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cozage · 1 year

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Made for Two

A/N: This might be the last part of Made for Two?? Idk let me know what you guys think (you are allowed to send me feedback or requests for more of this fic only right now)

Characters: gn reader x Sanji

Cw: usual angst, some slightly possessive themes and fighting going on

Total word count: 5.5k

Part One | Masterlist

Dance for Two

The first thing you noticed was the heat. It was stifling, and you threw your covers off of you to get some relief. A stark contrast to the bone chilling cold you felt last night.

A body stirred beside you, and you looked over to find Sanji rubbing sleep from his eyes. He sat up, still half asleep, and his eyes scanned your room.

Sanji’s voice was groggy when he spoke. “We must’ve left the winter climate last night. Franky needs to get the heating and cooling system fixed soon.”

Your eyes were trying to look anywhere but at the man next to you. He must’ve gotten hot in the night and thrown his shirt off. He appeared unfazed by his current position, but you were painfully aware of the lack of clothing he had around his torso at the moment.

You had seen Sanji shirtless several times, and you had never thought twice about it. But you had been with Zoro then. And Sanji hadn’t been in your bed. He had never been so close.

Now though, you were trying your best to ignore that fact and how much it was affecting you in this moment.

“Are you hungry?” Sanji asked, and your eyes finally looked over at him.

You nod, forcing yourself to maintain eye contact with him, even though you desperately wanted to let your eyes linger downward over his body.

He smiled, unaware of your thoughts, and got up from the bed, heading towards the door. “Let’s both change into something more comfortable with the weather, and I’ll be back to get you.”

He left you alone, and you sat there for a few moments trying to process it all. He had been so casual about the whole encounter, it made you wonder if you were missing something. But you couldn’t think of anything, so you decided to push it to the side for now. You got up, trading your sweatshirt and pants for a tanktop and shorts.

You opened your door to find that Sanji had also opted for a casual shirt and shorts as well. As you left the cabin area, you found the sun had also just started its day, and you stood to watch its brilliant colors paint the sky. Even though the sun wasn’t fully up yet, the humidity was high and the heat was sweltering. At least it wasn’t just your room that was stuffy, but it was the whole damn ocean.

“It’s going to be a boiling day,” you noted, looking at the horizon.

“Not a good day for macaron making,” Sanji said, frowning.

“What do you mean?”

Sanji walked over to the railing and leaned against it, watching the sunrise. You followed suit, standing next to him.

“Macarons need a very specific atmosphere in order to cook. If the temperature or humidity is too high or too low, they won’t set right. It’s all about finding the perfect middle.” He smiled at you, shrugging at the unfortunate event. “We’ll have to find something else to do today.”

You smiled politely, but your mind was racing. You hadn’t expected Sanji to actually make desserts with you, or even hang out with you at all. You thought about how you had spent the last four days, and how you were just planning to do it again. The only person you really wanted to be around right now was Sanji, and a small piece of you was afraid he’d get sick of you if you stuck around for too long.

“Any ideas?” You kept your eyes on the horizon, watching the sky and sea begin to come alive with color.

“Whatever you want.” His voice was so kind and welcoming, you wanted to believe him.

It was responses like that when you were reminded just how different Sanji and Zoro were. Zoro would simply grunt at your requests to spend time together, offering to let you be his spotter while he trained. Zoro was silent and dark, but Sanji was the combination of a million colors and emotions. Zoro was unreadable, but Sanji was always speaking his mind. If Zoro was the night, then Sanji was the sun, bringing the dawn of a new day.

Sanji must’ve noticed you lost in thought, but he let you sit with them while you watched the sunrise in silence. When the sky of pinks and reds melted away and turned into the soft blue you were familiar with, you bumped against him. It looked like he was lost in thoughts of his own, and you wanted to bring him back to the present.

“Breakfast?” you asked, smiling up at him. He beamed back and offered you his arm, leading you to the kitchen.

“Are you hungry for anything in particular?” He asks, pulling a chair out for you to sit in.

You hum, thinking for a moment. “A yogurt parfait?”

He grins and nods, heading over to the fridge to gather the ingredients. “Fruit? Granola?”

“Both please! And honey too, if we have it.”

“If we have it,” Sanji scoffs. “You mock me as a chef. Of course we have it!”

You giggle at his upset, and watch him quickly whip up two parfaits with mixed berries and granola. He drizzles honey on them both, and walks over to the table to place them both down.

You take a bite, and delightful flavors fill your mouth. “Do you know when we’re supposed to reach another island?”

“Why? Is something wrong?” He asked, glancing between you and the parfait in a concerned manner.

“No, no,” you reassure him. “The food is delicious! I was just thinking how nice it’ll be to get off the ship and go do something, you know?”

“Ah, I see.” His body relaxes back, relieved it wasn’t anything serious. “I hope it's a warm island.”

“Me too,” you say dreamily. “Heat like this is only enjoyable when you’re at the beach.”

Sanji looks at you, a shocked expression on his face. “You like the beach?”

You nod, taking another spoonful of yogurt. “Love it,” you say in between bites. “Those islands where nobody else lives, and it’s just a small little beach and a jungle are the best.”

Sanji nodded, still watching you with intrigue. “What do you like about it?”

“Beach volleyball, laying in the sun,” you take another bite of your breakfast. “Oh! And I love your barbeque days, especially when you barbeque the fresh fruit we find on the island and when we fish and cook it over the fire!”

Sanji couldn’t remember you doing any of those things in his recent memories, but he didn’t comment on that. Most of the time you sat in the shade with Zoro and kept to yourselves. Sanji prided himself in being in tune with the crew’s likes and dislikes, but he would’ve put money on you hating the beach days that you just described.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky, then,” Sanji said hopefully. “And we’ll find a beach nearby.”

Unfortunately, Nami later reported that luck was against you. There wasn’t another island for at least another two days.

You sighed and walked up to the library, trying to ignore the blasting music radiating from the crow’s nest.

“Got any recommendations?” You asked Robin, who was sitting at the desk.

“Oh! Y/N,” Robin said, sounding surprised to see you. “A book?”

“Yeah,” you sighed. “Not much else to do on a day like today, you know?”

She chuckled lightly, and picked a book out of a pile. “This is a pretty good one. I’d read it again.”

You reach out and grab the book from her. It was romance, but Robin recommended it, so you decided to give it a shot. “Thanks!” You turned around and left the way you came, bounding back down to the kitchen to rejoin Sanji. Now that you had something of your own to do, you wanted to keep Sanji some silent company while he worked.

The morning came and went, you sitting at the table engrossed in your book while Sanji cooked breakfast for the crew in shifts as they woke up. Every time someone came through the door, you looked up and smiled at them. You tried to ignore the look of surprise that flashed across each person’s face when they saw you, but you understood why. You had to admit you were dreading having to see Zoro after your last breakfast encounter, and it was bold of you to sit somewhere you knew he would eventually end up. You weren’t even sure why you were sitting in a place where you were sure to see him, but you didn’t feel as scared with Sanji nearby.

But you never had to worry about it, because Zoro never showed up for breakfast.

When the last member had come and gone from the kitchen, Sanji started cleaning up, and you got up to start helping him.

“Nope!” Sanji says, grabbing your hands as you reach for some dishes.

You groan. Sanji was so chivalrous, sometimes it was annoying. “Please let me help, Sanji. Then we can both enjoy our free time.”

Sanji shakes his head to refuse your help again, and you know you won’t win this battle. Him letting you help last night was an outlier situation, and it would probably never happen again. You returned to your seat and reopened your book.

“Why don’t you go lay out on the deck? Get some sun.” Sanji offered, starting to scrub at the dishes.

“No thanks,” you say, finding your spot where you left off. “I prefer being with you.”

Your cheeks redden at the sentence that slipped out of your mouth, and you can see him freeze in the corner of your eye. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out, so he shut it and turned back to the dishes.

You couldn’t focus on your book after that. You tried, but your eyes kept drifting over to Sanji, watching him at the sink. Your eyes lingered on him, completely in his own world while he cleaned.

Nami barged into the kitchen, interrupting your thought process. Thankfully she was too frustrated to notice your eyes on the cook.

“It’s going to rain!” She huffed, collapsing into the booth across from you.

“Really?” you asked, looking at the window. “Where’s it coming from?”

“Starboard bow. Probably about 20 minutes from now.”

You didn’t see anything, but you knew Nami wasn’t wrong about these things. “How long will it last?”

Nami groaned, flopping backwards onto the seat. “All day! And Chopper and Franky just got the pool set up! It’s not fair!”

You laugh at that and close your book, standing to your feet. “I think I’m going to go watch the storm roll in. Want to come?”

Nami rolled her eyes. “And be reminded of my ruined sunny day? No thanks.”

You exit out of the kitchen, throwing one last look at Sanji before you leave. You catch his eye, and he smiles at you. Your heart skips a beat involuntarily.

You can’t stop the question before it’s out. “Come join me when you’re done, Sanji?”

“Of course.”

You walked onto the deck, and looked towards the starboard bow, like Nami had said. There were clouds gathering in the horizon, and you assumed that would turn into a storm, so you walked over and leaned against the railing to watch.

A shadow cast over you. “Super great to see you out and about, kiddo!”

You turned to find Franky, and you smiled at him. “Hey Franky. How have you been?”

“I'm not going to lie, pretty busy.” He leaned against the railing next to you. “Between the heating and cooling issues and other projects, I’ve got my hands full. But how are you?”

“Okay,” you said. It was the typical response you gave, and every time you said it, it started to feel a little more true.

“Super!” Franky yelled, patting you on the back just a tad too hard. “Listen I gotta run, but I’m glad you’re doing good. If you ever need to get your hands dirty and your mind clear, come let me know, okay?”

You laugh lightly and nod at his offer. “Thanks Franky. That means a lot.”

“Anytime!” And then you’re alone again.

You notice a lot more standing on the deck by yourself. You can hear Chopper’s and Luffy’s shouts and splashes from their makeshift pool, and the soft bass of the music from the crow’s nest is mostly overshadowed by Brook’s violin. It’s lively, but there’s comfort in it all. You don’t feel as alone, listening to the sounds of your crew. But you still feel tense, like something is missing.

The soft clicking of shoes on wood melts the tension away, and you glance in the direction of the sound to find eyes as blue as the sky.

“Hey,” you say, a smile forming on your lips as you see him.

He mirrors your grin, and comes to stand next to you, looking out over the horizon. The clouds in the distance have grown closer and darker, and you can feel the excitement growing in your stomach.

“Do you like storms?” Sanji asks, looking out at the clouds.

“I love them.” Your eyes stay on the storm. You can start to see sheets of rain pouring across the ocean, getting closer by the second. “There’s something comforting about them. It’s like they cleanse everything and give it a fresh start.”

Sanji lights a cigarette next to you and takes a long inhale, and then blows it out. “A fresh start, huh? I like that.”

“Do you like them?”

He shrugged. “I normally don’t mind them, but the really bad ones remind me of when I was a kid and got stranded on a desert island. It’s usually fine, but they always give me a bit of anxiety.”

In a move of boldness, you lean over and rest your head on his shoulder. At first you can feel him stiffen and you think you’ve misinterpreted the situation, but then he relaxes and you do too.

You watch the rain grow closer, slowly lessening the visibility by the rain.

“You ready?” you ask, watching the rain approach at a fast pace.

“You sure you want to be outside for this?” Sanji said, looking at you with a bit of weariness.

You felt a big raindrop hit your arm, and soon after hundreds joined it in coating your skin with water. The sound of rain smacking against the wood becomes deafening, pierced only by the slight cries of Chopper and the gleeful shouts of Luffy, who both rush inside. You breathe out a sigh of relief, letting the rain wash away your pain and sorrow.

You pull away from Sanji and spin in a circle with your eyes closed, swaying lightly in the breeze by yourself. You feel a hand grab yours, and you open your eyes to see Sanji trying to speak to you, but you can’t hear any words over the rain.

You lean in close to him and yell as loud as you can. “What?”

“Will you dance with me?” He shouts back, and you wrap your arms around his neck.

His arms wrap around your waist, and you lay your head on his chest. You all stand there for a long while, just swaying in each other's arms. Finally the rain starts to lighten up a tad, and you can hear a song being played on the violin. You both turn to look, and you find Brook under the tree, serenading you into a dance.

Sanji picks up the pace a bit to match the tempo and readjusts your grip so you are doing more of a ballroom waltz than simple swaying. You’re a bit clumsy on your feet, but Sanji leads you confidently, spinning and dipping you with perfect elegance. The whole thing made you feel equally silly and giddy.

“I didn’t know you could dance!” You shout over the music and the rain.

“I’m not very good at most of them,” he admits. “But I like the dances that are made for two.”

“Not very good?” You scoff. “Sanji, you’re amazing!”

“Well, I-” A bolt of lightning strikes near the ship, and you yelp in surprise. You can feel Sanji’s grip tighten on you for a moment as he looks around.

“That's enough of that!” Brook yells, running to the door of the interior of the ship.

“Hey!” Nami opened a door to scream at the two of you. “The storm’s getting bad! Get inside!”

You pull Sanji along with you, laughing as you dance to the door. You all dance down the hallway to the aquarium, stopping occasionally for Sanji to dip or spin you around. The music is long gone, but neither of you seem to notice.

You dance a lap around the aquarium, leaving a trail of dripping water as you go. You’re about to make a second lap around when you slip on a puddle, and Sanji catches you before you face plant onto the floor.

“I’m going to go get us some towels,” he said, looking at you and then the floor. “And…maybe a mop.”

You giggle at that, still high with adrenaline and giddiness from dancing in the rain. “Hurry back, okay?”

He bows as he exits through the door, and you find yourself staring at it after he’s gone, waiting for him to come back.

“Didn’t know the cook fancied sloppy seconds.”

The dark voice came from behind you in the aquarium, causing your breath to catch in your throat. Your hands clenched into fists, but you refused to give Zoro the satisfaction of answering him. Answering him would just lead to an argument, which is exactly what he wanted. You stayed there, facing away from him and staring at the door, willing Sanji to come back.

“Tell me, Y/N,” the swordsman said your name like poison, and you flinched at the sharpness of his words. “Why do you think that man is being so nice to you?”

You hear Zoro get up, the sound of his boots echoing throughout the aquarium as he approaches you. The hair on your neck tingled, but you attributed that to the cold rain instead of the man behind you. You bit your lip to keep yourself from crying, eyes still glued to the door. Sanji would be back any second, and you wouldn’t be alone.

“I can tell you why,” he whispered in your ear, and you flinched again at his sudden closeness.

He walked around to face you, staring at you in the eyes. It was hard to look at him. There were so many conflicted emotions you held connected to his face. But you refused to be the one to break eye contact, and you could feel the daggers he was staring into your soul.

“It’s because that love cook wants to fuck you.”

He was just saying it to get you to react in some way. You were certain. You stared back at him, doing your best to show no emotion. You must’ve been successful, because he pressed further.

“I figured you’d be dumb enough to fall for it, of course,” he said with a devilish smirk on his face. His voice was low and threatening, like a predator who was about to pounce on his prey.

“But you couldn’t even wait until we arrived at the next island before you hopped on his dick, could you?”

Zoro was cruel and manipulative. You knew that, which is why you were so mad that it worked. You could feel tears welling up in your eyes, and you tried desperately to blink them away.

“It’s not like that,” you say, shaking your head. You can feel tears leak out onto your cheeks.

Zoro laughed at you, and all you want to do is run away and hide. “It is like that, and that's why you’re crying. ‘My love,’” he mocks Sanji. “‘Anything for you!’”

He returns back to his usual, harsh voice and leans in close to you. He’s so close that you can smell the sake on his breath when he speaks.

“More like anything for what’s in your pants.”

Your hand connects with his face before you realize what you’re doing, and a loud, sharp sound echoes through the room. Both of you stand there staring at each other, stunned for a moment. You can’t believe you got a hit on Roronoa Zoro, and you wonder if he was too busy taunting you to see it coming or if he let you slap him on purpose to start an argument.

“Get. Out.” you growl, pushing on his chest. He doesn’t budge. He’s just standing and staring at you, one side of his face starting to grow red.

“Get out!” you shriek, pushing his chest, and then resorting to punching it when that doesn’t work. “I’m not doing this anymore, Zoro! I’m done! Get out!”

You see his facial expression change slightly, and he steps out of range from your swings. But you step toward him, trying to push him toward the door. He stumbled backwards for a moment, not expecting you to continue your assault, before he regained his footing.

“That cook doesn’t love you,” he spat out.

“I never asked him to!” You scream back.

You had given him what he wanted. You had fought back. You push him again, trying to get him away from you. But he’s expecting it this time, and he grabs your wrists and pulls you close to him. His face is only centimeters away from yours, and you curse your heart for fluttering in your chest.

“Calm down,” he whispered, his eyes fixated on your lips.

You knew what was coming. This was the duality of Roronoa Zoro. Screaming matches one moment, tender and caring the next. He loved to get you riled up one second just so he could calm you down the next.

And you almost fell for it again. Almost. But as his head dipped down to meet yours, you thought of the cold dark nights alone in your room, his hostile glares and comments from the day before. You thought of the warm string of lights that were now illuminating the once dark space, the sunrise and dancing.

His lips met yours for only a second before you pulled away from him and shoved your palms hard into his chest, pushing him away from you.

You wiped your mouth with the back of your hand, trying to get the taste of him off your lips. You let out a shaky breath and glared at him.

You hated him, and you hated how inferior he made you feel. But you really hated that a small part of you wanted to curl back into him and let him hold you, like nothing happened.

“I said get out.” You put all of your anger and hatred into your words, willing yourself to stand your ground.

He stared at you, half bewildered and half amused. This was uncharted territory for him. Normally you fell back into his touch, desperate and eager for more of his love. But today, you stood there with defiance in your eyes.

“You’ll see.” He chuckled lightly to himself. “He’s gotten you wrapped around his finger now, but you’ll see, darling,” he raised his pitch to imitate Sanji on the last word. “He’ll get bored of you, and he’ll leave you, and you’ll be alone again. And nobody will come to save you this time.”

Satisfied with having the last word, Zoro turned on his heels and walked out the door.

Once the door slammed shut behind him, you fell to your knees. Your hands flew up to your mouth to stifle a sob.

Sanji wasn’t manipulative like Zoro. He was kind, and sweet, and he made you your favorite meal even when you had barely ever spoken to him just to see you smile. He wasn’t doing all of this just to get laid, was he?

Your mind drifted back to yesterday morning, at breakfast with Nami.

“I heard he didn’t go back to the boys cabin last night. You’ve been around Sanji almost as long as I have, and you really think its-”

Even the navigator seemed to think Sanji had an ultimatum for his kindness. Your heart ached at the thought of you being used like that, and you clutched at your chest in pain. You didn’t know what to do or who to believe. You wanted to run away, restart the day, or just go back to when you and Zoro first broke up and beg for his forgiveness. Everything was so much more complicated now that you had Sanji beside you.

“Sorry I took so long! It took me a while to find the-” You hear things clatter to the floor and the click of Sanji shoes rushing over to you.

“What happened?” He asked, kneeling down next to you. He hand presses against your forehead and you pull away from him, still covering your eyes. “Are you sick? Do I need to go get Chopper?”

“Just leave me alone,” you sob. “I just want to be alone.”

“It’s okay, my love. Talk-”

You’re reminded of Zoro and how he mocked Sanji, and rage flares up in you. “Go away!” you scream, tears thick in your voice. “Get out!”

Sanji sighs, and you hear him stand to his feet. You hear him start to walk away from you, and your heart constricts. You know you told him to go, but you don’t want him to. And you’re too cowardly to beg him to stay now.

You can hear him reach the far side of the room, and he pauses for a moment, then he begins walking back to you. You start wiping your eyes, and you feel a soft cloth wrap around your shoulders. Your eyes open to find his sky blue eyes staring back at you, holding a towel around you.

He looks at you nervously, like he’s waiting for you to scream again. But you just sit there, wrapped in a towel. The only sound is the occasional drip of water from your clothes.

“Please don’t leave me,” you whisper to him, your voice breaking.

“I won’t, I won’t,” he coos, trying to soothe you. He wipes the tears from your cheeks and pushes the hair away from your face, keeping his eyes on you the whole time.

“I hate him.” You can’t bring yourself to say Zoro’s name, but Sanji knows what you mean.

“Did you see him?” He asks, looking around the room.

You nod, tears starting to form in your eyes again.

“What did he say?” Sanji’s voice is calm, but you can feel the anger radiating from his body.

You just shake your head, not wanting to respond. You lean forward, pressing your head against his rain-soaked shirt. He lets you rest there, stroking your wet hair absentmindedly while you work to steady your breathing. You inhale the familiar smell of cigarette smoke and slowly calm down, finding yourself drifting off to sleep.

You’re not sure how much time has passed when your eyes reopen, but you’re in your room, wrapped in blankets. You can still hear the rain falling outside, and you sit up to assess yourself and your surroundings. You’re still in wet clothes, and you quickly strip them and replace them with new ones. Your fairy lights are on, but there’s no other indication of someone in your room.

You exit your room into the main cabin area, and head towards the deck, but raised voices stop you before you leave. You stand near the door, listening.

“I don’t give a damn about your feelings!” Sanji’s voice yells from outside, muffled by the rain still falling.

“No shit!” Zoro screamed back. “You’re so far up Y/N’s ass you can’t see anything else!”

“You don’t know anything about me, mosshead, so stay out of it!”

“I know you took what wasn’t yours, cook.” Zoro’s voice turns into a growl, and you struggle to hear his words. “Y/N belongs to me.”

Sanji chuckled at the swordsman’s words. “Y/N doesn’t belong to anyone, idiot.” You hear his shoes coming closer to the door, until he stops on the other side. “The fact that you don’t get that proves you don’t know anything at all.”

“I know more about Y/N than you’ll ever know,” Zoro shot back, and you could feel a knot forming in your stomach. “You can’t compete. I know the best positions to make-”

“Piss off!” Sanji yelled, slamming into the swinging door in front of you wide open. His mouth falls open when he sees your figure in front of him, and the lit cigarette falls from his lips.

You turn on your heels and dart back to your room, but Sanji’s quick to follow you.

“Y/N-” He trails after you into your room.

You spun around to face him, glaring at him. “Why are you being nice to me?” you demand.

He froze, confused at your sudden hostility. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re out there defending me, making me food, being so nice to me…why?!”

“Because,” Sanji hesitates, his eyes scanning the room nervously. “Because I…”

It didn’t add up, Sanji never took any special interest in you before. He was always kind and cordial, bringing you food and making your favorite snack. And he just treated you better because he wanted to piss Zoro off. But now you were broken up, and there was no reason to keep up the act after you and Zoro broke up. Unless what Zoro said was true.

You’re sure you’ve got him. Sanji can’t lie to you. So you ask him point blank. “Are you just trying to fuck me?”

“What?” He takes a step back, alarmed with your bluntness. “What are you even saying?”

“Just answer the question!” You don’t care if he thinks you’re crazy. Maybe you are.

Sanji clicked his tongue and pulled out a cigarette. “That swordsman is in your head,” he said, putting it to his lips.

You resist the urge to grab him and shake him. You knew he was avoiding giving an answer.

“So you are,” you say, your voice trembling. “You’re just doing this for-”

“You love to watch the sunrise,” Sanji said, rushing to cut you off. “The sunsets too, but you only did that with mosshead, so it’s painful to see it now. You like barbequed fruit and rainstorms and you don’t really enjoy romance novels but you’ll read them if Robin recommends them. You prefer the quiet moments and the soft, fluffy desserts and you love your crewmates.”

Sanji paused for a moment and stepped forward, reaching for your hands to hold. You let him take them, and he interlocks his fingers with yours. You watch his hands, intertwined with yours, and you like how nicely they fit together. You feel calmer now, all of the anger inside of you suddenly feels small and unimportant.

“I’m doing all of this because I think you deserve it. You deserve to be treated well. You deserve to have someone who lays with you while you sleep. Who watches the sunsets with you. Who dances in the rain. I just want you to feel important, okay? So if you’re not feeling that way, tell me and I promise I’ll find a different way to show my love for you”

“Your love…” you swallow the lump caught in your throat. “For me?”

His cheeks turn red, and you can see his nervous energy reach a new level. He fidgets with your fingers, and you can feel his hands start to get clammy. He doesn’t speak for a while, and your eyes glance up to his, but he’s watching your hands as well.

“Sanji?” you prompt, peering up at him through your lashes.

“It’s nothing,” he whispered, and he pulled you closer to him. His face is only centimeters away from yours, and you can feel your heart fluttering in your chest.

You thought you knew what was coming, and you tensed in suspense, ready to pull away at any moment.

“Do you want to dance?” he said, the smell of tobacco rolling off his tongue with each word.

You nod in response and lean against his chest. You both gently sway to a beat that doesn’t exist, and you can’t help but feel more at peace now than you ever have in your entire life.

#SURPRISE!!! Enjoy this!!!#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece scenario #one piece x reader #vinsmoke sanji #sanji #sanji x y/n #sanji x reader #sanji x you #cozage #made for two #✧˚sanji✧˚

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mins-fins · 1 year

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five chronicles — ricky shen

the five most important moments of their relationship in ricky's eyes.

tags :: ricky shen x m!reader , chronological but also non-chronological , ricky is super in love , specific descriptions bc i love them , ricky-centric , reader is a bundle of joy , they're made for each other , fluff start angst end

ONE. ( their first interaction )

of course, meeting someone for the first time is an important staple in any new relationship, but on a survival show, it's way weirder.

ricky wasn't really close to anyone but his fellow yuehua trainees, and he didn't even know if he would make friends, due to how awkward he was. he wasn't even sure what was going on when y/n first approached him.

now y/n, y/n is very pretty, like— super pretty, all ricky could do when he was talking to him was stare at his face, there seemed to be absolutely no mistakes on it, like he was carved by the gods.

"hi! ricky right?"

ricky pauses for a moment, clearing his throat as he gathers his thoughts. "um, yeah, yeah that's me" he responds, sounding much more awkward than he wanted to.

the unknown boy smiles. "sato y/n, it's nice to meet you!" he extends his hand for ricky to shake, and he takes it, noticing the major difference in their hand temperatures.

"i watched your introduction video, your very hilarious".

ricky feels his face burn red, he doesn't know for what, though. he just wasn't used to such words from random pretty boys, but he genuinely finds the compliment endearing.

"i.. thank you" he says, voice much lower than he intended. "that's very nice of you".

"ah, it's really no problem, complimenting people is just a second nature to me".

ricky simply laughs, waving his hand. "it's fine, i just admire your nice nature".

it was weird for someone to just walk up to him out of the blue, compliment him out of nowhere. ricky only really received compliments from his parents' friends, or random people on the street, not someone so much like him.

he always thanks himself in his head that y/n had approached him, because he didn't even realize how much of a turn his life would take from this point.

TWO. ( dream team )

"ah, were on the same team! how exciting!"

y/n comments unconsciously, addressing ricky, he doesn't look to him though, which confuses ricky greatly. he looks towards the male, who just rocks back and forth, whistling.

"you were talking to me?"

"yeah" he responds, smiling politely at the shen. ricky simply blinks, eyes stuck on his figure. he can't help but stare, he's pretty, super pretty, he has this soft smile on his lips and his brown eyes look like they hold universes in them.

is it bad to stare? he might look like he's glaring, and that would just be a field day for all those mnet editors. he sighs and looks away, putting his hands behind his back.

they were on the same team, performing back door by stray kids. it was safe to say that ricky was nervous, but y/n seemed to be confident. ricky wanted to have that kind of attitude, but he just couldn't.

he found his hands shaking almost constantly, his stomach felt all over the place, and as he found himself backstage, he felt his fight or flight instincts kick in as he almost bolted away.

"jesus, are you cold?"

"no, i'm worried" he admits rather openly. y/n hums at the words, understanding.

"you have nothing to worry about, your going to do great" he whispers, and though ricky wants to believe the words, there's this thing that just makes him not want to.

"i want to believe that, but i can't".

"you can't?"

his hands start shaking almost faster as he's asked that question. they're up in a few minutes, he can't possibly explain it now.

still, he'll try.

"i don't know, it's like theres this barrier stopping me from feeling any kind of confidence, it's like it's making all of my anxiety escalate".

y/n doesn't interrupt him, just lets him talk, lets him pour out whatever feelings he has. he hums again, taking ricky's shaking hand. "alright, i get it, you feel anxious, take a deep breath".

the older male instructs, squeezing his hand as a way of encouragement. ricky doesn't know why he feels his anxiousness already going away, but he nods, taking in a deep breath, then exhaling.

"you know you shouldn't doubt yourself, right? everyone knows how amazing you are, and you did amazing during that practice, your gonna crush this performance, i'm sure of it".

y/n smiles at him once again, rubbing his hand for a moment before letting it go. "thank you, i really needed that" ricky mutters, not knowing what this strange fluttering feeling in his stomach was.

"it's really no problem, i just want to make sure my teammates are alright".

ricky nods, feeling his face go red once again when y/n pokes his cheek, giggling. "well, you better crush that stage".

THREE. ( a somewhat-strange conversation )

y/n had found his way into ricky's room, and eventually ricky's bed. it seemed to happen in a flash, where he had just woken up and now there was just this random pretty boy in his bed.

not that he was complaining, of course.

y/n looks up, his head still laid onto ricky's pillow. "so" he begins, starting another one of his somewhat strange conversations, he rolls over as he stares at ricky's figure.

"so?" ricky asks, craning his neck to turn and look at y/n, who was staring back with that signature smile of his. "so what?"

"what do you plan to do after the show? if you don't debut that is.."

ricky shrugs, fully turning around so he could get a better look at him. "i'll probably just go home, my parents want me to take over their company".

y/n snorts, amused. "ah, so you're that kind of rich, you could buy mnet if you wanted to!"

ricky laughs, and y/n continues. "you really took young and rich way too seriously".

he nods, enamored by the males words. "and what about you? what do you plan to do?"

y/n hums, flopping back down onto ricky's bed. "i'll probably just go back to school, i almost quit for this shit".

"i have no doubt you'll debut" ricky says almost unconsciously, the words had been on the tip of his tongue for what seemed like forever.

the older male laughs. "i have no doubt you'll debut" he emphasizes the you'll, as if he's saying a completely different sentence. "you've got this".

"you have a lot of confidence in me, but you never talk about yourself" ricky questions, yet it doesn't really come out like a question, more of a blank statement.

"if it happens, it happens, i'm just moving with the flow" he responds simply. ricky doesn't really understand that whole mentality, but he just laughs at y/n's words.

what a spectacle he is.

FOUR. ( favorite couple )

"whose your best friend, n/n?"

y/n hums, pretending to think when he knows his answer will be ricky. the two of them are clearly pretty close, he's the type of person to become best friends with someone after only a few hours of knowing them, and his answer was almost obvious if anything.

"ricky! right? were very close" he replies, the answer on his mind, almost rehearsed. ricky freezes, as if he didn't expect that. he had spent the past few days with him, just talking to him, he enjoyed his company, and y/n showered him with hugs and affection.

"me? i've never really been someone's best friend before" he mumbles, the gratefulness in his voice clear.

y/n giggles as he intertwines their hands. "well, your mine now! you can't get rid of me!" he yells, leaning onto ricky.

ricky simply stares, a habit of his whenever y/n is around. he captures his attention so easily, not even having to do anything spectacular to. it's not everyday someone he'd just met no more than two months ago makes him feel so.. weird.

he simply found y/n endearing, amazing. he was the epitome of joy, so grateful for his opportunities and everything given to him. he's patient, doesn't force anyone into anything they don't want to. he loved everything about him, his eyes, his voice, his personality, his humor, his smile, his laugh, his—

oh, he's rambling now isn't he?

he just loves how he feels around him, he doesn't feel any of the other platonic feelings he's felt for the other trainees, he feels love, and not just in a friendship way, but in a genuinely romantic way.

y/n is just amazing like that.

"i don't plan on getting rid of you anyway" he teases back, leaning his head onto y/n's. the two look so cute, like a newly wed couple or something.

"aww, they look like a couple" junhyeon teases, earning boisterous laughter from taerae, who definitely agrees.

they just seem made for each other.

FIVE. ( our final goodbyes )

ricky was originally stressed.

he had been scratching his hands all day, worried that he might not be able to debut, he was so worried that he'd barely gotten any sleep the previous night. everything in boys planet had led up to this, and it was an obviously stressful day for everyone.

fortunately, y/n was right there.

"calm down, ricky, nervousness makes your posture bad".

he runs a hand up and down ricky's back, and ricky can't fathom how he's so calm. "how are you so calm? you should be biting off your nails by now".

"as i said, if it happens it happens, just don't stress yourself out about it so much, i'm sure you'll make it".

y/n was right.

as ricky sits in his chair, having won at p04, he crosses his fingers in hope that y/n's name will somehow be called next. he finally made it, but he wanted to make sure y/n did too, he wanted to at least debut with him.

p03: seok matthew.

p02: sung hanbin.

p01: zhang hao.

there's really only a sliver of hope left, anyone could be called for p09, anyone could become the final member of the group, and he hopes to god that y/n makes it, he doesn't know what'd he do if he didn't.

"and rank p09 is.."

y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n y/n—

"han yujin!"

oh.

ricky closed his eyes. he's grateful, but also angry, so angry. at himself. he made it and y/n didn't. after all he did for him? after he encouraged him to do his best? after he made sure that everyone felt alright and were in their best head spaces for the performance?

he wants to cry.

he can't.

he wants to throw up.

he can't.

ricky went into this survival show stuff thinking nothing of it. he didn't expect to debut, he didn't expect to be loved, he didn't expect to fall in love.

and, he didn't expect to be so heartbroken over y/n not debuting with him.

he finds it even harder to accept as he watches y/n cry, hugging junhyeon in the crowd. his face stays still, not moving, as if he's unaffected, but he truly can't bring himself to come to terms with it.

all he wanted to do was to talk to y/n.

he immediately began searching for him when he stepped into the crowd to say goodbye, giving both jay and jeonghyeon hugs as he searched for the seemingly invisible boy.

"there you are" his voice whispers. ricky sighs, smiling, although disappointed.

"here i am" he replies, face not moving. y/n has dry tears on his face, but he's still smiling. "i told you, i was sure you'd make it".

ricky bites his inner cheek, the words only having been told to him a few hours ago. "yeah, guess you are a fortune teller".

"i couldn't tell my own fortune though".

even if he's trying to cope with humor, it seems to not work, as tears start welling up in his eyes once again. "i'm so proud of you, you know that?"

"y/n—"

"i became friends with you because you were cool, i seriously do still think your cool, i was so amazed by everything you did, and when you agreed that i was your best friend, it made me feel special, you made me feel special".

ricky isn't sure how he keeps his composure, even with all the shouting and chatter going on around him, y/n is the only person he sees, the only one he hears, his only focus.

"i wanted to debut with you.." he mumbles, taking his hands, probably for the last time.

y/n smiles, and ricky wipes the tears from his face. "me too, but you did it! go on, have fun with your group".

it felt like a piece of him was being broken away, as if this was one of the most heartbreaking moments of his entire life. he takes a deep breath and wipes y/n's tears away.

ricky pulls him into a hug, sighing. "i'm so sorry, i— i failed you".

"you didn't" y/n chuckles, running a hand up and down his back. "it's okay, you made it, that's all that matters".

but you matter too, he wants to say. the words are on the tip of his tongue, he wants to say them so bad, but he couldn't, like he was being prevented from doing so.

"don't think it's your fault, i'm still proud of you, okay?"

ricky nods, he doesn't want to let go, but he has too, because he has to go, everything has to end eventually.

he finally lets go of y/n's hands after what seems like forever, but he still can't seem to step away.

"you know i love you, right ricky?"

the words seem so random, but y/n is random, even through tears and with everyone else talking in the background, he still finds the confidence to say those words.

"i love you too" ricky replies.

that was probably the last time he'd ever say those words.

AUTHORS NOTE — HOLY MOTHER OF GOD this was tragic!!! i genuinely felt like sobbing while writing this wtf ╥﹏╥

#shen quanrui #ricky shen #boys planet 999 #ricky boys planet #zerobaseone #zb1 #zb1 ricky #male reader #fluff #angst #kpop imagines #𑁍 ࣪˖ 𓂃 isa's works!

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james-sunshine-potter · 1 year

Text

All the many things and quirks of Steve Harrington:

A list comprised by Eddie Munson.

> He can’t sleep in the dark. He has to have at least a lamp on before going to bed. He nor I are sure what that stems from. (It bugged me at first I can’t lie, but we tried one night to keep all lights off… and Steve didn’t sleep at all, he just laid there awake for 12 hours. TWELVE FUCKING HOURS AND THEN HE WENT TO WORK ON NO SLEEP! it’s safe to say we kept the lamp on after that…)

> He doesn’t like it when the sun is in his eyes. He carries his sunglasses everywhere and will get annoyed when he forgets them in the car.

> He can only eat one thing on his plate at a time. Like if he’s got chicken, salad and chips, he’ll eat the chips in one go, then the chicken and then the salad. Things can’t mixed nor touch.

> He likes it when I stroke his hair whilst he falls asleep. He doesn’t even realise I do this, as he goes on and on about how he falls asleep better when sleeping with me. But it’s because I have learnt how to make him relaxed. (I also really like his hair. It’s so soft, like ridiculously soft. It’s meant to be petted, sue me).

> He opens his mouth when he thinks. Some days I want to stick my finger in his mouth when he does that to see what he will do but I never do (I will one day).

> He’ll talk to old people on the street. But only if they start the conversation, obviously. God, old people love him. He opens doors for old lady’s and compliments their hair and fashion. He’s very polite.

> When he is uncomfortable, he’ll play with my rings. We once had a sit down conversation with his parents (don’t ask, it was horrible) but the entire time, Steve held my hand in his lap and played with my rings (still on my fingers) until my skin was sore. (I don’t mind).

> He has to sleep with the door closed. He physically can’t sleep with the door open. Like physically can’t. Or even be in his bedroom, or mine, without the door closed. (He doesn’t feel secure otherwise, which knowing what goes down in this town, i completely get).

> He exclusively wears boxers. Calvin Klein ones to be specific. When he stretched or reached up for something, you could see the waist band peak out the top. Wears boxer shorts (loose fitting ones you know) to sleep in.

> He zones out a lot more than he thinks he does. He says he doesn’t do it that often, but he just can’t bloody remember it! He’s zoned out through entire conversations and movies. (Thankfully he’s never done it behind the wheel…).

> He watches fights he’s not involved like it’s a tennis match.

> He hums whilst brushing his teeth. (Typically whatever is stuck in his head at the time).

> He slightly rocks when he trying to focus on something. (I noticed this when he was trying to focus on a movie we were watching, but he kept getting distracted).

> He squints, even when he wears his glasses (Which I have to bully him to do).

> He picks at the skin around his nails when nervous. I have physically hold his hand to stop him. (Which, obviously, I don’t mind. But man, you should see hims fingernails they’re gross…).

> He pees like clockwork. He gets up at the say time in the night to pee. I can tell when he’s properly exhausted if he sleeps through it. (It’s 3am by the way).

> He doesn’t have nosebleeds often, but when they happen, oh do they happen. Blood gets everywhere, like lots of blood where it’s concerning. He went through an entire box of tissues and ruined a top once. He nearly fainted once (like wobbly steps, foggy eyes, went white as fuck… scary as shit).

> He can’t listen to something and count or read at the same time. If he needs to count something and has the radio on, he’ll turn it off, count out aloud and then turn it back on. If I show him something, I can’t talk until he finishes reading it or otherwise he won’t take it in. (I’m totally the same though).

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transmasckrauser · 8 months

Text

Yandere!Leon x gn!Reader (Pt.1)

cw: implied stalker leon, general implied creepiness, extreme lack of leon being in this until the end, kissing.

disclaimer: there's no porn, mostly just set up for a potential series/AU i'm brewing.

You started dating Leon a couple weeks ago–met him at your favorite cafe right by your work maybe a month before that.

He asked you out, obviously, approaching you all sweet and flustered. He was a complete gentleman, asking politely for your number with the request for dinner together the following day.

Leon was a major cutie–tall, gentle, and courteous. There was no way you would say no.

Ever since that dinner together, it's been pure bliss.

You've never had anyone connect with you so well or understand your needs without having to ask. It was like you were destined for each other the way he could practically read your mind.

Today, he had invited you over to his apartment. It was a big step, as your dates until now had ended at your place exclusively. He explained he had a risky profession, one that made him put some walls up.

And now he was ready to lower one of those barriers between you. And you were ready to be there for him, to show you can protect that trust he's given you.

You were so excited–dressed extra nice, a bit of skin showing–that you arrived maybe fifteen minutes early. You always got ahead of yourself like that, and Leon knew you well enough to have predicted it.

He had given you a spare key to his place, so you wouldn't have to wait for him to let you in. Leon could get lost in his projects and routines, he'd warned you, and might've ignored the doorbell when you arrived.

So, given ample permission, you let yourself into his apartment.

It's nothing out of the ordinary, if anything it was plainer than you expected. Nice enough, but clearly furnished with the bare minimum. Not very welcoming which was a surprise, considering how warm and inviting Leon himself was.

It was also clearly empty. Lights off. No sound.

You check your phone to see Leon had texted you just a minute before you arrived. Sorry, baby, I got called into work. Should be home in an hour.

You try to fight your disappointment. An hour wasn't too long, but still.

You text back with reassurances. I understand! <3 I can keep myself busy!

You pocket your phone and kick off your shoes by the door. Guess you have time to snoop around, right? Nothing too invasive, obviously.

There's a collection of movies and CDs in the living room, which you immediately walk over to and admire. A lot of action, which you should've expected. A lot of 'dad rock' too, which you definitely expected.

Giggling to yourself, you journey away from the living room into the small kitchen. It's cute and plain like the rest of his place.

There's a couple magnets and notes stuck to the fridge–various pictures of Leon sandwiched between his friends or coworkers, too.

You're studying a picture of him with his arms thrown over the shoulders of a much burlier man when you notice there's a second picture pinned beneath it. Too lazy to just swap them out, huh?

You remove the magnet keeping the photos in place and take both into your hands. You flip the top picture behind the other and find yourself looking back at your own face.

It's an older photo of you, one you likely posted to instagram ages ago. The edges were soft like it had been worn from frequent handling.

You weren't friends with Leon on social media. In fact, he specifically told you he avoided it all together due to his work.

The pictures go right back on the fridge. Your hands feel clammy now as you try to reason out this odd discovery. Was it weird for him to have that photo? Yes. But this was Leon. Maybe he didn't realize it was creepy. He said he hadn't dated in years, after all.

You wander back out into the living room, on edge. Now the barren apartment felt even more unwelcoming and odd.

Just to the left of you is a short hallway, two doors clearly visible. When before you had just wanted a surface level investigation of your boyfriend's things, now you felt the need to continue searching.

Before you could talk yourself out of it, you stalk down the hall to the closed door at its end. You twist the knob and find yourself stepping into Leon's bedroom. Just as plain as everything else.

The bed is made and there's a nightstand and dresser. Nothing else. On the wall are faded outlines of what must have been posters at one point.

Standing in his room like this, you feel insane.

Why were you doing this? Because of one innocent picture? Because your inexperienced loner boyfriend didn't know the rules of modern dating?

You laugh at yourself and fall tiredly onto the bed, resting your elbows on your knees as you cradle your head. You must be so nervous about today going well your were inventing problems.

As you sit there a moment longer, finally starting to feel at ease again, you shift to glance around the room once more. As you adjust your weight though, something crinkles beneath the covers.

For some reason, a chill goes up your spine. You look down at the bed, at the plain blue blankets and sheets. A shaky hand grabs the top of the comforter and goes to pull it back.

"–I'm home!"

You jump at Leon's voice and scramble to your feet and out of his room as fast as possible. You have the mind to shut the bedroom door behind you, quietly.

You step into the living room as Leon is hanging up his jacket by the door, a gorgeous bouquet of your favorite flowers in his free hand. He raises his head to meet your eyes and flashes you a warm, loving smile.

That familiar blush is high on his cheeks, and he approaches you with the same adoration and happiness he always does. "I couldn't stand the thought of you waiting for me." He leans in to fake-whisper. "I ditched my paperwork."

And just like that, you're at ease and being pulled into his arms. "You're such a rebel."

He drags you into a kiss, one arm wrapped around your waist while the other still holds the flowers against your back. Your free arms loops around his neck to reciprocate the gesture.

You two kiss for a moment longer before he pulls away, though your grip on him doesn't leave much room between you. He smiles, warm and so full of admiration. It has your whole body buzzing with heat. No one had ever looked at you like that until Leon.

"What do you think?" He asked, nervousness creeping into his tone.

"Of what? The flowers?"

He rolls his eyes at that and untangles his arms from you. Reluctantly, you let him do so. "No, my place. It's not too...empty?" He looks shy now, unsure as he stands in front of you with the bouquet held at his side.

Now would be the perfect time to confront him about the photo, but how could you? He was already so nervous inviting you over.

So instead of saying anything, you smile. "It just means I'll have to help you liven this place up."

That answer seems to please him as he returns the smile with his own. You pull him in for another kiss, uncaring of the flowers crushed between you. Any questions you might've asked him fell to the back of your mind.

You'd ask him another day. Not like it really mattered.

#resident evil #leon kennedy imagines #leon kennedy #resident evil imagines #resident evil fic #yandere leon kennedy #originals #also it was literally dozens of candid pics of reader in that bed lol #rlly convenient timing leon? almost too convenient?

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polyhexian · 1 day

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Okay so obviously one of the stupidest funniest things about the Pregnant Belos AU is how Belos truly is stuck in this social and political nightmare just as much as Hunter and Jasper are, but like, the more I think about it the more ridiculous it gets.

Like sure, okay, Hunter never wants to be successfully "rescued", obviously. Jasper never wants Hunter to be successfully "rescued", even more obviously.

BELOS ALSO DOES NOT WANT HUNTER TO BE SUCCESSFULLY "RESCUED".

The stupid Belos-Jasper stalemate cold war ONLY WORKS because neither of them makes a move against each other. They're both hoping to keep this rickety peace that they've never even negotiated with each other and they're constantly hoping that the other one won't escalate the situation. Belos decides the effort to take down Jasper isn't worth it unless Jasper is actively working against him, and Belos is well aware that if Hunter gets "rescued" there is a 100% guarantee that Jasper will immediately actively work against him by making him dead.

So like. Belos is ALSO sabotaging the Coven Heads' attempts to rescue Hunter, is what I'm getting at here.

Like, Lilith excitedly outlines her newest Grand Plan to save Hunter and capture Eda, and Belos nods and immediately has a meeting with Terra where he drops hints about what Lilith is up to and Terra uses this information to go crash Lilith's mission and try and grab the glory for herself and that's how the two of them end up getting regurgitated by Hooty a mile away from the Owl House.

Belos has been scheming and plotting and manipulating for centuries, but Hunter is a big blank bubble of DO NOT TOUCH in the middle of his plans because Belos knows the second that kid is in his grasp, everything he's worked for goes to shit. So he's constantly trying to keep track of all his Coven Heads' and other officials' Super Secret Prince-Rescuing Master Plans and strategizing who is best to pit against who to make sure no one makes any progress in this whatsoever. It's absolutely galling because the Day of Unity is SO CLOSE and he REALLY should be focusing on preparations and coven recruitment so he can effectively murder these people, but nooOOOOooo, everyone's obsessed with his undercooked Grimwalker and he has to make sure the little brat NEVER ends up in the castle, because even IF Belos survives Jasper, his miserable excuse for a government probably would not, and he does NOT want to spend another few centuries starting this whole plan over from scratch, and also this is the last eclipse the Boiling Isles will see for DECADES, he CAN'T mess up this timeline and if he needs to spend any longer in this hellhole than absolutely necessary he's going to go insane.

So here he is zoning out in meetings, doing mental math on who is capable of beating who without beating them so hard that they end up dead and Belos has to find a new Coven Head, because that's ANOTHER thing he can't afford to mess up right now.

He wakes up one morning to find Perry Porter on the CB reporting on a disasterous overnight secret mission at the Owl House led by Kikimora and Belos just stares in horror because HOW did he not know KIKIMORA was planning this?? She actually managed to take them by surprise? Oh god, how close did he just come to Jasper-induced death? He watches the footage of Hooty eating scouts while Eda uses Owlbert to smack Kikimora away like a baseball and is just thankful that his enemies are competent enough to not let their little brat get captured.

And like, idk how much Jasper is gonna suss out, but he's not stupid and at the very least he'll realize that hm, okay, Belos isn't coming after us as hard as I know he could. He doesn't know the specific criteria in Belos's head that will make going after Jasper worth it, but clearly the current state of affairs means it's NOT worth it, so Jasper will just stay the course and keep it that way. He still thinks Belos might be doing all this for the greater good anyway, so it's no skin off his back to keep the emperor's secrets and not join a rebellion and ignore Raine everytime they try to pry information out of him.

The Boiling Isles equivalent of Dr. Phil is constantly trying to invite the Emperor and the Golden Guard onto his CB show to talk through their issues for the good of his ratings the empire, and every time Belos and Jasper burn the invite and pray that the other one is doing the exact same thing.

The Collector doesn't get it. Belos tries to explain the situation without getting overly frustrated and the Collector's just like "This sounds like a really stupid game" and Belos is just like "IT IS THE STUPIDEST GAME" and the Collector's like "I think I can see why everyone's playing it though, you're super mad all the time and it's HILARIOUS."

Belos and Jasper are just stuck in a really weird edition of the Prisoner's Dilemma and are doing their best to keep it that way.

Then Hunter is successfully "rescued" just before the Day of Unity and Belos stares at the kid in absolute horror that he manages to disguise as parental shock and relief. He frantically wonders if there's some way he can turn the boy loose, but no, the scouts are seriously upping security around the newly-rescued prince. Fuck. Maybe he can manipulate Luz again, get her to come re-kidnap the prince, it shouldn't be hard to convince her she has to stop the dastardly plans he doesn't have for Hunter, and Belos will give her the entry codes to the castle vaults and everything. (PFFFT what if Hollow Mind in this AU is literally just Belos dragging Luz around his mindscape like "Yes, yes, I'm Philip Wittebane, get over it, listen, I need you to kidnap Hunter.")

At some point he's desperate enough to stare at his scroll and consider sending Jasper a text message like I swear I didn't mean to capture your kid, it just kinda happened, he's fine, please don't kill me?

Caleb Wittebane's Hallucination Ghost somehow got ahold of Ghost Popcorn and it is NOT HELPING.

Like he is close, he is SO CLOSE to cleansing this perdition, he just needs to stave Jasper off a liiiiiiittle longer, he just needs to hold it together until he can get the draining spell started and then he'll never need to worry about Jasper again.

In the days before the eclipse, he downloads one of those dumb Countdown To The Day Of Unity! apps and obsessively checks it every hour.

ITS SO FUNNYYYYYY

Like the stand off... I think jasper is also on the same page that like. Jasper is powerful and he has a staff and he knows the damage he can do. And maybe he can't kill Belos. He isn't sure. But he can expose a LOT of dangerous secrets. He can kill a lot of people. He can REALLY fuck him over. But he doesn't want to because that could be bad. He could definitely die. Hunter could get killed. Not worth it. And also, jasper believes that even if Belos is A Monster. He still is trying to save the Titan from dying and he's the only one who can. So he doesn't WANT to fuck that up.

Neither of them want to fight because it's going to cause so much damage to everything they'd be fighting over. both of them would prefer no confrontation. And as long as no one starts anything... No one has to finish anything. It's just.... So funny.

The idea of Belos texting jasper "please come take him back and go home I don't want him" is so fucking funny. I suppose it's more realistic that at that point he's going to be holding hunter at the TIGHTEST possible leash like. He has to literally have him at his side at all times. He can't sleep, he has to be holding a knife to hunters throat at ALL times to keep jasper from jumping into action. The second he looks away jasper is IN there fucking shit up. Maybe it's right before the day of unity and Belos has to be incredibly sleep deprived and paranoid carrying around an angsty antagonistic sixteen year old boy while a man people think impregnated him is stalking him waiting for an opportunity to Kill and still trying to get everything to come together and Also there's this fucking human girl here wrecking shit and Oh My God Everything Is Terrible

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dolphin1812 · 10 months

Text

Although Marius’ speech is embarrassing (both because of the Napoleon content and because of how quickly he’s taken down), it’s also fascinating in that it reveals so much about his character through his politics.

“I am a newcomer among you, but I will confess that you amaze me. Where do we stand? Who are we? Who are you? Who am I?”

Marius starts with “we!” He’s including himself in this organization, even if he’s confused about their ideas and his position within this group. His own beliefs may be against those of Les Amis, but this is a major change from his earlier isolation. He’s not only surrounded by people, but viewing himself as part of them, and not just in an abstract sense (he started to think of France as his community after reading about his father, but Les Amis is a more concrete group).

“I hear you say Buonaparte, accenting the u like the Royalists. I warn you that my grandfather does better still; he says Buonaparté’. I thought you were young men.”

I’ll talk more about the focus on “great men” as a way of determining one’s politics in the next line, but I think this is also suggestive of Marius’ lack of exposure to other ideologies. Not having met many republicans outside of Les Amis, he sees Bonapartism as the most legitimate alternative to monarchism, and he associates criticisms of Bonaparte with royalism because that’s the main context in which he heard them. Gillenormand’s “ultra” politics also factor into this, as Marius lambasts them for saying “Buonaparte.” He implies that, if they’re already royalists who despise Napoleon to the point that they pronounce his name like that, they may as well accent the final “e” as well, thus assuming that the most extreme stance possible is the goal. In reality (as stated in the last chapter), Enjolras is the only Ami who says “Buonaparte;” the rest say “Bonaparte,” and Jean Prouvaire sometimes says “Napoleon.” None of them are pro-Napoleon, but they dislike or disagree with him to different extents, and they respect their differences instead of trying to reach the most intense position possible.

Moreover, Marius’ objection to their hatred of Napoleon on the grounds that they’re “young men” implies that he too believes in a form of “progress,” only his form of progress has Napoleon as the ideal instead of the Republic. It’s one thing for an old man “stuck in the past” like his grandfather to disavow Napoleon in favor of the monarchy, but he can’t see why men his age would hold a similar distaste for the man because he thinks Napoleon is the “next step” in governance.

“Whom do you admire, if you do not admire the Emperor? And what more do you want? If you will have none of that great man, what great men would you like?”

Marius is very prone to idolizing people. His Bonapartism came from idolizing his father, and he now idolizes Napoleon as well. That Les Amis don’t have one figure that all their politics revolve around, then, is bizarre to him. Of course, they have figures that they admire; they just don’t all agree on them, and their meetings don’t center around a single historical character. Enjolras, for instance, admires Rousseau, but Courfeyrac does not.

The “great man” discussion goes back to the Waterloo digression. It’s quite possible that Hugo wouldn’t object to Marius’ specific praises of Napoleon here, actually (even if personally I find his conquests awful and think it’s impossible for anyone’s bulletins to be “Iliads”). The Waterloo digression was full of compliments for Napoleon’s intelligence and skill, especially as a military strategist. The issue was that even if Napoleon was a “great man,” the age of “great men” was over; it was time for the people to rule themselves (”The disappearance of the great man was necessary for the advent of the great age, and He who cannot be answered undertook the task” - LM 2.1.13). In a way, the “to be free” scene more dramatically and succinctly reiterates the theme of that digression. Les Amis could challenge Marius on the specifics of Napoleon’s “greatness,” but they’re not actually relevant. What does matter is that being ruled by an Emperor is bad in itself.

Most of this discussion (or rather, brief responses to long rambles about how cool Napoleon was) takes place between Marius and Enjolras, which makes sense, given that Enjolras is the most intense politically and thus seems more provocative to Marius. Still, it’s interesting that Combeferre is the one who rebukes Marius. In the last chapter, he attempted to defend the Charter before Courfeyrac burned it, suggesting that he might play “devil’s advocate” and defend unpopular positions to sharpen his friends’ ideas or that, as he believes in gradual progress as well, he’s a little more open to compromise. His comment reminds us that, even if Combeferre seems “moderate” in relation to his friends at times, he’s still very much a republican, and he’s not going to accept tyranny for the sake of keeping the peace. Again, this is a callback to his introduction, which stressed that he abhors violence - even revolutionary violence - but prefers it to “stagnation.” Going back to Bonaparte, then, would be another form of “stagnation” that Combeferre, even with his hope in gradual progress without interference, has to reject. (And given that there was another Napoleon in power when Hugo was writing, it feels especially significant that Bonapartism is seen as so unacceptable that even Combeferre has to intervene).

#les mis letters #lm 3.4.5 #marius pontmercy #combeferre #enjolras #to be free remains such a satisfying line #although I'm starting to think I've spent a disproportionate amount of time thinking about Napoleon #because of this book #when I really hate Napoleon

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decepti-thots · 1 year

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Hi! I hope your day/night has been grand.

I’ve been a fan of Transformers for a long while but I was wondering if you had any recommendations on where to start with Transformers comics?

Hi anon! Sorry for the slightly late response- busy weekend.

This depends on a few things really. TF comics vary a lot in terms of tone, genre, take on TFs and what they're interested in when it comes to the franchise... so it kind of depends on what you're after.

Still, if you're looking to dive in, there's two big options here: IDW1 and IDW2. IDW1 refers to the comics published in a single major continuity between 2005 and 2018, with various distinct 'eras', while IDW2 refers to the shorter-lived new continuity that ran 2018 through to 2022.

Since you're already up to speed on TF as a whole by the sounds of it, that does mean I feel a bit less like I have to find you something that requires no prior knowledge, so for IDW1 there are a few good possible jumping on points I'd recommend, which are: start at Robots in Disguise #1, start at More than Meets the Eye #1, or start with Last Stand of the Wreckers. All of these start someone between a third and halfway into the run of the comics, but they either juuust precede or jumpstart a kind of 'soft reboot' that produced IDW1's main powerhouse comics they came to be widely regarded for, and they're a lot easier to recommend as jumping on points.

Start with RiD #1 if: you like large ensemble casts and a rotating list of plotlines in an ongoing comic with a large scope, you are interested in Cybertronians-on-Cybertron and worldbuilding relating to that, you are more in the mood for a comic that takes its setting and premise moderately seriously, and you want something that ties together into a big overarching plot. Well, plots, really. RiD is a little bit less newbie friendly than our next two picks, but it doesn't really require you specifically know IDW1 lore or backstory, just that you can pick out well-known TF characters and know a bit about the franchise's core assumptions. It's famous for including a lot of intricate continuity in its overall story, but it mostly (re)establishes that continuity internally, so it's fine to start here. It has political intrigue and lots of Schemes and some really great characters- Barber writes most issues from a certain characters' implicit perspective, so you see a lot of different points of view on what's going on. The short version: RiD picks up when the Autobot-Decepticon war has just ended under uneasy circumstances, and neutral Cybertronians have started coming back to the planet en-masse. It's got a cast of Autobots, Decepticons and neutrals trying to work out how to run the planet in the wake of that.

Start with MTMTE #1 if: also if you like large ensemble casts but more in the sense of character-focused plotlines with an interest in interpersonal dynamics driving the storytelling, you want something that falls more into space sitcom/dramedy tone wise, you are interested in a comic that looks at the franchise through a very different lens than most other incarnations, you enjoy high-concept story ideas. This one is even more newbie-friendly than RiD, because it mostly features characters who either have not appeared in previous IDW1 stories, or have only appeared a few times. The short version: MTMTE picks up when Rodimus, upon the end of the war, decides he doesn't want to stay on Cybertron and watch people bicker over who's in charge and manages to persuade around 200 other people to go on a wild goose chase around the galaxy looking for the mythical "Knights of Cybertron" to fix things instead. This has pretty much gone off the rails by issue two because he gets the ship stranded in a kind of Star Trek Voyager style initial setup, and also everyone on board turns out to have about a million personal issues that makes everyone being stuck together probably not a great idea. Ultimate road trip from hell. Sidenote: this is The Comic What Has Some Romance Plotlines in it, if you like that, you'll wanna check this one out- but contrary to popular belief they are subplots, and there's plenty here if it's not your bag, haha.

Start with Last Stand of the Wreckers if: you do not want to read 50+ issues of a massive ongoing comic, haha. LSotW is a standalone miniseries that is only five issues long and tells a complete story that requires basically no prior IDW1 knowledge to just jump into, and it finishes that story in those five issues. It has a smaller, tighter cast and knows where it's heading, so if you want something you can just pick up and read, try it. This one is an action story with some serious horror crossover elements and is notable for being significantly darker than the vast majority of TF media, and specifically at parts for being very violent (think, oh, homages to slasher or grindhouse horror, I guess). It's all still cartoon robots of course, but do be aware. The short version: three years before the series, the Autobots lost one of their wartime prisons to the Decepticons and it went radio silent. The series follows the black ops Wreckers team, newly assembled after things went tits up for them on Earth, who now have to go in and try to fix things. Anything more about the reasons for sending them in would be a spoiler, but since the entire point of the Wreckers team is to do suicide missions in which most of them wind up dead, it obviously doesn't go super well. Sidenote: LSotW does have two sequels (Sins of the Wreckers and Requiem of the Wreckers), but was written to be standalone.

These are by no means the only IDW1 comics you could try, but they're the easiest ones to just hand to someone like, 'here are some comics that are readable and fun and cover most bases, and you will not have to prep by reading 37254 articles first'. So. They are my go-tos.

Now if none of the above sounds a hundred percent what you're looking for, there's also IDW2! This one is nice and simple by nature of being a shorter-lived project: start at Transformers #1. It was a hard reboot into its own new continuity and can be read 100% without any other comics knowledge. IDW2 might be a place to start if you enjoy worldbuilding-heavy storytelling at a slower pace, unique takes on pre-existing TF lore, heavily interconnected plotlines that gradually come together, and pre-war intrigue as opposed to mid-war action or post-war clashes of personality. It ran for a little over forty issues plus some side-miniseries, which the wiki lists for you. (My advice: try most of the Galaxies stuff if you want. Definitely read Escape. Then War's End is the actual end of the series.) Unfortunately they lost the license, and so IDW2 wrapped up wayyy ahead of what was intended, but they did have time to wrap things up with an ending.

...which brings us to how to read the comics. Long story short: you can no longer legally buy them, at least in English! IDW lost the license in 2022, and as of yet the new licensee has not even been announced. It is looking increasingly likely these are gonna stay out of print for a while. Theoretically the new owners might choose to reprint them, but god knows if that will actually happen. Also, the physical trades are getting quite expensive, so frankly, you're gonna be pirating them.

Given this, here. (They're all in English.) These are issue-by-issue and not the collected versions, which sometimes have corrections in them or additional content. They're also in .cbr/.cbz format, which requires a comic reader app. So if a anyone needs anything else or wants the trade versions (which often have minor amendments/corrections in them) let me know, I have the whole lot DRM free for IDW1 at least, in formats including .pdf if you can't read .cbr/.cbz, and can always upload them.

#reference #idw #idw2

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soulsilvers · 1 year

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ult kantrio headcanon masterpost

⬇ here i will be compiling as much as possible of my very specific hcs about my favourite play dolls from pokemon that ive rambled about everywhere else, usually at 3 in the morning. and will be updating this post whenever i will. this is still just a small percentage of everything going on in my head lmao. ⬇

does not include futureverse, give it time in the oven.

RED 💖

mute boy born to a family of jolly, talkative and enthusiastic fishers. they make this their entire personality and reds house is very fishing themed. hes... absolutely not as enthusiastic as a kid and sick of the smell of fish, but enjoys it as an adult.

his pikachus a much bigger beast than most pikas in comparison. Supreme Champion.

during G1 he is very polite and well mannered in contrast to green and leaf. his room is tidy and he goes to bed early. though he defends all dumb rowdy shit leaf pulls anyway. this is reflected in his pkmn being more of the gentle giant sort.

he has learned a lot of cooking + baking skills from his mom and the smell of his outdoor cooking can instantly summon leaf and green (reluctantly) to him during G1. he is a huge sweet tooth as well and prefers tea over coffee.

only looks retired as an adult; often sleepy and napping and walking everywhere in crocs. boring as hell but hey its endearing when red does it. but he is very much in peak physical strength and still quickly sweeping other trainers' teams. despite his usual serene demeanor he can still go for the most rash decision and just go apeshit w his pokemon.

TERMINALLY OFFLINE. no way is he going to understand what "ratioing team rocket epic style big W" is going to mean. types bluntly, like your dad. last tweet from him was six years ago, a 240p quality video about encountering an ursaring in a hut in the middle of the woods.

his usual pokeball throw resembles a baseball pitch.

exactly just as geeky as he is athletic. he enjoys the battle tree, but he still wishes for more. his dormant interest in wildlife biology and conservation that he had as a child is soon reignited and hes gonna get that PhD.

enjoys haunted locations too much. even leaf is confused by this! he decides to buy the shittiest abandoned house. which is also haunted. but reds eyes sparkle as always, man is FLEXING and determined to renovate this thing while green is frantically experiencing literally every emotion at once from jumpscares to "huh red knowing how to renovate is kinda ehehehe" then again pacing around sobbing over what were they thinking buying this house.

GREEN 💚

his and daisy's mother was a musician with a similar personality to him. his father, prof. oak's son, was more like daisy and a humble gardener w grass pkmn by his side. neither were too interested in battling or going on adventures.

he is extremely multifaceted when it comes to styles and music tastes, for example. somehow this man can combine prep, jock, geek, stoner and punk rock to his style all at once. his music taste is ALL.

nowadays his eevee is sporting the same hairstyle as him.

millennial still trying to make his podcast a big thing. his poke-twitter is fairly professional. relatively offline, not hip enough for zoomer trainers.

a francoboo. had his boy crazy era in kalos and thus more experienced than red when it comes to relationships. some of his french ex bfs still chase after him but shit bricks every time red answers the door instead.

at least he got them to take good fancy pictures of him in kalos. and he cooks kalosian recipes quite well, spoiling red with those nicely decorated crepes. but likely he experienced some paris syndome too. when you realize lumiose city kinda often smells like piss...

not very artistic. he draws like a 5 year old.

bad at figuring out what lesbians like. he buys leaf ellen degeneres merchandise :(

hes just kind of. eternally stuck in 90s slang and still having his default insults be so hilariously lame they wouldnt sting anyone. like buttcheek.

this is a more recent thing about my design for him but his left eyelid is perpetually droopier than the other.

LEAF 💙

showed up inexplicably in pallet town one day and simply asserted herself. no further elaboration. her origins remain a mystery. she biked all the way inside oak's lab and kept biking.

diversity win! in this universe leaf is closer to being an "ash counterpart" than red is.

since shes always seeking new thrills, she lives in a van as an adult. it looks pretty amazing and cozy from the inside and plenty of room to cook! on the outside theres like. airbrushed venusaurs and wizards and venusaur wizards of all sort.

a big ball of positive meatheadness to the point where shell def blow up a lot of things thinking everythings gonna be just fine. some people want her dead for this.

absolutely will put anything in her mouth and sometimes this is terrifying. tries to always make her cooking look like something "fun" and colorful that kids would enjoy but usually fucks up the look.

on-off relationships with women, she makes a new rival with lgbt undertones every two months. popular gal like that. dont ask her for relationship advice.

quite online and very charming. types like cher on social media. still, she remains popular and loved amongst the youth.

had a geocities in 2004 where she documented her adventures (bc i want G1 to be as 2004 as possible like that). it was an eyesore to look at.

often forms a trio with may and kris and they go on roadtrips eeeeverywhere. they either love her one day or think of her as a dumpster fire personified the next day.

#trainer red #trainer green #trainer leaf #red oak #green oak #trainer blue #blue oak #pkmn #pokemon #kanto trio

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givemeonebreath · 1 year

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Sir Nobody

(Notes before beginning: *Spoilers for A Link to the Past and related manga, and Oracle of Seasons and Ages manga. *Reminder that manga reads right to left.)

I've said before that I don't subscribe to the fancanon that Legend is Zelda's brother, because the point of Legend - or, indeed, any Link - is that they come from humble origins.

But that's not entirely true.

In A Link to the Past, Link is the last in a bloodline of knights that Agahnim seeks to destroy.

But he didnt know that.

In Shotaro Ishinomori's A Link to the Past comic, after Link's parents (both knights) disappeared into the Dark World, his uncle deliberately kept him from royal politics, and Link believed his parents to have simply died. He gets called into the role of the Legendary Hero, completely baffled, wondering why the hell some ordinary kid can suddenly telepathically communicate with the princess.

It's much the same in the Akira Himekawa manga. Link has lived a docile life being an apple farmer, raised by his uncle, believing his parents died when he was a baby. His uncle suggests that when Link was younger he had dreams of being a swordsmith, and Link fobs him off thusly -

(Also, he cooks!)

Later, when shit starts to hit the fan, it's evident that Link was totally invested in his orchard, and the future he'd seen for himself was that of a provider.

He was thrust on his journey with just as much bewilderment as most of the other Links.

Here is also a good place to compare the wording of his uncle's final dialogue in the Japanese vs English releases of the game. English gives us, "Save the princess. Zelda is your...", which of course gave rise to the theory that Zelda "is your... sister." The original, though, is "Protect Princess Zelda. You are, the princess's..." which leads more naturally into something like, "... final/only hope", or even more bluntly, "knight". And, the use of save is quite vague, whereas protect has stronger connotations with the specific duty of a knight.

Ultimately, he decides it doesn't matter where or who he came from, the only self that matters is the one right now.

In the Oracle of Seasons manga, Link is born with the triforce on his hand; his family knows he's destined for great things.

And he does know, in this case, that he comes from a long line of knights. But he doesn't want to be one. He wants adventure, not glory. (Also fits the characterisation of Legend not wanting a leadership role.)

Like, when Impa notices his hand -

And actually, the only reason he ended up on an adventure is because his grandma convinced him to take the knights' trial in Castletown, where he was then transported to Holodrum.

Maybe this advice stuck with him.

So we all know Zelda lore is a cobbled together mess, right. Link's Awakening came after A Link to the Past, so it was said that Link was on the boat in the first place travelling away from Hyrule to "continue his training" after defeating Agahnim in ALttP.

Then the Oracle games came out, and they (according to Hyrule Historia, at least) are set between the previous Hero of Legend games. By all accounts, it seems his Seasons and Ages journeys weren't all that voluntary; he didn't travel to Holodrum and Labrynna so much as he was magically sent there. And he was on his boat trying to sail back to Hyrule from those places when the events of Link's Awakening happened. Or... sailing to yet another new land to continue his training, if you read the Zelda Encyclopedia.

Everything, all over the place.

(This is to say nothing of Sir Raven's influence on Link actually wanting to become a knight in the Oracle of Ages manga.)

My point is, no matter how you want to interpret the Hero of Legend, I still think he meant it when he described himself as a "nobody". At the very least, he wants everyone (and himself) to believe he is. I also think there's interesting potential in the fact that he's mistrustful, disdainful of knights after having them turned against him, and maybe because of this he doesn't want to telegraph that he comes from a long line of them.

#hero of legend #linked universe #lu legend #lu? analysis #theorising and shit #idk how to tag man #legend of zelda - the franchise where everything's made up and the points don't matter #ramble on

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revacholianpizzaagenda · 2 years

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I gathered some Judit thoughts in DMs earlier today and here they are:

My framework is that the police is shown as not being able a/o willing to help Harry in his moment of need. Overall, they just exacerbated his issues until he annihilated himself. The bro environment did not help him make one step toward getting over the breakup. In practice, during game events, he's working the case and they are not helping, not engaging with Martinaise, and then intentionally leaving him wounded and without backup after a bloodbath and with a murderer at large. But the three posse members we see are very different in how each of them arrives to the same result of being completely fucking useless. Judit specifically... tries to help. Over and over, she tries to reach out to Harry.

She's the one who went to check on him on Monday! She's the one who wishes him good luck from afar on the island. Crucially, she tries to go "what if we didn't act like assholes tho" several times during the Whirling convos. And yet it doesn't amount to anything. Her empathetic outreach is stopped in its tracks. Jean says no so no it is. I think in a wider examination of how cops have failed Harry specifically and Martinaise in general, she's sort of the rare good apple who still can't and won't go against the uncaring system (here exemplified by Jean who has his personal motives for shutting out Harry and also stands in for Gottlieb who denied him care, Pryce who didn't take a suicidal man off the case, Torson and MacLaine who point and laugh, etc)

So, like. What's she doin there I think that not unlike Kim, she wants empowerment. Unlike Kim (at least for now), she is spectacularly ill-suited for the job (and that's a good thing, personality-wise!). She is trying to steel herself, trying to mold herself into the girlboss she is not. There's one line in particular that made me think that:

Jean: "She's being polite enough by not telling you to fuck off." Judit: "I am not. Polite."

But she is!! She is extremely kind and polite and kind of a wallflower. When she declares that she isn’t, I feel that she is trying to make herself into something she is not. And the way she’s going about it makes me sad! I like her but I see her stuck in this dead-end trajectory where she may end up with Kim's worst job-induced traits.

If you add Trant back into the mix the result is that everyone joined the RCM because they want to be Batman and that's not a good thing 😂 (Trant DESPERATELY wants to be Batman)

And she's trapped in a marriage she doesn't seem to like, based on that one very telling description Although I would like to hear her husband's side before assigning blame - the situation could very well be as simple as she says it is but I can also picture a few scenarios in which someone who's working a shit pay job with long hours and a rancid culture could complain that their spouse isn't pulling their weight and.. not be exactly in the right. I also wonder how her job change (assuming she's thirtysomething like Jean, she's still just a patrol officer... Sexism could be a factor but she probably also joined recently -ish) factors into her relationship troubles. Cause? Consequence? Both, like for Harry in a different way?

#disco elysium #judit minot #meta #mine #thanks cosmo for helping me consolidate a few thoughts!

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anghraine · 2 years

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A lot of Austen literary criticism is really bad, IMO—often because it's more concerned with using Austen as a vehicle for the critic's pet theory than her work in itself, or obsessed with compartmentalizing her politics in a very false dichotomy kind of way (and frequently an ahistorical one, also). And frankly, I suspect that many critics just do better with messier authors, and tend to flail a bit with severely disciplined ones like Austen.

All of that said, some of them do have really interesting insights and such, and one that's always stuck with me was an essay I read many years ago that pointed out how Elizabeth and Darcy increasingly perceive only what they want to perceive through the Kent scenes in particular, culminating in the Hunsford proposal. There's a lot going on in that scene, but the critic argued (as far as my recollection goes /disclaimer) that a major feature of it is that neither is quite "real" to the other in that scene.

This is pretty obvious in terms of the overview of what Darcy's proposal is like—although his feelings for her are real and Elizabeth never questions that afterwards, the proposal itself seems addressed less to Elizabeth specifically than to [woman of less consequence with unfortunate connections] but without engaging with who Elizabeth specifically is as a person (in some Mary Russell Mitford AU where he fell in love with Jane instead, the proposal would likely be identical).

Something that struck me in some of the responses to my post about Darcy's proposal vs Mr Collins's is that the people who went "well actually they're equally bad" or even "Darcy's is worse" had a very strong impression of what Darcy says in the first proposal, even though we hear almost nothing of what he actually says, only its impression on Elizabeth.

This isn't to say that her reception is so detached from reality that it wasn't actually bad, but the critic pointed out that we hear less and less of Darcy's direct dialogue as tension builds up to the first proposal, because Darcy is not fully "real" to Elizabeth as an actual person, either. Her responses to him at this point often tell us more about Elizabeth than about who Darcy is or what he's trying to say, and this is mechanically underscored by the increasing reliance on vague Elizabeth-POV summaries of what he's saying (her misunderstandings are still sometimes pretty obvious, but the overall trend is executed so smoothly and Elizabeth's POV is so engaging that many people miss it anyway).

So it is important not only that Darcy's first proposal is bad, but that we don't actually hear most of it and can't judge the exact balance of Darcy's arrogance vs Elizabeth's uncharitable assumptions and how both of these obscure the other's personhood, yet audiences often come away with strong convictions about what happened. This is probably reinforced by the argument after the proposal and then Darcy's letter, in which we do get their direct voices at considerable length, and this marks the turning point in their relationship.

The twinning of Elizabeth's rejection and Darcy's letter put both in a position where the reality of each other's autonomous, specific personhood and existence becomes undeniable. Darcy would like to just be righteously angry and Elizabeth would like to dismiss the letter, but they are fundamentally incapable of doing either because of who they are as people, and the way this is reflected in dialogue is very interesting to me.

(People sometimes attribute the omission of Darcy's first proposal to Austen's general caginess around such scenes, but given that we do hear Darcy's second proposal as well as other declarations of love or proposals in Austen's other novels, I find that explanation pretty unsatisfactory. And the contrast between getting less and less dialogue from him -> barely hearing any of the proposal -> the usual barriers shattering in their fight and afterwards in the letter works incredibly well IMO—too well to be accidental with an author this deliberate.)

Anyway, I'll see if I can ever find the original passage again, since I think I was in high school when I read it (= 20 years ago) and just don't remember the source. But I do retain a strong impression of teenage me going "oh" in the way that makes literary criticism so great when it's done well.

#me: ooooh halloween in gw2 is a go!#also me: okay. but about my otp #anghraine babbles #anghraine's meta #austen blogging #ivory tower blogging #elizabeth bennet #fitzwilliam darcy #otp of otps #austen fanwank #long post

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bulbabutt · 1 year

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say what you will about bay april (and trust me, megan fox deserves so much better) at least she's proactive about looking into things and does things without the boys-hell she's the reason they're even alive in the first place, she saved splinter and the turts as a kid

doesn't erase vernon and mikey being constantly horny on main for her or that weird technique they force her to do to get info out of stockman in oots's opening segments but still, give her credit, she's strong-willed and has a sense of justice and tries to do what's right

hmmmmmmm ok. theres a lot to say about bayverse april. and i specifically avoided talking about movie aprils cuz it was going to get repetitive and long (like 1990 april is very similar to 87 and 07 april is basically 03 april)

but with bayverse, you're right, she is the central character in that movie who drives the plot. but thats because of the megan fox of it all, being that shes the biggest star there and also because bay had an obsession with her (to her detriment bad vibes all over the fucking place holy shit leave this woman alone) we're still framing aprils ass in the shot, still being creepy about her, despite the fact this movie is trying to be from her perspective (for more info on that aspect i think you just gotta watch lindsay ellis' "the framing of megan fox" video about transformers, because its the same shit here)

and just because its like 87 april (because this movie is pandering to 87 fans) doesnt mean theyre really add anything or even understand the concept of what makes 87 april good in the first place. like i said in my post about 87 april, what makes her great is that the turtles fall into her story, and that we are centred on the news room politics of it all. the human world the turtles interact with is her life.

(this got kinda long so its under a cut)

in this movie, we change the misogynistic boss burne thompson into: whoopi goldburgs burnadette thompson. which. hm, color and gender blind casting for burne thompson is. a way to do it i guess. (i do know whoopi is in this movie because she wanted to be in a turtles movie, no disrespect there) but it removes that core element of reporter april fighting her shitty boss. in this she's now just a regular reporter working at a normal news station, but also we're still giving her the girly aerobics story. so, who's decided that if her boss is a black woman? thats kind of fundamentally changing the implications of why shes stuck doing that job, its no longer because shes the woman reporter, and is now just because thats what shes been assigned. now its not her fighting sexism, its her just not wanting to do her job. a shitty one, but its no longer because of a sexist work place.

and then her story of being a reporter is she gets FIRED for being a BAD reporter, because shes crazily rambling about turtles to her boss with no real sources. which...87 april didnt do that, her point wasnt to find the turtles, it was to use her job to help them. the turtles are the secret, not the story. for a movie that likes pandering to 87 and nothing else, they missed this concept entirely

(side note that isnt important, when shes rambling to the roommate about them.... this movie panders enough to 87, why is the roommate not just named irma. shes only in that scene. seriously, it should have just been irma.)

and then. the vernon fenwick of it all........ why the fuck. did you do this. why make him the only character who believes her? oh sorry, not even believes her, simply THINKS SHES HOT. SO GOES ALONG WITH IT. i know they wanted to put casey jones in this movie, but then went NOOO that would be SILLY if the guy hanging out with her is casey (we want to save him for the seqeul) so lets make it another reporter. uh vernon. hes from the original! and thus we change vernon from being the rival reporter who hates her because shes a woman whos better at his job than him, into just: her creepy co reporter who has a crush on her. and since he's the co star here, she has to not tell him off for his bad behaviour. maybe he'll even get a date out of it!

(again, if she needed a sidekick, irma is right there, you put the other two here, why not irma)

and the choice to make her a part of the turtles origin story is, in my perspective, very much like my issue with 12 april's destined to be part of the story thing. shes part of this story because her dad created the turtles. yes, she saved the turtles and splinter, but its less of her own choice in the matter, its because she was the daughter of the man who made them. its the opposite of what i think makes her a good character in the franchise, someone who is hunting for a story and gets in too deep, and happens to be near enough by the turtles that they get her out.

like lets compare her to the april closest to her, 1990 april. thats an april who gets into the plot via going hunting for a story on her own. there's some kind of gang up to no good and she wants to get to the bottom of it. she does get to the bottom of it all on her own, she learns via interviewing immigrants that the foot is the organization behind it. shes doing something no one wants her to do, shes going against what her boss, and what cops think she should be doing, and the foot literally try to kill her because SHE is hunting for THEM. she ends up in turtle plot because raphael HAPPENS to be around when the foot find her. its HER story. the foot is after HER. the turtles in that movie end up losing splinter and then fighting the foot BECAUSE april was looking for them. THATS what makes her have agency in the story.

i do think a lot of you guys are missing my point here though (no offence!) so let me try to explain it better.

its not just about if we see april be a self sufficient character who's central to the plot, or even what her personality is like, its whether she exists in a real way outside of the men around her. its if her choices are important to the story. she doesnt need to have saved the turtles, know how to fight, kicked the shredder, or have been right about whatever story is going on. the question is: is she in the story because she did something on her own to get to it? is she a character who matters without the men in her life? can she stand on her own? do you care about her life? what are her aspirations, how is she trying to achieve them?

based on all that, i think 2014 april is in fact the weakest april. they're only making her seem like 1987 april because, and i dont know if ive said this anywhere yet, men who watched 87 when they were kids think shes hot. that is the only value a lot of people have placed on her. thats her legacy to a lot of people. its fucked up, and this movie doesnt do anything to dissuade you from thinking that.

sorry to go off on your ask, but bayverse (specifically the first one) really got no aspect of any tmnt thing correct. not april, not shredder, not splinter, not casey, and not the aspect of how these turtles are even ninja (i think everyone involved shouldn't be allowed to make another piece of media for putting that fucking ninjitsu book in the fucking sewer)

#tmnt #april oneil #april o'neil #tmnt april #i know people like this movie #but i cant stand it #and i hope ive given enough reasons why #thoughts

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raayllum · 1 year

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S5 Speculation Theories Post

Because I kept delaying this post since I wanted to see if any of my theories / thoughts about where S5 may lead would change, and the only thing that has is that I feel more firm in my belief about one of them, so here it is: a dumping ground for the various paths S5 could take pertaining the main cast, the mage fam, Sunfire politics, Aaravos, the coins, and Rayllum.

Mage Fam

Much of my original thoughts concerning the mage fam, specifically Viren eventually stepping away from Aaravos and doubly down on “my life is not worth the cost of freeing him” (whether that’s the safety of the world due to untold danger/destruction, or just for Claudia’s well-being) still hold very true to me. We see Viren wrestle with a lot in season four. In 4x02, he reckons with some of the consequences, opportunities, and desires he’s struggled with over the first three seasons. But we also see his continued guilt over what Claudia has gone through as a result of everything, best seen perhaps in the nightmare-memory he has with the “She is not an asset, she is my daughter.”

While the end of 4x09 showed Viren regressing in some ways in picking up his staff, I think the end credit art with him passing out, the realization that his killer (Rayla) is still alive, and the situation to free him growing increasingly more desperate will push him (and Terry) and Claudia further and further apart. We’ve already seen that Terry has a good heart and that he’s stuck by Claudia because he believed in her reasoning: it’s understandable to want to save your father. However, much worse will happen if Aaravos is unleashed, something that Terry currently doesn’t have much knowledge of, and if he learned some of it, I think he would start having reservations.

And we see how Claudia is when people don’t agree with her or doubt her methods.

So I think Claudia staying under Aaravos’ thumb post-s5 (re: him being shown whispering in her ear in 4x04, as opposed to any of his other prime pawn options in the intro like Viren and Callum) means she’ll continue to be the driving force behind freeing him, even if Terry and Viren possibly defect.

I also think we’ll see a lot more of Soren and Corvus, not only because comments from cast and crew have made it clear they’re going to get more screentime, but also because it would give Soren a space where he could express some of what he’s going through now that he had an unsuccessful reunion with Claudia and knows that his father is alive again, because boy, that’s a Lot to unpack. Although not quite developed in full, I was partially right regarding Soren stepping up as the group’s protector in a lot of ways; he’s the moral compass when Rayla refuses, he’s the one who runs to and gets Ezran out safely, he’s looking out for Callum’s feelings, etc. I think we’ll only see more of that as we go on.

Now onto the kiddos themselves

Regrouping in Katolis / Ezran

This is largely based off an audio clip of a pleased Soren, exasperated Opeli, and tense Ezran of a future season we got at a con like, 2+ years ago, but I think it’s possible the main group (or at least Ez) will head back to Katolis to regroup for a bit in season four. The Dragang may have decided to switch gears from trying to stop Aaravos outright, somewhat, and trying to focus instead on what they’re going to do if/when after he gets out.

Given that the Sea of the Cast Out is closer to the border / Katolis and quite far from Umber Tor, coming back to Katolis to discuss politics with the other kingdoms (now calling for solidarity and giving us a Pentarchy update) could be part of Ezran’s arc next season if it isn’t mostly reserved for S6, as well as possibly expanding on his parallels to the Orphan Queen, particularly if he and Callum disagree on where to take things. It’s now been confirmed the other human involved in jailing Aaravos was a human mage and puzzle master, so that could be another generational parallel to draw on for the brothers as well as Viren and Harrow.

As I mentioned in a previous post, season four is book ended by Ezran’s overestimating peoples’ ability to move on and/or be rational about things. We see this with his well-meaning but ultimately painful birthday party for his brother in 4x01, his miscalculation regarding the Dragon Queen’s visit in 4x03 even as his speech demonstrates his ability to grow, and him risking his life in failing to calm Rex Igneous down in 4x09. This is not to say Ezran has no successes in season four, but I wouldn’t be surprised if season five pushes Ezran even further into realizing that words cannot always solve things. If he does have to go to the Pentarchy in a call for solidarity, it would be a very interesting parallel and inversion to S2 Viren, in which Aanya was the high mage’s only opposition and now Ezran’s only ally.

Speaking of politics, let’s move onto the

Sunfire Side of Things

Given Karim saying “This rising sun may become a falling star,” the fact he’s a mage specifically (and not just a warrior), his deep interest in history, and that he’s impatient in ways that Viren was (even turning against his sibling-turned-monarch figure), I think even if he doesn’t fall prey outright to Aaravos in some manner, he will be playing into Aaravos’ hands. Part of this is due to out of context spoilers from SDCC 2021 that included indications of Janai and Karim having intercut but opposing speeches and more Sunfire elf conflict. We also know, according to the supplementary material of Callum’s Spellbook that foreshadowed Rex Igneous eating a jelly tart, that Sunfire elves also have a light being mode similar to their heat being mode, but it’s used for healing rather than combat.

The story of the first Golden Knight being one to take down a mad king in another sibling conflict makes me wonder if Karim will eventually win and temporarily topple Amaya, only for him to be more progressively unwell / unhinged until Janai reclaims her throne and defeats him, thus reaffirming her status as queen as an honourable Golden Knight. I’m still hoping they’ll reconcile and I think they will, given Karim’s sympathetic motivations and the fact they still have love for each other, but I wouldn’t be surprised if S5 ends with Janai losing her kingdom. From there, perhaps either Janai or Amaya will be injured, with Karim using light being mode to heal one or both of them and fix some of his wrongdoings.

The Coins

In my mind, there are three main paths that Rayla’s feelings about the coins could go next season. Now, I don’t believe her parents will be getting out successfully next season. There is already so much that has previously been set up and it seems necessary that Aaravos will be released next season (but more on that later). Additionally, a Q&A confirmed that the stack of four coins in one of the S1-S3 credits was intentional, and that there’s a fourth person imprisoned in the coins. Therefore, there’s an important player that is still with Viren and Claudia and who still needs to be freed. So like I said, I think there are three main options in no particular order of likeliness:

1) Rayla keeps the coins a secret at first from Callum and co., as she doesn’t know what she wants to do with them, and she doesn’t want to be something like a burden when there is already so much going on / feels like she has no right to ask for help after everything

2.1) Callum encourages Rayla to look into the coins even if that takes her away from their current mission (a la “You have to go get that dagger, we’ll find help for the egg” in 1x07 and “You’re right” about the dragon in 2x07) and she goes, leading to some kind of run in with Kim’Dael, the Bloodmoon Huntress she encountered as a child. This could explain the out of context spoiler from SDCC 2021 as to why Callum and Ezran appear to arrive in Elarion on their own without Rayla present, or could.

2.2) Callum becomes obsessed partially with looking into the coins in an attempt to fix everything / Rayla’s problems (because if her problems are fixed then she’ll stay, obviously) in a more intense version of what we see in Through The Moon and for a similar purpose. This could lead to him considering dark magic as Jack De Sena alluded to an interview pre-S4 but in the lead up to the season release, and it has also been alluded to that the only way to undo the coins is dark magic at all. While I don’t think that dark magic will be able to successfully free them (cause it’s a bit too muddled thematically right now) or that it’ll be happening yet, attempts could still lead down a dangerous path, or even Rayla asking Callum to look into freeing her parents for her as, after two years of failing and failing to catch the bag in the first place, she feels like she can’t trust herself.

3) Even with (or without) Callum’s encouragement or knowledge regarding the coins, Rayla resolves to stay by his side and to help them defeat Aaravos / watch over him. This leaves room for them to get the fourth coin and possibly have some failed attempts to get it / free her parents, but also the way clear for the season finale to revolve around stopping Aaravos from being freed from his prison. It also keeps Rayla where she needs to be (by Callum’s side) during a future possession or the like scene, as they wouldn’t waste that set up and the clear light and dark symbolism (but more on that later).

As of right now, I think option 3) is the most likely as it keeps the main group together for the season climax in the most straight forward manner as well as pushing Rayla to evaluate and choose what matters to her most, especially in wake of leaving Callum and now wanting to stay, and her persistent drive and determination to stop Viren. There’s not much point in bringing her parents back into a world that, according to her, might be ending.

But for all of this as always, we shall have to see. For the next to last section specifically, I want to talk about

Rayllum

in season five in general. Simply put: I think Ocean is going to be Our Season, for a number of reasons. Even more so than season three perhaps. So let’s get into the reasons shall we?

1) Now that Callum is able to admit to himself that Rayla’s presence in his life is always worth the pain she could bring, and that he still cares about/loves her, they’ll get to start repairing their relationship verbally rather than just through action the way they largely did in S4.

2) Season four focused more on Callum’s feelings 100% (not unlike how S2 focused more on him, only for S3 to focus more on Rayla’s emotional journey) and with the coins as a catalyst, I’m sure S5 will focus more on her in general. This means diving deeper into what she may have gone through during the timeskip as she clearly went through something, what inspired her to come back, and more explicit insight than implication in terms of how she views herself now, even if she know how she views their relationship and that she’s still scared of losing him: “I risked losing the best thing I ever had: you.”

3) With the confirmation that we’re seeing Tidebound elves next season, it seems a surefire thing that Book 5 is Ocean. This is exciting for so many reasons. The first is that ocean/water is a particularly loaded motif and symbol for Rayla and her shame/guilt complex/emotional issues. The second that this is a perfect stage for Callum and Rayla’s full reconciliation. Not only for stakes and romance as the world possibly ends, but because they both have a drowning motif

And Callum has a breathing / suffocation motif as well that is also interwoven in his relationship with Rayla in the first place, i.e. he breathes better when she’s around. It was primarily established in season two and I was very happy to see season four bring it back around.

So it plays perfectly into my Mutual Salvation Theory in which Rayla will save Callum from Aaravos emotionally/mentally from Aaravos, ultimately, and with Callum possibly saving Rayla physically as well (since she can’t do everything alone; Claudia has a tendency of using Rayla’s former plans against her, i.e. threatening a boyfriend for leverage; S4 setting up a question of what Callum would be willing to give the cube up for; this always being their emotional pattern; and why I think Callum being possessed can’t be solely why Aaravos gets out).

4) Mutual salvation theory / Callum connecting to the Moon Arcanum / Light and dark motif.

It seems a done deal in some ways that Rayla will ultimately be the one to break Callum free of possession/brainwashing and save him emotionally and physically from Aaravos. This may result in Callum connecting to the Moon arcanum as he re-connects with Rayla over the course of S5 and finally letting the past four seasons of Moon arcanum foreshadowing culminate in a beautiful symbolic and literal bow. This would also allow Callum to reconcile the light and the darkness he choose a middle path, if not the light outright.

The Rayla and Callum as each other’s light in the darkness motif was true even in the previous seasons, although S4 made it as about as overt as it possibly could without stating it outright, gearing up for something truly spectacular in season five. This would play in perfectly with both Callum’s reconciliation of the Moon arcanum / reconnecting with Rayla, as well as Rayla being the “other path” he can choose away from this path of darkness, literally and symbolically.

Last but not least for this section, a post regarding the theory multiple people have put forth in regards to Callum leaving the group out of fear, although it’s not very extensive as I think if the season does go this way, it’ll be a finale or one episode plot line and I think it ties into the “possession” plot line more so that I’ve already addressed.

Aaravos

I think the Startouch elf is getting out of the mirror for sure by the end of season 5 since S6 has to give the heroes a chance to defeat him in person and it won’t work (hence why S7 exists). I lean more towards Callum’s possession plot line being fulfilled / finished in S5 as well since it has to be before Aaravos gets out, or Callum will dip then (but that’d be S6 as Aaravos isn’t likely getting out any sooner than the end of S5 I’d presume). I think the Key of Aaravos will be used and/or in his possession by the end of the season as well, given the consistent way the Key is introduced with the Star, Earth, and Ocean primals on display when it comes to talking about secrets or other foreshadowing. I don’t think possessing Callum is a requirement of Aaravos’ endgame prison release goal, merely a means to manipulate him.

Ultimately Aaravos’ speculated release is most interesting to me because it means that everything the core trio and co. will attempt in S5 is inevitably futile. They cannot win and they cannot / will not stop him from being released. If you want more details on precisely how that might go, please check out this tag.

Conclusion

That is it and I am tired and I hope you enjoyed! If there are any other elements of S4 / the show I didn’t touch on in terms of what may happen in S5 that you’d like to hear my thoughts on for whatever reason, feel free to drop them in my inbox! Thank you for reading and happy holidays.

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