#the one good thing Twitter does is that it tries to at least give sympathies to attacked nations

[chuuyasfanboy]

HII!! Could you do one with Dazai, Chuuya and Atsushi reacting to a reader who has one of those SHTWT accounts? It's a kind of strange request, but I've never seen anyone talk about it!!

I actually loved your blog, I'm currently hooked! <3

NOT a weird request at all! I dont have any social medias like this, but I interact with edtwt and have friends with both edtwt's and shtwt's, so I think I'm comfortable enough talking about the issue!

Now this may be very hypocritical of me BUT IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING MENTALLY PLEASE REACH OUT FOR HELP! Here's a link to a website with hotline numbers! Even if you cant get yourself to stop completely, please at least be save enough to keep living. Love you all mwah<3

https://www.pleaselive.org/hotlines/

Definitely didn't skip a matchup request to write this... Promise I'll get to you soon other person! I've had some ideas in mind heheheh

Dazai, Chuuya, and Atsushi (Seperate) x shtwt!Reader

Tw: Sh tw, mentions of edtwt in the ooc lol, spoilers dazai totally has a shtwt too</3

Dazai Osamu

Starting off with the worst reaction

Why is he the worst, you ask?

He has one too!

He totally followed you by accident because he just found this all so inspirational. And then you posted a tweet with the same joke you'd made earlier that day.

And oh he knew.

He's mad, but mostly because you never told him you were struggling.

He's the one who's supposed to be masking his emotions, damn it!

(I'm not sure if shtwt is the same way, but i know edtwt is chock full of motivational disgusting food images posting! I'm making those assumptions that its similar lol)

He definitely tries to convince you to get help, and he feels really bad for not actually being that worried.

He trusts you to keep yourself safe enough and so eventually he just gives up on the notion altogether

It doesnt take long for the two of you to be a bit more open with it all

He finally shows you whats under those bandages

It's worse than you think.

You're the one who convinces him to properly treat his cuts, and after enough bothering, you finally let him treat you the same.

Late nights when the two of you cant sleep, and he comes over.

The both of you in each others arms, disinfectant and fresh rolls of bandages discarded on the nightstand

While he may not be the one you go to for support, he definitely wont judge you for anything, not even a bit

And if you do decide to finally get help, he's there to cheer you on

Dont be fooled though, he wont be changing his ways at all

Good luck getting this stinker to find value in himself!

Chuuya Nakahara

He's got the best reaction, by far

He's trying not to judge you, really

It's not something he's ever had to struggle with these things, and the furthest he can really give you is an absurd amount of sympathy

The little experience he does have comes from his years with Dazai in the port mafia, but that was a long time ago and he hasnt had to think of it since

It brings up old memories...

You'd left it open on a private tab one night, and he found it when you asked him to look up something

He's about ready to cry, really, but he's strong

For you

He encourages you to get help, professional help

And if you decline, he doesnt push it much further

Instead, he offers you help directly

He cofiscates your razors the best he can, but he soon finds you manage to get them anyway

So he comprimises

When you forget to clean them, he does it for you

Buys you disinfectant and fresh bandages every time he knows youre running low, keeps your first aid stocked

Things like that

He politely asks to not be shown any fresh wounds, twitter post or not, and does his best not to think about the fact you post these things so openly and he hadn't even known

If you do decide to seek help, he's the most supportive.

He keeps you on your recovery plan, holds you close if you relapse, and never passes a single word of judgement your way

He's here for you, always

Atsushi Nakajima

Akutagawa found it before he did

Atsushi was told, immediately

He PANICS, and as soon as he sees you he pulls you aside

And he just cries into your arms

You're left so confused like?

What????

He understands why you didnt tell him, and he doesnt blame you for it

But he's still pretty upset

Moreso with himself than you

Again, like the other two, you'd been posting pictures of it all online and he had to be told!

He insists you get help, and he wont let up on it

Reminds you every day after a nicely times good morning text

"If you're feeling down make sure you call somebody before you do anything, okay?"

He's practically on his hands and knees begging you to unfollow the shtwt's you've bombarded your feed with

Suddenly he's terrified of looking over your shoulder at your phone, but also so afraid every time he isnt

He's really not good at sorting it out, his brain is scrambled and he's panicked every time he thinks about it

But he really does try hard to stay positive

And while one or two things he says may unintentionally come off as judgement, a good majority of his opinions on the topic is really just trying to get you help

He makes an alt account just to keep tabs on your shtwt

Its really obvious, made a day ago and following only you

You don't tell him that though<3

#sh trigger #ana trigger #minor tw #bsd #bungo stray dogs #dazai osamu #chuuya nakahara #dazai #dazai x reader #x reader #bsd x reader #chuuya x reader #requests open #atsushi x reader #atsushi nakajima #bsd atsushi #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #x reader comfort #dazai x reader comfort #chuuya x reader comfort #atsushi x reader comfort #x male reader #x female reader #x gn reader #dazai x male reader #dazai x female reader #dazai x gn reader #chuuya x male reader #chuuya x female reader

[actress4him]

Overexposure - Tears

(Prompt #30 for Summer of Whump)

Taglist: @inky-whump , @michelleswhumpyreblogs

Previous | Next | Masterlist

Warnings: lady whumpee (male whumper), captivity, creepy/intimate whumper, broken ribs, referenced stress positions, referenced sensory deprivation, referenced kidnapping, restraints, gag, locked in a closet

.

.

Another gallery exhibition.

Another evening gown, another diamond necklace.

Another night of smiles and laughter and glasses of champagne and a possessive grip on her waist while her legs threaten to buckle beneath her.

She almost thought that the people attending this party, these that wanted ‘raw and primitive’ photos, would look a bit more primitive themselves. But no, they’re indistinguishable from the last group, all sharp tuxedos and beautiful gowns and elegant socializing. The thought that there are so many people out there who like this kind of thing, who will pay so much money just to see these messed-up photos of her, makes her dizzy.

Though perhaps that’s just the lack of good food and sleep. Her mind isn’t processing well enough to tell the difference.

It never helps that she’s finally faced with the product of her torment, all over the walls and impossible for her to ignore.

A close-up of her face, bruises painting her cheeks, pupils blown wide and metal glinting across her throat.

An artistically angled shot taken from the floor up at her bent, straining body, shoulders contorted backwards and on the verge of dislocation.

Her figure huddled in a tiny ball in the shadows, face half-covered by a black blindfold and red headphones...so, he was taking pictures while she waited in that corner.

Every direction she turns brings back another, unwanted memory. Ellery wants to scream, to cover her ears and shut her eyes and make it all disappear. She’d even be happy going back to her tiny basement cell if it meant not having to see or hear any more of this party.

Throughout the evening she hears so many people complimenting Lucas on how ‘realistic’ the photos are, quizzing him on how on earth he manages to create such effects. Others seem less naïve, approaching him with knowing smirks and gleams in their eye, casting obvious glances up and down her body as if they still haven’t been satiated.

At the first exhibition she had been blown away by how so many people could be so blind. Now she’s beginning to wonder how many of them actually are.

All of it - the stress, the pain, the sorrow, the hunger and exhaustion - just keeps building, an unending pressure behind her eyes and underneath her ribs. She’s on the verge of either bursting into tears or exploding into tiny pieces when another man approaches them.

His hands are empty of champagne, unlike most, and instead of immediately turning on all the charm for Lucas, his brown eyes lock onto her with the smallest of smiles.

“You’re quite the beautiful model. May I know the name of the lady who made these intriguing portraits?”

“This is Sarah,” Lucas answers for her. It’s the name he’s given anyone who’s asked, though there haven’t been many. “And you are?”

“Henry Longmire.” As pretentious a name as any she’s heard tonight. The man seems to have to drag his gaze away from her in order to focus on Lucas. “It’s an honor to be able to meet both of you in person. I have to admit, I knew of your work for a long time, but it was only when Miss Sarah here became your muse that it truly caught my attention.” His eyes go straight back to her, his smile growing into something that she could almost label kind if she didn’t know better.

“Yes, she’s been rather popular. Glad to know you found something that strikes your fancy.”

“If I may...I’ve read some quotes from him online about his process, but I’m curious about yours. Your expressions in the photos seem so...genuine. How do you go about getting into the headspace for this kind of thing?”

For a long moment Ellery just stares at him, uncomprehending of the fact that he’s actually asking her a direct question. No one ever speaks to her at these events, they only speak of her and at her. It’s only when Lucas’ hand moves from her back to her arm, squeezing threateningly in the very spot where he knows her one long sleeve is covering up the still-healing knife wound, that she realizes she has to answer. She has to lie. She’s not sure if she can even speak without her voice trembling, much less come up with a convincing response.

Her lips part, brain reeling, and she lets the words slip out, hoping against hope that whatever she’s about to say won’t get her a beating later.

“It just...comes naturally.”

Lucas’ grip eases, and she wants to crumple with relief. But Henry Longmire isn’t done yet.

“How did you decide to get into this particular kind of modeling?”

Her mind goes completely blank. The last response wasn’t even particularly a lie, but this...how is she supposed to come up with a story for this on the spot? Lying was never her strong suit to start with, and now she’s working on night after night of sleep interrupted by pain and not having eaten since yesterday morning because Lucas, as usual, was ‘in the zone’ and forgot to feed her.

“I...i-it…”

“It wasn’t her idea.” The tight grip on her arm has returned, sending throbs of pain up to her shoulder. “She had never even modeled before, actually, if you can believe that!” Lucas laughs aloud at his own joke. “I first saw Sarah at the restaurant where she was working as a waitress, and I thought to myself, ‘This is the girl I need for this idea of mine.’ Because I had had this image in my mind for ages, and I was just waiting for the perfect model to come along. So I approached her, and asked her about it, and she was interested, and, well…” He waves a hand around the room. “As you can see, she’s a natural.”

The restaurant. Of course, how had she not realized before? All this time, she had wondered why me? Why and how did he pick me, of all people? And perhaps she still didn’t know why, but at least she now knew how. Suddenly she could picture him, sitting at a booth a few tables down from hers, nursing a coffee and just...staring. She’d laughed with the other girls that night about what a creep he was, but had then promptly forgotten he existed. Creeps happened all the time. He wasn’t anything special, or so she had thought.

The story he had told just now seemed to be essentially the truth, only there had been no ‘approaching’ or ‘interest’. Only hands grabbing her in the darkness of a parking lot, then nothingness, and waking up in a cell.

“Hm.” Henry nods, but he almost seems...skeptical? Except a second later he’s flashing a smile and all traces of whatever she saw are gone. “That’s quite interesting. So Miss Sarah, what’s it like for you? Do you ever, I don’t know, get scared of him, when he’s getting you ready for these photos?”

Why is he asking her this? Is he...does he...care? Does he know something is up? She wouldn’t dare to hope, not after last time, except there’s just something off about him, something different than all the other people they’ve spoken to. Lucas, unfortunately, seems to sense it, too. Not only has he gone back to squeezing her arm, but he’s stiff beside her, not at all liking the direction of these questions.

Questions. Oh, no, she has to answer another one. Another lie. Does she get scared of him? Well, no. Not really. She doesn’t get scared of him, she lives in a constant state of fear of what he’ll do to her next.

“No.” It’s all she can manage, not even a fake smile to go with it. But in the mindset of it not actually being a lie, her voice is steady.

“Of course not,” Lucas adds on, and his voice is as stiff as his body. “She knows I’d never actually hurt her. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I believe there is another guest waiting.”

“Of course.” Henry Longmire gives a respectful nod and backs away, but she’s fairly certain she’s not imagining the way that his gaze lingers on her, brow furrowed in...thought? concern? She tries to push it from her mind, tries not to let hope build.

The exhibition drags on, and she loses track of the man in the never-ending stream of clinking glasses and twittering laughter. She’s so, so tired. Tired of pretending, tired of being stared at, tired of, in turn, staring at herself being tortured. But most of all just tired.

When Lucas drags her across the room toward yet another group that he wants to speak to, her legs finally decide they’ve had enough of supporting her weight. She stumbles, only saved from hitting the floor by his other hand coming up and catching her around the middle, uncaring of the ribs that still haven’t healed and probably won’t as long as they keep getting abused like this.

Several of the people in the vicinity gasp, as if they’re actually concerned, as if they actually care if she gets hurt.

And it’s finally too much. Ellery can’t stop the sob anymore than she can keep from dropping all of her weight into Lucas’ arms, forcing him to lower her to the floor. Tears flood her cheeks, desperate to escape after an entire evening of being held back, and a small part of her has the presence to hope that they’ll wash away the makeup hiding her bruises. Maybe then, maybe finally someone will actually, really see her.

A small crowd has gathered, hovering over her, and the claustrophobia of it only serves to intensify her sobs. She just wants this to be over, wants to go home, but she knows, beyond the hitching breaths that bend her in half and send stabs of pain through her chest, that she’s only made things worse for herself. She can’t look at Lucas right now. She knows he has to be incredibly angry.

“It’s alright, folks, just give her some space. It seems our lovely model here has twisted her ankle.” Because of course he would have a lie ready for this. “You know how women are with their shoes. Can’t pick something practical.” As he laughs he slips off her shoe, the gold stiletto that he had made her put on.

A few guests titter with laughter, some offer coos of sympathy. Lucas stands and shoos them away. “Everyone please, continue enjoying yourselves. I’m going to take Sarah to get some ice for her ankle and a bit of rest, and I’ll return shortly.”

She wishes he would get her some ice, it sounds heavenly for her ribs about now. Somehow she doubts whatever he’s taking her to will be nearly as pleasant.

Scooping her up in his arms like he’s her Prince Charming, Lucas parades her across the room to much admiration. Somewhere just before they reach the door that leads further into the building, Ellery spots Henry Longmire again, and their eyes meet. Once again, she’s struck with the thought that maybe, just maybe, he sees her. He sees, if not what’s going on, at least that something isn’t right.

She can’t speak to him. She can’t even give him some kind of signal, not without Lucas seeing. But she tries her best to send a message with her eyes - help me, please - before they disappear into the back hallway.

“I don’t know what came over you, but that was unacceptable,” Lucas hisses as soon as they’re alone. He drops her feet unceremoniously, and she struggles to regain her footing while still being carted down the hall by her arm.

This place is unfamiliar to her other than the actual gallery hall, so when they stop in front of an innocuous door she has no idea what’s inside. Lucas pulls a ring of keys out of his pocket, unlocking the door and revealing what seems to be a janitorial closet. Obviously he had stored some things here ahead of time, because the handcuffs that he reaches for don’t seem like they belong.

“You will stay right here,” he orders, wrenching her arms behind her back to cuff her, “and ‘ice your ankle’ until I come back for you.” He pulls something else off the same shelf, but she doesn’t get a glimpse of what it is before it’s pressing up against her lips. The angry look on his face warns her not to resist, to simply open her mouth and allow the knotted fabric to be slipped inside. He steps behind her, pulling the gag tight so that it cuts into her cheeks and yanking strands of her hair as he ties it.

Tears continue to slide down her cheeks, but they fall silently now.

“And if you kick, or scream, or generally make noise and try to get someone’s attention, your punishment tonight will be twice as bad.”

Shoving her forward, he slams the door shut and locks it again, leaving her to wait in the pitch darkness.

#summerofwhump #summerofwhump30 #crying #overexposure #ellery the model #whump #whump writing #lady whump #lady whumpee #creepy/intimate whumper #captivity whump #broken ribs #broken bones tw #stress position #sensory deprivation tw #kidnapping tw #restraints tw #gag tw #locked in #whump photography #original fiction

[relaxxattack]

ayo! (wait this might be a bit of a jumpscare dishdks i apologize) i’m op of That Post and was wondering what your opinions were on the whole woobification thing? /gen

because it’s a Tiny Bit widespread within the dream apologists to sort of,, overdramatize stuff like l’manberg hurting him. like they’re not a 100% wrong but if you look at it subjectively you can see some sort of bias going into that sort of thing that makes the character’s mistreatment a bit more blatant and intentional which,, it really wasn’t? and there wasn’t That Much of it either. especially on twitter (tumblr is much better about it) people just jump to conclusions it seems and yeah. since you brought it up i was wondering if you wanted to write a bit about it from your perspective!

we’re kinda from different corners of the fandom but i still notice that once you are too attached to a character you start taking certain evidence and giving it more weight than it actually has. there’s a blurry line between “taking away a character’s humanity” and woobification and it’s extremely difficult to find a balance when said character shows pretty much nothing of his emotional life (e. g. putting up the intimidating villain act in front of only c!tommy, pretty much everything he does making rational sense with no emotional subtext) and a lot of the fandom instantly jumps to one side or the other while it’s like.

we don’t know by far enough to say “he’s traumatized” or “he isn’t traumatized” or “he was villainized and it hurt him” or “l’manberg didn’t affect him at all”

as a very analytical person people constantly jumping to conclusions grinds my gears, but that’s about it for my own view of the situation - sorry for the rambling.

in general i agree with you that both dehumanization and woobification is Bad and i really hope getting Actual Context sorts this out (e. g. him saying he was betrayed by his friends doesn’t mean it wasn’t partially his fault or that they were allowed to leave him, but it also shows that he did care about that happening. mentioning the cat doesn’t mean anything about what happened to c!tommy but it also shows that he did care about what happened to it. it’s just always interesting to get more information about the way he feels because he usually does a very good job at hiding it.) because man.

it’s like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially if you also are attached to the character and are expected to automatically agree with everything the people on “your side” say. it just ends up with everyone being mad and the character being mischaracterised overall.

oh wow hello! i didnt expect the op of the post to find me you’re right lol

and yes i agree! you seem to have a lot of very good thoughts tbh.

and by woobification, i mean exactly what you’ve already pointed out— the people who will say l’manberg purposely villainized dream, the people who will say wilbur faked his mental illness to manipulate dream, the people who are pretty much always talking about how badly dream was treated by people who were acting only fairly for themselves, usually.

for example people who act like dream was a perfect peacemaker before tommy showed up, or that tommy started most conflict. these are just actual lies that are told by c!dream himself to justify his abuse of tommy, and people fall for them incredibly easily because not a lot of people watched early dsmp and know that truthfully it was chaotic even then, and that dream was chaotic too. not to mention wilbur soot tried very hard to secede peacefully with l’manberg and dream jumped directly into war with no warning. and then people say he was forced into their war when, no, he started it.

theres also people who will say like, dream and sapnap for example are such good friends. i’m sure they cared for each other, but dream on multiple occasions has done horrible things to sapnap with no regard for his feelings (like leading fundy to sapnaps pets during the petwar, leading tommy to sapnaps pets during the other petwar and encouraging him to kill them, handing mars over to tommy to use as leverage against sapnap, etc). george he’s been less awful too but he certainly spoke over him and ignored his feelings enough that george felt hurt. he had places in his hall of attachments for beckerson and mars. george and sapnap were right to walk away from being treated like that.

there’s also what you just said here — “dream puts on a villain persona for tommy”— but honestly he acts like that around quite a few people (example: eret) and it’s usually when he’s revealing crucial info, which leads me and many others to believe that ‘persona’ is actually a more truthful version of him.

there’s the fact that he really isn’t safe for people to be around (or at least he wasn't before the prison) because he was planning to come up with ways to control every single person by stealing and threatening their attachments (some of which were not items but were living animals, or a real breathing person).

and then people will say dream was doing exile to enforce rules, or to keep the peace— when it’s very clear in canon it was a deliberate plan to get tommy on his own and into the prison. (from the way he was framing tommy for multiple crimes, and having sam set up the prison, and kidnapping tommy instead of correctly exiling him, all at the same time).

not even going into how he wants to kill and revive people for fun or make tommy immortal.

it’s just— ignoring all these actual facts and saying “oh he misses his friends, let’s get him some friends now” reminds me of like. when people would put flower crowns on pictures of serial killers. and then, there’s hardly anyone on the server who wasn’t subject to dream’s plans, so there’s absolutely no one i would be okay with him interacting with.

just remembered about the torture thing, and wow i still hate it so much. it’s someone’s sick revenge fantasy twisted into a way to get a manipulative villain sympathy, and it’s just gross to me on every account. i do think dream is traumatized-- just not by l’manberg, which was a conflict he started on his own terms. i would think l’manberg did affect him, because he was scared of losing control.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again— my ideal ending for dream would be for him to be sent far away from dsmp to an island full of therapy animals and super strong therapists who have never met him before. and for him to get a shit ton of therapy until he becomes a halfway normal person. and then eventually he could get integrated into society again; but a different one with new people. (although maybe dteam + bbh + puffy can visit him, they might still like him.)

none of the people on the server (who have all been affected by dream) should be burdened with befriending him or rehabilitating him— look how that turned out with sam! sam had a personal grudge towards dream and it ended with the poor dude being tortured every day; and sam himself falling into corruption and literally cutting off his boyfriends arm. like we can all see thats fucking awful right?

no one who was affected by dream should have to deal with him ever again. and contrary to popular belief, that includes a LOT more people then just tommy. dream isn’t just tommy’s antagonist, hes almost everybody’s.

the only person on the server who might also be able to stand to help dream is techno, and that’s from sheer lack of ability to give a shit. but techno is probably THE furthest thing from a good therapist there is lol, and dream needs better then that.

this kind of just ended up being a rant about my thoughts on c!dream, so im so sorry op. especially since it was probably negative for you. i hope you’re doing very well.

i guess in the end it’s true what you said— people will highlight or ignore things based on what characters they like, and it’s especially easy to do in this fandom, where half the content doesn’t even get watched and then we become a big echo chamber of half-truths.

considering dream has hurt so many of the characters i care about, i almost can’t understand how he could be someone’s favorite or comfort character— but he is nonetheless, and it would be unfair of me to be rude about that.

essentially it just bothers me to see someone who was a perpetrator of accurately portrayed abuse and manipulation (using both those words in their actual definitions, not just as random buzzwords lol) being given the flower crown edit effect. especially since he’s hurt the characters i care about a lot.

ANYWAY all of that being said (this got LONG im so sorry op) i am so so excited to get dream’s pov, because although i disagree with his actions strongly i actually find dream’s character very interesting and cool, and watching his POV is going to insanely fun. i cannot wait to see what theories get confirmed or denied

ALSO incase it wasn’t clear this is all /nm at you! you seem lovely and smart, and neither of us can help what characters we get attached to :]

#c!dream critical #dream meta #og post #hey guys i would actually like some feedback on this one since i worked hard on it #rbs are okay and encouraged :] #my meta

[smolstarthief]

Your Accomplice Au looks cool, I wanna know more pls

O-Oh! Thanks! Well, besides the basic description I gave with those edits, I don't have much else planned out (keep in mind that this came about from me freaking out on Twitter about the idea of shipping Zenkichi and Konoe and a later convo with a mutual). But I guess more description is in order!

Their backstories are still the same but prior the events of Strikers, they end up encountering each other somehow (I haven't figured out how yet but maybe he was assigned to be a bodyguard or something? Either that or he was dragged by Kaburagi to an event he held? It's not set in stone) and they strike up a conversation.

Zenkichi sympathizes with Konoe's hardships while Konoe expresses his own sympathies to him about Aoi's death (more reason for Owada to be on his shit list since he was planning on backstabbing him anyway).

They become close until Konoe trusts him enough to reveal his secret about how he's using the Metaverse along with his findings and plans with it. Now Zenkichi would normally be horrified but Konoe then gives him a tempting offer: He helps him with his skills and connections to the force along with another thing he will discuss with him later and in exchange he will be able to avenge Aoi and bring down Owada for good, making the world safer for his daughter. THAT is what ends up clinching it and he agrees but on the condition that Akane doesn't get dragged into it (spoiler: She does anyway). The deal is made.

As for the other thing he mentioned? That is where Zenkichi awakens his Persona by being dragged into the now deserted Okinawa Jail as more or less an experiment. After being overwhelmed by Shadows and awakening Valjean, Konoe's version of the Black Mask is born as Zen tears them all apart. Of course, Konoe takes the time to make sure he recovers from the ordeal.

Now Zen's tasks are different than Akechi's as he mostly resorts to torture in both the real world and Metaverse if needed and is sent on those changes of heart that are mentioned in the game (the ones not caused by the other Monarchs themselves). Basically he starts up the change of heart epidemic while under Konoe's employ.

Now one thing about their relationship: It starts out as being more of a transaction/exchange so to speak. One benefitting from the other with Konoe at first viewing Zen as a pawn to be used. That and some occasional... Ahem, distractions if needed. Zen's feelings start to change as he desires to be more closer than that with Konoe not exactly wanting to get attached at first (ironic huh?), mostly faking how he feels at first to keep Zen around before possibly throwing him away when his plan is a success. But naturally they become real and legitimate and expresses it as such, wanting his little "Attack Dog" to be by his side forever.

Now onto the main game, Zen still joins the PTs on the road trip but mostly to act as a mole for Konoe. He DOES get attached to the kids a bit but Konoe came first. The meeting at the Madicce building is actually when Konoe gives him a risky idea: He will make Zen the Kyoto Monarch in an attempt to catch the PTs. Zen is hesitant due to the potential risks but Konoe reassures him and even gives him a glimpse of what his Jail would look like and he finally agrees.

The Kyoto arc continues as usual except the false message from Akane is from Zenkichi's Shadow while the real Akane is actually alone at her house after he leaves for "business reasons." The girl starts to suspect something is wrong, hell, she had been suspicious for a while now. But she brushes it off as him being a selfish asshole that she thought he was. That is until she decides to go to his old hideout and she finds a distraught Futaba who tries to explain the situation and Akane is just... Stunned. Not only were those kids she befriended the famous Phantom Thieves but her father basically more or less lost it. She still has mixed feelings about him but ultimately decides to go in the Jail herself with Futaba guiding her (FutaKane maybe?).

She confronts her father before he could forcefully change everyone's hearts and he actually hesitates before suddenly snapping at her. His mind is a mess from being put into the Monarch position despite him agreeing to it. His Persona is screaming at him to stop but he refuses. Akane is horrified when he reveals what he had been doing and all for the sake of Konoe and avenging his wife like Akane would have wanted along with keeping the world safe for her. Akane doesn't believe that this Shadow is her father, the one who despite his faults genuinely loved and cared about her and her mother. While he clearly still does, his morals and character are gone.

It's with that realization that she awakens to her own Persona (who it's based off of, I haven't decided yet).

After the eventual fight against him, she asks him why he really did it and why he would help someone like Konoe with the PTs offering him to join them. He refuses and contently says that Konoe gave him new meaning to his life and the he loves him, plain and simple, before vanishing. Akane is horrified and heartbroken in response before fully blaming Konoe for taking away the only family she has left.

He feels terrible for his failure when he wakes up at Konoe's place. Thankfully his Persona is back and still in his control. Both men agree to fight the PTs themselves.

Side note: When the PTs explore the zoo section of Konoe's Jail, Zenkichi is not seen among the Monarchs on display. They're confused as they are all convinced that Konoe manipulated and used him (Akane especially).

When they confront him, Akane yells at him for what he did to her father. Konoe's Shadow promptly spells out two things:

He WAS using Zen but his feelings ended up being legitimate.

That while Zen was no saint in everything that happened between him and Akane in the past and present, Akane wasn't either as her OWN (bratty) selfishness and negligence blinded her to every potential red flag that might have been present up until it was too late. Like what Zen ended up doing in canon, AKANE drove her own father away.

Akane just freezes in shock since he was actually right in a way. All she had ever done was yell at her dad, made everything about how SHE (and she alone) was affected by Aoi's death and refusing to empathize with him nor look at the bigger picture despite the fact that they were both grieving for the same reason, just handled said grief differently.

The rest basically goes the same as canon at best. At least for now. Phew! That was a doozy to write but yeah! That's basically it so far! ^_^

#starchild rambles #starchild answers #asks #persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #p5s #p5s spoilers #zenkichi x konoe #konozen #zenkichi hasegawa #akira konoe #akane hasegawa #accomplice au

[watchinglikeafangirl]

Lovely Writer Episode 11 - analysis

I'm still not quite over yesterday's episode and I have a lot of thoughts about it, so I just need to get it out of my system and write yet another analysis because I'm so much invested.

I saw some people saying this week's episode was the weakest of them all and I can only disagree because in my opinion, Lovely Writer gets better week after week. The weakest episode so far was the first one. The truth about Nubsib is revealed pretty slowly and you can only see the entire picture after ep 7 or something and I believe this is very well done. First, Lovely Writer is about Nubsib and who he is and this show thankfully doesn't get boring as soon as we get to know everything. Then, another conflict steps up and they deal with the angst of them coming out to, not only their parents, but basically the whole world. It's just a very interesting and clever storywriting because it feels like the creators of this show know what they are talking about.

Sexuality

Just because I've seen this post about the dinner Gene has with his friends in ep 4, I'm gonna talk about how his sexuality is handled and how much he grows with it. Gene never has a real conflict with his sexuality, at least it never seems that way. He has his moments with Nubsib and when they kiss, he likes it a lot but it's never a topic. He never says "I'm gay" but you can feel that he's not uncomfortable because Nubsib is a man but because Nubsib is invading his personal space. When Gene has dinner with his friends, they ask him more than once if he is gay or not. This whole scene was just very awkward and Gene doesn't really give them any answer. He doesn't deny it but he doesn't clarify it either. It's just a vibe we're getting that he's sure he's not straight. But this is an unspoken truth and I believe, he is not ready to clarify it yet because he doesn't want to say anything if he's not 100% sure.

Later in the show, Gene clarifies his sexuality alongside his sort of love confession when he shouts at his father. I find this extremely powerful because Gene waits until he's really in love with someone until he says anything about his sexuality. Like him falling for a man was his verification. And after he said it and stood up for it, he's a lot more relaxed and self-confident. He never denies it, even when his father first looks like he's not approving the relationship, because that's who he is. That is his identity.

Them vs the outside

It's something I've already addressed in my other analyses, but this devide returns every single episode. The first 20mins of this episode, we get cute SibGene scenes in Nubsib's apartment and it's basically them just being happy boyfriends. But then, Hin calls and the fairytale is over. The real world is back and it's again, nothing positive. As soon as the outside invades their lives again, the amount of couple moments stops and things are more serious now. Here, the problem grows slowly until it's huge and over these, I guess, 70mins, every argument and point of view is presented to then draw a big picture of the whole conflict itself and the tough decision they have to make. First, we have Gene not worrying, then him saying their love is between two people only, then Bua saying others rely on this and then Tum's sister saying fans are going wild. It's a lot to take and right before the big blow, we get a scene of Gene and Nubsib just holding each other (here). They still haven't seen the entirety of this problem and believe they will overcome it.

They feel sort of untouchable now that they have promised each other grand things and all that. They overcame the fight with the parents and bonded even more over it, so nothing could come between them. That's why we don't get their reactions to the Tweets, because they feel invincible and don't really worry about it. It is a sign of their seriousness and belief that they are strong together.

This episode started with their "love being between two people" and ended with their "love breaking beause of other people".

Love vs reputation

This brings me to this section of my analysis. The problem with this conflict is that there is no right solution and I still don't know what I would've done. Nubsib doesn't care about others but Gene does. It's a dilemma with no right or wrong. Both sides are understandable. The problem is that they both misunderstand each other. Gene thinks Nubsib is selfish and Nubsib thinks Gene only cares about others. Right now, they can't have both: love and the others. It's either one of them and both options mean a great sacrifice.

Repuation means a lot in the show business and even though Nubsib doesn't seem to care about it, it's very important and what the film industry relies on. His love for Gene causes the whole production to collapse and backfire because "SibAoey is not true". Their real love feels like a crime because it could mean the end for a few people (talking about Tum). So, it's love vs reputation, truth vs lie and them vs the outside.

In the end, Gene doesn't want to cause even more damage. He choses to damage two lives in order to keep hundreds save and I totally get where he is coming from but he's sacrificing his happiness. Nubsib was his redemption. A door to love and the end of loneliness. Now, Gene is back where he was and even more closeted now.

But his decision is very in character because he has proven before that he has his shell he's crawling into whenever things get too tense. He shuts the world and everyone else out in order to be alone in his head. So, he even pushes Nubsib away even though Nubsib showed him a happy life outside of that shell which is why Gene porbably feels really depressed living alone. If you once get to see, taste and feel happiness, you can't just let go and forget it.

During the break-up we even see Nubsib changing his mind (mentioned here). First, he wants to convince Gene to see things like he does and is not ready to change his mind. But then he realizes Gene is still the creator of "Bad Engineer". He put a lot of work and heart into the novel and Nubsib's solution to the problem would cause peple to badmouth Gene's story. So, Nubsib is ready to even agree to the option the company presented: only meeting in private. But Gene is so worked up at this point and has made up his mind that he sees no point in them being together and storms off to go back into his nutshell. In this moment, hiding seems to be easier for him than enduring the confrontation.

Protection of the fairytale

As I already said, Gene and Nubsib live in their fairytale and up until now we thought Nubsib is the only one who would do everything to protect it and prevent the outside from stepping in - and people still think that. But guys, don't forget that Gene knew about the Twitter thing as well. He also didn't address the issue. He also wanted to protect this faitytale and happiness.

This protection of what's very dear to them got puched in the face during the tough meeting. There's a lot of pressure and they have to decide what to do. They have no time to discuss and come to an agreement. People want answers right now, so each of them doesn't know what to do and just seeks understanding in each other's face. Nubsib and Gene don't sit next to each other to make the decision together, unlike the coming out to the parents when Nubsib took Gene's hand. This time, they look at each other with a look of horror and that's simply all they can do. They can't hold hands to reasure each other they will endure this no matter what (mentioned here).

What this show always showed is that Gene and Nubsib are strong together. They might act tough sometimes but they are both weak in a way that they need each other, that they need to lean onto each other. But that's not possible here and this protection of the fairytale no longer exists and is no longer possible. They can't protect their hearts right now and don't even have a chance. It feels like a metaphor to predict what is about to come. It's "a heart ripped in two" or "two hands ripped apart" if you want to be dramatic.

Nubsib

I still can't tell who Nubsib is. I feel we're lacking of information about him. Does he have any hobbies? Does he have at least one friend? Does he have a life apart from Gene? I feel like I'm watching Twilight. When Gene was driving back to his apartment and left Nubsib on the bed, I got really excited for a second we would finally see what he does in his alonetime but no, they cut to Gene and Hin's talk.

But really guys, what does Nubsib do when he's alone? Gene seems to be his hobby, his friend, his life...talking about toxicness here. And Gene still doesn't see it...

Aoey

Well, what should I say? I have no sympathy or pity left for him. I already analyzed his behavior this episode here and don't want to repeat myself.

Conclusion

This episode, again, contained a lot of angst, tension and uncomfort. Things were crashing down again and I just have to shout out to the actors and director and all of them. The scene of the break-up had me crying for 10mins and when Nubsib said "don't cry", I broke. Honestly. This made everything even more bittersweet and painful because you can feel the love they have and Nubsib still cares a lot, so he tries to comfort Gene but Gene pushes him away. It is an act of desperation. Nubsib doesn't want Gene to leave and tries to make it better but in the end Gene has made his decision.

But, but, but, what is going on with Tiffy? Why is she mistrusting Tum so much and pushes him away again? And why the hell doesn't she say anything to Aoey and believes his mindgames? Does she know something I don't? Can she tell what's real and what isn't? Because I can't and I'm usually good at reading people. And where is Mhok? Did Aoey scare him away? Did he just give up? So many questions and no answers.

I'm excited for next week!

#lovely writer #gene x nubsib #aoey #so much angst #the realism hurt #but so good

[lightsandlostbells]

wtFOCK season 3, episode 1 reaction

So! It’s a million years too late, but I decided to talk about wtFOCK season 3. 

I had fairly positive feelings about S1 of wtFOCK. It was the scrappy underdog of the Skam remakes, in a way, and what it lacked in polish, it made up for authenticity. I was very willing to overlook its flaws because of what I perceived as genuine attempts to connect with teenagers. I was really, really holding out hope that future seasons would improve on its flaws. And ... well. (Disclaimer: I still haven’t seen S2. Sorry! I just failed to keep up with all the remakes and S2 is my least fave so I didn’t feel that motivated to make it a priority, even though I did like Zoë a lot in S1.)

Heads up - I didn’t care for this season. A lot of people did, and I would never, ever want to ruin someone’s enjoyment of something, even if I personally didn’t like it. So please take this as a warning that I have a lot of negative things to say, and don’t read if it’s going to harsh your buzz for a pairing or a story that you deeply love. However, I didn’t want to just be grumpy and angry the whole time, so I tried to think of constructive ways to fix certain problems I had with this season. No guarantees that they’re satisfying solutions, but it was an interesting exercise.

Also, I didn’t watch this in real time, and I paid barely any attention to fandom reactions and/or drama, so it’s very possible that I am missing context, or that pacing issues didn’t register with me quite as strongly, etc. If one of the actors ate a live dolphin on Instagram, and then got into a fight with fans on Twitter about their right to eat live dolphins, and now fandom has canceled the problematic dolphin-eating actor, I legit do not know, do not come at me if I’m like “This actor is doing a good job” with “Wow, didn’t know you stanned dolphin-eaters??? YIKES.” Honestly, for the purposes of just grading this season on a storytelling level, I would prefer not to know anything about the cast or crew unless it directly has an impact on the show itself.

Clip 1 - House party

OK, I did like this flashy intro shot, immersing us in the Wild ‘n’ Crazy Teen Party of Wild ‘n’ Crazy Youths.

Amber rejecting every dude in site … When Will Gay Vilde Rise. (I know there have been some f/f storylines in the remakes, but if there’s one involving an actual Vilde, please let me know.)

Luca saying “We’re not walking around in a high school drama” - you can hear the rimshot.

I do like the transition from the party up to the bathroom, that’s a cool shot. wtFOCK’s directing so far is more ambitious than it was in S1.

Robbe is clearly a mess and they acknowledge his problems at home right off the bat.

We go back downstairs. wtFOCK’s version of Magnus knocks his drink on Amber and she gets pissed. She gives him the finger and he falls in love. Still a better love story than S3 Daphne/Basile.

It’s a small point, but I don’t get why we didn’t get this moment before jumping up to the bathroom with Robbe and the others? It would be a far smoother transition, just on a practical level and also in the sense of fully immersing us in Robbe’s POV after a quick update with the other characters.

Belgian Magnus joins the guys in the bathtub and announces he’s in love. They roast him when they find out it’s Amber and start talking about hot chicks. Moyo starts grilling Robbe about his type of girl, in a crass, sexual way.

This is honestly not a bad start to Robbe’s story at all. Robbe is clearly more reluctant to get into his interest in girls than Isak was - Isak was more fuckboyish from the start, Robbe seems like he’s about to start squirming and doesn’t really give an answer to Moyo’s questioning. Which is fine! I think it’s fine to start off the POV character at different stages of performing heterosexuality, as long as it’s taken into account in the writing of the character’s whole arc. The fact that the boy talk is so crude and sexual just ramps up Robbe’s alienation.

I swear, I will never understand how the girls in this scene just go into the bathroom and pee in front of strange boys … like maybe I am just a ~prude but that seems like a recipe for disaster and I would not trust those little fuckers to not be secretly recording me on the toilet.

Her peeing is kind of a power move, like marking her territory.

Also L M A O at Robbe starting to flirt with the girl while she is pissing … like now this comes off as a kink thing. OK, Robbe. Jokes aside, this gets across the same meaning as the scene with Isak: he starts to flirt with her because he was encouraged by the other guys.

Uh, flush the toilet, lady. And use some TP.

Now this version of Emma seriously radiates some Natalie Portman in The Professional vibes.

She orders him to stand up and then starts kissing him. I get way less of a vibe of Robbe’s mad game with women (like how Isak negged Emma into kissing him) and more like this girl is the love interest out of an indie romcom, all mysterious and spunky. She kisses him like once after taking his jay and then leaves. The boys all crack up. Moyo tells Robbe it’s his responsibility to get the weed back which lmao, no it’s not, all you assholes were there and could have intervened.

This scene is perfectly fine and even effective! Not entirely the same vibes as OG, but it still has a purpose and some obvious cause-and-effect, and there are some nice stylistic choices.

Clip 2 - Party pt. 2

Robbe is now making out with mystery girl. We already have a divergence in characterization from OG. Isak was being performative about making out with Emma and shut it down once the guys left. Robbe is making out with this girl because he wants to be straight, I guess? If it’s not to appeal to his friends, it’s likely that this is for himself. Again, I have no real problem with this change if it’s incorporated into Robbe’s overall arc and characterization. My thing is, if you’re writing this scene, do you realize the differences in characterization? Or do you think this is interchangeable from what happened with Isak? The latter is where you run into problems, because then the writing shows lack of nuance. I bring this up here because, well, you can guess how I feel about later events. 

Luca seems rather aggro about the mystery woman, which I assume is because she still has the hots for Robbe?

It makes me laugh that we got this first-person POV as Robbe leaves through the garage, because of the “Smack My Bitch Up” song being played in the last clip (the song had an infamous music video, banned from MTV in the ‘90s, that was from a first-person POV). But again, WTFock is trying harder with the cinematography and direction, good for them.

Robbe ditches the cops by jumping on the bike with Belgian Emma. OK, I get it, Belgian Emma is too cool for school. 

I have kinda mixed feelings on that, actually. I mean, I’ll be honest - I don’t see why any Emma has to be made into someone more palatable. Definitely don’t demonize her or present her in a misogynistic way! She deserves sympathy and dignity as much as any character on a Skam. But … it’s fine if she and the Isak aren’t like, amazingly compatible except for his sexuality. The Even character is supposed to be the one who really shakes up the Isak’s world! The Isak is supposed to be lost and confused and drifting and then Even comes in and is someone he can really open up to. Not just because he’s another guy who’s into guys, but because Even’s personality meshes with Isak’s so easily while still challenging him and introducing him to new things. In a way, it does kinda diminish the effect of the Even if the Isak meets ANOTHER mysterious stranger who’s an awesome person. Or at the very least, it lessens the feeling of the Isak’s detachment from everything.

And again, this could work if the writing realizes it. You can totally craft a subtly different arc from the pieces of Isak’s season. It’s just that (speaking from the future) I do not feel this is what happened.

Clip 3 - Tagging time

I don’t think it’s necessary to break up all the parts of a longer scene/set piece into a bunch of different clips. If you start a scene at 16:00, it’s OK to have the clip take place over several hours. You don’t need to chop it up unless there’s a reason why this pacing might benefit the story. Honestly, if you’re watching in real time, I think this method is often less effective at building tension/emotion/etc. But wtFOCK is not the first remake to try this tactic.

... this part where Robbe and Noor put on masks sure hits differently in 2020.

Belgian Emma’s name is Noor and she takes him to a warehouse, or something? It’s very secret and Cool Kid. And IDK, it’s fun, but again… I think making the Emma that much of a fun mysterious cool exciting person is very much diminishing the effect of Robbe’s isolation. We had a good start with establishing that alienation while he was in the tub, but now his reactions to her rad hipness feel way too sincere and act against the major character conflict of his season. He seems nervous to go with her, but not because he’s with a girl, just because it’s a risky scenario.

Noor hands Robbe a spray paint can and leads him to tag a wall. There’s  a guy taking pictures. So I’m assuming one of the guys in masks is the Even? The POV seems to shift to the photo guy briefly, like we’re seeing Robbe through his eyes. And even though I’m not a fan of POV breakage, I do think this is a cool way to introduce the Even without really introducing him, you know? If that’s him. (EDIT from the future: Ummm, so that wasn’t Sander, right? I’m rewatching and it doesn’t look like him. Soooo that part has even less relevance than I originally thought. Got it.) (EDIT from the future beyond the future: @hellswolfie tells me that this actually was Sander, so I am just bad at recognizing people, lol.)

Robbe and Noor take off their masks briefly to kiss. Uhhhh, did the scene really just … cut off there? Because L M A O what a weird choice. We don’t get to see what Robbe creates on the wall, which could be a great way to establish his character, AND we end with him on a smiley, contented note which does not boost his POV at all. It legit just makes him seem like a guy who’s into this girl, and sorry, even if that’s his public persona at this point in time … that’s not what we, the audience should be getting at all. 

Clip 4 - Boy squad morning after

Robbe skateboards to meet up with the guy squad. Again, the directing is far better IMO than in S1.

Robbe got the weed back so that conflict is over, I guess.

He gets a call from his mom and stops laughing with the guys and gets serious. He walks away to take the call. Then he starts to open up to Jens about his mom freaking out, and then Moyo spots some girls so they all ditch Robbe to go chase girls, and WOW, Jens, please turn in your Jonas card. 

Don’t love that we didn’t hear his mom on the phone. There’s no reason not to let us hear what she’s saying since it would be in Robbe’s POV AND as it turns out, they just tell us about the situation with his mom right off the bat, anyway, so it’s not like there’s much point in hiding it. 

This was effective in a sense to establish how girl-crazy his friends are, as well as setting up Robbe’s isolation, which I was worried wouldn’t come across as strongly after meeting Noor. But I think they could have NOT mingled in his mom issues to make this part more effective. Like if the goal was to show more of Robbe being alienated because he’s gay, then that’s not entirely successful, because there are non-gay reasons why Robbe wouldn’t join his pals on the girl chase. I mean, even a horny hetero Robbe might not want to chase girls with his bros because talking to his mom is a downer, so it’s not necessarily because of his sexuality. Plus he just found a girl he liked in Noor, so apparently, he’s not on the prowl. What this part IS communicating that the Belgian guy squad doesn’t have much interest in their friend’s family struggles, which ... ehhhh, maybe not great in the grand scheme of the storyline? These guys can be flawed, for sure, but we do need them to care about Robbe’s well-being. And Robbe tried to open up here, so the flaw is not in him, it’s in his friends. I’m going to let it slide because Jens was offering to help Robbe in the first clip, so it’s not like he’s been a totally insensitive friend this whole time. 

Clip 5 - Phone call from Robbe’s dad

Noor jumps on Robbe and they make out. She shows him the garage and they talk about the tagging world or w/e. Again, not sure why they are portraying Noor as like … a legit love interest. I don’t get much of a sense of discomfort from Robbe. Isak was just not into Emma and was uncomfortable when his bathroom flirting came back to haunt him. And I don’t think it’s TERRIBLE not to follow that route, but you can’t just make this huge change if you don’t account for it in future episodes and Robbe’s overall arc. (EDIT from the future: Which I don’t think they do, otherwise I wouldn’t care.) Every scene should count in furthering Robbe’s character, especially this early in the season where we’re just getting to know his particular struggles. If Robbe is trying to convince himself to like girls, then I want to see definite vulnerability in how that’s portrayed.

I blame the directing/writing more than the acting for the lack of discomfort, since I sensed Robbe’s lack of comfort just fine in the bathtub scene.

Makeouts get interrupted when Robbe’s dad calls. Again, not sure why we aren’t hearing both sides of the conversation? Because we’re in Robbe’s POV. Why wouldn’t we hear them? This seems like they just want to create some suspense or mystery over the situation with his parents. But it’s perfectly possible to do so while still letting us in on the phone calls. In fact, it’s arguably more intriguing to let us listen to some phone calls where we get some vague details but nowhere close to the whole story. It’s not like Robbe’s dad is going to explain the whole situation to his son in an exposition dump. We can get some crumbs to tease us, while still keeping us in Robbe’s POV and not feeling like the show is cutting corners.

Robbe gets mad at his dad and tells Noor he needs to be alone. Closeup on Noor as Robbe walks away. OK … why? Why on her and not Robbe when it’s his POV? Why the focus on Noor’s feelings when we really need to be establishing our protagonist’s mindset in the beginning of this season? I’m not saying her feelings don’t matter, I’m saying that well, this isn’t her story. It would be better to see Robbe’s pained reaction as he leaves.

Clip 6 - Robbe’s dad drama

Jens comes running up while Robbe is being sad. Robbe says that it may be necessary for him to stay with Jens because Robbe’s mom has been committed to a mental health institution and Robbe doesn’t want to stay with his dad. Ah, so I guess we’re hearing that right away. Which honestly makes not hearing his phone calls to his parents even funnier - like you lock us out of his POV arguably for the suspense, but then you end the suspense anyway by just telling us what happened a scene or two later? All right. I guess there’s suspense in that we don’t know exactly what’s up with the mom, mental health-wise, or the root of Robbe’s problems with his dad.

It occurs to me that maybe they just didn’t want to hire people to voice Robbe’s parents? Or put in the time to film both sides of the conversation? I have a hard time believing either of those because it’s so lazy, but. 

I mean, just turn the phone conversations into text conversations if you’re not going to let us listen to Robbe’s parents on the other end.

They go and play football without really resolving the situation. Sad music plays while Robbe joins in. Also, someone was calling Robbe, and I assume it was his dad, but it’s not shown.

These clips are VERY short and choppy so far. You could easily combine the last two, so Robbe is with Jens instead of Noor when he gets the other phone call from his dad, leading into this conversation.

We know immediately about Robbe’s mom’s situation instead of it being a mystery, like with Isak. Which, again, isn’t inherently wrong, but then I want them to DO SOMETHING with it. 

Clip 7 - Jens and Jana

Oh hey, Jana got her braces off! IDK if that happened last season or this one, but it was something I liked, seeing a teenage girl with braces on a teen drama. That rarely happens unless it’s a joke or a plot point.

OK, they really need to film Robbe’s phone so I can actually see who’s calling…

Jens tells Jana about Robbe’s parental situation. I’ll note that first she asks if something’s up with Noor, so news of the Robbe/Noor relationship must have traveled really fast since they’ve only just gotten together. Like Robbe and Noor are clearly dating, going off Jana’s comment, and not just hooking up. Then Belgian Magnus wants to know about hooking up with Amber. Meanwhile Robbe is having a conversation off screen with his dad? Guess it wasn’t important!

And that’s the problem, obviously. It’s his POV season, anything you decide to show SHOULD be important to his storyline. 

Also … it’s fine that we’re focusing on Robbe’s shit home life since that’s relevant to his story, but almost nothing in these clips has set up Robbe’s attraction to men, and only slightly his lack of interest in girls, which was negated by him seeming very interested in a girl afterwards. And knowing how long this season takes to get going with the Even character, it’s a pretty glaring omission.

So we don’t see Robbe’s phone call with his dad, but he gets snappy about it when Jens asks. One of the boys (I can’t tell who) says that Robbe’s on his period.  Gonna be real, I don’t care for this squad so far. 

What was the point of this clip? We already know Robbe is having problems with his dad, which is the most relevant part to the plot here. We shouldn’t be wandering from Robbe’s POV so much, but even taking that into account … we already know Belgian Magnus likes Amber, so that’s not necessary to establish. And we didn’t need to see Jens tell Jana something we already know. I assume he tells her so Zoë can find out and offer a room, but there’s no reason to see Jens tell Jana this, so. Filler clip. 

Clip 8 - Zoë and Robbe at the lockers

Yeah, Zoë offers Robbe a place to stay here, but again, we didn’t need to see the news travel down the Jens-Jana pipeline. It could have been condensed more efficiently.

Robbe doesn’t want to because he says his dad wouldn’t approve. Zoë says she hopes things get better with his mom and Robbe at first snaps and tells her to leave it, then says thanks. This is an actual good interaction, writing-wise, kudos.

I liked Zoë a lot in S1 and I like her here again. I really should watch her season despite my Noorhelm allergy. The scene of them kinda smiling at each other across the hallways reminds me that this is probably the strongest relationship in the whole season, tbh.

Why was this clip so short? So many of these clips could have been combined into one. I mean, Zoë could have said, “I heard from Jana who heard from Jens...” without us needing the previous clip. Although, did Robbe really want anyone else to know about his home life? Lol @ Jens just blabbing Robbe’s private business.

So I guess they didn’t set up the Eskild situation in S2 that would lead to Eskild offering Robbe a place to stay? 

Clip 9 - Robbe gets roommates

Robbe is in Zoë’s room. He sees her “everyone you know is fighting a battle” quote next to the mirror, which is a detail I actually quite like in context with the rest of this storyline and Even’s condition. It’s a good Skam thesis overall.

I guess Zoë met with Robbe’s dad. Zoë calls him a tough cookie. Robbe doesn’t want to speak to him. They bond a little over their parental problems. Again, a nice detail.

Belgian Eskild appears and teases Robbe a little before announcing that Robbe’s dad has agreed to let him stay in the flat. Yay!

Oh, so Senne is staying there, too? At least they didn’t do a pointless Noorhelm breakup in this version.

Milan (the Eskild) tries to go in for a hug and Robbe isn’t cool with it, so at least that’s something with Robbe’s issues with men. (I think? The thing is, Robbe also does not really know Milan, so it’s not as weird that he’s not ready to be affectionate with a near-stranger.)  (EDIT from the future: Keeping the S2 almost-kiss that’s referenced in the next clip in mind, I can rationalize this moment as a continuation of that awkwardness from Robbe’s POV.) 

They chat with Lisa (Linn) who wants to direct Robbe on what he is and isn’t allowed to touch in her room, heh.  Milan and Zoë have cute interaction, and Robbe looks happy. I do like the flatmate vibe so far, they seem fun.

Clip 10 - Robbe and Milan

Senne and Zoë get cute. I haven’t seen S2 so I can’t give my opinion on their version of Noorhelm, but I did think a few things about them were less creepy in wtFOCK’s S1 than in OG. Milan talks about how they’re a Disneylike couple and Robbe laughs.

Then Robbe apologizes for something that evidently happened in S2, where Milan tried to kiss Robbe at a party? Again, I didn’t see the scene. Milan says he’d never try to do that. He offers Robbe a hug, which he accepts - tbh I don’t know if Robbe SHOULD accept based on where he is in his character arc, maybe he should have more skittishness? But it’s a nice character moment, at least. They really have to make up for lost time with the Robbe-Milan relationship, so I can get that they need to establish some closeness fast.

Not being in the wtFOCK fandom, I kinda wonder if there was backlash to that scene from before and this is damage control, LMAO.

I feel like you could’ve tweaked this to be more representative of Robbe’s issues, like have him stress here that he’s not gay, because it’s a sweet scene but again, I don’t feel like this episode built up Robbe’s internal dilemma very well. You could make this not just about smoothing over whatever bump there was in this relationship, but also about setting up some internal tension with Robbe’s sexuality issues. Multi-tasking - it’s great!

EDIT from the future: OK, I tracked down the S2 scene, and yeah, while it illustrates some of Robbe’s internalized homophobia, I really think you needed to carry this through to this clip. Because that was a very public situation, and they made a point of emphasizing onlookers’ reactions. I feel like you need to show that Robbe’s internalized homophobia isn’t just about external reactions, but internal struggles, because ... so far, that’s what it is? Like what is he doing with Noor otherwise? 

Clip 11 - Housewarming party

Party is underway. Yasmina is there and is friendly with Robbe. It sounds like they’re working on a school project together. Aaron (Magnus) and Moyo are talking about hot chicks again.

Noor arrives and the boys tease Robbe about how far he’s gone, Robbe looks pretty chill and happy until Moyo says Robbe’s getting laid tonight and you can see the nerves and reluctance take over. Okay! A character detail that actually works for his arc! Yes!

Partying, makeouts with Noor … sorry but they are wasting a lot of time with this relationship. ROBBE ISN’T INTO HER. Here’s the thing: I don’t want to demonize any of Evak’s female “love interests,” right? It’s pointless anyway because Evak is the endgame pairing, Sonja and Emma aren’t “threats” in the end, but also because they’re not bad people just for wanting to date these two guys who happens to want each other instead. And I think you can do interesting things with Sonja and Emma as characters. I’ve read Sonja fanfic that’s really good!

But when it comes down to it … this is not the story of Robbe/Noor, and there’s a point where it feels like there’s too much development for something that is really intended to be a speed bump in Robbe’s journey. 

I guess it’s a pet peeve of mine when gay stories devote a ton of time to het relationships, to the point where it begins to overshadow the main gay relationship. Love, Victor did this to an absolutely ridiculous degree. (I actually made notes for Love, Victor reactions, but hesitated to post them because 60% consisted of me typing I DON’T CARE ABOUT THESE STRAIGHT ROMANCES.) And I GET it, this is an experience many gay kids go through in their coming out journey, but also, less charitably… you don’t need het romance to dominate everything. You don’t need to make this about how a gay person being gay hurts a straight person. I genuinely appreciate that once Isak kisses Even, it’s fucking over with him and Emma, that plot thread is done. 

Anyway, Noor tells Robbe he’s so fucking hot and Robbe looks more uncomfortable, moreso when she wants to see his room and he goes off like he’s headed to Mordor.

Aaron checking out Amber … okay, again with all the het. I don’t care!!! This is not important right now!! 

Noor pushes Robbe onto the bed, ugh please don’t have them Go There.

She takes off her top and Robbe touches her boob like he’s sticking his hand into a porta-potty. We see his discomfort so at least this part is effective and relevant to Robbe’s arc. Noor is taking off her bra when the boys come into the room, wanting the weed. Okay, you dumb fucks, you’re teasing your bro about getting laid and yet you think it’s cool to enter his room when he’s with a girl? I mean, that’s a lucky break for Robbe, but his friends are extra stupid.

The mood is killed, Robbe goes hunting for weed. Episode ends.

HOW I WOULD REWRITE THIS EPISODE:

Lmao, some of my changes sounded a lot like “be like OG Skam S3.” Because Skam S3 was well-written and made sense. But I tried to think of edits that worked with what wtFOCK was presenting, not just repeating OG.

(I’m also repeating a few things in this section that I said above, btw)

While this episode doesn’t make me angry or anything, it’s got a serious problem with dithering. The first clip is a solid start to the season, but afterwards, so many of these clips feel like filler. There’s a lack of substance to them. It was hard to write about them because they ended up feeling like two minutes of nothing. 

Did we need to see repetitive mentions of Robbe’s troubled relationship with his dad? No, it’s an important plot detail but we could have established that more concisely in fewer clips. Did we need to see the process of how Robbe comes to stay with Zoë, Senne, and Milan? No, not really. Or at least not dragged out over at least three clips. 

I don’t feel like I’m in Robbe’s head to the extent that I should be  so far. Some of this is because the show just flat-out locks us out of his POV, like not showing the phone call in the Jens-Jana clip. But a lot of it is also because of the narrative dawdling. There’s just not as much to analyze unless I bring in Skam season 3 and project what we know about Isak onto Robbe. And that’s not a good way to adapt a story.

The framing of Robbe/Noor needs to change. Combine the bathroom intro with the aborted sex scene - the boys are sitting in the tub, teasing Robbe about getting laid, so he makes out with Noor and they go into a bedroom where he’s clearly not into this, and then Moyo and Aaron come in asking for weed because Robbe still actually has the weed from the bathtub at this point. Or do what Skam France did (can’t believe I’m referring to Skam France) and have the arrival of the cops interrupt the makeout/sex session and Robbe takes his cue to exit.

But frankly, it’s not great to have Robbe acting or looking too cozy with Noor, like this is a legitimate romantic arc except when it gets to the sex. The point is that this isn’t a romance. Even if you want to show some cuddly, non-sexual scenes with Noor, you have to show more of Robbe’s reluctance and fear throughout. 

Show Robbe’s fucking phone conversations with his parents!!!! Good Lord. He’s not ordering a pizza. These are important aspects of his story. Capitalize on that family tension, show us what a bad place Robbe is in at the start of this season. 

Now, about the lack of Even in this episode. Not introducing Even is a bold move, but not necessarily a smart one. Even’s introduction in Skam is not just the intro of “the love interest” - he’s the catalyst for almost everything in Isak’s story. Consider that in episode 1, Isak is seen mostly unhappy and bored - he’s distraught after kissing Emma, he’s checked out of his friends’ lunchtime girl talk, he zones out staring at his teacher’s boobs, he doesn’t want to be at kosegruppa. Isak is actually very passive and just going through the motions, doing what people tell him to do. But once Isak meets Even at kosegruppa - well, that’s when Isak wakes up. In the next few clips, we see Isak taking action. And sure, they’re small actions, searching for Even online, watching the Even video over and over, asking Vilde if there will be more kosegruppa meetings. But we can see that Isak now cares about something, he’s paying attention. Of course, Robbe’s story doesn’t have to follow the same arc. However, it does the season a huge benefit to get him intrigued by something at this point, so we the audience are not just sleepwalking along with him for a few episodes.

There’s also just the simple fact that we have only 10 episodes to establish a love story and make us care about the Even character, and it’s a very risky move to waste too much time. If you are really killing it with the rest of Robbe’s arc, this could still work, but ... well, that’s not what’s happening here.

If they didn’t want to full on introduce the Even directly, one thing they could do is subtly and indirectly find ways to include him in the narrative and create some mystery. Let’s say Robbe sees the Even’s artwork somewhere and is like whoa, that’s cool, and we can tell that it resonates with him. Or he admires Even’s graffiti, or it makes him laugh, whatever. Basically Robbe has some kind of emotional reaction to a thing the Even has created or done, which helps to set up that relationship even before we officially meet the Even.

If we want to add a little more, perhaps Robbe sees a mysterious dude in a mask tagging a wall, but they get interrupted by the cops or something and have some kind of brief but intriguing interaction with each other, and Robbe’s like, who was that guy in the mask? Or Noor takes Robbe to the tagging place, the police/security bust them, Robbe and Noor get separated, and Robbe gets helped out by the Even so he can escape. So it’s an important moment, lots of adrenaline, we can frame it like there’s a sudden ~charge~ between them (ooOOOooo the Even helped Robbe stand up and their hands touched like this was a fanfic, etc.), but he doesn’t learn Even’s name, maybe he doesn’t even see his face because Even has a mask on, so Robbe spends part of the next few episodes trying to figure out who that guy is, casually asking Noor if she knows a guy like that, keeping his eyes open. Maybe we have some fakeouts where Robbe thinks he sees the Even again but it’s just a false alarm. He’s on edge, eager to know more about that mystery guy, and so are we. Bam, we have “awakened” Robbe from his deep sleep. 

If you’ve seen Netflix’s The Get Down, there’s even a scene like this where Jaden Smith’s character gets caught tagging by the cops, he runs and flees with another young dude, and they have a moment where they recognize each other as graffiti artists they admire. While watching that scene for the first time, without any context or spoilers, without even knowing if there would be LGBT content in that show, I immediately thought, “This guy is his love interest.” Not even because it was overtly romantic. Because the way it was written and shot told us that this meeting was important. Because they had an instant connection. Something similar could have worked for Robbe and his Even. But in any case: it would have been best to establish something between those characters, even if it wasn’t an “official” introduction.

Stop focusing on Aaron/Amber when it’s not in Robbe’s POV. Reverse the scene at the beginning with Aaron videotaping and Amber getting spilled on. She gets pissed, he falls in love, and then we follow him upstairs and we meet the boy squad. That is a very obvious, very clean transition that doesn’t interrupt Robbe’s POV as it technically hasn’t started yet. So IDK why they didn’t do that, lmao.

Some changes with the Milan relationship:

Tweak the apology scene to be more representative of Robbe’s issues. Have Robbe apologize while still stressing that he’s not gay. Have Milan be chill and not question that statement, but maybe Robbe is so defensive that it comes across as unconvincing. 

Then have Milan be the one instead of the boys to interrupt the Noor almost-sex scene. Milan wanders in acting drunk, haha Milan, he’s wacky. Robbe doesn’t realize it (though the viewers do if they’re paying attention) but Milan is only pretending and is “subtly” rescuing Robbe because he realizes, based on the earlier scene, that Robbe might be struggling with his sexuality and he wants to give him an escape option. (Although I still think it’s best to combine the not-sex scene into the opening clip, but this could work, too.)

Basic questions we need to be asking, clip to clip: what is the conflict? Where is Robbe’s head right now? Why is this scene necessary? How did this scene come to be - what’s the cause and effect here? How does it advance Robbe’s story? Is it redundant? How do we tell this story in a narratively economical manner? 

#wtfock reactions

[fridayfirefly]

Picture Perfect Chapter Two: #Adrinette

Masterlist | AO3

By the time the Gabriel catalog came out, Marinette had almost entirely forgotten about the photoshoot. So much had happened in the past five months, that the summer photo shoot was the last thing on her mind. Marinette and the rest of her class started their first year of lycée. Marinette designed and created a whole new wardrobe for herself and created an online store after some of her designs started getting attention. Nathanial and Marc finally started dating. Yet despite all these changes, so much had stayed the same. Adrien and Marinette were still just friends. Lila was still manipulating the class with her lies, and Adrien and Marinette still had no plan on how to stop her from lying.

Marinette spent her winter break designing, and it kept her so busy that she completely missed the Gabriel catalog drop. It wasn't until she got a phone call from Adrien at five o'clock on New Year's Day that she realized that the photos from their summer shoot had been released.

The phone rang while Marinette was in the middle of hand-stitching her dress for the upcoming girl's choice Valentine's Day dance. It wasn't for another month and a half, but Marinette knew that once the new semester started, she would have no time to sew. Marinette answered her phone on the second ring, her caller ID telling her that it was Adrien who was calling. "Hey, Adrien," she greeted.

"Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed through the phone. "You haven't checked your twitter recently, have you?"

"No? Why?" Marinette was already logging on to twitter on her laptop, curious as to what had Adrien so frantic. Then she saw it: #Adrinette is trending in your area. "Oh. I'm going to call you back." Despite Adrien's protest, Marinette hung up the phone. She had some tweets to read.

It took twenty minutes of digging to find the original twitter thread that caused the catastrophe:

Marinette finally called Adrien back, half an hour after she hung up on him. He picked up on the first ring.

Marinette didn't hesitate in getting straight to the point. "What do we do about this?"

"Father already coordinated the PR Department to release a statement telling my fans to stop making inquiries into either of our personal lives. The next step is a little more complicated. Father would like for you and your family to come over for dinner so we can discuss it."

"What is there to discuss? Shouldn't we just tell everyone that we're not dating and be done with it."

Adrien hesitated. "It's complicated. I don't really approve but my Father insists that we at least discuss it."

"What is it?" asked Marinette, exasperated at the way he kept dodging around the point.

"My Father wants us to fake date," Adrien blurted out. "Which is a silly idea, I know, but he wouldn't listen to me."

"Why does he want us to fake date?" Marinette was absolutely blindsided by this development. Of all the things Adrien could have said, fake dating was at the bottom of her list of possibilities, right under her secretly being a princess and an alien invasion.

"He thinks that it would be good publicity. I tried to convince him to just forget about it, but he's insisting that he speaks to you and your parents about it."

"Okay. What time should we come over?"

Marinette quickly got herself ready for dinner, picking out a dress made of midnight blue velvet, one of her own creations, for a commission that canceled on her when she was half-way through making the dress. Marinette had been furious at first, but she channeled that rage into turning the dress into something that she could wear herself and be proud of. She finished getting ready by braiding back her hair and putting on a light coat of makeup. That was the easy part.

The harder part was informing her parents of the situation, a task that took Marinette almost twenty minutes to fully explain. From the photoshoot over the summer that they vaguely remembered signing a permission slip for, to the catalog that came out that morning, the rumors and speculation that blew up on twitter, and the invitation to the Agreste Mansion - they had a lot of ground to cover. Sabine and Tom were both concerned, primarily for their daughter's safety.

"You haven't been harassed, have you?" asked Sabine.

"I haven't checked my DM's yet," Marinette admitted. "I'm just going to turn my account to private and ignore them. I'm sure people are saying terrible things about me, but I don't really care. It doesn't bother me that they're jealous of a relationship I'm not even in."

"If you see anything that does bother you, or if anything threatens you, make sure you report it," urged Sabine.

Marinette nodded. "I will."

"Marinette, can you finish closing up the bakery while Sabine and I get ready for dinner?" asked Tom.

"Yep." Marinette made her way down to the bakery and started tidying up. She put ingredients away, took leftover bread out of the display case, wiped down tables, swept the floor. The menial tasks soothed her overstimulated brain, allowing her a few minutes to process everything that had happened in the last hour. Once she finished cleaning, Marinette got out her phone and started mindlessly scrolled through twitter as she waited for her parents to get ready. There were a lot of opinions about her and Adrien's 'relationship', some of them better than others.

"Marinette, are you ready to go?"

"Yep." Marinette glanced up from her phone. Her parents were both dressed up for the dinner - Sabine in a dark green dress that Marinette had made for her mother to wear to a wedding six months ago, Tom in a suit with a matching dark green tie. "You both look nice," Marinette complimented.

"Only because I'm wearing your creation. Gabriel Agreste had better take note of your talent before he loses you to another fashion company."

The Agreste Mansion was only two blocks away, so Marinette and her parents walked there, rather than taking a taxi. The sidewalks were icy, and Marinette was glad that she chose to wear flats over heels. Breaking her ankle on the way to break up with her fake boyfriend would be enough to push Marinette over the edge. She already wanted to hole up in her room and never come out again, as it was.

The Dupain-Cheng family was welcomed into the Agreste Mansion by Nathalie, who gave Marinette a sympathetic smile. "I'm very sorry for the trouble that social media has been causing for you and Adrien."

Marinette shrugged her sympathy away. "It's certainly giving me some trouble, but it's not the end of the world. Once we get the word out that Adrien and I aren't dating, I'm sure the public will stop obsessing over it.

Nathalie's smile turned into a frown. "I must warn you, Mister Agreste is going to try to change your mind on the matter."

"Let him try. I've already made my decision."

"I admire your conviction, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Follow me, I'll take you all to the dining room."

The first thing Marinette noticed when she entered the dining room was the worried expression on Adrien's face. The second thing she noticed was the absolute lack of expression on Gabriel Agreste's face, though that seemed to be normal for him.

"Welcome to my home, Mrs. Dupain, Mr. Cheng, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you for inviting us over," said Sabine.

"Were this about anything else, I would allow the pleasantries to go on. However, this pertains to the safety of our children, so why don't we get down to business."

Sabine nodded. "From what I understand, speculation has been circling the Internet about a relationship between Marinette and Adrien, due to the nature of the photos released in the 2020 Gabriel Catalog."

"Oscar Perrin, the director of the photoshoot, paired Adrien and Marinette up to be featured in photos together. The Internet has mistaken the pictures to mean that there is something more between the two of them."

Nathalie approached the table and set a Gabriel catalog down in from of Marinette's parents before taking her own seat. Marinette glanced over at the catalog, and in all honesty, she understood where the speculation had come from. Though her crush on Adrien had faded to almost nothing at the time of the photoshoot, there was a genuine fondness in both of their expressions.

"This is fairly incriminating evidence," Sabine noted as she flipped through the catalog. "It won't matter though, not once their lack of relationship is officially confirmed by your company."

"That's the part I brought you here to discuss. I do not want to publicly discourage the rumors. If anything, I would like to encourage them."

"Why?" Sabine narrowed her eyes, a look of distrust that Marinette very rarely saw on her mother.

"There is already a lot of attention around Marinette and Adrien dating, especially from people their age, the demographic that the Gabriel brand has been targeting for the past year. If their relationship is confirmed, and Marinette start showing up with Adrien at Gabriel function and appearing in photoshoots, it would be incredible advertising for the new lines of clothes we are releasing for young adults."

"I understand your motivations for keeping them together, but why should Marinette agree. She's already receiving harassment online, and the speculation has only been around for less than a day."

"Marinette is interested in fashion design, is she not?"

All eyes turned to Marinette, who gave a small nod of her head. "I am."

"The Gabriel company does not currently offer a lot of opportunities for young designers, but that could change. Should you and Adrien be in a relationship - fake or real, whatever you decide between the two of you - you would have access to all of Gabriel's resources. I could set up an internship with one of my top designers. Additionally, as a designer, you would begin your career in the fashion world with name recognition as a former model."

Hesitantly, Marinette interrupted. "Former modeling? I thought that I wound just be fake dating Adrien. I understand that I would be going to some functions with Adrien and being seen out in public with him, but how does modeling fit into this?"

"I want you to replace Lila Rossi. She has not endeared herself to Adrien's fanbase and has been causing more trouble than she's worth within the ranks of the Gabriel brand models. I had considered replacing her for quite some time and recently terminated her contract after I found out that there have been quite a few complaints lodged against her from both designers and her fellow models."

"That's... a lot to consider." Marinette didn't want to give her answer yet, because quite honestly, she didn't know whether or not she wanted what Gabriel Agreste was offering.

"I'm not requiring you to make a decision yet. However, until you make a decision I will not engage with any of the fans making speculations about the relationship between you and Adrien. Until you make a decision, the rumors will only increase. The longer we wait to engage with the media about this, the more difficult it will be to discourage speculation afterward, should that be the route you wish to take."

"We'll be giving Marinette all the time she needs to make her decision," Sabine said, her narrowed eyes staring down Gabriel, daring him to disagree with her.

"Of course," Gabriel agreed. "I'm just making sure that Marinette knows all of the possible consequences of her decision. It isn't one to be made lightly, after all."

"Hmm," Sabine didn't let up with her interrogating gaze. Marinette had faced it only a few times before in her life, times when Marinette lied to Sabine about important things. The most recent time Marinette had faced her mother's interrogation was when she tried to hide Lila's bullying from her parents. It had worked for a few weeks until Tom walked in on Marinette sobbing over her own helplessness in the face of Lila's lies. Her parents had called a family meeting and urged Marinette to tell them what had caused her breakdown, but it wasn't until Sabine started putting pressure on Marinette that she finally admitted the truth to her parents. Of course, they would have found out eventually, no matter what. Lila made sure of that when she framed Marinette for assault and theft, getting her suspended until Adrien forced Lila to reverse her lies and reverse Marinette's suspension.

As they ate dinner, making small talk that Marinette wasn't invested in, she weighed the pros and cons of her decision. There were certainly a lot of pros: making connections in the world of fashion, getting to model again, and especially, spending more time with Adrien. However, there were cons: lying to her friends about the relationship, being harassed online, dealing with Lila when she was certain to spin a story about how Marinette 'stole' her spot as a Gabriel model.

In the end, it was Adrien who was the reason behind what she chose. He caught her eye mid-way through the dinner and shot her a hopeful smile. Marinette hadn't gotten to spend much time with Adrien that school year - he was busy with modeling and fencing and she was busy with schoolwork, making commissions, designing her own clothes, babysitting Manon, her duties as class president, and above all, her responsibilities as Ladybug. Without her crush on Adrien pushing her to spend time with him, they only ever saw each other outside of class in group settings. It would be nice to spend some one-on-one time with Adrien, with her friend.

"I've made my decision," Marinette announced as soon as the dessert plates were taken away. "I will agree to go through with the fake relationship."

"A wise decision, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng. I hope that we get to know each other better as your relationship with Adrien progresses," said Gabriel Agreste as he looked Marinette in the eyes.

Though his expressionless face was slightly off-putting, Marinette maintained eye contact with Gabriel and gave him a nod of acknowledgment. "I hope so too."

"One last thing before you leave. I must make sure that you are aware that you may not tell anyone about the nature of the relationship between you and Adrien. No one may know that it is fake - not even your friends."

"I understand."

"Good. Adrien will see you and your family out the door. Until next time." Gabriel exited the room swiftly, the sound of his footsteps fading away as he left the room.

"Sorry that he can be so... aloof, sometimes. I really do look forward to this. I think that it'll be fun to get to hang out with you more." Adrien's bright, hopeful smile reassured Marinette that she made the right decision. "Do you want to get together tomorrow to figure out all the details of our fake relationship?"

Marinette nodded, her own smile tentatively forming. "Sure. Meet me at the bakery?"

Adrien nodded. "It's a date." His wink revealed that it was just a joking quip. However, the tiny part of Marinette that still harbored a crush for Adrien absolutely jumped for joy at the words she never thought she'd hear him say to her. Marinette crushed that tiny part down as best she could - the beginning of a fake relationship was not the place for her crush to reemerge.

Marinette fell into bed that night utterly exhausted by the day she had experienced. As she closed her eyes to fall asleep, she remembered one last important detail - she had forgotten to tell Tikki about everything that had transpired that day. Crap.

#miraculous ladybug #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrien Agreste #adrinette #adrienette #miraculous ladybug fic #my work

[shirtlesssammy]

15x10: The Heroes’ Journey

Then:

Heroes

Now:

Monster Fight Club! RAWR. In one corner we have wolf-man and in the other, we have wraith-woman. I felt like I was watching a Sci-fi channel show or another show on the CW with this opening scene. I have to give it up to the music and cinema of the sequence though. It’s quite lovely, even as the wolf-man gets stabbed to (near) death.

Meanwhile, in tiny Lebanon, Kansas, Dean’s picking up essentials (plus pie magazines) at his local Kwik Trip. 

I have many things to say about this. First, who knew Lebanon had such tall buildings in it? And I’ve read many a comment about Bobo getting his name on something, and while YES, that’s technically true, this Kwik Trip (a real regional chain of gas stations/convenience stores in Wisconsin) is also named after the comedian behind The Manitowoc Minute, Charlie Berens. The Open sign missing the ‘n’ is a reference to it as well. Bless Jerry Wanek and his love for his home state. Anyway, Dean’s credit card is declined, his fight or flight instinct kicks in when faced with the store attendant's psoriasis, he gets a toothache, AND he gets a parking ticket. 

Sam Fucking I Don’t Need Hotpads Winchester royally messes up dinner by burning the food, dropping the pasta all over the food, and breaking all the plates. 

The weirdness continues once Dean gets home. Sam trips when running to greet him and he’s getting a cold.

Dean gets a call from Garth who needs some help. On the road, they discuss their Very Bad Day. Dean thinks they’re cursed. Sam’s too busy sneezing to contribute. I’m surprised Dean didn’t make him sit in the backseat. (Did Dean seem sarcastically unhappy about Cas seeking out angel help? #missinghusbandhour). Then the ultimate travesty happens: Baby breaks down. 

They have to walk the last ten miles to Garth’s. When they make it, he welcomes them with open arms (Sam declines the hug but Dean gets one and a compliment -- “You smell so good.”)

Garth was previously feeding his twin baby boys, and he takes them to meet his children. He has a daughter, Gertie, and twin boys, Sam (named after Sam) and...Castiel. Dean is confused and disappointed. I love how there’s no explanation as to why Dean didn’t get a namesake. Natasha wrote a thing though. 

Garth then takes them to see why he called. Bess’s cousin is unconscious on Gertie’s bed. He has wraith cuts all over his body. 

Dean, the candy eating monster that he is, nabs some candy beans from Gertie’s dresser and Garth notices his pained reaction to eating them. Dean makes note of how nice Garth’s home and life are. (SOFT) Sam sneezes again and Bess tells him she has something to help. 

Beth hands Sam her family concoction for helping the common cold. Sam downs it in one go --and instantly has regrets. It’s mostly cayenne pepper. Wherps. Sidenote: Gertie’s little wolf stuffy. All the hearts! 

Poor Sam really goes through something --and it is a sight to see. Little Sam and Little Cas are sympathy crying with him and he tries to reassure them that “Big Sam’s okay.” He’s really not. 

Garth asks about Dean’s teeth and Dean confesses they’ve hurt since the previous day.

Garth takes Dean to his basement dentist office. It seems he finished getting his dental degree and is now a dentist for other werewolves. “Fang maintenance is a B.” He assesses Dean’s mouth and finds 17 cavities! 

He rolls out the nitrous oxide and gets to work. We get to stay with Dean though, AND GOOD FUCKING CHUCK ON A CRACKER. 

I can’t explain what I witnessed with my own two eyes. I really, really can’t. @neven-ebrez​ had a great thread on Twitter that I fully love. 

In any event, Dean tap dances to Cole Porter’s Let’s Misbehave. Garth starts showing him the ropes, but then he takes over on his own and starts dancing with a light stick LAMP. He blows a kiss at the lamp and ascends a stairway to heaven the top of the map table and finishes his dance. They dedicated almost 2 minutes to this scene. I --I just. can’t. Also, Dean going for the lamp is timed to line up with the “lovebirds” lyric? I’m so very tired. 

Anyway, Dean comes to with a mouth full of gauze, and presumably no cavities. 

Everyone reconvenes in the Fitzgerald’s living room. Garth wants to know what’s happening. Sam tells him that they’re kind of on the outs with God. Garth realizes that they’ve been the heroes of Chuck’s stories, and wonders, “what’s that make me? A supporting character? A special guest star?” Garth's happy being the guest star. Being the hero is the worst. Their lives are going to suck until the end. Also, little vanilla couple Garth and Bess apparently love 50 Shades. Lol. Garth points out that the hero never sweats the small stuff because that stuff ruins the story. They’re normal now. (Dean suggests cursed, which, like, lol bud, normal people's lives just suck.) 

Bess’s cousin calls for her and they all rush to his side. He doesn’t want to talk to hunters. Sam turns on the ol’ puppy dog eyes and….it does nothing. In fact, Brad can hardly believe that that shtick works at all. Ooof. Bummer, Sammy. Bess digs into the wraith wound to get some answers. And ugh. That was squishy grossness. Brad starts talking about the monster fights though. He tells them where to find the place. 

The Winchesters bid Garth farewell. Garth is VERY WORRIED about them. “The old Sam and Dean” could handle a whole warehouse of monsters but the Supernormally Normal boys don’t stand a chance. Dean’s resolute. Fighting monsters, righting wrongs? That’s just who they are. Dean implores Garth to stay home with his wife and kids, and the Winchesters head off. 

They arrive at midday outside the arena. Dean polishes off his SEVENTH grilled cheese sandwich and they gather weaponry to storm the place. Sam’s concerned that Garth’s theory that the Winchesters are normal is correct, and they need to take precautions. They gather extra ammo, dead man’s blood, and Dean pulls out his beloved precious weapon.

Upon entering, Sam immediately trips noisily over a bucket and Dean’s grilled cheese extravaganza decides to throw a party right back into his mouth. Dean races for a bathroom, leaving Sam to peruse the room holding the main fight cage. 

While Dean is throwing up in the toilet, I desperately try to pretend this isn’t happening. I’m FINE with entrails but upchuck is a hard no, apparently. The bathroom stall opens and one of the monsters from the cold open’s fight night stands there, training Dean’s grenade launcher on him.

Sam and Dean end up locked in the cage-match cage (not to be confused with the CAGE cage). The monster, Cutty, owns the fight club. “Man? Monster? They’re at their best, their most pure, in the heat of competition.” Pardon me while I fake cough “Purgatory” for twenty-five minutes. 

Cutty introduces them to their new friend, Maul, a huge monster who grimaces gloomily and flexes his muscles. He wants the Winchesters to fight Maul (together) in the cage match that evening. 

Dean tries to tell a story to get out of the situation and I HAVE NEVER BEEN PROUDER. He draws on their legends - the mighty creatures they’ve taken down - and questions whether any MERE monster should even think about trying to attack them. Nobody’s buying what he’s selling. 

A short commercial for the upcoming cage match plays. It’s….

AMAZING

All the monsters are gathered around, ready to watch the two mighty cage matches. KILLER WRAITH versus JAMAICA DJINN and MIGHTY MAUL versus THE WINCHESTERS!!!

It’s battle royale time, motherfuckers. When the first fight begins, Dean and Sam are locked up in cells just outside of the ring. “Just how I wanted to die,” Dean grouses. “With a freakin’ audience.” We shall not speak of the 200+ times we have witnessed Dean die on this show. 

Dean pulls a nail from the ceiling and proceeds to try to pick the lock. He…fails. Miserably. Sam gives it a try on his lock and neither of them can pick it. 

“Could we ever actually pick locks?” Sam asks, frustrated. I’m with others in guessing that both their natural and learned skills have been hugely demoted through Chuck’s interference and this downturn won’t last. But this is a great way to make them doubt themselves. This is the black moment in the hero’s journey - at least for this episode. They’ve never doubted themselves more! Dean delivers a stirring speech anyway. “We’re the best in the world. I say we go out there. We kick some ass.”

Cutty returns to fetch the Winchesters. “Shirts off,” he demands on the way. EYEBALLS EMOJI. But Sam and Dean are gone, the cage doors wide open! The episode rewinds, this time with another point of view. Who’s that lanky man in the floppy-eared hat walking through the crowd? It’s everyone’s favorite werewolf hero, that’s who. Garth frees them by just…BUSTING off the lock.

Outside, Sam and Dean are ready to flee. But Garth has other plans. He whips out a detonator and we get a quick clip show of Garth planting C4 around the club. The club is DECIMATED by fire. Maul survives, however, and strides out of the burning building. Garth goes up against him, but Maul knocks him out. Sam and Dean stand and face Maul, despite their low, low expectations of themselves. Like real damn heroes!

What follows is a HIGHLY comical fight. Sam and Dean do their absolute, precious best, but fortunately the fight seems to be operating on some modified Looney Toons rules. 

Garth saves them with a machete through Maul’s head. “You got Garthed!”

Back at Garth’s home, Dean and Sam cradle the babies. “This Cas keeps looking at me weird,” Dean notes. “So kinda like the real Cas,” Sam says. OH SAM. OH SHOW. How we are blessed!

They head out, Dean clutching a bag of grilled cheese sandwiches from Bess. Sam and Dean thank Garth for saving them and call him a hero. Excuse me while I CRY FOR FIVE MINUTES this is so soft. “I guess I learned from the best,” Garth returns. Garth gives them a tip - a place in Alaska where you can go when your luck’s run bad. “There’s always a catch,” Garth warns. 

They hug!

“You don’t smell so bad yourself,” Dean notes when he hugs Garth. “It’s Hai Karate,” Garth says. Guys. I love them. 

Werewolves of London plays us out. Garth and Bess dance together through the window as the Winchesters get into the Impala. It’s. So. Precious. And. Warm. 

“I always thought I could be a good dancer if I wanted to be,” Dean muses. Sam admits that Dean’s good at the Macarena. Ah, yes. My generation!

Dean and Sam reflect on their situation. Their lives are far from normal, so being “normal” is dangerous by its very nature. They need as many advantages as possible, so it’s time for a road trip to Alaska!

The music mounts dramatically! Triumphantly! It’s time to ride into the sunset!

Baby sputters out. “Son of a bitch!” Dean shouts as the screen fades to black.

Natasha: I can tell you IMMEDIATELY and WITHOUT RESERVATION that this episode is going to be on my short list of comfort rewatches for all eternity. <3

Werewolves of Quotedom:

Seriously?

Still a hugger, huh?

You smell so good!

You’re very strong

Fang maintenance is a B

Mommy, the giant’s crying!

I wanna be the guest star. Being the hero sucks.

You need a colonoscopy STAT

Just because God yanked the magic horseshoe out of our ass, doesn’t mean we’re gonna give up

I’m a growing boy!

I think you might be lactose intolerant now

You keep all your friends in a cage?

You know them. You don’t like them. The WINCHESTERS

You are SO STRONG

C4, a hunter’s best friend

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

#spn recap #spn 15x10 #the heroes journey #dean winchester #sam winchester #garth #supernatural season 15

[queensgaybeach1d]

Haylor debunk 2012-present Part 1

This one is for my dear @moondustflower, my sincere apologies for postponing this every time. I was creating this post a few days ago, but suddenly nothing saved and I had to start all over again. I had come so far, but it is okay because I love to do this for you all. I created this with my co owner, so if you have questions about something or if something is missing please message me.

It has been four weeks since I wrote the stuff above, my love. My deep sincere apologies for postponing this. I just wanted it all in one post, but I have decided to make a part two and give you what you have been longing for so long. You deserve it, my baby!

I feel like I have disappointed you the most by letting you wait this long, I feel so awful about it. No excuse will make up for it and I hope you can forgive me for the time. You are such a sweet, loving, humble, kind and perfect person. The fandom need more people like you and I hope all your good dreams and hopes come true for you!!

I might have to edit a few stuff about this post, but please message me when you do not understand something. Have a gorgeous week, baby!

All of this is all for you guys!

Little present just for you: (Your Ziam idead are great, thank you for it!)

———————–

First, I would like to say that I mean no harm to Taylor Swift. I absolutely did not like the way she shaded Harry and spread things about him, but I do have sympathy for the things she had to go through with her family. Stuff like that is not ever okay, no matter what kind off problems you have. Those things hurt people so so so much, I detest that. My prayers are always with people who have problems and I hope she will get better.

———————–

March 2012

What many people might not know is that Haylor did not start at the end of 2012, they already started it in the beginning of 2012. I was there at the time and I can tell you one thing: it was and is such a fake mess. 

Taylor and Selena are dancing to What Makes You Beautiful, I do not know why this is proof of Haylor, because Selena Gomez, Katy Perry and the female fans all danced to the song. The printed interview, underneath the gif, is the start of the Haylor drama. I need you guys to know one thing and that is that printed interviews are completely untrustworthy, they are fake and most of the time they never even have an interview with the celeb. They just make up stories while consulting it with the artists label. The newspaper writes all kinds of stuff that never happened, the people work for the media so their goal will always be to create drama and to write about it so their paper will always sell. Not to mention that in 2012 One Direction was going to break into the American Market, hence stunts like Elouno and Haylor. For a person to break into the American Market lots of drama is needed. It is not a secret, that the American Market wants as much drama as possible. Even nowadays you have gorgeous examples of it. I’ll give you an example of Korean Pop groups. Groups such as Blackpink and BTS started to collaborate with American stars (Halsey and Dua Lipa). This is a way to gain attention so the Halsey and Dua Lipa fans will start to like the groups, then more and more people will starts to like them in America due to collaborations and then they will be official part of the American Music Industry. This also happened to One Direction. Haylor was a way to get One Direction into the American Market and for them to be relevant in America. 

This story is about how ‘Taylor likes Harry’ but she told it Justin and he has to remain silent. If Justin promised her not to tell it to anyone, how come the media knew about it? 

The follow on twitter is all a strategy, most of us knew that when Louis and Eleanor finally broke up that they unfollowed each other. Later they refollowed each other again and we all knew she was going to make a kind of come back. Harry says in his tweet that he met amazing people, he is not referring to one person only. Another thing you need to know is that a ‘source’ is just as untrustworthy as a printed interview. How come a ‘source’ gets to know everything? When Harry travels to Japan, he tells his manager too. How come we never really know when he leaves and when he comes back? However we always know when he comes back and leaves when he is with a girl. Some thing are censured, which means that we only see the information they want us to see. A few days we have not spotted Harry, does that mean he did not leave his house? No, it means he did leave his house but if someone took a picture it gets deleted immediately. There are various examples of this. One time a fan said that he saw Louis and Harry together, a few moments later his whole twitter account got suspended. They only let us see the information they want us to see. Remember the time when Nick Grimshaw and Louis Tomlinson met the same fan? Harry was out with Nick that day and Nick tweeted about couples holding hands. We got to know that because they wanted us to. 

Somewhere around this time this interview happened too;

The boys shade it again. They were ‘gutted’. We all know how much Louis makes fun out of Haylor and how much he hates it. Harry and the rest of the boys are clearly making fun of it. Weird, since each Haylor shipper claims they are in love or at least friends.

April 2012

This is once again a piece out of a printed interview, which means it is fake. They are basically exposing themselves with this one. Justin said Taylor liked Harry and now he says that he has sworn not to say it. It is not normal for a ‘source’ to know every single detail about someone unless the label agrees to it. The label also has to agree to things that are published in newspapers and news blogs.  These interviews are perfect for making fans gossip around and that is also their main goal.

*************************************Intermission***************************************

Louis ‘teasing’ Harry about Taylor Swift/Louis hating Haylor/Taylor:

It is not a secret that Louis completely detested Haylor/Taylor. I’m going to give you a series of videos/moments in which Haylor shippers genuinely think Louis is teasing him about it. I definitely think all the boys laughed and mocked the stunts at first, but at a moment in 2012 Louis could not laugh about it anymore, he was heartbroken. 

1. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfgyGiLqMc

The boys need to look for a ‘drift’ and Harry has to name celebs that were there. Harry names a couple of celebrities and Louis asks further, he is waiting for one special name to be called and that is Taylor Swift. Harry does not say it at first, he tried to avoid it. Then, later on Harry does say it and Louis replies that it’s the one. Louis folds his arms and gets that tight lipped smile of his, he looks angry/sad/jealous. There not even a smile on his face to be seen.

2. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=WZTjcVzV29w

There are a few interviews in this one. In the 1st one Harry literally denies Taylor invited him to dinner. (October 2012)

In the 2nd video the interviewer asks him ‘’Harry apparently you have been tasting Taylor Swift truffels’’ (or something in that way), Harry pauses and thinks, then he just says ‘’Eeh…we met in America and she is very nice yeah.’’ He completely ignored the question of the interviewer, because it never happened. He was confused himself. (begin 2012)

Then we have the 3rd video, the boys have to name celebrities which they would like to see and at a moment Louis point his finger to Harry and says ‘’Taylor Swift’’ (Niall already said it, but Louis being Louis says it again to make it obvious) while having that super sad/angry expression again. He also has that tight lipped smile. Niall laughs because he obviously knows Louis does that because Harry hates it. Harry just nods. (October 2012) This is Louis’ expression:

The 4th video is SUPER interesting, Niall only says he likes Taylors song. Even nowadays he likes her songs, he even has her album 1989 on his phone. Zayn also likes her music and thinks she is a good artist. Then, Louis is asked what kind of music he likes but he can not choose Taylor Swift (like he would) and he says ‘’Anything of John Mayer.’’ Do you guys get it? JOHN MAYER IS TAYLORS MOST FAMOUS EX. Please take a look at his facial expression, he know what he did. Please try to name one person who hates Taylor/Haylor more than Louis and Harry.

In the 5th video (2012) Harry is asked about his ‘relationship’ with Taylor Swift. The interviewer asks ‘’How is that going?’’ and Harry says ‘’ ehm..it’s good..yeah’’ than the interviewers asks if there might be a relationship and Harry shrugs and says ‘’Maybe..’’. I like how he is never excited when it comes to her. 

The 6th (2012) video causes a lot of confusion. People say Harry replies that he thinks Haylor is good, but that is not what he is saying. The interviewer asks ‘’How is Taylor Swift?’’ Harry says ‘’She’s good’, she’s good’’. Then Liam asks ‘’What are your thoughts on Haylor?’’ and Louis says ‘’I’d love to know’’ while being sad again. Harry just replies with an ‘’Ehh..’’

The 7th video is from april 2013, the boys had a concert and while Harry sings ‘’I’m in love with you’’ Louis says ‘’Taylor Swift’’. He still ‘teases’ him about it, not because he thinks it is funny. It clearly bothers him, just look at all the examples. Harry remains unbothered and the boys joke about it.

3. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMlKEun7UfI

(October 2012)

2nd video, Louis is asked about Haylor and if he is happy that they got together and he says ‘’I’m happy they are good friends….if that’’ (If That means ‘or even less’) so they are friends or less than friends. Then the interviewer asks about Taylor and Louis replies that he has met her before and she is a lovely girl. 

4. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eksIAQNHoTY

This one is self explanatory, Louis is asked what his favorite song of their album (Take Me Home) is. He replies with ‘’I loved you first’’ and looks at Harry. At the time Harry had to do lots of stunting with Taylor, and Louis was so sad and moody throughout the whole interview. He only smiles at Harry. The rest of the boys knew something was up, Liam patted his shoulder and the rest tried to comfort him.

5. Harry is asked about Taylor Swift and this is Louis’ reaction. 

6. Louis’ emotions during Haylor (end 2012)

*************************************End Intermission*********************************

Stuff like this are also things you should not believe. If you have not read the part about ‘location’ then I highly suggest you to do that first. Remember, stuff like this can only spread if the label agrees to it. Most of those people get paid for making stuff like this up. This is a lie anyways, if you can expose their location you can also take a picture right?Yet, this girl did not do that. Plus, she started dating Conor Kennedy in July 2012, why are those rumors not about him? Well, because 1D needed to stay relevant in the American Market. 

The ‘source’ is saying this to cause a stir in the fandom. Making it seem like it really happened. A source can never know all of these personal things. Unless the label gives a thumbs up, so do Haylor shippers genuinely think Taylor and Harry go on a ‘date’ with each other and tell every single detail to a source who publishes it in a newspaper? Then the whole purpose of the relationship basically is to gain attention from the public, right? Taylor complains about not wanting to tell her private life to people because it spreads so fast. All of this does not make sense at all. Plus why did Harry ‘kiss’ Emma Ostilly if he ‘wanted it so desperately?’ None of this show makes sense. The 2nd picture came out in October 2012 and I can not stop, this is so comical. He literally stated he was single…..so….!

Haylor was never alive, but they ‘broke up’ in 2013. Then articles like this one came out. This is always after a celebrity break up, it is to fuel the Haylor hell fire. Things like this happened all along, we all know these things are lies. Plus, again the ten million dollar question: how can a source know all of these details? They publish stuff like this because the label is okay with it. If Taylor told them the whole relationship purpose it ‘attention’. That is how you can spot a fake relationship. Remember that Ed Sheeran got married and no one knew for a while. That’s how a real relationship works. 

This one is comical, for a lover to cheat you do have to be in a relationship. Harry said he was single in an interview from april 2012. Before Taylor tweeted this and before he kissed Emma Ostilly. 

August 2012

From July Taylor started dating Conor Kennedy. I do not know where to start. Taylor put the picture up there because of her video on the screen. One Directions wallpaper was put there too, it is no digital screen, so the picture is not going to change. She needed a picture of Times Square not only her picture, else it would not look good. They are literally acting like she only posted a picture of her and 1D out there. Plus, Zayn is there too and he and Niall like Taylors music. Where are those dating rumors? She was dating Conor at the time, if she loved him so much why would she do that? Harry did not hurt her by kissing Emily Ostilly, because they never had a relationship (Harry said he was single and somehow Taylor is not hurt by that). 

It literally sound like they are reading the words from a screen, anyway please watch the video. You will see that no one is teasing Harry, when Harry is done the rest of the boys look at Louis while smiling, not at Harry like the person claims. If we have to be honest, we all know why they are looking at Louis like that….right? ;)

Link: https://twitter.com/haylorthread/status/996081743336796161

Please note that this is also not an innocent dinner. These pictures have a meaning, another pr technique is posing with the same fan to show they were in the same room/together. We can all see the little boy in his red Cars shirt. Both of them took a picture with him, remember how I said these pictures are out because they want us to see they are ‘hanging out’ together. Whereas in reality they only took the picture and went home. This is the same case as the Nick and Louis one. From here on, the Haylor rumors started again. Ed Sheeran plays a role in this too. Taylor was still dating Conor kennedy so, for the people who think they had a pr relationship during this time, that is not true. She was Conors fake girlfriend at the time. To the Haylor shippers: this is not proof at all. 

September 2012

Zayn, Niall and Harry are all laughing (not because of Zayns comment), when Zayn whispers that, Harry ignores it and replies with ‘’Rihanna.’’ I definitely think Zayn joked about it and that is why he laughed, Harry has been labeled to her like a stamp, so this was definitely a way to mock the stunt. 

Link: https://twitter.com/leftmeinthehll/status/1014162069577445377

It is comical that her source knows more than Taylor herself. About the marked part, she apparently did not have hard feelings for him. I wonder why, usually she mocks and humiliates her exes each opportunity she gets. I hope it did not have anything to do with the fact that he is family of the Kennedy’s.

Here is where it starts to get even weirder. According to the internet Taylor and Harry’s fake relationship started in December 2012 and ended in January 2013. Their first public appearance with each other was on the 2nd of December 2012. So during that time she creates a music video in which a person who portrays Harry (a bad guy) dates her. The lyrics insinuate that the person is trouble, because they ‘dated’ and he let her down. Okay, so we know how she felt about ‘what Harry did’. Still she goes back to him for another round while she knows ‘the bad stuff’ he did to her. So, ‘Harry’ goes on trips with her, dates her, kisses another person and cheats on her and she still goes back to him? Not to mention that he did not consider what ‘he and Taylor had’ a relationship. This is just as toxic and fake as Elouno. Both Taylor and Eleanor go back to their ‘toxic and cheating partner.’ 

We, larries, know this never happened. The love banner tattoo is a sign of Harry. The paper airplane is also the sign of Haylor. What they do is actually very simple, they give them an object and make it the ‘key’ of a relationship. So the next time when you will see Taylor throwing away the paper airplane necklace in Out Of The Woods you will know it is about Harry. This is necessary for their headlines. Everyone knows Taylor shades all her exes, so whenever she and her boyfriend break up you can expect a song about him. It gives both Harry and Taylor popularity. People will start gossiping and make it bigger than usual. This is also a branch of the whole stunting tree. It is a clever move, but you can see the similarities too. One of her exes once bought her jewelry too. I bet those things are also in her songs. They pick the ‘key’ of the relationship (jewelry, date or looks) and put it in her music video, so her fans will know who it is about.

October 2012

Harry tweets this on 4 October, 2012. I think it is to warn us about the fact that he and Taylor had to share one of those paper airplane necklaces. It is basically a confirmation that ‘he likes’ those, for fans to think that if he gives them to Taylor he likes her too. You could think that it was just one of those tweets of Harry, but he tweeted it this for a purpose in October. The same month in which he and Taylor will be seen wearing it. 

I have watched the whole thing and I still did not hear the part. However we all know they tried to link him to older people from the start. 

Taylor gets invited to Nick’s radio show and a day after Harry is invited. The timing is not a coincidence. Nick has been teasing Harry about Taylor Swift since forever, he is basically doing the same as the boys. He is a close friend of Harry’s and he definitely knows Haylor is a pr relationship. So he does the same, he basically mocks it. Remember the 2018 (I think) interview in which Nick teased him about Two Ghosts. Nick was saying it was about Taylor Swift and then Harry screamed once and for all ‘’NOOOO.’’ Little bonus; Nick loves to shade Haylor too.

Taylor agreed to have someone out there who looks good. Unfortunately these months were the gossip months of Haylor 2.0. Which is interesting cause when Taylor and Harry were photographed in early December, it was reported that that was only their second date, which means it could not be Harry. I hope all of you see that Haylor is a super fake and messy stunt. They can not get it right. There are big holes in their plans. She also says that she does not like it when het private life is on display. This is what I meant with the articles and sources. She does not like it so why would her label or she get the information out there? Because their relationship is not real. Nothing of it has ever been private, we practically got to know which direction she breathed. 

Link: https://twitter.com/haylorthread/status/996088920424304642

In her tweet, Taylor is talking about ‘most of her emotions.’ The song is about not wanting to sleep because she does not want to miss a thing. I genuinely do not see how this is about Harry. Is all she does obsessing with Harry? Well she is the only one because it is CLEARLY not mutual. It is  one of her favorite songs, she sang it with the music artist himself. 

It’s that so called ‘source’ again. Plus it is an article from The Sun, they always spread lies and this whole thing is a lie. One pr strategy they also use, is the blurry picture. They release only one blurry picture of the event to make it seem like the couple is private and want to be together all alone. They fail each time, because when 1D needs to be private we never get a picture. Not even a blurry one. They make it seem like a fan takes those pictures and posts them online. Do not get fooled, loves. It is all for show. Whenever the boys aren’t seen for day it does not mean that they do not go outside. They do, no one can take pictures of them and if they do, their label will take care of it and no one will see it. I love how Harry is not paying attention to Taylor while looking the camera straight into its lens. Taylor on the other hand is also not even paying attention to him. 

I already talked about this one, but I forgot to add something. Harry is not acting coy, he straight up denies that Taylor invited him for dinner. Then the host asks him if he would like to settle down and Harry replies that he would if he found someone he likes (Louis coughs). Literally one second after Harry said that, Louis coughs and the whole audience laughs. Louis was being not so obvious about the fact that he is Harry’s special someone. At 1:08

Link: https://twitter.com/haylorthread/status/996096298251096064

The next one is about Harry’s tattoos. He got ‘’Things I can’’ and ‘’Things I can’t’’ tattooed on his arms. Some people have the guts to say that he did that because he quotes Taylor. He covered one of them with The Holy Bible. A common Serenity Prayer is:  God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.

It has to do with The Holy Bible, God and the quote. It is all the same. He did not copy Taylor Swift.

Harry tweeted ‘’Sickkkk’’ and put a link to matching couple tattoos. Louis and Harry got matching tattoos in December, it was the same kind of style, guess who did not get matching tattoos? Taylor and Harry. 

So the song are about him, and she still want to date him after all of that. Sound toxic, but what do we know. We sail the healthy Larry ship 2019.

Her only confirmed ex is Conor Kennedy. So if she wants to get back with him that is no problem at all. She is talking about him and not Harry.

November 2012

You are going to see this ring everywhere when it comes to Haylor. It is their ‘key’ to the pr world. Just like the love banner tattoo. Here is one thing that makes no sense, Louis has a paper airplane tattooed. What about that? Anyway, this necklace thing is planned because she has had many more jewelry from her ex boyfriends. Whenever she wears those people start getting crazy over a possible comeback of their relationship.

Let us see, we have a so called ‘source’, a printed interview, pictures with the same fan, and tweets from people who are hired to do that. They want to make you think that Taylor and Harry spent the whole day there, but it is not like that. They just pose with the same fan to let you know they are both there and afterwards they leave. Printed interviews are never to trust, the label can put stuff in it in consultation with the interviewer/host. They sell their paper and without the artist saying it with words people will automatically believe it. The host or producer from the show needs consent from the label the celebrity is signed to. I am also going to make a special thread of Harry debunking/shading Haylor himself so you can see what he really thinks about it. 

This is the same, all just rumors and lies. Think about what I said if you are having doubts. They all know it is going to cause a massive stir in the fandoms and still they do it. Celebrities like to create drama and some of them are paid for it. Ellen en Mario are basically the ‘Rihanna’ singing ‘’Happy Birthday to Louis Tomlinson girlfriend Eleanor.’’

It is the same show, just different puppets.

Ed Sheeran uses the same songwriters. I hope this person realizes that songwriters are paid to write songs with and for singers who paid them. It is their job. No wonder they share the same writers, they are paid to do it. Various artists pay them, this is literally no proof. He also wrote Happily.

I have the strong idea that Haylor shippers take everything she says and just put  the tag ‘Haylor’ on it. How is this about Harry? She gives a hint about love, she just broke up with Conor, says she is seeing someone, Harry denies there is something going on and the rest too. This is about love in general.

December 2012

Taylor and Harry visit the zoo with friends. I just saw a few people saying he looks at her with so much love and passion. Let me get one thing straight, Taylor and Harry are just talking and sometimes laughing while talking. How is that love? You can clearly see their lips moving if you pur the pictures in order and make a gif out of it. Paparazzi takes lots of pictures in a few seconds, when you get so many pictures of Harry and Taylor looking at each other it could look like it was a very long moment, when in reality it was just 5 seconds. He does the same things with Nick, Liam, Niall, Stevie and other females. Examples of those misunderstandings:

(The pictures of Taylor in the green coat are from december, but it is the same debunk)

Harry is like grabbing her and waiting for her to move.

If you would like to you can watch this video if you did not already. Harry goes in the car and leaves Taylor all alone with the crowded fans, Boyfriend Of The Year.

What I love about these pictures is that Harry leans more towards the fan than his supposed girlfriend. He basically avoids any kind of bodily contact and puts his hands in his pockets. Smart move, love. Then in the the 2nd picture he  puts his hand on the car seat instead of around his girlfriend. Again, trying to avoid bodily contact as much as possible. He is sitting in the corner. 

They just pose next to each other like fans and that’s it. They are trying to bring the Haylor narrative alive. They have been spotted more and more. The fan is closer and more comfortable with Taylor than her actual ‘friend’.

Then they have a karaoke night with the rest of the 1D boys and Ed. Taylor is ignored by Harry the whole time. Then he lifts her in a crowd with tons of people while they have their cameras ready. He is being so awkward when lifting her, just lifting her and keeping as much distance as possible.

Do not worry, Louis is not letting any of that happen. Here we have Louis making sure Taylor does not get too close to his boyfriend by slowly coming between them and staying there. The difference before and after Louis came between Taylor and Harry is now bigger. Well done, Lou!

This picture came out in 2018, if I’m not wrong. It’s so funny, is it not? Harry is ignoring her while she is trying to put their backs pressed together. Harry is just lifting his hand and ignoring her, she is the one who is trying it and she failed. Oh and the timing of the pic is not a coincidence. Their Haylor hellfire has been extinguished and they are trying to light it up again, which is not working. I honestly feel like I have seen this picture before 2018, but that might just be me.

This whole hotel thing should be familiar, they still pull it in 2019. They make it seem like they sleep in the same room, when in reality they have both different rooms. This is to awake the illusion of them sharing a room together. Please note that they are holding hands, and they are in a supposed relationship. It makes what is coming next funnier than ever.

This tweet has not much to do with Haylor. Harry talked about ‘last night’ which means the night of 3 December 2012, Harry was talking about the MSG afterparty and not about being with Taylor since he completely ignored her. You can see Louis in the back of the picture. 

On the 5th of December 2012, Harry is seen leaving ‘Taylors hotel’. We all know he slept in another room, they do it just to awake the illusion of them being in one room. Which is not true. The same day, Ed Sheeran is asked about Haylor and he gives a very interesting answer. The host says ‘’Is Taylor dating Harry Styles from One Direction?’’ Ed says ‘’I mean the papers are saying it.’’ and then he nods and laughs. He gave a gorgeous answer, he did not confirm it. The papers talk crap about everyone and he knows it, he stated facts. 

Then they attended Emma Stones birthday party and they ‘definitely looked like a couple’.’It is so hilarious that they are really emphasizing that. They know no one sees it, ‘they are not trying to hide it’ from what we have seen they hardly interact. I personally do not understand how people can ship this. Here we have the ‘mysterious source’ again, now we all know it is fake. A source can not know all of that, celebrities can have privacy and no one is allowed to tell stories about them. That is the ultimate tea.

Let’s play a game, it is called ‘spot Harry Styles’’, did you see him? No, because he is not with Taylor.

These pictures of Harry and Taylor leaving the party are so weird, he does not look interested in her at all. Just holding hands and dragging her along.

In this video you will see Harry nearing her at one point. Haylor shippers are speaking of him approaching her because he wants to kiss her, but that is again not the case. He is trying to portray/show something (he puts his hands on her and keeps a big distance and then he pulls his hands back and walks away funnily), he then walks away funnily. Around 1:36.

On the 7th of December Liam and Harry are asked about Haylor. The interviewer asks Harry what the best birthday gift is for Taylor and Liam answers with ‘’Harry.’’ I love it when they mock Haylor. Then Harry gets asked about Haylor, the interviewer basically assumes they are dating and tells it to Harry. Then, my savage king debunks it. He says he ran into her at the zoo and….he did not even tell her that they went together and he basically denies the whole dating thing. He says ‘’I JUST ran into her at the zoo and…’’ So he makes it seem like he does not understand why those dating rumor are there. Rightly so.

Harry honestly never really cooperates with stunts at all.

The same day Harry and Taylor were seen at Z100 Jingle Ball. This is a misunderstanding, they never kissed. They might have danced, but solo. Here is a gif:

1. Taylor is dancing, solo. Harry is just as always not paying any attention.

2. Then, she holds him and hugs him whereas Harry stand stiff like a tree. He does not even wrap his arms around her. From what we have seen with Louis he hugs like a prince. In both gifs he hugs him and in both gifs Harry is standing stiff like a tree. She never kissed him.

3. After Taylor leaves Harry starts wrapping his arms around an older man. He is happier with an older man he does not even know that his fake girlfriend. I do get it though. He is so happy after she leaves.

They honestly need verified people to talk about them. Those people are hired, just like Rihanna and Ellen. It is for attention purpose only, and because those people are verified people will start to believe them. Why would a verified person lie, right? Well, because they are hired to say that just like stalkers. About the private jet, in 2012 a picture leaked of Louis and Eleanor in a private jet. Louis was sitting 1000000000 yards away from her. I know for sure it is the same way with Taylor and Harry. 

Harry does not even hold her hand, she is just there. Here presence is only there, no one talks to her and Harry does not even talk to her let alone be near hear.

It is the same thing over again. A supposed eyewitness (please read back if you missed the debunk), affection we never see only hear stories of, picture with the same fan and one picture of Harry not paying attention to her whereas Taylor is wrapping her arms around him. Harry is not even holding her with his arms, he is just standing there. The distance between them keeps getting bigger and we all know why….who is going to be the first one to say goodbye! The fake affection they are talking about never happened, they could take a picture of Harry being as stiff as a tree but not a picture in which he was touching her bum or when they were fooling around? I hope they are kidding. 

I’m going to ignore these ‘sources and eyewitnesses’ from now on because it is trash anyway. How is it possible they knew everything? Because their relationship is one big stunt for attention, that is why. In the picture with the birds Harry is touching her shoulder-to-shoulder because he is scared of her. He is afraid that if he moves closer to her he will vanish, he is smiling because of the bird flying away, cute. The last one is just a fan pic with sweet fan.

It’s Taylor’s birthday and a source knew everything. The cupcake store even posted pictures of it with a whole story around it, this is the same case as the ‘Eleano Taylor Swift cake.’ They have a picture, the cake is there and they just ordered it for one big stunt. Now you might be thinking that the ‘source’ is real and that the other things he/she said are also truthful. This is not the case either, because the whole story around it is fake. They just needed another story to sell and got a company involved in it. This is not the first time that they do that. The so called source knows everything again, for some they have proof (the pub) and for some they do not have proof at all. That is how they play their game, this makes you want to believe all of the things they say but you should not. It has also been confirmed by a big account back in the days that Taylor ordered the cupcakes herself. However I’m not sure about that, I do know that Harry did not order it himself and that he also did not pick it up himself. 

Taylor and Harry were at a tattoo parlor together. Not to be a typical larrie, but he got the ship tattooed on his arm and Louis got the compass tattooed on him 18 hours later or earlier in the same style. Please do not try sailing a sea without a compass, you’ll get lost. 

This is a fan who can talk about their location and does not get deleted which means she is suppose to talk about it. Honey, he never gives her a glance how are we supposed to agree with this. Plus, I love it when One Direction is together in a shop and the shop gets closed so no fan can mob them but whenever Harry is with one of his female beards the shops are always wide open for attention. Imagine if in some alter universe Harry and Taylor were really like this and he gave her heart eyes, than you would not know it from a fan. You would see it with your own eyes (from videos they made themselves), or you would not see it at all. They would be private, not being brought up in billion of interviews and parading around. I also have to add, if he truly loved her so much why has he never even confirmed his relationship with Taylor? saying ‘’yeah…maybe’’ is not confirming a relationship. There are some real fans who meet them too, so it is definitely difficult to pick out who is a liar and who is telling the truth. (Because of that I do have a little surprise for you all at the end of this masterpost.) 

Harry looks so happy with his tattoo.

So hired people said they had ‘chemistry’, well Harry’s tattoo artist said otherwise. I do not know if this one has been debunked, I do not think so. Even a guys from TMZ said they have no real cheamistry. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlbZmumWQ90&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Back to the other stuff, even Gigi Hadid stated celebs can do stuff they want. I personally can not stand her, but even she said this. How come 1D’s relationships are ALWAYS highly publicized. If you will look underneath Gigi’s interview you can also see proof of stalkers being hired to pretend as fans in America (this does not mean they have not got one in the UK). It’s from Wikipedia.

They visit Taylors mother in LA. Lots of you think it is not possible for a label to drag family into their bearding mess. That’s wrong, they can. Underneath the picture you can see a message Rebecca Ferguson wrote a few years ago. She states that she is scared of the things they did to her and that she want to protect her family. The people also have ties to the family as you can see. In the article you can CLEARLY see the names of the people who are signed to the label Rebecca was/is. Dragging family into their stunting world is nothing new, it would be weird if two people were dating and you get pictures of them without their family. It would not look real, they drag the family in it for the stunt to look real and to make it look like they are super close, when in reality they just do what is asked: taking pictures and walking around so fans will spot them and tell you how happy they are. 

Is it cute? You know what’s cute? The fact that this NEVER even happened. I honestly do not understand how Haylor shippers think this happened without checking their information first. Their ship is not a ship, it is a tiny,broken and nonexistent boat. Please look at the picture underneath this one, because that is the real one. Plus, when Liam asks about Haylor, Harry shakes his head. That says enough, you know. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGQZk9F6Dxs&feature=youtu.be

at 10:48

‘‘It is what it is’‘ is a reference to Louis’ tattoo. Harry laughs at that. 

It is so comical that ever eyewitness, onlooker and source have to confirm they look ‘happy and in love.’ This means no one is buying the stunt and they have to make it look like they are so they tell lies. Do you genuinely think they are going to interview an onlooker and ask everyone how Taylor and Harry looked? We all know Harry can not stand Haylor himself. Anyway, they took pictures with fans and they were standing 400000 miles away from each other. Anyway Harry got injured and that is what Taylor wrote in Out Of The Woods. To make it look like a relationship she added some fake things in it. 

They do not even sit close next to each other, which is funny because Harry almost sits on Louis’ lap each time they are sat next to each other. In the 2nd picture you can see that they do everything to keep the distance big enough for a whole Larry Ship to fit in. ;)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXFFRaSFGx4

The video is not interesting, you can see Harry eating a burger (cute) and they talk a bit.

What Haylor shippers see:

What I see:

This stunt has been recycled twenty thousand times already. Never forget that the 1st ski trip ever were from Larry together in 2011. The rest are just stunts.

The same rules apply to these tweets. They’re just like the other ones. No way possible that she spotted them/him in a hot tub, if she can tweet about it how about taking a picture? She only ‘saw’ Harry in the hot tub.

Harry shows his snowmobile injury off. 3 years later around this time, Taylor announced the music video for Out Of The Woods. In that song there is a verse in which she says ‘’ Remember when you hit the brakes too soon Twenty stitches in a hospital room.‘’

This is again one of the things she does to make it about Harry. It’s like one of those ‘key’ things for her to make it about Haylor. I just do not like it when she blames her pr relationships on her ‘ex-partner’ whereas we know it is not real.

Liam asked what happened to Harry’s chin via twitter.

Let us pretend this is no shade at all. He literally tweeted this in December when the Haylor Hell Fire was at its highest point. Well done, I was there and I love it.

Pictures like this one are to confirm that he left the country and then they can make a whole story around it. 

On the 31st of December 2012, Taylor and Harry were photographed ‘kissing’ after her concert in Times Square. What I loved about this even was that he missed her performance, because he wanted to go to a Coldplay concert (We love a king). He also ‘forgot’ his passport and he tried to avoid the whole NYE thing. Harry is always looking with that fake smile/sadness when he’s with her. Look at the following pictures please.

He looked like he was broken inside and Taylor pressed on his wounds. He is broken inside and he is clearly not happy at all. You do not look like this when you are with someone you love.

Harry is literally turning his head the other direction and Taylor is trying to put her head closer to Harry’s. 

Then the ‘kiss’ happens. First, I like to tell all of you guys that they were surrounded by tons of fans and paparazzi with cameras an phones in their hands. There is even a video of it. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1jttU1fY74

People say he is touching her bottom, I have not seen his hand near her bottom at all. They countdown and then Harry put his arms around her waist and they ‘kiss.’ No one has ever seen their lips touching, only the people who ‘were there’. Everyone was filming it, everyone. You can not tell me that no single soul on the side filmed their lips touching. Their lips did not touch, that is why there is no video of it. Everyone was filming their ‘kiss.’ How come people on their side did not film the actual ‘kiss’?

Also during their hug (in the video), he looked like this:

Does this look like a happy person who want to spend New Years Eve with Taylor? NO. This if to the people who think he hugged her ‘so fiercely’ and is happy with it. This is your debunk, he is everything but happy.

To back up my point about the fake kiss. This is a (really low quality) picture of them ‘kissing.’ However I do not think their lips are touching. He is definitely ‘kissing’ above her lips or next to her lips. It’s just like the Elouno This Is Us Premier ‘kiss.’ (If you will read the debunk about that kiss you can automatically aplly it to this one). I forgot to add that this whole kiss had been promoted the whole day, even before they ‘kissed.’

It really does not look like they are kissing, they’re just standing closely to each other. Their faces are not even pressed together so I think they’re just talking. 

Then he pats her back with no emotion left on his face. You might think ‘’why would he be sad if he did not even kiss her?’’ Well, it hurts to do this and do not forget that he looked emotionless when he arrived. This reminds me of the car ‘kiss’ between Louis and Eleano. He also did not kiss her on the lips, but he looked right at Harry when he was done faking a kiss. It hurts to leave your loved ones and act with someone you do not like at all. We all know how sensible Harry is when it comes to stuff like this. He cries easily (hence Louis’ reaction in the car), Louis gets jealous easily.  

In this gif he is just talking to her while being sad and he turns his head away quickly when he touches her nose with his nose.

Now I’m definitely sure he did not kiss her on her lips, more next to her lips. It does not matter because he looks sad anyway. He pulls back and looks immediately the other direction. Look how sad he is. You can sort of see his lips not touching her lips, more next to it. Pause the gif and looks at it frame by frame. The middle of her head is in the same line as the middle of her lips.

If you guys want to see Harry happily real kissing someone, here it is. This is how you (real) kiss someone you love/like/are friend with.

This is just sad, we know when Harry hugs someone (even fans) he wraps his whole arm around them and smiles. Please take a look at the examples. He hugs Louis (’his best friend’) better than his ‘girlfriend.’

(I just want to say that this Larry picture is one of my favorite pictures. It’s from 2010/2011 and I just love how happy Harry looks. Harry’s head fits perfectly in the crook of Louis’ beautiful neck. Louis’ brown hair is also sweetly in place. You can even see Louis’ arm muscles wrapping around Harry so tightly. This is what love is, nothing else. I think Louis even gave his vest to Harry, but I’m not sure of that.)

This is one of those examples in which fans are hired to lie or in which they just lie because they want people to believe in Haylor. He is moving his head away as far as possible. He is also uninterested, so how do they expect us to believe the kissed? If she is taking a picture anyway, why not one of them ‘making out’ ? This is exactly how you can spot the liars, do not fall for it my loves.

January 2013

They went to the British Virgin Islands and took pictures with fans for them to see that they were together. They sat there, keeping the space big enough again for The Larry Ship to fit in. Harry looked happy with those fans, probably because the stunt is ending, he does not look interested or happy with Taylor at all.

They FINALLY BREAK UP!!!! 

Taylor is seen sitting alone in the boat, ready to leave. There will be no Haylor in the future, we’re done with that crap. 

Whereas Harry Styles is finally happy in months of what seemed a big depression. He was spotted, the same day after their ‘break up’ chilling with friends in a jacuzzi. How come Haylor shippers do not remember this? Like what kind of energy does this radiate to you? Boyfriend of the year? Heaven, NO!

This was also the day Louis was spotted being super happy, he gained happiness, energy and life. The way his cute little jacket is wrapped around his tiny body is beautiful. God, I miss the time when he looked chubbier. It’s beautiful, his soft fringe is also the big cherry on top. 

If you type in those letters of the tweet, you will see tons of headlines about Haylor. We all know she wrote the songs for Harry before they were something, Harry even denied their relationship, but dream on I guess. She also tweeted this to a fan once, so I do not see how this is a big deal. She should know while she is out there tweeting that, Harry was being super happy while visiting Necker Island (January 4/5). Your kind (Harry) is not bothered by their ‘break up’ at all.

What this Haylor shipper forgot to add is that while ‘ he was returning to London after his fake split with Taylor’ he went on vacation and looked the best. Plus, they make it seem like he was so sad in those pictures, but that is not true at all. He looks like a little , sweet, pretty and innocent deer caught in headlights. 

This has nothing to do with the debunk, but it is so crazy. She has a ‘hickey’ on her boob from someone she just ‘broke up’ with. I do not get how this is possible in their minds, Harry does not give a crap about her, how do people still think she met up with him and did that. Plus, she shaded him at the award shows. She does not love him. 

Taylor recorded a song called ‘All you had to do was stay’. People were really quick to judge it and claim the song to be about Harry. It was not. Taylor said she had a dream about her ex (which is hilarious). That is weird and shows how Harry does not care, only she does. Eve if it would be about Harry, it is fake. None of this happened, this could only happen in her dreams so….. conclusion: She and Harry never had something and Harry does not care for her in any way.

Then, after all her dreams about Harry and wanting him back she shades him by mocking his accent. She sings ‘’I used to think that we were forever ever and I used to say never say never…..so he calls me up and he’s like ‘I still love you’ (mocking Harry’s deep voice and accent) and I’m like ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy opening up the Grammy’s and we are NEVER getting back together, like ever.’’

Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuL12wL1Iyc

Seven days later Harry is of course asked about the Grammy performance. You guys need to know one thing. When a label does not want a client to talk about a certain subject, they tell the radio to ignore the subject or the interview will be stopped immediately. Here is the proof, I was kinda  shocked when this happened. This means they wanted him to talk about it.

The interviewer asks ‘’Are you okay since the split with Taylor?’’ 

Harry says in a confident tone: ‘’I’m okay, thank you for asking’’

The the interviewer: ‘’Yeah?’’

Harry: ‘’Yeah I’m good’’ (we have seen that, Harry)

Then the interviewer asks: ‘’The Grammy performance, when she performed she kinda had the little bit where she did her little English accent at the end and a lot of people suggested that it was a dig at you. I just want to know how you feel about it.’’

Harry:  “She’s a great performer and she always performs great. She’s always good on the stage. She’s been doing it a long time. She knows what she’s doing on stage. It was just another good Taylor Swift performance. It was good.”

He literally dodges the question so hard. He did not say anything about it, he just said she is a good performer. Something he only says about her in ALL interviews, I’m not kidding.  He basically insinuated that she has a lot of experience (she has been doing it a long time), shading her fake exes. I mean she does that a lot, so I am not surprised. 

He clapped and so did the whole audience. They really have to stop trying, it is never going to happen. 

So Taylor posted this picture on insta in January 2013 and Harry posted his picture in December 2013. Now, Haylor shippers claim they spent time together and shared the same room. Which is completely weird, because One Direction and Taylor shared the same hotel. It is a luxurious and expensive hotel, a lot of celebs stay in that hotel. Plus, the table and the pole thing are not in Harry’s picture/ room view. They did not share the same room. 

On 31 January 2013 Ed Sheeran talkes about Taylor and Harry, since he is a mutual friend. Ed is amazing as always and he says ‘’I’d rather not comment on that’’ then he tells an amazing story about Harry giving homeless people pizaa. That is so sweet, those people deserve some love. Plus, this is how you answering a question like this.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=9KETDQeDpK4

On 25 August, 2013 Taylor shades Harry again in front of public. While accepting her awards she says: “I also want to thank the person who inspired this song, who knows exactly who he is, because now I got one of these,” she said, holding her award. “Thank you so much!”

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnUV4NgItpk (0:45)

While she says that the camera quickly turns to Harry and the boys of One Direction. Louis is not happy, he is super mad, look at him biting his lip.The other guys also got in on the disdain. Here’s Niall saying “Horrible. I freaking told you” to Louis. Harry just chews his gum and just laughs at the camera, just like Zayn and Niall. Zayn just sips his tea like everyone else. I forgot to add that Louis refused to clap for Taylor, we all know why. 

People think Harry is staring at her bottom in this picture which is a common mistake. He is not doing that, he is looking at her direction while blinking, Taylor is already behind him. Look at his eyes, they are not even in her direction. 

This is once again a printed interview. I just never get the idea Haylor shippers have when it comes to their fake relationship. Harry literally said he was single at the time and they still make it about Haylor. Just because she wanted attention to put his love banner tattoo in the music video. Which is weird, because the media claimed it was about Harry and only printed interviews ‘confirmed’ it was about Harry. They make it seem like that, because she needs to sell her albums. However, she did mean Harry when dissing him at the VMA’s and she was talking about IKYWT. So she basically insinuated the song is about him herself. Which is insane, because they did not even had a ‘relationship’. They are just trying to fuel the Haylor Hell Fire.

In short: Harry texted someone and Taylor got a text and showed it to Selena and now people think Harry did that (I’m rolling my eyes). First of all, no one said they checked their phones at the same time, so how could you know something like this? It is such a reach. In the video Taylor looks nowhere (only at her date and behind Selena, Harry is sat completely on the other side.) she just talks to Selena and Selena just looks behind Taylor. None of them is looking at Harry, this is the best debunk of them all.

Link: https://twitter.com/haylorthread/status/997928258451763201

Taylor and Harry were pictured together with Ed Sheeran and someone else at the VMA afterparty. Remember what I said about pictures being released for a reason. This is just a picture, just like he takes pictures with fans. I just do not get how this is proof that they ‘hung out together’. Harry was asked about this and he said ‘’Yeah we went out for drinks with Ed and some friends and yeah….. it was good’’

In this picture the yellow area show what Harry is truly looking at. Taylor is literally sitting far from the places he is looking at. The other pictures are just trashy, because he is not looking at her at all in those.

I definitely think Harry just ignores her, he does not even pay attention to her.

Then, this happened. While 1D gave their speech Taylor said ‘’Shut the hell up’’. People thought it was meant for Harry and 1D. Ed cleared the rumors up. I do not know what to believe, she seems like a person to do that to 1D since she shaded him tons of times.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=TGYyoWY0lQY

So Liam said this in an interview . This does not mean that live interviews are real and always truthful. On the contrary, they are scripted most of the time. However it is really funny that Louis did not show up. It is even funnier that we’ve seen multiple moments of the boys being annoyed by Taylor. Link: https://twitter.com/swifttcreature/status/872318554447761409

Harry is asked about Taylor again. The interviewers asked what he would say to Taylor if he met her again, since he said she is a good songwriter. Harry dodges the question again and says ‘’That she is a good songwriter’’. He repeated the SAME thing he has been repeating the whole time when asked about TAYLOR. Harry also says they are ‘all good’. Something he has been repeating over and over again too. When Harry says that she’s a good songwriter, our little bitter Louis says ‘’You got any advice for her?’’ while smiling. Harry laughs at that. He just acts like they never had a fake relationship, and he does not consider it a relationship. That is why we love you too Harry. I also fogot to add that I love how Louis kind of shades her with his remark. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=4UzCPvSGr8U

Then somewhere in 2013 fans meet 1D and Harry asks what they were listening to, they reply with ‘’Taylor Swift’’. Of course Louis laughs as the first one. Harry just nods and laughs because of Louis. At 1:58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=127&v=57Gg2QYnvMA

This makes it seem like he is smiling when Jonathan Ross says her name, but it is not like that. He was smiling already because of something that was said earlier. Then he just says ‘’yeah’. Then Joanathan asks if Harry is okay with Taylor and Cara hanging out and maybe talking about him. Then Harry says he is friends with them, because he thought Jonathan meant that.

This is also one of the examples, just like Ed, Liam and Niall. Courtney and Harry have hung out before. He was invited to a secret screening of hers. Harry is also friends with her ex husband. Ed Sheeran is also friends with Jennifer Aniston. Ed is Taylor and Harry’s mutual friend. That is why they ‘hang out’. They never hang out with the two of them, but in a group since Ed is friends with them. I honestly do not get how this makes Taylor and Harry a ‘couple’. They just hang out because Ed is there too. We have seen what Harry’s reaction is when it comes to Taylor or girl in general and dear darling, he is so distant. 

To be continued in a Part 2…

#harrystyles #harry styles #harry #styles #taylor swift #taylorswift #taylor #swift #haylor #debunk #haylordebunk #haylnever #haylno #stunts #bearding #beard #beards #2012 #december 2012 #louis during haylor #louistomlinson #louis tomlinson #louis #tomlinson #louis hates haylor #louis hates taylor #jealouis #jealous louis #jealousy #vma 2012

[ofbardsandmonsters]

Does anyone else have a longtime friend(s) who, if you met them today, you know you would want nothing to do with them? But your lives are so intertwined that the idea of separating seems impossible and terrifying?

I’ve been friends with one of my best friends since I was 16, he was 15 (we’re about 6 months apart). I’m now 32, and he’s 31. So we’ve been friends for over half of our lives. His wife and I are super super SUPER close. My husband is close with them too. We’re at their house at least once a week. We’re the godparents to all 3 of their kids. I address her dad as dad. I refer to her sister as my sister. We’ve lived 5 minutes apart and thousands of miles apart. And we’ve remained close friends.

Now, I’ve known for a couple of years that we’re on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. They’re (relatively) quiet conservatives while I’m an extremely vocal liberal. We’re all aware of this, and we try to keep politics out of our discussions. And when we can’t, we’re all really good at staying level headed and having mature debates. He’s even almost aggressively jumped to my defense when his brother-in-law tried to call me a “bleeding heart liberal sheep.” They’re both extremely and unapologetically pro 2A, and he often has a pistol on his hip whenever I see him outside of their house. He knows that larger caliber guns like the AR make me uncomfortable, and he does a good job of keeping any out of sight when I’m around.

Up until last week, none of this was ever an issue in our friendship. We actually agree on a number of super important issues (abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, equal pay, just to name a couple). And I’ve always been extremely non-confrontational, especially with the people closest to me. I was always afraid to rock the boat and make anyone upset with me. But after watching millions of people all around the country and around the world rise up and uses their voices to make change, I’m done being silent. And an incident in town on Monday has forced me to come face to face with an uncomfortable reality.

Some of you may have seen a video circulating around twitter of a protest in Indiana Monday afternoon, where a bunch of armed men lined up along a protest route as an unnecessary show of force to try and intimidate protesters while claiming they were just trying to “protect their neighborhood.” They looked like this:

Those are my neighbors. That’s my neighborhood behind that fence. Those guns are in houses next to mine and down the street from mine. Hearing that my mom had to drive past these guys to get home and seeing these pictures (long before the video ended up on twitter) put me on the edge of an anxiety attack at work, and that tense, anxious feeling continued long after I got home. 

So what did I do? The same thing I always do when I’m upset or anxious. I texted my friend. And she called me, basically giving me a lecture that these guys are just “exercising their rights, just like the protesters” and showing little to no sympathy for my fear. 

This morning, more people from our circle were posting an article from the local paper about it on facebook. They, and other people commenting on their posts, were all in support of these men, cheering them on for “protecting our town” and “exercising their rights.” And it made me realize just how out numbered I am in my own circle of friends. It made me realize that I don’t really have any friends in “real life” who share my views, who I can go to protests with and march with and lift my voice up with. It’s just me and my sister. It made me sick and sad and heartbroken. My stomach is still churning from it.

And I have no idea where to go from here. I just feel lost.

#tw: guns

[winesympathy-blog]

Wine & Sympathy - Episode 1: Welcome to Wine & Sympathy [Transcript]

Show Notes:

In this inaugural episode, you'll learn a little bit about Asabi and Ness and why they have decided to enter the world of podcasting. Asabi & Ness introduce themselves using a series of questions about their lives, likes, wants, and history.

Social Media & Website Links

Facebook: www.facebook.com/winesympathy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/winesympathy

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sympathywine

Website: www.winesympathy.page

Co-host: Asabi Goodman

Co-host: Vanessa "Ness" Bristow

Listen to us on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or your pod catcher of choice!

[BEGIN]

Ness (NB): Hi, everybody! This is Vanessa.

Asabi (AG): And this is Asabi. And welcome to Wine...

Both: & Sympathy!

NB: So, I think we should probably explain a little bit about us. Obviously, I know you, you know me, but there are things that we don't know about each other.

AG: That's true. And there's things that people don't know about us. I don't know if I want people to know about us.

NB: [Laugh] How about we just put the shiny stuff or the stuff with the filter on it, the stuff we would normally put out on Insta (Instagram).

AG: Yeah! I think that's a great idea. Just the glittery, happy go lucky...yeah!

NB: I'll start off. Tell me a little bit about you.

AG: My name is Asabi. I'm from America, and I live in Brisbane [Laugh].

NB: Well, thanks. We kind of grabbed that one already. So, we're hear to talk about what we're like as 40-something, gorgeous women in the entertainment industry. What made you want to do this podcast?

AG: I just enjoy talking [laugh]. Can I say that? I just like talking. Do I like the sound of my own voice? Not always. But, in all honesty, I wanted to be able to reach out to people that might be in a similar position as me, and just let them know what life is like, and that things will be fine, in most cases. It is a hard struggle. I do hustle. I do the hustle.

NB: I know you do, and I'm super proud of you. Watching you deal with this Covid-19, bullshit quarantine - sorry, I might swear - and the fact that you've done live shows, live feeds to America, that you've created income when you've lost everything. I'm real proud of you.

AG: Thank you!

NB: It's a real tough situation that we're in right now. Not only are we 40-something and we don't look it...'cause it's really hard to cast.

AG: It is hard to get cast looking the way I do. That might sound arrogant. Let me explain it. So, most people don't realise my age. When I meet most people, they think I might be in my late 20s - that's a stretch - early 30s, mid 30s - I could get away with that. But, you know, I'm mid-40s, and one of the issues that I have with casting is that I get put out for these roles between 40 and 60, and they're looking for a mom, and then I don't get them because they're like, "...wait a minute, you don't look old enough to be in your 40s." But I am. I'm what a 40 year old looks like. This is what 40 looks like in my life.

NB: It's weird, because they're not really casting for 30s. If they were casting for 30s, we'd be sweet.

AG: We would be sweet, and there aren't many casting for 30 year olds. You just don't see a lot of it. So you see a lot of 20-somethings. You see a lot of 40 and older, but I've always known that people in their 30s tend to get overlooked. At least, that's how I feel.

NB: Look. I agree. I feel the same way. It's really tricky. And we are hustlers. We're out there. We're pushing ourselves every day, and our agents are as well. But, I think together, living together and doing this podcast, I think we will really lift our game art-wise...

AG: I hope so. That's part of it as well; just to get out there a be a bit more present, if you will, in the industry. So, whatever we can do to make ourselves more present, and then not just tell our stories, but tell other people's stories as well.

NB: Because there's so much about being an artist that I think is not just always about yourself, it's about understanding people around you, meeting people around you, loving people around you, and experiencing, you know, all of these great things that we get to know, because through the arts we do.

AG: And experiencing those things just makes you a better artist as well. You get to see these lives and eventually step into them in different characters and it's like, oh! I know someone like that! And it helps you develop that character and play that character out. So, it's good. And then of course showcasing what other people do just allows them to get out there as well. There's a bit of a [struggling] philanthropic - philanthropic, can I say that - side to my nature where I have this desire to help people achieve. I'm a huge advocate of doing what you love - something that my father instilled in me. And, I just want nothing more than for other people to also be able to do what it is that they love. So, I'm a huge advocate for that.

NB: I think we both have that in common, which is a really good starting point for a good friendship.    

AG: Yeah! It is.

NB: And...[struggling] collaboration. What's with our words today?!

AG: Collaboration. I don't know. I think this social isolation has caused my tongue to go soft [laugh], which can be good and bad. Let's not go there. That's a different conversation [laugh].

NB: It is. Alright. So a little bit about me. So, obviously I am 44. I'm single and ready to mingle!

AG: Oh, girl! [Tongue trill]

NB: I just came out of a break up. I really don't want that. So, moving on. [laugh] I've been an actress, singer, dancer, performer, pretty much my whole life - I mean, just ask my mom [laugh].

AG: Moms always know.

NB: I know. I think dance was a big thing for me when I was little in New Zealand, and then coming to Australia, and then when I eventually stopped dancing, I moved into performing. I did perform on stage or act on stage anyway, but it was more musical theatre or things like that, so it was a bit different.

AG: Still acting.

NB: But, I won a scholarship for TAFTA, and it opened these doors for me.

AG: What does TAFTA stand for?

NB: The Australian Film and Television Academy.

AG: Ok.

NB: Cool, right? So, that just opened and that was in the 1990s. I think it was 1999 that I graduated.

AG: I've seen videos of her too, on some dance show. It was very...amusing. So 90s [laugh]!

NB: So blessed to have the 90s in our lives, because that was a crazy, fun time.

AG: Like almost dirty, but still pretty clean.

Both:  [Laugh]

NB: I find it really hard...like last year, 2019, was good for me. I did three feature films; small to large parts.

AG: Independent.

NB: Independent. Yes. They were independent films. There was no money in there. I did do some MCing work and there was money in that. I did a couple of little commercials, and there was a small amount of money in that. But, I actually feel like as a 40-something woman, I was starting to be looked at last year, and I felt good in my skin. I think that comes with age. I do wanna also give back. Very much like you, I believe in helping others, and you'll often find me giving advice on healthy medications or...[laugh].

AG: Yes! She tries to help me a lot, which I very much appreciate. I sometimes feel like I'm living with my mom [laugh]. But, at least I can still breathe.

NB: Hello! At least your sheets are clean and I just Glen 20'd your bed!

AG: That's right. Thanks, mom!! [laugh]

NB: Your'e welcome. I believe everyone can live up to their potential; to be healthy, and wealthy, and...

AG: Wise! [Laugh]

NB: Wow. Nice one! Did you just make that up? [Laugh]

AG: No. I think that's a saying. I have no idea. [Laugh]

NB: Yeah. I want everyone to be good and kind to one another.

AG: I think that's beautiful. That's beautiful sentiment.

NB: And you want to lift everybody up to be their best.

AG: And I agree with that. I do want everyone to be kind, and healthy, wealthy, and wise. And yes, I do want to lift people up. I want to lift you up!

NB: See! Oh my god! We're like super human powers! What would be our name if we were super heroes?

AG: Wonder Twins! [Laugh]

NB: The Wonder Twins! Oh! I love it!!

AG: I think that's already taken. [Laugh]

NB: Oh, shivers! [Laugh]

AG: Do you not know the Wonder Twins? Wonder Twin powers activate!! They have the ring.

NB: No. That's not. That's Power Rangers!

AG: No. NO! Wonder Twins - way before the Power Rangers. Well, maybe not. I don't know when the Power Rangers came out. But the Wonder Twins...

NB: If anybody knows any two females together that are super heroes, shoot us an email.

AG: There's tons of female super heroes. There's...You know what? There is Wonder Woman and her twin sister Nubia.

NB: What?

AG: Yes!

NB: Wonder Woman has a twin sister? Where have I been??

AG: She does and she's black!

NB: Oh my god! I'll be Wonder Woman!

AG: Goria Steinam was the inspiration behind that. She talks about it.

NB: I don't mind being Wonder Woman and you'll be Nubia!

AG: Well, definitely!!

Both: [Laugh]

NB: Right! I think this is cause for celebration. I'm gonna open a bottle of wine!

AG: I don't even have wine.

NB: What?!! What is the name of this podcast?? [Laugh]

AG: I know. I need to get some. I'm fine for now. I'm fine for now.

NB: That's alright. I'll get us a drink. I've got it.

[Clinking of glasses and laughter]

AG: Thank you. That was very quick. That was a very quick getting of wine.

NB: I often have wine. [Laugh]

AG: She does. There's so much wine in our house. I thought that I had a lot of...I do.

NB: You have a lot of booze, dude.

AG: I have a lot of liquor. Yeah. I do. I have a lot of booze. But, Ness has lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of wine.

NB: Not at the moment. Due to this self isolation thing, I've already gone through a whole case. So, if anyone out there is a wine representative or knows somebody who would like to sponsor us, we would desperately love some wine.

AG: Send us wine. All kinds. We'll drink it!

NB: What's our email?

AG: Our email is [email protected]. That's info [spelled out] I-N-F-O at wine sympathy dot [spelled out] P-A-G-E, page.  

NB: Well, I think this is a pretty good intro. I think we have got a rough...

AG: An introductory episode.

NB: Yeah. We've got an idea of each other.

AG: Yeah. I think we've told some people about us.

NB: Do you think we'll probably learn a little bit more about each other as we go?

AG: No.

NB: Nah. Oh. We're done? We're done?

AG: Of course not! [Laugh] Of course we will.

Both: [Laugh]

AG: I mean, we live together, in case y'all didn't know.

NB: We shower together.

AG: What? Hey!

Both: [Laugh]

AG: TMI, Ness. TMI! People don't need to know that. They're gonna start getting pictures in their heads!

NB: [Laugh]

AG: That's not how this podcast works, but you can send us questions, comments, anything you like. You can write on our Twitter page. You can write on our Instagram. We've got a few photos up on Instagram. Nothing of us yet.

NB: Yeah. And also on Facebook. We've got a couple of photos from when we did a little make shift photoshoot in our beautiful lounge.

AG: Our lounge is beautiful. It's very beige!

NB: So beige! I love it! [Laugh] It's good though. It blends.

AG: Yeah. I love it. It does blend. We blend.

NB: We blend.

AG: Yeah. Vanessa's tan. I'm...

NB: Beige. I'm beige.

AG:..Brown. Vanessa's beige. Ok. Yeah. She kind of blends in with the light coloured couch.

Both: [Laugh]

AG: If she sits on it, I can't see her.

Both: [Laugh]

AG: And then if I sit on the brown couch, I just disappear. [Laugh]

NB: Oh my god! I can't believe you said that!! [Laugh]

AG: Yes. I said it. I said it.

NB: Well, we've got really nice throws and some really nice cushions, so I think we kind of do stand out.

AG: Lots of cushions.

NB: Plus we have tits...

AG: Yes. We have lots of that.

NB: So they often stand out.

AG: They do. I try to hide them.

NB: Please don't.

AG: I know. But you know, sometimes...[Laugh]

NB: Ah. Be proud.

AG: Anyway! Thanks so much for listening to us, guys. We are Asabi and Ness, and this has been Wine...

Both: & Sympathy!

AG: Catch us on regular episodes when we have some guests that will come by and chat, and...

NB: And you'll learn some more about us as well.

AG: That's right. And about them, and what they're doing. And, yeah, like I said, contact us on the socials.

NB: Alright. Until then, wash your hands and be safe.

AG: Wash your hand and be safe.

NB: Be safe.

AG: Be safe.

NB: Be safe.

AG: Alright.

[END]

#Wine #Sympathy #Wine & Sympathy #Asabi #Ness #Brisbane Podcasts #Podcast Life #Podcast Friends #Thats Not Canon #Pod Sisters #Housemates #Brisbane Performers #Hearing Impaired #Transcripts #ADA Friendly

[tessatechaitea]

Scarab #4

Is this child porn? I hope this isn't child porn. I bet it's not child porn because this is a fetus.

Apparently this is why Marty was so bloody. He beat an old woman to death. Or to miscarriage.

Marty claims the old woman wouldn't stop screaming so he had to beat her. But why wouldn't she stop screaming? Was Marty raping her? Probably. As I mentioned before, Marty believes the women of this town deserve physical violence. Although he ended last issue screaming, "Look what it did to me," which doesn't make any sense in this context. Maybe he just means Pan drove him crazy by not allowing him to kill himself? So this violence is Pan's fault and not part of Marty's toxic masculinity? Marty goes on to explain the entire story to Scarab so that the reader isn't confused anymore. All the men in town were castrated by Pan who then pissed in their mouths. And afterward, either due to visions of heavenly glory or the ripest of all embarrassments, they marched into the sea and killed themselves. Except Marty had a broken leg so he didn't get to experience the beauty and wonder of castration followed by ritual suicide. But earlier this evening, he glimpsed Pan and came in his pants. I think the "Look what it did to me" while opening his pants before Scarab was to demonstrate he'd lost his balls. Then he beat the old woman to death because she couldn't stop screaming after seeing his mutilated manhood. So now Scarab feels like he needs to put things to right although it seems like the women of Whitehaven are happy with how things are going. And the men are dead so what do they care if somebody destroys Pan? I guess this is why I'm not a superhero because my first reaction to seeing dozens of naked women engaged in a passionate orgy is to think, "Things look good here! I guess I'll be off! After staring an inordinately long time. You know, to just top off the wank bank."

Meanwhile, this pornographer happens upon the scene and decides to join in. Little does he realize, it's Pan's fetuses who are in control. He's fucking the fetuses!

Scarab seeps into the ground to confront Pan and to nobody's surprise, Pan threatens to fuck his arse off when they finally meet. This is another reason why I'm not a superhero or Jesus Christ. Because I can't resist temptation. If I were Jesus Christ, Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ could probably still have been called that. But, just to clarify, it would also have been The First Temptation of Christ. Satan would have been, "Look. Knock this shit off for a handful of Fizz candy and a Snickers bar?" And I would have been all, "Ooh! Fizz!" Scarab punches Pan and Pan responds by saying, "Hey man! Why so violent?! Sheesh. Let's be civil. Come inside my lair and let's talk. Watch out for the puddles of semen. Don't touch those socks. I apologize for the stench."

Pan reveals his real name and exposes himself for the vanilla sex monster he really is.

Why would Pan joyfully claim he's the missionary position?! At least be "The Beast Whose Penis Looks Like a Backwards Woman So I Can Stare Straight Up Her Butthole as We Fuck!" It turns out Pan is dying. Probably because he only fucks in one the worst position. Scarab can't convince Pan not to die so Pan dies. Some hero. After Pan dies, the women of the town begin realizing they don't want to be pregnant with a smell goat god's disgusting progeny so they begin to perform abortions on themselves or scream until they miscarry or simply go insane. Pan told Scarab that Eleanor will be taking care of his children. I don't know if he meant because they're all going to be killed now or because they'll be born into the Net or any number of other stupid reasons I can come up with through my terrible ability to speculate. The pornographer turns out to be Sidney Sometimes, the Fortean publisher, who I completely forgot about because I read that section of this comic book yesterday. Maybe he'll become the Scarab's lead on weird things to investigate. The issue ends with one more revelation: the "it" in Marty's "Look what it did to me" was indeed impregnation. I'm not going to rule out the castration as well but that wasn't ever explicit. So Marty wanders off to ignore what's going to happen when he gives birth because it certainly won't be a lot of fun finding out. Scarab #4 Rating: C. I think Pan fucked up this entire town just to get a few more months of life. I can respect that. People act horrified at the thought of bathing in baby's blood to stay eternally young but, I mean, seriously, if that were an actual option, we'd find out a whole lot of people were way less concerned about the welfare of infants.

#Scarab #John Smith #Scot Eaton #Vertigo #DC Comics #DC

[ganglylimbs]

Deliver Us In These Trying Times

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Relationships: queer-platonic Bakugou & Midoriya, Bakugou & Class 1-A, Midoriya & Class 1-A, Bakusquad, Dekusquad

Summary: Bakugou and Midoriya co-own a coffee shop near a college campus. They (one more reluctantly than the other) make friends with the students there. 

Or alternatively: A bunch of humans accidentally pack bond with a grumpy angel and a happy demon. 

Warnings: A fuck ton of swearing. The story is third person from Bakugou’s view, so there’s a lot of just referring to people by their hair styles. I tried to make it distinguishable enough that people would know who is who. Also, there is some violence, some light mention of child abuse, and light mentions of an abusive relationship. 

Notes: Written for Writer’s month. Day 3- Prompt: Coffee shop. A coffee shop with a supernatural twist! As a non-coffee drinker and someone who doesn’t visit coffee shops, I tried my best. I hope you enjoy! It took me like a month to write this. 

Words: 12,518

"I need a small Americano," Deku yells out, only half way turning from where he manages the register.

Bakugou scowls, but he gets to work. The kitchen is filled with the scent of coffee and cream. Machines whirl and whine as they work and Bakugou focuses on that instead of the small talk he can hear outside. 

When Bakugou finishes, he stomps out and slams the drink down, not caring as it spills out of the cup. 

"Hey," the customer, a short girl with cropped black hair and large headphones hanging from her neck, says. She scowls at Bakugou and Bakugou scowls back. 

"Pay the fucking man and drink your fucking drink. Or don't. I don't give a shit." Then Bakugou turns on his heel, heading back to the kitchen. 

He doesn't make it back fast. He still hears her huff. "What a jerk off."

Deku laughs. "Ignore Kachaan. He's always like that."

"And he's still allowed to work here?"

"Well...he is one of the owners."

"Seriously? Whose the poor sap that has to run a business with him?" 

Deku laughs again, and the awkwardness of it is palpable to Bakugou. "Oh, well. That would be me." 

"Oh."

"But please, do enjoy your drink. It's amazing, I swear." 

There's a moment's pause. Then a small. "Huh."

Bakugou smirks. Damn right.

                                                          ~

The coffee shop is a small, hidden in the wall kind of thing. Brick walls that are covered in pictures and old movie posters. Jazz music plays over the radio. Bakugo thinks it's supposed to be peaceful but it only pisses him off.

But Deku had nixed heavy metal. Said it scares people off. What the fuck ever. 

                                                          ~

Much to Bakugou's chagrin, Headphones girl comes back. Shame. 

She orders another small Americano. Her friend, a guy with spiky bright dyed hair (and who has a fucking black zigzag on his bangs, what the fuck is that shit?) orders a cafe macchiato. 

Bakugou sniffs. He gives them their orders, flips them off, and stomps back. "Wow. You weren't kidding," the guy says. 

"But try your drink." 

"Huh. He's still an asshole though." 

"Oh totally." 

                                                          ~

People are not Bakugou's forte. That's fucking Deku's job. That's why he mans the front end and Bakugou is in the back. 

That's why Deku smiles wide as their little shop gets more and more customers every day and why Bakugou absolutely hates it. 

The problem is that they live in a college town. Which means most of their customers are snot nosed little brats. 

They come in with their stupidly simple orders and their goddamn complicated orders and they expect Bakugou to be fucking nice and polite to them. 

Deku is fucking living as he talks and interacts and makes fucking friends. Bakugou fucking hates him for it

                                                       ~

There's a guy, with red neon hair fucking spiked up (like an asshole) who orders a cafe mocha every time. And every time Bakugou brings it out, he gives a wide smile and shouts "Thank you."

For some reason this asshole has taken to trying to make Bakugou learn some fucking manners. 

Who the fuck is he? 

Bakugou slams the cup down. The guy frowns. "That's not very manly, Bakugou." 

"I don't care, Shitty Hair."

The guy touches his hair. "Ah, don't say that. My hair is awesome."

"Awesomely bad." 

"Rude." 

"Good. Get out of my shop." 

The guy has the gale to laugh at him. Bakugou scowls and walks away. He comes to a sudden stop though. 

Crawling on the ground is the little rat fucker. A freshman with dark purple hair pulled into multiple buns (what is up with all these stupid hairdos) who has the unfortunate habit of perving on the woman that frequent here. 

Deku usually keeps him in check or has one of the perv's friends keep an eye on him. But Deku is in the back baking treats and the perv has come alone today. 

The little fucker has a camera out and is creeping up to a woman who always wears a high ponytail and her friend with hot pink hair (seriously, he knows this is college, but what the fuck is up with their hair styles???). Both women are standing up, drinking their coffee. Both are wearing skirts.

Bakugou rolls up his sleeve. 

The prick gives a shout, drawing everyone's attention, as Bakugou picks him up and throws him out of the shop.

"Hey," the asshole yells, picking himself up from the ground. "You can't do that."

"I can and I will." Bakugou points at him. "Learn some fucking manners, learn how to be a decent human being, and learn how to not be a fucking creep. Until then, you're banned. 

The little rat opens his mouth, as if he is going to fucking argue with Bakugo. And Bakugou? Well, he has no time for this. 

So he drops his human form. Not a lot. Not enough to get caught by the others. But enough that the creep sees Bakugou's smile become a little more jagged, a little more unnatural, a little more terrifying.

The prick turns around and walks away. Bakugou snorts and then he turns around to stomp back to his kitchen. No one says a word.

Shitty hair gives him a grin. "That was very manly dude." 

"Shut up and drink your goddamn coffee."

                                                             ~

The supernatural isn't exactly unknown. They are just.. forgotten. It's not against their laws for humans to find out, it's just most of the time humans don't pay attention long enough to see. Too busy staring at creaking old houses to notice the old man who died a hundred years ago watering his flowers next door. 

Bakugou is perfectly ok with that. He just wants to run his little shop peacefully and quietly. 

It's about the only thing Deku and he agree on. 

                                                     ~

Deku walks in one morning and his untidy mop of hair is dyed seaweed green. “Uraraka said I would look good with this color,” he says by way of explanation, a blush on his cheeks. 

Bakugou nearly throws him out the window.

                                                      ~

"He wants a fucking what?" Bakugou asks.

"A cappuccino for himself. And a cafe latte for this girl he likes," Deku says. Then he fucking smiles. "And if you could make a heart out of the foam, that would be amazing."

"No. Not only no, but fuck no," Bakugou says. "If he wants to do his little weird human courting ritual, tell him to do it away from my shop. I don't want that lovey dovey shit here." 

"Well, it's also my shop and I think it's cute," Deku says. "Besides, I know you can. Don't be stubborn about this."

Bakugou raises an eyebrow. "Me? Not be stubborn?"

At least Deku has the fucking sense to be ashamed at that. "Ok, poor choice of words. But come on, Kachaan-"

"No."

Deku tilts his head. "Well, I guess if you won't, I can do it." His fingertips crackle with green lightning. 

Bakugou stops in front of his machine, a hand curling possessively over it. "Fuck no. You'll fucking break it. Again." Bakugou glowers as Deku grins back, unashamed in his inability to uses a fucking coffee machine correctly.

Deku's grin widens. "Well, if you won't do it and you won't allow me to do it, I guess they'll have to go somewhere else, where someone more experienced can do it." 

Bakugou tenses. He knows what the nerd is doing, but dammit, is it working. Bakugou shows his teeth. "One time. I make it one time, just to show them I can and then no more." 

Deku gives him a soft smile, to fucking rub it in. "Sure, Kachaan."

                                                          ~

Bakugou makes the best damn foam heart there ever was. He walks out and sees a plain nervous looking man at the counter, twittering his thumbs.

Bakugou does NOT slam the cup down. Instead, he looks nervous boy in the eyes and hisses, "You make sure this gets to her. And fucking confess. I don't want my fucking hard work to go to waste." 

The boy nods, gulping as he carefully takes his drink. Bakugou watches as he walks to an empty table-wow, ok. Not empty. But there is the plainest looking girl that Bakugou has ever seen sitting there. If he hadn't been watching nervous boy, his eyes would have passed over her. 

Well. A plain boy for a plain girl. Perfect. 

She squeals and Bakugou immediately turns tail and heads back into his kitchen. He isn't paid enough to deal with this shit. 

                                                          ~

The boy does not ask for a drawing in a drink again.

The girl has no problem demanding them though. 

Bakugou refuses.

She resorts to bribing, leaving spicy snacks out for him.

Bakugou relents.

He purposefully ignores the way she thanks Deku for the tip.

                                                            ~

Later, he leaves chill pepper in Deku's drink. He shamelessly laughs when Deku spits it out. 

                                                           ~

"Oh man, this math test is going to kill me," Shitty Hair complains. It might be to Bakugou, it might just be in Bakugou's  general direction, it might be to the guy with a wide smile and big elbows sitting next to them who nods along in sympathy. 

Bakugou doesn't actually care enough to form a reply. So he grunts.

"I mean, look at this," Shitty Hair continues, thrusting a packet of papers on the table. "It's bs." 

Bakugou looks at the paper closest to him and snorts.

Shitty Hair points a finger at him. "Don't start." 

"What?" Elbows asks, looking in between them. 

Shitty Hair rolls his eyes. "Apparently, the dude is good at, like, everything." 

"It's because I have this amazing thing called a brain," Bakugou drawls. 

"Oh, shut up," Shitty Hair says. "I have a brain."

"The score on your history midterm proves otherwise." 

"Look, we can't all be crazy smart like you."

Bakugou rolls his eyes, pushing off the counter. "The real difference, Shitty Hair, is that I work hard for my smarts. Quit fucking coasting." 

He goes to refill Elbows' frappuccino. When he gets back, Shitty Hair is frowning down at his papers. 

Elbows gladly accepts the refill. "Do you go to college here?" 

"No."

"Oh. It's just, you look like a college student. And you said you worked hard to learn all the stuff. Did you go to another college?"

Bakugou has to think about it for a second. Then he shrugs. 

Elbows gives him a look. "Come on, dude. You have to give us something." 

"First, I don't have to say shit," Bakugou says. "And second, sure. I guess I went to college." 

"You guess?"

"Yeah." Every so often, Bakugou gets bored enough to sign up for a few classes. The thing is, it's usually years apart. And there have been many colleges. 

Shitty Hair and Elbows look at each other. "Ok, fine. Be cryptid." 

Bakugou scowls. "Just get to work on your reviews." 

"Oh, is that for Mr. Horton's class?" A girl with chubby round cheeks and short brown asks as she passes by. 

"Yeah," Shitty Hair says. 

"I'm studying for that too, actually. Actually, we have a group going on." The girl points to the back, where a man with glasses sits with a girl who has long hair tied in a bow. "And Deku is helping us. He's like, really smart. I’m surprised he’s working at a coffee shop." 

Bakugou is already retreating at the name of the nerd, going back to the kitchen. He messes around, tweaking his recipe for spicy hot chocolate. It burns on his tongue and Bakugou takes deep gulps of it. 

Perfect. 

When he goes out again, he’s surprised to find Shitty Hair still sitting on the counter, silently working on his review. Bakugou side-eyes the nerd table, where Deku is laughing at something Round cheeks says. Bakugou grabs one of the finished papers, looking it over. He ignores the way the Shitty Hair keeps glancing at him. 

Bakugou sits it down. “Number 6 is wrong.” 

Shitty Hair grabs it, eyebrows furrowing. Bakugou points it out. “See. You carried the wrong number.” 

Shitty Hair’s face lights up. “Ah. Thanks.” 

“Tch.” Bakugou looks away. “It’s not hard. Like I said, I at least have a fucking brain.” 

Shitty Hair grins at him. “Yeah you do.” 

                                                           ~

Bakugou steps out on the roof. It's night, the moon is hidden by clouds. A soft breeze ruffles his hair. He lets the door close behind him.

Once he is sure he is completely alone, he takes a deep breath and rolls out his shoulders. His skin shudders, splitting, and then wings rip themselves out of his back. They flutter for a second, trying to right themselves after being kept away for so long.

He takes the time to stretch them, working out all the kinks and smoothing feathers down. He massages the muscles there, flaring his wings as high as he can, touching the sky. Touching heaven.

Then he sits on the edge of the roof, kicking his feet, flapping his wings, and just breathes.

When he walks back inside his apartment, the front door opens. He makes eye contact with Deku. They pass each other, not saying a word.

                                                          ~

“I’m not a big coffee drinker,” The girl who wears the high ponytail, who Bakugou has appropriately dubbed as Ponytail, says. "I actually prefer tea." 

Headphones hums. "Yeah, I can see that. It really fits you." 

Pink Hair perks up. "Oh, maybe we can get them to sell tea here." 

The three turn to Bakugou, who is leaning against the counter. He raises an eyebrow at them. "Hai?" 

Pink Hair immediately bounces over. "Bakugou! We were just talking-"

"I heard. You were being fucking loud about it." 

"Good. Then you know what we want to ask." 

Bakugou tilts his head. "I don't give a shit. It's Deku you have to convince."

Ponytail frowns. "Midoriya?" 

"Yeah. He does all the supplies ordering." Bakugou smirks. "Good luck convincing him though. The nerd hates tea." 

"I wouldn't have expected that." 

Bakugou shrugs. "Deku has poor fucking taste. Does it really surprise you?"

"Wait," Ponytail says. "You like tea?"

"Yeah?"

"I always thought you'd like coffee more."

"Fuck no. I hate fucking coffee." 

The three girls look at each other. It's Pink Hair who speaks up. "But...you own a coffee shop."

"Yeah? So?"

"And you make excellent coffee," Ponytail adds.

Bakugou makes a go on motion. 

Headphones sighs. "Why do you own a coffee shop if you hate coffee?"

"Am I supposed to let my tastes dictate what I do and do not do?" 

"It just seems like a pain in the ass for you," Pink Hair smirks. "Unless...did Midoriya ask you to open a shop?"

Bakugou slams his hands on the counter. "That fucking nerd has nothing to do with what I do." 

Now Headphones is smirking too. "Uh huh. So the two of you opening up a coffee shop, despite you hating both coffee and people, is just because you had an urge one day?" 

"No, it's because I know you stupid college kids are addicted to the fucking stuff and I fucking love money," Bakugou says.

Pink Hair giggles. "You know, Blasty, it's OK to admit you are friends." 

"We are no such things. Dare to utter that shit again and I'm throwing you out." 

                                                          ~

A new customer comes in. His hair is dyed half white, half red.

Now Bakugou knows these fuckwits are doing this shit on purpose. 

He looks around, face impassive before walking towards Bakugou. "Is Midoriya here? I need to return his book." 

"No," Bakugou says.

They stare at each other. Red-White shifts. "Uh, do you know when he will be back?"

"No." 

"Ok. Do you know where he went?"

"No." 

The continue to stare at each other. Neither blinks. "Are you going to order something or just stand there like a dead fish?" Bakugou asks. 

"No," the man says. 

They continue to stare at each other. 

The bell on the door rings. It's Deku, who lights up at seeing them. "Oh, Todoroki! There you are. I was looking for you." 

Red-White turns his back to Bakugou. Bakugou's lips curl at that. "Uraraka told me you work here." 

Bakugou rolls his eyes at them as they continue to talk. Dunce and Elbows walk in next and Bakugou heads to the back to make their usual. While he's back there, Deku pokes his head back. "We need a breve too." 

Bakugou grumbles, but he does his job. 

When he brings out the drinks, he's annoyed to find that the breve is for Red-White. Fuck. And he had actually liked making that drink. 

Red-White's face doesn't change as he drinks. He just continues talking to Deku. Bakugou's fingers twitch, but he turns to Dunce and Elbows instead.

The two are laughing about some party they went to. "I can't believe Mina fucking decimated that keg stand." 

"Dude, she killed it," Dunce says.

"You know who else killed it," Elbows wiggles his eyebrows. "I heard you made out with Jirou." 

Dunce yelps, face going red. "Who told you that?" 

“Mina and Hakugaru saw you two. Said you were too busy sucking face to notice when they entered the room.” 

Dunce groans. “I thought she had locked the door.” 

“Like that would stop Mina. She would have just gotten Shoji or Toyokomi to open it.” 

Dunce runs his fingers down his face, stretching the skin. He notices Bakugou and grins, sensing a new target. “Oh, Bakugou. Where were you, man? You missed out on one heck of a party. Even Deku had come.” 

Bakugou tilts his head. “Hai?” 

“Oh come on, man. I know Kirishima invited you.” 

Bakugou narrows his eyes. He...supposes Kirishima had mentioned something. It doesn’t really matter though. “Parties are not my thing.” 

“What?” The two of them gasp. 

“But,” Elbows’ eyes look Bakugou up and down. “You look like-like-” 

“Like such a partier,” Dunce finishes. He grimaces, holding his hands up as Bakugou turns to glare at him. “No, wait. That sounds wrong. I just mean, you have such a fuck off attitude that I can see you being a rebel. You know, teen drinking and going to all the parties to piss off your parents.” 

Bakugou snorts. “Yes. That sounds like me. A place filled with people, who are out of control, and drinking. Sounds like a fucking good time.” 

“You don’t like drinking?” Elbows asks. 

“Fuck no. It’s horrible tasting.” 

“Yeah, but you don’t drink for the taste. You drink to get wasted,” Dunce says it like that’s supposed to be a fucking argument. 

“And why would I want to do that? I don’t like being out of my senses.” 

Elbows nods. “Yeah, you do have control issues.” 

“Excuse me,” Bakugou turns to him. 

Elbows just fucking smiles at him. “Nothing,” he sings. 

Bakugou flips him off. 

“Well, this means you really do have to go to the next party,” Dunce says. 

“How the fuck does that make sense?” Bakugou asks. 

“Come on, man. All I see you do is work. You need to relax a little.” 

“I relax.” 

“You really don’t, Kachaan,” Deku pipes up as he passes by with a tray of cookies. 

“Fuck off, Deku.” 

Dunce points at Deku. “Come on, man. Midoriya goes all the time.”

“Deku actually fucking likes you people. I couldn’t give two shits.” 

Elbows and Dunce look at each other and nod. “Time to call in the secret weapon.”

“What the fuck-” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Dunce says. Elbows has his phone out and is texting away. 

Bakugou narrows his eyes at them but before he yell some more, he feels someone poke him. He turns around, snarling. It’s Red-White, face still impassive. “I would like another please.” 

Bakugou lips curl far back enough to show off his gums and he stomps to the back. He makes sure to slam utensils around to let them know how pissed he is. 

When he comes back, he shoves it at Red-White. Red-White, the fucking bastard, manages to catch it gracefully. “Thank you,” he says, taking a sip while maintaining eye contact. Bakugou can feel his hackles rising. 

“What?”

“Nothing,” Red-White continues to sip his drink. 

Bakugou can feel his palms heating up. Behind Red-White, Bakugou catches Deku’s eyes, who shakes his head. Bakugou takes a deep breath and turns on his heel. He stalks into the kitchen, pushes out the back door, and into the alleyway. He takes a deep breath, looks up, and his eyes glow red as he silently screams into the sky. 

His palms go yellow, burst of energy popping along the skin. In the distance, he can hear dogs howl and birds screech as they fly away, startled. 

In a few seconds, it all goes away. He takes another deep breath, and walks back inside. He makes a few more drinks for the few customers who had walked inside before daring to go back out. He makes eye contact with Deku again and nods. 

Kirishmia and Pink Hair are part of the group that has shown up. They sit with Elbows and Dunce, talking quietly. They all go silent when Bakugou shows back up. He ignores them for a bit, but, like always, the dumbshits pull him back in. 

“So,” Kirishima begins and Bakugou’s danger sense start tingingling. “There is this excellent cafe that’s around the corner. They make the best burgers-” 

“And holy shit, their milkshakes are amazballs, too,” Pink Hair cuts in. 

“Yeah,” Kirishima eagerly nods. “And the fries?”

“Like heaven,” Elbows says. 

“And you’re telling me all thisssss….because?” Bakugou asks.

“Because we want you to come with us,” Pink Hair says.

“No,” Bakugou immediately says. 

None of them look surprised by this. 

 “Come on, Bakubro,” Kirishima says. 

“Don’t call me that.” 

“It’ll be fun. I promise it’ll be fun.” 

“I don’t care about fun,” Bakugou spits. 

“That is, like, the saddest thing I have ever heard you say,” Mina says. 

Bakugou flips her off. "Look, I don't care what you guys say, I'm not going."

                                                          ~

The cafe is fucking stupid. And fucking small. Bakugou is squashed in the seats, between Kirishima and Pink Hair. They jostle him, elbows digging into his side as they lean all over him. Elbows' fucking long legs keep kicking him, brusing his knees. Dunce's hand movements are all over the place that it's a goddamn miracle he hasn't knocked over any drinks.

Bakugou is in fucking hell. And he should know. He's been there. 

The burgers are greasy, dripping all over his fingers as he tears into it.

"You're delusional, man," Elbows says. 

"No, really. They were absolutely UFO lights," Dunce says, eyes wide. He has ketchup smeared on the right side of his face and his hair seems to almost be standing on end. "They were there for like, five seconds. And they disappeared." 

Kirishima is leaning over the table, eyes glued to Dunce's as he chows down on his own burger. 

Mina grins, leaning back and spreading her arms. Bakugou growls as she bumps his head. "My people, come to take me home."

Elbows shakes his head. "It was 3 in the morning. And you had just gotten done writing that English essay. And you had just had your fourth energy drink."

"You don't know that."

"You had literally just texted me about it." 

Dunce waves him off. "That doesn't matter. Back to the topic. I saw a UFO."

"It wasn't a UFO," Bakugou grumbles. 

Dunce rolls his eyes. "Of course you would think that, fun-killer-"

"It was a fairy," Bakugou continues, munching on his food. 

The table goes quiet. Then…Elbows burst out laughing, followed by Dunce and Pink Hair. Kirishima bumps against him. "Did you make a fucking joke?" There sounds like fucking awe in his voice.

Bakugou just shrugs. Humans always see what they want to see. If the table makes jokes for the rest of the night, mocking the possibility of it being a fairy, then that's on them.

Although...Bakugou does hide a smile into his burger.

                                                     ~

Red-White turns out to be a constant pain in his ass. The fuck is an early riser, one of the first to arrive at the shop. He always stays at least an hour, talking to Deku, and ignoring Bakugou. Unless it’s to demand a coffee. 

Bakugou is going to lose his fucking mind. 

The fuck is there one day, listening silently as Deku yammers away. It’s a Sunday, so the only other customers is a guy with super jacked up arms who, for some goddamn reason, wears a mask over his face. He gives Bakugou a nod when he gets his drink. At least he’s blessedly silent. The other is Headphone girl, nodding along to her music, ignoring everyone else.  

Deku tenses a moment before the door opens. It’s a large, muscular man with a scarred face and a beard. “Shouto,” he says, voice deep. 

Red-White doesn’t turn. Just continues drinking his coffee. Loudly. 

Bakugou leans on the counter, crossing his arms and hips cocked. He raises an eyebrow at Deku. He lifts a hand, pinky raised. Deku gives a minuscule shake of his head and Bakugou nods. 

“Shouto,” the man repeats. “You were supposed to come home today.” 

Red-White still doesn’t respond. 

The man sighs. “I thought we had gotten over this rebellious phase of yours.”

“It’s not a phase,” Red-White finally says. He slowly turns his head. “I truly do hate you.” 

The man snorts. “I don’t give a shit about that. Hate me all you want. But you are still in law school. You are still using my money to pay for college. That means you still have to follow my rules.” 

“I may be in law school, but that has nothing to do with you. I will never be like you.” 

The man smiles widely. “We’ll see. Now come, we are going home to visit your siblings.” He turns, like the conversation is done. 

“No,” Red-White says. He tilts his chin up. “I’m staying at college this week.”

“Ah, studying are you. Well, I suppose I can allow-”

“No,” Red-White cuts in. “I am visiting friends.” He tilts his head towards Deku. Deku does his best to not flinch under the glare the man is giving him. 

The man’s lips curl. “You are wasting valuable time-” 

Deku raises his hand, fingers twisting and turning. Bakugou keeps one eye on the argument still going on and the other on Deku’s hands. When he finishes, Bakugou carefully responds, slightly shaking his head. 

“I spend every day studying,” Red-White spits. “You can’t keep me isolated. I made friends.” 

Deku purses his lips. His fingers start working again. 

“You don’t need friends. Friends hold you back.” 

Green lightning crackles. Deku’s eyes glow. Bakugou cuts his hand across his throat, narrowing his eyes at him. 

“You can’t control me,” Red-White says, deadly serious. “I’m 19. I’m a legal adult. I have my own ideas and make my own decisions.” 

Deku turns to the two and Bakugou growls. His muscles tense, ready to tackle Deku at the first sign of trouble. Deku places a hand down, palm facing Bakugou. Bakugou pauses. 

Red-White is still facing his dad, a rare snarl on his face. His dad is snarling back. Deku steps forward, between the two, smiling. Red-White puts a hand on Deku’s arm, squeezing. Bakugou steps behind them, glaring at the man over their shoulders. 

He sees Deku’s fingers move, green lightning crackling some what. The air sizzles. Bakugou can taste it. It’s smokey on his tongue. “I’m sorry, sir. Is there a problem?” 

The man blinks, shaking his head. He rubs at his eyes, puts his fingers to his head, and huffs. “What? No. No problem.” He looks at Red-White again. “Fucking...fine. Fine. I don’t have time for this. I’m meeting with an important client. If you want to waste your time here, do it.” He turns to leave but looks over his shoulders one last time. “But don’t think for a second that this is over with.” 

With that he leaves. 

Red-White sighs. His hands are shaking, breath coming fast. 

Deku looks at him. Bakugou wrinkles his nose. Deku crosses his fingers and makes a jab down. Bakugou lets out a long sigh. 

Then he moves his fingers. Tiny, tiny explosions pop. 

Red-White takes one last shaky breath. His hands stop trembling. He takes a moment to compose himself before turning to them. “I apologize for that. He wasn’t meant to come here.” 

Deku gives the bastard a wide smile. “No need to say sorry. This is a safe place for you. If you want, we can ban him from the premise.” 

Red-White looks down at his hands. “I will think about it.” 

“Hey.” Deku steps forward, putting a hand on his shoulder. “How about another drink and some food?” 

He leads Red-White to a stool to sit down before heading to the back. Bakugou follows. 

They’re silent as they work. Bakugou finishes the drink and sits it on the counter, turning to lean against the counter as he watches Deku. Deku doesn’t look at him till he gets his muffins in the oven. 

Finally, Deku meets his eyes. “I had to do it.”

“Did you?” 

“Yes. I couldn’t stand by while that happened in my shop.” Deku’s eyes are dark green as he stares down Bakugou. 

Bakugou’s lips curl. “Do you think that was hidden at all? What you did? You fucking stood in front of them. We have fucking witnesses.” 

“None of them are going to remember it. I made sure of it,” Deku says. 

Bakugou slams his hands down on the counter. “That’s not the fucking point.” He turns around, picking up the drink. “If you’re going to do fucking stupid shit, don’t do it in front of me.” 

He walks out, sliding the drink towards Red-White. The dude still looks to be in shock. “Fucking buckle up, you dipshit.” 

Red-White glares at him. “I didn’t ask for your input.” 

“Look, you and your sad excuse for hair need to pull it together. You said you weren’t becoming a lawyer for your dad’s sake, right? Then that means you have a fucking goal in mind. Keep that goal in the forefront and keep your sad shit out of here.” 

With that, Bakugou walks away. 

He avoids the front after that. But he does know that Deku keeps Red-White company for the rest of the day. 

                                                         ~

“You know sign language?” Headphones asks. 

Bakugou tilts his head for a second before he remembers. Fucking Deku might have made their minds fuzzy when it came to what he did to Red-White’s dad, but he wouldn’t have done the same to the minutes leading up to that. He hadn’t realized that they were being watched. 

Bakugou shrugs. “It’s a useful language to know.” 

Headphones nods. She stirs her drink a little. “Pretty useful when you want to talk without someone knowing what you’re saying.” 

Bakugou narrows his eyes at her. “Quit being coy, you fucking suck at it. If you have something to say, then say it. 

Headphones smiles at her. “It’s just good to know that you two have our back if something happens here.” 

                                                     ~

“Dude, I’ve always wanted to learn sign language,” Elbows says. Dunce, Pink Hair, and Kirishima nod, eyes wide and sparkly. “Teach us.” 

“Fuck no,” Bakugou growls. Fuck Headphones for spreading this shit around. 

The boys make whining noises but Pink Hair just tilts her head. She smiles wide, showing off her teeth, and Bakugou instinctively bristles. “You know Midoriya is teaching his friends sign language.” Her eyes slide to the side. 

Bakugou follows, seeing that, in fact that moron is. He breathes hard through his nose. Then he makes a series of hand motions. 

The others follow his motions. Kirishima hesitates. “What did that say?” 

“That you all can fuck off.” Bakugou smirks. “Now, pay fucking attention.” 

                                                       ~

Ponytail is talking to the girl who ties her hair into a bow, both of them staring down at a piece of paper. “I really would love to go,” she says, running a finger down the paper. “They’re my favorite band.” 

Bow Girl shrugs, face blank as always. “Then go.” 

Ponytail sighs. “I can’t. I have an exam the next day. I should stay in my dorm, study and rest.” 

“Exams are important and concerts can always wait. It would completely be your fault if you happened to fail because you didn’t study.” 

Ponytail sighs, slumping. “I know.” 

Deku appears, offering her their drinks (hot tea for Ponytail, Greek frappe for Bow Girl). He looks down at the flyer Ponytail is holding. “Oh, Crimson Sails? I heard they were in town. Are you going to go see them?” 

Ponytail bites her bottom. “...no. I shouldn’t.” 

Deku tilts his head. “Well, why not. They don’t come around very often. This might be your only chance to see them.” 

Bakugou scrunches his nose, mouth full of lightening and skin tingling. He glares at Deku but the bastard ignores him. 

Ponytail blinks, fingers tightening on the poster. “That is true. And I have never been to a concert that wasn’t an orchestra before.” 

Deku’s grin widdens. “Everyone deserves a chance to relax and have fun, you know.” 

Ponytail stares at him. Then she returns his grin. “You’re right. I should go.” 

Deku walks by and Bakugou grumbles. “Really? Here?” 

“Come on, Kaachan,” Deku says. “She’s stressed and she rarely does anything for herself. Besides, it was just a little temptation.” 

                                                         ~

Pink Hair sighs for the fucking millionth time. Bakugou is three seconds away from throwing her out. Instead, he grits out through his teeth “What the fuck is up with you?” 

“You know that presentation I had? The one that’s worth half my grade?” 

Bakugou nods. 

“Well, my computer got a virus and I lost everything. The presentation is due tomorrow and my professor is refusing to allow me an extension.” She stares mournfully down at her drink. “I’m totally going to fail this close.” 

Bakugou grunts. “That fucking sucks.” 

“I know,” she wails. “And I worked so hard on it.” 

She’s silent for a second before mournfully adding, “I was really proud of it, too.” 

Bakugou purses his lips. He grinds his teeth. She continues to stare down at her drink, a cloud over her head. 

Fucking hell, he’s getting soft. 

As casually as he can, he wiggles his fingers, small bursts of light popping along his skin. Then he clears his throat. “It’ll be fine or whatever.”

Pink Hair rolls her eyes. “Jeez, thanks. That’s really comforting to hear.” 

“Comforting words are useless,” Bakugou says. “Only actions get anything done. If you work hard, I’m sure everything will come out ok.”

“I don’t know how hard work is going to fix losing weeks worth of work, but ok.” 

Bakugou leaves her to her mopping. Deku gives him a smile. “What was that about not using powers in the shop?” 

“Shut the fuck up.” 

                                                           ~

Pink Hair is chattering excitedly to Headphones when she comes in. “I still can’t believe that all the files got uncorrupted.” 

Headphones shakes her head. “I can’t believe it either. I took a look at that thing. I thought it was unsavable.” 

“It’s a damn miracle. And I got to shove it in my bitch professor’s face.”  

Bakugou can feel Deku smiling at him. He flips him off without looking.

                                                         ~

There’s this french bastard that comes in every once in a while who thinks he’s a real fucking charmer. Bakugou always rolls his eyes as he flirts with the other customers. It’s sad and Bakugou tells him so. 

Kirishima always gives him a frown and a “Leave him alone, dude.” 

Right now, Smooth Talker is drinking his cafe au lait, looking around as he talks to Deku. 

“I know I’m magnificent but he just makes me feel...unmagnificent,” Smooth Talker says. “Weak. I don’t know how I can talk to him when my tongue starts to trip over itself.” 

“Wow, he must be really special,” Deku says. “You usually have a lot more confidence than this.” 

Smooth Talker sniffs. “I know. It’s so unbecoming of me. But I don’t know how to get over it.” 

Deku hums. “You know what I do when I get nervous?”

“Sweat a lot and start to mumble to yourself?”

“No-well, yes. But I also pause, take a deep breath, and then slap my leg twice. It calms me down enough that I get the courage to ask what I wanted to ask.” 

Smooth Talker looks unconvinced. Deku gives him a wink. “Trust me, it helps. Try it next time,” he suggests, eyes glowing. 

                                                       ~

Bakugou narrows his eyes at the kid at the counter. He’s an early riser kind of dick, which confuses Bakugou because the guy is always dressed head-to-toe in black. 

He also is always wearing some article of clothing that is bird themed. Bakugou calls him Bird Boy. 

Because it’s early and a Monday, Bird Boy is the only one in the shop. Which is a good thing because he’s taking for-fucking-ever to decide what he wants. 

Finally, he decides on a cafe melango. Bird Boy takes a deep inhale of it when he gets it. “A drink made specially to heal the hole in my heart.” 

Bakugou rolls his eyes. “Despite your numerous attempts to change it, we are not one of those lame coffee shops that do fucking poetry. Just take your coffee and go.” 

“Not even your brash attitude can pierce the dark cloud that follows me.” 

“Oh my fuck,” Bakugou says, hands dragging down his face. “Who knew you getting dumped would make you even more of an annoying bastard.” 

“My heart wallows in misery and it sings loud to let others know.” 

“Shut the fuck up,” Bakugou huffs. “Look, you fucker. The girl made you miserable, right?” 

“Correct.” 

“And she made fun of you going to therapy, right?” 

“I was not as fun when I was on my meds, according to her.” 

“You were worse off with her. Fucking look at you. You took a fucking shower. You don’t look like a fucking disaster anymore. You’re even getting fat off of Deku’s fucking cookies.”

Bird Boy looks down at his shirt, touching his stomach. “I suppose I have finally gained back all that weight I lost.” 

“Then why the fuck are you moping? Fuck her.” 

“Alas, my friend. Logic holds no sway over emotions.” 

“Bullshit. Emotions are wild beasts but that doesn’t mean they can’t be tamed or at least managed. Let me guess, you’ve been sitting in the dark, listening to sad fucking songs right?” 

“There is solace in the dark.” 

“Which is fucking great for like a fucking day. And then you need to kick that shit to the curb. Stop fucking wallowing.”

Bird Boy seems to think about this before nodding. “Sound advice. I am surprised, Bakugou. I didn’t expect you to be so intune with your emotions.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Bakugou sneers. “Emotions are my bitch.”  

                                                            ~

“We need a eiskaffee, stat,” Deku says. 

Bakugou, because he knows who the fuck this is for, slams his way through the drink and then makes sure to slam it on the counter. “Here’s your shitty drink,” he says, scrunching his nose to show his distaste. 

“Kachaan,” Deku warns him. 

“Oh it’s fine, Midoriya,” Round Face says, sticking her tongue out at Bakugou. Bakugou flips her off. 

It looks like the whole gang's here, despite Bakugou’s best efforts to run them off. Bakugou blames fucking Deku and his stupid dumb personality. 

Round Face and her gang of nerds sit in the back. They wave at Deku as Bakugou scowls at them. Deku nudges him and Bakugou goes back to the fucking kitchen. There are more orders coming. 

Bakugou brews as he always does, with the same fierceness as he always does. 

“Amazing as always, Blasty,” Pink Hair squeals. Her and the idiots lean on the counter, ignoring the way Bakugou tries to shoo them off. Deku is no fucking help as he’s with the Nerd Squad. Bakugou suspects he wouldn’t be much help either, as the sick fuck gets a kick out of seeing Bakugou suffer. 

“Of fucking course it is,” Bakugou huffs. He tries to swipe the counter down, again, ignoring the way Elbows and Dunce lean on it to jeer at him. 

Kirishima laughs, taking a sip of his cafe mocha. He catches Bakugou’s look of disgust and rolls his eyes. “I don’t get it man. If you hate coffee so much, how are you so good at making it?”  

“I am a man of many talents,” Bakugou tells him, solemnly. The idiots laugh. Like he’s joking. Bakugou shakes his head and hides his smile. 

The bell above the door rings and Bakugou stiffens. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Deku tense too. They make eye contact. Bakugou jerks his head to the kitchen and Deku nods. 

The man who had walked in follows them. 

Bakugou turns sharply on his heel, leaning his hip against one of the counters, and crosses his arms over his chest. Deku twists his hands and bites his lips. 

The man is taller than them, long black hair hanging down around his shoulders. Dead eyes stare at them, huge bags under them making him look tired. The man stands there, hands in his pockets and takes them in. 

“Spit it out already,” Bakugou says. Because the man is Aizawa and if Aizawa is showing up here, something bad is going to happen. 

Aizawa sighs, a long deep suffering sigh, as if they were fucking inconveniencing him. He pushes his hair out and his face, making sure to catch their eyes. “The League is in town.” 

Both Deku and Bakugou still. The League...fuck. 

“What brought them here?” Deku asks. 

“Does it matter?” Bakugou growls. “As if the League ever needs a reason to go somewhere and fuck shit up.” Bakugou’s fingers twitch against his arms. He can already feel the upcoming fight burning through his veins. 

Aizawa sighs again. “Bakugou is right. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they are here. Which means the two of you need to be on your best behavior until they leave.” He throws a look in Bakugou’s direction. 

Bakugou huffs, looking away. He can feel Deku’s eyes on him as he promises Aizawa that they’ll be good. 

“I already know this is going to end poorly,” Aizawa says running a hand through his hair. “But we just have to make it till they get bored and leave. Now, I need to warn the rest of the community. But first,” he purses his lips. “Coffee? The special kind?”

Bakugou flips him off. Then, using his middle fingers, summons a fire so it dances on the tip. He gets to roasting beans as with it, adding a little spice and cream. Deku floats some cups and utensils towards him, allowing Bakugou to snatch them out of the air.  

Bakugou finishes, handing the cup to Aizawa, who takes a deep inhale. “Nice.” 

Bakugou smirks. “I call it a Cup of Hell.” Because he has a fucking sense of humor. 

Aizawa smirks back. And then he disappears. 

                                                      ~

For the most part, the supernatural community has done pretty well with integrating themselves into the human world. No longer are they the monsters in the woods. Instead, they are accountants and CEOs and daycare workers and coffee shop owners. 

But there are accidents and not so accidents when the supernatural world and the human world collide. Violently. 

Which is where Hunters come in. Special licensed humans (and some non-humans) that have the ability to turn in non-humans to the Council if they cross the line. Very few have the ability to actually kill criminal non-humans on sight. 

The League is not one of those that have the license to do so. But that does not stop them. Any non-human that has the unfortunate luck of catching their eye will at least end up severely bruised with a good chance of ending up found face down on the street three days later. 

The Council has tried to put a stop to them, but the humans have claimed that they can’t do anything, that they took away their license but that does not stop them. 

To have the League turn up in their neighborhood...well. 

They’re fucked. 

                                                       ~

It’s a rainy morning. Bakugou can hear thunder. Lightning strikes. The shop is near empty. The only customers are Round Face, Kirishima, and a woman with blonde hair tied up into two buns, who sips on her coffee in the corner. Round Face leans on one end of the counter, waiting for Deku, who is taking his sweet fucking time in the back, making his special bagels or muffins or what the fuck ever, Bakugou hadn’t been paying attention. 

Kirshima is also leaning on the counter across from Bakugou, yamming away. Bakugou nods along, resting his head on his hands.  It’s slow and he’s bored and at least what Kirishima is saying is entertaining. 

The blonde woman stands up and walks over. She pushes past Kirishima, slips a folded note to Bakugou, winks, and leaves. 

Bakugou doesn’t look at her, just takes the note and puts it in his pocket. 

Kirishima stutters, eyes darting from where the paper used to be before looking back up at Bakugou. Bakugou raises an eyebrow, motioning for Kirishima to continue. After a few seconds, Kirishima does. 

Five minutes later, Deku reamurges, fresh brownies (ah, that was what that sickening sweet smell was then) on a plate. As he passes by, Bakugou takes out the note and wordlessly hands it to Deku. Deku takes it just a wordlessly and pockets it. 

Round Face and Kirishima share looks. 

But they don’t ask. 

                                                         ~

The League isn’t just made up of hateful humans looking to abuse their power. There are a handful of non-humans as well. What their motives are for joining the hate group is unknown for the most part. 

There’s a half-zombie, desperate to destroy anyone who reminds him of his master. A vampire who hates the Blood Pact she’s forced under. A wizard too, though no one knows why he hangs around the freaks. 

But the leader is most definitely a human, a stringy, pastly, wimpy young thing. And he’s not shy about his detest for the supernatural. Bakugou bets it has to do with daddy issues. 

Most non-humans who meet the League don’t make it out of the meeting alive. 

Bakugou has always prided himself on not being like most people. 

                                                       ~

“What if they try it again?” Deku hisses as Bakugou passes him, sliding the cup down. 

“Then they have made a huge mistake,” Bakugou hisses back. Deku gives him a look and Bakugou rolls his eyes. “I’ll be fucking fine. Nothing to worry about.” 

“Worry about what?” Its Elbows who asks, who happened to be passing at the time. 

Bakugou snarls at him. Deku grins. 

“Nothing,” they say. 

                                                         ~

A second warning appears, during the breakfast rush. This time Deku gives it to Bakugou, a hissed “Be careful” slipping through his teeth. 

Bakugou glares at him, pulling Deku in the back. “Don’t tell me what to fucking do.” 

“I just want you to be safe, Kachaan.” 

“I’ll be fine! It’s you who needs to worry.” 

Because as much as it fucking pains Bakugou to admit it, Deku isn’t like most people either. 

                                                       ~

The Idiot begrade is back in full force. And they brought the whole squad. 

Fucking great. 

Bakugou gnashes his teeth, palms going hot. He needs to burn something but hell if he’s going to do that. Especially with everyone fucking looking at him. 

“What?” He finally snaps. 

Dunce and Elbows exchange looks with Pink Hair. Kirishima gives him a grin, though Bakugou can see how frayed around the edges it is. “Nothing. Nothing.” 

Bakugou breathes through his nose, a heavy sound. His only consolation is that Deku is getting the same treatment from the nerds. 

“And you’re sure you are alright?” He hears Four Eyes say. 

“Of course I am guys. Really.” Deku sounds just as frustrated as Bakugou feels. Bakugou grins at that. 

Ponytail clears her throat. “I apologize. I know we appear to be bothering you,” Bakugou knew there was a reason he tolerated her. At least she’s smart. “But we’ve all noticed that you’ve been on edge lately.” 

Just not smart enough. 

“We’re fucking dandy,” Bakugou says. 

Then, because fuck the universe, he tenses. Deku does the same. 

The blonde chick is back. She strolls in the shop, a sharp wide grin in place. “One hot chocolate,” she says, grin growing as Bakugou growls at her. 

Deku tries to step in but Bakugou doesn’t let him. They end up side by side. Staring the girl down. “No hot chocolate.” 

The girl pouts, bottom lip jutting out. “Oh?” 

Deku tries for a grin, though it wobbles. “Sorry, it’s just not the season for it and we don’t have any in the store right now.” 

“Ahh, that’s too bad,” she leans on the counter, eyes twinkling. “I was really looking forward to some.” 

The whole coffee shop has gone silent. 

“Too bad,” Bakugou says, crossing his arms. His heated palms burn against his biceps. He can feel Deku quivering besides him, keeping a grip on his own powers. “Piss off.” 

She chuckles and it’s high pitched and grating to Bakugou’s ears. “Well, that’s not nice.” 

“I’m not a nice person.” 

“That you aren’t.” She slips them two pieces of paper. One to Bakugou, one to Deku. Deku pockets his. Bakugou tears his to pieces. 

The girl frowns. “No, not nice at all.” 

Pink Hair clears her throat. Bakugou frowns at her even as blonde chick turns to look. He makes a gesture, trying to tell her to shut the fuck up but either she doesn’t see him or she ignores him. Which, by the way, what the fuck? 

“What,” Blonde chick sneers and Pink Hair, ever the stupid one, sneers back. 

“I think you should leave.” 

Blonde chick blinks. “What was that?” 

“Uh, I think I was pretty clear. You should go. It’s clear that they don’t want you here.” 

Blonde chick looks her up and down. She licks her lips. “We have a fighter, don’t we. Excellent. But as much as I love this, I don’t believe it’s any of your fucking business.” 

Round Face stands next to Pink Hair, with Ponytail stepping behind them. The others are standing now too, all nervous and sweaty. But still standing.  Round Face crosses her arms. “I don’t think that matters.” 

Blond girl tilts her head. Then she looks over her shoulder. “Interesting round of humans you have here.” 

Deku steps forward. “Toga, leave them out of this.” 

“Why? They don’t seem to want to be left out.” Toga licks her lips. “In fact, they look like they want to play? Huh? Do you?” 

“Toga,” Deku says again. Bakugou raises a hand, eyes glowing. 

Toga looks between them before sniffing. “Fine. If you want to be jerks, be that way. Not like it matters anyway. He’s going to come, whether you like it or not.” Toga starts to walk out the door. Before she leaves, she looks over her shoulder and winks. “I’ll be seeing the rest of you soon. I’m so glad to find new playmates.” 

No one says anything as the door shuts behind her. 

“What the fuck is her problem?” Round Face says. 

“Uraraka,” Deku says, voice quiet. He stands tense, arms down by his side. “You shouldn’t have done that.” 

Round Face stares at him. “Midoriya, what are you saying?”

Deku continues to stare at his feet, voice quiet. “You had no right to butt in.” 

Round Face looks taken aback. “We’re we supposed to just stand aside and watch that?” 

“Izuku is right,” Bakugou says, voice just as quiet. “All of you should have stayed out of it.” 

Everyone seems to suck in a breath. They look at each other. 

Kirishima looks around. “We were just trying to help.” 

“Well you didn’t,” Bakugou says. He...he leans against the counter, suddenly tired. “Izukua, we need to call Aizawa.” 

“I know.” Deku sounds as tired as he does. He doesn’t look at anyone. “Everyone, we’re closing early. I’m sorry but please leave.” 

They’re slow to do so, hesitant as they take their cups and make for the door. 

The Nerd Group and his own brand of idiots are the last to leave. The idiots pull him aside. 

“What’s going on, Blasty?” Pink Hair hisses. “Who was that lady? Who is Aizawa?” 

“Are you in trouble?” Kirishima asks, hands holding tight to his shoulders. His eyes search Bakugou. “Do we need to get the authorities?” 

Dunce and Elbows start talking over each other, each trying to offer a solution. 

And Bakugou...Bakugou just stays silent, taking them all in. 

His eyes meet Deku’s, who is surrounded too. Neither say anything, just keep looking at each other.

                                                         ~

Aizawa is leaning against the counter, staring them down. 

They had finally managed to kick the idiots out. Now, the shop is empty. Dark. Barren. 

Bakugou takes a deep breath.

Deku is staring into space, his body crumpled. 

“You know what you have to do,” Aizawa says. 

Neither reply. 

“The League haven’t been sending messages to anyone else. They’re here for you. Both of you. If you leave, they are sure to follow.” 

Bakugou’s fingers twitch. Deku keeps opening his mouth as if he has something to say and then closes it. 

It’s Bakugou who finally speaks. “What about the humans?” 

Aizawa tilts his head. 

Bakugou looks away. His fingers twitch again. “The ones that always hang out here. The morons pissed off Toga. She’s not going to let that go.” 

“Yes, so we’ve heard,” Aizawa says. He purses his lips. “Don’t worry about that. We have people watching them and will keep them safe, at least until she gets bored.” 

“Do you really have to leave?” Deku asks, voice small. “We just...this territory is ours. Shouldn’t we protect it?” 

Aizawa glares at him. “You can’t protect this territory. You’ll only cause more problems. Leaving is the only option.” 

Deku looks at Bakugou. Bakugou does not look back. Instead, Bakugou looks down, eyebrows furrowing. “And the humans…” he tests out the words in his mouth. “They will be fine? You’re sure of it?” 

“Katsuki-” Deku starts to say. 

“Of course,” Aizawa cuts him off.

Bakugou takes a deep breath. There is a fight in his veins, fire and the need to destroy those that oppose him, who oppose the greater good, clawing at his chest, beating a war path in his heart. 

He thinks about the cafe, that stupid fucking cafe, and the first night he had been forced there. 

Bakugou takes another breath. Then he looks at Deku. Deku deflates, shoulders slumping. Bakugou turns to Aizawa. “Help us pack up?” 

                                                         ~

The coffee shop is no more. Where once there was a hole in the wall, where once the smell of coffee and sweets almost overpowered everything else, where once music and the sound of people talking and screaming could be heard from outside, all of it gone. 

The bricks are closed over the shop’s front. 

Everything is gone. 

                                                       ~

Bakugou has been alone for a long time. Ever since he had been created, born into this world, Bakugou has been different from the other angels. 

He was created to be righteous, to be God’s fury, to strike down evil. He was created to be the best, to expect the best from everyone else. 

Bakugou was created to be alone. 

                                                     ~

Izukua Midoriya was the son of a sheep farmer. His father had died in a war. His mother had been a devout Christian and had passed that along to her son. 

Bakugou, who had been stationed near the city, had heard the boy pray. Every day. Every night. Praying to God to help their family, to give them a plentiful harvest, to allow Midoriya to not be so sick anymore. The boy had never appeared angry when he prayed or desperate. 

To Bakugou, it had all been background noise. Another human doing another prayer. 

Until. One day. Bakugou had bumped into Midoriya as he was making a patrol. 

Midoriya, who was no longer human. 

Midoriya, who had decided to sell his soul to the Demon Lord All Might.  

Bakugou had never been angier in his life. To have someone turn their back on God, someone who had devoted their life to God, now stinking of those demon scum had thrown him into such a fury that Bakugou had acted on his first instinct. 

He attacked. 

Of course, not his best moment. Midoriya might have just received his powers but they were the powers of All Might and fucking Deku is a determined bastard. 

The battle had ended in a draw and Bakugou had left to lick his wounds. 

Somehow, someway, Bakugou and Deku’s fates had been intertwined. 

They continue to meet, they continue to battle. Neither wins. Neither loses. 

Bakugou is still alone. He still fights alone. He still lives alone. 

He is never lonely. 

                                                     ~

Years later, hundreds and thousands of years later, Bakugou runs into Deku and Deku refuses to fight him. 

Oh, Bakugou tries. He tries very hard to fight him. But the nerd just refuses. 

Bakugou keeps running into him and Deku keeps refusing to fight. Sometimes, Deku even shows up just to talk to Bakugou. 

It confuses the fuck out of him. 

Bakugou never talks back. He’ll scream and yell, but like fuck he’ll talk to a loser demon. 

                                                          ~

Years and years and years later, Bakugou stops trying to fight it. 

(He does not fucking accept it, no matter what anyone says, but he does stop fighting it.)

                                                          ~

Deku likes to talk. It’s another fucking annoying trait of his. He’ll talk Bakugou’s fucking ear off. Random fucking stuff too. 

“Did you see what these humans had built?”

“Did you taste this new food? It’s delicious.”

“Come on, you have to come outside with me. Come see this.” 

Bakugou tries his best to ignore him but…

“Do you think the humans know that the stars dream of them?” 

Deku is so fucking annoying…

“Hey, Bakugou, do ever wish you weren’t immortal?” 

And never fucking shuts up…

“Kachaan, do you ever get lonely?” 

Ever. 

                                                         ~

The new town they settle in is isolated, cut off by the forest surrounding them. 

They settle in an apartment, both not sure where to go from here. 

Bakugou feels like his skin is crawling, like he wants to reach under it and scratch that itch. He has paced in every room, across every furniture, has even walked on the ceiling. 

Deku hasn’t moved from his spot on his mattress in 3 days and 12 hours. It’s a good thing they don’t have to eat or Bakugou would have had to shove food down the little shit’s throat. 

Fuck. 

Fuck, what is wrong with them? 

                                                       ~

Eventually, Bakugou kicks Deku’s door down. 

“Come on, nerd. We can’t fucking sit around here all day.” 

Deku doesn’t answer him. 

Bakugou isn’t going to fucking stand for that. 

He picks Deku up, throwing him over his shoulder. Deku gives a shout, fists pounding against Bakugou’s back. Bakugou ignores him. 

He practically throws him outside. The guy who had been walking by at the wrong time startles, turning sideways to look at them with wide eyes. Bakugou ignores him. 

Deku picks himself up from the ground, frowning at Bakugou. 

Bakugou points at him. “We aren’t doing this. I refuse. I am not going to go fucking crazy over some fucking humans. We are getting this out of our system.” 

Deku squares his shoulders. Bakugou can feel the air around them tingle, crackling and spitting. His eyes seem to darken, staring deep into Bakugou. Bakugou can feel his own power rising to meet him, bits of explosions popping along his skin. He growls, mouth opening wide to show all his teeth. 

Deku’s fists clench and Bakugou shifts his stance. 

The two clash, a loud boom echoing around them. Bakugou is thrown into the air, with Deku chasing after him. He snarls, twisting his body around. He throws his hand out, the tip of his fingertips lightening up. 

With a strong push, he throws his power back at Deku. Deku’s body jerks, his arm snapping back in a weird angle. Still, he continues to fly at Bakugou, skin turning black and scaly as he moves. 

Bakugou sticks his other hand out, to the side, and uses his powers to throw himself to the side. His wings itch to come out but Bakugou doesn’t release them. 

He dodges Deku’s punch, lifting his leg up to knee Deku in the side. Deku coughs, but he doesn’t hesitate as he turns, his own leg kicking Bakugou in the face. Bakugou’s head snaps to the side and he growls. 

Grabbing onto Deku’s arm, he flips them, throwing Deku back towards the ground. Deku grabs Bakugou’s shirt and drags him down with him. The wind rushing past them forces tears to well up in Bakugou’s eyes, his skin pulled back as they are pulled down by gravity. 

At the last second, Deku flips them and Bakugou grunts as he smacks into the ground. Around him, the earth crumbles. 

Deku stands above him, panting. Tears are streaming down his face. His arms are partially black and green, scales decorating his skin. His fingers end in claws. He snarls, large canines shining in the light. 

“Stop pretending,” Deku growls, voice gravelly. If the humans had been able to see them, if Bakugou hadn’t put up that veil, they wouldn’t have understood any words. The language was ancient and beyond their understanding. 

“I’m not pretending,” Bakugou says. He stays down, limbs tired. He...he doesn’t want to fight. 

It’s a weird feeling for him. 

“You are,” Deku continues. “You’re trying to move past it and pretending like you don’t care. But you do.” 

Bakugou closes his eyes. “There was nothing we can do.” 

“It was our territory. They were ours to protect. We should have.” 

“The only way to protect them was to leave,” Bakugou says. 

“That’s not true,” Deku screams. His eyes glow green, staring Bakugou down. “We could have fought. We should have fought.” 

Bakugou closes his eyes. “We couldn’t.” 

“Bull. Shit.” Deku falls to his knees, punching Bakugou in the face. 

Bakugou tilts his head to the side, spitting out blood. “We couldn’t.” 

“We should have tried.” Deku is sobbing now, big fat tears falling down his face. Some splashes onto Bakugou’s face. 

Bakugou takes a deep breath. He looks up to the heavens. “I know.” 

                                                     ~

It does not get easier for the two of them. 

They stay in their apartment. 

They can’t decide what business they should open now. 

They wait for the League to catch up to them again. 

                                                    ~

Bakugou steps out of the apartment. He buries his nose in his scarf. The air has a chill to it, enough to make his human cheeks start to redden. Bakugou isn’t that bothered by the cold weather, but he knows that it would look weird to the humans if he wasn’t as bundled as they were. 

That, and Bakugou kind of likes the warmer clothes. 

He just needs to get out of the apartment, away from Deku and the cloud that hangs over them. There’s a pizza place down the street that doesn’t completely suck and so he heads there. 

The town is small. Most of the people he passes just nod at him. They still give him odd looks and a few cross the street to get away from him. Bakugou doesn’t mind. 

He doesn’t want to interact with humans all that much right now. 

Bakugou frowns down at the sidewalk. 

His neck prickles. Casually, he looks behind him. 

A young woman and her boyfriend walk hand in hand, the boyfriend looking into the shops as the girl stares down at her phone. Another man is walking his dog. Two girls are giggling as they drink milkshakes. A group of boys laugh at one’s misfortune. 

Bakugou’s frown deepens, instincts tingling. He turns back around and continues walking. The feeling like he’s being watched does not go away. 

The shitty pizza place is just as shitty as when he last when here. He orders a greasy slice of pepperoni and a water and sits in the corner. Staring down at it. He doesn’t know if he can eat, if he can force himself to eat. 

But he’s not a wimp and so he picks up the slice and takes a bite. 

The door opens and a group of what looks like students enter the shop. Bakugou ignores them, focused more on eating. 

Well. He tries to ignore them. Kind of hard when they huddle around his table, dropping into any nearby chairs. 

Bakugou lifts his head, mouth open, ready to tell them to fuck off. 

It closes when he sees that those motherfucking idiots stare back at him. 

“Hey, Bakubro,” Kirishima says, grin bright and unafraid, like Bakugou wasn’t two seconds away from jumping across the table and strangling him to death. His hair lays flat against his skull, a deep black. He’s wearing more clothes than Bakugou has ever seen him wear, meaning he’s wearing at least a shirt with a jacket over it. 

“What,” Bakugou says, deadly quiet. “The fuck. Are you doing here?” 

“We came to help you,dude.” Ashido says. It’s weird to not see her hair pink. Instead it’s bleach blonde and pulled into a ponytail. She’s wearing all black, with dark, dark eyeliner and black lipstick. 

Sero, who somehow managed to fit his big fucking elebows into a form fitting jacket, smiles widely at him. Kaminari, still looking as stupid as ever, also has black hair, no zigzag in sight. He gives Bakugou a thumbs up. “It totally wasn’t cool of you to just leave us like that, bro. But we forgive you.” 

Bakugou sputters. “You forgive me?You forgive me? You shouldn’t even be here. I-what-how-”

“I got to admit, you pulled a fast one on us,” Kirishima says. “That disappearing act really fucked with my head. I mean, there’s a coffee shop we were going to for like a year and then, bam. There is nothing.” 

“Yeah, seriously. I thought I was losing my god damn mind,” Kaminari says. He gives Bakugou a frown. “Dude, you know I have problems with misremembering stuff like that. That was seriously uncool.” 

“And then we kept seeing these weird people around us.” Bakugou has to hold in his snort. Aizawa might be amazing at stealth but if he brought Hizashi, then there is no way even humans wouldn’t notice that disaster. 

“And that girl, what’d you call her? Toga? Yeah, she attacked Uraraka.” 

Bakugou straightens at that, stomach tightening. “What?” 

“Dude, it’s ok,” Sero reassures him. “She’s fine. This dude with weird long hair and his friend came just in time. They, uh, they explained what was going on.” 

“Kind of had to,” Ashido says. She shivers a little. “The blood thing Toga did was, uh, a little creepy.” 

Bakugou can agree with that. 

He leans back in his chair, crossing his arms, and looking at them. “Ok. So you know everything. That doesn’t explain why you are here.” 

“Oh that’s easy,” Ashido says, smiling wide. “Mr. Aizawa said that the League was after you and you needed help.” 

Bakugou blinks at her. Then he bursts out laughing. “Fucking, are you serious? You think I need help?”

They all look at him. “Yep!” 

Bakugou stares at them. “You fucking think you can help me?” 

“We know we can,” Kirishima says. He leans across the table and grabs Bakugou’s hand. His smile softens. “Look, bro. You don’t have to do this alone.” 

Bakugou stares down at their connected hands. He makes an effort to not set off any explosions. “What do you think a couple of humans are going to do?” 

“Well, there’s always strength in numbers right? Plus, we’ve been reading up on all the ways we can defend ourselves,” Sero says. 

Bakugou scowls, taking back his hand. “Whatever you’ve looked at is bullshit. Go back home, forget all about the damn coffeeshop, live normally.” He stands up, grabbing his things to throw them away. 

The idiots look at each other. Then back at him. “Nope,” they say. 

“What?” Bakugou says. 

“Guess what, Blasty. You’re stuck with us. You’re just going to have to get used to it.” 

Bakugou just looks at them. What. The. Fuck. “You can’t make me hang out with you.” 

“Ok,” Ashido says, the tone in her voice implying that she thought otherwise. “Then we’ll just hang around here till you get over yourself and go back to your shop.” 

Bakugou growls, before turning and stomping out of the shop. Whatever. They’re just being stupid. Humans always get bored and they will leave eventually. He just has to wait. 

The idiots follow him out into the streets and all the way home, talking and laughing with each other. Bakugou does his best to ignore them. 

They follow him to his apartment complex, all the way up the stairs and to his door. Bakugou grits his teeth as he inserts his key, muscles tense as he gets ready to shove them out of the door before they can invade his space.

What he didn’t expect was to have the door open and come face to face with Red-White. 

Bakugou takes a startled step back. Behind him, he can see Round Face, and Four-Eyes, and Bow Hair Girl, all sitting around Deku. Past them, he can see others. Ponytail, Earphones, the Plain Couple, the Masked Dude, and others. 

Bakugou stares back at Kirishima in horror. Kirshimari’s grin is the tiniest bit smug. 

Fuck. No.

                                                        ~

Bakugou has a vow to never kill a human. He attacks evil and demons and will snuff them out of existence. Humans, he leaves to other archangels. He is bound by his very being to not bring any harm to them. 

The next several weeks, he is very, very, very tempted to break that promise. Even the threat of Falling doesn’t deter his desire to slaughter these goddamn idiots. 

They stay. In his goddamn apartment. They brought fucking sleepig bags. 

If Bakugou leaves, the idiot squad follows him. There’s no room left in his apartment and it’s loud. They always demand Bakugou cook for them. He now has to wait to take showers. In his own apartment. 

Deku is living. He’s bouncing around now, cooking sweets with Big Lips, or demonstrating his power to the nerd group. He smiles brightly. Bakugou can hear him late at night, talking to the others. 

Deku is going to be the first to die in the slaughter. Bakugou doesn’t think heaven will mind too much. 

                                                      ~

Kirishima follows him to the store. He bounces, like a puppy, nipping at Bakugou’s heels. 

Bakugou is despeartely trying to ignore him but fucking Shitty Hair doesn’t care. He yammers away. 

Bakugou stands in the back as Kirishima talks about how he passed that one math exam that he had been dreading and how he is looking forward to next semester. Bakugou narrows his eyes every time Kirishima mentions how he’s excited to get some more Bakugou coffee to get him through school. 

Bakugou finally settles on making some caramelized pork for the night when Kirishima falls silent. Then he bumps his shoulder against Bakugou’s. 

“Hey, I’m really happy to see you again.” 

“Tch,” Bakugou grunts, turning away. 

Kirishima sighs. “Midoriya talks to us you know. Tells us about how you two lived.” 

“Deku talks too much,” Bakugou grumbles. 

Kirishima snickers at that. “Maybe. Or maybe you don’t talk enough.” He tilts his head. “You know we won’t leave you alone, right?” 

Bakugou tenses. “You’re a dumbass if you think I care about any of you at all.” 

“Uh huh,” Kirishima says. “So that whole thing where you’ve apparently been pouting about having to leave was a lie?” 

“I had to leave my territory, of fucking course I was mad about it.” 

“Territory? You know, Midoriya said something like that before. So you guys go by territories? Do you mark them?” 

Bakugou turns to look at him, nose scrunching up. “...did you just ask me if I piss on things?” 

Kirishima laughs and it sounds loud in the store. 

                                                       ~

It takes two more weeks for Bakugou to break. 

They are so fucking annoying and Bakugou is pretty sure he’s going bald from all the pulling he’s doing to his poor hair. 

He pulls Deku to the side, into Bakugou’s empty room, and slams him against a wall. “Tell them to leave,” he demands. 

Deku looks back at Bakugou, smile small. “You know, I don’t think they would listen to me if I told them anyway.” 

Bakugou growls before pushing off. “I’m losing my fucking mind.” 

Deku brushes himself off, looking up at Bakugou under his eyelashes. “You know what would get them to stop.” 

Bakugou scowls. “Fuck no.” 

“Why not, Kachaan? They’re here anyways. If the League follows us, they will be in just as much trouble as if we went back home. There’s no point in just uselessly torturing yourself.” 

“I’m not usually torturing myself. I’m being fucking logical. They won’t be in trouble if they just fucking leave.” 

“Or,” Deku says, the little shit sounding smug. “We go home. We prepare. We defeat the League when they come again.” 

“You’ve finally fucking lost your mind,” Bakugou says. 

“I know you’re scared, Kachaan-” 

“What the fuck did you say? I’m not scared of anything. Especially not those fucking losers. You forget, Deku,” Bakugou sneers. “I escaped them once.” 

“And so did I.” Deku’s wide smirk tells Bakugou that he fell right into this one. “We’re the only beings to have escaped them. So why don’t you believe we can take them on?” 

“I’m not fucking discussing this with you anymore,” Bakugou says. He stomps away, slamming open the door. He pauses, taking in the scene. 

Red-White stares back at him, face blank as he films Kaminari and Plain Girl trying to drown hot sauce (Bakugou’s special hot sauce too). They are failing miserably. Ashido, Sero, and Kirishima are losing their minds in the back, while Four Eyes, Ponytail, and Plain Boy desperately try to stop the two. 

Bakugo slowly closes the door and turns to look at Deku. 

Deku shrugs. “Plus, if we go home, they won’t be staying with us anymore.” 

Bakugou packs his bags later that night. 

                                                       ~

Being home isn’t a fucking relief, no matter what Deku says. Bakugou constantly feels like he’s on watch, skin itching. He’ll need to find something to hunt soon or he really will lose it. 

But the coffee shop is back up. Bakugou touches the walls and the old movie posters and pointedly ignores Deku smiling at him. 

Then he scrunches up his sleeves and goes to the kitchen. He needs to make coffee.

#my hero academia #writersmonth2019 #ohhh boy #this was a lot of fun to write #i hope you guys like!

[kierongillen]

On First Issues

I wrote this for my last newsletter, and figure it likely should be added to the tumblr, just it can be added to the Writer Advice tag. Anyway! Sign up to the newsletter for more of this kind of stuff, of course.

Mags Vissago on twitter asked what people's favourite issue ones were, which spiralled into a larger discussion of what makes a good issue 1. That I'm back in the world of Number Ones with the new projects kicking off meant I felt like throwing in my assorted spare change. Also, it was a good way to avoid work. The conversation spiralled a bit, and I thought it worth trying to pull some of this together in a chunk.

There will be a lot of obvious caveats in what follow. I would question anything and everything. What follows below is what I consider pretty solid advice, but pretty solid advice collapses into useless dogma is unexamined. This is just where my head is at presently. Now that I've put it down, I'll likely set it on fire.

Firstly – most of what follows is about writing about a comic which tends to be a standard 20 page unit, released sequentially in a regular release schedule. It doesn't apply to graphic novels. It doesn't apply to comics released irregularly. It doesn't apply to any other form that isn't comics. This is stuff which is warped because of the economic construct. It is also leaning towards what I'd call a pop comic. These are almost entirely genre comics of one form or another.

Issue 1s obsess many writers for various reasons, both good, bad and necessary. Part of it is simply because anyone working in a serial comics in the Anglophone American pamphlet model have more experience in writing issue 1s than any other issue number (“Last issue” isn't an issue number, pedants). So you spend more time proportionally working on them and thinking about them. Perhaps most tellingly, in the present Direct Market, your sales of the first issue are what establish the sales of the latter issues. If you can launch stronger, you have longer until the standard erosion of sales makes the book commercially unviable in singles (and so also gives longer to gain a trade readership which means that doesn't matter). “How effective the first issue is” isn't the only thing which effects sales, but it doesn't for hurt.

Even for books which find an audience in trades, it's worth noting that the number of books which are huge in trades are often books that also did well in singles. The single is many things, including an advertisement, and the more part of a conversation the single is, the more there is an awareness of the trade. The weirdest thing about WicDiv being a hit was how much easier it was to sell more copies of WicDiv. Its success kind of sold itself.

Anyway – in the conversation online, I argued that the best first issues tend to do two things, which I unhelpfully described as “First It” and “Second It.”

The First It is includes everything which I would describe as good writing (good writing, for comics, includes everything, not just the words – it's also art, design, etc). You introduce everything the reader needs to know about your book to have a fair understanding of it. The “Needs” is key. It's not the whole book, but certainly enough to give a reader a fair understanding. You show the sort of thing you do, and how you choose to do it. Obviously not everyone who ends up liking the book will like it (or vice versa), but generally speaking, you lay out who you are, as honestly as you can.

(Worth noting this also includes possibly alienating some readers. If they're going to burn out of a book, I'd argue its rude to string them along. I've never done this as aggressively as I did with my first comic, Phonogram, whose opening caption was so noxious to basically show the door to anyone who wasn't in for this level of nonsense. Why waste anyone's time, eh?)

A competent first issue working inside First It principles will introduce initial key characters, delineate them, their desires and the world they operate inside. In the style you do so, the readers will get an understanding of the book. Frankly, anything which you reveal when hyping the book is almost certainly inside the First It.

In short: most of First It is actually The Pitch – or rather, showing you can competently execute The Pitch.

(A common form of incompetence in Pop Comics writing is failing to do that, and you end the issue with less information delineated than you got from the solicits. I read a first issue in the last year, and found they'd printed the pithy series blurb on the back cover, none of which was explained to any degree in the comic I had just read.)

The Second It is where it gets tricky. This is more rarely pulled off, and also much more subjective, but it's also something that the vast majority of hit books have managed to do, which makes me suspect there's something powerful to at least consider.

The Second It is giving the reader something that wasn't in the pitch. This normally speaks to the actual truth of what the book actually is, or at least gives a sense of the book's direction. It can be a big huge genre twist, but it doesn't have to be that large. But it does have to be something.

(Or at least, it has to be something unless your core pitch is so unique, so magical, so entirely without precedent that you don't have to worry about any of this tawdry nonsense.)

There's a TV first episode which is often mentioned by other writers when talking about this. It's The SHIELD. Spoilers, obv. The show is about corrupt cops. We know this going in. Hell, you know that throughout the first episode, as it's delineated carefully (This is all First It stuff). However, in the final scene, the lead shoots another cop who's on his team. That's the Second It. It lets us know exactly how corrupt these cops are, and also immediately lets us know the direction of the series. For the genre it's working in, that's a strong opening.

A book that is competent with First It regularly fails to hit Second It in various ways, but there's two which I see a lot.

Firstly, the last page reveal is actually just the book's high concept. As in, what the reader already knew by how the book was described to them, or included in solicits. If it was Harry Potter, it'd be “You're a Wizard, Harry.” This means that a reader has paid $3-5 dollars to learn what they already knew. No matter how well executed, this tends to be a turn off. It's also a turn off which is 100% great writing if you were writing (say) a Novel. But there you aren't selling sequential units.

Secondly, the last page reveal is a big event which the reader simply doesn't care about. This is a failure born of the rest of the book, and shows well how First It and Second It aren't separate units. If you know the Second It is reliant on some emotional underpining, you need to make sure that is established. A classic example would be (say) a long absent relative turns up. If the issue has not spent sufficient time making the absence of the relative to your cast of absolute interest, that isn't going to land.

In Doctor Aphra 1, her Dad turns up into the end, and that's not set up at all in the issue. However, my hook was “her dad has turned up... and he's just fucked over Aphra.” The latter is the reveal of character about the former, and is the directional thrust. It's not about the existence of her father, but rather her father's character and what that means for Aphra.

Yes, you should be raising an eye on “Last page Reveal.” The commonality of “Last Page Reveal” in these books is another question, and a hint towards how this kind of writing has been codified. There's been a lot of people reverse engineering BKV, shall we say. “Reveal in final scene” may be a better way of thinking of it, and even that is too small for my liking.

To talk about WicDiv for a second, it's a complicated mess of a book, but our First It is establishing a bunch of the key mythology, vibe, style and two lead characters. The Two Lead Characters feed into the Second It – which is “A Judge is Murdered in the Middle the Court. Did Lucifer Do it?” That only even vaguely works because we spent the majority of the issue delineating Lucifer as much as we did Laura. The Second It for WicDiv was signalling this is a genre work with an actual plot, and not just ambling along Phonogram style. First It was “Here's our world” and Second It is “And here's where we're going next.”

You may be reading the above and thinking of it as a checklist. “Must make sure I have Two Its.” That would be a mistake. The two Its are an analytical tool. It's an editing principle when approaching your own material of what narrative unit makes a useful, accurate and compelling introduction to the story. In my case, it's looking at my story, recognising the point where First It (introduction to the book) and Second It (reason to continue reading book and hint at immediate direction) have been fulfilled to my satisfaction, and then writing and editing to ensure I include them both.

In the case of WicDiv, I looked at the story and thought “I have to get to the murder of the Judge.” I could have perhaps ended with Lucifer having just murdered the assassins who tried to kill her... but all that would have shown is “these pop star gods who claim to be gods have godly powers” and I said that in the hype. Perhaps I could have worked out a way to make that work if I played with the sympathy towards Lucifer differently, but that still felt like reiterating the pitch. The Death Of The Judge leading to a murder mystery was clear and direct. That's what I had to get to.

It's also worth noting that many of the most successful first issues (and some of the biggest hits of recent years) are longer than 20 pages. Y: The Last Man (which is a clockwork masterpiece of First-Issue-ness) was 28 pages. Saga is double issue size. Monstress was triple sized. For me, WicDiv was 30 comics pages. Spangly New Thing is 34. Longer issues both let you spend more time making sure First It is done well, and more time to push towards whatever beat you consider to be Second It.

(That's another reason why the Second It can come at the end of an issue. By definition, it's the point you were trying to reach. When you've reached it, you can stop.)

And as another side point, it's also worth remembering that How You Hype The Book can vary hugely. If I'd sold WicDiv as “Pop Stars who claim to be gods...” perhaps Lucifer having actual powers would have been enough for a Second It. I suspect not, because clearly me even posing the question is implicitly promising the reader the answer is “Yes.” That'd be like me selling an autobiography with “Does Kieron Gillen have magical powers?” and then showing across 300 pages that no, he's just a dude. But still: you get the point.

That's enough on this. It's interesting stuff to think about, because this is only a tiny fraction of it. If Issue 1 is everything that has to be in issue 1, what is Issue 2. Issue 1s are the hardest worked issues in a series, because you're preparing for so long, but Issue 2 are a special kind of heartbreaker.

I said it at the top, but all of this is also for a certain mode of comics. And not even all that certain mode for comics. The First Error I listed above? If a writer is figuring it's primarily a trade based book, and they feel it's not worth distorting issue 1 to serve the single, that could be a fine choice. I sometimes wonder if I'd have been better ending THREE's first issue with the Spartans turning up rather than the slaughter.

That's still a cliffhanger. You can go more extreme that that. When I launched WicDiv, and Warren and Jason Howard were launching Trees, I felt entirely ashamed having done this Pop Thrill Banger and Trees just cuts at the end of an issue and assumes you'll be back in month. It believed in a maturity in the audience and a willing to follow it wherever it went. That's something I find entirely admirable.

Point being: the above is only useful tools in so far as it aligns with your goals as a creator.

#writer advice

[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

January 17, 2021

This is my weekly roundup of things I am up to and looking at. Topics include human rights, decentralized social media, the I5 bridge replacement, Kuznets curves, and the Trump administration rundown.

Human Rights

I added a bit more to the Social Well-Being section of the Urban Cruise Ship site, which is mostly on human rights topics.

Having followed the work of, e.g. Steven Pinker and Has Rosling, I had expected to present a view that the world human rights situation was getting inexorably better. The reality is that the picture is more mixed. Democratization peaked some time around 2007 and has been in decline since then, though the world is still much more democratic than in the 1970s. Education, defined as the number of children not in school, made great progress in the 2000s, but now progress seems to be stalling.

It is my read of the data that inequality is generally increasing in wealthy countries, and decreasing (though it’s a mixed bag) in poorer countries. More important than inequality within countries is inequality between countries, and that metric appears to be going down as the world undergoes the Great Convergence, or the tendency of incomes of countries to converge as poorer countries experience fast growth and richer countries experience slow growth. This follows the Great Divergence that occurred from around 1800 to 1975.

Economic freedom is generally improving across the world. It has been the case historically, and it remains true today, that there is a correlation between economic freedom and political freedom. But with the rise of state capitalist or illiberal capitalist societies, that correlation seems to be getting weaker.

Freedom House’s review of freedom of the press unfortunately had its last year in 2016, and it showed an improvement, following by a stalling, of freedom of the press worldwide. It does not appear to me that the situation has generally improved in the last four years.

I have to move on, but I would like to look at these figures much more carefully. Taken as a whole, the picture for human rights in the 2010s looks like a mixed bag, with some areas of progress and some areas of regression, without an obvious trend one way or the other. This joins other observations about the present state of the world, which is also seeing declining productivity growth, seeming technological stagnation, the spread of sub-replacement birth rates, and the proliferation of dangerous debt levels. Although it is premature to panic, it should be clear that at least something is not working as we might hope, and we could ask whether a person’s effort is best focused on returning to the roots of principles of liberal democracy, or on bringing about a post-liberal order.

Decentralized Social Media

The noise has quieted down a little bit now, but there has been much consternation lately about whether the tech industry exercises too much power. Major events that have prompted these concerns include Donald Trump’s Twitter account being disabled and the social network Parler having its AWS service canceled.

I’ve generally taken a hard-line market position, arguing that whatever the merits of actions by Amazon, Twitter, and other companies, they are private companies and should be able to set their own policies without government interference. This is a minority view, though, and it looks increasingly likely that there will be some kind of regulation. Balaji Srinivasan pointed out on Twitter that the major tech companies came out of an era (recent, yet feels long ago) when the dominance of both the United States and American technology companies was beyond reasonable question. Now there are more alternatives to both, as well as growing concerns about nationalism, privacy, cybersecurity, and other factors that may motivate regulation.

I think the only lasting defense against the impulse to regulate is to build decentralized alternatives to major tech services that are inherently impossible to regulate, both by governments and by major corporations. This sounds nice, but in practice the industry is moving toward greater centralization for a reason. It is one thing to built a decentralized Twitter; I could probably do that myself. It is quite another to build a decentralized Twitter with the security, scalability, and reliability that one expects from main service. Parler evidently failed in these tasks; not only could they not survive the cancellation of their AWS contract, they did not secure vital data of their users. It is even more difficult to replicate the community that comes with scale. Building a decentralized version of AWS is even harder, as this means replicating a large and growing volume of computing resources. These companies have thousands of software engineers each.

So, “if you don’t like [Facebook/Twitter/Uber/Amazon/AirBnB/whatever] you should build your own alternative” is not yet a credible response. Such alternatives don’t exist for lack of effort. We don’t even have a widespread decentralized app for identity. I would start there. If that problem can be solved, then maybe there is some hope for more complex issues.

Metro and the I5 Bridge Replacement

Oregon Metro is getting off to a new term. In a work session this week, we heard from Metro’s lobbyist. He lamented the fact that there will probably be some security added in Salem, taking away the historic openness that the state capital has had. Aside from being closed due to Covid, there was a security incident last month which now implicates one of the legislators.

The main event of the work session, though, was the I5 Bridge Replacement, a project formerly known as the Columbia River Crossing. This project has been on the agenda for Oregon and Washington for most of my adult lifetime, and the states are now aiming for construction to be complete in 2025. I’ll be happy if it’s done this decade.

The main topic this week was the restorative justice program, which basically boils down to paying people with homes or businesses in the Albina neighborhood, which will be the site of much of the construction. The money didn’t seem to be sufficient for some council members. In addition, others are concerned about the fact that there is any highway project at all, wanting more money for local streets and/or non-automotive transportation.

While I am not without sympathy for the opposition to the bridge, I find the CRC and successor project to be prime examples of the syndromes that prevent the construction of any kind of infrastructure. Portland is one of the worst cities in the country for traffic congestion (though it has recently improved slightly), and the cost of living is significantly higher than the national average. If you don’t like highway projects, then fine, but propose credible alternatives that work for the region as a whole. There are some, but I don’t see Metro pursuing them. Simply obstructing projects, or adding ancillary priorities that raise costs, make problems worse for the region.

Kuznets Curves

Back to Urban Cruise Ship stuff, I whipped up a plot on Kuznets curves this week. An (environmental) Kuznets curve is a hypothetical model under which an environmental impacts shows a U-shaped curve with income. In other words, as income grows, the impact gets worse to a point, but it tends to get better after a certain level of income. Generally speaking, water pollutants and localized air pollutants show clear signs of Kuznets curves, while for other impacts such as municipal solid waste and CO2 emissions, the evidence is inconclusive.

To be honest, I have my skepticism about the whole business. I find Kuznets curves exhibit the “reading history sideways” fallacy, where the development of countries is assumed to be a predictable, linear process such that poor countries today look like rich countries yesterday, and rich countries today look like poor countries tomorrow. Some, though not many, scholars seem to have noticed this problem specifically in the context of Kuznets curves.

Misgivings aside, I hope to have several more results to present. Perhaps at some point I will attempt my own analysis. I tried something similar a few years ago when I was at The Breakthrough Institute, though those efforts were not successful.

As for other work, I also spent some time on the section on Economic System, though that is still not uploaded. I had hoped to have it down by now, but the section is turning out to be both longer than harder than I thought.

Some thoughts on the Trump Administration

This will be my last blog post while Donald Trump is still president, so I thought I would review some of what I see to be the highlights and lowlights of the last four years. The administration published their own list of accomplishments. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but rather a list that I find to be of particular interest.

The Good

There has been some significant reductions in regulation, which has helped power the economic good times of the administration’s first three years. These regulations have, in particular, helped the production of natural gas, which has done more than anything else to replace coal power (though, in fairness, the development of fracking and tight oil has been a bipartisan effort that goes back to the Ford administration).

Trump has had three appointments to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, Bret Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Each of these justices have earned strong credibility through the Federalist Society, and I think they have generally done a good job.

(Fun fact: Jimmy Carter is the only president who served a full term and did not get a Supreme Court nomination.)

The Mixed

In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill was signed. This was a major tax reform bill which did far too many things to comment on, but a main thrust was bringing corporate tax rates in line with international standards. I give this legislation significant credit for the strong economic conditions that prevailed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The cap on the SALT deduction was good too.

Unfortunately, tax cuts were not balanced with spending cuts, raising the deficit to around $1 trillion per year prior to the pandemic. These are dangerous levels that the United States should not be running during good times. Now we have deficits exceeding $3 trillion per year, a debt/GDP ratio in excess of a dangerous 100%, and an excuse for Democrats to embark on their own reckless spending plans.

(Another fun fact: U.S. federal budgets were last balanced under Bill Clinton. Before that, budgets were balanced briefly under Nixon.)

The Bad

Immigration and refugee rates have fallen significantly, in large part because of administration policy, and international trade has increased, despite administration policy.

The list of accomplishments above has a long section about the Covid-19 response (or the “China virus”), but there is no way to spin the fact that the American response has been atrocious. The best defense for the administration is that most governors and mayors have also responded poorly.

Much criticism has been directed at Trump’s personality and use of conspiracy theory, much of which is fair and much exaggerated. I think the least that can be said is that the Trump administration, like other recent administrations, provides a strong case for Congress to reclaim the authority that it has ceded to the executive branch.

Missed Opportunities

At HUD, Ben Carson started writing a rule to replace the Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing regulation that would have been the strongest federal action so far on liberalizing zoning. Those efforts were scuttled by the rest of the administration.

In 2020, the Trump administration embarked on an effort to cut the time of environmental assessments and environmental impact statements under NEPA. However, the effort has not been completed and I don’t think is likely to continue under the Biden administration.

[therpmemes]

      santana lopez quotes (2/2) → sentence starters

part 1 (season one-three) // part 2 (season four-six)

slightly edited in some cases to work for rp purposes. feel free to change phrasing or pronouns to fit your muse(s)!

❝ I counted the number of times you’d smile at me, and I’d die on days that you didn’t. ❞

❝ I need to tell you something that I don’t know how to say. ❞

❝ I can’t pretend that things are the way they were because they aren’t. ❞

❝ I don’t wanna be like all of those other long distance relationships that hang in there for a few months and then break-up when someone eventually cheats or things get weird. ❞

❝ I would never cheat on you but if we’re being completely honest I had.... I guess the best way to describe it would be ‘an energy exchange’? ❞ 

❝ She smiled at me a little too long which means she was either crazy or a lesbian. ❞

❝ Let’s just do the mature thing. ❞

❝ This is not an official break-up. ❞

❝ You know I will always love you the most. ❞

❝ That bitch is pure evil. ❞

❝ Wow. Twitter update! _____is all excited about another guy defining her life. ❞

❝ _____ always was a genius slapper. ❞

❝ Topless is as nude as anyone is ever gonna want to see you. ❞

❝ Think I could get used to here in New York. It's more of my speed. ❞

❝ Yes, I did a sex-tape that follows me around to this very day. Look me up on the internet right now. ❞

❝ You have no idea what it's like out there in the real world. No one gives a damn about you. ❞

❝ I'm clearly the hottest bitch in this lousy joint. But I'm all alone, stuck here with you. ❞

❝ I hate weddings and I Valentine's Day. It was invented by breeders to sell cheap chocolate and false hope. ❞

❝ I have been chosen, probably because I'm numb to other people's feelings, to come here and ask what you would like to do. ❞

❝ You know, we always were two ends of the same bitch-goddess spectrum. ❞

❝ Those romantic saps. They may have love, but you know what we are that they are not? ❞

❝ Look, you don’t have to worry. I’m not gonna show up at your house with a U-Haul. ❞

❝ Well, you could walk out first... or we could make it a two-time-thing. ❞

❝ I like how you guys pretend to be all accepting about everything but when your friend suddenly shows up in your home, moves in and goes through all your stuff... you're offended. ❞

❝ Okay, New York may be disgusting, especially when it's covered in gray, nasty snow, and the people may be horrible and rude, and some smelly homeless man in pee stained tighty whities might have groped me on the subway and then asked me for a dollar. But I got to say I finally feel like I have found my people. ❞

❝ You're really not gonna tell me about the stick? ❞

❝ I'm your friend. You can trust me, just tell me what's going on. ❞

❝ Oh God. You're gonna be okay. It's okay. It's gonna be okay. ❞

❝ Don't apply logic to me. ❞

❝ I have known you for years and I don't like you 90% of the time. ❞

❝ You know what? I have love for you. ❞

❝ You're my family and I haven't lied to you in months. ❞

❝ I'm smarter about other people than you, you have to trust me. ❞

❝ I don't even think you need all these beauty products, cause they're not really having the desired effect. ❞

❝ And just when you thought it couldn't get any gayer...it does. ❞

❝ You're acting like a completely different person and it's making me sad. ❞

❝ Look, please don't tell my mom. ❞

❝ I have something to say and I have tried to keep it to myself but I will be silent no longer. ❞

❝ You can't just blow past this like nothing ever happened. This is a wake-up call. This is an opportunity for you to take a hard look at the choices that you're making, where your life is heading. ❞

❝ The last thing I want to do is pay 30 grand a year to get a degree for doing something that I'm already freaking Wonder Woman at. ❞

❝ I like yeast in my bagel but not in my muffin. ❞

❝ Oh, come on. You are not playing Yente the lesbian match maker. ❞

❝ I'm getting that stinky panic sweat under my boobs. ❞

❝ Well I don’t give a hot wet monkey’s ass what you care for. ❞

❝ I have hated you ever since the day I met you. You are a horrible person. ❞

❝ He was a much better person than I am. ❞

❝ When we had sex, _____ never stopped asking me if I was okay the whole time. ❞

❝ I'm sorry, would you mind just stepping outside for a moment while I bitch-slap some sense into my friend? ❞

❝ I am loving this look on me. Lord of the bling. ❞

❝ How about we just get you an IPad.. you can't even get porn on whatever you just asked for. ❞

❝ _____ is my ex girlfriend and she just dumped me, which is why I’m even here and why I have this job. And we’re lesbians. And you know, I’ve never been with anybody like that before. ❞

❝ I’m saving up to buy a noose to hang myself. ❞

❝ You are short, you are awful, and that is never going to change. ❞

❝ I would love for things to get physical. I will hit you so hard that you won't be able to wake up until you're old enough to be Funny Lady. ❞

❝ God as my witness, I will break her down. ❞

❝ Life is very high school. Just with bigger stakes. ❞

❝ A star is a star, it doesn’t matter where in the sky I shine. ❞

❝ You suck at so many things. But not this. ❞

❝ Who gives a crap what all the other peasants think? ❞

❝ I’m just not worth it. ❞

❝ I realized the world is even colder than I am. And the only thing that can keep you from freezing to death is to have good friends around you to keep you warm. ❞

❝ I guess that means I care about you. Don’t tell anyone. ❞

❝ At least you were wearing underwear. ❞

❝ Don’t listen to her! Look at her shoes! ❞

❝ Some people love someone because they make them a better person and that's not why I love you because you've always just wanted me to be myself. ❞

❝ No matter how many times we've tried to put our thing down and walk away from it we can't because I don't want to live my life without my one true love. ❞

❝ I normally I use a lot of words when I'm saying something negative so since this is the most positive thing I'm ever going to do, I'm gonna keep it simple. Will you marry me? ❞

❝ Believe me if I could get in her head and bring her into this century, I would, and I would forgive her and have her here. She's my abuela, you know? She's, like, the lady with the big plates of rice and beans. ❞

❝ Last I heard she was on Facebook posting about her diverticulitis trolling for sympathy. ❞

❝ You taught me to be a strong Latina woman. To be bigger than the world was every going to give me permission to be. ❞

❝ You taught me not just to exist because I'm worth so much more than that. ❞

❝ She's the love of my life and I'm going to marry her and I want to share that with you because without your love, I...I think I just exist too. ❞

❝ Do you even know why a groom couldn't see the bride before the wedding? ❞

❝ I took what you said to heart, and I thought long and hard about it, and it occurred to me that you may have a point. ❞

❝ Maybe _____ and I are too young to get married. ❞

❝ Maybe that's why it didn't work out. Maybe it has nothing to do with me. Maybe it's just that you are utterly, utterly intolerable. Maybe that has something to do with it. ❞

❝ I've been bullied, outed, and misunderstood. ❞

❝ I am a work in progress. ❞

❝ I do. ❞ 

#rp starters #rp meme #ask meme #roleplay starters #glee starters #source: tv