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islestea · 3 years ago

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Part 7. The hockey players and the madonna complex.

Hi, I'm back for another week and today I'm not going to talk about wags, but I'd like to tell you something that I've been thinking about for several days, it's related to the topic of women, I came up with a theory talking to a friend, I still have many doubts and of course I would like to know your opinions on the subject. Before I start I want to tell you that this is just out of curiosity, in part I am basing myself on many things that have been said here on tumblr so take everything I say with a grain of salt, I am just a psychology student who Many doubts arise and many theories arise, at no time do I have the intention of offending anyone or insulting or speaking ill of anyone, I only seek to share the things that suddenly come to my mind.

Basically I want to talk to you about how I have the theory that hockey players (or well, many men in general) have the Madonna complex, don't worry if you don't know it, I'll explain it to you later.

How did this thought arise?

Putting a little context of why I relate this theory, a few days ago as I mentioned I was talking to a friend who also likes hockey, her favorite player is Mat Barzal and she has clearly seen all the rumors that circulate here about his reputation with women, the islanders I think they had just arrived in Boston and fans went to meet them at the hotel, one of the fans had the opportunity to meet Barzal and told her experience on twitter and mentioned something like it had been very nice, he takes his time to talk with the fans, they talked for about 10 minutes, one of the friendliest of the team, he usually remembers you if you run into him on more than one occasion, basically she said that she had a very pleasant experience meeting him, and previously i have heard before very similar experiences from fans where they say that Mat is a very nice person and gets along very well with the fans.

Today while we were watching the game of the NY Islanders against the NJ Devils my friend sent me a link that I will leave you below in case you are interested in reading it so that you understand more what I am talking about, where someone who work for the isles organization says that after doing the media interviews, in the last game of the Isles which I think was against Columbus if I'm not mistaken, Barzal was the last to leave since one of the girls who worked within the organization had commented that it was her last day working for the team, to which he wanted to stay until after finishing to say goodbye to her and thank her for all the work and effort she had done for the team.

After seeing all this, my friend wondered how a person with a "bad reputation" could be like that, and the truth is that I also kept thinking. This is not limited to just talking about Mat Barzal, but hockey players in general, since they have more or less the same reputation. My friend and I also wondered how they can have certain attitudes towards certain women and certain attitudes towards others, and the truth is that at first I didn't understand it either until I remembered this information I saw a while ago, about the madonna complex.

Now what is the Madonna complex?

And to be clear, when we talk about the Madonna-whore complex, we're not talking about that Madonna…The Madonna Whore Complex shows us a dichotomy, designed under the assumption that those women who deserve respect, wives or mothers, the Madonnas or "Saints", are not seen as sexual beings. While those who are sexually desired are promiscuous, embarrassing and sinful, the "Whores". These concepts under the understanding that a woman cannot present herself with both qualities, she must be classified in one or another box because it does not show the possibility of conceptualizing a woman beyond these two categories. In Italian "Madonna" refers to the Virgin Mary, that holy, maternal, pure and beloved woman.

This idea was theorized by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, in the early 1900s through psychological studies of sexuality. Freud puts forward the idea that many men had difficulty respecting a woman in whom they could see their sexual desires reflected, while they were not attracted to one they loved or respected.

“Freud argued that the Madonna–whore complex is caused by oedipalcastration fears which arise when a man experiences the affection he once felt for his mother with women he now sexually desires. In order to manage this anxiety, the man categorizes women into two groups. Women he can admire and women he finds sexually attractive. Whereas the man loves women in the former category, he dismisses and devalues the latter group.”

I am not going to go into many details regarding the development of the theory but if you are interested in knowing more about it I will leave you with different sources at the end where you can read a little more about it, and understand a little more about the point I want to get to and if I get there to find some study I will also leave them at the end.

Basically the madonna complex says that the man categorizes the woman into two sections she is pure or she is a whore, he cannot see the pure woman with sexual desires but he cannot respect the woman who openly expresses her sexual desires. and you will wonder how all this is related, this is where my theory comes from, I started thinking about the concept of this complex and personally it made me logical, we could say that in this case the fans are "Madonna" I don't mean that they literally see them as pure and chaste, what i'm trying to say is that representatively they would be giving them this role by putting them as that stereotype of "purity", adding that in the end they are the ones who consume the sport and who contribute to them being paid and blah blah blah which reflected their "good" attitude towards them being friendly and very good people, compared to the women with whom they express their sexual desires, being women who share these desires are not seen with respect in the eyes of them, which in the same way represents the attitudes that they express towards them after satisfying those needs, which leads to the bad experiences recounted by the women themselves.

And that is what my theory consists of and for me it makes sense, I don't know for you tell me what you think, you agree, you don't, maybe none of this is true and I only see things where there are none, you tell me, I hope you like this post and make you think, again I'm not looking to offend anyone just open our minds a little more and the panorama of what we know, and I know many will tell me, girl, freud's theories have already been disqualified by many experts, believe me I know, as I told you, I am a student of psychology, but they are theories that are still present in society and although they are disqualified, I think it is not bad to know them either just to know the different theories that at some point have constituted this science.

And beware, this is not only applicable to hockey players, but I think it can help us to reflect on how society is working today, I use the players as an example because otherwise we will never finish talking about the subject with the infinity of examples where we could apply it, I believe that we all have positive and negative aspects and our environment is the one that decides which to focus on, my recommendation is always to question everything you see, do not believe everything you see on the internet, and then give us respect among all, above all. Next week I will be back with Wags I still have some things that I would like to talk about them, maybe I will put this on the list of wags I still have not decided.

I repeat as I said above I leave here the post that I mentioned that I read about Barzal in case you are interested in going into more context about that, and I also leave you some sources that speak in detail about the Madonna Complex.

Mathew Barzal showing on-, off-ice maturity late in Islanders’ trying season — Kevin Kurz, The Athletic

Definition of the Madonna complex according to APA

The "Madonna-Whore complex" and retroactive jealousy

The Madonna whore complex puts women un danger

Madonna whore complex- PennState

#hockey gossip #hockey tea #hockey #islestea

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deafeninggardenerpanda · 3 years ago

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The Kirby series as a whole for the fandom ask?

this is a good one! i was hoping someone would ask me it >///>

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:

tough one, i like a lot of characters for different reasons. if you really force me to choose though it's dedede and meta. this makes me look biased towards metadede however LOL so if you really really make me choose between those two it's dedede

Least Favorite character:

i don't have any least favorites, mostly it's just people i know nothing about. in which case its all of the animal friends and actually, just generally everyone from the dreamland games and 64. pyribbit is an exception to this however fuck that dude

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

- metadede >_> andd that's the only thing i really brainrot over but other stuff i like: - morphogala 🥺 - magoranza :) - chilly/burning leo. listen i blame my server and the starlight theatre novel for making me feel this way - meta knight/sir arthur from the anime. this is my crackship that i never talk about and never will talk about LOL. also ive seen more than several people hc arthur as meta's dad so im just gonna. hide in this corner by myself. its okay i dont mind - this is 6 but also on the topic of the anime, meta/knuckle joes dad is also good. mmmmmmmm angst who doesnt love angst

Character I find most attractive:

hahahahahahaha that’s classified

Character I would marry:

BUT. dedede. i would also take zan, those two are tied

Character I would be best friends with:

kinda hard to answer this. maybe also dedede? honestly anyone who i could just walk into their house and crash and dump stupid questions and convos on

a random thought:

i think kirby would feel like raw bread dough after the first prove. very specific, but its always what crosses my mind when i make bread 🤔

An unpopular opinion:

in this fandom... uh, i like the anime. fun to watch to take up time and if you’re not coming in expecting what you get from the games, lore and character development wise. it has its own charm

My Canon OTP:

no ones together in this series djkfdhg. rick and pick i guess? i think theyre cute

My Non-canon OTP:

this was already covered in the 5 favorite ships section so boom this is a metadede free space now. dedede likes to call meta pet names that are the names of pastries and desserts, but they get so ridiculous and specific that neither of them can take it seriously anymore. in fact, now its a challenge to make them as ridiculous as possible

Most Badass Character:

exact same answer as the favorite character question for this one. different characters are badass in their own ways for different reasons. but also meta and dedede again 🤦‍♂️

Most Epic Villain:

STAR DREAM. i went into robobot already knowing about the game and the plot twist for star dream but the reveal and the lead up is still so damn good.

Pairing I am not a fan of:

i dont super like saying, so turning this into another unpopular opinion question. i just remembered i had one that might actually be a hot take now. sometimes seeing all character dynamics reduced to traditional family relationships is tiring. like no i genuinely like it still but ah everyone being turned into straight parent/child relationships feels very strange to me. i dont really get it myself

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

taranza. i went into triple deluxe from already being in the fandom for a bit, so only going off his fanon interpretation, and i was surprised at how little taranza really did anything and that he didnt even have much dialogue. underwhelming, though thats prob my own fault, but i still feel like they couldve done more with him in that game. also in general hal, hal please let him move on oh my gosh

Favourite Friendship:

say it with me guys. fifth time. its meta and dedede. i am so sorry i am brainrotting over them so hard lmao BUT. despite my shipping bias i like their base friendship more than anything else. frankly, their relationship in general just feels more satisfying to me cause you know they had to go through so much bullshit and hating each others guts to get to that point. having to work to get to know someone you hate and get along with them cause the universe keeps putting you in situations that force you into it, then finding out you have more in common than you think >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> MMMMMMMMM

Character I most identify with:

prob my interp of dark meta. chill but likes to mess with people and be a minor asshole cause its funny. not saying that i try to be an ass but also i would be the type of person to say hey. come here. lean in a bit. bitch. and then laugh myself to tears over it

Character I wish I could be:

........zan. for reasons stated in the last zan ask. i care her 🥺

#kirby #metadede #im tagging it as that purely cause of how much bias i showed here #whoopsie #asks #anonymous #dgp askgame #oh this question list was way longer than i thought #i feel like im walking out a different person than i came into it with #literally i looked at the first sent of my ask and barely remembered i wrote it

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issaxcharlie · 4 years ago

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You are mine

Pairing: Alive! Luke Patterson x Fem Reader

Summary: Luke and Y/N have many problems and commitments in their lives and instead of solving them they decide to blame the other. Eventually, the fights end their relationship. Luke travels with Sunset Curve during the summer and when he returns he has a pretty clear idea in his head. He wants his girl back.

But it's not as easy as it sounds when the competition had 3 months to score points with the cheerleader in his absence.

Three months. Luke has gone three months without seeing Y/N. They have been inseparable since they met when they were 12 years old, never spending more than days without seeing each other. But the moment they broke up Luke knew he had to get out of the freaking town because if he couldn't distance himself he was going to end up the very next day at his ex-girlfriend's house begging her to accept him back. And the truth is that both needed to breathe and rethink what each one is looking for in their future.

Because although he’s head over heels in love with her, the truth is that both were in a moment of their lives in which they couldn’t and specially wanted to adapt to what the other needed. They had a lot of different responsabilities and things to do, it was just hard sometimes to add more to the list.

Which meant that she missed several of his concerts, that he was late for her birthday party, that there was no time for dates, that they didn’t feel supported. Many arguments trying to fix things that never came to anything because neither of them really wanted to commit. None willing to give in.

And then the painful but friendly breakup in early summer happened.

Bobby has a truck and the boys decided that doing a roadtrip during the summer performing wherever they could to earn enough to keep traveling was a brilliant idea to distract him and make the band known, and he agreed without looking back.

Things turned out much better than any of the four expected and they even had the luxury of traveling one more week, so they have a week of homework to catch up on. Will his relationship have ended on good enough terms to ask Y/N? Homework is not that big of a deal for him but it usually takes him a little longer to miss more than 15 assignments.

As soon as Luke opens the front door, his eyes fall straight on her. She is on her back trying to hang up some posters, but he would recognize that body wherever, from whatever angle.

His eyes immediately scan her wrist, which doesn't have any of the couple matching black-and-white bracelets they both used to wear all the time.

The first of many reminders Luke would get that day about his breakup with the cheerleader.

Y/N stands on her tiptoes trying to reach the height required for the poster, but no matter how hard she tries, she can't reach it. She’s just going to give up and ask for help when she feels some strong and determined hands lift her without any sign of trouble or doubt.

She doensn’t need to turn her head or listen to his voice, the strong grip on each side of her hips and his intoxicating perfume are more than enough to confirm who is lifting her in the air.

Luke is not playing fair. Y/N hears his husky and seductive voice as his lips lightly brush her ear. “I know you love my hands on you, but do you plan to put up the poster at some point?”

The cheerleader is shocked for a few seconds, until murmurs around them remind her that they are not alone. She puts the poster as fast as she can and instructs her ex-boyfriend to take her down.

Reluctantly she turns around and for the first time in quite a few weeks her eyes meet her favorite ones, which at least for the moment, are deep green.

"You can't do that, Lucas. We broke up."

He smirks. She only calls him like that when she's trying really hard to scold him even though it's not what she actually wants. She tries to look more determined and tough, but he can see through it all.

He decides to rest one of his arms on the wall, leaning just enough so that their foreheads are almost touching, and then smiles at her. One of those smiles that she used to classify as the most tender and beautiful sight in the world and that used to receive a light sweet kiss in return.

But this time, instead of a kiss, her gaze tells him that he is crossing the limit and that it’s better to stop. Neither has to say anything, she doesn't need to throw his arm out of the way or yell at him to move.

The two of them know each other better than anyone, and when Luke sees that expression, her wrinkled nose, her eyes lit with annoyance, her crooked mouth, he knows it's time to retreat.

“I’m sorry ba-” His gaze automatically saddens as he remembers that he can no longer call her that. He can see that her eyes also look a little sadder and duller after imagining what the guitarist was going to say. “I’m sorry Y/N. I just missed you.”

“Luke, look at this man. I've been here for 10 minutes and already 14 girls gave me their numbers to pass them to you! I guess word got around that you're single again.”

Alex and Reggie go blank when they are close enough to see their beautiful friend, since Luke was covering her from their sight. The guitarist turns to tap Reggie on the shoulder, and Alex decides to hug her to ease the tension in the air. Her hands are shaking, and Alex is not sure if from sadness or jealousy, but he decides not to say anything and keep hugging her, trying to make her feel supported.

“We missed you so much, we are not Sunset Curve without you.” Alex confesses loud enough for the other two members present to listen and nod their heads.

“I missed you too, boys. My summer was too peaceful and quiet without my favorite band.” The drummer lets go of her and Reggie replaces him by hugging her tightly, moving his arms behind her back silently asking Luke what to do with all the papers in his hands. The annoyed guitarist takes them and throws them away without thinking twice. Reg whispers "rude" and his friend rolls his eyes at him.

Reggie lets go and the four of them stare each other for a few seconds, none knowing what to say or do.

"Hello, sorry but I came to escort this beauty to her next class."

The fifth voice belongs to Cameron Green, who has just appeared in front of them and offers the girl his arm to intertwine with hers.

The perfect captain of the football team. Luke has known for years that the guy has some feelings for his girl, but he never had to worry because he knows her, she would never do anything that would put his trust at risk. But now, things are different.

She takes a step forward to accept the gesture and turns to see the boys one last time.

"I guess I'll see you on music class." She offers an apologetic smile, Alex smiles back to let her know it’s okay.

"But what about lunch break?" Reggie asks, after all, the five have been sitting together for years, they didn’t even separate when Y/N entered the cheer squad.

"I promised to sit down with Cam, sorry guys. But see you later!"

Y/N turns to look at Luke for a few seconds, as if waiting for him to stop her. But never happened.

So both her and Cameron walk until the band can’t see them in the sea of students. Reggie and Alex turn to see their friend, who has his hands wrapped in fists and looks totally crimson, his face irradiates frustration as he clenches his teeth.

“I prOmiseD tO SiT DoWN WitH CaM, fucking hell I’m out of here.”

“You are not going anywhere, man! It’s time for an intervention.” Reggie takes his friends by the arm and leads them to the janitor's closet where he pushes them and closes the door.

“The janitor's closet, really?” Alex asks and Reggie smiles proudly. “..Okay.”

"This is stupid, can we get out of here now?" They both return their attention to Luke, his face radiating despair.

"No. You can't keep prolonging this anymore. What did you think? That no one was going to try to date the most popular girl in school? Are you really so self-centered as to believe that no one would dare just because you are the ex boyfriend? Local rockstar or not, she’s a gem."

“Of course not, I just went into denial, I guess. All I know is that I miss her. I missed her every day this endless summer. I know the experience was amazing, but every night while I was singing the only thing I could think about is how much I wanted to see her beautiful dorky face in the small audience. The way she blushes when I'm singing straight to her direction and I send her a wink. The passion with which she sings each of the songs that she has been listening to over and over for years. How proud she looks of us as we give that final bow.

And it’s stupid, you know? Because somehow, I forced myself to think that having a girlfriend was depriving me of the opportunity to live experiences like that, to live my dream the fullest.

And what I ended up discovering when I did them is that my dream is simply never going to be fulfilled without her. As Alex said, she is as much part of Sunset Curve as any of us. And that now she has other interests or priorities doesn’t diminish how much she loves us and how much we love her, our dreams don't have to collide. And I'm a real idiot who took 3 months to realize it while I'm sure that fake dude was doing his fight to win her over.”

“FINALLY!” They both scream while hugging their brother. “Dude, I’m pretty sure she’s still in love with you, just act fast. You both have to stop being so stubborn and learn to give in for each other's sake from time to time. You cannot ask the other what you do not give.” Alex advises.

“I’ll win my girl back.” Luke smiles, hoping that if he says it with enough conviction it will come true.

The boys decide to go back to classes, by the time they are about to reach the lockers for gym, the other guys are already there and a lively conversation is heard.

“Man, it's not like I've been in love with her for years. I don't even know her. But stealing Luke Patterson’s girlfriend who is casually the most popular girl in school, is simply the step that makes you a legend in this small town. Not to mention that perfect body, what I would do to her if I had the chance."

No one has noticed the Sunset Curve members are present, and the second they hear him Reggie and Alex cover Luke's mouth and drag him out of there.

“I’m going to kill him! And before you say it, I don't care if it's the stupid football captain! If his monkeys hit me I have the satisfaction that I already gave him a black eye and I took out 3 teeth from him. No one is going to play or talk about her like that!"

To say that he is angry is an understatement. He is shaking with fury, moving in the small hall from one side to the other trying to calm the urge to slam his fist against the wall, because if he is going to slam it somewhere it will be in that idiot's face.

“You have to control yourself and be smart for once! he is the golden boy of the school, no matter how popular you are, your reputation as a bad boy is not going to win against his. Maybe not even with Y/N, she might think you're just fired up to see them together."

As much as it hurts to admit it, Alex is right. That clown has convinced everyone in the school with the idea that he doesn’t break a plate. While the guitarist is famous for skipping classes and playing clubs until dawn.

“And what am I supposed to do? I hope you don't suggest that I just sit around doing nothing."

Reggie takes two steps back in case Alex's suggestion is in fact Luke to do nothing. After all, he has to protect that adorable face.

“I’m not telling you to do nothing, I’m asking you to pay attention to what’s really important. Don't focus on him, focus on her."

He’s not going to say it aloud, but Alex is right, again. She should always be his main focus.

After his friends manage to convince him to take the peaceful route, Luke spends the rest of the day searching for the right words to say, but it’s difficult to find inspiration when every time he turns the love of his life is next to a jerk who is only trying to deceive her.

Not to mention lunch break, every time that idiot tried to touch her or get too close, the guitarist felt his blood boil. The only thing that kept him sane is that she politely pushed him away each and every time.

Reggie managed to convince her to come to the studio with them after her cheer training, just like they used to do last school year. The boys waited for her each time and then she accompanied them to their band rehearsals. Or at least they did before both she and Luke started arguing for not wanting to put in that extra effort.

Alex and Reggie watched as the relationship began to decline and the fights began to escalate. And when the breakup became official, they knew they had to keep the exes away from each other. The ex couple had never been apart and it was important for them to make their friends realized how much they want and love each other's presence in their lives. How lucky they are to have such a supportive partner at their side.

They never said anything to Luke but they could see how sad and depressed the guitarist looked without her. As if that spark in him was missing.

All day they were observing their girly who looked just as miserable, that special aura full of dull energy.

Alex had a theory that he explained to Reggie. When a relationship finishes going through that time where it feels new and recent, when you get used to the other as a couple, sometimes it is easy to take things for granted and not want to continue trying or giving the extra.

Sometimes you get lost in that lapse, and finding a balance is not easy. But when you love someone as much as they love each other, well, it’s easy to guess they’ll find the way.

So while Alex distracted Luke, Reggie ran to convince his girl friend to join them, which wasn't easy considering she already had plans with the football player. At that moment the bassist was grateful Luke was not around to hear that.

Once they are together, things will settle down. They have both suffered enough to know that without a doubt everything they have to do for the other is worth it. It’s time for them to stop being stubborn because Reg and Alex are not going to bear being in the middle for long. Those two can be insufferable sometimes.

So, that's how Sunset Curve ended in the stands. Watching her friend as the squad lifted her to the top of the pyramid.

Luke can't help but see her with loving eyes. He feels so proud of her, and that’s when he realizes he can’t remember the last time he actually told her, and that hurts him. She should hear those words every day, and if he is lucky enough for her to accept him back, that will be one of the first things that will change.

He's so focused on watching her, that he doesn't realize the football team is starting a fight just yards away until Reggie hits him on the shoulder.

Cameron pushes one of his teammates straight into the pyramid, which begins to disarm before the guitarist's eyes.

Some of her team manage the impact not be too strong, but she still stays motionless on the ground for a few seconds because of the shock.

Cameron Green kneels in front of her, Luke tries desperately to pass but two big guys get behind their captain to block him.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” The desperation in his voice indicates that he will do whatever it takes to get to her.

“Leave her alone already, Patterson!”

Reggie and Alex catch up with him and mentally prepare for what lies ahead, when they hear Y/N's weak voice.

"No! Luke, please. I need Luke."

The guitarist takes advantage of everyone's momentary shock after hearing her voice and manages to get to her side.

“I- I- I’m here, baby. I’m here, don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” Luke lightly caresses her cheek while examining her body, it seems that it was more the scare than anything else.

“I know.” She smiles at the contact of Luke’s hand in her skin.

“Yeah?” He asks almost in a whisper, he is hypnotized watching her. Trying with all his might not to kiss her.

“Yes, you are here. As long as we are together everything will be fine.”

“Is this your subtle way to tie me up again?” Luke teases while helping her sit up. The whole crowd watches them around the field. Cameron looking angry just a few yards away.

She laughs. A wholesome laugh, full of happiness. “Oh honey, we all know you never stopped being mine."

If there is something that turns him on, is his Y/N’s confidence. (And see her in nothing but his t-shirts but that’s not the point.)

“Right back atcha, baby.” He brushes his lips against hers while making that seducting face that she can hardly ever resist, but this time she surprises him by taking him from behind the neck and crashing her lips on his.

The people around them begin to applaud the show, and without interrupting the passionate kiss Luke puts his arms around her back and legs to lift her up and carry her away.

Reggie and Alex do a fist bump and then one looks for Y/N's things and the other for Luke's and follows them from behind.

"They endured a whole school day, wow."

"If we hadn't stolen Luke from her over summer they would have been 2 hours apart and it would have been the most embarrassing separation of all time."

"The two of them were going through a lot and they didn't know how to cope at the time, but now that they are both better, I’m very happy they’re back together, they are soulmates."

“They sure are, Reg. Did you see Cameron's face when Luke stuck his tongue down Y/N's throat? PRICELESS.”

Thank you for reading✨

Taglist: @writerinlearning, @ghostofmgg, @strangerthanfanfiction713, @thebloodthirstyvampress, @kinda-really-lost, @kcd15, @magnet-girl, @aliandthephantoms, @stxrkspidey, @pinkrockstar19, @s0uz4s, @shycupcakealissa, @cookiebuba, @fangirlangioma, @sageellsworth05, @twist3dtinkerbell, @sunsetcurvenotsunsetswerve, @caitsymichelle13, @ifilwtmfc, @luckylouiebug, @bibliophilewednesday, @totomoshi, @siennanoelle01, @lunashadow6955, @bookfrog247, @morganayennefertyrell, @kiss-themoongoodbye, @rachelle3musicals

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filipinoizukuu · 3 years ago

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I saw your post about the FA's translations, and I totally agree. Sometimes, when they do not translate accurately, is to make it sound better or cooler in English, but it just ends up taking away a lot from the context and characters. We know how one of the most affected character interpretations is Katsuki's, a main character, no less. And Izuku and Katsuki's relationship too, which is something super super wrong, considering is deeply intertwined with the main plot of the series, thus if someone misinterpreted their dynamic, this person would miss a bigass chunk of the message the story has.

Here is the panel you mentioned before btw

I remember when I read this, only 10 or 11 chapters into the manga (?), and I was like "...I'm...pretty sure this guy didn't say that" khshsjdhs

OK FIRST OF ALL LMAO HELLO MANG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND DW ABOUT IT I TOTALLY GET WHAT YOU MEAN !!

(this is your warning for a long post ahead!)

In any case, I still think you're very correct on this! Not to ramble a bit, but Horikoshi's particular talent in developing the plot of MHA is actually very very brilliant and there are a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss-it details that together, assemble the big picture of what MHA is.

Translations are such an integral part of being able to understand foreign media. MHA or otherwise. The simplest of details say a lot about a character and often times make or break a series because everyone knows that strong character dynamics are what carry even the shittiest of plots.

First and foremost, I want to clarify that because of the nature of fan translations and the fact that most of it is volunteer work/ written out of pure enjoyment of the manga--we shouldn't judge these fan translators too harshly (if at all) for interpreting it the way they want to. FA, as far as I can tell, is a fan-based group that works out of donations.

The first thing I wanna bring up is that when it comes to fandom and its works, there are two types: Curatorial and Transformative. Now, the transformative part is something that must be very familiar to a lot of you. Fanfiction, fanart, and most headcanons fall under Transformative Works (i.e. AO3) because they are all about transforming the canon world to fit each individual's personal preferences. Meta-analysis posts and Character Breakdowns are also classified under this.

Curatorial on the other hand are fandom interactions made with the explicit purpose of being as close to canon material as possible. This is working out the logic of quirks, for example, or memorizing as much canon content about your favorite villain as possible. These are more cold, hard undeniable facts that lend themselves to the DIRECT VISION the creator/author had while making this media. If you were to ask me my opinion on this, this would be the moment where I tell you that the Curatorial side of fandom is where fan translations should (for the most part) fall under.

What people need to know though is that oftentimes, fan translations do not.

Translating isn't and has never been a one-is-to-one process. There are hundreds of thousands of aspects in a language that make it so that it isn't perfectly translatable. Colloquialisms to sayings to dialects, to just plain-out words that don't have a proper English translation to them! Manga is made by and for a Japanese audience, so obviously in a lot of instances, there will be cultural nuances that will not be understood by anyone who hasn't immersed themselves in Japanese culture/language.

So what does this mean then for fan scanlations?

It means that a vast majority of translators teach themselves to only get the essence of the message. They take the dialogue as they understand it and translate it to something of their interpretation. When language and cultural barriers exist, translators do what they can in order to make it understandable to the general populace. This means making their own executive decisions on how they see a character speaking. In example, if they see Todoroki using very direct and impersonal Japanese--one translator might interpret it to mean that Shouto is stiff and overly formal, while another may see it as him being rude and aloof.

The problem is, translators are fans just like us.

Like with the image Mang posted above, the translator based the usage of curse words off of their understanding of Bakugou's character. The lack of foul language in the original Japanese might have made the translator think "Oh. There just aren't enough Japanese cusses for his character." And took that as an initiative to make Bakugou's lines more colorful and violent because this was working off of the image Bakugou had had at this point in canon.

But Codi! You may cry. Wasn't it proven multiple times that Bakugou prefers concise and short lines? They should've known better!

Yes. Maybe they should've known better. But tell me honestly in your first watch-through of MHA, did you perfectly understand Bakugou's character either? Did you catch the whole 'direct and no flowery language' aspect of his language when you first saw Season 2?

Most people don't. I only really understood this fact after I'd read multiple discussions of it and even double-checked the manga myself. These are the kinds of things that only become noticeable with a sharp eye and some time to scrutiny. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to fan translations, the clout and recognition are always going to go to who can post the quickest.

Am I excusing erroneous translations? A bit, I guess. It's hard for us to go in and expect translators to catch all these errors before release when we ourselves only catch these errors like 4 months in with a hundred times more canon context than these scanlation groups did at the time of its release.

Still, there are plenty of harms that come with faulty translations.

When a translation is more divorced from the original's meaning than usual, it creates a dissonance between what is actually happening versus what the audience sees is happening. This looks like decently-written character arcs being overruled and rejected by most of the readers because of how 'jarring' and 'clumsy' it seems. By the time translators had caught on to the fact that Bakugou was more than just a ticking time bomb, we were already several steps into showing how significantly he cares for Deku.

The characters affected most by these translation errors are often those with the most subtle and well-written character arcs. A single mistake in how the source material is translated can make or break the international reception of a certain character to everyone who isn't invested enough in them to look deeper into the canon source.

It creates hiccups in plots. Things that seem out of character but really aren't. Going back to MHA in specific, the way that inaccurate translations hurt both the 'curatorial' and 'transformative' parts of the fandom is that people have begun to cite them as proof of the main cast's characterization.

Bakugou and Todoroki are undeniably some of the biggest examples of mistranslation injustices.

Katsuki, in a lot of people's minds, has yet to break out of the 'overly-aggressive rival' archetype box that people had been placing him in since Season 1. One of the most amazing aspects and biggest downfalls of Hori's writing was that at first, nearly every character fit into a very neat stereotype for Shonen Animes (Deku being the talking-no-jutsu sunshine MC, Uraraka being the overly bubbly main girl, Todoroki being the aloof and formal rival). He made the audience make assumptions about everyone's characters and then pulled the rug beneath our feet when he revealed deeper sides of them to play around within canon.

What made this part about Horikoshi's set-up so good though were the many clues we were given from the very beginning that these characters were more than what they acted like. Even from the very first chapters, for example, we learn that Katsuki (as much as he acts like a delinquent) dislikes smoking because it could get him in trouble.

That is just a single instance of MHA's use of dialogue to subtly divert our expectations of a character.

Another example is when they replaced 318's dialogue of the Second User saying that Katsuki "completes" Deku with him saying that Katsuki merely "bolsters" him. This presents a different situation, as that line was meant to reinforce the importance of those two's relationship as well as complete the character foils that MHA is partially centered around. By downplaying their developed connection, it becomes harder for the MHA manga scanlations to justify any future significance these two's words have on each other without mottling the pacing of the story.

AKA, it butchers the plot.

With every new volume, there are dozens and dozens more of these hints and bits scattered around! So many cues and subtle foreshadowing at the trajectory of everyone's character arcs--yet mistranslations or inaccurate scans make it so that we don't notice them. This is what I mean when I said that some character arcs are being done great injustices.

Until now, many people can't accept that Katsuki Bakugou cares for anyone other than himself (much less his rival and MC, Izuku Midoriya), nor can they accept that Todoroki would ever willingly work by Endeavor's side. The bottom-line then becomes that because of people missing heavy bits of characterization that become very plot-significant in the future.

When it comes to the point where people can no longer accept or fit their interpretation of the earlier manga events to what is happening in canon, the point of a translation fails completely because it has lead people to follow an entirely different story.

TL;DR - Fan scans are hard. Translating is hard. Don't get too mad at fan translations, but also maybe don't treat them as the catch-all for how characters truly operate. Thanks.

Side note: DO NOT harass FA for any of these things. FA is actually a pretty legit and okay source for scans (they've been operating since like 2014 ffs), but regardless of that they still don't deserve to get flack for their work. You can have any opinion or perspective of canon that you want, I don't care. These are just my two (more like two million tbh) cents on translations. I suggest reading takes from actual Japanese audiences tbh if you wanna know more about the source material of MHA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#IM SO SORRY MANG I RLLY WENT ON A RAMBLE FOR THIS #asks #mang #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia

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spacemiddenzz · 3 years ago

Text

so i was watching @super-metroid's stream of Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass (highly recommend by the way) and she fought Imaginary Numbers this time. I guess I just wanted to share my thoughts on it, since it's my favorite boss and all. This is gonna be a longpost and it's gonna have spoilers so the whole thing can be found under the cut.

So, to put it simply, this dungeon is about stress and confusion. It's about Jimmy's mind frantically trying to comprehend the high-level math that Andrew is teaching him on top of his schoolwork. Jimmy thinks that his dad is the smartest man in the world- this is hyperbole for sure, but the fact that Andrew is quite intelligent remains clear. Jimmy looks up to Andrew because of his intelligence- and because of this it means a lot to Jimmy to be praised by Andrew. He wants his dad to view him as intelligent as well, because, if a man as smart as Andrew thinks Jimmy is smart, he can't be wrong! And hell, it feels nice to be validated by your parents.

Clearly, Andrew has already recognized Jimmy's talent with numbers and has started teaching him concepts beyond the second-grade curriculum, something that we see in the flashbacks in the Symmetrical Cavern. However if Imaginary Numbers' design is anything to go by, these concepts may be at or above the high school level. They're too much for Jimmy to understand. He's only eight, and his mind just isn't ready for that yet. Still, he feels the pressure to keep up with- and understand- the work that Andrew gives him. Why? Because he fears failure. He worries that if he admits to his father that the work is too hard, Andrew won't see him as a "smart boy" any longer- and that praise and validation means a lot to Jimmy. He doesn't want to lose it.

Let's start with the song that plays during this nightmare dungeon- Counting Backwards From Infinity. From the erratic bassline to the random samples of people shouting numbers in no particular order over and over again, this song simply screams disorder and panic. As a person who has always struggled with math, it's incredibly relatable. Counting Backwards From Infinity always reminded me of taking math tests in high school. I was so slow that I almost never could finish a test in a single class period. The frantic, wild bass and the cacophony of people screaming numbers out of order reminded me of trying desperately to remember how to solve a type of problem- and do it quickly enough so that I could hand the test in before the bell rang. I imagine that this is how Jimmy feels when Andrew places in front of him a concept that the boy does not fully understand. Perhaps he's had it explained to him several times but still can't fully grasp it (likely because, again, the kid is eight). The wild confusion and stress he feels when he doesnt fucking understand what's in front of him and doesnt want to look like an idiot in front of his dad. Even the name of the song is a reference to the fact that at this stage of his life this stuff may be an insurmountable task.

The dungeon itself is also set up in an incredibly confusing way. There's a bunch of bizarre-looking purple structures and winding paths. You teleport all over the place with no particular rhyme or reason. The enemies in this area, too, are deformed geometrical shapes that are almost Lovecraftian in the way that they cannot be understood. To Jimmy, Andrew's teachings might as be as comprehensible as a Lumpagon or a Squiggles, and that's definitely the idea that one gets here. The confusion, the pressure, the panic.

At one point in the dungeon you're teleported to a fakeout area that looks like the Path of Enlightenment. This is my favorite thing about the Asymmetrical Cavern, because of the fact that it has so many cool secrets, but also because it gave me a feeling that I could (once again) relate to. Jimmy's teleportation to the Path of Enlightenment isn't random. It represents familiarity in a sea of confusion. Jimmy sees something he recognizes during Andrew's lessons. Maybe he thinks that he's finally got the hang of it- that he's studied hard enough and now all of this jargon makes sense- only to be rudely awakened by the fact that he's been doing it wrong and never understood the concept in the first place. Even the secrets kind of hint at this. If you speak to pointman in this part of the dungeon he says "I am the blood of numbers leaking from your ears. The nails of ignorance are already being driven into your brain. What point is there in giving voice to madness?" (which is metal as fuck by the way)

Jimmy just thinks that his inability to understand makes him an idiot. His lack of understanding- the nails of ignorance- are being driven into his brain. If he can't understand all of Andrew's teachings, maybe he was never a smart boy after all.

And finally let's talk about Imaginary Numbers itself. First of all, it's an amalgamation of a bunch of different mathematical symbols, including a tombstone, a slashed epsilon, and a sigma. I'm sure there are more, but those are the only ones I recognized, honestly. Given that dreams don't really make things up, instead just taking things that you have seen/experienced before, it looks like Jimmy has encountered some... seriously advanced shit. Tombstones are used in geometric proofs. I only started doing proofs in high school geometry, meaning that Jimmy may very well be learning concepts meant for kids twice his age. No wonder the poor kid is stressed.

Oh yeah, also the boss sucks ass to fight. I've heard some people call that bad game design, but I'm not sure that's how I'd classify it. Sure, like I said, the boss sucks complete ass to fight and is almost entirely RNG-dependent. From a gameplay standpoint, this is wack as hell, yeah. Fucking 30% chance to deflect any magical or physical attack with a 30% chance to dodge a physical attack on top of that? Definitely bad game design. But from an artistic standpoint? Not at all. In fact, the futility of this fight adds to it. It really drills into your head that the only thing on your side here is pure fucking luck. And the odds aren't in your favor.

The feeling of futility- of the fact that this may in fact be, by all definitions, an insurmountable task for Jimmy, really struck home the situation. The battle would not be nearly as impactful without this. And personally, I'm all for it. Imagine walking into the Asymmetrical Cavern for the first time, not knowing what to expect. You get your ass handed to you on a silver platter by Imaginary Numbers after it chains Program Omega at you five times in a row.

That's the feeling Kasey wanted to give you. And it's critical. It's just... so perfect, I honestly don't know how to put it into words. It was supposed to represent the confusion and turmoil of a task nigh insurmountable. And it did the job pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

I know Jimmy is good at numbers and this wasn't supposed to represent a real struggle with the subject of math/the concept of numbers in general, but hot damn if I didn't feel seen. Except Jimmy is eight but I was like 17 struggling in precalc with the same shit. I guess we know Jimmy's smarter than I am rip

TLDR; andrew please stop putting unnecessary stress on your kid youre freaking him out

anyway if you guys have any thoughts about this boss or this dungeon in general i would love to hear them. but where im at its like 2 AM so im probably gonna it the mf sack for now. later dudes

#jimmy and the pulsating mass #jatpm #analysis #theory #my thoughts #longpost #textpost #nightmare boss #if i had to fight this boss in real life i would simply pass away #jatpm spoilers #jimmy and the pulsating mass spoilers #yeah

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sillybub · 3 years ago

Note

If cats ever comes back to tour United States again they should give some Asian actors the right to perform on the play. I would really want them to seize their of triumph. How would that work?

Hello Anon! Thank you for such a great question!

First of all, I HARD agree on wanting a diverse cast! CATS is such a great show for having actors of all different kinds of backgrounds--the diversity of the cast should reflect the diversity of characters within the show. I would LOVE to see Asian actors being cast, along with other actors of color!

Second of all, I sense that you might be talking about the racism towards Asians within the show, and how that can be handled. I am more than happy to address this VERY in-depth. I’m not sure if this is what you meant for me to do, you have provided me with a good chance for me to talk about my thoughts in-depth.

So, the first instance of racism we have is in Pekes & Pollicles with the infamous "heathen Chinese" lines.

I've about this before: one fix could be to replace the word "heathen" with any other two-syllable adjective. My favorite fix here is probably "foreign Chinese", but I think the actor would have to be VERY careful with what tone they sing this line in.

My personal fix for this would be to replace that line entirely with something more like "toy Pekingese". Same number of syllables, but we're talking about the dog breed now, and not an entire nationality. Pekingese dogs are classified as "toy" breeds (breeds that weigh 15 pounds or less when they are fully grown), and calling them "toys" would also hint that they're very pampered lapdogs who aren't actually that ferocious at all.

The Pollicle dogs are specified within the song to be Yorkshires, so I don't see why we can't call the Pekes Pekingese on top of that.

Now, more pressing is the Growltiger Issue, which is a little more complicated.

So, first and foremost, I'm strongly in the camp that Growltiger's Last Stand should be eliminated from the show forever.

My reasons for this are as follows:

1. Racism is baked deeply into the character of Growltiger. His song is all bout how he likes to terrorize Asians, original poem calls them slurs, and the entire thing just reeks of Orientalism on top of that. This should be reason enough to take it right out of the show forever.

2. This is much more of my personal opinion, and probably unpopular, but structure-wise, I think that the entire sequence is too long and interruptive. Growltiger's Last Stand in its entirely has a runtime of approx. 10-14 min. The only other song in the show of comparable length is the Jellicle Ball, which is a showcase of all the characters rather than just a very small handful. 10-14 minutes feels too long to focus on a single cat, who isn't even a real character within the show to begin with. The musical is interrupted to put on a different, smaller musical that feels vastly out of place from the rest of it.

Typically, an entirely new set is pulled on stage for the Growltiger sequence, with new pirate outfits for the characters. This is in contrast to the other show within the show, Pekes & Pollicles, where all of the props and costumes are repurposed junk. One of these feels much more authentic than the other. I have always LOVED the decision to give Pekes & Pollicles to Gus; the feeling of improvisation and unprofessionalism, and the absolute chaos of the cats feels much more natural and justified when it was literally an unplanned decision to help Gus relive his glory days as an actor. And since all the cats are involved in Pekes & Pollicles, it feels more intimate as well.

I'm going to expand more on my first point, now.

The Siamese cats are racist caricatures, and non-Asian actors wearing them should be considered yellowface.

Sure, they're supposed to be cats and not humans, but they are so obviously racialized. The masks feature exaggerated slanted eyes, and are very often yellow--hallmarks of a racist Asian caricature. In early productions, they even sang in a vaguely Asian accent. For predominantly non-Asian actors to don this costume, it’s yellowface.

Now, I recognize that the 2020 Asia tour has updated the costumes to be less blatantly racist. For reference, here is a typical Siamese costume:

(Hamburg 1997)

And here is the revised version:

(Asia Tour 2020).

As you can see, the color pallet has changed from yellow to blue, and there is much less Thai influence in the designs. In changing the design, the Asia 2020 production has attempted a well-intentioned effort to de-racialize the Siamese cats. However, these are still racist Asian characters being played by a non-Asian cast. They context of the song is still the same, even though the costume itself is different.

So, is it yellowface if an Asian cast plays the Siamese?

No, but it would be incredibly poor taste to cast Asian actors so they can play the Siamese.

The act of an oppressed group adopting language and symbols that are normally used against them is called “reclaiming.” For an all-Asian cast (especially with predominantly Thai actors) to put on their own production of Growltiger’s last stand could be an act of reclamation. I’m not Thai, and only have East Asian heritage on my mom’s side, so it’s not for me to discuss how Growltiger and the Siamese could be reclaimed.

Now, I’m not afraid to call out people’s racism (whether it was intentional or not), so I’m going to talk about a small controversy with the cosplayer Pixiedustjellicle. She had expressed interest in creating a Siamese mask to sell. She viewed the Siamese as the heroes of the story, and wanted to create the mask as a homage. That was a nice sentiment, but as I have discussed already, the costumes and entire concept of the Siamese are undeniably racist. What Pixie was trying to do is an act of reclamation, but since she is a non-Asian (and specifically white) creator, it isn’t her place to do that. (After receiving feedback about this from multiple people including myself, she has since apologized.)

Non-Asians should never try to put on Growltiger, and especially not white people. The Siamese were created and brought to the stage by white men, and there is no way to divorce the racism from their characters. Staging it is something for Asian (ideally with a strong Thai presence leading) cast and crew to do if they so choose.

Additionally, several different Asian cultures are referenced in Growltiger. although there doesn't seem to be much intentional distinction between them, which is why I label it as Orientalism earlier. The Siamese are referred to as Mongolian, for one thing. Additionally, a Siamese cat mauled Growltiger's ear, but now he indiscriminately hates all Asians.

That being said, the Siamese cats are the specific villains of the song; ie, cats hailing from Siam (modern day Thailand) in Southest Asia, which is a very different region that East Asia. It is for this reason that I place heavy emphasis on leaving it up to Thai people to reclaim the Siamese.

A few people have suggested a major re-write where the Siamese are replaced with the British Navy. I think that if you truly want to keep the racist song, that’s one option to fix it. Additionally, you could cut Growltiger and keep In Una Tepida Notte and The Ballad of Billy McCaw, who are fairly divorced from the context of the rest of Growltiger and have no traces of its racism within them.

I’m in the camp that it should just be cut forever, to be perfectly honest. Even if it wasn’t racist, I don’t care for it.

#I've heard fans defend Growltiger and/or the Siamese because Asian productions portray it #And by Asian they mean China Japan and South Korea #which are just three east asian nations out of 48 in the continent #but im not familiar with the background of those productions in regards to growltiger #so im not educated enough to talk about that aspect #its also worth mentioning that i have never had the opportunity to speak to a thai person about this #anways this post is about why as a general rule we should just not do Growltiger #Growltiger

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babbysquid · 4 years ago

Text

Not A Whiskey Drinker Pt. 4

Author’s Note: Okay so I got a bit carried away with this chapter but I couldn’t help myself so it’s about twice as long as previous chapters. This is where things really start to get more plot based so the story will really get moving from here. The way I’ve planned out the plot so far though it’ll be several chapters long so get buckled up!

Warnings: mild cursing, suggestive language, Jack “Whiskey” Daniels needs his own warning

Length: 2,586 words

Not A Whiskey Drinker Masterlist

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

“She almost broke the man’s arm Champ!” said Whiskey, phone to his ear.

“I don’t care. If you’re exaggerating this skill of hers she’ll be a liability.”

“She won’t be a liability!” Whiskey was seething at this point. Yes it had only been a few days, but somehow he had become protective over you. Seeing you twist the man’s arm back at the bar lit a fire somewhere deep inside his stomach. Whiskey heard a sigh through the phone.

“Fine. You’re training her and she’ll be your responsibility. Don’t fuck it up Whiskey.”

With that Champagne hung up. Whiskey was buzzing with excitement. With the combination of your quick wit and your apparent hand to hand combat skill you were definitely capable of becoming an agent with the Statesmen.

The ding of the elevator stirred Whiskey from his thoughts. Strutting out of his office he quickly caught up to you.

“Whiskey.”

“Mornin’ Y/N. How’s my lovely little lady today?” you rolled your eyes and shook your head, continuing towards your office. Along with your normal bag you had also brought a tote bag that contained some office necessities. After setting your bags down you pulled out an electric tea kettle and made your way towards a shelf to find a spot for it.

“Y/N think fast!” came Whiskey’s voice as he threw the mug that sat on your desk. You quickly spun around and caught the mug before it could smash on the floor.

“You’re the absolute worst.”

“Not a coffee drinker either?” Whiskey said, eyeing the variety of teabags you pulled from your tote.

“Nope. Coffee is a slap in the face. Tea feels like a hug.”

Whiskey gave his standard full body laugh.

“You really are somethin’ darlin’.”

“Out.” you said, ushering him out of your space. “Come back if you need me.”

“Ya know if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re the boss and I’m the assistant.” Whiskey leaned against the door frame as he said this.

“Whiskey…” you said with a grumble, trying to push him from the door, but the man wasn’t budging. Bending down he whispered in your ear,

“I am a mighty fan of switching up the dynamic every once in a while.” he said and you could almost feel his smirk against your skin.

“Out!” and you shut the door on his face.

‘I swear to god this man will be the death of me.’

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

The rest of the day was fairly standard. Random errands Whiskey needed, picking up lunch, sorting through notes, etc. The only difference between today and the previous was the fact that Whiskey kept throwing things at you any chance he got.

“So I organized these files and highlight all the—“ Before you could finish your sentence you looked up as a pen, a baseball, and a full bottle of whiskey were flying at you. Quickly you caught them all and managed to keep the files you were holding in your hands as well.

“Whiskey what the fuck?”

Initially it felt like Whiskey’s standard teasing, but at this point it was ridiculous and was getting on your nerves. If you didn’t catch the whiskey bottle it would’ve made a huge mess and you were most likely the one who would have to clean said mess.

“Wouldn’t have thrown ‘em if I knew you weren’t gonna catch ‘em.” said Whiskey from behind his desk, propping his feet up on the wood and stretching his arms behind his head.

You were too focused on the files when you entered his office that you didn’t realize Whiskey had taken off his blazer and tie. He was wearing his standard white dress shirt and some suspenders. He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows and you couldn’t help but stare at his tanned arms. You didn’t realize how much muscle the man had. You shook your head.

“Why do you keep throwing shit at me?”

“Oh darlin’,” Whiskey stood up and pulled the bottle of whiskey and the baseball out of your hands, set them down on his desk and leaned on the wooden table. “just testing your reflexes and reaction time.”

“Ginger was right.”

“Hmm?” said Whiskey, pulling his suspenders off his shoulders and popping open the bottle of whiskey. You stared as he brought the bottle to his lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he took a swig. He licked his lips and you felt a shiver run through your body.

“I’m waiting darlin’.” he said with a smirk. He knew you were staring. He had made sure you were staring.

“She said you were a character.”

“I have been called larger than life.”

“Uh, anyways here are the files.” Reaching out to hand the files to your boss, his hand met yours and once again the two of you froze. The only movement coming from the room was the rise and fall of your chests and Whiskey’s thumb making slow circles on the back of you hand.

“Jack I— oh.”

You immediately moved your hand and Whiskey took the files from you at the sound of Ginger’s voice.

“Sorry.” said Ginger, giving you an apologetic look. “Champ gave me some…” Ginger paused, looking for the right word. “updates — classified updates — that you need to hear Jack.”

“Guess that’s my cue.” you said, making your way out of the office.

“Get home safe Y/N.” said Whiskey giving you a smile. Your heart fluttered in response.

‘Stop. You cannot have feelings for your boss. Especially Whiskey.’

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

It was finally Friday after work and to say you were exhausted was an understatement. The rest of the week had been pretty straightforward minus some odd behavior from Whiskey. He continued to randomly throw things at you or ask seemingly random questions.

‘How quickly can you run a mile?’

‘About 7 and a half minutes.’

‘Ever got in a fist fight?’

‘No, but I’ve prevented some from starting.’

‘How flexible are you?’

That question you decided to ignore. There was one question, however, that kept replaying in your mind over and over again.

‘Have you ever shot a gun?’

When he asked the question you stopped in your tracks. Sure he was from the South so he most definitely had experience with firearms but you? Nope. Frankly, guns scared the shit out of you. Why did he want to know?

‘No. My dad and brother would go to shooting ranges occasionally but never took me. But if they asked I would’ve said no.’

You pondered his reasoning for all these questions as you took a shower. The questions could’ve been an attempt to get to know you better but they were nothing along the lines of ‘where did you grow up?’ ‘do you have any pets?’ or ‘what’s your favorite color?’. You were stirred from your thoughts by a knock at the door.

Parker.

“One second!” you called, stepping out of the shower and pulling a towel around yourself. You rushed to the door leaving a small trail of wet footprints behind you.

“You really had the audacity to knock while I was—“

“Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes.” came a thick accent. Your eyes widened immediately and you swallowed.

“Whiskey?”

“You gonna let me in darlin’?”

You were too shocked to do anything other than follow his request. Stepping aside to allow him to enter you shut the door behind you.

“Nice place. Nice getup too.” he said with a wink.

You were suddenly hyperaware of the current state of your appearance. Your hair was dripping wet and you were naked other than a much too small towel wrapped around yourself. Your boss (your very attractive boss) was in your apartment and you were essentially naked.

“One second.” you said, and ran back to the bathroom to change into the clean clothes you pulled from your closet before. Throwing on your sleep shorts and a large shirt you stormed out of the bathroom to confront Whiskey.

“Firstly, how the hell did you get my address and secondly, why the fuck are you here?”

“Firstly,” said Whiskey, putting his hands on your shoulders attempting to make you calm down. “I told you we did a background check. And secondly,” he guided the two of you over to your small couch and placed a plastic bag on your coffee table. “I brought dinner.” You narrowed your eyes and glared at him.

“What is it?” your voice still tinged with anger.

“Sushi.”

After a minute you responded.

“Okay fine you can stay.”

Whiskey took several boxes of sushi out of the bag and all your favorites were there. Your mind was doing flips to figure out much all this costed. Sushi was not cheap, especially from the restaurant he got it from.

“How’d you know sushi is my favorite?”

“Background checks.”

“Okay now I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Whiskey just gave you a smile and dug into the food. The two of you ate in silence. While scarfing down your sushi as politely as possible, it had been a long time since you had your favorite food, you observed the man next to you. He still had his black Stetson and black cowboy boots, but his slacks and blazer had been replaced by some tight fitting jeans and a matching denim jacket. The same camel coat he wore when you first met was hanging on the hook on the back of your door.

“Those gears in your head are turning darlin’.”

“Why’d you actually come here? I doubt it was just to buy me dinner.”

“Straight to business sugar? I do have to admit you’re not wrong about my intentions.” Whiskey pulled off his hat and sat it down on the coffee table. A hand went up to smooth his hair down and he turned to face you directly, a serious look on his face.

“As you’ve probably noticed Statesman Brewery is… different. We are a brewery but we’re also something more. First and foremost we are a secret independent intelligence agency.”

You choked and almost inhaled the gulp of water you were swallowing.

“I know it’s bizarre darlin’ but please don’t hurt yourself,” he said, placing a hand on your knee. “even if I wouldn’t mind doing some CPR on a catch such as yourself.” You gave him the standard look you gave him when he said these types of comments. “I wasn’t just throwing shit at you to scare you and those questions I asked? Bit of a verbal test if you will.”

“Okay now tell me the actual truth.”

“I’m serious Y/N.” his eyes darkened slightly. “You have the makings to be an agent.”

“And you think that because I caught some random crap you threw at me and because I can run a mile slightly faster than the average person?” you leaned against the couch, arms crossed. Whiskey seemed serious about what he was saying, but you weren’t fully convinced yet.

“You were at The Parking Lot on Tuesday.”

“Okay what the fuck are you stalking me now? More ‘background check’ stuff?” you said, making air quotes with your fingers.

“That was pure coincidence. Promise on my late mama’s soul.” Whiskey raised a hand and traced an ‘X’ over his heart. “I saw that ungodly man try to have his way. Was close to stopping things myself before I saw you twist his arm around his back. You were faster than a jackrabbit.”

“You saw that?”

“Sugar, the whole bar saw it. But even if the bar didn’t, I still would’ve. The second I saw you and your friend walk in, well, let’s just say I wasn’t interested in watching the football game anymore.”

Whiskey had been watching you. He saw you act fast and save yourself from that dick at the bar. Subconsciously you pulled your shoulders back and your heart swelled with pride.

“You showed him who’s boss.” Whiskey winked, repeating the phrase that seemed to keep coming up.

“Okay okay so let me get this straight. You’re some sort of secret agent, whose coverup is a business man in the alcohol industry.”

“So far so good sugar.”

“And you’re suggesting that I join this secret intelligence agency?”

“Not so much suggesting as I am insisting but other than that you’re right on the money.”

“Did you hire me as your assistant with the intent of offering me a position as an agent?”

“That, darlin’, was all you. You impressed me that night. Spoke to Champ and Ginger about it and convinced them that you’d be a good agent.”

“Champ and Ginger are agents too?” Your eyes widened. “Is Sara the receptionist one too?” Whiskey laughed at this question and your curiosity.

“No Sara is not an agent. Only a handful of people in the New York and California offices are agents. The rest of them are at the Kentucky branch.”

You paused thinking about your next question and looked down at your hands. You couldn’t help but fidget, anxious about how Whiskey would answer the next question.

“And what if I say no?”

“That’s not really an option.”

You swallowed hard and looked back up to meet Whiskey’s eyes. He had a serious look, but that seriousness slowly melted into something softer. Hope? Encouragement? Something else? He shifted on the couch so his knees touched yours.

“I have seen what you can do. You’ve got reflexes like a cat, almost broke a man’s arm.”

“He deserved it.” you grumbled.

“No arguments there darlin’. You have what it takes. Sure you’re gonna need training and whatnot but you’ll get the best of the best at Statesman. Besides, you’ll have the top teacher we have to offer. Me.” There was that million dollar smile again.

“Okay initially I was on board, but after hearing that I’ll have to spend more time with you? Kill me or dispose of me or whatever the ‘not option’ option is.” You jumped at the intense laugh that came out of the man in front of you.

“Darlin’ you’re breaking my heart.”

“And you’re breaking my sanity.” you rolled your eyes and started to put away leftovers from dinner. When you closed the door to the fridge you heard Whiskey’s voice in your ear.

“You haven’t said no.”

You turned around, practically chest to chest with Whiskey.

“Doesn’t really feel like I have a choice cowboy.” giving him a smirk. Whiskey reached around your waist to grab a pen that was on the kitchen counter. It felt like he was cornering you, but something inside you welcomed it. Whiskey scribbled on the notepad that sat next to the pen, ripped the page off, and pressed the paper into your palm.

“Pack your stuff for a week long trip. Meet me at that location on Monday morning at 6am.”

With that Whiskey turned and grabbed his coat and hat, making his way to the door.

“Sweet dreams darlin’.” he said, tipping his hat and closing the door behind him. You glanced down at the paper. His handwriting was much nicer than you were expecting. All that was on the paper was an address located in a really nice part of the city and a phone number. You could only assume it was Whiskey’s cell phone number. The only other thing on the paper was a small heart with a ‘W’ inside it. You didn’t want to acknowledge it, but seeing that doodle made warmth spread across your chest.

taglist: @absurdthirst @space-daddy-owns-me @agentwhiskeypussyindulgence @littlemissoblivious @agingerindenial @mack4676 @loveforminato @thats-one-tender-foot @xwingsandohs @purplepascal042 @harami-mami @nova646 @lesbianlena @computeringturtle @cassandras-nest

#NAWD #not a whiskey drinker #jack daniels #jack daniels x reader #jack daniels x you #agent whiskey #agent whiskey x reader #agent whiskey x you #pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you

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sz-amare · 4 years ago

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10. Creating Realistic Characters with Depth

For many people, characters are one of the most influential aspects of an anime. The same goes for me. There are many types of characters: the protagonist, the main cast, side characters, antagonists, villains, etc. Each contributes to the story in their own way. Making flat, bland, or boring characters can make them forgettable, and therefore, can cheapen the quality of the anime. It can also make it painfully difficult to continue watching the series. Here I will give several pointers on what I believe makes an excellent character and give examples from the One Piece-verse.

1. Flaws

When it comes to creating characters, I have noticed a general rule to make them great and likable. The audience needs to relate to them. The way you do that is by giving your character flaws. When I say flaws, I don’t mean random negatives about their characters, like when a shōnen protagonist can’t solve a simple math problem to save their lives. I mean flaws that can make them feel weak, directly or indirectly.

When I look at Luffy, many flaws end up making him a better character. The most fascinating one to me is Luffy’s childish nature. He is an extremely idealistic kid who dreams more than anyone. He, at first, doesn’t care nor understand the consequences of his actions. Luffy is also kind-hearted and always pushes his principles before his dream. He tends to scream a lot and wears all of his emotions on his face. Luffy is also a terrible liar. If I described this type of personality to anyone, they would undoubtedly think of a child.

This childish behavior is one of Luffy’s characteristics that make him flawed. There are also several times when acting like a child, particularly not thinking of the consequences of his actions, cost him severely. We have the time Luffy almost attacked the Drum Island civilians after they shot Vivi in the arm, meaning Nami wouldn’t get a doctor for her illness. The time Luffy punched the Celestial Dragon, resulting in him almost losing all of his crewmates (although in this case, I think most people would have punched Charlos. He deserved it).

And the most recent one where he attacked Kaido after “killing” his crewmates, which he ended up losing the fight with a single blow and ended up in prison. Luffy makes dumb mistakes. It plays perfectly with his character, but he is ultimately flawed.

Now I personally don’t relate to Luffy in the way that he is childish (I am the maturest), but seeing Luffy suffer from the consequences of his flaws and understanding that Luffy isn’t perfect is enough to understand that he is a human with struggles, similar to myself.

2. Personality, Psychology, and Philosophy

I think personality, psychology, and philosophy (PPP) are some of the most significant ways of distinguishing characters and are the source of a particular character’s general fascination. Every person in the real world has their own unique PPP. When you are in the world of anime, not only is everything overly exaggerated, but it is also unrealistic in all sorts of ways. With these two weapons, you can explore all types of themes, topics, and ideas. So when creating characters in an anime, understand that there are no limits to unique characters. Two characters can be very similar, but there should always be something to contrast.

Not only is PPP used to contrast characters, but it can make them feel more realistic if you can manage to connect all three along with their overall character. Let us look back at Luffy. First, we have Luffy’s personality. Luffy constantly yells, loves to mess around and laughs, loves food, is very dumb, is a terrible liar, always shouts out his dreams, loves to imitate his friends, and is a kind-hearted person.

Closely related to his personality, his psychology is that of a child’s perspective. Finally, we have his philosophies. Luffy believes that everyone should chase their own dreams and freedom, no matter how difficult it is to get there. He also believes that dreams should be achieved with the help of close friends. Luffy also believes that everyone is equal, seeing no one below or above anyone else. Once again, these views and ideals are somewhat childish.

Now that we have all the three major pieces of Luffy, we can fully understand his character’s greatness. All three of his PPP are connected with his childish nature. This makes his character seem cohesive, consistent, and more realistic. All of Luffy’s traits align with his character. Everything about Luffy is connected in a way that would make sense, like a real human being.

3. Contrasting, Paralleling, and Mirroring

This is one of my favorite techniques in creating characters. You can contrast, parallel, and mirror (CPM) many things in the series: themes, the plot itself, certain philosophies/ideals, characters, the list goes on. This one applies more to side characters, antagonists, and villains than the protagonist, but it can happen.

Now let us think of the antagonists and villains in One Piece that relate to Luffy and his beliefs and somehow align with one of the rules of CPM. Let’s start with my favorite, Charlotte Katakuri. Katakuri is similar to Luffy in terms of his devil fruit. But Katakuri is far superior in every way: his devil fruit is better and awakened, his haki is better, and he has more experience. Here we can see that Katakuri parallels Luffy a bit, but he completely contrasts in his ideologies and motivation.

Next we have Donquixote Doflamingo. Doflamingo believes that he is the ultimate king. He truly believes he is better than everyone, classifying everyone into three basic categories: kings, humans, and lesser beings. But even in this classification, Doflamingo believes he is on top of the kings as well: he thinks he’s a god. Therefore he believes he has the right to toy with the world, as symbolized by him making puppet gestures and physically controlling people, especially because he was mistreated after Doflamingo and his family left Mariejois. Doflamingo’s beliefs all contradict Luffy’s. First off, Luffy believes everyone is equal, no one above and no one below. This contradicts Doflamingo’s god complex. Luffy also believes that everyone should chase their own freedom, which Doflamingo believes he has the right to take away.

We also have Black Beard or Marshal D. Teach. Black Beard mirrors Luffy in a lot of ways when considering their ideologies. Black Beard, like Luffy, believes in the power of dreams and ideals. When we first see Teach, we see him acting like a child, arguing with Luffy about the food and drinks, and Luffy does the same. I think this is Oda showing us that Black Beard is practically and precisely like Luffy. Both of their dreams are to become the Pirate King. The only difference is their approach. As I mentioned earlier, Luffy wants to achieve his dream with the bonds he made with his friends. He doesn’t care if his crewmates are useless or not; a friend is a friend in Luffy’s eyes. On the other hand, Black Beard wouldn’t mind using money to hire strong “allies.” He even hires some of the most dangerous prison inmates. Black Beard is also crueler and is willing to do whatever it takes to reach his goal. If you pay attention, you might notice that Black Beard became a Yonko in a flash, simply because he obtained one of the most powerful devil fruits out there. However, we always hear Luffy saying that there are no shortcuts to become the Pirate King. In one perspective, they look almost identical. When you shift that view, you realize how much they contrast from each other.

Finally, we have Akainu. Akainu is the exact opposite of Luffy. Luffy believes in absolute freedom, while Akainu believes in absolute justice and control. Akainu would kill his own when they showed fear or opposed what Akainu believed was “right.” There isn’t much to talk about Akainu, mainly because we haven’t seen much of him. But from what we have seen so far, it is clear that Akainu and Luffy are complete opposites.

All these different villains are excellent and make clear antagonistic forces against the protagonist simply by contrasting some of Luffy’s ideals. But remember, you can also use CPM with themes on other types of characters. Take one of the reoccurring or significant themes in your story and create a character that uses CPM on that theme.

4. Connecting Character Ideas to the Story

This is something I love to do when creating my characters. Basically, I grab an interesting theme or an aspect in a character I want to explore and find a way to connect it to my story. There are many cases when I think of a fascinating character, but it wouldn’t make sense if I randomly added them to my story. So I just connect an event that could likely happen in my story to the reason why my character is the way she is.

One time, I was listening to a song, and the interpretation I got out of it was fascinating to me. It had something to do with abuse, insanity, and OCD. I really wanted to add a character that explored the ideas of abuse, insanity, and OCD to my story, and luckily for me, it was pretty easy to add it into my story.

Now my character (let’s call her Miku for now) doesn’t seem out of place because I connected her character into the story by creating a backstory that was plausible in the world I had created. She suddenly became one of my favorite characters I had created.

5. Consistency

I think one of the most essential things in a lot of characters is that they remain consistent. Of course, you can pull a 180 and make an Eren Yeager, but if you don’t want to change your character that drastically, make sure they are consistent.

Once you have created your character, make sure you fully understand their flaws and PPP and make sure whatever type of significant actions they take, it perfectly fits their character.

There were many times in the past when I was able to accurately predict Luffy’s actions and words. I thought I was some sort of genius at first, but I realized soon after that many others could do the same. It was when Luffy rejected his grand fleet where Luffy’s consistency became clear. After fully understanding that Luffy wants to become the Pirate King, simply because he wants to chase the ultimate freedom, why would he accept the grand fleet?

He doesn’t want to become anyone important, and he wants everyone there to chase their own freedom. This is consistent with Luffy’s philosophy of freedom and his childish psychology.

In conclusion

Following any of these principles can help to add intrigue and quality to your character. A regular human is complex and deep, no matter who they are. By following these suggestions, you can create characters with the complexity and depth of real human beings. Make your characters like Pinocchio. Make them strive to be a real boy or girl.

#anime #animelove #otaku #animeblogpost #anime tumblr #one piece #anime characters #katakuri #doflamingo #marshall d teach #akainu

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telehxhtrash · 4 years ago

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I know its a big debate but I am not a dudebro for thinking killua and gon are platonic. I have no problem with people who do at all, but I honestly just think they have a strong friendship, and I am for encouraging boys to have these types of bonds with each other ~screw toxic masculinity~ I like following your blog btw

Hi ! First of all, thank you for liking my blog! I’m glad you’re enjoying my content even though I’m killugon trash HAHAH

Oh lord, it really is a big debate. I’m not calling everyone who doesnt like a romantic reading of killugon a dudebro, only the people who are vehemently against it because they say people are projecting and that there is no basis to our claims that hxh is queer work.

This is gonna be me ranting for a bit because it’s a subject that’s very dear to me so i’m very sorry in advance, it’s not against you, just a general statement !

I totally agree that fuck toxic masculinity. It’s so fucking toxic and men should be allowed to show emotions, affection and care openly without fearing for repercussions. And having portrayals of friendships where the characters are not afraid of sharing their love with the other in a totally platonic way is amazing.

However.

There’s been countless representations of this type of relationship in media over the years. In every media, not only anime. I always cite the same example, but take Naruto who is the example that speaks to me the most. (ive never seen it so dont flame me if i say dumb shit). But from my understanding, Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship was a full on middle finger in the face of toxic masculinity. They shared a deep bond, pretty much like Killua and Gon’s. I know a lot of people shipped them because their relationship was borderline homoerotic, but in the end it was just a beautiful representation of a very deep platonic friendship.

And when you’re queer, it’s heartbreaking. Because you’ve been projecting this entire time, for the work to tease you, to literally bait you into showing you inherent queer behavior only for it to say “haha lol jk” at the end is fucking rough. Especially when you’re young and questioning your sexuality, looking at relationships between two best friends and thinking “oh, this feels like I feel when I’m with my best friend, is this romantic love?” and then the work saying nope haha its purely platonic ! its rough. trust me.

The community doesn’t have a lot of positive, healthy queer relationships to identify with. Especially in anime. Most queer relationships are labeled under the special genres “shounen ai” and “yuri” (both of these categories painting queer relationships in the worst possible ways ever btw, but thats a whole other subject). But it’s fucking sad. Because we deserve to see queer representation in works that are not classified as those genre. We shouldn’t have to dig into a particular genre to identify with characters : there should be queer representation no matter the genre, whether it be a shoujo, a seinen, or for example, a shounen battle manga.

And that’s why HxH is so important to the queer community. Because it displays just that. That you can have good queer representation in non shounen-ai genres. That queer relationships are normal and should not have to be classified under a certain category.

A lot of queer people identify and recognize HxH as queer work, because of a few reasons. Togashi has always been interested in queer representation, having put queer characters in every single one of his works. There was a trans girl in YYH, a trans man in Level E, Alluka in HxH. Togashi also wrote several gay characters in both of these works. I always repeat myself on this, but Togashi also wanted to write a gay sports manga, but was turned down. His favorite manga when he was younger was a shounen-ai. So yes, Togashi has deep history and is very involved in queer representation.

Togashi is also very fucking smart. Just look at all the metas people are producing every day about hxh and understand how much effort togashi has put into his work : he’s a smart man, who makes conscious choices about everything he puts in his manga. So when you see the way he portrayed Killua and Gon’s relationship, and for now most importantly Killua, you know it’s not accidental. Togashi has put SO much subtext in his work about Killua in general, from his birthday being Tanabata to him wanting to commit a lovers’ suicide with Gon, and Togashi KNOWS how it comes across, he’s not dumb. He knows what those things mean, he knows that a shinjuu is a heavily connotated word, and that people, ESPECIALLY JAPANESE PEOPLE who have the cultural context, are gonna think “oh, maybe Killua is gay”. Because that subtext is intentional. And there’s a lot of it. If you haven’t read my post on the subtext of HxH, I invite you to do so because there’s a LOT of it.

In short, HxH has the subtext, has the potential and has the one author that is not afraid of putting queer stuff in his work. That’s why Killugon is so important to the community, and that’s why a lot of people, especially queer folks, insist on the romantic reading of their relationship.

Because it’s extremely important to queer people. Positive representation of queer relationships in anime is hard to come by, ESPECIALLY in the shounen genre. And sadly, because our society is drowning in deep internalized homophobia, people easily dismiss queer behavior in media as platonic actions.

How many times have I seen people assess that two people of opposite genders in an anime are in love only because they looked at each other once (take Ponzu and Pokkle for example). Or because they held hands. Our society is so quick to romanticize interactions between two people of different genders, but fail to do the same when it’s same-gender pairings.

Straight people hand holding, kissing, blushing around each other, admitting their love out loud, looking at each other’s eyes deeply are immediately categorized as in love. But when it’s people of the same gender, people immediately say “it can be platonic”. And whether you’re aware of it or not, that’s internalized homophobia.

That’s why it’s infuriating to see people dismiss the subtext that Togashi has tried SO HARD to plant throughout his story. Because it’s there, and if Killua was a girl, there’d be way less people opposed to a romantic reading of their relationship. Because it’d be widely accepted that Togashi is writing them as a developing couple, no questions asked.

Which brings me to my final point (promise, I’ll stop ranting after this). Sadly, the voices of the people who assert a platonic reading of a relationship are often louder than the voices of queer people who identify with the work. When confronted with an ambiguous relationship between a same-gender pairing, people unconsciously tend to choose a platonic reading of the relationship. Which is harmful to the queer community, because the voices of the queer people who identify with the work are silenced.

In conclusion, yes, representations of deep platonic friendships without toxic masculinity are good, and very much encouraged. We’ve just had a shitton of those over the years, and queer people are craving for proper representation. Togashi is deeply invested in positive queer representation, has planted a lot of conscious subtext in HxH, and he’s the one author that would NOT queerbait. So people being insistent that Killua is pretty much canonically gay, and that it’s likely that Killugon will be a romantic pairing is not for the sake of mindless shipping. It’s because there are a lot of reasons to believe that this is Togashi’s intention.

And like I said, sadly, people insisting on a platonic reading of their relationship is unintentionally harmful to the queer community, because people are so quick to dismiss elements that make queer people identify with the work as platonic behavior, dismissing queer people as “wishful shippers”.

There are plenty of reasons to believe that HxH is queer work, and while platonic readings of killugon’s relationship are valid, it sucks that it’s become overbearing in the anime community, to the point where outside of tumblr, people literally bully you for thinking that there’s a possibility Killua might be gay and in love with Gon. (trust me, i’ve faced a lot of people saying that it’s disgusting to label killua as gay)

So yes ! Killugon can be read as platonic. The queer community is just very adamant about people not dismissing Togashi’s subtext because HxH is the healthy, positive representation we need. It’s a beautiful piece of work that has the full potential (and who is most likely headed this way) to display a healthy, loving, positive canon gay relationship between two of its main characters.

Showing that a shounen battle manga can feature a canon gay relationship, showing that you can be young and gay and what you thought was best friend behavior was maybe romantic and that it’s okay because feelings change and are hard to figure out especially when you’re young and queer !!

And most importantly showing that unlike every portrayal of deep male best friends relationships in shounen anime that turn out to be painted as purely platonic, sometimes behaviors that queer people identify with ARE queer behavior, and not just platonic love, but romantic, homosexual love.

#ask #killugon #meta #my meta #sorry this was literally me rambling HAHAHAA #this isnt against u specifically just a general statement #bc im very passionate about people not dismissing togashis subtext #and very passionate about queer rep

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justlightlysedated · 3 years ago

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20 Questions

20 questions, writer's edition, I was tagged by @lambourngb 😊❤❤

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

71! 70 for roswell and one for vagrant queen

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

468, 583!!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

not entirely sure tbh, but let's count now:

timkon, bandom, glee, specifically pukurt, but some other ships too, merlin, doctor who, torchwood, teen wolf, agents of shield, runaways, the old guard, vagrant queen, and obviously, roswell new mexico

i think there might be more, but i don’t remember rn

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

the cost of greatness, which i cowrote with marlo

a cure i know that soothes the soul (does so impossibly), the first pwp i wrote for this fandom lol

the person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger, which i wrote for marlo

for better or for worse (til death do us part), which i also cowrote with marlo lol

it might be your wound but they’re my sutures, which i also wrote for marlo

so the pattern im sensing here is that my most popular fics were written with/for marlo which sounds about right lol

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i am not sure tbh, i write some pretty angsty one shots and longer fics, but i TRY to at least give a slightly hopeful ending, tho now that i’m thinking about it, i think the angstiest thing i’ve written was that prompt fill based on the song, for island fires and family, i remember SOBBING the entire time that i wrote it (there is miluca in that one), but ALSO there is the fic i wrote in reaction to the season one finale, which also made me cry, which was called, we both know how this story ends

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

once again i’m not sure, like i said before, i try to give my fics hopeful endings if they’re really angsty, and i love me some hurt/comfort, but i’m not entirely known for writing happy, fluffy fics, tho i do TRY sometimes for certain people

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

yes!! i do love me some crossovers, and i guess i would have to say the malex, sort of doctor who au, i’m technically still writing for tove

8. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes??? but i’m not sure if i could classify it, like i’ll write pretty much anything within reason and if it doesn’t squick me out

9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

okay, so like don’t hate me, but no, i rarely, if ever respond to comments, i just don’t know what to say at all, like i’m the type of person that really wants every single message to be unique and special, but there are only so many ways to thank someone for reading your fic, so i just tend to post things and then thank everyone for reading afterwards, if there is someone that shows up often on my notifications, or if someone asks me a specific question pertaining to the story, then i will answer, i also answer back if i wrote the fic for someone and they left a comment, and if i’m sent an ask on here about something that i wrote, but i am simultaneously the world's most shy and confident person ever, when it comes to my writing, so i’m so sorry

this doesnt mean that i dont appreciate every comment that i get because i really do, im just super shy and awkward and i may write good-ish, but i do NOT have the same way with words in person

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not really?? if i have i don’t remember it, usually i’m the one who talks the worse about my own writing

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, the only kurtbastian fic i’ve ever written was translated into russian

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yep!! as y’all probably saw from my top five fics up there somewhere, marlo @bestillmyslashyheart is basically my fic writing soulmate, we just really click when it comes to writing

14. What's your all time favourite ship? to write for?

atm it’s malex, which is more than obvious, BUT before they hijacked my brain and made their home within my neurons, it was skimmons!!! i wrote fic for them for YEARS, even after i stopped watching aos

15. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i’m just gonna talk about fics that i’ve posted and haven’t updated and not any of the hundreds of wips that have never seen the light of day, my original witch au tbh, i just, roswell made maria and isobel somehow related, and just made me really uncomfortable with the ship, which is the main reason that i’m not gonna finish the fic if i’m being perfectly honest, there is ALSO that au i had where michael’s daughter from the future comes back to the past and she had been raised by alex, because of reasons that are petty, probably my space opera au as well, and only because i just want to write other things MORE

16. What are your writing strengths?

i think i’m good at describing things, especially kisses, i LOVE writing kisses, it’s one of my favorite things, that and my fight scenes are two of the things i pride myself the most on

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue, sometimes i feel the characters are ridiculously out of character, but then i don’t care because sometimes in canon characters are also ridiculously out of characters, also describing things, because sometimes i just feel like scenes don’t flow right, i am definitely a comma whore, and use dashes and hyphens in places they definitely shouldn’t be used, run-on sentences are my best friends, also english isn't my first language, so, sometimes the way i phrase things just come out wrong

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

tbh completely honest, i follow the nora sakavic method where you just write the dialogue in english like, “hey there love,” they said in perfect french, and i only break this rule if i actually know the language because just translating straight from english always makes things sound stilted and weird

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

dc comics, i wrote several timkon fics which i posted on livejournal

20. What's your favourite fic you've written?

oh, i know that love is all about the wind, how it can hold me up and kill me in the end (still i loved it), no specific reason why, i just love it with my entire heart!!

and that's it!! im not gonna tag anyone cause I saw that most ppl were already tagged, but if you want to do this just say that I tagged you!!

#thank you for tagging me!! this was super fun!!

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moons-and-stars-and-shit · 4 years ago

Note

It worked! Sorry to bug you with a message! But I'd like to request a cake now!

So, about me. I have an actual name but I don't think I've heard it in months😃, instead I have a bunch of nicknames! (Rion, ri, oreo, onion, o, etc), I'm actually nb so I chose that name, however I 100% consider naming myself Arson💀My pronouns are they/them and I'm about 5'5, I have short, fluffy brown hair that I usually dye the front blue. I'm Asian hispanic, but I really don't look like either- my favorite foods are either really spicy and salty or sweet. Not the overwhelming chemical sweet tho, like a natural sweet flavor. My personality type is infp, and ig when I first meet people I can be shy (that's an understatement, I was mute for the first week of school🕳🏃‍♂️) but once I get to know people I can be pretty chaotic (once again, arson). I'm not a 100% demon spawn though, I don't really like making scenes in public and I probably will cry if I do- but I still have fun lol. I'm also the person who copes with severe mental health issues using humor, to an alarming degree 😔 I'm the therapist friend when really I'm the one who needs therapy. I also have a social battery that can die at random times, so I really like/need friends who can handle random mood changes of me going from energetic to silent in seconds. Academically, I'm really book smart, I'm a tutor, but my grades don't reflect it. I tend to procrastinate a lot and avoid studying, usually I catch myself last minute or trust memory on tests, but every now and then there's something that tanks my grades. I'm not very athletic, but I still try to play sports. I enjoy the feeling when I do something right, but the rest of the time I usually beat myself up for messing up.

And now just random facts 😃👍

My favorite color is yellow, not the bright eye sore shade that makes you want to throw up, but the nice softer, light shade. And I like anything that comes with that color! (Sunflowers, flowy sundresses and flip flops, summer activities, burning concrete, warm rain, etc). Nobody knows my music taste, it changes weekly, however I usually come back to mitski/cavetown or summer themed songs a lot! I enjoy playing music, but I have the curse of being a fast learner so that usually leads to be being bored and learning a new instrument at any given chance. And my birthday is a weird date that fucks with zodiacs so I can be considered either a leo or cancer, my personality changes a bunch, so take your pick lol. (Though emotionally I tend to be cancerous, I just express it and show it in a way a leo would) And someday I wanna be a long term traveler, or a florist. Just a job that makes me happy :). And I guess if I had to classify my aesthetic it would be bloomcore or soft grunge. I like wearing big sweaters and if I could I would wear a bunch of butterfly clips in my hair and wear mom jeans. (I would also wear man crushers, I mean, platforms if I was confident)

Aaaannnnd that was really long sorry!

To sum up, I'm just a bipolar bitch with depression and anxiety 👍

Thanks a bunch for just taking the time to read this!

@oririon

Romantic Matchup

Bokuto Koutarou

How Y’all Met

IERJNDJS

I’m getting a classic summer love vibe from this matchup 👀

Ok so I just Hc that Bokuto LOVES flowers

So he would always just go to the local flower shop to look at them

Pls hes to precious I cant-

But anyways you we’re working a summer job at the flower shop

And you grew fond of our little owl boy

You would always talk to him whenever he visited

He just made your job that much more enjoyable :)

So one day you stopped him right before he left and told him he could pick a bouquet of flowers if he wanted

He BEAMED at you and picked a bouquet of flowers he always looked at whenever he came

But what shocked you was instead of walking out with them

He gave them to you!

He then went on talking about how he really liked you but didn’t know how to tell you

At this point he was just rambling

So you laughed and asked him if he would like to go to the ocean with you after your shift

He agreed and you swear you saw stars in his eyes

After your shift you met up with Bokuto and went to the beach

You guys literally spent ALL day there!

And even some of the night 👀

Being the gentleman he is offered to walk you home

And when you two got to your house he asked you to be his s/o

What They Love About You

Ok starting off with a strange one

He loves the fact that your favorite color is yellow 💛

He just thinks it fits you so well 😊

He loves that you have to ability to turn your trauma into humor

Now I’m ngl...

Ye found it extremely concerning at first 🥲

But once you explained it was like a coping mechanism for you

He was super supportive!

AAAAAAAA

He LOVES your aesthetic!

He thinks it’s so cute

And once again he thinks it fits you 👀

He appreciates the fact that your smart

If he doesn’t understand something in class

He’ll just go to you!

And honesty going over the material with him has helped your understanding as well 👀

Bokuto s grades:📈

Your grades: 📈

Favorite Things To Do Together

Oml he loves summers with you

Any summer activity

Beaches

Ice cream

Flower meadows 👀

Summer night drives

The whole shtick

But when it’s not summer

He loves doing classic seasonal activities

Examples:

Fall - Jumping in leaf piles, coffee dates, preparing for Halloween, etc

Winter - Snowball fights/Making Snowmen, Christmas movie marathons, hot cocoa/ baking, etc

Spring - Dancing in the rain, picnics, gardening etc

It’s a vibe year round with bf Bokuto

Random Hc

His favorite season is summer

And his second is winter

Ik...polar opposites

Oof

He TOTALLY gets your mood swings

Although they may not be the same as his

He still understands them and respects them

Every year on your anniversary he buys you the exact same bouquet he gave you at the flower shop

Speaking of the flower shop 👀

He got a job there with you the following summer

So you guys basically spent most of your days together

Bokuto is REALLY bad at dark humor

But for some reason he still tries 😭

It’s either TOO dark

Or not dark at all 💀

Astrology

(We’re gonna go with your cancer zodiac 😂)

When Cancer and Virgo make a love match, a strong, down-to-earth relationship with staying power is the happy result.

This is a relationship with great potential to get better and better over the passing years.

Both Cancer and Virgo are goal-oriented and disciplined.

They are sincere and devoted to one another and share a strong sense of purpose.

No lightweight love here: These two were not really built for flings!

Cancer and Virgo deeply admire one another: Virgo respects Cancer’s quiet strength and dedication while Cancer appreciates Virgo’s keen adaptability and intelligence.

These lovers may get off to a slow start, but over time, bonds will only grow stronger.

The Cancer-Virgo love match prides itself on common sense and strong principles over fluff and inconsequential or fleeting connections.

They enjoy the material comforts of life, but they will only feel good about their bounty if it has come as a result of honest hard work.

There could be tiffs if Virgo becomes too critical for Cancer’s easily bruised feelings; Cancer needs to understand that it’s just Virgo’s nature to point out what they observe, that it’s not a personal attack.

A Virgo may bristle at their Cancer mate’s stubborn streak, but it’s a trait that a patient and understanding love partner like Virgo could come to appreciate.

Also, Virgo’s urge to serve suits Cancer’s affectionate, nurturing nature well.

Their dedication to working toward the same goals.

Both partners in this love match enjoy a stable home life and nice things, and Virgo truly enjoys helping Cancer along the way to achieving their goals.

Their shared goals and desires make theirs a highly compatible love match.

Overall Aesthetic

Bloomcore 🌸

Bloom - Jesse

This Side of Paradise - Coyote Theory

Flaming Hot Cheetos - Claire

Mystery of Love - Sufjan Stevens

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu fandom #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu hcs #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu matchups #bokuto #bokuto koutarou #bokuto x y/n #bokuto x reader

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thelatelockdownlist · 4 years ago

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A Series on Series 02: Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling/Trinity Series

Hi! I’m Alex, a YouTube Newbie and this is The Late Lockdown List where I talk about the list of things I’ve got on my mind since the lockdown started. Today, on the second episode of A Series on Series, I’ll be talking about one of my favorite romance novel series ever:

Spoilers galore! That’s it. That’s the disclaimer.

So who are the Psys and and who are the Changelings?

In this world, there are three predominant races: the Psys who have powers akin to those of Professor X and Jean Grey, the Changelings who are shifters -- both animal and human forms, and the humans -- just humans.

There are two main changeling 'packs' in the series: the cats (leopards and panthers) - DarkRiver and the wolves - SnowDancer. As of this writing, there are 15 books under the Psy-Changeling series and 4 under its spinoff -- Trinity -- so named because they've included the other race: humans.

The series starts with Slave to Sensation

with Sasha Duncan, a Psy, who gets involved with Lucas Hunter, the alpha of the DarkRiver cats.

Sasha is a cardinal Psy. This means she’s very strong - literally off the charts strong, because their scale only goes up to 9 and cardinals are way over 10. But her abilities have not manifested. Her mother, Nikita Duncan, is a member of the ruling council. In this book, Nikita decides to enter into a sort of business partnership with the DarkRiver cats to sell real estate to changelings. Sasha becomes the point of contact.

So that’s basically how it starts. If you want to know more about the story, please go ahead and read it. I don’t want to tell you because that would be a disservice to the author.

However, I’m going to tell you what I love about this book and the books that follow.

I think Ms. Singh is a great world builder. There are a lot of familiar things about this world where Psys -- who are in the Marvel parlance, mutants -- and changelings -- think were animals but that’s oversimplifying it -- coexists with humans. She sets up the story so well without overexplaining it -- showing AND telling at the same time.

I found it very easy to dive into this world inhabited by the gifted and the supernatural mostly because their problems mirror a lot of what we contend with in the real world: corrupt politicians, violent crackdown of dissenters, prejudice against those who are not like ourselves… The characters in the story deal with these problems using their gifts -- ones we don’t have, but I understand their motivations and the decisions they make -- right or wrong.

It may sound trite but the human element in the circumstances in which the characters find themselves are very real and I couldn’t help but be drawn and just stay engaged the entire time.

So after finishing the first book, I hunted for the next and was completely gratified that it’s a series. I get to know what happens after and that’s amazingly satisfying. I also get to find out more about the initially peripheral characters in the book. And I get to learn more about what “Silence” is and why it’s starting to break…

The next books are about the rest of the packs with a smattering of Psys and humans here and there. The pairings are usually Psy and changeling. Down the road, you get human and Psy and then human and changeling. You’ll also meet the so-called bogeyman of the Psys: the Arrows. Essentially, they’re a squad of highly trained assassins, most of them trained since childhood. Fascinating bunch.

The last book in the Psy/Changeling series is Allegiance of Honor

which sets up the spinoff Trinity series.

In this book, we meet an almost one-year-old Naya - Lucas’ and Sasha’s half-psy/half-changeling daughter and the only one in the world - who can now shift. This is also the book where we find out just exactly how many ‘pupcubs’ Mercy and Reilly have.

It’s not all cute stuff, though. There’s an abduction attempt, a ‘righteous’ killing and vengeance. All through it, we see the lives of the Psys, Changelings and humans evolve to try to live in this world where there’s now a real possibility of all three races co-existing in peace.

Of course, si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. And there’s a lot of foreshadowing.

So I’ve mentioned Trinity several times. The first book in the spinoff Trinity series is Silver Silence

where we meet Psy Silver Mercant, assistant of Kaleb Krychek who is the former Councilor now member of the new Trinity Accord council. Kaleb and Sahara Kyriakus’ story is told in the 12th book, Heart of Obsidian

We also meet another changeling pack, the StoneWater bears and its alpha, Valentin Nikolaev.

In this book, someone is committing acts of terrorism against humans -- to start -- to undermine EmNet or Emergency Net headed by Silver. In the previous books, EmNet coordinated rescue and relief operations.

The three other books in this series deal with more of the fallout of the creation of Trinity. A shadowy organization called the Consortium -- which is like the reverse side of Trinity -- also made up of all three races -- that seeks to undermine what Trinity wants to accomplish. It wants to sow discord among the races so they can go back to how it used to be: Psy, Changeling and humans living apart and keeping to themselves.

I’ve talked about what I loved about this series, but I realized I left out one important thing: romance. Each book tells you the love story, either the start of one or the continuation of the ones you’d read before, of the characters. The dynamics of the relationships are different, especially among the changelings because they have a hierarchy: an alpha, his/her sentinels, lieutenants and soldiers. They’re also classified into two ‘dispositions’: dominants and submissives. The dominants are usually soldiers, but there are also maternal dominants -- ones who protect the hearth and home from within the hearth and home. In this world, submissives hardly ever hold eye contact for long against dominants, which makes for a power imbalance in a relationship where you’re ideally supposed to be equals. However, with mates -- like wolves, changelings who mate -- explained like a magical and psychic merging of the souls -- mate for life. With mates, the dominant-submissive dynamic is less structured. It wouldn’t make for a good relationship if the submissive doesn’t have ways to be in equal footing as the dominant. Here is where the human side of the changelings appear. The mating bond snaps into place only when both parties let it happen. It is up to the female (all of the major matings in this story are heterosexual) to decide to accept the mating bond. However, it is the male who becomes aware of the ‘mating dance’ first.

I may be explaining it badly, but if you’re intrigued, go read the books. Seriously.

One other thing I love about this series that I know I’ve mentioned but feel like I should say again: this is a world you can happily get lost in. The way it’s built is so intricate; the details seem to jump out of the pages. I feel so invested in what happens to every single character that gets introduced in every book.

Of course, I have favorites like Roman and Jules -- twin DarkRiver cubs who were introduced in the first book.

I find myself looking for mentions of the pups or cubs because of how Ms. Singh writes them. Imagine having a toddler and puppy/kitten existing in one body.

It’s difficult to choose a favorite, but so far, mine is Allegiance of Honor.

It has all my favorite characters and it’s a great setup to the spinoff. I was so relieved to hear about the spinoff because I thought that I would have to say goodbye to all of them. This way, I still see glimpses of my favorites while being introduced to new people and how they form connections to the characters that have yet to be explored.

That’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed listening to me ramble on and on about the Psy/Changeling/Trinity series.

The latest book, Alpha Night

has been out since June 2020. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next episode where I discuss Nalini Singh’s other supernatural/paranormal series, Guild Hunter series.

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frauleinjustice · 4 years ago

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Saiouma Prompt: Christmas Eve

Good afternoon, everyone! Merry Christmas! I wanted to do a short-”short” KJDJKFDKJFD- oneshot with the good boys! And of course: in one of my favorite AUs ever, phantom thief/detective, heheh....

Summary: Shuichi thought he was going to spend Christmas Eve alone, since he didn’t have anyone to spend it with romantically. But when he arrives home, he’ll receive a nice surprise: the phantom thief, Ouma Kokichi, there! And so, they spend Christmas Eve together, enjoying Christmas cake, exchanging presents... and just being happy to be with the one they fell for...

Hehe so basically, just wanted to write some cute fluff! As always, I hope you enjoy and thank you in advanced for reading if you do~! Once more, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you all had a great Christmas Eve/having a fantastic Christmas Day! 🎄 ♥

Tonight was Christmas Eve. Decorations lit up the city and couples happily strolled down the streets. Shuichi himself was currently heading back home while holding a bag containing a Christmas cake inside. It’d normally be very difficult to still find one during this time, but this was actually a personal order made by a baker. The baker was friends with the latest client Shuichi helped, and so as thanks, asked their baker friend to have a cake prepared just for him. He was truly appreciative, and couldn’t wait to enjoy it once he got home. In truth… he was going to spend tonight at home. He didn’t have anyone to spend it romantically with, and his colleagues were spending tonight with their own significant other/spouse. Not that being single usually bothered him, since he was normally a very busy man anyway, but even he couldn’t deny how nice it must feel to spend tonight with someone you love… “Maybe I’ll just bring any leftover slices to my job when we have our Christmas party tomorrow…” He mumbles to himself as makes his way up the stairs to his apartment building. Kicking off any extra snow, he takes out his keys and enters inside with a small huff of relief after finally being out of the cold.

He hangs his coat up and takes off his shoes after placing the bag of cake on the living room table. He then plops onto the couch and closes his eyes for a moment, muttering: “Ahh, warmth… I can’t wait to have some coffee…”

And as if his wishes were answered, a mug of coffee is placed on the table. “Heeere you go: eggnog latte!”

“Mmm, thank you, Ouma-kun…” And then the realization hits him. “-?!” Practically rocketing back up on the couch, he instantly snaps his neck to the direction of a certain voice. “W-Wait, what the: O-Ouma-kun?!”

“Nishishi! Surpriiiise!” Declares the man with his arms dramatically raised up before he sits down on the opposite couch and sips his own mug of coffee. It was none other than the infamous phantom thief, Ouma Kokichi. He had barged his way into the detective’s apartment while he was out. Not that it was the first time he suddenly showed up out of nowhere, no matter if Shuichi was already there or not; yet it shocks the detective all the same each and everytime, much to the other’s amusement. “Are you always going to be that shocked when I appear, Saihara-chan? You should hurry up and get used to it, or you might die from a heart attack!” He chides as if he were actually concerned, yet he had a sly grin on his face.

“A-And whose fault would that be?! That is not the kind of thing one should get used to, Ouma-kun!” The snicker he gets in response makes him pout even harder, huffing before he takes a sip of his coffee to warm himself up. He wondered if Kokichi had remembered him saying he was a fan of this seasonal drink one time, hence why he made it. It’d actually make him kind of happy, if so: and it tasted good, too… “Anyway… wh-what are you doing here? Are you not spending tonight with anyone special…?”

“Huh?” Looking at him as if he just asked a severely dumb question, Kokichi just scoffs at him. “You think I have time for cheesy crap like that? I’m not a hopeless romantic like you, Saihara-chan. Besides… it’s much more fun to torment you. So if you thought you were going to spend your precious little Christmas Eve in peace…” He holds a finger to his lips with a sly smile and leering look in his eyes. “Think again.”

“.............” Shuichi just gives him a baffled look before he hangs his head low with a groan. “Lucky me…” Despite his seemingly complaints, he wasn’t actually mad about it. If anything: he was actually happy to see him. It had honestly been a while since he’s done so. He couldn’t deny that he actually missed him… and while it wasn’t new for Kokichi to sometimes not show up in a case of his at all: at this point, he had gotten so used to encountering him that it felt odd whenever he didn’t. And now here he was, having made himself comfortable in Shuichi’s home. Kokichi wasn’t even wearing his usual white suit, instead wearing a purple casual dress shirt and black pants. His hair was also in a small ponytail, too. They often didn’t encounter each other outside of their occupations, so it was a rare sight to see Kokichi in regular clothes. Shuichi couldn’t help but stare for a moment, finding him handsome… and he found his ponytail cute as well, before blushing slightly and darting his eyes away when he caught himself looking so much.

Kokichi had noticed him staring and couldn’t help the giddy smile on his face, his own cheeks turning a light pink. He loves the thought of looking so attractive to him that he can’t help but stare. And Kokichi thought Shuichi looked just as attractive in casual wear as well, the detective wearing a gray sweater over dark blue jeans. He found him attractive regardless, in all honesty. Not just physically: everything about the detective made him grow more and more attracted to him. A man who can keep up with him, but can still surprise him, and even be unpredictable to the thief at times; those were things Kokichi very rarely found in a person, and while it sometimes frustrates him that he can’t figure him out… at the same time, he loves it, too. He never thought it would be a detective that fascinates him in a way no else does: and in turn, Shuichi never grew so fond of a criminal like he did for Kokichi. While he can still annoy, confuse, and irritate him a lot… Kokichi can also surprise him, make him smile, make him laugh, even assist him at times…. and made him even grow to enjoy their exhilarating chases into the night. He was just such a big mystery to the detective… one that fascinates him, wants to figure out more… a man that truly intrigues him like no other.

In all honesty, both had been scared for a moment. What if Shuichi came home with a significant other, if he had one? Or what if Kokichi was spending tonight with his own significant other, if he had one? Nerve-wrecking questions that went through their minds before they encountered each other in Shuichi’s home. Even if neither dared to tell the other yet, they fell for each other… so if either assumption had been true, it would’ve broken one or the other’s heart. But now that they know neither assumption was true, it was a sea of relief washed over them both. It especially made Shuichi so happy that he suddenly mumbles: “...I brought home some Christmas cake. I’ll bring plates for us.” Before walking suspiciously fast to the kitchen. He was trying to hide the smile that dares form on his wriggling mouth. He wasn’t going to spend Christmas Eve alone, after all… and with the person he secretly wanted to spend it with the most.

“?” Raising an eyebrow, Kokichi wasn’t going to let that slide as he waltzed into the kitchen, snaking his arms around the detective’s waist from behind. “Saihara-chaaan?” He tried leaning his head over to look up at him, which made Shuichi quickly turn his head away so he couldn’t see it. Though unfortunately for him, Kokichi had seen that smile on his face for a flash of a second, “Ohh?” An intrigued hum leaves him as the smile on his face widens into an amused one, drumming his fingers along the area of Shuichi’s stomach. “What are you smiling about, hmm? Is Saihara-chan that happy to see me~?”

“Ack…!” He naturally hit the nail right on the head, Shuichi’s eyes nervously darting about as he stammered out: “Th...That’s…! I-I, well, uh…. Th-that information is…. cl-classified!”

“Uh-huuuh. Sure it is.” That was precisely the reaction he wanted for his surprise visit. Shuichi was so happy to see him… it made him giddily bounce on his feet and his heart flutter a bit in his chest. Much as he wanted to keep teasing his flustered, whining detective, he is excited to eat some cake with him. And so, he lets go of him as he chimes: “Anyways, cake time! Better hurry or I’ll eat the entire thing, myself!”

“Ueeue.. o-okay.…” A small exhale to compose himself, Shuichi nods and also gathers a knife to cut the cake with. Kokichi decides to grab forks for them before they both head back to the table. Once he sets everything down, Shuichi takes the container out of the bag and lifts the lids up. He cuts them both a slice and places it on their plates. “This looks so tasty… time to enjoy.” When he takes a bite, he hums in delight, giving an approving nod. “And just as tasty as it looks, too! I love it. And to think I got a personal order from a professional baker… ah, because you see, the latest client I helped asked his baker friend to have an order of this personally made for me, as additional thanks for helping him out.”

Kokichi also gives a delighted hum at how delicious the cake tastes. So sweet and fluffy… he can tell this was very well made. “Mmm?” He hummed curiously when Shuichi told him that. “Is that so? Saihara-chan must’ve really done that great of a job, to get thanked like this. But you always do, don’t you?”

“Ah…!” The genuine compliment without the usual back handedness caught him by surprise. “Oh, th-thank you. That’s very kind of you to say, Ouma-kun…”

“Nishishi…” Kokichi just smiles brightly and nods before he continues eating. He truly meant what he said, too: Shuichi truly was a one of a kind when it came to detectives. Serious, intelligent, intuitive… yet kind, caring, and very passionate about his job. He was never one to resort to shady measures to get what he wants, and it was obvious that he truly cares about his clients, and would never be the type to give up on them. That kind of passion was sadly rare to find in most detectives and officers in general. Even if he knows the detective would be too modest to agree, Kokichi feels he truly is a great example that other detectives should follow.

For a moment, the two ate their cake in comfortable silence. After taking a small sip of his coffee, does Shuichi speak up as he asks: “I’m curious… how have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while, so that’s why I was even more surprised than usual to suddenly see you…”

“Mmn, I’ve been good.” He answers, taking another bite out of his cake before he continues. “I’m a very busy man, you know. I’m in hot demand right now!” Or rather, he had been busy with an especially difficult heist. Even for a master thief like him, stealing a treasure from a very heavily guarded, giant cruise ship was no easy task at all. “I was almost shot, stabbed, thrown in the lake… you should’ve seen it!” And while nearly getting stabbed or thrown into the lake was a lie…. He was chased down by officers and security guards from the ship as soon as he could escape it. Those security officers did carry guns, and had Kokichi not used his usual tricks to lose the police: he probably could have been shot at…

“I...I see… and don’t say things like that so excitedly…” He sighs. Though he was glad to hear he’s been good, and that he returned safely from his mission. He couldn’t help but worry about him at times whenever he hasn’t seen him in a while, always hoping that he doesn’t get hurt or worse out there… “And here I was wondering if you’ve finally been arrested. Heh, heh, heh.”

“Hmph!” He comically puffs his cheeks out, jabbing his fork in Shuichi’s direction as he rants: “Saihara-chan thinks he’s so funny, huh? As if! I lost them so easily when they tried to chase me: Boring. Only you can keep up with me, Saihara-chan. That’s why you aren’t boring.”

“O...Ouma-kun..." The serious look on Kokichi’s face as he says that, and the lack of the usual joking or patronizing tone in his voice… he knew this was something that, when said by Ouma Kokichi: was extremely special. He makes their chases feel fun: he isn’t boring to him. It made a warm smile form on his face as he looked down at his plate. “Maybe odd of me to say, but… thank you. I’m… actually kind of happy to hear that.”

“Good.” He was glad Shuichi believed him. It isn’t something he would even say as a joke, after all. “But aww…” Now that mischievous smile was right back on his face as he now decides to stand up and sit at the couch Shuichi was on, leaning against him. “Could it be that… Saihara-chan missed meeee~?”

“G-Gah!” He yelps when Kokichi suddenly sits next to him, quickly turning his face away. “I-I…!” He nervously darts his eyes around before hanging his head low. “.......” And instead of dodging the question again, he mumbles a quiet: “Y….Yes… I did...”

“!” He expected he’d get another ‘that’s classified’ as a response, which would’ve made him laugh: but Shuichi just flat out admitting that he did miss him makes him beam even more.“...Hah! That’s what I thought! You’d better had. And I guess… I missed Saihara-chan, too.” But then quickly adds in before he can get embarrassed, too: “...Missed driving him crazy, that is~!”

“G-Geez…” He playfully gives him a nudge, chuckling softly when Kokichi nuzzles against his arm with a snicker. Despite the rising heat to his cheeks, he looks down at Kokichi with a soft smile on his face, receiving the same look in return. Kokichi also missing him made Shuichi happy, too. Both truly had grown on each other, to the point that they can’t be away from each other for long. “Anyway, you nerd… let’s finish eating. There is something I… um….” He shyly looks away. “...W-Want to give you.”

“...Oh?” He tilts his head. “You got me a present…?” Inside of Shuichi’s bag was a gift he bought for Kokichi. He had bought it without thinking, despite thinking on his way home that he wouldn’t even see him: but he still wanted to buy him something, even if he knew that gift exchanging was moreso a thing couples did on Christmas Eve. An excited glint in his eyes, Kokichi nods his head and goes back over to where he was originally sitting. “Ooookay! I expect that Saihara-chan bought me something worthy of an esteemed phantom thief such as myself. ...Just like I know he will like what I got for him, too!”

“!” Shuichi’s eyes widened in surprise. “You… bought me something, too? R-Really?” Kokichi did have the same idea. Even if he’d normally find such things cheesy, he wanted to get something for Shuichi: something he will claim he’s sure will love, but in truth, hopes that he will. “I know it’s early to say this, but… th-thank you! I’m sure I will love it. And I hope you’ll love what I got you as well…”

“Mmmhm! It’s a gift from me, so I know you’ll love it!” He snickers, before his smile softens a bit. “...If it’s a gift from Saihara-chan, then I know it’ll be good. And that’s not a lie!”

“H-Heheh…” That made him happy to hear… After a while, the boys finished their slices and drinks. After taking a quick moment to wash the dishes, Shuichi places the lid back on the cake container and puts it away in the fridge. He then goes to grab his bag to retrieve the gift bag inside it, with Kokichi doing the same before they sit close to each other. “Alright, um… d-do you want to go first? Here…” Shuichi hands Kokichi the box inside of the gift bag. It was a white gift box, wrapped with a pretty lavender ribbon. “...For you. I-I know you said you expect it to be good, but I still hope you’ll like it…”

“Saihara-chan worries too much… okay! Time to see how satisfactory this gift shall beeee!” With that, Kokichi carefully undoes the ribbon instead of just tearing it off, since he liked it. He eagerly opens the gift box… before his eyes go wide. “!” Inside was a diamond tassel brooch. The brooch part was in the shape of a crown with gold accents, while the smaller end had a purple rose motif on it. Slowly, Kokichi holds it in his hands to have a good look at it, completely in awe. “Saihara-chan…. this is….”

Kokichi looked so amazed, much to his relief… he clasps his hands together as he explains: “Y...Yeah! It’s a diamond brooch. I figured that… since you love to incorporate fancy accessories in your clothes, you may like something like this. Since you’re a phantom thief, I thought you would like one made out of diamonds, h-hehe… and you seem to like purple, so I thought you would like the rose motif on the smaller end.”

“Saihara-chan… really put that much thought into it, huh…?” He could’ve just simply bought him any kind of brooch, and yet, he wanted to buy him a specific kind that Kokichi could especially love. That was just like him, he thought to himself: and exactly what he loved about him.

He nods, giving him a warm smile. “Mmhm…. I wanted it to really be a present that you will really love. If you’d ever like to, maybe you can wear it with your phantom thief outfit. Ah, actually: would you like to put it on? I’d love to see how it looks on you.” Nodding, Kokichi proceeds to place the brooch on his shirt. “Ohh…!” Shuichi utters a small gasp of awe as he takes a close look. “It looks very nice on you, Ouma-kun! I just knew it would.”

“......” Kokichi could feel his cheeks heat up. Shuichi thought it looked nice on him… even if he was a bit flustered, Kokichi was genuinely very happy. “Shumai… I…” And slowly, a bright, genuine smile begins to widen on his face. “...I love it! A very worthy and befitting present for me, indeed! Nishishi!” He exclaims happily with a laugh, rapidly nodding his head. “Mmmhm! I’m definitely going to be wearing this with my thief outfit from now on: thanks, Saihara-chan! You’re the best.”

“I’m so glad…!” It was music to Shuichi’s ears to hear how much he loved it, laughing along with him. He was truly relieved that he did, making the spontaneous buy all the more worth it.

“Now, it’s Saihara-chan’s turn to open his gift! Here, here!” He chimes excitedly, practically shoving the present in his hands. The gift box was brown with a gold victorian pattern on it, complete with a black bow. “Ahh, such pretty wrapping paper and bow… alright, let’s see…!” After carefully undoing the wrapping paper and taking off the ribbon, Shuichi opens it. “!!!!” And seeing what was inside, he nearly dropped the lid of the box in shock. “O...Oh! Th-This is-!!” Inside the box was a mystery novel. Not only that, but it was an incredibly rare first edition of the book. “This is a… first edition! And from such an esteemed author such as this… normally you’d have to pay an arm and a leg for this, wouldn’t you?”

Kokichi’s face lit up when seeing how instantly excited and surprised Shuichi was. “Riiight~? But that’s not all: open it to the very first page.”

“Ah?” A curious head tilt, Shuichi does as told and opens it to the first page. “!!!” He gasps when seeing that the author’s signature was on it. “I-It even has the author’s signature on it, too?! Ah..!!” This was not only one of Shuichi’s most favorite authors, but they were considered to be one of the best mystery novel writers out there. So to have not only a first edition of their, but also their signature: saying Shuichi loved would be a great understatement. This was something he was going to absolutely treasure. “This is like a dream come true… I adore this author’s works. And now I have a first edition of their book… and their signature, too! I can’t believe it!”

“Nishishi! Dork!” He teases, but seeing Shuichi’s growing excitement as he observes his present was so adoring to see, he found him so cute. Even if he was sure Shuichi would love it… it still relieved him to see he truly does. “I knew Saihara-chan would love it! Better not tell anyone about it, cause I stole it: but that’s a lie. I was a good boy and got it legitimately with help from some goood buddies of mine with connections! I personally had the author give me this signature. This wasn’t easy to nab, you know: so you’d better appreciate it!”

Just as he was about to panic at his lie, he playfully rolls his eyes before nodding his head. “Of...of course! I’m very appreciative, Ouma-kun, th-thank you so much! This is the best kind of present I could ever get..!” He gives a thankful bow of his head. “I promise to take great care of it.”

“Good, good!” He trusts that he will, so Kokichi didn’t have to worry. He was also going to take great care of the brooch Shuichi got for him, too. He couldn’t wait for the next chance to wear it with his thief outfit. Once they take a moment to safely put their gifts away, Kokichi runs back over to Shuichi and glomps him back down on the couch. “Saihara-chaaan!”

“W-Woah!” Shuichi let out a surprise yelp when he was glomped down to the couch: but quickly after, starts laughing and wraps his around him in turn. “H-Hahah, Ouma-kun!”

“Hehehe!” They roll around a bit on the couch, laughing and smiling together so happily. Tonight was going so wonderfully… both were just having the time of their lives. Once they calmed down a bit, Kokichi rests his head against Shuichi’s chest. The sound of his heart beating calmly was soothing to his ears... “Tonight was fun… Saihara-chan always knows how to keep me entertained.”

“Eheheh…” His hand lies gently on Kokichi’s back. Slowly, he dares to give it soft rubs. “I’m very happy to hear that, Ouma-kun. Tonight was really fun with you as well. And here I thought… I was just going to be spending it alone. I’m happy I didn’t: and I’m especially that… I could spend tonight with you, Ouma-kun.”

“Sh...Shumai…” He buries his face more into his chest, uttering a very quiet whine into it. He’s glad Shuichi wouldn’t be able to see the rising heat to his cheeks. “S...So sappy, sh-sheesh….You’d better be careful saying things like that. I may just get the wrong idea…” He whispers in a sultry tone, slowly circling his finger around the center of Shuichi’s chest.

“O-Oh...I...uh….” He stumbles on his words. Kokichi could hear his heartbeat suddenly become faster, which made him snicker. “Aww, don’t die on me, Mr. Detective~! Or else your heart will pop right out of your chest!”

“Uueuueue! Y-You are the worst, sometimes!” He whines, giving his back a harmless smack before he buries his face in his hands.

“Nisishi! Sowwy~!” He laughs, definitely not being sorry as he hops back up to his feet. “Anywaaay! I’d best get going. I tormented Saihara-chan a satisfactory amount tonight!”

“Ah?” Moving his hands away from his face, he sits up properly before looking up at him. “You’re leaving already…?”

“Yep! I’m a very busy man, you know. I’ve got lots of mayhem to commence tomorrow, so I need my beauty sleep!” In other words, he was going to have his own Christmas party with his crew. It’s why he was really hoping he could have fun with Shuichi tonight, happy that he did. Now, he’d be able to really have some fun tomorrow without any regrets.

“D-Don’t cause too much trouble, now…” He smiles sheepishly, before he gives a small nod. A part of him wishes he could stay just a bit longer, but he understands he’ll be busy having fun tomorrow. That, and he’ll need to rest up soon for the Christmas party he’ll be going to with his colleagues, himself. “I hope you’ll have a fun Christmas day tomorrow, then. And, ah… thank you for tonight. I had a lot of fun… and thank you once more for the gift, too! I can’t wait to read it later.”

“Noo promises!” He snickers, walking over to where his stuff is. His gift was already put away in his bag, closing it back up. “Thanks, Saihara-chan! I totes will: and you’d better make sure to do the same!” He takes a moment to put on his coat, scarf, and shoes before looking back at him with a smile. “Mmn! Me too. I’m glad you love your gift. Just don’t go “accidentally” pulling an all nighter because you couldn’t put the book down again, nerd!” He teasingly ‘scolds’ with a point of his finger, laughing before his smile softens. “...And your present was nice, too. I’ll make sure it looks eeeextra good on me when you chase me into the night! And I still… have the most important treasure of all to continue pursuing.”

He just playfully swats a hand in the air when he calls him out like that, chuckling softly with a warm smile. “Thank you, Ouma-kun… I’m happy you also had fun, and that you loved your present. Hehe, well I guess I’d better be prepared for the next time I’ll have to chase you down, then.” Though the last part makes him tilt his head in curiosity. “The... most important treasure?”

“Nishishi…” A glint in his eyes, Kokichi slowly makes his way to him. “As clueless as always… you should know more than anyone what I’m talking about.”

“...Huh?” Shuichi didn't understand what he meant at all… but when Kokichi suddenly stood in front of where he was sitting, before he started to straddle his lap- “-!” A choked gasp leaves him as Kokichi slowly wraps his arms around his neck, pressing his chest up against his. “Wh….Wh-Wha… What are y...”

He chuckles under his breath at the detective’s flustered confusion, ignoring his own rapidly beating heart. “...You still don’t get it? Geez…. I have to do everything myself, don’t I?”

“D...Do what? What are you talking abou…” But before Shuichi could finish getting that out… Kokichi leaned his face in closer, and closer… until ultimately silencing the detective with a kiss. “Mmn-!” His eyes widen and he freezes in place. Kokichi was kissing him. His lips pressed softly against his own… The further he registered that, the more he felt as if his heart was going to burst out of his chest, and his mind going a mile a minute. But despite being so confused… he didn’t dislike this at all. Kokichi’s lips felt so nice, so soft… and before he knew it, he found himself wanting to indulge, just a bit more… and presses his lips firmer against Kokichi’s, deepening it just a bit.

“....!” Kokichi felt him deepen the kiss just slightly, making a soft gasp vibrate through him. Even if he was the one that dared to initiate the kiss, he felt like he was going to explode if it became more intense. So quickly, even if reluctantly… he breaks away. “Nishi...shishi….” Despite how heated his cheeks were, he has a leering smile on his face, chuckling breathlessly as he gives him an intense look. “The most important treasure I have yet to steal…. that I so dearly want. Is…” He pauses, slowly trailing the finger he pressed against his chest.. Right down to the area over his heart. With a light tap, he leans in much closer again to whisper: “Your. Heart.”

“............” Shuichi couldn’t even form words. He just stares at him with wide eyes, being so red that steam could shoot out of his head. He was already dying so badly from this: but this officially killed him. “I...wah...uuwaaahh….”

“Oopsie! I think I just murdered Saihara-chan!” Despite his teasing comment, Kokichi was dying just as badly, wanting to quickly hide that as he climbed off of him and walked over to hoist up his bag and head towards the door. “Welp, I’m out of here! See you later, Saihara-chan! Tonight was not boring at all, thanks to my beloved detective. Merry Christmas~!” And with a wave and a snicker, he exits out of the house.

“B...Bye… I’m glad you had fun. M-Merry Christmas to you, too…” Is what he manages to get out before Kokichi leaves. “.....” He holds a hand to his heart while the other hovers above his lips. He still couldn’t believe Kokichi kissed him… and that he leaned into it. “St...Stupid Ouma-kun...” He mumbles to himself. “...You’ve already stolen it.”

#Shuichi Saihara #Kokichi Ouma #saiouma #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #Kay's writings

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