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#because he didn’t feel qualified to write it as a straight man or something idk
rosesradio · 1 year
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#actually i am really sick of my family for making me feel like ‘being liberal’ Or Whatever is my only personal trait#because like i used to voice opinions on things until they made me feel bad/crazy for it#but now when they whip out the most batshit insane take on something & i’m just like ‘um i dunno…but to each their own’#& they still act like i’m crazy i’m so 💀#like my only cousin who’s into p/j/o was talking about how the new book (& while he ‘doesn’t care’ that Nico’s gay it—#‘came out of nowhere’ 🙄) the new book is written by two authors—one of them being a gay man because Richard wanted the input—#because he didn’t feel qualified to write it as a straight man or something idk#but my cousin. said. that if a straight man ‘can’t’ write a gay story then a woman can’t write a man’s story & vice versa#which. oh my god no#for one thing i do think anyone can write any story even/especially if it’s out of their depth but they should absolutely reach out—#if they want firsthand accounts of experiences like what it’s like to be gay etc#but also. of course a woman can write a man & vice versa what kind of take even is that? like yeah some people do it really weird—#(‘she boobed breastily down the stairs’)#but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be allowed if anything people should learn about the experiences of others#in general his takes of ‘i don’t Care i just wish it wasn’t Every Character that’s not how it Used To Be’#like 1.) if richard wrote lgbtq/poc main characters in 2005 he probably wouldn’t have sold many books#and 2.) it’s Greek mythology. you get what you sign up for#anyways yeah i’m really quiet at family functions but even when i just quietly disagree i’m made to feel really bad about it#& the next function is literally my grad party like next week ://#but after that there shouldn’t be anything for a while#rose.txt#tw vent
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imaginethathaikyuu · 3 years
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tis the damn season
atsumu miya x fem reader 
the first fic in a series i like to call “Me Writing Whatever The Hell I Want” (a working title) hope u like it or dont idk im not ur boss!!!!!!!!!!
synopsis: Running away was easy when you were chasing hazy dreams of a big city that was destined to be yours, when your rear-view mirror showed nothing but your hole in the wall hometown. But now it’s all waiting tables and failing auditions. You were still running, but somehow, these winding roads always lead you back to Miya Atsumu - a man you’ve loved and left, until you return home for the holidays. 
tags: friends to lovers, exes to lovers, angst without a happy ending, established pre-relationship, friends with benefits, reader lives in Undisclosed Big City lmao who has celebrity dreams, atsumu is ur good ole southern boy (sort of), canon divergent, not edited, light nsfw, beginnings of sex but isn’t very detailed 
word count: 4220
song inspo  (tis the damn season by taylor swift)
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i won’t ask you to wait if you don’t ask me to stay… 
. . . 
The soundtrack of this early morning replayed in your head as you made a hazy drive to the neighborhood’s hardware store, cutting left onto the correct street and forcing the car’s back tire over the curb you couldn’t miss. 
The replay of events looping in your mind? A whirring, then a splashing, then your father’s booming voice shouting curse words at anyone who could hear them. Your name was laced in there somewhere with demands for you to get to the kitchen, and you couldn’t tumble down the stairs fast enough to see what in the hell was going on. 
It was your first day home for the holidays, and already it was a catastrophe. 
Somehow your dad had busted a pipe underneath the kitchen sink and a strong stream of water was spraying halfway across the room because of it - your feet landed in a shallow pool when you finally reached the first floor. You didn’t have time to think of any questions before the man at fault, who was on his knees with his head hidden under the sink relentlessly trying to turn the water off, sent you out the door with more shouts, telling you to go to Miya’s Hardware and buy… something. 
“A connector?” You were talking to yourself, thinking out loud as you finally parked, but it didn’t help you remember. All you could do was walk inside the store and hope someone knew what you needed. 
It’d been years since you had been in this shop, but it looked just the same as when you were following your dad through its isles. You didn’t even bother browsing now, though - you went straight to the back of the store to the counter, expecting to see a familiar, perhaps older, face eager to help you. 
That isn’t what you found. 
“Well, hey stranger.” 
That voice rang in your ears like you’d just heard it through a megaphone pointed directly at you. Something about it was so warm, but it left you with a shiver down your spine and goosebump ridden skin. You could feel the hair on the back of your neck standing up, and you hadn’t even turned in the direction the words came from. 
But you didn’t have to look in order to know just who it was. “Atsumu.” 
“What in the hell are you doing back in town?” His voice rang with excited confusion; it carried the same inflection as anyone who’s happy to see you. Like nearly forgotten family members at a reunion before it all goes to hell, or the way the tone of your father’s voice changes when you tell him you’re doing well and mean it. People don’t speak that way often. 
He pulled you in for a hug and you gladly reciprocated, already forgetting that you were supposed to be in a hurry. 
“Home for the holidays. How have you been?”
“I’ve been alright,” he replied. “I’ve missed you.” 
His voice felt more like home than your four bedroom walls did, the charming drawl and depth in his words immediately reeling you in. It was familiar. You had spent a long time trying to forget about that familiarity; too long learning how to straighten out your words and lose any hint of the small town you came from. But Atsumu - he sounded like the epitome of this place. 
He didn’t give you time to reply, for one reason or another; instead he decided to push you back by your shoulders and get a good look at you. Up and down and up again, likely noticing every change you had made to your appearance in your time away. 
“Are you still wearing your pajamas, or is this a new… trend?” 
You looked down at yourself, “Shit,” and closed your jacket tight over the old graphic t-shirt you wore, but nothing could cover your pink polka-dotted pants. And you’d have been hit in the face with embarrassment if the image of your dad and the broken sink and a flooded kitchen didn’t smack you first. “Shit, no, um… I need something to fix a broken sink. Are you… do you work here now?” 
“I do - and you’re gonna need to be more specific.” 
“I don’t know, Atsumu,” you laughed, slowly realizing the bizarreness of what you were about to tell him. “I woke up to my dad shouting and water shooting out from under the sink, literally flooding the kitchen. He told me to get a part for the pipe… a connector, or a couple, or something - I don’t know.” 
“...A coupler?” 
“Yes!” 
“...He didn’t happen to tell you what size to get, did he?” 
The look on your face must have been a good enough answer for him, because he took off into a random aisle and left you wondering just how many sizes of couplers there could be. 
“This one will probably do the job,” he said as his path rounded the counter. “If it doesn’t, then, I can ignore the return policy for you. Just this once, though.” 
“Thanks, ‘Tsumu.” You made your payment and he slid your product over the counter as his elbows landed on it, leaning down to make himself comfortable. Like he thought he’d be there awhile. 
“How long are you gonna be in town?” 
“Two weeks. Why do you ask?” You knew why - you just wanted to hear him say it. 
“We should catch up.” 
He was grinning and shrugging and fidgeting with his fingers, just like he always did, and you would never turn down any offer he made you. 
“We should. I’ve got to get home, but are you free tonight?” 
“We close at six,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at seven.” 
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” you said, meaning every word. You wondered if he knew that. 
“So will I,” he replied, and then you made your way out before you convinced yourself to stay. 
It’d been three years since you last spoke to Atsumu. In that time, you had done a lot that felt like nothing, living in a different city that felt worlds bigger than this town - that city was a place you had once convinced yourself was all yours. You had pulled off running away effortlessly. 
But it didn’t matter how much time goes by between your meetings with Atsumu. There was something there that you could never shake, the hold you had on each other was anchor tight. Ten years could pass and you would speak to each other like it had only been one day. You’d have world ending fights and one of you would always come crawling back, letting the other win as long as it meant things would go back to normal. 
You couldn’t describe it. You never tried, you didn’t need to. The unspoken acts between the two of you didn’t need to be explained. It was something akin to a best friend with all the benefits included and most of the strings attached - confusing and nerve wracking but still so comforting. 
Atsumu was the closest thing to home you had in this town, and somehow every road always leads back to him. With a few detours on your part, of course, because you just couldn’t stay away too long. Even moving across the country didn’t change that - not like you thought it would. 
You just barely missed the turn into your driveway, being so distracted by your thoughts. So much was rushing back, so much that shouldn’t be - it isn’t a big deal, it’s just Atsumu, but it felt grand, like this was some massive reunion. 
But it wasn’t. You were only here to celebrate Christmas with your family. You weren’t even planning on seeing Atsumu, let alone meeting up with him or rekindling any kind of flame that was once there. 
And it was such a rush that you couldn’t even question why he was working at his father’s store - or why he was even in this town at all. What happened to the dreams he was chasing? 
For what felt like the first time in your life, you had questions for him. But you’d have to wait all day to ask them. 
. . .
You were thankful to come home to a dry floor and a calmer father - he finally figured out how to turn the water off and decided to fix the pipe later. You knew he’d inevitably be paying someone more qualified to repair it, but your mind had no space for that problem. 
You were still trying to figure out how you’d meander the night with Atsumu by the time he was picking you up, and when the two of you arrived at his home you still hadn’t found your answer. 
Easing into this would be best, and once alcohol was introduced to the equation it would turn into a slippery slope. 
Nothing was hard with Atsumu. You knew that - that’s why you couldn’t figure out why you were having such a hard time talking to him. 
A lot had changed. Not between the two of you, not exactly. You were right back where you were three years ago: on his couch, sitting too close to him, laughing at something he had said that was only funny because he said it. 
But your lives had changed. Your worlds had changed. His mind had very obviously changed, and because of it all, you couldn’t keep pretending that the two of you were teenagers again. 
You had to bite the bullet and ask the question that was on your mind, completely knowing that he could throw a hard hitting question back at you.
It came out more effortlessly and lighthearted than you expected. “So… what happened to playing volleyball?”
Atsumu scoffed. “You still remember that pipe dream? Nothing happened, it was just childish.” 
You didn’t like his answer, so you pressed him. You worked up the courage to start this conversation, so you were going to get to the bottom of things. “You said you wanted to catch up - I know you, Atsumu. You get what you want and you wanted to play volleyball. You were going to be a pro, you were good.” 
“I know you know me,” he said, and the smirk on his lips didn’t go unnoticed by you. “I wanted to get drunk and chat, not start up a fucking therapy session.” 
You sat patient and waiting, eyes on him, refusing to go without the answer to your question. You were teasing, really, eyeing him up and grinning as you watched him struggle. The problem was: you didn’t expect the answer you’d get. 
“I - I had the chance.” There was a scratch in his throat that wasn’t caused by the whiskey he’d just swallowed. “I was being scouted and playing my ass off and there were talks of being on an Olympic team one day, but… shit happens, and that’s it.” 
“What shit, Atsumu? You didn’t just give up, did you? Were you scared or something?” 
You didn’t realize how close you were to him until his hand came down to rest on your knee, and both of you focused on that touch as his next thoughts became words. “Dad got sick. And ‘Samu had just opened the restaurant, and… there were bills to pay and the store to run. Even though I wasn’t his preference, Dad had no choice and left the legacy of Miya’s Hardware to me, so - that’s where I am.” 
“Oh. I… I had no idea - I’m so sorry.” 
“It’s fine. You were already long gone by then - don’t say sorry.” 
“I’m sorry,” you said, and you hugged him without thinking, but he hugged you back all the same. “I’m sorry, ‘Tsumu.” 
“It’s okay,” he told you, but you didn’t feel okay. You were sure he didn’t, either. “It’s not your fault.” 
You pulled away from him just enough to look at his face, and you hadn’t noticed the distance in his eyes until just then. As you looked at him, you realized it was only familiar to now. It wasn’t there years ago, when you got to look into those eyes every day. 
“I should’ve been there for you.” 
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, but his words were dangling on an edge. He didn’t quite mean them. “You were off in your own dream. I got through it.” 
You only nodded. You weren’t sure what else to say after that. 
As Atsumu sat back against the couch, he brought you with him, tucking you under his arm against his chest. His lips on your forehead made you close your eyes and for a second, it was like you were both nineteen again. You could’ve been, if time would only slow down or freeze or go back - what wouldn’t you give for that? 
“I’m done talking about me,” he mumbled. “I wanna hear about your life now.” 
You laughed, but quiet, “My life’s been fine.”
“Only fine?” 
“You don’t see me on the big screen, do you?” 
He laughed this time. “Not yet. One day, though. Have you gotten used to the city yet?” 
“Oh… I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, but… it does feel like home now. It’s so different from living here.” 
“I bet.” 
“I try not to romanticize it, but - I don’t know. It feels good, even if it’s not what I thought it’d be. The lights are pretty bright. Blinding compared to here.” 
His response was a nod, and that was it. If he had any questions or comments, he held them back. 
A break in the silence came soon, though. “You know,” he said, quiet, with a small laugh that was humorless, “I’m not as good at getting what I want as you think I am.” 
“That’s not true,” you replied, and you were setting up an argument you weren’t ready to make. “You got me.” 
“Did I?” 
“What do you mean?” 
Silence lingered, and after too long you sat up and looked at him, and that got him to talk. 
“Nothing,” he insisted. He pulled you closer with two fingers holding your chin, and you didn’t resist. “Nothing, baby. Let’s just… just be quiet for a while.” 
There wasn’t time for you to say anything else. His lips were on yours the moment he got his last word out. And even though you expected him to kiss you, it still made you gasp. 
You couldn’t describe how much you missed kissing someone you wanted to, and Astumu’s kiss was like finding home. His lips were like candy, sweeter than sugar; his bite was a freezing shock that always pulled a giggle and a whisper of his name out of you. He knew how to kiss you, slow and deep with a hand on your jaw to keep you there, never leaving you wanting more because he gave everything you could ever need. 
It didn’t take long for his kisses to trail down your neck, or for his shirt to come off, or for your back to land on the couch. You had already reached euphoria just seeing him hovering over you, eyes soft and hair askew; you didn’t need anything but this. You’d never want anything but this. 
You did what you always did - trailed your hand down his torso, over his golden skin, stopping just after every freckle or scar or mark. This time, you were looking for something new. You didn’t find anything. You didn’t stop until your hand landed on his waist, and there, you squeezed - 
“Stop, you little shit,” and he laughed, right along with you. A real and genuine laugh - you hadn’t heard that song in a long time. “Why do you always do that?” 
Finally he moved down to press his chest against yours, his hips locking in place between your legs. A perfect combination. 
“Why do you always give me the chance?” You were still laughing, not able to get over the cute sight. Atsumu was always so ticklish there, right on his waist, and when you made that discovery you swore you’d never forget it. And he sure as hell wished you would have. “You’re so cute. I’ve missed that smile.” 
“I’ve missed you,” he replied. Somehow you just knew that he meant it. 
“Don’t. I’m here.” 
“You’re here,” he repeated. Like he was reassuring himself. 
You took the initiative to unbutton your shirt yourself, so that there was no way for him to think that you wanted this to stop there. It couldn’t, not when you had him this close. And his eyes followed the popping buttons like stalking prey. 
“And you’re still the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Fucking hell.” 
You cringed - you couldn’t help the feeling in your gut when he gave you those sweet words. You knew he meant them in some way; you knew Atsumu wouldn’t lie to you. He’s never told you anything just for the sake of it. But how many times, in the last three years, had someone done just that? Told you just what you wanted to hear so they could get inside you? It was vile the first time. The second, it made you ache. But now, you’re used to it. Nobody means what they say. You’re used to it. 
And Atsumu could snatch up any girl he wanted. A girl who’s used to blinding lights and expensive wine and lying - or a girl who would stay with him, who wouldn’t push his buttons, who would be effortless in her charm and wit and beauty. 
You couldn’t put yourself in either category. 
“You haven’t seen many, then.” 
“Why would I even need to when I’ve got you? You’re a fucking dream. All I ever think about.” 
You shook your head, not even noticing you were doing it. Atsumu wouldn’t have it. 
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Not when you know what you do to me. You’ve got my heart beating out of my chest, for fuck’s sake - it has been since you walked into the store.” 
You never knew him to be so open with his feelings, or maybe you had just gotten used to being lied to. You weren’t sure and you didn’t care - all you could think about was kissing him, so you pulled him in, and you were sure he would devour you. You’d have no problem with that. 
It was desperate when you said, “I need you.”
And reassuring when he replied, “I’m right here.” 
He wasn’t close enough. You didn’t think he ever could be. And it was right then, when you were swimming in desperation, that you realized you shouldn’t have been doing this. It would only make leaving even harder. Doing it the first time was hell, letting him watch you leave and be okay with it. You hated yourself for wishing he wasn’t. And you were drowning. 
You hated yourself for leaving. 
You hated yourself more for coming back. 
And you didn’t want to be there, all of a sudden, despite the ache in between your thighs and the addicting warmth he had you trapped in. You didn’t want to be there and you didn’t want to leave, either - you only wanted something easy, but you’d never have it. Not here, and not in the city, and not with Atsumu. 
You felt him freeze, felt things shift. You hadn’t even noticed the way your energy had completely dropped. 
“Something wrong?” He moved up to hold your face. He noticed the tears in your eyes before you did. 
It was hard to look at him but you held his gaze, and his touch hurt more than it healed but you yearned for it. The concern on his face was genuine, the gentle strokes of his thumb on your cheek weren’t forced, and it all was making your stomach turn. 
He cared for you - obviously he did - but not enough to ask you to stay. Not enough to find trouble in letting you leave him. So maybe you shouldn’t have a problem with it, either. 
“No,” you said through a sore throat and a locked jaw. “Sorry, just…” 
“We don’t have to do this,” he told you. “We can just talk - I want to talk. If it’s too much -” 
“It’s okay,” you said. You tried to mean it as much as, “I miss you, Atsumu. I want you - touch me, I miss you.” 
“I know,” and he was wiping the tears off of your cheeks as he kissed your lips, “I’ll take care of you, baby, just let me. Stop thinking so much. Let me take care of you like I always do, yeah? You want me to help you feel good?” 
You always had a problem with that - thinking too much. He never hesitated to call you out on it. You nodded your head, strong and fast, like you were trying to knock the thoughts right out of it. 
“Please, ‘Tsumu.” You were crying for him, pulling him closer. “Need you. Make it better, please.” 
“I’d do anything,” he said. “You gotta quit crying, baby. You’re acting like our first time again.” 
You laughed at that, wiping your own tears and knocking his hands away. “God, that was so embarrassing.” 
“It was cute.” 
“It wasn’t.” 
“It was kinda hot, too.” 
“Atsumu!” 
It was his deep grin that made you relax again, and so did another blissful kiss that took your breath in a way that you enjoyed. 
“You can cry, baby,” he said, popping buttons on both of your pants, “as long as it’s because of how good I’m making you feel. That’s what you need, pretty girl. Let me show you how much I’ve been missing you - get these pants off, baby, let me see you.” 
He didn’t give you the chance to cry any more, at least not in an emotional sense. Your mind was stripped with your body, filled with nothing but him, no space between the two of you left for insecurities or questions. 
It wasn’t until he coaxed you into his bedroom that those things had the chance to creep back. 
Atsumu was out cold, cuddled into your chest and holding on tight to your waist, after smothering you in soft kisses and sweet sleepy words. You were comfortable there, warm and safe and content, but the pit in your stomach only grew. You watched him sleep, his mouth slightly open and eyes softly closed, and you wanted to reach down and kiss him but you resisted. 
It was late and you should be asleep but you couldn’t rest. You couldn’t stop loathing yourself long enough to close your eyes, and the more you thought, the harder it got to breathe. Your throat was sore again. Your eyes were watering again. And every word you wanted to say to Atsumu was tumbling out of your mouth and falling onto sleeping ears. 
“Why didn’t you ask me to stay?”
He didn’t stir. It was still rumbling breaths and the whir of the air conditioner filling the silence. 
“Everyone else did. But you. Why… You of all people should know I’m just as worthless there as I am here - I’ll never make it - I’ve changed everything and still…” 
You sucked a hard breath into your lungs to stop a wracking sob, just barely holding it in. 
“I just ended up here again. With you. I’m so alone without you but I can’t - fuck.”
It didn’t even matter what you were trying to say anymore, because you had no clue. You didn’t know why you couldn’t just stay with him regardless of his choice to let you go, but something in you made you run. Maybe it was worthless pride or a childish desire to be something more - you didn’t know. 
You didn’t belong in any industry you dreamed of working in. You weren’t born to be a star. You should know by now - should accept your failure and come back home for more than just one night. 
But you couldn’t. 
There was still a chance, wasn’t there? 
A chance to belong somewhere.
A chance to be led home.
A chance to make it. Would you die trying? 
You would leave in the morning. And you wouldn’t ask Atsumu to wait for you as he started getting ready for the day. And Atsumu wouldn’t ask you to ditch your own plotted destiny just to stay with him. 
But this would happen again. Every time you would swear it off and every time, you would travel roads that take you right back to this town, this bed, these arms. 
Running away would never get easier, but this is all it would ever be with him. He would never stop you leaving - and you would never ask him to.  
. . .
...so i’ll go back to LA
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itsclydebitches · 3 years
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The thing that feels disingenuous about Miles answer about Ironwood is that he was part of the writing staff that framed the general as a cool character to start with. I do think that the signs about Ironwood's evil were clear since V2 and in V7 he was an outright dictator from episode 1. Nonetheless, he was still consistently framed as a cool character, someone you can trust and rely. You don't get to blame the fans for liking a genocide if you was the one framed him as cool in the first place.
I actually don’t think being cool is the problem. If we’re satirizing and/or making a  statement about the toxic masculinity that leads to something like a dictatorship, then being “cool” is a crucial part of that. People don’t leverage the power they have by looking lame, they do so by appearing desirable, enviable, awesome. Being in the military is supposedly “cool.” Being a white guy with a giant gun is supposedly “cool.” Having power over an entire nation is supposedly “cool,” etc. If you only make such characters look revolting  — even when they are  — then you miss one of the main recruitment tools for this kind of rhetoric. Any version of Ironwood that’s meant to make a point about the dangers of following someone like him needs to make him look “cool” and then deconstruct that, pointing out the ways in which this cool veneer is a lie meant to pull you in. To do otherwise is to claim that evil people are always easy to spot. Making your villains “uncool” implies that the people who do appear cool in real life must be fine then. That good looking, charismatic leader is great. Why would I look critically at his actions? He’s too cool to be evil. 
My personal problem is not that “They made the dictator look cool and we can’t possibly expect the audience to tell the difference between someone who is truly good and someone who is just using various Cool Points to skate by” because that would be the point of such a character  — the work the show needs to do. My problem is that RWBY didn’t do that work. At least, not to the extent they needed to. Rather than making Ironwood a truly heinous character (prior to Volume 7 ‘s shooting, I mean) and allowing the audience to learn how appearing cool can’t hide that, they just made him good person. Straight up. Flawed, absolutely, but no worse than any of the other character on screen, particularly post Volume 6 when our heroes are frequently putting people in danger, seizing power, telling lies, keeping secrets, and generally acting in the ways we’re supposedly meant to condemn Ironwood for. Since talk of Miles’ vid last night I’ve seen three separate “Ironwood was always bad, idk how people can miss the signs” posts and those people are half right. There 100% were signs we were meant to pick up on. The problem is RWBY then went and deconstructed those signs. Ironwood didn’t just bring an army to a peace festival, he brought an army to an event he had good reason to believe wasn’t peaceful  — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t wrest control from Ozpin (using a series of checks and balances that exist for this very purpose...) because he has an obsession with being in control, he did so because he honestly believed Ozpin was putting people in danger  — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t step up post-Fall because he arrogantly believes he’s the only one capable of saving Remnant, he did so because he’s actually the most qualified: a fully trained huntsmen leading an Academy (like Ozpin) with an army and knowledge of this secret war. What, was Ironwood supposed to read the script and wait for the group of dropout teenagers to arrive and save the world instead? To say nothing of how his power and responsibility are framed as sacrifices, not something he sought out. Ironwood doesn’t want to be the sole ruler here. His desperate relief at having allies again proves it. Good setup for the rise of a dictator would have been Ironwood being cagey with his information and exerting control over the group... not telling them everything, not giving them more power, not letting them keep the Lamp, not taking arrest off the table so as to keep them in line, and generally doing the opposite of everything he did do to share that responsibility and power. RWBY got very good at giving us the first half of these red flags  — he has an army, he’s stubborn, he’s hurting Mantle, etc.  — but then time and time again introduced a context that changed that flag dramatically: they are fighting literal monsters, he’s no more stubborn than our title character, hurting Mantle is a consequence of a plan he thinks will help the whole world and our heroes back this. Those who insist that Ironwood was 100% a villain in the making (or a villain already) prior to shooting Oscar are working from their assumption of what his archetype represents, not what RT actually put on screen. Because RT is just really bad at writing a dictator character. They didn’t have the skill to manage someone who only appeared good on the surface, let alone a character with the complex nuance of wielding “coolness” to their advantage, which is why in Volume 8 they had to resort to cartoon villainy with literal, evil spotlights. It’s not that the audience is too dumb to pick up on those red flags, it’s that RT couldn’t manage to plant them without continually introducing valid justifications. You can’t say, “Bringing an army is a bad thing. Look at this dictator coding!” without me going, “Yeah, except in the fictional world you created an army does not represent the problems it does in our real life societies. This isn’t a guy amassing soldiers to go after oil, he’s trying to protect people from monsters. Not even metaphoric monsters acting as stand-ins for a minority group. Literal, evil monsters!” RWBY ignores its own context and a good chunk of the fandom ignored it too. 
The problem with that (besides the general frustration of someone ignoring parts of canon to forward a particular reading) is that the fandom’s go-to claim is that everything is meaningful  — and it’s a reading the writers very much support. Fans do not, as the above attests, push for a simple reading of, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just take the surface reading and run with it” which, while still frustrating, would have at least been a valid stance. Rather, they insist very strongly that nuance and depth are what drive the show. From the song lyrics to a tiny detail in the opening, everything is important and if you don’t accept that then you can’t appreciate RWBY’s complexity. 
“Okay,” I said. “Then in that case Ironwood coming around to Ozpin’s position is meaningful too? Glynda  — one of our best and most faultless characters  — supporting him is meaningful? Flipping his gun, defending Weiss, Qrow writing to him, the group working with him for months on end... all of it is meaningful to his characterization? You said so yourself.” 
“No, no, no,” comes the reply. “He’s just bad. But he’s also nuanced. He’s tricked you into thinking he’s a good person by acting kind sometimes, by getting support sometimes, but none of that is true. His actions are what matter and his actions are simplistically bad.” 
“Ohhhh. So then does that mean this story is really about the creation of a villain?” 
“Huh?” 
“Well, Ruby. She’s ‘nuanced’ in the same way. She acts kind sometimes and gets support, but her actions are terrible. She endangered an entire city because she couldn’t wait to see if Ironwood got his letter. She condemned Ozpin for keeping secrets about Salem and then kept those same secrets just two days later. When the kingdom was under attack she sat around drinking tea, crying on a staircase, just hoping someone would come fix things for her  — all while actively sabotaging the one person who was trying to save people, even if that action seems silly to us (let’s fly really high). So if we’re looking at the impact of someone’s actions outside of their intent, as we just did with Ironwood, then she’s a bad guy too, yeah?” 
“No! She’s the hero!” 
“... these characters don’t know she’s the hero from a meta perspective. If we’re supposed to judge the meaning of RWBY based on these details — ” 
“But it’s not just the details. It’s also the allusions. Everyone in RWBY is based on another person or character. It’s very complex and that inspiration drives their story, so if you don’t have that information it’s no surprise you’re confused. For example, this is why Penny had to get a human body. That’s what happened to Pinocchio!” 
“Oh! So then Ironwood is destined to be a good guy!” 
“What?” 
“Well, you just said the allusions drive their stories, right? The whole point of the Tin Man is that he always had a heart and just needed to realize that. So clearly — “ 
“No! He’s supposed to be a classic dictator, he’s only bad!” 
And ‘round and ‘round we go. RWBY’s writing is atrocious yet the fandom pushes this narrative that it’s all a complex, multi-layered story that requires taking every part into account to understand the “real” message... but when you try to do that with certain characters like Ozpin and Ironwood it’s, “No, actually, they’re just simple archetypes of Bad Men.” Nuance exists for the bees, but not other ships. It exists for the characters fans like, but not the ones they don’t. And RWBY’s inspirations have to predict the ending for this character... but not that other character. It’s a nonsense grab bag! 
Fans are right that Ironwood had a lot of red flags to set up this downfall. Fans are also right that those red flags were severely undercut, thus reversing their impact. Fans are right that Ironwood becomes a 100% bad guy who kills because he can and threatens to bomb a city. Fans are also right that this characterization feels absurd for Ironwood, both in terms of his morality and his intelligence (how does bombing Mantle help you now??) Ironwood is badly written. He was badly written in 7 and 8, if he was always meant to be a dictator in the making then he was badly written in 2-6, and he’s conclusively badly written when it comes to lacking a backstory and a canonical semblance  — two things are are supposedly driving all of this characterization. That’s the answer: not that he’s good, or bad, but that RWBY can’t write a consistent character, let alone a nuanced one, so it’s no surprise the fandom can’t decide on anything. What’s there to decide on? It’s that nonsense grab bag. In a different show I think making the dictator appear cool would be a crucial bit of commentary, but RWBY doesn’t have the skill to pull that off. 
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littlemisslipbalm · 4 years
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“you get me” (famous!y/n x harry)
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Famous!y/n x Harry Styles
First Harry fic so please be kind, but feedback is SUPER appreciated
Initially inspired by the picture of Harry leaving the Gucci store with 15 bags but barely has anything to do with that lol
Definitely thought of Ellen for the interview idk why tho - also I struggle with writing Harry’s dialogue because I really want to get it right, but hopefully the more practice I get, the better/more natural it will sound. ALSO i have like no music or music industry background lol. Somewhat proofread, but its 2:30 am so it could be shit
Fluff!
Warnings: maybe some angst over being famous per say, past loneliness
Word Count: 3.7k literally howwww, i’m going to do a pt. 2 though because it was kind of a long set up and feelingsssss
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Interviewer: Please, welcome our next guest, a woman who’s sure to have her name written up beside the music greats someday, Ms. Y/N L/N!
You can’t contain the grin that spreads to your face as you carry yourself out onto the stage and see the audience cheering for you. It was your third big interview since your first album had been released and you’d seen your fame skyrocket over night. This being the third one this week meant you’d gotten comfortable getting asked questions, but you also weren’t bored of it yet. It was exhilarating being the center of attention, especially for something that had been your life’s work up until this point. You always had to fight for whatever you got and the recognition you were starting to have was reassurance that you hadn’t been a fool to risk a safe and certain life for your dreams.
The interview begins as the rest had, a few pleasantries, how you were feeling, and then the introduction of the album. The host asked you what your inspiration was for some of the songs and the album name and cover. You loved to talk about the music, it was the whole reason you were there. The meaning, the sound, the name, it all meant so much to you and you talked about how music can be interpreted differently by everyone and even the shifts in someone’s mood can change a song’s meaning, but what it meant to you at the time of writing was always something specific. You practiced those answers in the mirror before the interviews because they were important to you and you didn’t want your words on your art to ever be misconstrued. The host then complimented your style and you were at the point where you thought your interview should be wrapping up when they asked you one more question, and it threw you for a loop.
Interviewer: So Y/N, we’ve been hearing some rumblings around, about you and another famous musician, Mr. Harry Styles. Anything going on there?
Your face heated up, you hadn’t been expecting a personal question about possible relationships. Nothing like this had been asked of you at your previous interviews. It’s about the music, the art, and who you were, it’s always about that and nothing more. To be honest, you were a bit annoyed the host had chosen to stray from those topics. You didn’t care for the celebrity side of being a famous musician, the lack of privacy, the prying eyes of media and the general public. They saw enough of you through your art, you bore your soul through music why did they want to peak into your heart as well?
Y/N: I don’t know if I’d rather be with Harry Styles or actually be Harry Styles. Like, he’s literally such an icon, I want to be able to walk out of a Gucci store after spending hours there with 15 bags full of my purchases and helpers to carry it all out c’mon… He’s also an amazing songwriter, musician, and performer, of course. Didn’t mean to sound superficial, but I’d also love to own even half of his closet.
You hadn’t really answered the question, but the audience laughed and the host obviously got the hint that you weren’t interested in fanning any flames of romance with Harry Styles or anyone else. For one, you didn’t even know the man, but you had always been a loving fan of his. You cited him as one of your role models when you were first starting to try and break into the music world. Second, if you did know him, that wouldn’t be an appropriate topic for your album press junket going on, even if it meant more publicity because of Harry’s big celebrity status. The host decided to qualify their original question with a final sentiment.
Interviewer: I totally feel the same way! I only ask because the outpouring of support you’ve received seems to be from similar groups who also follow Harry. Many have been comparing your sound to his solo career work.
Y/N: Ah...well that’s very kind of people to say. He’s definitely a big inspiration, his creativity and drive is incredible. I’d love to be as successful as him someday.
The interview ended. You and the host shook hands and you waved and sent kisses to the crowd before retreating backstage. You were exhausted, but happy. You hoped to avoid anymore stressful interview questions that didn’t truly revolve around music. Of course, life is never that simple.
-
One month later
You had done countless more interviews and talk shows as promo for your album and the buzz around it had continued to grow. Your fame continued to rise as well and that one question you had dodged at your third interview had come back around to bite you, naturally. Daily Mail’s dumb headline read: “Y/N can’t decide! Date Harry Styles or Steal His Closet?” The Sun was also running with your response and miscontruing it completely, something about how you were madly in love with Harry but jealous of his designer partnerships, you couldn’t even stomach reading the garbage. This was your worst nightmare. Not only was it taking away the focus from your album, but you were also sure this dumb gossip had reached the very set of ears that the gossip was allegedly also about.
You had signed with Columbia Records for your first album, the same record label as Harry Styles, so managers had been in contact with one another about the whole fiasco trying to get the actual truth - which was that the two of you didn’t even know each other and there were no problems whatsoever. Your manager also brought along the good news that Harry had actually listened to your album and loved it, “He said ‘Congratulations’ by the way, loved the sound. Said he’d heard you were very music focused and be open to do some mentoring on songwriting and vocal specifics, if you wanted. It’d have to be in private though, obviously.” She had added the last bit, but you understood why. To have the opportunity to discuss your music with one of your longtime role models, heroes even, was beyond anything you could have imagined coming from your album’s success. And it made the drama all the more palatable because now you at least got to talk to Harry like the media was so adamantly saying you were doing already.
You nodded quickly and agreed, while trying to keep your teenage fangirl excitement hidden below your mature now-famous musician facade. Like you said, Harry was your hero, he’d been your hero since you were in middle school and had Up All Night downloaded on your iPod touch, blasting it as loud as possible, sound hitting your poster-filled walls. You weren’t the same girl as you were then, obviously, you had grown up to be a strong, independent, and confident woman. But, you still smiled at the thought of your younger self with your baby face squealing in the nosebleeds at the Take Me Home Tour (where you swore Harry had looked straight at you) and her seeing you now, dressed in a sleek outfit setting up an appointment to meet with Harry to discuss your first album, a success.
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The next Thursday evening
You took a deep breath, in through your nose and out through your pursed lips. You were anxious and excited at the exact same time. Your meeting with Harry was tonight, right now actually, and you hadn’t been able to think about much else since your manager had confirmed the meeting last week. She got you the details a couple of days ago, the location: his house in Malibu, the time: 5:45 P.M. You had brought along a copy of your album on vinyl because you thought it sounded best this way, second only to performing it live.
Choosing your outfit for tonight was probably the toughest decision you’d ever made, harder than choosing between an education and following your dreams, harder than choosing your favorite Beatles song. You didn’t want to worry so much, this wasn’t a date you kept reminding yourself, but everything you tried on earlier kept having something wrong with it, too dressy, too boring, too ‘not yourself’. You had settled for these blue high-waisted pants that you’d worn to your first ever podcast interview, a thin black long sleeve, and a brown leather coat that fell below your hips with vans sneakers, casual, simple, yet still true to you and your vibe.
You raised your free arm and formed a fist, hesitant to knock, as if you’d damage Harry’s seemingly perfect Malibu beachfront home by knocking too hard on the wooden front door. You waited a few moments and could here some shuffling behind the door, some incoherent words were seemingly said, but the walls muffled them before they could reach for ears. Soon enough, Harry Styles in the flesh was before you. He beamed down at you, huffing, slightly out of breath as if he had been clear across the house when you knocked. His strong figure towered above your far smaller stature. He was hanging onto the door since he had opened it only slightly. “Hello, Y/N?” he greeted and questioned simultaneously. “Hi,” you responded and extended the same hand that had just rapped against his now open door. He gripped it, ushering you into his home, “Come in, come in, it’s nice to meet you, don’t want you to catch a cold now do we?” He took note of your strong handshake and ring clad fingers.
He walked you into an area between the kitchen and a sitting area. The kitchen was open aside from a bar high top between the two rooms. You sat down at his prompting and made yourself comfortable. “I brought my record on vinyl, sounds best in my opinion, otherwise I’d recommend seeing it live,” you laughed as you handed the vinyl to him and took off your coat. “Technically, y’know, I could hear it live right now, if you were willin’ f’course,” Harry had responded over his shoulder as he placed the vinyl by his idle record player, “Anything to drink?” “Just water for me, please.” His accent was even stronger in person, especially since he had moved back to London and seldomly stayed in California, except for business and quick trips. As far as you knew, he had already been here on business for the week and was able to pencil you in.
You two settled in, with your waters, seated at the bar top beside each other, but swivelling the chairs to face one another more. Again, you were overwhelmed with the reality of the situation, sitting beside Harry Styles as professionals, peers even. He had heard your work and liked it enough to want to discuss it with you. It was a day you never thought would come to pass. He started off not by asking about the music right away, but about how you were doing with the whirlwind that stardom is. “How are you, Y/N? It’s been somewhat of a out of the frying pan into the fire kind of moment for you?” He stared at you intently, caring to hear your answer.
You couldn’t help but chuckle again and contain your smile, “Thank you for asking, Harry. Yeah, its been definitely stressful, but it’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more so the good is still outweighing any bad. Definitely, fucking exhausted though, dunno how many more interviews I can do before my jaw goes completely rigid from talking so much.” It’s Harry’s turn to laugh, his eyes shone with intrigue at what you said and how you said it. You were gorgeous, but it was how your hands helped you through what you were trying to say and the small laughs you tried to keep in while you amused yourself with your words that really made him want to hear you talk all night long.
He agreed about how the promo junket for an album can get tedious and tiresome, but also the absolute fulfillment you get from people loving the music you’ve made. The two of you chatted about surface level personal matters for a little more, but quickly moved to the music. “I took a listen a couple weeks after the album was released. I especially loved the last track. It reminded me so much of a song I never released, actually…” he trailed off.
Your final track had been a ballad, an homage to George Harrison with your use of guitar and sitar, but the lyrics were a story based off of a poem you had written one night in high school. It surrounded a girl never feeling quite good enough for the person she wanted to be with and how it happened everytime, everytime she was ready to giver herself to someone, they were always closed off. Of course it held some truth to your own life and feelings, but you wrote this girl as someone with a seemingly perfect life - when yours was obviously far from any semblance of perfection.
You wondered what Harry’s song would have sounded like, had it been about a seemingly perfect girl or a guy with a seemingly perfect life, always giving himself to the wrong person and getting destroyed by that very fact because he was impatient as the girl in your song had been. “Can I ask, how so? How’d it remind you of your own song, the words or the music?” “Oh, the story, I felt like that for a time in my life and I like to be vulnerable in my songs because it helps me process, but listening to it back has always been too painful. Could never release that or perform it, it’d wreck me.” You nodded, you completely got where he was coming from. You noticed his downcast eyes and his somber tone, you knew not to push it any further.
It was quiet and you decided it’d be okay to take his hand resting between the two of you. “Harry, I understand,” your sincerity spilled into the words, filling the quiet house, “It’s not easy. Feeling that way. Thinking you’re the only goddamn one and why the fuck does it always happen to you? I used to ask my ceiling ‘why me?’ every night of high school” you smiled then. “But you know how it is,” you rubbed your thumb over his large warm hand and he lifted his head, “it gets so much better - c’mon look at us now! It can get hard, too, all this, I’m sure. But our lives? They’re amazing!” He beamed as he had when he had first seen you at his door and when you’d first really spoke. He moved his hand from under your palm to weave your fingers with his, both of your hands with covered in rings and they clinked to fit together, finally resting perfectly fitted. He shook your two hands up and down, “God, you’re so right! That damn song, m’sorry always puts me in a mood,” he shakes his head, “not yours though, f’course, s’lovely, better than my sodding song” he finishes quickly.
After that, the mood lightened right back up. It filled you with such appreciation for Harry that he would trust you so much with such a personal detail since you two had just met. But maybe, he had trusted you because he had felt that same spark between you. It wasn’t necessarily a romantic spark, but it was obvious the two of you were kindred spirits. Besides your album, the two of you talked about everything. You loved the same bands, movies and books, you both loved to cook and had similar fashion taste, you even had the same person type - something you found out late into the night.
At the end of the Side B of your album, Harry switched to a Bill Evans record that had ‘Peace Piece’ on it. You loved that song. So did he. “So...planning to raid my closet?” Harry raised his brows from the record player and walked back to you. You almost sputtered the water in your mouth. Luckily, you got it down. “Pardon?” “All that bad press the two of us have been getting...I watched the interview that kind of ignited the tabloids. You’re obviously not used to those overstepping personal questions.” You nodded. “It’s fine, even if you’d completely shut it down, the tabloids probably would have picked it up still, they snap up anything and everything, true or not.” You softened at his reassurance. You hadn’t expected Harry to bring the interview up, but you were sure he wasn’t happy about it, he was so private, especially about his love life. “Thanks, I’m sorry I tried to laugh it off, kind of made it worse, didn’t I?” “No! Thought it was hilarious and I totally appreciated the sentiment. Little ol’me, an icon? And an amazing artist? All I gotta do is watch that clip and I’ve fed my narcissistic side for the week!” You giggled and replied slyly, “So does that mean I can raid your closet? As compensation, of course.” Harry threw his head back in an all consuming laughter, when he’d composed himself he looked in your eyes again and said, “You just...God, you get me.”
Harry had continued to put records on throughout the night, diligently flipping sides and asking for requests, he of course had an extensive collection. The two of you had moved onto his plush couch that looked out his french doors to the beautiful ocean view. Finally, your exhaustion caught up to you, mid-Harry describing his latest travel fiasco, you glanced up at the clock. You gasped. Harry stopped. “When did it get to be half 12?” you questioned almost incredulously, “I’ve gotta get home, Harry, but this has been truly amazing, more than I could have asked for, so thank you.” Your speech began to rush as you started to get up and gather your things, that had slowly scattered as you’d gotten more comfortable, jacket by the table, shoes around the back of the couch, your phone forgotten somewhere in the couch. You couldn’t believe you’d spent almost seven hours just talking with Harry Styles.
Harry quickly stood up from his relaxed positioned on the couch and asked if you were alright to drive this late. You scoffed, “Oh please, I’ve driven around at 3 am before, I just have to turn up the music and I can cruise.” He smiled, “This was great, Y/N, I know we didn’t really go super in depth into your writing process, but I’d love to write with you sometime or just hang out again f’course. Your seriously talented and obviously a wonderful person.” He didn’t include that he felt like he’d never met anyone like you, never met someone so perfectly matched to himself, in passions but also in work ethic and demeanor - compassionate yet confident. He felt like you got him perfectly and he got you. You had stopped your scramble to gather yourself and now you were both smiling at one another.
This had really been an unforgettable night, you couldn’t believe how well you two had meshed, like childhood friends reconnecting after years apart. “Can I give yeh a hug before you go?” Harry’s voice had grown raspier as the night had progressed. He had grown rather tired an hour ago, but had pushed through because they had been having so much fun and you hadn’t noticed his physical fading or the time, obviously. You stepped toward him and his large tattooed arms enveloped you into his body. His body truly dwarfed yours now as he held you to his chest. You both were warm and soft. He tucked his head on top of yours that rested on his chest. Your arms were loosely resting where his back met his waist because you would have had to strain to get them to encircle him. His arms rested around your small frame. “Love your jacket,” he mumbled into your hair. His rough voice was quiet, but the house was silent otherwise, Tusk Side C had finished around when you had noticed the time. The embrace lasted long, but it felt so amazing you had a hard time pulling yourself away, but you had to get back home.
“G’night Harry” you said softly at the threshold of his home. He had insisted on walking you to the front door at least, since you had declined his offer to walk you out to your car on the street. “G’night. Safe travels.”
You got in your car and headed to your apartment in the city. You didn’t bother digging for your phone so you turned on the radio and drove home singing whatever came on, including your own song at one point. The whole time you drove with a grin. Harry was the nicest person you’d ever met and you were confident that the two of you were friends now. As you pulled into your parking garage it dawned on you why you hadn’t connected your phone immediately when you got in your car. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” you put the car in park and rested your palms in the depressions of your eyesockets, over your closed eyelids, and rubbed hard. “Fuck!” It was far too late to drive back out to Malibu for your phone and you obviously couldn’t text Harry that you’d left your phone at his place, despite the two of you exchanging numbers during the night for future hang outs, so they didn’t have to be arranged through your managers, like playdates. Even if he found your phone between the cushions, he couldn’t drop it at your place in the morning because he didn’t know your address. This was a whole mess, you thought. You’d have to drive over in the morning and hope he was still there or email your manager from your computer. The former meant you got to see Harry sooner and likely your phone, too.
part 2
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@berrynarrybanana​
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rubyredsundae · 3 years
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Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!
I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)
I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.
When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.
Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.
MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.
Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.
Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.
By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.
Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.
Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.
Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.
Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.
Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.
Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.
My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!
Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.
ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.
Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/
I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.
Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."
Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.
Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.
Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.
Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.
The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.
Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.
Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.
Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.
Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.
A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!
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swishy-imagines · 4 years
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Hey, so... y’all should rate my Piers playlist. And also inbox me songs you think I should listen to and add.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO3ZtIVn5amEOa5oLXP8OBnC8XlyUIBNB Currently it’s comprised of both songs I feel fit him as a character and also just ‘hey maybe he’d sing this idk’. I’m also head over heels for kbnz (no one is surprised) so there’s a lot of that in there. More info for each track under the cut:
1. it’s legit just his theme
2. It’s a really badass cover of his theme. 
3. ALPHADog and OMEGAlomaniac: My friend Veronica really likes this song, and she could read a lot more into it than I could, but I think the lyrics are pretty piers-y. “Standing ovations or booze” sounds like a pun he’d come up with, and the whole thing is about the darker side of showbiz. Also, it totally works as a battle theme. 2:27 is when the opponent starts to dynamax. Come on
4: Just For Myself: Admittedly, this one is on here because it sounds cool. I haven’t read the lyrics yet. stan a3 tho
5: I thiiink this one is called ‘the living ghost is alive’ or smth. I don’t actually know anything about it, I just thought it would be a cool ‘vs Allister’ song. Or ‘duo battles with Allister’. Whichever. I think it was recommended by someone on a pokemon discord but I forget
6. Beat It (FOB bc ofc): Really good cover of the song, and the song itself kind of has Spikemuthy vibes if you think about it? I’m just in love with the guitar really. (I promise these track annotations get deeper)(eventually)
7. Bad To The Bone: I can’t imagine him actually singing this at a concert, but he totally sings it alone in his bathroom when he’s doing his hair.
8: Pour Some Sugar On me: “hey you know what you should do for your finale next time you’re up against Opal” “raihan I am going to wring your neck if you say one more word” . okay but here’s the actual concept: he uses this one in a battle against Raihan and changes the pronouns to get under his skin. Hey since when did Piers make so much eye contact when battling. He didn’t use sunny day why is it suddenly so hot in here
9. Michael: This is on the list because of Clarence. I will admit it. However, I will also ask you to consider it in a situation similar to the one above. Maybe when they get that no-dynamax rematch or something
10. Walk This Way: On the list because it’s a badass song
11. I Hate Myself For Loving You: On the list because it’s a badass song but also because of Raihan
12. I Love Rock ‘N Roll: On the list because it’s a badass song and also because he does
13. You Give Love A Bad Name: Specifically on the list because my trainer character uses an Intelleon, and I realized that. well. shot through the heart indeed.
14 and 15. We Built This City (Twice, For Emphasis): If I had to pick one song from this list to be his Official Character Song, I would pick this one. The ones past this have more meaning to me personally, but this one is the closest while also invoking the least conjecture on my part. This is canon Piers. He built this city on rock and roll, damnit
(also the NSP cover is the superior version sorry but Dan’s voice is the best of any human alive)
16. Too Bad You’re So Beautiful: This sounds a lot to me like a song he would write, even if it wouldn’t be a very personal one. “Too bad you’re so beautiful when I’m king of nothing” is the most personal line in the one, but he totally could have written the rest.
17. The Man Who Stole A Leopard Liepard: The kind of weird song idea I think he might stumble across, maybe with some influence from Clarence idk, and also him singing this would be a godsend. 
18. Leave A Light On: Here we start getting into the deeper cuts. Song about imperfection, loneliness, and holding onto hope. The person he hopes he can be for those around him.
19. Excuses: This is like 16- a song totally in his voice- except it’s personal as FUCK. First of all there are two things this man does not have to spare and that’s time and money and sometimes you just gotta complain. At the same time it’s got the whole ‘shit am i using my circumstances to make excuses for my own behavior’ motif that totally he would worry about. And then at the end when he picks up the phone im SOFT ok. it’s 2am i am not qualified to be writing my thoughts about this song this late/early/sldkfjsdgl
20. Hold My Girl: 
THIS SONG IS ABOUT MARNIE 
21. When I Grow Up: “When did this become a playlist that had musical songs in it???” you ask, and I laugh. You have to listen to the full song for the effect you can’t just skip straight to it but 2:40 is when it hits, that’s when he comes in specifically. You can also have Matilda as Marnie if you want
22. Sheltering Sky: This is him from Marnie’s POV. 
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sm-entertain-me · 5 years
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Finish Line (M)
Requested by @jaeyongsslut:  Can I request Racer Jaehyun smut?Dom Jaehyun please!! If you can add this tying him up and fucking yourself on him , or you can write as you want. I really like your scenarios. 💞💞😗
Contains: Jung Jaehyun x (f) reader, adult language, mentions of alcohol, consumption of alcohol, smut, sexual themes, fingering, unprotected sex, creampie, marking kink, restriction kink? (Is that a real thing? Idk), dom!Jaehyun, sub!reader, racer!au
Synopsis: Taeil was one of the best racers you had ever seen and you were lucky enough to be one of his closest friends. So when he gets invited to one of the biggest racing events in history, it's hard to resist. Little did you know that there would be something at the party the night before that would be even harder to resist.
(A/N: Y’all, I am so sorry that I couldn’t write this in time for Jaehyunnie’s birthday, but alas, here it is! And it’s hella long for exposition purposes. Forgive me for I have sinned.)
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Tonight was the night before the 23rd Annual Drag Racing Competition, one of the biggest racing competitions to ever grace the country. Racers from all over the world would come to this event just to see the races, let alone be in them. It was stiff competition and the times you had to make in order to qualify were anything but easy. So when you got the news that Taeil had finally been invited to the race, something he has been working on for a solid three years of his career, you were so excited for him. You had supported him from the very beginning and had even spent a couple of your paychecks go cover for damages or spare parts for Taeil's dream to become a reality.
But tonight was the night everyone was allowed to let loose and enjoy themselves, the racers and their respective guests being invited to a formal soiree where drinks flowed by the cask full, women prowled the crowds to hopefully land a rich and talented racer, and inhibitions being lowered. Taeil was among the few that couldn't manage his liquor too well and you had been assigned to be his caretaker, really regretting how much of a lightweight he was and wanting to punch the bartender for allowing Taeil to have so many drinks at a time. However, it really wasn't your place to dictate Taeil's drinking, no matter how hard he could go.
As you were trying to make your exit, holding Taeil up by his upper body while his arm lay lazily around the back of your neck, you felt the weight of Taeil's body subside a little bit. You looked at the right of you and leaned forward to look past Taeil's collapsing body, coming face to face with someone you felt like you had seen before. He had a chiseled jaw that was made by the gods themselves, soft brown eyes that seemed to sparkle at you, and cheeks that contained deep indents whenever he smiled. 
You looked at him and noticed that he was helping you with Taeil, taking Taeil's other arm and wrapping it around his neck to take at least half of the weight off of your shoulders. "Oh, thank you. You don't have to do that," You commented as you continued dragging Taeil out by his neck, drowning out the mindless blubbering of your drunken adversary. The man offered a cool smirk as he walked out with you, taking a sharp turn to go towards the elevators since he assumed you were taking him back to his room, "Don’t worry babygirl, Taeil needs all the help he can get. I'm Jaehyun by the way."
"Y/N," You responded as you tried to keep Taeil up on your shoulder, him leaning towards you to whisper into your collarbone something that was anything but comprehensible. Jaehyun chuckled lightly as he watched the arrow on the elevator fall down to your floor number, "I know, Taeil hasn't shut up about you. After seeing you in that dress, I understand why." You could feel your cheeks heating up gradually from Jaehyun's unabashed flirting style, getting straight to the point as to what he was trying to get out of you tonight. You can't say you didn't feel the least bit attracted to him yourself. He wore a black suit with a long black tie and a white undershirt that seemed to cling to his sculpted abdomen, showing off the peaks of his abs whenever he would move or do anything minuscule. If he stretched a little bit more, you were sure his shirt would pop open and reveal those delicious abs of his...
"Hey Y/N. You wanna get on or not?" Jaehyun's voice called out from the depths of your naughty thoughts, causing you to snap out of it and look forward at the open doors of the elevator. Taeil chuckled into your ear at Jaehyun’s comment, leaning against you so that his nose was touching your cheek, “Yeah, you getting on or not?” You shot Taeil a sideways glare that caused him to straighten up as best as he could, knowing how you get when you get irritated because he had gotten on your nerves a couple times before. Quickly, you pushed Taeil’s back so that all three of you could get on the elevator, feeling Jaehyun’s eyes piercing into your head as you remained in the silent elevator, save for the annoying elevator music that didn’t make the situation any better.
A couple minutes had passed since all of you were crammed into the elevator shaft, you shifting uncomfortably from the intensity of Jaehyun’s gaze wandering every curve of your body, ultimately undressing you with his eyes. To make the best of the situation, you decided to have a little conversation with Jaehyun to distract yourself from being subjected to his mental fantasies whenever he looked at you. “So, Jaehyun... How long have you been racing?” You asked as you looked up at the ceiling, trying to admire the tile so you didn’t have to make eye contact with him. He was a very intimidating man and you were anything but. Jaehyun chuckled a little as he stared at his reflection in the mirror, fixing a strand of hair that tickled the top of his eyebrow, “A couple years now. I love the thrill of racing, having everyone scream your name as you cross the finish line...” Jaehyun bit his lip slightly as his eyes shifted to you in the reflection, eyes darkening as he gazed upon your face, “Tell me, would you even consider racing? You look like you could use a good thrill.”
You would’ve answered Jaehyun’s question had Taeil not butted in with his alcohol filled confidence, “Oh Y/N loves thrills, and I’m not talking about racing.” “Shut up!” You chided at Taeil as you smacked him across the chest, causing him to frown at you and stick his tongue out like a child who had just been denied getting his favorite sweet. Huffing at how childish he was being, you rested your hand on your hip and prayed to the elevator gods to hurry up and open the doors so you could take Taeil to his room and then go to yours to get ready for tomorrow. You had promised Taeil that you would accompany him to the track if he got you breakfast, and you weren’t one to turn down free food.
After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator doors finally opened and you were finally granted your much needed freedom from the confines of that damned elevator. It felt nice to not have Jaehyun’s eyes boring into your soul as you tried to breathe normally, him probably picking up on the way your breathing had increased whenever you felt him looking at you, him watching the vein in your neck begin to pulse wildly against your skin. He knew exactly what effect he held over you, and he was just waiting for the right moment to expose it.
It took a long time with Taeil stumbling along the walls of the narrow hallway, him cursing loudly and you having to force your hand over his mouth to get him to shut up since it was at that hour where people were turning in for the night... But you finally managed to get him in front of his room thanks to Jaehyun basically yanking him along the hallway whenever you gave him some directions to get to the right room. Somehow, Taeil managed to get the door opened to his room and bid the two of you goodnight, closing the door shortly before your heard a loud thud that you assumed was Taeil passing out on the ground. It wasn’t any of your business, the boy needs to take the edge off of such an important day ahead of him tomorrow. Now you were stuck with Jaehyun.
“So I guess this is goodnight, I’ll see you at the race tomorrow, yeah?” Jaehyun questioned as he leaned his body on the wall of the hallway, smiling kindly at you in hopes that he would be getting a yes out of you to seeing him again. You didn’t know if it was the alcohol in your system or if it had a delayed effect or something, but you found yourself ignoring how intimidating Jaehyun was just a few moments ago in that elevator. Your body acted on its own as you stepped forward lightly, reaching up and slipping your hands underneath the lapel of Jaehyun’s suit jacket, a cocky smile playing across your face, “How about I see you in your room tonight?” And that’s all she wrote.
It was all a blur as Jaehyun hauled you off to his room and you weren’t sure how you got there, but all you could do now is slip your tongue into his mouth and taste the subtle hint of alcohol on his lips, relishing in the taste of him as he had you pinned down underneath him on the bed. He made sure to keep a firm grip on your wrists as he pressed himself in between your thighs, groaning against your lips when you dragged your leg up the length of his massive calves. Every so often, Jaehyun would grind down against you in order to feel your wetness spilling out of your weeping entrance, coating the front of his pants nicely. “Baby, you’re so wet for me,” Jaehyun moaned as he leaned forward and pressed his plump lips against your neck, allowing the vibrations to pulse through your body until they met in your pussy. All you could do was hum in response as you snaked your fingers up through his hair, tugging playfully at the soft tresses that enveloped the tips. Fuck, Jaehyun was everything you had ever wanted.
As Jaehyun worked on marking the delicious column of your neck, determined on coloring it with reds and purples, he made sure to allow his fingers to slip in between your thighs and delve into your now soiled panties. He didn’t need to ask if you were wet enough since he felt it from the way your arousal leaked out onto his slacks, but he just enjoyed playing with you, toying with you to see what would make you crack. You whimpered lightly as Jaehyun plunged his index finger inside of your pulsating walls, causing Jaehyun to slip the furthest his finger would go as a silencing mechanism, “Shh, shh, shh baby, you gotta keep quiet for me. Otherwise, I’ll give you something to scream about.” Although you wanted nothing more than to make Jaehyun have you screaming his name to the high heavens, you decided to keep quiet for his benefit. 
Jaehyun was ruthless on the skin of your neck as he would often drag his teeth against  the skin, nipping on top of the veins that would poke out from your rapid heartbeat, but not after he would give you soft kisses and kitten licks to combat the oh so sweet pain he delivered to you. It took all you had not to scream in pleasure from the way his fingers were fucking you open, dragging against the most pleasurable spots deep within as he would give his expert fingers a slight curve to find even more. “Goddamn,” You groaned out as you arched your head backwards, pressing further into the pillows behind you. Jaehyun chuckled into your neck as he pulled off of the skin with a sickening pop, looking down at you with hunger in his eyes after seeing how flustered you were getting from his simple yet determined touches, “Don’t cum yet, we’re just getting started.”
You had to work hard to contain your excitement as Jaehyun got off of you and made a B-line for his drawer, coming back with two black scarves. There was a simple racing emblem on both of them, but you had a feeling you wouldn’t be using them as rally scarves. Jaehyun smirked as he saw the excitement building in your eyes, looking down at his hand and then back at you, “Here, let’s try something new. Get up.” You did as you were told, standing up on the side of the bed and waiting for another order from Jaehyun, eagerly pressing your thighs together to get rid of the throbbing that just wouldn’t die down. 
Jaehyun stalked toward you with such grace that you had forgotten what he was capable of as he wrapped his hand around your throat, applying some pressure as he molded his lips against you for one final and extremely passionate kiss, grabbing your hands and placing the scarves there. As he pulled away, he kept his hand on your throat, smirking at how innocent you looked when all he could think about was how your face looked a couple minutes ago when he was spreading you open with his fingers, “I’m usually always the dom, but I’m going to let you take control. You’ve been so good keeping quiet for me so consider this a reward.” Nodding at Jaehyun’s request, you watched as he stripped from his clothes and walked over to the bed, laying down and looking up at you to slip the scarves around his wrists and keep him bound for whatever you wanted to do to him. Instead of you being his for the night, he was yours for the taking.
When the restraints were in place, you decided to give an agonizingly long striptease for Jaehyun, slipping your hands down the curves of your waist and gripping the bottom of your short dress to pull it over your head, keeping a firm gaze with Jaehyun as he bit down harshly on his lip that was already red from all the intense making out you two have been doing. “Fuck, Y/N, just get over here,” Jaehyun growled as he watched you slip your hands behind you to remove your bra, groaning instantly at the sight of your breasts coming free from the confines of your lacy bra. All you saw was Jaehyun pulling his head up to look at the ceiling, and the instinctive twitch of his fully hard cock that had the tip oozing with pre cum. The sight alone was enough to make you crumble right then and there, but you managed to pull yourself together in order for you to do what the both of you wanted.
You slowly made your way over to Jaehyun, taking on his dominant persona as you threw your leg over his waist, sitting right above the tip of his monstrous cock. Jaehyun looked up at you with a darkened gaze, narrowing his vision right on your face as he begged you with his eyes to sit on his cock without giving you the satisfaction of hearing him beg. A smirk found its way on your face as you wrapped your hand around the thickness of his cock, giving him a few pumps as he cursed lightly to himself, watching as your thumb swiped over the tip in order to spread his cum all over the shaft for more lubrication because by the look of the length he possessed, you were going to need all the help you could get. 
“Oh god,” Jaehyun groaned out as you sunk down around his length, his eyes nearly rolling to the back of his head as he felt you clench around him. “You’re so fucking tight.” You smiled at him with evil intentions as you leaned back to grab onto his thighs, Jaehyun’s eyes trailing all over your body as your breasts were arched up to the ceiling and just low enough to see as they bounced whenever you rocked along his waist. You quickly picked up your pace as you craved more of his cock, digging your nails into his thighs the faster you went. It felt so good and you were pretty sure Jaehyun’s cock was made for you as it never failed to curve up against your most desirable spots. But your pace wasn’t enough for him as he tried to buck his hips up into you, trying to urge you as best as he could. One particular stroke of his cock hit a spot that had you seeing stars and you realized that if you wanted to cum, he had to do that again and again. In order to do that, he had to be untied.
You granted Jaehyun the use of his hands and he immediately took over, wrapping his arms around your waist and holding you firmly in place as he buried his face in your breasts and bucked into you from below. “Oh fuck!” You cried out as Jaehyun found your nipple, taking it into his mouth and rolling his tongue over the sensitive bud, picking up his pace beneath you once he realized he had you right where he wanted. He made it his mission to get you to cum hard around him, working your nipple raw with ecstasy. The more he made you moan, the harder he pumped into you from below. Jaehyun’s grip around your waist wasn’t letting up as he pulled your hips in time with his strokes from beneath, combining to form a dangerous product that had you digging your nails into his forearms and sending you crashing down hard.
Jaehyun cursed loudly as you came around his cock, losing himself completely in the way that your walls clenched around him to pull him deeper inside of you. “Fuck you’re clenching! Y/N, I’m gonna...” Jaehyun started as he fucked his way deeper into you, his grip getting so hard that it would cause bruises when he finally released his hot seed into you, filling you up so much that you could feel it running out of you and pooling onto Jaehyun’s groin. The warmth of his cum caused you to immediately become tired, falling forward and allowing your head to line up with the crook of his neck. He chuckled lightly as you breathed heavily against his neck, Jaehyun’s hand coming up to run his fingers through your hair lightly in order to coax you into a more relaxed state, making it really for you to yawn into his ear. 
“Hey,” Jaehyun called out to you as he felt your breathing starting to slow down, indicative of you wanting to sleep. You picked your head up lightly to look at him, offering a warm smile, “Yeah?” Jaehyun could’t help himself from pressing a chaste kiss on your lips, “Let’s get you cleaned up and you can sleep here tonight. I’ll even get you breakfast like Taeil promised, but you gotta promise you’ll be rooting for me on the track tomorrow.” You smiled at Jaehyun’s offer, tracing a small figure eight into his defined pectoral muscle to emphasize your playful nature, “I like my eggs scrambled.”
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13eyond13 · 5 years
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(Happy Birthday! I don't know "when" you will receive this because I live in Italy and idk the time zone) I don't know if you already answered this, but do you have any headcanons of L and/or Matsuda being trans guys?
Hi there, thank you so much for the birthday wishes and sorry for the late response!
I actually never thought about L or Matsuda as trans before receiving this ask, and it’s not something I usually make HCs about myself because I’m cis and I’m still trying to learn about gender stuff myself, and I don’t want to be ignorant about it by mistake or anything like that! But I had a good chat with @translightyagami about it because his trans HCs are always great, and this is what he said (and said that I could share, thx James!):
JAMES’ HCs:
-L probably transitioned after he met Watari and had the money to do so. He’s not super masc but he prefers to wear a packer. Cut his hair crazy short by himself when he was a dysphoric kid, so it grew back in real ugly patches and only just started to look better around when the Kira case started.
-Matsuda seems to me like a trans man who has adopted a lot of unhealthy masculine ideals in order to pass better, and it was a real struggle for him to get on the police force since he hadn’t had gender reassignment surgery yet. A big thing I think about with both Light and any other Japanese trans characters is that stupid sterilization requirement for gender surgery, and that would be a block for Matsuda. But he used his connections within his family to get the police to get him in front of the right, more accepting people (re: Soichiro) and that’s how he got on the police and why he loves and admires Soichiro a lot. He’s definitely looking for good male role models. Soichiro is soft for Matsuda’s struggle because he thinks of Light, who of course is also transgender in this.
MY ADD-ONS:
-I think L kind of gets a kick out of being a cryptic enigma and not giving anyone definite answers about himself, and that he’d find it funny more than anything if people ever acted awkward or confused about his gender. He’s super ambiguous and super confident and certainly isn’t concerned about if people “get” him or not. He just wants to be comfortable and get straight to the point and catch criminals and solve crimes, and that’s about it. He’s really blase and straight forward in canon when talking about sex, and he’s a weird mix of both frank and cryptic whenever his own personal life is the subject of conversation amongst the people that he works with, so I’m pretty certain that would translate over to L’s approach to gender stuff as well.
-What James said about trans people in Japan having to be sterilized and get reassignment surgery before they can legally change their gender on documents really shocked me (apparently LGBT+ rights and acceptance is a lot different in Japan than in Western cultures even now), so I started looking up other stuff about Japanese law, and then stuff about the NPA out of curiosity as well. Something that was really interesting to me when I was looking up articles about this is the requirements that the Japanese officers have when going through their schooling!
Apparently, NPA officer training requires them to:
-Train intensively for 12 months (compared to the avg. 8 weeks American police officers are trained). The curriculum includes an intensive study of Japanese law and practical police subjects such as traffic control and police administration.
-Their physical training stresses the mastery of Martial Arts. To qualify as a police officer, the student must obtain a black belt in Judo or a similar distinction in Kendo. It is felt that in a crowded city Judo is an effective method to disarm a suspect and Kendo, the ancient art of Japanese fencing, builds discipline and character.
-In addition to physical training, courses are given in calligraphy, flower arranging, tea ceremony, poetry writing, and Japanese flute to sensitize a police officer to the artistic side of human nature.
-After one year at a police station, an officer must return to school for four months to improve his skills, and police are expected to continue self-defense courses throughout their careers.
-So adding onto James’ idea that Matsuda might’ve engrained some toxic masculinity due to his trans struggles, I wonder if doing the things like flower arrangement and poetry writing during the police training might’ve been difficult for him at first, because he didn’t want to feel unmasculine in some way? Or maybe it was actually a positive thing for Matsuda because he got to hang out with a bunch of other police officer dudes in class who were all expressing their gentler sides. I definitely agree that he looks up to Soichiro immensely and that it makes a ton of sense that he saw him as an excellent male role model, somebody who is a great balance of strong and authoritative and noble and kind.
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silver-falling-star · 5 years
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Sing me a song, o muse, of your bitter hatred against catcher in the rye bc SAME
Oooooh boy, I smell one of my long winded rants coming on. Strap in folks its about to be a wild ride.
So, Ima preface this by saying that I have NOT read it since I was forced to read it in 11th grade. For like, several fucking reasons. (the primary one being that I don’t want to, the 2nd one being I don’t know which bookshelf my dad stashed my copy on. He stashed all my required readings on various bookshelves after I was done with them. Because we were all given copies for free by the teachers that we were allowed to keep. I’ll chalk this up to private school benefits I guess? I’ve been out of the public school circuit since the end of 5th grade) So basically my memory of like, most of the events that take place in the book are foggy at best and unremembered at worst.
@ my mutuals and followers who like this book, that’s fine you do you, but I personally am not and probably will never be a fan of Catcher in the Rye. My feelings of why I dislike it are my opinions and I’m not gonna force them on you.
Problem 1: Main character is an unsympathetic asshole
My biggest gripe about the book is honestly a gripe I have about SEVERAL books. Unlikable characters, and I don’t necessarily mean written poorly (though I don’t remember being awed by how the book was written, I’ll be honest.) I mean unsympathetic asshole little bastards that make you want to just chuck the book across the room. Other books that share this problem are The Great Gatsby (that book is hot fucking garbage in terms of likeable characters and I WILL die on that fucking hill do not even @ me), Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Main character is an asshole little snobby bitch and despite being a murder mystery written in first person she literally figures things out at such a pace its not fun for the reader because she STILL ends up caught in shit situations she KNEW WAS GOING TO GO DOWN BECAUSE SHES SUCH A SPECIAL LITTLE SHIT- okay that’s a rant for a different post) and The King Must Die. (If you ever want to read a book with shit diction, pick it up.)
Now, as a writer/roleplayer of almost a decade, I’ve made plenty of characters that fall into the unsympathetic asshole role. My problem isn’t with the archetype, it’s often used and often done well (fandoms later trying to apologize for them aside) My PROBLEM comes when that’s either the archetype for the only character given any spotlight, or ALL the characters have that problem. (see, Great Gatsby.) Holden Caulfield(or however the fuck you spell it) is an unsympathetic asshole, and also the character who’s perspective is the only one we get to see, and the only character we really know much about. (Mainly cause he just doesn’t deign to care to give a legitimate effort in giving a damn about anyone else aside from how innocent children/his sister are. More on how creepy that shit is later.) Making a book like this means that I’m far less likely to enjoy it because I want to be able to root for someone. I can root for an asshole, so long as they’re likeable in some regard. Holden is a grade A fuckboy in the making and as such I am not a fan.
TL/DR: It’s possible to have likeable unsympathetic asshole characters, it is almost impossible to do that if that’s all you have exposure too in your cast.
Problem 2: I was really not in the best place to receive such a fucking depresso espresso lesson about life.
Switching gears momentarily from problems with the writing/book itself to problems with the timing of this book showing up in my life. High school was the time when all my trauma I’d successfully… repressed? Avoided dealing with? whatever, basically all my mental health shit suddenly decided to spring itself on me and yell “SURPRISE, YOU’RE MENTALLY FUCKED AND WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!” in 10th grade and it wasn’t until halfway through 11th grade that I even started getting a handle on shit. I almost failed high school and it was *bad*, especially for someone who was just trying to get to college so I could get to vet school and be qualified for a job that requires an ass load of education. So in walks this fucking book and it’s message of “adulthood is a sham, nothing matters and you really should just fuck around and do whatever because it’s all bullshit anyway. Childhood was where it’s at.”
Like???? Alright, that’s not what I need to hear when I’m barely passing high school. Go to fucking therapy and get some help, we all have trauma and therapy is the best path to work through it. I dunno like, yeah okay some people need to hear that message at whatever time in their life they read the book, but that message really wasn’t great to my Anxiety/Depression/ADHD struggling ass trying to just stay steady enough to get into college.
Honestly, even to this day I HATE HATE HATE books with depressing messages like that. I already deal with the struggle of being afraid of failure, getting where I want to be, all that shit. I don’t want that in my literature. Give me a person who struggles but still succeeds and finds some sort of happiness and self-worth in the end. Give me someone overcoming their traumas in such a way that they can at least have a good quality of life afterwards, even if the trauma will never leave, so long as they’re happy. I’m tired of YA novels that try and sell our generation and gen z the message that life sucks. Give me more hope, more heroes, more people making a difference because hell life is short so best make the most of it making a difference.
To quote GotG, why do I care so much about stories that revolve around saving the world, even if that world is just as small as a found family?
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And my existence might as well be a happy one and have HOPE GOD DAMMIT.
TL/DR: If a book leaves me feeling like shit after reading it because it ends on a super shitty note, I’m generally not going to enjoy that book. And the fact that most YA novels these days that are given to highschoolers fall into this category is hot garbage when this is around the time they’re trying to find some sort of direction in life.
*Note: I realize that there are times and places for books that give more somber messages. Hell, I’ve even enjoyed some books with messages of such a tone. But media these days, and honestly for most of my life starting in mid to late teenage years (and maybe earlier) has started taking a turn towards the more depressing/somber stuff, and its overwhelming and just bad. And even back then when first reading it this was something I picked up on and didn’t enjoy. It just was not the right time in my life to hear a message so devoid of giving a shit.
Problem 3: Holden is honestly, super fucking creepy.
Okay, we back on the train of the actual book’s writing. Holden the dipshit is honestly, really fucking creepy. Towards women specifically. I have no direct quotes from the book specifically, but I DISTINCTLY remember the way he talked about women (or even young children/girls) being creepy as shit. Like, he waxes lyrical about his kid sister and her classmates and how innocent they are and how he wants to be the “Catcher in the Rye” to keep them innocent and to keep them from realizing how bad the world is. Great, lovely sentiment Holden. Except that the way you’re going about it comes across as being a pedophile.  You’re at the very least sexist as fuck, because you’re objectifying the fuck out of people anyway.
That scene with the sex worker in the hotel room is also one I remember making me feel super uncomfortable. Not because the sex worker is there, but because uh, just, god, that whole scene gave me the creeps. Probably because I felt bad for the woman, coming into the room expecting to be paid for work and there’s just this kid who breaks the fuck down, tells her some depressing shit, and maybe pays her? (does he pay her? I can’t fucking remember, I’d like to think he does, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t, because he’s an ass.) Actually, bigger question IS HE EVEN OF AGE TO HAVE SEX WITH HER LEGALLY? HOW OLD IS THIS KID? HES STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL RIGHT?
…. so I looked it up, he’s 17. SEVENTEEN. HE IS A M I N O R. I’m like 99% sure that the woman he hires is like, twice his age at least. That’s straight up illegal.
god this just gets worse.
TL/DR: Holden is a 17 year old creep who comes off as a pedophile in the way he talks about kids, and also definitely hired a sex worker while he was underage. Idk if that was legal at the time this book was written, but if it was (and I doubt it), that has aged very poorly.
Problem 4: It’s got a lot of male fans who fall into that all too dangerous category of having Fight Club or Rick and Morty being their favorite bit of visual media.
Okay, again, not a problem of the book. But when the majority fanbase (or at least, the most vocal part) are a bunch of abusive men who don’t realize that the message they took away from a work of fiction is incredibly problematic? Or worse, know and don’t care because they think their take is superior? Uhhh, how do I say, big yikes.
Like, this could be your favorite book, whatever, that’s you, I don’t care, but if your reasoning for it is because Holden is, in your opinion, an unflawed idealized version of yourself/your ideals?
thats a nope from me bro.
———-
That’s all I can do off the top of my head without going in and reading the book again. Which I probably won’t do for a long time, because I don’t need to hear that struggling to make a place for yourself is dumb and proves you’re just “part of the machine, the man has made you his bitch.” while I’m still trying to y’know, get to where I want to go.
But there you go, four solid reasons why I really really do not like Catcher in the Rye.
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wintersoldeer · 5 years
Text
ok here's some totally incoherent thoughts about endgame that i just have to write down or i might explode spoilers: i loved it also actual spoilers spoilers very spoilery spoilers
1. Steve and the goddddamn mjölnir!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! when thor, iron man and cap were like 'aw yeahhh we're gonna fight thanos' i was like what the heckie is steve even doing there, supersoldier or not he's just a human. then thor drops his hammer and i’m like oh my gods please literally crossing my fingers. then thor’s fight is not going so well and oh no he definitely needs someone to save him! i’m like ohhhhhmygooddss. and THEN IT FINALLY HAPPENS I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS HELL YEAHHHHH
2. steve & peggy dance. yes. just yes. fucking finally. i love it. it was perfect i cried
3. clint should’ve died. (finally haha) he was my fave since before the avengers and i was so sure he was going to die back then, but then he didn’t and look what’s became of him since.......... i had a violent flashback to watching age of ultron for the first time and for the first time just hoping that my fave character (that would be clint) would just die, bc they’re screwing his character over so badly........ and most definitely it. should.  not. have. been. natasha. who. died.  that was such a bullshit i mean WHAT THE FUCK????  i mean maybe clint and natasha were the only remaining avengers that actually loved each other (?¿¿????¿¿¿?¿ tho that’s just flimsy, i’m just trying to....idek) and that’s why it had to be them on that stupid fuckin death cliff, but why did natasha have to die?? just because clint had a family (still with no actual characterization, not that i even care, or maybe i would if the movies had given me any reason to...) to return to and she didn’t??that fucking sucks and what sucks even more is that not only was natasha the only character that died (i’m not even counting tony, bc that was very Different) but she’s the only original female avenger AND it’s the same stupd fucking rock that the only original female gotg gamora died in such a bullshit way just last movie??? goddddd i hated that so much like maybe if she hadn’t been the first one to die and all the original avengers would’ve died as was i kinda hoping (tho i love happy endings so i didn’t actually hope that it would happen..), maybe then i would be okay with her being dead. now i am very much not okay, and that means very much not okay in a angry way, not in a sad way
4. speaking of death: to me tony’s was perfect. i might not be the biggest fan of how he always got the most screentime and a bigger role than other characters, but i can’t deny that he definitely is the heart of the whole mcu and it had to be him who saves the day in the end and what else could it have been that a very tony-like self-sacrifice..... god i cried. i loved that he got a funeral (even tho natasha didn’t...) and i loved his funeral with all the people and fricking harley and then the kid saying how much she likes cheeseburgers and the frickin ‘proof that tony stark has a heart’ and sfghkklkghhhh
5. i gasped audibly when i noticed that natasha was wearing the arrow necklace
6. i kinda forgot that vision ever even existed..... in the end i first thought that wanda was talking about pietro and then i was like ok well maybe not maybe she’s talking about tony or something WHICH MAKES NO SENSE LOL i don’t even remember what she actually said, but as was pointed out to me, she was probably talking about vision. who was a thing that existed... whoops
7. ugh i hate brucenat, i really thought we were over that shit already. i also very much disliked that they actually decided to go with professor hulk, but idk w/e i don’t care that much. but natasha’s death sucked tho and the one thing i do not want to see is bruce’s pain or whatever when the movie didn’t even give me the time or reason to actually grieve for her goddd that whole thing was such a bullshit
8. i did not like that thor was treated as a joke most of his screentime........
9. that stevepeggy dance tho. love it. it’ll probably take me at least another seven years to get over it
10. i fricking adored the whole going back in time thing, especially the 2012. the callbacks and the humor really worked for me, the elevator scene straight from cap2 but reversed and hail hydra and steve fighting steve and loki’s expressions when things go wrong and goddhhh i loved it all aaaaaaa, that was the moment when i was like ok i need to see this movie again immediately.... also the fact that their time travel rules were that they were just creating new paths or w/e i guess, and not actually changing what happened to them specifically... good. so many aus
11. that final battle was so perfectly epic
12. tho shouldn’t valkyrie’s (who really just doesn’t have a real name, now does she..) horse have died after being shot haha
13. i loved that clint had the gauntlet for so long, like he’s definitely the Least Qualified Person to keep it safe, why would that be his job, it was amazing
14. i hated natasha’s death with burning passion, but i loved how she and clint fought each other over who gets to throw themselves off that cliff. tho i really hoped that their ‘yeahh we know what we have to do’ would’ve rather meant that they decided to just throw red skull down bc who even knows if it even actually needs love sacrifice or w/e, a soul is a soul is a soul
15. i loved the human jarvis whatever-his-first-name-was cameo and i really need to finally watch/rewatch agent carter
16. i really liked the tony howard scene even if i thought it felt a bit iffy, bc i feel like there’s so much more to unpack w/ those daddy issues.... but maybe that scene means that there is that one universe where howard was actually a good dad. i want to believe that. yeah. (maybe not but let me dream)
17. i like how they totally forgot that sharon carter ever even existed
18. damn that moment when black panther comes through that portal
19. damn that moment when gi ant-man is giant
20. damn that final battle was so epic
21. damn that steve with mjölnir
22. this movie was SO GOOD when it was good and so mehhh when it was bad, and i’m really glad that it was just good enough that i can forgive overlook all of its flaws. (tho i will not forgive what they did to natasha, even if i can mostly ignore it when thinking about how good most of the rest of the movie was) but idk if it would’ve been perfect, maybe i wouldn’t have survived like there’s this One Huge Thing (natasha) that really brings down the movie that otherwise would’ve been just Amazing
23. i don’t know if my heart has ever beaten as fast as when steve finally picks up the hammer. never while watching a movie, at least
24. i love that carol has her short haircut, bc it bothered me so much in cpn marvel that she should not have been able to see anything when her hair was just constantly on her face haha
25. i feel nothing but seething resentment towards clint’s stupid family and that stupid family man role he is stuck with
26. why was natasha’s hair so weird and ugly. why can’t it just be red??
27. clint’s hair was weird and ugly too and i think i have finally kinda given up on mcu!clint (tho he has those small Very Good moments and i cry for what could’ve been.....we could’ve have it aaaaaalllll.... i think i’m going to watch swat (2003) again and still pretend it’s the clint backstory movie i deserve haha, it’s been ages since i’ve seen it idk if it would still work for me, i’m gonna try)
28. i love nebula tho
29. i loved the trip down memory lane! frigga!!!! the way the continuation of the avengers capturing loki just felt so natural and like it probably happened just like that! nebula and rhodey judging quill’s singing and dancing haha yes! everything! just as i was hoping it would be!
30. doesn’t really have anything to do with this movie but: i still firmly believe that coulson never died. i still firmly believe that pietro never died. 
31. falcon cap helll yeah!!
32. i guess i’ll never get my strike team delta movie with clintasha best friends soulmates and with buckynat and the red room.........  goddd there really should’ve been a black widow movie after cap2. like that was The Perfect Spot for a black widow movie, it’s really a crime that there isn’t one, and even if they make a black widow movie now, it’ll definitely be too little too late.
33. like..... a for effort..... for that female heroes girl power.... ughhhh.... scene, i guess, but that. does. not. cut. it. when you have just killed natasha
34. things i really wished they would say in some perfect moments: “hail hydra” “avengers assemble!” “i am iron man”. things they did say in those moments: “hail hydra” “avengers assemble” “i am iron man”, gogssgddd that was perfect (ok i also really did wish steve would’ve said the “i could do this all day” in the fight but couldn’t say bc the movie had just made fun of that.. i’m kinda sad but haha it’s not that big of a deal, maybe if he hadnt said it in civil war which i dont like but well...)
35. haha people are already complaining about the steve going back thing and how it’s definitely not moving on and erasing character development or whatever and HA. i finally got my stevepeggy dance i don’t care about anything else i am so happy!!!!!
36. i am so glad i managed to avoid any spoilers bc i hear that there was some pretty massive ones going around??¿?¿?
37. also: ok from here on out i am not here for any of you negative nancys complaining (probably very reasonable complaints idec) about the movie, god i really wish it was 2012 again
38. in final thoughts: i absolutely loved it and i love that it turns out that i’m apparently still very much marvel trash........ if natasha hadn’t died, especially in such a bullshit way, i would’ve been able to overlook everything else that was kinda meh about the movie and just purely and blindly loved it. i still did love it, a lot, but now there’s that bitter aftertaste.....
ok now, maybe that’s enough rambling and repeating myself....... i’m going to need to see it again asap
//EDIT
39. I FORGOT TO MENTION IT BC I FORGOT ABOUT IT but goooooooooodddd i loved nebula and tony playing that game in the beginning and tony letting nebula win ääääää
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ryouverua · 5 years
Text
A Certain Lab, Reprised
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lab get lab get lab get lab get LAB GET
Everything around us is either exploding or on fire so Sweetcheeks and I are going to retreat to our space safe, investigating
am I talking about the school exploding or tumblr
we just don’t know
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Speak of the devil!
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“I AM HERE!!!”
“K1-B0 THeRE WAS AN OPEN WINDOW OH MY GOD, THERE’S GLASS EVERYWHERE, OH NO -”
“OH YEAH!”
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Didn’t really wait at all tbh 8′D
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Actually all jokes aside Sweetcheeks is right, it was hella cool - and also thank god he was in the hallway and far away from the window! K1-b0 keeps asking if Shuichi is okay but is being incredibly reckless at the same time - what if Shuichi had been showered with that glass? He wouldn’t come out of that unscathed. Was that just K1-b0 taking more of his uncorked anger out on the school?
... Hm, though I guess calling it ‘anger’ isn’t quite right. Or, at least, K1-b0’s fluctuating between ‘anger’ and sort of... more... ‘grim determination’.
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Yeah, he didn’t even flinch at being complimented. He’s got serious tunnel vision right now.
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Damn.
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LMAO SHUICHI’S SCREEN -
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There’s only one other place I can think of that qualifies...
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DON’T YOU DARE SHUICHI WE FINALLY GOT HERE AND I HAVE QUESTIONS
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Oh thank god I want to satisfy my curiosity about the library as much as you do but RANTARO’S TALENT FIRST
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Again - damn, K1-b0.
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Whoa -
..... This has a very YGO Season 0 vibe. Sorry, that’s a weird comment. Maybe the better way to describe it is that the words ‘punishment game’ immediately come to mind? Some sorta wheel/puzzle thing in the back, cards hanging from the ceiling, some sort of... table...? Kinda reminds me of a poker table, though there’s no center to it... Maybe he... really did specialize in death games...?
Actually, if Celeste had an Ultimate Lab, I feel like it would have a similar aesthetic ~
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IT’S HIS SOUL ROOM WE’RE IN RANTARO’S SOUL ROOM
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“Yeah so I never shared with you all, but part of the Ultimate Detective status includes the ability to shoot spirit energy from your finger like a gun -”
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I don’t think that’s completely wrong but I feel like the actual talent name is going to be x100 times more ominous. 8′D
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MAN end-game Himiko is so different than early-game Himiko! Nice to have you onboard - wait, I just realized we’ve got a magician sidekick helping us in an investigation. Is this the right time to make an Ace Attorney reference, or -
Okay, huh. There’s actually way less to click on than I thought there would be. WHAT IS WITH THE MOST CRYPTIC PEOPLE HAVING THE LEAST INTERACTIVE ROOMS, COME ON DRV3 -
Okay, that laptop first:
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Empty laptop.... okay, let’s set that aside for now.
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Here’s the real question - what came first? The K1-b0 we knew for the first five chapters or this K1-b0? Which one should we consider to be the ‘true’ K1-b0? I think the game is implying that this is the real K1-b0, and the one who we knew up until now was a ‘controlled’ version of him - but at the same time, if the antenna was built in with him, could it be considered part of the original design and therefore part-and-parcel of K1-b0?
omfg I just realized the implications of a white-haired boy hearing a voice (that he literally calls ‘voice’) in his head who may or may not be controlling him behind the scenes be still my heart you’re getting distracted
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WHELP THERE’S REALLY ONLY ONE OTHER THING TO CLICK HERE SO -
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Like a safe?
......... Omfg it says ‘B’ and ‘A’ on them and it has pictograms on them. Is... this going where I think this is going...
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Okay Himiko is being our in-game tutorial and noting that the zodiac is on one side and astrological signs are on the other but honestly I’m fine to skip all past it tbh because there it is, there’s our fucking ‘horse a’ and ‘twin b’ is gemini, Kokichi himself was a gemini, this was where we were going with those hints??? Rantaro’s lab?! idk I just don’t find puzzles like this hard I kinda thrive off of symbolism and mythology in general 8′D
Wait.... doesn’t that mean Kokichi couldn’t have been the one to leave those messages behind?!
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Okay this was pretty cute so I left this in ~ but straight up two minutes later it was just a string of KACHUNK KACHUNK KACHUNK until I got it open immediately -
.... the symbols are weirdly cute though, hehe ~
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Don’t worry Sweetcheeks, the only life-threatening time-waster we’ll spend all of our time on is fluff text!
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Aaaaaaand done. Thanks Kokichi!
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MAN I LOVE THESE TWO SPRITES TOGETHER FOR SOME REASON
Ah, so they’re talking about the stone with ‘horse a’ written on it - which... does make me curious, honestly. I think the existence of this safe pretty much confirms that he didn’t write the original message... right?
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When did the letters start appearing aside from ‘horse a’? Chapter 3? Was that around the time he concocted that particular plan, then?
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H-Hey now, he’s also the reason we found the second clue. 8′D I mean, it wouldn’t have been terrible to go through 12 different combinations with ‘horse a’ determined, but it wouldn’t have been ideal.
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i bet you can buy that, that is literally perfect DR merch
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IT’S
THE VIDEO
THE VIDEO!!!!
yeah I’m totally going to pull up my old post to see what matches and what doesn’t
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“Oh god I forgot how absolutely stunning he was.”
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OH I thought that was an abstract red background, silly me - 8′D well, that was probably the point. It might give away the game if we saw something more concrete behind him way back in... what, Chapter 4?
Anyway, more importantly, Rantaro shouldn’t have had access to this place... except he clearly did. So... he... must have been here before. And he knew more about the killing game, or seemed to intuitively know more, than anyone else. He... must have done this before. Except he had made it all the way here last time??? So there is a loop of some sort? Though it can’t be an outright time loop because otherwise there would be no need to record a video (unless like I considered it’s a ‘simulated’ time loop, aka VR-style like last game)...
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This makes me wonder how we saw the video the first time. Was it just another flashback/tease like the meteorites were, before we saw the flashback lights?
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I mean, I guess it’s kinda hard for recording!Rantaro to prove, but we’ll have to take him at his word here I suppose. 8′D
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OH
OKAY
WE’RE JUST GOING STRAIGHT INTO IT THEN
are you telling me you were the protagonist in the last killing game
DIDN’T YOU HAVE LIKE, TWO AHOGES TOO
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Man, what an asshole move??? Like, okay, Monokuma’s creating the puzzle of the safe which would unlock this video. Fine. But almost half of the class would have to be dead in order for him to get to it! There’s no way for him to even start the puzzle at this point, because he wouldn’t know it existed! What a huge handicap!
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......... Something.... he had.... since the beginning............. Hm. I’m drawing a blank. I don’t remember anything in particular that stands out....
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My dead boy, that is an understatement.
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AHAHAHA ABOUT THAT....
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Now this makes me wonder if he is the only one repeating it or if anyone else is? Well, maybe the mastermind - but like, maybe everyone is repeating it, but only those who ‘won’ were able to have better memories, or were just able to retain the memories of the last game better than the others?
Or, hell, if I want to go along with my previous theory about downloading the memories of students, maybe... Rantaro can remember more about his real self? Or something? But everyone else can’t?
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And if he’s really someone who won the previous one (along with one other person, I suppose), then he knows that for a fact.
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???!?! Aaaah this part got cut off last time too - so it was actually cut off in the video, and not just in our flashback?!
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“You’re also dead, which may make things a little bit more difficult, but I still believe in you!”
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That at least I expected -
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WHAT
OH GOD THERE ARE SO MANY LAYERS TO THIS
like the dramatic irony I’m sure the fandom has done to death, for example
What about the second person??? Is there a second Ultimate Survivor???? I guess there can’t be since everyone else knows their talents but -
wait, if you’re the Ultimate Survivor because you won a killing game, who were you in the last game????
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Does this really give him an advantage though??? I guess the information would have been nice but I mean, it obviously didn’t do him much good because he got taken out so quickly!
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Man this makes me wonder if Kokichi had any inkling of this...
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jsyk since I have the screenshots side to side, his expression is different in this video compared to the last one
~ fun facts ~
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Yeah, see, the ‘he wanted’ part is throwing me off. He participated, sure, and he didn’t say he wanted the original one, but he came back for round two and said he wanted it.... but why???? That implies there’s a purpose to it, and he was okay to gamble his own life - but also, as a person without his memories of this, he wanted to stop the game. If the chip he bet is his own life, the reward must be huge, right? He won these supposed perks for this game, but what did he win for his life outside the game? .... Assuming there is anything outside the game? Is there anything for him outside the game?
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HIMIKO DON’T BE RUDE
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Yeah, she didn’t know the identity of her target. 8′\ Also I’d be sad if it was Kaede in the end. Second also! I know that she ended up being the first chapter killer and I’m one of the people got taken by surprise by that, but we were in her head for that whole chapter! Her motive made sense - but for her to end up being the mastermind now? That wouldn’t make sense, based on what we know of her, memory shenanigans aside!
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That would require the mastermind to have knowledge of Shuichi and Kaede’s plan then, right? So they would have had to draw Rantaro to the library somehow, so he would get caught in Kaede’s trap...
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It... should be one of a kind, considering the circumstances...
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Yeah I’m still wracking my brain and not coming up with anything there. Could it have to do with his necklace? It did make me think of that ‘soldier tag’ present, about remembering someone who they lost. That would be an incredibly appropriate, if not cruel, ‘survivor’s perk’ present for someone who survived a killing game.
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Man are we going to get a new flashback for every place we investigate???
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OH SHIT IT’S BACK
FLASHBACK LIGHT!!!
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you can pry the flashback light animation from my cold dead hands
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?!?!?!
Immediate thoughts - generic students. But, are they? Is there any chance that they look generic on the face of it, but are actually representative of people in the class? I don’t see anything that could be an immediate match (Korekiyo = masked guy, Kokichi = small guy with similarly shaped hair/short stature/face, Kaito = tall guy, maybe), and they seem to have different VAs - hell, is that Jounouchi (or for the proper DR character, Munakata)’s seiyuu?
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...... or the guy with the sick mask could just be sick lmao
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Ah, so this is from when the virus began to ravage the population...
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That seems like an understatement 8′D But at least we know for sure when in the timeline this takes place! Shuichi doesn’t seem to know they’re going to be the only survivors yet, but they’ve already been presumably screened for the Gopher Project which means it is well under way.
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Calm down Sigma Klim -
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Shuichi hasn’t told them he swings both ways, huh.
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OH GOD RIGHT IN THE KAITO
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DO YOU GET IT YET SHUICHI, YOU ARE THEIR HOPE
Don’t mind me, just wanted to make sure Shuichi didn’t miss the cryptic message left for him in these memories -
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Not only that, but these aren’t memories meant to act as a reward for completing a stage like the other ones or even one they found - this was literally forced on them. It’s supposed to be Monokuma’s weapon against them. So... similar to the motive from the last trial, it’s trying to make them take action...?
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And it’s clearly working!
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... Maybe it isn’t the necklace then. I mean, he was wearing it when he died right??? And his body is gone...
Oh man unless just like everyone else there were copies of it along with the rest of it in his room - except there are 15, one for all the participants for the last game or something -
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It might be 50/50 right now??? There’s something screwy going on, I just don’t know what.
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lrambling · 7 years
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response round-up! Just gonna put the anons in block quotes, hopefully tumblr doesn’t do anything weird with the formatting. I’m throwing out a lot of ideas because I don’t think there’s a simple answer to any of these questions - so don’t think I’m insisting that any of my suggestions are the only possible explanation or anything!!
hi this is a different anon from the one before but i am also a lesbian and before i started shipping m/m i would write stories from the perspective of the boy in first person POV in love with his girlfriend, because i didn’t realize gay people existed (i was a sheltered kid) so when i discovered m/m it was amazing, i connected to the concept of same sex attraction more than two hot men being together, which is the appeal for many straight women who like slash.
what an interesting story, thank you for sharing! I know a lot of queer women who mostly write and read m/m slash. I can’t speak too much about their experiences, although I wonder if it’s also related to some stuff I’ve read about how men in fanfic are basically projected as women anyway. Like even aside from the “technical accuracy” stuff that’s mentioned below, m/m porn written by men is on average pretty different from that written by women. 
I do think you touch upon something else that I think is important about slash, which is that it’s a method for women to express and discuss sexuality. And of course it’s not perfect, but it’s so much more than exists outside of fandom. 
Conrad Ricamora (an LGBT actor) has said somewhere that he wondered why m/m pairings were so important to women. He said he asked some fans once and they summed up that in m/m pairings on TV etc, both partners are portrayed as equal to each other, whereas often times women are portrayed as lesser than the male in the m/f relationships. Idk the exact quote but that always struck me as interesting.
YES. And even if the show has good characters and a good relationship, the sort of “cultural narratives” of m/f relationships that we hear and internalize are often so unpleasant towards women. And I like a little power exchange in my fic! But I can’t enjoy that when it’s a man and a woman, unless the woman is explicitly in power, so that doesn’t work with every straight pairing I think is cute. That’s a huge, huge thing for me, escaping the cultural confines of m/f relationships.
Of course, this doesn’t explain why femslash isn’t more popular. I think some of it has to do with male characters being better developed a lot of the time, and women learning to relate to male characters anyway - this shouldn’t be the case, but at the moment here we are. Of course, this is also a contributing factor to why fandom is so focused on white dudes. Sigh. I don’t know - because I have femslash pairings i’m interested in but I don’t always get as engaged by the fic. So I think for me there’s also, and this slightly contradicts what I just said about identifying more with male characters, but I think there’s a sense of distance that makes it easier to enjoy. If I’m reading goofy tropey smut, I don’t need to be able to see myself in the character, so reading m/m is almost lighter than f/f? I don’t know.
I used to be exclusively into m/m shipping, but now I feel fetishistic even thinking about it (I'm a straight white girl). I just can't see it as anything other than an expression of my own internalized misogyny it took me years to even recognize, and when I hear other people talk about it the misogynistic/homophobic undertones are so so obvious to me now. I'd like to agree that there are still cases where it's okay but I don't see how I could ever get back there :/
Awww, again, thank you for sharing your perspective! I feel like my own experience of fanfic, although I’ve definitely been influenced by internalized misogyny in terms of how i view female characters, is more about escaping external misogyny. It’s about not having to engage with gender for a little bit, not having to think about how gender impacts people’s interactions and sex lives and romance. 
And of course, despite accusations of being the fanfic police, I definitely very often just say “welp this is weird, but it’s just fantasy and it’s fun and I’m going to enjoy it,” and I just think the key is to recognize that it’s fantasy. But of course that isn’t going to work for everyone and I don’t know if it’s the right approach at all.
I guess... I’m glad for you that you were able to recognize your internalized misogyny? That’s healthy! But I’m sorry that you aren’t able to enjoy fanfic anymore. It sucks when our awareness of these underlying issues prevents enjoyment of stuff that should be fun, but again - here we are. :///
As a gay man I think the most questionable thing about M/M fan-fic is the way a lot of writers view the bottom as the submissive role, which itself is rooted in the idea of it being the female role and women being seen as lesser, and so showing the internalised misogyny that society has inflicted upon so many women. Other than that, with all due apologies, reading a lot of the M/M sex scenes in female written fan-fic is actually hilarious for just how off-base so much of it is!
Good lord, straight people are SO WEIRD ABOUT PENETRATION. I’ve definitely internalized that to some extent. But there’s also a lot of different sort of aspects to the erotic/pornographic side of fics that I’m not qualified to get into. XDD But - and this doesn’t occur in a vacuum and i’m just throwing ideas out here - you might get women wanting to explore sexual submission in a way that’s sexism-free, hence the tendency to feminize the penetrated partner.
but lmao yeah, god forbid any young gay men take their cues from the vast majority of fanfic out there...
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