... she is much bigger than them... much stronger.

Amanda and the entity in some scenes seem to work together besides that, Amanda is not afraid of the entity, and when she tells it what to do, it listens.

Just like the games slowly revealed that Amanda wasn't some evil creepy tv show character, perhaps the entity isn't evil either. Perhaps it believes it is helping. It is protecting her and her heart from those who dare to hurt her again. Pushing away any potential threats.

Rebecca was the one who summoned these demons... maybe what went wrong with Hameln's little experiment was the fact that the demons are loyal to the person whom they are connected to or who summoned them. That would make sense to me honestly.

This next part of the theory is purely speculative and probably isn't even true but it's a fun idea.

What if the entity started bringing children into Amanda's world to give her friends or to protect them as well from threats of danger. Aside from Hameln's influence (like the meatman and such) this world feels safe like a place a child could play and enjoy. Maybe at one point this world did end up being that place and Hameln ruined it in some way because that wasn't their intentions? Something that could further suggest this is Hameln's lack of involvement in the show... and the opossum. The opossum, implied to be Jordan is a child trapped in the tapes as a character in the show. He spends his time playing, causing chaos, and he seems to be having fun. We don't see any other characters who are sentient like Amanda and Wooly are... perhaps the meatman has destroyed them all? We don't get the meat ending a second time... maybe Jordan is proof of what the entity wanted this world to be. A place where kids like Amanda can play and be happy away from adults who hurt them. (and possibly Wooly too but the entity doesn't seem to like Wooly very much soooo it could also dislike regular Wooly because Amanda dislikes him.) A magical place where the children are never seen again.

Technically there is not enough evidence to prove that though it was just a vague idea and I'm probably somewhat wrong about that. However, the whole idea in general is kind of fun.

As for the entity tied to Wooly... we haven't seen enough of that one to really make a conclusion. Yeah, it tore Joanne to shreds but maybe it doesn't always behave in that way? In the second game the entity that is tied to Amanda showed restraint in killing us... so... they can act differently and we haven't seen enough to be sure. We don't know enough about Wooly to really say anything for sure.

#amanda the adventurer #maddykpost #amanda the adventurer 2 #ata 2 #amanda the adventurer theory #my fav posts

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jujutsubaby · 1 year ago

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after hours (part 9)

☆ pairing: toji fushiguro x afab!reader, satoru gojo x afab!reader ☆ summary: the morning after your ravenous night with toji leaves you wanting more, especially after being interrupted by the weight of all your responsibilities. thank god gojo is there to help, right? ☆ tags: modern au, babysitting au, academia au ☆ warnings: 18+ !! MINORS DNI !! oral sex (m!recieving), dirty talk, gojo being a male menace ☆ a/n: one chapter, two guys...y/n is on a roll xD she's living her best life. also this one is a bit short but i promise it's bc i've got a lot cooking for the next chapter!! sry it took so long to update too i'm still getting thru a bunch of asks and other fics and everything and also starting a new job. life is weird but fun! 🖤🤍 series masterlist 🤍🖤

you wake up feeling extremely tired and groggy; the sun is hidden behind the clouds this morning, but it’s the after effects of the joint you smoked with toji last night that gives you a brutally rude awakening. feeling more sluggish than usual, it takes you a while to remember where you are, the lack of decorations in a plain master bedroom throwing you off. it’s not until you hear toji shifting next to you that all the memories from last night flood your mind: his call you accidentally accepted, him hearing everything you and satoru did, cumming three times – no four times last night…

oh god. you really went all out this time. you had fun but oh my god, you have a final to prep for! you turn over and face toji and see he’s still fast asleep and then you check the time: 6:30am. still pretty early. you check your phone and see a couple messages from shoko and satoru. you check shoko’s first:

shoko: comin home tn?

shoko: everything good????

oh my god, you totally forgot to tell shoko you would be potentially spending the night with toji, and your stomach drops at how worried she must’ve been. you quickly type out a response:

y/n: OMG I SPENT THE NIGHT AT TOJI’S IM SO SORRY I FORGOT TO TELL U :(

you check satoru’s texts:

satoru [10:04pm]: missed ya at the study group :(

satoru [10:06pm]: wyd tmw? wanna study?

satoru [1:17am]: what position he got u in?

wow. it started off so nicely until he… gojo’d it up. so close. you’re not even sure why you got into this complicated mess with him to begin with.

y/n: ur sooo insufferable

y/n: i’ll be in the university library if u wanna come in the afternoon to study 🙄

“am i interrupting something?” you’re startled as toji wraps his muscular arms around you, holding you closer to his chest.. your bad mood quickly dissipates as you feel something hard grazing your ass. you turn your head to face toji as you grin groggily.

“you’re not but it seems like you wanna start somethin’...” you say, slowly shaking your ass against his erect member. toji’s hands slip under your sweatshirt and travel up to your chest, finding the mounds of your titties and playing with them as he thrusts his hips against your ass.

“maybe…” you bite your lip and lean closer to him, engulfing him in a messy, sloppy kiss. his tongue darts out, rediscovering your mouth again as you sigh into him. you shift your body so that you’re facing him, and wrap your legs around his waist as his hands move slowly from your titties to your cheeks of your ass, massaging them as they grind slowly on him.

“fuck, pumpkin, you’re gonna drive me crazy,” toji groans as his sweats become increasingly uncomfortable due to how much his throbbing member is straining to get out. you playfully bite his lip, driving him even crazier. in swift motions, he pulls on top of him without breaking the kiss, and you yelp in surprise. your core reflexively starts to grind properly on his arousal, causing you to soak through your panties.

toji unexpectedly thrusts into your clothed core, causing you to yelp before toji quickly slaps a hand over your mouth. “shh, can’t wake up –” he grunts as you desperately rut against his arousal, “can’t wake up megumi…” his eyes suddenly snap open in panic as he stills your hips. he quickly grabs his phone and checks the time and swears under his breath.

“what’s going on?” you whine, upset that he put an end to your early morning shenanigans. you lay your body on top of him while cradling his face as you press small wet kisses to his jawline, hoping he’ll forget about whatever he has to do today. ugh, just thinking that thought makes you annoyed about all the things you have to do today, now…

toji groans, willing himself to focus in spite of your soft kisses and whines. “gotta wake megumi up in 30…soccer meet…”

oh, fuck. you totally forgot about that – the whole reason you and toji baked brownies in the first place. there’s no arguing with him about this and you know it, but god, you really wish you didn’t have to face reality so soon. you’d do anything to stay in a little bit more of momentary bliss before having to get back to the real world with final exams. you complain and sigh under your breath as you slowly slide off toji, as he apologizes and gets up slowly, both of you still trying to shake the sleep from your body.

your eyes pan down to the tent in toji’s sweats, still visible. hm, maybe you don’t have to leave just now. you bite your lip in anticipation as you touch toji’s chest lightly, and drag your fingers slowly down to the waistband of his sweats, and then on top of the bulge of his own arousal. you apply some light pressure as you loosely grip it, causing toji to suck in a sharp breath.

“fuck, don’t make this harder than it has to be, pumpkin. just told you we can’t…gotta get ready and –”

“c’mon toji~,” you coo sultrily, using your finger to trace the outline of him, “it’ll be a quickie. i’ll suck you off and you’ll finish before it’s even time…” you make a show of swallowing in anticipation and hunger to have him in your mouth, and toji pinches the bridge of his nose. he wants you. bad. and maybe it won’t hurt anyone if megumi is like, what, 5 minutes late to the meet? it’s just fucking soccer.

“you’re gonna be the death of me.” he says sharply, but you can hear the hint of playfulness in his voice. “y’got 5 minutes to make me cum, think you’re up to the challenge?” toji teases, as he already begins to bunch your hair up in a makeshift ponytail and pulls you close down on him.

you giggle, and bite your lip to look up at him. “bet.” you immediately get straight to work on him, palming him through his sweats before slowly bringing down his sweats. you use your palm to rub against his raging arousal, and his guttural moan only spurs you on.

“no teasing, pumpkin, time’s ticking…” toji keeps his hands firmly grasped in your hair, having full control on your head. you would be lying if you weren’t turned on at the fact that he could start fucking your mouth anytime he wanted to with his vice like grip, but you ignore the pool forming between your thighs. toji releases his throbbing member from its confines, the tip begging for attention.

you start slow, kissing his tip delicately and gradually taking more of him with every kiss, until you have him inside your mouth. you use your tongue swirl around his tip, causing him to let out a breathy groan. “f-fuck, pumpkin, just like that…” he lightly pushes your head down, carefully allowing you to take in more of his length. “i know you can take more. such a slutty girl dying to suck me off first thing in the morning.”

you moan against him, his filthy words spurring you take even more of him and until he hits the back of your throat, making you gag a little. toji takes control of your movements and starts bobbing your head up and down his shaft.

you feel his shaft twitching and his breaths getting shakier and you know toji is close. “fuck, pumpkin, gonna cum all over you.” toji increases the pace in which he fucks your mouth and you get ready to feel his spillage down your throat before he abruptly lifts your mouth off of him. he guides to the ground on your knees, while he strokes himself off.

“wanna see myself all over you face, pumpkin,” he groans, increasing the speed of his strokes. “y’gonna let daddy cum all over your face?” you nod your head enthusiastically, and take your tongue out so that the tip touches it as it bobs from toji’s strokes. just as he promised, toji splatters your face with his cum like a jackson pollock painting, and whatever gets on your tongue, you make a lewd attempt to swallow.

“fuck,” toji says, out of breath, “you’re such a fuckin’ slut you know that?”. he leans down and wipes some of his release from your face with his thumb and you open your mouth to suck on it. “bet you’re soaked under there…” toji murmurs, as his eyes trail down to your shorts. you bite your lip in anticipation as his hands trail down to the waistband of your shorts. he dips his fingers under your panties, and just as his fingers are about to touch the one place you really needed him to, the alarm in toji’s room and megumi’s room goes off.

both you and toji quickly snap out of your lustful trance and remember reality. “oh, fuck” toji swears as he quickly puts on his pants as you grab tissues from the bedside drawer to clean up the mess on your face. if there’s a term for getting blue balled but for girls, you have it for sure, but you feel bad whining about it since there’s nothing the both of you can do about it.

you’re about to head to the bathroom to wash up as toji puts on a jacket before heading to megumi’s room to wake him up. meanwhile, you use the toothbrush that toji had been so kind to bring for you the last time you spent the night and freshen up. it’ll be fine. just don’t think about how your clit is literally throbbing right now or how your panties are soaked. don’t think about how close his fingers are. don’t. don’t. DON’T!

you frustratedly head downstairs to pack up your stuff. maybe if you make it home fast enough, you can use your vibrator to get some quick release from this morning. yes, that seems like the way to go. your thoughts are interrupted by toji coming downstairs with megumi.

“good morning, megumi”, you sing. he looks especially cute when he’s just tired and just woken up, with his big little yawns and droopy eyes.

“mornin’...” he mumbles as toji puts him down. he rubs his eyes as he goes into the garage to get his cleats.

toji walks to you and gives you an apologetic look. “sorry, pumpkin, i hate you leave you needy like this.” toji playfully pouts as he pulls you into a hug. he runs his fingers through your hair as you inhale his scent – spiced wood and a hint of his laundry detergent.

“you owe me,” you say, looking up at him. “it’s taking everything in me to not jump your bones right this second.” you’re not totally lying when you say that.

toji leans down to whisper in your ear. “the next time i see you, i’m gonna be eating you out for fuckin’ hours, pumpkin.” you shudder in anticipation, and you realize this conversation is not helping your situation…

you pull up to the driveway of your apartment and quickly take the stairs two at a time, as you want nothing more than to take a quick shower (and maybe cum your brains out, too, who knows? hard to tell.). you open the door to see shoko already dressed and making waffles for breakfast. the smell of maple syrup and butter makes your mouth salivate as you realize just how hungry you are.

“welcome back, slut!” shoko shouts from the kitchen.

“mornin’ bitch!” you greet, as you take your shoes off at the entrance. shoko pokes her head out of the kitchen and eyes you up and down. “wait, what are you doing up so early?” you ask, realizing shoko usually is never awake before 10.

“remember? i told you i needed to start studying step 3 like yesterday!” she says. you can’t recall if she ever said anything about taking the medical licensing exam before right now, but it does no good for you to fight her on it.

“wait, are you going to the library to study, then?” maybe you could tag along with her and then you’ll be forced to actually make progress with the final exam.

“yes, wanna come? you and satoru have a final right? and you’re just out and about “babysitting”?” shoko does dramatic air quotes around that word, making you roll your eyes.

“you’re one to talk when you apparently have step 3 and you were with utahime last night,” you retort.

“she’s a teacher, okay! she was teaching me!”

“teaching you to put your tongue down her throat.” you try to hold back your smile but fail.

shoko laughs before going back to her playfully stern face. “get your shit ready for the library quickly, slut. i made you an extra waffle.”

you promise you’ll be out as soon as possible as you head to your room and take the fastest shower known to mankind. no really, you do not want to be caught dead being late for something shoko wants to do. you chuck your clothes into the laundry hamper as you decide on what to wear to study on a…damn. a rainy sunday. you decide on a cashmere blush pink turtleneck sweater with a pair of comfy black mom jeans. underneath it, you layer a skin tight full sleeve gray shirt to keep you warm. you quickly do your skin care and apply minimal make up, before grabbing your black raincoat and bag and going back to the kitchen.

you see shoko almost finished with her waffle while yours is neatly set on a plate with strawberries (your favorite fruit), butter, and maple syrup. you quickly pat down your wet hair as you take a seat (you’re just gonna have to settle for wet hair in the rain today but it’s okay, it’s not like you have anyone to impress). you quickly scarf down the semi-cold waffle while you and shoko update each other about yesterday.

“i can’t believe he blue balled you like that! jobless and a menace!” shoko says sympathetically.

“stop calling him jobless! his job is being a father.” you defend toji, but you won’t lie, it’s a bit hard.

shoko and you both giggle as you guys head to the campus library.

you yawn as you take a sip of your iced hong kong coffee milk tea. this shit’s doing nothing to keep you awake. you check the time. 2:56pm. you’ve been studying for around 6 hours already, and your brain is fried. you’ve tried to take frequent breaks with shoko, but she has very unconventional study methods – study for hours straight and then sleep for double the amount of time and then rinse and repeat. it was psychotic to say the least. that is to say, you haven’t had a chance to wind down in between hours. the bright side, however, is that you were lightyears ahead of your study schedule. maybe you could afford to fuck around a little bit…

you grab your phone from your bag and see 2 missed calls from satoru. shit. you can’t call him from this particular campus library since it was a designated quiet library, so you text him insead:

y/n: sorry i missed ur calls what’s up

satoru: comin in 5 what floor u at babygirl

y/n: 5th and don’t call be babygirl

satoru: np babygirl

you roll your eyes. it’s so infuriating to talk to satoru sometimes, but especially now after you both shared an unexpected kiss (and more) together. now that you think of it, this is the first time you’re seeing him since the barcade. should you be feeling nervous? strangely, you’re feeling fine. if anything, you’re feeling that unfortunate familiar feeling down there that you forgot about after toji left you hanging, but are now remembering because of satoru.

you’re not one to make moves on someone like satoru, but you bite your lip thinking about how maybe (read: definitely) convince him to…take a walk with you as a study break. you ponder on it a little bit more, weighing out the pros and cons.

pros are that you’ll finally be able to get a release, especially after this morning and working so hard. the cons, however, are mainly that you’ll be doing that with…satoru. your best friend. your annoying will-definitely-make-fun-of-you-for-this-request best friend. with satoru being around a minute from getting here, you decide on just winging it based on how you feel.

shoko and you hear sounds coming from the corner entrance of the floor and look up to see nanami, haibara, and satoru trailing behind them, balancing three cups of coffee in one hand with ease. satoru and haibara are snickering about something and nanami looks embarrassed to be near them and starts walking a bit faster ahead of them. you wave your hand and grab his attention as the group walks to your table.

“hey y/n! how’s it goin–”

“if any of you idiots even speak more than a word above an undetectable whisper, i’m going to kill you all.” shoko says, interrupting nanami’s greeting.

you all look at each other silently, taking shoko’s threats to heart.

“gojo, i swear to god if you say even a single thing–” shoko starts as satoru’s shit eating grin starts to form slightly as he pulls a chair next to you.

“relaaaaaax, ieri. you won’t even know i exist, besides, you can’t hate me. i got you coffee!,” he assures, placing one of the three coffee cups near shoko. you don’t believe him and you suspect shoko doesn’t either. haibara and nanami sit across from you next to shoko as they keep their heads down and pull out their books and laptops as quietly as humanly possible. you give a meek wave to them.

gojo silently hands you a clear iced cup, with what you can only deduce to be an iced matcha latte with oatmilk. you apprehensively take a sip. unsweetened. just how you like it. “wow, my signature order?”

“what can i say? i’m a guy who pays attention.” satoru says, shrugging overtly humbly.

“more like you’re obsessed with me.” you take another sip.

“is that such a bad thing?” he says, lowering his voice, and bringing his face closer to you.

“you guys need to shut the fuck up.” shoko says, not looking up from her laptop and whatever she was writing in her notebook.

“hey, i just booked a study room on the floor. let’s head there and study so we don’t bother shoko-san.” says haibara, as he closes his laptop and slowly gathers his stuff from his desk.

“good idea!” you say, as you grab your stuff to move. satoru hasn’t bothered to take a single thing out, so he grabs your coffee and waits for you to pack up your things as nanami and haibara go ahead of you to secure the room. you and satoru follow closely behind.

“sooo…” satoru starts.

“sooo what?” your voice a low whisper as you walk away from the table shoko is studying at.

“how was last night?”

you roll your eyes. of course he wants to know that. you spin the question back to him. “how was your night?”

“it was fine. boring, really, because we kept on talking about quantum theory and like, all i could think of was, ugh.” satoru dramatically rubbed his temples to feign agony. “all i could think of was bending you over on a table and using my tongue to lick your–”

“WHAT?! SHUT THE FUCK–” you quickly lowered your voice as people gave you dirty looks around the library at your outburst. “shut the fuck. up. satoru.” your eyes widen at how bold he was to say something like that at a library. with nanami and haibara just a little ahead of you.

gojo seems unbothered and shrugs. “you asked?”

“yeah, people ask and you just say ‘it was good, thanks.’ not explicitly laying out all your thoughts!” you chastise. you’re choosing to ignore that oh so familiar feeling between your legs.

gojo takes a sip of his coffee. “c’mon, y/n. let’s just…man, fuck this ‘study session’”. you’re unsure why he does air quotes around ‘study session’ because for all intents and purposes, you did plan to use this time to get ahead of your study plan. “let’s just go back to my place or somethin’. suguru’s not home, we can just chill. do some of that studying you wanna do, and like, whatever else.”

“you’re literally too horny function.”

“don’t act like you don’t wanna as well.”

ok, he got you there. “not right now, i wanna study!” you look at him, this time with pleading eyes. “don’t say anything horny in there, please. i can’t have people know about this, it’s so embarrassing.”

“ouch.”

“don’t say anything in there and i’ll blow you in the library after you explain the quantum theory stuff that’s gonna be on the final to me.”

this deal makes satoru’s eyes widen. it’s too good to be true for him, because if there’s one thing he’s good at besides being a male menace, it’s explaining tough science concepts to cute girls. “deal.”

89 notes · View notes

tobiasdrake · 3 months ago

Note

There’s a reason Digimon keeps going back to the Adventure well.

It’s because it’s the only series that’s ever been profitable.

As you're probably aware from looking at the original airing dates for the first few series, Digimon was supposed to be a yearly series in the vein of Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen Rider and Pretty Cure etc…, hence why one series would air a week after the previous one ended, and why staff would start working on the next series partway through the current one (interviews with staff have confirmed that work for 02 began around the time the Vamdemon/Myotismon arc was beginning to air in Japan).

Unfortunately these plans would kind of fall apart the moment Adventure 02 ended.

You're probably well aware by now that Digimon Tamers is pretty well regarded amongst the western Digimon fanbase, unfortunately the series was not a success in Japan, quite the opposite. There was such a massive drop in viewership when the show was airing, that it’s been confirmed in interviews that the staff were constantly retooling the show and changing their initial plans to try and get the rating back to Adventure/Adventure 02 levels.

And even worse was the toyline, y’know the thing the anime is supposed to be an advertisement for, sales in Japan for it were so bad that it was cancelled before Tamers had even reached the halfway point.

Now there have been many reasons given for Tamers’ failure, several even brought up by the staff in interviews, it was a reboot set in a new continuity with little connecting it to the previous series, merchandise driven anime were starting to decline in popularity across the board - even Pokemon was affected, although it managed to pull itself out of it’s slump, the rise in popularity of live-action tokusatsu shows, the v-pet craze ending etc…

But a big one mentioned by the Japanese fanbase is that, in contrast with the English dub which, whilst not really changing the content that much, did alter the tone slightly so it came off as a lot more casual, the original version of Tamers is considered to have a very depressing and oppressive tone with very little comic relief and is not the fun to watch as a kid (hell apparently one European country that had a dub closer to the Japanese original gave the series a 18+ rating).

And it’s reputation hasn't really improved in Japan as shown by it’s Blu-Ray release in 2018, where despite heavy promotion from it’s head-writer Chiaki J. Konaka and also including with it an original CD Drama with the voice cast reprising their roles to act as a pilot for a potential sequel series, it made less than 30% of what the Blu-Rays of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 had made.

So part way through Tamers when they were preparing to work on the next Digimon series, the staff knew that it was likely the anime was not going to be able to continue sustaining itself like they wanted and that the next series could very well be the last. So they went into it determined to make it the best product as much as possible and to go in a more lighter tone in keeping with both Adventure animes, in the hope of getting the ratings to go back up to where they were pre-Tamers and continue Digimon as a yearly series or at the very least allow the anime part of the franchise to go out on a high note.

It didn’t really work, Digimon Frontier is considered the weakest of the four original Digimon series in both the Western and Japanese sides of the fanbase, rating continued to decline even worse than they had with Tamers and it’s toyline in Japan was also cancelled before the show had finished due to low sales, and Toei’s yearly anime summer fair which included Frontier tie-in short film bombed that year as well resulting in it’s permanent cancellation. And it’s Blu-Ray release made less than Tamers and so far Frontier is the last non-Adventure related series to see a Blu-Ray Release.

Whilst the first four anime had been going, a storyline had been playing out amongst the lore of the franchise in things like flavour text and booklets included with the v-pet toys, and after the anime had seemingly ended said storyline continued with the “X-Anti-body” in 2004, that included things like the Pendulum-X v-pet toy and the Digimon Chronicles booklet, culminating in the 2005 film Digimon X-Evolution that supposed to be the end of the overall Digimon story.

However despite the troubled production that had lead to X-Evolution going from a theatrical released movie to a made-for-tv film it was positively received and got good ratings, and the Pendulum-X v-pets sold well, so with that success it was decided that Digimon was still potentially profitable and so it would still be aloud to continue with a new anime project eventually announced.

This was the 2006-2007 anime Digimon Savers, which was aimed at capturing a slightly older (but still aimed primarily at children) audience with a more shonen-esque character designs and protagonists who were in their teens or adults rather than pre-teens like the previous protagonists.

Sadly Savers, despite being well received by those who watched it, was not the success that Bandai and Toei had hoped for, as it got worse ratings than even Frontier and its toy-line was also cancelled part way through the series due to low sales, and thus another series was not greenlit before it had ended. And whilst a Blu-Ray of the series was apparently supposed to be in development, it’s been years and there’s still no sign of it happening, probably due to the failure of Tamers and Frontier’s Blu-Rays, although admittedly it’s possible COVID could have delayed things, but nothings been said for sure.

Nevertheless Toei and Bandai would once again try and relaunch the anime franchise again in 2010 this time Digimon Xros Wars, which went back to targeting a younger audience with designs reminiscent of the first four series, and a more fast pace action oriented storytelling - drawing inspiration from the super robot genre.

Unfortunately again the series was unsuccessful, as it again got low ratings and its toyline was cancelled due to low sales, leaving most of the character’s introduced from the end of its first arc to the end of its third arc without toys, and a new series was not greenlit.

And whilst the series did get an extra 25 episodes - the Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time arc - at the very last minute after the series had already concluded it’s main plot, it was an open secret - eventually confirmed by in interviews with the staff - that it had only been added as filler so Toei could keep the timeslot for the remainder of the year to air Saint Seiya Omega. Hence why that part of the series, despite introducing some new characters and concepts, was mostly just stand alone monster of the week episodes, because since they didn’t have any merchandise to advertise at that point the creators were essentially told to just do whatever they wanted as long as they made it fun for any kids still watching.

This backfired a bit when the creators randomly decided to include silhouettes of the previous main protagonists of the prior seasons in one episode, which lead to the characters actually being introduced in the last 3 episodes of the season as a kind of mini-multiversal crossover with no foreshadowing, and Toei much to the head-writer's confusion decided to market that arc as if the crossover was the main plot of the arc and would be apart of every episode, which led to disappoint amongst fans - especially Western fans - when it turned out to be only those last few episodes and the returning characters barely did anything.

Needless to say this once again did not lead to a new series being greenlit.

Then a couple years laters they through up their hands and said fuck it, and went back to the original continuity with the Digimon Adventure Tri movies, as a way of both celebrating the 15th anniversary of the original Digimon Adventure and in the hope would draw back all the fans who’d left the moment Digimon Adventure 02 ended.

And in spite of the fact that the movies were mixed to negatively received - especially in Japan where the fans treat the lore behind the Adventures series incredibly seriously - it worked, the fans did return, the DVDs and other merchandise sold well, and it got the franchise back somewhat in the public eye on both sides of the globe, and lead to Digimon receiving new products yearly that is still going to this day.

Unfortunately this success had one drawback, it got most of the now-adult fans back because that’s who it was aimed at, but it didn’t do anything to get children - y’know the franchise’s target demographic invested, which is what lead to the next three anime series.

The next Digimon series in 2016 to 2017 was Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters which ironically despite the title - aside from one episode- didn’t feature any actual Digimon in the traditional sense instead focusing on new creatures called Appmon that were based on smartphone apps, and focused on both how the internet is used and affects people in the 21st century and explored things related to artificial intelligence, whilst still having the tradition structure and storytelling of a Digimon series.

It was also supervised by Hiromi Seki who produced the first four Digimon series and who would later be brought back to supervise Last Evolution Kizuna and Adventure 02: The Beginning to make sure those movies stuck to established characterisation, themes, continuity and lore - some Tri was accused by Japanese fans of failing to do so (especially since interviews with Tri’s head-writer had that he was not all that familiar with Adventure and Adventure 02. And according to interviews with other people who worked on Tri he would actually reject advice from other staff members who were familiar with Adventure when they offered suggestions or critiques regarding sticking to/contradicting pre-established continuity and lore, in favour of just telling the other staff members to make the series feel more darker and more mature without actually clarifying what that meant).

Appmon was generally well received by both critics and fans of the franchise, with many feeling it felt more like a true Digimon series than Tri did.

Unfortunately despite this it still did terrible in the ratings department and whilst it did become the first Digimon series to not have its toyline cancelled since Adventure 02, possibly because Bandai marketed it as if it were a brand new IP despite staff at Toei making it clear it effectively just a new Digimon series rather than a spin-off like many had assumed, it’s sales were considered disappointing as it barely made much more than Tamers - y’know series that had its toyline cancelled due to low sales - did throughout its run.

Which is why, until last year, Bandai refused to acknowledge it in relation to Digimon in any way, whereas Toei was only too happy to include Appmon in marketing that emphasized every Digimon anime series.

It also lead to their plans for “Digimon Universe” to become the brand name for the franchise (or maybe at least anime side?) moving forward - much like it was almost the case for “Digimon Adventure” (Digimon Adventure Neo was the working title for Digimon Tamers even after it had been confirmed that it wouldn’t be in the same continuity as Adventure and 02) - to be abandoned with Appmon.

Also, not counting the last arc of Digimon Xros Wars, Appmon became the first Digimon series not to receive an English dub, although Toei did want one, but they wouldn’t sign off on anything unless it came with a massive toy deal and the combination of merchandise driven kid’s anime not being as popular in the US in the New Tens as it was in the early 2000’s and prior Digimon series not having done well on tv in the US led to no company agreeing to their offer, and Toei just kinda sat on the series for 3 years before giving the US a subtitled version straight to streaming. It did get a couple of foreign dubs in places like France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, but unfortunately it completely bombed in both France and Portugal leading to plans to expand it to the rest of Europe to be cancelled.

The next anime after that was the reboot of Digimon Adventure in 2020 (something which had been considered for the 15th anniversary of the 1999 version of Adventure before they went with Tri), which per press releases was aimed at both a new kid audience and their parents who would have grown up with the original Digimon Adventure.

This series drew influence from Toei’s more famous and popular worldwide franchise Dragonball and focused a lot more on action than character development, with the goal of the series was to show off battle scenes, make sure things come across as cool, and showcase as many Digimon as possible, whilst still reflecting the world in 2020 as much as the OG Adventure did for 1999 (the latter of which became a moot point with COVID, which not only interfered with production of the series resulting in Episode 3 coming out in April 19th and the Episode 4 in June 28th, but made the July 2020 setting of the first few episodes completely different from the actual July 2020, to the point where I’m surprised the English dub released in 2020 kept the 2020 setting rather than changing it to a non-specific “present day” so viewers watching the dub exclusively weren’t weirded out by the fact that the characters aren’t following COVID distancing protocols or masking-up).

And in a first for Digimon airing on tv since 02 ended it was a success, it good ratings to the point where episodes were ranking higher than Toei’s other juggernaut of a series Pretty Cure, and the toyline sold well both in Japan and the US - despite having merchandise arrived years before an official dub was even announced. And it’s success led to it not only getting both a DVD and a Blu-Ray release, but also a new Digimon series being greenlit before it had finished airing that would air a week after the final episode - something that hadn’t happened since Frontier ended.

Unfortunately this success came with an asterisk, because whilst it was successful it was only with the periphery demographic as Toei officially announced in May 2021 that the series had “struggled to acquire new audiences of children” which they blamed on the COVID pandemic, which was made worse in that a survey conducted in September/October 2020 had shown that the vast majority of Digimon fans had been fans for about 16 years or more, meaning that the franchise has not been growing an audience. Which probably explains decisions made regarding the next Digimon series.

Speaking of which, that series was Digimon Ghost Game, which was a horror-themed series - in the Scooby Doo sense of the term - and interviews with the head-writer had confirmed that whilst the idea of doing a series aimed at older audiences had been on the table, it was decided to continue making a series aimed at children. Which resulted in them going all in on that aspect and in a first for Digimon completely abandoned the serialised series structure that prior series had stuck to in favour of maintaining an episodic monster-of-the-week format for almost the entirety of its 67 episode run.

The head-writer had even described the reason for this is that in the current climate it’s a lot harder to make serialised shows for kids and teenagers because a lot of kids are watching Youtube videos and Tiktok and jumping off after a minute or two if they get bored and find it hard to watch longer stories. Also, kids might skip a show if they miss the beginning of it, so they wanted it so kids could start watching from any episode and not need to catch up on any other episodes.

Sadly this gamble didn’t pay off as not only did the series return to the pre-Adventure 2020/post Adventure 02 mediocre ratings, but the series had surprisingly little merchandise out when it was airing - possibly due to the still high demand for Adventure 2020 stuff - with some of it coming out after the series had concluded, a fan who somehow became a shareholder had confirmed last year that the series had been deemed not successful enough to receive a Blu-Ray release, and to this day a new anime series has not been announced.

And whilst an English dub had been announced a while back, it had also been described as a “low-budget dub” that was specifically looking for LA based actors, which most people aren’t sure what that means, but some suspect it might just be one of those low quality English dubs that only air in countries like China as a way to teach people English.

Several months after Ghost Game ended, staff from either Toei and/or Bandai have expressed frustration about not being able to reach a child audience and don’t know what the solution, later the Digimon Partners website just straight-up said that after over 20 years of being unable to grow a new audience they decided to give up on that goal and that all future Digimon projects for the foreseeable future will now be focused on satisfying the existing audience they already have.

This is the card game has gotten the most focus over the past few years, as that’s what currently keeping the franchise afloat and not the anime, and why several new serialised webnovels and web-manga unconnected to the various anime have gotten English translations, because North America is where the franchise is currently making the most money.

All they might be trying to walk this statement back a bit, as last year they announced they wanted to unify the brand. Which some fans have taken to mean they want the franchise to just have one single continuity, but actually looking in to the announcement it’s more they want to focus on marketing each individual series as part of the whole Digimon franchise, rather than just a series of fragmented disconnected works that just happen to be part of the same franchise. They want something where each series is unique and individualized but still recognisable as part of the same thing, and will have fans of the whole thing rather than just one particular series only… think like with Power Rangers/Super Sentai or Kamen Rider. Which is an issue they’ve seen in the past where they’ve seen a lot of people who are fans of Adventure, fans of Tamers, fans of Frontier etc… but not many who are fans of Digimon as a whole.

This is not the first time they’ve made an attempt to unify the brand and make it feel more cohesive and it’s not certain what that entails or whether or not they’ll have any more success this time. But that’s where we are right now.

...so it sounds like a lot of people had the "I'm here for my favorite characters, not for the concept of Digimon" problem that I had as a kid. They tried to make Digimon into a universal platform that many kinds of stories featuring many kinds of characters interpreted in whatever way a given creator wanted could be told, and that failed to create a sense of brand cohesion? Is what I'm getting out of this?

Seems like the series has had a much more tumultuous history than I ever realized.

#digimon

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