#which i realize is a rather complicated way of doing something that is probably very easy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

knight-a3 · 25 days ago

Text

Heavenbound AU

Masterpost

Vagatha "Vaggie"

I wanted to emphasize Vaggie's moth features. A friend of mine, who is a fan of the show, didn't realize that she was supposed to be a moth. When I showed her my designs, she noticed the moth themes right away. I had to explain that Vaggie was originally a moth, and that it wasn't something I came up with.

More notes under the cut

I know she says her name isn't Vagatha. But... I don't vibe with the sexual connotations. I'm too ace for it. So I'm ignoring that. I came up with a whole complicated justification for her name, but I'll get into that later.

Uniform:

Her main outfit is her hotel uniform. She and Charlie are the only staff members who bother to wear it. Alastor and Husk are never going to, and Niffty simply doesn't care.

Hair and eyes: Her hair has a more obvious moth wing pattern. Her bow is antenna instead. And she has moth fluff on her neck, wrists, and ankles. Which serves as a slight nod to one of her older design. Her short hair is also a nod to it. I never liked the floating X over her face, so I put an eyespot in her hair instead, which is always cut in half by a part. The X is exclusively on her eyepatch instead, which isn't going to be visible most of the time. And she needed a scar to go with it, which also isn't visible most of the time.

Casual:

Basically what she would've been wearing in the pilot. I just wanted to put her in an outfit that shows what she would choose to wear. I wanted to lean into the pastel colors she used to have, but also use purple instead of pink, since she seems to be associated with purple for some reason.

Battle Outfit and Wings:

I wanted her restored wings to be moth wings, rather than typical angel wings. After she regains her wings, her hair can turn into them. It leaves her with short hair, partly so I didn't have to worry about hair and wings at the same time. I primarily based her on the Condalia Silk Moth. I wanted to simplify her battle outfit slightly. I stuck with colors that were already in her palette, instead of choosing anything new. For simplicity.

Exorcist Angel:

Because I wanted the angels in general to look more human, I had to apply it to the exorcists too. Not that there was much alteration needed. But I needed a sense of consistency. I didn't like the look of the exorcists in canon. They looked too demonic with their outfits, and it didn't vibe with their self-righteous attitudes. So I chose a crusader theme instead. It felt more appropriate. The wings can "turn on and off" at will. Vaggie did it in canon after getting her wings back, so I don't see why the same can't apply to other angels. I designed the halo in a very specific way, which I'll probably get into on it's own post. It ties into how I'm reimagining the angelic hierarchy.

I think the canon lore is that the exorcists were created and named by Adam. But I don't vibe with it. I'm thinking that they were humans that either died doing something noble, or had a particular desire to fight against depravity. Consequently, they won't all be female anymore.

Human:

I wanted to base her outfit on an earlier design, and this is loosely based on a couple of her pilot design's alternate outfits. It also gives me some slightly Colombian vibes. Her hair shape is inspired by the shape of her hair in the show. Vaggie as a human name just wouldn't work. So I came up with some convoluted explanation as to why her name would evolve the way it did.

Regina "Gina" Agatha Valdez. Daughter of a Salvadorian immigrant. She wasn't interested in men, so bullies would call her "Virginia." It was a play on her name. Gina was her nickname, and placing her last initial in front would make it V. Gina. The more crass bullies called her the obvious. She died saving a child, but I haven't thought of specifics. Afterwards, she was recruited into the exorcist army. She fell because she spared a child-looking demon(probably wasn't actually a child, tbh). Once she fell, she became a demon, and her appearance changed to reflect it. She may be a fallen angel, but she's not technically an angel anymore. She's a sinner like the rest. Even if her sin wasn't really a sin. Lute cursed her to it. She didn't want to go by her old name anymore, so she went by her middle name, with her last initial in front. V. Agatha. Vagatha.

Some of the designs, besides canon, that I referenced:

(Jan 18, 2025- Changed ethnicity from Columbian to Salvadorian, that was a simple mixup on my part.)

#hazbin hotel #hellaverse #vaggie #vagatha #exorcist vaggie #human vaggie #hazbin hotel redesign #heavenbound au #a3 art #fanart #digital art #character sheet

206 notes · View notes

cheriladycl01 · 10 months ago

Text

I'm not scared! Colby Brock x MotoGPDriver! Reader Part 4

Plot: You made a tweet about Sam and Colby and were in a podcast and they brought up Sam and Colby where you talked about the paranormal and how it doesn't really scare you because you drive motorcycles at over 200mph.

Credit to misscalliopecruz for the GIF

You didn't realize just how easy it was for Sam and Colby to make calls to these haunted locations and be given permissions to film investigations.

You'd been set up for literally 3 days time which made you guys feel even more excited as it was such short notice. Colby and Sam spent the time charging all the equipment, booking hotels and doing all the admin stuff you'd offered to help them with but they'd refused saying you should try and get a few good nights of sleep while you could, so you stayed in your flat making sure you had a comfy enough outfit ready to go in.

Colby had practically begged you to wear their merch, so of course you took the hoodie he'd given to you. You'd planned to wear it with a pair of bootleg jeans as even though it was very clearly British Time you gathered in the middle of the night in an old creepy castle it would get cold. Which is why you were thankful for the hoodie rather than a top as the piece of merch Colby gifted you.

You kind of wanted to make Colby and Sam wear some of you Red Bull Merch but thought maybe that was going a bit too far so you left them packed away in the rucksack you were going to be taking with you.

You had a later night on the day before the investigation so you were able to stay up till around 4 or 5am, ending up waking up for around 11am. You did your morning workout before getting something to eat and had a slow evening before meeting up with the boys.

"Are you okay driving?" Colby asks as you all walk down to the car park of the hotel they were staying in.

"Any reason, or just because I'm the better driver?" you smirk, knowing full well you were the better driver.

"I just don't like driving in the UK, it's way more complicated than the US, those roundabouts... wild things!" he jokes, even though there was some truth to it.

"Yeah sure, I don't mind... but If I'm driving its my Spotify playlist on shuffle..." you reason and they both nod agreeing, not petty enough to start a disagreement over music, especially when you guys would probably have similar music tastes.

The drive to the castle was fun, you were all talking about the history you guys had researched and what was there.

When you pulled up, you got this zing of excitement down you spine.

"Guys, I'm really excited for this" you exclaim looking back at them getting all the stuff out the car while you were in awe of the building.

It was a huge location and you already knew that the boys would challenge you to go somewhere alone because of how big it was.

The boys got out their camera and you waited off to the side as they did their intro.

"What's up guys its Sam and Colby and today we are here a Dannamore Castle in the UK, one of the most haunted Castles in the world!" Colby says with that normal cryptic sort of look on his face.

"And as you guys probably expected from our recent trip to see out good friend, today we have Y/N Y/L/N here with us!" Sam introduces panning the camera round to you making you smile and bunch up closer to them.

"Hey!" you grin and the boys turn to you.

"Okay for those who don't know Y/N is a MotoGP rider to she basically rides motorbikes really quickly round race-tracks for a living and she's really good at it too. The reason she is here is because she said she wouldn't be scared to come onto one of our videos and we really want to put that to the test" Colby mentions and you blush at the praise, entirely used to but it still got you every time.

They cut the cameras after showing the outside of the area saying that they'd be filming a lot of the history out-takes in their studio at home and having watched their videos you knew what they meant.

Two men and a lady came out, one was the caretaker, another was a tour guide and the other a medium of sorts that worked with the place.

Sam and Colby started to talk to the caretaker that would help in showing you round later when you walked off.

You thought you saw something dash out the corner of your eye, Sam and Colby were too busy listening too all the ins and outs of the area, what rooms you didn't have access to which in this particular castle wasn't actually that many just the unsafe spaces where the wooden flooring had gotten too old and they hadn't rebuilt it yet.

"Where's your friend?" the caretaker asks seeing that the girl wasn't where she had been a minute ago.

The others look around trying to see if you were behind the car or near the entrance but you were nowhere in sight.

"Y/N?" Colby yelled out. Sam following with a shout of his own name.

"Yeah?" you ask walking from behind a stone wall that ran behind the castle into the gardens.

"Where did you run off to?" Sam asks and the caretakers also look intrigued.

"Something caught the corner of my eye and I wanted to see if anyone else was on the property" you shrug your shoulder making Sam look to the now turned on camera Colby had, as they had started to film the minute the group were aware that you were missing.

"You just left, because you saw something?" Colby asks and you nod, making Sam chuckle. They cut the cameras, giving you a small run down of the castle, which rooms you guys weren't allowed it and when you guys had to leave by.

They also further explained not having got there before that it would just be you guys in there tonight, the caretaker however stays in the barn that was technically 'on the property' but not inside the castle just for legal purposes.

"So this is the centre of the castle. Back in the day, all residents from the Dannamore family and their friends would have been around here as this was and still is a hub" the tour guide smiles as you all look around the expanse of the hall.

"Who was part of the Dannamore Family, I'm guessing we'll meet some of them tonight?" you smile asking intrigued.

"Well Drake Dannamore has always been the most present spirit we have here. He is the original resident of the castle" she starts and you all nod.

"Is he cool?" Colby asks making you turn to him in shock. How is he referring to a like 1000 year old spirit as cool.

"He's a kind spirit yes. Y/N you'll get most the activity from him, he's the protector of this house... practically the women" she smiles.

"Really? Why's that?" Sam asks.

"Well, Drake..." she starts and you guys hear a knock from the back of the room making you all look there and the guide and caretaker laugh a little.

"I think he's here with us!" she smiles looking around before continuing.

"He married Valisa Dupont a French Lady from a wealthy family. Their family gifted and built this castle as a sign of their gratitude for Drake protecting Valisa. However, Valisa did not love Drake and apparently she became very spiteful towards him. She would cheat on him with the bakers boy who worked and lived in the home. She neglected their children making Drake exhausted" she starts and you feel a sort of overwhelming sadness wash over you. Enough for you to reach up and hold you chest.

"Vasila attempted to kill Drake but ended up mistakenly poisoning his sister Darcey. He ended the relationship with her, and she was livid. He moved on and married Bianca, who mysteriously died one night after saying for years she felt like she was being watched. People working in the castle at the time reported that Vasila killed Bianca out of jealously. Drake was in anguish and after that refused to marry again. He tried to protect Bianca as much as possible thinking Vasila was terrorizing her. After that its said that Drake either pushed her or she threw herself from the east tower, falling to her death" she finishes and you all look in shock.

"So he protects females that come into the castle from Vasila, who i'm guessing remains here as a negative energy because he feels like he needs to do what he couldn't do for Bianca?" you ask and a creak or footsteps was heard from above making all your heads snap up.

"I'd take that as a yes!" Colby laughs making you laugh as well.

"So this is an active place for all the spirits?" Sam asks looking around.

"Not all, but most. Drake can be found here along with his children who are also protectors of the home. Bianca is also here who is a very friendly and kind spirit. But its not just people who have lived in the castle. There's portals here too" the caretaker answers showing the mirrors that were facing each other.

"Woah?" you say stepping closer to Colby where the mirrors are.

"So what do we need to be wary of?" Colby asks.

"Vasila, of course. She doesn't like any-one male or female. She's been known to touch and scratch and make lots of loud noises but she's only in certain areas of the house like the tower and the pantry room" she explains.

"Because of her relationship with the baker boy?" Sam asks and she nods.

"Y/N you'll need to be extra careful of the baker boy" she admits and you look off to the left.

"Why?"

"He doesn't like ... dominant women!" she exclaims looking down, making you frown with a small laugh.

"I'm a dominant woman?" you ask with a laugh.

"Just like your presence, the tattoos, biker personality and just your aura she means, your head strong which is something Madison didn't like" the medium says for the first time since being here.

"Madison?" Sam asks.

"The baker boy, that was his name Madison!" he answers.

This would make for an interesting night!

Taglist:

@richardsamboramylove55 @braveangel777 @rockwyu @jada-lockwood @itzdarling

#sam and colby x reader #sam golbach x reader #sam and colby imagine #sam golbach #colby brock imagine #colby brock #sam and colby #colby x reader #colby brock one shot #colby brock fic #colby brock fanfic

186 notes · View notes

sunderwight · 2 months ago

Text

Thinking some more about why Old Man Viktor would want hextech to be invented, or to specifically be invented by Jayce, such that his meddling involves giving Jayce the rune that he uses to kickstart his innovations, when a simpler way to prevent catastrophe in any given timeline would but to just... not invent hextech at all?

And I've got another theory!

I think Old Man Viktor is actually looking for a way to unfuck his own timeline.

If it was just about saving others, that doesn't seem like it would be all that complicated, and, unless he's failed every prior time (possible) it should probably have a set routine by now. Also, why would there need to be so many attempts? Is he doing this for every single timeline, or is he deliberately creating new timelines and experimenting with the results?

I think it's the latter, given that we see him provide young Jayce with different runes, and that he's presumably used different methods of persuasion and involved other different factors in the process. Again, it's possible -- given Ekko and the reversal rune -- that this is the first time it's worked at all, but I think that Viktor's comment that in all timelines, only Jayce can show him the futility of his actions would in fact imply otherwise. There have been other timelines where Jayce has successfully compelled Viktor out of his plan, or else I think Old Man Viktor would have phrased it more like "only you might show me this in some version of events" rather than "in all timelines, only you can show me this".

So, probably, there have been other timelines where the world is saved by Jayce's intervention.

Which is great, and Old Man Viktor takes it as a win, but I think why he keeps on doing it and what he's ultimately after is the right formula for a means to sort of unbake his cake, if you will. Old Man Viktor's own timeline has already been doomed. He's the only one left, trapped in his "perfect" outcome that has become a prison of (in his own words) dreamless solitude. He can't escape what he's done and he can't rest, and outside of his scant interactions with the Jayces of other timelines, he's alone. His Jayce is gone, everyone is gone. Like the ingredients baked into a cake, the people that he bound together into his ascension cannot be alchemized back into the individuals that they once were.

Or can they?

After all, this is magic we're dealing with. Magic, technology, and the same genius that created the problems in the first place. If there's a way to undo it, who else could figure it out? I think the main cast of the show comprises the people who might and the people who are most likely to influence and inspire them -- Jayce and Viktor, who started the problem. Mel, an incredibly powerful mage. Singed, who taught Viktor and helped engineer his transcendence. Jinx and Ekko, two of the only other people in either city to actually figure out hextech on their own. Heimderdinger, Jayce's teacher. Even Ambessa brings along the Black Rose, who might feasibly contribute something to the undoing of Viktor's calamity.

Viktor is very stubborn, and he doesn't abandon his causes easily. I think that once he realized the folly of what he'd done, and accepted the reality that he had destroyed the world instead of saving it, his next course of action would be to either finally die or else fix it. If he can't die (probable) then that just leaves fixing it. Fixing it for other timelines is great, but ultimately, knowing Viktor and what he's like, I don't think he would be satisfied with that. He'd accept it as a consolation prize and ultimately if that's his limit, he'll find out one day. But if he has infinite space time to play around in, why not aim big? Why not try for the ideal outcome?

So that's what I think he is really waiting for. A lead into the method to truly undo what he did, and restore everyone to themselves. Not just in other timelines but in his own too.

#arcane #arcane s2 #arcane s2 spoilers #arcane spoilers #arcane 2 #arcane meta #viktor arcane #arcane season 2 #arcane season 2 spoilers #arcane season two

56 notes · View notes

the-east-art · 4 months ago

Text

Hi Thank you for coming to my TED Talk about how I dont like the Grid Method for drawing

I think most people in their life have seen the grid method for copying a piece of art - if you haven’t seen it you can probably at least get an idea of it pretty quick. The grid method for art requires you to break a piece into a series of equal squares, and then transfer those squares onto a blank piece of paper divided into the equal squares of the same ratio. Conceptually this idea is very sound - rather than biting off the entire picture, you focus on each section. Theoretically, if you can make square A1 look like square A”1, and so on and so forth, you should finish with an identical drawing to your picture. I, personally, have a strong distaste for this method. It teaches bad habits - especially to younger and newer artists. (If you are a big fan of this method please read all of my rant first or at least scroll to the end where I will reiterate some of the perceived positives of the method)

The best way to discuss this is to start with a general idea of how we go about drawing something - especially something from a reference! I will try not to riddle this rant with disclaimers, but not everyone will draw using the same or similar methods, but this is the way that I was taught and when discussing with other artists they usually follow similar ideas: When you draw you go from big to little - from general to specific. Getting too specific too early is detrimental. This is an art rant, so let’s chat about this with some pictures.

Here I have a picture of a square and a circle. Next to it I have my blank piece of paper, and I want to draw it EXACTLY THE SAME on the paper. To do this - whether consciously or not - I will start taking mental ‘measurements’ of various aspects of this composition. How far are these objects from the edges? How much space do they take up? And I will compare these objects to each other - which object is bigger? Where do they connect - is their point of contact halfway up the square or a quarter ways up the square? In the previous questions I am specifically focused on circle in relationship to the square, so it’s worth noting that if my square isn’t placed correctly then everything else will be placed incorrectly as well. Early on in a piece you want to keep lines light, ready to be changed if need be. One of my professors used to say that you wanted to avoid falling in love and getting married to a line as long as possible, because once you fall in love with your lines you will be reluctant to change them.

Here I have a square and a circle - although maybe these have a little more details going on in them than our previous square and circle. Now maybe this is overwhelming, but remember we want to start from general and then get specific - our process for drawing this should look much the same as our previous painting! Starting with the outline and general shape! This brooch technically isn’t a circle - it’s scalloped on the edges - but before we put that information in we want to make sure we have the placement of it correctly both on the paper and in reference to our other elements - the square. When we feel confident in those elements, we can start SLOWLY adding the other information. A lot of art is about training the eye - we’re looking between the picture and our drawing, trying to see visually what the difference is and correct it.

Naturally, the more complicated the piece the more complicated this process becomes. If we, for instance, have a person, thats’ a lot more to deal with. We once again want to work outside first. My professor was very big on outlines and shadows first and details slowly after that - so I would likely want to work on the external form, and some lines, and then work in blocky shadows, and fine-tune it from there. Once again let’s ask ourselves what will happen if we just start with the eye - and we spend HOURS drawing the perfect eye - only to realize that it isn’t in the right place in reference to everything else. We’d either have to erase that eye and all our work, rework the entire rest of the drawing, or leave it to look offputting and wrong. When you start art you can get preoccupied with features, when in reality they should be one of the last elements you definitively put in.

There’s one last part about this that is relevant to my dislike for the grid method, and it’s the idea that when we’re looking at a piece we find commonalities along lines to help guide our art. For instance here we can see that one eye lies horizontally on the same plane and the back of the dogs head matches with a place on the coat - these can help guide us in making sure things are looking right! The grids may help us to see these things, but not necessarily.

Okay, back to the grid method. As I’ve stated earlier the grid method can be used well and the principles behind it are good - our neat squares provide an easier visual way to do the exact same stuff we were doing earlier - how far is the object from the edges and from each other etc etc. However these squares actually can encourage the artist to focus too closely - again either a square at a time or a feature at a time. In addition they narrow the focus of the artist away from the whole - instead of seeing how everything lays on the entire page, you focus on how things are lying in that specific tiny box. Art is usually a dance of in and out - close and far. Taking a step back. The grid method discourages this.

I say this again aware that many people are extremely successful using this method - young auteurs who draw a giant portrait hyperrealistic. Leyendecker would use a grid to make his smaller drawings bigger (although I would argue he first had an understanding of the previous methods for the intiial drawing, and used the grid more for enlargement of the previous piece). People do this method and do it well… just more people learn bad habits from it that they have to fight against to progress.

The last thing I want to say is about how the flaw, always, with the grid method is that it has to be something that you can place a grid on - you become confined to the paper and ruler. While the earlier method was taught to be through still life drawings, measuring with a stick, it was clear that this eye training and method was versatile, and could be used for anything you placed in front of me, the grid method becomes a shackle. And I know I know I know, but other artists have found ways around such a block - the perspective frame for painting has been used by many artists over the years, including Vincent Van Gogh - places somewhere to make the process of copying the real world easier - but why let yourself be confined willingly? If you are a big grid believer I would beseech you to AT LEAST try and expand your studies in addition to the grid formula - a healthy diet of many different kind of studies and practices and eye trainings is what we do to hopefully, one day, be able to put the designs in our head down onto paper accurately.

Additionally, using the grid method provides no room for your to be using your instincts to help. I’ve been reading through ot3’s personal philosophy of composition and I found the line in the introductions where they discuss the idea of following your instincts very important. Part of my philosophy firmly believes that people understand art ephemerally without the need of words first, and overtime the act of art is becoming more aware of the words and phrases of certain concepts, so that we gain the ability to use and manipulate them purposefully.

Anyway there ya go! Let me know your thoughts!

#rant #art #art chat #the east speaks

67 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 6 months ago

Text

Team Up - ao3

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Nie Mingjue/Wen Ruohan Summary:

“Tell me, Mingjue,” Lan Qiren said. “What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?”

Note: adult content

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

“What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?” Nie Mingjue read aloud, then grimaced in disbelief. “Teacher, is this a joke?”

“I assure you that it is not.” Lan Qiren did not quite shrug, but his expression conveyed the feeling regardless. “You were the one who wanted to look at the students’ essays answering a philosophical question of their choosing. I trust your curiosity has been adequately assuaged.”

“What does that even mean?” Nie Mingjue complained. He’d mostly wanted to see Nie Huaisang’s essay, while also very much not wanting to; he hadn’t realized it was possible that other students could be just as ridiculous. “The ‘outer limits’…what outer limits?! Naturally you should put in your utmost effort to act morally.”

“I think the essay in question was more focused on a cultivator’s ethical duty to take affirmative steps to prevent harm,” Lan Qiren said. “For instance, if you see a man who is drowning, rescue him.”

“That seems obvious.”

“Is it? Do not be facetious. What if the man is your worst enemy, the man who killed your father?” Lan Qiren paused. “Forgive me. That is the typical next question in the example. I did not mean…”

“No, it’s a good point,” Nie Mingjue said, forcing himself to move past that old pain. “If I saw Wen Ruohan drowning, do I have a moral duty to act to save him? I think that I probably would.”

“Even if you know he will only commit more atrocities in the future?”

“Well, I’d like to think that saving him from drowning would win me a few points towards convincing him to stop that,” Nie Mingjue said, meaning it as a joke, and Lan Qiren smiled, taking it as such. “That would certainly complicate the morality of the situation, I agree. But it can be my duty to save him as a fellow man and my duty to kill him for his crimes at the same time.”

“Hm. What about the scenario in which you saved him from drowning and successfully used those ‘points’ that you’d won to actually convince him to refrain from enacting any of his more gruesome future plans – would you still be obligated to kill him for his past crimes then?”

“I find that scenario highly unlikely,” Nie Mingjue said dryly.

“Nevertheless,” Lan Qiren said. He was stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Indulge me.”

Nie Mingjue thought about it, then shrugged. “If he genuinely repented, in such a way that I believed he would not commit further crimes, and furthermore had adequately and sincerely apologized and sought to make up for those he had committed in the past, morality would be best served by forgiving him, not killing him.”

“Interesting.”

“Why?” Nie Mingjue glanced at his old teacher, now his peer and maybe even friend. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Nothing, really. Just a passing thought – a foolish one, and irrelevant as well.”

Nie Mingjue raised his eyebrows. It was rare for Lan Qiren to admit to being foolish. “Tell me anyway.”

“Well,” Lan Qiren said hesitantly. “You may not know too much of this, it being largely before your time as sect leader, but Wen Ruohan was not always – as he is now.”

“I remember,” Nie Mingjue said. “He would visit the Unclean Realm sometimes, back before everything. He was quite charming, once, and not nearly so mad.”

In fact, as a child, Nie Mingjue had been rather swept away by their witty and clever visitor.

“That accords with my memory,” Lan Qiren said. “I sometimes wonder if it is possible that, given the immensity of the changes, that the cause of his behavior could be…well…”

“A qi deviation?” Nie Mingjue asked, his interest involuntarily piqued. For obvious reasons, it was an area of profound interest for his sect. “I’d never thought about it – it is rather irrelevant – but now that you mention it, it’s certainly possible. It would be pretty far advanced by now, though. Drastic measures would need to be taken if you wanted to try to reverse it.”

Lan Qiren looked surprised. “There are ways to reverse a qi deviation of such severity? If anyone would know, it would be your sect, of course. But I would have thought…surely, by now…?”

“The severity and ability to reverse it depends on whether the cause is hereditary or an issue with cultivation, or both,” Nie Mingjue explained. “In our family, it’s both – everyone always thinks that it’s our sabers that kill us, but in actual fact, as long as we can keep pace with them, we’re all right. Not cultivating at all is much worse, we just die even faster. From aneurysms and strokes rather than qi deviations, to be sure, but the effect is still the same in the end, and it’s a bad death either way. No one has figured out a way to stop it from happening. But that’s just the Nie; there’s no such hereditary instability in the Wen family, so it’s probably just a cultivation issue.”

“I see. Is there something that could be done for him at this stage? Assuming it was only incorrect cultivation to blame?”

“At this stage? I think you’d be limited to –” Nie Mingjue paused, then coughed.

“Limited to what?” Lan Qiren asked.

“Ah,” Nie Mingjue said, valiantly attempting not to turn red and painfully aware he was likely failing. “Well. That is…”

“What is it?”

“…the most effective way to shock someone out of a qi deviation is dual cultivation,” Nie Mingjue said, staring at the ceiling above his old teacher’s head. “Ideally with two powerful cultivators –”

“Two? Why two?”

“Having two cultivators involved reduces the risk that the qi deviation spreads from the deviating individual to the rescuing one, rather than the correct method winning out over the deviated one. It also reduces the burden on the spiritual energy of the assisting parties, splitting the strain among two people instead of keeping it with just one…unfortunately, for someone like Wen Ruohan, given his strength, you’d have to find some very powerful cultivators to do the job. They’d have to be either exceptionally talented, with limitless potential, or else exceptionally steady, with an incredibly firm foundation. Nothing else would stand a chance against him.”

“Hm,” Lan Qiren said. “Limitless potential like yours, you mean? An exceptionally firm foundation, like mine?”

“Yes, like that,” Nie Mingjue said, nodding. “Exactly so.”

Then he paused.

“Uh,” he said. “Teacher. You’re not suggesting that…that we…are you?”

Lan Qiren smiled at him.

“Tell me, Mingjue,” he said. “What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?”

Wen Ruohan woke up groggy, which was the first sign that something had gone wrong.

He was also not in his own bedroom, which was the second, and, for the third and most definitive indication, he was currently tied up.

This was not as unusual as it might have been – Wen Ruohan had had a bad habit of getting kidnapped when he’d been a young man, in large part due to his stubborn tendency to go wherever he damn well pleased regardless of any well-meant warnings and cautionary signs. Even after he’d become sect leader, it had happened a fair number of times, though that was more to do with the fact that he’d locked away all the sect treasures behind arrays that only he could open, requiring anyone who wanted to assassinate him and take his position to first try to take him captive…which usually turned out to be a mistake. For them.

It certainly hadn’t happened in a very long time, though.

Also, his cultivation wasn’t bound, which seemed…unwise, as far as kidnappings went.

In fact, the only part of him that was magically bound, as opposed to physically bound, was his mouth –

Huh.

The Lan sect silencing spell?

That puzzle was enough to get him to pause and take stock of the situation, rather than simply rip free at once. Wen Ruohan wasn’t sure what was less likely, that he’d been kidnapped by a Lan or that somehow someone had managed to learn the spell despite all the rules the Lan sect had against teaching their secrets to inappropriate people. Either way, there were interesting implications of all sorts involved.

Worth at least investigating, at least.

Wen Ruohan opened his eyes.

“Oh, good. You are finally awake.”

…was that Lan Qiren?

“Mingjue, he’s woken up.”

“Oh.” That was Nie Mingjue. Why was Nie Mingjue here?! Wherever here even was. “That’s – good? Ah, that is, I mean, that’s good.”

Why was Nie Mingjue stuttering?

Wen Ruohan made an inquiring sound, which made both men, now standing above the bed where he was bound, frown down at him. This was probably because his ‘inquiring sound’ had the same sound as his ‘I’m going to murder you both’ sound, even when it was unintentional.

It was often unintentional these days. He couldn’t seem to stop overreacting to everything…not that he’d admit that, of course. Better to simply pretend he’d meant his actions all along than admit to the fact that he was losing control.

Even to himself.

“I think he’s wondering why he’s here,” Nie Mingjue finally said, and Lan Qiren nodded in agreement.

“We wish to get your consent,” he said to Wen Ruohan, who gave him his best ‘what the fuck are you talking about’ look. “You have been otherwise unreachable – you no longer sit with us during the discussion conference, but far up above where we cannot speak with you causally.”

“And then you left as soon as the archery contest was done,” Nie Mingjue added, with a scowl. “Treating yourself like an emperor, too high and mighty to talk with anyone…”

“Quite rude,” Lan Qiren agreed. “And when we tried to make an appointment with you, your son informed us that you were far too busy to meet with the likes of us –”

…Chao-er had done what?

Stupid, useless, irritating boy, with no grasp of politics whatsoever! These were the leaders of Great Sects, not some useless hanger-on that could be trampled at will…and worse, to be so rude to Nie Mingjue, with his notoriously short Nie temper and equally infamous inclinations to meet disrespect with violence – did Wen Chao have a death wish? Was he dead even now?

“Fortunately for him, I was able to restrain Sect Leader Nie.”

So just scared shitless.

Fine. It was probably good for him.

“However, without an alternative method, we were forced to find other methods by which to approach you.”

No kidding.

He’d have to figure out how they managed to kidnap him. A hole like that in his defenses…

“You’re talking around the point, Teacher,” Nie Mingjue said abruptly, apparently losing patience. “You haven’t even explained why we wanted to talk to him – and you said you’d be the one to explain it.”

“And I will,” Lan Qiren said, even as Wen Ruohan’s interest in the reason abruptly spiked: was Nie Mingjue blushing? “Sect Leader Wen, we have reason to believe you may have suffered a qi deviation.”

Bullshit.

That was impossible. Wen Ruohan was way too talented to make some sort of mistake in his cultivation. Everything he’d done had been him, all him, nothing else; there were no outside influences, no errors, and certainly no deviation. How dare they suggest such a thing?! Were they looking down on him?

“We wish to assist you with purging the deviation –”

Hah, as if he’d ever permit such a thing! Firstly, there was no deviation to purge – he was fine, he had always been fine, and he would continue to be fine, whatever slander the two of them chose to believe –and secondly, even if there was, he’d never accept their help! He’d never let anyone look down on him like that. Not now, not ever. Absolutely no way, no how –

“– which we proposed to do through dual cultivation.”

Wen Ruohan paused his mental ranting.

He must not have heard that correctly.

“Dual cultivation with both of us,” Nie Mingjue added. He was definitely blushing now. “It’s the most efficient method.”

…perhaps he had heard correctly.

“Naturally we will not force you,” Lan Qiren said primly, as if that was the only issue one could find in their frankly ridiculous suggestion. “We require your consent before starting. What say you?”

Wen Ruohan was a bonafide genius, not an idiot.

He wasn’t going to say no.

Even if he wasn’t being offered sex with two extremely attractive and extremely powerful men, he’d say yes just for the potential amount of spiritual energy that they would be able to generate through the act, spiritual energy that would turn into power that he would be able to use to get even stronger.

Besides, since there wasn’t any qi deviation, it wouldn’t matter if they were doing it to try to fix him.

In fact, if he thought about it a certain way, he was practically tricking them into doing it.

Justification obtained and ego appeased, Wen Ruohan nodded.

“Excellent,” Lan Qiren said, sounding satisfied. “Mingjue, why don’t you demonstrate your skills to Sect Leader Wen?”

Skills? Wait, had they done this before? Had Nie Mingjue demonstrated the skills under discussion to Lan Qiren in advance of –

That was about when Nie Mingjue finished getting rid of Wen Ruohan’s clothing and put his mouth on his cock, and also when Wen Ruohan decided that thinking – or overthinking, as the case might be – was overrated.

Also, Nie Mingjue really was…surprisingly skilled.

Wen Ruohan snapped the silencing spell with a thought and said, “Should I offer my compliments to the teacher?”

His voice was a little hoarser than he’d expected it to be.

…because of the spell, of course.

“Mingjue has always been an exceptional student,” Lan Qiren said, denying nothing, which…huh. Now that was a very fascinating set of images that were going to live in Wen Ruohan’s brain forever, ready to be plucked out at night when he had some time to himself. “He has always exceeded expectations.”

Nie Mingjue lifted his mouth away – Wen Ruohan had to quickly bite his lower lip to avoid letting out a thoroughly undignified whimper of denial – and said, more than a little hoarse himself, “It’s all credit to Teacher’s thorough education.”

Fuck. They really had no business saying things as enticing as that. Wen Ruohan wondered when the two of them had been getting up to this ‘thorough education’, and for how long. And in what positions –

“Would you like a demonstration?” Lan Qiren asked. “Sect Leader Wen.”

“You can call me by name,” Wen Ruohan said, casually. Well, mostly casually. “Under the circumstances.”

Lan Qiren smiled and put his hand on his hair, weaving his fingers in gently…and then tightening them until very nearly the point of pain.

“That’s nice,” he said. “You can call me Teacher.”

…huh.

“Are you feeling any better?” Lan Qiren asked.

“Obviously he is,” Nie Mingjue said, rolling his eyes. “Look at how he’s scowling.”

“I will admit that there may have been an – improvement,” Wen Ruohan said. It looked like it pained him to admit it, though his expression still had some of that softness that had come upon him about halfway through the previous evening’s activities and which hadn’t left him since.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t sure exactly what that signified, something he’d communicated to Lan Qiren through meaningful looks and raised eyebrows, but Lan Qiren didn’t seem to know what it meant either, other than the obvious lassitude brought on by a very enjoyable series of orgasms.

“I’m glad you are feeling better,” Lan Qiren said.

“I’m glad you admit it,” Nie Mingjue muttered, then yelped when Lan Qiren pinched him. “What?”

“Remember your manners.”

“I don’t know, I rather like it when he’s being a bit rude,” Wen Ruohan remarked, and reached over to pat the affected area, his fingers lightly tracing over the reddened flesh. “Though I also enjoy him when he’s being accommodating. Hard to pick.”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes.

“I will say that it makes for a rather interesting change.”

“Change?” Lan Qiren asked, and Nie Mingjue propped up his head on his hand, looking over at Wen Ruohan in silent question.

“The change in perspective,” Wen Ruohan clarified. “There was no apparent change in my thinking over time, each step appearing completely natural and related to the one before, each new thought seemingly based on the ones that preceded it. Even when I was acting in a way that now, in retrospect, appears irrational –”

“You mean completely insane,” Nie Mingjue proposed, then scooted away before Lan Qiren could pinch him again.

Now it was Wen Ruohan’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yes, well, describe it however you wish. Either way, in contrast to that, I now have an unprecedented sense of clarity.”

“That’s good.”

“Mm. Certainly, looking back at some of my previous actions, it appears that they are – exceptionally unfortunate. Particularly as to you, Mingjue: highly unfortunate.”

“Not unfortunate. Insane,” Nie Mingjue insisted, then glanced at Lan Qiren warily.

“No argument from me,” Lan Qiren said mildly. “Killing his father was indeed an act of insanity, and of tremendous cruelty. Wen Ruohan, the term I believe you are looking for so unsuccessfully is ‘regret’.”

Wen Ruohan scowled again, though he also reached out and pulled Nie Mingjue towards him, settling his head on his chest and starting to stroke his hair. “Yes, well,” he said. “You’re not wrong. I regret it. Tell me, Mingjue: shall I make it up to you somehow?”

“Just don’t commit any more crimes in the future,” Nie Mingjue said gruffly, averting his eyes. “I don’t need more than that.”

“I’ll make it up to you anyway.” Wen Ruohan smiled. His expression was still soft. “I think I will enjoy doing so. Tell me, did either of you know me before the qi deviation?”

(“Oh, he finally admits there was a deviation,” Nie Mingjue muttered, just for the principle of it.)

“I’m not sure,” Lan Qiren said. “Mingjue likely did not. As for me…I’m not sure. I knew you as being better than you have been recently, but I cannot say for sure if that was prior to the initial deviation. It likely started as some small flaw in your cultivation, likely having a relatively minimal impact at first and then escalating over time – that was why you did not notice it, and why each thought appeared logically connected to its predecessor. The deviation increased slowly but steadily over time, only eventually becoming noticeable.”

“I think that’s probably right,” Wen Ruohan said. “I think it must have started – rather a long time ago. Longer ago than you might think.”

“Is that relevant?” Lan Qiren asked, reaching up to stroke his beard. “Do you think the treatment was insufficient? Do you need it repeated?”

“Not now,” Nie Mingjue said, vaguely horrified. His stamina had limits!

“Definitely not now,” Wen Ruohan said quickly in agreement, eyeing Lan Qiren warily, as if he were a serpent ready to bite. “Though I wouldn’t object to a repeat performance eventually. After all, now that I know I can fall into qi deviation like that, it’s only reasonable to start taking prophylactic measures early on.”

“What did you mean, then?” Lan Qiren asked, ignoring the hint. “What’s the relevance of knowing you before the qi deviation?”

Wen Ruohan grinned.

“Oh, nothing much,” he said, curling one hand around Nie Mingjue and reaching out to wrap the other around Lan Qiren’s wrist. “Just wondering how much you knew about my reputation for possessiveness. It used to be quite notorious.”

Lan Qiren frowned. “When you say notorious –”

“Don’t worry about it,” Wen Ruohan said soothingly. “I already promised no more atrocities, didn’t I? It’s easy enough to grant such a thing. After all, they’re no longer necessary to get what I want.”

#my fic #my fics #lan qiren #nie mingjue #wen ruohan #tbh this is mostly a pwp #but also a little bit of a fix-it

87 notes · View notes

quibbs126 · 30 days ago

Text

My brain was thinking of that idea I had of “megop kid that only Megatron knows about” again today before I accidentally took a nap

I would put these thoughts on a reblog of that post, but I’m too lazy to go looking for it at the moment

But anyways my brain decided to concoct the angsty scenario I mentioned there, in which the kid joins the Autobots and Megatron almost kills them, until he realizes who this is

I think the specific circumstances here are the kid being a new recruit in the Autobot ranks, and them and Optimus going on a mission that goes horribly, with Megatron showing up and Optimus getting incapacitated, and Megatron decides to beat up the new person because why not (actually I never figured out the reason tbh, but it’s not important)

He’s right about to kill them, but something about their appearance causes him to recognize who this really is and his act drops briefly in shock. But he keeps up his composure for now (he can’t let the Decepticons potentially see a weakness in him) and decides to spare them, telling them to go back and tell the Autobots he has their leader, and then tells them specifically to never return. When asked why he decided to show mercy, he says it’s because it matters little whether or not they live, the outcome would be the same either way; he also will enjoy seeing the dread in their face if they ever cross paths again, now that they know what he’s capable of

Later on he has Optimus captured and he decides to “interrogate” him, aka talk smack to him. But also in this case, secretly actually interrogate him on whether or not he knows the truth about his new recruit, and whether or not Optimus knowingly put them in danger and made them a soldier. He finds that no, Optimus has no clue the significance of this younger bot, treating him as he would any new recruit

I’m unsure whether or not Megatron would tell him the truth or not here. I want to say no, and that he decides its best only he knows. But I also kind of want yes for the idea of Optimus now knowing this information, but has no clue what to do with it once he gets back to Autobot base. Because his source of information is Megatron, but this is also way too out there for Megatron to have just made up. Also that’s kind of a bombshell to drop on this kid who assumes they’re just some random Transformer from nowhere in particular. So he has to live with it and he isn’t good at keeping up lies

The kid might have gotten that something weird was going on with Megatron during that confrontation, but the best they can assume is that Megatron must have been reminded of someone when looking at them, because they shouldn’t have history with the Lord of the Decepticons

But anyways, after all this, when Megatron finally has a moment to himself in complete privacy, he does feel really guilty about the fact that he nearly killed his own child. Yeah he got rid of them a long time ago, and he’s never had much of a burning desire to be reunited with them or anything, but it still affects him. He’s got very mixed and complicated feelings towards them, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. He’d rather they didn’t show back up at all, though it would have been worse if he hadn’t realized at all and he’d gone through with killing that recruit

Alright, done with the summary. Honestly, could probably make a fanfic out of it, but whether or not I will, that’s to be seen. As I’m sure y’all know, I come up with a lot of ideas I don’t actually do anything with. Also I don’t know if I’d do anything beyond this. If I were to go through with this fanfic, I should; feels like we need some payoff and learning of truths, but writing one idea into a fic is hard enough, actually continuing that story would be practically impossible for my scattter brain. Just look at the one fanfic I have written for Transformers

But yeah, it sounded neat. Though I remembered as I wrote this, I think the main idea surrounding the initial concept was Megatron not being able to say shit about other cross-faction kids due to his own secret one, and this stays a bit too much I think. But you know, still worth at least a fanfic concept I suppose

#maybe when I try sleeping more on this will come to me #I just felt like sharing since it sounded neat in my head before I fell asleep #or did I make it after I woke up? I’m not sure #anyways #transformers #megatron #optimus prime #megop #transformers sparklings #fanfiction #story ideas

39 notes · View notes

thrashkink-coven · 1 month ago

Note

Hi, I’m someone who’s wanted to get into witchcraft for a long time, but I can’t tell if there’s any entity willing to work with me. How do I know if I’m ready? How do I know if there’s someone willing to be my patron?

To put a very complicated answer simply: you won’t know until you know.

Firstly, you don’t have to work with an entity to start doing witchcraft. Devotional work and witchcraft are not synonymous. Most witches practice for years before they start working with spirits or seeking patronage. Your magic comes from within, understanding your energy and power, how you work, and the kinds of practices you’re willing to do is your first concern. Once you start to mature into your practice and feel confident as an individual, you can start looking for a magical partner.

You won’t know you’re ready until you’re ready, and you won’t know which deities want to work with you until they reach out. With Lucifer, I gradually started to feel a deep and inexplicable interest in him. I started to become extremely curious about his lore, his attributes, his energy etc. I started seeing signs of him everywhere, synchronizations and coincidences. I started thinking about him constantly, and that lead to me eventually reaching out. This is usually the way it goes with me and any deity. Your deep interest in them is one of the first signs that they’re pulling you towards them.

Patronage isn’t always (or even usually) something you approach a deity with right off the bat (and remember that not every spirit you work with will be a permanent presence). At least for me, patronage is a thing that happens to be established after working with a deity that I feel extremely connected to for some time. I consider Lucifer to be my primary guide. I didn’t officially ask him to be my patron, one day I kind of just realized that he was. In our contract he made it clear that he considers himself to be my protector and that I should consult him before working with other spirits. These are mutually agreed upon terms that developed as we learned more about each other.

It’s kind of like asking “how will I know who is willing to be my best friend?”

When you make friends and discover that you really like each other, you happen to become best friends. You don’t approach a stranger and say “would you please be my best friend?” but rather, you and your closest friend at some point mutually recognize that you’re each other’s best friends after a long time of building your relationship together. Magical relationships are much the same. Had I asked Lucifer to be my Patron the first time I approached him, he probably would have told me to slow down.

Whether or not any given entity will be willing to be your patron is unknowable until you interact. I’d focus less on finding a patron and more on deciding which energies you’d like to work with and experience in your practice. They will naturally place themselves in your life as they fit.

#pagan #paganism #luciferian witch #lucifer devotee #luciferism #theistic luciferianism #deity work #deity witchcraft #witchcraft #demonolatry

27 notes · View notes

gunnrblze · 4 months ago

Note

IM BEGGING YOU TO DO ONE FOR THE OLD MEN GHOSTS, ‘they are secretly in love with y/n’ PLEASE

Oh say less (I was gonna include them in the other post but decided against it but still want to write for them because…hnnndhsjaj)

Merrick- secretly in love Merrick feels like the frog in a pot of boiling water metaphor. he’s fine at first, the water is room temp. he can largely overlook his feelings, used to it by now. the water heats up and you’re constantly on his mind, he tamps it all down but it keeps getting hotter and hotter and suddenly he’s being snippy at work, needs more time to cool off, etc

He lets (personal) stuff build up before he can think to resolve a matter, he doesn’t even realize how deep in love he is with you, and when he does try to hide it, I think he’d fail pretty miserably. He’s one of the ghosts whose attraction i honestly think would be the most obvious to others, despite trying to pretend otherwise. This man’s unspoken devotion would escalate slowly, it’d feel like a presence rather than a set of actions/words.

Elias- this guy doesn’t trust his own emotions around love/attraction sometimes after his wife died, so if he spawns a secret crush on you at his big age, he’s most definitely going to pretend otherwise and knowingly let it eat at him. Tells himself he doesn’t have time for you, which is odd considering the way he’d always make sure shit is taken care of for you, whether he admits it was him or not. checks in on you, even if it’s just in a professional or friendly manner, quite literally makes time for you and then tells himself it’d never work.

I think he may consider himself “done” with relationships at this stage in his life, and it’d only drive his avoidance. I don’t necessarily think he’d be obvious, other than the “please god love me back” eyes he’d unintentionally give you, but I think others could probably tell something’s up with him, whether the issue is identifiable or not. If any of the ghosts could go the rest of their (short) lives without confessing to you, it’d be him imo.

Rorke (pre fed)- for starters, he’d absolutely be thrown off when he realizes he’s in love. Such a career focused man, I imagine the idea of love/marriage/family for him would be put on the very back burner, he’d be surprised. I think he’s one of the ghosts that is most likely to start avoiding you. For a long while his logic is out of sight, out of mind, until he realizes you’re still never out of his mind. He’d start being short with you, not rudely so, but just enough to distance himself. The type to divulge his secret to a close friend (Elias tbh) on a drunken whim, and then turn around and act like it meant nothing.

I also think he’d have a hard time letting himself even entertain the idea of “having you”. He’s too busy, he doesn’t deserve someone so special, he’s a bad man that does bad things, etc. Like Elias, he’s playing mental gymnastics to justify his own avoidance. I think depending on your proximity to him, he’s also the type to just blurt it out to you one day (sober). He’d make it so complicated but he’d be so up your ass all the time after that, there’s no way that’d be the end of the matter.

#these got much more in depth lol #now if Elias did admit it he’d tell you like this is some devastating news bc he interprets it as such #and then he’d probably be prepared to beg you to hear him out and take a chance on him #call of duty ghosts #thomas merrick #thomas merrick x reader #merrick cod #elias walker #elias walker x reader #elias walker call of duty #gabriel rorke #gabriel rorke x reader #rorke cod #cod hcs #cod ghosts headcannons #cod ghosts #gunnrblze rambles

34 notes · View notes

hysteriaww · 1 year ago

Note

would kai have saved bonnie if damon left her ?

The simple answer imo is yes - the complicated answer would be his *reasons* for saving her.

I feel like if Kai saved Bonnie in 6x22, it would be VERY different from when he saved her in 6x13 on her bday. In 6x13, saving Bonnie was a huge sacrifice Kai made bc of his newfound guilt and other growing feelings about her. But if Kai saved her in 6x22, that man would do it out of SPITE lmfao. Like sure, maybe a *tiny* fragment of leftover post-merge Kai would save her bc he believed she deserved better, but at the mental state that he was in by 6x22, i think a larger part of him would actually be looking to save her out of this petty urge to make bonnie suffer, bc dying would be too easy for her according to his thought process 💀

In canon, remember how Kai got annoyed by damon seemingly deciding to let bonnie die and choosing elena over her super quickly? He complains, saying smthg like "This decision was supposed to torture him," bc he wanted damon to agonize over the bonnie vs elena choice for a long time. Similarly, i think bonnie dying just like that would eliminate a lot of the angst, pain and tension of the situation, so Kai would save her life *just* so bonnie and damon would be forced to live with the uncomfortable reality of damon choosing elena over her and deal with the emotional fallout of that instead of pretending they have the world's best friendship, as they'd been doing for all of S6 (bc Kai would enjoy watching that mess).

Ofc, that would probably result in Bonnie aiming a lot of her resentment towards Kai for forcing her to face those hard truths, but maybe, after an initial explosion (and a lil nudging from Kai), she might realize that targeting kai is just shooting the messenger rather than addressing the root problem (her toxic friends). If it hadn't been kai, then somebody else would've made bonnie see the truth but either way, that's something she needed to see.

Realistically, even after this realization, i don't think bonnie would've suddenly warmed up to kai, but i think it might've pushed her to ditch damon instead of sticking around Mystic Falls to help him all the time (which would've consequently made Kai suddenly lose interest in Mystic Falls too xD). If Damon then chose to seek her out to beg her (read: force her) to defeat the town's new villains-of-the-week, or if he found her w his humanity off and tried to kill her to get elena back, i think kai might've surprised them all by appearing out of nowhere to get damon off bonnie's case (bc kai being kai was prob keeping tabs on bonnie's whereabouts as soon as she skipped town).

And maybe Kai's sudden appearance would've led to a bonkai confrontation with Kai realizing he may have saved her out of spite in 6x22, but there is no explanation for why he saved her from damon this time besides.. *wanting* bonnie to get her life away from her friends. And maybe that would've also led him to unsubtly point out that an elena-free existence had actually made bonnie's life better, thanks to kai.

Bon would probably kick his ass halfway across the world after a comment like that but i think it would stick with her, making its way under her skin as it sinks in that the horrific thing Kai did really did end up working out for her in the long run. Bc as we know, even at his lowest, there was always some part of Kai that begrudgingly wanted bonnie's attention and validation and rly resented her friends getting that from her while walking all over her. It would take a long time, but slowly and surely, i think Bonnie's intuition would eventually pick up on that tiny part of Kai that saved her life to show her that she deserved better. It would be very uncomfortable for her to realize that Big Bad Kai could no longer be an easy scapegoat for all her problems, but that might be just what she needs to finally see Kai as a person, rather than a monster. And from there? Well, looots of opportunities and potential would open up from there 😏

#bonkai #bonnie bennett x kai parker #bonnie x kai #bonnie bennett #kai parker #anti damon #tvd #asks #mine #headcanon #bonkamily

93 notes · View notes

jamneuromain · 1 year ago

Note

Allright my sweet Jam, listen about this. How about a reader who is new at her work and Meet our dear nerdy boy Jensen, Who happens to be in a very bad relationship with a mean girl. He doesn’t leave her because he thinks nobody would date him again , however there comes our reader girl being a badass, sort of friendsxlovers cuties🤭.

Im loving thiiiis!!!! 🙈

Hi nonnie😌❤️

😩soft boi Jakey is always going to have a special place in my heart - the golden retriever look on his face is so damn adorable-

Bad B*tch

Jake Jensen x Reader (you)

Summary: Jake is in a tough spot with a terrible person around. You choose to be the bitch and snap him out of it.

Warning: Swear words.

"I'm so fed up!" Hush-yells Clara, who shoved Jake away from her close proximity, "Leave me alone!"

Storming off from the coffee room, she didn't look back.

If anyone other than people from your department is seeing this, they would think that Jake, who had been pushed and shoved, must have done something wrong to piss off the pretty lady who ran away.

From your point of view?

Clara was obviously manipulating her boy toy again.

It was unfair to call Jake "boy toy", however, with his weirdly cute goatee and the round spectacles on the bridge of his nose, you understood why Clara would want him around. He was undoubtedly good-looking, and practical regarding computers, phones, and anything linked to the power strip.

In fact, your laptop was what connected you and him in the first place. On the first day in your office, you were completely bewildered by the complicated authorization process to make amendments to some files. After some help from the only guy at IT - Jake - you were lucky to gain the authorization from the IT department twice as fast. You had been friends since.

Now, after two years working for your company, you knew too well of your co-workes, Jake included, but especially Clara from the same department where you came from.

Clara was the notorious slayer of hearts, keeping a few men around the tips of her fingers, and manipulate them to do her work for her, occasionally rewarding them by blowing a kiss (or screw them in an empty office, you had the unfortunate experience of walking in Clara and another men fucking each other's brain out) and making their sanity scrambled into mush.

Jake, as it seemed, has fell into the hands of Clara since six months ago.

Jake met your eyes from where he was standing. He managed a small smile, which looked sad rather than happy.

"What is it with this time?" You asked quietly.

It has happened so many times after Jake was determined that Clara was willing to be his girlfriend. Clara would scream and yell whenever something didn't work out the way she expected to, and Jake would hastily apologize for something that wasn't his fault.

"I ... got upset when she got too close with Felix." Jake scratched the back of his head, stepping out of the coffee room and gesturing towards the terrace, where he'd be more open to conversation without eyes and ears close by, "It's ... it's my fault, though, I'm insecure, I'm ..." Jake repeated what Clara had hissed at him, shutting his eyes, he could still hear her words ringing in his ears.

"Sorry about dumping this on you." He hastily apologized. He noticed that you were awfully quiet, probably because that you didn't want to hear about his yet-to-be relationship drama.

"It's okay." You shrugged.

It was not. But last time when you told Jake that Clara was manipulating him into doing her biddings, Jake broke into a large fight with you.

Even though he apologized the next day, but stating the fact that Clara was nothing like you imagined her, you realized some topics were better staying in the dark.

Topics like Clara and her ways with men.

However, it didn't mean that you couldn't wiggle your opinion into his mind.

You turned to him, your voice flooded with sympathy, "You must feel that you are out of her league, I get that a lot."

Yeah sure, Clara didn't deserve him.

Jake took a deep breath, before continuing, "It's just that ... none of the girls finds me attractive." He casted a small glimpse in your direction, "I'm the nerdy IT guy, and they are always ... hot. " Licking his lower lip nervously, Jake huffed, "Clara is different. She has a bad temper, but I think she likes me. She really does."

You were not going to dwell on the case of Clara, because you knew no matter what you say, he was going to defend her. So you changed your approach, "Rewind to the last thing you said - you're not a nerd."

Jake pouted, blinking his puppy eyes.

His whole demeanor was expressing one simple idea. He knew you were trying to sneak by with a white lie.

You laughed. "Okay! Okay, you are. But you're cute. Don't girls dig the cute nerd type?"

"You'd be surprised." He sagged his shoulder, looking depressed, mumbling, "Thank you, anyways. You must have something better to do, and yet you chose to stay and listened to my miserable love life-"

"Don't." You instinctively stopped him from saying more, "Look, Jake, you've been my friend ever since I got to this place, and I know you. I chose to stay because my friend is in need because of a-" You swallowed the B-word, with difficulty, "a really bad person broke his heart, over, over and over again. Not because of anything else, and certainly not because my dear friend 'doesn't deserve' some comforting when he needs it."

Jake stretched his arms over the terrace railing, looking into the city's concrete walls and iron jungles.

"Jake, look at me." You whispered.

He gave no reply, simply letting out a long sigh.

"Jake." You raised your voice, only by a little, and he still did not answer you.

"Jake-" You squished his cheek between your palms, finally made him turn your way, with his adorable lips protruding, "You're better than this - sulking over that bitch - okay?"

A pit of fire rolled in your stomach.

Why couldn't he see the truth? That Clara was playing him, that she never meant to be his girlfriend, not to mention the new boytoy she had, Felix, who was in the accountant and that she needed Felix to check the books for five dozen purchases in your department - on top of, the purchase checks were supposed to be Clara's work, because she messed up with her data entries.

"She wants me." Jake repeats stubbornly. If he had puppy ears, they'd be dangling to the floor, "She likes me."

God, enough with Jake and his bullshit-

You stood on your tiptoes quickly, and smothered Jake with a kiss. The hands on either side of his cheek helps. The fire in your stomach fueled to the kiss, urging you to nibble on his lips, regardless that you were on the terrace of the company building, that you could be seen by almost anyone who stepped foot into the second floor, while the only thing that separated you from the building was see-through glass doors.

"Jake, I need you to help me with-" Clara rushed over, pulling the glass door open, was stunned at her spot, and then, "YOU BITCH!" She screamed at you.

"Guess I am." You smiled coyly, letting go of Jake's reddened lips, "need anything?"

Clara turned to Jake, stomping like a teenager, "Jake, please, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I really need your help."

"I-" Jake hesitated.

"Jake pleaaaaase, you can't help her like that." You mocked her voice, fingers exploring his chin and his stupidly cute goatee, "Oh wait - sorry, forgot I was a bitch. Now why don't I live up to that name - " You made the most impressive bitch face in your entire life, not that you did it before, but with you narrowing your eyes, and twitching your lips, and the "Fuck off from my boyfriend", you made Clara scatter.

You were crossing your arms in contempt, satisfied with your tactics, when a small gasp from Jake made you aware of his presence.

"For the record, I'm not saying sorry." You pursed your lips into a thin line, "Even if you don't want me to be your friend anymore."

Jake gulped, and gulped again, and calling your name hesitantly. Thin sheet of sweat emerged from his forehead, before the goofy grin curled up onto his lips.

"No. No." He murmured. Cheeks pink, biting the inside of his lip, staring into the ground so hard as if studying tile patterns, he added, "You're not asking me for help at work, are you?"

You huffed out a laugh. You could not believe his first concern of your announcement.

"Yes." You cleared your throat.

His eyes looked up in disbelief.

"And asking you to come to our house for New Year's dinner. And asking you to teach me how to play Overwatch. And asking you to be my date at my cousin's wedding. And such and such." Your hand sneaked to his side, secretly interlacing his fingers with yours, "What'd you say?"

"Yeah." He breathed, "Yeah that sounds ... great. As long as I get to be Sombra."

"Who?" You quirked your eyebrows.

Jake giggled, holding your hand tightly in his, "You have so much to catch up on Overwatch! Sombra is the most badass one of them all - well, not as badass as you, it seems..."

Find Jammy's 500 Follower's Celebration here 👈

Questions? Comments? Requests? 👉Send them to my inbox 👂

#jake jensen x you #jake jensen x reader #jake jensen fluff #jake jensen angst #jake jensen fanfiction #jake jensen #jammy's 500 celebration #writing challenge

91 notes · View notes

technicolorfamiliar · 20 days ago

Text

A Woman's Face Dir. George Cukor 1941

Torsten Barring.

That's it, that's the review.

It's taken me a minute to come back to this movie. There's no real reason except for me it's kind of like looking into the sun, something you shouldn't do often. But in my initial epic Veidt Watch, A Woman's Face was the point of no return. Up until this, I'd been watching a lot of Connie's silent film work, which I think you can see trace elements of in his performance here. If I was interested in his work as an actor before seeing A Woman's Face, afterward there was no way I could stop this train even if I wanted to.

The more I rewatch this movie though, the more I'm convinced that the story doesn't really work. If I was a producer in 1941 and this script came across my desk, I would probably throw it in the garbage or pass it along to a lesser studio. But it does work as a challenge for its actors, especially Joan Crawford. And it works because George Cukor clearly had a unique eye and sensibility that translate the weird, melodramatic plot into a relatively layered and complicated film.

I'm even more convinced that the story itself is eye-rollingly obnoxious because of how absurd the two radio play versions are. But in my heart I want to give these recordings a pass because they're basically pure camp in a way the film is not. There's so much nuance and subtlety in the film that could never be captured by a purely audio format like radio, no matter how accomplished and famous your lead actresses are (sorry, Bette Davis and Ida Lupino >.<).

I'd be interested to see the original 1938 version with Ingrid Bergman (on Internet Archive) to see how the Hollywood remake measures up. I'm curious if the Swedish version is also held together by its actors and director the way Cukor's film is.

From reading a few interviews with George Cukor, one gets the impression he didn't really hold this picture in very high regard. It sounds like they had fun making the movie, everyone got along pretty well, but it's not considered a high point in Cukor's filmography by him or by film critics. Which is interesting because the movie is not lazy, it's made extremely well and there are a lot of interesting, careful creative decisions that influence the impact the film has, at least on me. But I guess compared to his other films, of which I have seen embarrassingly few, A Woman's Face isn't considered as high brow or accessible because it's a little too out there for American cinema in the early '40s.

There's a soft gothic look and feel to the way the movie is shot. There are some clever moments with shadows that I really like that feel less like a nod to the graphic high contrast of German Expressionism and more simply about mystery and things that are hidden. It's a brilliant move hiding their lead actress until well into the film, and her eventual reveal, also expertly done without any crazy underscoring, is empathetic rather than shocking. There are a number of moments like that throughout the movie where the lack of an accompanying soundtrack or dialogue add to the tension, like in the scene where Anna and Lars Erik are in the sky car above the waterfall or her unbandaging post-surgery. Dramatic music or narration over these scenes would have cheapened them.

On this watch, a new thought occurred to me. Something about the visuals and themes make this movie feel like a dark and surreal fairytale. I think the fact that they kept the story set in Europe and didn't choose to relocate it adds to this feeling. This is definitely only a half baked idea, but hear me out. There are of course the themes of beauty and goodness, how they are or aren’t connected, but also belonging and love, and maybe most importantly thinking you want one thing at first and realizing you actually wanted something else the whole time. There is this idea of masks, whether it's Anna's scars or the "well-tailored person suit" Torsten wears (yes I am quoting Hannibal, yes it will happen again). There's something about the proximity to and power of nature -- the forest where the story properly begins, the snowy mountains and waterfall near the Barring estate. But the thing that sparked this idea initially was watching Anna arrive at Torsten's apartment for the first time. It's very much the fairytale heroine walking into the monster's castle. Anna has to enter and pass through two iron gates guarded by a crone (has to be intentional, right?, it could have been a doorman but they chose an old woman), then she has to go through the ordeal of facing her own reflection in a long hall of mirrors (so cruel, so messed up) before she reaches his door. Then there's Torsten's apartment itself. It's all gilded opulence, none of the furniture looks particularly comfortable, it's more like a museum than a home. And, maybe I'm wrong, but there aren't any windows?? And if there are, we don't get any sense of the outside world. He's created in his home a seemingly beautiful and well-curated cave or cage where he traps Anna behind closed doors and with his body language. I can’t stress enough how smart and intentional all these decisions feel.

The religious references maybe are a little obvious, but it's fun to throw around devil language about Torsten. And the allusions to saints, whether specific or general, in regards to Anna may be too on the nose, but she knows and the audience knows she's not saint-like, even at her best. The talk about God seems to center around Doctor Segert which really only makes sense because he's a surgeon and what do surgeons do if not play god?

The first time I watched this movie I was surprised by how subversive it felt. My impression of films made at this time was that they were all pretty conservative in order to pass the Hays Code. Of course I know now that wasn't always the case. Directors, actors, and writers were always doing increasingly creative and interesting things to circumvent the Hollywood censors. And A Woman's Face absolutely belongs to that class of surprisingly taboo films for this era. Anna and Torsten's relationship is clearly uhh not vanilla. There are pretty clear indications of sadism and dominance in how he handles and speaks to her, and in the way she reacts and responds to him. They're not exactly hiding it. And of course the only way they were able to get away with any of this was because Anna inexplicably winds up with the doctor in the end.

And on top of that it's a wonderfully queer movie made by a bunch of queer people. The assumptions of traditional American gender roles and expectations were thrown out the window. Anna doesn't neatly fit in any standard film archetype for a female character at the time. And having a queer coded villain wasn't exactly a new thing in filmmaking, but it suits this particular and allowed Connie more room to play with the character. And on top of George Cukor being gay, his two leads were bisexual according to multiple sources. There was no way this movie wasn't going to slay the house down boots.

The only thing about the movie that really bothers me is the casting of Dr Segert. I hate to say it because I feel like a lot of people really love Melvyn Douglas, but he was a weird choice for this film. I hadn't even seen him in anything else before I saw this movie, but something bothered me about him in the role. Now I know it's because they cast him against type, he usually played snarky or annoying or goofy characters. He can’t possibly match Connie and Joan, and I'm not asking him to. But it would have been nice if they had cast someone likeable, then maybe the end of the film would have made more sense. The only other cast member worth shouting out is Osa Massen as Vera Segert, I love her, she's too much.

I haven't seen a lot of Joan Crawford's movies, she had a long career with a lot of ups and downs, but I have seen Mildred Pierce, the film everyone cites as her best work as an actor. And I have to say she's better in A Woman's Face. Anna is a thousand times more interesting and complex a character than Mildred Pierce. I mean, if I had to choose between a bitter, lonely, outcast blackmailer and a tragic, betrayed, single mother, I would pick the hardened criminal every time. I think people point to Mildred Pierce as Joan's best film mainly because they haven't seen A Woman's Face, and maybe because Michael Curtiz gets more accolades as director because of Casablanca where as Cukor just made "women's pictures", I don't know. But Joan Crawford surprised me with this performance, I think it was the first time I saw her and thought, hell yeah, now that's an Actor.

She builds up Anna's defenses so much that when she finally lets her guard down when one person finally really sees her and isn't afraid of or disgusted by her, it's like *chef's kiss* perfect. There's a realness to her vulnerability that simply couldn't be matched by other leading actresses at the time, and I think that has a lot to do with Cukor pushing her beyond her comfort zone. Apparently he made her do the scene where she describes her past and the accident that left her scarred over and over to get just the right amount of detachment, so she wasn't performing the story. But I also think she was pushed to deliver a really excellent performance by her primary costar; I don't know off hand any other instance where Joan had such an accomplished and grounded scene partner as Conrad Veidt. He's so anti-Hollywood in his style and approach that I have to believe some of his work ethic and energy influenced her and helped pull this amazing performance out of her.

Anna is such a great character, she represents the monstrous female, something society tells us to fear. Because she's not just scarred on the outside, but her emotional scars made her self-sufficient and unyielding, traits unacceptable in a woman. People keep calling her heartless, but she had a heart the whole time; she's not a sociopath, she does everything she does because of her wounds, because her heart feels the pain of rejection and loneliness so deeply. Of course she has a heart, she falls in love with Lars Erik after, what, a week?? It's gut-wrenching to be treated and thought of as repulsive and ugly your whole life only to one day meet someone who doesn't look away and who treats you as though maybe you're not repulsive, not ugly, as though maybe you are desirable and worth wanting (and totally not relateable in any way lolololol). So when given the chance, of course she would take any opportunity, no matter how difficult or painful, to change herself if it meant acceptance or even desirability. Her whole concept of love evolves throughout the film, but there's a deep connection for her between love and sacrifice or total surrender. She sacrifices her autonomy and submits to the painful ordeal of intense cosmetic surgery in order to be loved by Torsten. She's willing to sacrifice her very life in order to protect Lars Erik. Anna's guilt and shame drive her to decide to commit suicide by the end, something I feel like is glossed over in the film. And it's even more tragic because she's established as this survivor character pretty early on. That's why the ending of the film is so unsatisfying.

It's funny, I recently also watched Now, Voyager and I can't help comparing the two films. Bette Davis's Charlotte in Now, Voyager is also shunned and mistreated because she's considered ugly, but the damage done to her wasn't an accident, it was intentional abuse. But both Charlotte and Anna were young victims of forces outside of their control that warped them into easy targets for male intervention. Charlotte's trauma made her neurotic and riddled with anxiety; Anna's made her brittle and vengeful. They both had two separate and very different men and someone else's child in their lives. But I prefer Charlotte's ending, her ultimate decision to devote her life to herself and her foster daughter. By the end of A Woman's Face on this rewatch, I was yelling at the screen, "Girl, you don't love that doctor!" She says want she wants: "I want to belong to the human race." And I believe she really cared for Lars Erik, so forcing a last minute love connection with Segert at the end of the film feels like nothing other than a band-aid to make the movie palatable to the censors and average American audiences. And Joan and Melvyn Douglas have like zero chemistry. It's so frustrating, Anna deserves better -- sure she's probably avoiding jail time because the judge will declare Torsten's murder as justifiable homicide, but UGH that doctor does not love her! The whole doctor/patient "I can fix you" thing is just as problematic as her relationship with Torsten to be perfectly honest.

And oh Torsten. That nasty, nasty man. You can just tell Connie had the time of his life getting to be "Lucifer in a tuxedo." And it's so, so good because he refused to make his villains one dimensional. On paper, Torsten is entirely ridiculous. But if a script did not provide enough backstory or motivation, Connie would go above and beyond to craft a whole inner world for these bad men in order to flesh them out. And Torsten is no exception.

Torsten's evil is insidious. To continue to beat the fairytale comparison to death, Torsten is a big bad wolf if I ever saw one. He may not exactly be a wolf in sheep's clothing, but he does wear this "person suit" that continues to slip by degrees through the film so that by the end he can barely contain the slavering, glassy eyed monster underneath. There are moments even early on when you can see through his carefully crafted façade, one so much more nefarious than Anna's. The first time he really looks at her, you can see the wheels turning in his head almost immediately as spots his prey. He even bares his teeth to her, in a diabolical and disarming smile that I love so goddamn much. He knows early on he can use her but isn't sure how much to reveal, how much of himself to let her see. When she returns after her surgery, he greets her with charm tinged with mild annoyance. But when he sees her new face, the mask cracks open and he inspects her like an animal sniffing out a threat. He decides he can take advantage of her new confidence to bind her even closer to him, starting to play the weaving song on the piano, laying the groundwork for the next phase of his plan. When he makes it sound like she's the one suggesting they kill Lars Erik, a previously unseen intensity and fire creep into his eyes. His cruelty and malice are suddenly right under the surface but he doesn’t raise his voice or hand to her.

His whole demeanor and energy is such a wonderful contrast to what Joan is doing as Anna, that I wonder whether he made that decision during filming. I love that Connie chose to keep Torsten's voice silky even when he's being nasty. There's occasionally a slight change in his tone, becoming less seductive when he's actively annoyed. The only time he distinctly changes his vocals is during the attic scene when he finally shows his true face to Anna. That's the first time he raises his voice to her, but only when his back is turned. There are a lot of interesting things happening whenever Torsten turns his back -- when Anna reveals her true "vocation" as a blackmailer, he's facing away from her but we get to see the fraction of a second where he knows everything is falling into place, and that look disappears the instant he turns back to her. It's only then that he carefully and calculatedly reveals his own damaged nature to Anna, saying they're just alike, "both poor, both wretched." And I think he really believes it, too.

I do think in some twisted way Torsten does genuinely like Anna, but because he probably doesn't have a single close relationship that isn't some form of manipulation, he's incapable of truly caring for her. His own interests and desires are his only priority. Torsten's seemingly sudden 180 degree shift into power hungry psycho killer at the end does at first maybe come across as absurd and unrealistic, but as I see more and more men IRL turn out to be absolute fuckbags, I have to think maybe Torsten's not as much of a caricature as people assume. The reveal of his ambiguous plans for some kind of authoritarian power grab doesn’t feel as far fetched. The whole time, he plays Anna like a fiddle to get what he wants: money. And with money comes influence and power, not just to pay off his increasing debts, but money to control and subjugate others. He believes whole heartedly that he was cheated from the family fortune and that belief festered in his mind until it made him sick, sick for any kind of alternate future where he's the one doing the taking instead of being taken from. It's an all too common male power fantasy we still see over and over. The fact that we don't see this side of him right away feels unfortunately prescient.

Let's talk about the attic scene. It's the scene people talk about the most. It's Connie's moment to shine, his monologue is perfectly executed, it's just unhinged enough. Up until and including this point, you don't want to take Torsten seriously, but there are moments here when his eyes glaze over and he's almost literally panting when you realize this guy isn’t fucking around. His utter contempt and superiority and disgust at Anna's decision to be a decent person is a masterclass in classic cinema villainy. And again when he stalks away from her saying "the spirit of love has triumphed, yes; God is in his heaven, yes!", he pauses, turns back to her and reveals another layer, the core of his being. He's no longer charming playboy Torsten Barring, he's the fucking devil, cast out of heaven, steeped in his own bitter rage and resentment, contorted into a hungry, dangerous animal. It's interesting there aren't a lot of cuts in this scene, it's mostly a single shot and we don't get any direct closeups of Anna. She's always in the foreground, but the camera doesn't single her out, it keeps both of them in the shot, eventually pushing in to an uncomfortable closeup of him with his hand around her throat. And she barely speaks, and instead of fighting with him, she shuts down.

Am I the only one who wishes Anna and Torsten got to have more of a final moment together? While the chase scene is exciting, maybe they could have struggled at the waterfall's edge in a final showdown. Something face to face between them would have felt way more satisfying than her shooting him in the back from a distance.

How Connie doesn't have second billing for this film is beyond me. I love this role for him because it's such a departure from his other Hollywood villains in the '40s. He very nearly steals the film from The Joan Motherfucking Pepsi Cola Crawford. It's nearly impossible to take my eyes off him in this film (ok that's been true for all of his films, but with A Woman's Face it's even more of a problem). He looks incredible, his suits are impeccable, his voice is sensually sinister, what more could you want? He has this presence and hypnotic quality especially in this role that audiences ate the fuck up and wouldn't see again in another actor for decades. I'm telling you, there are only a very small handful of other actors who get typecast as villains who could do this kind of delicious dark magic on an audience.

This was the Conrad Veidt film that got me hooked. Torsten sunk his claws into my mind and hasn't let go yet. And as it's still Conrad Veidt's birthday when I'm writing this, I have to give him his flowers. This movie really should be more celebrated if only for the fact that Connie and Joan Crawford and George Cukor absolutely killed it.

Bonus: look how cute his gloves are!

#my writing #conrad veidt #joan crawford #a woman's face #hbd connie you big bad bisexual legend

11 notes · View notes

alpaca-clouds · 1 year ago

Text

Let me talk about Women in Refrigerators

You know what? This is a thing that is kinda annoying me in the Castlevania fandom. How everyone is screaming about Women in Refrigerators, while folks so clearly do not understand what the trope actually is about and why it is a bad trope.

Like, there is not a single death of a named woman in Castlevania, that not at least someone has called "fridged". Alright, maybe Drolta. But other than that... yeah, folks definitely have called Lenore and Carmilla fridged. And... No, people, you misunderstand the trope.

The name of the trope was coined based on Green Lantern vol. 3 #54 (from the 90s), in which Green Lantern finds his death girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator - mostly for shock value in the reader. Mind you, this was the 90s, when superhero comics were really, really edgy and stuff. And in fact the kind of story happened a lot of times during this time. Female characters being killed, raped and tortured for pure shock value, with the story not featuring any idea of what this did to the female character, but rather focusing on what this does to the male characters. (And mind you: Yes, a woman can be considered fridged and still survive the ordeal. A lot of folks do consider Barbara in The Killing Joke fridged as well.)

So, what does "Fridging" in terms of the trope mean? Basically it means that a female character suffers a horrible fate just so that another (most probably male) character can be motivated to do something and react to this thing happening, setting in motion a character arc for the surviving character - or even setting into motion the plot.

In many examples it should also be noticed that at times the female characters mostly just exist to meet their horrible end. Supernatural as a show is really bad in this regard. Like, within the first episode of the show THREE FUCKING WOMEN get fridged, just so that the brothers can travel together and start the plot.

So, let's move back to Castlevania.

Lisa is fridged. There is no way around it. Yes, it does not feel like it, because they still managed to make her a character of sorts, but yeah, she definitely is fridged. She dies a horrible death and that death is what motivates the plot, as well as what motivates both Alucard and Dracula. That is very classical fridging no way around it.

Carmilla and Lenore, though? Yeah, they are not fridged. They are characters who just die. Their death is not used to motivate another character. Their death is also not random, like most fridging deaths. Especially Carmilla is basically asking for her death, of course. She is a villain and gets the same death as all other villains. And while it is a bit different with Lenore, she definitely is not fridged either, giving that she literally dies in the last episode with no plot or development happening because of her death.

In Nocturne it gets a bit more complicated. Is Julia fridged? In a way, I would argue, she is, mostly on the value that she exists as a character to die and for her death to be the basis for Richter's character arc, giving him the trauma he needs to overcome.

Esther meanwhile does not feel fridged to me. Because Annette's trauma is not deeply linked to her death, rather than the entire slavery experience in general.

Tera? Well, for Tera it is too early to tell. I still assume that her change into a vampire is going to be used to have the characters realize, that vampires are not inherently evil, and to give us a view into what vampire society looks like. At least that is what I assume.

By the way: The fridging of female characters is my big issue with the PS2 Castlevania games. Like, in Lament of Innocence both Sara and Elisabetha are getting fridged to motivate Leon and Mathias. And the same is true for Rosalie in Curse of Darkness, who as a character only exists to motivate Hector. I mean, she is so replacable as a character, that Hector fucking replaces her by the end of the game.

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #castlevania nocturne #refrigerated women #women in refrigerators #fridging #feminism #women in media #julia belmont #castlevania lisa #castlevania tera

119 notes · View notes

wrinkly-walls · 9 months ago

Text

The Woodsboro murders as a movie

A (probably unnecessarily long) meta post about how, in universe, the killings were thought of and concieved throught the lens of a movie rather that, well, serial killings (in MY OPINION). This is borderline incomprehensible but bare with me ok :)

DISCLAMER! Same as my last post, this is only taking into account what we're told in the first movie. I don't think that what they tried to do in Scream 3(by this I mean Roman, not the movie set which I do think is cool) is interesting and I prefer to mostly ignore it :) Ok that's all.

As we all know, one of the main reasons why Scream (1996) is such a great movie is it's meta aspect: the self awareness and self referential nature of the film, that works both as a horror movie and as a horror movie parody (accomplishing both things beautifully I may add), is what makes it stand apart. I don't think I need to explain why Scream "Do you like scary movies?" is very meta, so I won't.

What I want to get into is the movie inside of the movie, the movie that Billy and Stu thought they were making, and basically why I think that was the case (the fact that rather than simply being serial killers they created a narrative). By doing this I also want to try to explain why they failed in-universe and why it could've literally never worked the way they were thinking about it.

Let's get started!

So, first there is the why. Like why even would they do that, you know? We don't know whether everything was planned before they killed Maureen, or if after the fact they decided to keep going, but either way I think that it was always going to happen. By that I mean that, as I mentioned in my motives post (which you should check out ;) ), I don't think that murder in on itself was enough for Billy. As I said, I think that the feeling of regained control, of making everyone unwilling actors in his movie after his mother left, was even more important that the murder in itself. Something that I noticed on a recent rewatch that I had totally forgotten about is the scene where Sidney is in the bathroom and a cheerleader is talking about how she thinks that Sidney is actually the killer. The girl says something along the lines of "she felt so bad but she realized teen suicide is out this year and she decided that murder is a much more healthier form of expression". Ironically, I think that this kind of applies to what Billy went through mentally. Obviously, he didn't not kill himself because "teen suicide is out", but I do think that the notion of murder as expression, one that aligns with his interests (horror movies) is one that resonates with him. The way they do it, the murders are as much creation as they are destruction, you know? After his mom left, it's likely that he did what he could to cope with that fact, and in this case this would be to parallel himself with the many (many, like there's so many wtf) horror villans that don't have a mom, or otherwise have a complicated relationship with her (as Sid would put it, mommy issues).

With this we have Billy simultaniously embodying two figures of power in movies, on outside of the movie as writer and director; and one inside, as the unnatural unstoppable force of the slasher (I'm not even going to get into the slasher as a figure of power in slasher films because that's very long, but I recomend reading literaly any sort of analysis of gender in slasher because it's very cool). This is basically the biggest expression of power one can achieve: he both decides the "genre", what role people play; and literally who lives and dies. By being what are probably his role models both in and out of the screen, he manages to sucessfully be put back into a position where he feels comfortable.

To go off on a tangent, this is also why I feel that any analysis of Scream that doesn't consider the concept of Stuilly at all is missing some of the complexities of the characters, because while it is clear that by doing all of this Billy hopes to reclaim lost power, he also willingly decides to share this newfound power. Something that I love about Billy and Stu is that they aren't killers, they're slashers. Or more accurately, they're a slasher. And no matter what some people say on the internet (it makes me so fucking mad free my boy Stu he gets miscaracterized in all fucking directions) Billy also lets Stu be writer and director. We are explicitly told that Stu "though up the ending" (another way in which they themselves present their spree as a movie), an ending Billy himself praises, and if that doesn't say something about their relationship I don't know what does. Not to mention the literal stabbing. The only way I can really see the situation play out like this, by which I mean Billy deciding to share what the killings mean with someone else, is if there was affection of some kind. One could also say that it's just because he couldn't do it alone, or to having someone to take the fall; but that would also mean admitting to not being powerful, admitting that he alone cannot neither plan or go through with his movie, and that's a huge admission of weakness. All this to say they were gay.

Going back to the main thing, the narrative is not that of normal killings. As is established pretty clearly in the movies by the fact that Sid is the main character, the way the the killings are planned are also done with her very clearly at the center. The plot of Scream is that, a plot, one that is (at least at the start) not really that different from other slashers. You have a murder in the past, in this case the main character's mom; which establishes some stakes and just makes the character more interesting. Then, the new murders start, and at first it's just two people who don't really matter: they are killed, on a narrative level, just to start things up again, to get Sid (and the, for them imaginary, audience). After that, a violent attack, complete with taunts about Sid's mother; and then- the boyfriend! He gets arrested, Sid feels completely crazy, just to then be taunted again about how she gets innocent people in prison. Then the party happens (I skipped the bathroom scene because to me that was not them, it being them makes no sense to me), classic final act. And that's certainly a great movie plot, but it's a pretty stupid murder plot. It's way too complicated and risky, Billy could've not been released; and the party is way too ambitoius. To many things could (and actually do) go wrong.

Another important thing that I sorta already mentioned is the way they talk about it, both before and after the reveal. Before we have the scene at the video store, where they talk about "suspects", and they mess with Randy saying that according to movie logic (which he himself follows during the movie: he actually thinks in a very similar way to Billy and Stu), he could be the killer. Then there's Billys creepy-ass "it's all a movie", and I don't think that needs to be explained. And in the third act-well, it happens a lot with the "ending" and the virgin thing.

But again, as is said in the movie and I sort of said on my motives post, the way that it is a "movie" is not a "crazy" way. By this I mean that they absolutely knew what they were doing, and if they didn't do it like that they would've done it some other way. Billy himself says that "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative!". So the "artistic" side of the murders is just how the violent thoughs they surely had before manifested in this specific case, with this specific characters.

So, I've established that the murders are thought of like a movie, and why they would even do that (or why Billy would, as I said in my motives post Stu basically did it for funsies and 'cause he's in love, I don't think to him it was that deep. Though of course he still benefited from the control aspect, and maybe that paired with the murder of Casey and Steve...). Now what's left is why I think that this conception of what they were doing is actually the reason why they lost.

The main thing is obvious: in-universe, they are actually killing people with a movie plot. That is stupid behavior, because well, in real life things don't have "narratives". In real life it's not that you can't pick your genre, is that there are no genres to pick. In real life, there is no way you can control as many things as they were trying to (as they needed to for the plan to even work.)

One of those things, to me, is the fact that Dewey and Gale were not characters in their murder movie. Why would they be? They literally have nothing to do with the plot. They are outside the friend group, in a different age range, and if you narrated Scream from Billy and Stu's pov they would only appear at the end, and maybe as background characters before that. So when these two show up at the party, it's a real fucking problem. You can even see Stu a little bit after they show up, and for a second he doesn't look happy at all. We have no way to know how much they had to rework the "third act" to fit with this, but ultimately, it is because of Gale their plan fails. Gale, this random fucking reporter they see on TV sometimes.

There's also the "slasher immortality" thing. Stu himself talks about "the sequel", and in slasher franchises you basically have two ways to do that: either the slasher is the same, or the final girl is the same. The first is obviously much more common, and it's clearly what they were hoping for. The slasher can't die, so they can't die. (what they don't realize, and what makes the scream franchise sort of work even if I don't like where they took it, is that ghostface is the slasher, not the literal killers in each movie. By making their costume so obscuring of who's behind the mask, and giving ghostface a personality of their own, they are separating themselves from the slasher. You can have a sequel with different killers, because like the victims in so many slasher franchises, they are completely replaceable.)

Another reason they fail is very well known, and that's the goddamn stabbing. It's really the most stupid thing they could've done at that moment, but- knowing how things are structured for them, can we really blame them? I mean, they had to do it while Sid was alive, otherwise it wouldn't have been in "the movie". And according to the way they behave, they are so fucking sure they've won. They aren't worried at all, because in their narrative, this is the end. Everything that they accounted for is on it's place. Nothing can go wrong, right? It's a perfect ending.

And just the ending in general. As I said, the party is way too ambitious. Before that, we know they've killed four people successfully, but in all those cases they didn't have to really try that hard. Maureen was just one against the two of them, and she didn't expect it. They had total control of what happened. And the same happens with Casey and Steve: these people had no idea they could even be in danger, and there were few. Even Casey and Steve were taken care of separately. Same with the principal, and even later with Tatum. What they wanted to do with the party is, logistically, a huge jump in difficulty. But they think they can get away with it because that's how slashers work: of course there are higher stakes at the climax! It'll work out anyway, because that's what they wrote!

This overconfidence in their movie logic (ie the fact that Sid has to die because she's no longer a virgin) is what ultimately kills them, but it's not the only "movie thing" that does. Because when she ends them, Sid is literally dressed in their slasher costume, using the same lines they did before. She takes their movie and runs with it, but as she herself says, she doesn't like scary movies, so when Billy wakes up for one last scare she doesn't hesitate. She doesn't give a fuck about the so-called rules, or the narrative, or anything.

And that's why, in her movie, they fucking die.

#scream 1996 #stu macher #billy loomis #stuilly #meta post #help me I'm going crazy #I'm probably missing something but whatever

25 notes · View notes

pesky--dust · 2 years ago

Text

I love Chiyoh, but I feel like in a lot of fanfics she is portrayed as horribly cold, emotionless and she doesn't like Will and would do everything to protect Hannibal from him. We don't know much about her, practically as much as nothing, but I'll allow myself an amateur analysis of her person.

(I spent too much time to read scripts of episodes with her). In inverted commas I placed dialogues and italicized the descriptions from the script. I also added screenshots of scripts, if I felt the need to. In bold letters I wrote the titles of the episodes I discussed and the summary of the whole post, because it turned out to be much longer than I expected.

Secondo:

We meet Chiyoh in Secondo when Will went to Lithuania to better understand Hannibal. She is an excellent shooter and has a very good intuition — being watched by Will while hunting, she realizes that something has changed on the property (Something is off in this place she knows so well.).

When she finally meets Will, who tells her he's Hannibal's friend, Chiyoh dips [shotgun’s barrel] slightly, either in hesitation or relief., but when he tells, he is looking for him, she raises the barrel again. She is apparently surprised that Will knows about Mischa, which shows the fragment of the script:

Chiyoh also asks Will how he knows Hannibal and when she hears his answer, she comes to the right conclusion:

Then Chiyoh asks Will to tell his story. We don't know exactly what Will told her, but he must have said something that made her react that way:

Finally she comments his story with: “Hannibal took someone from you, are you here to take someone from him?”, so I guess it's safe to assume Will told her about Abigail, but probably without details about complicated relationship between him, Abigail and Hannibal.

She tells she can understand Hannibal, because he is doing what has been done to Mischa. So she rather knows about killing and cannibalism, however I guess she has no idea about the fact that Hannibal ate his own sister, but about that a little bit later. In my opinion she sees Hannibal's actions as a coping mechanism to deal with what has happened to Mischa (and it wouldn't be wrong, people deal with trauma in different ways).

As I mentioned before, Chiyoh has perfect intuition and realizes that Will is similar to Hannibal (“You're nakama. Aren't you alike?”) and that he thought about killing and eating her (“You've given that some thought.”). Here is a script of that moment:

Will tells her also infamous: “I've never known myself as well as I know myself when I'm with him.” and Chiyoh’s reaction is: She considers that, recognizing the feeling.

Choyoh tells Will her story — she didn’t let Hannibal take the life of Misha's killer, so he left the prisoner's life in her hands. There is a dialog:

Not only Hannibal is curious if Chiyoh would kill the prisoner — Will is also curious, so he frees the prisoner. Prisoner, overwhelmed by the freedom he regained after twenty-five years (Outside for the first time in twenty-five years, the man shivers with terror.), returns to his cell and attacks Chiyoh, when he gains an opportunity to do so. Feeling life slipping away, Chiyoh drives a pheasant bone into the man's neck, eventually killing him, which results with: She does what she has always resisted and deliberately kills the caged man. He slumps and falls off her. She lies still for a moment, then lets out a SCREAM.

She knows Will is responsible for that and tells him that, but the shock of what she did caused also dialogue, in which she begins to wonder if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to his sister:

She decides to help Will to find Hannibal, because she had no reason to stay in Lithuania after killing that man.

Contorno:

On the train, Chiyoh tells Will how she came to meet Hannibal, how they played together as children and Hannibal was, “charming the way a cub is charming, a small cub that grows up to be like one of the big cats.”, with Will commenting, “One you can't play with later.”.

Will talks to her about the prisoner she killed. He asks if she sees herself killing that man, to which Chiyoh responds she does not see herself, but him:

When they are getting ready to bed, they are also talking and the dialogue I'm pasting in the next paragraph, makes me think that Chiyoh, despite living twenty-five years in solitude, can read people like Hannibal like an open book. Will says that violence can be used to control behavior, and Chiyoh notices that Hannibal is affecting Will and wonders if Will is also affecting Hannibal. She also realizes that Will wants to kill Hannibal because he fears otherwise he will become like Hannibal, so she comments with the words, “There are means of influence other than violence.”.

Later she repeats words, “There are means of influence other than violence.”, followed by:

(I really wanted to use that fragment of the script)

Dolce:

In this episode, Chiyoh introduces herself to Bedelia as Hannibal's family. She also tells Bedelia that they are like birds and that Hannibal puts them in cages, wondering what they will do.

When Bedelia asks her what she wants, Chiyoh answers, “I want to cage him.”. Bedelia tells her that she thought that the biggest Hannibal's mistake was Will Graham but maybe it's Chiyoh.

The next time we see Chiyoh, she shoots Will. While treating Will's gunshot wound, Hannibal tells Will that Chiyoh has always been protective of him and is delighted that she, not Will, killed the prisoner.

Later Chiyoh gets into the elevator where Jack is. Realizing that Jack is going to the same floor as she and that the man is watching her suspiciously, Chiyoh tells him, she has mistook the floor and leaves.

Digestivo:

This is the last episode where Chiyoh appears. It is also the episode in which Chiyoh meets Jack Crawford. After Hannibal and Will got kidnapped and Jack is about to be killed, Chiyoh rescues him by killing corrupted police officers, because she thinks she should have done it (“I ought to. I should. Therefore, I must.”).

At the same time, she apparently realizes that Jack must know both Hannibal and Will. She understands that when she's talking about Hannibal, she apparently must also talk about Will (“You're sitting at Hannibal's table. You know him. You know Will.”).

Jack sees that Chiyoh can be violent, when the situation demands it and being asked, to where Hannibal and Will were taken, he tells her, he will tell her that information if she take his IV away, so she does so. He tells her where to find them and assures her he won't interfere.

To save Hannibal, Chiyoh travels to the United States, to Maryland. There, on the Muskrat Farm, when Hannibal carries Will half-conscious in his arms and is followed by Mason Verger's employees, Chiyoh kills them to keep Hannibal safe.

Next time when we see Chiyoh, she is on the porch of Will's house, where she finally meets Hannibal again. Hannibal asks, if she will go home, if she can go home, to which Chiyoh replies, “No more than you can.”, which is followed by the dialogue:

Much of this dialogue did not end in the episode, but despite everything, Chiyoh has changed her mind and does not want to see Hannibal in the cage anymore. The words “I see the best of you and the worst with steady hands and a slow heart.” I understand as the fact that Chiyoh knows Hannibal, she knows his good and bad traits; she's not afraid of him, but she knows she should be careful and not put her gun down.

I come back also to the topic of her knowledge about Hannibal's actions. As I wrote, she rather didn't know about the fact that Hannibal ate Mischa and it's pretty clear in that moment. She asks him about it and is actually relieved he only ate and didn't kill his sister.

Hannibal’s words “The most stable elements, Chiyoh, appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver. Between iron and silver. I think that is appropriate for you.” mean to me that even though she killed a man, she's still the same Chiyoh he knew, since she is violent only when situation demands is and she's still going to protect him. Despite what she did, she didn't betray herself, as he did after Misha's death — she's better than him.

The last time we see her is when Hannibal surrenders. She's pointing a rifle at the officers and Hannibal, ready to fire if the FBI wants to kill Hannibal on the spot. Eventually she goes into the woods. It's the last moment we see her, the last moment we hear about her.

Summary (tl;dr)

All in all, Chiyoh is an excellent shooter. She also has great intuition, because — even though she barely met Will Graham — she practically immediately realizes how similar he is to Hannibal. She knows Will and Hannibal must be close if Will knows about Mischa. She also knows Hannibal took away someone close to Will. However, she says she accepts Hannibal because he does what has been done to Mischa, his sister, whom he loved above all else. She sees herself as Hannibal's family, but cries, realizing that maybe Will knows more about Hannibal than she does, because she asks him if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to Mischa.

She had a strict rule not to take a human life, but she's forced to do so in order not to die herself. She wants to protect Hannibal, because he's probably the only family she has.

Her words that there are other means of influence other than violence and her kissing Will, I understand that seeing how identical he and Hannibal are and that Hannibal influences Will's behavior and Will influences Hannibal's behavior, Chiyoh wants to convince Will that he doesn't have to kill Hannibal because violence is not the only means of influencing people's behavior — it can be also love. In my opinion, that's why Chiyoh doesn't kill Will when he pulls out a knife to hurt Hannibal. She shoots him to simply disable him, to give him a chance to reconsider his decision to take Hannibal's life.

She also realizes that apparently when talking about Hannibal, she must also be talking about Will, because in a conversation with Jack, she points out that Jack knows both Hannibal and Will.

At first, she wanted to put Hannibal in a cage, but: 1) after hearing from Bedelia that she thought Hannibal's biggest mistake was Will Graham, and yet maybe his biggest mistake was rather Chiyoh; 2) and after the massacre at the Verger farm; Chiyoh changed her mind.

I think it might have something to do with Jack's words, “I know them. They are identically different, Hannibal and Will.”, and with Bedelia's statement that she thought Will was Hannibal's the biggest mistake, and with the massacre at the Verger farm itself, as everyone Chiyoh has met tells her about closeness between Hannibal and Will; she also saw Hannibal rescuing and carrying Will, taking care of him at his home.

She realizes that all of this can't be the result of violence. I think she sees that both Hannibal and Will are beasts, but they can control each other to a certain extent. She promises Hannibal that she will continue to protect him, but not in a cage, as some beasts are better not be caged. However, seeing that Hannibal decides to let himself be locked in a cage, she allows it, because it’s his decision.

I believe that after these events, Chiyoh remained in the United States to keep her hand on the pulse in case Hannibal needed her. Given that Chiyoh herself said she can’t go back home for the same reason Hannibal can’t (bad memories) and that, according to Bryan Fuller, she was the one who took care of the house on the cliff, I think that theory makes sense.

180 notes · View notes