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evanescentjasmine · 4 years

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Writing Egypt and Egyptian Characters: Rusty Quill Gaming Edition

I’ve finally caught up with the Cairo arc of Rusty Quill Gaming, which I was anticipating and dreading both. Fiction set in my country usually reduces it to a caricature of itself, especially when it takes place in the Victorian era, but considering everything they’ve said in their metacasts I was hoping Rusty Quill Gaming was the exception.

It wasn’t.

I’m aware the game world plays fast and loose with history and setting, but the problems in this case are more than just inaccuracies. However, because I want to help fic writers and artists be able to portray Hamid and his family well, this resource will be split into two parts. The first part will tackle details I’ve been asked about with regard to the setting; it may touch on things RQG went wrong, but I’m writing it primarily as a resource for artists and writers. The second part will be my criticism of RQG, and why I found the Cairo arc actively harmful. This includes discussions of Orientalism and some racist text.

I should also preface this by saying I’m not a historian. Everything I say in this resource is a combination of what I grew up with and what I remember from school, supplemented by Google and guesswork. I’ll be explaining my thought process throughout, which can help you see what’s actual history and what’s my extrapolation.

Part One: On Egypt

Historical Context:

Figuring out the history of Egypt in RQG terms is a bit complicated, so bear with me because this will take a while.

In real-world history, Egypt was a Roman then Byzantine province from 30 BC to around the mid 600s AD, at which point the Arab conquest swept through and Egypt became Muslim.

What this means is that when the Meritocrats took down Rome and took over the world, Egypt was still a Roman province. That gives us a several hundred year gap before the Arabs that may have maintained the same culture? Or morphed a little back to some pre-Ptolemaic Ancient Egyptian, given their Meritocrat, Apophis, is named after a great Pharaonic serpent?

Either way, given Hamid’s name and the fact they live in Cairo, the city built by the Arabs, we can assume the Arab conquest still happened somehow, despite having a Meritocrat in Egypt. Maybe a Meritocrat out there is Arab and settled in Egypt for a bit with or before Apophis? Maybe it took a couple-hundred years for the Meritocrats to get all the previous Roman areas under control? Maybe there was a whole war and the Arabs won and settled and eventually they got to a truce or got absorbed into Meritocratic lands?

Many Muslim dynasties ruled throughout the period from the mid 600s to the 1500s. Given the lack of Islam in this world, probably the Arabs were unified by some Pre-Islamic deity/deities and brought them over as well, because I refuse to just sweep everything under the broad Greek God rug.

In the 1500s, another Muslim dynasty took over--this time, from outside of the country, which is why it’s considered separate from all the rest. At this point, Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire until the 1800s, which is when the Mohammed Ali dynasty started to try and secede and rule independently. And there was a brief blip of the French occupation for two years around then as well.

And, of course, we can’t forget about British colonisation, which started in the late 1800s with a veiled protectorate.

Presumably, since France and Britain are also Meritocratic and it seems like Apophis is currently ruling, we can disregard everything from the Ottomans onward. This changes, or should change, a ton, because Ottoman rule informed a lot of things from fashion to slang to nobility and so on.

What we’re left with is most likely a Cairo that is still Arab but with much more Pharaonic influence, as Apophis is in charge, as well as continuing Greek influence due to the Gods. I am not a Coptic Christian, so I cannot speak to how these changes in history and religions would affect the Coptic language and culture, but no doubt it would still be around.

There would also be a bigger, more long-standing connection to other Meritocratic countries. This explains why Hamid was British-educated and so many people speak such good English without a British occupation to create the power disparity that would make that necessary to rise in Egypt and such a mark of status.

However, this presents several confusing and contradictory aspects of the world building:

Why doesn’t this go both ways? Why aren’t there people in England and France who know Arabic or are influenced by Egypt? All we get is that the Tahan family are big. That’s it. If these countries are equals, it sure doesn’t look like it.

If Apophis is pharaonic and Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous...why would they hollow out a pyramid to put a bank inside? It’s a tomb. It’s made to bury dead kings in a way that follows possibly still-existing cultural and religious beliefs. It’s the equivalent of someone building a bank inside a mausoleum. It’s bizarre.

Relatedly, if Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous, why is Carter mentioning the Rosetta Stone? Why would the knowledge necessary to translate hieroglyphics have been lost?

I mention these questions so fic writers can keep them in mind while writing and, of course, it’s entirely possible to create a workaround. For example, maybe the Rosetta Stone is supposed to be translating something else, like an ancient hidden magic?

Describing Cairo:

I want to make one thing very clear: Cairo is not, despite Alex’s description, like Vegas. While we do certainly have hotels and casinos, to reduce the city to only that is very harmful for reasons I’ll go into at the end of this resource.

Cairo is a very old city with a mix of architectural styles and is very heavily Muslim in real life. In Arabic, its tagline is often “city of a thousand minarets,” so clearly RQG Cairo will be fairly different. Given Apophis’ influence, Ancient Egyptian styles might be more prevalent in Cairo, but very likely not in the form of pyramids unless those pyramids were for the dead. In real life, some buildings do incorporate Ancient Egyptian flavour, usually just in the form of lotus columns or hieroglyphs. These would only be found in public institutions, however, or, frankly, tourist-bait.

Residential buildings tend to be clustered very close together and, since it’s an old city, streets are crowded and winding as the city keeps building on itself and spilling out of its previous bounds. Estates do, of course, exist, but I’d suggest against using Bryn’s example of Alhambra as a setting for the Tahan home. Alhambra is a palace fortress in Spain and, although it’s Andalusian and therefore influenced by Muslim architecture, it’s very different than anything in Egypt. It’s as absurd as saying a posh British character lives in a house that’s basically Versailles and leaving it there. I’ve included images of some Egyptian residential estates below, all from the 1800s to early 1900s.

And here are some photos of Cairo in the 1800s:

As you can see, not quite Vegas.

A fic set in Cairo can certainly still have the Cairo strip with all the casinos, since that’s an aspect of canon, but a place like that would probably be geared more to tourists and foreigners than locals. So long you’re aware of this while writing, and that Cairo would exist beyond it, you should be fine. It might also be worth having characters explore the actual city.

Weather:

The stereotype is that Egypt is just hot and sand year-round. It isn’t. The further south you go, the hotter it will get, so that Upper Egypt (which is in the south, yeah), is hotter than Lower Egypt, which is where Cairo and Alexandria are. Alexandria, by virtue of being on the Mediterranean, has fairly cold (for us) and rainy winters and mild, humid summers. Cairo gets very occasional rain and has harsher summers but is also dryer.

And, of course, a thing to remember is that even in the depths of the desert, the morning might be quite warm but the night will be quite cold as well.

Sandstorm season (called khamaseen) takes place from April - May but in the middle of Cairo it’s more of an annoyance than anything else.

Language:

Since they speak Arabic, it’s important to note that spoken Egyptian Arabic is very different from written Classical Arabic. Egyptian is a mishmash of Arabic, Coptic, a bit of Greek, and a bit of French (and, in the real world, some Turkish too) all smashed together. Accents differ from city to city, and Cairene Arabic is best known for the fact we pronounce the letter jeem as geem (so all soft Gs are turned into hard Gs) and tend to replace the letter qaf with a glottal stop.

This means that a Cairene wouldn’t be called Jamal, they’d be Gamal. A Cairene would pronounce burqa as bur’a.

Since religion plays a big part in language, RQG Egyptian Arabic may be a bit different. For instance, the greeting most people associate with Arabic is “Assalam alaykum” but that’s very specifically Muslim or at least associated with Islam, and might not have been as wide-spread given...y’know, that Islam doesn’t exist. I’m not saying it’s incorrect to use, just explaining the context.

Alternatives could include “Sabah/masa’ el-kheir” which means “Good morning/evening,” and “Naharak/Naharik saeed” which is, “May you have a good day.”

Fashion:

Although this didn’t really feature in RQG, I’ve received a lot of questions about the period’s fashion and honestly it’s my favourite thing ever so I probably would have touched on it anyway. I’ll only go into broad strokes, as there are plenty of regional variations and, again, I’m no expert

Women

Egyptian women covered their heads and sometimes their faces not out of religiosity but out of a cultural expectation of modesty. This may well have come about as a result of the Arab/Muslim cultural majority, as to my knowledge this wasn’t the case in the Greek and Roman periods, but women of all religions covered their heads so that would likely still be the case in RQG’s Arab Egypt.

This isn’t with the hijab we know today. It may have been a cloth or kerchief tied over their heads and then the melaya laf (which is larger cloth, almost a sheet) that they wrap around themselves and over their head, as follows:

The black face-covering was called a burqa or bur’a (not the same as a Muslim burqa, which serves similar modesty functions but is a separate thing) or a yashmak and may have been opaque black, white, or netted, such as in this picture:

Underneath the melaya they would be wearing a long, loose, patterned dress:

Upper class Egyptian women tended to wear Western dresses with a white yashmak that covered their faces and heads. A yashmak is Turkish, however, and without Ottoman influence this style and name might not have caught on in Egypt.

Men

While the melaya laf and yashmak have disappeared from Egypt, the traditional men’s gallabeya and ammama, or turban, are still seen widely today. The gallabeya (or jellabiya, outside of Cairene Arabic) is a long, loose garment with wide sleeves and no collar. It’s in muted, neutral colours, usually lighter ones like white or beige in the summer and navy blue or grey in the winter. You’ll have seen examples of it in the pictures of Cairo above, and here’s another one:

Middle to upper class men and civil servants, however, tended to wear English suits with a tarboosh, or fez. Since fezzes were also a result of Ottoman rule, RQG Egyptians might not wear them.

And yes, impressive moustaches were also very much the fashion.

Names:

The running joke is that Hamid’s name is unnecessarily long, but my name is longer, and I don’t think that’s particularly unusual. We don’t usually go around introducing ourselves with all of them, admittedly, and I’m not sure whether Hamid does this as a way to indicate he’s overly fancy or because Bryn doesn’t realise it, but four names is not long. My ID boasts five, and I know of at least one more.

Arabic naming conventions use patronymics for all children, regardless of gender. What this means is that my name and my brother’s name is identical except for our first.

Mine is Jasmine + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name

And my brother is also First name + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name.

Egyptians do not typically have last names, but an important family may all choose to identify under a name and use that as their last, such as the Tahans. In my case, I use my fifth name as my last name and introduce myself in everyday life as Jasmine Fifth Name. Notably, my brother does not, and goes by First name + Dad’s name instead. This isn’t unusual. On paperwork, however, we still have the same name.

Additionally, Egyptian women do not take their husbands’ last names in marriage, nor do children take any of her names.

I’m not sure why, according to the wiki, Hamid’s sisters seem to have taken their mother’s name. Following Arabic naming conventions, they would all be First Name Saleh Haroun al Tahan, and their father would be Saleh Haroun al Tahan. A possible workaround might be that halflings have their own naming conventions that mean daughters have matronymics and sons patronymics.

A note to podficcers: please google name pronunciations beforehand because Alex and Bryn’s are actually often wrong. Ishak, for instance, is not pronounced Ee-shak. It’s Iss-haaq or Iss-haa’, because of quirks of the Egyptian accent I mentioned earlier.

Part Two: Criticism

I understand it can be difficult to portray a country different from yours with accuracy. I understand the RQG crew will not have had the perspective on Egypt and Cairo that I do by virtue of living here. I do also acknowledge that I’m sure none of this was actively malicious or on purpose.

But it doesn’t have to be on purpose to hurt, frankly, and given how often the RQG crew have talked about their responsibility with a game that’s intended for an audience, I expected better. Bryn has spoken about not wanting to fall into stereotypes for Hamid and, to be fair, by being a non-religious fancyboy Hamid does neatly avoid the religious zealot and the noble (or ignoble) savage routes. Unfortunately, he falls into another, which was hammered home by the portrayal of Cairo and the Tahans as a whole.

Our first glimpse of Cairo, after the sandstorm clears, describes it as “basically Vegas,” with hotels and garish casinos catering to the rich all along the “Cairo strip.” From then on, our only other images of Cairo are vast estates and a pyramid in the desert.

The only named Egyptians we meet are the Tahan family, who are introduced through an absurdly lavish estate compared to the palace fortress of Alhambra, a gambling problem that apparently runs in the family, murder, and corruption, as the head of the family who has already covered up a crime for one son then turns himself in to protect the other.

Then, to top it all off, Hamid is apparently utterly incapable of understanding why letting his brother get away with murder is an issue until the paladins point it out.

Do you see the pattern, here?

I understand this was aiming to be a criticism of the rich and powerful, but the fact remains that the Tahans are the only representation of Egyptians we get. While this may not be harems and hand-chopping levels of Orientalism, the image presented is of Cairo as a den of excessive wealth and vice, and Egyptians as corrupt and immoral.

This isn’t new.

The Middle East and North Africa (as well as India and China and everywhere else considered “the Orient”) has often been tied to images of wealth and overt splendour, usually hand-in-hand with the Oriental despot and corruption. This view went beyond just fiction and influenced the policies with which we were ruled.

Cromer, Consul-General of Egypt, wrote books called Modern Egypt. He had this to say about us:

“The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most slipshod description. . . . They are often incapable of drawing the most obvious conclusions from any simple premises of which they may admit the truth.”

In his opinion, our inability to follow logical reason led to us being inherently untruthful and, therefore, immoral. Similarly, British statesman Balfour was of the belief that:

“Lord Cromer’s services during the past quarter of a century have raised Egypt from the lowest pitch of social and economic degradation until it now stands among Oriental nations, I believe, absolutely alone in its prosperity, financial and moral.”

Egypt was under British colonial rule from 1882 - 1952.

You can see, I hope, why a storyline focused on an Egyptian family’s corruption in an Egypt characterised almost entirely by its casinos and one lavish mansion was very uncomfortable. The fact Azu was one of the people trying to explain morality to Hamid keeps it from sliding into a clear East vs West dichotomy, but the fact remains this is a British show featuring British players and this is the story they chose to tell.

The rest was just salt in the wound, really.

I expect mispronounced names and pyramids and jokes about camels in most media, but rarely do the makers of said media then go on to pat themselves on the back for doing their “due diligence” on a metacast about sensitivity.

I see weird naming conventions and mispronounced names and “basically Vegas” and “crocodile steak” and “camel’s milk froyo” and I do not see due diligence.

I see a setting that barely looked past Cleopatra and I do not see due diligence.

I see a storyline that shows only excess and immorality and corruption and I do not see due diligence.

I see a disregard for me and mine, and I do not appreciate it.

Literature I’ve referred to in writing this criticism:

Orientalism (1978), by Edward W. Said

Orientalism in the Victorian Era (2017), a paper by Valerie Kennedy

Orientalism in American Cinema: Providing an Historical and Geographical Context for PostColonial Theory (2010), a thesis by Samuel Scurry

Popular Culture, Orientalism, and Edward Said (2012), an article by Robert Irwin

#rusty quill gaming #rqg #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #resource #criticism #orientalism #representation #long post

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realcube · 3 years

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What BNHA Heroes have their s/o saved as in their phone

Class 1A x Reader

+ Aizawa and Shinsou

tw// cussing, cringe smh, lots of love <3

Class 1A

Yuga Aoyama

he has you saved as ‘my ✨star✨’

and honestly you love it because he calls you that in real life too

Mina Ashido

she has you saved as ‘bubs 💞💓💖💝💘💕’

the only reason there isn’t more hearts was because of the limit smh

she changes it every few weeks to a new pet name though

also she calls you that irl sometimes

Tsuyu Asui

she has you saved as ‘my flower 🌺’

honestly, the only reason she put you as that rather than your name because of your intense love for flora

every date you take Tsuyu on is always to somewhere with beautiful scenery and an abundance of flowers

Tenya Iida

he has you saved as ‘beef stew’

he originally had you saved as ‘(Y/N) (L/N)’

but you showed him that you had him saved as ‘Honey’ so he wanted to save you under a pet name too

however, he couldn’t really think of one so he asked for you assistance and you told him that most cute pet names come from food

“So, what food do I remind you of, Iida?”

“Beef stew.”

Needless to say you both were laughing your asses off for a while after that

but it’s still cute because beef stew is his favourite food just like you are his favourite person

Ochako Uraraka

she has you saved as ‘(L/N) <3 ’

she wanted to use a heart emoticon but her flip-phone doesn’t let her smh

Also she doesn’t have a pet name for you yet but she is working on it

like she tried calling you ‘baby girl’ but then you explained to her the sexual undertones to that name so she stopped and she’s been too embarrassed since then to try again

Mashirao Ojiro

he has you saved as ‘tail boy’s s/o 🤪’

y’all had a whole-ass discussion about this one time lmao

y’all were brainstorming ideas for what you should save each other as in your phones

you didn’t want to have something basic like ‘babe’ or ‘my heart🥰’ but rather something funny and you suggested (jokingly) to save his contact as ‘tail boy’

and rather than being offended like you thought he’d be, you both ended up laughing your asses of together for a solid 5 minutes (at least)

so you saved his contact as that and since he couldn’t come up with a funny nickname in relation to your quirk, he just saved you as ‘tail boy’s s/o🤪’

Denki Kaminari

he has you saved as ‘ASH CECHUM 😩😳💦🌚💓🧀'

plz don’t ask about the emojis idek

anyway, he saw that you saved him as ‘Pikachu <3′ which makes sense considering his quirk..

so he took it upon himself to save your contact as - in his own words - “That guy who owns the Pikachu from Pokémon’

however, despite the fact he has watched Pokémon before, he had no idea how to spell Ash’s second name and apparently the thought never came him that; ‘hey, maybe I should google it.’

so he just sounded it out

as for the all caps, contrary to popular belief , he does know how to turn it off

he just chooses not to for the aesthetic and also it takes a lot of effort

that is why he doesn’t use proper punctuation either

Eijiro Kirishima

he has you saved as ‘love bug’

honestly, you’re not too sure of when or why he changed your contact name after y’all started dating but..

you thought it was cute but..a bit cringe

obviously you didn’t say anything about it though, you weren’t trying to be mean to your boyfriend for no reason

it’s not like he called you that irl

however, he’d be out of his mind if he thought you were gonna save him as something like that

the best he’ll get from you is ‘Kiri babe 🤘' (get it? bc...rock!)

Kouji Koda

he has you saved as ‘love bug’

ASKJFCWB YOU THINK IT IS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD ADORABLE OML

like it makes sense because he like talks to insects and stuff and you’re his lil love bug cause you are his lover and stuff hhhhh

also because of the size difference between you and him, i mean, you are basically the size of an insect compared to him

in short, Koda supremacy 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♂️

Rikidou Satou

he has you saved as ‘sugar pie’

honestly, poor man

he was completely clueless when you asked him to save you as something cute

like, he know what you meant...but he had no idea what to go for

so you chose for him 👍

and you made a pretty good decision tbh I mean, it’s cute! it relates to his quirk and all

and he has started to call you that irl sometimes and it always makes your heart go brrrrrrr

Mezou Shouji

he has you saved as ‘hunk’

ok, i know i said Satou was a poor man but let me just say

THIS POOR MAN

you told him it’d be cute if you both saved each other as cute pet names in your phones and dead ass him response ‘you’re not my pet though..’

AAAAAAAAAAA

so after a lot of explaining, as an example you whipped out your own phone and showed him how you had saved him as ‘hunk’

...he really went and just copied you

you thought that was so funny and precious though so you didn’t ask him to change it

Kyouka Jirou

she has you saved as ‘my melody 🎶’

ok, so it started when she noticed that you use the same pen everyday - a My Melody one

she thought that was so fucking adorable and she kinda started teasing you for it; not that you minded though

she also thought it was so cute when you’d get all flustered

so one day she just decided to change your contact name to that

it also kinda tied in with her love for music (but mostly her love for you uwu)

Hanta Sero

he has you saved as ‘my honey nutter butter biscuit’

after Kirishima called his s/o ‘love bug’ infront of y’all that one time, you both spent the next hour taking the piss and laughing at how over-the-top couple nicknames are sometimes

so just #for the meme he saved your contact as a hyperbole of what those cringe couple pet names are like

oh and you have him saved as ‘My beloved sweet peach taco’

Fumikage Tokoyami

he has you saved as ‘Helena’

yeah, he wanted to be edgy and save your contact after a MCR song

(no, he does not know that Helena is about Gerard’s grandmother but don’t you dare tell him)

Shoto Todoroki

he has you saved as ‘(Y/N) (L/N) 💖’

you texted him something during lunch one time to see his reaction while you were sitting next to him but then you noticed that your name in his phone was simply ‘(Y/N) (L/N)’

you mentioned it briefly but you didn’t make a fuss out of it because it really wasn’t a big deal

however, he asked to see what his name in your phone was and you showed him

you had saved him as ‘Babey ( •̀ ω •́ )✧’

he went home and did some research on some good pet names to save you as in his phone

after that, his search history kinda looked like;

‘pet names’

‘pet names for humans’

‘pet names for lovers’

‘cute nicknames for my girlfriend’

‘cute emoticons’

he deadass came in the next day and the first thing he did was pull out his phone and show you the emoji he put next to your name

“Look, (L/N). I found this emoticon and put it next to your contact name in my phone.”

yes, he sound like boomer..obvs

he spends 90% of his free time training rather than on his phone

and the time that he is on his phone, he isn’t using emojis, he is searching shit like

‘how to hack into a credit card without the PIN’

Tooru Hagakure

she saves you as ‘❤😘’

no, she doesn’t need to save you as your name to remember who you are

she’s not a peasant

Katsuki Bakugo

he has you saved as ‘pretty stupid face’

originally it was just ‘stupid face’

but you noticed it and just dropped a subtle comment like “hey, that’s mean.”

so he came in the next day with ‘pretty’ added to the start

“i am genuinely too nice to you sometimes.” he’d say

“THE STUPID FACE PART IS STILL THERE”

“I KNOW BUT I ADDED PRETTY TO THE START!!”

“Wow, tch, such I gentleman-”

“I know-HEY WAIT WAS THAT SARCASM?!”

Izuku Midoriya

he has you saved as ‘sweetest love muffin’

you that one couple i mentioned in Sero’s headcanons?

yeah, that’s y’all

you are both literally that couple

“No, you hang up.”

“No, you hang up!”

“Nooo, cause I’ll miss you”

“I’ll miss you moreeee”

he literally threw a bunch of his favourite adjectives into a pet name lol

also your contact name for him is something on a similar wavelength

Minoru Mineta

I know most y’all would’ve even give him your number lol

but for those who would 🤮

he has you saved as ‘sweet cheeks’ or sumn

Momo Yaoyorozu

she has you saved as ‘My McMuffin’

HOL UP LET ME EXPLAIN

ok so she let you take her to McDonald’s cause you wanted to see her reaction since she is used to gourmet cuisine or whatever

so it was sure to be entertaining

and it was

but not in a good way

she was almost sick after she had a bite of a big mac and then she tried to wash it down with the Sprite but then she fainted for like a solid 10 seconds

once she came back, she obviously wanted to leave..so you did

A year later, y’all are in the town and both of you are starving

But Momo realised that she didn’t have her card on her or any money but that was fine because at least you had your debit card on you

You had enough money on it for a taxi back to Momos place and a McMuffin each

Obviously she didn’t want one but when you started eating in front of her, of course she wanted a taste

and so it was love at first bite

she loved it so much so of course you bought another one for her and she consumed it in a millisecond (not literally)

so now she has your contact saved as the one thing competing against you for her love - a McMuffin

Shota Aizawa

unfortunately he does not have your contact saved as ‘kitten’

instead, in his phone you are saved as ‘The One 💙’

simple, yet it effectively shows his admiration - just the way he likes it

and he only added the emoji to make your name stand out more so he could easily tell whether he was gonna ignore the following message or not

because if Mike is texting him telling his that he needs the extremely important documents that Aizawa keeps in his coded filing cabinet, Shota will be like -.-

but if you text him asking for him to pick up chocolate on his way home, he’ll be like 🏃‍♂️

Hitoshi Shinso

he has you saved as ‘big daddy’

plz don’t ask

it’s an inside joke between you and him

okay well, if you must know

y’all were trying to come up with the most absurd nicknames for each other that kinda sound legit

some other gems

‘Muscleman’

‘Big scary snookums’

‘sexy giant’

163 notes · View notes

imagines-mha · 3 years

Text

1-A as promposals

its 3:53am someone tell me to fix my sleep schedule PLEASE

└─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

Deku: Depending on who you are the promposal will change. Like if u know him well he’s definitely the type to hold up a simple cardboard sign with “prom?” on it cus hes so simple and sweet like that... but if he DOESNT know you,,, oh my god dude im so sorry you’re gonna die cus hes so cute. He’ll probably do it on instinct- like approaching you in the halls of school and just stammer for a lifetime before being all “you wanna go to p-prom?? With me? Please?? 🥺” Dork energy

Todoroki: you think this mf isnt up all night watching “cute promposals” on youtube?? Hes gonna go ALL OUT cus my mans is so confused lmao. He’s so embarrassing im so sorry like he’ll take over Nezu’s intercoms and be like “y/n l/n… i think you’re beau- principal nezu sir please give me this moment… youre beautiful and i wanted to as- *wrestling for the intercom noises* give me back the damn intercom i wasn’t do-WILLYOUGOTOPROMWITHME?” He gets detention. It’s worth it, he thinks.

Iida: this mffff so traditional but so so awkward. Does he show up to your door with a bouquet of your favourite flowers and chocolate? No- that would entail asking you where you lived and that would be extremely uncomfortable for both parties. Does he write you a poem? No- what if you don’t like poetry? In the end he just surprises you when you’re alone with a red rose and a “would you like to be my date to the prom, y/n?”

Bakugo: yeah nope dont expect anything cute. He sees you, he likes you, he wants you, he gets you. Thats it. He’s so confident like where df does he GET IT FROM. He’ll straight up just go “you’re coming with me. Be ready at 8.” Like won’t even say the word PROM he just leaves u to figure it out yourself smh really bakugo

Kirishima: cute, sweet, and kinda cringy but it WORKS BC ITS HIM. He’ll go to the extremes like todoroki only it’ll actually work. Like he’ll spell out “prom?” with flower petals, stand outside your house with a radio and a sign, literally arrange an entire skit with the bakusquad just to ask you out and you’ll die. Literally imagine. And he’s the BEST DATE EVER i just know.

Kaminari- crying he’s a dork like such a dork. He thinks he’s gonna be that type of guy to swoop in and win you over easy as pie, but mans has a REPUTATION of being rejected so his confidence ain’t as sharp as everyone thinks. He tries 100 times and backs out nervously EVERY TIME. Mina eventually just throws him toward you and he spits it out in the heat of the moment but its really fucking cute

Sero- another nervous backer out-er, only he keeps it to himself. “hey sero who are you going to prom with?” “oh i haven’t decided yet” *goes home that night and googles promposal ideas instead of doing homework for 5 hours straight*. He’s so the type to do it through a pun- like getting a pizza and being all “i know this is cheesy but will you go to prom with me?” Dmcnsjdnwjndjdjs he’s such a nerd

Ojiro: he’s probably the most calm about it tbh. Like he won’t freak out or anything (in public, he can’t sleep the entire night before). He’ll stop you in the hallway and talk to you about it for a bit, making sure you aren’t going with anyone else before smirking and saying “i was just wondering if you wanted to be my date?” . Simple, but super effective. Makes you feel like the only person in the entire world

Shouji: literally he doesn’t even need to ask you just say yes lmaojk. He’s another sweetiepie- not too over the top but then again its definitely not simple. He’ll get you a bouquet of roses and use one of his arms to place one of thm into your hair while goving you the most gentle look. He’ll ask “will you go to prom with me?” super chill as shouji is but you die anyways cus hes enfnendnednwdndj ur so lucky

Tokoyami: oh my sweet god above you would swear he was trying to perform on stage. If he’s feeling a little 👉🏻👈🏻 shy, he’ll write you a love letter- describing in deep detail every little thing he feels for you (and it’ll make you cry bc he notices all the tiny things you didnt even realise you did and loves you for them all the same). But so help you lord if he’s feeling confident. He’ll walk down the UA steps like he’s about to fight God and hand you black roses, being all “y/n..my love, will you be my dark queen to the prom?” N ur like “fumikage we’ve been dating for over a year of course”

Kouda: aAAAAAAAAA shy baby please send him help. Takes like a month of the class hyping him up but eveNTUALLY. He does it. Let’s be real if koji kouda has a crush on you you have the personality of an angel and probably love animals so he isn’t afraid of humiliation at all. He’ll get you alone in the school gardens and ask if you have a date, then be like “me neither...i-if you want we uh...i was gonna ask...if uhm…” . HE FREEZES UP OH NO. just kiss him and that’ll let him kno

Aoyama: this dramatic mf i love it. If you’re being asked by aoyama- he’s gonna make it memorable. And i don’t mean glitter and diamonds and singing to you in the hallway while riding toward you on a segwey noooope. Aoyama’s a romantic at heart- he’s gonna set up a full ass treasure hunt around the school- getting the entire class to help him do it. When you reach the end he’ll be standing on top of the roof with a bouquet of your favourite flowers and he’s like “y/n...i need a prom queen…and there’s noone id want it to be more than you…”

Sato: y’all know what im gonna say right lmaoo this dork bakes you smth. It’s defnitely tailored to your favourite: like if you love cupcakes he’ll bake you cupcakes and spell out “P R O M ?” On them. If you like cake he’ll attach a cake-related pun in the box- either way he’s gonna win you over by sheer sweet tooth alone and everyones jealous

#mha #bnha #mha headcanons #aoyama yūga #sato rikido #bakugo katsuki #todoroki shouto #izuku midoriya #kaminari denki #sero hanta #kirishima eijirou #tokoyami fumikage #shouji mezo #koji kouda #ojiro mashirao #tenya iida

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foundthe8wing · 4 years

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Okay, doing this over here because my main tumblr is usually a place for me to vibe and I don’t want all the bullshit tied to that account, but basically: I’m really angry and disappointed with the dndads cast for how they’ve put a lot of the minors in their fanbase in danger. Everything below is a repost from twitter (with permission from the OP, crypticjoy), and I’ll link the thread in a reblog.

Under a cut because it’s long and potentially triggering (content warnings for grooming, sexualizing minors, and sexual assault)

[OP tagged the relevant cast accounts; I added slashes here bc I’m not sure if those same urls exist on tumblr and I don’t want to be randomly tagging people over here]

5:49 PM Sep 5, 2020

“I don’t usually do this, but: the way that the cast of @/dungeonsanddads engages with their audience is actively dangerous to minors, and they need to get it together. (cw for discussion of grooming, sexualizing minors, sexual assault)

First off, there are some iffy jokes and situations in the podcast itself. I’m not going to get into all of it right here, but have a google doc: [doc will also be linked in reblog]

Yes, the kids in #dndads are fictional, but that doesn’t mean this stuff doesn’t affect real kids listening. a. it normalizes talking/joking about kids in that way and b. There’s a lot of inconsistancy and confusion on the lines they draw--

Paeden saying “baby” is weird but Ron sitting in Terry Jr’s lap isn’t? I’m confused. You know who the fuck relies on that type of confusion and unclarity? Fucking predators

And I’m not saying every in-character decision has to be perfectly moral or acceptable, but the way the cast, out of character, discuss what’s weird and what’s not sends a lot of mixed messages. And that’s legitimately dangerous.

So then you take all of this, and you add a patron discord server that lets nsfw discussions run virtually unchecked--you create a fandom space that allows adults to discuss kinks, and porn searches, and just, all this other stuff, with teenagers...

... and it becomes a breeding ground for grooming and abuse.

The creators aren’t responsible for babysitting their fanbase or for how people engage with their content outside of their spaces (though, again, I’d urge them to be very careful about what kind of messages they’re sending)

But they ARE responsible for taking basic steps to keep the spaces that THEY create and engage with safe.

“But the rules for the server say 18+!” The rules say you have to be 18 *or have parental permission.* They also say to keep things PG-13. That’s vastly different than establishing something as an adult-only/nsfw space.

“Minors shouldn’t be joining/listening anyway!” The cast can’t control who listens and neither can I, but there’s a difference between knowing teens are listening to you discuss sex with your adult friends vs facilitating conversations between teens and adults on those topics.

“If people are uncomfortable they can just leave.” First off, this situation isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s unSAFE. Second: fuck that. It’s not on minors to set and maintain boundaries about this stuff; a lot of them literally do not know how

Not because they’re stupid, but because they’re young and inexperienced. It’s the responsibility of adults to set and enforce healthy boundaries around sexual discussions, and this particular group of adults has done a fucking terrible job

(Maybe don’t encourage listeners to DM you about kinks! Maybe especially don’t do that when you’ve communicated, intentionally or not, that making and escalating sexual jokes is a really good way to get a reaction from you guys)

I get that they didn’t expect to have so many young listeners, but to be aware of that fact and make no adjustments whatsoever is irresponsible and it WILL lead to someone getting hurt. Does their “young, thirsty, female” audience only exist to them when they can laugh about it?

And let’s be absolutely 1000% clear: this isn’t an issue they’re unaware of. The stuff I’m talking about is an ongoing problem with how their server is run, but it came to a head with one specific situation very recently:

They released a bonus, patron-exclusive episode about the dads taking the bdsm test. Given the general state of the server, I was worried about where those discussions might lead, so before it dropped, I reached out to @/anthony_burch to express my concern

He told me he raised the issue with @/fwong and Ashley, meaning at least three members of the dndads team were aware of the situation, and decided it didn’t warrant any type of preemptive action on their part

(alternatively, it means Anthony lied, which would be a whole separate issue)

[Image ID: a discord DM conversation from Sep 1, 2020, between a crossed out username and reverendanthony. It reads:

OP: heyyyyy have you guys considered that releasing an episode focused on the bdsm test is almost inevitably going to lead to a bunch of 15 year olds sharing their results in your server because you might want to get ahead of that before someone gets hurt

reverendanthony: oh holy shit, really good idea

OP: thanks, I know it's easy to veer into that territory just because of the nature of your show but I wanted to bring it to your attention because I figured you don't want to create a situation that's like, actively dangerous (and for the record I'm willing to discuss what I think would make it safer but I'm also not going to assume you want/need my input, obviously you can handle it however you see fit)

reverendanthony: No, thank you for bring it up, I really appreciate it -- I just raised the issue with Freddie and Ashley

OP: Good to know, thank you /End ID]

I’m not overreacting. I have seen this shit happen, to my friends and to myself, and watching the dndads cast take absolutely no meaningful action to prevent situations like that from occurring directly under their noses makes me fucking livid

I can guarantee that the #dungeonsanddaddies fanbase includes both predators and survivors of abuse, grooming, etc (including those currently living through it), and I need them to think very, very hard about which group they’re prioritizing.

And I need that choice to be evident through more than just their words, because it doesn’t fucking matter how much you “really appreciate” that I brought up my concerns if you do fuck-all to address them.

It doesn’t matter how many times you say the word “consent” if apparently everyone was okay that “Darryl gets sexually assaulted” was almost a plot point played for laughs.

(His dare from Scam would have been rape, straight up. Just because no one said the word doesn’t mean it wasn’t coercive and gross).

I’d like to think the @/dungeonsanddads cast isn’t intentionally encouraging abuse, but they’re sure as hell enabling it, and they needed to get their shit together ages ago, because they’re not the ones their negligence hurts.”

Quote retweet by OP 6:51 PM Sep 7, 2020

“So, they updated the rules for the patron server, but I want to be really clear that from my perspective, it’s way too little, way too late.

The new rules don’t adequately address the core issues and they certainly don’t absolve the cast of the harm they’ve already caused.

[Tweet includes 2 screenshots: one of a bot asking people to click thumbs up to confirm they’re 18+ (or have a parent’s permission) and agree to the rules, and one that includes two of the rules. It reads:

“This is an 18+ space. Them’s the rules: per Patreon’s policy, you must be 18+ or have parental permission.

Use language as if you’re at your parents dinner table. Don’t get people in trouble because of your SPICY POSTS. Keep conversation polite. NSFW content is not allowed!”]

(and before anyone says I should bring up my concerns privately, a quick refresher on how well that went last time I did it:)

[links back to the “(alternatively, it means Anthony lied . . .)” tweet from the original thread]

So hey, @/fwong, some thoughts:

1.The rules are vague and unclear: what /exactly/ do you mean when you say “NSFW content is not allowed!” when the content of your show itself is so often nsfw? And how are you planning to enforce this?

Does it mean you’ll shut down the MBIC conversation that is literally just kink discussion? I need you to be clear on where the line is, because, again, predators rely on that confusion. Don’t give them a gray area to play in.

For an example of a more clear policy, it’s pretty easy to say, “yep, ‘Henry gets pegged’ sure is a sentence we said on our show and you don’t have to pretend it’s not, but if you’d like to discuss it in any more detail at all, you need to move”

2. Remember how I said I needed to be clear on whether you’re prioritizing survivors or predators? While I doubt it was intentional, the language you’re using here is prioritizing predators.

It’s not “don’t get people in trouble,” it’s “don’t make people uncomfortable.” It’s “we all have a responsibility to make sure this space is safe for everyone, especially the younger members of the community.”

You’re setting people up to be afraid of expressing concerns for fear of “getting people in trouble” or “inciting unnecessary drama.” Even if it’s not what YOU meant, it’s very easy for those words to be manipulated, so +

You absolutely have to be explicitly clear that if someone expresses their discomfort, you’ve got their back. Being safe is more important than being polite.

3. I need every cast member to take responsibility for their own actions. I’ve gotten no indication from any of you that you understand the ways in which the in-show things I brought up were harmful.

Acknowledging that harm is important not just because of the immediate effects of that content, but also because it implicitly sets an example for how similar complaints should be dealt with going forward.

When someone says “hey, I was uncomfortable that you seem fine with the Glennary ship, because she reads as very young to me,” I don’t need a dissertation on how the perception of characters can evolve due to your improvisational nature

I need to hear “oh, I interpreted her differently, but you’re right, we should have been more clear, and I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” Because your responses to your own mistakes set the tone for any other situations like that going forward.

How comfortable is someone going to be with coming to you, or Ash, or any of the mods about someone making them uncomfortable if they’ve seen that when people call YOU out, they’re argued with and shut down?

Don’t tell people you’ve “made it clear that you won’t go there” when they tell you that you ARE there. Listen to them and do better.

Set the expectation that people will be respected when they raise their concerns. “If you want to come at me you have to bring the heat” is not an appropriate response on a subject that made people genuinely uncomfortable.

In essence: set people up to be supported and protected, not dismissed.

[It’s like a matriosche of tweets over here. This one links to another thread, also by crypticjoy. That thread reads:

A non-comprehensive guide to keeping discord servers safe for minors:

1. Make designated channels for nsfw/18+ discussion. Generally speaking, this is a lot more effective than banning those discussions altogether, because it’s a lot easier to say “hey, can you move this conversation?” than “hey, I need you to stop”

In fandom spaces, it’s usually a good idea to have separate channels for talking about nsfw fiction vs discussing your personal sex lives.

2. Give everyone minor/adult roles; make sure your 18+ channels are locked to people who don’t have an adult role. It’s important that there’s more of a barrier there than just checking a box.

3. NSFW channels shouldn’t necessarily be a free-for-all; be aware of people’s boundaries and respect them (for example, r*pe jokes aren’t funny or okay, even if you’re not making them around kids)

4. Explicitly state in your rules that people should feel free to come to mods if anyone is making them uncomfortable. Actually listen to people and resolve the situation if they do approach you.

5. Make it clear that creepy behavior via DMs or other means is also not tolerated--you can’t control what people do outside your server, but you can make the choice to not allow people like that in your space

6. Make sure mods are on top of things BEFORE people have to say anything; sometimes being a mod means being willing to be the “asshole” who shuts things down before they get out of hand, even if they’re not asked.

Be generally aware of signals that people are uncomfortable or that things are escalating too far, and address those situations sooner rather than later.

*It should be noted that safety involves a lot of components beyond just containing nsfw discussions; this thread just happens to be focused on that one specific element.

oh also! It's a good idea to provide resources on grooming so people know what to look out for [links to some resources; again, this’ll be in the reblog]]

So, @/dungeonsanddads, if you’re interested in anything beyond just having a flimsy excuse you can point to to cover your own ass, I’m gonna need you to try again.

Sorry I can’t be nicer about it, but I’ve given so many benefits of the doubt I could be running a successful charity, and this isn’t an issue I’m willing to drop.

10:02 PM

Thought I was done but actually I've got a few more questions: to what extent were @/HeyBethMay, @/WillBCampos, and @/mattLarnold included in conversations about this issue/the new rules? Is this something your whole team is involved in?

Have you discussed what you're doing on a team and individual basis to keep your fan interactions safe, and are you on the same page about how much it matters? Are you holding each other accountable? Is everyone okay with where this ended up?”

#dungeons and daddies #dndads #cw grooming #cw SA #8wing

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misterbitches · 3 years

Text

i live in a universe where if i were to walk down the street i could get murdered willy nilly cos im black but men are out here going around being like “my boyfriend and i met when he was a junior in high school” i don’t believe in jail and i try not to make jail jokes but HOW IS THAT FAIR? JAIL!!! GUILLOTINE!!!! GET THIS MAN A RETIREMENT FUND AND A THERAPIST

that dialogue was fucking embarrassing. he shoulda just said “im 12 yrs older than him” no one needs to know u were 30 dating a 17 year old u insecure freak. retire bitch and get away from her

i wanted muren so badly to be like “LMAO SRY didnt mean to seem surprised i just like men my own age i guess?” i wouldnt have even apologized if i was surprised. my friend was dating someone ten yrs younger than him and i made fun of him for it and he was like “i know” bc he does know.

just a tip: i don’t like getting hit on by men way older than me, a lot of people don’t. i’ve had men who are 36 interested in me when i was 23, and i reciprocated, but now as i am 29 and older i realize how much it confused me and how i didn’t like it.

age gaps are what they are. ther’es many times i do not like it especially if it is a pattern (this is what happens in tv shows and movies and the opposite of that isn’t gay age gaps or power imbalances or women much older than a younger man ok that’s not progress it’s just peopl ewanting to be like cis men and no one wants that) and esp if the person’s peers are all their ages. people seem to forget that we travel in the same social circles on purpose due to our environments and also our world experiences. the only way to meet an older man is outside of school and yet adults can’t seem to control themselves?

i saw this person who was one of the editors of sexual hegemony (a book on capitalism and homophobic laws and sex basically idk google it it’s interesting) and he was trying to have a foucultian outlook (i hate focault btw doesn’t mean what he says wasnt interesting but it does mean i am not okay with psychosexual philosophers who take advantage of people. the only testament against him having reltaions with younger people is a bunch of young people i nfucking tunisia and there’s an excuse that he wasn’t a fucking pedophile he was those ebebebbeopopopo people and it doesnt matter when ur in fucking tunisia as a white french algerian fucking preying on children) how age of consent laws desexualize younger people. they were passed for abunch of reasons like any law but here is the thing

we have no business in being in spaces to determine children’s sexual identity and teenagers in their own realm. THEY need to figure it out. our job as adults is to PROTECT THEM full stop. not intrude on their lfe and not give them the tools to decide for themselves. age of consent laws are meant to protect not to facilitate children against some boogeyman of sex. the issue is the way our society views it but young people are sexual AS YOUNG PEOPLE. it has NOTHING to do with adults and it shouldn’t. that’s why it is extra fucking intrusive when you are literally wedged into someone’s life who you have no business being around. it’s only by fucking circumstance. it’s abysmal and not cute.

what this tells me is that the age gap is salacious. not in the way that i was 23 and a man was 36. in the way that he was 17 and this dude was 29. that’s interesting right? it’s “oooh” and it means we shouldn’t balk at it. saying 12 years would have sufficed, raises some eyebrows, and we can figure out the dynamics after but you just had to put that in BECAUSE YOU FUCKING LIKE IT but the thing is there’s no part of it that was fun. i’m just going to assume you like fucking teenagers bc that’s what it’s telling me lmao

i rarely talk about this couple but to put them in my eyeballs and then have that stupid conversation it was insulting lmao god please get a fucking script supervisor fuck but none of them care about sotry or any of what i fucking laid out. how stupid and careless and just unfun. i don’t like it. also ew at the idea of 2 tops and 2 bottoms talking oh my god i am gonna give myself a heart attack i’m already so fucking anxious i have to see my family lemme chill

im 29 and feel bad having a crush on a 23 year old CELEBRITY ok and i SHOULD feel ashamed and it’s not even a big deal that’s how everyone should approach life tbqh u walk around like ur 100 yrs old to avoid children. oh what’s that this korean cebrity learned english and moved to america to start a family with me and i find him very hot and i like his voice but we’re 6 years apart i’m not sure if i would work (how fun of a drama would that be. pointless and ridiculous. i love it.)

oh there’s a great review on CMBYN and its history and how the isolation and seeclusion was so fuckign capitalist bougie patriarchy and yea idk if anyone is interested. i think it’s ironic the ending for the people in CMBYN irl bc it’s just. so indicative of this shit. i dont like guadignino (idk is that how u spell his name) and think he’s not a great....person or director (i love the look of suspiria tho likke visually and edited. the DP was thai btw! he did an amazing job!!!) but it critiques this film from a perspective of someone who clearly at least cares about artistry, no matter how poorly i think he executes it, and just how hollow it is. the thing about “escapism” is that it relies on the harsh realities of the world to make it opposite, everything has context, nothing is apolitical. to make something that exists in a vacuum is negligent and it doesn’t help you escape it makes you even more tied to this world and its flaws because it doesn’t do anything to mitigate it.

people view it as like “we can put something stupid on screen and people have to accept it in this world” but that isn’t how IT WORKS. you hvae to build up the stakes of the world. but i can’t see introducing some “taboo” (see: stupid) elements and pretending the escapism is seeing this and allowing it. how could it be when the problem is the nature of the rship itself? what world are you taking us to? and why does this world ignore the pressing realities? and i wouldnt say either of these are explicit escapism (i think i hate that word now) becuase um they arent. this fantastical generally rich people escapism isn’t about bending things that don’t work to mold it into our society because WE DO THAT ALREADY it’s about taking those things and twisting them to something we can accept and like or something that has real consequences for people. it’s so funny how marketing and the idea of pc culture and shit and conservative ideology seeps into these. they have an explicit interest in holding the status quou of taking advantage of people and using their power; age is a huge structure to do so. in this society when we struggle why would its existence not be challenged? because rape, ridiculous rships, abusive rships, torture etc is a power move, conservatives rest on it and people who gain power. what about that is appealing? making it gay? well, no. especially because men DO have power.

every fucking thing in BL is a reflection of of patriarchy honestly. i can admit that and i’m not okay with it but it’s consumption. there’s a way to make this decent or entertaining without it being so fucking poorly done. and atp i dont even want to call things bl it’s a tv show just bc it’s for a certain audience doesnt mean anything do better idiots

#i am soooooo #history 4 #history 4: close to you #history 3 #history 3: make our days count

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jadedadultritsu · 3 years

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(hope am not bothering) So like I looked up Birth flowers for January and October (wangxian's bday months) and idk if mxtx did it on purpose but the symbolisms of their birth flowers describes their personalities v accurately and if mxtx did assigned their birthday months like that on purpose they are an absolute genius (sorry if my words don't make sense I'm not very articulate but I need to infodump on some1 so am sorry)

You're not bothering me at all! Why would you think that. 😟😖😭

If anything, this is an opportunity for me to put my research skills into practice and I’m gonna go grab whatever. Also, this is actually an interesting question! :O I will do my best to answer this. So first off, I’ve consulted google if there is a similar ask from before bc 1) we don’t want a duplicate work 2) in case there’s already an existing ask, cross-referencing would be pretty nice :D 3) my memory fails me if I did see interpretations of WangXian birth flowers before, I think I did but I guess it got lost in the v. depths of the internet lmao. So if we looked up at the same site, there isn’t much to interpret actually. But I can def connect it to some events all across adaptions with a few takes haha.

Ok ok, so here it goes:

For Lan Wangji: January - Carnations & Snowdrops

DUDE, both flowers can bloom in the cold winter months?! And this characteristic is RARE? HELL YES! These flowers are insane, they are to be envied by other flowers they should start shedding off their own petals by now lol (lemme at least personify them). You know who else could withstand such unbearable cold weather?

Him and HIM.

Carnations are also easy to spot bc of its bright color (pretty pretty boy Hanguang-jun in the crowd isn’t smth you see everyday).

Snowdrops symbolizes hope and rebirth. LWJ had hoped countless times already for different things but it’s not like it’s all directed solely for himself. LWJ isn’t a one-dimensional character who exists just to complement (or contrast) WWX’s chara. Remember the line Hanguang-jun being “wherever the chaos is”. I believe some ppl rlly wondered why LWJ didn’t take his own life if he truly loved WWX? (wtf is that even). Who wants another vers. of Romeo and Juliet? He wished to carry on bc of their oaths (paper lantern scene in CQL) and to ward off evil. Plus, WWX’s promise aligns to that of LWJ’s moral values so he HOPED to get them fulfilled as much as possible, prolly 'til his last breath. Ppl keep forgetting that LWJ is an individual too, while I could understand and relate when ppl see them as a single unit mostly. Song Lan still carried on with night-hunting with XXC and AQ’s souls HOPING he could mend them along the way. I'd say that "if he dies, I die too" death trope is so boring now, I could dieeee myself, sir. JC didn't dismiss the possibility of WWX reincarnating. So LWJ must've his fair share of hope that WWX would reincarnate anytime in his lifetime. He's not gonna pursue love anywhere else. It can only be WWX. LWJ's rule-abiding nature loosened significantly during the Nightless City incident. Post-burial mounds siege, he didn't completely cut himself off from the sect affairs, but he did engage with them minimally. That, my friend, is his own vers. of rebirth (a.k.a. character dev't)

Snowdrops are well-known for being droopy-shaped flowers. I interpret this as, although esteemed and ppl have high regards for him, HGJ could still humble himself inspite of the facts.

For Wei Wuxian: October - Marigold & Cosmos

Marigolds’ vibrant color says a lot abt October babies huh. Marigolds symbolize fierce love, passion and creativity. Fierce love for family? Burning passion for knowledge? Need I say more? Creativity idk why but the first thing that popped up in my mind is paper man Wuxian since he’s the only one shown to use that ability. WWX also strives to think outside of the box by thinking of a fourth method in LQR’s quest abt dealing with the resentful executioner’s ghost. I recall a tumblr user saying how WWX is a nerd locking himself up in the Demon-Slaughtering Cave performing experiments, inventing demonic tools, and whatnot. So he wasn’t merely a mischief-maker all along lmao. "Marigolds also have a long tradition of being used medicinally to heal inflammation and skin problems” - sure, if transferring the cursed mark from JL’s leg to your own leg would count lol.

Cosmos flowers represent peace and tranquility. Although loud most of the time, he can read and sense any f up situation and can appreciate peace at times and as needed. “They also attract bees, so are a great flower to grow to draw pollinators to your garden!” dkdnfkdnfdk LWJ is the bee. <3

So you’ve finally reached the end, I applaud you. Congrats and thank you for keeping up with me this far. Now let’s get to the real quest, did MXTX assign the birth months to her chara’s on purpose with that basis in mind? Was it purely coincidence? I vote for the latter. If I were a Danmei author and I wanted to assign a birth month for the stoic-faced and icy personality chara, I’d conveniently assign a winter month. Same goes for WWX. Since WWX shifted to the heretic and wicked path, I, too, would conveniently assign him a birthday near Halloween. Surely, the birth flowers interpreters have also given this a lot of thought associating the corresponding flowers accordingly to the seasons while meticulously considering the characteristics of these flowers.

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ziamln · 4 years

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Just wondering,why do you think nobody has forced zayn to post about the baby? And is that a good thing or do you think he’s in trouble for it?

It is an interesting question, thank you for asking.

I think a lot of the reason he's been able to get away with it so far is the fact that they've been pushing this crap about him hating social media alongside him being an extremely private person.

A lot of the fans don't even question his lack of 'excitement'/posting because of his anxiety and the slow reduction over the past year of his social media presence. One of the articles that was questioning why zayn wasn't there went on to say that it 'isn't anything out of the ordinary. Its not really about him- he's not the one gestating a baby' [essentially saying hes irrelevant to the posts] and going on to talk about how he's 'notoriously private' and prefers being 'out of the mix' and saying their desire for privacy will only intensify, which is utter bullshit if Giggles latest posts are anything to go off- she's actually getting less and less private.

Also a lot of the baby related posts are all linked directly back to giggles, and rarely Zayn, we've only had 2 posts linking Zayn to being the father and the rest was a shit ton of articles. There's not many people questioning why he hasn't said anything, they're mostly just [alarmingly creepily] idolising his supposed child. They've never questioned his absence BC the relationship has always been tailored to favour giggles and make her out to be this amazing person.

All of a sudden giggles is the most amazing person and a Queen and the best everything. No one wants to remember a single bad thing she's done. I mean they don't question a single thing because they idolise her and her relationship so much they forget how badly this whole things has been played out through the drastic changes in bumps between pictures and don't even get me started on the shambles of the dates and timeline of this mess.

Also I'm not sure how well thought out and planned this whole thing was or whether it was a last minute decision of yes, there's quarantine and its more difficult to stunt so how can we carry this on??? Oh perfect quarantine baby announcement so people can't see the same patterns and flaws from the last two baby gates! [Or I also have the theory about how she may be pregnant [not zayns ofc] and that she fell pregnant around the time this one was announced randomly at 5 months in the middle of lockdown???? Like that's not weird at all...] Like you're trying to tell me she would be careless enough to get pregnant whilst being at the "peak" of her career and was unsure if Zayn was 'the one'... Okayyyyy.

Out of all the Hadids the only one who has explicitly used Zayn's name is Bella in her recent, and that was most likely to promo her new Versace perfume but z*gis didn't see how odd that was and ate that shit up BC omg Bella mentioned Zayn, couple goals!1!! The only other real indication they've had for Zayn being the dad is that hella photo shopped post giggles posted captioned as baby daddy and so now no one is questioning Zayn for not responding because the mother of the child confirmed it and they're obviously loved up and there's nothing else left to question at all is there?

Tbf though with all three of the baby gates it has never been made out to be about the 'father', they get next to nothing out of it. It has always been tailored to suit whatever narrative or promo the 'mother' needs because its all about the fame for them and what they can get out of it and just like hardly anyone questions [other than larries, ziammies or people who can see past the lies] Louis or Liam's involvement in their children's lives, unless theyre hating and calling them a deadbeat [once again proving they get nothing out of this but the 'mothers' do].

Giggles has proven time and time again that she loves capitalising off Zayns name, e.g. Mohameds recent [deleted post]- who started trending? G*gi and Z*gi, but not Zayn???? Why??? and then surprise surprise Giggles makes a post... And then, the first thing she does after Zayns posts a selfie after months of silence... The baby daddy post... And people don't even question this shit because being happy for Zayn means they love him so much!!1!!1!1!!! Like its funny how in this whole thing, everyone BUT Zayn has been getting some sort of promo from it. Seriously, go onto google, search Zayn and go on the news bar, not a single article there is Zayn centric, its all about Giggles or the 'pregancy' and Hadids.

Zayn has always been second place when it comes to Z*gi, despite the fact that she has used his name to get to where she is, [you can't deny how much her profile has grown since this shit started] Zayns music gets no attention from the media unless they make it about Z*gi- this has always been about boosting Jelenas career, and its evident about how much press this baby is getting over any of Zayns projects or music.

But no of course because some can see through the lies and question if Zayn is truly happy and actually look into this shit we are fake fans because we aren't playing ball and just being blindly happy for him.

Or maybe its to make people question less if they decide to go down the route of it turning out to not be Zayns child [DNA scandal or something?] Not sure on that one though now that Bella mentioned him... Tbf tho, until Bella mentioned him, if you look back at everyone elses posts, lives or interviews they have never mentioned Zayn, only ever mentioning giggles or 'they'. Honesly, its actually amusing how giggles posted that post saying baby daddy, Zayn actively ignored it, [its not like her posts could get lost in his feed when he only follows 27 people and he couldn't spare her a like i'm-] yet Bella managed to post a picture of Gigi saying baby mama, kind of embarrassing if you ask me, love.

Its funny how he's only hates social media when it suits the narrative. He was pretty active on social media this time a year ago, posting a few times a week or at least a few times every month, and then suddenly at the start of the year he's posting a bit and then, bang- nothing. All of a sudden Zayn hates social media and doesn't post for 5 months after years of regular posts...

So he can come online to post about UFC [which I find adorable] but he can't take a minute to like his pregnant girlfriends pictures and z*gis don't even question that??? It kind of says a lot about what Zayns role in the relationship is to them. Because Giggles is the queen don't forget, Zayn has no relevance unless it suits them or she posts a picture with him, after all, all he did was get her name out there!!!1!!

No one is even questioning Zayns family's lack of response on this whole thing and some of the shade they have thrown, purely because they liked a few posts or made a comment here and there so obviously Zayn is the father and he must be so excited because his family is liking the post, oh wait but he hasn't? No that's totally normal and not questionable at all.

They think being happy for Zayn equates to genuinely caring about him, when in reality its not the case because if they truly cared and weren't so far up Jelenas arse they'd be able to tell what was true and false and whether he was truly happy or not, simple.

As for whether he is in trouble or not, its hard to tell. I should think not, with all the crap he's having to endure the least they could do is leave him in peace. But they're evil personified so chances are they could be very pissed with him and waiting for this 'baby' to be born to wreak havoc and have him super involved. I doubt that would sit well with him though because its obvious to see how difficult he has found stunting since the beginning, this would be hell for him if they made him have to be active. I do have a feeling that BC we are in the endgame of some of these stunts [some contracts may be ending soon] that they could get a lot more in your face with it...

Or maybe because Liam has taken on the engagement they'll go easier on Zayn? I just hope Zayn is not made out to be the bad guy however this ends, he deserves better.

Ok i need to stop because there is so much wrong with this whole thing I could go on about it forever, but either way this whole thing is hella suss, regardless of what you believe. You can't deny it.

I'm sorry this ended up so long, I hope it answered your questions though! x

#zayn #zayn malik #zigi is fake #free zayn #1d #zouiam

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lillupon · 3 years

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So, I've got a very long rant/opinion here and Idk really know how to say this without coming off kinda bad but I'm gonna say it anyways. I agree with the fact that the seventeen tag has been kinda dry lately on most fanfic places, but it's really only in the smut area. It's the sane way with other groups too I feel like. All of the nice little innocent tags are boomin to this day and thats completely fine. I think the smut tag is dry tho bc lately I feel like a few social issues (like sexualizing people and disrespecting them and their identity) have crossed over into kpop and have been ?blown out of proportion? Lately there's been a rampage of people who like to say that writing smut about someone is disgusting and is dehumanizing because people want to assume that it would make the idols uncomfortable which could equate to some morality issues on how you are reducing someone only to their body without their consent and a bunch of stuff like that. It kind of pisses me off bc this is fiction. About grown adults. Clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life. I think a shit ton is wrong with the world we currently live in, and deciding to come after something that isn't even real bothers me. Like what does that actually accomplish. But yeah, I think thats a reason why smut has been dying down. I mean, on youtube almost every video about unpopular opinions, or things they dont like about kpop will include something about shipping idols in fanfics. And then everyone in the comment section will talk about how its all fine and dandy in moderation, but once people start writing smut it's crossing the idols personal boundaries. It's something I've been seeing a lot more often and I think people who are interested in writing smut are being turned away from it bc we've gotten to a point where people are being called disgusting for having fantasies.

Hi Anon, thank you for sending in this Ask.

I want to preface this by saying: when I write or talk about Mingyu and Wonwoo fucking on my blog, it is a fantasy. I am not speculating about what the real Mingyu and Wonwoo might be like in bed. I am imagining the versions of Mingyu and Wonwoo that I have created in my head, that exist only in my stories. None of it is real. I understand that this can be a blurry boundary for some people. But for me, the separation between fantasy and reality is well-defined. Now, on to your Ask!

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. You’ve also touched on many of the issues I have been struggling with myself as of late. It’s difficult to argue about morals since everyone has a different set of values, as well as different comfort levels. Some people think real person fiction (RPF) is a gross invasion of privacy. Others are fine with it. And others don’t care one way or another. There is no single answer; I can only offer my answer. Which means, of course, people are welcome to disagree with it, or parts of it.

In this essay (LOL But forreal: this is an essay), I will be sharing my experience in the k-pop fanfic community from 2014 to present, the etiquette I personally abide by as a reader and writer of RPF, as well as my stance on RPF in general.

I started reading and posting fanfics back in 2014/2015 on a website called AsianFanfics (AFF). Obviously, no one on that site had a problem with RPF, since AFF is a platform made specifically for sharing stories about Asian celebrities. For many years, I read and enjoyed RPF with zero guilt. I scribbled away by myself in my own corner of fandom and curated my own content. I didn’t interact much with other fans, readers, or writers. I didn’t have a Twitter, and I only used tumblr to reblog memes. As a result, I’ve been able to avoid a lot of anti-shipping discourse, as well as purity and cancel culture. I had no idea there were so many negative opinions about RPF. It wasn’t until I became active on the subreddit r/Fanfiction last year that I learned about all the discourse surrounding RPF.

This newfound ‘awareness’ does make me feel guilty at times—but only because after mulling this over, I still don’t think this is something to feel guilty about.

Here’s what I remember, first and foremost, when I create and consume RPF: fanfics and my favourite ships are fictional, and fiction is fantasy. This is basic etiquette when it comes to RPF, and most people in the k-pop fandom understand this. Delusional fans exist, of course, but they are not representative of the entire k-pop community.

Another point of etiquette is to keep fanfics within fandom spaces. I would never push my fics into celebrities’ faces, or go around claiming that my fanfics are accurate representations of a k-idol’s life or personality, in any way, shape, or form. I would also discourage directing ship-related questions to official accounts, or bringing them up during fansigns or other face-to-face interactions; I believe that in these instances, shipping does have the potential to strain real-life relationships.

So with basic etiquette out of the way, let me share my approach to RPF in general.

As much as we like to think we know our favourite celebrities, we really don’t. All we see is their public persona. And this public persona is intentionally controlled, managed, and curated by a team of people: directors, tabloids, editors, makeup artists, publicists, etc. How “real” are these celebrities? We are so distanced from them that they may as well be fictional.

I draw from the public persona that idols project, and I work them into my own writing. But at the end of the day, these personalities are my own interpretation. My interpretation is probably nothing like an idol’s actual personality. I just use the “public persona/character” that idols portray as inspiration for my own stories, which are set in wildly different universes.

More than anything, I think of k-pop idols as “actors” in my fic. You know how when you write an original novel, you scroll through Google images, looking for the perfect person to portray your original character? RPF is literally that, except you might build upon pre-existing dynamics and personalities.

When it comes to explicit fanfiction, two main concerns are prevalent: one of consent, and one of sexualisation.

If we argue against explicit RPF due to lack of consent, we should be willing to apply the same lens to all explicit works. How do we know that the creator of a movie, book, series, etc., is okay with us using their characters in our stories, explicit or not? We don’t. Perhaps some creators encourage fanfiction, but don’t want their lovingly crafted characters engaging in sexual acts or experiencing trauma. We just don’t know. I feel this line is even more blurred when we talk about characters from movies or TV series.

Let’s take Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, as portrayed by Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, from the Captain America movies as an example. I am willing to bet that when people consume and create explicit fanfiction about Steve and Bucky, they are imagining Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in their heads. I doubt many people are imagining the 2D cartoon versions of Steve and Bucky, even though they’re technically the exact same characters. Why? Well, it could be because movies are more readily and easily consumed than comics, and so people are unfamiliar with comic book Steve and Bucky. But it might also be because fans find Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan attractive. Is this really any different from RPF, where fic authors make up everything about a celebrity’s life?

When readers and writers of fanfic talk about how hot Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes is, those comments are about Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan’s bodies. When reading explicit stories, fans are going to picture Chris and Sebastian’s bodies in their head, doing sexual things. Can we say, “Well, it’s not really you, Chris/Sebastian”, when in a way, it is?

The reality is, people are going to thirst over celebrities, regardless of whether or not explicit fanfiction exists. They’re going to post thirst tweets on Twitter. They’re going to talk to friends and strangers online about how hot [insert celebrity name here] is. They’re going to fantasize about dating and having sex with their favourite celebrity. Or, as it is in my case, they’re going to make up stories in their heads about their favourite idols dating and banging each other. People are going to do all of this without ‘getting consent’ from the celebrity. Cracking down upon and shaming writers of RPF isn’t going to change any of that.

To be honest, I’m not sure why people think it is disgusting to imagine sexual scenarios about real people. It is okay and normal to have these kinds of fantasies. I suppose the alternative is to fantasise about having sex with cartoon characters instead? It’s a very binary way of thinking to say that if you imagine/write real people in explicit scenarios, you are immediately sexualising, dehumanising, or objectifying them. There is more to dehumanisation than writing smut about our favourite celebrities. For one thing, you can love someone and appreciate all parts of them, and still want to fuck their brains out. And generally, fanfics come from a place of love—love that is not only sexual in nature.

Is it the sharing aspect inherent to fanfiction? The possibility that a celebrity might stumble upon explicit works about them? The chances are very low, I think, of the k-pop idols I enjoy writing about coming across my English fics. But I also believe in curating your own content, and that applies to celebrities too. Perhaps a celebrity should not go searching for fanfics about themselves. And of course, people should not show celebrities their fanfics, unless invited.

Another argument I hear against (explicit) RPF is, “How would you feel if someone wrote fanfiction about you?” First off, I don’t like this argument because there’s a difference between someone who decides to be a public figure versus someone who decides to remain a regular private citizen. Celebrities should and do know what they’re getting into when they choose their occupation. (This is not to say, “They are celebrities; sexualise them all you want because that’s what they signed up for.” Here, I am only acknowledging that people might have sexual fantasies about celebrities they are attracted to. Presumably, celebrities are cognizant of this.)

If someone (whose existence I am not even aware of, mind you) decides they want to write explicit fanfiction of me in some tiny corner of the Internet, I wouldn’t care so long as: (1) they don’t shove it into my face, and (2) they don’t harass me and ask invasive questions about my personal life and relationships. It’s not hurting me or negatively affecting my life, so it wouldn’t even register as a blip on my radar. When fanfiction remains within its appropriate spaces, it is largely harmless.

Now, if a k-pop idol were to ask their fans to stop writing fanfiction about them, would I? Yes, I would. However, I can’t imagine that happening. Judging by the number of ‘sexy’ concepts, fanservice moments, and variety shows such as ‘We Got Married’, I am certain that k-pop idols realise they are the stars of many fantasies—some of which are explicit in nature. Considering the prevalence of shipping in the k-pop industry, I would argue that shipping is subtly encouraged.

It’s sad that so many talented writers are shamed out of fandom, or feel that k-pop cannot be the medium through which they tell their stories, or explore their sexuality, or cope with trauma, or simply have fun. Professional works and Hollywood love their RPF—readers and writers of fanfics should be able to, as well.

As you said Anon, “clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life” (this is a lovely sentence, by the way). The kind of person who dehumanises another and reduces them to a sexual object will do so some other way, if not via fanfiction. I don’t think the issue of fetishisation can be fixed simply by telling people not to write explicit RPF. In my experience, people who read and write RPF are more respectful and thoughtful about these things than the general public. We’ve all seen the general public say highly sexual things about celebrities in the media and to their faces, or tag celebrities in their thirst tweets. Are these things less invasive than fanfiction? Personally, I don’t think so. And in my opinion, there are more pressing and damaging issues in stan culture than fanfic.

In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything wrong with creating and consuming RPF, both explicit and non-explicit so long as we:

Remember we are writing fiction

Keep RPF within its appropriate space, and

Do not harass celebrities about their personal lives and relationships

RPF is not for everyone. There may be people who enjoy RPF, but draw the line at explicit stories. This is fine. Everyone has their own personal preferences. What is not fine, however, is attacking people for creating things you don’t like. I’m not sure what kind of moral crusade people are on and what they hope to achieve by shaming writers of RPF, explicit or otherwise. Ultimately, fic authors are writing a fantasy. It’s not real; no one is being hurt. I think it’s important for people to curate their own content, and AO3 makes it very easy to filter out explicit works and unwanted tags.

Maybe this is me trying to justify my own participation in explicit RPF—I don’t know. What I do know is that I love k-pop, and fandom is an important part of my media and entertainment experience. I adore the k-pop idols I write about, and I just want to imagine them being happy and getting lots of love and orgasms. Let a bitch be horny, goddamn…

Some bonus fun facts!

At the time I am writing this, on AO3:

26.2% of Stray Kids fanfics are rated M or E

26.3% of Seventeen fanfics are rated M or E

29.0% of Merlin fanfics are rated M or E

34.9% of Captain America (Movies) fanfics are rated M or E

40.1% of BTS fanfics are rated M or E ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Coincidentally, I saw this post on Reddit this morning: Can we have a RPF positivity post?

#asks #my writing #fic & fandom #I keep coming back to fiddle and add things to this answer #but I think I've said all I wanted to now...

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locktobre · 3 years

Text

TLB thoughts/liveblog condensed in one post bc I didn’t want to spam and more importantly I didn’t feel like typing out all my tags multiple times

how is this cruise for Margaret’s job and not George’s? doesn’t she literally work in an office?

so the cruise is not specifically for her birthday, it just happens to line up with her birthday... that mitigates some of my earlier complaints but also, again, how does this connect to Margaret’s job

literally any time George and Margaret try to parent the girls I just fucking laugh. if you cared that much about your kids you wouldn’t let them, idk, take cross-country trips without you. just a thought.

they changed Margaret’s eye color??? this far into the show? I’m gonna scream

“teens and tweens only, no single digit ages” so does that exclude Stacie too or nah? LITERALLY WHEN ARE WE GONNA LEARN HER AGE I’M DYING OVER HERE

Arrrlene I love you

how did this activities director even get fucking hired? who did that??? why would you hire that guy for THIS cruise? put him on something for adults or seniors only, don’t put him on a family ship! WHO the fuck does that?????

how did they cross the international date line so soon? it feels way too fucking soon, they’ve only been on the ship for like a day! and where is this cruise even heading? if they crossed the date line, they’re heading west, so... they’re going to Asia? I guess? without stopping? I don’t know much about cruises but a quick google shows at least one cruise going from LA to Japan which takes 22 days, 10 of which are before the dateline. and also there’s a stop in Hawaii before that. so literally what the fuck is happening... they can’t even have a montage showing the passage of time? oh right bc that wouldn’t facilitate these shenanigans and this stupid activities director who wants them off the boat, which again, he should not have been hired for. what is this worldbuilding

I know timezones are confusing as all hell but how is Barbie 17 years old and not knowing about the international date line? or like, idk, why wouldn’t George or Margaret explain it to them? how did NOBODY see this coming, apparently? in the real-life cruise itinerary I linked above, it’s literally laid the fuck out for you so you don’t even have to guess! they did it all for you! AND NO ONE GLANCED AT THAT BEFORE LEAVING?

I’m sad Arrrlene isn’t the captain but I also love the actual captain very much. unless she was the one who hired the fuck up guy in which case I will never forgive her.

LITERALLY HOW DID YOU FUCKING FORGET ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE, MARGARET? IT SEEMS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME

it is so hard to get into this story when it feels like I have to accept so much bullshit to even get to the part where the story starts

the animation on this parrot is really good, I’ll give them that. it actually looks like a real animal not a stylized monstrosity. the seagulls look pretty good too.

so like... this island isn’t real, right? it’s a journey in her imagination or some kind of dream or something, right?

kinning that vampire dude on the beach

gonna be real and say those spider designs still creep me out, even with how much they toned it down. I just hate spiders so much I’m sorry

showing a scarlet macaw flying around what should by all logic be a pacific island? I have to laugh. less so if it turns out this island is all just some imagined bs but if that’s supposed to be a twist they’re failing at it. (not gonna mention the talking animals bc that’s pure fantasy.)

surprisingly, plumbago is a real genus. itchissorious is made up, tho, naturally. altho to be pedantic, plumbago don’t appear to look like those at all, it looks closer to a type of sunflower which I swear is what Chelsea called the talking one. anyway they should have used helianthus instead. (would be again misplaced wildlife, but literally they don’t care at all so that wouldn’t matter.)

why have Barbie carrying oatmeal and not calamine lotion? if it was about the visual, calamine is literally pink so the splotches would still stand out. stupid.

I already wasn’t vibing with the random tiki shit onboard the ship but “Tiki tyrant” just feels like a yikes.

oh so the oatmeal was for seagull shenanigans? cool. I hate it.

I wish you would eat them, tiger. then this movie would be over and also this continuity and I could live my life in peace again.

after Darbie and Lacie I was wondering what they were going to do with Skipper and... Snipper... sure is a name alright. good imagination, Chelsea.

also, I know this is a total fantasy scenario with a talking purple-striped tiger but having Snipper say she’s a vegetarian feels like it perpetuates the myth that cats can be vegetarians and I hate it. I hate it SO fucking much.

“you remind me of my family,” Chelsea says to her talking animal friends which represent herself and her sisters but weirdly not her parents at all. I guess they’re not her family? cool.

so the island... is fake... like, manufactured fake? excuse me? first the ecological disaster of the cruise itself and now an artificial island? Barbie Sure Loves The Environment

“she’s way too smart to wander off alone on a jungle island” no offense, we all know I love my girl Chelsea, but WHAT in her life makes you think that Skipper adskjsdnfkjdnfgfg

do you think the order in which Chelsea met her animal friends is like her internal ranking of her sisters? obviously she loves Barbie the most so she found Darbie first, but then it was Lacie and then Snipper. I probably could have guessed that Stacie outranked Skipper after the Halloween episode but it’s still funny to think about it that way lmao

the movie’s almost over but I’m still not over these animals’ winged eyeliner. that’s so much even for me.

“little kids can get big things done, if you let them” would be a great message delivered in another movie. in this one it’s nonsensical.

tourists (derogatory)

oh so NOW we get the parents showing up as animals, literally at the last part of this island thing. I see how it is.

“boy do I hate my job” THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE, DUDE... WHO JUST GETS HIRED ON A CRUISE SHIP IF THEY HATE IT SO MUCH

George dancing was like the only part of this movie to make me laugh

as sweet as it is for Arrrlene to adjust the height requirement, those exist for safety reasons... unless that was something the former AD made up.

still no idea why this movie was called “Barbie & Chelsea” when they spent 90% of the movie apart

I’m surprised there’s no moral at the end of the credits? I was expecting it to be “little kids can get big things done, if you let them” (which I still maintain is stupid but anyway)

still confused as to how this cruise ship connects to Margaret’s job... I guess she did some design work on it? or something?

okay so... Chelsea’s adventure was a dream? or was it real (somehow? somewhat?) and she just wished to go home? riddle for the ages I guess

overall I was bored and too caught up in trying to make sense of literally any of the cruise logistics to care about much else. not as enraged as I thought I might be but also not really entertained. shame.

#mel irl #barbie babbles #barbie spoilers #tlb spoilers #beyond the mirror: lost birthday

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of-a-chaotic-mind · 3 years

Text

Winter Fox Part 1 / 2

Summary: Steve and Bucky discover that they know the Female!Rogers!Reader more than they think.

TW/CW: Bucky Barnes x Female!Rogers!Reader, other than that I don’t think there is any but if you know any I should add, lmk. Set after the snap. Spoiler Alert: Reader and Bucky end up together in a different part.

Requested?: No

Word Count: 1,396

A/N: Uh I used Google Translate for the Russian so I apologize if it’s incorrect. I didn't get very far in learning Russian and it was a while ago when I was learning it. I had to split it into multiple parts bc I was afraid it was getting too long but should I just do a second and like time skip to when Reader remembers everything and she and Bucky are together or would you guys prefer that I make a series of it and show her regaining her memories? Spoiler Alert: Reader and Bucky end up together. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Requests are Open!

Your POV

They call me the Winter Fox. Often times, if it weren’t for me, the Winter Soldiers wouldn’t have been able to complete the missions they were sent on. My missions were generally the same, get intel of a subject and give it to Hydra so that they can figure out how to send a Winter Soldier after them. That was until they tried to start sending me on missions with the Winter Soldier, the first of his kind. These missions were always a power struggle and they ended up having to add who was in charge to our mission commands otherwise we would get into arguments and almost compromise the mission.

When the Winter Soldier escaped and Hydra supposedly fell, another head of course took its place. I was taken from the storage facility in Siberia, where I was being kept with the other Winter Soldiers. They didn’t need the others if they had me. I could out match all of them put together. Even still, I was kept in cryofreeze until Hydra saw fit to raise their head again.

It wasn’t until three years after the lost half of the world’s population returned from The Snap that Hydra decided The Avengers had gotten too comfortable and wanted to shake things up again. Of course, most of them had been wiped out in the snap and brought back. I wasn’t though. I still remained in cryofreeze. Once, they brought me out again, they prepped me and immediately sent me after Steve Rogers, which I suppose I should be thankful for.

I failed to complete the mission the first time and the Winter Soldier, well I suppose he prefers his real name now, recognized me. I don’t actually know his real name, or maybe I do and don’t remember it. It’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t figure it out. Anyway, I failed that mission but Hydra sent me right back out after a memory wipe. I failed again and that brings my thoughts to where I am now, good timing too.

A red headed woman enters the room with her head held high, “Privetstvuyu Gidru.” (Hail Hydra).

Suspicious, I confirm, “Privetstvuyu Gidru.”

Not missing a beat, she commands, “Zimnyaya lisa, dayte otchet o missii.” (Winter Fox, give your report.)

“Po ch'yemu prikazu, neznakomets?” (On who’s orders, Stranger?) I inquire.

“Vasily Karpov. Vash staryy komandir mertv, i teper' ya glavnyy. Ne zastavlyay menya povtoryat'sya,” (Vasily Karpov. Your old commander is dead and I am in charge now. Don’t make me repeat myself,) she says.

Convinced, I give her my mission report of the failed mission I had just been captured on. As I finish, she turns her back and faces the one-way mirror, “So, this one wasn’t only sent for Rogers but for Barnes as well.” The name Barnes catches my attention but I keep my gaze lowered and ignore it. I haven’t been spoken to therefore it’s none of my business. After a brief moment, she turns back to me, “Chto eto u tebya na sheye?” (What is that around your neck?) I pull the dog tags out from under my shirt. I had long since forgotten about them but never took them off, I was ordered to keep them on. “Kto oni takiye? Chitat' ikh,” (Who’s are they? Read them) she commands.

“James B Barnes,” I pause. There’s that name again, “32557038 T41 42 0. R. Barnes. 3092 Stockton Rd. Shelbyville, IN.” The look of shock on her face is unmistakable. She turns to the window again.

Bucky’s POV

Everyone in the room has their eyes on me now. Those are my dog tags. Why does the Winter Fox have my dog tags? Tony goes to say something but is interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y, “Mr. Stark the results are back from the DNA test.”

“Okay, let’s hear it then,” says Stark.

“Captain Rogers, Sargeant Barnes, you may want to take a seat for this,” F.R.I.D.A.Y cautions.

“Just get on with it, please,” Steve insists.

“The DNA matches that of one (Y/N) Rogers. Born (Your Birthday), 1916.”

“That can’t be. She disappeared back in the 30s,” Steve says in surprise.

“The DNA test isn’t gonna lie, Rogers. That’s why we did it in the first place,” Stark informs gently.

“But she disappeared 90 years ago,” Steve says, not wanting to accept that his older sister is now sitting on the other side of the glass.

“You’re right. She disappeared but that doesn’t mean she died, Steve,” I say, finally finding my voice again.

Your POV

I wait patiently as the woman seems to be listening to something, probably an earpiece. Suddenly, everything goes black. A blue theater screen lights up, bathing the darkness in a soft glow. Then, a movie starts to play on it. I watch as a young girl and two young boys play tag on a street corner. Somehow, I recognize the girl as myself. I watch as a woman calls the three children into the house.

The scene shifts and the three children are now nearly adults wandering down a long sidewalk. On the girl’s right, well my right, the tallest of the two men nudges my arm, “Ya know, doll, maybe you guys should at least come over for dinner tonight. Wouldn’t want you two to starve.”

I glance over at the shorter man beside me and he shakes his head as expected. “Thank you for the offer, James, but I think we’ll be alright. Besides, Stevie doesn’t seem to want to be around anyone right now,” I whisper this last part. So that’s their names, Stevie and James? Wait James as in, I, well the me that’s watching the movie, look down at the dog tags hanging around my neck. Surely this isn’t the same James, that’s such a common name.

I look back to the screen and now the movie me is standing on a porch with Stevie and James. I step aside as James steps forward and hands Stevie a key, “The thing is, you don’t have to. I’m with you till the end of the line, pal.” Stevie turns and unlocks the door before going inside. With this, James turns to me, “Take care of yourself, and him. You know where to find us if you need anything.” With this, he kisses my forehead before walking away.

Everything goes black again and I open my eyes. Now, there are several other people in the room with me. I look around and to my surprise, I see Stevie and James in the room as well, except James is also the Winter Soldier and Stevie has gotten a lot taller. Confusion courses through my mind as Stevie steps forward, “(Y/N), I’m Steve. Do you by any chance remember me?”

I look to James and back before nodding, “You’re my little brother and that’s James. He was our best friend when we were growing up.” My head hurts after remembering all this information. Oddly, that’s the last thing I remember until being assigned the mission I failed for the second time today. My mission, I was sent to kill my brother and his best friend, who I now know is the Winter Soldier.

“You’re safe here. Hydra can’t get to you here,” Steve says, “do you want to go lie down somewhere?”

Before I can answer, James speaks up, “Don’t tell her that, Steve. We don’t know that they won’t come for her or that someone else won’t for that matter.”

“Bucky, I’m trying to not scare her,” Steve scolds.

“He’s right. I’m their last weapon. They’ll come for me,” I mumble.

At this, Steve turns to a teenage girl in the corner, “Shuri, can you get the trigger words out of her mind like you did Bucky’s?” The girl nods. Steve turns back to me, “She can make it so that they can’t trigger you anymore. She did it for Bucky too.”

I look over to James. Steve always called him Bucky but I liked James better. He looks at me for a moment, “She can. You don’t have to do their bidding anymore, doll.” Doll, he always called me that. Rarely did I ever hear him call me by my name.

I return my attention to Steve, “Okay, let’s do it. The sooner the better, less likely that they get to me before she does it.”

Part 2 || Masterlist

Taglist:

#bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagines #steve rogers #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers imagines #marvel #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #mcu #mcu imagine #mcu imagines #imagine #imagines #requests open

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whirlybirbs · 4 years

Note

birbs... ur a designer, right???? can u give me some advice bc i am about to graduate and wanna know what ur go-to's and must have's are!!!!

of course! here’s some tips & good things to have. for those of you who didn’t know, i’m currently a practicing designer who makes an income through freelance doing ui/ux, web design, branding/identity and lots of other work! i’ve got a BFA in design in the ~real world~

website!

adobe portfolio is a great resource if you’re already using behance! you can essentially just upload your already existing entries on behance to be in a gallery. it’s what i use for mine! you can use site styles, or stick to preexisting templates.

if you’re looking for a more hands on, you can do wix. i’ve used it before for an entire site redesign but honestly i felt like i was pulling my teeth out. there’s a lotta front-end website designing services out there now.

domain name!

it can be a splurge. but, my current domain name is $8 annually! it’s worth it, and once you have your site + domain name, you can pop it on anything. for the love of god, don’t use google domains. they’re fucking expensive.

i used namecheap! super easy, super cheap.

business cards!

moooooo, baby! i get compliments on the quality of my business cards a lot, and moo is great because if you’re indecisive like me, you can order multiple front designs in one order! using honey as a browser add-on is helpful, or when they have sales. they have a good first-time buyer deal -- i think it’s like 20% off? they also can send you samples for free if you’re not sure what kinda finish you want before you buy.

put your website on your business card! my site wasn’t set up when i got my business cards for my senior showcase, and that’s my biggest regret.

instagram/social media!

tweet ur shit, post ur shit, insta ur shit.

seriously, if i hadn’t? then i wouldn’t have secured the gig with a certain big name cowboy singer who shall still go hinted at for the time being ;-)

snag a handle, create a brand, do daily design challenges. they’re great ways to buff up your portfolio and get your stuff out there. don’t be afraid to flood hashtags in the comments, either!

ipad / tablet

my ipad is like.... thicker than a brick and arguably older than my dog, but it works and it was cheap refurbished. it’s great because nearly all the model ipads work with an apple pencil. wacom tablets are also great, and their smaller models are great desktop tools. even if you’re not big on illustrations, using a tablet for the pen tool in illustrator is *chef kiss*.

recommended resources

astropad studio: lets you screen share your mac with your ipad. essentially turns your ipad into a cintiq. a little pricey, but the deluxe studio isn’t really needed. go for the cheaper one.

procreate: if you’re into illustrating, this one time payment app is great. it’s my most used app on my ipad.

unfold: a good app for formatting instagram posts to all kinda cohere. i use it to pop my work on a black background. my art account has some good examples. you can also use it to make rlly sharp lookin’ insta stories.

coolors.co: bro i swear i get all my color schemes from this site. smack that space bar till you find a splash you love.

dafont.com: honestly the safest font*** site i’ve used. not all of them are good, but you can find some good slab/bold/stylized typefaces. (***remember, kids! fonts are bold/italic/regular. typefaces are “comic sans” and “helvetica”!)studioyorktown: fire free mockups. here’s the link.

other free mockup sites: bitches love mockups. i’m bitches. employers, too, are bitches bc sometimes a flat .ai file doesn’t rlly sell the cd package design you were thinking off. creativebooster, mockupworld and even behance have really good free mockups. no need to pay for ‘em, honestly.

youtube: dead ass don’t ever think you need to know everything. there’s so many good tutorials out there for anything you wanna do. it’s GREAT. i love looking things up bc there’s also! a million ways to do one thing!

linda.com: definitely don’t go and register for a boston public library card online. never use a local uni address if they ask. it’s not like you can now use that ID to use linda.com, which is a service that’s.... $$$. 10/10 wouldn’t recommend if you’re into teaching yourself things. ;-)

there’s probably more in my brain cave if you’re thinking about something specific -- but yeah! those are some of my go-to’s and favs!

#keep scrolling just some advice

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thirsty-x1 · 4 years

Text

Teach Me How | Kim Yohan

Request:

Hello! Can I request for a yohan smut where he is a virgin and the reader is the more experienced one so he will come up to you bc he wants to lose his v card

↬ Pairing: Yohan x Reader

↬ Genre: Fluff, Smut

↬ Warnings: explicit language, masturbation, fingering, oral sex, protected sex, too much fluff that can melt your heart.

↬ Word Count: 4.7k

You were laying upside down in bed reading a book whilst Yohan was sitting down in front of your desk, the sound of his pencil scribbling on the paper filling the room. You both had regular studying meetings, it was a little habit you had developed after being friends for many years and recently neighbors as well, although they consisted more in just being next to each other and not talking. Besides, both being Music Majors, it was easier to talk about academic stuff and all that.

“Hey, question 5, the one about the style of the movements and who composed it, which answer did you pick?”

“Uh... I think Arcangelo Corelli.” He nodded and wrote it down immediately.

Another half an hour passed until he finally grabbed his stuff, a proud smile on his face. He always got so happy to finish all the homework... You simply felt exhausted. His body got up, stretched and threw himself on the bed next to you.

“What are you reading now?” His head sliding under your arms, the book you were holding almost slipping.

“A horror story.”

“Is it good?”

“Well, the writing is bad enough to call it scary.” He whispered a soft ‘meanie’ before laughing.

“Hey, y/n... Can I ask you something?”

“You are going to ask even if I say no.”

“Yeah, but still.” You nodded and he went on, his eyes seeming a little nervous. “You... Are you still seeing that last guy? The one from the party?”

“Hangyul? Uh, not really... Things weren’t going well. Why you ask?” Yohan rarely asked about your love life.

“Ah, you see... You know...” It seemed he was having a hard time trying to come up with whatever he was trying to say. “I’m a virgin.”

You stared at him for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. He got all serious to say that? The panicked look on his face was priceless.

“Yeah, I know that.”

“What? How?!”

“How could I not? You are my best friend since forever, you would have told me if you had sex sometime.” His cheeks blushed when you talked explicitly. “And also this! You get so shy when it comes to talk about anything that is sex related! Biology was a nightmare for you.”

“Ok, fine, I got the point, thank you. The thing is... I was wondering if... You could teach me?” He scratched his head and looked at anything else except you.

“You know that there is porn and articles on this, right? You can learn from there.” Why was he even asking you something like that? With technology it was pretty easy to access anywhere.

“No... First of all, I have watched porn and it’s awfully fake, second of all, I have already read articles. What I mean is... If you can teach me the real thing... You know, physically.”

Oh.

“Oh.” Had you ever been able to think of Yohan in a sexual way? Obviously not because if so, he wouldn’t be sitting on your bed fully dressed as of now. He was your best friend, the one that always helped you out with university, the one that got excited whenever he saw you in the crowd during his taekwondo matches, the one that giggled in a silly way whenever you two watched a drama.

“You don’t have to answer now! I just, wanted to know if you would be up for it... I don’t know why I said it, just forget it, ok? I, uh... Will be going now.” He got up and left in a flash.

You simply sat there, still analyzing the situation. Yohan, your very virgin friend, asked you take his v card. Did he mean it all the way? Like fucking and all or just a few things? You weren’t sure but the rest of the day you started seeing him from a different perspective. Sure, he was Friend Yohan™ but he could also be manly. You remembered his facial expressions when he was writing music, his body movements in taekwondo tournaments, the way he looked with a suit on...He was attractive as well and had a few relationships but often ended up being dumped because the girls just got bored, or that’s what he told you. Maybe... it was because of this?

As hours passed, you couldn’t take Yohan out of your mind. Small details seemed to appear that you never noticed consciously. His plump lips, broad shoulders, toned body. Soon you started to think about how he would look when he was close to cumming, how would his fingers feel inside of you, how his cock looked and what would he taste like, if he would moan or grunt or whimper or be quiet, your temperature rising each second that passed.

Still, fucking with friends... That isn’t something that turns out well. At least most of the times. It was risky, but you two had been friends for so long that maybe it wasn’t going to happen to you two. Of course not, besides it was just sex, just helping him out to understand how it worked and what to do, that’s it! You would be helping a friend and that is what best friends do, right? They help each other and that was what you were going to do.

y/n:

23: 46. I accept. I’ll help you out.

Ten minutes later, there was a soft knock on your door. You opened it, Yohan standing in front of you, staring straight to the floor, his fingers fidgeting.

“D-Did you really mean it?” Your heart warmed up at his soft voice.

“Yeah... You could have just answered the phone, you know?”

“Thought it was better in person. So... What do we do now?” His question surprised you, quite straightforward considering how nervous he looked.

“We could... Talk, first? And tomorrow uh... Are you free tomorrow?” It was your turn to get shy. It’s not like you had something prepared or knew where to start at all, plus the fact that this was your best friend made things a little bit different.

“Oh, yes, I’m free. Can I come in?” Eye contact was made and almost immediately both of your faces became red. You stepped aside, he came in, you both sat on the sofa, and silence filled the room. Yohan had a reason to be like that at least, but you... You were the experienced one, you should be guiding him, not acting as if it was your first time too. Decided, you changed your posture.

“Sex.” His eyes shoot out and stared at you, like a deer in headlights. “It’s important, it feels good, it’s relaxing, but if you do it the right way. You shouldn’t rush things just because you want to cum, not recommended to do weird things on the first time, communication is key...”

“Weird things? Like what?” Was he playing with you or did he really not know?

“Well, they aren’t weird things, but like, kinks. For example, uh, tying up someone or playing with wax, spanking or more extreme things, if you have no experience with that it can be a little dangerous for both parties.” You could almost see steam coming out of his ears.

“Ah, I see...”

Both of you continued to talk about the basics: hygiene, erogenous zones, myths and truths, orgasms, protection. He relaxed the more you talked and even made some questions that he had thought about: some you answered, some you googled together. It went smoother than what you expected. He listened and took everything seriously, a few times giggling over your expressions and stories.

“... That’s the number one reason why you should turn each other on previously. The whole experience can be awful if one of you isn’t in the mood for it. Don’t force it.”

“How do you do that?” Now he was asking for your experience.

“Ah... Making out is a good start. A hand over here, a hand over there, maybe some dry humping and foreplay, oral sex and such. Other things like time and place can have effects on the turn on too, like semi-public or things that make you feel some kind of adrenaline.” You explained calmly to which he nodded, his mouth opening a little and your eyes fixed on his lips. He seemed to notice, licking them quickly.

“Can we try? Making out, I mean. I haven’t done much of it so I might be pretty bad, but...” Again, he scratched his head as if to hide his embarrassment.

“Sure.” The reply came out without you really thinking about it. You got closer to him, caressing his left cheek. “Let’s go slow at first, just to try and then we move on, does that sound right?” He swallowed hard and nodded. So adorable.

His eyes closed slowly, waiting for you to make the first move. You had to hold back your smile before placing your lips on top of his, leaving a short peck before repeating the action, this time for a longer time, your lips molding to his perfectly. You got away, your heartbeat racing. He opened his eyes, a slightly dazed look on them, only to lean in and kiss you again, one of his hands going at your nape and pulling you closer. Your lips opened lightly, licking his and he panicked.

“I’m not good with tongue kisses...” His breathing was already a little irregular.

“I’m here to teach you, I’m not expecting you to be amazing at your first try, yes? Just open your mouth a tiny bit and we simply lick each others’ tongues, if it makes some kind of sense.”

He did what you said but also rushed forward, his teeth clacking against yours, making both of you laugh although he seemed frustrated. You tried again, taking the lead as your tongue slipped carefully past his lips until finding his, the warmth making both of you shudder. The kiss lasted longer, both knowing when to take breaks, he easing in and tasting you more, becoming more confident in his actions, but still looked uncomfortable.

“Is there anything wrong? Too fast?”

“It’s not that... The position is a little off, don’t you think?” He was right, your waist was hurting a little from stretching and turning to align to his body. You nodded and stood up before sitting on top of him, his eyes going wide again and freezing on the spot.

“This is a regular position, don’t get so surprised. Give me your hands.” You positioned them right above your hips and proceeded to put yours on his shoulders, your butt resting comfortably on his thighs but not on his crotch since you thought it might make him feel vulnerable at some given point.

The kissing went on and he seemed to enjoy it a lot more, his movements didn’t need your guidance as much as before, he took the initiative and even bit your lower lip playfully before asking with the sweetest smile if he did it right, to which you nodded before giving him a soft peck and shifting your body a little, a short gasp leaving his lips when you brushed against his hard on.

“I’m sorry, really, I just–!” His words went silent as you rolled your hips again, this time being more conscious about his reaction. You took in his facial expression: his eyes shut down, his swollen lips parting to let out heavy sighs come through, his cheeks painting a shade of dark red.

“Does it feel good?” There was no hesitation in his response, his strong hands gripping your hips as he raised his own. The touch was so desperate, so needy that it turned you on. You stopped him, the curiosity was too great for you to hold back. “Let me touch you.”

“Wha– Like seeing it?”

“I can do it without seeing ‘it’ if you feel more comfortable. I just don’t want you to cum in your pants this time.” He agreed before whimpering at your words.

“Why are you so raw to talk about that...” It didn’t sound like a complaint, but more like a plea. You smirked, undoing the restrictions on his pants, and spit a little on your hand before sliding it down until you hold his member, the temptation to get a sneak peek getting bigger but you tried to push it away to respect his wishes... But only feeling him was enough for you to imagine. His pre-cum made it easier, but also messier, and the moment he felt your fingers around him, he bucked his hips. You stroked him slowly, his moans muffled by his own hands covering his face.

“Look at me.” Your whisper was low and he shook his head. “Please, Yohan, let me see your face.” The walls were destroyed as he uncovered his expression, teary eyed and hazy, a pleased sigh leaving your lips this time.

“S-Stop...” Heavy breathing, strained voice, sweat dripping down his neck. He was about to finish, the view was glorious and you had a first row seat to admire it. Your thumb slid a few times over his tip before feeling a hot spurt cover your hand. “I warned you.”

You took off your hand and saw the consistent white fluid. You gave it a lick and Yohan almost fainted. It was somewhere in between bitter and sweet, not weird, pretty much like any other, and slightly sticky. Not disgusting but not quite a dessert.

“Does it taste awful?” You laughed at his expression, staring at it as if it were some kind of inhuman thing.

“Not really. It tastes sweet, like ice cream. Did you eat anything like that for the last few days?.” Maybe you could prank him a bit.

“What? That’s not what I’ve heard it tastes like...” Now there was interest instead of repulsion.

“Have some. C’mon, it’s not that big of a deal.” He looked at you, then back at your fingers and so on until he closed his lips around them, his tongue against your fingertips making you feel some kind of way. The moment his taste buds felt the savor, he got away and acted as if he was going to vomit.

“It’s awful! How could you do that to me.”

“It came out of you, it’s not that weird.” You got up to clean your hand whilst he complained about the stickiness and buttoned his pants again.

“Yeah well there are many things that come out of my body but I don’t go around putting them in my mouth.”

“Stop complaining, now think about it twice if you want to make someone swallow that.” When you came back, he was covering his crotch and seemed anxious to go back to his apartment. “Go and clean yourself, we will meet tomorrow and see what we can make.”

“But I didn’t do anything to you.” You let out a small ‘huh?’ before understanding, but listening to him was more entertaining. “Y-You know, I didn’t make you c... that.”

“Cum.” He sighed and flipped their hands around before they went back to their original position. “It’s fine, maybe tomorrow.”

“T-Tomorrow?”

“Unless you don’t want to try anything else which would be totally fine, don’t be nervous.”

“I don’t– d-don’t get nervous.” An embarrassed giggle came out of his lips realizing his failure. “Fine. Tomorrow.”

And he left, walking funnily. And you couldn’t help but to touch yourself afterwards, the whole experience replaying in your memory being way more stimulating than what it really was.

‘Tomorrow’ sure came fast enough, with you already on Yohan’s lap making out, this time on his sofa. There was not nearly as much hesitation as the day before: his hands went to your hips instinctively, sometimes they would shakily move down before changing their mind and going back to the first position. It was cute. You grabbed his hands and slid them underneath your shirt until they reached your breasts, his breathing hitching up as he softly squeezed them, feeling them fully before getting away and ask you with pleading eyes to let him remove the clothing between. You nodded and he did, stare fixed on the lacy bra before you unhooked it and showed them to him, the way he examined them making you feel almost shy despite being the experienced one. Again, trembling hands massaged them, the cold contact making your nipples erect, and soon you could feel him getting hard, a smile on your lips as you pulled away, kneeling between his legs.

“W-Wait...”

“Has anyone ever sucked you off?” He panicked even more, blushed cheeks and you were lost as to which of all the previous events provoked it.

“No... But what if, you know...”

“What?”

“What if...” He looked away, trying to hide his facial expression. “What if you don’t like it?”

“First, it’s simply a cock.” You started speaking as you were undoing his belt, unzipping his pants. “And second, all I want is to make you feel good.”

He seemed to relax to your words and didn’t put as much resistance as before but still wouldn’t look. You asked him to stand up and he obeyed, covering his face as you pulled both his pants and underwear together, his dick springing out. Maybe you weren’t fully ready to see your best friend’s lower part, but there was no way you could complain. It simply looked like it had the perfect measurement for everything: slightly thicker than most of the ones you had seen, quite longer than the average, his pinkish tip licking pre-cum, soft veins running alongside his shaft. The only word that came to your mind was cute, but that would probably hurt his pride, it often did to most of guys even if it was a compliment.

You decided to not say anything and simply started touching him before sliding you tongue on his length, his lips parting open slightly. Saliva quickly spreading, your hand working on the base as you took him inside your mouth, starting to bob your head and take him deeper, seeing his reactions to try and guess what feels better for him. Each time you ran your tongue on his tip, his hips slightly bucked up, not hard to guess then. You kept doing it, your hands paying attention to the rest of his length, and then you felt his on your head. Was he going to take control? You prepared your throat just in case, trying to control your muscles but nothing happened besides him just stroking your hair, as if patting your head for doing a good job, melting you completely.

“Can you cum for me, Yohan?” The mention of his name caught him off guard, a small whimper escaping his lips as he looked down to you, the view becoming too much, a quick nod giving you confidence as you felt his hardness pulsating against your tongue, but he pulled out and simply covered himself as he came untouched on his hand, taking you by surprise.

“It tastes awful, I’m not going to make you go through that again.” Your heart fluttered at his pureness. Even if he was too lost in his own pleasure, you still remained as his top priority. He stared at you, his eyes wandering until he saw that you still had your breasts out, his ears flushing as if he remembered what was happening just a few minutes ago and passed you your shirt, forgetting the liquid it was on his hand. “Oh god, sorry, wait, I’ll bring you something.”

You tried to tell him it wasn’t necessary, that you could simply get one from your apartment but he was gone quick, pulling up his clothes whilst becoming embarrassed again. You couldn’t help but to laugh as you picked your bra and put it on, waiting for him to come back, which happened just a few seconds later with your favorite hoodie of his. He threw it to you, his perfume hitting you all at once and put it on while mumbling a small ‘thank you’. You got up to leave but he grabbed your wrist.

“Are you going already? I want to try something.”

“Oh? Ah, I thought you were going to be tired since you just...” He cut you off before you could continue.

“Not on me, but on you.” Was he filled with surprises today? “You made me c-cum twice now... I should at least to pay back, right? Teach me how to... well... that...” Seeing your confused expression, he tried to be clearer. “O-Oral...”

He took your hand and took you to his room: there were a few candles, giving off a warm scent and light, and sheets you had never seen on his bed before. Everything looked so different but still made you feel comfortable and as if it were your own place.

“You prepared all this?”

“Yeah, I remembered you saying that it’s better if everything is in a comfortable place, so...” He grabbed you by your waist and his puppy eyes seemed so hopeful. You sighed and took off your lower clothes but kept his hoodie on.

“Come here.” You laid back on his bed and he also did, right next to you. “Remember I told you that both should feel on the same mood? Always keep that in mind.”

His hands slid up and down your legs, the soft brush of his fingertips on your skin making you shiver. You wondered if he was listening to you, seeming so enhanced in playing with your thighs as you kept talking, suddenly shutting up as he brushed your core, a sly smirk on his lips for the first time.

“You are already wet.” Where did that confidence even came from? His fingers applying more pressure, rubbing you through your underwear, damping it within seconds. His head turned to you, his lips on yours without any warning as he slithered his hands under your panties, a gasp coming out of both of you when he made direct contact with your wetness. Long and slow motions were traced, your body becoming more and more sensitive to his touch.

He went down, stopping his motions only to remove the piece of clothing in-between and spread your legs wide before admiring you whole. The turn of events and roles having you as the shy one. His inexperienced fingers explored your insides as he slipped one inside of you, adding a second one when he felt it right.

“Does that feel good?” Your head was spinning, the slow movements making you feel dizzy. “Please, tell me.”

“Yes... You can press against the upper part or make them go in and out.” Right, you had to teach him, but his eagerness made it hard for you to focus.

You gave him a few instructions and corrected him if he went too rough or awkward, although there wasn’t much that you had to work on, just details. He mumbled out something before slipping out his fingers and try licking a stripe along your folds that made you want to arch your back. You suggested him to focus on your clit to which he complied but instead of licking it like you had expected, he closed his lips around it and slightly sucked in. His tongue explored every centimeter, every small part as his fingers came back to be inside of you, everything feeling stronger each time to the point where you let pass small things involuntarily because they were replaced with greater pleasure, until you locked your fingers in his hair, coming with small spasms and he finally stopped.

“Did I do well?” He looked so anxious, licking his lips over and over as he stared up to you.

“You are... really good at this...” Proud smile on his face as he got up.

“I investigated quite a lot on this particular part.” A soft giggle was heard around the room as he took off his shirt, muttering how sweaty he felt. Maybe it was because of seeing his body, noticing the new tent on his pants or because of your recent orgasm, but the words blurted out, making Yohan turn around quickly. “W-What?”

“Fuck me.”

He froze on the spot. Sure, you two had talked about taking things slow and experiencing one thing at the time, but now you just needed to feel him, even if it was just for a few minutes.

“But I-I might not last long...”

“I just... Please, I need it.”

What could he do if you were begging to him like that, wearing his clothes, your look gazing him and your legs completely spread while being on his bed? Nervousness ran through his veins but the desire was too much. He opened one of his drawers on the bedside table and pulled out a condom, undressing and rolling it on his member before hovering over you, hands slightly trembling. You guide his hardness until it slips inside of you, his eyes closing at the feeling, your arms hugging him as he filled you.

“How does it feel?” Your whisper on his ear sends shivers down his spine, his muscles tensing and relaxing as if he is trying to hold back.

“Good... Too good...”

His forehead touched yours, and you got to admire each one of his facial features. One of your hands softly caressing his cheek, making him lean against your touch before kissing you, tasting yourself on his lips, his hips starting to move. He was a little clumsy, not being able to find his own rhythm, being too close too many times but he was thankful it was you the one he gave his first time to. He knew it wasn’t such a big thing, but he still felt like right there was where he belonged.

Not too long after, he simply couldn’t hold back, his thrusts becoming erratic as he enjoyed the sensation of you clenching on him and your legs hugging him to push him deeper, one of his hands rubbing your clit, the over sensitivity pushing you over the edge as you moaned his name, his second orgasm hitting him and his weight dropping slightly on top of you. He stayed like that for a while, your hands playing with his hair and his head resting on your chest, your breathing uneven.

“Thank you.” Astonishment crossed his face when he listened those words coming from you.

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” His soft giggling making you smile.

“What I meant is that you did really well, you treated me in a way that I just wanted to thank you for.” Puppy eyes yet again, you could almost picture a wagging tail behind him.

“I still have a lot to improve. Will you keep teaching me?” The innocent tone in his voice made your whole face acquire a red shade.

“S-Shut up...” He just laughed and pulled out of you, throwing the used condom. “Can I have a shower here?” Yohan nodded as he handed you a towel.

Under the steam you thought for a long time about everything that had happened that night. Maybe nothing would change, at least in the best scenario. Just a minute ago it seemed like there was no awkwardness, so maybe, just maybe, it could work out. A smile spread on your face remembering his giggles and each one of his groans. When you got out of the shower, wearing his hoodie again and a pair of boxers he had left next to the towel, you saw him sitting on his bed with the TV on.

“Want to re-watch this drama?”

As you cuddled next to him and both laughed at the scenes displaying, you thought everything was fine, and you could definitely keep teaching each other, at least for a bit longer.

I loved writing this so much,,, Yohan being a shy baby is what I live for. Maybe this was too soft *sobs*

~Nani

unedited

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bluemoon-writer · 3 years

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TSI - Chapter 1 Notes

Here are my full notes and commentary for Chapter 1 of my Harry Potter fic 'The Snake Inside'.

Chapter 1 can be found here.

Throughout the chapter there are numbers in parentheses, these numbers correspond to the below notes. To best understand what I’m talking about in the notes I would recommend opening the story in a second tab and following along from there.

(notes begin under the cut)

1. This is, if you hadn’t noticed, lifted directly from the book, I do do this a couple times however, this is the only one that is italicized. I’m going to try and point out the other instances in chapter notes as well.

2. Another line lifted from the book, although here it has slightly different context

3. This was another line from the book, although again it has slightly different context (also I swear these notes aren’t just going to be me citing passages from the book)

4. I was actually really conflicted over this. Dudley is obviously incredibly spoiled so I figured it made sense that if for once Harry had something that he didn’t that he would throw a fit and demand he get the same. What I wasn’t confident about was how Petunia or Vernon would react as they really do love Dudley, shown by how much they spoil him. In this scenario, I decided that Petunia’s hatred of magic plus her fear of losing Dudley to magic (just like she lost her sister) would drive her to hit Dudley.

5. The first signs of Harry’s sneaky Slytherin side! He reads the room and chooses the best manner to approach the situation, something he would be good at considering he grew up in an abusive household. He would likely have gotten very good at reading moods and acting accordingly at a young age to avoid being hit or yelled at.

6. It might seem like Harry is a little quick to believe in Hogwarts and want to go considering he knows nothing about it. But, it’s an escape from the Dursleys and the terrible school they were going to send him to. Plus, it’s obvious that the Dursleys hate magic, so why would they lie to Harry about him being a wizard?

7. I know in canon Hogwarts is free, but that simply doesn’t make sense to me. In my world, Hogwarts is the best and most elite school in Britain, but it’s not the only one. There are also smaller ‘public’ wizarding schools that people who can’t afford Hogwarts go to. Also, if Hogwarts has a tuition then it only makes sense to me that the Potter Parents would set up an education fund for Harry, especially since their lives were at risk, they would want to make sure that Harry would be able to get the best education possible.

8. Some more Slytherin sneakiness, Harry isn’t a master manipulator by any means but he’s lived with the Dursleys for 11 years, he knows how to play them.

9. I don’t write it in bc it seemed unnecessary, but she does explain her reasoning off-screen.

10. Some foreshadowing here, I thought I was rather clever, finding a logical way for Harry and Vernon to learn how to enter the train platform.

11. This whole paragraph is my attempt at showing how Harry is still just a kid who’s curious about the new world he’s found himself in. I know I write Harry (and all the characters his age) as being a little more mature than they probably would be in reality, so here I was trying to show a pure, childlike curiosity and also some trains of thought that aren’t totally logical bc he is a kid.

12. I do think the Dursleys, or Vernon at least, is more clever than he gets credit for, he is high up in Grunnings, so he has to have some sort of head on his shoulders, and he’s certainly self-serving we saw in book 2 how he lathered up those rich people he wanted to impress. So, I think as much as Vernon might hate magic and think goblins are disgusting, that he would very much be able to put that aside if he thought it might benefit him.

13. The goblins ‘revealing the truth’ to Harry, or giving him or helping him out in some way is kinda over done and doesn’t always make sense as the goblins really have no reason so want to go out of their way to help Harry. But, I needed an unbiased 3rd party to teach Harry a little about the wizarding world and I figured a satisfactory motivation for the goblins would be making money in the form of consultation fees.

14. The first hints of Dumbledore’s manipulations. He wants a naïve Savior who will be easy for him to influence and shape into the person he thinks the world needs. Note, I’m not going for an evil Dumbledore, just a morally grey Dumbledore.

15. Paper business refers to the practice of owning a business on paper but not being involved in how it’s currently ran, I’m not trying to say that the Potters own several companies that sell paper. I don’t know if this is a common term, when I googled it nothing came up, but my dad uses it a lot when talking about businesses. Also, we know in canon that the Potters are rich but in a lot of fics it has evolved into them being extremely wealthy and influential. I’m running with this fanon idea because the Potters are a very old family, they’ve been around since the 12thcentury and married into other very influential families in canon. Also, if I ever get to the later years I do want to mess around with some politics and Harry having power from his family name will be a necessary advantage.

16. I’m not going to bore you guys with paragraphs detailing just how exceedingly rich Harry is, if he can’t even do anything with what he owns yet. He’s 11, he’s not going to be making any smart investments.

17. Like I said earlier with the tuition vault, the Potters were soldiers in a war, they knew they might die and I think it’s only logical that they would take precautions to ensure that Harry would have a comfortable life should they die.

18. This might seem like a lot, but again, the Potters are rich and they want their only child to be able to have a comfortable life even if they die, plus it is supposed to last until Harry’s an adult.

19. This is not canon, JKR said that a galleon is approx. 5 British pounds. I think that’s too low, so I changed it. I mean, it’s solid gold and the highest form of currency it’s got to be worth more than that.

20. Trying to give Dumbledore the benefit of the doubt, but of course Vernon is going to be suspicious of anyone who took money that he could have used.

21. This is just something that I thought made sense, Gringotts has been established as being in the business of making money and how can they do that if they’re cut off from part of their clientele?

22. I’m trying to go in a new direction with the Dursleys, I’m not trying to redeem them, but like Dumbledore, they’re in a grey area, especially Vernon. I think a self-serving Vernon would be interested in learning more about the magic world, or more specifically learning what it can do for him. But also because you need to know your enemy, as interested as he might be in profiting off magic, Vernon doesn’t trust wizards. As for Harry, this is a Slytherin AU, of course he’s going to play along with his uncle’s plan as long as it benefits him.

23. This is another line from the book

24. Hints that Dean is actually a halfblood and not muggleborn, this is canon too. I’m looking forward to exploring the future “tracking down who my real dad was arc”

25. Originally, I had Harry meet Hermione and her family, but I decided to change it to Dean because I wanted to go down some different avenues. A lot of Slytherin Harry stories have Harry becoming friends with Hermione early on despite their differences and I didn’t want to just do the same thing as everyone else. Also, I really like Dean Thomas’s character he’s a friendly, good natured, brave and loyal. I also think that Harry would get along better with Dean right off the bat than he would with Hermione.

26. Honestly, I think it’s ridiculous that they still use quills and I will be using the trope where Harry sneaks in ballpoint pens.

27. Harry came to Diagon a few days earlier than he did in canon, so I figure it only makes sense that he would meet someone different at Madam Malkins also this gave me a great opportunity to shoe in one of my other favorite characters, Neville.

28. I headcanon that Harry and Neville have a slight magical bond over both being possible options for the prophecy.

29. I admit this is slightly unrealistic, as I’ve dropped my glasses several times before and they’ve never broken but I wanted an excuse to get Harry some new glasses.

30. Not implausible, but also not likely either. Also, I admit I really have no clue about British healthcare, especially not what it was like in the 80s and 90s. I know it’s free, but that there’s also the option to do private or paid care. So, for this story, assume that the Dursleys use private care bc they want to seem better than everyone else.

31. Again, probably not the most realistic scenario, but it is possible. I got glasses when I was 11 and contacts when I was 15, but I definitely could have gotten the contacts when I was a little younger. Maybe not, 11-years old younger, but I don’t think it’s entirely out of the ballpark.

32. I didn’t see any point in changing Hedwig’s name, so I kept it the same.

33. Giving Harry contacts was something that I debated a lot, there’s no real reason he needs them, I just wanted him to have some because they’re convenient. I personally regret not getting contacts earlier.

34. To be honest, this is actually a bit of a cop out on my end because I haven’t figured out the entire political system yet. BUT even if I had, Harry is still 11 so he probably wouldn’t understand it that well anyways. There will be a brief explanation in chapter 2 though.

35. Dudley’s reaction is anything thing I was really torn up about. Because he’s essentially torn between his two parents, sticking with Petunia ostracizes him from Vernon and sticking with Vernon ostracizes him from Petunia. Ultimately, I decided Dudley would value his father’s attention more because while Petunia wouldn’t like him getting involved with magic, she wouldn’t cut Dudley off completely, she loves him too much. But Vernon, has been completely distracted by magic and without Dudley getting involved in it too then he won’t get any attention from his father.

36. According to the HP wiki, Dean’s family actually lives in London, but I wanted it to be more convenient for them to meet so I moved them closer to the Dursleys. Also, I actually did about an hour’s worth of research on google maps trying to find a real place Dean’s family to live.

37. A whole lot of this section with the Weasleys was lifted from the book with slightly different commentary from Harry. I originally had more, but it didn’t add anything so I cut it out.

38. I don’t know how outgoing Ron was before he met Harry, if I was him though I would be too nervous to intrude on a compartment with two other kids who looked like they were already friends.

39. This is not a Ron bashing fic, Harry has no reason to dislike him, so of course he wouldn’t be opposed to sitting with him. That said, for the premise of the story I couldn’t have them sit together because Ron is heavily biased against Slytherin.

40. Poor Draco, if he had just paid more attention to who he was passing in the hall then he would have met Harry, but again, I couldn’t let that happen because Draco’s so obnoxious that he’d turn Harry off Slytherin.

41. Honestly, I just wanted Harry to interact with more students who can be potential friends.

42. Again, and the sorting is lifted from the book. I’m not going to make note of every line.

43. I wasn’t sure if I wanted Neville to be in Hufflepuff of Gryffindor at first. A lot of people argue that Neville needed to be in Gryffindor to learn how to be brave, but I think that Hufflepuff would provide a strong support system that would help Neville gain confidence in himself. Also, I decided that Harry’s words in the robe shop would influence Neville into not thinking that he was a loser if he went to Hufflepuff. I imagine in canon, much like Harry was chanting “not slytherin” Neville was probably chanting “not Hufflepuff”. So I think it’s fitting they both don’t end up in Gryffindor in this fic. Also, Harry already has a Gryffindor friend in Dean, he can use a Hufflepuff friend.

#the snake inside #chapter notes #tsi

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sugarandspice-games · 3 years

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I guess this is becoming a trend... I’m popping in before the actual intro to clarify-- if the text is in italic, it is me (Sugar) talking and regular is Spice. Alright? Cool. And so--

So, one night I’m going through youtube and I come upon this one shitposty video about some random anime that I’ve never even heard of. After doing some research, I discover that it’s actually based on a dating sim that I’ve also never heard of. As a joke I was like “Hey Sugar wanna watch this as a joke, it might be funny” and so we did. And uhm. Well.

Today we’re gonna be reviewing Brothers Conflict, aka Sweet Home Alabama 2: Electric Anime Boogaloo aka the anime that ruined our lives. [Again, disclaimer: neither Sugar nor I condone incest and/or pedophilia, two themes which are uh, very rampant in this anime which is why I cannot recommend it in good faith. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong. I can’t really say that I liked it even if watching it and ragging on it was kind of enjoyable, and I did get attached to some of the characters because that’s the kind of idiot I am. Also, we’re not shirking our duties to write I swear please don’t kill me--] Anyway, an obligatory SPOILER WARNING though this probably isn’t going in the main tag bc I do not want the fans to publicly stone me. Why are we reviewing this? Bc we need to talk about it somewhere. Though I say review lightly bc this... is really more of a critique.

ALSO we only watched the anime, idk if things are different in the game. There is no full english translation for the games and most of the LP channels have been copyright striked, so please don’t come at us for not knowing anything. I also know that otome games and dating sims don’t tend to translate well to anime, and I will be addressing this later.

So, dear god, where do I begin.

Where do we begin indeed? How about the fact that her name is Ema and I had to google to remember the heroine’s name? Also, she is seventeen.

Our plot, or well... what you COULD call a plot, I guess, if you REALLY wanted to give this anime that much credit, focuses on the aforementioned seventeen year old Hinata Ema, who has an absent father who apparently FOUND THE TIME TO FALL IN LOVE AND GET MARRIED BUT NEVER HAS A SECOND TO SPARE FOR HIS ONLY CHILD, RINTARO I SWEAR TO GOD I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILD. HAND HER OVER-- Anyway. He’s getting married to a woman who has 13 sons (jesus christ ma’am have you ever heard of a condom?) and he decides to move her in with them because... I guess he has less braincells than I have balls, which is to say, zero. Hi, I’m trans.

So, Ema moves in with them... along with her talking grey squirrel, Juli. Juli is... interesting and by interesting, I mean-- ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. He, apparently, has seen the majority of Ema’s life from babyhood to teenagerhood and can talk but is only understood by Ema (who he calls Chii) and Louis, the eighth son in the Asahina family. It is never explained why, or how Chii came across him or how in an episode, a single episode, he becomes human because why the hell not, I guess??? (Also, he is pretty. YES. I said it. Fight me.) [Quick Spice intervention, this squirrel can talk to people, transform into a human, enter dreams, and live way longer than a squirrel should since the average lifespan of a squirrel is like 6 years in the wild. Juli is apparently a god as none of this is EVER explained.]

And when she meets the Asahina family, it’s pretty much immediately chaos because these heterosexual (I guess? They look like a bunch of twinks to me but there goes anime trying to convince me that straight people are real and not a lie made up by Trump) men have NEVER and I mean NEVER known a woman in their entire lives, since they seem to want to bang their stepsister immediately. And most of them are GROWN ASS ADULTS. Only three of them are actually minors (though Iori is 18 and only one year older so I guess??? It’s okay??? But still weird) and one of them is a 13 year old who looks and acts like he’s 8.

Oh, and did I mention that out of these boys, only the adult triplets and the abusive asshole 16 year old get any kind of characterization AND character development? I mean, Subaru gets an “arc” if you can call it that, but really, they don’t give him much... personality. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout and it’d be the same. I feel bad for him (but not really because dude you are 20 and she is your sister, what the fuck--)

But if there’s anything good about this anime, it is the characters themselves. Several of the boys have redeeming qualities and interesting personalities and quirks, as well as interesting relationships and dynamics with each other. Yes, some of them are lacking in the plotline department while others may have decent plotlines and lack personality, and then some of them are just given absolutely nothing (COUGH Masaomi COUGH Ukyo COUGHCOUGHCOUGH Iori, and by the way, what the fuck is that game plotline bc I read the wiki since I wanted to know more about him. We don’t have time to unpack the mento illness luv. But you’re telling me they had all this meat to work with and they threw it in the trash and gave him nothing? What the hell?) And if anything, I feel as if the characters themselves are crippled by the plotline. If given a different story, perhaps, they may have room to shine, because a lot of them are compelling if not lovable (though some may not be... lovable. COUGHFuuto, at least not for me.) If you want to see our review on the characters, we’ll put out another post.

Iori... Iori has a hell of a plot in the game, according to the Wiki but I can’t blame the writers for not exploring all of it because whoa. It is dark and not in a good way. But back to the subject at hand... I agree with Spice. I do/did like quite a lot of the characters... provided the entire romantic plot is taken away but we will go into more of why the plot is problematic below. All I can really add is: There is a baby in this dumpster and canon has been taken out back to be shot like a lame horse.

This brings me to a point in which I would like to pause the character discussion and bring up a glaring flaw with this anime in general (aside from the... plot. Look, I’m not a huge fan of weird stepsibling stuff but I think that if you want to do something like that, there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. This was the way not to do it, which I’m getting to). The biggest thing that made this anime so uncomfortable was the imbalance of power dynamics. Why is the protagonist 17 when most of the love interests are 18 and older, and I mean much, much older? And she’s not any 17 year old... she’s a lonely, neglected girl who is starved for the love of a family. This makes her easily manipulated by the brothers, who clearly desire her for less than wholesome reasons, and that makes it skeevy. I’m not sure why there’s such a fetishization of nonconsent in media, as if it’s fine for as many men to lust after female protagonists as the writer desires BUT the woman can’t want a single one of them in return. It’s creepy, and quite frankly, I am very much over it. I also get that the age thing is probably a product of the protagonist of a teenager oriented dating sim not translating well to an anime (because really, all otome game MCs are meant to be a neat little pair of shoes for the player to imagine themselves in), but why are we fetishizing a teenager being groomed by adults anyway? Especially adults who have this much power over her to begin with? The power dynamics bring this plot from “Oh, this might be kinda trashy but it could be entertaining” to “This is extremely creepy and rapey and kind of a dumpster fire.”

This is also true. If we were to take age into consideration, Fuuto, Yusuke, and Iori would be the three candidates left for Chii. This is taking out the youngest as well, who is... thirteen, I think? But anyway, (I know I am probably going to get some hate for this but go for it), I am into stories that explore the stepsibling thing and it can make a good narrative-- but before everyone gets uppity: There is a line between FICTION and REALITY and I do not condone real life incest but a story is a story and there are ways to frame it that make it clear that it is not a romantic thing, or acceptable. This anime does not do that in it’s dynamics because some of the brothers do start off in that very firm caregiving, family role and it is a sharp turn into romance that makes you go, “?” or in Fuuto case, a blending that does lean into fetishization.

All in all I think the plot maybe could have been okay? I’m not saying it isn’t problematic, because we all know it is, who are we kidding? But I don’t think it’s wrong per se to explore family dynamics with romance and to understand where the line should be drawn, and maybe exploring the definition of family itself. I have seen fanfictions with similar tropes ask those questions and explore the concept beautifully without romanticizing or fetishizing incest and unhealthy power dynamics. It could have been good, and I get that perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree by expecting mature themes in an anime based on an otome game, but it also could have been a lot less... creepy (I have used that word so much that it looks wrong now) even if it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But again, what was I expecting? I watched this whole thing as a joke and ended up attached to the characters like a fool... That tends to be a trend here, and this is why we are so salty all the time. So anyway, stay tuned for our review of the characters! We may not cover all of them since some of them don’t really get anything, but we’ll cover what we found interesting.

#spice talks #sugar speaks #anime and game reviews #sweet home alabama: the anime #not putting this in main tag

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