#what a lovely ask really brings me back to my fictionalized version of middle school where anime was cool | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

heloflor · 3 years ago

Photo

So, given that I didn’t have much time to work on fics recently because school, I’ve decided to relieve some stress by making a random representation of how I imagine Cavendish and Dakota’s house in their time-period looks like. And since I have no plans to ever describe it in detail in a fic, here it is ! Though, given how bad I am with designs, showing the house is mostly an excuse to infodump on domestic headcanons.

Regarding the last names, I didn’t make a typo for Cav. I like to imagine the two getting married way before the events of the show, with Cav taking “Dakota” as a last name, mostly because he got several siblings in-law on the Dakota side who adopted him on the spot.

And about the representation of the house : yeah it looks like shit. Since I can’t draw, I’ve decided to do something rather quick using MSPaint but yeah, not the best thing in the world. Though, if I get back to playing the Sims 3 at some point and end up making a Dwampyverse savefile, I’ll most likely try to recreate that house and could share a few pics.

I also went with a rectangular house with one floor instead of some futuristic-looking thing, mostly because I have no imagination when it comes to design. Though, you could still use the excuse that they want something more “old-timey” given their job or that they don’t have all the money of the world so they chose a simple house for the small cost. But yeah, by the end of the day, the choice is mostly because I can’t design shit.

But still one thing in my defense : looking at episodes that take place in the future like “Missing Milo” or “First Impressions”, it seems that most buildings are square-y with the roof being the weirdly-shaped part, with B.O.T.T. being one of the few exceptions. And looking at “A Christmas Peril”, the buildings are definitely more wacky but it’s 20 years later so…

I could also mention that I’m a bit unsatisfied with how empty the living-room and the bedroom ended up being but I’m drawing a total blank when trying to come up with the kind of stuff Vinnie and Balth would have that are linked to their interests. Though, maybe the excuse of them not being often at the house works ? Idk. Let’s just say I have ideas for the “basic” stuff, aka what you find in basically every single middle-class house, but draw a complete blank for anything that’s decorative. Still posting a map of the house tho because I don’t really consider it a work in progress if I simply have no idea and may never do. I’m very bad at design so bear with me on that one ! It’s not only about the house, it’s also about the fluffy headcanons !

So here’s under the cut some random info about the look of the rooms and furniture + a bunch of headcanons regarding Vinnie and Balth’s lives in this house. For each part of the house, you first have the info about how it looks first and then the headcanons.

Those headcanons are made with the idea that Vinnie and Balth are married (duh) but also, for a few, that Vinnie has three siblings + a few in-laws that he has a good relationship with.

(very long post ahead)

General :

- They bought the house in 2162, 2 years after getting married.

- It’s in the suburbs, or at least what the future version of the suburbs would look like. In other words, the presence of a backyard is debatable.

- There could be a garage for their time vehicle, so that they don’t have to go to headquarters every single day. And if not an actual garage, there’s at least some space to put it. In both cases, it would be near the bedroom’s side of the house.

- While the walls outside would have that futuristic “metallic” look, the walls inside would be a bit warmer. At the very least, the inside isn’t “future metallic white”, especially with Vinnie having photophobia.

- The intensity of the lights in every room can be adjusted. That way, Vinnie can put the dimmest light and navigate the house without his glasses. This is mostly useful for showering and midnight snacks.

- When they went house-hunting, Balth was the one who insisted that they needed a place with those kinds of lights. This is also the same kind of lights that Vinnie had in his now-former apartment.

- You know how near the end of the episode “First Impressions” you have Balth going into Mr. Block’s office ? Well, the way the door opens in that moment is how the door opens for every room of the house, perhaps excluding the main entrance (I like the idea of their front door being an “old” one, aka the “normal” doors we have today).

- Every room would have a spot that can create “tactile panels”, like some holographic tablet that can be used to change the settings of the house, for example changing the lights or the internet or even lock the doors and blinds.

- In 2175, when they were forced to leave the future, Vinnie stole a device from B.O.T.T. that made him able to create some kind of forcefield around the house that only he and Balth can remove. So, even if they’re not there anymore, the house still is theirs and can’t be sold to anyone else. And before you ask why B.O.T.T. didn’t simply send agents to bring the duo back and force them to open the shield : the forcefield works with hand-scan detection and Vinnie convinced Balth to use their left hands, the hands with the wedding rings. So if time-agents come knocking, they could try convincing the agents to let them use the bathroom first and they could wash their hands and use the soap to remove the rings. That way, the scan wouldn’t work and the agents would have no way of knowing why.

Living room��:

- There’s more furniture than showed here like souvenirs from previous missions or some random stuff that belongs to them. I just don’t have enough imagination. : /

- Likewise, the corridor has a few pictures or posters, like pictures that Vinnie didn’t have the space to put in his memory room but still wanted to display. Also, I want to say that Vinnie would display pictures of his family (sibling, in-laws and nephews) but I’ll see him more as having an album for family pictures, or a framed picture on his nightstand.

- There could definitely be a carpet or two. They would either be modern ones to fit the fact that they’re from the future or vintage stuff found in some of their missions. One of the carpets would be under the coffee table. Another would be in the big-ass space between the living-room and the kitchen, or in the corridor.

- The style is a mix between old and new stuff, with also a few things related to their interests. Like, for example, the couch could have an animal pattern or something (AND BY THAT I DON’T MEAN REAL ANIMAL FUR).

- Speaking of the couch, after looking up “futuristic couch” on the internet, they would absolutely have one of those gigantic couches that have like a bed attached to them due to how big they are. Btw I have no idea which company came up with this design and I couldn’t care less. It’s just that the design looks cool and would fit a futuristic house.

- The side table is a floating square, given how we see in “A Christmas Peril” that tables in the future don’t have feet anymore (that’s one way to protect your toes).

- The floor lamp is more futuristic. It’s like a white orb attached to a lamp foot.

- The TV is attached to the wall. The remote is some kind of holographic tablet, kind of like the house settings thingy.

- This is where Balth would spend most of his mornings and evenings when they stay home. He’d just be sitting with a cup of tea, most of the time also a book, with the sun illuminating the room, just feeling comfortable and peaceful. The side table/cube was bought specifically for Balth’s tea. He would also use the lamp while reading in the late evening, either for the peace of having little to no light and solely focusing on the book or as a way for Vinnie to be in the room with the lights at the lowest setting. And speaking of Vinnie, he would sometimes join his husband on the couch, lying down with his head resting on Balth’s legs (cue Vinnie falling asleep, leading to a frustrated Balth who needs to pee but doesn’t want to wake him up).

- Since there’s a mini-table for when Balth drinks tea, the table right in front of the couch is mostly used for Vinnie to rest his legs on.

- And speaking of fluffy headcanons : movie nights. From time to time, aka minimum once a month, probably more, the couple would be in their pajamas cuddling on the couch while watching a movie, with Dennis resting in Balth’s arms.

For the movie choices, Balth would choose science-fiction, especially if there are any Professor-Time-themed movies, but also historical fiction (for some reason I tend to see Balth as having a liking for history ? I think it’s because of the way he dresses + his small rant about pirates in “Game Night” ? Idk honestly. It’s mostly a random headcanon that’s here for some weird reason). As for Vinnie, it’s mostly animal documentaries (Balth falls asleep halfway through but Vinnie doesn’t notice until after it’s over) or animated/family movies (the future equivalent of D*sney, S*ny pitcures, P*xar etc. Which are movies Balth would enjoy as well). For some weird reason I’ll also see the two of them being into mystery movies (crime-solving movies basically).

And if they sometimes decide to watch other genres, I could see Balth having a liking for some romance movies, because for some reason I like the idea of Balth being sappy. Besides, the guy is passionate when it comes to proving himself at his jobs and takes them pretty seriously in order to reach his objective. And given how he can be insecure and sometimes feels like a ball of anxiety, who’s to say he isn’t passionate when it comes to love too ? And no, I don’t mean passionate as in “making out all the time”, I mean passionate as in taking relationships seriously and making it work while also wishing to make sure his partner knows that he’s loved, even if Balth isn’t really the best at expressing his affection all the time.

On a different note, to get back to other genres : Vinnie would probably like horror movies. Because if cuddling in front of a sappy movie is great, having your husband show his love and trust for you by clinging to your arm out of fear is even better, nevermind the fact that you’re as terrified as he is.

Kitchen :

- It’s one of those kitchens with two walls of cupboards/cabinets, both on the ground and elevated. One of the cabinets is used entirely for snacks. Because Vinnie.

- The wall separating the kitchen and the living room “has a hole in it”. It’s like you have a small wall with cupboards, a hole, and a wall connected to the ceiling with a few cabinets. Basically, you look up “kitchen cupboards” and imagine that the space in-between is a hole instead of the wall (why is it so hard to explain something so simple ?).

- This would be the most futuristic-looking room of their house. Looking up at references, they’re that Pinterest post showing a room with white cabinets with round corners and what seems to be slide doors. This is pretty much how I’ll see their kitchen, except bigger, with a different wall color and with one wall not being here (see above).

- The table is floating because of course it does. The chairs don’t tho. Also the chairs are as futuristic as the rest of the room. And looking up the internet again, the chairs are shaped like chairs.

- So I put a stove but tbh I’m not sure how much these two would cook, given how in the show they’re always seen eating out (granted they don’t have a kitchen in their ‘apartment’ in Milo’s time). And given how most things seem automatized in the future, let’s just assume that the house can do most of the cooking itself with like a robot (aka plot-convenience technology) but still needs the necessary furniture and ingredients for the recipes. Also, if there’s an issue with their cooking system, they’ll probably know a few recipes and can feed themselves (Vinnie’s oldest brother Enzie would definitely teach his younger siblings a few recipes, at least enough to survive on their own. And he would be more than happy to teach his brother in-law as well).

- I put 4 chairs at the table but honestly I could see them keep 2 at all times and put the others in the storage room, especially the times they get very busy with their job for a few weeks and don’t have the time for social life.

- At some point, Balth probably tried to convince Vinnie to have better food habits and tried to put his snacks on the higher shelves. Not only did it not work because chairs exist but also it led to Vinnie getting frustrated. So Balth dropped it. Though, he would still try to talk Vinnie into working out to stay rather healthy.

Memories room :

- Vinnie’s personal space. He basically saw the third biggest room of the house and went “mine now” and Balth had no issue letting him have it (hard to say no when Vinnie’s eyes shine like that).

- He already had a memory room in his old apartment.

- Basically, Vinnie brings back souvenirs from his missions, along with pictures he took, and put them on display. For more information, I made a post about it a while ago, so check it out if you want info on it.

And side note : I learned more about ADHD and autism later on and found out that the correct word for Vinnie’s passion for animals is a special interest, not a hyperfixation. The main difference between the two terms is how long your interest last. The reason I used “hyperfixation” in my post is because 1. I didn’t know that “special interest” was a term that existed and 2. people with ADHD kept talking about having hyperfixations and most people see Vinnie as having ADHD. So yeah, my bad for using the wrong term. And while I won’t change the current text from my post, especially with someone in the notes correcting me (I don’t want them to look like an idiot), I’ll definitely add a few words at the end of the post about it.

- This is where Vinnie spends most of his time when at home, trying to keep the room in the best condition.

- There’s a window in the room but Vinnie condemned it in case some of his souvenirs were sensitive to the sunlight.

- The room is made entirely of shelves, with like four-five rows on the same wall. The shelves are either integrated into the walls or they’re floating because future. In any cases, there’s nothing around the shelves, it’s just shelves with stuff on it.

- When you enter the room, one of the rows of shelves next to you has all the animal-related stuff he gathered before starting a relationship with Balth. The rest of the room can have a few animal-themed objects but the pictures tend to be more linked to him and Balth.

- Likewise, when you enter the room, on the shelf you’re immediately facing, there’s a miniature recreation of their wedding altar with their wedding picture in its center. The miniature is made out of the future equivalent of papier-mâché and the altar is themed around time-travel with objects from all kinds of time-periods and cultures. And for those who might ask regarding the picture : Vinnie has a black suit and carries the bouquet while Balth has a white suit. Both have a hat that’s basically Balth’s usual hat (with the Professor-Time goggles, because themed wedding) but colored like their respective suit.

Balthazar’s office :

- The room has quite a few libraries but this is mostly decorations. Basically, this room is more of an 1800th century study than anything, especially a rich/royal study. Yeah, for some reason I see Balth as having an office that’s just “rich 1800th century” aesthetic. I think it’s from the headcanon of him being a runaway prince 🤔.

- So yeah. The bookcases are vintage, the piano is your usual black piano, the armchairs are vintage and tbh Balth almost never uses them because he’d rather read in the living room, and the desk is vintage, though the stuff on the desk is futuristic. Balth is up to date with the technology he’s using to work, he just likes the older aesthetic for the rest.

- On his desk, despite literally living with the guy, Balth has a framed picture of Vinnie (again, I want the stubborn gay disaster to be sappy from time to time, with his love language being small touches and attention to details like for example being able to quickly see the kinds of foods Vinnie like the most so that when he’s in a bad mood, Balth can get him that specific food to make it better ; or learning Vinnie’s body language to know when he’s upset or bothered by something).

- Balth mostly spends his time here to make the reports on their missions or work some administration stuff when needed. When he isn’t at his desk, he’s there to play the piano.

And yes, I throw out the window that line from “Backwards to School Night” that indicates Vinnie doesn’t know about Balth playing piano but tbh I ignore or question quite a few things from this episode such as : the line indicating that Vinnie and Balth don’t live together in their time-period since Balth doesn’t know Vinnie’s weekend habits ; the line about how the ray thing age you down to 90% your current age and yet baby Vinnie seems younger than the parents despite his adult self seeming older; the fact that Melissa read a book 16 times in the span of 6 minutes ; the fact that it’s called a “age regressor ray” and not a “age regressor ray-inator” (seriously, I am the only one always expecting Vinnie to say “inator” and being disappointed when he doesn’t ?).

- The couple absolutely sing songs together with Balth playing the piano. Or at least Vinnie would sing a song in the middle of the living-room and have Balth be annoyed by it, only for Vinnie to hear Balth play the same song on the piano later and join him.

Bathroom :

- Not much to say here. It’s a bathroom. It’s futuristic-looking. The mirror is a cabinet. The tub is round. The bin comes in and out of the wall. The clothes drier also irons the clothes. The toilet is glued to the wall. The walls are dark gray or dark blue or at least a darker color so that Vinnie doesn’t have to dim the lights to the lowest level when he’s showering. There are also several little lights along with a main one so that Vinnie can light the small ones instead of getting a headache due to the brighter light. During lazy/slow days, Balth would take baths instead of showers (and Vinnie would want to join him to make out). Balth may or may not sing in the shower (Vinnie definitely does). That’s pretty much it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Guest/Storage room :

- Only used as a guest room when one or several members of the Dakota family are visiting the states and end up in the Tri-State-Area. So for 90% of the time, the room is used as storage.

- Bed’s not that big and very “squary”. Might or might not be floating.

- It’s mostly random junk that they don’t know where to put and don’t want to get rid of, like some stuff they got from their missions but that Vinnie doesn’t want in his room or some old things they want to give at a garage sale or that one Professor-Time body-pillow that Balth refuses to let go of while Vinnie just wants to trash the thing. The body-pillow being in the storage room in a junkpile was their compromise on the issue. Also, whenever someone might stay in the room, Balth makes sure there’s no way they will find the body-pillow (his sister in-law Bettie would never let him live it down).

- Not much to say here either aside from that.

Master bedroom (the room in which the proportions are way bigger than the rest of the house because I have no idea what I’m doing) :

- I described the room quickly in my fic “nightmares” but yeah basically the room has several posters and pictures related to their interests, along with a bookshelf full of animal encyclopedias, time-travel facts, history books, Professor-Time fantasy books etc. There are also albums, whether it be family pictures or album of the two of them.

- Like for the living-room, there can definitely be more than what I described/pictured here. I’m just really bad at imagining the kind of stuff people would have in their bedrooms related to their interests. And speaking of which : at some point, there was the aquarium that Vinnie mentions in “Time Out”.

- Unlike the other rooms in which the windows have roller blinds (apparently that’s the english word for it ?), this one has curtains on top of it because Balth likes to open the window in the morning but he doesn’t want Vinnie to hurt his eyes. So with curtains, he can open them enough to light the room but not enough for the light to reach Vinnie’s face.

- The bed is pretty classic for a futuristic bed but with round edges and these two idiots definitely go crazy with the sheets design (animals, food, Professor-Time, past time-periods, stuff like that). Also, the bed is “open”. By that I mean that, if you look at futuristic designs, there tends to be some roof thing above the bed and linked to it. They wouldn’t have that.

- The nightstands are floating cubes.

- “Dennis’ chair” is just some random old wooden chair where Dennis stays most of the time. Balth almost never takes him during his missions and Dennis is a comfort object that Balth mostly talks to when sitting on the bed, movie nights aside. So the bear stays in the bedroom.

- The bookshelf would also be made of wood.

- The wardrobe is futuristic, with doors that can open by themselves with sensory detection. Also, unlike what that poor “drawing” shows, the wardrobe is “taller” than it is “larger”.

- The armchair is an egg chair.

- They sleep

- They spoon

- Balth is the big spoon because 1. he’s taller and 2. he grew up sleeping while embracing a teddy bear and old habits die hard.

- When Balth goes to sleep or wakes up, he can’t help but play with Vinnie’s hair and give the small man a few kisses, feeling satisfaction in seeing his husband smile or try to pull away while laughing.

- Vinnie sleeps on the side closest to the window while Balth sleeps on the side nearest to Dennis.

- Balth’s nightstand has an alarm clock that’s basically just a holographic square with numbers on it, while Vinnie has an album or some random animal trinket. Vinnie’s alarm clock is not feeling Balth’s warmth against him. But if Vinnie has to use an actual alarm, the sound would either be some old-fashioned song or an animal noise (is this starting to get too much insistence on the “animal-loving” side of him ?)

- While Balth likes to read in the living-room, Vinnies likes it better to chill in the bedroom when reading. Also, during weekends and vacation days, Balth would sometimes read in bed before sleeping (yeah for some reason I really like the idea of Balth being a reader. I think it has to do with him being old or british ??? Weird brain is weird. And besides, if Balth reads, it would most likely be science fiction related to Professor Time). Vinnie uses this time as an excuse to cuddle.

- They have themed pajamas. Balth mostly has Professor-Time stuff (clocks, Heinz or Perry’s faces etc) while Vinnie has mostly animal-themed or food-themed pajamas.

- Vinnie sometimes sleeps naked in the summer. Balth is still trying to figure out how he feels about that.

- Random headcanon regarding Dennis : while he belongs to Balth who keeps him close when in doubt in order to vent or when he wants to get comfortable somewhere, I actually like to believe that, between the two, Vinnie is the one who talks the most to Dennis, mostly because Vinnie would just enter the bedroom and casually greet the bear, or he and Balth would have a dumb argument and Vinnie would playfully tell Dennis “Can you believe that guy ?” while pointing at Balth. Just, Vinnie being Vinnie and having random one-sided conversations with the bear.

And a little cute thing : while Vinnie really just talked to Dennis because why not, seeing the guy like the teddy bear so much would actually make Balth feel better about himself. I like to believe that grown-up men having plushies would still be seen as a ridiculous thing by most people (because toxic masculinity) and Balth got the habit of hiding Dennis when he was still trying to find the right guy for him. So seeing Vinnie have no issue whatsoever with the teddy bear and even liking him would definitely help Balth’s confidence, along with warming his heart.

- And since this post is all about headcanons : two things about phones and these two being sappy that have nothing to do with houses.

1. One day, Balth left his phone on a table and Vinnie decided to take a selfie with it because why not. After seeing that, Balth acted frustrated but ended up putting the pic as his phone background. Ever since, Balth’s phone background is a picture of Vinnie. The most recent one is from “We’re Going to the Zoo” with a picture of Vinnie holding squirrels in his arms while a third one is coming out of his pistachios-filled pants. The pic on the phone is a closeup, only showing Vinnie’s head and upper body. And for those who like angst, I’ll let you imagine how he must have felt having this as his phone background during the rogue arc.

2. Vinnie’s (numeric) phone password is 2703, aka march 27, the date of his wedding anniversary. The day is put first and the month second because Europe. Also, during busy weeks, this would be a good way for Vinnie to remember the anniversary.

(fun fact : I was trying to come up with scenarios for fics when I ended up thinking about Vinnie’s password and that number came to mind. So I just went “guess that’s their wedding date now”)

#Milo Murphy's Law #Vinnie Dakota #Balthazar Cavendish #Dakavendish #long post #VERY long post #headcanons #Flor talks #hey look I'm rambling again about random shit #I am SO. BAD. at design #but yeah #have a house #and random ideas #also have Balthazar Dakota #it sounds more and more normal when you think about it a lot #also Dennis Cavendish #or is it Dennis Cavendish-Dakota ?#now to edit the memory room post

44 notes · View notes

phantombandit-films · 4 years ago

Text

Why ‘War of the Worlds’ (2005) is a underrated masterpiece.

‘War of the Worlds’ was released in 2005, it is directed by the film god that is Steven Spielberg (Jaws, E.T.) and written by Josh Friedman (Terminator: Dark Fate, Avatar 2) and David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible)

Cast: - Tom Cruise as Ray Farrier. - Justin Chatwin as Robbie Farrier. - Dakota Fanning as Rachel Farrier. - Miranda Otto as Mary Ann. -Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy. - Ann Robinson as Grandmother. - Gene Barry as Grandfather.

First lets start with some history of ‘The War of the Worlds’ - The 2005 film is based off the novel of the same name which was written by H.G. Wells between 1895 and 1897, it then was then made into a series by Pearson’s Magazine in 1897 in the UK, Cosmopolitan in the US. Then becoming a hardback novel in 1898, it is one of the earliest written pieces to tell a story of conflict between Martians and man and so its one of the most commented on pieces of science fiction.

It has been adapted and developed several times over many decades in many medias, the ones that come to mind are the famous 1938 dramatic radio reading that was directed and starred Orson Welles that actually caused public panic to those who listened in and didn’t know that the Martian invasion was fiction, its said that up to a million people ran out of their homes in terror. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama) )

The 1953 ‘The War of the Worlds’ film adaptation, which was produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin. It also starred Gene Barry (who played Dr. Clayton Forrester) and Ann Robinson (who played Sylvia Van Buren) who can also been seen at the end of the 2005 film, they play the grandparents of Robbie and Rachel which I think is a sweet little cameo to see for those who loved the 1953 film. Ann Robinson also revived her role as Sylvia Van Buren in two other films and three episodes of ‘The War of the Worlds’ tv series in 1988.

In 1978 the most well known musical album by Jeff Wayne was produced and based off the story of ‘War of the Worlds’ this album included the voices of Richard Burton and David Essex.

This was then turned into a concert musical which tours annually through out the UK and Europe, the concert includes live performers such as Carrie Hope Fletcher but also a 3D hologram of Liam Neeson. It also includes a mix of computer animation, pyrotechnics and a big mechanical tripod that comes out on stage and lights up and can fire its heat-ray.

(Source: Birmingham Mail.)

There have also been several Tv series, the two newest being the 2019 BBC version staring Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson and Full Monty’s Robert Carlyle, that has a Edwardian setting and follows closely to the novel.

The other being the FOX 2019 adaptation that is set in present day Europe but I found this version didn’t really go off the novel, and was frustrated with the lack of the famous Tripods. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds)

As a kid I would watch the 1953 film with my mum all the time as its one of her favourites and I do really like it, but then 2005 rolled around and in comes Steven Spielberg’s version. To be fair it was probably 2006 when I finally saw it, I was nine years old at the time and I remember my dad bringing home the DVD that someone at work had lent him. I don’t remember watching it but I do remember having nightmares for a month after, only for a month though. Many years later when I was half way through high school and getting more and more into film my dad then bought the DVD from Woolworth's before it shut down, the DVD didn’t have a case only a see through CD case so I think it only cost him something like 50p. So I re-watched and again I don’t really remember this but all of a sudden I was hooked, and it climbed to the second spot on my favourite movies list where it still sits today. Honestly if you asked anyone I was friends with at that time they will tell you just how obsessed I was with it.

I have many scenes that I love in this film the first being the rise of the first tripod, but there are two that I geek out over every time.

The first scene being the one in the basement at Robbie and Rachel’s house, the scene starts off with Ray asleep in a chair. He starts to stir when when a blue flash of light on his face, but then jolts up right at a load whooshing noise followed by closely by Robbie shooting up from just below the camera. I love the way that Robbie appears sort of fits with the sound that’s heard, also the whole mood of the scene which is pitch black with this blue flashing light every now and then. The fact that you’re just as clueless as the characters as well, you find out what’s happening when they find out. Also the way that Rachel appears behind the basement stairs, which will appear again near the end of the movie in a much more damaged basement which shows just how much their world has changed in just a short few days. The sound design in this movie as well is something that I love, I love when the sound in a film alone can creep you out. The tripod sound is one of my favourite sounds to exist, like if I heard that from outside I would be so creeped out and scared. At this moment in time Robbie and Rachel have no idea what is hunting them or what Ray has seen, Imagine running from something and seeing something completely destroy the whole of your neighbourhood yet not knowing what it looks like. This is what runs through my mind when I heart Rachel cry “Is it them, Is it them?!” Then the next morning when Ray goes upstairs and see’s that the house is just completely destroyed by an aeroplane that has crashed down in the middle of the the housing estate. This Boeing 747 was a out of use plane and the production crew bought it for $60,000 which then cost them $200,000 to transport, it was then broken into pieces and houses were built around it. Which just shows how far some movie productions will go to make a film look more legit. (We love practical effects in this house.) This scene is still set up at Universal Studios Hollywood and can be seen on the Studio tour.

(Basement and Plane crash scene.)

My second favourite scene, which is one of my all time top favourite scene ever with no surprise is the dock scene. The speeding train that’s on fire is absolute stunning in every sense but for me the scene starts when the music starts. ‘If I ruled the world, everyday would be the first day of spring.’ But i’m really glued to the screen when Rachel starts to follow the birds coming in from the river to in land, she follows them up to the hill where she notices the tree’s on the top are moving weirdly. “The tree’s are funny.” She then reaches out and grabs onto Rays hand who was talking to a friend. Robbie turns to the hill as the camera slowly comes back and shows Robbie also turning to look at where Ray is looking. (Just remembering that this is the first time Robbie and Rachel ever see the tripods.)

The camera then shows us what the family is looking at to reveal a tripod stood on the top of the hill, it then moves one of its legs which crushes a tree and makes everyone else look back. Obviously chaos ensues from this point on, everyone running trying to get onto the ferry to get away from the impending doom, unfortunately we learn that no where, not even on the water is safe. As a tripod comes up from out of the water and attacks the ferry, the family manage to escape and get to land on the other side of the ferry. They stop for a moment to catch their breath as people are being picked out of the water below them, they turn as a old air raid alarm is heard on the other side of the hill and we see tripods coming over another hill that was filled with people and using their head rays to wipe them all out, we also see in the distance a lighting storm indicating more Martions are still coming to earth. The scene is like a depiction of all the stages of the attack. (Dock attack scene.)

I mean all the action scenes in this movie are just so beautiful and amazing, but did we expect any less from Spielberg? And the CGI and practical are all done extremely well and fitted together to make a scene look as real as possible. One of the art directors that worked on this film, Doug J. Meerdink who has also worked on Jurassic Park: III, Cloverfield and Jurassic World.

I was looking up some trivia on IMDB for this movie and found that there was a deleted scene that is called the ‘Camelot’ scene. This scene is supposed to take place between the attack on the ferry and the battle on the hill, it involves Ray, Rachel and Robbie walking through an abandoned housing estate that’s named Camelot, when a pack of tripods start walking near by. One of the tripods breaks off and the family has to take cover behind a SUV, they watch helplessly from behind as the tripod reaches into the house and grabs people from the houses. This scene has never been released but apparently it was fully finished, VFX and all but then taken out a few weeks before post production was wrapped up. There is only one official video from this scene that was in the actual trailer for the film, and it’s only a shot of the family hiding behind the SUV.

The only other shot from the scene is this landscape shot of a CGI tripod.

There are also photos of the set designers setting up the miniature of the housing estate to shoot this scene, the rest are fan arts of how the scene maybe looked/ played out. (Source)

I really hope that one day Steven releases this scene, or for some anniversary adds it into an extended version of the film like we’ve seen for other films. Because I would love that so much! It seems like such an incredible scene, and to see the tripods up this close again would be so cool!

One of the trailers that was released for this film doesn’t have any of the film shots it in, It takes place in a normal neighbourhood where people are just going about their normal nightly routine when suddenly over the hill there are all these brilliant flashing lights, everyone's just coming out of their houses in their pj’s and standing in the street marvelling at this sight in front of them. Then we see explosions and suddenly heat rays are blowing up the tress on the street which then goes into the title. I just love this, a trailer that doesn’t give anything away from the movie but creeps you out enough to be invested. (Trailer.)

All in all it’s just an very visually pleasing film, it feels real enough to give you a sense of fear for the characters and for yourself. I also love that Steven stayed true to the source material,more truer than some of the other adaptations and also added in his own little Easter eggs. The sounds, the aesthetic, the colours just everything comes together so beautifully. I think its a very underrated movie that deserves so much more love.

#war of the worlds #war of the worlds 2005 #robbie farrier #ray farrier #rachel farrier #steven spielberg #movie #film #film talk #tom cruise #dakota fanning #justin chatwin #the war of the worlds #not really a film review #i just wanted to talk about my love for this film

32 notes · View notes

empty-dream · 3 years ago

Text

So I read 86 LN vol 1

S1 anime covers the entire Vol 1 except for the latter's epilogue, so full anime spoiler here.

And as of this writing, I'm still on Vol 2 so the things I mention here are solely those that happen in Vol 1. Idk if a thing happens in the latter volume, gotta dodge spoiler so I don't browse about it.

There was an interview with a person inside the anime industry that basically said "The point of an anime adaptation is not to be an exact replica of the original material, but to shine as its own medium for a story." I forgot who it was and I can't find the interview anywhere for the life of me, but that statement opened my eyes. I agree with it, that's why I can appreciate the differences between LN/manga and anime, especially if they turn out good and/or interesting.

And that's exactly what happens in 86. I'll start with this: I watched the anime first, and after I read the Vol1 novel, I actually like the anime more. Because there are a lot of meaningful original scenes in it

And because the Vol1 novel turns out exactly what I fear when I first watched the anime: that I won't care much about the squadron aside from the main 5. (Look, the anime promotional materials mostly only have Lena and those 5 only. As shocked as I was in the anime, I did have an idea where the story would go from those alone). The rest are barely mentioned. Not even the girls are named in the novel, even though they do talk and Lecca is even prominent in anime.

For example, the second half of the first episode, the one that shows Spearhead squadron's daily life right before Lena contacts them, is anime original scenes. Kujo already dies the moment the novel starts focusing on the squadron. Simply put, a lot of the squadron members that aren't the main 5 or Kaie get a *lot* more focus in the anime, like Daiya, Haruto (For characters who appear on the introduction page, their novel screen time is less than I'd expect), Kujo and Lecca. While the other members often appear in the background and actually behave like equal members instead of glue-them-on figurines.

(Idk if those other members are named and/or designed in the light novel before the anime is a thing or when the anime becomes a thing.)

The anime also adds relevant information in the Raiden's talk with Lena in EP7, like Kaie receiving racial abuse from 86 (in fact in both versions, she is the first one to get highlighted about this) and Haruto also having prominent Giadian Empire blood like Anju and Shin. These weren't in the novel.

I might be just nitpicking here because I love Kaie and Haruto, but see, this scene is amazing on its own. This is where Raiden and the squad reveal the weight of their motivation all along, that they *each* have different backgrounds and different kinds of sufferings, yet they are all sentenced to die, and they all choose to fight because they know no side is saintly but some things are still worth fighting for.

The prominent characters' deaths (besides Kaie's) are often mentioned with only one or two dry lines. I expected at least Daiya's to be detailed more, but it's just that so matter-of-fact-ly. Well I came from the anime, so I guess it's normal if I expected something as heartbreaking.

I broke down HARD at the last half of EP10 and that is nowhere in the Vol 1 novel. (Having Hands Up to the Sky playing in the background is also an advantage for being an anime. Fuck that song, I now play it 24/7 in despair)

Having a lot of original anime scenes really complement the story's nature. That there are two different sides of life here, it's not just Lena's or 86's only. And those couldn't have intertwined if not for their willingness to listen and communicate.

I know I mentioned this some days ago but really, I can't get over how many of the merch are Lena (and Annette) being cute doing cute stuff while the story itself is actually depressing. Merch staffs know the market lol.

- Novel side -

That said, the novel does have an advantage that the anime/visual media doesn't: Internal explorations and explanations.

It's obvious from the get-go, but Asato confirms that the inspiration of Republic of San Magnolia and its racial discrimination and genocide is taken from Nazi Germany in WW2. The Republic who favors the white/silver haired-eyed Alba drives Colorata out of the 85 sectors, overtakes their properties, and forcibly sends the now-called-86 to either fight their war and die, or work on the wall and die.

The life inside the Republic is also elaborated on. Class always exists, even inside one race only. The center of the republic is for the elites, Lena and Annette's families included. The farther a sector is from the center, the lower the education and economy there is. Most of the military come from these areas, which explains why Lena herself is in difficult situation. Since no one in the military is either capable or willing to bring change.

It's *insane* how easily the Republic could create such vile lies, and how easily the majority of the citizens go along with it.

Gotta admit, Asato does a good job at foreshadowing the fate of the 86, the truth that we can only see after Ep7 of anime. It is mentioned that supposedly, 86 soldiers will be welcomed back once their 5-years term is up. Lena once wonders about it, but ultimately she buys it thinking that surely they must have come back to another sector. She only realizes it's utter bullshit after Annette points out how, 9 years later, they have never seen even one Colorata inside the Republic when they should have seen at least some. This also shows that Lena has never ventured to the other sectors to find out more, probably due to work or maybe she's still a sheltered noblewoman in the end.

And the mentality of the majority of Alba is shown differently. Whereas the anime uses the academy classroom to show how deeply rooted the racism against 86 is, the novel uses Lena's mother who a) more or less does the same as the classroom, and b) presses Lena to get married and preserve their pure noble bloodline. This, when the nobility doesn't actually mean anything anymore. This version shows not only Alba's racism but also Lena's strained family life.

There is a scene of an Alba high school valedictorian who, during his graduating speech, says “My friends died fighting the Legion.” I’m not sure this will make it to the anime, and it’s just a minor scene in the novel, but the weight of that scene is heavy.

The science of Para-Raid is explained, which has something to do with tapping the collective consciousness of humanity and connecting it to one another. A bit far-etched but I guess that works, science fiction and all. But I like the part where despite (or maybe because?) of connecting via hearing only, the other senses are faintly receptive as well. For example, one can sense that the other side is biting their lips in frustration, something like that. Of course, actual real life things like sensing the hidden bitterness or elation in a talking partner's words are present, this being a story where listening matters.

The novel elaborates on Raiden's stay with the Alba old woman. He calls her Old Hag, but it's clear he greatly respects her. The part where she screams and curses in the middle of the road at the Republic soldiers who take Raiden and the other children away stays in Raiden's mind forever, and so it does to me. Ngl it is quite a chilling scene.

Same with the story of the previous Laughing Fox, Theo's Alba commander. It turns out, the entirety of Theo's first squadron didn't like him at all and bet on how fast he'd tuck tail and run back to the Republic. When he faced his death the way Theo explained, he sent a message to Theo revealing he knew about it and knew his place to not ask for acknowledgment or forgiveness. This made Theo regret why he didn't try to talk more with his commander and he keeps thinking about it forever. Now it makes even more sense why Theo, blunt as he is, is willing to listen to Lena and when he snaps, he wonders if his late commander would do the same.

What actually happens in Kurena's backstory is also touched upon. While in the anime some viewers could think "Man, I get where you're coming from but chill out." The novel graphically shows her parents being toyed on by the Alba soldiers while her sister protected her, the two could only watch, and then the same sister got sent to the battlefield to die. Now at that, anyone would think "Man, no wonder she can't chill out. Not with all that trauma."

I also like the addition that Lena can sense Kurena is the one who dislikes her the most.

The novel describes greatly that it isn't just Alba and Non-Alba. Essentially speaking, Non-Alba is called Colorata, and they consist of different race groups as well. Just as Alba is associated with the color silver/white, the other race have their associated colors as well. Asato assigns races to the named members in Vol1 and what their distinguished color features are. This also explains why Anju is exiled despite looking like an Alba.

It's a question that I pondered on when I first saw Shin's armor plates, and that I pondered harder on when Chise died: What happens if there is no armor plate to carve its processor's name's on? So it turns out Shin would substitute it with anything; piece of wood or some random piece of metal. For Chise's case, Raiden, Chise's leader, suggested using the wing of Chise's in-progress airplane model. Which did my heart so bad because I'm strangely fond of Chise and finding out that in his spare time in his limited lifespan, he was working on an airplane model made me sob.

I'm not particularly into mecha, and could care less about how it moves. But Asato did a good job describing the fight between a glorified suicide car and a line of brand-new solid A-grade tanks. Special mention to I-IV because wow the concept arts for all the mechas are so cool, even though I don't really understand. (Asato even said to I-IV "Go draw a tank so horrible it's stupid for the Juggernaut" and I-IV came up with the current Juggernaut)

You know how the Republic greeting is "Glory to San Magnolia and the five-colored flag"? I won't disclose who says this in what situation, but there is someone of Colorata saying "If you hate colors so much, you should have just colored your flag white" AND OOOH THE BURN SO HOT HOT HOT

Tl;dr: Bottom line is, I personally enjoy Vol 1 because I already watched the anime and got attached to it. If I were to read the vol 1 first, most likely I wouldn't fall this hard for the series. Hell, maybe I wouldn't even pick it up in the first place because I knew it'd be depressing. But this is not to say that the LN is bad. It’s very good, it just does not really touch the lives of other soldiers whereas that’s the very thing that I love from the anime.

#86 #eighty six #random saying #not sure if i have put all my thoughts here so maybe ill edit sometime later

4 notes · View notes

televisionrulesthenation · 3 years ago

Photo

S1E8 - “To Tell or Not to Tell”

Original air date: November 14, 1961

Episode recap

The Petries are hosting a dinner party. Buddy and Sally do a sing-songy comedy routine while Rob plays the piano. Rob gets up and does a physical comedy routine. Laura gets up and does (what I assume is) some sort of ‘60s-style dancing. Cut to the end of the party, all the guests leave, Rob is tired, Laura goes on and on about what I wonderful time she had dancing.

Next day at the office Rob talks about how much fun Laura had dancing for the dinner party audience. Buddy is worried. Apparently non-homemaking interests from the wife should be worrying to the husband. Mel comes in and asks Rob if Laura can fill in as a dancer on the show this week. Buddy gets more worried. He thinks being married to a career woman is bad. Rob calls Laura to see if she’s interested assuming she won’t be. She’s interested.

Back at home Rob and Richtie are having dinner together because Laura is still rehearsing at the show. He fails at making a TV dinner. They eat bananas instead. Later that night Laura comes home tired. Rob has questions about how to operate the washing machine. Roles have become reversed. Rob is not happy but keeps it to himself.

Next day at the office the snappy service guy is dropping off lunch for Rob, Buddy and Sally. Laura comes in on a break looking hot in her leotard. The lunch delivery guy gawks over her.

After Laura’s successful week as a fill-in, Mel tells Rob he wants to offer her a permanent contract as a dancer on the show. Rob is worried but delivers the news to Laura at home that night. Laura is happy. She had a fun week proving to herself she could do it. But her body can’t keep up. She wants to be a homemaker not a career woman. Rob is relieved.

Everything is about me

Ostensibly, we can make it on my salary alone. But then she went back to work part-time, and the budget balanced a little more easily. We were able to move into this bigger house. There was a little money for some fun.

But she wasn’t happy working, and we figured she didn’t need to work, so she quit.

And the budget got tighter. We can make it. But there’s not a lot of room for fun. Or all those finishing aesthetic touches on our new house.

Her going back to work part-time bought me some peace if I’m being honest.

In the back of my mind I figured as the kids got older, she’d be able to work more, and that be our money boost. I didn’t need to obsess over getting promoted to make an income leap. That leap would be solved for organically by her eventually working full time.

And I still sort of feel that way. But her quitting is a temporary blip. Like I said, she wasn’t happy. She was feeling stressed and not operating in a position of strength to be the best mom she could be. She wants to focus on her health and happiness and kids’ health and happiness.

She wanted to figure out what the heck she wants to do with the rest of her life. She wants to take an art class and find the right exercise program and start a garden and do whatever else projects.

Problem is all that figuring out costs money and there isn’t a whole lot of it to spare in the current tight budget. And my attitude is probably putting pressure on her that some sort of clock is counting down until she figures something out and gets back to work. I keep saying “this year” or “these two years” like there’s a cliff at the end.

And she really doesn’t love doing some of the things she would need to do to truly make this work. We backed off some expenses, like housecleaner and dog groomer only once per month. But haven’t gone truly all in.

To truly make this work, we would need no housecleaning, no dog grooming, no pool cleaner, no yard guy. Her do all that stuff, work it into a schedule. Do whatever the 2021 version of clip coupons is, and really lock down our grocery budget. Essentially do all the homemaking things.

Our kids’ soccer training schedules are brutal Monday through Thursday evening and we still haven’t figured out how to do dinner those nights in a healthy and cost effective way with our sanity in check. That would take effort that she doesn’t want to put forth.

So it’s been four months, and she is not any closer to figuring out what she wants to do, she is not any healthier or happier. The trade-off was supposed to be less money for more time and happiness. But I’m not sure we are getting what we paid for with the forgone part-time dollars she was bringing in.

I am not sure where that leaves her or us.

Episode observations

Life before cell phones

No major changes to the plot except I reckon many of these Rob/Laura conversations--both the routine and the difficult--happen via text not phone.

Clothes and fashion

Rob’s cardigan and polo shirt and slacks house wear, he looked like Mr. Rogers.

Richtie’s robe and button up pajamas, he looked like Hugh Hefner.

Laura’s leotard, she looked hot.

Vocabulary lesson

Someone, I think it may have been buddy, said something along the lines of, “give him a rap, right in the mouth.” I assume raps means punch/hit/strike. I feel like I’ve heard this usage before but can’t think of where.

OK, wow, just Googled it, and this usage is the first definition in both noun and verb form, while rap as in the music is the second definition.

Best joke/funniest moment

Clearly, the funniest moment of the show was Buddy’s. He was funny throughout. But one moment in particular stood out. He’s talking to Rob about how to get Laura give up on a career in dance and says to take her on a skiing trip. Rob replies that Laura can’t ski, she’ll break her leg. Buddy gets this evil look in his eyes and says, “yeah” with a dramatic pause. The “yeah” was good enough, but he tags on, “you catch on fast.” They call back to this at the end of the episode when Laura mentions maybe she could dance on the show one week per year then Rob asks if she’d like to go skiing.

But I have to give honorable mention to a not as funny but just so well written joke. Rob is about to call Laura about her career prospects. Buddy says, don’t do anything rash. Sally says, leave him alone, it’s his rash.

(Dishonorable mention to Sally’s jokes about needing a husband. They are getting old and I would like them to stop.)

Assorted thoughts on life in the 1960s

Laura’s dancing at the beginning of the episode was odd looking to me. I guess it’s just dated. I kept waiting for it to be a comedy setup. That she’d get injured or something. Not that it’d be interpreted as good.

People watched sing-songy variety shows on TV backed then apparently. Up until this episode--or maybe the previous episode--I hadn’t put much thought into what the fictional Alan Brady Show was supposed to be. But I guess it’s a sing-songy variety show. And I guess people liked that sort of thing. I haven’t done a “checking in with my mom” section on this blog recently and probably should have on this topic. Maybe in upcoming posts I will get her take on ‘60s variety shows

The 1960s attitude on traditional gender roles were on heavy display. Buddy was laying it on thick about disdain for working women, e.g. “losing a wife, gaining a roommate.” (Buddy has plenty more borderline sexist analogies about working women sprinkled throughout.) Mel checks with Rob first about career decisions concerning Laura. Rob can’t cook, even a frozen dinner. Eventually Laura conforms to this too, admitting she’d wants Rob to take her away from all this, doesn’t want to be a dancer, she wants to be a wife.

Final thoughts

Sometimes I question if were are splitting the baby to some extent when it comes to working. At least at this point now that our youngest is less than a couple years to middle school. That is should we go full traditional model or full dual income model not this mixed economy model we’ve got going on? And sometimes I think maybe we’re doing exactly the work-life integration model that 2021 calls for.

#s1 #e8 #the dick van dyke show #sitcoms #tv #dick van dyke #mary tyler moore #1960s #work #marriage #happiness #money

6 notes · View notes

krabjoons · 4 years ago

Text

book it [knj]

⮕ summary: back to school shopping. two people. one book. what could go wrong? a lot of things, actually. but then again, some things could also go right.

⮕ pairing: kim namjoon x reader

⮕ genre: fluff, crack, angst, bookstore!au, college!au, a condensed version of enemies to lovers

⮕ word count: 3.9k

⮕ rating: pg-13

⮕ warnings: mild cursing, the slightest references to what happens at a frat party

⮕ a/n: okay first things first, aAAAHHHH dynamite came out! and it’s an absolute bop (and record breaker)! so i decided to post my very first piece of writing in celebration. and also, because it’s that time of year again, you know, back to school season (yay? idk), i decided to use that as the theme to this drabble. hope you guys enjoy! :-D

p.s. if you wanna talk to bookstore!namjoon or bookstore!y/n, feel free to do so here!

okay so

maybe it wasn’t exactly the best idea you’ve had to go back to school shopping literally ONE week before school starts

you can’t help it! you’ve just naturally been a procrastinator. there’s nothing you can do about it

well, there actually are lots of things you can do about it, but you’ll get to it later (haha, get it?)

anYWAYS

you’ve finished all of your supply shopping and almost all of your book shopping

keyword being almost

you would’ve got everything except barnes and noble didn’t have one of your textbooks

hoW?!?! isn’t barnes and noble a giant bookstore retail chain? how can they have literally every book you can think of exCEPT the very one you need?!?!

and you’ve gone to other bookstores too but they don’t have your book either

today is just not your day

so you’ve decided to take a look at one more place before you have to turn to the online edition of your textbook

which really isn’t ideal because after two minutes you’ll probably “accidentally” end up scrolling endlessly through your instagram feed

so in short, if you want to pass this course, you really, really need this textbook. like, a lot

you pull up to a cute little bookstore, nestled in between a starbucks and a barber shop

Pied Piper Books, it reads. cute.

you push the door open and are immediately welcomed with the smell of warm vanilla. bells on top of the door jingle to alert the (cute) guy at the front desk to your presence

“hi! welcome to pied piper books. i’m jimin, how can i help you today?” he asks with a grin, eyes shifting into happy crescents

“hey, i’m y/n. i was looking for a psychology textbook. um, this one?” you say, holding out your phone to show him the title of the book on your phone

he squints at the screen before nodding eagerly

“oh yeah! there’s a whole rack of psychology textbooks in the back,” jimin exclaims, “you should be able to find it there”

you thank him profusely before strolling to the back of the bookstore, taking in everything around you. there are books of all kinds: nonfiction, historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and more! it’s incredible how this cozy little bookstore has enough variety of books to rival the last barnes and noble you went to

“ah! here it is!” you exclaim when you finally see your textbook in the middle of the shelf

what luck! it’s the last one there, too. you reach your hand out to grab it when, suddenly, another hand bumps into yours

“oh, shoot, sorry!” you hear a smooth, low voice say

you turn to look at who the owner of the voice is and you have to physically concentrate on keeping your jaw from hitting the floor

in front of you is one of the most attractive men you have ever seen in your life

actually, scratch that

in front of you is possibly the most attractive man you have ever seen in your life

he's got honey colored skin and black hair. his burnt umber colored eyes twinkle with the lights of the bookstore. his lips, very plump (and kissable), are forming into a smile

he's smiling at you!

wait- why does that smile look kind of weird?

now that you're getting back to your senses, you realize he's giving you one of those tight-lipped smiles, not a genuine one. and his hand is slowly tightening on the book you have your hands on as well

"um," you're not sure how to phrase this because:

1) there's a vERY handsome guy nearly holding your hand

2) said guy isn't looking very fondly upon you right now

3) he's trying to take the boOK YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL DAY

so as much as you would like this hunk to see you in a positive light, you would like to pass your psych course a lot more

"i, uh, i really need this book. like, a lot. for a course? that i need to pass. yeah. so this book is gonna help me pass. and i need it. a lot. yup," you blabber

what? it's not your fault this (very attractive) guy is making you all flustered

he nods slowly and smirks, making heat rush to your cheeks

"that sounds really fun," he drawls. "but i need this book too. i mean, isn't it fascinating how the human mind works? i'd love to read this book, especially once i get out of class."

is he being serious right now? he's got to be kidding… right? no sane human being just reads a textbook for fun

"oh, yeah. very funny. but out of all the other textbooks here, why choose this one?" you say, rolling your eyes, attempting to yank the book to your chest

unfortunately, you're not as strong as you hoped because Textbook Boy didn't seem to budge at all

that's when you see his arms

long story short, they're very attractive. and his hands, too. are those rings you see? um, is it getting hot in here?

gulping, you add on, "plus, what kind of lame person chooses to read a textbook instead of, i don't know, an actual book?" keeping your eyes trained on his hands holding the book, inches aways from yours

he chuckles. "wow," he remarks as you finally look into his eyes, "do you not know what sarcasm is? of course i'd rather read something carl jung has written over whatever pearson has published here. i need this for my psychology class too, sherlock," he shakes the book that the two of you are holding

did he just insult you? of cOURSE you know what sarcasm is. you're the queen of sarcasm. novices tremble in your wake. who does this guy think he is?

"well, i'm not going to just give up this textbook. i spent all day looking for it! can't you just go somewhere else?" you groan out, running your free hand through your hair in frustration. you miss the way that his face softens for a second before returning back to its original determined appearance

"sorry, but as much as you need this textbook, i do too. i have class next week and-" he begins before you cut him off

"wait, do you go to seoul national university?" you ask, to which he nods uneasily. if he ends up wrenching the textbook out of your hands sometime later today (because it doesn't look like you're going to let go of it anytime soon with the death grip you've got on it right now), you're not going to follow him back to his dorm and kill him just to get a textbook, are you?

he didn't think you were mental upon first glance, but now he's starting to change his mind. maybe going on another long search in other stores for the textbook (that he'll probably have to end up purchasing online anyway) is worth it if he comes out alive at the end of the school year

"oh, cool! i go there too. so do you have professor lee for psych, then? i have him. i'm so glad he didn't give us summer work. like other professors i have assigned so much stuff for us to do. i'm happy that-" you start rambling again, making the guy smile and shake his head

"yeah, i have professor lee. and i also need this book," he lamely tugs at it again. you pout and are about to say something when someone interrupts him

"well, well, well. what do we have here?" jimin saunters over, taking note of Textbook Boy and you. specifically your guys' hands and how close together they are

“i came over because i thought i heard some yelling. but you two look, um, busy right now. glad to see you resolved any issues,” he teases after seeing the two of your flushed faces

“no, jimin, we actually do have a problem-” Textbook Boy begins before getting cut off by jimin

"you know namjoon, when you asked me for a book, i didn't know you were also meeting your lady friend here,” jimin interjects, wiggling his eyebrows at you teasingly, making you even more embarrassed than before

so his name is namjoon

wait, as in kim namjoon?!

like THE kim namjoon?!?!?!

you’ve heard a lot about him before but never seen him in person yet. (what? is it really that bad of a thing that you prefer binge-watching netflix over social interaction?)

he’s one of the most popular guys on SNU’s campus. the guy that everyone swoons over, boys and girls alike. beauty, brains, and brawns, kim namjoon’s got it all. the perfect friend group, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect life. he’s got everything

well, almost everything. just not this textbook, and you’ll be darned if you go down without a fight

“okay, wait. there’s been a misunderstanding. i’m not his lady friend. i need this textbook for my psych class. like right now,” you explain

so let’s think

if you just yank the book out of namjoon’s hands, run through the aisle and dodge jimin (who might side with namjoon because you’ve heard they’re in the same frat), the book could be yours. if you’re lucky, you can run up to the front desk and see if anyone else is there so you can pay and leave before namjoon and jimin catch up to you

taking in a deep breath, you decide to bring your plan into fruition

namjoon's talking right now: "jimin, you know how much i need this book, man. come on, man. i mean, we're bros. who helped you pass midterms last year? me, right?"

great, now's your chance!

you yank the book to your chest and start to run, when all of a sudden-

"hey, wha- oOF!" namjoon exclaims as you try to run away from him, suddenly tightening his grip on the book, but it's too late. the tug you gave on it sends him flying into you

“what the- OW!” the two of you begin to drop to the ground. bracing yourself for the fall, you close your eyes in anticipation and land with a thud, book clutched to your chest, and back on the ground. not the most comfortable fall, but definitely better than face planting

when you open your eyes, you nearly shriek

positioned right above you, staring into your eyes with a dazed look, is namjoon

you’re under him. like, not even in a frat party or anything! in the middle of a bookstore out of all places!

eyes widening, you push him off of you, quickly scrambling away and look at jimin sheepishly, who watched the whole ordeal go down. if you were embarrassed at being caught holding the same book, you’re downright mortified right now and ready to crawl into the nearest hole

“okAY! so uh, i’ll leave you two to whatever it is you guys are doing. uh, but just hold in all your desires till you guys get home. this is a public space, after all.” jimin teases, eyebrows raised and inching slowly to the front desk where he wouldn’t have to see whatever the two of you would do next

it’s strange, jimin thinks to himself. namjoon’s never mentioned a girl to their frat before, but here he is, cozying up to y/n. weird. he shakes his head with a soft smile and continues on his way

oh no

so now you’re back to square one

alone with namjoon

and the textbook

did you forget to mention that you’re alone with namjoon?

it was much easier when you didn’t know who he was and could talk smack in front of him, but now? now you’re a lot more nervous

because you fought with THE kim namjoon over a textbook. SNU’s kim namjoon. and then you essentially pulled him on top of you in front of his friend. and on top of that, you still haven’t got your book yet

who knows? if jimin and namjoon are friends that could mean namjoon gets a preference, and thus, the textbook. they could make fun of you afterwards and you’d be forever known as the lunatic who tried to seduce namjoon to get a textbook. ouch. not a pretty picture.

for the first time, things are starting to look bleak

“uh, so we can totally pretend that didn’t happen. no worries,” namjoon chuckles, scratching the back of his neck in a combination of nervousness, embarrassment, and shyness. you can now see his dimples, which means he’s probably giving you a genuine smile, but you still can’t help but feel bad

tucking your knees into your chest and placing your chin on top of them, you whisper out, “i’m sorry.”

you squeeze your eyes shut and continue, “i really shouldn’t have done that. i didn’t mean to make you fall. like i just- i’ve been looking for this book everywhere, you know? and when i just found it, i guess i got way too excited. by the way, i didn’t mean to offend you with whatever i said. it’s just, you know that i have a tendency to- “

“ramble, i know. really, y/n you’re fine. i get it. i’ve been freaking out over this book too,” namjoon consoles you, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder. “don’t be too hard on yourself, okay?”

you nod weakly

“hey,” he continues, “how about this? we share the book instead. we anyway both have professor lee, so this method could be easier, you know? plus, we can share notes too.”

regaining your senses, you snort, “no offense joon, but i barely know you. it’s cool if we share things, but let’s start small and just share class. i don’t know how much of you i can tolerate.”

you meant for that to be a joke. can he tell? oh god, that was not good timing. you were literally having a breakdown a couple minutes ago. does namjoon have the same sense of humor as you? does he even have a sense of humor?

“for your information, yes i do have a sense of humor. you were thinking out loud by the way,” namjoon mentions dryly when you look at him in confusion. “and ‘joon’? we’re making nicknames for each other already, baby? i thought we’d wait till at least the second date. are we counting this one as our first?” okay, so now he’s pulling your leg

wait, kind of literally

his hand (the one that was around your shoulders at first) is now resting at his side. and because the two of you are sitting against a bookshelf next to each other, it’s now slightly brushing against your thigh

you stare in shock. THE kim namjoon touching you??!?! not sure if this is a blessing or a curse

“oh shit, sorry. my bad,” he finally notices after following your line of vision after seeing you gape at your legs.

great, now you’re going to think that he’s a creep! just because he’s popular on campus and in a frat doesn’t mean he likes to spend his free time feeling up girls

plus, he wants to make a good impression on you, as crazy as it sounds. he’s heard about you before, and you’re one of the smartest people on campus, staying holed up in your dorm to study rather than go to a party

(he doesn’t know about your crippling netflix addiction that you disguise immaculately. no one does, thankfully)

plus, you’re pretty and, although he would never admit it to your face, funny

anYWAYS

so what if he has a teeny-weensy crush on you? it’s not even that big of one. it’s so tiny. the smallest. not even there

yup

namjoon doesn’t have a crush on you

spoiler alert: he’s wrong about that

and you definitely don’t have a crush on him either

spoiler alert: he’s wrong about that too

so the reason why his heart skips a beat whenever you make eye contact with him is definitely a coincidence and not because he has a crush on you

right?

spoiler alert, again: wrong

he clears his throat, “sorry, you can have the book. i’ll just buy it online, i guess”

you pout and start to argue because you still feel a bit guilty, but he stands up and offers you a hand, which you look at hesitantly but still take

“you’re not gonna like, pull a WWE superstar move on me are you?” you joke

“who says i won’t?” he smirks at you, while pulling you up closer toward him

the sound of footsteps round the corner, probably jimin, and the two of you break apart before anyone can catch the two of you in another compromising position

an excited voice exclaims, “goOD NEW GUYS! i found an extra copy in the back! wow, i mean, that’s SUCH a coincidence! what great news!” jimin waves a textbook in his hands with a big grin on his face. a little too big of a grin, if you’re being honest

“i DEFINITELY didn’t know that we have extra copies in the back at all times! wow! isn’t this awesome?” he continues

is he JOKING?!??! you know you did NOT just spend this much time fighting for a book you could have had the entire time. and you definitely know that you did not spend a solid fraction of it embarrassing yourself in front of kim namjoon

speaking of namjoon

he doesn’t look so happy with jimin either. his jaw is now clenched and arms are crossed intimidatingly. he glowers at his friend and raises an eyebrow.

wait… that’s kind of hot. if you’re being honest, it’s really hot

"jimin, you're shit at lying, you know?” he says, “what was the real reason you didn’t give us the extra copy ahead of time?”

should jimin tell you guys the truth? well, a part of it wouldn’t hurt. he can already tell the two of you like each other based on your body language and thought leaving the two of you alone would help you two get even closer

he laughs, “no i literally forgot for like the entire beginning of your little argument and then i thought it would be fun to see how it pans out.” the smile on his face turns to a slight grimace as he sees the two of your unamused faces

you turn to namjoon, wondering if he’s thinking of getting “revenge” on jimin like you are. still keeping his eyes trained on jimin, he nods imperceptibly as if the two of you had communicated telepathically

“well, jimin, you did get us to agree. unfortunately, it’s not about the thing you want.” you say in what you hope is an intimidating manner. thankfully, namjoon adds more oomph to your words by cracking his knuckles

“okay, great! while you do that, i’m going to be at the front desk, ready to ring you guys up. you know, actually doing my job? have fun, you two! try to come up with something original and scary if you’re getting your so-called ‘revenge’, won’t you?” jimin grins and ambles off

oh my god, why is he so carefree? it’s lowkey frustrating

when the two of you are alone once again, namjoon turns to you, a question at the tip of his tongue

“so are we gonna beat his ass or what?”

you shake your head and furrow your eyebrows (namjoon finds it endearing that you’re serious about teaching jimin a lesson but he’ll never tell you)

“no, we have to think something out and be clever about it. plus, physical violence isn’t exactly my forte.”

“that’s fine,” namjoon replies, checking the time on his watch. “but it’s getting kind of late right now and i have to get some stuff ready for my frat.” seeing your face fall he adds, “let’s meet up sometime soon though, okay? how about we meet up at the starbucks next door later?”

is this his way of asking you out on a date? you’re kind of in shock at the idea

nonono, don’t overthink it y/n, it’s a casual meetup. casual.

namjoon doesn’t like you! you don’t like him… that much

it’s fine!

“oh! can i have your number then? it’ll be easier for us to communicate,” he adds on, feeling slightly nervous. which is kind of weird because pretty much all other girls on campus would flip their shit if he asked that and say yes without hesitating. but then again, they also don’t accidentally pull him on top of them in the back of a bookstore

who knows? you could say no

“sure,” you stammer out, still in surprise. namjoon hands you his phone to fill out your contact information and you save your name as “y/n :-D”

he lets out a little chuckle at that, simply saying, “cute,” and you swear you can hear your heart combust

the two of you head to the checkout counter, where jimin smiles knowingly at you two

“i’ll be expecting something extraordinary from you nerds,” he teases, to which the two of you roll your eyes

“i’ll catch you later, okay?” you tell namjoon while heading out the door, to which he nods with a dimpled smile. “and thanks for nothing jimin!” you call out, waving at him sarcastically

“you got the book in the end so be grateful!” jimin yells back

before the door completely closes, you hear namjoon threaten jimin, “once we get back to the house, i’m going to beat your ass for real,” to which jimin responds lazily with “sure, but you’ll be thanking me when the two of you start dating.”

you bite your lip to stop laughing. when you open your car door and look down when you see that someone has texted you

from unknown number: well today was certainly interesting… does meeting next week at 3 work for u?

from unknown number: shoot, sorry i forgot to say my name lol. this is namjoon btw

smiling down at your phone, you type back a response

to namjoon: sure! sounds great! c u then :)

you jump in surprise when you hear a noise come from inside the bookstore which seems to be jimin’s voice

“DUDE LOOK, SHE SAID YES!!! SHE’S TOTALLY INTO YOU!”

wow, he’s surprisingly loud. and accurate, too? are you that obvious about your crushes?

“NOW’S YOUR CHANCE, ASK HER IF THIS IS AN OFFICIAL DATE!”

well, it could be your chance too

smirking, you quickly type back a response before namjoon can say anything

you hope you said the right thing

to namjoon: it can be an official date if you want it to be one ;) i know i’d like it that way

setting your phone down, you let out a deep breath you didn’t know you’ve been holding and get into your car

slowly pulling out of the parking lot, you sneak a quick glance into the window of the bookstore and see namjoon staring at his phone in shock with an open mouth and jimin standing next to him, eagerly looking at the screen

jimin catches your eye through the window and winks at you with a smile

okay

so did you say the right thing? fingers crossed you did

your phone buzzes again, indicating someone has texted you (hopefully it’s namjoon)

a big smile breaks out on your face once you pick up your phone

from namjoon: i like the way u think ;)

from namjoon: so it’s on then? an ACTUAL date next week at 3? we can decide on how we’re gonna mess with jimin later lmao

yeah

you definitely said the right thing

34 notes · View notes

autmnchllambrsky · 3 years ago

Text

RED Taylor’s Version ranked on how much I relate/how much it’s gonna hurt n why

The ones I can’t even give personal context to bc it would bring up old shit🥲:

All Too Well

“Maybe we got lost in translation/ maybe I asked for too much/ You call me up again just to break me like a promise / so casually cruel in the name of ‘being honest’”

The moment I knew

“There in the bathroom I try not to fall apart and the sinking feeling starts…you call me later and say ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t make it’ and I said ‘I’m sorry too’. That was the moment I knew.😭

I knew you were trouble.

“A new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be” and “the saddest fear comes creeping in that you never loved me OR her” …OUCH

I almost do

This one is like I miss you but I know you don’t miss me as much and if I let you in again you’re gonna leave me.. again. “I can’t say hello to you and risk another goodbye/ it takes everything in me not to call you/ I wish I could run to you/ I hope you know that every time I don’t I almost do”

Red

Relatable bc I don’t ever stfu about something when it makes me upset

One’s that I can’t listen to bc I’ll cry

Come back be here

Military brat trauma/daddy issues

“I tell myself don’t get attached but in my mind I play it back spinning faster than the plane that took you/ I can’t help but wish you took me with you/ I break down bc it’s not fair that you’re not around”

Ronan

I physically can’t cope with the line “I’m standing in your closet trying to talk to you/ what if I kept the hand me downs you won’t grow into”

Sad Beautiful Tragic

They almost made it😢 always makes me think of Doctor Who lol

The Last Time

giving up on each other😢

One’s I was obsessed with in middle school

Girl at home

These Boys Ain’t Shit’s older sister. Like why are you talking to me about that when you know I know you have a girl??

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Middle ground happy breakup song. Taking the power back from someone who humiliated you. A pop song written about someone who hates Taylor’s bubblegum tracks. Calls him out on his gaslighting while she’s at it♥️

Eyes Open

Hunger games track. Sad bc it mirrors how the media looks at her. “Everybody’s waiting for you to breakdown.. even when you’re sleeping keep your eyes open.”

Safe and Sound

The better hunger games track, comforting, haunting, appropriately dystopian. “don’t you dare look out your window darling, everything’s on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on.”

The Lucky One

I swear the songs she writes about her own fame are a different brand of sad. “They tell you that you’re lucky but you’re so confused bc you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used and all the young things line up to take your place/ Now my name is up in lights/ but I think you got it right/ They tell me now ‘you’re the lucky one’/ can you tell me how I’m the lucky one?” Allegedly about Marilyn Monroe, and then related it back to herself in the last chorus

Holy Ground

Sad lyrics, dance pop bop. The end of a relationship sucks but while it was going good it was *really* good.

State of Grace

Same themes as holy ground. Love is hard but in this song they fight to make it work.

These don’t hurt at all🥰

Treacherous

Basically Ik loving u is a risk and I’m gonna do it anyway😌

Sweeter than fiction

Fun. Underrated. Motivational. Comfort music.

Stay stay stay

“I’d like to hang out with you for my whole life” 🥺🥺🥺

Party song. It really is a perfect fucking night. She really said “fuck it I’m young and I’m gonna have fun even tho there’s so much pressure on me”

Starlight

Party Song. About the Kennedy’s. A beach day blast. Let’s pretend to be rich and famous together.

Everything has changed

New loveeeeee “all I’ve seen since 18 hours ago is green eyes and your freckles and your smile on the back of my mind making me feel like I just wanna know you”

Begin Again

Finding love after being hurt and being able to trust someone with your pain>>>“For the first time, my past is past/you throw your head back laughing like a little kid/ I think it’s strange that you think I’m funny bc he never did/ I’ve been spending the last eight months thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end/ but on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again.”

#taylor swift #feelings #red taylor’s version #gray November #first post

2 notes · View notes

polandspringz · 3 years ago

Note

Can you tell us something about the villain turned side character and your protagonist:0

First, thank you for sending an ask! I've been wanting to share stuff from my original work for so long, but there's a lot of context since the story is so big so for context to these characters I'll give a very brief overview. (If someone wants a more detailed version I'll give it!)

It's a fantasy story set mainly in the kingdom/country of Ruyzex that was founded only within the last thirty years or so, and the stories those who witnessed it's liberation say that it was led by one man who lead the "war campaign" but negotiated without anyone having to fight a single battle. This man was supposedly blessed with magical abilities and many of the people who knew he view him as God, but one day he became a nomad and abandoned everyone, including his son, who always resented him. As such, people believe a fight between the son is to blame for their "God's" departure.

The story ACTUALLY follows three women who are "amnesiac heroes", who wake up with no memory beyond the horrible conditions they are found in as victims of trafficking, before they are rescued. Each of these women have magical powers like the God who left, and while they do not know how to use them, many people believe that they are their God returned or at least can be turned into him or replace him... or be brainwashed into replacing someone else who was lost.

My protagonist is a young woman named Dreil Ruyzex, who not knowing her own name took the name of her "home" (the town and country she was rescued in). She wakes up with her first memory being bloodshed, finding her kidnappers murdered beyond recognition around her and is terrified. She is rescued by a mysterious man who brings her to someone named Seio, who is the son of the governor of the southern most city, and lives in a house for people who were rescued and displaced and brought to Ruyzex through trafficking. While gaining her bearings there and becoming close with the other victims, Dreil awakens her powers due to several stressful events, and she is terrified, because she realizes that she had been the one to transform into a blind rage and eviscerate her captors, but she also has the power to heal people. Dreil doesn't particularly want to use her powers because she's scared of losing it and hurting everyone she loves, and Seio tells her to keep it a secret anyway, lest the people who come and visit the town discover her powers and suspect she is "like Ruy". However, Dreil ends up having to use them and learn how to use them when the city gets raided by people who kill two of the children she was living with and kidnap one of her new friends, Mierre. Seio and the other characters want to get Mierre back, and while they've traced the possible route she was taken, they also decide it's time to confront the Queen on this matter to crackdown on the traffickers who should have been outlawed back when the kingdom was established. Dreil forces them to bring her along, insisting she would be useful as a healer, and as they journey from the south to the northern point of the country, she has to battle bandits, cults, actual demons, and eventually soldiers from the castle as she learns the history of the land she has found herself in and joins resistance efforts to uncover the corruption within the mysterious capital.

Again, I'm being VERY VERY brief and vague because there's so much so apologies if it sounds cliche/not super interesting right now. Dreil as a protagonist starts off as an amnesiac but very quickly she does remember things, like her homeland, but the place she is from is actually such a mysterious region itself. Because of her appearance, she has similar features to the God who left, Ruy, which adds to the fanatic people in the city wanting to try and "shape" her into a new Ruy, or viewing her as a gift sent by him to them. One of the original ideas that shaped this story was when I was in middle school I was reading a lot of dystopian fiction (although this isn't a dystopian society really, although we are fighting the government at one point it's not how you think, they're not the "evil" in the story), and I thought about what if there was a story where the main girl didn't really want to go on the journey that she was being called to, since normally in dystopian works something big happens or is lost and the protagonist is all "I must instantly seek my revenge." This idea has been changed quite a bit in my work, but when Dreil lives peacefully in the city for a complete year before the raid happens, and during that time she helps rescue two children from traffickers in a neighboring town- waking up one day and sensing the gaze of someone staring at her from miles away. Although they're not much younger than her (Dreil is around 19-20, the "children" are actually teenagers) they help each other heal and develop a life together.

This goes into how characters changed and have been shaped across many years of working on this story actually. Many of my characters started off as villains or had more secretive goals and beyond Dreil originally were more gray than pure good. Seio is the deuteragonist and his goal is to rescue Mierre, but Dreil doesn't have a goal. The people she would rescue are dead, so what should she do? And now everyone she knows in the house she has lived in are leaving on a journey, and leaving her behind. In early versions of the story, the children did live and were captured, and Seio wanted Dreil to come along on the journey by telling her things like "maybe we can find them!" and not really tricking her but he was sort of working with the main enemy in needing her to come with him to the capital, therefore he tried to use the children as persuasion. In the more recent drafts of the story, Seio leaves Dreil behind, and due to him being distracted and angry at what has happened to his home he does not help much when Dreil is grieving. However, a conversation with someone else convinces Dreil to run after them and force them to take her along on the journey, citing she wants not necessarily revenge on those who took from her, but wants to help end the pain the traffickers have caused once and for all (and she doesn't want to be alone).

Now if I'm going to talk about my "villain turned side character" I have to get into the whole angels and demons thing I brushed over earlier, HAHA.

It does seem very "edgy middle school OC" to have angels and demons in a story, but I grew up reading a lot of Christian fantasy stories so this is where my writing stems from. Although I don't view my story as falling into this category, I've taken a lot of influence from them and the things I wish they did in those stories. For example, one of the things that always annoyed me was the Jesus-figure in those stories was always the obvious "King" who was a mysterious man who appeared like right before the big battle where you knew he was gonna die in the fight and then come back to life because he's the Jesus metaphor and that's it. He's never a main character or one with any real depth or character, so I wanted to change that. Hence, there's a WHOLE CAN OF WORMS surrounding what I can get into about my decisions when creating Ruy, but we're not here to talk about him right now, were here to talk about one of his friends, an angel named Orielle.

In original versions of the story, Dreil and Seio and her friends had to journey to the capital of the country and rescue their friend who had been taken and battle their way through several people at the ruins of the castle. Orielle was this figure who appeared every time there was a turn in their journey, taunting them, leaving them clues to get to the castle. He appeared in the fires of the raid, he appeared in the woods and challenged Dreil to a fight where she would have to use her murderous, uncontrollable power, he stood at the top of the castle before the final battle and revealed three "weapons" he had been making, several characters who were like Dreil in that they were blessed with powers but had been kidnapped and shaped into fighting for the wrong side. Orielle existed because I needed a villain and was still working things out. He was older originally, more middle aged and spoke in a booming deep voice and always looked down with his eyes narrowed as if passing judgement. But then as time went on I created more characters and the plot points filled themselves out (there was more than just the ending battle thought up) Orielle wasn't really needed anymore because a new villain had replaced him, but to be honest I still liked his name, so I just changed who he was.

Besides Ruy, who is the "God" figure in the story and his powers are for certain established to be from some higher power that he might well be (he's also an amnesiac hero as well, when you learn about him), and Dreil and the other two protagonists, whose powers are also from the same "good" source as Ruy (but for all intents and purposes we won't say it's "heavenly" or "celestial" in it's source), there are angels and demons. Angels are different than Ruy and Dreil, and Ruy and Dreil were people who when they were created their bodies always had power within them. They have one soul, and it is the one that is able to wield their power. Angels however are created more like vessels. There were certain people in the world who were made so their bodies could withstand the use of power beyond human means, so when on one fateful chaotic day (around 14 years before the start of the story, called "the Fall of Smokeflake") the souls or spirits of the angels descended and joined with the souls of their vessels, thus now these people had angelic power they could wield, and knowledge of the mission they must do, and knowledge of the past, present, and future. They do not have access to ALL of this information, as the souls are not fully one but they act as one when talking, although sometimes in the story there are points where a character must note that the "human" or the "angel" is speaking to them more and that might be unreliable. The angels know that if their vessels knew too much it would break them, especially if the future involves a massive battle where everyone is slaughtered at the end of the journey.

So, BACK TO ORIELLE. He has become an angel, really an archangel, and appears in the story mainly through the journals left behind by Ruy, which contain the history of Ruyzex and Dreil reads along her journey to understand her own power and the mysterious man that is like her. Orielle is Ruy's guidance, as he descends early in his true spiritual form to save his God from a landslide, but Ruy rejects him and sends him away because he doesn't understand what is going on. Orielle later becomes Ruy's only ally when Ruy is locked underground for three years and Orielle stays there, still not connected with his human vessel (because his vessel was not born yet), keeping Ruy alive and sane by putting him in a stasis-like sleep and giving him dreams and memories of the war that angels and demons fought, helping to clear up his confusion and his purpose in the human world, and who Ruy is going to meet. Years later, during the main story, Orielle is in the body of his vessel, a prince born to the kingdom to the north, Meltiux, who is campaigning for his right to the throne as it is a country of matriarchs, and for some reason the two princesses of Meltiux have been missing/no one remembers them...? Orielle is met at various points throughout the main story as he is visiting in Ruyzex and the Empire of Ker, Ruyzex's neighbor to the west, not only trying to build up his diplomatic relations and make himself "worthy" of the throne but also trying to meet up with the heroes and help them along the way. Of the seven angels, he is one of three who have actually met Ruy personally, which makes him very high ranking amongst the other angels hidden throughout the world, and because he was beside Ruy for every step of the journey and the war campaign, he is the leader in the absence of their real leader.

So, that's all I'll say for now! I apologize for the length, it was kind of impossible to explain my protagonist without going into the story somewhat. And I didn't want to just be like "she's nice, she's courageous" because I don't really view my characters in traits like that? I've just been so focused on their place in the plot that their characterization is so synonymous with the story for me that I can't really separate them, lol. Thank you for the ask! I'm willing to go into more detail in follow up posts about anything since there are WAY WAY more characters than even mentioned here.

#my ocs #bgwr #ask poland #writing #my writing

0 notes

hopewritcs · 4 years ago

Text

shipwrecked. four.

pairing: tony stark x f!reader

word count: 3.6k

summary: au based on the film overboard ( both the 1987 and the 2018 versions influenced this ). y/n is a widowed mother of four children, who works constantly to make ends meet, and relies on her friends and family to help out with her children. all the while she’s still working toward her own goal of publishing a novel. y/n is working at a “last minute emergency” party on a yacht where she meets tony who seems to believe that since it’s his boat, he can order her around like any other person who works for him. let’s just say their first meeting does not go well, as it ends with y/n in the water and a laughing tony topside on the yacht. their second meeting? oh, thanks to a bump on the head and a case of amnesia, it’s all going to go according to plan ( she hopes ).

notes: okay so i just decided to start watching all the mcu movies from the beginning and it’s brought me back to this fic. i know i sometimes take eons to update, but i really appreciate all the love and support for my fics i’ve seen. i hope you all enjoy this as much as i enjoy writing it. -- also, just a reminder that joanna is 12 going on 13, kate & dean are 9, and leo is 6.

trigger(s): amnesia

masterlist: here

shipwrecked tag list: @and-drew-101, @witheringblooddemon, @hulksmashin-bannerpackin ( if you want to be added to the tag list, send me a message !! )

Having Tony around was making your life both easier and more difficult. You had more free time, as you now had someone to split the house chores with--the ones that the kids couldn’t do for their weekly chore wheel like making meals and prepping lunches--which you spent working on the novel you’d been writing for years. It was a pet project you’d started working on when you were pregnant with the twins, you never expected it to amount to anything other than something you liked passing time by doing.

After your husband’s death it was something you’d turned to and worked on it in the late hours of the night when you couldn’t sleep. It was turning into something of a memoir, based on personal experiences but with fictional characters. It was nowhere near what you’d originally thought the work of fiction to be, but it had helped so much writing it.

You worked out a schedule with Lenore and Billie for yourself and Tony to make sure one of you was always home when the kids were leaving in the morning or coming home after school--completely ending your dependence on the babysitter you used to hire, thankfully since it saved you money.

However, you’d also say your life was more difficult to control with Tony in the picture since every time a personal question popped up, it took you by surprise.

He was still dealing with amnesia, and struggling to remember who he was on top of the family you two had--even if that part was technically a lie, he was doing his best. The first couple of times the questions were simple enough.

“Do I like strawberries?” / “Do we have family meals every day?” / “When are the kids birthdays?” / “How did we meet?”

Every question was usually followed by a sigh as he’d mutter, “I hate that I can’t remember anything.” Which only broke your heart a little bit further every time you heard him say it.

Sure, you played the part of struggling marriage well. It wasn’t hard, since you could classify your feelings for Tony more along the lines of hate than anything else at the beginning. It was supposed to be a means to an end.

But, as time went on, you started to feel something. You and Tony started to connect, and you saw how he was with the kids and it made your heart flutter. This was never something you expected to happen again, but the house almost started to feel like home.

Within the first couple of days, Tony seemed much happier too. Where at first Tony would quietly observe everybody during family meals and not say much, after the first few days Tony was leading conversations and participating in them often.

Tony surprised you by writing little notes down. You found a couple loose sheets of paper in the coffee table drawer with lists of things. One list included things that needed to be fixed around the house--you knew they all needed to be done, especially the dish washer, but you hadn’t had the time or money to hire someone to do anything--and there were also sheets for you and the kids. Notes in Tony’s stark scrawling pen about each of you; birthdays, favorite things, things he noticed, questions he wanted to ask.

You’d made sure to put the papers back how you found them, not wanting Tony to know he’d been caught. Maybe it was also for yourself to make sure you kept some distance.

Tony was not your husband.

You ignored just how often, after only just a week, you’d need to remind yourself of this fact.

A week into living with Tony, the family had really begun a routine. It was like you all fit together. You’d gotten a couple of text updates from Billie, pictures of Tony at work at the garage.

At first, you showed them to Lenore and the two of you laughed about it. After a while, you started to save them just for yourself.

“You like him!” Lenore exclaimed one morning, barging into your office with two cups of coffee.

You turned your head from the computer and looked at your friend, shaking your head, “Good morning to you too, crazy.”

“Come on, tell me you don’t feel something for him.” Lenore said, placing a cup of coffee in front of you and raising her eyebrows. “I mean, he’s been living at the house for a week now. You spend all your time with him. He’s a natural with the kids, and Billie says he’s doing great with the cars.”

“Your point? Because none of that points to me liking him in the way you’re implying.” You sighed, tapping on the desk as you grabbed the cup of coffee and took a sip. After a long pause you continued to speak, “Do I find him exponentially less irritating than originally thought? Yes. But I do not like him. This isn’t middle school, we’re not at a sleepover talking about our crushes anymore.”

Lenore was still looking at you with a smirk that said I don’t believe a word you’re saying. “You’re telling me you have no feelings for him? None whatsoever?”

“Yes, Len. I really don’t have feelings for him--how could I, I don’t even know who he is. Better yet, he doesn’t even know who he really is! Is this all something because he doesn’t remember what made him be a jerk? Is it some side affect of the amnesia? I don’t know.”

“Oh, so you want to like him.” She was actually giggling at your comment, which made you more irritated than you’d been at her original accusation.

Maybe she was right, you wanted to like Tony. If not in the way Lenore was implying, you wanted to like him and feel more comfortable around him. But there was a part of you that still held onto the first interaction you had. The interaction you had with the real Tony.

“Sweetie, it’s okay. You’re allowed to want to like somebody else, it’s been--”

You threw your hands up to stop her from continuing her thought, shaking your head. “Don’t go there.”

“Y/N, I’m sorry, but it’s true. If you want to like someone, you can. It’s not going to change anything that happened before.”

“Lenore, I love you, but can I just get back to work? I’ve got to be home early today. I don’t want to have this conversation with you today, or ever frankly. Until there’s someone real in the picture.”

Lenore shook her head and turned back to leave your office, but not before looking at you and saying one last piece of mind. “Tony is real.”

You ignored it, because she was wrong. Everything that Tony had been was lost to him with the amnesia. This Tony, the fake husband you’d been living with, he wasn’t real.

You couldn’t let him be real, couldn’t allow your feelings to cloud your judgement.

So, it was easier--better for you and everyone else--to just pretend like you felt nothing for him.

Tony was already home when you arrived, which shouldn’t have surprised you. In fact, Tony being home wasn’t what surprised you as you walked through the front door. What surprised you was what Tony was doing.

He was on the kitchen floor with Kate by his side, the two of them working on the dishwasher. That was what made you stop in your tracks, the front door closing behind you as you stepped into the house.

Kate was curled up in the floor with Tony, the door of the dishwasher on the floor on the opposite side of them, as they went back and forth handing each other tools and whispering about what needed to be done next.

You knew you should leave them be, let the two of them work on the dishwasher--even if you worried they might make it worse. Though, since the machine wasn’t working to begin with, could anything really be worse than that?

Except, you couldn’t bring yourself to leave the front doorway, watching the two of them at work.

Kate had been the quietest of your children, even before you had lost your husband, but you could tell how excited she was to be working on this project. Even if she was whispering with Tony, you could see how her eyes brightened as they spoke and tinkered with the machine. You moved around the room quietly, trying not to disturb the two of them--though with every step further into the house, it seemed as though the two of them had no idea you were in the room.

You tucked your purse into it’s usual spot, doing what you did when you got home from work every day and took off your shoes and hung up the coat you’d been wearing.

Even after all of this movement when you turned back around, the two of them hadn’t moved more than a couple of inches. Clearly they had no idea they had an audience to their little workshop.

Taking your cellphone out of your pocket, you snapped a couple of pictures from a distance, looking at the way Tony worked and how he seemed to talk Kate through what to do instead of just doing it himself.

This was not what you’d expected.

Oh boy, you were in trouble.

“Mom, you’re home early too!” Leo exclaimed, coming from the stairs and running to greet you with a hug. Dean followed behind him, holding onto books.

“Hi sweetie.” You bent down and gave your youngest a kiss on the cheek and brushed back his hair from his eyes as you continued to speak. “Are you guys working on school stuff?”

“Dean’s been helping me with stuff for the spelling test I have on Monday.” Leo nodded, pointing to his brother with a grin.

“Oh yeah?” You walked over to Dean and turned your attention back to Leo. “What do you think, is he gonna ace the test?”

“If he would pay attention instead of running around the house, maybe.” Dean said with a shrug, gesturing for his brother to come back up the stairs and study some more.

“I thought I heard the door, so I wanted to see if it was Jo coming home or if it was Mom!” Leo exclaimed, racing over to Dean with a frown on his face. “And I am too doing good. You’re just c-r-a-n-k-y, cranky.” Leo stuck his tongue out at his brother and then ran back up the stairs, leaving Dean to chase after him.

You were almost laughing at their antics until you realized what Leo had said and you walked towards the staircase shouting up at the two of them--even if you knew it wasn’t going to reach their ears as you heard their bedroom door close, “Wait--what do you mean Jo coming home? Is she out? She didn’t call and ask first!” You were already tugging your phone out of your pocket in order to call your daughter, halfway through finding her phone number in your contacts when you heard someone else speak.

“She wanted to go to the movies with some friends when I picked the kids up from school. I thought it would be okay, she said Ryan’s mom would drop her off in time for dinner.” Tony explained, still on the floor with Kate, but he was sitting upright now and looking to put the door back on the dishwasher.

“What? You thought it was okay? That’s my kid, Tony.” You sighed, shaking your head as you walked toward the kitchen, your arms crossed as you looked at him angrily.

“You know what, Y/N?” Tony sighed, running a hand over his face as he turned his attention completely to you, “You keep saying my kids. They’re ours, aren’t they? So maybe you could trust me with our kids.”

And there it was. The one part of this whole secret you hated.

You dropped to one of the seats at the kitchen table and sighed, putting your hands in your lap and looking down. You didn’t want to fight. You hated that you got so angry so quickly--if it was any other situation, you wouldn’t have been so mad at Joanna--but it was only natural since you were still going back and forth about trusting Tony. He was proving to be trustworthy, but the back of your mind was replaying him push you off the yacht every time you wanted to completely trust him. Besides, you’d asked Joanna to stay home and watch the younger kids, so she’d betrayed your trust.

He was right though, for everything he believed the kids were both of yours. You couldn’t fault him.

It was a long and admittedly tense pause as you looked between your hands clasped together in your lap and at your “husband”. It was going to be hard to explain that technically, both of you were right in this instance. You couldn’t explain why without giving everything away. So you settled for sighing again, shaking your head and speaking softly. It was clear from your tone that you were still angry, but you wanted the argument to be over with. “I just...if it happens again, text me. You have to let me know where she’s going to be.”

“You’re right. I-I should have called you first to ask. I’m sorry.” Tony stood up and walked to the kitchen table to take a seat beside you, putting his hands on top of yours as he looked at you.

“I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have said that the way I did.” You admitted softly, looking at his hands on top of yours. It felt weird and comforting all at once.

“No, you were right, they’re not just your kids or my kids. So I shouldn’t have told Jo it was alright when I hadn’t spoken to you first.”

You turned your gaze back up to look at Tony and offered him a half smile, shrugging your shoulders. You flipped your hands in his so that you were holding his hands instead of letting his rest on top of yours. “Next time we’ll both know better, then.”

Tony nodded, smiling back at you and then standing up. “Alright. Not to change the subject--but to change the subject, our youngest daughter and I have been working since we got home from school and we’re pretty sure that we’ve fixed the dishwasher problem.” Tony tugged on your hands and you stood up, following him the couple of steps to the dishwasher and he left you by the counter so he could sit back with Kate. “Isn’t that right kid?”

Kate nodded, grinning as she turned to look at you. “Daddy says I’m a natural with mechanics and machines!”

“Are you sure? We could have called a professional to get this fixed. Are you sure it’s gonna work?” You were worried, simply because you didn’t have the money in order to pay to get it fixed, and you didn’t know what was going to happen when they turned the machine on.

Kate however, was unfazed, standing up and walking over to you with a grin on her face. “Uh, duh, it’s gonna work! Dad’s super talented with this stuff.”

“So are you, kid.” Tony grinned back at her, holding up the door to the dishwasher and nudging her. “Now, if you’re done convincing mom that the dishwasher will work, you wanna help your dad put the finishing touch back on. Then we can do a test run.”

Kate looked at you, like she was waiting for your answer so you nodded and nudged her back to the dishwasher where she happily helped Tony put everything back together. He held the door in place while he talked through Kate screwing everything back in position.

Oh hell, you were really in deep.

When Joanna came home, in time for dinner that you and Tony had both cooked together, you decided you were going to take her aside to talk with her about everything that had happened. You’d calmed down a lot since you originally found out, but you still wanted to have a conversation with her about everything that had happened. In the end, while the pair of you worked on dinner, you’d told Tony that you were going to ground your oldest daughter given how she’d not told you where she was going or who she was going to be with and only told Tony. He agreed, simply because this was your punishment--though he did point out that he thought it was a little too harsh for the young girl.

However, you waited until after dinner to have the conversation.

Tony knew you were going to have a talk with Joanna, just nodded his head and let you go off with her as he cleared the table, telling the other kids that they should grab the ice cream from the freezer for dessert.

You led Jo out to the front yard and walked over to your car with her. Once you were far enough from the front door you rounded on your daughter and looked at her. “What did we talk about?”

“Uh, what do you mean?” she asked, crossing her arms and looking at you like she had no idea what you were talking about.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know exactly what you did, Joanna. You asked Tony if you could go to the movies and left your brothers and sister home with him.” You exclaimed, managing to keep your voice down low enough so no one would overhear.

“So what? I think he’s a decent guy, mom. I mean, you talked about him being an arrogant ass--”

“Language!”

“And yet he’s been great with us. He’s nothing like what you said he was, mom!” Your daughter shook her head, like she couldn’t believe what she’d heard you describe Tony as.

If you were being honest with yourself, you didn’t disagree with her. This Tony was different than the one you’d originally met the other week on the yacht, and it was getting harder to see what everything was like originally.

Yet still, your argument still stood, “He’s got amnesia, Jo. He doesn’t remember what he was like!”

“Well maybe this is the kind of guy he would have been anyway. Maybe he just needed to get hit in the head for it to happen! Don’t you trust him?”

“Do I trust him? That’s not the point, Jo. The point of this is that I asked you to watch out for the kids and you blatantly disregarded what I asked you to do.” You explained, shaking your head. “Honey, it doesn’t matter if I trust him or not. I asked you to do something, and I expected you to do it. You’re grounded, for the next two weeks. School, home, and after school activities only.”

“Mom! That’s totally unfair.”

“Unfair? What’s unfair is I had no idea where my daughter was when I got home today. What’s unfair is that you didn’t text me, or call me, and ask if you could go to the movies. What’s unfair is that I was worried sick about where you were.”

Jo rolled her eyes, “Would you have even said yes if I asked?”

“Maybe I would have, but that’s not what we’re talking about. You scared me today. I need to know where you are.”

“This is so stupid.” Joanna sighed, turning around and walking back towards the front door.

“Watch your tone.” You called after her, following her back to the house and walking into the front door. “Apologize to Tony.” You whispered to Joanna as you went into the kitchen to help the kids get their ice creams ready to eat.

Joanna followed you to where the kids were and looked at Tony, shuffling on her feet as she cleared her throat to get his attention, “I’m sorry. I should have told you to call mom, cause she’s in control of everyone’s life and can’t imagine anybody saying something without her permission.”

“Joanna!” you exclaimed, turning around to look at her.

“Hey, Jo. Watch your tone, and apologize to your mother right now.” Tony said. He didn’t like the way she implied that, since he knew that it wasn’t your intention. You had just worried about her, and wanted to make sure she was alright.

“Why should I?” Jo crossed her arms and glared at you from her place by the kitchen table. “It’s not like I can go anywhere, I’m grounded because of her!”

“Enough.” Tony spoke firmly, with a shake of his head. “That’s enough, Joanna. She has every right to be worried about you and where you were. Apologize and go up to your room now.”

“Ugh, whatever. I’m sorry, I guess.” Joanna sighed and turned around, walking up the stairs.

The rest of the kitchen was quiet, with the kids not wanting to say anything and neither you nor Tony saying anything else on the subject. The tension in the kitchen was awkward, as the five of you continued to make ice cream sundaes in silence for a while.

You hadn’t expected Tony to stand up for you like that. In fact, there were a lot of things you were still learning.

But you didn’t want to think of that, because deep down you worried about the day Tony’s memory would come back and what that would mean for you, and the kids, and him.

You were, without a doubt, in trouble.

But, hey, the dishwasher worked perfectly now. Maybe that was a sign that things were going to be alright after all.

#tony stark x reader #tony stark au #pre iron man i #tony stark x y/n #tony stark imagine #shipwrecked

19 notes · View notes

queentargary3n · 5 years ago

Text

unfaithful

Sasusaku Fan-fiction AU Lawers Rated M

FF.net Link to Chapter 1

Chapter 5

Naruto walked out to his porch, to find Sakura and Sasuke having an amicably conversation, which made him glad, not only because he didn’t want to lose any of them in the firm, just imagining how difficult the office would become if these two didn’t make up made his head spin, but also because he was concerned for Sakura, Sasuke could be a complete asshole sometimes, but Naruto knew his heart was in the right place, he usually didn’t mean the insults he threw around.

“There you are Sakura-chan, come back in, Hinata wanted to show you some baby pictures” Naruto said to the pinkette.

“Yeah, coming” Sakura responded to the blond, then turn over to look at Sasuke one more time before going back inside. “You need to ice that, bring down the swelling”

“So…? Everything Ok now?” he asked his brooding friend after Sakura was gone.

“Sure. I think” Sasuke replied. Although he wasn’t, really. There were many things going on in his life right then, things he needed to figure out, starting with what he had found in Karin’s bed, and the fact that instead, all he could think of was Sakura’s delicate hand touching him, it was very concerning for him. I’m messed up. He thought

“You think? You did tell her you are sorry, right?” Naruto asked, crossing his arms around his chest and closing his eyes, trying to figure out this whole drama.

“Yeah… were on friendly terms I’d say”

“Friendly huh? That’s unlike you” his blond friend mentioned.

“And what makes you say that?” Sasuke questioned.

“You’re a bit of a…” dick he wanted to say but decided against that. “Loner… I remember when we hired Shino it took you a whole year to learn his name, and even then, you barely even acknowledge him, it’s like you didn’t even noticed he was there”

“That’s because I didn’t notice he was there, he’s too quiet!…” Sasuke defended and continued. “but… I should tell you something, I guess…” Sasuke began, trying to find the best words to describe his past relationship to Sakura. “Sakura and I know each other… from before”

“You do? From…?” Naruto asked, confused and scratching the side of his cheek.

Sasuke took a deep breath, formulating the best response he thought necessary to give Naruto. The two men didn’t have any secrets from each other, at least not intentionally, Naruto had definitely earned Sasuke’s trust, he had saved him from a life of criminal activity Sasuke didn’t know how to disentangle from. But this, his past with Sakura felt too personal, too intimate to share. Even so, this was Naruto, and Naruto always managed to get the truth out of him, one way or the other, so Sasuke choose the path of least resistance.

“Sakura and I used to be together” The Uchiha said quietly.

“Huh? Together like together? when?” why Sasuke always felt the need to give Naruto incomplete information, he never knew.

“We were together back in high school, before I left, I hadn’t seen her since” he offered in explanation.

“No Freaking Way!” the metaphorical gears started to turn inside Naruto, he started to remember his last own love confession to Sakura, during their Junior year in college.

It had never been a secret that Naruto was in love with Sakura, they spent every free moment they had together, and during the third year in college, during a drunken bender, he began to question her about her feelings.

“I just… love you so much Sakura… why don’t you want me…?” He couldn’t bring himself to care what he sounded like under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol.

“I do love you Naruto…” Sakura said as she hugged him gently. “It’s just… not the way you do… or deserve… I’m broken Naruto”

“You’re not broken Sakura-chan… you are … you are perfect” He drunkenly offered.

“Naruto… I used to be in love with someone else… he left… he abandoned me, he left me in the middle of the road, all alone, to go do…doesn’t matter, the thing is I haven’t gotten over that. And you can’t wait for me to do… not when there is someone wonderful waiting for you and you’re too stupid to notice. Please just… notice her” She seemed to sober up by explaining.

“Wait! Are you the asshole who abandoned her in the middle of the road? How the fuck?” Naruto marbled at the improbability of the whole affair.

“She told you…” it wasn’t a question; it was a statement mostly to himself.

“Yeah mentioned it back in the day, ya know? Who would’ve thought were the prickhole? that’s what we used to call you back in college by the way”

“Did she say why?” Sasuke asked, wondering how much Naruto already knew about his past.

“No, but I can imagine” Naruto said, remembering first the time he met Sasuke, handcuffed to his hospital bed, police officer standing watch at the door, bloody bandages covering the remnant stump where his left arm had been.

Sasuke was the very first pro bono case, Naruto’s godfather made him take right after graduating law school. According to Jiraiya, he was just a kid, and he showed a lot of promise. apparently, he was some kind of genius who had just made all the wrong decisions in his life.

“He reminds me of you” His godfather had said. “A kid without a family, he’s got the same look on his face you had when I got you. Makes me think what would’ve happened if you’d stayed all by yourself”

Naruto made a commitment to his godfather, and to himself then, to help get this guy out of whatever mess he’d gotten himself into. Starting with the law, Sasuke was wanted for being associated with a motorcycle gang suspected of dealing guns in the black market, between other more gruesome things speculated. He was caught fleeing the scene of suspected arson, a police cruiser had rear-ended him on the road, casing the motorcycle Sasuke was riding to slid under an 18-wheeler. He was extremely lucky to be alive; he was told by the doctors.

“You need to tell me everything so that I can help you, ya know” Naruto had said, taking a seat next to the black-haired guy’s hospital bed.

“I don’t need some kid attorney to represent me” Sasuke responded with disdain.

“grrrr…. You really do get on my nerves ya know? And we’re the same age asshole” Naruto responded; he’d memorized Sasuke’s file a soon as he got it. But he was going to need more than his background to help him. “I think we can get you out of this easily, no matter what you did, that police officer shouldn’t have rear-ended you like that, we can get all of this thrown away claiming police brutality, I mean you lost your damned arm…”

“I don’t want your goddamned help!” Sasuke lashed out at him.

“It doesn’t matter if you do, you have it, deal with it” Naruto said, standing up from where he was seated and taking one last look at the 22-year-old man in bed, before leaving him.

There was something about him that made Naruto not want to give up on him. His godfather had been right, he reminded him of himself, but a different version, a version of himself who had just given up hope things will get better. He couldn’t handle that.

He was there throughout Sasuke’s entire recovery. Everyday seated by his bed, talking about anything, where Sasuke mostly stayed quiet, but more present than any attorney would have ever been for a client. He paid all of his medical bills and years forward of rehabilitation therapy. And when Sasuke questioned him about it, finally deigning himself to offer a word to the blond attorney, he simply said “Have a lot of money, inheritance ya know? Don’t know what to do with it” and shrug him off.

It sounded supercilious, as if bragging about how much money he had, but Sasuke understood the meaning behind the words, inheritance… He was alone too. He later learned that Naruto had lost his parents at a young age. Going up and down the foster care system until his godparent was able to get custody. Even then he was nothing but trouble, until he reformed himself. Stipulations left by his late parents mentioned he needed a college degree to be able to get access to his inheritance.

“At first it was all for the money, ya know?” Naruto told him sadly. “But then I started to make friends, real friends who were smart and made me want to be better for them too”

“I don’t have any friends” Sasuke answered. He had people he used for his means. And while Orochimaru claimed, everyone who entered the Brotherhood, as he called the gang, was like family, he never gave a damn about any of them. He didn’t have anyone he wanted to be better for, not anymore.

“Well you do now.” The blond one gave him a smile that for some strange reason made him want to smile too. “Now how about you tell your friend why you joined a gang?”

“Asshole” Sasuke exhaled, irritated at how stupid that line was. He fisted he bedspread of the cheap motel he was currently living in with his sole remaining hand and began “I was 8 when my parents passed away, leaving my brother to raise me, he was only a few years older, but we did good for some time, then he left me too, just out and left, didn’t even get a reason or goodbye, just one day… he was gone, I had to keep that a secret if I didn’t want to be put in the system and keep my parents home. After I graduated from high school, I found that he died. Orochimaru came to me then, said that Itachi had joined the Brotherhood and was killed by a rival gang. He offered me a chance to get revenge. I took it. My brother was a good man, he didn’t deserve to die, I didn’t understand why he’d even joined the Brotherhood in the first place, I guess I joined too to figure that one out”

“Is that what you want, to get revenge? No matter what happens to you?” Naruto asked him.

“I don’t even know what I want, I don’t have anything else to do” Sasuke responded.

“I can help you figure out what happened to your brother Sasuke, and get justice, not revenge but justice, you don’t have to throw your life away for that” He offered.

“Does Karin know that?” Naruto wondered about Sasuke’s wife, with both girls working at the office, and how dramatic Karin tended to be, drama was bound to ensue.

Sasuke shook his head no. “I hadn’t seen Sakura until you brought her to interview, and I never told Karin”

“Should we keep it that way?”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t matter either way” Leaving a crying Sakura in the middle of a dark empty road had been one of the biggest regrets of his life. It was a terrible thing to do to a girl, but he needed to be terrible, otherwise she wouldn’t have let go. And with Karin, he didn’t currently feel like opening up about his past to her, besides she was keeping secrets of her own.

“Well she works with us now; we don’t need that kind of drama around the office” Naruto said. “Just… try to be nice to Sakura, or at least your normally aloof self, she’s a good person, and a good asset for the company, she doesn’t need you mistreating her like that, I care about her”

“I’m a professional, if you’re suggesting I can’t keep it that way…”

Naruto interrupted him. “You know very damned well what I mean asshole”

And he did, he didn’t exactly keep it professional when he called her a whore. He still had the feeling he needed to make amends for that. He didn’t know how or why, but he would try, it was the least Sakura deserved of him, and he knew, but he simply told his friend “Yeah” and went back inside.

Thank you so much if you are still reading this. Please leave a comment so I know you’re still interested! constructive criticism is always appreciated. Is this were you thought the story was going? What do you think should happen next?

#sasusaku #sasusaku fanfic #sasusaku fic #sasusaku fanfiction #sakura haruno #sasusaku au #sakura uchiha #ssfanfic #ss smut #sasusaku smut

56 notes · View notes

thecleverdame · 5 years ago

Text

Control and Release - 24

Series Masterlist

TEDTalk!Sam x Reader

Summary: After the rest of the staff is caught in a snowstorm, you find yourself acting as a personal assistant to the notorious Sam Winchester. As the arrangement becomes more defined, you and Sam begin a sexual adventure with dangerous consequences.

Warnings: Dom/Sub, humiliation, embarrassment, sexual objectification, mutual masturbation, spanking, cum play, fingering, anal play, orgasm control, nipple clamps, dub-con, breath play.

Beta: @ilikaicalie

Words: 3.7k

Parts 25, 26, 27 & 28 are currently available on Patreon for a monthly pledge of $2.50. This includes early access to all my stories, including the ABO series Gods of Twilight and Patreon exclusive content. >> CLICK HERE <<

Sam’s zipping around his house like he’s on fire. On any given weekday he doesn’t come home until after eight or nine and works well into the evening. This afternoon however he arrived home just after you and has been wrapping up his day in a frenzy.

“Damn it,” he snips, shaking his head at a handwritten note. “I can’t read Linda’s handwriting. It’s chicken scratch. I have to get rid of her. I need Pepper back.”

“I thought her name was Lauren,” you say.

“Laurel, Lana, I really don’t fucking care.”

“Let me see it.” You pluck the paper from his hand.

While her handwriting is not the prettiest, it’s still discernible. “Paul Handcock, Steven Turney...no Tunney, and Lady Toni Bevell? Fancy.”

“She’s English,” he snorts. “One of my least favorite people.”

“Who is this a list of?”

“Three execs from the UK I’m bringing over to work on a project. I’ve had an interest in opening an office in London for years now. Legal consultation for international cases.”

“Wow,” you lean back, watching him tap a message into his phone. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes.”

“Always,” he sends off a message and takes a breath before going to his laptop. “If everything goes to plan, we’ll be spending some time in London next quarter.”

“We?” you raise an eyebrow.

“Of course,” he types furiously, eyes fixed on the screen. “Unless you don’t want to come with me.”

“No, I mean, I want to. I wasn’t sure you meant you and me.”

“You, me and some of the executive team. It’ll be a lot of work but I can find time to enjoy the city with you.”

Your heart does this school girl flutter at the idea of him automatically including you in his plans.

“I’d love that.” You glance up to check but he’s not paying attention. “Cole said something interesting today...”

“Oh?”

“He, ah, he said that he’s noticed the way you look at me.”

Sam pauses, a quiet lull and then he looks at you. “Did he?”

“He said he thinks you’re interested in me and that I shouldn’t be alone with you because you might try something. Might get a little handsy.” Wiggling your fingers you watch for his reaction.

His nostrils flare, eyes narrowing at this new information.

“He’s projecting,” Sam quips, stepping closer. “He watches you, studies you the same way I did. It’s not a bad plan, to set himself up as the ‘good guy’.”

“I don’t think he’s like that.”

“You’re not a man and you don’t have an accurate perception of how attractive you are. Trust me, he’s like that. We all are. It took me all of five minutes to see he was interested in you.”

“You never said anything.”

“Because I’m not threatened. Unlike Cole’s fictional version of me, I don’t think he’ll lock you in a room and try to feel you up. But he’ll make his play. Give it time.”

“I think you’re both overreacting.”

“Cole will prove me right eventually,” he grins, tilting his head to the side, looking over your face. “Should I be concerned?”

“No, Mr. Winchester,” you smirk. “But I like that you asked.”

He smiles a controlled little smile and goes back to typing.

“Do you want to order something for dinner? I’m starving.” You’ve been craving a pizza but you doubt you’ll be able to talk Sam into a choice so blatantly unhealthy.

“We’re going out tonight,” he explains.

“Where?” you ask.

“It’s an Italian place, you’ll love it. Carbs as far as the eye can see.”

“Yessss,” you hiss with a laugh and he pulls you into his arms. “Nothing makes me happier than breadsticks.”

“Easy to please,” he kisses you softly, his eyes fluttering shut, then open.

“We’re going out on a weeknight? This must be a special occasion.”

“Do you know what day it is?” he asks.

“What?” you look at him, hesitant smile wilting. What have you forgotten?

“One year ago today you came into my hotel room,” he murmurs. “You were wide-eyed and unsure, but so excited at the same time. I remember exactly what you looked like, sounded like. The way you touched yourself for me.”

How could you possibly forget? It’s been a year and look how far you’ve come.

“I’d never done anything like that before,” you admit, a shy smile creeping across your face.

“I hope not,” he nips at your mouth, his lips ghost at the corner of your lips before trailing down to find the curve of your jaw before landing at the shell of your ear and whispering. “We’re going to try a few new things tonight.”

“I’m ready,” you whimper as he sucks at the skin under your ear, sending tiny whizzes of pleasure shooting up and down your spine. Your toes curl in your shoes and you lean into him grasping at his shirt.

“Glad to hear it,” he murmurs, looking you over in approval. He steps back, leaving you breathless with heavy eyes. “Get dressed.”

---

“I’ve been looking forward to this part all night,” you confess, standing in his bedroom.

“I hope it doesn’t disappoint.”

“I’m not sure that’s even possible,” you say, watching his face awash with amusement and lust. Perhaps a layer of restrained affection underneath it all.

“Take off your clothes and get on the bed,” Sam instructs.

You comply without even thinking, stripping your dress off, then your bra and finally the heels that you’re all too happy to get rid of. You crawl on hands and knees to the middle of the bed, wiggling your ass and looking back. Sam walks towards you in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, a white t-shirt and his tie from earlier in the day. His erection is already straining at the material, and you get a little thrill out of the fact that he wants you this badly.

“How would you like me, Mr. Winchester?”

“On your back,” he barks, leaning forward to swat you on the ass before you can roll away. With a yelp you lay down on your back, stretching out long as he joins you. Slinging one leg over your belly he straddles your stomach, careful of his weight. “Hands above your head.”

You reached upward, watching his face as he binds your wrists together with his tie and then loops it through an open slat in the headboard. He’s most comfortable like this, in charge in a sexual situation. He’s also the most handsome just like this, controlled but relaxed, in his element. You wonder what he has in store for you.

“You’re beautiful tonight,” he comments, dropping down your body, stopping along the journey to suck a nipple into his mouth.

“Just tonight?” You’re not really serious, poking fun and getting lost in the feeling of his mouth sucking hard.

“Always,” he looks up, dragging his teeth down the skin between your breasts. “But especially tonight.” He snakes lower, kisses his way over your ribs, then belly. “I like taking you out, having other people look at us and knowing you’re mine.”

“I like that too.” You watch as he carefully parts your thighs, his palms pushing your legs wide and you finally realize what’s about to happen.

He pauses to look up at you, grinning like a cougar about to eat a fat little rabbit and then swoops down, burying his face between your legs.

“Sam,” you gasp, hips jerking forward. The tip of his nose bumps your clit as his tongue sinks into your folds, searching deeper until he’s shoved as far into your pussy as he can get. Your mind slows down, thick and cloudy as he fucks you with his mouth.

Strong fingers curl into the clammy flesh under each knee as he pulls you up for him, holding your trembling thighs so wide that your muscles burn.

“Fuck, you’re wet,” he mumbles against your cunt, taking a breath before diving back in. Two fingers slide in deep, thrusting slowly in and out. His mouth finds your clit, the tip of his tongue pressing over the aching bud, once, twice and then sucking it into his mouth like he’s been starving for you.

He’s never gone down on you before. To be honest, you thought this was something he didn’t do. While he’s spent countless hours with his fingers between your thighs he’s never had his mouth on your pussy until now.

“Tastes so fucking good,” he grunts right up against your sex.

“Fuck,” you groan, arms tugging at the restraints.

You can feel him chuckle as his tongue flicks out against your clit. He goes gently at first, teasing strokes and lazy circles until you’re vibrating out of your skin, until you’re ready to kill him if he doesn’t give you more, so he does. Gentle flicks of his tongue over your clit, sliding lower to push inside you with the slow thrust of his tongue that makes you wiggle and squeal until your hips buck up off the bed. You cum so hard you gush all over his chin. He doesn’t stop, he keeps working your pussy until your quivering and begging him to stop.

When you finally can’t take anymore, he rises and tugs at the tie around your wrists, freeing your arms. Then he rests back on his heels before pulling his shirt up over his head, tossing it to the floor. RHe starts to push down his underwear, and then just stops, looking down at you in appreciation.

“You’re mine,” he breathes, then nods in summation.

“Yes, I am yours.” You reach out for him. He grins, dodging your arms and dropping down to place a kiss on the inside of each thigh. Then placing a kiss on your clit, enjoying the way you roll up to meet his mouth.

Finally, he slides his body up, over yours, skin sticky with sweat.

He kisses you, tongue sliding past your lips and you can taste herself on him, and you dig your nails into his shoulders.

“Take your clothes off,” you whisper, catching his ear lobe between your teeth.

He grunts and rolls his hips against your core. You can feel how hard his cock is as he grinds against your clit.

You watch the beauty of him stripping down. He’s beautiful and powerful and under different circumstances, you’d take the proper time to appreciate every inch of him.

He lays back down on top of you,, belly to belly. So close you can feel his heartbeat, the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes. You’re shaking, trembling underneath the weight of him. You feel his cock pressing against where you’re wet and needing, that perfect tease.

He slides inside so slow. You’re so full, so tight, nothing’s ever felt like this. You hold onto him, crying out in pleasure, straddling the line of too much. He dips down to swallow your cry, pushing further inside, sinking deeper until you can feel him rest against your body.

“Hey,” he whispers, and your eyes flutter open. Jesus, he’s so beautiful. He’s not sure what this reaction is. Neither are you. This feels like connection, like more than anything that came before. You’re shaking like a virgin getting fucked for the first time. “You alright?”

“God, yes,” you moan and cant your hips against him. “Please, Sam. Fuck me.” You push up with your body, wanting more, needing him to move.

He doesn’t. He just lays there, pressed inside, staring at you like you’re a work of art.

He pulls back, and you feel the stretch of his cock as it draws out of you, almost to the tip. You whimpers, biting your lips as you writhe up into him, trying to find his hips with yours. Then he thrusts into you, filling the empty space inside your pussy and you’re moving to meet him, head thrown back and soft cries pouring from an open mouth.

You rock together, one hand holding yours above your head, fingers laced together. The other cupping a breast as he pants against your throat. You grip his ass cheek in your hand, rolling up to meet until the two of you are nothing more than body bodies sliding against each other. He kissed you sweet and slow, and you open your mouth to let him in.

“Can I cum?” you wheeze, the words fractured.

“Yes,” he whispers, grabbing you by the shoulders to hold you still, thrusting harder, his eyes locked on yours.

“Fuck,” you mutter hoarsely, and then cum so hard your teeth snap together and it’s all you can do to stay earthbound.

“So fucking hot, tight, Jesus Christ I can feel you,” Sam grates out, pressing his face into your shoulder. His whole body goes tense and then he cums, filling you with everything he has.

He goes soft, resting his forehead on the pillow next to your head. You turn into him, cheek brushing against his hair, humming with pleasure. You flex your hands, still holding tight to his, and he lifts his head to look at you, grinning down at you with an exhausted but pleased look.

“Not our usual sex but…” he trails off. He looks proud and he should be after that.

“It was amazing,” you smile up at him. “You always know what I need, even when I don’t.”

He studies you for a moment, eyes twinkling before leaning in to kiss you.

“What were you like?” you ask, settling into his side. “When you were a kid I mean. What did little Sam want to grow up to be?”

First comes Sam’s trademark pause and then a simple confession that tells you so much more.

“I just wanted to be normal. As a kid, I was starving for it. I wanted to have a house and a mom, I wanted my dad to sit down with Dean and I every night and eat dinner. Chasing monsters was the last thing on my mind, what I craved was to fade into the background. To fit in. And now look at me. If ten year old Sam could see me now he’d be appalled.”

“Why?” you murmur, the pads of your fingers rubbing a gentle path through his chest hair. “You’re successful, you don’t think he’d be proud?”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t the plan. My dad lost himself in work and I swore up and down I’d never be like that. I wanted a family, a dog, a nine-to-five job. I’ve gone so far in the other direction I couldn’t be further from normal.”

“Is there any part of your family that you miss?”

“I don’t know,” he replies immediately, shifting his hips.

“There’s nothing good from all those years?”

“Dean, I suppose.” His hand trails over the back of your elbow and up your arm. “We butted heads from the time I could talk but he took care of me. He did the best he could. Dad would leave and Dean was in charge. When my dad first started leaving us on our own it was only for a night or two. But as I got older he’d leave for a week, sometimes two. Dean fed me, got me to school, stole the best comic books so I’d have something to keep me busy.”

“That’s a lot...for both of you.”

Your heart sinks into your gut as you picture these two little kids alone in some skeezy motel. It’s a wonder Sam got from there to here.

“I felt guilty for a long time after I left. For years I wondered if I’d done the right thing. I kept Dean grounded, or tried to anyway. But when Jess died I…”

He trails off.

“I’d like to know about her,” you add. Tilting your head up you burrow into his neck and use the arm over his chest to pull yourself closer to his body heat. “Only if you want to tell me.”

“I don’t talk about her.” He clears his throat.

“Okay.”

The two of you lay there listening to the distant ticking of the wall clock in the hallway. His house is unnaturally quiet, a modern capsule, sealed off from the rest of the world.

The minutes tick by as you lay there, both of you wide awake but neither willing to break the bubble. You’re about to suggest a shower when he speaks again.

“She baked all the time,” he says. “She was good at it. Cookies, pastries, cakes. I gained ten pounds during our first year together.”

You don’t respond, just wait as his fingers curl into your hair.

“She was the first person in my life to ever encourage me to do the things I wanted. Every time I suggested something she’d tell me to go for it. My whole life my dad told me I needed to be like him, there was no other choice. But she encouraged me to be anything I wanted.”

Again, you’re silent. Afraid of intruding on this fragile moment of reflection.

“She loved me and I lied to her. I made up stories about my family. I told her my dad was dead. My brother was a drunk. Anything to avoid talking about them. I rewarded her affection with made-up stories because I didn’t want to own up to where I came from. Looking back it was stupid, she wouldn’t have cared. We could have truly known each other and I took that opportunity away from us.” He sighs. “I won’t make the same mistake with you. I can’t talk about it all, not with you, not with anyone. But I won’t ever lie to you.”

“Me either,” you confirm. “We all need things that are ours alone. Secrets, moments, even people sometimes. I don’t begrudge you that.”

“You always surprise me,” he says, deadpan and devoid of emotion. “You deserve a better man than me. Someone who’s not broken, gutted from the inside. You deserve to be loved.”

You think about those words, you deserve to be loved. As if he’ll never be able to deliver.

“You don’t think you’ll ever be able to love me?” you ask.

He grunts, clearly uncomfortable but his arms only tighten around you.

“I hope I can. You make me feel a lot of emotions, strong emotions...my first instinct is to purge them. Ignore them before they grow stronger. I have a lot to work on.”

“I could love you,” you respond, but the untruth of the statement doesn’t settle right. You’ve felt it for weeks now. Refusing to give in to fear you say what you feel. “I do love you.”

You hold your breath. Will he run? Kick you out? The truth is that you love him but you still don’t trust him, not completely.

“I’m not sure how you could love a person like me. I’m a shell, half-empty inside,” he responds calmly.

“I don’t think that’s true. You shut off access to certain parts of yourself, but they still exist. Empathy, compassion, love... I've seen little glimpses of all of them.”

He snorts.

“What?” you ask.

“A little voice in the back of my head keeps whispering there’s a good chance that you like the way I make your body feel and that’s all this will ever be.”

It’s easy to forget that Sam doubts himself. But he’s just human after all and he needs assurances just like everyone else.

“I do like the way you make me feel. The way you touch me. But I also like the way you look at me, listen to me, really listen. You care what I think. I like how you think I’m capable of more professionally, you don’t let me fade into the background, you challenge me. I like laying here with you in the dark. I like listening to you. The sex is amazing, but it’s sex. There’s so much more to being together.”

There’s a flickering burst of light from outside and the low boom of a storm approaching. Sam doesn’t respond, he just holds you close, fingers trailing over skin as words and confessions sink in. It’s impossible to know what the future holds. But right now you have each other and neither of you are taking that for granted.

#control and release #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester fanfiction #sam winchester smut

234 notes · View notes

kc-anathema · 4 years ago

Text

I’m so sorry I did another long post so soon...

So a long time ago, I received a flame on Spec Ops 98: Jazz's Interrogation at Soundwave's Pedes. I hadn’t received a flame in a long time, and I haven’t received one since (which is amazing, since this was on chapter 26 back in...dear heavens, 2015. This fic is officially an epic.)

In fact, I stopped reading the flame once I realized it was a flame, about four chunks in. 2015, five years ago, I was changing principals, changing schools, trying to figure out how to marry my Canadian then-fiance and figure out immigration. (Fun type--marry her in Vegas, wait a couple years, bring her over. Use a lawyer to make sure it’s all kosher.) So yeah, didn’t read.

And then a concerned reader mentioned to me that I didn’t deserve this awful flame and that they loved the story. And I thought...oh yeah, there was a flame on this. That was a couple months ago.

I finally decided to break the flame apart like I used to. This feels very nostalgic to me. I found out that this is really the flamer’s only claim to fame--they flame fics and troll writers. I’m not going to name them then, although you can find the easily on the ff.net review page for this fic.

My father once told me that, if anyone ever spraypainted slurs across my house...leave the slurs up. Don’t pay to remove them. Let the awful words stay up until everyone in the neighborhood is begging us to take them down again.

I think leaving the review there says more about her than me. And I’m going to enjoy clawing this apart, I think, like a cat scratching apart a lizard.

Flame begin:

We’ve got a problem if Soundwave is involved here and he’s not pulling his usual ‘Decepticons, Superior’ line. Add on a fic about perverts and we get this. Ah, well. What are you gonna do?

Remember the character Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, and how he said “Bazinga” all the time? That kind of went from a joke to an overused character crutch. Like ‘dynomite!’ or ‘did I do that’? Is it really good to rely on a character line to the point where we can call it ‘usual’?

“I’ll take my pleasure and that sweet aft” – Sounds like a cheesy commercial for Robot Chicken. Fireflight is locked up in a dungeon and is about to be whipped by a BDSM Starscream. That’s not at all OOC. Basically it’s a fanfiction that talks about fanfiction.

I...um. Yes. Yes, it’s an OOC line modeled directly after pulp fiction zines and tijuana bibles. I literally looked up several of those on the Internet Archives and various old men’s magazines covers. It’s not fanfiction directly, although it’s certainly what fanfic evolved out of.

Do these look subtle? Low key? Classy? Tasteful? It’s cheap trash and it’s fun as hell. I don’t think readers at the time thought that these were in any way true. This is right along the lines of drawn hentai. So I think the flamer admitted despite themself that I did good.

“We’re stuck here in the middle of a war...we don’t have time for sex” – That’s right. But that fact doesn’t apply does it?

...reading trashy, porny magazines is not sex. It’s actually something you do when you can’t get sex for whatever reason. I would know. A lot of us would know. Apparently not the flamer. No one thinks that “hey, I got a chick/dude willing to bang right now...but the new issue of Men’s World is out! Can’t miss that!” Unless you have some serious fetishes that your partner is too weirded out by, I think this does indeed apply.

Then Jazz gets captured and lo and behold, Soundwave is revealed to be the Christian Grey of the story. I hope he has some maid outfits for Jazz.

...our flamer hits the sludgy bottom of the joke well and grabs their shovel. They do not try very hard for originality in their insults. And, while Grey was a jerk, Fifty Shades wasn’t quite a prisoner of war scenario. No, that was a cheap romance for chicks. I’m writing more akin to men’s...oh.

The flamer is a chick.

Their only bdsm or bad romance experience is with Fifty Shades.

I don’t think they read much.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we have a shower scene. Damn if it’ll be Carrie!

Iiiiiiiiiiiii did not write a shower scene?

Dudette, did you even do the reading you say you did?

There’s no point in adding moral ambiguity, especially in regards to Soundwave. He won’t be swayed easily, or at all, by Jazz’s speech. He’s cold hearted for a reason. He serves the Decepticon cause until the very bitter end. He’s a lot like Shockwave that way. Highly doubtful he would find meaning or even the relevance of writing pornographic fanfiction, but eh, this was never meant to be serious, was it?

...no. It’s a humor fic. The flamer is criticizing a humor fic for being humorous. Kudos for identifying the genre? I mean, the flamer is also complaining that I did not write Soundwave as a one-dimensional factionalist without examining what that means for him and how the mission creep has left the original political crusade behind. It’s not like I took pieces of Soundwave from Gen1, IDW, and the comics and blend them all together.

This reminds me of the fanboys in the TMNT fandom who keep pushing for every iteration to simply rehash their nostalgia boner for the original toon. I feel like I’m getting the Transformers version of wanting less of this:

because it isn’t the familiar characterizations of this:

“So what’s the down low?” – You, Jazz. You’re going to give the down-low to Soundwave. I can’t wait to read how shiny his robo-vagina is.

...wow. Classy there, flamer. Also I really don’t think they read anything. This whole fic is plug n’ play. There’s exchanging of cables, talk of code and positronic souls and sparks and revving engines. There isn’t a drop of sticky, spike, or fluids.

Chapter 15’s sex scenes bore me. Nothing is worse than having a guy ask to remove every bit of clothing. Just do it already! And why is Jazz a virgin? Come on!

Look--the thing about sex and fetish and whatever revs your engine is that it’s not going to rev everyone’s engine. You don’t like the type of interfacing here? Fine. I don’t like those kind of sex scenes in my porn either. But I wasn’t write that scene for porn. I wanted write warbuild Jazz dealing with violent subroutines while interfacing with Prowl. I had fun with it.

Why is Jazz a virgin? The previous 15 chapters discuss that.

I really don’t think the flamer read the fic.They scanned for anything remotely sexual, so I don’t think I’m going to take anything they say about this fic being ooc for perversion’s sake.

“Everyone here is damn pervy” – In which a character talks about the author.

“We gotta get Soundwave to finish writing his story” – Why? I mean, what’s the point? It’s not doing anything for them, unless it’s to show how castrated Soundwave is. I’ve seen him act better in Mary-Sue fics.

There is a whole plot about Starscream and Skyfire, and I thought I could trust the readers to be intelligent enough to make the leap with the parallels between Soundwave and Jazz.

This is literally the only review that questions why Jazz said that.

The Mary Sue shot just echoes the Fifty Shades swipe. I think this flamer did most of their flames roughly ten years ago--the insults are pretty dated.

The Decepticons don’t know about Ratchet? Why? I mean, he’s one of the oldest dudes there. He has a reputation. When you have a reputation, people know about you. It’s inevitable. I think your inner logic slips a lot.

At this point, I literally have 21 previous chapters of world building.

I am not surprised that the story’s logic was slipping away from one of us.

It’s funny to read the forum responses in the story. It’s like the author is trying to make fun of detractors yet ends up making fun of herself.

Okay, this part is hilarious for a reason only briefly noted in the fic. I think that the only things this can refer to are the comments from the chapter titled Flames of the M4gn1f1c3ntSkyPr1nc3--because those are literally the first flames/comments I put in the fic. And I didn’t write them!

My wife wrote them! I don’t write Starscream well but she just poured those out like water--she’s seen more of the hysterical side of fandom, particularly the earlier TF fandom, and I snipped out pieces for the fic.

So...I mean, we’re pretty happily married, so I don’t think she counts as a detractor. ^___^ Ultimately I started writing this fic for her.

“Your optics make me crazy” – Not at all a cliché.

Good thing I didn’t write that, then. Here is that little section in the Prowl/Jazz section. (Took me a bit to find it since I plugged that into the Find and couldn’t bring it up.)

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

I like what you do to me. Jazz allowed him in, tilting his helm. I never really understood it, y'know? How mechs could lower their guard so much. Let someone this close.

And now? Prowl drew back, wanting to see Jazz for the answer. With a quiet ping, he warned the other mech even as he raised his hand, touching Jazz's visor.

I still think you're crazy always going on about my optics, Jazz said, venting even as he disengaged the locks and let Prowl gently remove the blue polycarbon.

Your optics are perfection, Prowl corrected him. And you let me see them. Hundreds of mechs wondering what's under that visor, but I get to see.

Still shy about letting someone else see them, Jazz turned his head, only for Prowl to touch his cheek and turn him back, coaxing his optics to open with a soft brush of his thumb.

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

Not bad for an asexual, I think. I mean, it’s not like I have a ton of hands on experience, being kinda broken that way. But I have read plenty of pulp magazines and pulp radio shows!

This didn’t take long. I skimmed through this work, because there was so little content. Lots of ridiculous shit, though. Soundwave writes fanfiction, the Autobots are weirded out/turned on, capture Soundwave, Soundwave realizes that his whole life was a life and decides to defect. Yeah, about that. He wouldn’t do it lickety split, let alone EVER. Hell, the reactions in the forum bits show what some would think of this, if they weren’t too busy fapping.

The funny thing is I don’t think the mechs can even fap. I don’t write them doing that. But yes, flamer, I do believe that you skimmed through the work. Particularly since you’ve recounted it backwards...Soundwave captures Jazz as the capstone to a long internal conflict within himself, but rather than go through chapters of internal monologue and Decepticon politics, I started the story as close to the inciting action as possible, not quite in media res.

I won’t hash out why Soundwave defects. I mean, I spent 22 chapters at that point explaining it. But it’s my fault the flamer skimmed, I guess?

Needless to say: the romance bored me senseless. It was poorly written, and overall there’s really no skill attached to this. You don’t grip the audience and Jazz’s virgin mode made me roll my eyes. Reads like a first-time waifu manga.

Nah.

I’ve been writing way too long and am more than self-aware enough of my own failings that I’m also pretty self-aware of my own strengths, too. And no. It’s not poorly written. I definitely feel I could improve the first few chapters a bit, but that’s because I wrote those over five years ago and I’ve improved since then, too.

Empty insults. Maybe if the flamer had gone so far as to give a critique beyond a couple of misquoted lines and their own headcanons, I might have listened, but there’s literally nothing of substance here beyond a child tantrumming that I’m stupid and bad and should feel bad.

As for the other pairings, booooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring.

Usually I have a fun time setting these fics on fire, but this one bored me senseless. Yes, it was stupid, but the author’s attempt to authenticate it are just as sloppy as anything else.

“Authenticate”?

Is this person talking about using fandom tropes as my setting?

There are 22 chapters at the time, and now 51 chapters, building up this world and using roughly 20 years of fandom background to inform the fic.

Maybe if they hadn’t skimmed, they might have found something interesting. But considering that they skimmed over anything character related and stopped for the sex scene--I don’t think that says anything about my writing and more about their own proclivities.

They were trying to read one-handed. A plug n play fic. A long meta look at fandom in war in a humor fic. And they came here for the sexy times.

I don’t have to draw the conclusion here, do I? Well, for the flamer, probably. And then they’d glance at it for a second, call it sloppy, and say I showed nothing, and what I showed was boring, and that boring stuff was ooc anyway.

One thing I am thankful for is the fact that it is not long.

51 chapters later and I’m still not done.

Nothing’s worth remembering in this and I don’t need to tell you that these characters either act like simpering imbeciles, or are virginal waifus. All I’m missing is a senpai in the bed, some tissues, and some high quality lotion.

...why do they keep referencing gay human sex? I mean, I get it, they’re saying that it’s similar to yaoi fics, but.

This is anti-yaoi with its last hurrah, isn’t it? The late 90s, early 2000s, rising from its sludgy well to try to shame the easily cowed and intimidated, the young writers easily startled by long lines of text. No wonder the citations used are so...15 years ago. I mean, who was talking about Sues even 5 years ago. That criticism kind of faded a long while ago, even then.

I think the sad thing is, even the badly written Sue sex fics end up being more interesting than this. If Ebony Darkness D’Mentia Raven Way were to come along, I think this story would get better. What with her ‘I shot him a gazillion times’ lines.

...and there’s the cherry on the top. Third cheap shot firing blanks. Sue + Fifty Shades +...shit, I can’t even remember the title for that infamous fic. It’s that old.

...this fanfic flamer is old.

Like, don’t get me wrong. We’ve got fandom moms and grandmoms who cut their teeth on fandom print zines in the earliest conventions. They’re not “old” in the same way.

This person has lost any joy, humor, or playfulness that fanfic comes from. No one should go into fanfic expecting fine art. I mean, sure, it happens sometimes, but this is a playground of pulp, experimentation and just plain childish fun.

All in all, not worth remembering. It’s makes me tired to read it. It’s not even stupid enough to make me laugh. You’ll still get a fail rating for me, especially with the shitty version of Soundwave here.

Yes, fanfic flamer. You are indeed tired.

He should be on Big Brother. He’d be great making soy lattés and purees.

Big Brother in 2015 was in its 17th season. There were roughly around 6 million viewers at the time. The demographics for the tv viewing audience were graying even by the 2000s, and by 2015-18, it was significantly older.

Granted, it’s a very tenuous conclusion to draw, but combined with the old fandom references, the anti-yaoi vibes I’m getting, and the fanboyish desire to curate their own headcanon of a character to the point of insulting writers on the internet...

Flamer grew from being a reader to a bitter, old person angry and the whipper snappers for writing stupid, trashy crap that they criticize with broad, unspecific insults.Flamer is the stereotypical mean adult in any 90s cartoon or heavy metal rock video.

A little depressing. Poor flamer. I do hope they found more creative, engaging, and positive things to do.

Me? I just wanna rock.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk on pulp fiction and bitter cultural creators.

#in a nutshell #sorry for another long post #I just wanted to finally do this #after thinking about it for awhile #felt like a loose end #fandom #fanfiction #transformers fanfic

7 notes · View notes

a-dozen-moderate-fragments · 4 years ago

Text

This isn’t going to be a manifesto on healing or mental health or any of those things, and not because I don’t have years of personal experience in those areas, but rather because the only experience I can talk about is personal. The things that worked for me aren’t guaranteed to work for anyone else, but they’re all I have. I just want to write down a bunch of stuff I’m thinking about. The story goes a little something like this:

Up until somewhere around two years ago I was very depressed – and I think it started when I was ten or so? One of the things that makes this so tricky to talk about is that I don’t remember most of it and it feels like I only woke up a few years ago. But that’s for another time. What matters today is that for a pretty decent chunk of my life, to varying degrees, I was not doing so great in the general head region. Around the middle of high school (so like 15-16 years old) this showed up as a gradually worsening spiral into self-hatred, suicidal ideation, and a general lack of function that reached its extreme early senior year (18 yrs old), with a generous helping of shitty behavior throughout. I’ll spare the details, but to briefly summarize: an attempt, a deliberately anonymized and untraceable plea for help, two days of protective hospitalization, and three very awkward sessions with a therapist, with whom I did not even slightly cooperate (lmao Sarah I’m sorry for being such an obstinate little shit, and to anyone who was here for the other blog at the time and saw what I wrote about the experience, you deserve the employee discount), and to an extent those things helped, but, and weird flex incoming, I think what really helped me recover my mind and pull my schoolwork and personal relationships out of the nosedive I’d put them in was laundry. Let me explain.

I started doing my own laundry around age 12. No particular reason; that’s just when I decided I was a ✨big boy✨ or whatever the fuck and asked my mom to teach me how to do it. And for a while it was entirely insignificant, just a thing I did in between all the other things I did. After my \\epic crisis moment// though, the task became more significant. As I sat with the flaming rubble of a self I’d left me, I knew three things: that I wanted to take this wreck and twist it into someone better, that I didn’t have the tools to do the job or even an idea of where to look for them, and that I’d start in the laundry room. The person I’d been had in every measurable way fallen the heck apart, but for some reason none of my issues interfered too badly with my ability to do laundry. Admittedly, it did often happen far closer to the last minute than it needed to, but regardless it always got done. No matter how much of a crisis I was in, by god I was going to at least be having that crisis in clean clothes. So when it came time to rebuild anew, that’s where I started. While I was gathering my dirty clothes to put in the wash, maybe I’d also pick up those papers off the floor, or maybe I’d glance through my email inbox while I was waiting for the dryer so I could have a few hours to prepare myself before I had to actually write an email. It took months and months of concentrated work and lots of fragile progress, but eventually, building outwards from “I am capable of doing laundry,” I made my way into one (1) reasonably stable and functioning human.

There were other factors, of course. Another big thing I did was to surround myself with better things. I removed myself as much as possible from people who might bring me back into my old patterns, and as much as possible surrounded myself with stories of positivity and growth and healing, and I learned to sing, and I found people both real and fictional to live for, and if I’m being honest? Part of it was being here on tumblr reading posts about cherry pies and flowers in the concrete and monsters and heroes blended into one, and I’m also sure there’s symbolism in the laundry ritual to dig into about cleansing and wiping away past transgressions and all that christian bullshit, but all of that stuff’s not really what I’m interested in here. I know at the start I said I only can talk about myself, but I think it’s useful to talk about what I did in general terms, to examine how a broken person with no idea how to mend can do so. These are what I take away from my experience with forcefully rebuilding myself: If you’ve only got one solid thing, you screw in a handhold and cling to it for all you’re worth. It can be the smallest or most unrelated thing and it does not matter; it will still crack open the door to further growth. It’s a fundamentally self-driven effort that takes a long time, but it gets a little easier if there’s another person in the equation, whether they be a friend, a family member, or even a fictional character. It’s far too easy to get frustrated with how little progress you seem to be making and give up, but having another person to fight for so they can have a better version of you can counter that. It might not be the 100% healthiest thing to define yourself by how you benefit others, but it helps. Bonus points if one of those people in the equation is a certified mental health professional. Be aware of what your subconscious is telling you as you go. You’re already in a state of reconstruction, so if there’s something you need to change, this is a good time to do it. If there’s something you find yourself idly thinking about a lot, examine it (hint hint trans hint. Not that that’s an obligatory part of this whole process but like. It was for me lmao). It’s hard and it sucks and progress is not linear nor is it guaranteed to stick 100% of the time but I promise it is so worth it and there will come a day when you no longer feel in danger of slipping and I’m proud of how far you’ve come and how far you’ll go.

And I don’t really have anything meaningful to say but as shit has this year has been in general, for the first time I remember I’m happy that I’m alive and I’m so glad I was able to claw my way to this point and I know I’ve got much farther to go but – and this is a radical statement for me – I genuinely do love who I’ve become and I’m excited to see where I go next, how much more genuinely and readily I can love and how many people I can care about and bring with me.

#sam speaks #soft bitch hours #again I've got nothing especially meaningful to say about all this I've just had these thoughts in my head for a while #and also hot damn! that's the most I've written in a while and definitely more than I intended to when I sat down #there's undoubtedly some typos in there but I'm not reading that back to fix them #also I'm sorry about my obsession with the comma. one day I'll learn that twelve clauses is too many for one sentence but alas #not this day #long post #anyway we now return you to your regularly scheduled pile of reblogs

1 note · View note