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meimi-haneoka · 2 years ago

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Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 70: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

CCS FANS!

It's here, finally!! My post for this chapter took so long and I'm sorry for it but man....the mess they made with the releases AND the content of the chapter certain didn't help with the writing and posting of this commentary!! 😅 I haven't been able to focus for most of today and yesterday, took some time to elaborate....man, I KNEW chapter 70 was going to be special because it's a round number and because it's going to be (at this point almost certainly) the last chapter of volume 14, but was I prepared for this storm of feels? No, I really wasn’t. I think no matter how much I would’ve tried to prepare myself, I would still be in the mess I am right now. 😂 After all, I love Kaito very much. And I think I can say with confidence I wasn’t the only one, I pretty much saw everyone around me being completely shocked by what happened, as it was mostly unexpected (some people knew and actually believed in this outcome till the very end, and my love and greatest appreciation goes to them – you know who you are) Therefore, you’ll forgive me if this post will be particularly long, but I feel like I need to analyze a lot of things and I would like to include them in my analysis of the script and translation. This chapter has been focused on Kaito for a good half of it, but due to the magnitude of the revelations, it felt like it's mostly about him. It's ok, these things needed to be addressed at some point. This month we had few translation mistakes, but quite annoying, especially about a translation that ended up suggesting an incorrect interpretation of what happened in the chapter, so I definitely suggest to check it out! Let’s start with the usual tradition that I hope to include till the very end, the gif of the month!

And now, follow me under the cut to find out why chapter 70 shocked everyone!

The Color page

What a pretty Sakura in kimono!! Yes, she’s sad, probably the saddest and melancholic she’s ever been in the color pages of Cardcaptor Sakura, but she looks...so mature, so grown up, I can’t help but think about how beautiful she looks. I know this color page made many people worry when it appeared online before the actual chapter was released, but in the end we found out that the sadness of this chapter isn’t directed at her at all. The JP text here says “Exchange, the Card that was born out of Sakura's wish. With the [magic] that is here, one story ends and begins”

The Two Alice

Sakura opens her eyes. We’re back to the play, the real play. It’s the moment of the meeting between the Red Queen and Alice, and……..Akiho and Sakura switched roles. Sakura is now playing the role of the Red Queen, wearing a cute dress that honestly it’s really reminding of a more classic Red Queen, while Akiho is Alice, wearing a very Alice-like outfit too. Can you recognize these two outfits? Yes, they are the costumes Tomoyo originally worked on, before changing her mind and re-doing them completely:

When Tomoyo made Sakura and Akiho try them on, they were still pretty much in tacking stage, while we can see that now they have “colored” parts and details/accessories added, but they’re the very same outfits. The lines they say are those we know well by now, Sakura says she’s the Queen of this land and Akiho asks her name, to which Sakura replies “They call me the Red Queen”.

The font, something we became used to check in the last 5/6 chapters, is indeed that used when Akiho and Sakura speak in their roles of the play. Akiho makes a curtsy and introduces herself as “Alice in Clockland”. And here we get the second surprise of the chapter: Syaoran, behind the curtains, is voicing the Cat, exactly like he intended to do initially. The Cat welcomes Alice to this land, and she realizes the one who’s talking is her beloved cat from her home – and here we get our first little translation difference:

ENG: Didn’t you promise me you’d come with me to the world I wanted to show you? JP: I did promise to escort you to the world I wanted to show you.

In all the instances where we’ve seen the kids reharsing or talking about the play, we always got only to the point when Alice meets the Red Queen. Even in the play itself (the first time around), the story was pretty much interrupted by Kaito sending them all into the *real* Clockland. Now we finally find out how the story continues. The Cat asks Alice if she met the Red Queen and what she thought about her. Akiho replies “She looks like me”. Choir comes back on stage, singing again the iconic song that was composed by Yamazaki:

JP: This is the story that Alice chooses (for herself). A story for Alice. The [Cat] guides her, and her wish is waiting for her at the end of the road. The wish Alice had forgotten is waiting for her. Remember, Alice.

I wanted to put the JP as the ENG changed/omitted some words, but nothing serious.

Alice asks the Red Queen if she’s always been in this land. The Queen replies that maybe yes, maybe not, she can’t really remember anything aside from her name being the Red Queen and the name of this land. She can’t even remember why she became Queen in the first place. Alice reiterates that they’re very similar. So she tells the Queen something. An anecdote from her own family. They’re 3 people in her family, but at their table there’s always a fourth chair. She always wondered who that chair was for, and why they never put it away. So she wondered if that chair was meant for someone very dear to them. The Cat, projected on the curtain and with Syaoran’s voice, tells Akiho to touch the person she’s thinking she wants to touch right now...because when she does, she’ll remember something she forgot. And so Alice touches the Queen’s hands.

The scene here is really beautiful, loaded with emotion, and a huge callback to this other scene here that happened precisely during the reharsals of the play:

Alice finally remembers. She wasn’t born as an only child, but had a twin. That twin sister disappeared to another world, and with her all the memories she and her parents had of her. Here there’s a small difference between the ENG and the JP: the ENG says not all of their memories disappeared, while the JP uses a different word that got a slightly different meaning - 想い, which means “thought” and even more often “feelings”. So the memories of the lost sister disappeared, but the FEELINGS survived the loss. Remember this. Remember it well, I’m telling you now, as I suspect this play will also work as a parallel with another situation.

That’s the reason why they never removed the 4th chair. For the other “Alice” that had disappeared. The Red Queen finally understands, shocked. Alice says:

JP: Guided by the Cat, I’ve come to take you back home. You, the other “Alice”.

On the top of the school building, Kaito observes from afar the play coming to its final moments. Momo is with him, in her full form. She asks him how he’s feeling right now. Kaito answers “I suppose I’m relieved...because the Exchange Card was created”. But pay attention to his face and the background of that panel. There’s the usual “smoke effect” they use when the character is distressed or *not* having happy thoughts. Kaito seems indeed relieved here at first glance, but if you look at him better, there’s a streak of sadness to his expression. And what’s that “I suppose I’m relieved”? He’s not even sure himself of what he’s feeling right now.

Momo frowns at him after hearing his reply. She *knows* there’s something he’s not saying. She continues saying that the Card has indeed changed things. First of all, by Sakura’s wish, the Card changed her role with that of Akiho, making her the Red Queen.

I gave you all of me

And then, finally, Kaito’s wish. In a shocking revelation, we find out that Kaito’s wish and intended use of the Exchange Card was NOT what everyone thought. Kaito says it himself: he wished to exchange his own magic artifact -the pocket watch that we learned to identify him with- for the artifact inside Akiho’s body -the infamous book that is currently hosting magic from a multitude of books that her Clan forced her to record on herself. And thanks to Exchange, that swap succeeded. Kaito is once again using “ore” as a pronoun here, while still talking in keigo. He will keep using it freely till the end of the chapter. A sign that at this point he doesn’t have to pretend to be the perfect and polite butler anymore, but he still holds lots of respect for Momo, hence the use of keigo. The panel where he explains his intended exchange takes an entire page, and the fact they used a portrayal of Akiho when she started travelling with Kaito (the outfit is the same of the flashback featured in chapter 39) makes things even more bittersweet. This has always been his goal all along. Taking onto himself what he mistakenly caused to be engraved into her when they both were just small children. But more on this later, at the end of the post.

Momo points out that Kaito’s watch is all broken, and Akiho doesn’t have magic (remember this well, she STILL doesn’t have magic! Cause giving her magic was never Kaito’s goal to begin with) so she won’t be able to use it. Kaito comments “There’s no reason for her to use it, right? Because with the Transparent Cards that Sakura-san had created, along with all I could give of me, I was able to activate the forbidden magic of the Book of Time, which you watch over”. Momo keeps frowning at him, while he says so.

The infamous play is finally over, everyone in the audience is clapping their hands enthusiastically. Sakura and Akiho go backstage where Naoko, Chiharu and Tomoyo await to congratulate them! Chiharu even says she teared up a little when the two Alice made it back home! We see that Yamazaki is still his usual self, praising/teasing Syaoran over his meowing skills (to which he yells that it's not true), and Naoko joins the kids in congratulating the girls, saying how happy she is that she casted Sakura and Akiho as Alice and the Red Queen. Then, nonchalantly, she delivers the second surprise of this chapter:

JP: You’re twins, and it shows!

BOOM. Kaito explains that inside Momo’s book it is possible to record the events of someone’s life, and with the use of the Forbidden Magic, it is also possible to rewrite them. Therefore, he wished to record the memories of Akiho and Sakura into that book, and then change them to make them twins born on the same day, who spent their life together. In the beginning, I thought Kaito changed to a very deep level the events that happened in Akiho’s and Sakura’s life, but thanks to a follower on Twitter I’ve actually re-read better the JP text and it seems Kaito changed only the memories of the people. Sure, that also brought substantial, concrete changes to their reality (I suppose Akiho lives with Sakura and so there surely will be a bed for her, all her stuff etc) to accomodate Akiho into the “new” version of their lives. The ENG translation in this sense is quite deceiving because Kaito talks about rewriting the lives, but in the JP it’s clearly written 記憶, “memories”. I’m not sure to what level we should consider this change to take place (like, did Nadeshiko actually gave birth to both of them or it’s just a collective hallucination the forbidden spell put all of them under?), but I’m sure we’ll understand better with next chapters. We can clearly see how everything else in Sakura’s life seems to be exactly as it was before, Kero and Suppy are still there, Nakuru too, even her relationship with Syaoran seems to be still the same (for a small detail at the very end of the chapter, that I will point out later, but you can stop freaking out about that). The only difference is that Akiho has been included in Sakura’s family. Kaito observes that’s something else that successfully changed.

Momo points out that every successful “rewriting” leads to some kind of discrepancy. However, Kaito answers that thanks to this change, Akiho won’t be harassed by the Clan and the Association anymore, and she would be protected by the Kinomoto family and all their kin.

(I know, I’ll leave my comments for last, as I said).

Momo asks the question. She always asks the questions.

JP: What about you?

For how formidable he can be, Momo hints that it’s impossible for him to deal with the huge amount of magics that were written onto Akiho (just imagine how magically battered her body was), especially in the state he’s in now.

And that’s when it happens. We all more or less imagined that we might end up seeing a tragedy happening in front of our eyes, but being this CCS, we probably didn’t believe it 100%.

The Seal of D.

Kaito doesn’t reply to Momo’s question, but keeps his usual enigmatic smile, that at this point is more a weak smile of acceptance of his destiny. A book appears under him, the huge book that used to spread at Akiho’s feet whenever the artifact was going to overcome her.

The effect Mokona sensei used on these pages, like blots of ink, looks actually like it’s blood. It’s terrifying to see that in CCS.

A flashback. The Association headquarters. There are both representatives of the Association and of the Squids Clan.

Kaito looks like a child, a teenager at best. He really looks like he’s the same age as Syaoran, or one year older. And yet, the ENG translation stubbornly keeps making the same mistake over and over again.

Because Kaito IS A MAN in their heads, even when he’s clearly a kid. Below the JP version which stays more true to the original meaning: JP: Letting this magician travel along with the artifact… is too dangerous. If he uses time magic, he might exploit the magic artifact. Let’s cast the “Seal of D” on him. There’s a sealing spell that can be casted only on magicians of rank D. If you engrave this spell onto your body, we’ll let you travel (with her).

Alright, on top of being already emotionally compromised by the sheer cruelty of this scene, there are also two mistakes in the ENG translation that make me see red. The first, as I said, is the use of the word “man” instead of “magician”, which is the word used in the JP version. It doesn’t make sense to use “man”, since Kaito here is a kid, because this is a flashback of when he offered himself to go travelling with Akiho. The ENG translation criminally contributes to the misconception that Kaito was already an adult when he decided to accompany Akiho, when in fact it’s not true. Do you find it hard to believe that a teenager could escort a little child around the world? Then how do you believe that a ten years old could live all alone in a foreign country? Come on folks, these people have magic. Moreover, I’ve seen some fans genuinely confused due to this mistake, and they had to re-read twice to understand exactly who the members of the Association were talking about in that moment.

Not only that, but they also translated the fact that Kaito could’ve exploited the artifact with “suppose he uses the artifact for evil?”, paradoxically making them look like they’re wary of Kaito using the artifact for evil!! THEM! THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL OF THIS STORY! Like, this is completely ridiculous. Of course they wouldn’t give a damn about that, they don’t have morals, they were only worried about Kaito misusing the artifact however he wanted, and not in their interest.

My grievances with the translation aside, I would like to bring attention to the use of the word 封鎖 fuusa, which can be meaning “block, seal-off, lockdown, sequestration”. I wanted to point it out because it might be useful to guess what will happen to Kaito after a couple of pages.

Kaito agrees without hesitation to that demand.

To my bafflement, the members of the Association and the Clan ask Kaito if he knows what he’s agreeing to. Because not even someone with the level of magic he’s got can remove that spell. And if he dares doing anything to the artifact, that spell will be put into execution at once. And when it activates, he won’t be able to come back.

Here it is!

“Omae wa mou modorenai”. The phrase Sakura kept hearing from an ominous voice in her dreams. I’m positive this is the final source of that phrase, because in fandom we’ve been wondering for years who could’ve used “omae” while talking to Sakura, since there aren’t many characters that use that kind of pronoun for “you”. And it totally makes sense that the Association uses that with a younger member. Turns out, the “warning” wasn’t directed at Sakura at all, but actually at young Kaito. Sakura, thanks to her magic power, has been hearing the warning that hinted at Kaito’s destiny this whole time.

And now, the scene that tore apart the heart of so many fans.

JP: “I...am glad I was able to successfully complete a magic I’ve sincerely wanted to use for the first time”

Kaito uses a particular verb here, 編み終えられて, which caught my attention and literally translates to “finishing knitting, weaving”. The verb 編む amu, “knitting”, gets associated a lot with creating magic spells. I’m not really sure if it’s a use of that verb that only CLAMP makes in this sense, or if it’s common to refer to the creation of magic spells as if you were knitting a sweater, but I think it’s kinda...warm? Cute? In this specific case I get really emotional about it, because I can’t help but feel that the magic Kaito created was like a warm blanket he knitted for Akiho with all of his love, to protect her, cherish her and give her the happy life she deserved when he'd be gone. I know, I’m probably projecting on a simple verb but I don’t think I’m far from the truth.

Anyway, with these last words, the Seal of D. activates on Yuna D. Kaito, engulfing him.

Momo, the only one who is able to witness his departure, can’t contain her emotions anymore. A tear mixed with anger, frustration and sorrow appears at the corner of her eyes, and she yells with all that she’s got “This...blockhead!!!”.

It’s like Momo’s shriek reaches Sakura’s ears. She turns around towards the top of the school building, with a strange feeling. Syaoran immediately noticed her unrest, and rushes to her side to ask what’s happening (I told you, this is the most evident proof they still have the same relationship. He does that all the time with his girl). Sakura answers…

JP: I...thought I felt something...but now it’s gone.

In front of Sakura, the top of the school building is empty.

And just like that, the chapter (and probably volume 14) ends.

Alright, now that the technical part with the analysis of the text/translation is over, let me express my feelings on this chapter.

Oh, I have so much to say. So much. Starting from the fact that yes, I’m not ashamed to admit it, this chapter made me cry. Like, real tears, not figuratively. Yes, I love Kaito just that much. My general feeling he was a good person all along has been confirmed at last, but also the heartbreaking smile he embraced his “end” with, that really did it for me. I always knew Kaito was a kind soul. I was sure of that. I was just scared that his self-loathing, his desperate situation while being driven to a corner would have lead him to a dark place, where he might have crossed what’s morally considered acceptable. When Exchange appeared, I fell into CLAMP’s trap. And I really have to commend them, because they were able to lead the fans to think something for 70 chapters (alright, a bit less) while in the end it turned out to be something completely different, and everything STILL makes perfect sense.

But let’s start from the beginning. The play finally got to its conclusion, one way or another. We finally witnessed the whole story for how it was intended by Naoko, and it was a simple, but cute story with a happy ending. And we found out that this is basically a reality where everything seems to be exactly like before, but the memories of the characters have been rewritten to accomodate for Akiho becoming Sakura’s twin sister. Certainly the memories weren’t the only thing that was changed, as I was saying above, but it probably doesn’t entail a complete rewriting of history like the ENG translation suggested? Therefore, it’s a less drastic change that will be easier to rewind? We’ll see with next chapters, especially I’m curious to know if Sakura still got her problem with the rampant powers.

Akiho becomes Sakura’s twin sister, then. I’m pretty sure nothing changed about her, we’ll still see her with her passion for books, her singing skills, her friends are all still there, her best friend actually became her sister, now she’s got a lovely family who can protect her (how is Touya going to interact with her? I...suspect he won’t tease her), but most importantly, she doesn’t have that ticking bomb of an artifact that was about to annihilate her soul. And, she stays magicless. Kaito never wanted to give magic to Akiho. He never showed any sign of it, not with words, nor with his actions.

On one side, I’m glad to see this development just as a “what if”, provided that...it goes back to normal, in the end. Because I always envisioned Akiho’s family to be Kaito and Momo, and I always wanted to see them living together as a funny household, with Momo finally dropping her secrecy and walking around in all her glory while spoiling Akiho with love and scolding Kaito till kingdom come 😂I think Akiho would be very happy. They are her most beloved people, after all. Sure, the idea of the Kinomoto family adopting her is sweet and all, but who has always been by her side? It was Momo and Kaito. Momo, in particular, I feel like she deserves her quality time with Akiho, after watching over her ever since she was born, in complete secrecy. Unable to reply to all the lovely chats Akiho had with her, thinking she was just a plushie.

Oh, don’t get me started on Momo in this chapter. How I sympathized with her. I always have, but in this chapter we finally see her losing all composure and crying her tears for how UNFAIR everything is. Once again she's the spokeperson of a good chunk of the fandom. Kaito’s goal was noble and all, but it was at the cost of his life (?) and he ended up sacrificing himself without even acknowledging why he did all of this. Her angry “insult”, わからずや literally means “someone who doesn’t understand and listens to reason, no matter how much you try to persuade them”. And for Momo that is a huge failure, in itself. She witnessed another tragedy happening. Still, I remind you she left some help behind, precisely at Kinomoto’s home (probably something that would stay even after the activation of the forbidden magic) so she’ll probably be waiting for the girls to realize it.

And then, Kaito. My beloved Kaito.

I know many people might be shocked at this turn of events, as they didn’t see it coming. CLAMP have carefully laid down a pretty game with us, where they tricked us on purpose into believing that Kaito had ill intentions till the very end. But at the same time, carefully leaving all the hints that he actually was a kind soul and he wouldn’t have hurted Sakura to give Akiho the happiness she deserved. It all clicks perfectly. One of the simplest hints is that he always spoke very politely of Sakura, using keigo and praising her skills multiple times (not only hers, but Syaoran’s too), while for the Association he always had a spiteful speech pattern. He hated them, for what they’ve done to Akiho. Kaito ensured that the forbidden spell would’ve influenced Sakura’s life at the minimum, so she would still have all of her friends, her most beloved person, her family, her happy memories. The only different thing is that now she’s got a sister (I still have to wrap my head around this, even though I’m pretty sure it’ll be momentary. It’s too big a change to keep it permanent).

As I said previously, I’ve wavered multiple times on the way he would’ve brought to completion his plan, while I never had a doubt about what his goal was. Never. I never even thought he wanted to give magic to Akiho, as he unfortunately knows very well how magic can lead to unhappiness. It certainly did, in their case. I knew Kaito had a kind soul, because kind people seem to be the ones who suffer the most. And Kaito suffered too. A lot. Not only physically, due to the time rewinds. He’s grown up completely alone, never experiencing love from anyone. Feeding on energy bars, till Lilie tried to make him change habits. Lilie planted a seed in him that bloomed only now. It’s just that, it didn’t bloom in the correct way. We will certainly learn what’s behind his persistence in not understanding that he did all of this for Akiho because he cared for her, cherished her. And so he should’ve asked her what kind of happiness she wanted. Is it fear? Did he purposely keep himself distanced from her, forcefully stopped his hand that everytime was going towards her, because he knew that he soon would be gone? I’ve theorized about that many times, here. What’s the point of creating a connection with someone if you know you’re gonna leave them? Moreover, would he deserve creating that connection with the very person he contributed to condemn to a tragic destiny? Kaito’s self-loathing goes to those lengths and way beyond. But in that last page, before he disappears engulfed by the book, he looks so….satisfied with the result he achieved. He *really* gave all of himself to ensure that Akiho would have a happy ending. He villainized himself in the eyes of her friends, dispelled all the attacks from the Association along the years, suffered the consequences of the time rewindings on himself, all while knowing that he was carrying upon himself a horrible curse. Touch the “artifact” and we seal you off forever. When I found out, I was livid. I kept saying “I should’ve known, they are stupid but *not* that stupid”. They imposed a curse like that on such a young boy. For Kaito to accept it without a second thought, it either means he was so disillusioned with life that he didn’t care about dying, or that he wanted to make things right at all costs. Judging by the word used in the JP version, Kaito might not be exactly dead in this moment, but just sealed off somewhere. Since the book appeared at his feet, he might have been sealed inside the artifact itself. I’m just picturing what would’ve happened if Kaito tried to remove the artifact while it was still inside Akiho….and I shiver, because she would’ve absorbed him, sealing him and all his power inside herself. Such huge power would’ve annihilated her soul at once, destroying all that Akiho was. Exactly what I’ve imagined as a “bad ending” in one of my angsty moments.

But the problem is, how do you reach him there? And how do you bring him back, while he’s harboring in himself all those damn magic spells? Because he deserves another chance. Another chance at life where he can experience happiness too.

The fact he thought of taking into himself the artifact that was engraved in Akiho because of what he said is honestly so heart-wrenching. He took full responsability for a thing that wasn’t even really his fault. And also goes to show the lenghts he would go for her.

Ironically, the fact he was sealed off might be precisely the thing that’s saving him, for the moment, because those spells will certainly kill him for the state he’s in right now. But while being sealed, maybe they won’t have effect on him. This is going to be a tough task, for Akiho. Yes, because I know she will remember at some point and will go out there to save him. And that’s why we have our wonderful heroine Sakura with her, whom for the first time might get to use her immense power not to play with a deck of cards but actually to save someone’s life. The bar has been raised quite a bit, right?

Kaito’s idea to exchange the book with his pocket watch was very clever. But also...it left with Akiho an object that will certainly lead her back to him. The watch will be “the chair” of the “Two Alice” play. An object left behind by someone dear. Whose watch it is? Why does she have it with her? Why is it all broken? Akiho used to associate that watch so much to Kaito, she recognized that it must have been something very important to him, so I’m CERTAIN that it will trigger a memory in her. Ohkawa in one of her Spaces at the end of December said clearly that Akiho will work very hard in the finale of Clear Card, and honestly I can’t wait to see it. She’s been accused by the fandom of literally doing “nothing” for the whole series, so the time has come for her to show what she’s capable of. Without magic. Heh, when Kaito said “she won’t need to use it (that watch), right?” my heart squeezed because he was so resigned to the fact that she would forget about him and go on with her life….little does he know, that watch is going to lead her back to him.

The final scene with Sakura feeling a glimpse of something before it disappeared was another smack to my face. It’s really worthy of the most tragic scenes, when someone can feel that someone else is gone.

I think next chapter we might get a glimpse of the life of Sakura and Akiho as sisters, and I’m very curious about that...curious to see if Akiho knows that her sister got magical powers, how Akiho interacts in the new family….for me it’s like witnessing a temporary AU. But as I said, I want things to go back to normal because somehow I feel that’s the right thing for both girls. Hopefully the discrepancies Momo mentioned will start showing up right away, so we can move to the final big task quicker. And then it’s hopefully icha-icha time for everyone, as Mokona sensei wished.

Well well, this post has been infinite and I DEFINITELY didn't say everything I wanted to say over the big revelation of this chapter, but I can create another post for that. So, a quick reminder of the dates for the next chapter, chapter 71: March 1st, on CLAMP's Youtube channel (digital, JP and other languages) March 3rd, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP)

As you can see, I can only give you these two dates as the situation with the digital releases of the ENG and JP version is still very chaotic. We'll see if anything changes till March.

As usual I await your asks in my inbox!!

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #clear card arc #ccsakura #ccs spoilers #chapter 70 #yuna d. kaito #momo (cardcaptor sakura)#translation differences #akiho shinomoto

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newromesweirdest · 2 years ago

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Octavian the Augur.....or is he a haruspex?

TLDR: Octavian is both a haruspex and an augur (2 different ancient roman religious positions) but Rick’s writing was lazy and didn’t elaborate on his abilities and settled for the label of “augur” even though it isn’t accurate to what we see in the books.

(For those of you who don’t know, in Ancient Rome the Augur was an ancient Roman priest who studied omens and signs to determine if the gods were in favor of a motion or idea, and then he would relay these findings to the Senate. We see this a bit throughout the books. However, a haruspex was a person who was trained to read the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers. Augurs and haruspex were not the same thing, and their duties were not usually performed by the same person historically).

Octavian is the ONLY haruspex we see in the series, so it’s safe to assume that within the confines of canon, Octavian is the sole haruspex. His role as haruspex is confirmed in canon through his sacrifice of stuffed animals and the signs he reads from their stuffing, and yet he is continuously referred to as an “augur.” If I remember correctly, Octavian even refers to the sacrificed “entrails” as “auspices,” which is incorrect. “Taking the auspices” is the name for the practice of studying birds and their omens, and not for the reading of the sacrificed “entrails.” Now, this is most likely just due to Rick’s writing style and the way he chose to develop New Rome and Octavian’s character. I think most of us can agree that Octavian is not the most well developed character, nor is his characterization entirely consistent or logical as the books progress. Unfortunately, a lot of it comes down to the fact that Rick rehashed and redesigning a large portion of Ancient Roman society and customs to fit within the confines of the story that he had already created. A lot of New Rome’s word building just....doesn’t make sense, and that also applies to how it functions in conjunction with the “real” world (the college, for example. How in the world would those degrees transfer in any logical way to mortal life, even with the assistance of the mist?). But, the part where New Rome falls flat the most is it’s “continuation” of Roman “tradition” (aka it’s lack thereof).

However, I do understand why Rick wrote New Rome the way that he did. Most preteens and teens are not going to know the ins and outs of Ancient Roman religion, and most people wouldn’t exactly know how to pronounce the word “haruspex”, much less know the definition of it.

Keeping this in mind, I believe that Octavian is intended to be both an Augur and a Haruspex. In my own world building and head canon, Augurs aren’t terribly common. I believe that this is somewhat hinted at in canon, but I don’t have my books here at the moment to reference. Octavian is a legacy of Apollo, and it’s implied that he has divination abilities because of it. Considering this, that means that the ability to become an augur or haruspex is essentially genetic (at least until the bloodline is so diluted that the legacy “blood” no longer has any affect over the mortal blood). Legacies don’t seem to be terribly common in canon, let alone legacies of Apollo. Furthermore, regular children of Apollo don’t ever seem to have this ability. Therefore, while the natural inclination is largely genetic, I believe that a legacy or child must also be specifically chosen or blessed by Apollo, similarly to how Rachel is chosen to become the Oracle for CHB. In terms of Roman augurs/haruspices, I would imagine that Apollo at one point or another chose one family line (at a time when he had more legacies and descendants than he does in modern times) and then “stuck” with that family line as his augurs and diviners. I head canon this because Ancient Rome itself was very focused on lineage and family bloodlines, and that seems to resonate with Octavian’s character. Octavian himself is largely a reference to Octavian Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome and the founder of one of Rome’s iconic dynasties/bloodlines. Family names and bloodlines are most likely just as important in New Roman politics as they were in Ancient Rome, but we don’t see it much in canon with the main focus being on the 7 and not on New Rome.

Because Apollo has most likely chosen Octavian’s family to represent his prophecies, one could assume that there are no other candidates for augur or haruspex. This could explain why Octavian has the position despite the fact that a good portion of the legion doesn’t particularly like him. In Ancient Rome, augurs were priests that were officially appointed as a sort of “head of the church.” If that was still the case in New Rome, then why doesn’t the legion just vote him out of office??

Because they can’t. Octavian’s family has essentially been divinely appointed, for better or for worse.

In summary, Octavian is both an augur and a haruspex due to lazy writing and the confines of canon, but I believe that there is much more beneath the surface regarding his powers, abilities, and family situation.

#octavian hoo #octavian pjo #new rome #camp jupiter #heroes of olympus #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians

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artist-issues · 2 years ago

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@fabcreature (Let me preamble this response by saying: I recognize that you’re trying to civilly end the conversation with a “agree to disagree” closer, and I respect that. I see that we disagree. But because I think there are some pretty dangerous fallacies in some of the ways you’re demonstrating how to think about stories and art, I’m going to use my response to you to challenge that idea. It will look like I’m challenging you, as a person. I am not. I am challenging the way you think about art—because you’re not the only one who thinks it, but you are the one giving me the opportunity to have this discussion in a public space. Feel free to not respond to me; we can agree to think differently about this issue, between you and I, but my response is not just toward you—it is an argument with the Idea you’re presenting. Therefore I’m no longer primarily trying to change your mind, as an individual. I’m trying to demonstrate the problems with this Idea. Thanks in advance. Here’s my response.)

I think the question I would ask you is, why? Why, if we’re doing a “deep dive” analysis, should the creator’s intent be taken into account? (And “some” intention is entirely inaccurate when it comes to stories. The story would not exist if the storyteller did not make every single choice necessary to tell it. And all of those choices are done with objective intention. Not some. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a story, or it would not be the same story.)

You know, you’re using all this type of language:

…some intention

…we can almost say is objectively iffy

…seeing a racist propaganda movie as an inspirational movie isn’t wrong—per se

…we may not be able to see exactly eye to eye here

It’s all non-definitive “maybes” and uncertainties when it comes to a person who disagrees, disapproves of, or dislikes an art interpretation. But when it comes to you telling me that correctness is not a relevant value, you start using firmer language:

we still can’t say they’re interpreting it the wrong way

you can’t really criticize me for that.

Why do you do that? Why do you have a problem with telling someone that their interpretation of art is incorrect, but you have no problem with telling me that I’m incorrect for calling an interpretation incorrect? It seems like the biggest blunder I, or anyone, can commit here is making a definitive statement.

That’s not all.

You’re confusing two things here.

One: a story is not a painting.

Both may be communicative. Both may be observation tools. But one has structure specifically designed to lead you to a conclusion; the other is not always (but is often) designed to lead you to a conclusion.

Look at the history of stories. Doesn’t matter if they’re movies, long, short, one sentence, ten pages, written, verbal, etc. All stories have a point, and the points are argued for through the story. A painting does not always make an argument, and has not always done so, throughout history. But a story has.

Two: how an audience feels about a piece is not the same thing as what the creator was objectively trying to say—or whether or not they were successful in saying it.

Additionally, I am making the provable claim that this phrase everybody likes to throw around: “you can’t say someone’s wrong about this because stories are subjective” is false. Art is not a subjective experience. Art is communication. How you feel about that communication, what you experience as you interact with it: THAT is what is subjective.

You can approach the story “Birth of a Nation” with a myriad of pre-conceived notions and experiences that make you predisposed to react a certain way. But what’s going on inside of you, when you experience that story, does not change what the story is saying. It only changes how you see the story, and how you feel about the story. It can’t change the story itself.

So to answer your question, no, we’re not interpreting the Birth of the Nation wrong. We know exactly what it’s trying to say—you just said it, definitively. “The creators want us to be on the side of the KKK.” You interpreted that correctly.

The creators made a “truth claim,” with their story, and that truth claim was this: “The Klu Klux Klan are the heroes necessary to save America.” You got that. You understood that. I understood that.

Now, they may have wanted us to not only understand it (interpret it correctly) but also agree with it.But we don’t and that, my friend, is where audience responsibility comes in. The story is engaging our minds and our hearts and it is trying to steer us to a conclusion. If it’s a successful movie, then it won’t just communicate clearly. It’ll also communicate convincingly. For many people in the early to mid-1900s, it did communicate convincingly. Klan membership skyrocketed. And for many, it communicated clearly, but the audience would not be convinced. They said, “I see what you were absolutely, inarguably, objectively saying—and I am not convinced by what you’re saying.”

That’s the point I’m making, here. A creator is responsible for their creation—they must do the best they can with the communication tools they have. Then the audience is responsible for their response—they should take note of what a story is trying to convince their minds and emotions of, and then choose to allow themselves to be convinced, or to say, “hey, that thing you’re saying in this story? It’s bad, or it’s incorrect, and I reject it.”

There is responsibility on both sides. That is why being correct or being incorrect matters. If you’re incorrect as an audience member, you can’t argue against something that is wrong, like a message that says the KKK are the good guys. You have no legs to stand on. But if you’re the creator and you’re terrible at communicating clearly and convincingly, then nobody’s minds or hearts will align and the most you can hope for is that you distract them for about an hour and a half—and the worst is that people see it and interpret it so incorrectly that they go out and do something horrible because of the truth claim you accidentally made with your bumbling communication skills.

So what good is media analysis?

The most worth media analysis can have is shining appreciation on good communication skills, and pointing out bad listening skills in an audience. Just like a professor of public speaking is teaching the class to analyze effective speeches so they, themselves, can communicate more clearly and go out and change the world, a good media analyst will say, “wait a minute, you’re wrong about that, because here’s what is actually in the piece of media that contradicts what you just said.”

Because again. Stories are powerful. Whether or not you want to believe it, they do change minds, and they do teach people. The question is, what are they teaching, and who is learning?

Suppose I say, “Once upon a time, a woman was killed by a grizzly bear. She heard the sound of heavy breathing while she sat reading in the woods, but did not think it worthwhile to get up and run away. By the time she saw the bear, it was too late to escape, because bears are fast, and it killed her.”

The point of that is obviously, “if you hear heavy breathing in the woods, run away, don’t wait until you see the danger.” You could dive deeper and say the point of that is “be aware of your surroundings and act with caution.”

But if you come back and say, “oh, actually I think the point of that story was to spend lots of time reading in the woods, and get so into what you’re reading that you forget your surroundings! I love that story!”

YES, there are two absolutes to choose from, and one or both are wrong. Because they are opposed points of view. They are saying two completely different things. They might both be wrong, or one might be wrong, but because they are opposed, they can’t both be right. And that might have real-world consequences, because if the story was making a truth claim, and that truth claim is ignored by the audience or misinterpreted by the audience, then some members of the audience can miss out on learning from the truth claim and get mauled by a bear.

So sure. Having more than one interpretation of Alice in Wonderland is possible. Watching the film and comparing and contrasting those two points of view is possible. But because there were creators who made that film, and because stories are communication, something is objectively being said by that movie. There is a right, and there is a wrong, way to understand what is being said. And both what is being said and what is being understood are critically important.

I mean what’s the point of thinking about something “more in depth?” What’s the end goal? Just keep thinking and thinking, deeper and deeper? For the sake of exercising your brain? Arbitrary thought without conclusion is dangerous. It’s meaningless. It benefits nobody, not even the person thinking. Eventually, you have to reach the end of the thought and arrive at a conclusion, or it’s a waste of time.

@clown-weed

Ew. No, actually, it’s not.

That is not at all what it is about. If it were about being a little kid who’s free-thinking is beaten down by adults making you do nonsensical things out of tyranny, Alice would defeat the Red Queen. She would not have to escape the Red Queen.

Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is a cautionary tale about the kind of attitude that must have everything their own way. It is wrong when the Red Queen does it, and it is wrong when Alice insists on it, in the beginning of the movie.

Let’s be very clear about how stories work. In the opening scene, we are introduced to our main character, the little girl we’re going to follow and relate most closely to for the rest of the story. What do we learn about her? She doesn’t listen to her older sister who tries to explain that she needs her history lesson, with or without pictures, and she wants to live in “a world of her own.”

Where the flowers talk. And the animals wear clothes and talk. And she thinks it would be a Wonderland—it’s all right freaking there in the song.

Then Alice abandons her history lesson and chases an example of that world she so badly wants—where everything would be her own way—the White Rabbit. And from that moment on, every action she takes goes like this: “well, I know I should probably stop and think before I do this thing, but I’m going to do it anyway because I feel like it.”

She feels like crawling into a hole after the White Rabbit, and she does, and she falls into a world she can’t get out of. She feels like crying because she’ll never get home, and she does, and she floods the room. Her whole problem is that she often knows what the right thing to do is, but she just does whatever she wants in the moment because she wants it.

Like a little kid who obeys every fleeting impulse.

Enter the Queen of Hearts. A character who just wants what she wants. She’s the definition of what Alice could be if she takes her worst character trait—wanting things just her own way—and keeps chasing that.

In the end, Alice runs away from the Red Queen. She wakes up from her nightmare and immediately tries to obey her sister and “recite” in a panic. It’s kind of a joke—she starts reciting what the Caterpillar recited in her dream out of confusion—but the truth is, that’s where we leave Alice. She’s reciting, otherwise known as “repeating a lesson learned.” A long way from where she was at the beginning of the movie, when she was refusing to pay attention to her history lesson because it didn’t have the pictures she liked.

The movie is about the dangerous habit of jumping into whatever you want to jump into and waiting for things to be your own way, simply because you want them that way. The movie is about finding out that what you really want—a world with no responsibility, no long-term memory, no sense, and no future—is actually not a Wonderland, but a place to get lost and forget who you are. It’s a place you should come out of, eventually, unless you want to be completely out of touch with reality and behaving like everyone else should match your whims—just like a certain Queen of Hearts.

Don’t give me that “stick it to the man,” ageless idiocy of a mistaken notion that children somehow know better than adults. Children will stick their hands on red-hot stovetops and run out into traffic and completely ignore learning from the mistakes of their ancestors in their history lessons if they don’t have adults to help them. As a certain wise parent once said, “they’ll grab at the first shiny thing with flashy ribbons you wave in front of them. All a parent can do is say, ‘wait, trust me.’”

I mean, the last freakin’ shot of the movie is, the girl who was chasing nonsense in the form of a White Rabbit is now following her responsible older sister. Jeez.

All three of the directors on Alice in Wonderland had children, and you know Disney himself had his two daughters before Alice in Wonderland ever came out. If you think for one minute that this movie was about how kids are forced to learn nonsense, rather than taught not to overindulge in nonsense when it turns you into an out-of-touch tyrant, you are duping yourself.

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lauri-rosehearts · 2 years ago

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I’m not one to usually create OC’s specifically for one franchise but in the case of ever after high, I did. And I wanna talk about them. Its not just one OC, its seven. I haven’t drawn them, but I have conceptualized them. But first I have to explain something.

I could make a whole separate post about this but I feel like it’s relevant enough so fuck it. I see a good amount of people often upset that Crystal was portrayed as a good guy rather than a villain because “The Snow Queen is a Villainous destiny”. Heres the thing tho, weather or not the Snow Queen is a villain is extremely dependent on how each version of the story portrays her. All versions of the Snow Queen feature the plot point where the evil enchanted mirror breaks and the shards hit people in the eyes and heart causing them to only see bad in the world as well as making them cold and cruel. However, modern tellings of the tale portray the Snow Queen as the big final Villain by having her be the one who creates the mirror out of ice and sending the shards directly to those who disrespect her, therefore making her start and push the main conflict foward. In the original version however, the creator of the mirror is non other than the devil himself. He along with his fellow demons bring the mirror up to heaven but when they reach the gates, the mirror slips and breaks and the shards travel like sand all over the world affecting random people. In this version the Snow Queen has nothing to do with the mirror, and for the rest of the story she acts like a minor antagonist rather than an outright villain. Despite her being the titular character, without the demons responsable for the mirror, the conflict wouldn’t have been able to initiate. And THOSE demons are exactly who my OCs are based off. Because while I’m not upset that Crystal wasn’t portrayed as a antagonistic character, I AM upset we didn’t get anymore Snow Queen story based characters. The Seven Septuplets daughters of the Mirror Demon from The Snow Queen’s tale

Also, while the number of demons isn’t specified, I’m making them seven solely because I wanna lightly base their personalities off the seven deadly sins, for the sake of not making them a carbon copy of each other in terms of personality. (I say lightly cause I’m still trying to figure out a way to portray the sins through their personalities in a way that isn’t too graphic or not family friendly. I know this fandom is mostly made up of nostalgic adults and older teens but still). But yeah, I know most of you follow me for my lore info dumps, headcanons, and incorrect quotes but I thought sharing about my OCs would be fun.

#ever after high #eah #eah headcanons #eah oc

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rwby-redux · 2 years ago

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Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Superstitions

Rabbit’s feet. Crows. Four-leafed clovers.

RWBY’s not exactly subtle about its sources of inspiration. And since subtlety’s gone out the window, I figured that gives me license to do the same:

This is, without a doubt, the laziest worldbuilding I’ve ever seen.

You know what? No. I can’t even call it worldbuilding, because that at least implies someone made the effort to come up with an original idea. This is taking unaltered, real-world beliefs and slapping them into RWBY’s setting without understanding what they’re borrowing. To reiterate a point I made elsewhere: All symbolism in the show is grounded in concepts that are contextually relevant to us, not to the unique groups of people that inhabit Remnant. It’s one of the reasons why Clover’s gimmick feels so uninspired. Every one of his accessories lacks any sort of connective tissue to the cultures of this setting.

They don’t exist for the benefit of enriching the lore, or shaping our characters’ experiences. They’re just placeholders at best. At worst, they’re neon signs loudly declaring to the world: FORESHADOWING AHEAD. PAY ATTENTION.

Well, I paid attention, RWBY. And for the record, you might regret that I did.

But before I get too ahead of myself, let’s first breakdown what superstitions are, and where they come from.

Broadly speaking, superstitions are beliefs or practices rooted in the supernatural, attributed to things such as fate, magic, gods, the paranormal, or fear of the unknown. Superstitions can involve a wide array of subject matter—plants, animals, numbers, objects, actions, and so on.

The underlying question—why are we predisposed to creating and believing in them—has to do with biology.

In psychology, heuristics is the process by which humans use mental shortcuts to arrive at decisions. They can be largely thought of as behaviors based on intuited pattern recognition. If you look outside your window and see dark clouds, for example, you might bring an umbrella without bothering to check the forecast first. Your brain makes the connection of overcast sky = rain, and forgoes the intermediary step of verifying that assumption, because it’s a deduction based on an established pattern.

Evolutionarily, pattern-recognition has a huge payoff in that it allows an animal to make quick, relatively accurate judgments. Natural selection will therefore gravitate toward heuristic reasoning, on the basis that making the occasional incorrect association is outweighed by the benefits of making correct ones. [1]

However, heuristics is not immune to false associations. Because humans are hardwired to look for patterns, we can fall into the trap of assuming that correlation equals causation. Do you have particularly good days whenever you wear a certain jacket? That must mean the jacket is lucky!

These patterns of observation tend to be self-reinforcing, because our brains are subconsciously looking for “evidence” that supports it, while discarding anything that refutes it. [2] The more mounting evidence piles up, the less likely we are to dismiss something as a coincidence. (This is also partly what causes us to believe in stereotypes.)

Of course, there are other factors involved. Sometimes a superstition endures because it can’t be readily proven or disproven. (The belief in spirits, deities, and even cryptofauna, are actually a decent example of the “proving a negative” logical fallacy.) Other times, superstitions hang around because they’re part of a culture’s common knowledge, having been widely-circulated for generations. (Everyone knows that you’re supposed to throw salt over your shoulder to ward off bad luck. My grandma told me so, and her grandma before her.) And of course, superstitions might linger because people comply with them out of uncertainty or fear. (I know that the universe isn’t secretly eavesdropping on my conversation and going to ruin my interview today. But just in case, I better knock on this wooden table.)

You get the idea.

Because heuristic reasoning is a quality innate to all people, it means that virtually every culture you can think of has its own superstitions.

One of my personal favorites is the omission of the number 4 in Sino-Tibetan languages. Also known as tetraphobia, this belief originated from the word “four” (四, pinyin: sì, jyutping: sei3) sounding similar to the word for “death” (死, pinyin: sǐ, jyutping: sei2) in many varieties of Chinese. In a few languages, “four” and “death” are actually homophones.

Because of the association, quite a few East Asian cultures go out of their way to avoid the number four whenever possible (presumably, because using the number carries a perceived risk of invoking death). Examples of this include elevators that skip the fourth floor (and by extension, the 14th, 24th, 34th, and 40th – 49th floors). People are discouraged from speaking the word “four” on the days of major festivals, or in the presence of loved ones who are sick. Similarly, it’s considered bad luck to give a gift to someone that comes in a group or set of four.

Apparently, it’s even worse if the number four is used in phone numbers, addresses, business cards, or ID numbers, because then it’s being personally attached to someone.

Interestingly, not all superstitions carry the same connotations. Domestic cats, for example, can be associated with either positive or negative beliefs, depending on the culture. Ancient Egypt famously adored cats, with several of their gods (Mafdet, Bastet, Sekhmet) being depicted with feline heads upon the shoulders of women. This association likely came about as a result of domestic cats being effective at killing venomous snakes, thus protecting their owners. Additionally, their ability to hunt granivores would have kept households safe from pests. It’s unsurprising that cats acquired a reputation as protectors against evil.

Conversely, anti-cat sentiments were extremely prevalent across Western and Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. France in particular was well known for the practice of burning them alive. Their association with the occult (in particular, paganism, devilry, and witchcraft) engendered suspicion and hatred, leading to beliefs about them being unlucky, or harbingers of evil. Black cats in particular still bear the stigma in many Western cultures, where crossing paths with one is said to result in death.

Even if you don’t believe in superstitions (I certainly don’t) there’s no getting around how fascinating they are. They’re the byproduct of glitchy brain chemistry, environment, and culture, scrambling to make sense of something with the tools and context it has on hand.

So, now that we’ve broken down what superstitions are and where they come from, we can finally tackle the next question: Why do they matter to worldbuilding?

I’d argue there’s a few reasons why. The obvious answer is that good worldbuilding seeks to immerse, by making its lore either realistic, or credibly believable within a specific framework. Because superstitions are such common and enduring aspects of human culture, then their absence can look rather jarring and conspicuous.

The other reason why superstitions are important to worldbuilding is because of their application as a storytelling device. Now, most of us, I’d wager, aren’t walking around with our lives being shaped by the whims of some unseen puppetmaster. In works of art, however, we’re given the ability to align the stars and give these details a secondary meaning. Superstitions, when properly leveraged, can have a huge narrative payoff.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, the Dothraki revere and worship horses, due to their role as the foundation of Dothraki culture. Any body of water which a horse will not drink from is regarded with superstitious loathing, hence why the Dothraki refer to the ocean as the poison water, and refuse to cross it. The books waste no time in establishing the Dothraki as indomitable warriors beholden to none, which is why their fear of saltwater is so noteworthy—it’s the one thing that can stop them.

When Daenerys Targaryen’s khalasar sails with her from Qarth, it signifies their conviction in her power. Keep in mind that the Dothraki are not only terrified of saltwater, but believe that the ocean is where the world ends. Their willingness to confront a powerful, deeply-held fear, in order to follow the leadership of a woman (who typically hold second-class status in Dothraki culture) is huge. We, the audience, understand the narrative significance of this event, because the storytelling organically integrated the superstition into the plot. There’s a purpose, and more importantly, a payoff to being told that saltwater is terrifying to them. Crossing the ocean is no longer just a simple action connecting the characters between points A and B—it now holds a deeper meaning. It’s a sign of Daenerys coming into her own.

It's satisfying, right? To see something that could’ve been written off as incidental flavor text being given new life.

Details like this also reward your audience for paying attention. Their engagement with the lore is deepening their overall experience with your story. That sudden epiphany of—Holy shit, this was being foreshadowed by the worldbuilding—is going to make the audience care about their investment.

That’s why this type of worldbuilding matters. When done correctly, its effects on a story can be undeniably powerful.

When mishandled, however…

…you end up with RWBY.

RWBY is odd in that its superstitions are not only heavily cherry-picked from our world, but also largely absent from the story save for two specific cases: Clover and Qrow. The reason for that, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is because both of them have probability Semblances (good luck and misfortune, respectively). For now, we’ll skip over the bizarre, arbitrary, semantic differences between their Semblances. As needlessly confusing as they are, the distinction between them isn’t relevant right this second.

Let’s start with Clover, since his character is arguably the gimmickier of the two.

Clover’s first appearance. | Source: Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

At least Qrow’s character has the benefit of being partially developed. By contrast, Clover’s is largely dependent on his gimmick, to the point where his personality is atrophied. Lest you think I’m joking, let’s go ahead and list all of the overt symbols tied to his character:

His forename, Clover. Although it’s a widely-accepted fact that four-leafed clovers are considered lucky, no one seems to agree on where the belief got started. It’s possible that the superstition is simply based on their rarity: only 1 in 5,000 clovers has this trait.

His surname, Ebi: Ebi is likely a shortening of Ebisu (えびす), the Japanese god of luck and fishermen.

The horseshoe: It’s theorized that horseshoes got their reputation as protective talismans because they were made from iron. Numerous European cultures held that iron repelled the fae, and that horseshoes—being a common source of the metal—would repel them when nailed to the side of a house. Another tradition claims that luck is contained in a horseshoe, and that whether it’s lucky or not depends on the direction it faces. Downward-facing can either be lucky (because the luck pours onto the person under it) or unlucky (because the luck is spilling out and escaping).

The rabbit’s foot: The severed foot of a rabbit is carried as a good luck charm across multiple cultures in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. There are variations of the superstition, with each tracing their origins to practices such as African Diaspora hoodoo, or the European Hand of Glory.

The wishbone: Also known as the furcula, a bone found in most birds and several of the nonavian dinosaurs. In the Late Medieval Period, a goose’s wishbone was used for divination of the weather.

His weapon, Kingfisher: There are several references being made here. His weapon being a fishing pole alludes to both Ebisu, the god of luck and fishermen; and the Aesop fable, “A Fisherman’s Good Luck.” The eponymous bird (of the family Alcedinidae) is considered a good omen by several Bornean and Polynesian cultures, and is the source of the Greek idiom “halcyon days” (idyllic or peaceful times).

It's pretty obvious that the show wanted Clover to be a contrast to Qrow in terms of their Semblances. Hence why Clover has so many lucky objects associated with his character—to emphasize that contrast. The problem is that not only do they not work, but they reveal several other underlying flaws.

The first is that Clover’s character over-relies on this contrast, to the point of meaninglessness. Unlike Qrow, he doesn’t struggle with his Semblance, so there’s no setup for future conflict. Whereas Qrow deals with depression and alcoholism as a consequence of his Semblance, Clover is unhindered by his. Because it doesn’t appear to add anything meaningful to his character development, it makes all of his associated good luck charms feel flat and token. They exist purely to remind us that Clover is lucky. That’s it.

The second—the one that I keep harping on—is that none of the symbols associated with Clover are relevant to RWBY’s cultures. Ebisu is a Japanese god, not an Atlesian one. Rabbit’s feet were part of the spiritual traditions upheld by enslaved Black Americans, not people living in Solitas. I mean, for fuck’s sake, at least two of his symbols (clovers and kingfishers) are based on species that don’t even live in the arctic circle. There’s literally no in-universe justification for why Clover has these associations apart from them being there for the audience’s benefit.

And, like, if I can be completely blunt for a second here: it’s insulting.

It’s insulting that the show (and its writers) have such contempt for their audience’s intelligence, that they feel the need to plaster every square inch of Clover with overt references to good luck (as if his fucking name didn’t give it away within the first ten seconds). Have a shred of respect for your audience by not introducing your character twirling a horseshoe around his finger. Surely the people watching the show can be trusted to sleuth out this information without RWBY holding our hands the entire way. Would it seriously have been that difficult to, for example, have a throwaway moment in V2 where Weiss offhandedly mentions something that Atlesians consider lucky? Maybe people in Solitas like to wear talismans fashioned from polar bear claws. Who knows. But imagine how much better it would have been if Clover’s character had been introduced with him carrying something like that, instead of all that other junk. It would have been a lot more satisfying because it reinforces pre-established lore, provides internal continuity, and gives your audience the chance to go, “Hey, that looks familiar. Where have I seen that before…?” Again, it rewards your audience for paying attention to the little details.

There’s a lot more I could say about Clover’s gimmick (trust me), but I think I’ve gnawed on that particular bone long enough. Let’s move on to our second topic.

Qrow, as depicted in the Volume 4 opening. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:ChishioKunrin.

Before I start tearing it to shreds, let me preface this by saying that I really like Qrow’s overall concept. His Semblance is fascinating because of the implications it has for the lore, in addition to the ways it affects Qrow’s mental health. His alcoholism (and to an extent, his cynicism and self-loathing) are byproducts of a Semblance that forces him to self-isolate because it indiscriminately targets both enemies and allies. It also doesn’t help that several of Remnant’s modern philosophies tout the idea that Semblances are a reflection one’s innate personality. There’s no way that Qrow hasn’t internalized that rhetoric, and the implications it carries for his particular Semblance. (To say nothing of whether or not Qrow’s Semblance could be considered RWBY’s version of a disability.)

All very interesting stuff. On a surface level, anyway. From an execution standpoint, it’s in need of some polish.

Qrow: Did you know that crows are a sign of bad luck? Old superstition, but it's how I got my name. […] …some people are just born unlucky. My Semblance isn't like most—it's not exactly something I do. It's always there, whether I like it or not. I bring misfortune. I guess you could call me a bad luck charm. [3]

Wow, who would have guessed that the character named after a crow was meant to be unlucky. I never would have figured that out.

Qrow’s issue overlaps with Clover’s, in the sense that it’s yet another instance where crows being unlucky is a superstition unique to our world, not RWBY’s. Now, is it entirely possible that Mistral’s superstitions could have converged on that belief? Sure. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that different cultures might look at this animal—an extremely intelligent, jet-black bird that eats carrion—and arrive at the same conclusions. But RWBY could have, at the bare minimum, provided some additional context as to why. Maybe the superstition comes from a local religion, or from a historical event that’s been very heavily mythologized. Something, anything, that might have made the belief at least a little original.

The other issue I have with Qrow’s symbolism is how it relates to his transformation ability. And the…frankly obvious oversight that Ozpin somehow missed.

It’s fairly common knowledge that corvids (crows and ravens in particular) have been harassed and killed by people, throughout human history. Part of it was due to retaliation by farmers. The other part of it had to do with prejudice, and the fact that (at least in the Americas and Europe) they were seen as portentous. Agents of evil. Heralds of misfortune.

If crows in Remnant are regarded the same way, then why the hell would Ozpin deliberately turn him into one? Qrow’s bird form is supposed to make him inconspicuous, not capitalize on a widespread belief that crows are a sign of bad luck. What’s to stop some superstitious asshole from seeing Qrow fly by, and think to himself, Fuck that bird, let me grab my gun that shoots magical bullets and kill it.

Whether the show wants to admit it or not, that sort of myopic decision-making paints a target on Qrow’s back.

All because Ozpin thought the irony would be funny.

[1] Foster, Kevin and Kokko, Hanna. “The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour.” Academic paper. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. January 07, 2009. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2615824/]

[2] Helms, A. J. “Worldbuilding: Superstitions.” Online article. The Written Vixen. October 07, 2019. [https://writtenvixen.com/2019/10/07/worldbuilding-superstitions/]

[3] Volume 4, Episode 8: “A Much Needed Talk.”

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #superstitions #i hope you guys haven't gotten tired of sweary claptrap just yet

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whaleofatjme1920 · 3 years ago

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The Ends of Hallways (Proxies X F!Reader)

The Ends of Hallways

[Proxies X F!Reader]

[Warnings: slight language]

[AN: Y'all are just gonna have to thank Eris for always sending me the best requests. I don't have favorites,,, but Reader, I have favorites. Also no Kate sorry :( ]

Your face was practically squished against the glass of the car Hoodie had stolen as the four of you pull into the parking lot of woods that brim with the Operator’s energy. You’ve never seen these woods in person - only in dreams. You’ve never even really seen your master in person, once again, like these woods, he too has been confined to your dreams. But you hear him, and often. His voice falls down on your ears like gentle rains that fall from the heavens. He is everything and more. That is why it is so exciting for you to finally be here, so close to him, and to his presence.

“You excited?” You hear your group leader ask.

You nod and press harder up against the glass. “Are we going now?” You’re ready to bounce out of the car and everyone can see that.

He chuckles in response. “What do you think Hood? Time to go?”

The hazel eyed man behind him shoots the driver a look. “Masky, just look at her, she’s gonna break the window if we don’t.” There’s a slight playfulness in his tone that tells you the right hand really isn’t annoyed with you.

“Fair enough,” Masky smiles. He then reaches behind his seat, hand slapping at who used to be the runt’s knee. “Tobes? Tob-Tobes, get up.”

Toby’s eyes shoot open as he lurches forward. “I’m u-u-up, I-I’m u-up,” he yawns as his hands rub tiredly at his eyes. “Are w-w-we here a-alaready?” He asks, the exhaustion still clear in his tone.

Both of the men in the front seats nod. “C’mon, let’s get going,” Hoodie says as he pulls up the lock on his car door before sliding out.

You wait impatiently for Masky to unlock the car then zip out like a bat from hell. You’re immediately at the edge of one of the forest’s many trails and taking in the sights and sounds of your boss’s woods. They’re beautiful, really. The autumn colors bathe the woods in fiery oranges and passionate reds with threads of gold to interlock it all together. The sky is just the slightest shade of blue as clouds cover the sun. There weren’t any people here either - not under the little structures, not exploring, not anyone but you and your comrades.

“Wrong one,” Hoodie says as he closes the trunk to the car before tossing a backpack to Toby, who catches it like second nature.

You whip your head around to see that Masky, Hoodie and Toby are smiling at how excited you are before silently asking you to follow them. “Where are we going?” You ask, eyes wide as you jog up to them.

“Across the field. There’s this cool tunnel of trees we think you’ll appreciate,” Masky replies as he leads his group across the grass. It crunches slightly as the four of you move, like it hasn’t been watered in a long time.

“R-Really?” Toby hums as he puts his hands in his pockets. “You s-s-sure we’re n-not gonna be l-late?” The young proxy gives a slight look to his group leader, eyebrow raised as if he’s sure the Operator is okay with them possibly being tardy.

Masky shakes his head before tapping his temple with his free hand, “he told me it’s okay.”

“He did?” You ask as stars cloud your eyes. The Operator, as you’ve heard so far, is to be feared and respected. He’s like a father you can look at but never touch. He seems so out of your range, like he’s not even visible - not even if you squint your eyes. You wonder what makes you so… interesting… in his eyes. You really don’t think you’re worth all the fuss. Clearly he does.

Masky chuckles before ruffling your hair with his hand, “yeah. I think he finds your enthusiasm endearing.” Masky’s not entirely incorrect. When they first got Toby, the Operator was strangely favorable towards the young proxy as well - maybe because he was hand plucked, special, and therefore deemed worthy of his time. You were similar to Toby, albeit, you accidentally got involved with the Operator. He liked you, chose you, then kept you.

Hoodie whistles slightly as the four of you step into the trees, his gloved hand reaching up to tear off a branch from one of the low hanging trees then swing it aimlessly as his side. “Seems pretty obvious in my opinion,” he whacks Toby lightly with the stick making said proxy laugh. “Looks like Toby isn’t the only golden child anymore.”

“P-Probably not,” Toby hums, a slight melancholy coming into his tone. “Think I-I’ve been losing f-f-favor with h-hin for a w-while.” He glances over his shoulder and smiles at you.

You frown slightly and place your hand on his shoulder, “I don’t think so,” you say. “Just means he has two golden child-s now.”

Toby beams.

You do too.

The group continues to move through the trees, mostly silent save for Masky and Hoodie pointing out little memories from time to time. Things such as some guy named ‘Alex’ chasing them through here, Masky’s waking up with no memory, Hoodie’s nature shots, and everything in between. You learn a lot about the hands of your group from when they were just scared film students to the things they’ve done as proxies here. It’s kind of nice as you’ve never really spoken to them this way before.

When you first came into this life and were placed in this group, the hazing process kicked in like wildfire. Almost every day was a mentally or physically, sometimes both, a draining task and a bonding agent. Authority was not to be questioned and they made that more than clear. Eventually, the hazing grew lighter and lighter until it just… didn’t exist. That was how it went - you were no longer considered naive and starry eyed. Still, authority was not to be questioned, and it’s why you and your comrades have never really talked on this specific level before.

It’s why it’s such a treat that you get to talk to them like this now.

Eventually, the four of you make it to an odd stretch of trees. They tunnel over each other, a lot like a thorny funnel, but they frame the sky so well.

“If the sun was setting,” Masky starts. “It would look like a cradle.”

You take a step back and observe the tunnel of trees, trying to imagine the setting sun. The mental image is pretty. “Will we ever be back here to see it?”

“Oh definitely,” Masky continues. “But uh, the business we’re here for today? Don’t know if that’s meant for anyone but me and maybe Hoodie.”

You look on instinct to Hoodie who nods. “Is that normal?”

“Sure is,” Hoodie says as he takes in the scent of the cooling autumn woods. He knows the group is almost to the limits of the Operator’s realm. “Tell me what you feel right now, Reader,” he says in passing as he flicks the stick somewhere off the given trail.

With a glance around at your surroundings, you attempt to get a feel for the area you’re in. It’s cold, much colder, but the atmosphere still feels a little thick. The further you go into the woods (and by extension the Operator’s bounds to which you don’t even know exist yet), you get that odd feeling in your legs that feels like they’ve fallen asleep. It’s like the physical sensation of static. You try to explain it in words, but they fail. Instead, you allow Hoodie into your thoughts.

“Nice,” he smiles. “Alright, try to ask for permission in.”

“I need to ask for permission?”

“E-Everytime,” Toby begins as he and the others pause. They’re right on the edge of the bubble and can feel it so much stronger than you can. “It’s t-to ensure n-normal humans c-can’t come in,” Toby begins to explain as you gaze around your surroundings, wondering how you’ll even begin to ask. “T-Though, their f-feelings sometimes k-kick into o-overdrive and they e-end up p-piercing through the v-veil on a-a-accident.” He chuckles softly and you know exactly what he’s referring to - you’ve heard tales of the people who get stuck wandering where they shouldn’t: always ends in someone strung up in the pines. “W-We’ve all learned t-to ask p-permission like b-breathing.”

You shoot your comrade a confused glance, wondering what that will mean for you. “I just ask?”

“Kind o-of,” Toby says. “Just l-let your f-f-feelings guide you. She’ll t-t-tell you whether you’re a-a-allowed in or not.”

You close your eyes and begin to hone in on whatever your heart is telling you. It’s a cold feeling, mostly like vines that slip up and down your limbs as they grow upwards and then inwards towards your heart. It’s an odd feeling. Once the static vines pierce through your heart, you physically see a fog roll into the forest around you. It consumes you and your comrades before you remember Toby mentioned ‘she.’ The fog thickens. “Wait, she?” You say as the static begins to leave your system. It feels like you’re tearing through roots as you walk forward.

“He didn’t mean it,” Masky quickly replies as he begins to pull you through the fog. “Good job on asking though. Strong response,” he says as gestures to the fog, his hand swimming through the billowy clouds. “Wives’ tale is the stronger the fog, the more genuine you were in response.”

You wade your fingers through the thick fog as you and the others walk forward, deeper and deeper into the darkness where there was none. “Must’ve had a really genuine response, huh?” You mumble to yourself. The fog doesn’t even feel like normal fog - it feels thick and heavy and leaves slight dew on your clothing as you walk. How interesting.

‘Head talk from here on out,’ Hoodie says as the four of you reach a stretch of woods that feels slightly dangerous.

‘Did you feel it too?’ Toby asks, his hand at his hatchet.

Hoodie nods slightly, his eyes narrowing as he slows his pace so he’s guarding the back. He gives you a slightly concerned look as the fog evens out. Everyone but you knows that they’re in perhaps one of the most dangerous parts of the veil. The Operator’s mere presence is usually enough to deter the things like the Rake from his grounds, but that often means they get trapped here - in the in-between - and lash out on the first thing they sense. The sooner the four of you get out of this dangerous spot, the better.

‘What do you sense?’ You ask, cutting mentally through the rough silence, your own hand moving to your blade.

Hoodie looks like he’s about to answer you before he holds his fist up and the other three of you duck down instantly, dipping below the fog. Just then, some deer begin walking past.

‘Deer?’ You say in a questioning tone.

‘Not just any deer,’ Hoodie begins as the deer slowly nibbles on the leaves and other things. ‘Take a good look at their bodies. They look normal to you?’

You narrow your eyes slightly and get used to peering through the fog as the deer pass. Eventually, you’re able to look at their coats. There’s something off about them, something wrong. Something you can’t quite place. The longer you watch them as they move in front of you, the stronger that off feeling gets. They have every physical part of the deer down but it’s just not right. It’s like their joints don’t fit well beneath their skin. And their eyes… Their eyes are completely hollow.

‘You see it?’ Masky asks as the last of the deer passes by. He glances over his shoulder briefly to see you nod. ‘We’re lucky they didn’t change this time,’ he mumbles, slowly inching forward while crouched against the earth.

‘What would’ve happened if they changed?’ You inquire, moving quietly alongside your comrades.

‘Nightmare fuel,’ Toby finally pipes in. ‘Nothing about them looks right. Big mouths full of sharp teeth, black eyes, too many limbs, like a messed up centipede,’ he finishes, a slight shudder coming into his mental tone.

You notice the other two of your group members nodding in agreement before finally deeming it safe enough to stand up and finally exit the in-between of the veil.

You’re greeted to the sight of a beautiful, rustic looking Germanic mansion surrounded by iron gates that hold honeycomb patterns that trail skywards only to end on sharp peaks that you’re almost certain your boss has spiked people on plenty of times. There’s also flowers of every kind in the front gardens that catch your eyes the moment you step through the grand gates. There’s fountains and topiaires, statues and benches that tell you the Operator drips with style and elegance.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Masky smiles.

You nod, “it’s gorgeous.” The air smells slightly expensive, but mostly sweet. How is it that a place like this can even possibly exist? Around the mansion are autumnal trees, mostly maple, some sycamore and other birch. Scattered on the front lawn are other proxies and some independents, mostly catching up and talking before leaving through the same gates you entered from. Some of them smile and wave as they pass you, others grunt and turn their nose up at you upon realizing you’re the youngest. This place sings with the Operator’s overwhelming presence.

Your comrades continue to watch your amused expression as they lead you to the front doors of the mansion. They’re large and stained glass, slightly gothic in woodwork and tower over you.

“Go ahead,” Hoodie chuckles as he nods for you to open the doors.

You glance back to him, then at the large doors before tentatively placing your hands on their surface. With a small breath, you push them open and find yourself greeted to the most exquisite foyer you’ve ever seen. Large chandeliers hang from the ceiling, sapphires and rubies drip from the fixtures and shine the light beautifully across the marble floors. Gold leaf adorns almost everything that juts out while the huge staircase in front of you beckons you forward.

“Doesn’t seem like he needs us yet,” Masky says as he checks his watch. “Got here earlier than expected, huh?” He lightly ribs Hoodie who rolls his eyes in response. “C’mon, let’s go to the sun room. Don’t wanna wait around in here.” He nods for the three of you to follow.

Toby clears his throat slightly as if to remind the two in charge that you’re still very much here and new.

“Oh, right,” Masky says. “Reader, this is super important, so listen up,” your group leader begins as he turns on his heels to eventually rest his hands on your shoulders.

You raise a brow at his sudden contact. Masky normally didn’t touch you unless what he had to say was important - which really, really didn’t happen often.

“This mansion likes to play off your thoughts, feelings, and logic,” he says, his hand gesturing to the staircase that’s slowly moving directions. You didn’t even hear it begin to shift. “The Operator usually keeps things in line for when he summons you, it’s almost a guaranteed path you’ll make it to him, but,” his eyes go serious. “If it’s just you and you’re moving around, you need to have a place in mind or it’ll accidentally spit you out somewhere totally random. We’ve had people get lost in here because the mansion is slightly playful and weirdly baneful depending on the individual walking around.”

“The Operator has a playful side?”

Masky stifles a laugh before shaking you lightly. “I legitimately mean it, you need to have a place in mind or you’re gonna get lost and the Operator isn’t gonna be happy. By extension, I won’t be happy because I need to come get you.”

“Mhm,” Hoodie nods in agreement. “And you can’t have the thought in passing either, it’s gotta be on your mind until it’s in sight.” After Hoodie’s words leave his mouth, Masky lets you go.

You take all the information in and wonder just what makes the place run. It’s like it has its own personality - it’s playful and baneful? You have to ask it permission to even enter its grounds and it deems whether you’re worthy or not? What kind of power does the Operator even have and why on earth would he even care about that kind of stuff? If he truly wanted his proxies to access him, he’d do it with no hesitation. The humans that would wander into his rooms would just end up tasting someone’s blade.

“Sun room?” Hoodie reminds Masky.

Your entire walk to the sun room you try to conjure a mental image in your head. They say it’s doubtful you’ll get lost so long as you’re with them, but you consider it good practice. When you finally make it to the sun room, you’re pleased to see it’s relatively empty save for a few groups interspersed in the large, window adorned room overlooking a silver lake. There’s a few independents walking around with carts holding different tea time finger-foods and waiting tea sets on every table. Maasky leads you over to one of the tables nearest to the view of the lake.

“So, what business exactly are we here for today?” You ask as you waste no time in pouring yourself some tea.

Masky shrugs, “no idea. He said he just wanted us to come.”

“T-Think he r-really only n-needs an audience w-with them though,” Toby adds before silently thanking you for pouring him some tea as well. “L-Leaves us some t-t-time to chat. Y’know, t-the thing H-Hood hates us d-doing,” he lightly jokes.

Hoodie scoffs and feigns being annoyed, “I only hate you two chatting when we’re in the middle of tearing out some guy’s entrails.”

“Y-Yeah, which is a-all the time,” Toby giggles.

You laugh as well.

The four of you are in a heated argument about something relatively stupid when static overtakes Masky and Hoodie’s hearing. They visibly pause, as if they’re trying to key into something you can’t understand when it suddenly stops.

“Have t-to go?” Toby inquires before taking a strawberry tart and popping it into his mouth.

Both Masky and Hoodie nod.

“Yeah. Keep an eye on Reader, please? We won’t be too long,” Masky replies with a small, tired smile.

Toby flashes the two a thumbs up before the both of you watch them leave, a clear destination on their minds.

It’s not long until Toby gets distracted by some other independents that stroll into the mansion. You recognize the two of them as relatively minor legends - well, maybe not the one with the smile. His name is Jeff.

“So, this is your fresh meat, huh?” Jeff chuckles as he lightly pushes Toby’s shoulder. “She looks a little scrawny. Are you feeding her right?”

Toby laughs and nods, “Masky w-w-would lose his m-mind if you s-s-said that.”

Jeff’s chest rumbles as he laughs. “I’m joking,” he holds his hand up as a sign of truce. “Hope you know you’re running with one of the only decent groups out there, Reader,” he says before picking up his tea cup. It looks slightly comical as he brings it to his lips.

You offer him a smile and nod, “yeah, I know.”

The man to Jeff’s left nods in agreement, “Masky’s really good at what he does. Got one of the best.”

Toby immediately fights the notion (playfully) and the three engage in conversation that’s lively and vibrant all the same. You listen to the three verbally duke it out before you find yourself bored. You can’t just leave though, but you want to move at the same time.

“Toby?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I excuse myself?”

“W-Where to?”

“Washroom,” you reply.

“Do y-you need m-me to a-accompany y-y-you?”

Both Eyeless Jack and Jeff scoff.

“She’s a big girl, let her go,” Jeff says as he nods his own approval for you to go. “You told her about the mindset thing?”

Toby nods.

“Yeah, then she’s good to go,” Eyeless Jack agrees.

You flash the men at your table a smile before getting up. You push in your chair and then make it to the entrance of the sunroom, leading into the halls. You don’t have a set destination in mind. The moment you step out of the sunroom, you feel the air change. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s different. On instinct, you turn your gaze over your shoulder to see the sunroom is gone. It’s just hall and lining the hall are doors upon doors.

Alright, you can work with that! A small smile comes to your face as you begin to walk forwards, allowing your curiosity to bloom. The first door you decide to open is one that’s honestly not that exciting. It was just a storage unit. Another was a study. Then it was someone’s room. Another room. And another. How many residence rooms are there?

You close yet another door and then feel a thought come into your head, taking a seat on your train of thought like a butterfly sunbathes on a flower. She - Toby had mentioned it. And you wondered. You let the thought stay. Before you know it, you’re walking through the halls guided by forces you don’t quite understand, and the further you get into the mansion, the stranger the atmosphere becomes. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s not a normal feeling either. You watch as the light fixtures change from something relatively modern and regress into something more vintage. The dust begins to kick up. Irish lace begins to pepper the ceiling. You notice how the doors change style as well. How strange.

Eventually, you reach a dead end stretch of hall. At the very end of this hall is a singular door that looks weathered, as if it was sunbleached and painted over in oils. There’s an elegance to it you can’t quite place, and like a siren song, you find yourself being beckoned to it. Your proxy instincts kick in like second nature the closer you draw to it. You feel your breathing lighten, your steps as well, and you move towards it with a silence that is unmatched - as if you’re floating on air. You draw closer and closer to the door. It’s so magnetic, and you can’t quite explain why/ But closer still you must be to it.

Your hand tenderly grasps the doorknob - it feels like ice - and you twist it open. You wonder if you should be doing this. A part of you feels like you shouldn’t be doing this, but another part of you says this is what you were meant to see. You push the door open ever so slightly, just enough to be able to see inside, but the door is heavy, almost as if it doesn’t want you to. Like it’s trying to protect you from something further. You wonder if it just wishes to keep its secrets.

It’s gorgeous, it truly is. It puts the rest of the mansion to shame. It looks old - perhaps from 16th century Germany and fit for royalty. Plants of all kinds line the walls. They look like emeralds as light shines through their leaves. The sunlight kisses the flowers that sprout from the stalks. Beautiful woodwork surrounds the windows that are covered in fairytale-esque stained glass pieces. The scent is of something much, much sweeter and warmer than the rest of the mansion. Your eyes then draw to the center of the room, where an ornate table sits. There’s gold leaf decorating its legs followed by symbols you can’t really pin down. A tablecloth that looks like it was weaved from the stars above is the only thing that separates a delicate tea set from the precious mahogany table. The tea smells heavenly from where you stand.

Before you can press into the room, you pause upon seeing slender, pale hands take hold of the tea pot. Your eyes follow upwards to the owner of the hands only to see a woman so much more beautiful than the moon in twilight and the sun in the morning. Falling from her shoulders was golden hair that looked like a sea of amber as it cascaded down near the floor. Flowers were woven into it - mostly snowdrops, baby’s breath and queen Anne’s lace. She’s dressed in something from medieval Europe, and never once does her sleeve touch the table. She begins to pour herself some tea, a honey like hum coming from her being as she pours the sweet liquid. Her eyes flick upwards for but a moment when she hears a bird chirping outside. Her eyes are so dark, there exists no white sclera. They’re so dark, like black holes that hide in the depths of space, but you feel as if she holds the universe inside of them. She’s so beautiful, you’re not sure she’s real. A cat has jumped up onto the table, purring at her. When she smiles, your heart sings.

You want to say hello to her and spend time in her presence when you attempt to open the door some more. It creaks slightly. The hinges are ancient. Before you can say anything, the door is slammed shut, sending you flying backwards. You let out a sound of shock before seeing Toby reaching down to get you.

“What t-the hell a-a-are you thinking?” He hisses as he picks you up, grabbing your bicep and beginning to drag you away from the door that still holds your attention. “You r-really just w-wandered off l-like that?”

You furrowed your eyebrows, attempting to get free of his grasp as he continues to pull you along. No matter how hard you smack at him, he doesn’t let go.

“M-Masky said it’s not s-safe for y-y-you to wander o-off. A-And without m-me? D-D-Did you have a-any cognitive t-t-thought when you w-went out on a l-limb like t-that?” He sounds so heated.

You find he’s bringing you back to the sunroom, undoubtedly going to tell Masky and Hoodie about your misbehavior. “Why are you being so weird?” You retort as you attempt to wriggle out of his grasp. “It’s just a room!” You cry out in an exasperated tone.

Toby only reprimands you louder. It’s a losing game.

You eventually find yourself back in the sunroom. Only, instead of Eyeless Jack and Jeff, you see the deeply concerned and slightly pissed off faces of Masky and Hoodie. They’re not happy to see you, and you’re not exactly thrilled to see you either.

“Take a s-s-seat,” Toby says in a harsh tone as he thrusts you back into your seat.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Masky asks, not even attempting to mask his voice because that’s the privilege of being a proxy. You’re able to reprimand your proxies without anyone giving a care.

“You can’t just go off like that,” Hoodie continues as he furrows his brows. “You could’ve gotten-”

“Hurt? This is the Operator’s mansion, what the fuck is gonna hurt me in here other than himself or you two?”

“That’s it,” Masky points out. “He can seriously hurt you if you snoop where you shouldn’t!” His hands grips at your wrist, tightening to a point of pain.

When you feel tears prick your eyes, Hoodie sighs and puts his hand on Masky’s shoulder, “stop it.”

Masky hesitantly lets you go.

“What did you see?” Hoodie asks with a deep sigh, his posture tensing. He’s really hoping you didn’t see the Operator’s trophy room.

You give your comrades a concerned look, not sure whether you should answer or not when Hoodie raises a slight brow. Damn it. You’re emotionally compromised. He’s seeing what he needs to without your permission.

“That’s… Odd…” He says.

Masky glances to Hoodie. “No.”

“Unfortunately, I think yeah,” Hoodie says with a growing frown. He glances to Toby for confirmation, and upon seeing Toby’s nod, says “yeah,” again.

Masky groans and puts his face into his hands, finding comfort in being buried into himself.

You hold your wrist in your hand and lean back in your chair. “Just… What is it you guys aren’t telling me?” You question, hoping they’d just bite the bullet and tell you.

The group shares a look, debating whether they should even say it or not. When no one says anything, you press them again.

“Come on,” you sigh. “It can’t be that bad.”

“It really could be,” Masky says as he finally releases his face from his hands. “No one knows what seeing it does.”

Your eyes widen before you bark a laugh. “What?”

“No, he’s serious,” Hoodie picks up. “Seeing that door is rare, like, rainbow pikachu rare. Proxies think it’s an omen or a bad luck thing. To see it means a group’s eventual demise.”

You briefly scoff at the thought of proxies being superstitious before you remember some of you can actually cast portals. It’s really not that out of pocket.

“N-No one has e-e-ever found o-out though,” Toby shrugs. “W-We just know t-that the g-groups that h-h-have n-normally e-end in death.” He looks a little uncomfortable as he says the words, like there’s a legitimate truth to what he’s saying even though he’d rather it be utter BS.

“To be fair, we thought it was a rumor prior to you sneaking off,” Hoodie says as he tries to calm down his group.

You take in this information with a small frown. How could something that beautiful be that evil or a harbinger of doom? The thought of it left you perplexed as your comrades continued to lecture you on not wandering off until Masky and Hoodie were called away.

“I don’t know if I feel comfortable leaving Reader here with-”

Toby rolls his eyes, “you c-cant just s-say you want m-me to come with i-instead. N-Not need to insult m-my competence a-a-as a babysitter,” he mumbles before glancing down to his hatchets.

Masky sighs and nods for Toby to follow him out. Looks like it’s just you and Hoodie.

“So,” you awkwardly begin, not really sure what to do or what to say.

“So,” Hoodie hums back. “Anywhere you wanted to go?” When he sees the glint in your eyes, he shakes his head. “Like, a normal place. We’re gonna be here for a while while those two are out,” he chuckles, watching as you visibly deflate.

You allow the question to bang around in your head until you nod with a thought in mind. “The library. I’d like to go to the library.”

Hoodie smiles at that suggestion and finishes the rest of his tea before standing up. He stretches for a moment, then leads you to the hallway your original snooping began. You noticed as his thoughts immediately became clouded with the word and vision of ‘library’ as the two of you trekked the halls. As you walked, you barely recognized any of the doors you passed. They weren’t on your radar, which was odd in your opinion as you had opened a lot of door you probably shouldn’t have.

Eventually, you reach two large oak doors. Hoodie pushes them open and you’re greeted to the sight of a beautiful library. It’s impossibly huge - how could such a place exist in the mansion? You’re well aware it’s a huge place, but the fact that all of this is here… It’s bigger than a downtown city library you visited when passing through Chicago a few months ago. The Operator’s influence is beautiful, isn’t it?

“I’m gonna be in the sci-fi section,” Hoodie says as he nods over to the right wing of the library. “It’s on the second floor.” You notice the spiral staircase that leads to what appears to be a balcony - it must stretch backwards forever. “Check in with me in about 15 minutes. Don’t do anything stupid.” It’s surprising how relaxed he’s being with you. You would have expected someone like Hoodie to be a lot angerier and more observational.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, you nod and flash him a thumb’s up before bounding over to the left wing of the library. Nothing is properly labeled, but you get a strong bout of intuition where everything is. Right now, you’re on the hunt for history.

The aisle that holds the history books looks just as old as you would have expected it to. The books here aren’t any you’ve ever seen in stores either - they’re largely from the time period they’re to be representing. Some are more modern, but you get the feeling that they don’t exist anywhere else but under the Operator’s influence. You find a few books that talk about the early history of proxies, some on independents, but nothing to inform you on what you had found.

It’s honestly a little maddening. You check in with Hoodie when you have to - he asks you to list the spines of the books you’re currently looking at - and then you’re back to your fruitless search. You run up and down the halls of the history section looking for anything when you hear static begin to buzz in your heads. The feeling travels upwards like the vines you felt earlier from your heels to your chest. When they claw deep into your heart, you feel a pull. And once again, like a sailor beckoned to the rocks due to a siren’s song, you follow it.

It twists and turns you through the shelves, making you zip past the few proxies and independents that are currently visiting this wing of the library before you’re drawn to a rotunda. You look backwards and see in the distance the front doors of the library. When did this place get a middle wing? It was just straight shelves and a wall with large windows overlooking the rolling hills of the woods. You turn your attention upwards to the ceiling of the rotunda. There’s a large skylight that allows sunlight to cascade down. Around that are gems you don’t even know the name of that weave a mosaic of something positively divine. You allow your gaze to follow the shaft of warm sunlight down, and there, sitting at a table with a book in hand (it looks like a journal) is the Operator himself.

“S-Sir!” You manage to squeak out as you find yourself startled to be in his presence, Heat rises to your cheeks when he looks up from his book to turn his attention to you.

“How did you get here?” He asks, confusion etching his body as he curiously tilts his head.

Your breath hitches. “I’m so sorry,” you apologize, bowing your head almost immediately. “I don’t know how I got here. It just felt like a pull and suddenly I was here? I was in the left wing and looking over history books and I-” you continue to rattle off until the Operator holds up his hand, silently signaling you to stop. You do so as soon as he asks.

“I-. It’s no matter,” he waves off. “Come, sit down beside me.” An inky black tendril sprouts from his back as he pulls the chair in front of him out, allowing you to sit in his presence.

You will your stone-like legs forward and attempt to gracefully take a seat in front of him. It’s a slightly awkward silence before he speaks again.

“How have you been, Miss Reader?”

“I’m alright,” you reply, voice no higher than a whisper.

The Operator hums. “Good.”

Another pregnant pause.

“Child, where is your book?”

“I uh, didn’t grab one?” You answer softly. You can tell the Operator is looking at you with what he can convey to his fullest as confusion. “When I was pulled here I just.. Followed,” you attempt to explain. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

“And what have you done today?” He asks, giving his passing attention to you like a father would.

You bite your lip before steering the conversation towards the room you saw. “I think I met someone.”

“You did, did you?”There’s a passing interest as if he’s saying ‘that’s nice, honey.’

You nod. “She was in a tea room-”

He pauses.

“I found her by accident-”

He makes sure he’s hearing you correctly.

“Her hair was golden-”

He looks up.

“She had plants-”

He’s sitting upright now.

“She had a cat-”

He leans forward.

“Her smile rivaled the stars-”

He’s focusing so intently on you now.

“Her voice was like honey-”

He entirely focused on you.

“She was beautiful.”

The Operator’s ichor pauses for just a moment as he takes in the description of the woman you described. It makes a part of him sing and another part of him sob. He hasn’t heard of her in so, so long.

When you look up, you see the Operator practically leaned halfway over the table and entirely focused on you. It makes you jump. “I’m sorry,” you apologize sheepishly, thinking you saw something you shouldn’t have. “I wasn’t thinking and I uh, think the mansion led me to her?”

The Operator wordlessly nods. “Was she pouring tea?” He asked, voice so much gentler than anything you could ever expect him to conjure up.

You slowly nod. “She was.”

The Operator suddenly slumps down, making you jolt. You rise on instinct to help him when he waves you back down. “Do you realize who you’ve come into contact with?” He asks.

You shake your head. “I’m afraid not, Sir,” you say with slight remorse.

The Operator chuckles deeply - it rumbles his chest and in your head. “You found her.” He could smile, you were sure it would be from ear to ear if he had the correct facial features. “All these years later and you found her.” He emphasizes you like a bittersweet affirmation.

“Who is she?” You ask softly.

Your boss sits back up again. “Someone who loves me,” his tendril sprouts once again from his back and moves towards you. “Someone who loves you,” it taps your nose. “Someone who loves us.” The tendril makes a grand, sweeping gesture.

You take in the words and nod, still not knowing what they mean. Upon seeing your confusion, he decides to elaborate.

“A long, long time ago, in a realm you could not begin to fathom, there was light and there was dark,” he begins, his voice slipping into something akin to someone saying a bedtime story. “I was the light, and that cur we call Zalgo was the dark.”

You scrunch your nose at the sound of his name.

“The dark and the light were born from nothing, and she was beautiful.” His audible smile is actually endearing to hear. “Throughout the years, the light and the dark fought, constantly at each other's throats. It was woven in the threads of history, it had been our birthright. When we came to this place, this planet after being cast from our home - a palace amongst all palaces, a kingdom that rose far above any other, the nothingness came with us. She called herself Liebevolle Frau. She loved her children.” By this point in the story, the Operator has taken the liquids from the coffee cup he drinks from and animated them into the characters for this story.

You watch with stars in your eyes.

“But no guardian is without its favorites, and I happened to be hers.” Liebevolle Frau’s figure was shown sheltering the Operator’s much smaller one. “And this caused a rift that could not be mended through the light and dark. Eventually, the dark waged war on the light.”

It’s a war you’re still fighting to this day.

“In the 1500s, long after this mansion had been built and my power continued to grow, Zalgo had almost wiped us off the face of the earth to splatter out remains across all the five realms. Liebevolle Frau, thought caught off guard,” that would explain the tea, “sheltered me and protected this place and all who resided in it. At the time,” the Operator looks at you. “Independents and proxies had lived here much more commonly than they do now.”

You smile softly.

“Liebevolle Frau’s power had been pushed to its limit in holding back her first born son, and mind, as well as her heart, broke because of it. In her remaining moments of lucidity, she imbued herself, her soul,” the liquids take the form of something fluttering and soft, like a bird, “her everything, and became the place I hold jurisdiction over today.”

Your eyes widen as you think back to the odd feelings you’ve had coming here for today - and Toby’s slip-up.

“I have not been able to find her since the late 1500s,” The Operator explains as the liquids dance back into the coffee mug, the figure of Liebevolle Frau taking a hair longer than the rest. “She lives in everything.”

You’re honestly speechless over everything the Operator has said because it’s so… It’s strangely heartfelt. You’ve never even spoken face to face with your boss and when you do, it’s because some force is guiding you to do so. But if that force felt so alive, it must have meant she wanted you to know.

“Her physical form,” you finally manage to wisp out. “She wanted to be at peace, didn’t she?”

The Operator chuckles deeply. “I would assume so.”

Before you can respond to anything or even come up with another response, you hear both Masky AND Hoodie yelling for you in your head. The jarring difference between your boss’s gentle voice and Masky and Hoodie crying out for blood is enough to make you jump (once again).

Upon seeing your sudden switch in atmosphere, the Operator hushes the voices in your head and calls them to his side.

Toby is the first to show up though, and quickly trailing after him is Masky and Hoodie. They both look ready to reprimand you but upon seeing you sitting with the Operator, nothing but reverence crosses their minds and bodies.

“Good evening, Sir,” Masky says as he bows his head. “Are you well?”

“Thoughtful, aren't you, Timothy?” There’s no animosity or anger in the Operator’s tone, but it makes Masky blush all the same.

A pregnant pause passes.

“I was just speaking with your newest member, Miss Reader,” a pale hand gestures to you. “Come, join us. I could use the company.”

You watch as confused glances get shared between your three comrades before they take a seat beside you.

A pleasant silence passes through the air before a gentle humming that’s sweeter than honey overtakes it like a passing breeze.

#masky #hoodie #ticci toby #masky x reader #hoodie x reader #ticci toby x reader #creepypasta #creepypasta x reader #marble hornets #marble hornets x reader #mh #reader insert #x reader #slender man #the operator #slender man x reader

131 notes · View notes

t-eyla · 3 years ago

Note

For the hidden injury prompt. Iron Triangle (OT3 or gen) "you're burning up"

This got long for a prompt reply, oops. In which I give Xiaoge Ancient Tomb Malaria!

------

"Xiaoge!"

Pangzi is calling him. The sound echoes through the stretch of cave, around the corner that's between him and the other two, in a way he can almost see—it falls out of Pangzi's mouth and bounces between the moss-covered walls, picks up speed as it ricochets back and forth splitting into sound and echoes until it reaches his ears in a staccato bombardment of fragmented noise that pierces through his eardrums right into the centre of his skull.

He grits his teeth, wraps his fingers more tightly around the hilt of his sword. Only remembers that he's meant to answer when there's another assault of noise.

"Xiaoge, come here! I need your fingers."

His teeth hurt. Maybe from the sound, or maybe he's clenching them too tightly. It's difficult to pry them apart. "Guarding."

Pangzi knows this. He shouldn't need to be reminded by Xiaoge; Pangzi is working on blasting an old cave-in open so they can leave, and Xiaoge is guarding the approach from the swarm of giant mosquitoes that chased them most of the way from the central chamber. They were able to shake them when they passed through a waterfall into the exit tunnel. It was good for losing their pursuers, but bad for staying warm—Xiaoge is soaked, clammy fabric clinging to him uncomfortably. Besides, considering the mosquitoes were each about the size of a flying fox, Xiaoge's not sure how much of an obstacle the water really poses. He's not about to risk anything by letting his guard down.

His head full of the buzz he remembers the mosquitoes making—noisy and relentless; for being underground and very remote, this tomb is remarkably loud—he doesn't notice Wu Xie approaching until a hand lands on his backpack. The only reason he doesn't raise his sword is that even though his attention seems to be wandering, his reflexes are still fine. The surge of adrenaline leaves his heart pounding, though.

"Xiaoge." Wu Xie is holding his kukri knife, jerks a thumb over his shoulder. "Go help Pangzi. I'll cover here."

No. He doesn't say it, because he doesn't need to. Wu Xie should know how bad an idea this is. The mosquitoes were very difficult to fight off, their flight patterns erratic and their stingers the biggest part of their bodies, and therefore hard to evade. Xiaoge had trouble holding them off; Wu Xie would be overwhelmed in seconds.

Wu Xie's eyes narrow. "I will call for you the second I hear them. They're noisy as fuck, it's not like I'll be surprised by them. Go and help Pangzi, I'd like to get out of here before they actually do show up."

Wu Xie has a point. Besides, arguing with him would take too long. Xiaoge sheaths the sword and heads back up the tunnel.

Pangzi is perched on a large rock at the bottom of the cave-in. He's got his backpack strapped to his chest and is wrangling wires and explosives. When Xiaoge turns the corner, he frantically waves him closer.

"Help me get the charge in. There's a crack that's perfect, but it's full of pebbles and my stubby little fingers can't reach."

Pangzi's fingers are neither stubby nor little; he's got reassuringly big hands that cover large patches when he puts them against Xiaoge's chest or back. Being touched by Pangzi's hands is one of the nicest things Xiaoge knows, so he has to catch himself before he protests Pangzi's description. It's incorrect, but in a way that isn’t relevant right now.

He joins Pangzi on the rock. It's harder to get up there than it should be; his boot slips on rubble that's less stable than expected. Pangzi grabs his arm to pull him up, a strong grip around his forearm and Pangzi's solid muscle under his own fingers as he holds on to him.

He ends up on his knees, bracing himself against the pile-up. Meets Pangzi's eyes as he expects to be shown what exactly Pangzi wants his help with. Pangzi is just staring at him, though. His hand comes up, but instead of reaching for the rock wall, he moves it towards Xiaoge's face. Xiaoge startles back.

"Hold still." Pangzi's other hand settles in the back of Xiaoge's neck. He's holding him in place, which Xiaoge would normally disapprove of. But it's Pangzi, and Pangzi's large, reassuring touch, so it's relaxing more than anything.

He doesn't realize his eyes have slid half-shut until he feels Pangzi's other hand settle against his forehead. A small sound escapes him, wordless and drowned out by Pangzi hissing a breath through his teeth.

"Shit. Xiaoge! You're burning up."

He's really not. He doesn't normally feel temperature very strongly, but right now, he's too cold rather than too hot. It's because he's soaked to the bone; the chill of wet clothes is something even he is not impervious to.

He should tell Pangzi that. Instead, he just stays where he is, held safely between Pangzi's large hands. It's nice.

"Xiaoge?"

One of Pangzi's hands shifts. Fingers tap against his cheek, so he pries his eyes open. They keep closing on him. "Pangzi."

He is thankful to fate, or whatever else it is that decides the paths of his life, to have given him Pangzi as a road companion. There are very few people that can make him feel safe, just because he's very aware that the feeling of being safe tends to be an illusion. With Pangzi, it's genuine, though. If Pangzi says something is safe, it normally is.

It seems important all of a sudden that he express this. Pangzi should know how grateful Xiaoge is. It's not something he's ever put into words, though, so it's hard to grasp in a way he can share.

Besides, Pangzi seems distracted. He's searching Xiaoge's face. The hand in the back of Xiaoge's neck is solid, steady, but his other hand starts exploring along Xiaoge's neck and shoulders.

"Are you hurt?"

He narrows his eyes, unsure why he's being asked. They've not been in a fight since the mosquitoes.

"Come on, Xiaoge. Did they get you anywhere?"

They? Maybe Pangzi is talking about the mosquitoes, after all. Xiaoge starts to shake his head, then shrugs. There's a scratch on his thigh, from the stinger of a mosquito he subsequently skewered on his sword, but it's so small it's not worth mentioning. He still waves a hand in the direction of the tear in his jeans. Pangzi's hand moves there. His fingers brush against Xiaoge's thigh, and a jolt of pain runs through him.

"Shit." Pangzi sounds worried. He pulls his hand back, which Xiaoge appreciates. "This looks really bad, Xiaoge. Why didn’t you say anything?"

It's just a scratch. He doesn't get wound infection, and he's resistant to poisons, so there's no need to be careful about small injuries. He's not sure why Pangzi is so concerned. "Not bad." Pangzi's hand in the back of his neck still feels nice, but the rock under his knees is getting uncomfortable. He tilts his head at the wall. "Show me?"

"You—" Pangzi sounds offended, like he changed his mind about needing help and thinks Xiaoge shouldn’t be offering. It’s a little odd. He interrupts himself, though, lets out an explosive sigh. "We need to get you out of here, I guess. Can you reach in here, get the rubble out?"

Of course he can. The crack Pangzi points to is narrow and deep, small rock splinters catching under his fingernails as he cleans pebbles and dust out. He can’t get it all, is fishing for an elusive pebble in the back when Pangzi’s fingers wrap around his wrist. “That’s fine. I can work with that. Can you get down on your own?”

What a strange question. They’re not very far up, why shouldn’t he be able to climb down by himself? He starts to nod when suddenly, the rock underneath him tilts. There’s no noise, no rock grinding on rock, but the even surface shifts in a way that suggests an earthquake. He tries to grab the edge but can’t quite reach; it’s moving away from him. That shouldn’t be possible.

“Xiaoge? Shit. Tianzhen!”

Pangzi’s voice is head-splittingly loud. Xiaoge reaches out, tries to make him be quiet, but his hands are caught by Pangzi’s. Then there’s a firm grip on his shoulders, Pangzi’s solid chest pressing up against him as he sags sideways.

It’s not an earthquake. If it were, Pangzi would be getting tossed around as well. Before he can figure out what it is, though, he sinks deeper into Pangzi’s warmth and loses track of his surroundings.

------

When they come back to him, he’s still moving. His head propped on something soft and warm, he’s lying on a flat surface that’s vibrating underneath him. There’s the drone of an engine and, a second later, the feeling of fingers carding through his hair.

Wu Xie. He can smell him, his nose tucked into the heavy fabric of Wu Xie’s jacket. His head is resting in Wu Xie’s lap, Wu Xie’s fingers curled around his shoulder and his hand in his hair. The proximity is nice, but nothing else about the situation is. He’s shaking, uncontrollable shivers running through him, and he can feel pools of cold sweat between his shoulder blades, along his sides, and gathering under his hairline. The surface underneath him must be the floor of the van. It’s bouncing up and down in a way that’s making him nauseous.

He grasps Wu Xie’s wrist, tries to anchor himself, with little success. Wu Xie’s hand freezes.

“Xiaoge. Hey, Xiaoge, are you awake?”

Yes. He allows his head to loll back, winces at the surge of pain and nausea that runs through him at the movement. The roaring from the engine rings in his ears. “Safe?”

He seems to be compromised, which means he can’t protect Pangzi and Wu Xie as well as he normally would. This is the van, so it stands to reason that they’re safe, but it’s best to confirm.

Wu Xie’s eyes above him are very wide and dark. A touch against Xiaoge’s forehead sends a violent tremor through him. “Yes, we’re safe. Pangzi is driving us back. You were hurt, Xiaoge, do you remember?”

He doesn’t. He remembers fighting off the mosquitoes, but he didn’t get hurt. Except there’s a dull throbbing in his thigh, the deep, hollow pain of infected tissue. It makes no sense; it was just a small scratch.

He wraps his hand more tightly around Wu Xie’s wrist, allows his eyes to slide shut. The brightness from the van’s windows is hurting them.

“Xiaoge?”

“Fine.” His lips barely manage to form the word, they feel dried out and useless. “Wear off.”

Whatever this is, it will wear off. In the rare cases when something does affect him, the effect will wear off before long. There is no poison in the tomb raiding world that the Zhang family doesn’t know about or can’t fend off. He’ll just have to wait it out. As long as Wu Xie and Pangzi are safe, he can do that.

Wu Xie says something else, but it disappears in the continued droning of the engine.

------

“It’s not a poison.”

The voice is curt, dry, and unfamiliar in the sense that it’s neither Pangzi nor Wu Xie. Xiaoge keeps his eyes closed, stays very still, and listens.

“What do you mean?” This is Pangzi. “He looked pretty poisoned to me.”

“And if diagnosing disease were as simple as looking at the patient, you’d make a brilliant doctor. It’s not a poison, nor is it a venom. It’s a parasite.”

“Yikes.”

Pangzi sounds taken aback. Xiaoge is pretty sure they’re talking about him, which he’d like them to continue doing so he can find out what’s going on. He’s feeling more alert, the haze that had been wrapped around his brain gone for the moment. He’s pretty sure he’s in Wu Xie’s room in Wushanju—the blanket covering him is familiar, so is the pillow and the way it smells of Wu Xie’s hair. Pangzi is behind him near Wu Xie’s desk, together with the other person who’s been speaking. Xiaoge finally manages to place the voice; it’s Huo Daofu.

“Can we do something about it?” Wu Xie is here, too, apparently.

There’s the rustle of paper on the desk.

“It’s very treatable. Unfortunately, Zhang Qiling isn’t.”

“What’s that mean?”

Xiaoge would like to know that as well. On the whole, he doesn’t make himself any harder to treat than others; possibly less hard than Wu Xie. He just doesn’t need it very often.

“Zhang blood is notorious for eliminating foreign agents, remember? His body doesn’t know the difference between me injecting a cure and a snake injecting venom. Chances are high he’ll reject the treatment.”

“But there has to be something—”

Xiaoge knows the high-strung tension that’s snuck into Wu Xie’s voice well. He sits up, shakes off the last remnants of drowsiness. “I feel fine.”

“Shit!”

“Xiaoge!”

He didn’t mean to startle them, but Pangzi and Wu Xie both visibly jump. Huo Daofu has a better grasp on his body language, but Xiaoge can see his shoulders tense, as well. He tries to make himself look as alert as possible, which isn’t all that hard. He does feel much better. “It’s worn off.” As he knew it would.

Wu Xie comes over, sits on the edge of the bed. There’s a smile pulling on the corners of his mouth. “You look better.” His hand comes up to feel Xiaoge’s forehead, which Xiaoge allows. “Are you sure it’s all gone?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not.”

Huo Daofu speaks over him. He’s gotten up from behind the desk and come around it, is standing next to Pangzi with his arms crossed. Pangzi throws him a glare; so does Xiaoge. To his credit, Huo Daofu doesn’t seem particularly impressed.

“The infection is cyclic,” he says. “You feel better now, you’ll feel worse again soon. I can’t tell you when, because your physiology is processing this in a delightfully unpredictable way, but since you were affected initially, there’s no reason to believe the second cycle won’t affect you as well.”

Xiaoge thinks that through before he narrows his eyes. Sounds like a wild guess at best. “I don’t get sick.”

In the corner of his vision, he spots Wu Xie and Pangzi exchange a glance. Huo Daofu quirks his lips upwards. “Of course you don’t. Nobody in this house does, I’m well aware. You just keep calling me in because I’m such great company, right?”

He’s not going to grace that with a response. Apparently, Huo Daofu doesn’t need one. He picks up a pill bottle from the desk, shakes it to make the pills inside rattle around. “Two green and two blue ones today, one green and two blue ones tomorrow, and the remaining two blue ones on day three. There might still be some fever today, if there’s any more tomorrow or on day three, call me again and I’ll adjust the dosage.” He puts the bottle back down, throws him a pointed glance. “Try not to reject them.”

It’s not like he has any control over it. He doesn’t say so, mostly because Huo Daofu is already grabbing his bag and heading for the door. Xiaoge watches him go. He’s not at all sure he’s been given reason to trust Huo Daofu enough to take nameless medicine he’s prescribed.

“Xiaoge.” Wu Xie’s still on the side of the bed. “Are you really feeling better?”

He nods. His limbs are a bit stiff, and his thigh is sore, but it’s nothing that a bit of exercise won’t help him shake. He accidentally catches Pangzi’s eyes across the room.

“Wouldn’t hurt to take this stuff, though, right?” Pangzi picks up the bottle and comes over to hold it out. “If you really are better, you’ll continue to feel better. If there’s another cycle waiting, or whatever, this could stop it.”

Xiaoge takes it, peers inside. It’s got nine pills, exactly the number Huo Daofu counted out, green and blue. They look like they’d be uncomfortable to swallow.

“I’ll get you some water.” Wu Xie steps over to the sink by the door to fill up a glass. Xiaoge pokes a finger into the pill bottle, fishes out a green, oblong tablet.

“Two of those,” Pangzi says, “and two of the blue ones.”

Xiaoge throws him a dark look. He remembers what Huo Daofu said just fine. He’s still not sure there’s any reason to take medicine if he’s not feeling sick.

“Xiaoge.” Pangzi’s face crumples as he picks up on Xiaoge’s reluctance. “They’re not going to hurt you, right? Huo Daofu wouldn’t give you something that’d hurt you. And I don’t want you to pass out on me again, it was scary enough the first time.”

As if on cue, Wu Xie shows up with the water glass. He holds it out as he stands next to Pangzi, both of them looking at him with wide, concerned eyes.

“Please, Xiaoge,” Pangzi says. “I’m sure it’s safe.”

Well. Maybe it’s not Huo Daofu he needs to trust. He shakes the four pills out of the bottle, takes the water glass from Wu Xie, and swallows them down.

------

“Is he actually running a fever, or does he just feel slightly warm to the touch?”

Even through the phone, Xiaoge can hear Huo Daofu’s annoyance. Wu Xie’s got him on speaker as he’s pacing up and down next to the pool table. It's been a few hours since Huo Daofu left, and as the doctor predicted, Xiaoge started feeling worse again. Not nearly as bad as before, though, even if Wu Xie doesn't seem to quite believe that.

Xiaoge's on the sofa now, curled up under a blanket that Pangzi made appear from somewhere. Pangzi also brought tea, and has settled down next to him, a much more calming presence than Wu Xie and his nervous pacing.

“I wouldn’t be calling you if it wasn’t serious, he’s—”

“What’s his temperature?”

“What?”

There’s a sigh through the phone. “Do you have a thermometer? If you do, please take his temperature.”

There are some unintelligible noises and Wu Xie’s footsteps moving away to the bathroom. Xiaoge narrows his eyes, and hears Pangzi snort next to him.

“He’s worried, Xiaoge. You were really out of it, it was scary.”

“I’m fine now.”

“You do feel a little warm.” Pangzi’s hand settles on his forehead. He squirms away, though only half-heartedly.

“Not bad.”

“I’ll give you that much. And Huo Daofu did say you might still run a slight fever today. But, well. Tianzhen’s worried.”

Wu Xie’s footsteps return. He passes the TV, a thin thermometer in hand. He’s got that pleading, wide-eyed look again, but Xiaoge keeps his lips sealed as Wu Xie guides the thermometer towards them.

“Xiaoge. Just let me—”

Xiaoge closes his lips more tightly, sneaks his hand out from under the blanket and holds it out for the phone. He has to waggle his fingers demandingly before Wu Xie relents and hands it over.

“Huo Daofu.”

“Still here,” comes the doctor’s tinny voice from the speaker. “I do have other things to do, you know?”

“Four pills today. Three tomorrow. Then two. Fever today is fine.”

“That’s what I said. Goodness, a patient who listens. I take it this means you’re running a light fever and are otherwise fine?”

Xiaoge takes a moment to listen to his body. He’s still feeling sore, his waning attention grappling with the nature show that Pangzi found them to watch, but if Wushanju were attacked right now, he’s pretty sure he could put up a decent defence. He nods once. “Yes.” Pauses, then adds, “Thank you.”

Huo Daofu’s reply is cut off as he hangs up. Wu Xie’s mouth forms a thin line as he takes the phone back, but he’s looking resigned more than angry.

“If you’re still running a fever tomorrow, I am making him come over. And I’m taking your temperature.”

That seems like an acceptable compromise. Xiaoge inclines his head before he reaches out and tugs on Wu Xie’s hand. “Sit.”

With a put-upon sigh, Wu Xie sits down on Xiaoge’s side where Pangzi isn’t. Eventually, he even manages to relax a little.

Cocooned between the rest of the Iron Triangle, Xiaoge allows himself to drift off.

#dmbj #pingpangxie #xiaoge #dmbj whump #iron triangle #my fic #prompt fill #hils

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blueink2k · 4 years ago

Text

Propaganda in Death Note and How It Played Into Light’s God Complex

[This is based on information from the anime, as I have yet to read the manga for myself. Caps from or references to the manga may be included to emphasize points or provide visuals, but the version of the plot I'm referring to is taken from the anime.]

Light Yagami does not pick up the Death Note knowing he’s going to use it to commit mass murder and become the God of his New World.

Actually, he does the opposite. He kills someone to test it as he’s under the impression it isn’t real, convinces himself it was a freak coincidence, and decides to try it out in a way that will provide a more concrete conclusion. When it does end up working he’s stunned, to say the least.

“I killed them both...I killed two men. Those were human lives. I-It won’t be overlooked. Besides, who am I to pass judgment on others?”

Light Yagami, the perfect, straight-A, model student, has just confirmed he killed two people using some strange supernatural notebook that just happened to fall into his hands. He’s always believed strongly in his morals. He’s been on course his whole life to join the police force like his father an deliver justice, and here he is, an indirect murderer.

So what does he do about it?

...He comes up with a reason to justify himself.

The people he killed were criminals. Mere scum who do nothing but rot and infect the world. Wouldn’t everyone be better off without them? It isn’t that he’s never considered this before, he has, albeit not to the same degree as taking their deaths into his own hands. But now that he has the power to do so, why shouldn’t he? He’s smart, he’s determined. He’s capable of it.

In fact, in his mind, he’s the only one who is.

He’s kind of right. He’s the top of his class, he comes out on top in national tests, he barely even has to try. Plus, he’s the only one that has a Death Note, and therefore the power to do this.

At this point in time, he doesn’t consider himself a god. He doesn’t want to rule the world, he just wants to change it. Something else important to note is that he doesn’t refer to himself as Kira or anything other than Light.

...That is, until...

Websites start popping up all over claiming that whoever this mass murderer is is named “Kira”, a god among men risen to punish criminals and save the world.

Two things to note here;

Apparently, “Kira” is returning, meaning there must have been some kind of previous belief in an entity that either did something similar to Light or had the same beliefs. There isn’t any other canon mention of a previous Kira, and this in and of itself is pretty vague, but given that there’s tons of religions in real life that have never had a big breakthrough, it’s reasonable to believe this could be something similar. That, or a creepypasta. Or a cult.

Light created this understanding that he had to be the one to change the world to cope with his murders. Actually - that might be the worst way to put it, since we know how strongly he feels about justice and being given an outlet to carry out this wish of world peace just enhanced this, but nonetheless... It’s impossible to assume he’s doing all of this without even a speck of guilt. Therefore, this is the first hint of appreciation or even just acknowledgement that what he’s doing is right.

Disregarding the first point (as interesting as I find it), this is really the first time Light is ever told what he’s doing is good. His own father - who he idolizes -considers Kira evil. His sister flat out says she hates him. Of course, this is all after Kira actually does become popular, but still, all he receives from that point on is disapproval from the people he cares the most about. The online love for Kira is all he has.

So, yeah, he probably internalizes it.

He thinks he’s doing the right thing. He thinks he’s giving others justice. He thinks he’s the only one who can do this. Others agreeing is only enhancing this. They’re the ones who call him God.

As the story progresses, Kira’s power and popularity grows. He gains direct news coverage, people begin sending him names of people to kill, his following grows. So much so, that when someone gets a Death Note and figures out that must be what he’s using, their immediate response is to find a way to contact him.

Cue Misa Amane and Sakura TV.

Sakura TV is a news program known for its unreliability. Demegawa, the director, even says he’s willing to make things up for publicity. And that’s when the Second Kira tapes arrive.

This, however, is only the first encounter with Sakura TV.

After this, the only direct involvement the police has with it is in the Yotsuba arc, when it’s used to lure out Higuchi. Otherwise the program promotes Kira all on its own, even going so far as to create Kira’s Kingdom - half a scam for viewers’ money, half a way to get more people to see Kira as God. And it works. He gains a following of people who believe he will create a new, better world, and will even give themselves up to help him.

An example of this following is when a mob of followers attacks the SPK under Kira’s orders. They’re so quick to join in, and are even willing to put their names and faces on TV in trust that Kira will not kill them.

All of this publicity sparks fear in the general public. People begin fearing that if they do something wrong Kira will kill them, causing crime rates to drop nearly 70% over Kira’s 6 year reign, as well as completely stopping wars.

Demegawa is eventually killed. Other news programs begin scrambling to claim the voice of Kira, topped by NHN, where we are reintroduced to Kiyomi Takada as Kira’s spokeswoman as well as one of his greatest supporters.

Light, as much as he hates Sakura TV and NHN’s depictions of Kira, uses them to his advantage as much as he can.

But really, imagine what this is all doing to him.

At the beginning, he struggled with grasping what he was doing as right. His sense of justice, righteousness, and perfectness shattered by a single notebook. But this is perfect, he figures that if he really wants to fix the world, this is one surefire way to do it. And yeah, his family hates Kira, but online he’s worshiped as God. We already know he has a pretty decent ego, and all of this is doing nothing but fueling it.

To top it all off, as he continues with his killings, his following grows. More and more people begin to support him, every single day there’s news stations upon news stations covering his story, some negative, some positive. People from all over express admiration towards him, even the President of the United States sides with him. He is literally worshiped as Kira, as God.

This all makes it sounds like his god complex starts later in the series, so to clarify; no, he does not pick up the book with plans to become God, but the second people start fueling his ego, the more twisted his ideals and motivations become. He’s the only one who can fix this rotten world. He holds the power of a god in his hands, he does what only a god can do, and everyone treats him accordingly. He is Kira, he is God.

Between websites, news programs, and his cult-like following, Light had enough attention to feed into his ego for a lifetime. He was perfect pre-Death Note. Smart, charming, set for success. There never was a time where he was particularly not narcissistic, it was just that he only felt this way inside of himself. The way he presented to others? A perfect, cool guy persona with an - in all honesty - annoying prickly jerk hiding inside. But no one ever knew this, he never let them know, and because he was always naturally successful it was more of an expectation he just met rather than surpassed, so he wasn’t consistently praised and this incredible self-esteem wasn’t propped up by anyone but himself.

To cycle back to the title of this rant-essay-analysis-whatever you’d like to call it, I want to share some examples about exactly why I even classify this news coverage and whatnot of Kira as propaganda.

Kira’s supporters cause a riot at SPK HQ under Kira’s orders and Demegawa’s direction.

Mikami providing his insight as to why he supports Kira on television, openly promoting Kira and encouraging others to join him.

Takada announces her new role as Kira’s spokesperson on NHN.

Mikami uses his power as Kira to kill members of Kira’s Kingdom, supposed followers of Kira who have been using his publicity to gain money and attention.

Most of this doesn’t exactly look like your standard propaganda posters or news story, but it does fit the overall criteria;

Information from a biased viewpoint used to promote/publicize a certain view (accepting Kira as God)

Shows exclusively positive views on Kira

Assigns Kira positive adjectives and makes him appear as good (God, savior, messenger from Hell), never considering or showing the bad

Presenting only positive statistics (Light does this in his monologue where he brings up the 70% crime rate drop, and given there’s no way he could have calculated this on his own he likely got it from one of these media sources. Not that it’s incorrect, per se, but he does fail to mention how many innocent people he’s killed in order to do this.)

Appeals to regular, everyday people by talking about how he’s doing this for the betterment of the whole world. People who are directly affected by crime are also likely positively impacted by this.

Initiates and spreads fear by explaining how Kira only attacks those who do wrong.

In the end, Light’s personal descent into his god complex, as well as his effects on the world can be attributed to many things, but it would be a crime to ignore just how big of a role news and other types of media played in this without his direct input. To think, if Light had won and overtaken the police like he was going to, he’d have absolutely no problem stepping into his shoes as God. Everyone else already set the stage, he just had to get there first.

This is my first Death Note analysis, so please excuse any errors, I just watched the anime for the first time and am doing my best to piece together all of the plot and especially Light’s deep characterization the best I can. If I ever read the manga or find something new, chances are this will be updated. But as for now, it’s finally finished after a week or so of procrastinating. Thank you for reading if you got this far! <3

#death note #light yagami #kira #analysis #anime analysis #rant #essay #hitoshi demegawa #do people even care enough about him to have a tag #💀#death note anime #teru mikami #kiyomi takada #yagami light #mikami teru #takada kiyomi #long post #meta

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poisoned-peppermint · 3 years ago

Text

I made dsmp incorrect quotes you wanna see em of course you do here

Bad: *seductively takes off glasses*

Bad: Wow...

Skeppy: *blushes* Haha... what?

Bad: You're really flipping blurry.

~~~~~~~

Skeppy: Is something burning?

Bad, leaning seductively on the counter: Just my desire for you.

Skeppy: Bad, the toaster is literally on fire.

~~~~~~~

Skeppy: Hey, I’m getting in the shower. Wanna help me out?

Bad: ...Have you never taken a shower before?

~~~~~~~

Skeppy: So don't panic but one of us is possessed by an owl....

George: ....

Dream: .....

Sapnap: ......

Bad: ..Who?

Skeppy: That's the thing we don't-

*Everyone stares at Bad

~~~~~~~

*Everyone is giving advice to Sapnap*

Skeppy: It's okay to ask for help.

Dream: You're not a burden.

Bad: Murder is okay.

George: Your feelings matter.

~~~~~~~

Dream: Poison is a magic transmutation potion that turns people into corpses.

Sapnap: This knife is actually a magic wand.

George: Meet me in the Denny’s parking lot for a wizard duel.

Bad: *cocks gun* Magic missile.

Skeppy: What the fuck is wrong with you people.

~~~~~~~

Dream: Did you bring Sapnap?

George, gesturing to Skeppy: No, but I brought the next best thing.

Dream: Skeppy? The next best thing would be Bad.

Skeppy: I would be offended, but Bad is freakishly strong.

~~~~~~~

Sapnap: You're a lying piece of shit!

George: Oh yeah? You're the idiot that thinks you can get away with everything you do, WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!

Skeppy: I'm leaving and I'm taking Bad with me!

Dream, gathering cards: Aaaaand that's enough Monopoly for today.

~~~~~~~

Sapnap: So anyways have y'all seen Bad?

Dream: I think they went in Skeppy's room 'studying'.

George: Doubt that. I heard groans there.

*Meanwhile in Skeppy's room*

Bad & Skeppy, fighting:

~~~~~~~

Bad: Isn’t it weird that we can’t ride any other animal except horses. Like if horses weren’t a thing, humans would be fucked cause we couldn’t ride any other animals. Like riding animals wouldn’t really be a thing. We should probably be more grateful to horses.

George: Elephants.

Bad: Blocked.

Dream: Camels.

Bad: Extra blocked.

Sapnap: Donkeys.

Bad: Ultra blocked.

Skeppy: That dick.

Bad: ...Followed.

~~~~~~~

Bad, opening a Capri Sun: Guess I'll drink my sorrows away

~~~~~~~

Quackity: I’m this close to falling in love with Sapnap.

Karl: Your fingertips are touching.

Quackity: Exactly.

~~~~~~~

Karl: So how’s the food Quackity made?

Sapnap: It's great! Compliments to them.

Karl: *goes to the kitchen*

Karl: You're adorable.

Quackity: *blushes*

~~~~~~~

Bad: Hey guys I just found a new song I really like-

Quackity: Is it about death?

Bad: No.

Sapnap: Is it about drugs?

Karl: Is it about sex?

Bad: NO- it's about happiness and peace and-

Quackity, Sapnap, and Karl:

~~~~~~~

Karl: Made you all playlists!

Karl: Sapnap, yours has only heavy metal, and is dark like your soul.

Karl: Quackity, yours has sad songs and blues to pair with your crippling depression.

Karl: And Bad has the ABBA Gold album.

~~~~~~~

Karl: I give up. I am so tired.

Bad: Get the emergency supply!

Quackity: *carries Sapnap and places them in front of Karl*

Sapnap: *smiles*

Karl: AND I AM BACK BABY, LET’S GOOO

~~~~~~~

Karl: What’s the announcement, Quackity?

Quackity: It’s a lecture. Bad’s gonna tell us everything they know about sex.

Sapnap: It should be an enjoyable 60 seconds.

~~~~~~~

Bad: Sapnap, you'll be working with Quackity and Karl.

Sapnap: Alright! My fantasy threesome!

Everyone else: *blank stares*

Sapnap: ...Of people on a team.

~~~~~~~

Quackity: We might have gotten into a bar room brawl back in the city.

Karl: Well, that was entirely predictable.

Quackity: One of them punched a gang member.

Karl: Sapnap?

Quackity: Bad, actually.

Karl: Oh, that was going to be my second guess.

~~~~~~~

Bad: Alright, which one of us is gonna check outside?

Karl: Not it!

Sapnap: Not it!

Bad: ...Neither one of you are as dumb as you lead on to be.

~~~~~~~

Karl and Sapnap: *making loud, shouty gorilla sounds at each other*

Quackity:

Bad, exasperatedly: We have a guest.

~~~~~~~

Sapnap: I am darkness. I am a power. I am your worst nightmare. I could kill a man in more ways than you can imagine. I am the night. I am fury, I am a weapon, I am-

Karl: A doll.

Quackity: A cinnamon roll.

Bad: A sweetheart.

Sapnap:

Sapnap: ...stop it.

~~~~~~~

Quackity, pointing to the wall: What color is this?

Sapnap: Gray.

Bad: Grey.

Quackity, turning to Karl: Now tell them what color you think it is.

Karl: Dark white.

~~~~~~~

Karl: We need to distract these guys.

Bad: Leave it to me.

Bad: Centaurs have six limbs and are therefore insects. Discuss.

Sapnap & Quackity: *immediately begin arguing*

~~~~~~~

Skeppy: Bad is too tall for me to kiss them on the lips. What should I do?

Ant: Punch them in the stomach. Then, when they double over in pain, kiss them.

Quackity: Tackle them!

Puffy: Dump them.

Velvet: Kick them in the shin!

Bad: No to all of those! Just ask me to lean down!!

~~~~~~~

Velvet: Christmas lights?

Bad: Check.

Ant: THermos of hot cocoa?

Bad: Check.

Quackity: Santa suits?

Bad: Check.

Puffy: Shovel?

Bad: Check.

Skeppy: Alibi and bail money?

Bad: Check- wait, WHAT?!

~~~~~~~

*Everyone is standing around the broken coffee maker*

Bad: So. Who broke it? I'm not mad, I just wanna know.

Everyone:

Skeppy: ...I did. I broke it.

Bad: No. No you didn't. Velvet?

Velvet: Don't look at me. Look at Ant.

Ant: What?! I didn't break it.

Velvet: Huh, that's weird. How'd you even know it was broken?

Ant: Because it's sitting right in front of us and it's broken.

Velvet: Suspicious.

Ant: No, it's not!

Quackity: If it matters, probably not, but Puffy was the last one to use it.

Puffy: Liar! I don't even drink that crap!

Quackity: Oh really? Then what were you doing by the coffee cart earlier?

Puffy: I use the wooden stirrers to push back my cuticles. Everyone knows that, Quackity!

Skeppy: Okay let's not fight. I broke it. Let me pay for it, Bad.

Bad: No! Who broke it!?

Everyone:

Quackity: Bad... Gumi's been awfully quiet.

Gumi: rEALLY?!

*Everyone starts arguing*

Bad, being interviewed: I broke it. I burned my hand so I punched it.

Bad: I predict 10 minutes from now they'll be at each other's throats with warpaint on their faces and a pig head on a stick.

Bad:

Bad: Good. It was getting a little chummy around here

~~~~~~~

Velvet: How much you wanna bet Bad got a Lap dance from Skeppy?

Ant: If that happend, Quackity can drink free tonight.

Quackity: As much as I love the thought of having free drinks I don't like the idea of Bad receiving a Lap dance from someone other than me.

Velvet: Hey Skeppy, did you give Bad a lap dance?

Skeppy: So what if I did?

Velvet, to Ant: I guess Quackity is drinking free tonight.

Skeppy: Be right back, I'm gonna go cry-

Bad, entering the room: What the muffin??

~~~~~~~

Bad: Skeppy kissed me!

Ant: Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!

Bad: It was unbelievable!

Ant: Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!

Velvet: Okay, we wanna hear everything. Ant, get the wine and unplug the phone. Bad, does this end well or do we need tissues?

Bad: Oh, it ended very well.

Ant: Do not start without me! Do not start without me!

Velvet: Okay, alright, let’s hear about the kiss. Was it a soft brush against your lips or was it like a, you know, “I gotta have you now” kind of thing?

Bad: Well, at first it was really intense, you know? And then, oh God, and then we just sort of sunk into it.

Velvet: Ohh... So, okay, were they holding you? Or were their hands on your back?

Bad: First they started out on my waist and then they slid up and then they were in my hair.

Ant and Velvet: Ohhh.

*meanwhile*

Skeppy eating pizza in their house: And, uh, and then I kissed them.

Quackity: Tongue?

Skeppy: Yeah.

Puffy: Cool.

~~~~~~~

Bad: If you can’t beat them, dress better than them

~~~~~~~

Bad: Okay okay stop asking me if I'm straight, gay, bi, whatever. I identify as a FREAKING THREAT.

~~~~~~

I will be making a part 2 shortly this is just getting to long

#dsmp #incorrect quotes #skephalo #dream smp incorrect quotes #karlnapity #dsmp techno

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five-rivers · 3 years ago

Text

Danger First

Chapter 9

@pocketramblr

Banjo took Hikage to the side while the other ghosts were still wading through their existential crisis.

"Man," he said, "Hikage, bro. You know I love you."

"You do?"

"Like... at least eighty-five percent of the time."

"Ah, continue."

"But next time you think one of us has a secret relative out there, you've got to say something so we don't get blindsided."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright, then. I couldn't help but notice that both Ninth's mother and 'Tomura' share a strong resemblance to Nana."

"... I've changed my mind."

Although Midoriya Inko had abandoned the tech conference as soon as she heard about the attack on the USJ, she, unlike the mist villain, could not teleport. Therefore, Izuku was stuck in the nurse's office even after he had woken up and paramedics had confirmed that his injuries began and ended at bruises and quirk exhaustion. (And a potentially fractured bone in his foot, but that wasn't worth mentioning.)

Sitting next to the police officer with nothing to do was... awkward. Very awkward. His hands itched for his notebooks, but everything they brought to the USJ was evidence, and he hadn't been allowed to go back to the classroom. He wanted to know what happened to his classmates and Mr. Aizawa, who he hadn't seen since he ran away from the plaza and left him with the hand villain, and Mr. Yagi, who had really taken a beating from Nomu. Danger Sense was quiet, relatively speaking, but Float was just waiting to be used and tested.

Plus, he really, really had to talk to Mr. Yagi about that. Loads of his classmates had seen him use Float. How was he supposed to explain having Float right after telling them he probably had a sensory quirk?

Plus, if he got Float, it stood to reason that he'd get all the other One for All users' quirks as well. So he had to figure out how to make Danger Sense, Float, Smokescreen, Blackwhip, and a strength enhancement all look like the same quirk. Which, maybe they were, technically, considering that Monoma had sensed One for All as a single quirk but whatever was going on with the mist villain as multiple quirks...

Point was, One for All definitely functioned as multiple quirks.

Would his friends think he was lying? No, he'd definitely proven Danger Sense existed by predicting, however loosely, the attack.

"Hey, Tamakawa."

Izuku and the officer looked up at one of the detectives who had come to take initial statements. His name was... Tsukauchi, Izuku thought. Mr. Yagi (as Mr. Yagi) was standing behind him.

"I can take it from here. I have a few more questions for Midoriya."

"Yes, sir. Midoriya." He nodded at them as he left the room.

"How are you feeling, Young Midoriya?" asked Mr. Yagi, taking the officer's spot with a slight groan.

"Uh, better than this morning, actually," he said. "But, um, but what about you? That Nomu guy kept, um..." His eyes trailed towards the detective.

"Ah, this is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa. He's an old friend of mine. He knows... well, just about everything about me."

Izuku nodded slowly. "So, he knows about, um..."

"I know about One for All," said Tsukauchi.

"Oh," said Izuku. He rapidly gathered together his thoughts, trying to decide what the most important piece of information he had to impart was. "Do you know what happened to Mr. Aizawa? And Ingenium?"

That was most definitely not a piece of information. Stupid brain.

"The portal villain, Kurogiri, teleported Aizawa off UA grounds, but he was able to get help quickly after that. Ingenium had some injuries that need a specialist, so he went home. They'll be alright, but they'll probably have to take a few days off."

"Yes," said Tsukauchi, giving Mr. Yagi one of the driest looks Izuku had ever seen. "Because you heroes are so good about that."

"Teaching isn't exactly strenuous, Naomasa."

"Remind me again how you got injured this time."

Mr. Yagi made a face Izuku would have found hilarious under other circumstances. "That's different," he said, plaintively.

"Is it though?"

Mr. Yagi coughed. "Now, Midoriya, my boy... I'm sure you have things you want to talk about... I think I glimpsed you soaring through the air, earlier. Did you unlock the enhancement aspect of One for All?"

"No," said Izuku. "Not exactly."

"Well," said Mr. Yagi. "That's, hm. Certainly something."

"Sorry," said Izuku.

"You have nothing to apologize for, my boy," said Mr. Yagi, patting his knee. "In fact, it's a good thing that you got Float this time. I'd be at a loss about what to do with Smokescreen or Blackwhip. But I'm fairly familiar with my master's quirk, and, well, there's someone else who I should... get back into contact with..." Mr. Yagi force the words out as if they had physically pained him to say.

Which they might have. He did have the whole... coughing... thing. Maybe he was just trying to hold one back?

"Mr. Yagi? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Okay, are you sure?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to bring the next part up if Mr. Yagi wasn't feeling well.

"Yes," said Mr. Yagi. "I just, hm. It's just... history."

Izuku nodded. "So, um. Did you hear Monoma say that the mist guy - Kurogiri? - had multiple quirks, too? Like Nomu?"

The mood plummeted.

"Yes," said Tsukauchi. "He told me, and I told Toshinori. It appears that Kurogiri's warp quirk is actually several different quirks working as one. Merged together, almost."

Izuku nodded. "I was just wondering... One for All can be passed on, so... are there other quirks like that? Like, if the first person with One for All had family members or something? Or..." Izuku trailed off. Mr. Yagi now looked actively ill. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Toshinori," said Tsukauchi, "you mean you didn't tell him already?"

"In my defense, I thought he was extremely dead."

"What- Who are you talking about?"

"My boy... I think it's time to tell you a story of two brothers..."

"So, One for All comes with a built in nemesis? Who may be immortal?"

"That- He's not... It would appear so."

"I am somehow both surprised and not."

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask you about before your mother arrives," said Mr. Yagi.

"Please tell me it's not something worse, like me being a descendant of the guy," requested Izuku, picking the worst, most ridiculous thing he could think of.

Tsukauchi snorted, then covered the noise up with a cough.

"I seriously doubt that All for One could maintain a romantic relationship of any kind," said Mr. Yagi, "and even if you were, it wouldn't really matter. I mean, his own brother hated his guts."

"That's a bit extreme..." murmured Yoichi.

"Considering some of the rants we've gotten you to go on," said En, "it really isn't."

"Maybe. Maybe not. But the rest of it-" Yoichi promptly left to harass Second and Third.

"How can you two be so close and yet so far?" mourned Nana. "How are you so smart and so dumb at the same time?"

"In Ninth's defense," said En, "he doesn't know what All for One looks like."

"Surely he knows what his father looks like. He sees his picture almost every day," said Hikage.

"Admittedly, I could have phrased that better, but are you rubbing that in, or are you serious? I've known you for, like, half a century and I still can't tell."

Despite the example being a joke, Izuku felt much better after hearing that.

"But, no, this subject is relatively neutral and nothing so dramatic. I was hoping to get your permission to tell young Aizawa about One for All."

Izuku opened and closed his mouth several times. "H-huh? Why? And why do you want my permission? You don't need my permission."

"One for All is your quirk, now," said Yagi, "and your secret. It's up to you who knows about it. Outside of an emergency, I suppose. As for why in general..." Mr. Yagi sighed. "There are things young Aizawa needs to know about the villains with multiple quirks and All for One. I can't tell you the details right now, but with how One for All is manifesting in you, if he only knows about All for One, it would be very easy for him to make incorrect assumptions."

"Oh," said Izuku. He could certainly see how that could be dangerous. He didn't want his teacher to associate him with a villain like that.

"Also, if he knows what's happening, it will be easier for him to help you," finished Mr. Yagi hopefully.

Izuku thought about it. "I guess that would be alright. But... He's not the only person who'll know about my quirk being weird and All for One, right? I mean, the Hero Commission, at least..."

"To be entirely honest with you, I tell the HPSC as little as possible about All for One and One for All."

"What? Why?" asked Izuku.

"Well-"

"Izuku!"

"Mom!"

"I'll explain later," said All Might quickly.

Kurogiri passed a damp washcloth over the burns on his neck. The metal of his collar was a conductor, and the charge the young man with the electricity quirk had sent through it had been significant. It was only natural for it to get hot, for it to burn.

He should go to the Doctor... Some of the collar's functionality seemed to be damaged. He brushed his mist covered fingers over the cool metal.

Tomura wouldn't tell the Doctor. Kurogiri cared deeply for Tomura, but the young man was certainly shallow and unlikely to realize the extent of Kurogiri's injuries. He was more likely to focus on his own, not insignificant, wounds.

In contrast to those, Kurogiri's paled. He wasn't nearly as important as Tomura, after all.

It should be fine to let his wounds and the collar be. It would do what it was supposed to and protect the vulnerable areas of his body, internal damage or no. He just had to be careful of the burns becoming infected, especially since he couldn't see them.

Sometimes, he wished his body was like it was before...

Kurogiri frowned at the thought even as it faded from his consciousness. He had been created by All for One fully formed. His body had always been like this.

Hadn't it?

Shouta had been in and out of consciousness the past few hours. Apparently he'd never been in serious danger of dying, except from shock, which was just his body being dramatic and didn't count. All his major organs were free of serious damage. He just had to regain his stamina so that Recovery Girl could heal him up, and then he'd be fine.

Unlike Tensei, apparently, who had cracked one of his engines, which needed specialist help and surgery to realign the pieces. Or All Might, who had taken hits to his old injury, and needed to take time off or lose more time from his hero form. Or his students, who hadn't been seriously injured but who were probably traumatized.

The last time he had woken up, though, Hizashi had been there. Now, All Might, Nezu, and Detective Tsukauchi were there.

"Thought I already gave my statement," said Shouta.

"You did," said Tsukauchi.

"We're here to give you more information about the attack, I'm afraid," said Nezu.

"Information I won't like?"

"It can wait until you feel better, of course."

"That's illogical," said Shouta. "The sooner I get the information, the more time I have to process it."

All Might, Yagi, sighed. "Nomu and the portal-using villain both had multiple quirks."

Shouta frowned. "You mean, they had quirks with multiple aspects?"

"No," said Nezu. "As Yagi said, they had multiple quirks. This was confirmed by both the villains' comments and by Monoma, who made contact with the portal villain and was able to copy multiple quirks."

"Kurogiri," said Shouta. "That's what the other one called him. Shigaraki."

Nezu nodded. "Indeed. We weren't sure you had heard that." He tapped his paws together. "What we are about to tell you is classified. We are only sharing it with you because of your unique position and history."

"In the wrong hands, it could cause a lot of damage," said Yagi.

Only two things kept Shouta from leaping out the window and escaping: the fact that he was basically immobilized in plaster casts and the fact that his students were already involved in whatever this was.

"Great. What is it?"

"To begin," said Tsukauchi, "Monoma said he was able to copy three quirks from Kurogiri."

"That's up from what he could do before," observed Shouta. Stress did push quirks to improve, sometimes, although Shouta hated for the improvement to be associated with trauma.

Tsukauchi nodded. "He made note of that as well. He said he picked up a quirk that allowed him to turn his body parts into portals that led to other body parts, a quirk allowed him to temporarily teleport his body parts, and..." he trailed off.

"And a quirk that at the very least bears a strong resemblance to Shirakumo Oboro's Cloud."

"What are you saying?" asked Shouta, ignoring the way his heart had almost stopped.

"At the moment? Only that it is very strange that Kurogiri had a quirk like that, and sent you to the place where Shirakumo Oboro died."

"Oboro would never-"

"We're not saying that," interrupted Yagi. He coughed into his hand. "There's more context. Have you ever heard of the quirk bogeyman?"

"I can't wait to never sleep again I'm my entire life," said Shouta.

"Wait," said Tsukauchi, "it gets worse."

"How could it get worse?"

"Naomasa, you're supposed to be on my side," complained Yagi.

"I am. That's why I'll stop Eraserhead here from trying to kill you after you finish explaining."

"Well, it has to do with young Midoriya's quirk..."

"Let me get this straight, you gave the quirk with an immortal supervillain archenemy attached to a child... and didn't tell him that the supervillain existed."

"When you say it like that, it sounds really bad-"

"It is really bad-!"

"If I'd known he was still alive-"

"What part of immortal do you not understand?"

"Shouta, I, too, believed that All for One-"

"Shut up, Nezu! I don't have the energy to be mad at both of you right now!"

Yagi, Tsukauchi, and Nezu were all shown out by an irate nurse while a different but equally irate nurse replaced the plaster cast on Shouta's arm.

It had definitely been worth it.

Just because school was canceled, that didn't mean training was canceled.

... except it did, both because Inko was too stressed to let Izuku out of the house, and because Mr. Yagi had a meeting to go to about the attack.

But the second day after the attack was a different story!

That morning, Mr. Yagi pulled up in front of Izuku's apartment in Hercules (still so cool!) and picked him up.

Izuku bounced enthusiastically into the car and then froze. "Oh my gosh, what happened to your eye? Was it a villain? How hard did they hit you?" his hands fluttered. "I have some cream-"

"Oh," said Mr. Yagi, "no need, young Midoriya! I, er, sort of deserved it. It's a sort of reminder to take it easy, too. People would be disturbed to see All Might with a black eye, after all!" He smiled, then winced.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, very. You should buckle up, my boy."

"Oh, right," said Izuku. "So, where are we going? You said there was someone you wanted to introduce me to."

"Yes," said Mr. Yagi. "My old teacher. It's been a while since I've seen him. Hopefully he won't make up for lost time with a kick to the face..."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

When Mr. Yagi spent most of the way over muttering about kicks to the face and head, Izuku decided that he should, in fact, worry about it.

The broken-down building was not what Izuku had been expecting.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Izuku.

"Absolutely," said Mr. Yagi, who was shaking somewhat. "This Pavlovian response only confirms it."

"Um." The building looked condemned. "Maybe he moved."

"One can only hope," said Mr. Yagi. "Maybe you sh- No. I have to see this through." He steeled himself visibly, squaring shoulders. "Please not a kick to the face," he said, under his breath.

"Is he really that bad?" asked Izuku.

"My boy, I guarantee you that he's worse."

"Poor kid has no idea what's coming," said Banjo. "Although we wouldn't have believed it either if we weren't riding along and watching."

"Nana," said En, "I just want to reiterate that I'm very glad you never thought about giving One for All to Gran Torino."

"Come on. Sorahiko isn't that bad," protested Nana.

"We know," said everyone else, "he's worse."

They walked up to the apartment building door. Mr. Yagi sighed heavily on seeing the door was hanging open, which was a radically different reaction than what Izuku would have expected.

"Is Danger Sense doing anything?"

"I don't think so?"

"Let me know if that changes."

"R-right," said Izuku. Mr. Yagi pushed the door in, and Izuku followed cautiously after him.

They went down a few hallways, peeking in rooms. Then they got to the kitchen, and Izuku covered his mouth with both hands with a gasp at the grisly, bloody scene. Gran Torino laid on the floor in a pool of red liquid. "Oh my gosh, he's-"

At the same time, Mr. Yagi said, "At least it's not a kic-"

The supposedly dead hero was suddenly airborne, and flying towards Mr. Yagi, foot first. Specifically, at his face. "You thou-"

Danger Sense spiked. It was a tiny spike, but still.

Izuku reacted. Specifically, with nerves shot by the USJ attack, he reacted violently, lashing out with a fist, swatting Gran Torino out of the air and back into the puddle of what was, in retrospect, probably diluted ketchup.

For a moment, everything was silent.

"Oh my gosh," wailed Izuku. "I assaulted a senior citizen!"

Gran Torino bounced back to his feet. "I like this kid, Toshinori!"

"I'm... glad?"

"Now show me what you've g-"

"Gran, please, we're only here for quirk help, not battle training."

"What's the difference? You're going to want to use it in battle eventually, right?"

"I mean," said Izuku, hesitantly, feeling like he had whiplash several times over, "yes?"

"See?"

"Just help with controlling Float. Please." Mr. Yagi pressed his hands together. "Please do not pick a quirk fight with a civilian teenager. Please."

"We are on private property."

"Assault is still illegal on private property."

"He's the one who hit me!"

"I know! I'm so sorry," said Izuku, doing his best to bow in the cramped space. "It was a reflex."

"After you attacked me!"

"Yeah, but you knew I was going to do that!"

"That doesn't make it better!"

Gran Torino turned to Izuku. "Kid, I don't know how you did it, but it looks like you made this big softy grow a backbone. Next step is to see if you can get him to do this with Mirai, too."

"Um," said Izuku. "I think he already had a backbone? He's All Might, after all."

"Nah, he's just a giant spindly amoeba who needs to take better care of himself."

Mr. Yagi slumped.

"But back on topic," said Gran Torino, eyes much sharper than before. "Do you really have Nana's quirk, kid?"

"Y-yeah. I think so. It was only a little bit, during the attack, but... yeah."

"Let's see what you can do with it, then."

"Um," said Izuku.

"Gran, maybe you should get cleaned up first? Young Midoriya and I can take care of the kitchen..."

"You don't know how to turn it on, do you?"

"Not really, no," said Izuku.

"We've got our work for today cut out for us, then, don't we, you zygotes?"

Wow. Gran Torino really did call people zygotes.

Wild.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #danger first #danger first au #fic #fanfic

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simonalkenmayer · 3 years ago

Note

I never insinuated a new God be built. I just said what if you are incorrect? What if that's exactly what churches planned all along? That they're actually mostly like anti-God posing as being all about God. Then they devised a plan to make people not like God by saying a bunch of things that are not true. Kudos on the reference. Did the tattoo work out? I know only time can tell. But did the ink set at all?

You did say that, without realizing it. Please allow me to explain. If there is such a thing as god, it would be infinitely more complex than any of us could comprehend. I can assure you that not a single aspect of it would be comprehensible to any of us. Therefore all human or monstrous comprehension of the divine is without merit and therefore unimportant.

What I mean to say is, if god really is larger and greater and more compassionate than the human concept of it, then it would require no worship, and it would need no recognition of any kind. It wouldn’t care. Which would mean no interface. Meaning no point in contemplating that which cannot, by definition, be understood.

Let me put it this way, and this is the simplest truth: any being who would create a universe with certain things as part of it, are no friend to me. And if they didn’t create the universe with all its pieces, then it isn’t god, and therefore isn’t worth my time. Either way. I don’t care about god. I will not play a part in that entire thought process. I hope my thoughts on the matter are understood. Thank you.

As for my tattoo, so far so good. It’s healed, but irritated beneath. I wonder if the ink is being pressed out.

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ckret2 · 4 years ago

Text

GVK spoilers below, about conspiracy theories

I’m gonna get around to posting all my GVK reactions but this one got long so I’m putting it in its own post.

The Monsterverse series, in both KOTM and GVK, has some pretty interesting things to say about conspiracy theories and ecofascism; but, unfortunately, it doesn’t REALIZE that it’s saying any of them, so it keeps dropping the ball and missing opportunities to explore them.

Starting with KOTM, “there’s too many humans so we’ve just gotta let some die and that’ll fix pollution 🤷” is like false ecofascist claim #1 but at no point in the movie was it challenged as unfactual, it was just presented as a sad truth that people have to do morally ambiguous things about. Except that it’s just literally mathematically not true!

Emma could be such a GREAT, believable character—especially in this world with, like, frigging QAnon nonsense getting such widespread traction—showing a compelling, realistic tragedy of how this normal, intelligent, well-educated white mom who otherwise is likely left-leaning (pro-environmentalism, pro-nature conservation, got a doctorate and generally more academia correlates with more liberal ideals) got sucked into a far right ecofascist doomsday militia that combines hokey pseudo-environmentalist propaganda with “in balance with nature” semi-religious mysticism, because she was exploited at a time when she was emotionally vulnerable (when her kid had just died) and was lacking healthy emotional support (when her husband turned to alcohol and then ran off).

... Except the movie never says that her “overpopulation” beliefs are WRONG. It says that they’re RIGHT, and she was just forced to choose between two losing scenarios—deliberately kill most of humanity to hopefully save a few, or watch humanity kill itself.

Nobody bothers to mention that the size of the population isn’t the problem, it’s the disproportionate pollution coming out of first world countries. Nobody bothers to mention that when Emma talks about “overpopulation” and shows a screenshot of an overcrowded neighborhood, it ain’t affluent downtown skyscraper condos in Europe or America that she’s highlighting, but large masses of poor people whose neighborhoods look “dirty” to the white woman’s eyes, despite the fact that they’re contributing the least to humanity’s carbon footprint.

Emma’s beliefs are empirically wrong, and if KOTM had ever demonstrated that, it would’ve been brilliant. Instead, it tries to say “she was right, she just went too far,” and in doing so loses an opportunity to make Emma a deeply believable, timely, realistic, well-meaning but wrong villain.

And now we’ve got GVK, which has swerved away from the ecofascism but doubled down on the conspiracy theories. Here, Emma’s daughter, who was raised for five years with what amounts to a survivalist doomsday cult’s beliefs, when faced with the grief of her mother’s death and the struggle of trying to reconnect to her estranged father, turns—again—to conspiracies to make sense of the world around her. Because that’s what Madison’s been raised with, and even though she got disillusioned with the particular “we know something special that the normal people can’t handle” beliefs that she was raised with, that kind of thinking is still what she knows. She’s still doing what her mother raised her to do! She’s still pulling the “hypercompetent highly-trained lone wolf ‘survivor’ saves the world” shtick that Jonah’s gang taught her to do—but it’s never brought up that it was screwed up to raise a child like that and it’s screwed up for her to still be interacting with the world like that.

At least THIS conspiracy theorist isn’t literally advocating for global genocide. Bernie’s focus largely seems to be on “this corporation is trying to screw people over and screw up the environment—” (because in Monsterverse, as in Toho monster movies as a whole, kaiju/titans and the environment are symbolically conflated, so if a corporation is messing with Godzilla then they’re messing with nature as well) “—so I’m gonna find out what they’re up to and be a whistleblower.” Which is great! Solid start! We’ve got a guy taking aim at big business and who says “when the weather Godzilla acts erratic, it’s not random chance, it’s because a big business is doing something it shouldn’t,” so it looks like we’ve got a leftist conspiracy theorist, that’s different, could be interesting to explore.

Except then he starts talking about governments serving a “global elite” and facilities built by “lizard people” and then we’ve swung right back around to the far right by casually dropping in a couple of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Add that in with the whole “hollow earth” thing and damn, we’re namedropping a lot of antisemitic conspiracy theories, aren’t we? Granted, most conspiracy theories ARE antisemitic—but like, they could have dug around for some that aren’t. Have him talk some more about Roswell. Have him bring up things that we’ve actually got documentation happened and theorize that MKUltra research was used in Apex’s development of their pilot’s psychic mind link to Mechagodzilla. Have him bring up tailor-made-for-the-Monsterverse conspiracy theories that don’t exist here, “Monster Zero is actually the secret weapon of a nearby ‘Planet X’ that’s gonna invade,” whatever. Instead, nah, we went with the antisemitic ones.

Now, do I think the writers behind KOTM and GVK intended antisemitism? Do I think they’re closet alt-right trying to dogwhistle the fascists in the audience? No, I think they think they’re making fun of—or playing around with—what they see as harmless, unbelievable, way-out-there conspiracy theories. I think they know just enough about “hollow earth” and “global elites” and “lizard people” to make references to them, but not in a way that promotes the common antisemitic understanding of those theories as true. (Monsterverse’s hollow earth, a weird underground jungle where King Kong lives, sure doesn’t resemble the usual conspiracy theory.) To me, the way they were used suggests the writers didn’t deeply understand (or at least, didn’t deeply think about) what the theories really mean—nor what they imply about the beliefs of the characters who espouse them. Which is the crux of my issue with how the movies deal with conspiracy theories and ecofascists and so forth (beyond the fact that, hey, I just don’t like seeing likable characters casually referencing antisemitic beliefs): the writers didn’t think about the implications.

Because these things do imply a lot! For example, if, say, Josh, total newb to conspiracy theories, had asked about lizard people, I would have grimaced to hear it but I would have believed that he’s a teen boy that picked up the term at school and doesn’t know anything about what’s behind it. But on the other hand, I can’t believe a guy so deep in the conspiracy theory world that he bathes in bleach doesn’t know exactly what those conspiracies mean—or, even if he does somehow staunchly refuse to believe that “lizard people” is a code for “Jewish people,” that whatever circle of conspiracy theorists he runs with doesn’t use it as a code. Bernie didn’t pick up those beliefs in a void. I really doubt that’s what the writers wanted to imply about the goofy likable underdog with a podcast.

And sure, the “global elite” and “lizard people” references are presented like a “haha look how far out his beliefs are” joke—the same as the fluoride reference, which is basically Hollywood code for “bogus nonsense only complete lunatics believe” thanks to Dr. Strangelove—but at the same time, they’re never really disproven. Nothing he believes is challenged. Nor are any of Madison’s beliefs that she’s picked up from him. Everything they both believe is either a “wow that’s wild” throwaway joke, or else they’re presented as totally right, e.g. about Apex being up to dubious crap that’s irritating Godzilla.

Just like Emma, who was presented as in the wrong not because she was incorrect but because she WAS correct but took the wrong actions. And just like Rick in KOTM, who kept bring up the hollow earth theory like a running joke but then the joke was that he was right.

And that’s at the root of the issues with both movies’ portrayals of conspiracy theories. Aside from the jokes that are never explored (and therefore, never disproven), the movies say that, every time it matters, the conspiracy theorists on the fringe are correct, the heroes that need to be believed. Even though all (excluding Rick) are characters who have suffered deep loss, who have been hurt, who you can imagine as passionate but grieving people who turned to dangerously wrong extremism in their search for meaning... the movies don’t portray them as people who have been led astray by their pain, but enlightened by their pain. Which is what they themselves think they are, sure, but that doesn’t line up with reality.

The movies never forces them to grapple with how far they’ve gone astray from reality—and I think they should. I’d like to see them processing the revelation that their beliefs are wrong. Whether it’s as big as somebody trying to convince Emma that killing half the population doesn’t fix the pollution caused by corporations rich enough to weather a global hurricane, or as small as Bernie looking at Apex’s financial records and realizing the company’s money is going to the CEO’s vacation home rather than a reptile government and deciding to rethink those beliefs after they’ve checked out Hong Kong.

“Conspiracy theorist is right about everything” is already a common enough trope that Monsterverse isn’t breaking any new ground with it. And in a franchise like Godzilla, whose movies are rife with messages both allegorical and literal about environmentalism, corporate exploitation, the futility of military action, international politics, war crimes... letting the conspiracy theorists be wrong and showing that they’re wrong and what that wrongness can lead to would mesh far better with the themes of Godzilla.

Think about Jonah and Emma unleashing Ghidorah (who emerged from a destroyed ice cap and immediately caused devastating hurricanes—a perfect metaphor for climate change), and what that could say about how ecofascists who purportedly joined the movement because they support environmentalism are actually far more in bed with the destructive industries really at the root of environmental damage... if the movie acknowledged them as ecofascists.

Think about how Jonah collected Ghidorah’s head at the end of KOTM and by the time of GVK it was in Apex’s hands, and how this exchange demonstrates that “I want to unleash titans to destroy humanity to save the environment” Jonah the ecoterrorist and “I want to beat the titans to protect humanity” Simmons the billionaire CEO actually have far more similar ideals beneath the surface of their opposed goals—ideals that have less to do with the environment or with humanity and more to do with securing personal power and control... if the movie had explained how this exchange took place.

Think about how Madison’s mother died trying to mitigate just a little of the damage she did under the thrall of a doomsday cult’s skewed beliefs, how even though Madison broke free she found herself embroiled in similarly skewed beliefs just three years later, and how powerful it would have been if she recognized that she herself had walked right back into the kind of fringe beliefs her mother had led her into as a child, and if she had then resolved to learn how this kept happening to her and break this pattern... if the movie had ever let her realize that she was making the same mistakes, or even acknowledged them as mistakes.

There’s so much potential there, so many things you can see happening right beneath the surface... but the movies never touch on them. And so it looks like, in Monsterverse, all fringe beliefs are either right or harmless. And we never get the “disillusioned conspiracy theorist” story that could be so brilliant and that, right now, would be so relevant.

#gvk #godzilla vs kong #gvk spoilers #godzilla vs kong spoilers #godzilla #kotm #meta

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crying-in-a-stall · 4 years ago

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Incorrect Sanders Sides

Virgil: Who the fuck added me to a fucking group chat? Roman: >:O language Patton: Yeah watch your fucking language Janus: OKAY WHO TAUGHT PATTON THE FUCK WORD? Roman: 'The fuck word'. Logan: Are you stupid? You guys use the f word all the time Roman: Oh my god they censored it Remus: Say fuck, Logan. Virgil: Do it, Logan. Say fuck.

Virgil: Well, aren’t you all a rag-tag group of adventurers with unclear goals and good hearts! Oh, let me guess: you’re out to save the world! Roman: Well, actually, that sounds like a pretty fair assessment. Janus: More or less, I guess... Patton: That sounds awesome! Let’s do that! Remus: I’m new here, but I am open to the concept. Logan: I thought that’s what we were doing, guys, come on!

Roman: Hewwo. Patton: Hihiiiiii! Logan: Greetings, Humans. Janus: Three kinds of people. Virgil: I want pudding. Janus: Four kinds of people. Remus: WHAT’S UP FUCKERS? Janus: Five kinds of people.

Logan: Just be yourself. Virgil: 'Be myself'? Logan, I have one day to win Roman over. How long did it take before you guys started liking me? Patton: Couple weeks. Remus: Six months. Janus: Jury’s still out. Virgil: See, Logan? Virgil: 'Be myself'. What kind of garbage advice is that?

Virgil: Croissants; dropped Roman: Road; works ahead Remus: BBQ sauce; on my titties Patton: Shavacado; fre Janus: Miss Keisha; fuckin dead Logan: Logan, grumpy: I didn’t understand a single word of that and I hate every single one of you.

Patton: We need to distract these guys Remus: Leave it to me Remus: Centaurs have six limbs and are therefore insects. Discuss. Logan, Roman, and Janus: *Immediately begin arguing* Virgil, watching in horror: Oh this. I don’t like this. I don't like this at all.

Virgil: Rules are made to be broken. Logan: They were made to be followed. Nothing is made to be broken. Patton: Uh, piñatas. Remus: Glow sticks. Janus: Karate boards. Roman: Spaghetti when you have a small pot. Virgil: Rules. Logan: …

Logan: Dumbest scar stories, go! Roman: I burned my tongue once drinking tea. Patton: I dropped a hair dryer on my leg once and burned it. Remus: I have a piece of graphite in my leg for accidentally stabbing myself with a pencil in the first grade. Janus: I was taking a cup of noodles out of the microwave and spilled it on my hand and I got a really bad burn. Virgil: … Virgil: I have emotional scars.

Logan: Anyone d- Virgil: Depressed? Roman: Drained? Patton: Dumb? Remus: Disliked? Janus: Distrusted? Logan: -done with their work... what is wrong with you people …

Patton: Imagine if someone handed you a box full of all the items you have lost throughout your life Virgil: Self-esteem, haven't seen you in years! Janus: Oh wow, my childhood innocence! Thank you for finding this! Roman: I knew I lost that potential somewhere! Remus: My moral code, is that you? Logan: ... Patton: I was just gonna show you this cool trunk my mother left me but do you guys need a hug?

Janus: Nothing in life is free. Patton: Love is free! Roman: Adventure is free. Logan: Knowledge is free. Virgil and Remus at the same time: Everything is free if you take it without paying.

Patton: What does 'take out' mean? Logan: Food. Roman: Dating Virgil: Murder Remus: IT CAN MEAN ALL THREE IF YOU'RE NOT A COWARD.

Remus: I’ve done a lot of dumb stuff. Janus: I witnessed the dumb stuff. Virgil: I recorded the dumb stuff. Patton: I joined in on the dumb stuff. Logan: I TRIED TO STOP YOU FROM DOING THE DUMB STUFF!!!

Janus: What did you guys get in your yearbook? Roman: 'Prettiest Smile' Patton: 'Nicest Personality' Remus: 'Most likely to start a bar fight' Virgil: 'Least likely to start a bar fight, but most likely to win one'

Logan: There are seven chairs and ten kids. What do you do? Virgil: Have everyone stand. Patton: Bring three more chairs! Janus: The most important ones can sit down. Remus: Kill three.

Logan: Good morning. Patton: Good morning. Roman: Good morning. Thomas: You all sound like robots, try spicing it up a bit. Virgil: MORNING MOTHERFUCKERS

Patton: What if the person who named Walkie Talkies named everything? Remus: Pregnancy tests are Maybe Babies Janus: Socks are Feetie Heaties Virgil: Forks are Stabby Grabbies Remus: Defibrillators are Heartie Starties Virgil: Nightmares are Dreamy Screamies Janus: Stamps are Lickie Stickies Logan, annoyed: You are disappointments Roman: Why isn’t the statue smirking at me? Logan: It isn’t smirking at anyone, they’re all just imagining it. Patton: Three of us saw it, Logan. How do you explain that? Logan: *points at Janus* Sleep deprivation. *points at Virgil* Paranoia. *points at Remus* Delusional personality disorder. And you just believe everything, Patton.

Janus: Favorite horror movie? Remus: It Logan: Saw Roman: Annabelle Virgil: High School Musical. After watching it I spent all my middle school years terrified that the entire school would start singing something and I’d be the only one who didn’t know the lyrics

Virgil: We need more help. Maybe I should call my friends. Remus: ... Your what? Virgil: My friends. Janus: Are they saying “friends”? Remus: I think they're being sarcastic. Janus: No, no, no, this is delirium, they've cracked from being awake all night. Hey, Virgil! All of your friends are in this room. Virgil: I have other friends! You asked me to make new friends, I made new friends! It was a task. I complete tasks.

Patton, trying to convince Virgil to join the group: You know... I thought it'd be good to have someone come along who's really... strong! Roman: And grumpy! Logan: And oblivious to reality! Virgil: …

Roman: You lying, cheating, piece of shit! Virgil: Oh yeah? You’re the idiot who thinks you can get away with everything you do. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD Roman: I’m leaving you, and I’M TAKING PATTON WITH ME Logan, picking up the monopoly board: I think we’re gonna stop playing now.

*Patton is cooking* Roman: Any chance that’s for me? Patton: It’s for Logan. I’m planning on making some bad choices tonight, and I need them on my side. Virgil: I never realized the forethought that went into being a disappointment.

Patton: Hey, is Roman sleeping or dead? Virgil: Hopefully dead, I hated their guts. Logan: Yeah, so did I. Roman: Okay first of all, fuck you-

Virgil: Is stabbing someone immoral? Janus: Not if they consent to it. Remus: Depends who you’re stabbing. Logan, who was dragged into the dark sides meeting: YES?!?

Janus: Self care is actually getting into fights with randoms in dark alleys. Patton: No, self care is stuff like taking a bubble bath, or putting on a lot of makeup if you like it, or taking a nice warm nap! Logan: Self-care is any necessary human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated. Janus: Self care is the burning heat when rage washes over you!! Virgil: Self care is when you feel the bones crack under your powerful fists!! Roman: Self care is the fear in your enemies’ eyes!!! Remus: Lmao self care is taking your birthday cake just so I can eat the frosting. Patton: If you touch my birthday cake I’ll make you eat your hands.

Roman: You are now one day closer to eating your next plate of Nachos. Logan: That's the most hopeful thing I've ever heard. Virgil: But what if I die tomorrow and never eat any Nachos? Patton: Then tomorrow is nacho lucky day.

Roman, banging on the door: Virgil! Open up! Virgil: Well, it all started when I was a kid... Logan: No, they meant- Patton: Let them finish.

Janus: Come on, I wasn’t that drunk last night. Virgil: You were flirting with Remus. Janus: So what? They're my partner. Remus: You asked me if I was single. Virgil: And then you cried when they said they weren't.

Store Worker: Would a ‘Janus’ please come to the front desk? Janus, arriving at the desk: Hello, is there a problem? Store Worker: points to Remus and Virgil Store Worker: I believe they belong to you? Remus and Virgil, simultaneously: We got lost :( Janus: I didn’t even bring you guys here with me-

Janus, driving Remus and Virgil: So how was your day? Remus: We almost got surprise adopted! Janus: What? Virgil: We almost got kidnapped. Janus: Oh, okay. Janus: *slams on the breaks* WAIT WHAT?!

Janus: Sometimes I drink milk straight out of the container. Remus: The cow??? Janus: What? Virgil: Remus, W H Y?

Roman: Virgil, my old arch enemy. Remus: ... I thought I was your arch enemy? Roman: I have a life outside of you, Remus.

Remus: How's the sexiest person here~? Janus: I don't know, how are they~? Remus, flustered: I- Virgil, from across the room: I'm doing great, thanks!

Patton: Are you the big spoon or the little spoon? Virgil: I'm a knife. Roman, from across the room: They're the little spoon.

Roman: So, what, now I’m just supposed to do anything that Logan does? I mean, what if they jumped off a cliff? Patton: If Logan were to jump off a cliff, they would’ve done their due diligence regarding the height of the cliff, the depth of the water, and the angle of entry, so yes. If you see Logan jump off a cliff, by all means, jump off a cliff. Roman: You jump off a cliff! Patton: Gladly. Provided Logan did first.

Janus: I know you snuck out last night, Remus. Virgil: Play dumb! Remus: Who's Remus? Virgil: NOT THAT DUMB!!!

Roman: Fitness tip, never stop pushing yourself. Logan: Some say 8 hours of sleep is enough. Why not keep going? Virgil: Why not 9? Why not 10? ]Janus: Strive for greatness. Roman: Next time you’re working out do 15 push ups instead of 10. Run 3 miles instead of 2. Patton, from the background: Eat a whole cake instead of just a slice. Remus from the background: Burn your ex’s house down. Roman: You can do it. I believe in you. Thomas: There were so many mixed messages in that I can’t-

Remus: I can’t believe you live nearby, and you won’t let anyone crash at your place. Virgil: You people already know too much about me. Janus: I know exactly three facts about you, and one of them is that you won’t let any of us crash at your place.

Virgil: Janus, can I talk to you for a second? Janus: Yeah, what’s up? Remus: Lemme guess. You and Roman are having problems and you want me to teach you how to kiss? Virgil: What? No, stop that. I know how to kiss. I’ve read books.

Remus: In my defense, I was left unsupervised. Janus: Wasn't Virgil with you? Virgil: In my defense, I was also left unsupervised.

Remus: Okay, help me please! Virgil: Got two words for you. Janus: I bet they won't be helpful. Virgil: Your problem. Janus: I was right

Virgil: So are we flirting right now? Roman: I AM LITERALLY STABBING YOU Virgil: That doesn’t answer my question

Patton: Where are you going? Remus: To get ice cream or commit a felony, I’ll decide on the way there Patton: Can you get me a strawberry cone? Janus: Can you kill Virgil? Virgil: Can you kill Roman? Roman: Can you kill Janus? Logan: Can you not commit a felony?

Logan: It’s dark in here Patton: Don’t worry fam, I got this Patton: *Stomps their feet* Patton: *Sketchers light up*

Logan: So what do you do? Janus: I work in genetic research, and I'm currently trying to eliminate all Cancers. Logan: Wow, impressive. Janus: Then I'll move on to Leos.

Remus: Don’t worry, I have a few knives up my sleeve. Roman: I think you mean cards. Remus, pulling knives out of their sleeves: No, I do not.

Virgil: We went through an entire character arc during quarantine Janus: We all became more evil if you’re curious Patton: We're still in quarantine, don't worry, there's time for a redemption arc still! Remus: I’m going to get worse on purpose

Patton: Am I in trouble? Logan: Take a guess. Patton: No? Logan: Take another guess.

Patton: Oh just so you know, it's very muggy outside Roman: *holding in a laugh* Logan: Patton, I swear, if I step outside and all of our mugs are on the front lawn... Virgil: *Sips coffee from bowl*

Virgil: You kill people for money?! Virgil: Can I pay you? Janus: Virgil no- Remus: And all this time I’ve been doing it for free like a chump!

Roman: What are your goals? Thomas as Patton: To pet all the dogs. Logan: No, fitness goals. Thomas as Patton: To be able to run fast enough to pet all the dogs.

Patton: I've already sent good vibes your way… they’re coming. There’s nothing you can do to stop them. Virgil: This is the most threatening way I’ve ever been cheered up.

Virgil: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my paranoia. I'll wait. Patton’s Card: FAM - ILY Virgil, tearing up: Okay.

Logan: I actually have a black belt. Roman: In what, karate? Logan: No, from Gucci.

Remus: Am I going too far? Janus: No, no, no. You went too far about seven hours ago. Now you're going to prison.

Patton, motioning to a Halloween display: All these ghosts! All these ghosts! I still can’t find a boo. Logan: Babe, I’m right here.

Remus: You think I really give a fuck? I can’t even read.

Virgil: Okay okay stop asking me if I'm straight, gay, bi, whatever. I identify as a FUCKING THREAT. Roman, from across the room: You tell ‘em, babe!

Roman: You can de-escalate any situation by simply saying, 'Are we about to kiss?' Remus: Doesn't work for getting out of speeding tickets, by the way.

#incorrect sanders sides #incorrect quotes #incorrect sanders sides quotes #sanders sides #thomas sanders #virgil #roman #patton #janus #remus #logan

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