#1) i was looking for a potential pose i liked better so i can switch it up but at the end this still was the best moment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reikunrei · 1 year

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okay, so, i watched free! the final stroke vol.2 today and i just need to put my Thoughts somewhere. this will contain spoilers but isn’t any real analysis or anything

i went into it being a little worried, bc folks had been watching it the last few days and i kept seeing lots of people say they were disappointed, etc. therefore, i went into it expecting to be disappointed while still thinking i’d at least have fun. ultimately, i think going into it thinking i’d be disappointed made me come out having enjoyed it! at least, a little bit lol.

basically, i wouldn’t say that i was “disappointed” but more that i was very underwhelmed.

it had some fun moments! lots of stuff with the underclassmen which made me very happy, since they’ve been shoved aside a lot as of late. parts that were meant to be serious were very easy to make fun of, which is what i look forward to in this show tbh. like i loved the asshole baby Haru talking back to adult Haru, and then was ultimately heartwarmed when adult Haru broke through to baby Haru at the very end, i thought that was sweet. it was fun to see Sousuke come back into his own, and i enjoyed seeing everyone working together in training and whatnot. i just love seeing them all be friends!

which leads me into how i’m glad that they got through the “Haru is being brooding and distant” really quickly. perhaps a little too quickly, but it was far better than saving it until the very end (*cough* season 3 being the same runaround every episode until episode 8 *cough*). i could go more into detail about what i did/didn’t like about this whole thing with Haru and Rin fighting and Haru shutting himself off from everyone else and thrusting himself into swimming so much that he drains his battery completely, but i’m getting over a gnarly cold and don’t feel like thinking too hard. ultimately, i think it was an interesting direction to take the story, but wasn’t executed as well as it could have been.

but again, overall, i enjoyed that it happened within the first half of the movie so that the second half could be them reconciling, Haru realizing his true potential (that we already learned the source of in season 1 but whatever he can have the same arc over and over again i eat that shit up the power of friendship reigns supreme), and getting to see him really show everyone else what he’s made of.

my biggest issue ultimately with it was how there was a lot of lost potential. i feel like they could’ve and should’ve leaned more heavily into the Haru/Albert parallel, and how they are like two sides of the same coin. like Albert was posed as such a big, important character starting in s3, he was the driving force for this new arc in Haru’s character, and he just sort of... petered out? i feel like a really strong direction would have been to have them basically switch spots. like, Albert learns how to swim freely like Haru by nurturing strong bonds between friends and doing it simply because you want to, and Haru falling really deeply into the cold, sterile loneliness that Albert was forced into.

that’s the other thing! we started to see Albert pushing back against his coach, but we never actually saw him break free from it. it was just sort of posed and then never resolved. and i feel like it would be really powerful to have had him see Haru swim, learn from him, and then come back and teach that to Haru again. like Haru’s methods makes Albert stronger, and Albert comes around and says hey, my guy, YOU taught me this. my way is not the best way. do it because you enjoy it, and that’s it.

in terms of lost potential, the relationship with Albert was my biggest letdown, purely because he was so hyped up only for him to just sort of... fizzle out. and i feel like that happened with almost all of the character relationships. they all just sort of... petered out. hell, even the final relay felt really lackluster! in every single other season, the final relays/races make me cry. even as a certified season 3 hater, watching Haru and Ikuya do the medley relay together makes me cry! because it’s this big, powerful breakthrough moment for the both of them.

nothing will ever beat the high i felt watching the season 2 final relay. that shit ruled so hard and the fact that this FINAL final relay didn’t even come close is SUCH a letdown. like i’m honestly shocked they dropped the ball so hard on it. like, the intervention with Haru should have been something more dramatic or something! it was very just “oh hey let’s all hang out on this rooftop pool for a bit” like even the race between Haru and Rin, while more exciting than the final relay, was very just like. okay. i was just glad to have such a blatant example of crybaby Rin again, but the substance of the race, of their conversation... it was very lackluster.

i’ll be entirely honest too, i actually was really happy with it... until the very end. like i said at the top, having gone into it expecting to be disappointed, i was pleasantly surprised that i was having so much fun watching it. bc i really did! i did have fun watching it! it was just not a good ending to the series.

i was actually pretty happy with it where it ended before the credits rolled. i didn’t super love how they just touched on Haru quitting swimming, and then saying he came back again anyway?? like let me TELL YOU i am the biggest proponent for Haru quitting competitive swimming. it would have been SUCH a great conversation to have, in that he loves swimming, he loves doing this thing with his friends, and he might even enjoy competing sometimes under the right circumstances, but it’s just not good for him. how GREAT would it have been for him to realize that. to look at himself shutting down, to have his friends constantly voicing their worry for him, and him going, “oh. i can’t do this,” and having to come to terms with that. having his FRIENDS have to come to terms with that. it would have been SO GOOD and been a great story in trying to find a dream, and feeling like it’s okay to go back on that, and your true friends will always back you up even if they’re upset about it at first. it would have even been a great parallel with Rin quitting swimming as a kid! but this time it’s a good thing! like dude!

anyway.

while i did sort of hate that they totally glossed over the quitting and returning thing, i was just sort of like oh cool, i like this sort of ambiguous but happy ending! idk who this Haru/Makoto lovechild woman is that they keep cutting to closeups of who seems to know who Haru is! is it his mom! i can’t remember what she looks like bc she’s never around! idk!

and then. the post credits stuff was just. a mixed bag? and ultimately made me dislike it more LMAO. the one thing i really liked was that Haru dug up the time capsule from season 2 and read his letter to himself again, that made me really happy! bc that was something that i really really really wanted to be remembered. like that’s something that could have totally been forgotten, but i’m glad it was found and touched on, even if it was just at the very end.

the stuff i didn’t like was. basically everything else LOL. mostly because it felt so weird to think that none of these people talk to each other. like i get it, we’ve long established that Haru doesn’t use his phone or keep in contact with people, but it felt so WRONG for it to just be like “yeah i was in the hospital for a month, i’m doing rehab now, hi Makoto, who had to come hunt me down in hungary and randomly run into me on the street” like WHAT!!!! hello???? it felt like there was no growth at all. wasn’t the whole point of the movie, and the WHOLE SHOW, to strengthen the bonds between friends? and reconnect with old friends?

like i guess you could argue that it’s like “they’re bonded forever. even if they don’t see each other for a while, they’ll find each other and it’ll be like no time has passed at all” because like. that was a whole thing and my favorite part of s2, about how “it’s not our last summer together” but like. it just felt so WRONG and backward to display it like that. it just felt. hollow. and bad. especially for characters such as Haru and Makoto who are so closely tied to one another and some shade of codependent. it’s not that it couldn’t have been explored, but it wasn’t even explored. it was just thrust upon us, and it felt really forced and left an unsavory taste in my mouth.

i think it just sort of felt rushed. and there was a lot of potential that was set up in s3 and fs1 that just wasn’t followed through on in a satisfying way. so while there were fun moments, and it was great to see my kids all together again in new scenes and interactions, it was just very. meh.

so okay, i think i’ve talked myself into being disappointed in it. i’m not really too upset though, because i did indeed still have fun watching it, and will have fun watching it again in the future. but the show should have ended after season 2 when it was in its prime.

#i say things #free! the final stroke

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crystalelemental · 2 years

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Unit Teambuilding - Naomi

I don’t know why she’s here. I don’t know why I’m here. This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife.

General Overview Okay look. Initially, this was my big salt for the month. I’m not thrilled that an NPC trainer gets in before the myriad gym leaders and important characters that are still left hanging. But on the other hand, this means an NPC trainer class got in before Victor, and that’s probably the funniest thing DeNA’s ever done.

Naomi’s weird. She’s a Ground-type special striker, with...Sandslash. Well known for special damage. I do like Sandslash a lot though, I can’t complain. What’s cool is that it’s with Earth Power. I love Earth Power. I think I have unreasonable respect for the move because of Explorers of Sky. I think that’s what all the Nidoqueen spam in the final dungeon that keeps killing you from across the hall. Anyway, being a special damage dealer is...problematic, because of Courtney and Ingo. See, Naomi’s passives focus on Sandstorm, but Ingo’s really bad at Sandstorm for her, because all he provides is +2 special attack. He can give the crit and eventually help with speed, but it’s not seriously helpful. Naomi needs speed to activate her multipliers, and Ingo works too slowly, so she’s clicking her trainer move anyway, which also provides crit. It’s just really slow setup even with the known best Sandstorm support. And Courtney can supply Zone, but her entire life is defense debuffs, and Naomi doesn’t benefit. She is the only Ground-type damage dealer that doesn’t benefit. As a result, Naomi’s in this really awkward position of being a pretty unique sync pair, but in the same way that unique is sometimes what you say about something when you’re trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

And I kinda love it. Maybe it’s just catharsis after the ridiculous Anniversary sync pairs, but I like the fact that this isn’t game-breaking. I like the fact that this unit poses a challenge to apply. And I like that it actually pays off. When supported, Naomi can out-perform Hapu. She’s a free unit with clear limitations, but a pretty impressive threshold to reach. To say nothing of the fact that she’s also packing On a Roll 3, and can, theoretically, facilitate her own debuffs. I dunno, man. I like this one. I’m kinda hoping they keep this up. Just give us little events with free NPC characters like this. It’s a lot more interesting than those limited time event trainers that are all Kantonian, except Bugsy whose existence was completely ignored for over a year now for not being Kantonian.

Team 1: Naomi, Ingo, Courtney/Lucian This is...about as close as we can get. Zone application, Sandstorm support, it’s...trying. But Courtney does exactly nothing for Naomi, since she’s meant to support physical damage dealers. So, legitimately, you can drop Courtney for a special defense debuffer like Lucian, to power up her attacks. The debuffs actually add up to better damage than the Zone once they’re capped out, so it may legitimately be a better call for consistent damage. It’s also worth noting that Naomi can’t take her sync build for on-type and also pick up On a Roll 3, so it definitely helps to have support.

Team 2: SS Kris, Anni Raihan, Naomi Anyone else watch Zinfogel? SS Kris can provide speed buffs when she’s hit, alongside the special attack/speed combination that is otherwise had to acquire. You can keep Rain up during setup phase, to allow stacks of special moves up next. Then, switch to Sandstorm on Raihan, after he’s set up Mind Boggler. Raihan can debuff special defense, set up Supereffective Up Next and moves up next for Naomi. With Kris and Raihan both providing stacks of special moves up next, Naomi’s able to hit silly damage numbers.

Team 3: BP Janine, Naomi, Acerola Okay, this is my attempt at a legitimate, F2P approach to this ground-type damage. Acerola can set Sandstorm, and has a high flinch rate to potentially stall out opponents. BP Janine provides offensive support, as well as speed, and one point of crit through Team Sharp Entry. Naomi can use two trainer moves to set up her needed speed and crit, Janine can just focus on buffing special attack for her with one MPR on trainer move, and Naomi is ready for her Sandstorm multipliers. Is this team good? ...actually kinda maybe. Naomi’s damage output isn’t too bad when properly facilitated. She can grab On a Roll 3 by taking off a sync damage node, and actually facilitate her own needed debuffs. It’s not quite as easily set up as Hapu, and she won’t have the AoE nuke, but her damage numbers are...actually higher in a similar F2P context where Hapu doesn’t have Zone. Honestly the bigger concern is whether Janine can dodge, and whether Acerola hits her flinches.

Final Thoughts Did you know Naomi has Brain Sync 3? Yeah. The same skill Anni Lillie has. First Thunderbolt Red takes her sole selling point gimmick alongside Anni N’s and C!Elesa’s, and now her only sync multiplier is on a free unit that’s a generic NPC trainer. I’m going to cry.

But in all seriousness, this is fun. I love this. I love units that aren’t unstoppable, and need some kind of structure to succeed, but actually pay off. I want more of this. I legitimately hope we get more NPC trainers. XY female Ace Trainer when? I know Hex Maniac will beat her out, but I desperately want that Ace Trainer, she’s so cute.

#pokemon masters #naomi #unit teambuilding

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jonathankatwhatever · 6 months

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In the next few hours looks like a bad outcome on the house. Either a pass or a price cut is more probable. It’s 18 Oct 2023 and I want to work so I don’t think about my actual life in this actual D3-4 existence crumbling. Or rather, so I can at least think about it in mathematical terms.

I need to get this out. I’m being haunted, like right now, by an image from Storyline of Joana underwater in a swimming pool in various dance poses. I cannot stop them from occurring. But I don’t quite understand them either. It’s like being mermaided. And that’s the female me as the mermaid, so that would be a transfer or transitive point, a literal station where you can switch lines because the permutations generate stories which are threads and thus the associated spaces, including areas and volumes in standard space, as this progresses through D-structure.

Oh wow, so the distance in D-structure is why we see the count in time as behind and forward, and can draw traces and inferences, but otherwise those are the Irreducibles over the representation of the moment in D-structure. And that’s the third I’ve been trying to remember long enough to get out. It’s also the old image of the fan opening and closing as say 3bT as half of a Hexagon can fold or rotate to the midline. Note that this establishes the Boundary again: it’s a bubble, a hole, an Object which can be identified and thus valued through the various threads connected by how it appears and disappears in the shift from D6 to D4. Note how that then does the same for the other 3bT. So you can imagine those 2HG folding over so the 1-0Segments at either double End form a grid square, meaning they make a pyramid that locates the central End above or below. So the switch from D6 to D4 includes the matching of two strings of D3, a Triangular of D3 and a representation of SBE3, one attaching to the other.

Visualize that as making the top and bottom of a grid square, oriented so the content of count varies in yK over xK above the xK (and …). So 2 bubbles, 2T. Meeting at the End when the 2 far Ends draw through the Bip, which is their projection into the space, which is the magic I was looking for. The Bip is where D-structure translates and is transitive into grid squares and thus into D4-3 Space. Think how basic that is: this is how structure is transitive. That finally solves my issue with the sporadic simple groups: not the transitivity but the mechanism of that to enter the analysis. I see it now comes in at the Bip, which is where the motivation and energy of gs Injects.

This means we just put together a far more comprehensive conception of time, one that’s inherently mathematical. You can even see at least some of the mechanics: the sK and zK are labels for whichever locates to the count that is pure immutable zK and the same in sK, meaning devoid of all content because all content is built on this, like the construction of sets from empty. The 0 here is clear: you can draw sK and zK and there they are. Behind them being there is every possible shift and rotation, and in between are the stories of what has and what might or will happen. That translates to D4 as the edge of the Dimensional Enclosure, and thus at scales of D4, meaning of gs, and the in between is D3-4//4-3 and D4-3//3-4, meaning the Emanation and Inmanation of permutational potential.

That becomes a basic argument: there are 2 distant Ends and they need to match. You thus have a choice: you can match them 1 and 0, meaning the 1 destroys the other, leaving only the memory and lost potential as the other I in the I//I, or you can match them 1 and 0 and 0 and 1 so they cooperate to make a better whole. The former is obviously set disjunction: inherent to the ZF definitions of sets is that there be a 1 of set and a 0 of not set, either not this set or not a set at all.

I really am having trouble believing how easily this rolls off her tongue. I’ve been playacting her giving a lecture and have found it’s impossible at this level of understanding to identify papers which don’t require fundamental advances. That means dropping that pretence and having her actually give the lectures I’ve been experiencing like a movie, like her voice and she sometimes draws on a screen and she shuffles images in and out by selecting them from a roll across the top, and she pins some to the bottom in orders she wants.

Take a D5 space, like a 5th degree polynomial. See the problem? One of the fans has been collapsed and the other is open. Which is it? You now have double the ambiguity, and that is the extra gs process we previously identified as the reason. Now we can see there’s a basic counting issue: we have not fixed the choice at the level of 1 + 1 make 2.

Keep going. That’s treating this as 1+1 and that maps to a 2Square, so this means there is no fixed 2Square to inject into the Bip of the gs frame.

I literally just heard congratulations you solved that puzzle. Need to post. No, hold out.

This is as I see it on a slide in a presentation. Easy to animate. Easy to present the branching. Remember, which is her big phrase, every grid square tensions ordinal and cardinal in sK and zK, and these must come to root2 because that’s the root of the 2Square which enables H/D. Without the 2Square, we have no mechanism for Recombinance within a count. That would eliminate logarithms, which as we’ve seen is another way to count to 2.

Now that I’ve reached this level of Understanding I can see where I need guidance and help. Here is how I imagine D-structure. Start with a point, make it an End by attaching a flail, build until it’s CR, then go back to D6, show the Hexagon, collapse one bT and then open that and collapse the other in the HG. You can do that for each pair and see how they have states. Like all open, all not. Like 2 open and 1 not, up to 5. Or they can group over the visible and the Irreducible axis. So behind that more stable situation is the more chaotic anything possible level.

Let’s say we close 2, then we’ve hit D4. What happens if you close more? Like what if we have that line of bT’s. And it’s always an inversion like up down up, so it’s always 1-0-1 represented that way. That’s not new. So what this says is that you can read across or even skip to the middle and you get SBE identification of D3 because it’s rather obviously a count over bT’s. That, I have to say, is a great result. It is a fundamental statement about existence.

So, transitive in water, as the female Storyline embodiment of me as the physical side, not of course as just me because this is cooperatively twisted. Funny: that explains feuds and civil conflict as uncooperatively twisting to bind. Bind yourself tighter with atrocity.

Don’t want to leave this on that appropriate note. They really get it wrong: Jews are kicked out of places because they get along so well. They get along with anyone who gets along with them.

That includes your enemy. It really is as simple as Hitler pointing out there are French and British Jews and thus they must talk with the German Jews. Jews are the victims of hatreds not of them but of the fact that they get along with your enemies. That’s the displacement of hate. That’s the transitive. You can see the set construction once it’s obvious how the mechanism works. Jewish banking, after all, consisted of connecting various Christians with money who would otherwise not speak to each other, at least not without intermediaries. The actual point of Jews is to try to knit the world together by assisting each group we get along to improve itself. It’s good for them. It’s good for us. It’s good for everyone.

You can even see the mechanics of hate. In days not long ago, when your deal went bad - like your ships were lost in a storm or a disease ruined your crops - there was no mechanism to make that better. We don’t have well developed aid mechanisms now, but we had none before. As is, we barely provide aid and we certainly don’t take steps to prevent disasters.

Transitive in water. So with that image, which G takes - and there are pictures of him and them but the ones that play in my head are the ones that I experience as my movements as they come to life. It gets a little nervy because I’m trying to tension underwater and I’m not a good swimmer. I see a bunch of repeats and he’s deeper than me attached to something so he can lift me as needed. The problem with sideways is you hit the bottom and it doesn’t look suspended unless the background is just right.

I see how detailed your visions can become for implementation. They really do storyboard themselves.

Mermaid is transitive because animal human fantasy real play acting gender mer man Ethel different words Lorali crosses names constructs over space. And says HI because that connects G to J.

hi and 22 round.

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lightsovermonaco · 3 years

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His Good Sweater: Chapter 10

Masterlist

Shoutout to my bestie @acollectionofficsandshit for all the drunk comments she made while betaing this one... Wish you guys could see them lol

Word Count: 4.8k

Recommended song: “Amnesia" by 5SOS

Pierre paces in his dinky trailer at the Circuit of the Americas and desperately tries to forget you exist. He had already taken down the pictures on the wall but the images were burned into his brain. He had shoved your shirt under his bed, having absolutely no idea how it had made its way halfway around the world to taunt him.

He was slowly unraveling like a spool of thread on a loom as you wove him irrevocably into the tapestry of your life.

The race in Austin started in less than two hours and you hadn't texted him. Not once in the handful of years he'd known you had you neglected to wish him luck before a race, even if it was 2 am your time or you had exams, you always took thirty seconds to warn him to be safe and finish well.

He was beginning to think you hated him for how he'd acted at the gala last weekend, jealous and possessive from afar. Talking to you would have been the better choice. But seeing you laugh and dance the night away had hurt too much. He’d slipped out early after Victoria assured him she could find a ride and sped home to fall apart.

He had only barely managed to piece himself together in time for the race.

Pierre checks his phone for the third time in as many minutes and swears under his breath. He didn't know why he expected it to ring and for your face to pop up at this point. Even if you called to tear into him, he'd still fall to his knees at the sound of your voice. He just wanted to hear you speak, didn't care what was said, only that he could latch onto your words and lose himself in them.

Hope sparks when his phone chimes but he nearly throws it across the trailer when he sees Charles' name.

Heard from her yet?

No. At this point I'm beginning to think I never will again.

Maybe she fell asleep early?

It's 5 pm in London. I'll bet you she's eating a bowl of takeout from the Chinese place down the street, not sleeping.

Its still possible. Don't dwell on it. This isn't the headspace you wanna be in before a race. Block it out. I don't wanna see my best friend wind up hurt today.

Pierre didn't reply, if only because Charles was right. Worrying would get him nowhere. After his shitty qualifying yesterday, he started thirteenth on the grid so he had his work cut out for him. Austin offered plenty of opportunity for overtakes; he could get the job done if his team made the right calls.

And if he made it to the podium, you would have to text him.

The thin mattress groans when he sits to unlace his hastily tied race boots. He folds his legs to sit criss cross and places his palms on his knees. The familiar pose already has some of the tension leaving his shoulders as his eyes slide shut. He breathes in for ten seconds, reflecting on what ails him. He holds the breath for five seconds before releasing it slowly.

He repeats the process until he comes to terms with the fact that you won't be wishing him luck. That was your choice; there was nothing he could do about it and therefore no sense reading into it. He had done all he could to convince you to trust him. The ball was in your court; he had to be patient and wait for you to take a shot.

“Focus,” he murmurs to himself, forcing any erroneous thoughts from his head. “Walk through the track.”

The circuit at Austin was challenging, consisting of a mix of 20 sweeping corners and scattered hairpins. He was almost lucky in a way to be starting so far back on the grid because turn one was only a few hundred meters from pole and their tires would be slightly colder and less grippy upon arrival than his would be. The few extra seconds afforded to him by starting thirteenth could mean the opportunity to leap frog past his rivals in the first corner.

The counterclockwise circuit meant he would have to keep an eye on his front left tire too, as it would wear faster than the others. He'd change gears an average of 66 times per lap, higher than similar length tracks like Monaco. Pit stops cost an average of nineteen seconds, meaning he would need to build a significant gap to the driver chasing him in order to avoid the threat of any undercuts.

There were too many variables occupying space in his mind to afford you a sliver of it.

Some time later he decides that his four leaf clover tucked safely in the worn leather of his wallet will provide all the luck he needs and switches on his pre race playlist after popping in his ear buds.

"Sights on the podium," he murmurs to himself, hand on the doorknob. "Let's race."

The bass flows through him as his feet carry him to the Alpha Tauri garage on autopilot, through the back entrance and to his plain white driver room. The familiar beats are a numbing salve spread on his frayed nerves, his anticipation rising like a crimson wave in his veins. He leaves his clothes in a haphazard heap in the corner and changes into the white fireproofs hanging nearby, thoughts momentarily veering to you knocking on the door and stripping them right back off.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he runs through his usual stretch sets until Pyry arrives to walk him through reflex exercises.

"How's your head?" Pyry asks, running him through more cool down stretches. "Do we need to take a minute and do some meditation?"

"Beat you to it," Pierre grunts out, pushing back against the hand on his head to work his neck. "I'm good."

"You sound better than you have all week, I'll give you that. Keep that focus, use it to propel yourself forward."

"Run me through the lineup again," Pierre requests, "I need something else to think about."

Because if he let his mind follow the path it wanted to, it would inevitably lead to you and undo the work he had done to avoid that. He needed to be empty of anything that wasn't racing, anything else was an unnecessary distraction that had the potential to end in disaster.

Pyry rattles off the grid in order of who Pierre needs to overtake, pausing between each name to give him time to recall their driving styles and potential chinks in their armor to exploit. He knew from tapes of previous years that Stroll often ran wide into turn one, giving Pierre the option to brake late and sweep up the inside. Vettel was half convinced the track was cursed, so his mind would work against him enough that Pierre could exploit it and get past at some point. He continued until he got to Hamilton and Max locking out the front row, where he would need a bit of luck to overtake.

"You got it?" Pyry asks, stepping back.

Pierre rolls his shoulders and nods.

"Get shit done mate," Pyry says and bumps fists with his driver. He slips out to allow Pierre a moment to center himself before slipping into his race suit, leaving it half unzipped and tying it around his waist before following his trainer.

Pyry leads the way to where the matte navy and white car waits, mechanics swarming it like studious worker bees tending to their queen. No one talks to him save his engineer because words from anyone else threaten to break his carefully constructed race mentality. If they wanted him to bring home points, they knew to leave him alone once he was suited up.

His mind is blank of anything but statistics as he twists his ear buds in and pulls on his balaclava and helmet. As his vision narrows to the sliver of track he can see through his visor, so does his focus. With forty minutes to lights out, he's directed out onto the track. He rips the wheel to the right as he exits the garage, getting a decent powerslide for his efforts.

There was no doubt in his mind that he would land on the podium, if only to see the look on your face when he did.

**********

It took an unfathomable amount of restraint to keep yourself from calling Pierre to wish him luck.

You texted Max instead, wishing him a safe and comfortable podium a half hour before lights out. He hadn't responded, likely already in the garage with his trainer going through his pre race routine.

The pace Max had set the day before had awarded him pole position and the margin between him and Hamilton had been enough that you were confident in his ability to hold off the Mercedes for all fifty six laps.

If you were honest with yourself, you were disappointed that the Alpha Tauri you so desperately tried to ignore would be starting in thirteenth. You try not to think about it, instead queueing up SkySports and opening your laptop for pre race coverage. You avoid the interviews in favor of listening to the commentators analyze the grid.

"It should be an easy win for Max as long as he fends off Hamilton until the first round of pit stops. The undercut works well here, as Red Bull proved last year, and I'm sure they plan on doing the same thing this year."

You hum in agreement, gingerly sipping your steaming tea. You really ought to consider a career as a sportscaster at this point based on how often you came to the same conclusions they did.

"I think one of the biggest shakeups is Russell starting all the way up in eleventh after his amazing qualifying for Williams yesterday. Think he can hold onto that position?"

"He's got some fierce competition not far behind in the form of Alpha Tauri. Gasly starts thirteenth- surprisingly far back on the grid given the otherwise flawless performance he's shown this year. But it seems likely that he should be able to overtake-"

You flick the tv on mute, unable to stomach listening to them sing his praises. You numb your mind with social media until the Formula 1 theme plays on your laptop, alerting you that there's a few minutes until race start. Tire blankets are peeled off and the drivers weave their way through the formation lap with the exception of Kimi who takes his traditional straight line approach to warm up his supersoft tires.

Most of the front runners are on ultrasofts, indicating a two stop strategy. It was Pirelli's recommended approach, and you were glad that Horner heeded their advice for once and let Max use the ultras in Q2. It would give Max the upper hand over Hamilton who starts on the yellow sidewall tire and thus slightly slower lap times.

Crofty and Brundle break down the notable turns as the cars line up on the grid, pointing out the sharp hairpin only a few hundred meters from pole position. If Max got away clean, he would be ahead of the cramped pack and have an even better edge over the silver arrows who would be forced to queue behind him.

The traditional "lights out and away we go" kicks off the grand prix, engines roaring into the first turn. Max does manage to get away clean and is awarded with an immediate advantage. Turn one proves tragic for the Alfa Romeo of Raikonnen and the Asthon Martin of Stroll who collide and cause Kimi to spin. They rejoin at the back of the pack, your eyes snagging on the navy and white of an Alpha Tauri as it streams past.

Your heart spins in a similar fashion when the GAS driver tag leaps up two places in the timing table, suddenly in eleventh due to the incident. Your gaze snaps to the laptop humming on your legs before you remember its Max's driver cam you queued up. The Dutchman is silent as his engineer relays information about the incident and informs him of the widening gap between those chasing him.

“Confirm received,” Gianpiero says calmly. No matter the situation or how heated Max got, he always kept his head. It was what made the duo such a good match and had likely kept Max from going off the rails on more than one occasion.

“Yeah,” Max says shortly, clearly pissed about how quickly Hamilton was approaching. “Let me know when I’ve got enough charge to get out of range.”

“Yep, will do. Just keep this pace and you’ll hold him at bay.”

Live coverage replays the incident between Stroll and Raikonnen from the view of onboard with Pierre. The instant the 10 on the halo appears in the center of your screen you suck in a breath. He yanks the wheel to avoid colliding with Ocon, who had to do the same to keep from hitting his teammate as they navigate through the carnage.

You chew on your lip and try to refocus on the battle between the front runners. Not much is happening in the midfield for the next thirty or so laps and Max just barely manages to build a solid enough gap between himself and Hamilton to dive into the pits comfortably without losing places.

Your phone rings and you answer it without checking who it was as the only person you wouldn't answer was currently occupied.

"Hello?"

"Why the fuck didn't they pit Daniel?!"

You grin, noting the blistering beginning on his front left tire as SkySports switches to his onboard camera. "Because he's about to pass Charles," you tell Dan's girlfriend. She didn't call you often during races. It was likely that she knew you were nearing your wits end and this was her way of offering support.

"He won't be able to with those tires- oh." She breaks off when Daniel passes a DRS detection zone and his rear wing opens, allowing him to pass the Monegasque with ease.

"Told you," you say with a touch of reprimand. "You're always too nervous about those things. Daniel knows how to drive, just trust him to get the job done and he'll bring home another trophy for your apartment."

"I don't live here," she points out and you roll your eyes. She had lived in London as long as you had known her, but she was almost always at Daniel's apartment whether he was in town or not. Daniel digs in as the camera follows him for a lap, highlighting the widening gap between the McLaren and the Ferrari.

"You basically do. At this point, you're paying rent for a dusty one bedroom apartment on the east side that you set foot in maybe once a month." She scoffs but you push on, "a waste of sterling if you ask me, when you're at Daniel's every time I ask you to do anything."

"You act like I never- there goes Pierre!"

His name sparks dread in your gut as your attention flicks back to the screen in time to see him overtake Bottas on the inside of turn one. He'd managed to claw up to fifth with the move, somehow gaining places while you weren't looking.

"Good for him," you croak, trying your best to be genuinely happy for him. He was pushing the car to the limit and you'd be amazed if he didn't wind up on the podium along with Dan and Max. Charles and Hamilton were the only ones in his way, and something told you Charles wouldn’t put up much of a fight when his mate reached his gearbox. Hamilton would prove a challenge but he had been making tiny mistakes all day. Nothing significant, though enough to add up to him barely holding onto second while Daniel rode his gearbox.

"He's got ten laps to get past those two," she murmurs as if momentarily forgetting you were on the phone.

"Can we talk about literally anything else please?" You whisper, half tempted to shut off the race completely.

"Babe, you have to face the music at some point. Either you never want to see him again or you love him, which is it?"

She never failed to be anything but brutally honest. You appreciate it because everyone else let you brush off your problems, but she called you on your bullshit. She would needle you about it until you folded.

"I think it's better for both of us if I pretend we never met, don't you?"

"Easier for you, yes," she agrees. "But it'll kill Pierre. You don't think you could keep in touch with him, just as friends?"

"I don't know if I can handle that. I can barely look at him without wanting to bawl my eyes out."

She sighs, pausing to contemplate what to say. Voice soft, she continues, "Why don't you just take him back? Clearly it's ruining both of you. Are you really gonna let the press wreck the best you ever had? I know its hard but-"

"I'm not like you," you cut in. "I can't just ignore the articles and the comments and pretend there aren't people out there that hate me for being with him. They came to my house, disrupted my family. Hell, Ben can't even go to school without being mobbed by his classmates demanding answers. If my suffering is what allows my family to go about their lives then so be it."

"If that's what you wanna believe."

You sigh, tangling your fingers in the hem of your shirt. "It is."

"Alright," she says, voice teetering on a knife's edge. "I know better than to try to change your mind when you're like this. He's on the podium by the way. Oh, and watch what you say to Max- Pierre will read into it."

She hangs up without a goodbye, leaving you to deal with the realization that the podium is indeed VER RIC GAS on your own. Your eyes are glued to the Red Bull and McLaren drivers, blatantly ignoring the one in the white suit as the anthems play and the champagne is sprayed, turning away to busy yourself with making coffee when Daniel hands his liquid filled race boot to third place.

You weren't quite sure how you were supposed to watch what you said to Max- there was no reason to in your mind. Max was your next closest friend on the grid and you had every right to congratulate him if you wanted to.

Resolute in your decision, you text Max and Daniel a quick congratulations before shutting off the TV and closing your laptop.

Max's insane custom ringtone he'd selected for himself nearly makes you jump out of your skin when it blares from your phone.

"Hey great race-"

"Did you see it? I wasn't sure if you'd watch it- did you see my move on Hamilton when he tried to get past me?" He was talking a mile a minute like he was still out on track. "I was like- and then Dan tried to overtake me on the final lap and I was like no way! And then-"

"Max," you chime in, dragging out the 'a' with a sing-song voice. "You're rambling."

"Oh right. Yeah but I made it! Led every lap and finished with another win."

"That's great." You force as much enthusiasm in the words as possible, trying to match his chaotic energy. "You did great. I know it probably doesn't mean much, but I'm proud to be your friend. You beat a world champ!"

"It means a lot-"

"Who's that?"

You stiffen at the familiar cadence. You had assumed Max was back in the garage when he called, but he must have still been in the podium room. You could picture him in his race suit, smudges of grease and dirt staining the pristine white. Beads of sweat probably ran down his neck, begging to be brushed away by your tongue.

"Uh, no one," Max says in a lame attempt to cover up his digression. "I gotta go," he whispers to you.

"Let me talk-"

"Wait don't," you start, but the call ends abruptly and you blink. You stare down at your phone, completely dumbfounded. Of course his instinct would be to talk to you, to share the euphoria of a podium with you. It was the first victory in three years he wouldn't have you to celebrate with.

It was only a matter of time until his resolve popped like the cork on his champagne.

**********

Pierre's phone is in his hand as soon as Max hangs up. He hefts his trophy in the other, a wild grin on his sweaty face as he snaps a picture. He makes sure he's the only one in the frame, shamelessly wanting himself to be the center of your attention.

"Mate," Daniel pipes up, catching his eye, "you think that's a good idea?"

Pierre sighs, cutting the Australian a glare. "I'm just trying to fill her in."

"Wasn't your plan to give her space?"

"It's been a week, isn't that long enough?"

"Take it from me, sometimes it takes months for someone to figure things out. Hell, you know how long it took me to sort through my feelings for-"

"I know," Pierre cuts in. "I know. I just- a snap can't hurt can it? C'mon, I just got a podium! If it goes bad I can blame it on the post race jitters."

Daniel holds up his hands and shrugs. "You're a grown man. Do what you want."

Pierre studies the photo, scrutinizing the way his hair was plastered to his head and the awkward way he'd posed to keep anyone but himself out of the frame. It's his genuine smile that he knows will do you in, and ultimately the reason he sends it.

His phone is a lead weight clutched in his grip as he winds through the paddock, constantly stopped by vips and team members congratulating him. None of what anyone says registers, he just tries his best to match their mood and sputter praises about his team's contributions to his podium.

The snap you finally send back is only from the eyes up, but it's enough. He's surrounded by people in his driver room, but for ten seconds it might as well have just been him staring at a sliver of your face on a screen.

The tiny lines at the corners of your shining eyes tell him you're smiling, which is a step in the right direction even if you won't let him see your entire face. It's enough to reignite the hope that slumbered in his chest while waiting for you to pull the trigger and make a move.

He sends back a video of the people in the room, who cheer when they realize they're being filmed. 'Wish you were here,' is what he captions it and sends it without giving himself a chance to overthink.

Ten minutes pass with no reply.

The beer he’s already consumed have given him a pleasant buzz as well as an excuse to make a bad decision or two. He takes another video of the room to post to his Instagram story, 'Missing you' written in the lower left corner.

Fuck, he hopes you'll see it and regret leaving him on read. Instead all he gets is a text from Charles chastising him for stirring up drama.

Really Pierre?

Blame it on the alcohol, he texts back.

I know you aren’t drunk. You can’t form a coherent sentence when you are.

Guess i gotta drink more then

Pierre doesn’t turn anyone bearing alcohol away. He's two celebratory shots deep when Daniel finds him sulking in a corner. "You've got my girl texting me freaking out over your story. I've seen it and I gotta agree with her. Was that really necessary?"

"She left me on read," Pierre says like that was enough explanation. His head was spinning and it was getting hard to keep the room upright. "And it's the truth. I miss her like hell. I want her here. She was supposed to come, you know? I was gonna have her fly in with me on the jet. She doesn't start class again until June. I had this whole week planned out. I was gonna show her Texas- she’s from New York and..."

He trails off when he notes Dan’s pitying smile. Daniel sighs and runs a hand through his curls. "I know. I get it, okay? I know it's hard but you can't force it. You've gotta let her come back on her own, all you're doing now is pushing her away."

He was fucking clueless when it came to these things. He'd had you for a few precious moments and now that he'd lost you he didn't know how to act. His mind was running on hazy autopilot; he barely knew which way was up, let alone did he trust himself to make any sort of important decision.

He stares down at the shot he'd been handed at some point before throwing it back. The cheap whiskey burns his throat but he barely registers the sting. "Should I take it down?"

"She already saw it," Daniel says gently, as if he anticipates how bad the fuck up will hurt. And it does. It hits him like a tire wall at two hundred kph, knowing that you were probably ranting or crying on the phone with Daniel’s girlfriend. "But yeah, that's probably best. People are already wondering what happened between you two, no need to throw fuel on the fire."

"You're probably right-" Pierre cuts off when Charles arrives with a grimace on his face. He shakes his head and gives his friend’s shoulder a squeeze.

"For once I'm not the dumb one."

"You're a dick, you know that right?" Daniel says, allowing Pierre to delete the post. It takes him a few tries before he gets it down, but undeniably rumors will be circulating in the morning if they weren’t already.

"Honestly what were you thinking?" Charles demands, edging towards full blown yelling. "I told you to leave her be. The gossip stemming from this isn’t gonna help.”

The last thing he needed was someone else telling him how stupid his decision had been. At least Daniel had the decency to show sympathy.

"Honestly?" Pierre responds with the same intensity, his anger flaring. "Honestly, Charles, I was thinking that she was happy for me but was too afraid to take the leap. She haunts me. Every second I’m awake I have to force myself away from her. Even when I’m asleep I can’t get away from her. So I don’t know, maybe I wanted to haunt her too."

“This isn’t the way you win her back and you know it.”

“I know!” Pierre throws up his hands. “But what else am I supposed to do? She won’t talk to me. She has no problem talking to Max or Daniel but apparently she draws the line at me.”

“You know it’s not-” Daniel's eyes flick to his phone and he fights back a grin. All it does is remind Pierre that he lost the person that could bring that sort of smile to his own face. "Fellas I wish I could stay and help but I gotta get going. Charles, I think Pierre needs another drink." He slaps five American dollars in the Monegasque's hand. "First one is on me."

Pierre is too deep in a spiral to care when his friend drags him from the party to a bar just south of the circuit. Somehow it was within walking distance; the floor was sticky and the lighting was for shit but he didn't care.

Pierre's focus was on downing shot after shot, erasing the broken image of you his mind had conjured up. He never should have posted the story. It only served to feed into what the media had been speculating for the past week and dredged up more tension between you.

Pierre stops checking his phone two shots later. The liquor provides a wet blanket over his senses, dousing him in cold water and scrambling his brain. He could barely remember his own name, but yours still lived in the corner of his mind.

Even drunk, he refused to forget you.

Two hours and who knows how much alcohol later, Charles helps Pierre back to his hotel room.

Pierre falls asleep as soon as he hits the mattress, head too blurry to dredge up memories of you.

#are you feeling the angst yet #pierre gasly #pierre gasly X reader #formula 1 #f1 #formula 1 imagine #f1 imagine #formula 1 fanfiction #formula 1 fantasy #f1 fanfic #f1 fanfiction #f1 fic #f1 fantasy #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 fic #formula 1 rpf #f1 rpf #pierre gasly imagine #pierre gasly fanfiction

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acourtofsnakes · 3 years

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E’tad - Rogue, Chapter 9| The Mandalorian x Force Sensitive! Reader (f)

Summary: You are going about your time in Nevarro, completely unaware of the struggle and frantic journey the Mandalorian is making. Will he get there in time?

Warnings: A bit of violence/swearing, mentions of death/blood, alcohol/drinking

AN: I’m really sorry that this chapter isn’t as gripping as the others. I’ve been super overwhelmed lately and been struggling to get my ideas down into actual words. I’ve been working on this for way longer than the word count reflects and just wanted to get it out. You can still count on a cliffhanger ending though, of course ♥︎

Also, I’m sorry if there’s parts that aren’t canon. I definitely made up a couple of the planets and potentially bits of Nevarro.

Not yet beta read.

Word Count: 4832

As always, credit to whoever owns the gif. I usually find them on Google or Pinterest, so message me if it’s yours ♥︎

Rogue Taglist: @snipskixandbeskar @weirdowithnobeardo @the-bottom-of-the-abyss @jackgrzs @sarahjkl82-blog @boomtownboy @goldielocks2004

Mando’a translation: E'tad - seven

You’d been in Nevarro for a few days now.

Things were going... okay?

No. Things were going well. Really well. You felt safer here, knowing that Cara and Greef were monitoring who was coming and going and making sure they posed no threat to you.

There were a few tense moments, times when government officials came wandering past, but you always stayed hidden out of the way.

No one looked twice at you here – and if they did, it wasn’t for long.

When you first walked through the town, you found Cara and Greef waiting for you just inside the gates.

They were kind, welcoming too. Greef took your bag and welcomed you to the planet, whilst Cara smiled at you and shook your hand. You sensed that she was strong, determined and loyal to her cause and friends. She had a kindness in her eyes though, and it put you at ease.

These were Mando’s friends. He trusted them to take care of you, so that meant you’d be able to trust them too.

They had shown you around, giving you a tour of the places that you might need, like markets and small stores, but also the places to avoid.

When you’d had your tour, they showed you to a quaint building a short walk away from the centre of town.

There were only 4 floors to the building, and about 2 rooms on each floor. Stopping on the third floor, they had showed you where you’d be staying.

Cara had apologised for it being more on the minimal side, but you’d shaken your head quickly. This was more than you’d had in… years.

There was a little kitchenette area to prepare food, a lounge space with a slightly ragged looking armchair and table. To the right of the space was a curtained off sleeping area, containing a thin, but comfy looking cot and then just off of that a washing area. There was a decent-sized metal tub, big enough for you to be able to sit in and just extend your legs comfortably.

It might not have been grand, or spacious but it was a home. A place to come back to at the end of the day and be safe.

The two had left you to get settled, and you couldn’t help that sharp pang in your chest.

The Razor Crest had become a… sort of home to you over the last few weeks. It’s softly lit corridors and spaces, things crammed in everywhere but all mostly organised… the little compartment that had been your – well, the Mandalorian’s, - bed. The cockpit, where you spent most of your days either bantering with Mando or sitting in comfortable silence.

The kitchen area… his hands on your skin..

The weight of him behind you..

You missed him. And if you were honest, it still stung. That all of that had occurred between you and he was just getting rid of you.

No, maybe that wasn’t the right phrase. And nothing had really happened between you. Just an outpouring of tension. Besides, he was so warm, maybe he had been running a fever.

Mando had said that it was the only way to keep you safe.

And you knew that you were also attracting attention onto him and Grogu.

It still didn’t stop it from hurting any less.

~~~~~~~~~

-----7 Days Left-----

The Mandalorian made it back to his ship in record time. He didn’t waste precious minutes explaining to Peli. Just stating he had to go, thank you for the repairs and the last few days.

Seven days. He just seven days to get back, grab you, and flee.

Easy. He could do that easily.

Right?

He gave her a handful of credits, promising to come back soon.

He probably came across as rude, but he just couldn’t afford to wait.

You would have been on Nevarro for a little over a week now. He’d been with Peli for a good few days, and the travelling here had cost him about a day and a bit.

You were probably settled.

Maybe even.. happy?

His instincts were always right, and they were telling him that this guy, Haran, the shadow of Hell, had meant every single word. That if he found you before Mando did, you would never return.

Even if that happened, the Mandalorian would tear apart the galaxy to find you. There wouldn’t be a corner of space that Haran could hide that Mando wouldn’t get to. He would kill anyone who stood in his way, anyone who stopped him from reaching you.

The force of his determination nearly took his breath away as he switched on the ship, the engines roaring to life

Moments later, he was leaving Tatooine.

“I’m coming for you.”

~~~~~~~~~

After that initial first week of settling in, you found that things improved a great deal.

You knew your way around almost 100%, and frequently took walks around the town.

Cara had reassured you that you wouldn’t have to hide here, but on busier days it would be best to keep your hood up.

Just in case.

Despite the threat of someone slipping through their watchful eyes, you relaxed.

You worked with Cara sometimes during the days, going along with her for her Marshal duties and keeping things in order.

Other days, you spent time with Greef. You found him to be sort of… like an uncle in attitude. He was reassuring, and you enjoyed spending time with the both of them.

You’d even begun to help out in the local school. Karga had suggested it one day, mentioning in passing how the teaching droids might benefit with a pair of extra eyes and hands.

After making a few helpful comments, you had somehow established yourself as a teacher of survival. Not in the sense of, ‘this is how to disarm a bounty hunter who is coming at you whilst you’re sleeping., but more in the vein of, “Here’s how to find fresh water and a place to sleep.”

The kids loved it, especially when you staged imaginary scenarios for them and had them running about the place or creeping through ‘the undergrowth’.

It felt good. To be using these skills you’d been forced to learn for something positive, something that the kids enjoyed.

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~

-----5 Days Left-----

Of course he had to stop for fuel.

He had forgotten to ask Peli to fill it up before he left. Mainly because they couldn’t get out there when the sandstorm had hit, and then because he had left so quickly.

He wanted to punch himself.

Maybe he would. It might make him feel better.

The Mandalorian stopped at the next closest planet, barely having turned the engines off before he was climbing out of the cockpit and making his way through the ship, Grogu secured in his little bag.

He was halfway down the ramp when he looked over his shoulder, to check that you and Duru were behind him.

Only to stop short, because you were no longer with him. Remember?

He sighed, ignoring the wrench of his heart and he walked through the landing bay.

A quick search revealed a man in a fuel operatives’ uniform.

Relief flooded Mando’s senses, and he hurried over, “Excuse me, would you be able to fill my ship? I’m sorry but I’m really in a hurry.”

The man looked up, wiping his hands on his uniform and he came over to Mando. “The Crest that just landed? Sure, I can fill her up right away, sir.”

Moments later, he had hooked up the necessary pipes and the ship was being pumped full of fuel.

It didn’t stop him from pacing though, checking the time on the large display inside the landing bay.

He was full of frantic energy, and he should probably stop pacing because he was going to make Grogu sick.

The operative looked up, tilting his head a little, “Forgive me, sir, but you look awful jittery. Is something wrong?”

The Mandalorian spun on the spot, looking at the man suspiciously.

Was he working for Haran? Was this a distraction?

Maybe he shouldn’t have come here.

Grogu gurgled at his side, and he didn’t need to bother translating. He was being stupid; the kid was right.

Mando sighed, curling his hands into fists and then uncurling them to try and release some tension. “Have you ever heard of the Shadow of Death?”

The man cursed, dropping the tool he was holding. He looked around quickly, his colourful face going pale with fear, “Sir! I beg you, please do not speak that name. Even mentioning it can summon him here.”

The Mandalorian couldn’t hide the surprise form his voice, “You believe in him then?”

The worker nodded slowly, motioning Mando over. When he was close enough, the man said quietly, “I’ve seen his… work.”

A chill skittered over Mando’s bones, “You’ve seen… someone he’s killed?”

A green sheen had come over the operatives face, “Yes, sir. I’ve seen it firsthand and I still wake up screaming even today.”

The Mandalorian tilted his head, “Many people believe he’s a myth, thought up by the darkest of people to cover their tracks.”

“That creature is not a myth, sir. He came for my sister and her family. She ran, but he was waiting at the safe house for her.” The man’s eyes became hazy with memory. “I don’t know how he knew. She had told no one where she was going. Not even me. They had never uttered the location aloud, not even to each other. They wrote it down. Just in case he was in the walls, listening.” The man swallowed roughly once, twice.

“When we got there, there was nothing left to bury. Just clothes, a few strands of hair and blood coating the walls. It was like something from a nightmare. There were only a few… chunks left of them. They could never identify who was who.” He heaved a little, then turned grave eyes onto the Mandalorian.

“If you know someone he wants, you’d be best of killing them yourselves. It would be a lot kinder.”

~~~~~~~~~

-----2 Days Left-----

The Mandalorian was getting frantic.

And with his frantic haste, came messiness.

He didn’t know it was taking him so damn long to get to Nevarro. He should have been there three days ago. Hell, he should never have left you there.

There had been a nebula on the way out of the planet. It hadn’t come up on his radar until the last moment and he had to swerve to get around it, which cost him a detour he couldn’t afford. He couldn’t risk jumping into hyperspeed until he was clear either.

Though it had taken too long, he eventually cleared it.

He was close, so close. He’d been about to make the jump when two X-wing’s had come out of nowhere and started to chase him down. He’d tried to get them away, tried to shake them off but they’d forced him down into some icy planet.

He’d nearly crashed the ship, nearly lost Grogu because the little womp rat decided to climb out of his seat as Mando tried to land and then the engines had cut out because they got too cold.

And now he was cold. Fucking freezing in fact.

Tracking through the snow and the ice, looking for the two pilots to get rid of them so he could be back on his way to finding you.

With each movement of the sun, he became more and more painfully aware of how slow he was.

He was never this slow. Never this sloppy. He needed to calm down and clear his head, but the words of the fuel operative kept ringing in his head.

“That creature is not a myth, sir. He came for my sister and her family. She ran, but he was waiting at the safe house for her.

When we got there, there was nothing left to bury. Just clothes, a few strands of hair and blood coating the walls.

If you know someone he wants, you’d be best of killing them yourselves. It would be a lot kinder.”

He gritted his teeth as a shudder shook his body, and not from the cold.

You wouldn’t end up like that.

He’d find you. You would be fine.

Noise broke through his thoughts, the sounds of the pilots and he slipped behind a snowpile and sunk down to wait.

~~~~~~~~~

Okay. So maybe the last few days weren’t going as well as they could have been.

You were embarrassed to admit it, but at least two of them were spent drunk, and the third was spent in a state of hungover blurriness.

Pinpointing the exact trigger was hard.

It might have been the horrific nightmares that begun 4 days ago, or it might have been the conversation you had with Cara that day.

You’d been sitting in the cantina, just talking after a day of work and she had begun to ask about your past. Nothing invasive, nothing forcing you to answer but something in you had wanted to spill some of the burden.

She’d asked you where you learned your survival skills, and you thought about lying but… something stopped you. So, you’d told her. At least, as much as you could without revealing the real reason.

You told her about the murder of your parents. How the market had been attacked that day, and you could do nothing to stop them dying.

You told her how you’d run, spending two days hiding in a waste dump, crying and vomiting with fear and the horror of what you’d seen. How you’d dragged yourself out, and started your journey of planet hopping and hitching rides.

Cara had asked what you did to get people coming after you, and you simply told her they thought you’d been responsible for the market attack, and the murders of the friends you’d made because people always seemed to die around you.

You told her how it had forced you to not be able to trust anyone, to only be able to rely on yourself and how you had to learn to survive.

It hadn’t been easy. You had made yourself sick countless times, including one really bad week where you ate some questionable vegetables and spent four days in a hallucinating stupor, convinced you were dying.

She’d laughed at that and returned the favour by telling you about her shock trooper days. The fact they were dumped in on their own to hunt the warlords, being exposed to horrors that only you and few others could understand.

The pair of you had spent the evening sharing stories, dancing around the subject of a certain beskar-clad hunter and his child. You couldn’t go there, couldn’t talk about it.

She probably gathered all the information she needed from your lack of response though, by the look in her eye and the smirk when she mentioned him.

That night might have been the cause of the horrific nightmare where you were convinced you’d just watched the Mandalorian and Grogu be torn to shreds by your own power. You’d woken up screaming, tasting their blood like that night and barely made it to the small bathroom area before vomiting.

That was the last night you’d remembered before getting drunk.

You supposed you were ashamed of yourself.

You were giving in to feelings you’d spent years repressing.

You were wallowing.

You’re hurting. You’re allowed to let go of the pain sometimes, to feel it. You can’t keep going like the ice queen all the time.

How you hated that inner voice of reason.

~~~~~~~~~

-----1 Day left-----

His gloves were soaked with melted snow, sticking to his skin and freezing again instantly, no matter how many times he tried to warm them. It made his movements slow and fumbly as he desperately worked to fix the engine of his ship.

He’d tried to take off as soon as he’d gotten rid of the pilots, but as soon as he’d started the engines, they died with no more than a puff of smoke.

They were frozen.

Snow and ice had gotten into the rotors and they wouldn’t start long enough for him to heat them up.

He was stuck here.

Grogu was freezing.

Mando had left him inside the cockpit with the doors shut, bundled in all the blankets he could find in the ship. The heaters weren’t working, and the backup generator barely provided enough heat to stop the windows from icing over.

He made a frustrated noise as he dropped his tools, stooping down to scoop them out of the snow.

He had to get this working. He had to fix this and get to you.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, you rose, dressed and returned to work.

You apologised for your previous behaviour and threw yourself into your daily tasks with a determination that might have been bordering on insanity.

You were eager to wipe away the shame of the past few days, so you spent the day doing every single job you could find and more. Even going out into the town on your lunch break to help around the markets and local small stores.

It kept the thoughts at bay, the guilt and the shame, and also the relentless longing that plagued you.

~~~~~~~~~~

-----12 hours left-----

The sun had set long ago.

He was working by the small light on his helmet now.

It was barely enough to see in front of his face, but he couldn’t stop. Even though he couldn’t feel his feet, or his hands. Or any of his body, actually.

He couldn’t let you die.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the end of the day.

You had just finished your work, helping Cara with maintaining things around town, dealing with the odd shady traveller that passed through looking for trouble.

She knew your skills, that you were ruthless, quick and knew your way around a blade well enough to scare someone off.

It was why you had started training with her a few days ago, before the drunken haze.

You’d showed up to her office after a night of screaming dreams, shattered, wound up and tense.

She’d taken one look at you, then taken you out the back to a big empty plot and begun to train with you. And it had worked. Sparring with someone and having to focus had helped you channel that anxious energy.

It was a regular occurrence now, which was why you were engaged in another session with her.

Greef had come to watch this afternoon, and sat on one of the huge, jagged hunks of rock that littered the volcanic planet.

It didn’t put you off, you were too focused as you ducked under Cara’s punch, twirling around her body and delivering a sharp kick to her kidneys that had her coughing. You couldn’t help the chuckle, lightly springing back a few steps as she spun to face you, “Oh come on, you practically invited me to kick you.”

Cara rolled her eyes, advancing toward you, “And you were foolish enough to take it.” She flew into another attack on you, which you matched punch for punch, like you knew the moves she was going to take without her saying.

You wondered if it had something to do with your power, some instinct from it. You still felt its presence more often than not lately, since that night it had helped you save the Mandalorian. You’d tried to push it back, but it was calling to you more and more recently.

Shaking the thoughts free of your head, you focused back on fighting, pouring everything into it and letting go of all that nervous energy.

You practically floated across the ashy ground, moving around her like you were breathing.

It wasn’t quite the choreographed, effortless fighting you and Mando had engaged in, but it was still something.

Dimly, you heard Greef laugh, clapping. “I never quite knew what Mando meant when he told us you fought like you were dancing, but I completely understand now.”

You froze, just managing to lift a hand and block Cara’s swing to your face, “What? He said that?” You looked over your shoulder, eyebrows raised in shock.

Karga nodded quickly, “Oh, yes! When he was telling us about the first time you met, and when you saved his life. He said he’d met more fighters in his life than he could remember, but you stood out most of all. ‘She fights like she’s dancing. Like she’s moving to a song of death only she can hear. It was mesmerising’ That’s what he told us.”

Mesmerising.

He’d really said that about you? Complimented you like that to his friends when you weren’t around?

It made your heart constrict and a sort of warm feeling spread through your veins.

Unfortunately, it also made you distracted.

Which gave Cara the opportunity to slam her knee into your back and knock you to the ground. “Stop getting doe-eyed over the Mandalorian and focus.” She was laughing, standing over you.

Your cheeks flushed slightly but you snarled, flipping on your back and pulling out her ankles. “I don’t get doe-eyed.”

~~~~~~~~~~

-----2 hours left---

The Mandalorian had never been this cold.

He was still outside, and a snowstorm had begun now.

His poor visibility was even worse, and it seemed to take him twice as long to do anything.

It was like the commands he sent from his brain to his hands were slogging through the thick snow.

His armour had long since frozen over, and every time he moved, ice cracked and fell from the crevice’s.

He didn’t know how long he could do this for.

He didn’t know if Grogu was still alive.

He didn’t know if you were still alive.

Haran may have gone back on his words and come after you anyway. You might have been dead for days already.

No.

No, he couldn’t let himself think that.

He had to keep going. He had to…

He had to rest…

He was cold. So very cold that he almost felt warm.

A mournful cry of wind shot through him, sucking the little energy from his body in a sub-zero blast and his knees gave out, dumping him in the snow.

Get up.

He couldn’t.

~~~~~~~~

“Good fighting today. You were a lot more focused. Well, mostly.” Cara leaned against the doorway to your building, crossing her arms and grinning again.

You rolled your eyes, “Thanks so much. The bruise I have on my back will forever remind me of your compliments.”

She laughed, raising an eyebrow, “And the pain in my kidney’s will remind of yours.” She tilted her head, watching you, “Why did it throw you so much?”

You pretended not to know what she was talking about, “Me kicking you in the kidneys?”

Cara gave you a deadpan look, knowing what you were doing, “No. What Greef said about Mando. You looked shocked.”

You swallowed, looking down and pretending to examine your boots and you pulled out an easy shrug, “I just didn’t expect a compliment like that from him. The first time we fought, we were both trying to kill each other, and the second time he saw me, he was half-unconscious. I didn’t think he remembered.”

Whether she saw through your lie or not, she thankfully didn’t press it. “Well… He can shock you sometimes, trust me.” She stood up straight, pushing away from the wall “I’ll see you later for dinner?”

Relief flooded through you and you nodded, able to meet her gaze now, “Sure, dinner sounds great. I’ll come by after a drink.”

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

-----0 Hours Left-----

He was too late.

~~~~~~~~~

You were still thinking about what Greef said as you made your way into the cantina, Duru asleep back in your room.

It had become a popular haunt for you whilst being here. You wondered if you might be starting to have a problem.

But the chatter of the different people and creatures provided an ambiance that kept the wandering thoughts at bay.

When you were alone and still, you had a habit of straying to the Mandalorian and Grogu.

His last words kept echoing in your head, that you might see each other soon.

When, Lori? Soon isn’t close enough.

You sighed to yourself as you slid onto a seat at the bar. You seriously needed to have an intervention with yourself. You didn’t pine like this. You didn’t get soft and sentimental.

You couldn’t afford to, not the way you lived.

But we aren’t on the run anymore. At least not like we used to be…

You ignored that voice in your head, the one that threatened to speak sense. Luckily, the droid that was serving as the bartender came over, placing your usual drink in front of you.

You nodded in thanks, pulling it toward you. Maybe it wasn’t such a good thing that the droid knew your drink without asking.

Then again… it was a droid. It was probably built into its hardware. It didn’t mean that you were an alcoholic. Although, your drunken stupor went against that argument.

You brushed your hand over the bar in front of you, getting rid of the layer of volcanic ash that settled over everything. Every night you found it in your hair, under your clothes and even in your boots. It didn’t bother you much though. Over the years, you’d become used to it, being covered in dirt or grime.

Except when you were on the Crest.

You shook your head slightly at yourself. You weren’t going to go there.

You could do what you wanted to on the Crest. You didn’t have to be covered in dirt or ash or mud. You were clean. Rested. Warm.

Do not go there.

You had company. Friends, even.

You blew out a breath, taking a big gulp of your drink. It didn’t matter now anyway. You were here. You didn’t know how long you were to stay for, but this was your new… home.

But it doesn’t feel like home. It’s not cosy. It doesn’t smell the same. You can’t hear the sounds of the engine, or Grogu or Mando.

Maker, you had to find a way to shut that voice up. Maybe you’d knocked something lose back when you fought the guy with a tail. Things hadn’t been right in your head since then.

Since you saved the Mandalorian’s life?

“Shut up!!” You didn’t realise you’d hissed the words out loud until a nearby trader gave you a funny look.

Brilliant, now you looked drunk or possibly crazy.

You dropped your head into your hands, rubbing your eyes. You needed to get over yourself.

And the Mandalorian.

When you lifted your glass back to your lips, you noticed that your drink was already done.

Whoops. Definitely looking more drunk than crazy now.

You looked up, raising your hand for another drink regardless and when the droid placed it in front of you, you slid over the required credits.

Only for it to push them back, “Your drinks have already been paid for, miss.”

You blinked in confusion at its monotone voice, “By who? I asked Cara and Greef not to touch my tab.” You had wanted to pay for it yourself. They refused to take any money in payment for you room, so you had managed to negotiate any expenses you racked up elsewhere – such as here.

The droid looked at you with its expressionless robotic face, “They were not paid for by Marshal Dune or Greef Karga. Please, take the credits.”

You reached out, slowly dragging them back and putting them back inside the inside pocket of your cloak, “Who paid for it then?” You couldn’t help the insistent tone to your voice, even if it would be lost on the droid.

Before it could answer, your question was answered.

“I did.”

The voice that came from behind you was silken, rising over the din background noise of the cantina. It caressed over your bones, those two simple words dripping like honey. Something tugged inside of you, pulled at that buried kernel of power.

You turned on your stool, looking for the owner of such a magnetic voice.

There, behind you, sat a figure.

Decked in an expensive looking cloak lined with golden thread, lounging back in his seat like he didn’t have a care in the world. You could see the edge of a hilt peeping above broad shoulders, something drawing you to look at it but you couldn’t see it properly.

You blinked again, raising an eyebrow, “Sorry?”

The figure leant forward, “I paid for your drinks.” He lifted a pair of gloved hands and pushed back his hood.

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#the mandalorian x force sensitive! reader #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #din djarin x force sensitive! reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #the mandalorian #rogue #force #star wars

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stellocchia · 3 years

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It really irks me when people defending Tommy's initial treatment of Wilbur post revival as just a trauma thing (of being standoffish and pointing out when he was being shitty and just. Yknow. Being suspicious of him)

Because. Yknow. "He treated him like a ticking timebomb" even if that WAS true, tbf, last time he was around he literally was one.

Anyways.

Tommy has a history of being manipulated. He has a LOT of history of being manipulated.

He also has history of being manipulated by specifically Wilbur.

And now he is aware of that. Has been for a while. "He molds me like Clay".

And Tommy wants to support Wilbur and be there for him. He did back in Pogtopia. He does now. But he can't allow himself to be as passive about Wilburs destructive and toxic tendencies as during pogtopia because look at how that ended. It ended with Lmanberg blown up, many people traumatized and vulnerable and still affected to this day and it ended with Wilbur dead.

This time he can't just be content with supporting Wilbur and making the situation better, he has to also get Wilbur to actually change. For the better. To become better.

He can't just let Wilbur a assholery slide because. Yknow. That's not good either.

And I mean. Just. Let's look at what picture Tommy gets from Wilbur that day.

He last saw Wilbur in limbo where the guy apparently threatened or promised to do awful shit If he was to get revived (? I wish they elaborated more on the time in limbo it's so fckign vague), it's only been a few weeks for Tommy while it's been years for Wilbur. Wilbur did change somewhat in limbo. Not significantly but he was happy to be revived and I guess that's connected to him also probably not wanting to be actually bad anymore. But Tommy doesn't have a reason to hope for that.

Then. Wilbur is revived for the cost of ghostbur being murdered.

He acts and speaks pretty much exactly as he did in pogtopia.

He blatantly dismisses information he doesn't want to hear.

He blatantly lies in front of Tommy.

He blatantly manipulates Tommy.

He blatantly dismisses Tommy's own traumatic experiences (listen, yeah, he has his own shit to deal with but you can't argue that that makes him look apathetic to the suffering of people that aren't him and that makes him look like... Yknow.... A potential antagonist or villain or whatever)

Just. Ignoring all that in favor of being all nice to Wilbur and not have him feel bad would be plain fucking stupid.

It's be naive of Tommy to just act like everything is alright. Because the consequences if he lets Wilbur do what he wants could be catastrophic.

There's a balance to be struck between being unsympathetic to someone struggling and ignoring the potential threat they could pose.

Am I making sense??

Like even if we just erase all the trauma from Tommy's brain. If we switch him with a completely mentally well and capable version of himself that's just given the knowledge of Wilburs past actions and his current (back after his revival) ones, it's only logical to be suspicious.

And to not just let him be an asshole.

Like cmon. I'm sorry that Tommy telling Wilbur he has to stop being an asshole is messing with Wilburs flow or vibes or mojo or whatever. But he was right. Wilbur has to stop being an asshole. You can be an asshole in two situations:

1. Someone else is an asshole first.

2. It's reciprocated banter with someone you're close to.

If wilburs being an asshole to Tommy in a setting where Tommy clearly isn't having fun then Wilbur has to stop being an asshole.

If wilburs being an asshole to ranboo, even without meaning to be, then he has to stop the second he realizes he's being an asshole or someone is calling him out on it.

Like. Let's not boil Tommy's behaviour down to just trauma response. That was normal fucking behaviour 80% of the time.

And I think it's sad that the 17 year old is the only person on the server that holds the former terrorist (and attempted mass murderer) to any kind of basic Standart and like. Realizes that he needs someone to at least attempt to keep him in check.

Like listen. Cmon. I'm not saying to lock him up but you don't let unstable mentally ill people with history of destructive behaviour just. Yknow. Be.

Right??

My answer to the ask is on This one, but I wanted to get this new version out regardless because it’s very well put

#ladycatland ask #dream smp #long post #c!wilbur critical

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thatfunkyopossum · 3 years

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drawing advice nonnie here! i guess,,,specifically the faces? your clones are so lovely and expressive and mine end up looking like eldritch monsters ajksdjfkl

Well, there’s no quick thing to being able to draw well, all you can do is study and practice! Without seeing your work there’s nothing specific I can help you with (and I’m not sure I have the time or energy these days to give specific critique) but where most people struggle with faces (including myself) is Anatomy and Volume.

So here’s what I recommend for learning those.

First, your supplementary online resources are going to be https://line-of-action.com/ which you can use in lieu of an in person drawing class (i recommend class mode settings) and the youtube channel Proko. I recommend studying with the use of a large pad of cheap paper, preferably newsprint, and willow charcoal if you don’t mind the texture.

The materials are not important, but I recommend large paper for studies like this because you can really let your body get into it. It’s completely fine not to have an easel to work on, in which case you can either prop up a large pad of paper on something with the use of a board, or you can have a smaller pad of paper. Anything works better than nothing, but if you can get large cheap paper, you absolutely should.

1. Look at Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, [PDF here]

-I recommend checking this one out first. It teaches you the bare bones of drawing from observation and is absolutely invaluable to learning to see the way an artist does. The science in it is bunk, but its methods are sound.

2. Check out The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides [PDF here]

- Read the section on gesture drawing and practice it using Line-of-action, which you can set to do an endless stream of 30 second poses. I found it very helpful to do these studies in ball point pen (forces you to commit) or willow charcoal (difficult to erase and very soft), which was very freeing to me.

-The Gesture exercises can ABSOLUTELY be applied to just faces if thats what you want to draw. Faces are complicated and if that’s what you want to study, go for it. -I can’t vouch for most of the book as, tbh, i havent read it because i feel bad not committing to what the author asks of you. These specific beginning passages though on gesture and contour are very good!

3. Also get your hands on Drawing The Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis [PDF here]

I’m not going to lie to you. Andrew loomis might be one of the most boring authors in existence. I was reading his book aloud in a car once and it put my friend (who cannot sleep in vehicles!!!) to bed. His prose is boring as fuck. That said... he was an incredible artist! And may artists for decades have found his instructional books supremely helpful. I am very happy to have them on hand.

-For each section of the book, draw along with the examples. Copy Loomis’s art. Use line of action from the beginning, either for anatomy traces or from observation studies. Even in the planes of the face section, you can trace the planes over the photos either on paper held up to your computer, or directly onto the photo through use of a digital drawing program.

-Use Proko to supplement your learning with Loomis. It can be extremely helpful to get input from multiple sources, especially because IMO Loomis is honestly not the best teacher in his books, even if his methods work very well. The Anatomy and Structure videos in the Proko Facial Features playlist should be most helpful.

Please note, the sources on anatomy that I’ve provided here will only teach you how to draw the “ideal”, white face. They’re the sources that I learned from, which is why I’m recommending them to you. Which is why I want to outline right now what you SHOULD be trying to learn from these sources.

1. Underlying anatomy

Luckily, human beings from every race and national origin have the same exact bones and cartilage and fat and muscle, just in different places and attached at different points. What you are doing when you are learning anatomy, especially from biased sources, is not how the anatomy should be shaped, but rather what it is. If you get a deep understanding of anatomy, you should be able to problem solve and figure out by drawing from observation exactly what the underlying structures look like on anyone. The nose of a white person will, most likely, be pretty different from the nose of an east asian person, or a māori person, or a black person. That said, the cartilage and muscle attachments and bones are still all the same. What changes is the shapes.

2. Drawing from Observation

Honestly, learning to draw from observation is one of the most important things that an aspiring artist can learn. If you can’t draw from observation, learning will be an uphill struggle. If you can’t put aside your notions of what things should look like according to what you know, and instead start drawing them as they are, your growth as an individual artist will only ever come in switching out the symbols you use to represent different things.

As a last parting word related to that last thing: Imo, artists should not use symbols to represent reality, the way flash puppet animation does. What you should be doing, is you should be striving to understand the real, actual world, and then simplifying and streamlining and nudging it about into art. Symbol based art is, of course, still art, but its limited, and until we can break from these limits then our art can never reach its full potential. Draw as often as you can, draw with your shoulder and not your wrist or fingers if you can help it, do art warmups, and happy drawing :)

#long post

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ahysopae · 3 years

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The Gifted episode 1, or how to start introducing 15 characters without overwhelming the viewer

The Gifted first foundation are the characters: each of them is beautifully flawed. They're close enough of archetypes to give to the viewer references (it's very important to have elements to link them to another character or to yourself - 'I see myself in them' is the best and easiest way to get you to love a character), but also each one of them has their identity clearly defined. But we have 15 characters in total, and even if some of them are mostly in the background (looking at the twins right now), it was not possible to introduce all at once (luckily, because I would never remember all their names in this case). I suppose it's one of the reasons for the switch of main character between the episodes (and since I'm a sucker for this type of thing, I'm in awe).

The first episode focus on Pang (of course it's our protagonist, our Percy Jackson - maybe I should dive in this later), but also introduce us, at least in the surface, to Nac, Wave, Namtarn, Ohm and Pom and give us hints on almost all of the others. Pang is at first shown to us as a voice-over, solidifying him as the narrator, even if we realize soon that what he says is for his webcam. The bit before the opening presents him like someone charismatic and determined, a teenager speaking about something than most people know, because they live or lived it. For the sake of this analysis/words vomit I will forget the introduction of the episode, with all the teasers for what's soon to come. So the Pang we meet later see himself as dumb: we saw him as a quick-witted boy, good to play innocent, a bit impertinent, not good at test and a bit pouty when he fails - but kind, at heart. A good kid. Through him we discover the school system in all its unfairness, and even if it's shown kinda jokingly, already the horror of it start to be apparent.

Pang for this bit is our introduction to the universe of the show, because we discover the rules with him. It's a pretty common way to lead the viewer or reader in a new universe (in Star Wars, the movie starts with Luke leaving his farm and discovering something else in the galaxy, Harry Potter is literally introduced to the magical world, the hobbits in lotr leave the little Shire to travel in the rest of the Middle Earth, ...). The important part it's that we can link the two: Pang, like the Gifted program, is more that we think at first. He is mostly more dangerous, and we have some clues of that with his first use of his potential - already in the first episode, already on Nac.

Pang's existence is also the first break in the system: him being both gifted and in 8th class is a paradox, and almost everyone seems not sure what to do with him (except Pom, maybe) him the first. He believes that he hasn't his place in the gifted program, and is really insecure about that.

Nac seems at first a nice friend. He is okay too help Pang with his plans (helping him with the phone and lying for him about his class at meal) and to share his room with him. He is also favorable to the school system (clearly because he is in the good side of the fence), even if he haven't a issue to bend or break the rules for his own advantage. His mask breaks when his friend (his dumb friend, to be precise) has better than him.

Nac has two uses in the narrative: he is an opposite mirror of Wave (in words and in attitude - where Wave is prickly, Nac is charming, but both of them use the same insult, leech, on Pang about his relationship with the other) and he is a trigger to Pang's potential. In fact he is probably the one Pang controls the most in the season (I don't remember if he uses his potential two or three time on him, so don't quote me on that, I will probably realize my mistake later on).

Wave - well, Wave is Wave. The first thing we see of him is in the classroom while Pang runs with the phone he takes back (remember, I don't cover the introduction's part here, because the first thing we see of him is, in fact, a background for a second during an exam and him punching Pang). He looks extremely bored, almost sleeping on his table (in contrast with Nac, on the same line than him, who drinks the teacher's words), until Pang literally break the studious ambiance, proving again that he is here to disturb the established order. Already we know that Wave doesn't feel the need to hide when something bore him, even if he is in a social situation where he should. He comes out like not good socially, arrogant and not the type to try to please.

His first interaction with Pang is a disaster (like no Wave, it's not how you flirt make a friend), and could place him on the school's side (symbolized by the ominous Ladda) even if we realize soon enough that the only side Wave chooses is his own. It leads again to a confrontation Nac/Wave, where Wave is defined as a solitary kid, in contrast with the sociable Nac. Nac himself establishes Wave as a mathematical/computer genius who takes pride in his intelligence (and the flashback, by focusing at first on Punn, gives us an hint of him as almost as intelligent than Wave - he raises his hand almost as fast but more politely - until we realize Wave doesn't write his answer. It tells us that Punn is clever, well-mannered and hard-working, and also that his relationship with Wave will be competitive but they are linked in a way or an other).

Him reveling the meaning of potentials just after Pang understood it and seemed ready to give the answer (even if it was in fact to ask to leave), is a proof that they could form a good team -or be the worst of enemies.

For Namtarn, lets first address the elephant in the room: I don't believe one instant the "romantic" interaction between Pang and her (cut to my mum telling "if it's how men and women interact in Thailand, their birth rate must be really low"). It's worst again in contrast with Claire and Punn, who are almost glued to the hips, or the friendship between Korn and Claire or Mon, or between Namtarn and Ohm. They tried romance, I see clumsy awkward people, and I can't believe it's not voluntarily.

Aside from that, Namtarn appears like perceptive, guessing who is Pang and that he is in the gifted class, a bit curious and nice, even if socially she's not the best (and I mean, yeah, they're 15-years-olds, so it's normal, like it's normal if some of them are cocky to the extreme). It could give us some clue about the fact that she grows up pretty sheltered, but it's maybe a stretch for my part.

Ohm first phrase is for asking a pen (does someone counted how many pens Ohm loses? It will be a fun statistic). He comes as the smiley-go-lucky kind of guy, telling everything that crosses his mind, putting his feet on his mouth every time he speaks. Also for the enigma posed by Pom he clearly doesn't know the answer and only raise his hand to follow the group.

Side question but why no one give him tissues? Boy nosebleeds every two minutes.

The first we see of Pom is when Pang and Nac try to steal the exam's results. His face stay in the shadow while we discover he is in charge of the exam. I feel obligated to point that we see his face a bit more after he drops his pen, and we know how much this pen is important for the rest of the plot (I'm realizing right now that it's in fact, a Chekhov's gun) . For his first apparition before the class, he has an image of a nice teacher, asking his students to call him by his nickname. Already we can link the metronome to him, since its in the classroom (since it's shown while Ohm has a nosebleed trying to resolve the rubik's cube, we can say it's linked to the potential too, but it's maybe a stretch).

To ends that, I want to point that the first plan where we see all the gifted class, when Pang enters, gives us a lot of information about the characters and their relationships together (It also puts us in Pang's shoes). We have the group Mon-Korn-Claire-Punn: Korn smile to Mon and Claire, Claire speaks to Mon and Korn before turning her head to Punn, her body already directed to him, Punn is separated to them since he sits on his table, but his body is turned in Claire's direction too. Namtarn is ready to take note, her back straight, while Ohm is slumped on his table and looks around. When we have a plan on each of them watching Pang, Mon's face is open and curious, Korn kinda shy away, Claire is disdainful, Punn is attentive, the twins gauge him (and already they have matching band-aids and Wave rolls his eyes so hard he clearly make it voluntarily.

#the gifted #the gifted the series #the gifted rewatch #the gifted episode 1 #analysis

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harringtonstudios · 4 years

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dusky pink (II).

plot: he’s supposed to be taking you out, but things take a sharp turn left. part 1!

A/N: this has been a long time in the works i’m sorry about that! i don’t think it lives up to its potential :( i hope you guys like it lemme know how you feel :)

SMUT!!! masterlist

taglist: @iamdorka @no-shxt-sherl @bakerkells @rosegoldrichie @findingmyths @mayaslifeinabox @itjustkindahappenedreally @hnbtx @backoftheroomandnotbelonging

Walking out into the warm Californian air, you let the quietness settle in. Colson’s walked ahead of you, playing with his keys as you pass the house you’d posed in. Letting the champagne take over, you quicken your pace to meet his steps.

“Slow down daddy long legs,” you blurt out, struggling to keep up with him. He bursts out laughing, slowing down just a little. His hand reaches out and you look up at him before casually taking it.

His fingers wrap into yours and you smile at the way he squeezes your hand before saying, “There you go, happy shortie?”

Pretending to be offended, you shout, “Short? Me? You’re like 6 foot 2, man.”

He stops walking, grinning with teeth before muttering, “6 foot 4.”

You roll your eyes up at him as he lets out another laugh, happy with his own jokes. The keys in his hand click and then the car across the street lights up, flashing the dark sidewalk. You give him a look before dropping his hand to move towards the car.

“She’s pretty,” you exclaim, hands running over the cherry red exterior.

“You’re pretty,” he quips back, opening up the locks.

“Well yeah, I know that, but damn. This baby’s a thing of beauty,” you continue, opening up the passenger seat door, still in awe of the condition of the car.

“It’s a rental,” he murmurs, plugging in his keys.

A second later, the engine roars to life and you pull on your seatbelt, ready for an adventure.

Sitting in the passenger seat of Colson’s car, you quietly tapped your fingers against your thigh. The champagne had gotten to your head, the world buzzing just a little bit as he drove past the streetlights. It felt good, even better when you rolled the window down a little, wind brushing into the car.

“You good?” he asked, his own thumb tapping against the steering wheel to the beat of the music he had playing softly in the background.

“Yeah, wind feels good,” you mumbled, smiling at him. He still had the cut on his cheek, eyeshadow dusted around it. Before you could stop yourself, you reached out a finger, tracing it slowly.

“Is it real?” you asked, feeling his stubble under your fingertip. He laughed, tilting his head against your hand.

“Nah. Real cuts aren’t so clean,” he explained, stopping the car at the red light. He turned his head to look at you, sitting relaxed in his passenger seat, all attention on him. You quickly pulled your finger back, and he pouted his lip just a little.

“Bring it back, that felt good,” he said, starting up again as the light turned green. You scrunched your eyes, trying to see if he was being honest. You felt kinda silly, playing with his face like a kid.

“I’m serious,” he added in, like he was reading your mind. You laughed, reaching back up to his face, letting your fingers rest on his cheek.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked, mouth moving your hand atop his face.

You nodded before realizing he couldn’t see you while he was driving.

“Yeah,” you responded, sitting up a little straighter in the seat.

“Why’d you become a model?” he questioned, eyes flicking over to you. You pursed your lips, trying to figure out exactly how to give an answer. It wasn’t a hard question at all, but you didn’t know how much to tell Colson, not really knowing him too well.

“I kinda fell into it. I was living on a friend’s couch and instead of paying for rent, she’d have me pose for photography practice. It felt good yanno? A few years later, I ended up modeling for a clothing company, and things just snowballed after that,” you rambled, eyes gazing out the windshield. The sky was a nice midnight blue, stars dotting ever so often.

The streetlamps whizzed by as Colson drove down the freeway, one hand on the steering wheel, the other lying in between on top of the stick shift.

“Why’d you become a rapper?” you asked, eyes focused on the soft taps of his fingers against the steering wheel. He looked over at you, bit his lip before saying, “Wanted to save people. Save myself.”

The silence settled in again, deep into your bones as you let his answer wash over you.

Turning your head back towards him, you catalogued his movements. Waiting another beat, you let your fingers creep towards his, inching to get closer. Grazing your index finger over his hand, you watched the hint of a smile appear on his face.

“Mmm,” he mumbled out, turning his palm fully to meet yours. Bringing it up to his face, he dropped a kiss on your joined hands before throwing you a look.

Licking your lips, the words fell out of your mouth before you could stop them, “Keep looking at me like that and I’ll cancel our plans for the rest of the night.”

Giving you a look of confusion, Colson paused at the red light. “Whaddya mean?” he asks, the red highlighting the angles of his face.

Looking down a little out of a sudden bout of embarrassment, you mumbled, “Uhm, like, if you look at me like that again, I’m gonna, you know, wanna do things with you.”

“Oh yeah? What kinda things?” he egged on, eyes moving back to the road as the light switched to green.

“You know,” you mutter, catching his little snort.

“Nope. Tell me,” he pushes, tongue darting out to the side of his mouth.

“I wanna fuck you,” you spit out, exasperated as he starts laughing at the wheel.

“God Y/N. You don’t know how badly I’ve wanted to get up all on you today,” he murmurs out a second later, shifting to focus on you.

“Why don’t you now?” you eagerly ask, moving in your seat.

“Cause I’m supposed to be taking you out on a nice date,” he mutters, squeezing your fingers.

You hesitate for a second and then you’re smiling as you exclaim, “Fuck the date. I kinda want you in me right about now.”

“Is that so?” he questions, eyebrows raising up.

“Colson,” you softly let out, looking up straight at him.

“You serious?” he breathes out, and you nod, mind filling with thoughts about what you wanna do to him.

“How bad do you want me right now?” he asks, voice deeper than before.

“Scale of one to ten, a solid 20. You’ve been driving me crazy all day. I haven’t felt tension like that in a while,” you mumble, swinging your joined hands slightly.

“Alright,” is all you get before the car suddenly swerves into a sharp turn. There’s a “hold on,” muttered and then you’re turning left onto a side road, houses lining the streets.

The neighborhood is quiet, dark with a couple of street lamps flickering. Parked cars fill up the road and you spot a family eating dinner through one of the windows as Colson’s car creeps through the street.

“What’re we doing here?” you whisper out.

“Gimme a sec,” Colson whispers back before speeding up a little. Getting to the corner of the street, he stops. There’s a fire extinguisher and then right behind it, an empty parking spot.

Winking at you, Colson throws his arm behind you, grabbing onto the headrest. Reversing the car, he backs up into the parking space before cutting off the engine.

“I am not having sex in this car,” you blurt out, brain connecting the dots.

Colson smirks at you, unbuckling his seat belt. You glare at him for a second before moving out of your own seat. Awkwardly climbing over the front console, you dump yourself into his lap, arms wrapping over his shoulders.

There’s a pause and then he’s settling you in, pulling you closer. His hands find home on your hips, gripping at your skin there. You widen your legs trying to get into a more comfortable position as he leans in.

There’s a kiss, then two, and then you’re pressing into his lap against the bulge growing in his pants.

“Fuck. You’re a good kisser,” he mumbles out, in between the slow heat of your mouths. You grin, just a little.

Pulling at the corner of his shirt, you tug it up a little, encouraging him to take it over. He does, and you grin before tossing it in the back.

Feeling him grow completely hard against you, you start moving in his lap. Grinding forward against the heat of his dick, you let out a moan at the slight friction.

Taking in your moan, Colson breaks off the kisses, leaning in to drop his mouth to your neck. Nuzzling it slightly, he trails kisses up to your jawline as you continue to slowly move against the pressure.

“Take your pants off,” you slowly pant out as he lavishes your neck with open mouth kisses.

“Ask me nicely,” he mumbles, teeth tugging slightly at your ear.

“Pants. Please,” you tack on, as his fingers start moving up your back, pressing your further into him.

Moving off of him, you hover, pulling off your own pants as Colson shrugs down his jeans. He pushes the driver’s seat back to give you both enough space. You laugh just a little at the thump it makes once the seat falls down.

Bringing yourself back down, you sit on his bare thighs. Hands against his chest, pushing him back down.

“Y/N wait,” he exclaims as you lean down to kiss him again.

“Yeah?” you ask, suddenly feeling a little self conscious. It’s not like Colson hasn’t been posing with your half naked body all day, but this is different and you feel the nerves start to build up in your tummy.

“Did you hear anything I just said?” he repeats, hands rising up to run through his hair.

“No,” you admit, moving up almost off of him.

“I just wanted to grab the condoms before we forget,” he responds, getting up once your palms move off of his chest.

“Oh yeah,” you respond, watching him reach over you to the glovebox. Pulling on it, he opens it up, sticking in a hand to feel around.

“Fuck. I knew they were in here somewhere,” he starts, just as you say, “Here lemme look.”

Both of you move in at the same time, blindly searching for the strip of condoms.

“Here!” he shouts, raising his head the exact moment you bring yours up. Both your foreheads bump into each other and you recoil slightly as he pushes an arm out to steady you.

“Maybe this wasn’t the best idea,” he laughs as you rub on the spot where his head hit yours.

Pouting a little, you move down, kissing him softly, murmuring, “This is the best idea you’ve had all day.”

Bringing a hand up to his cheek, you stroke the little scruff he has as you start grinding on him again, only thing separating the two of you some underwear.

Slyly taking the condoms out of his hand, you rip one off of the pack. Leaning back, you open it up as Colson lifts his hips, pulling at his boxers.

Rolling the condom onto his dick, you kiss the side of his neck, whispering in his ear, “I’m so wet.”

He bites at your bottom lip as he moves his hand, pulling away your underwear, dipping his fingers in. Feeling the slickness, he brings them to your mouth. You let the tip of your tongue lick his finger, just as you seat yourself down slowly onto his dick.

Letting out a soft gasp, you move just a little trying to feel him out. Colson’s hands travel up your shirt, fingers catching on the pink lacy bra you’d stolen off of set.

“You took this?” he mutters out, tracing the outline of the bra, palm resting on your bare skin.

“Mmhm,” you reply, leaning down to give him another kiss as you slowly move on his dick.

Dropping his hands to your bare hips, he pulls you forward, setting the beat of your bodies in motion to a faster pace.

Soft moans filled up the air, falling out of both of your mouths as your hips follow his in pursuit. You can feel the pressure start to build in your core, and you hold Colson down, hands firmly pressing into his chest.

A few seconds more and then the electricity pulses through you as he tightens his grip on your waist. Hips stuttering, you hear his heavy breath followed by mumbled curses.

Moving back a little, you take in a deep breath. Rolling off of him, you fix your underwear and pull your pants back on. He’s all laid back on the seat, watching you.

As you plop into the passenger seat, legs feeling weak, you laugh at the fogged up windows. Turning to the side to draw a smiley face, you turn back to see Colson’s jeans on, seat up righted. His shirt’s still thrown somewhere in the backseats, and you take a few seconds to admire his tattooed torso in the dark.

“Here,” he mumbles reaching over to the glovebox again. Pulling out a pack of baby wipes, he takes out a couple before tossing it over to you.

“Thanks,” you respond softly, watching him run a cool wipe over his slightly sweaty face. Leaning in, he gives you another kiss, before bringing the wipe he was just using to your cheeks.

“Colson,” you squeal, nudging him with your hands to push him back.

“Y/N!” he mocks back, hands running along back to the steering wheel. Turning on the engine, he pulls smoothly out of the parking space as you gather your hair up into a ponytail.

“Where to?” he asks, hand scratching at his chest.

You wait a minute, thinking it through in your head before saying, “Back to the hotel?”

He throws you a slight look and you protest, “I’m exhausted. And we still have to shoot tomorrow. Early.”

There’s a nod, a small smile and then you’re cruising down the quiet streets again, heart settling as you come to terms with what just happened. It’s a sharp realization: you’ve fucked this up.

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sevensoulmates · 4 years

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If buddie did happen, how do you think bobby would react?(ie capatain bobby or more dad bobby.. dont hurt my son)

WHEW! Okay...so it’s pretty common knowledge that everyone has a “Bobby Knows” tag because he tends to always be the main character the camera either pans/cuts to to see his reaction to how Buck and Eddie interact. Do I actually believe that “Bobby knows” in the sense that he knows the two are into each other romantically? It’s debatable. I think that Bobby knows that there is SOMETHING there between the two. He’s seen something in the two of them since day 1. He knows that what they have goes beyond just work partners, and beyond being simple friends. He knows that what Eddie and Buck have is something incredibly unique to them. Does he know if it could be romantic? Unsure. He could suspect but might think that it’s unlikely given both boys stubborn and idiotic nature.

I think the strongest contender moment that Bobby might’ve been clued in on the true nature of Buck’s feelings for Eddie would’ve been in Eddie Begins. Not exactly the moment after when he, Chim and Hen are trying to convince Buck that they’re not going to give up and search for Eddie, but during the moment after Buck saves Bobby’s life and then has a full on break down in the mud and rain over Eddie being buried. I think the fact that Bobby had to physically pull Buck back, had to haul him down to the ground and comfort the man while he sobbed in his arms. I think there’s no way Bobby wasn’t reminded of himself in that moment. How he felt at the worst moments of his life when his family died. I think that was the moment it was solidified that Buck has stronger feelings for Eddie than Bobby may have realized.

Because of this, I think if Bobby were to find out that Buck and Eddie were a thing in the show, he would probably be surprised. He might’ve thought that neither of them would ever realize or admit. Or maybe even he thought the two of them would be so set in their heterosexual mindsets that they would never even consider the idea that they might be in love with each other. But I think internally he likely would’ve seen it coming. It’s impossible after that episode Buck pulled in Eddie Begins.

That’s my analysis on Bobby the adoptive father who loves those idiots like sons.

But Bobby the fire captain? Oh hO HO. I think it’s very telling the fact that Bobby DID NOT reprimand Buck for his actions when Eddie was buried. That was not only a blatant lack of professionalism on Buck’s part, but speaks to Buck’s larger issues of letting his emotions control him. It’s Buck’s huge professional “flaw”, and a lesson that Bobby and the show has been trying to teach him since day 1. Sure Buck’s actions didn’t endanger anyone, but it’s showing a lack of professionalism IN UNIFORM (which we know Bobby takes seriously) and it’s while they’re surrounded by reporters who could’ve taped everything. And it’s happening when every moment is essential to rescue Eddie and they shouldn’t be “wasting time” by Buck having an emotional breakdown and Bobby needing to comfort him. By all means, if Bobby was an objective fire captain, he could’ve gotten Buck seriously in trouble for this. Hell, he could’ve said “hey, the way you acted was extremely unprofessional out there and it makes me question your relationship with Firefighter Diaz. If whatever feelings you may harbor for Firefighter Diaz will continue to put you in an emotionally compromising position while on duty, we may have to look into switching your rotations and/or switching you to a different firehouse.”

After all, the reason Bobby didn’t recommend Buck come back to work after the pulmonary embolism is because “he’s responsible for nearly 30 other firefighters and we can’t risk their lives by having you be physically compromised on the field”. And yet, Bobby doesn’t reprimand him AT ALL for being emotionally compromised during Eddie Begins. And I think that is PURELY because he empathized with how Buck felt in that moment, and knows that when your person is on the verge of dying, you will do whatever you can to try and save them. And also because Bobby loves Buck like a son, and it probably broke his heart to see how broken Buck became at the thought of losing Eddie.

Bobby likes to play this game where he pretends he always puts his captain duties above his emotional connections to his firefighters and yet we spend the whole show showing how Bobby actually tends to let his love for his family influence decisions he makes as captain. Bobby can be extremely biased (he expects way more out of Buck and lets Buck get away with a lot less than everyone else because he loves Buck and wants him to be a better firefighter for his own sake). We already know that Bobby sees himself in Buck and that’s why he pushes him so hard to “grow out” of his reckless ways.

So how will he react to the news of Buck and Eddie being officially together? I think it would be an extreme internal battle for him. Because in one way, in his dad way, he’s happy that his sons are happy. But in another way, he has a duty as fire captain to ascertain whether them being together will pose a threat to the lives of the other firefighters he manages. Buck and Eddie who BOTH already have a reputation of easily putting themselves in dangerous situations to save people (most of the time people they don’t even know or have any personal connection with whatsoever). So imagine the lengths they would go to if something happened to one of them. Bobby has already seen how Buck reacted to possibly losing Eddie (BEFORE anything romantic developed). He knows that that feeling would only be intensified now that they’ve officially acknowledged that the love they have for each other is beyond that of friendship or work camaraderie. And they have a son between them as well which adds yet another layer of complications. Now Bobby has to make a decision, does he act like a captain and split them apart professionally (which we already know will cause a SHIT TON of conflict with Buck since he already fears losing his 118 family) or does he act like a father and place his personal trust in them over his duties as captain, and let them be together in the same shifts in the same fire house.

How will his choices effect the rest of his team, and effect his place as captain? Would allowing them to continue as they are actually put others in danger? How will Buck and Eddie learn to control their impulsive decisions on the clock? Will allowing them to remain together mean Bobby risks his own job for unprofessionalism? Or on the other hand, will splitting them up drive Buck further away from him? Will it make Buck resent Bobby even more for never having any trust in Buck? For always thinking Buck is a screw up who can’t make objective decisions? Will they risk fracturing their already fragile relationship even more after the lawsuit?

There are so many potential ramifications, and I think it would be an AMAZING plotline to explore on screen.

#buddie #bobby nash #911 fox #buck x eddie #i would like to see it #Anonymous

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herbal-apparatus · 3 years

Text

OK im gonna expand on that last text post now that my computer is up and running lets GOOOOO

first of all fuckign point one. so the hand in game is usually open when not being used, and when you click/use the hand, it closes. neat! but also, did you know that there’s a (potentially) unused sprite where the hand is pointing?

(pictured: AssetStudioGUI is open with a list of textures off to the left. On the right is a picture of a hand pointing with the pointer finger and thumb out)

now i say potentially unused because i simply don’t recall it BEING used. though i could see it being used for either the jukebox, elevator buttons or button game and i simply just don’t remember it (lemme know if im wrong on this!). there’s also a gloved version:

(pictured: the same pose of hand but with the falconer’s glove on it)

now, slightly associated with that, there’s another sprite of the hand i don’t remember seeing in game: one where there is a Hummingbird in its palm.

(pictured: ASGUI again with the same list, but now the picture is of the gloved hand gently holding what looks to be a hummingbird)

i would think that this may be something related to borbra hence the glove and bird, perhaps a tutorial or previous quest related thing for her. or maybe it IS used and i just havent seen it! who knows. if youve seen it please lmk i want to know about the bird Q_Q (also to note: the bird has its own texture which i mean, i could post that too, but this already has a few pictures and i wanna go over other things too, so to save length im gonna skip it)

going onto more unrelated stuff, something that makes sense but is still interesting is the internal names for the slideshow room on the terrace. the slideshow room is referred to as CursedRoom, identifiable by its outside UV texture:

(pictured: ASGUI with a new list. The selected texture is called UV-CursedRoomOutside, and the texture shows, assumingly, the outside of a simple room. On one of the sections of the texture, the shadow habit with multiple eyes and triangles is seen, which in game is shown on the back of the outside of the slideshow room. This identifies that CursedRoom is, in fact, the slideshow room.)

which, the name makes sense honestly. related, those listings of “trauma00″ through “trauma07″ are the pictures inside the slideshow:

(pictured: ASGUI, same list as the previous picture. “trauma01″ is selected, showing the picture of boris as a child, happy and holding his potted lily.)

so, in case anyone DIDNT think it was traumatic, the files sure seem to assert that that whole situation was. (ive heard that in the past people debated on stuff like that...??? i dunno, and i sure HOPE not, but. i’d think it was pretty obvious that this was a Very Bad Event that could Definitely Cause Trauma, but i digress)

my original post about this stuff goes on to talk about audio/video segmenting, but im gonna focus on some audio stuff in general. first of all, it’s interesting to note a few things about the music. while i cant show you what the audio sounds like for obv reasons, i can show you something with the names!

(pictured: a segment of a list from ASGUI, listing a few AudioClip files)

from here, we can see three things: one, dr. habit’s theme and the apartments music have a specific “intro” audio, separate from the main songs. this is likely for looping purposes, i’d think. (also habit’s theme is a “fight”????? it definitely SOUNDS like one but i wouldnt consider the event itself a fight, lol) also, something interesting to note is the listing at the top: “falling asleep ambience 1″. there are no other ambiences (i.e. no 2 or 3), so it does seem to imply that others were going to be considered, maybe switched out for different purposes? not sure, but as someone who gets a little spooked by the sounds, it makes me go 8);;;

some other interesting audios include the following (IDs/names of each AudioClip in parenthesis below each picture)

(horror_splat_with_juicy_squish, which seems to be the sound used when you put the mask on putunia. this one’s more interesting due to the name)

(dish_breaking, which i think seems to go unused?? it sounds like, predictably, a ceramic(?) plate breaking)

and my personal favorite

(bees, which ... sounds like... a child sneezing????? this one also seems to go unused)

yeah i dont get that last one. DJKBGSDKFGJNDS

anyways long post is long, but here’s some more stuff for yall in better detail! i hope u like it! i might make another one soon but i wanna go back to focusing on getting the lines finished. maybe ill post about unused/alternate lines after i get it done :D (for example, there seems to be a line that isnt used/was replaced by another line where lulia mentions that she has, specifically, “87 TV appearences to schedule”! what a busy gal)

#s4m #lilly breaks shit #im really excited about the lines post already hehedfgjhdkf #smile for me #smile for me game

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chen20200805 · 3 years

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Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

In the previous issues of Amazon's title enlightenment, the importance of private domain traffic in cross-border e-commerce business has been popularized, the role and value of "brands" for cross-border e-commerce, and why independent sites are cross-border growth The second curve. All kinds of data and trends show that the layout of independent stations is now an excellent time.

Since the reason is good, it is better to act directly! In this issue, I will talk to you about a practical topic. What exactly do Amazon sellers need to do when they switch to independent stations?

Amazon transfers to an independent station, first from the concept

From Amazon to independent stations, sellers may not be as big as they imagined. Many Amazon sellers have accumulated mature supply chain resources, have their own on-site operation team, and have in-depth understanding of the commercial situation of a certain vertical product target market. These are extremely valuable experiences and will also play an important role in the process of building independent stations.

However, there are also differences in the operation of platforms and independent stations. If you take platform thinking for granted, it is naturally difficult to succeed.

The world view determines the methodology. Let's first talk about how the concept should change if we want to cultivate the fertile soil of Independence Station.

Part → Global. The strong autonomy of independent stations means that each link needs to be grasped by itself. Shop decoration style, shopping process settings, product details page content, payment channels, logistics method selection... independent station sellers are required to start from the overall situation to plan the path for consumers to enter the independent station, as well as the complete shopping process carried out in the station. Overall planning, while optimizing the consumer experience, control costs and obtain higher returns.

Product → brand. According to marketing scientist David Ike, a brand can become an asset of a company. Out of trust in the brand, consumers will be less sensitive to prices, reduce the time for purchasing decisions, and become more sticky to the brand. The characteristic of independent stations is to encourage merchants to build their own brands, use brand power to break through the endless price wars between cross-border e-commerce, and build their own strong competitiveness.

Short-term detonation → long-term development. Compared with the platform, independent station is a longer-term business. The long-term can be understood from two aspects. First, compared to third-party platforms with built-in traffic, independent stations need to undergo a "cold start" process and continue to invest in a long-term perspective. Second, compared to the platform, the traffic introduced by independent stations can be accumulated for a long time. After converting consumers into their own private domain traffic, and further retention, conversion and value mining, it will show longer-term value and form Constantly updated flow closed loop. Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

After the concept is established, what preparation do sellers who want to get involved in independent stations need to make? Let’s first look at the difference between Amazon and independent stations.

Taking a physical store as an analogy, Amazon is like a supermarket. Sellers are suppliers. They need to pay entry fees and shelf fees to sell their products on supermarket shelves. At the same time, they plan promotional activities under the guidance and restrictions of supermarkets, which are mainly attracted Consumers who have entered the supermarket. The independent station is more like a branded store, you need to choose your own location to open a store, decorate, and you can freely organize various marketing activities to attract all potential consumers.

Therefore, we can extract the two biggest differences between independent stations and third-party platforms-the need to build their own stations and divert traffic. And this is exactly what Amazon sellers need to pay attention to when transferring to independent sites.

Station building tools-the cornerstone of independent stations

1. Selection of site building tools

There are currently three main ways to build an independent station:

1) Form your own team to develop the website;

2) Use open source programs such as WordPress, Magento, and Opencart to build;

3) Use the SaaS system to build a website.

The first two methods have certain technical thresholds and require a dedicated team for development and later operation and maintenance, which is costly for ordinary sellers. In the event of a surge in traffic during peak seasons, self-maintained systems are prone to servers that cannot withstand the traffic, causing serious losses.

The SaaS site building tool has already completed the complex underlying construction work in advance, and does not require the seller to have a code foundation, which greatly reduces the threshold for independent site building. When sellers use it, they only need to simply set up modules such as commodities, store decoration, and marketing methods according to their own needs, which is more suitable for platform sellers to transform into independent stations.

Even if there is a need for further upgrades in the future, the SaaS tool can automatically access the code without affecting the autonomy of the seller. It is a way to build a website that is both customizable and templated.

2. The key steps of SaaS website construction

Next, we will show how convenient it is to build a website using SaaS from a few important steps in building a website.

Products on the shelves: Sellers who transfer from Amazon to independent sites will definitely worry about this problem. How to transfer huge product data is actually not complicated to complete.

One-click batch import via CSV form

Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

Use the plug-in "Skuowner" to grab products through plug-ins and URL links.

Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

Shop decoration: The shop backstage is equipped with 30+ free theme templates, no additional art design and code writing are required, and you can directly enjoy best practices.

The editing page adopts the card decoration mode, and modules of different styles and functions can be added, dragged and deleted at will.

Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

In addition, the corresponding holiday styles will also be launched during the shopping seasons for overseas consumers such as Halloween and Christmas. Merchants do not need to set up step by step, and can complete the change with one-click application.

Marketing promotion: The independent station backstage application market (Apps) is equipped with dozens of plug-ins, such as style combinations, bundled sales, coupons, pop-up windows, etc., to easily realize the various marketing needs of businesses, and a professional technical team is responsible for maintaining and developing more functions .

Amazon title enlightenment: Amazon sellers turn to stand-alone action guide

Drainage-the way of survival for independent stations

The independent station is "independent" precisely because it does not belong to any platform. Therefore, a pure independent station has almost no natural traffic. How to divert traffic has become an important homework for independent station sellers.

1. Traffic source

There are five common traffic sources for independent sites: Direct direct traffic, Search search traffic, Referral referral traffic, Social social traffic, and EDM email marketing. Compared with third-party platforms, there are more sources of traffic, and each channel has different forms of traffic flow.

2. Drainage method

Independent sites have a wide source of traffic, but they also pose challenges for cross-border sellers: how should they plan their limited energy and money to obtain the highest drainage benefits?

It should be noted that the drainage style has never been a template that can be fully borrowed from. All drainage work is planned according to the goals and requirements of different stages and the current cost that can be paid by itself. In terms of specific drainage methods, it can also be selected according to the types of goods sold and the needs of specific marketing activities.

Here are three methodologies from a macro perspective.

First, attach importance to materials.

Materials are an indispensable part of any drainage method. Common types of materials include products, models, usage scenarios, celebrities, evaluations, and so on.

The rise of short video content in the past two years has not only brought about a wave of current social media enthusiasm, but also demonstrated the "detonating power" of the content material itself. High-quality content marketing can trigger self-propagation by users of social platforms, and it is easier to achieve conversion. Some cross-border platform sellers used to have the concept of “emphasis on channels and light on content” in terms of attracting traffic. In fact, it takes two legs to walk. Channels and content cooperate with each other to move faster.

Second, adjust the strategy according to the timing.

The drainage strategy cannot be set in stone, nor should it be a blind attempt by the East and the West. Even if it is for the same platform, the drainage measures should be adjusted in time at different stages of development.

Take Facebook ads as an example. If users and material resources are abundant, you can directly place conversion ads; if there are few materials, you can focus on the homepage likes and attract attention in the early stage, accumulate the number of users first, and pave the way for subsequent conversions; and finally target the early pull Place remarketing ads for new and uncompleted conversions.

Third, analyze and review the market in a timely manner.

Almost all sellers will care about the results after the cost of drainage is invested. But in addition to the results, what is more important is to refine and analyze the nodes of each step of the transformation.

The backend of the independent station is connected to analysis tools such as Facebook Pixel, which can obtain data such as which pages have been viewed the most, how many people have placed orders in the shopping cart, and who have placed orders on the page but have not paid, etc., helping businesses to obtain more accurate audiences The group and the direction that consumers are interested in, so as to improve the construction and operation of independent stations, and optimize the consumer experience.

Conclusion: The vigorous platform "Title Tide" may only be a fuse. More importantly, such incidents are also leading sellers to think about whether changing platform rules will hinder their own development as the business develops and should they begin to form their own brand? The layout of independent stations is undoubtedly stepping into one The new track, but it does not mean that it is an unknown and thrilling jump for Amazon sellers. Rather than hesitating, it is better to seize development opportunities and open up the second curve of revenue growth!

ferrite sheet:https://www.goodsmaterial.com

#ferrite sheet

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pengy-pop · 4 years

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Unfinished Writing #1: Bederia

Context for this piece was to be mostly a headcanon romp and to show of what the dynamic of my own interpretation of adult years Bederia would be like. It got to be too long and had not much happening in it, and When I realised I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go with it; I got unfortunately bored of it rather quickly.

But, I hope you’re maybe able to find something interesting in here, anyway!

enjoy!

Gloria was having a bad day.

It started the moment she woke up that morning to find that her boltund had gotten into her pokefood supplies at some point during the night and, after gorging themselves on around a quarter of the giant bag of food meant to feed six pokemon for 5 weeks; had then proceeded to regurgitate it all up in her bathroom and was forced to clean it up and make sure the criminal boltund was alright at around six o’clock in the morning. She dropped her shower head on her foot while taking her morning shower and slipped and fell on the tiles while picking it up, and she knew she was going to be seeing a nasty bruise somewhere on her body later because of it.

Then, as she was preparing her breakfast; she found out the weather forcasted for rain and thunderstorms; on the day she was supposed to be meeting up with her friends for a long-awaited lunch they’d been planning at one of their regular spots. She accidentally burnt her toast while thinking about it, and dropped an egg on the floor while she was trying to cook two.

Then, she had gotten the call from Hop.

“Uh, so, me and Marnie won’t be able to make it to lunch today.” Hop’s voice was hesitant, fast, and apologetic; and Gloria swallowed thickly as she heard loud noises in the background of the call.

“How come? Did something happen?” There was a stern female voice in the background, followed by a loud crash, and Gloria winced.

Morpeko must be having another outburst.

“Yeahhh, you could say that, mate. Just-uh-I’m really sorry, Gloria, If we can get this solved quickly I can-”

“No, no, it’s okay! It sounds like theres a lot happening there. Did you two…Need any extra help?” She chewed her bottom lip, anxiously. Hop’s answer was immediate.

“No! No, it’s alright! You just go on ahead without us! Tell, uh—Tell Bede we said hey; and—oh, right—ask him if he’s planning on RSVP’ing anytime soon, we need to finalise our numbers.” Gloria nodded, before realising Hop wouldn’t be able to see her answer.

“Sure; and you’re absolutely sure you guys don’t need any help?” A hiss was heard.

“Positive, Gloria. Besides, you know how annoying Bede gets when plans change suddenly. I gotta go, but i’ll call you later, okay?”

“Alright, good luck calming Morpeko.” Hop snorted on the other line, and she could practically hear the grin in his voice.

“Thanks, mate! Catch you later! Sorry again!” As soon as he hung up; Gloria felt her stomach twist with a sick emotion she’d found herself becoming all-too-familiar with lately, and, with a defeated sigh, she collapsed back onto her couch, mindlessely flicking on the tv for white noise.

Gloria prayed that the rest of her day wasn’t as awful as her morning was.

—————————

The rest of the day wasn’t much better.

After later sending Bede a message of the change of plans; she stepped in a large puddle almost as soon as she exited her apartment complex, splashing water over herself, leaving her legs cold and wet as she made her way to the cafe. She shook off her umbrella, stepping inside, and was greeted by a waiter and an indeedee; who escorted her to a booth seat after she gave them her reservation name.

A booth meant to fit four people.

With a heavy sigh, Gloria all but collapsed down onto the seat, letting her head fall back against the cushioned seat. As she turned her head to look out to the rainy street, unsurprisingly bustling despite the rain. While normally Gloria would be eager to see her friends, she was, instead, thankful that Bede wasn’t there yet.

It wasn’t because she hated Bede though, or anything of the sort, really. In fact; her problem wasn’t that she wanted to be away from him; it was that whenever she was around him, she wanted him alarmingly close. It was something she could handle if they were surrounded by others, usually; since there were others to distract her; but when it was just the two of them, alone, it became much more troublesome. She’d become hyper-aware of his presence at all times, any time he’d look her in the eyes or say her name she would find herself heating up, stomach would fill with butterflies, her fingers would twitch and frequently find she wanted to shove herself into his personal space. Wanted to grab his face in her hands and Do something.

She wasn’t sure what, exactly, she would even do, though. Pinch his cheeks, maybe? contort his mouth into an awkward smile like she used to do when they were kids?

….Kiss him?

Gloria exhaled, closing her eyes. There had come a certain point in Gloria’s life where she had to admit to herself that, yes, she did have a crush on Bede. It had just hit her one day, when they were talking together during a camping trip with Hop and Marnie. the latter were off cooking while her and Bede had sat together, playing with their pokemon and idly debating over something. It was a little heated, sure, but most of their conversations were; and they were having fun, nonetheless. Mid-debate; Gloria’s boltund had bounded up to Bede with a happy huff and plopped themselves down right on his lap, bringing a pause to their conversation as Bede looked down at the dog, then Gloria, with an expression halfway between bewildermant and offense. She had laughed, and he had let out an indignant huff; before he relaxed and, surprising her, he reached down to scratch behind the dog’s ears. And she wasn’t sure what exactly it was; but all to quickly, her world had come crashing down on top of her and all that was left in her brain as she watched her boltund melt into Bede’s touch and he, in turn, let out a sound; a gentle, amused sigh; his face soft in a way she’d only ever seen a few rare times; was four words.

“Oh. I like him.”

And; well, really, it had all just been downhill from there for Gloria. Her fondness for him only grew; and Slowly, over the years, he’d been letting her in more and more, letting her see far beyond what was on the surface.

She found him endearing; despite everything. Deeply flawed, but endearing nonetheless. However, she wasn’t sure where to even begin when it came to approaching Bede about the subject. He had never expressed much desire or interest in pursuing any sort of romantic relationship. At least, none that she herself had ever seen. And Bede was, to put it simply, a very private and closed-off person, and much like a stray cat; one wrong move and he’d be spooked off; potentially forever; and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

But, oh did she want to love him so badly. There was so much she wanted. She wanted to talk and laugh with Bede, hold his hand in hers; hug him and not be shoved unceremoniously off him, she wanted to kiss him all over his face and instead of him grimacing, she wanted him to smile and kiss her back. She’d like to spend the night with him, eating dinner with him, having those conversations with him that always somehow seemed to devolve into semi-heated debates because their differing ideas until they both inevitably passed out together.

Gloria was so deep in her pining for Bede that it was frustrating her now; because as much as she just wanted to blurt out how she felt, she knew that it would lead to nothing good. She’d always made the mistake of running her mouth; hell, she STILL frequently made that mistake, but this was the one thing she wasn’t completely willing to let fall apart in front of her. No, she’d come too far with Bede at this point and she outright refused to lose his friendship. So for once in her life; she would bite down on her tongue.

Because she’s not quite sure she could handle losing Bede from her life; no matter how frustrating it was for her to swallow how much she felt for him.

There was a noise, and she felt something on her shoulder, shaking her. Gloria eyes snapped open, her vision blurry for a few moments as they readjusted to the light flooding in again as she looked around, confused.

How long had she been zoning out? Had she fallen asleep?

“Ah, there you are. Rather unwise of you to fall asleep in a public place like this, Gloria.” Gloria’s eyes fell on Bede, standing beside her booth, shiny spritzee hovering around him out of the corner of her eye as she caught the last moments of him removing his hand from her shoulder, and she stared dumbly up at him for a few seconds.

Oh. Bede was here now.

“You’re here.” Bede scoffed, shaking his head as he took his seat across from her in the booth.

“Astute observation.” His eyes fell on her for a brief moment as he reached for the menu that sat in front of him. “I apologise for my being tardy. the weather caused some delays.”

“You were late?” She scrambled for her rotom phone; and, sure enough, he was about fifteen minutes late. “Oh. It’s okay. I didn’t even notice.”

“Of course you didn’t; you were passed out. I doubt you even received my message.” Gloria switched to her messaging app. Oh. He had left her a message earlier, stating that he may be arriving late.

“Ah. Oops.” Bede hummed non-committedly in return, looking over the menu; his left hand over his mouth in that stupidly endearing thoughtful pose of his.

“I take you haven’t even ordered yet?” Gloria realised she hadn’t even picked up the menu herself yet, and she fumbled to do so, her face feeling familarly warm and her palms beginning to sweat.

“Nope. Was waiting for you.” It didn’t take her long to decide on what she wanted; and Bede didn’t respond; so she instead took that time to look at Bede across from her as his focus lay on his own menu.

There was something different…

She squinted, leaning forward a bit. There was definitely something different about him. Bede took notice of her expression, lilac eyes flicking up to her, confusion knitted his features.

“What on earth are you staring at—”

“—Did you get a haircut?” Bede’s eyes widened a little, and Gloria knew she’d hit the nail on the head. She leaned back again into her chair, smiling. Truthfully, it wasn’t a big change. She had just noticed that he had gotten his curls trimmed a little on the nape of his neck. But it looked nice on him, regardless.

“I…yes, I did, actually.” His eyes flicked away from her, and Gloria’s smile grew wider. “I’m rather surprised you noticed, actually. You’re the first one to do so today.”

“‘Course I noticed! Looks good; looks handsome!” Bede’s face snapped immediately snapped back to look at hers, his eyes wide and shocked; and Gloria would have slapped herself right then if she could have.

“—For, uh, you know! It’s—uh, appropriate! Like—like Ballonlea’s gym leader ‘ought look good, right? Opal always used to say presentation was important, yeah?” She fumbled through her words, and she could feel the eyes of both Bede and his spritzee on her. His Spritzee, in particular, hovered over her, her bright yellow eyes staring straight through her. “I…I just think you look…nice…” Her words peetered out pathetically as she sunk a little into her seat. Bede’s gaze upon her was incredulous; and she would have normally delighted in the way his pale cheeks were flushed red if she wasn’t so embarrassed herself. After what felt like a century; Bede finally looked away from her, clearing his throat awkawrdly.

“…Right. Well; shall we order?” Gloria nodded fervently as she lifted her hand to hail down a waiter. As the two ordered their food and drinks, Bede went off on a tangent about his most recent auditions at Ballonlea, and Gloria sat and listened to his every haughty, smug word, thankful that he hadn’t chosen to comment further on her earlier stumble.

———————

It was halfway through her meal, and after she’d taken a much-too-large bite of her sandwich, that Gloria remembered what Hop had asked of her that morning. Her cheeks too stuffed to say anything, Gloria instead waved her hand in front of Bede’s face to get his attention.

“Mmf—Hey, Bede—”

“Chew and swallow before speaking, Gloria; you’re not a toddler.” He scrunched up his nose in that cute way he always did as he looked at her with mild disgust. Gloria rolled her eyes; but did take a moment longer to actually chew and swallow her mouthful. With and exhale, she quickly took a gulp of her drink, ignoring the sigh of disappointment that Bede, and finally turned back up to look at him again.

“Hop wanted to know if you were gonna RSVP for the wedding or not.” The mention of the wedding caused Bede to tense, and he carefully put down his utensils.

“I…Haven’t yet made a decision.”

“Why not? S’not like you’re the one getting married.”

“Yes, but Gloria what you don’t understand is that I do not particularly want to attend their wedding.”

“Why? They’re our friends; we should be there on their big day.” Bede opened his mouth to say something, but Gloria continued. “—And they ARE both of our friends, we are PAST trying to deny this.” Bede closed his mouth again with a sigh. “—So theres really no reason for you to have put it off for so long.”

#Pengy Squawks #Pengy Writes #Bederia #dressedinpinkshipping #unfinished works

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suf-lives-rent-free · 3 years

Text

Fragments

Everything below is just my opinion; I am in no way trying to say that how I feel about this is the one correct take or whatever.

I know a lot of people like this episode and what happens in it, but I don’t. I totally understand that some people just don’t want to see any negativity, period, but negativity is not inherently bad or wrong.

Negative opinions, even about something you enjoy, can be valid too - regardless of whether you happen to agree with them or not.

Also I get very salty near the end of this, and that might be entertaining to people who stan this episode?

I am aware that a lot of people – the majority, I’m pretty sure – think that the episode is a masterpiece. And on some level, I see where they’re coming from with that assessment.

The episode is boarded beautifully, the backgrounds – especially during the training montage – are stunning as always. The music is fantastic, and the performances are great too. In these respects, Fragments is a stand-out episode; I agree.

(Like look at this. Gorgeous.)

However, something that’s bothered me since I saw the episode is the writers’ decision to write it into the story that Steven shatters Jasper.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: I just don’t get it. I’m purposefully misinterpreting the story to say it’s bad. Steven brings her back to life; and it’s not like he meant to do it in the first place. I just don’t have the capacity to understand the sublime nature of the show’s storytelling. I’m an SU crit and all I want to do is make the real fans feel about themselves for liking it.

Uhhhh... no. Nah. That ain’t it chief.

It’s true; I am not a writer. I’m just a passive consumer of media. However, I do not agree with the viewpoint that in order to properly understand or critique a thing you need to have the expertise and/or experience in order to make something similar.

For example, if I were to put something I drew when I was 10 years old next to something I drew yesterday, it shouldn’t take a person who has had an education in fine art to tell you that the latter drawing is better-looking than the former.

That’s how I approach media consumption and criticism; when I criticise a writing decision, I am doing so as a consumer. I’m not saying I could write it better, or even that my opinion is objectively correct and the writer is wrong or bad. I’m just saying that I didn’t like a thing. Which, I would hope, is allowed?

Okay, defensive hedging over, back to the point; I don’t like that they had Steven shatter Jasper.

[I get markedly saltier from this point on, fyi]

Full admission of bias here: one of the things I really cherish about the original show is how they wrote Steven’s character; he’s a boy with interests that don’t rigidly conform to gender stereotypes. He likes ‘boyish’ things and ‘girly’ things, and that’s okay; thats just him. In cartoons when I was growing up, characters like Steven would be the butt of jokes about being ‘girly’ or thinly-veiled homophobia. I find him very relatable, and I want to acknowledge that yes, that is probably a significant part of why I have such an issue with this episode’s twist.

I am not trying to say that he’s a perfect baby angel or whatever; Steven regularly gets frustrated and angry. He does some pretty manipulative and dickish things to people around him (stop trying to make Larsadie happen, Steven. It’s not going to happen). He is a flawed character who fucks up sometimes. And he’s not 100% peaceful either; he acts violently when he defends himself against corrupted Gems and Homeworld Gems (and Crystal Gems on occasion *cough*Bismuth*cough*).

However, he has a pacifistic temperament; whenever it’s possible, he prefers that problems be solved without needless violence or hurt. And I like that; in most media, it’s rare to have a male protagonist who wants to solve their problems without jumping straight to punching things.

When he accidentally frees Centipeedle, he convinces the Gems to step off and allow him to try and rehabilitate her peacefully; he even notices that the Gems’ weapons are a trigger for her, and make them put them away. He frees Lapis against the Gems’ wishes because he recognizes that keeping her prisoner is wrong, and when she steals the ocean, he talks it out and heals her so she can leave Earth peacefully.

He tries to aid Jasper when she starts corrupting, fixes Eyeball’s gemstone when she’s cracked and tries talking Bismuth down when she attacks him with the breaking point. In all of these situations, his words and help are ignored or rejected; he’s forced to resort to violence. And it traumatises him.

We get an entire episode dedicated to the fact that he’s been struggling with processing these awful things that happened.

Even in Future, Steven shows hesitation about engaging in unncecessary violence; he gives into Jasper’s goading for a fight after what’s implied to be dozens of failed tries at making her come to Little Homeschool, and he spends an entire episode trying to keep Lapis from squashing the two rogue Lapis Lazulis.

The only time he hops into a fight willingly is after Eyeball and Aquamarine hold Greg hostage, and even then they pose a clear threat to his and Greg’s safety and have made it clear that they want to hurt him emotionally and physically. Even at that, he stops and switches tactics to talking them down as soon as they lose their focus and start bickering with each other.

(I mean, he fails. But it’s the thought that counts.)

I personally find it really jarring that the writers found it appropriate to write it into the series that this same character – over the course of three (3) days – goes from disliking mindless violence for mindless violence’s sake to happily engaging in the destruction of plants and animals* and has done a total 180 on his willingness to spar with Jasper, to the point that he instigates their rematch.

*(You best believe plenty of small mammals and birds – y’know, like the nest Steven saved in the first episode – died as he and Jasper felled tree after tree, not to mention all of those displaced by the destruction of their habitats, and the potential loss of food sources from some of those trees.)

You’re telling me that it’s a reasonable character beat for this boy to gleefully laugh like an anime supervillain at his sudden new-found joy in fighting, then pin Jasper in place, taunt her for helping him get so strong, and hit her so hard that she breaks into pieces and dies?

You’re telling me that that’s an in-character thing for Steven Quartz Diamond Cutie-Pie DeMayo Universe do to another character?

(And yes I am purposefully dancing around talking about the mental health stuff because if I did that I’d have to go on a whole other tangent about Growing Pains and fuck I just don’t feel like it right now lmao)

Going back to Mindful Education, another big thing we see Steven struggle with is the idea that his mother shattered Pink Diamond. This knowledge sits heavily with him; it makes him sympathetic to the Diamonds, even under the circumstances in which he sees them (escaping from the Human Zoo, and being on trial for said murder).

He sees their grief, and he feels awful. He questions who Rose Quartz even was. He knows, based on what Garnet said, that Rose had to do it; there was no other way to free Earth. But he still feels awful seeing the pain that Pink’s loss has caused Blue and Yellow Diamond.

In Steven Universe, shattering is clearly equated with execution/death multiple times. When Pearl and Garnet fret over the crack in Amethyst’s gemstone worsening. When Blue Diamond threatens to break Ruby. When Bismuth introduces the breaking point, and Steven recoils at the sight of what it does. If you want to take the fact that Gem shards are sentient and desperate to become whole again into account, you could even argue that it’s a fate worse than death. This particular act of violence is treated very, very seriously.

When we find out that Rose shattered Pink Diamond, there is a season and a half long arc unpacking the implications and consequences of this one action, and how this knowledge forever alters Steven’s mental image of his mother. And she didn’t even kill anyone. It was a lie!

In Steven Universe Future, Steven shatters Jasper 4 episodes before the end of the series. And it’s only brought up twice; once for a big *gasp* moment during his breakdown in Everything’s Fine, and in I Am My Monster by Pearl, when she has to fill-in Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot. Notably, it is never discussed around or by Jasper. Y’know. The person who actually died.

No indication of how (or even if) what Steven did is affecting his own self-image after his initial breakdown, how Jasper feels about what she went through beyond falling back into the Era 1 and 2 mindset. No inkling of how the knowledge that Steven killed somebody has affected how anyone in his life thinks or feels about him; when Pearl brings it up in I Am My Monster, she seems to not even really believe it’s true.

If there are any consequences or talks about this incident, they’re skipped over between I Am My Monster and The Future, and we’re expected to assume that Steven and his therapist are dealing with it, I guess?

And yes. It was an accident. He did bring her back to life. But it still happened. If you hit someone over the head and they stop breathing, just because the paramedics are able to resusitate and stabilize them afterwards doesn’t mean you never hit them.

But here, it’s shoved aside because dwelling on it would take far too much time, and risks framing Steven in an unsympathetic way when he’s meant to be on the cusp of a breakdown.

It just feels like careless writing to me. They really, really wanted their big action scene with Steven and Jasper, but didn’t think (or maybe weren’t interested in thinking) about the seriousness or consequences of what Steven shattering someone would entail.

In my opinion, Steven shattering Jasper is one of the cheapest, laziest things they could have ever done with his character (and hers, for that matter). To me, the entire thing feels entirely out of character. It’s pure shock value; nothing more.

So yeah. That particular writing decision just does not work for me. And if you disagree... well that’s fine? It’s fine. We can agree to disagree? I’ve read a lot of defense/praise for this episode, and honestly even after processing all of those opinions and all the time my thoughts about this plotline have been stewing in my brain, I still feel the same way.

#steven universe #steven universe future #negativity #cw death

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