#you've got the wrong house villain

[marvelandponder]

one amazing thing about the Owl House finale is that it finally contextualized for me one of the central metaphors of the show. Spoilers for the series finale Watching and Dreaming ahead.

we good? no one spoiling themselves? beauty

for a long time now, I thought we had a pretty standard coming-of-age metaphor dichotomized by the show's central antagonists. you've got your protestant witch hunter Belos who introduces a maturity and ugliness to Luz's narrative; he clearly represents a particular, restricting form of adulthood, and just when Belos becomes his most threatening, boom, enter the Collector, Luz's dangerously naïve inner child to ruin all her development on the Boiling Isles. Seems simple enough

what I didn't anticipate was just how specific and personal their roles in the story actually are to Luz once you have the full context from the series finale

look again

this story - this whole series - is about the grief that a neurodivergent kid experienced at a young age, introducing the cruelty of loss and adulthood before she was ready to handle it. and, how to reclaim a more whole understanding of herself as she rebuilds her life with people who get her

Belos is designed to infect the titan carcass like a disease. a cancer. it's super goddamn significant that the titan is King's dad (King, who became Luz's younger brother). they set up Belos not just to be another fascist kids' cartoon villain (although yeah, he do be doing some of that), but to specifically become a force that oppressed the weirdness from the one place that understood Luz. the Iles. the dad. And by the end of the story, Belos's goopy body-horror isn't just for show, he's just like the cancer or other terminal disease that took Luz's dad from her

he's the thing Luz hasn't processed in season 1 that comes in at the end like a warning. he's the threat that forces Luz to grapple with her own humanity, feeling somehow (often completely unjustifiably) harmful to those around her, through the grief she doesn't want to be a burden or the weirdness (neurodivergence) others don't understand. he's the force that says there is something wrong with you, Luz, give in to your grief, this is what you can't face. this is the lie you've been telling to those closest to you: that you're okay

then you have the Collector. (notable that he's a collector, and we see Luz's mom and dad had quite the collection of nerdy memorabilia)

the Collector is the child too young to understand death. Too young to understand consequences, or why their playmates don't feel like playing anymore with someone so weird and maybe a bit too involved in their own world. The Collector is Luz's inner child, that kid we see right before the "worst week ever" — the one who didn't and couldn't understand what was about to happen even as it was going down. unapologetically weird, a bit destructive and short-sighted, but wholly colourful, wholly themselves. that's why the Collector wants to live out Luz's adventures, but without all the depth. just the fun escapist fantasy

but don't think I forgot the internal conflict! :D

because Camila's role also gets an added depth too: Camila was framed at the outset of the series as someone who loved Luz, but wanted her to fit inside a box that she just didn't. later, Luz completely misconstrued her mom's breakdown when she learned that Luz chose to run away. as many people have pointed out by now, Luz misremembers the actual dialogue that Camila says: Camila only wanted her daughter safe, not to lose her. Luz meanwhile felt like she had to choose to destroy this part of herself, or give up her connection with her mom altogether

but we know now Camila actually deeply relates to Luz. she may not understand Luz's fascination with horrific things like on the boiling isles (very akin to a kid getting more grim hobbies in the wake of a death, like Luz's taxidermy), but she loves Luz for who she is. all of her. she never wanted Luz to change

Luz was the one framing the central conflict of the show as go back to her mom or stay in the boiling isles. Luz was the one who felt like she had to punish herself by rejecting the one place where she felt like herself. once Camila realizes what's been going on, and how deeply connected it is to the loss of Luz's dad, she knows Luz is trying to make a "very bad choice for herself." And she won't let that happen (what a great mom!!)

But Luz does have one real choice ahead of her

because of the inner child who once again has to confront death (this time, Luz's own), Luz is able to connect with a father figure, the titan, the one place she feels understood. in the form of a power-up that makes her into a fantasy witch straight out of the Good Witch Azura, the one place she got joy after that huge loss, the titan gives her the strength to face the cancer—a force draining everything good in her life from her and making her question she deserves it in the first place—but only if she can choose herself

and that means choosing happiness, choosing found family, choosing love and friendship and self-discovery in the place she feels most at home! every bond she's forged, everything she's worked for, it all comes down to choosing to face grief and move on in life with weirdos who stick together.

hoot hoot, that's some good metaphor

[seraphdesire]

Regarding Donna Beneviento and her characterisation in the fandom, I think it's important to note that she really isn't the shy awkward adorable blushing mess that everyone depicts her as being.

This got long but I did a mildly extensive read on her character under the break! :)

Here are the notes I took a screencap of, written by Mother Miranda, which talks about the suitability of Donna being a vessel for Eva:

There's the evidence you need that she is severely mentally ill, so babying her just feels... wrong anyway, all things considered.

Note - "and has divided her Cadou among her dolls in order to control them from a distance." While I'm on my 3rd replay of re8 I still don't fully get how the Cadou works, but what I think is essentially happening is Donna is literally splitting off parts of herself and putting them in her dolls.

The main one being Angie, of course.

I always used to consider Angie a separate character entirely but she's linked deeply to Donna on a very personal level. Considering what she's like and what all the other dolls are like - loud, funny, sarcastic, rude, etc - and how Donna is literally the one directly controlling Angie (that's the only way she moves lol, because Donna is carrying her places. Which is also why, when you kill Angie, the illusion melts away to reveal that you've actually killed Donna), I think it's safe to say that's what her actual personality is like.

Also, her only spoken line of dialogue? Please listen to it. For those who are hard of hearing, like me, she says: "don't leave... I can't let you."

Bearing in mind the way she speaks? Her tone? She sounds confident imo. Determined. And perhaps even a little angry at Ethan for thinking he can escape her.

Just a last addition as well, can I say that her abilities as one of the Four Lourds is genuinely evil? Everyone else has physical intimidation - Alcina has her height and her claws and mutation, Heisenberg has his ability to control magnetic fields and metal, and Moreau can mutate into that huge fish-with-legs thing that vomits something akin to acid? Oh yeah and he can swallow you whole too.

Donna, on the other hand, doesn't have physical intimidation like that. She only has the threat of psychological damage (which makes sense considering she's severely mentally unwell). When Ethan goes through her gardens and has to solve the puzzles in the house, she makes him hallucinate about his wife whom he thinks is dead, and about his baby who is somewhere in this unknown country with a bunch of mutants who only have bad intentions.

It's even worse in the Shadows of Rose DLC imo. As Rose, Donna makes her hallucinate the bullies from back home, being called a freak and a weirdo, made to relive the worst moments of her life. And the puzzles too? Hell. Having to actually recreate the scenes of her bullying with wooden fucking dolls. I remember feeling really sorry for Rose while playing through that part.

And yet Donna is still "the uwu baby" because what? I don't know. People love to declaw female villains just because they're attractive (looking at Lady Dimitrescu here). They love to reduce the characters down to their looks and not consider their actual lore or background or the role they play in the franchise (looking at Leon especially...)

Which, ya know, of course people are allowed their headcanons for characters and Donna doesn't get enough screentime to really have her personality even thought of, let alone to be made canon. But I think it's fair to say that Angie and Donna are basically one and the same because they're literally the same Cadou.

This is a quick reminder that you are, of course, allowed to disagree with me. Everyone has their own opinions and that's fine. If you would like to politely debate about this in my comments or in my DMs, or even in my asks, then you're more than welcome to! Please remember debating and arguing are two different things though.

If it really irks you that bad then please scroll, it's not hard. If you don't want to do that then feel free to block me - the button is free of charge after all and should be used more to cultivate your feed to your liking.

[vivwritesfics]

Carlando?! I’m feeling angsty! Maybe a “friend” of Carlos or lando trying to convince them that the reader is cheating/in it for the money etc. because of jealousy. It ends in a really bad argument when lando says “I wish we had never met you” 🥺 more angst and hopefully happy ending ♥️

Don't get it wrong, I love Lance (kinda) but I needed a villain

Part two

"She's cheating on you."

Lance Stroll was a shit-stirrer. When he wasn't the centre of attention, he did what he could to cause trouble. It was childish, really, the way he went around the paddock trying to cause drama.

His easiest target? Carlos and Lando. It was so easy to rile them, especially about their relationship.

"What? Leave it out," Lando mumbled with a shake of his head.

"Don't you dare," Carlos practically growled as he stared at the Canadian. "Don't you dare talk about our girl like that."

But Lance wouldn't let up. If anything, he doubled down. "Seriously, guys. Think about it, she could be using you for money, for fame. Who knows? But I definitely saw something online about her and some actor on his yacht."

Lando held up his middle finger, flipping him off. "Fuck off," he said and he and Lando walked away, leaving Lance stood there.

Although they didn't believe Lance, knew their girl would never be cheating on him, but doubt crept into their minds.

"Hey baby," Lando said as she walked towards the front door, wearing an incredibly flattering dress. No, she looked amazing. "Where you going?" He asked.

"Oh, just out with my friends," she muttered and pulled open the door.

Carlos walked over and kissed her cheek. "Have fun," he said and sent her on her way.

As soon as the door to the apartment was shut, both boys turned towards each other. They sucked in a breath, trying to go back to what they were doing. But it was hard. Incredibly difficult.

Y/N wasn't back until very very late. Carlos and Lando were still awake when she arrived back in the house, a little bit tipsy and incredibly giggly.

"Where've you been, baby?" Asked Lando as she walked over to the couch and threw herself onto their laps.

She couldn't stop herself from laughing as she looked up at them. "Oh, just out with friends."

"Friends? Which friends?" Asked Carlos as he helped to take off her shoes.

"Y'know. My friends."

"Which friends?" Lando pressed.

Y/N shrugged her shoulders. "Just my friends."

Carlos let her feet drop. "Which friends, Y/N?"

She tried her best to list her friends, but she was tipsy and it wasn't going well. The boys helped her up from their laps, and walked across the room, away from her while she sat herself back on the couch, head lolling to the side.

"Are you cheating on us, querida?" Carlos asked as he looked out of the window, at the streets of Monaco below.

Y/N frowned. She took a moment to answer, which didn't look good. "What?" She scoffed as she looked between the two of them. "What? No."

But the seeds of doubt had already been planted. It was too late, Lando and Carlos were convinced.

"I can't believe this!" Lando yelled as his kicked the tv cabinet. "I can't believe you're fucking cheating on us!"

"I'm not cheating you! You've got to believe me!" Y/N shouted back.

Carlos let out a huff, his head falling into his hands. "All we did was love you," he said. "We gave you everything and... for what?"

"Because you love me and I love you!" Y/N insisted. "I'd never cheat on you!"

But Lando was still, his face reading no emotional. Full of emotion, but so empty. "I wish we'd never met you," he muttered and marched into their bedroom, pulling the door shut behind him.

Carlos looked up at her. "I think you should go and stay with your parents," he said and followed Lando into the bedroom.

[explosionkatsu]

AGE DOESN'T MATTER 23

Dad!Bakugo x Teacher!Babysitter!Reader

22

7 p.m. is what it says to the clock and Katsuki hasn't arrived yet. It seems like Eijiro is quite busy as well for Kazui is still with her.

You were starting to feel uneasy since something must've come up that caused them to be this late. After checking your watch once again, you've decided to just drop Kazui yourself. The thing is, you don't know where Katsuki's parents live and you doubt you'll get a detailed answer from him.

'Well, no harm in trying.' You thought to yourself and poked Kazui who was busy watching some cartoons on your phone.

"Kazui-chan." You called out making Kazui look up at you confused.

"Hai?" He responded.

"Do you know where your bachan lives?" You asked.

You were surprised when Kazui told you the complete address, including the lot number.

"H-how?" You were amazed.

"Papa told me if I got lost, I can state Bachan's address so that someone can take me there safely!" Kazui beamed.

"That's very smart of you, Kazui-chan." You praised and gently patted his head smiling.

"Thank you!" Kazui answered.

"What do you say I drop you instead to your bachan?" You suggested. "I don't think Uncle Eiji will be here anytime soon. Something must've come up."

Kazui just nodded when you noticed him yawning. Of course, he's exhausted.

"Alright. Let's pack our stuff and head out." You said.

Y/n began fixing her things as well as Kazui. Once finished, she checked everything and left the school taking Kazui's hand to hers. She plans on buying something to consume on their way as well since it's been hours since Kazui ate anything.

Y/n took Kazui to a ramen house where Kazui finished his meal almost immediately and ate his yogurt on the bus. You intentionally made him sit at the window seat so that he'd be able to point out the place.

"We're here!" He suddenly exclaimed while pointing to a certain house.

Y/n pressed the stop button resulting in the bus halting a few blocks away from where Kazui's pointing. Carefully, Y/n guided Kazui out of the bus and headed to where he was pointing.

'If this is the wrong house, she could just apologize and say it's the wrong house.' Y/n thought while internally praying, as well as readying herself for the excuse.

When they reached the porch, Y/n shakingly pressed the doorbell twice. She was ready to make an excuse, chanting it over and over in her head. Her dread vanished when a woman who looked exactly like a female version of Katsuki opened the door.

"Can I- Kazui!?" Mitsuki shrieked. "Where the hell is your father?!"

"Bachaaan!!" Kazui beamed hugging Mitsuki.

"That brat," Mitsuki mumbled. "Masaru! Your brat left Kazui to some- wait." She blinked, finally looking at you. "Who are you?"

"O-oh!" Y/n stuttered. "I am Y/n L/n." She said and bowed down. "I am Kazui-chan's homeroom teacher, as well as his babysitter."

"Did Kat-, Bakugo leave Kazui to you?" Mitsuki asked and let Kazui in the house.

"Oh, not entirely." Y/n sweat dropped. "Kazui has been waiting for Kirishima to pick him up. But it seems like something came up. I realized it was getting a bit late so I decided to drop Kazui myself, which I am a bit thankful he knew the whole address." She explained, chuckling in the end.

"Oh what am I doing, come in!"

---

"Glad we were able to catch that villain. Man, I thought I'd leave patrol early today." Eijiro said while sitting on the stretcher and letting someone treat his wounds. "Sorry, I couldn't pick up Kazui today."

"Shit!" Katsuki cussed.

"What is it?" Eijiro asked looking at Katsuki in panic.

"I have a fucking date today!"

"What?! With who!?" Eijiro exclaimed. "Bro. You realized it's 8:30 in the evening already, right?"

"I'm supposed to fucking pick her up at the daycare."

Without hesitating, Katsuki told the medic to stop treating him.

"Who!? Where- Dynamight!!!" Eijiro called out. "Awe man."

Katsuki darted away from the scene focusing on getting to the daycare fast, hoping Y/n and Kazui were still there. But as soon as he reached the establishment, he saw that the lights were out and the portico was locked.

"Fuck!" He cussed loudly.

'She must've taken Kazui her. But where? At her home? Yeah. Probably it.' Katsuki thought to himself and blasted himself towards Y/n's apartment.

It took him a few minutes to get there only to notice that her lights were off as well.

"What the hell?" He mumbled. "Where the hell are they.." Katsuki said. He went to the window to check closer but saw no one.

The only place he hasn't gone yet is his own house and his parents.

"Damn it." He cussed once again and blasted away.

---

"So, you've been spending time with Katsuki." Mitsuki was surprised after learning this. It irritates her that Katsuki never tells him anything. "So, how's he?"

Y/n, who was sitting in the dining with Mitsuki smiled. "He's very-"

"Difficult?"

"A-ah. No..." Y/n sweat dropped. "He's really sweet." She giggled. "Whenever I come over to take care of Kazui, I usually cook dinner for 3 people. He'll get mad at me for cooking instead of ordering takeout since he always leaves enough cash for takeouts."

"What do you do to the money he leaves?" Mitsuki asked before sipping her cup of tea.

'Ah.' Y/n thought. It seems like she knew what Mitsuki was doing.

"I bought groceries." Y/n looked down as she said this. "I noticed that there aren't any greens in the fridge. It's usually meat, cereal, a bunch of juices, and a few spices."

"What happened to Katsuki." Mitsuki facepalmed. "That kid is always passionate about his cooking."

"He always complains whenever I cook for him, but he'll eat it anyway." Y/n giggled and took a sip of her tea.

"Why do you do it?" Mitsuki's getting interested in Y/n.

"I can see how tired and exhausted he is whenever he gets home from work."

As Y/n went on to explain, she didn't know that Mitsuki was watching her facial features. Her expression changes whenever she mentions something about Katsuki.

'He'll be so lucky to have this woman.' Mitsuki thought smiling to herself. "Ah. I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself." She smiled. "I'm Mitsuki Bakugo, and here my husband, Masaru Bakugo. You can just call me Mitsuki."

"Oh. It is a pleasure, Mitsuki." Y/n stood up and bowed as a sign of respect.

---

Reaching his own house, Katsuki can see the lights are as well off.

"What the hell?"

He's starting to get worried. Did someone kidnap them? Did they know who Y/n is?

"Fuck!" The only thing he can think of now is to call. But as he tries to reach for his phone, he realizes he left it in his office which frustrates him more.

The only place he hasn't checked is his parents where he doubts, they will be there, but he was hoping they are.

---

"Masaru," Mitsuki called out for her husband signaling him to come over.

Y/n was with Kazui in the living room, obviously spending time with him.

"Yes, dear?" Masaru responded.

"We haven't fully known Y/n right here but I'm liking her for Katsuki right now." She was grinning ear to ear while murmuring what she said.

"What makes you say that?" Masaru said placing a palm on Mitsuki's shoulder.

"I heard the things she did for him. She's the woman I want for our son." Mitsuki smiled.

"You know we just can't-"

"Set them up," Mitsuki answered mischievously.

"Katsuki's smart, dear."

"Not with us." She snickered. "Y/n dear! Come here!"

Y/n blinked curiously but stood up anyway and went to Mitsuki and Masaru.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Eh?

This question made you blink again. "Huh?"

"Oh! We apologize for snooping around. You are a very lovely woman so we're guessing you have a man in your life." Mitsuki's a great actor alright.

"U-um. I don't have a boyfriend." You stuttered but confused. "It's been years since I last had one."

"Why's that, sweetie?" She was curious, okay?

"I just don't have enough time to look for someone..." You answered truthfully. "If someone came into my life, then I'll accept them wholeheartedly."

"I swear to god if they aren't here-"

Just as Y/n finished her sentence, Katsuki came barging in. Everyone was jolted by his entrance, making them all look at him, and Kazui, well, ran to Y/n in fear.

Mitsuki though, after seeing it was only her son, stomped her way to Katsuki and gave him a hard smack on his head which made Y/n gasp.

"That's normal, Y/n," Masaru says assuring her.

"Ooh.." Y/n said in response.

"Why the hell are you barging in here like that!? You gave us a heart attack you idiot!"

"I was looking for Y/n and Kazui!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you almost killed us all!"

"How the hell would I do that woman!?"

"Who are you calling woman, hah!?"

Then Mitsuki gave Katsuki another smack whilst Masaru just sighed in the background, smiling.

"A-ano.." Y/n's voice halted both the blonde-haired.

Both blonde-haired paused in bickering when they heard Y/n's voice making them look at her.

"Kazui!" Katsuki called out as he reached for Kazui, embracing him tightly. "I was so worried." He breathes out what after seeing Kazui safe.

"Papaaaaa." Kazui groaned, squirming a little while being embraced by his father. "I'm okay!"

Mitsuki just slightly shook her head while witnessing the scene.

"How did they get here?" Katsuki asked as he stood up looking at his mother.

"They knock at the door, genius," Mitsuki answered crossing her arms.

"I- whatever." Katsuki facepalmed.

"A-ano.." You stuttered. "Kazui-chan gave me the address."

He was so focused on Kazui that he almost forgot that you were also here in his parent's house. So when his eyes gaze upon you, he can't help but blush a little which goes unnoticed by Mitsuki who smirks seeing this.

"Tsch." Katsuki tched. "Thanks for keeping Kazui safe."

"It's my responsibility as his teacher and babysitter." You smiled.

"I'm guessing you've met my old hag here," Katsuki mumbles as he scratches his cheeks.

Y/n was a bit distraught. She never focuses on what he is saying because Katsuki is covered in bruises, scratches, wounds, and dirt. She was tempted to heal him.

"Katsuki.." Y/n called out softly.

Katsuki stopped talking and looked at her raising an eyebrow.

"I apologize for cutting you, but I hope you don't mind if I take a look at your bruises. It might get infected... Especially those open wounds.." Y/n said staring at Katsuki worriedly.

"Now that you mentioned it," Mitsuki spoke up. "You look terrible! I was just watching you and Eijiro defeat that villain! Why aren't you patched up!?"

Katsuki only rolled his eyes hearing his mother yell at him, but deep inside he kinda missed it. "Eijiro was getting patched up." Katsuki started. "I was going to as well when he fu-, mentioned Kazui. Since I made plans with Y/n as well, I thought of picking him up instead. But I realized it was a bit late, and looked around for them."

"Be glad that your son knows our address." Mitsuki sighed.

"Son, why don't you use your old bedroom and stay here for tonight?" Masaru walked towards them, smiling. "Your mother can help you with those while I prepare dinner. I'm sure Miss Y/n and Kazui are starving as well."

"A-ah! You don't have to-"

"That would be lovely!" Mitsuki beamed.

"Tsch." Well, it was not a bad idea. "Fine. Only because I'm exhausted."

"Alright then! I'll bring the aid kit while your father-

"Give it to Y/n," Katsuki said finally removing his combat boots.

"Ha?" Mitsuki was confused.

"She's a healer." Katsuki simply said making Y/n's eyes wide open.

"How did y-you know?.." Y/n stuttered.

"Doesn't matter," Katsuki said.

"Oh? That's very interesting, Y/n." Mitsuki smiled. "You can patch Katsuki in his room. I can finally spend time with my grandson!"

---

Katsuki went to his old bedroom along with Y/n following him. He didn't expect his night to turn this way but he was a bit glad to have some a little privacy with Y/n.

"This is my old room," Katsuki said stopping in front of a door.

He slowly pushed the door open and switched the lights on revealing a tidy room with a bunch of Almight stuff around the room.

"I see a fan." Y/n giggled while they both walked into the room.

"Whatever," Katsuki answered. "Be thankful it's not like Izuku's." He mumbled.

"Hm?"

"I'll go shower." He said. "You can wait here. Just sit on the bed, I guess."

"Oh. I'll prepare the med kit while waiting for you." Y/n smiled.

"Alright. I'll be quick." Katsuki said and left.

A few minutes passed, and Katsuki got out of the shower fully clothed. He decided to just change in the bathroom so that it wouldn't create any awkwardness between him and Y/n. He also wore something that might help Y/n while she heals him.

"Would these clothes be a bother?" He asked slowly approaching Y/n who was comfortably sitting on the bed.

Hearing his voice shook her a little bit. Luckily she managed to hide it.

As she looked at Katsuki, her eyes widened on seeing what he was wearing. A loose black tank top along with what seems like sleepwear shorts stops a few inches above his knee.

"Oi."

Y/n blinked when he called out. "I-it's okay."

Katsuki sat across from her, not too close but not too far either. He watched how she took a bunch of stuff out of the kit as if she was familiar with what she was doing. Like a muscle memory almost.

"I have a question." Katsuki suddenly blurts out.

"Oh, uh. What is it?" Y/n asked while focusing on the liquid disinfectant.

"Why didn't you take the medical field?" As if hitting a sensitive spot, Katsuki noticed how her movements turned slow. "You don't have to answer if it's something sensitive." He quickly added.

"No, no. It's fine." Y/n smiled at him. "It's not sensitive as well." She said. "I just dont like seeing people die. Especially under my care." She sighed as the smile never left her lips. "I get attached easily which is not a good thing as a doctor, or so I was told. Haha."

While reading the formula of the disinfectant, Y/n managed to answer Katsuki. "I wanted to be a doctor. But since I am a very emotional person, I decided to just teach."

"Why didn't you tell me your quirk is healing?"

Y/n giggled remembering her reason.

"The hell is so funny about it, hah?" Katsuki was confused as to why she found his question amusing.

"Sorry!" Y/n apologized immediately. "I just think that you might find my reason foolish."

"I won't if you tell me." Katsuki tsked. 

"Well. I watched you a lot on the television. All your interviews." Y/n started.

"Right," Katsuki smirked. "I forgot that you're a fan of Dynamight."

"S-shut it.." Y/n blushed. "Anyway," after clearing her throat, she continues, "Dynamight is a very protective person and doesn't want to cause any harm to anyone. Since my quirk causes self-harm, I know you'd be against it if I used it on you or Kazui when I started working for you."

She does have a point.

"So, the day you got home injured, I told Kirishima to not say a word when I both mended you two," Y/n explained while dabbing the liquid on a cotton ball.

"You think I'll let you use it on me, huh?" Katsuki said looking at her.

"H-huh?"

"Of course fucking not." He added and looked away. "You're precious to me. I don't want you getting hurt." He said while his face was turning red.

Y/n's face was worse though, hers was redder than tomato. "U-um.. Your a-arm, please.."

"Wha t do you even like about Dynamight, huh," Katsuki asked out of nowhere while he raised his arm and felt her gentle grasp on his skin. For some reason, it feels very comforting.

"What do I like about him?" Y/n smiled. "He was very passionate about saving people. I admire how bold he is in every situation. No matter what kind of villain he faces, he assures people that he'll defeat them. I just hate it when people misunderstand him just by judging him. They didn't know that without his hero suit, Dynamight was a very different person."

---

"Hey, Masaru." Mistuki called out while preparing the food with her husband.

"Yes, dear?" Masaru answered.

"Did you notice what Katsuki said earlier?" Mitsuki said pausing on washing the vegetables.

"Hm.." Masaru thinks for a second before answering, "Which part?"

"Katsuki said he has plans with Y/n." Mitsuki looked at Masaru as she said this. "I think Katsuki doesn't need our help."

Masaru just smiled at his wife. "Like I said, our son is smart."

24

---

Happy New year, everyone!! I am back!!! I hope you like this part!

Thank you for all your patience! 🥺🥺

[alex69rockwell]

Uhmm yeah.....Last year I saw Grunge playlists of @arayashikiii and @upon-lavender-hills (whom I certainly want to thank for inspiring me to create this) and I've been thinking about creating my own ever since, BUT! I must warn you'all that there are quite a lot of dubious songs that I associate with "So much to say" fanfiction, there are also a few songs that are suitable only for Runge or only for Grimmer. Below I will mark who and which song belongs to!!!

GRUNGE

• Nonpareil of Favor - of Montreal

"My lover, I've been donating

Time to review

All the misinterpretations

That define me and you

I'm thinking about you

In my secret language

Because I know you're the only one

Who can help me take it easy

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

It's like you were always there

Just on the tip of my tongue

And I needed you to happen, yeah

And now that you've happened

And it really, really, really came true

I feel like I ought to thank somebody

So I'm gonna thank you, thank you

Thank you, thank you

Thank you, thank you"

• Motion Sickness - Phoebe Bridgers

"I hate you for what you did

And I miss you like a little kid

I faked it every time, but that's alright

I can hardly feel anything, I hardly feel anything at all

You gave me fifteen hundred to see your hypnotherapist

I only went one time, you let it slide

Fell on hard times a year ago

Was hoping you would let it go and you did

I have emotional motion sickness

Somebody roll the windows down

There are no words in the English language

I could scream to drown you out

I'm on the outside lookin' through

You're throwin' rocks around your room

And while you're bleeding on your back in the glass

I'll be glad that I made it out

And sorry that it all went down like it did"

• Strfkr - Rawnald Gregory

"All my life, there you go

Oh please stay, just this once

Anyway

All my life, there they go

Oh please stay, for the night

Anyway

All my life, there you go

Oh please stay, just this once

Anyway

All my life, there they go

Oh please stay, for the night

Anyway"

• Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead

"God, that was strange to see you again

Introduced by a friend of a friend

Smiled and said, "Yes, I think we've met before"

In that instant it started to pour

-----------

It's nothing but time and a face that you lose

I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose

I'll write you a postcard

I'll send you the news

From the house down the road from real love

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

There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave

You were what I wanted

I gave what I gave

I'm not sorry I met you

I'm not sorry it's over

I'm not sorry there's nothing to save

I'm not sorry there's nothing to save"

• Connor spiotto - The villain I appear to be

(I just REALLY love this song, I think it's silly and match Grunge so well)

"Sometimes when I

Wanna run away and hide

When there's no one on my side

And all my pride had disappeared

I take it off my mind

And leave it all behind

Nothin' left to do but

Try to take the leap and follow through

And that's exactly what I'll do

I know to you I don't seem very strong

But, I assure you, before you can find me, I'm gone

So come on and catch me; you've still got a chance

But not for long

I'll be rollin' place to place

Won't stop till I win the race

Although I may have crossed the line

No time to waste on you

I don't plan on slowing

Down; no, I'll keep on going

Even if you think I'm in the wrong

Just know that

Although I may not think everything through

I don't take back what I say or regret what I do

I know that some stay in line and they stick to the plan

But if you leave it to me, I'll do whatever I can 'cause

I know that's what I'm here for

I don't wanna wait around anymore

Even if you can't see

The good inside me

I don't have the time to tell you

Why I do the things that I do

Just please hold on and soon you'll see

That I'm not the villain I appear to be

Movin' along; no, I won't settle down

Until I'm locked behind bars or I'm kicked outta town

So you can keep on a-runnin' around and around

But you will never quite catch up to me!

And I know you think I'm crazy

But I hope that maybe

Now you'll see why

I had to try!"

• Max Raabe - Ein Tag wie Gold

(This song is also just silly and gorgeous ,BUT IT'S IN GERMAN!!! and I also just think it fits them, sssooooo!!!!!)

"Ein Tag wie Gold

In den Adern hunderttausend Volt

Eine Nacht, wie Samt und Seide

Ein Tag wie Gold

Ihr habt doch alles, was ihr wollt

Eine Nacht, schöner kann es nicht sein

Zwei Schritt' nach links

Zwei zurück, dann nach vorn

Jetzt oder nie

Wir sind zum Tanzen geboren

Alles bebt, alles lebt

Hak dich ein

Kann es sein, dass wir verrückt sind?

Ein Tag wie Gold

In den Adern hunderttausend Volt

Eine Nacht, wie Samt und Seide

Leben, ist es nur ein Traum?

Schön wär's, ich glaube kaum

Dass es wahr ist

Pass auf, weil man sehr leicht vergisst

Nichts bleibt, wie es ist

Ohhh

Grüße nach Moskau, Paris, und nach Wien

Wir winken euch zu

Alles kommt nach Berlin

Alles schrill, jeder will, allen war immer klar, dass wir verrückt sind

Ein Tag wie Gold

Was übrig bleibt, das wird verzollt

Ein Schimmern

Denn was kümmern mich Bilanzen

Lass uns Tanzen!"

• Tally Hall - Hidden in the Sand

"

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

When you had to bid adieu (ooh, ooh, ooh)

Said you'd never love anew (ooh, ooh, ooh)

I wondered if I could hold it

And fall in love with it too

You told me to buy a pony

But all I wanted was you

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

"

• They Might Be Giants - Too Tall Girl

( Silliness kicked in )

"Fall in love with a too-tall girl

Deleterious and delerious

Fall in love with a too-tall girl

With her magazine

Dressed in aubergine

Too-tall girl can see

Past the rooftops and the trees

Too-tall girl can see

Past the crosstown mall and towny sprawl"

And now, it's only Runge

• Lemon Demon - I Earn My Life

"I'll quit my job the day I die

I'll quit my job the day I die

I break my back and never cry

I break my back and never cry

I'm losing all my hair, losing all my hair

I'm losing all my hair because a man provides

I'm standing on a chair, standing on a chair

I'm standing on a chair because I earn my life

I earn my life, I earn my life

I learned it from my father and tell it to my wife

Jesus Christ, don't tell me not to hurry

I wouldn't be so worried if I wasn't always right

While you're asleep I'm terrified

While you're asleep I'm terrified

I see the end before my eyes

I see the end before my eyes

A marker on a grave, marker on a grave

Marker on a grave and I know I'm the one who died

And underneath the name, underneath the name

Underneath my name it says, "He Earned His Life"

I earn my life, I earn my life

I learned it from my father my father never lied

Jesus Christ, better learn how to forage

Utilities and mortgage are all that will survive"

Only Grimmer

• That Handsome Devil - Charlie's Inferno

"You can run from your demons until you are exhausted

One day, you will have to stop and find out what they wanted

Keep on running from those demons 'til you are exhausted

You can run to those angels until you are exhausted

One day, you will have to stop and question what they wanted

Keep on running to those angels 'til you are exhausted

"Excuse me, sir! (I don't)

There must be someone you've confused me for (want to)

If I could see someone who knew me or someone in uniform (die)

I really don't belong here (please don't)

I know you've heard the tune before! (Let me die)"

[seventhcallisto]

Just had a little idea... flashing lights and eyestrain warning.

❝you shine like emerald❞

LOADING...

Happy House.

Stray Kids (ot8) x F!Reader (9th member addition)

PREVIEW: "I am not a member of stray kids!" You kick up the papers littering the floor. Frustratingly pulling at your hoodie. "They're always screwing over those guys. I feel kinda bad." Your most trusted friend, Jiu, snickers behind her bright laptop screen. "I-i should have left when I had the chance! Should have joined that dance group that tried to recruit me! Why did I think I was gonna be the next jihyo!? Oh god." You pace, waving your hands around to drain the building anxiety curling into your lungs and making it's home there. You twist towards jiu falling to your knees and wailing miserably. Childishly.

"I wasn't even on the show. It's a boy group! I'm going to get eaten alive! I'm a trainee! They have years over me! I'm so dead. My career is already over before it started. My life is over." You fall to the floor. Completely done with this whole ordeal and the accident you've gone through, sniffling pitifully. "I told you to always read the fine print. You never listen." Jiu scolds. She, in fact, did not, but she wants to make you feel worse as your best friend. Pink nails flick tiny specks of popcorn towards your slumped body on the floor. And she's right. You should have read the fine print before some businessman shoved a pen into your face. What is so wrong with stray kids that you're being made a fool just to make them look bad? Would adding you tear the group dynamic? You know you're screwed as soon as your concept photos drop.

SYNOPSIS: As if some type of double-sided punishment, you're manipulated to join one of jyps' most successful groups. Stray Kids. Added as an extra member and with no experience just to cast you off as another unsuccessful idol, all because you didn't read the fine print when they dangled the keys to your dream in front of your face. They've got tricks up their sleeves, and the contract you signed says you're a permanent member of the unsuspecting group of guys now. You had no idea you were signing that type of contract. And you especially have no idea why they're trying to bring down their biggest boy group.

table of content + cws: she/her pronouns. female anatomy. major age differences but not in a power-hungry way(ur 19). invisible honorifics, I swear. manipulation. jyp(ent) is kinda the villain here(ilyjypplsdontsueme). ace!trainee reader. inexperienced reader. forced proximity and friendship. the members r kinda mean at first. Sorry, not sorry. ooc stray kids bc no one knows them like they know themselves. overworking. growing friendships. polyamorous(sharingiscaring). quick mutual pining(but they don't realize it). eventual smut.

Prologue. — 🧾

Chapt. ⓵ ❝_____❞

chpt. ⓶ , chpt. ⓷ , chpt. ⓸, chpt. ⓹, etc.

To be continued.. 🧷

I accidently posted this too early (crying). Lmk what you guys think ! — calli.

[taglist is open]

© seventhcallisto 11/22/2023

[sarahreesbrennan]

sorry if you have already answered this, but are we getting any queer rep in Long Live Evil? 💕 i am super excited to see what you've cooked up for us either way!

I came back after I'd gone off on one, seeing the post had struck a chord and being thankful but fearful of my inbox. Let me say with delighted surprise that all the asks are very kind.

Thank you for this one, sweet anon. I am so excited and so nervous about my best beloved, Long Live Evil, and about coming back with a new book of my own after so long, when I believed for a long time it was hopeless.

I'm really grateful to find readers waiting for me. But I know readers are naturally more invested in characters they know: I extremely appreciate you taking an interest in the future.

So, short answer: YEAH you are!

Long answer: Long Live Evil wouldn't exist without its queer narratives.

C.S. Pacat and I were talking in our virtual Brookline Booksmith event recently about our favourite Disney villains. C.S. Pacat picked Maleficent, a fine choice. I picked Snow White's Evil Queen. We agreed we loved most of them.

Here's the relevant excerpt I was quoting in my last post from Carmen Maria Machado's In The Dream House, saying 'I think a lot about queer villains, the problem and pleasure and audacity of them.' Well... me too.

I think many of us have experienced feeling made wrong in some way - for not wanting what society said we should or being what we were expected to be - and that one step along that journey of discovery is going 'Okay, if it's wicked, I'll just BE wicked.' And that's part of why those characters appeal - because they seem free, and free of pain.

But modern storytelling isn't confined to coding, and audiences can now feel free to expect, not the certainty, but the possibility characters who aren't introduced as such still might actually turn out to be LGBT+. The essays I've read about Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Sherlock, Ted Lasso, Fox 9-1-1... I think the latest argued Jaime Lannister was bisexual. (Pretty persuasive.)

I remember reading the Raven Cycle going 'oh? OH.' I remember being at a writing retreat in 2013 and running through the halls screaming about Nico diAngelo. Ten years later we got a Nico diAngelo book co-written by Rick Riordan and the amazing Mark Oshiro. I watched Red, White and Royal Blue with a friend and she said 'honestly I hope the guys get together, but...' and I (having read the book) silenced myself with a herculean effort and watched her hopes come true. I didn't know about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and almost dropped the book in a swimming pool. But I've also read and watched many things thinking, just maybe... oh, no. Still that hope existing is meaningful, the thought that if the story had gone differently, if this revelation had happened, if this realisation had happened, if, if, if...

Long Live Evil is a story about the story going differently and asking yourself questions about your own nature, and the escape to fiction of those who really need escape. The book is based on that 'if,' and the 'if' itself is joyous, and brings me back to the idea of gleefully transgressing the narrative that much villain love is based on.

It's also an ensemble story with a rogue's gallery of characters and multiple PoVs. (I was much inspired by the Six of Crows ensemble.) So it isn't about any one character's romance, and by the book's nature there exist many possibilities. A critique partner read and said 'I didn't know you were going THERE' and I responded 'Should I?'

I've never been one to confirm where stories are going, and I won't do so now. I'm not talking about any one character or telling you a direction.

I'm just saying yes to rep. It's baked in.

[bl4ckph0enix]

Daybreak

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x wife!reader

Warnings: none

Summary: You've tried to help your husband. Yet, you are forced to watch the wrong person getting crowned...

Wordcount: 1.9k

A/N: So, maybe many of you cannot relate to this. The idea came to me while I listened to the song 'Daybreak' by Dimash Qudaibergen. But I just had to write this because as someone who has to fight with very intense emotions, I can relate to this so unbelievably well. My heart broke for both Aemond and Aegon during the crowning scene. Aemond may be the villain of House of the Dragon, but it wasn't really his choice. No one gets born this malicious, one is made this way. And even when it actually is a deliberate choice at some point, growing up in a family like the Targaryen's only means that this attitude is forced upon you without a real chance to escape it.

English isn't my first language, please forgive any mistakes!

Stiffly, you stood together with your family-in-law on the podium in the Sept. Thousands of citizens were gathered in the hall, squeezing each other in order to get in to be able to see the crowning of Aegon II Targaryen. Your facial expression was completely blank and shock cursed through your body, causing to numb every emotion and dull every sense, and coldness slowly seeped into your bones. It's been three years now since you got married to Aegon's younger brother Aemond Targaryen. The both of you hadn't had a great start. Mean words and accusations had been thrown in both directions and you had actually hit him one or two times. He was the only person in this world that could get you riled up this much. And he also was the only person that you loved more than your own life.

You hadn't been able to avoid to fall in love with him. The both of you had partially been forced to spend time together and over the course of months, you had come to know Aemond better. You knew of his favorite things, of the things he hated, of his doubts and dreams. Especially his dreams. They were ones you shared. Having spent three years in his family, you knew as much as Aemond that he was a better man than his brother. He should be the one to be crowned today. Instead, he stood next to you, as stiffly as you yourself, his eye looking over the crowd with no emotion. Your fingers were intertwined with his and you could feel the warmth of his hand on your palm. Normally, it was reassuring and calming. But today, it did nothing to you.

You felt completely numb as you watched the kingsguard enter the Sept and build a corridor in the crowd for Aegon to go through. The tips of your fingers became cold and your breath slightly hitched in your throat, barely audible. One second later, you could feel the gaze of your husband on you, almost burning the right side of your face with its intensity. Of course he had heard you – he would always hear you, no matter where you were or how far away. It was your special bond that you both shared with each other after your Valyrian marriage; a bond that had developed with hate and rage, pain and tears, and that had turned into care and happiness, passion and love over time. The surroundings receded into the background, only noticeable at the edge of your field of vision as your empty eyes followed Aegon walking through the crowd. Somewhere distant in your mind, you registered that he seemed as unhappy and desperate as you felt right now deep down.

The events passed you by in a blur. You vaguely heard the Septon speak from far away, not able to follow the words that were spoken; you saw Aegon accepting his fate, the crown on his head, and you barely managed to hold yourself together as the searing pain that you had buried deep within you for today began to rise to the surface. But you held on. Because you knew that right now was not the time to lose it. You knew the pain Aemond held within himself that he never allowed to be seen. You knew of his childhood and youth, full of the bullying from his siblings and nephews, the lost of his eye, the expectations especially his mother had with him which he hadn't been able to meet, and his burning wish to follow his father on the throne after Viserys' death, to prove himself. Your hand that still held Aemond's became completely cold, even his warmth couldn't prevent it as you saw your meticulously detailed plan going down the drain right in front of your eyes. You knew that Aegon didn't want to be king, as much as Aemond and you didn't want him to be.

You couldn't explain when it all had started to go down the hill. Everything had been perfect. A few days before this important day, you had spoken to Aegon after having gone through everything with Aemond beforehand, how you wanted to do it. You had explained it in detail to Aegon and he had not hesitated to give his approval. One of the preparations had been to bribe the right people who you knew would support you to make Aegon disappear. They had agreed to help you because they had been able to see in Aegon's face and attitude that he did not want to be king. After everything was prepared, everything had gone smoothly today, almost as if everyone around you just wanted to play into your cards. Aegon had disappeared to hide above the dragonpit where no one would suspect him and would just have waited for an opportunity to board a ship to leave Westeros. Even when Aemond had come to you to tell you that his mother had sent out Ser Criston in order to search for Aegon, you had known that this wouldn't change anything.

And yet, here you stood, helplessly watching how the wrong man got crowned.

You could feel tears bubbling up in your throat and swallowed hard to keep them at bay. Still not the right time. You were thankful that Rhaenys Velaryon freed her dragon and disturbed the crowning ceremony, causing utter chaos and pain as her dragon hurt and killed people. You barely registered Aemond pushing himself in front of you to protect you, his hand on the right side of your hips to reassure himself that you were in fact behind him. You saw Rhaenys escape with her dragon as they tried to close the doors to prevent both her and the people from fleeing. But what happened next, you didn't know. You had a few flashing pictures of the kingsguard escorting you through the Red Keep to your chambers, which you shared with Aemond. The door was quietly closed behind you, but you didn't react at first. You still felt eerily numb, though the ripping pain was lurking beneath the surface, and you couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened during the last hour in your life.

Your gaze wandered out of the window at an extremely slow pace while your heartbeat started to quicken as your brain tediously began to catch up with what had happened. You knew that your emotions would nearly kill you the moment they would start to devour you. You tried to hold it back, to give yourself more time to maybe prepare a little bit for what was about to come. But you couldn't. The first sob escaped your throat mere seconds after you felt the barrier that you had built around your feelings begin to crumble down. The quite rustling of clothes somewhere beside you drew your attention and you saw Aemond standing a few feet away from you as your gaze flickered over to him, looking completely desperate, pained, and defeated.

It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that the man you loved with every fiber of your existence had to suffer this much.

Something finally snapped somewhere in your mind. Burning pain ripped through you, hatred for Queen Alicent and her father melted your intestines and rage flowed through your veins like liquid fire. The first chalice crashed against the wall with a loud noise, accompanied by your furious scream. Everything had been perfectly planned, even Aegon had agreed to your plan and had supported you. And now, here you were, damned to see your soulmate suffer. The next chalices, glasses, and plates were thrown through the room, clattering to the ground and crashing against the walls, splintering into a thousand pieces just like your soul did at the sight of Aemond. You weren't able to hold yourself back; blankets, pillows, cups, plates, chairs, and books were thrown through the room by you while you simultaneously screamed your throat raw. For you, it was the only way to handle this all-surrounding pain, rage, and hatred within you that chewed venomously at you and devoured you whole. Tears were streaming down your face and your silver-blonde hair was an absolute mess, the long strands completely tangled, but you couldn't care any less.

Nothing was anymore where it had been before. Even the table had got toppled over by you in your rage. You didn't even really notice that you grabbed the glass vase that stood on the windowsill with pretty flowers in it – a gift from Aemond's mother yesterday. Now it seemed to mock you. Before you could do something more, your knees finally gave way due to exhaustion, but that didn't stop you. As soon as you were sitting on the ground, you slammed the vase onto the stone with your hand still attached. The physical pain that shot through your hand as a big piece of glass cut deeply into your palm, was what brought you finally back a little bit. Your voice went quiet and soundless sobs shook your whole body, big tears still streaming down your cheeks and dropping to the ground and on your dress. You could see the dark color of a pair of breeches as Aemond knelt on the ground next to you, carefully taking your injured hand into his own.

“Please,” you sobbed. Your throat was sore and hurt, your voice hoarse and raspy, cracking at the end and almost swallowing the next words you choked out, “Please, Aemond, make it stop. It hurts so bad.”

Another wave of tears welled in your eyes as you looked at him. New pain tore your heart to shreds the moment you saw the wet shimmer staining his beautiful face. “I know,” he whispered, his own voice breaking and thus barely audible. He looked down at your hand again, turning it around and inhaling sharply when he saw the large shard of glass that stuck in your hand, drawing blood that already started to drop to the ground, accompanying the new tears that streamed down your cheeks.

“It hurts,” you breathed. There was no need for you to explain to Aemond that you didn't mean your hand. Your other hand came up and the tips of your fingers grazed his hairline and the upper part of his forehead, lovingly and soothing. “I am sorry,” you whispered, causing his head to snap up again to look at you. “I have failed you, my love.”

You could see the pain in his eye as you said these words. “No,” he contradicted you and shook his head. “No, you didn't fail me, Y/N. You gave everything I could have asked for, and even more.”

“Avy jorrāelan, ñuhyz zaldrīzes,” you said weakly and finally started to calm down, exhaustion slowly settling in. “So much that it hurts.” (I love you, my dragon.)

“I know,” was all Aemond said to this. “I can feel it.” He grabbed the shard of glass carefully and started to pull it out, causing you to contort your face in pain. “We will fix this, byka mēre, I promise you.” (little one.)

“Okay,” you sniffed and wiped the tears from his cheek. All that you wanted was to see him happy, truly happy. It had become the center of your life the moment you realized that you loved this man that was still a broken little child deep down. You knew that sitting on the Iron Throne with that crown upon his head was what would make him truly happy.

And you would give everything to get him on that throne. In the end, even your own life.

Maybe one day, I'll write another part, but I just had to get that off my chest.

[mewhenimanangel]

moon river, miles morales x reader

pairing: earth 42!miles morales x spider!reader

synopsis: miles takes you out for valentine’s day, not before showing up almost an hour late

wc: 2.0k

warnings!: swearing, teens in love, google translate spanish

nia’s ౨ৎ notes: is this chapter filler, maybe a little bit. but is it necessary for the plot, yes! let me know if you’d like to continue to be in the taglist

prev ♱, next ♱

you swung on your web up to your bedroom window, easing it open. you quickly discarded of your spider suit tucking it into a box and the very top of your closet, changing into a pair of shorts and a big t shirt. it'd been three months since you got your spider powers and little by little you've made new york a little safer and you’d gotten stronger, faster, and better.

you frequented your uncle’s gym more often. him training you on your fighting skills and agility. then you would go to may’s house and she would teach you how to use what you learned with your webs.

when news first broke out that there was a new spider person swinging around brooklyn, people said you were just a poser and a copy. but you proved them wrong when you shut down a drug trafficking ring that the police had been chasing after for a while.

ever since then, you've fought to protect your city, whether it was trying to track down kingpin or fighting some villain of the week, new york was a much better place for it.

you stepped out into the living room, your mom turning to you with a sour expression. "where were you? i didn't even see you come in. you're like fourty minutes late for curfew." she crossed her arms. you shrugged it off walking to the kitchen "i came in like thirty minutes ago, you must've been in the bathroom or something." you lied, getting a plate of rice and chicken.

"mhm" she narrowed her eyes at you making you squirmed under her gaze. lying was not exactly your strong suit and right now you were lying to practically everyone in your life.

she turned on the news and watched the headlines about spider-girl. "bless that girl’s heart. keeping everybody safe and shit, we really needed that" your mom said. you smiled a little to yourself before shoveling rice down your throat.

you washed up and filled your water bottle with some cold water before saying goodnight to your mom. you brushed your teeth and came back to your room to find miles laying there already, on his phone. you hurriedly closed the door "miles! my mom is awake" you whispered. "oh then let me go say hi" he joked. your mom knew you were dating miles but what she didn't know was that he would climb into your window late at night almost everyday.

you rolled your eyes and went over to give him a kiss on the lips. he held your hands and pulled you down on the bed, making you giggle. you laid down with him on top of your body, arms wrapped underneath you. he rest his chin on your chest and looked up at you "valentines day is coming up, and i was wondering if you'd be my valentine? mi hermosa, hermosa novia" he asked, a shy smile on his face. you giggled "baby you don't have to ask, i thought that was implied since we're already boyfriend girlfriend"

"doesn't hurt to ask. seriously let me take you out somewhere nice, por favor mi amor" he said playfully pushing a lip out. "yes i would love to go out with you bonito" you said pulling him in for a kiss. "aye yes! te amo mucho ma" he said pecking your lips.

he pressed his lips harder against yours, grabbing your face "i love kissing you you know that?" he said, bringing you back in for a kiss. you nod your head and smiled, holding his cheek. "so what are we gonna do?" you asked him, breaking the kiss. "it's a surprise baby" he said pecking your lips. you frowned at his answer, you had a need to always know what was going on, surprises weren't your thing.

"don't give me that look, you're just gonna have to wait" he smirked getting off you. you reached over to your nightstand to grab your phone and put on some music. 'moon river' by frank ocean started playing, it was you and miles' song. the first time he took you out, some guy on the subway platform was playing the instrumentals and it stuck with the both of you.

he got up and faced you pretending to grab a microphone, holding it up to his face. he mouthed along to the lyrics "two drifters off to see the world. there's such a crazy world you'll see" you smiled and joined along, grabbing your air microphone "life's just around the bend, my friend. moon river and me"

the song faded out and he grabbed your face kissing you once again. "i really love you princesa" he said nose pressed to yours. you held his hand that was holding your face, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles. "i love you too miles" you said back staring into his beautiful brown eyes.

♱

you were sitting on the couch with nas and your mom, waiting on miles to come plait his hair. you answered the door when you heard his knocking. he opened the door, afro out and curly ready to be braided. he kissed you on the lips and took his shoes off. "hey ms l/n, my mom said to give you this" he said handing the woman a $20 bill. "ugh bless her heart how many times do i have to tell rio she doesn't need to pay me, you guys are family" she said pushing the bill back to him.

he sat down and your mom got to work on his head. she shaped up the sides of his head and put his hair into plaits. after about an hour and a half of playing with nas and eating your mom's food while she worked he was done. he got up and stretched looking in the mirror "ohh this is fire ms l/n gracias" he said checking himself out. you got up and looked at him "ahhh you look very handsome" you told him, taking out your phone to take a few pictures of him.

suddenly his phone rang and he rolled his eyes watching the caller id. "yo?" he answered. "yeah yeah i'm coming." he said hanging up. "aye princesa i have to go, it's work." he told you, giving you a hug and a kiss. "i'll come pick you up tomorrow at six okay?" he put his shoes on and was practically running out the door. "thank you again ms l/n!" he called out. "love you" you said closing the door.

♱

he was late. by thirty seven minutes to be exact. you were sitting on your couch in a white backless shirt with a black mini skirt and a pair of black loafers, hair straightened in pigtails with white ribbons around them.

you texted him at 6:05 asking if he was on his way, no answer. then again at 6:10, no answer. then again at 6:25 asking if you should even bother waiting, no answer. finally when you called at 6:30, it going straight to voicemail, you rolled your eyes and decided to just change out of your clothes and relax in bed. a knock interrupted your plan, you begrudgingly made your way to the door and opened it to find miles standing there with flowers, a big teddy bear, a box of chocolates, a small jewelry box and an apologetic look on his face.

"escucha princesa i'm so sorry. i-i got caught up with work and i didn't mean to" he explained. "okay." you said in an unamused tone. "what?" "what?" "why are you being like that?" he said moving into the apartment. "because you're forty minutes late miles!" you scoffed. "listen baby it was work and-" "yeah well it seems like it's always work." you mumbled rolling your eyes. "aye well what do you want me to do? it's work and you know i need this! plus don't act like you haven't been acting mad dodgy lately." he retorted.

you rolled your eyes "whatever." and walked away. he grabbed your arm "okay listen i'm sorry, amor. i should've told you i was gonna be late. will you please let me make it up to you? nights not over yet" he said holding your face. you looked at him, hiding the small smile growing on your face. you could never stay mad at him for long because no matter what he always knew how to make it up to you. you finally took the time to take in his appearance, his braids were back in a ponytail, one stray braid at the front of his face. he wore a black button down top with black shorts, white socks and matching black loafers.

"here, these are for you baby" he said giving you the pink roses and other gifts he got you. "ah look now there's that pretty smile" he giggled kissing your lips. "miles, my lipstick!" you said pushing him away. "girl i don't care bout a lil pink on my lips, just gotta be from you" he smirked pulling you back in.

"look what i got you" he said giving you the jewelry box, it was just plain white, adding to the element of surprise. you opened it, jaw dropping at what it was "miles." inside was a pink petra pendant necklace from vivienne westwood and next to it a gold ring with a light pink gem on the top.

"it's a promise ring baby" he spoke up taking the box from you, taking the ring out. he grabbed your manicured hands, and put the ring on your finger. "i'm not asking to get married or anything" he chuckled "but i just want everybody to know that you're mine. you are one of the best things to ever happen to me. i cant promise to match your perfection but i promise i will absolutely try. i promise to always love you, mi vida" he said kissing your hand.

"miless don't make me cry my make up off" you chuckled, lip quivering. you reached your arms around his torso pulling him in for the most loving hug. "you're so amazing, i love you so so much miles, and i promise i'll always be there for you" you said pressing your lips against his in a heartfelt kiss. "i feel bad now, all i got you was cologne and wrote a love letter" you giggled.

"baby anything at all would be more than enough" he said. you grabbed the bear and the roses putting them in your room, grabbing his present on the way out. you'd gotten him a bleu de chanel parfum and wrote a very heartfelt love letter, sticking a polaroid of the two of you and a red rose in the bag.

"gracias mi amor" he said taking the bag and kissing you, seriously he loved doing that.

you locked the apartment door behind you placing your arm around miles' as you two left. you still didn't know where you were going because he wouldn't tell you until you got there.

you took the train into manhattan and walked a few blocks to get to where you needed. your face lit up, seeing the front entrance of a fancy french restaurant you had always wanted to go too. "miles, you really shouldn't have" "baby, tonight is all about you. and us" he kissed your knuckles.

after dinner, he took you on a walk through central park and rented a boat. he held your hand as you stepped into it. "miles since when are you so romantic?" you asked, smiling as he struggled a bit with the oars. "just wanna show you my love, princesa" he smiled.

the boat ride was beautiful, the way the buildings' lights reflected on the water, the noise of cars and people creating a calming medley. he rowed out to the middle of the lake and watched the way you looked around at your backdrop.

"te amo princesa, mucho" he said, leaning in for a kiss.

taglist ʚɞ

@3zae-zae3 @itsberrydreemurstuff @darksidescorner @spritecactus @gwennesy @itzsab123-blog @randomhoex @fiannee

[dross-the-fish]

Why do you dislike Musical!PoTO?

I've heard that there are better versions than the ones I've seen (a couple of clips of boots on youtube, the 25th royal albert hall performance and the 2004 movie) so take my ranting with a grain of salt. I've said it before and if you've followed me you probably know by now that I don't care much for Andrew Lloyd Webber, I feel like he's very hit or miss and for every Jesus Christ Superstar he writes there's a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (pure shit, irredeemable, possibly the worst musical I've ever had to sit through) Something about Webber's music rubs me the wrong way, it seems like it's trying to be tongue-in-cheek but it just comes off as smug. Characters tend to feel extremely one-note. I HATE madam Giry in the musical. They kind of gave her the Daroga's role and it DOES NOT WORK. She says something early on in the film about how she thinks of Christine as a daughter but she doesn't do a fucking thing to protect her from Erik for the bulk of the musical? Like, you know what's going on, you know who her teacher is but your complicit in helping him deceive her? Why are you protecting him? It's not that you don't think he's dangerous, you clearly know he's capable of murder. I also hate how they handle Carlotta, she's not really a major character in the book and her singing is lacking not because she's bad but because she doesn't have any passion for her performances and she's wonderfully ruthless and calculating about ousting her competition. The depiction of a spoiled past her prime, primadonna who also can't sing and is too old for the roles she cast in is just another example of ALW being needlessly mean spirited. In the book she was actively manipulative about trying to kill Christine's career. There was something really villainous about the way she would use her popularity and her friends in high places to bribe the managers with flattery and gifts. She made newspapers stop giving Christine publicity to prevent her from getting her name out, then she filled the opera house with her own fans and supporters to outnumber anyone who was there for Christine. This woman has been in the game for a long time and she knows how to play it, probably because she's worked for years to build up her career and isn't ready to hand it over to some nobody from nowhere who happened to pop up on the one night Carlotta couldn't perform. You could write Carlotta with so much nuance and give her layers, make her an INTERESTING antagonist and ALW just doesn't. He goes for the low hanging fruit. The laziest trope he could have picked. Spoiled, vain and no actual talent. Given how much creative control over the movie he had I'm going to count that as his official adaptation of the musical and it takes everything I already don't like about the musical and makes it WORSE. Also I said before ALW writes music like someone who enjoys rock but doesn't actually understand it? "We needed somebody who has a bit of rock and roll sensibility in him. He's got to be a bit rough, a bit dangerous; not a conventional singer. Christine is attracted to the Phantom because he's the right side of danger." -Andrew Lloyd Webber on the character of Erik for the 2004 film. Honestly, no? No he doesn't, he has no rock and roll sensibility. Not in your musical, not in the book, not in the movie. What are you talking about Andy? That ridiculous guitar riff during the song The Phantom of the Opera? Because that meshed about as well with your hokey showtune style as eating cole slaw with your Chinese takeout. You CAN do it but you really shouldn't. "The film looks and sounds fabulous and I think it's an extraordinarily fine document of the stage show. While it doesn't deviate much from the stage material, the film has given it an even deeper emotional centre. It's not based on the theatre visually or direction-wise, but it's still got exactly the same essence. And that's all I could have ever hoped for." – Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andy you're full of crap. Go home. That said there are moments and songs I really like. Wishing you Were Somehow Here Again is heartbreaking and I like to think that she's talking about Erik and the broken pedestal of their relationship as much as she is her father. I don't know if that was intentional but I like the angle of Christine feeling heartbroken at the loss of a friend and father. But well, ALW ships Erik and Christine so of course that angle is never really considered. We get one moment where Christine is upset and says she gave Erik her mind blindly and one where she admits to being frightened of him before the performance of Don Juan, but I feel like as much as Christine is verbally resistant to him and clearly terrified of him the musical doesn't really validate her and takes every opportunity to build up the sexual tension between her and the phantom. The supporting characters don't really help either, Madam Giry is complicit in Erik's manipulations, Raoul seems largely dismissive and more focused on hunting down Erik when he finally believes her than protecting Christine (AllI Ask of You is a nice song but Raoul's actions and attitude before and after make it feel a bit hollow). In some weird ways I get why people watch the musical and think Erik is the better choice despite...the stalking, kidnapping and murder. No one is really committed to protecting this girl, not even the people who claim to love her. I can easily see how she'd still feel a need to cling to her angel of music even after the mask comes off given how completely ALONE she seems while surrounded by people who allegedly care about her. I also don't like how Raoul is depicted. Maybe it's the actors but I feel like he and Christine don't have chemistry and half the time he seems annoyed with her. Especially Hadley Frasier feels like he's ten minutes from being completely done, he has no patience. I don't buy that this is a man who ran into the sea to fetch her scarf or would run into a dangerous underground lair to rescue her but I do buy that he's going to become a drunken asshole in 10 years so I guess what they did with him in LND is predictable even if it is completely stupid. If you made it to the bottom of this rant congratulations, I hope that explains why I am not among the musical's phans and why I don't like how much it eclipses the book or other versions. I do think it's good but overrated and the flaws are more than I can over look. And yet I still seek it out from time to time, I still like the parts of it that I like and that I think do work. It's like a toxic ex I can't fully break up with, which I suppose is kind of fitting given the subject matter.

[ultimateshixiongfuckertournament]

Canonicals Tournament Semifinal 1

Semifinal 1 is between Wu Xi from Qi Ye / Lord Seventh (shizun/mentor: Jing Beiyuan) and Luo Binghe from The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (shizun: Shen Qingqiu)

Propaganda under the cut! (Warning: Propaganda may include spoilers about the characters and their media)

Wu Xi:

While JBY doesn't have a shizun status officially, he did act as Wu Xi's tutor for a while, and there are quite a few scenes in the novel of him teaching Wu Xi. Anyway imagine you are Wu Xi. You are 11 years old and your country was invaded and you've been taken as a diplomatic hostage. And they want you to assimilate but you've been chasing out all of the teachers with your venomous pets. And then your prettyboy neighbor is like hiiii :] and YOUR SNAKE (that your carry in your sleeve) LIKES HIM. what are you supposed to do then huh. NOT let him teach you? NOT fall in love with him? NOT steal him away from the future Emperor after using things he taught you to win back your country's independence?

#vote wuxi <3#he is down sooo bad for his POETRY tutor#where he learns ROMANTIC POETRY#that he later references#and has his tutor recites to him <3#obsessed with wuxi's propaganda here by the way

#wuxi is down so bad for his poety tutor#asks his tutor about a romantic poem and later his tutor recites it to him<3#wuxi betrothes his tutor to himself before telling him what it means#and later does fuck his tutor#and takes his tutor back to his hometown where they are gay married basically

Luo Binghe:

Luo Binghe's shizun Shen Qingqiu caused his sexual awakening and they lived together with Luo Binghe acting similar to a housewife.

Even after being betayed, stabbed, and pushed into the Endless Abyss, Luo Binghe still loved Shen Qingqiu and wanted answers instead of revenge. Instead he had to repeatedly suffer his shizun dying in his arms and assumed abandonment. Which makes him absolutely lose it, made even worse by his evil sword Xin Mo which worsens all of his negative emotions and destroys its hosts, along with additional trauma over the course of the story.

He reused the sword that his shizun sacrificed himself to free him from, cuddles the corpse every night for five years to preserve it, he creates dreams of their happy years together but never made a Shen Qingqiu that would speak to him, he kidnapped and destroyed cultivators' cores so he could feed xin mo and preserve sqq's corpse, he rebuilds their house in his demonic palace, he spent years fixing sqq's destroyed cultivation and trying to revive him, he forces Shen Qingqiu live in that new house, he rescues and repeatedly puts himself in harms way to protect sqq, he tries to destroy the world so Shen Qingqiu can only love him (due to being driven mad by Xin Mo and his believed abandonment by sqq). He tries to kill himself after Shen Qingqiu dies for him again. He would do absolutely ANYTHING for Shen Qingqiu! He's increadibly jealous of everyone Shen Qingqiu gives attention to, including stairsweeps he smiles at. Luo Binghe has sooo much wrong with him and it makes him so lovable. He's so incredibly traumatized, driven by love and desperation for a majority of the story. He loves Shen Qingqiu so much and can't bear to live without him.

After everything? He lets Shen Qingqiu go, wanting him to be happy even if it means sqq won't stay with him. But sqq wanted to stay together! He gets his man! There is in world porn written about them, they have weird kinky sex inspired by the porn, they get married! Luo Binghe cries regularly for sqq, so sqq can dote on him despite his thin face. Luo Binghe is shameless and adores sqq. Lbh got so nervous that he fell flat on his face when proposing! Lbh loves sqq so much and wants him to be happy more than anything else!

More on disciple era:

Luo Binghe's sexual awakening was his shizun tied up and shirtless. He fell in love after Shen Qingqiu got poisoned protecting him. He moved into his shizun's house and handled all of the cooking and cleaning, would regularly fake fall into Shen Qingqiu during training to get hugs. He got a boner from being forcibly cuddled to heal his injuries. And ran to jump into a lake after being spanked for struggling too much during the forced cuddling. Sqq still never noticed lbh's affections.

--

It took him like 3(three) interactions with nice shizun (transmigrator who replaced his old one) to fall irrevocably in love. baby boy was ready he had mommy issues daddy issues and honestly by that time shizun issues too... luckily his new shizun can fill all those roles and more!

#lbh is THE shizunfucker

#binghe calling him shizun is a kink at some point its definitely him

#vote binghe!!#he wanted to fuck shizun so much that shizun died twice for him

[fantasyinvader]

There's just something deeply ironic about how Western fans see Three Houses.

Houses is about seeing things for what they are, first impressions can often be wrong and lead to misunderstandings. However, you have fans who cling to those first impressions both for the characters and the story. They thought they were getting Fire Emblem Game of Thrones, a morally grey game rather than the more Tolkien-like morality we actually got. As a result, a lot of people fail to understand what they game is actually saying, even people who champion Claude fail to see that his story reveals the Church are not the villains he first thought they were.

The game presents it's routes in pretty black and white terms, fight Edelgard and it's a path to enlightenment. Join her and wallow in your own ignorance. As a result, people are choosing to join the villains under the misguided belief that they're the good guys simply because they're rejecting the game's morality. They ignore the actual messages so that they can believe were the hero. They're doing the very thing that Edelgard does, even those Claude fans.

To top this all off, it leads to fans being possessive of the game, insisting that it's own creators don't understand their own story. When the creators laid out what they were actually saying, what the story was actually about, they were told they were wrong. Honestly reminds me of bronies insisting that they were the target audience and not little girls.

Seriously, what do you think is more likely:

The game would doom Fodlan to a bad end if you pick any House at the beginning other than the Black Eagles within the first hour of gameplay, or

The game would doom Fodlan to a bad end if you side with Edelgard even after she's revealed to be a party to the things you've been fighting against this entire time and just ordered the deaths of your students if they stand in her way while she shows up with the results of the Agarthan's experiments.

[maybeitsalivescribbles]

TTD - True Evil 4/4

part1 part2 part3 part 4

*

“Do you understand?”

The Not-Earbuds were taken off with shaking hands. Superhero grabbed Hero’s wrists so tight the latter let out a muffled scream of protestation.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

The man looked at their grimace of pain and slowly eased their grip, their eyes intense.

“I worry about you, Hero. You seem to think that villains are nice people if only you gave them a hug. Powers are a curse. Or you can shoulder them and become a hero, or you embrace them and you end in the wrong side. That’s all there is.”

“I-”

“I know it’s hard for you to understand, it’s different for you. You have a blessing, not powers. But you have to, or the reality will catch up to you. Like me, you’ll be responsible for a death.”

“Sir, you were not responsible for any of that.”

Hero’s wrists were released at once. It was the Superhero’s turn to recoil, a wide-eyed expression on his face:

“How – How can you say that? If I'd been a little quicker, I could have caught her. If I’d never approached the monster, she might have been safe.”

His fist clenched:

“If I’d killed them, they’d never have made victims then or after.”

Hero swallowed hard:

“Sir, I’m sorry for what happened to you. Truly.”

“Save your pity for people who deserve it. I want your efficacy. Can you promise me to do your job better than you've done until now?”

“I’ll try, sir. I’ll really try.”

Two pale red eyes followed them as they left the office. It didn’t scare Hero as much as before.

*

Villain’s room was still locked when they came back. Hero knocked, but didn’t try to enter. They let their back glide along it, landing on the floor, and slipped their hand under the door. After a while, they felt fingers encircling theirs. They looked at the ceiling, their eyes gazing at a small crack in all this white.

“When I was five-year-old”, they said, “my moms told me I could put my shoes on my own. It was really hard, you know. I had two pairs, so I had to make a choice, and it killed me. I knew that no matter what I’d do, there was going to be poor little shoes under my bed in the dark all day long. My moms found me in tears the next week. They had to buy a chest to make a shoe house, and a third pair so they could have fun with each other during the day.”

“That was very prejudiced of your child self. Like your shoes would rather work all day long than spending time on their own. Like darkness was a curse.”

“I was five-year-old, buddy. I didn’t think. That’s my point, actually.”

“I didn’t realize you had one.”

“I was devastated because of shoes. I can’t even imagine how it was for you, when you saw someone die.”

Hero heard a gasp from the other side of the door, but they grabbed the hand that tried to get away from them.

“My boss told me what happened. I don’t think you’ve killed anybody.”

“These sentences don’t go together. Do not even try to tell me he changed his mind.”

“He didn’t. He’s traumatized. But I’m the one who lives with you. Even if I didn’t know any fact, I know that the person who hugs me every morning before I’m going to work and who harassed me to call a doctor when I was sick would never kill someone on purpose. Of course it was an accident. It wasn't premeditated at all.”

“It is quite a shot in the dark for someone so terrified of it.”

“I was five. I got better.”

“How naive. Just because someone pretends to bear with you doesn’t mean they’re unable to murder anyone.”

Hero squeezed their roommate’s hand.

“But I’m right,” they whispered. “I’m sure I’m right.”

Villain struggled to get free and this time, they let go. After a few minutes, the lock clicked. Hero moved back from the door, staring as it opened. Villain looked at them back. For once, their shadow didn’t cover their head altogether, leaving two pale green eyes in sight, coldly glaring.

“I didn’t even see her run into traffic,” they simply said. “There were ants in the tree. I was too busy to fight with the little creatures eager to invade my very own personal space.”

Hero jumped on their feet:

“I knew it!”

“You seem suspiciously relieved for someone who pretended to be certain.”

“Hmm - it’s the ants. Everybody hates ants.”

“You are such a dreadful liar.”

Nevertheless, Villain grumpily accepted the hug.

*

Check the These Two Dorks Masterlist or Tag for more snippets with this Hero and Villain. This is how they met and now they’re roommates.

Or back to Hero x Villain Masterlist.

[raayllum]

I keep seeing people calling Callum Snake boi what does that MEAN

Little slice of fandom history and also because it's my fault (TLDR at the bottom in bold):

Years ago, a few days after S1 came out and when JK Rowling wasn't an outspoken bloody TERF there were discussions of what Harry Potter houses the characters would fit into. The general consensus for Callum seemed to be that he'd be a Ravenclaw because he's clever and artistic, but I argued for Slytherin (whose symbol is a snake) because I saw him more so as ambitious than just curious and more selectively loyal when it comes to his motivations, etc etc.

If you've been following me for any period of time you might know that I tag Very Meticulously, so as a trans person and a trans ally I was like I don't wanna use the TERF's terminology anymore, but having a tag to talk about a specific aspect of Callum's characterization (his wonderfully harsh temper, his intense selective loyalty, his obsessive ambition, etc etc) was still a useful prospect to me. Thus Snake Boi Callum as a tag was born, mostly as a joke? And so I could find metas that talked about his characterization (specifically) as I don't think I had a characterization tag almost at all for a while?

It started to pick up steam in my tags specifically when there was starting to be a little bit of - pushback isn't the right word cause everyone's entitled to their own interpretation and characterization of a character, nor does everyone have to engage with every part of a character's canon personality or actions in their fandom stuff if they don't want to.

But there'd be stuff of people forgetting that he can be pretty mean when he gets angry or not seeing him as selectively loyal to Ezran and Rayla? People would also be surprised but accepting, or resistant, to his growing and consistent parallels in characterization with Viren and Claudia (even if they are all still, ultimately, different from one another).

I saw a fair bit of sentiment during the hiatus of "oh he'd Never ever do dark magic again" (which I never believed even immediately post-s2) or in discussions of how he'd respond to Rayla after she left in Through the Moon graphic novel (set shortly after S3). Some people thought understandably that he'd care a lot about the lie (that he'd get to go with her) and the abandonment, understandably so - they're both shitty things to do, but I also sympathize/cry over why Rayla thought she had to do them, but I never thought he'd think the lie was that important, and focus more on the abandonment aspect as a source of hurt.

Snake Boi Callum as a concept also got some mileage in the development of my Cube Hostage Exchange Theory as well, an ongoing theory since November 2020-ish that Callum will help Aaravos / give him the Key of Aaravos in order to save Rayla's life if she was injured / taken hostage. I don't know if they'll do that scenario now because S5 basically delivered the exact thing, just with Finnegrin instead of Aaravos, but there was some more legitimate pushback to said theory/scenario during the hiatus because people thought Callum would never help a villain like that or take such a big risk for someone he loves. I'm not gonna say that I was wholly right (because I wasn't) and again people can interpret his actions in S5 in whatever way they want, but I will say that all of S5 was one of the most validating experiences of vindication I've ever had in my whole life, so that probably speaks for itself

But yeah, it's a term that's kinda caught on (I would say 60-80% of the fandom sees Callum as someone who would risk the world for Ezran and/or Rayla, with 20-30% - maybe less? - seeing otherwise, hence why I think it's caught on; but again, having an 'unpopular' opinion in fandom doesn't necessarily make it wrong, god knows I've had plenty) and then in the discords I'm in, a few people thought a week based around those traits would be fun and boom. Snake Boi Callum Week was born.

TLDR; Snake Boi Callum is a fanon catch-all / shorthand for the 'darker' / more emotional and torn side of Callum's personality (his ambition, his temper, particularly his fierce protectiveness and selective loyalty) that is being explored by whoever wants to in a fun fandom week. His bio in official series material does read that he values "those close to [him] more than anyone or anything" after all (which again, was very validating after years and seasons of seeing and writing him with that exact sentiment)

The tagging also means that for people who don't agree with this characterization for whatever reason, or whom dislike the emphasis on it, can blacklist it easily (as is the intended purpose with all tags on my blog)

He's a goofy nurturing guy who will Cut You and verbally eviscerate you without question if you hurt his loved ones or piss him off enough, and I love that for him. He's a little snake boi and we think he should have lots of angst (or sometimes not enough when it comes to killing/threatening people) over how far he'll go to protect the people he loves, as a Treat

[mdhwrites]

I don't know if you've watched Gravity Falls or been deep in the fandom but I just realized how similar Luz and Mabel kinda are. They're both young quirky girls whose selfish actions helped the main villain achieve their goal (supposedly, in Luz's case) and learn the lesson of facing reality instead of being stuck in a fantasy world where they get everything they want (although Luz doesn't really learn this even though it was kinda set-up for her in s1) (they also have a girl rival with shit parents that the fandom ships them with but anyway-)

I'm not saying this to shit on Luz though, I like Luz. But it mind boggles me how Mabel gets shitted on way more than her does despite being younger, actually learning her lesson, and apologizing for it. It might because they're different shows but I know a lot of TOH fans were/are GF fans because of the creators' relationship so the fandoms aren't that different from one another. It MIGHT be because Mabel trusted Blendin so easily despite the situation being shady as hell (while Luz just thought Philip was a normal human in the demon realm) but to be fair, Mabel was cornered in a moment of vulnerability and she literally didn't even know what she was giving him. Abandoning her friends and family for her own fantasy land while an apocalypse going on was really horrible, I won't deny that, but Luz also pretty much did the same when she chose the demon realm (place she doesn't know anything about with STRANGERS) over her own world in the first episode. Sure there wasn't anything horrific going on in the human realm so her ignorance of it wasn't as bad as Mabel's– BUT THEN in TTT she thinks of leaving everyone behind by staying in the human realm while the Collector was doing who knows what???

I don't know, this might be kinda petty, I haven't rewatched GF in ages, but I just think it's unfair Mabel gets more hate than Luz. I feel she's had more character progression compared to the latter and at least she always got called out when she did something wrong and learned from it.

So take all of this with a grain of salt because while I've heard a little of this discourse, I haven't watched a lot of Gravity Falls (recently tried again and found myself not loving the first episode if I'm honest) and have never been a part of its fandom. However, this is a chance to talk about why Luz is so liked and 'relatable' to so many because it is not hard to figure out why people like Luz. Why? Well... A lot of it comes down to framing and how the two shows see the two girls.

Gravity Falls sees Mabel as a tweenage girl.

The Owl House sees Luz as the embodiment of what a teenage nerd wishes they were/could be.

Those are VERY different goals and framing.

One, Mabel, is going to be INCREDIBLY fallible. Neither her or Dipper are anywhere close to perfect people because... Well, they're teenagers. They get way too into certain things. They're awkward when it comes to those obsessions. They're awkward about how to deal with change, consequences, etc. like that because that's just the age they are. They're figuring out the world and are going to run face first into it and that will be awkward, clumsy and often destructive without any sort of excuse besides they didn't think the consequences through. That's kids for you.

The other is... More idealistic. Luz doesn't face real consequences for testing her boundaries and is always bailed out. When she fucks up, she always does it with the best intentions and/or no one actually gets hurt. People coddle her and always make concessions to her desires with minimal push back and always end up on her side unless they're just a REALLY big meanie head. She always makes peoples' lives better, she never gets real criticism or ridicule for her interests and is always accepted by the right people for those interests. Always given more and more for being her quirky self!

A lot of this for Luz is because she's an audience surrogate and TOH wants the audience to feel good about themselves. It knows that a lot of nerds will be the ones watching it and leans in. This is actually contrasted by the fact that, well, Mabel isn't the audience surrogate or the absolute primary character of Gravity Falls. Her role is more complicated versus Dipper who IS the nerdy one who's closer to being the audience surrogate.

Just to really drive this home: People on my Discord have talked about this and one of the biggest 'crimes' as seen by a lot of the fandom is that Mabel causes Dipper to lose out on his dream of researching with Ford and staying in Gravity Falls. I could even see some arguments of things like "He's planning a future!" or "He's making the world better!"

But... Let's shift the framing for a moment from "Mabel caused Dipper to give up on his dream" to "Mabel made sure Dipper chose reality over fantasy." After all, his desire was to throw away his friends, his family, EVERYTHING to just continue hanging out with this one old dude and studying the weird phenomenon of the world, an inherently isolating job. He gets to go on this big adventure and follow his intellectual drive... At the cost of reality and everything he has known.

So why don't people get upset at Dipper for trying to do this? Well, there's a lot of potential reasons that I can't really narrow down without watching the show. It may have just been framed as a positive while Mabel's is framed as negative. It could be that while Mabel's is just a generic, girly fantasy that not much of the core audience actually wants, Dipper's is the cool, smart fantasy that is totally not just a fantasy, but a CAREER. Or it could go back to the root problem: Because Dipper is closer to the audience surrogate, closer to the main character, there is a bias to inherently see his actions as good. We could literally watch two characters do the same thing and we will root for the main character simply because that is who we are trained to root for.

A great example of this from TOH is how Luz is allowed to get mad at people for lying to her but not the other way around. She literally attacks Eda and gets the two captured in Titan, Where Art Thou? because Eda lied to her and she is supposed to feel justified in this anger to make the tragedy angle work. Meanwhile, there is ONE time when anyone gets mad at Luz for lying and honestly, the framing and reactions cause it to end up feeling much more like it was just for a prettier scene change during Reaching Out. After all, Amity still wants to fix Luz's pain before Luz even apologizes for breaking her word by lying. So why doesn't anyone call out the hypocrisy here? Why is NO ONE allowed to get upset with Luz about this?

Because she's the main character. Because we are trained to root for her and, well, Luz also is the one we are told to want to be. She is the every nerd. She is meant to connect to a very wide net of outcasts who feel like they don't belong and wish things were different. Wishes people weren't mean to them or didn't get mad at them when they made mistakes. That just let them be the hero of their own story.

So of course, they don't want Luz to be yelled at, even when that is the actually human and reasonable thing for someone to do. They don't want to question what she does so when the show gives them an excuse, or they have to go to reality if the show itself doesn't give an excuse (This is why people emphasize Luz's age and nuerodivergence to excuse her while bluntly ignoring Mabel's age when it comes to her actions), so that they don't have to recognize that Luz does some REALLY shitty things, especially in the back half of the show. It is simply more convenient for the narrative they want out of the show for Luz to be this way.

And that is okay from a casual standpoint. A lot of fiction is escapist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to jump into a world where you're never actually wrong and never in trouble. Where your angst is always met with hugs and understanding rather than actual human emotion. That's how media works. Most mass appeal products are escapist. It's part of why the Isekai genre is SO prevalent right now because it is one of the purest forms of escapist fiction out there, especially due to modern isekai tropes.

But if you're going to talk critically about something, escapism is very rarely a good jumping off point for it. It will make you ignore a LOT about the work because it's uncomfortable for you to ask questions about it. I'm not talking about "Why does this world have magic" sort of things mind you. I'm talking about, say, "Why does this character get so many power ups, so easily, and with little effort in earning them?" When you want escapism, the pacing won't bother you. If you're actually looking at themes and payoffs, it will bother you a LOT. And yes, this does tie into TOH because if you want to be Luz, getting the glyphs feels great! If you actually interrogate the story, you go "Wait, they hadn't actually done like... ANYTHING with her not having magic in a magical world and she already gets a spell? And two of these spells she does literally nothing for. Arguably three since she is put into timeout as a punishment and gets the glyph I guess for being a bad person." That TOTALLY is good storytelling and makes sense with positive themes and proper explorations of its own ideas.

*sigh*

It's a rough push and pull and it can make it so people, even if they like the show, who disagree with the popular opinion, the one that usually lifts up the audience flattering elements the most, are just in a rough position where they hear the same opinions over and over again. All while knowing that if they speak up, they'll be stomped on.

Just like Mabel was while Dipper was raised into the spotlight. At least by the fandom.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[enriquemzn262]

What are some western cartoons you've enjoyed?

Amphibia

A fun western take of Isekai, without the wish fulfillment escapism that plagues Isekai, which was actually criticized with the character of Marcy, with a lovable cast, great animation and a well made story with a bittersweet yet satisfying ending.

Hilda

The best modern cartoon period, a cozy and sweet yet action packed and even sometimes dark adventure show about a little girl exploring her magical realism world.

Gravity Falls

Not nearly as fantastic as everyone and their mom claims to be, but still a great show, with tons of good characters, excellent animation, and an overarching plot that while ultimately flawed (the second half of season 2 really dropped the ball on that one) was still great.

She-Ra

Great solid show from beginning to end, but especially towards the end when the silly princess stuff finally began to be properly integrated with the actual plot. Also Catra best character don’t @ me.

Kipo

The most underrated modern cartoon I’ve seen, a superb show with a great story, characters and a truly unique setting, not to mention it did the whole villain redemption thing everyone and their mom was doing at the time, but actually did it fantastically.

Invincible

Like many others I was drawn in by the brutality of the first episode, and boy did it just keep getting better after it! Just skip everything with Amber in it, and you should be in for the best animated superhero show since JLU.

Arcane

Love it! From beginning to end it was a wild ride of a show, and this is coming from someone that only knows about LoL through memes and porn. At times it almost felt like I was watching an extended movie.

The Amazing World of Gumball

This has to be the funniest modern show there is, at least before they decided to use a ton of ���funny faces”, when it went down to being among the funniest. Still, a love letter to animation, featuring just about every style of it there is, and with an extremely weird yet fun cast of characters.

Before jumping back to anime I used to watch a ton of these, so I’m sure there’s more, but these are on too of my head and from the last decade, but I can honestly tell you, that my favorite cartoon of all time is:

Courage the Cowardly Dog

There’s just not a single bad episode in it, and every character has been as memorable as Courage himself.

Dishonorable mentions:

The Owl House: Amphibia but actually embracing the bad of Isekai.

Steven Universe: Started weird, got good but ultimately fell down the stairs due to its terrible obsession with finding good things about terrible people.

OK KO: Garbage character models and too obsessed with making references.

Adventure Time: Everything wrong with modern animation.

Regular Show: Modercai is a simp and just looking at the guy gives me cringe.

Bee and Puppycat: Everything wrong with AT and SU COMBINED.

Korra: Not canon