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meltinghun · 4 months

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A real gentleman ; Joseph Descamps.

summary: Joseph and Reader never got really along until something changed.

warnings: genderneutral!reader, enemies-to-lovers, idiots in love!!, Y/N mentions lol, just kiss already.

author's note: Hi! I wrote this bc I fell in love with Mixte 1963, and when I looked up for ffs, there were NONE, so I said, 'I'll take one for the team' and came up with this. Please keep in mind that I'm not a writer and english is not my first language, I'll appreciate it if you can point at any errors. <3

The chilly breeze hitted their faces, making them close their eyes momentarealy due to its force, breathing in the smell of wet soil mixed with the freshly made bread from the bakery a few houses down the road.

The day looked very promising; today they woke up a little bit earlier than usual, using the extra time to finish in advance some english homework assigned for the next week and even strarting a big upcomig proyect due to the end of the month, hearing the weatherman in the radio as a background noise, announcing that it was going to be an unusually warm day of autumn.

Everything seemed perfect, the subtle orange hue of the skyes illuminating their face as they walked and the soft rumbling of cars passing by the principal street made them feel like a character of one of those romantic movies they dearly love watching, a thought that felt reinforced when every leave they stepped on made a perfect crunch sound. A soft greeting left their lips when they walked past one of their neighbours who was heading out to work like many other people did at those hours.

It truly felt like a peaceful morning.

'You seem lost in thought. Are you daydreaming about me already?'

Until it wasn't.

They dedicated a slight scowl towards the person who dared to interrupt their peace and inhaled a big breath of air before answering.

'Not even in your greatest dreams, Descamps.' They made a condescending gesture with their hand. 'Now leave me alone, yeah? I was perfectly fine until you came with your annoying presence.'

A booming laugh abandoned his throat. 'Don't act so disinterested. I know you couldn't live without my annoying presence even if you wanted.'

Joseph Descamps. He was a classmate of theirs that took an interesting liking towards their persona, or how they liked to say, a liking towards making their life miserable.

Since the start of the year he took every possibility to annoy them out of their mind, it started with some snark remarks insulting their way of doing certain things and it slowly progressed to petty acts, such as slighty tugging their hair when passing each other, hide their belongings when they aren't looking and even blocking their path by standing in the entryways, smiling down at them while demanding a 'password' that changed every day. Just petty acts meant to be a pain in the head.

He was everything they couldn't stand: a bully with some serious narcissist tendencies who, on top of it all, loved to get a rise out of people by pushing their boundaries and provoking them in any possible way.

But even with that horrendous description, Y/N couldn't avoid that rare feeling at the bottom of their stomach whenever he was close. At first they thought that it was a reflect of how disgusted they truly felt by his persona and the gross acts he usually did, a few weeks later, that feeling was accompannied with their heartbeat increasing when they noticed that he was invading their personal space, but chalked it up as just being nervous of his tall frame hovering them like some sort of prey, that made total sense on their head. However, some days later, he did something that made them realise what they truly felt for the boy with the patch.

It started to rain towards the end of the day, exactly 15 minutes into their english class and the frustration was clearly palpable, it was so unexpected that nobody could've predicted it; what it seemed to be a passing grey cloud turned out to be a massive downpour, Y/N started to complain with their friends about how it was a shame that they chosed to use the new sweater their grandmother knitted for them and how sad it was that now it would get ruined under the relentless rain. When the class was over, they noticed how Joseph went outside the building running and disappeared behind the school gates. They thought it was really weird, but they knew better than to expect something coherent from him. Minutes passed and it seemed like the temporal was getting worse so a few people decided to just suck it up and walk under the cold rain, sighing for themselves and rapidly lamenting once more the lost of the sweater, they prepared to follow the steps of the brave mass of students when a breathless voice interrupted their movements.

'L/N, wait!' A disheveled and completely soaked Joseph made himself seen, his shout drawing attention to the both of them.

'What do you want now, Descamps? I'm already late to home, I don't need you keeping me here any longer than necessary.' They stated with a confused frown, curious as to why was he there but trying to mask it behind indifference.

A smirk made its presence on his sharp features. 'I know, but I couldn't just let you go like that under the rain, that wouldn't be so gentlemanly of me, don't you think?' From behind his back, he pulled a blue umbrella and extended it to a dumbfounded Y/N.

Was that really happening right now? Did the most annoying person they ever met just ran under the rain to bring them an umbrella? And not only that, but he somehow managed to get one with their favorite color, too. Did he just called it to be a mere gentlemanly act?

It might as well start raining cats and dogs.

They opened and closed their mouth, being left without anything to say for the first time, a half-hearthed chuckle interrumping their messy train of thought.

'I heard what you said about your sweater and how sad you would be if it got ruined.' They swore that their heart would get out of their chest for how hard it was beating. 'And I didn't want you to get heartbroken for it, so I thought that you could use one of these.'

He closed the distance that separated them by taking a few steps, reaching out for their free hand and making them hold the umbrella, the contact between their fingertips sparkling a something deep inside each other.

'I know we are supposed to not like each other, but let me be nice to you for once, please.' His eye shining with an intensity they couldn't explain. 'Don't worry, we can keep hating us tomorrow.' When he saw that they wouldn't object, he turned around and began walking outside, getting under the rain once more.

Feeling the heat creeping on their face and having found their voice, they asked out loud.

'How did you know?' His head turned around enough for them to see his face. 'How did you know that it's my favorite color?'

They knew that it could've perfectly been a mere coincidence, something insignificant that shouldn't be overly analized, but something told them that it wasn't like that. They really hoped it wasn't. And it was confirmed when he flashed them another one of his infamous smirks.

'Sometimes I listen to you more than i should.'

Since that very moment it's been really difficult to fight the involuntary smiles that made a way into their face when he unexpectedly tries to integrate them to a conversation by asking their opinion on a subject, or the feeling of warmth that invaded their chest everytime they made visual contact and let's not forget how everytime they both "accidentaly" brush hands Y/N had the extremely rare need to interlock their hands with him.

But after all, he was still Joseph Descamps, the attractive cocky idiot who is always up on some trouble that he himself seeked out.

'...-ou cold?'

They blinked repeatledly with confusion written all over their face, the taller boy smiling down at them for being able to catch them distracted.

'Huh?'

'I asked if you weren't cold.' He repeated the question slower, a soft look on his eye. 'You are shivering'.

If he didn't pointed it out, they wouldn't noticed that, in fact, they were shivering. The chilly air becoming colder than before making them lowly insult the unstable weather of the so-called "unusually warm day", having only a thin cardigan that didn't do much to help.

'It's nothing. The school's a few blocks ahead, and I can take a little bit of cold.' Grumbled under their breath, only to sneeze some moments later.

The boy snorted while shaking his head before swiftly taking off his coat and placing it on their sholders. 'You are not going to catch a cold, or at least not on my company.'

'You are being awfully nice to me lately.' In a slight moment of braveness, they blurted out the question that was tormenting their head. 'Are you flirting with me, Descamps?'

An incredulous look got settled in his face, and they regretted saying it immediately, wishing to come back on time to stop themselves and save them from the embarrassment. Did they read the signals wrong? Was he only trying to become their friend? Was he only being nice? Was he...?

'Yes! Thank you for finally noticing it, I was starting to think that you were cruelly ignoring my advances.' A beautiful and dashing smile was sent in their direction, the biggest they ever saw him smiling.

And it was because of them.

A shaky sigh left their lips accompanied by a nervous laugh, not realizing they were holding their breath, with equally shaky hands coming up their head to accommodate their hair on a jittery action.

'I... I didn't know, really. I had a slight impression, but I thought that I was imagining things.' They cleared their throat in an attempt to regain their cool and collected personality. 'So, when are you taking me on a date then?'

The slight quiver on their voice was noticed by the still very amused boy, who took mental notes on how cute they looked flustered and to try to do it again in the future when given the opportunity.

'Would you accept if I asked you to skip school with me and have a date right now? I don't think I can wait any longer.' He asked with a playful tone, typical of him.

They let out a snort. 'I would tell you that you are crazy if you think that I would do something as risky as that. But lucky for you, I'm free today, so meet me at the cinema at four o'clock.'

'Then I shall see you there.' Replied between soft laughs, not believing that this was really happening. 'Some recommendations for this poor soul?'

The open gates were a few meters ahead of them, the other students that hanged outside throwing curious and shocked looks on their direction when they noticed the much larger coat that lied on Y/N's shoulders and the flustered smiles on their faces.

'Yes, the most important thing, don't you dare being late. If I get there and I don't see you, you can even forget that we know each other.' He brought both hands up in the air in a sign of redemption. 'I'm serious about this. You'll regret it if you do.'

'I wouldn't even dare thinking about it, I'll let Magnan take my other eye before screwing my opportunity with you.'

Their eyes widened at the hidden seriousness of the statement and the simplicity with which he pronounced it, the sincerity of it all making their heart race like crazy. Slowly nodding their head while trying to gather their thoughts.

'Well, it's settled then, at fo-...'

'Four o'clock sharp, I couldn't forget even if I wanted to.' He made a pause, regaining his usual playfulness. 'Should I bring you flowers? I want to be a real gentleman with you.'

'Okay, now you are showing off that you know how to flatter someone, shut up.' Rolling their eyes with a smile, they started walking toward the gates, leaving him behind. 'And I like camellias, for your information.'

'I only wish to flatter you, nobody else!' He said loudly, making people start to whisper about the supposed swear enemies.

'You don't want to know.' Was the only thing they said, accompanied by a slight shrug of shoulders.

Trying to bite back a bigger smile they waved him off, getting closer to their friend group with each step they took, all of them looking the exchange with incredulous eyes, silently begging for an answer as to what just happened.

They never before wished that the day would end up sooner.

#mixte1963 #mixte 1963 #joseph descamps #joseph descamps x reader #vassili schneider #voltaire high #mixte 1963 x reader #enemies to lovers

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yulin-pop · 10 months

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⤷ ✧ 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Order 81 | Gender Neutral | Headcanons | First years

❀ NOTE: I wrote this at like 4 am when I was having a sleepover but couldn’t sleep after I watched a scary movie.

Watching a scary movie with Ace, Deuce, Epel, Jack, Sebek, and Grim is completely madness.

There’s a lot of types of horror movies but they’re all generally the same. Opening, first scary part, everything else in between, then ending.

Ace will be the one trying to scare everyone else. It’ll be one of those silent parts and then he randomly puts his hand on your shoulder and screams. It’s probably more annoying than scary.

Deuce is definitely the one that covers his eyes and if it’s somehow sad, he tears up a bit. Don’t question if you hear him randomly sniffling. Jack is gonna be the only one to comfort him.

Speaking of Jack, he is either extremely focused on the movie or not paying attention. He misses the most important parts and he has to ask what happened just now.

Okay Epel is the one laughing at the jumpscares. Something flies at the screen, everyone screams but he’s just like “Nah why did it look like that though?” He doesn’t really take most of the movie seriously, but later will be lowkey scared when he’s alone in the dark trying to sleep.

Sebek yells at the screen if the characters are acting stupid like. “NO DON’T GO INTO THE DARK ROOM ALONE YOU’RE GONNA DIE!” He doesn’t like horror movies very much because the main characters are always so dumb he gets upset.

Grim is a jumper. He will fly out of his seat when he’s startled. His fight or flight senses kick in and he almost burns the TV. He is also clinging to the nearest person whether they like it or not because he is a scaredy cat sometimes.

That interesting group in the same room, watching the same movie is just delightful.

Before the movie even begins, there’s already something happening. Deuce and Ace are fighting over who can sit next to you. Deuce sat down next to you first but then Ace insisted he move so he can sit next to you. Why doesn’t Ace just go on your other side? Grim is there. They wrestle for a little bit before you tell both of them to just sit on the floor (couch privileges lost). Jack ends up sitting next to you.

Unless it was decided beforehand, it’s gonna take a long while to pick out which movie. Epel wants a movie with jumpscares, Deuce doesn’t want anything too graphic, Ace already saw a majority of the suggested movies, then everyone else doesn’t care much.

The movie starts fine but then Grim doesn’t want to share any popcorn. It’s just Ace that wants some but Grim refuses to pass the bowl. You’re able to snatch the bowl from him and everyone else has popcorn.

Deuce and Sebek get surprisingly into it. If everyone else is confused then they’re the ones to explain what’s going on or what happened. They have their own theories of what’s happening.

Ace also makes predictions on the ending and he has a 75% chance of being correct because he watched a lot of scary movies so he sees a pattern in all of them.

When Deuce and Ace are anywhere near you, they’re grabbing onto you out of fear. They try not to grab onto anyone else besides you or… each other.

Half of the time Ace doesn’t get startled from the movie itself, it’s everyone else’s screams that makes him scream.

If the protagonist (or any character) acts stupid the atmosphere is completely different. They’re all talking to each other like.

“Oh my seven, what is she doing?”

“This is why I don’t like horror movies, they’re so stupid!”

“That’s something Grim would do.”

Afterwards there’s gonna be at least one person that says they don’t get it.

Sebek won’t be scared afterwards unless it was based after a true story, then he’s super cautious in dark rooms and doesn’t mess around with ghosts.

Ace and Epel won’t admit it but they’re just a bit frightened depending on what type of horror it was. Ghosts don’t scare them so much but demonic possession will. They may be a bit afraid while they try to sleep at night.

Deuce and Grim are the most openly scared ones. Both will be hiding under their covers and shaking until they fall asleep. They will both have the worst nightmares over it for a week if the movie was that bad.

Jack is… fairly normal. Of course he’s left a bit spooked but he’s not at all bothered by it. He’s creeped out but doesn’t start worrying about his own safety but everyone else’s. He starts telling people not to go out when it’s dark out and offers to walk with them.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst #deuce spade x reader #ace trappola x reader #deuce spade #epel felmier x reader #ace trappola #epel felmier #jack howl #jack howl x reader #sebek zigvolt #sebek zigvolt x reader #twst first years #twst first years x reader

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crestfalien · 2 years

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To Be Yours

22 August 2022

It was nearly midnight when the man suddenly awakened from his deep sleep for no absolute reason. He stretched his body and yawned before he wiped his face with a cold wet towel he always put on his night stand, to freshen his body in the morning or when he’s awake. As he looked at the clock on the wall, he could only shake his head.

“I thought I'd gone to sleep for five hours or so, but it turns out only two…” he sighed. His mind traveled somewhere else, realizing that it’s only ten past half, and he knew that the woman next door wasn’t asleep yet at this time. He knew how hardworking the woman was and after being absent from work for three days, it's impossible for the lady to not try to do her work.

“Fransesca..” he mumbled as he pulled the drawer on the nightstand to take his phone, but ended up with a small box instead. He turned his head for a clearer look before he flashed a smile on his face. Something that brightened up his night out of sudden. Something that started this feeling inside his heart. It raced.

He put it on top of his nightstand instead back into the drawer. Then, he finally took his phone and unlocked it with his face before he texted his lover next door. Right next door.

Meanwhile, the lady was just like he predicted. Sitting on the balcony while reviewing the journal she’s currently reading from her iPad. It was a journal written by her colleague and he asked her help to review and proofread everything before he submitted his work. With the special pen, she highlighted some parts and wrote down her notes on the PDF file.

It’s not work, but she’s willing to do it voluntarily nevertheless. She’s super focused with the journal until her phone vibrates as it receives a notification from the lover next door. Right next door. Their balcony and room were side by side, but somehow the man loved to text her instead. Perhaps, to keep it a secret so Christine wouldn’t know what they’re talking about.

Texts were being exchanged by the couple before she smiled while reading his replies. He wanted her to visit him in his room so she decided to do so. Some night kisses would perhaps stop her from working or reading the journal and finally send her to rest.

To get a good night sleep she had always wanted to have for the past years.

She locked her iPad screen and walked back into her room. Fransesca put down her iPad back on the table and closed the balcony door before she walked herself out from her bedroom, knocked on the door next to her room, and entered it soon after. With or without the knock, she knew that he’ll always welcome her inside.

“I knew it! I’ve told you to stop working but you didn’t listen to me.” Clayton said as he let the woman sit on the bed, next to him. “Guilty.” she answered as she kissed the man on the cheek, before she moved herself to the middle of the bed, right next to Clayton. Fransesca straightened her legs under the blanket and let Clayton cuddle her, causing them both to giggle and laugh at each other’s acts.

“Hahaha.. Iove!” “I’m going to drag you into my room starting from today so you’re going to sleep before midnight, sweetheart.” “I promise—”

He shook his head and pinched her nose. “No, I don’t believe your promises again. You’ve broken two of your promises. One, to stop working so hard. Two, to sleep before midnight.” he quickly cut her off from her sentence, leaving it hanging and unfinished. Fransesca hid under the blanket as she knew she’s no power to debate the man back.

Clayton tickled the woman inside and outside the blanket, causing the woman to wiggle under the blanket, trying to avoid him. The ticklish sensation was something she could never be able to handle, as she’s super sensitive over the slightest touch on her skin.

“Clayton… hahaha! Okay, okay!” she laughed again and again. “I’m sorry— hahaha…” Fransesca laughed, filling the room with nothing but only her laughs. As simple as those laughs could cheer his heart from the worries and sadness over what happened to them; the false rumours that mislead the readers, as they tried to change their perception regarding Fransesca.

No matter how much she told him that she’s okay and she’ll be okay as it’s only baseless rumours going around, he couldn’t help but to feel guilty and sorry for what happened. He knew that a woman’s heart is super sensitive and for a woman like Fransesca, who tends to keep things inside without letting anyone know her thoughts and feelings, it’s far more sensitive than the usual one.

That’s why he vowed to protect her from any malicious comments or baseless rumours. Even the slightest of it could hurt the woman silently, and nobody would know what’s actually in her mind if they don’t insist on her telling the truth.

He stopped himself from tickling the woman he loved the most, giving her some chance to control her breath as well as to rest. It’s tiring for him to tickle the woman non-stop and it must’ve been more tiring for the woman as she laughed while trying to avoid his tickles.

“Sweetheart, there’s actually something that I want to talk about with you.”“What is it, love?”

Fransesca asked him softly as she’s still trying to catch her breath. A smile was seen on her face as she turned her body to face the man wearing the navy pajama. “Now that we’re together as a family and we… dated, I would say?”

He started the serious conversation, changing the atmosphere in the room. The woman soon realized that it’s not a simple matter that they would be laughing about so she nodded her head and went into her serious mode. She’s giving the old man her full attention over what he’s trying to say.

“I don’t want to waste more time. I’m 55 and you’re 44. We’re getting older and Christine too. Not to mention, that we wasted sixteen years just because of our ego, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. Now that we’re pretty serious about trying to create a family for our daughter, it’s wise to say that we should take our relationship into a stable one.” Clayton expressed his thoughts and feelings to the woman laying next to him. “I don’t think we should be wasting more time, Fransesca. We know deep inside that we wanted each other to be our last stop in life. I want you as my lifetime partner, and I believe you feel the same towards me as well.”

Fransesca nodded her head as she agreed with everything that the man said to her. They wasted so many times back then over things they never thought would happen. They’re old and getting older each day. She knew what’s in his mind and she could understand every single thing that he said about their relationship as a lover and as a parent to Christine.

“I also know that you still have some doubts inside your heart regarding us. Regarding what will happen between us and so on. It’s normal, after all the things between us in the past. But…” Clayton paused for a while. His right hand slowly slipped to the nightstand behind him and took the small box in white.

The businessman then slowly opened the box and showed it in front of Fransesca.

“Will you be my wife, Fransesca? Will you marry me? I don’t think I’ll find someone else but you as my partner. As the only love in my life. I don’t want to waste more time making uncertain decisions in our relationship and this family. I want to create a real family, where our love could also bloom.”

Of course, the sudden question to a lifetime union brought her into tears. Fransesca couldn’t help but to feel touched by his sweet words. It’s not a romantic proposal under the night sky, with red roses and candles being lit up. It’s also not a proposal made during a dinner with a view or whatsoever. But the fact that he made the decision to be in an intimate moment like this, that’s what made her cry.

“Yes, I will. I will, Clayton.” she answered with tears streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably and that was the happiest moment in his life. Clayton won’t lie that the answer he’s been expecting to hear really would make him cry in joy like he’s today. He took the ring out from the box and inserted it into her finger before he pulled her towards him and kissed her.

They kissed passionately. They kissed to express their feelings inside; the joy that erupted inside their heart.

“I’ll love you now and always. I’ll try to do my best to protect this family and you. I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, protected, happy, and comfortable. The two of you are the light and the love of my life. I don’t want to lose you both anymore. I’ll devote my life as a husband and father that you can forever depend on, trust in, and lean on.”

Clayton Nicholas Kingsley wiped her tears away and smiled at her as they gazed lovingly into each other’s eyes. Fransesca couldn’t help but to do the same to the man. She wiped his tears away and then stared at the ring that now wrapped around her finger. A beautiful ring with an accent of blue.

“Clay,” he called him softly. “I’ll try to do my best as a wife and mother. I’ll do my best to be someone you can trust and lean on. I will try to be the best version of myself. I put all of my faith in you. I love you, love.”

He smiled. “I was planning that we’re going to take a photo together with the wedding outfit and register our marriage, that’s all. But if you want to hold a party, I don’t mind either. I’ll throw the biggest wedding ever for you.” Clayton told Fransesca.

“No, I was thinking the same as well. Let’s just take this as our wedding union. Our vow, like what we said just now to each other. I don’t need a lavish wedding or else. I only need you, dearest husband.” she responded in her soft speaking tone, melting his heart once again. Not to mention, her last two words really turned him into nothing but a weak man. He would knelt on the ground to praise this woman next to him, again and again. To worship Fransesca as if she’s a goddess instead of his wife.

“I only need you and Christine, no more than that, dearest wife.”

She’s his Nefertiti as if he’s her Akhenaten. She’s his Hatshepsut as if he’s her Thutmose II. She’s his Cleopatra as if he’s her Julius Caesar. She’s his all, his everything.

THEY ARE MARRIED.

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fandom-imagines-stories · 3 years

Text

Notice Me

Dr. Spencer Reid x Reader

Words: 3843

Summary: A killer leaves Reid’s girlfriend on the steps of the BAU with a message for Hotchner and the team. Spencer’s judgement is clouded and it seems that the killer isn’t finished with you.

Notes: This is a dark one guys, so please be wary of that. I wanted to do an imagine that kinda felt like a case, but also had the reader involved and everything. This is another one that I needed to split into two parts because I got a little carried away (whoops). As always, please let me know what you think!

Warnings: Trauma, gore, assault, mentions of rape and sexual assault.

Find Reid and more crime drama imagines: HERE

It was late. Later than anyone should have still been at the office and yet J.J. sat in front of a pile of files on her desk. Of course, Hotch was in his office too, both having already tried to convince the other to go home. Feeling like the piles would never end, J.J.’s attention shifted from a case to the flicker of movement just outside her door. At first, the figure standing by Spence’s desk startled her, but she quickly realized that it was you.

“Y/N?” She smiled to greet you, though her confusion was clear.

“Agent Jareau, I didn’t know you’d be here.” It was dark, so she couldn’t quite see how strained your smile really was.

“Please, call me J.J.” She said lightly. Ever since you’d started seeing Dr. Reid, she liked to think the two of you had become friends. You liked to think that too, which was why you had hoped she wouldn’t be here. “Spence went home a couple of hours ago.”

“Is SSA Hotchner here?” You blurted. You didn’t have much longer. Her brows furrowed.

“Um, yeah. He basically lives here, unfortunately.” She couldn’t get another word in before you rushed past her towards Hotch’s office. It wasn’t until then that she saw how pale you looked.

It took every ounce of strength you had not to stumble as you walked. You kept your coat closed, partially out of embarrassment and partially because you were afraid that, even now, he was watching. Hotchner was working at his desk, just like he’d predicted. You had to knock to get him to look up.

“Agent Hotchner?”

“Dr. Y/L/N,” He set down the notes he was looking over and stared at you with surprise. “What can I help you with?”

“I know it’s late, but he told me I had to find you.” You leaned against one of his chairs for support.

“Reid sent you here?”

“No. Spencer doesn’t know I’m here. He doesn’t know anything.” You winced at the thought. Spencer had no idea. He was probably worried out of his mind. You were supposed to be at his place watching a movie. Everything had changed in the span of one evening.

You felt something drip off of the tip of your finger. Hotchner’s eyes followed the dark liquid until it splattered on his carpet.

“Y/N are you okay?” Hotch stood up, noticing the way you seemed to sway slightly.

“He said I had to come here. If I didn’t, he said that whatever he did next would be my fault. He said he has a message for you.”

“Y/N, who said this?”

“I didn’t know what else to do.” You undid the button keeping your coat closed. It was getting harder to speak. “He said that this is for you. For all of you.”

You let your coat fall off of your shoulders, revealing your bloody chest and arms. Hotch lunged towards you as you collapsed, finally succumbing to your injuries.

“J.J. get an ambulance here now!” He screamed, desperately trying to catch you before you hit the ground. The blonde appeared in the doorway to see what was going on.

“Oh my god.” She gasped, rushing to the nearest phone.

Hotch’s stomach dropped, taking a closer look at the bloody gashes on your chest. Each slash was deliberately carved into the flesh, forming two words; Notice Me.

“J.J.!” He called out again. She rushed back into the room.

“The paramedics are on their way.”

Hotchner’s panicked face looked up at her.

“Call the team.”

“Y-yes sir.” Her eyes widened, taking in the entirety of your wounds. Hotch’s jaw clenched.

“And J.J.”

“Sir?”

“Let me call Reid.”

He checked his watch for the hundredth time and blew out a long breath. On the table in front of him sat the box. The box. The box that had the potential to change absolutely everything. And you weren’t here to open it. He looked at his phone for missed messages, but the last text still read ‘On my way. See you soon.’

Spencer nearly jumped out of his chair when his phone suddenly started to ring. He felt his body tense when he saw the number.

“Hotch?” He answered. Part of him already knew.

“Reid…” Hotch sighed. “Spencer, you need to get down to the hospital.” Reid closed his eyes, hoping that he was wrong.

“It’s her, isn’t it?”

“Something’s happened.”

“I should have known. I should have looked for her. She’s never late, Hotch. Ever. She’s actually early for pretty much everything. I should have had Garcia track her phone or have her-” In his ranting, he forgot to breathe.

“Reid, I need you to calm down.” Hotchner instructed. He listened to Spencer take a few deep breaths.

“Is she…”

“The doctor said that she’s lost a lot of blood, but she’s going to be okay.” He paused, making Spencer even more panicked. “Unfortunately, that’s not all we have to worry about. I’ll be able to explain more when you get here. The team is on their way.”

“Wait, the team is coming?” The turning in his stomach got worse. There’s only one reason Hotch would have called in the team.

“Like I said, I’ll explain when you get here.”

“Hotch-”

“I’ll see you soon.” Hotch wanted to be supportive, but they were on a time crunch now. This message meant there would be more bodies and soon.

It took a moment for Spencer to make his feet move. Once he did, he was running. Before he knew it, he was already outside and what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Parked in front of him was your car. Five feet and you would have been inside.

Morgan was the first to meet him. Normally, Spencer would have found his presence comforting, but he knew that he wasn’t just here for support. Hotchner called the team in for a reason. By the look on his face, Morgan already had an idea.

“What happened?” Reid demanded, trying to look over his shoulder. He tried to push passed him, but Morgan held him in place.

“We don’t know a lot. But Reid, you’re going to want to prepare yourself.”

“I don’t need a pep talk, I need to see Y/N.” His attempts to dodge around him were unsuccessful.

“He carved a message into her chest with a knife, Reid.” Morgan sighed. Spencer stopped.

“What?”

“Come on, Hotch can tell you more than I can.” He led Reid back to a waiting area where a few other members of the team had gathered. Rossi was still on his way, and so was Prentiss., but Garcia, J.J., and Hotch were grouped together in the far corner. Garcia and J.J. were looking at something on her computer while Hotch sat with his eyes closed.

He was trying to remember every last detail from when you walked in to when you collapsed. He knew something was wrong and he should have acted sooner. He analyzed every single word that you said, trying to piece everything together.

“He said that this is for you. For all of you.”

Notice me.

“Hotch.” Morgan called to get his attention. Everybody looked up and saw that he was joined by Reid.

“Oh my god.” Penelope immediately stood and rushed over to them. She had definitely been crying. Spencer had forgotten that the two of you were friends. You were friends with the whole team, really. She enveloped Spencer in a tight hug. “When J.J. called, I couldn’t believe it.” She took a deep breath to compose herself. “We are going to figure this out and everything is going to be okay.”

“Babygirl, let the kid breathe.” Morgan gently pulled her way from him. Spencer just stared off into nothing.

“Her car is outside my apartment building.” He said blankly. “She was coming over to watch…” His gaze fell to the floor. “She was there. She was at my apartment and he took her.”

“Spence, this isn’t your fault.” J.J. put a hand on his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known that he was out there.”

Before he could respond, Garcia’s computer made a sound. She seemed almost afraid to look. When she did, her face dropped.

“Is there a pattern?” Hotch sighed. She nodded, trying to keep calm.

“Four bodies have been found in Maryland and Virginia. All of them were bound with duct tape, their necks were slashed and they were all raped.” She could barely say all of it without getting sick. She looked up at Spencer frantically. “But none of them had any messages or anything like that so maybe this isn’t the same guy. If it was the same guy, why would he…”

“Why would he leave her alive.” Spencer finished, closing his eyes. He couldn’t stop his brain from picturing every scenario, manifesting every scream.

“I’m going to go see if the doctors can tell us anything.” J.J. said, giving Spencer a reassuring look. Reid finally looked at Hotch. He couldn’t help but stare at the blood that stained the front of his superior’s shirt.

“What happened?” He didn’t think anything could be worse than what he already imagined. Hotch motioned for him to have a seat.

“Whoever did this wanted to send us all a message. He told her that if she didn’t get to my office, that whatever he did afterwards would be her fault. He wanted to make sure I saw what he did.”

“Morgan said that he-” Spencer took a sharp breath but was able to keep calm, distracting himself by picking at his nails. “He said that she had something carved into her chest?”

“Like I said, he wanted to make sure that I saw.” Hotch sighed. “He wrote ‘Notice Me’.” Everyone fell silent, each trying to wrap their heads around the situation.

“Hotch,” J.J. returned, her expression betraying her concern, “She said she’s ready for questions.”

“Can you handle it?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I should stay here and look over the cases Garcia found.”

“Of course.” J.J. paused before looking at Spencer. “She said she would like you to be there, Spence.”

“O-okay.” He rose slowly, his nerves barely allowing him to move. Morgan gave him a supportive pat on the back before Spencer followed J.J. to your room. Every step he took made his heart pound harder. He’d heard countless statements from victims, analyzed the most gruesome crime scenes imaginable, but he had never been this paralyzed before.

The two agents opened the door to find you struggling out of the hospital bed while a nurse tried to get you to lay back down.

“I appreciate everything, really, but I’m not going to sit here all night. I need to find-” Your argument with your nurse quickly came to a halt. “Spencer.”

“The doctor said you were ready to answer a couple of questions.” J.J. gave you a small smile, pulling a chair up next to your bed. “He told me you wanted Spencer with you.” She looked back at Reid, who was still standing in the doorway.

He just stood there and stared. Your face was bruised and a bandage covered an injury on your forehead- probably the blow that your attacker used to overtake you. Bandages covered your arms and he could see more under the collar of the hospital gown. You were shaking, the color from your skin faded and cold. Seeing him made your eyes water.

“Spencer, I-”

“You were late.” He blurted. He started to fidget with his nails. “I mean, I thought you were late. Even though you are never late for anything. You didn’t call or text me or anything and I still didn’t look for you. I should have looked for you. I-” His words caught in his throat.

You shrugged off the nurses hands and walked towards him, trying not to wince as you raised a hand to rest on his cheek. He had tears in his eyes and you could tell he was desperately trying to keep them back.

“Spencer, this isn’t your fault.” You said softly. He leaned into your touch and closed his eyes, trying to stop imagining what happened in that goddamn hour that that man would have had you.

“Dr. Y/L/N, you really need to be laying down.” The nurse insisted. Spencer opened his eyes and placed a gentle kiss on your forehead.

“She’s right. Come on.” He took your hand and led you back to the bed, helping to tuck you in under the blanket. He sat in a chair across from J.J. and kept your hand in his.

“Are you ready?” J.J. asked patiently. You nodded nervously. J.J. smiled reassuringly. “If you want to stop at any point, just let me know, okay?”

“Okay.”

“What were you doing before you were attacked?”

“I was driving to Spencer’s apartment.to watch a movie and have dinner.” You glanced over at your boyfriend. “I parked in front and walked towards the door, but I didn’t get there.”

“Were there cars already parked when you got there?”

“I-I think so.” You closed your eyes, trying to envision the scene, but all you could see was his face and with his face came the pain and the terror. “Oh god, I see him.”

“Stay with me, Y/N.” J.J. kept her voice as calm as possible when inside her heart was breaking for you and for the anguished Reid across from her. “Do you remember the cars?”

“Breathe with me, Y/N.” Spence instructed, kissing the palm of your hand. You calmed down enough and focused on the sound of his voice. “Breathe in. Breathe out.” You exhaled slowly and nodded.

“There was a van.”

“What color was it?”

“It was dark, but not black. Blue maybe? I don’t know, I only saw it for a second.”

“That’s okay.” J.J. said. She exchanged a look with Spencer. Now came the hard part. “What did you do when you got out of your car? Did you see anyone?”

“No, it was just me. I walked towards the door, but something hit me. Someone was dragging me away from the door. The next thing I knew, I was in a van.”

“Do you see anything?”

“There’s something on the walls. Some kind of padding. A-and on the back of the seat, there’s this jacket. A women’s jacket. It was red.”

“What else can you see?”

“I see him.” A tear escaped your eye and fell silently down your cheek. “He-he’s leaning over me and he’s-” You paused and listened to the sound of Spencer’s breathing. You wanted to open your eyes and look at him. You wanted to see his face instead of the creature that did this to you. But you needed to do this. “He’s unbuttoning my shirt.”

“Do you remember feeling the van move at all before he did this?”

“No. No, he didn’t drive until after.” You felt Spence’s grip on your hand tighten. J.J. watched him carefully, reading the pain on his face. “He said something while he was taking it off. He said he ‘didn’t have enough time’ and he ‘couldn’t do it now.’ He said he wanted it to be special. That I was special.”

“Was he wearing a mask or a hood?”

“No, I could see his face. That face…” You held back a cry. Spencer held back the urge to wrap his arms around you. “That’s when he took out the knife and started carving this.” You put a hand on your chest. “He said I was his messenger.” Your heart was starting to race and you started to hyperventilate. “He… he kissed each cut as he made them and then he would kiss me.”

You finally opened your eyes and almost wished that you hadn’t. Spencer was crushed. There were tears on his face and utter horror in his eyes. You had to look away.

“Well… you know the rest.”

“You did great, Y/N.” J.J. reassured you. “Do you think you’d be able to give a description to a sketch artist?” Despite your efforts to keep it still, your lip started to tremble.

“D-do you think I can sleep first? I’m so tired.” You hadn’t realized how exhausted you were until now.

“Of course. Just let me know whenever you’re ready, okay?” She glanced over at Spencer with a supportive smile before she left to join the others in the waiting room. You couldn’t bear to look at the pain you had caused him.

“Maybe you should go with her.” You muttered, staring blankly at your lap, more tears threatening to spill onto your cheeks. You had brought him in here because you knew you needed him to get through this, but you hadn’t thought about what it would do to him.

Spencer tried not to show the hurt on his face, but he wasn’t successful. He let go of your hand and stood up.

“Let me know if you need anything.” His voice barely came out above a whisper. Any louder and he was sure it would have cracked. You watched the way his shoulders sagged as he walked, like he was carrying the weight of what had happened over his shoulder. You grabbed his hand before he got far.

“Spence, wait.” You motioned for him to come closer and held his hand against your heart. When his skin grazed against the cuts in your chest, it didn’t hurt. If anything, it eased the sting. “I love you.”

A small, lopsided smile appeared on his lips. Suddenly the box in his jacket pocket weighed more.

“I love you too.”

Once Rossi and Prentiss arrived, Hotchner briefed the team on what their next step should be. Reid, however, was nowhere to be found, which had made everybody worry. He sent Morgan and Prentiss to the latest murder crime scene to see if this really was the same unsub. Garcia went back to the BAU, but Rossi and J.J. stayed

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Rossi asked, setting down a cup of terrible hospital coffee. It was almost morning now and no one had gotten any sleep.

“From what she told us, it isn’t over yet.” J.J. sighed. “He told her that she’s special. He’s going to come back for her.”

“And we will be here when he does.” Hotch stared down at the array of photos from the previous crime scenes. He was usually good about separating his emotions from a case, but this was an attack against his team. This was made to be personal.

Hotch started down the hall, turning the corner and stopping. He noticed movement in the corner of his eye and turned around. Reid sat on the floor with his back pressed against the side of a vending machine and legs crossed in front of him. His face was sullen and tear stained.

“Hey,” He greeted, immediately stiffening and whipping his face with his sleeve. He stood and brushed off. Hotch noticed the way his hands shook. “Have you guys found anything yet?”

“Morgan and Prentiss are heading to the latest crime scene. Based on what Y/N told you and J.J. about the attack, it could be the same unsub, but we don’t want to make any conclusions yet.”

Reid nodded quickly, keeping his gaze trained on the floor.

“Maybe I should go with them. I might get a better-”

“This isn’t your fault, Reid.” Hotch interrupted. He knew exactly where the younger agent’s mind was. “That is what he wants you to believe, but it isn’t your fault.”

“I…” Spencer knew that arguing with him was pointless. He just looked defeated. “I have to do something, Hotch.”

“The doctors will likely release Y/N in a couple of hours. We’ll need to get her somewhere safe. You should stay with her.” Hotch knew how the guilt was weighing down on him. He put a hand on his shoulder. “We’re all here for you, Reid. You and Y/N. We aren’t going to stop until we catch this man.”

“Thanks, Hotch.” Spencer sniffed. More than anything, he wanted to take you home and never let you leave his embrace. Reid leaned down to pick up his jacket from the floor, wincing when a small velvet box clattered to the tile. Hotch picked it up for him.

“Reid…” He proceeded with caution, but there was a warmhearted tone in his voice. “Is what I think it is?” He handed it to Spencer who hurriedly stuffed it back into his pocket.

“Actually it’s a-” He stopped and gave him his awkward lop-sided smile. “I was going to ask her tonight.”

“I didn’t know you were ready to take that step.”

“Neither did I.” Spencer laughed nervously. “But ever since I met her, I just knew. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.” He put his hand in his pocket, feeling the box in his fingers. Tonight was supposed to be so different. Hotch’s usually serious expression broke into a small, proud smile.

Hotch’s mind returned to the case and he started back down the hallway. Spencer walked towards your room, pausing when his phone rang.

“Dr. Reid.” He answered. For a moment, there was just breathing on the other end. Before he hung up, a low, raspy voice spoke.

“I won’t be ignored anymore, Dr. Reid. You all notice me now.”

Reid took off running. He found Garcia in the waiting area and pointed urgently at his cell phone before continuing the call.

“You’re right. You have our full attention.”

“I know that little trick. Make me think I’m in control so your pretty little tech can trace this call. I learned from the best.” He chuckled deeply. “You won’t find me until I want you to.” There was a brief pause, like he was stopping for effect. “I was just calling to ask you some questions, Dr. Reid.”

“I’m not nearly as interesting as you are.” Reid tried to keep his tone even as he watched Garcia scramble to trace the call.

“Could you hear her screaming?” His voice was like nails on a chalkboard. “I want to make sure that those soundproofing panels worked. She kept calling out for you over and over and over…”

“You want us to know who you are, why don’t you tell me your name?”

“Tell me, have you had her yet, Dr. Reid?” His suggestive voice made Spencer’s blood boil. “I’m dying to know what it’s going to be like when I have enough time with Y/N.”

“You won’t get that chance.” He finally spat, losing control.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take better care of her than I did those other girls. I look forward to meeting you, Spencer.” Just like that, the line went dead.

General Tag: @rae-gar-targaryen; @takemepedropascal; @childhood-imagination; @mylovegoesto; @yellowbadgergirl; @itmejado; @suckmyapplejacks

#dr. spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #aaron hotchner #criminal minds imagines #jennifer jereau #criminal minds #crime show #Matthew Grey Gubler

1K notes · View notes

hoe-doroki · 3 years

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ana’s bnha x reader masterlist

first updated 11.17.20 last updated 07.13.21 desktop version found here bkdk masterlist: desktop | mobile

fics [38] drabbles [13]

Thanks for dropping by! I want to note that I no longer write x reader and instead am writing bakudeku shipfic. So! By all means, read, like, comment on my fics here! But I can't recommend that you follow me unless you like bakudeku. Hope you enjoy your time here regardless! <3

legend:

character x character

Title w/ link | [rating] | word count | genre

Synopsis

ratings are bracketed: e.g. [g], [t], [m], [e]

[g] - appropriate for general audiences [t] - appropriate for audiences 13+ [m] - contains non-graphic adult themes [e] - explicit, 18+ readers only

🌸 = personal faves

characters x reader: no ship (1), aizawa (2), bakugou (12), endeavor (1), iida (2), kaminari (1), kirishima (4), midoriya (7), shinsou (2), todoroki (19)

Everything is in alphabetical order <3

no ship

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.6k | hurt/comfort

The results are in and your class is all with you as you process the results

aizawa x reader

Stress Relief | [e] | 3k | smut

There's a new regulation that forces you to take an extra class before you can graduate college. When you learn that Eraserhead is teaching the class, you’re a little more interested.

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.6k | hurt/comfort

Aizawa reminds that you were prepared for this and, together, you can handle it.

bakugou x reader

Can’t Find My Breath | [e] | 4.2k | smut 🌸

At the beginning of the day, Ground Zero was just another hero you wrote articles about. Now it’s nighttime and you’ve just left a bar together. Companion to The Rest with No Sound

Christmas Cold | [g] | 1k | fluff

You and Katsuki manage to make it to your parents' house for the holidays, but you've come down with a little cold.

Doing Something Right | [e] | 1.8k | smut

You’re pregnant and happily enjoying domestic bliss when Katsuki comes in, unable to resist you.

Frustration | [e] | 3.1k | smut

request. After a long day of work, Katsuki comes home frustrated and you, suffering from a different kind of frustration yourself, know exactly what will help you both.

Gorgeous | [e] | 1.5k | smut, hurt/comfort

ask. When you have a negative response to Katsuki touching you in a moment of insecurity, he intends to do whatever he can to alleviate your fears.

version 1: petite reader

version 2: curvy reader

Magic | [e] | 2.2k | smut

request. Katsuki comes home early and catches you...taking care of yourself.

Miniskirts | [e] | 0.8k | smut 🌸

After a long day, Katsuki takes a shower and his thoughts turn to you.

On the Job | [e] | 4.5k | smut 🌸

Super human society has a secret. Aphrodisiac quirks aren’t just of porn and fantasy--they’re common and too often fall into the wrong hands. When heroes get hit, someone has to be able to activate the quirk’s release condition. If they’re single, who might that someone be?

You.

The Rest with No Sound | [t] | 8.5k | slow burn, fluff 🌸

Bakugou thinks that people who wake up not remembering where they are are idiots. This is confirmed when it happens to him, head aching from a night of drinking. Idiot. But when he looks over, and sees you there, he realizes he doesn’t remember anything. So he has to gather the scattered pieces from the day before to figure out exactly how he ended up with you. Companion to Can’t Find My Breath

Stay | [g] | 2.2k | hurt/comfort 🌸

ask. The last thing you want to do on a rough day is worry Bakugou with your problems. So you try to hide it. You should have known better.

Steamy | [e] | 2.7k | smut

request. You're a pro hero, rising in the ranks and, happy though he is for you, Katsuki's old jealousy begins to roil. After you've been paraded around all evening as one of Japan's finest, Katsuki finds himself feeling more than a little possessive, and can't help himself from taking you as his.

Steel and Lace | [e] | 3.8k | smut

The only one who manages to get Bakugou’s birthday right is you.

endeavor x reader

When the Smoke Clears | [e] | 17.4k | slow burn, smut

Soulmate AU. After his battle with Hawks against Hood, Endeavor wakes up in the hospital to find that a young doctor saved his life, their quirk being able to counteract the negative effects of his own. His first thought is that he has to talk to you–you might be able to fix the drawbacks of his quirk. His second thought is oh no, not again.

iida x reader

Broken Glass | [g] | 1.8k | fluff, mild comfort

request. In a quirk-related accident you find yourself surrounded by shattered glass. Worst of all, most of that glass is from every single pair of your boyfriend’s glasses.

Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, and Derelict | [g] | 1.5k | hurt/comfort

ask. Trying to hide a panic attack from your boyfriend isn’t easy when he’s right next to you. But you’re determined to suffer alone.

kaminari x reader

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.4k | hurt/comfort

You share your unsteady hope with Kaminari.

kirishima x reader

Silhouette | [e] | 1.8k | smut, hurt/comfort

ask. Before a gala, you’re stuck in the mirror, caught on all your old body insecurities. Kiri comes in and loves you regardless.

version 1: petite reader

version 2: curvy reader

We’ll See | [g] | 6.3k | gen, light romance 🌸

demisexual!Reader. After a fateful meeting, you and Kirishima keep running into each other. And although he’s so nice, you fear the fact that he might be interested in you. Even though all you want is, for once, to let yourself be happy and maybe fall in love, you can’t seem to be able to.

What We Look For | [t] | 15.5 | slow burn

Last time, you and Kirishima became friends—nothing more, nothing less. The idea of being something more sounds nice. But you can’t. You just can’t. So you won’t. Whatever happens will be on your own terms. Sequel to We'll See

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.4k | hurt/comfort

Kirishima freaks out while you experience a numb calm. You meet in the middle.

midoriya x reader

Bad Days | [g] | 1.4k | hurt/comfort

Izuku helps you get out of bed.

Sunlight | [e] | 2.1k | smut 🌸

request. An early afternoon in bed with your husband, Izuku.

Surprised, Just Once | [e] | 5k | smut

request. You were planning on just another predictable night out with the girls. What you got was much, much more.

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.3k | hurt/comfort

Izuku holds you close while you watch the results.

Multiple unrelated oneshots with Deku with an s/o with an eating disorder | ask

Gratitude | [t] | 1.4k | hurt/comfort

After having been with Izuku a while, you’re suffering a relapse and he helps you through with some gratitude practices on date night.

Picnic | [t] | 1.8k | hurt/comfort

Izuku surprises you with a picnic on your second date, much to your horror.

A Start | [t] | 1.2k | hurt/comfort 🌸

You ask Izuku for help when you realize you need it.

Trust Yourself | [t] | 2.3k | hurt/comfort

Shortly after moving in together, Izuku learns of your struggles and tries his best to comfort and encourage you.

shinsou x reader

Passing the Night Stars | [g] | 3.2k | hurt/comfort

The party was neon and you needed darkness.

2020 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.4k | hurt/comfort

Shinsou helps you prioritize yourself.

todoroki x reader

All Dressed Up | [e] | 4.6k | smut 🌸

quarantine fic. It’s been months since you’ve dressed up, felt pretty, and felt seen by anyone. Your husband’s birthday is a perfect excuse to get all dressed up. And then take it right off.

All the Wasted Time | [e] | 3.2k | smut, fluff

Three months ago, you’d been ripped from Shouto’s side with something less than a love confession, something more than a show of feelings. Now that you’re back, you’re eager to make up for lost time. Siberia sequel, First Snow prequel

Bad Days | [g] | 0.9k | hurt/comfort 🌸

Shouto comforts you when your demons arrive unexpectedly.

First Snow | [g] | 2.2k | fluff

A year after the events in Siberia, you and Shouto are happily together, and it’s the first snow of the year. Siberia and All the Wasted Time sequel

On the Job | [e] | 3.4k | smut 🌸

You. Sequel to On the Job (Bakugou); can be read alone

Siberia | [e] | 13.8k | pining/angst, smut, fluff 🌸

On the field, you and Todoroki are rising stars amongst hero pairings. Off the field…you’re kind of in love with him. After a successful capture, you’re boss brings you in to let you know you’re being sent on assignment in foreign country…alone. Before you leave, you have to act. You’re not partners anymore, after all. And with a little liquid courage you do. Then, the next morning, you still have to leave. All the Wasted Time and First Snow prequel.

Worth it | [t] | 0.3k | gen

The morning after with your boyfriend, Shouto.

2021 Election Night Comfort | [g] | 0.5k | hurt/comfort

The stress of election day comes back swiftly during the Georgia runoff and Todoroki’s quick to notice.

all works below are within the world of the a spare heart series:

A series about a fem, American reader who had to transfer to U.A. partway through second year. You’re there to become a hero, that much is obvious, but why else did you come? And, more importantly, what—or who—makes you stay?

timeline

may, year two:

- reader finishes junior year of American high school early

- reader transfers to u.a. from the united states

The Meeting | [g] | 0.1k | gen

Reader meets Tokoyami for the first time. Sequel to first impressions from my wip list

Hollow Victory | [g] | 9.6k | gen, action

chapter 1 | chapter 2

You transferred to U.A. from America two weeks ago. No one has found out your quirk yet. Today, they’re going be meeting it head on and you have the advantage: surprise.

june, year two:

Illiterate | [g] | 2.1k | fluff, comfort

Being unable to read Japanese makes you feel so stupid. And who comes into the common room after midnight just as you’re about to cry? The boy who hasn’t spoken to you in three weeks.

sequels

The Offering | [g] | 0.4k | fluff, gen.

The Mission (Shouto POV) | [g] | 0.3k | fluff, gen., silly

september, year two:

Impetus | [g] | 2.1k | friendship

Ever since Shinsou found out what your quirk was, the two of you have been each other’s best friends and confidantes. But when he turns a casual training session into a tease over your supposed crush on someone in your class, that trust might just break.

january, year two:

This Clock Never Seemed So Alive | [g] | 1.2k | fluff, comfort

You and your boyfriend, Shouto, always walk to class together, but today you haven’t yet left your dorm. When he checks on you, he finds you awake, but curled on your side, suffering from period cramps.

sequels

The Questions (drabble) | [g] | 0.1k | gen.

The Sweetness (double drabble) | [g] | 0.2k | fluff, comfort

february, year three:

Between Fear and Guilt | [t] | 2.5k | light angst, comfort

You and Shouto only started being intimate a couple months back, but you’re already experiencing a dry spell. Today you’re going to figure out what’s up with your boyfriend once and for all.

fifteen years after graduation

Something Perfect | [e] | 3.7k | smut, fluff

After years of questioning if Shouto would ever want children, he’s finally decided that he really does. Overjoyed, the two of you decide to get started.

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha #mha #todoroki x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugo x reader #deku x reader #iida x reader #ida x reader #kirishima x reader #aizawa x reader #shinsou x reader #endeavor x reader

794 notes · View notes

beevean · 3 years

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Opinion: How could Sonamy progress in IDW?

[note: the original article was written in Spanish by @latin-dr-robotnik]

Today we’re going to discuss a recurring topic on my blog, with a more complete perspective.

Today’s article was inspired by an ask I got a few days ago about my possible perspective on the future of IDW Sonamy. I thought it would be interesting to revisit and expand this topic, because it’s still something of great interest for thousands of fans all around the world, and because SEGA has recently adopted a very peculiar position on the couple and their dynamic. As I detailed on my article SEGA and its most recent Sonamy side – more canon than ever, the dynamic has been going through a shift that can be distinguished into two main parts: 1) the commercial potential of Sonamy as a merchandising and marketing icon; 2) the stability of the interactions in the comics, in the short monthly stories on Sonic Channel, and so on.

That being said, there’s no need to mention that we’re going to focus entirely and nothing more than on this ship. I usually suggest other articles for those who prefer to read on other subjects, but today I will recommend our Discord server [translator’s note: the server is mainly Spanish-speaking], where discussions about ships are limited on their own canal that is separated from other themes: general discussions, music, fangames and mods, fanfics, fanart and even gaming in general. As you know, if you want to bring something else to our community, or just avoid talking about Sonamy, you’re more than welcome to join. Now, back on track.

What’s going on with Sonamy in IDW?

To recap what’s happened in these last months: Sonic and his friends finally got through the nightmare that was the Metal Virus, he and Amy hugged a few times, and since very recently they’ve been involved in a short arc about Chao races in Twinkle Park Zone, with a sinister background. In these last months after the eradication of the virus, there have been much closer and warmer interactions between our two hedgehogs, and I suspect that part of this is what inspired that question in the first place: what’s going on?

As I commented in the article where I proposed that Sonamy is “more canon than ever” (I know that it’s an exaggeration, that was the point), SEGA is treading carefully and the main canon seems to be willing to negotiate a more open representation of the relationship between the two in their different continuities, from best friends to something more. What I did not expect to happen was reading an answer from Evan Stanley (artist and writer that replaces Ian Flynn) about their dynamic, summing it up with “they like each other”.

The redrawing of Sonic’s expression when Amy hugs him in a recent drawing of hers made people wonder if this was yet another example of SEGA’s “censoring” (comparison below), to which Evan answered that it was modified to keep Sonic in character: he’s a guy that does not show much emotional vulnerability or too many negative emotions, and this is why sometimes the artists have to adjust WIPs to keep in line with this official point of view. Evan assured that this is not any kind of confirmation that Sonic does not like Amy, and doubles down by highlighting that in the official material, in the wikis and on Sonic Channel they show that, and I quote: “They like each other, but Sonic just isn’t the kind of guy who is going to make goo-goo eyes at Amy or perform grand acts of romance. If you wanna see that, that’s what fan works are for.”

And Evan’s words are a great way to sum up what’s going on with IDW Sonic right now. When it comes to interactions, they’re working with two characters who deep down “like each other”, but both show it in their own way. Amy is much more proactive when it comes to express her feelings, while Sonic only sometimes shows a glimpse of his feelings, with a smile or a small gesture. But at the end of the day they’re still friends and, depending on the situation, the comic can focus more or less on these details.

Comparison between the first sketch showed by Evan and the final product. The modification of the expression was minimal: Sonic’s slight blush was changed into a smile, maybe being a little overwhelmed by the gesture of affection.

The “progression” of the dynamic in the future

A good part of the answer to this question is based on my idea that right now, when it comes to Sonamy, we reached some kind of comfortable plateau. What am I referring to? To the fact that there have been a lot of varied interactions in these last 3 years of the comic, and they’re everything I could have asked for and then some. When we talk about Sonamy in canon, as Evan said, we don’t tend to hope for great romantic gestures from Sonic, we barely even ask for a look that hints that they understand each other beyond what it seems at first glance, so the fact that the IDW continuity is betting so much on this ship is basically a dream come true. For this reason, I don’t think things will change much in the future.

If I have to make a prediction on Sonamy’s future in IDW, I believe that there are still a lot of possibilities that our known writers (and maybe new writers!) could explore more, to see what makes this dynamic work so well. Actually, about 10 years ago, Ian Flynn wrote that if they could take advantage of the abilities and similarities between the two characters as adventurous spirits and with a strong moral sense, they would be “like poetry in motion”. This largely happens in IDW Sonic if you look carefully, but there are always new stories to tell and opportunities for them to work together and explore a bit more their strong bond, stronger than other friendships that they share. When the next major arc comes (which seems to be getting closer), they could explore aspects of their dynamic that are slightly more experimental, like being separated for extended periods of time and under dangerous situations… as long as they don’t turn it into a painful experience like the Metal Virus arc.

What Ian Flynn wrote about Sonamy, what works and what doesn’t. This was written in 2011, when Archie Sonic was still the major comic continuity, and when, according to Ian, Sonic was still “tied” to Sally Acord, leaving little room to the writers’ opinions.

The reality is that I see a stable future for the dynamic in the IDW universe. Sonamy is not fit for a lot of drama (fights, breaking up, etc.) without feeling forced or completely out of place, and only fanfics and fanart could be capable of capitalizing on this kind of content. On the other hand, for reasons I detailed in past articles, SEGA would not dare to alter the established order of the dynamic, let alone new that they managed to recover and maintain control over the ways Sonamy is being portrayed everywhere. SEGA won’t pull a Dragon Prince, which ended up confirming the main ship and then they made them go through a crisis and break up in a heartwrenching way in the graphic novel that acts as a bridge between season 3 and 4.

In short

The future of IDW Sonamy is looking bright and stable. I don’t think there will be serious changes to what we’re experiencing right now, and this is why both Evan Stanley and Ian Flynn agree that the dynamic is practically in the perfect place, keeping in line to how SEGA wants them to be represented together. This means we won’t see more affectionate gestures than what we’re seeing now (I doubt we’ll ever see again Sonic offering Amy a rose like in Sonic X), but it also means that we have now a solid basis for our expectations. In the now old IDW Sonic #2, Sonic and Amy had the chance of seriously talking a bit about what they thought of each other, with Sonic being determined to keep living life his own way (although he wouldn’t mind Amy to accompany him… or even suggesting himself that she could come), and Amy being determined to respect his way of life, because that’s what she loves about him, and she doesn’t want him to change. Since then, all we have seen and we’ll keep seeing in the comic is a consequence of this key moment; the two philosophies that they have and they share, in a constant back-and-forth with some tense moments and some cute moments.

An interesting detail that wasn’t included in the ask and that makes me think is the possibility that all of this will feature in the games as well. This is a completely different matter for another day, but I like to think that there is the possibility that we’ll see SEGA being more interested in inserting more Sonamy in the games, even if in an indirect way like in Sonic Unleashed and its emotional support, especially if the rumors that we’re about to get a soft-reboot are true. Romance is not something Sonic games are famous for doing well… at all, but that doesn’t mean it would be a bad idea to add a little sprinkle of IDW Sonamy in the mix.

And finally, I think I’ve talked enough about this topic, As you know, we’re waiting for some news, and I hope we’ll see each other again here or on our Discord. We’ll see if on this 25th something interesting happens. In any case, see you next time!

The moment that shaped the present and future of their entire relationship, 3 years ago.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonamy #long post #translation #oh look just in time for that famous thursday 25th #keeping up the chronicles of sonamy's evolution #this was fun to translate lol #it's probably a little clunky in some places but it should be readable enough #anyway now i'm hyped lol

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fellcharas · 3 years

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my deltarune theory(ies?)

DISCLAIMER: i am not an actual theorist and i wrote this all from memory! this is taking into consideration the possibility that chara is involved in the making of deltarune (1, 2) as well as other widely believed theories (gaster being involved)

putting a read more because this shit is LONG so buckle up

start with the basics?

something i was thinking about last night is how it’s interesting that we don’t know very much about susie’s home life or her reason for being “the bully.” while there are certainly hints that point to it not being great at all, there’s nothing directly confirming what it’s like.

however something that many people have pointed out is that through the numerous odd similarities deltarune and undertale have, there is the clam girl. for those who don’t know, clam girl is a NPC that you encounter if your game’s fun value is between 80 and 89 and you’re not playing a no mercy route. she talks of her neighbor’s daughter, suzy, and tells frisk that they should become friends with her. but she notes the fact that frisk would have no idea where suzy is yet fate will find a way for them to meet.

in the true pacifist epilogue of undertale with a fun value of 81, clam girl explains that the time frisk (or we, the players) will meet suzy is “fast approaching.” this specific term is yellow in text and her sprite becomes grayscale. then she abruptly vanishes, the noise as she does so being the same noise used for the mystery man and gaster follower 2 sprites when interacting with them. interestingly, her grayscale sprite is “spr_clam_goner”, not much different than goner kid. this dialogue was also added right before the release of deltarune.

so... who is suzy? while it is possible that suzy could just be susie with a different name for undertale’s sake, it’s also possible that suzy could be susie’s sister, likely younger. catty, returning from undertale, has a little sister in deltarune named catti. there isn’t much significance that i could add that would make it likely suzy is susie’s little sister other than this, but i felt it was worth mentioning so do with it what you will.

so... what else?

after interacting with clam girl, if you do the work necessary to access sans’ basement (or “lab”), you’ll be able to find a description of a photo inside one of the drawers that points out there are “three smiling people” with the text “don’t forget” written on it. this has been pointed out several times before due to the fact “don’t forget” is the deltarune song that plays at the end of ch1 (and ch2 although remixed?). if i recall correctly there is no other way of finding this flavor text except for interacting with clam girl. interesting.

lots of people believe that the covered machine in sans’ lab is a time machine. with sans’ many connections to gaster, it’s also possible that this could be a machine gaster made and had broken. it is said to be unfixable.

gaster is confirmed to have created the core. but i don’t believe this is what he fell into. it’s never specified what he fell into, just that it was his creation. so i believe that gaster fell into the time machine. and by taking entry number 17 into account, we are met with the possibility that the time machine might involve a black hole. fortunately for you guys black holes is a special interest of mine, so i can explain this easily.

basically, the anatomy of a black hole, or the structure, consists of the following:

event horizon

singularity

photon sphere

ergosphere

the event horizon of a black hole is the shadowy dark sphere that we see in images. it is a boundary in spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. once having crossed the event horizon, the nature of spacetime begins to deform, causing space’s usual three dimensions (length, width, height) to form only one dimension (movement forward) and time’s usual one dimension (into the future) to form three dimensions (past, present, and future). spacetime is what makes up our reality. remember this. and, as predicted by einstein’s theory of general relativity, mass bends spacetime (imagine our universe as a flat plane, and the mass of our earth causes a dip in the space underneath it), so a black hole’s mass warps spacetime so strongly that any direction you try to go in once having crossed the event horizon will lead you to the singularity. (at least... for a non-rotating, non-charged black hole.)

the singularity is a gravitational singularity, a region that may lie at the center of a black hole wherein the curvature/deformation of spacetime becomes infinite. because all black holes spin (due to their last moments as stars involving very fast rotational speeds), the singularity in a rotating black hole’s mathematics smears out to form a ring singularity (ringularity) that lies in the plane of rotation. in this case (as well as the case of a non-rotating black hole), the region has zero volume. and because of all of the black hole’s mass being held in this region, the singularity can be thought of as having infinite density. within a rotating black hole it is possible to avoid the singularity, and extending this solution as far as possible reveals the hypothetical possibility of exiting the black hole into a different spacetime (region of reality) with the black hole acting as a wormhole.

the photon sphere is a spherical boundary of zero thickness in which photons (elementary, electromagnetic radiation particles, associated with light) that move on tangents (the tangent line to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point) to that sphere would be trapped in a circular orbit about the black hole. while light can still escape from the photon sphere, any light that crosses the photon sphere on an inbound trajectory will be captured by the black hole.

lastly, the ergosphere is a region of spacetime found in rotating black holes in which it is impossible to stand still. basically, it’s like a whirlpool, and any object near the black hole will tend to start moving in the direction of rotation.

okay, so... what does this have to do with entry number 17?

WELL, here’s the dialogue from entry number 17. i’ll bold the key parts that i feel tie the possibility of this being a time machine to the time machine involving a black hole:

ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN DARK DARKER YET DARKER THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING ... WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK

as you can probably tell by now, it’s possible that this description of growing darkness, no photons, is similar to that of what a black hole is like.

but why would gaster create a black hole as part of a time machine? well, my idea is that he didn’t mean to do so. he likely concentrated enough energy or mass that caused a black hole to accidentally form. this black hole would have been small in diameter, thus having an incredibly short lifespan, its evaporation being violent. this would have broken the machine entirely. however, for the sake of undertale being a video game, it’s understandable why sans (and possibly papyrus or alphys) would be okay and why the machine is still relatively in tact.

it’s unclear to me why gaster would want to make a time machine. because time travel in the sci-fi sense (involving the grandfather paradox) is likely impossible without breaking the fabric of our reality, this could also be explained for why it went so horribly wrong for gaster. and - fun fact - once you cross the event horizon, you are lost to the universe forever. every particle you are made of, every little bit of energy you hold within your existence, is lost to the outside universe. forever. this is called the black hole information paradox. however, realistically, those who are outside of the black hole will still remember you, but in gaster’s sense... i don’t think this is what happened.

it’s possible that gaster managed to avoid the singularity, if the black hole he crossed was rotational. however, because he couldn’t leave the black hole, he could have traveled to different points in spacetime. this is why he was shattered across time and space as his followers describe, because undertale confirms that within its world, this possible existence of a black hole allows for wormholes to exist.

but... but wait. no, no, no. we can’t think of undertale as space-time. why? because sans himself confirms that the continuum of undertale’s reality is a time-space continuum. he puts time before space, which could be intentional and thus swapping their roles. within undertale this means that time is 3-dimensional, explaining the existence of save points and the ability to reset and load. space, on the other hand, is 1-dimensional, meaning you can only ever go one way which is to the end of the game. even if you load previous save files, you’ll still end up finished.

so if gaster was shattered across time and space, it’s possible that he was also shattered beyond. it’s believed that he had some sense of awareness, that he found out he was in a game with multiple different timelines, thus starting his “experiment.” he created the blueprints for the determination extraction machine, and because it’s also widely believed that he and chara were in cahoots with each other, maybe gaster wanted to extract some of chara’s determination and make something for himself. and maybe he succeeded in some way, not by extracting chara’s but by making his own somehow. it’s unknown right now to me. (though if he acquired determination somehow, that would make sense if the mysteryman sprite was him, considering the weird markings or drippy things on his face as well as the general blob-like look.)

so this implies that deltarune’s reality is a time-space continuum as well?

yes. gaster was smart, brilliant even, but it’s likely he didn’t know much beyond the nature of his own reality. when creating deltarune he made the reality of its universe something similar to undertale’s, with 3-dimensional time and 1-dimensional space. if gaster had the determination or something more, enough to persist even as a remnant of a shattered being outside his own reality, then this makes sense as to how he’d be able to create deltarune. if he’s forgotten to everyone within the world of undertale, and (in some abstract way for the sake of kris, jevil, spamton and possibly others) known to nobody in deltarune, yet he created deltarune, he isn’t dead. he’s something else. he’s a god.

and this is why chara is in cahoots with him, even now.

see, chara has determination. they didn’t fall into the underground intentionally; they tripped (1, 2). given these facts and theories it’s likely that chara had determination, or hope, the ability to persevere and keep going no matter what. chara had a red soul like frisk’s, which is what made their essence attach to frisk’s body. that’s why they are tethered to us via name and stats and narration. and as we all know, the red soul symbolizes determination. power.

but while chara is very much their own person, they are still what their name was meant to imply: a character. chara reflects the will of the player; they are not the player theirself, they are their own person, but due to their attachment to frisk (and by extension, us) they act as a mirror for what we do in undertale. and sadly for them, gaster is much more powerful due to his circumstances. gaster is more like us than chara is.

and given deltarune’s theme of nobody’s choices mattering, nobody having any real control over what they do or say, if we take into consideration the fact that chara speaks in the no mercy route about destroying "this" world and "moving onto the next" and asking "when were [we] the one in control", then it’s clear that they have something to do with the theme of deltarune. chara has only ever wanted control, whether that be a good or bad thing is currently out if the question. they wanted control over their own life when they were alive in undertale, and now they want control over other people. anything they feel is a good thing for them to have control over, they will reach for it.

the gonermaker sequence in chapter 1 is abruptly cut off by someone who speaks VERY similarly to chara, in contrast to the person from before who we all agree is gaster (in both japanese and english, it is very chara-esque way of speaking). now, why is this called the gonermaker? my guess is because chara has been discarding all these vessels, making gaster’s experiment much more difficult to start off and get going.

all the gaster followers from undertale, including goner clam girl and goner kid, show up in deltarune. they are fully colored sprites. the only goner character who doesn’t show up in deltarune is the one WE create in chapter 1′s beginning sequence. and i think that’s because they are set up to reappear, at some point in one of deltarune’s future chapters.

so, chara has been discarding all of the vessels, all the followers, all the now-goners because they know that these people will never have control over their lives. as long as they are shallow vessels meant to worship and serve our (the players’) and gaster’s desires (to play a game and experiment, thereby affecting an entire world/universe), they have no autonomy over themselves. and this resonates with chara for a multitude of reasons we can tie back to undertale. they state that "no one can choose who they are in this world," because it’s true. no one can choose who they are. not in a world dominated by gods like us and gaster. and that’s why chara discards these vessels and characters who were probably once their own real persons, as a means of sparing them from what they lacked for theirself: control. and no matter what, even if chara didn’t interrupt, we would have still ended up as kris because again No One Can Choose Who They Are In This World. chara was making gaster’s sick joke plain and simple for us, that it applies to us in some way too.

so then... what’s the deal with spamton and jevil?

well, i think they are people who encountered gaster (this is widely believed anyway) and convinced themselves that they were significant for this knowledge that they are in a game, knowledge gaster told them of, driving them both insane and robbing them of who they were meant to be. and because nobody can choose who they are in deltarune, when they try to break free nothing changes or has a happy outcome, because it’s sadly just not possible to change your fate in deltarune.

this presumably-fact becomes clearer with spamton, though. and that’s why kris becomes so afraid, both at the end of spamton neo’s pacifist battle and his snowgrave battle. because kris can’t choose who they are, either. kris is like spamton, a puppet. a heart on a chain. they don’t have full control over who they are and trying to break free only hurts them more, as we see whenever they tear their soul out of their body and disable our input. but, maybe it’ll be different for kris, because they ARE the protagonist. but right now it feels like they’ve given up on the idea of having control over theirself. the only rebelling they do is work to open a dark fountain, thereby continuing the story of deltarune and, really, only helping us more in terms of playing the game.

and i mean, it’s also obvious that gaster holds influence over kris, too, considering the weird hidden encounters where you interact with something and see a man smiling or waving at you or giving you an egg. and this egg doesn’t change into a ball of trash like every other dark world item once you return to the light world. it stays the same. i can’t really remember the significance of eggs when it comes to gaster other than his whole existence being left as an Easter Egg but i do know that on the date with papyrus in undertale, there’s an egg on the side with the dating hub so, whether that’s there for funny points or lore is unknown, but interesting too.

i also want to say that i don’t think gaster and chara are being pitted against each other in terms of "these are 2 different types of gamers." while that would make sense simplistically, i feel like toby would be much more in depth and nuanced with it, as he usually is with his method of storytelling. because even though chara is kind of god-like, considering their death in undertale and their soul being the same as ours, leading to them being attached to us like some kind of angel (and angels have lots of significance in both undertale and deltarune), they’re still only a character and not at all on the level that gaster is.

i personally think gaster and chara are, on a more hidden level because toby isn’t being very direct at all with these two, meant to represent a different side of the "player vs character" perspective. and that’s something that undertale and deltarune have both tried to convey to us in the no mercy and snowgrave routes, but unfortunately in undertale’s case it was widely misinterpreted in both ways. i think it’s a bit more sensible to go about it this way, because gaster is not us, as in we don’t control him like we can other characters, and the symbolism of what he’s meant to represent is there.

ok, one last question: how did chara access wherever gaster’s in?

that part is still very foggy. i can’t come up with a definite reasoning, but for now i’ll take a wild guess and say that maybe chara grew tired of being a ghost with no real autonomy. maybe they decided they wanted to break free for theirself, and by doing this their essence became detached from frisk’s body (and by extension our control), thus causing them to be shattered similarly to gaster or winding up in the void gaster has. however that happened.

there’s a lot of uncanny resemblance between chara and kris, though, especially if this is the case. chara breaks free and winds up in the void with gaster, and kris realizes that breaking free for theirself may not be all that they think it’s meant to be. given spamton neo and all. aside from the fact that chara and kris look similar, have the same family (though in different universes of course), and strangely both have a sweet tooth, this is especially odd to me.

i can’t quite put it into words, but it feels like, to me at least, chara is very much present in the world of deltarune. and they share similarities with kris that are hard to ignore.

so that’s it, then.

for the most part... yes. a lot of the theories i’ve linked here and there explain things i agree with, so you can read them as you see fit. i especially recommend nochocolate’s posts on chara if you’re interested, such as the ambiguity of freedom in undertale (and, though this was never mentioned in their post, by extension now deltarune).

but. there is one character that seems to be involved in some (or a lot) of this. and that’s papyrus. the only problem is, i can’t figure out what’s going on.

at first glance papyrus is just a very charming guy. but you know, he’s actually a lot more mysterious than sans. he shares similarities to chara and flowey/asriel, and holds weird possible connections to gaster. he’s also the only major character from undertale (aside from asriel) who hasn’t made a physical appearance in deltarune. while checking sans and papyrus’ house will have you met with narration describing “a distant trousle of bones”, it’s worth noting that in chapter 2 it’s described as getting farther and farther away. so... why? is this world’s papyrus just shy, or is there a deeper reason?

again, i can’t tell what’s going on with papyrus, if there even is anything at all. but there’s a lot of weird and mysterious little oddities involving him that i don’t think are unintentional or accidental.

anyways... there. hoo boy. that’s my theory. or theories. i don’t really know. like i said, i’m not a theorist, i don’t know everything and i don’t expect any of this to be true. it’s just what makes sense to me. and it’s important that if you believe this, you also recognize that toby is the creator and he does what he thinks is best when it comes to the story of deltarune and the possible connections it has to undertale (even though toby’s said that the two have no connections, it’s not uncommon for him to be untruthful about things).

if you read all of this... thanks! let me know your thoughts!

#inkling.txt #deltarune #deltarune chapter 2 #deltarune analysis #deltarune meta #deltarune theory #undertale #undertale theory #wd gaster #chara dreemurr #w.d. gaster #chara undertale #ok to reblog

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floret-botanica · 2 years

Text

Had some unexpected free time today, so it’s time to do my Oxventure and Ox BitD* shipping ranking/thoughts breakdown!

*predictably, this got long so I’ll do BitD in a different post.

I really started this so optimistic that I’d finish it in two hours but it took me... quite a while.

Ranking

I originally tried to do this as a numerical ranking, but all I got was:

Corazón/Dob

Polyguild

Everything else

So that didn’t really work. Corazón/Dob is the only pairing I ship independently of polyguild, and everything else is either a dynamic within polyguild (ie, would be a specific focus of a fic) or a lead up to polyguild. I also love an AU so there are, at minimum, three different settings to think about and they all have different ships leading up to the polyamory. Basically, there’s a lot to keep in mind, so instead of doing a numerical ranking, I’ll just write my thoughts on all the ships (this will only be pairings and The Whole Lot of Them polyamory, because as soon as I think about doing more than a pairing I want them to all be in love). Okay that was a lie I did one triad.

My Semi-Detailed Thoughts

Dob/Corazón

I’ve already done a pretty substantial discussion of my Dobazón thoughts, but I will say that it’s a tough call between this and polyguild as my favourite. I’ve just spent so long loving this ship, and I also have a few fic ideas which are pushing it ever so slightly to the top. To be honest, this will be (and sort of already has been) absorbed into polyguild in my mind, but for now, I will still respectfully separate it.

Polyguild

[Slaps roof of ship] This baby can hold so much love and support.

I mean, it’s so good. It’s literally the best of all worlds. They’re chaotic and ridiculous and in love and I adore it. As previously mentioned, I have three four different polyguild scenarios/settings in my head, but at the end of the day it’s five weird, ridiculous and slightly hopeless people who find home in each other. What’s not to love about that?

Also as a point to both this and polycrew, you can make their relationship diagram look like a pentagram, which I think Prudence would approve of.

— From this point, it is not organised by how much I like the ship —

Merilwen/Egbert

This. Really snuck up on me. OKAY @intheseautumnhands WHAT THE HELL. I went and looked for the fic that made me love this dynamic, because I wanted to link to it and I’d forgotten that YOU WROTE IT. The end of Something In the Air is Giving Me Bad Ideas kicked off all of my Merilwen/Egbert thoughts I cannot believe it. How have you invaded my brain so completely? (/pos)

But yeah, I think they hit the exact level of Wholesomeness™ that I enjoy. (I’ll go into later but I haven’t gotten fully into Dob/Egbert because in that sense it is a bit much for me). I also like to think of Egbert and Merilwen being the most “life sensible,” i.e. marginally more willing to talk about their feelings than the other lot. It’s not super accurate to canon, but honestly, if you do an “Egbert’s happiness is a facade” kinda thing then he ends up with the same arc as Dob and that isn’t super interesting to me. I will say that the two of them have the most examples of good relationships in their lives (because I am firmly pro-Le Dragon D'or and most of the elves were pretty chill), and consequently it makes sense that they’d be better at having those and doing good communication. Sometimes you just want some people to act like goddamn adults, and this is where I turn.

Also, I was looking through some notes, and found my Merilwen & Egbert relationship description, part of which is: “Welcome to the Endless Self Confidence in My Ability and Desire to be Nice to My Friends squad.“ Which is still pretty accurate to how I perceive them.

Dob/Egbert

As mentioned in the previous section, I struggle a little bit with this ship for a number of reasons. Dob and Egbert were, for a long time, the characters I had the least fun* watching because I found the sheer volume of chaos distressing. (Look, I’m boring and I like rules. It’s fine). Basically, it never occurred to me to ship them until I went to Tumblr and saw all the enthusiasm, and even then I still didn’t really get it. I really like them as an aspect of polyguild, just getting a quick dip into their dynamic, but the combination of the chaos and the sweetness would get a Bit Much for me all the time. They're a little too similar for my liking, which is the same difficulty I have with Corazón and Prudence. But it is lovely in small doses. I have a little scene of them in my head based on the song Tokyo by emily the band, which I may eventually write.

*comparative to the massive enjoyment I got from watching the Oxventure in general.

Merilwen/Egbert/Dob

I honestly don’t go for triads or quads with Oxventure, but there’re just. Really nice. And I have to talk about this one because there’s a version of polyguild in my mind where, through a complex sequence of horny, awkward and friends to lovers, the three of them have a sincere, loving and well discussed relationship. (Then they entangle themselves with Prudence and Corazón and the good communication suffers for a bit lol). While I really enjoy the sort chaotic-falling-together which normally happens in the “D&D time period” polyguild fics, in an urban fantasy Not Adventurers AU™ I’ve had a lot of fun thinking about a foundation romantic relationship which just keeps accidentally expanding.

Prudence/Egbert

Since this has accidentally become the Egbert section, I’ll do the last two now.

Generally my thoughts on these have come from how easy I find it to imagine (or write) their dynamic, and these two are a little difficult. There’s a lot of potential there, but I think I’d need more (canon or fanfic) interactions to really get into it. Wait fuck it’s also really good? Okay well rule of the Oxventure: it’s all good. All the ships are good.

That being said, I really enjoy the idea that as polyguild happens, some of the pairings are like... side-eyeing each other and trying to figure out how the hell this is going to work romantically and navigating that together. Prudence and Egbert are good for that.

Corazón/Egbert

People. Kept writing stuff about this ship. And then I thought about it a lot. And now I’m obsessed with it. I feel like they’d both be very confused and/or annoyed* about falling for each other and I fucking live for that shit. I also really like the idea that Egbert has his shit together and forces Corazón to deal with his feelings (Merilwen would also do this, and I also really like that ship! I clearly have a type). The banter is impeccable. Admittedly, I’ve only really focused thought on it in one AU, but I’ve really thought about it for that one. Also in the two fics where it’s been given focus (at least the ones I remember) it was extremely good.

More please.

*Bemused is the word that comes to mind for Egbert.

Corazón/Prudence

I don’t really know how to categorise my feelings about this ship. Best shot is that I love it as a friendship, love it as a part of polyguild (or it’s vague enough that I can imagine), generally don’t like it as a standalone. For me, there’s just not enough there for a complete, compelling relationship, and all the best bits of it are covered by ships I like more.

Some of my eh feelings are very likely due to how demonpirate quite popular, and there is consequently quite a lot of it Going Around. It’s like when a song that you kind of like goes viral and you hear it everywhere to point that you don’t really like it any more.

This is a long winded way of saying that it is very sexy when the scary lady is mean to the pirate bastard but I’m otherwise not super fussed.

Merilwen/Corazón

Extremely fun. Crackship energy, which is extremely my bag. A similar deal to Egbert and Corazón. I will always have time for their friendship, so moving it into a romance is also very nice. Neither of them like people very much (is that a controversial Corazón opinion? I don’t know) and I just think that they’d end up chilling with each other a lot. They’re less chaotic than the others. There’s definitely a lot of mutual respect there, below all the jokes. Merilwen comforting Corazón is a confirmed banger, and I think that it would work equally well in the other direction. They get each other.

Yeah so shipping this really started as a joke but more fool me I guess.

An addition after having a sleep: they’re are concerned about you, but they will be very intense and probably mean about it.

Prudence/Merilwen

Let’s go lesbians.

I kid, but then that is also a big part of the attraction. Sapphic tropes are amazing and women are very cool and just. It adds something. I love their friendship and I love thinking about them both being very dysfunctional. Like, the boys are absolutely fools, but these two are only doing better at them because they’re good at faking it. Poor communication in a very different way. Prudence would be kinder around her than the others, I think, and that makes me happy.

Prudence/Dob

There is one inherent problem with this ship: Christmas colours.

Despite this almost insurmountable obstacle, I have devoted quite a lot of time to thinking about this ship, and what I have decided is that I have no interest (as much as I “have no interest” in anything in this fandom) outside of polyguild. Cue someone writing an incredible fic for it that completely changes my mind.

It’s nice. The idea of them (mostly Prudence though) changing under each other’s influence is really interesting. I’ve thought about incorporating the “Jane doesn’t like music” into Prudence’s character (more? It’s already there a bit) and having Dob introduce her to it. But yeah. Only in polyguild.

Merilwen/Dob

Should probably have put this up in the Dob and Merilwen and Egbert section but to be honest I forgot about it. That probably says more about my opinion than this paragraph ever could, but I’ll try it anyway lol. I really like Merilwen and Dob in the same way one likes the primary couple in a romcom: generally good, but unless prompted, they don’t really stick in the mind. That’s probably a little harsh, given that I do find good ol’ team nature very sweet and lovely, and I enjoy thinking about it. I just need something more.

Also I think a lot of fanwork of this ship makes Merilwen less mean and I really like the nasty streak. My preference for her is blunt/unfriendly low charisma rather than awkward/quiet low charisma (though there’s probably more of the second in the actual Oxventure).

Final Ranking

Dob/Corazón

Polyguild

Nothing, those two are the ultimate.

Corazón/Egbert

Merilwen/Egbert

Merilwen/Prudence

Merilwen/Corazón

Dob/Egbert

Merilwen/Dob

Corazón/Prudence

Prudence/Dob

Prudence/Egbert

Hm. Lots of Prudence at the bottom of the list. She’s just evil friends. She’s evil and I find it difficult to get over that and see how she’d be a good romantic partner. To be fair though, this list would have been completely different two months ago (way more Egbert at the bottom) so who knows how it’ll look in the future. Probably just polyguild lol. Always good.

I hope that I’ve demonstrated throughout this that I really like all of the ships, so this is more about roughly how excited or apprehensive I would be opening a fic of a particular ship.

#long post #it's now quite late at night (for me)#and I do not want to edit this #so here take a load of shipping thoughts #this was very fun #but I think I'll leave the BitD one for a bit lol #a little nonsense #oxventure watching

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extemely-thoughtful-person · 3 years

Text

On The Possible Students, Staff, and Ideals of Royal Sword Academy

Before you read this, just know that I don't hate heros. They stand for some good morals at times and they have their moment to shine. What I don't like is the character flaws that don't get resolved towards the end of the film.

I'm was bored, Okay?

With the recent conclusion of chapter 5, we were given a lot of new grounds to to explore and new information to apply and expand for the world building of Twisted Wonderland. The most important thing I believe chapter 5 has done is set the stage for what is to come in the future chapters. With the VDC, we got to take a quick glance at not only the students of RSA, but also it's Head President, Ambrose the 63rd. But, now with the chapters conclusion, what should we expect from the people of RSA in Chapters 6 and 7? Are the students any good? What kind of lessons are taught by the teachers? Is the overall morral of the academy is good or bad?

There are a lot of things we still don't really know about them, so I'm gonna try and figure out more about them through sources of current information and other things that we should be looking at. (Though there is a high chance that everything I'm saying is not going to happen, as everytime I make any kind of prediction, it never happens.😑)

Now, there are two things we need to look at before we actually start guessing what the school is like: the base of inspiration of RSA, and what we know from what we were given in the game.

Starting with the inspiration of RSA. The school is basically the twst base for all Twisted Disney protagonists, like the princes, princesses, heros, and their sidekicks. Basically, if a villain based character attends, or attended NRC, then their protagonist counterpart attends, or attended RSA. Simple. Because these are two rival schools, I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to build two academies that want to rip each other to shreds on the SAME F*CKING ISLAND!!! I feel really sorry for the town that's separating the two schools, because a lot of battles must take place there during the school year.

But back to the point, these RSA students are going to be based on the Disney protagonists, which is actually very important to note. This is where we dive into the films that the characters are based off of.

Disney inspiration

The old Disney films are some of the best pieces of animated art ever to hit the big screen, and I'm positive many of you reading this grew up with these movies. They always make up some part of your childhood. But, unlike you all, I never got to experience all of the Disney magic as a kid. There were only two or three original animated films that I ever got to see: Cinderella (the one I've seen a dozen times), Pinocchio ( the one that gave me nightmares), and Beauty and the Beast (I only ever saw this movie once or twice). There were certain movies from the famous Disney collection I was never allowed to watch, however: Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Hercules, and a lot more. Now that I'm older, and have the resources and time to watch what I've been missing, I'm starting to realize why I was never allowed to watch those movies as a kid.

Now, I'm sure you all thought this way at one point: as a little kid, you've always cheered on the protagonist, you've always said that the good guy is good and the bad guy is bad. You see the situation as black and white. One person stands for something great, while the other wishes to harm others for personal gain. You vote for good, you hate the bad. And in the end, the bad guy gets punished while the protagonist emerges victorious, loved by everyone, and always rewarded with a happily ever after.

However, as you get older, the line between good and bad starts to blur. You begin to realize why the "bad guy" is doing what they're doing, and starting to see that the "good guys" aren't always making the right choices. You start to see there is more to the people involved than them just being good or bad. Ever notice that the protagonists look more or less the same? Their always thin, white, royalty, or heros (not all of them are white, but I'm trying to prove a point.) They always have a charm that makes them stand as protagonists, but when brought together, they look more or less the same. They even have similar personalities to an extent.

The villains on the other hand are much more diverse with design, they have a unique appearance and personality that sets them apart from the "good people". Some are larger, others are taller, a few are very charming and manipulative, while others seem more comedic. They have a wide range of personalities and designs that make them recognizable to the audience. But there is also something else you begin to see as you become older, their motives. Not all of them have the worst intentions in mind. Many of them were wronged for being different. Some even fell from grace by suffering tragic events. Now, I'm not saying everything they do is right, and they still did awful things that merit some kind of punishment, but you start to see why they do what they did. You start to understand them more, and sympathize with them. Not every villain is good, however. There are some cases where the wrong doer gets what they deserve, but there are cases where they didn't deserve what they got.

Flipping to the protagonists, not all of them are great. And, again I'm not saying that to hate on them, but you need to remember, they may be the protagonists, but are they really doing the right thing? There are a bunch of times where the hero is dumb and stupid and replies on others to do everything for them because they're innocent princesses who are good and pure and don't need to do anything because they're perfect. Sounds like a Mary Sue, but sad to say, there are Disney protagonists who fit this description (looking at you Snow White). But not every protagonist is dumb, on the contrary, but their actions are a bit on the selfish side of things. Heroes like Ariel and Hercules made selfish choices for the sake of ✨LOVE✨, but in all honesty, they should've known better. Others hammer on the villains for self enjoyment, and when the villains bite back, they never once considered that the situation was partially their fault. The only thing they can say is " Op, this guy's messed up. Time to beat his @$$!" And then proceeds to kick them all the way to Hades (Sometimes literally in this case). And these characters are supposed to be role models for children! Now the good news is not every protagonist is like this, there are actually a few very good ones who mean well, still have flaws that make them relatable, and are rightfully rewarded.

My favorite example of this is Mulan. She wants fight on behalf of her father, works hard to pass the trials of war, and comes back in the end even though she was left to die. The villains she faced were blood thirsty and wanted to conquer more land and take lives. The Huns die in defeat, while Mulan is called a hero. In this case, the formula for good and bad makes sense and puts the characters in the right positions.

But sadly, there are cases where the villain gets wronged by the good guys, goes bad, and then gets punished because they were bad and wrong, and the "good guys" are always right even if they do something that's questionable. This is what we're focusing on, because 1: we have yet to see Mulan in TWST, and 2: because this case makes up at least a good portion of the movies used in the TWST universe. The movies listed here are in the TWST verse, and are what I consider to be in this category: The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Snow White, and Hercules.

The RSA we know so far

Now basing the interactions we received from the VDC, we have met what I like to call the Snow White Package of students from both schools. On the "hero's" side, we've got Neige, our Snow White, and his seven dwarf companions (I'm not going to name them all, because so far, their names are irrelevant.) On the "Villains" side, we've got Vil Schoenheit, our Evil Queen, Rook Hunt, our huntsman, and Epel Felmier, our adorable poisoned apple.

Now from what we're shown, Neige is a young, talented actor and influencer at the rank of number 1. He's also a bit naive and seems to trust others way to easily. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but this can become a problem. I wrote in a theory about Neige failing the VDC that everything is decided for him, and that he's controlled by the people he agrees to help. There are two things to take away from this if this is true.

Firstly, how he responds to the situation. If he's naive about the whole thing until someone points it out to him, then that would make sense. But it would make even more sense if he is already aware of what's going on around him, but he continues to act nice and pretends that he's not bothered by it, when infact, he is.

This leads to the second point, his unique magic. Though we haven't gotten a formal name or power, I believe that his unique magic is called, "Sing with me" Which gives him the ability to get others to sing and dance along with him when ever he preforms. The base of inspiration for this magic would be Snow White getting the animals to sing along with her, and help her with whatever she's doing, (read: do things for her). As for why, his awareness that he's being controlled subtly plus the fact that it bothers him is given away from the fact that he can subtly manipulate people to sing and dance along with him wether they like it or not. Basically, it would make sense for him to be able to manipulate others as he is manipulated on a daily basis.

The dwarves don't hold any importance right now, but if my theory about Neige's unique magic is true, then that would explain the shaky performance given at the VDC. The dwarves probably didn't rehearse very well, if not at all, so a unique magic that can make someone sing along with someone else regardless of whether or not they heard the song before would explain it.

As for Vil, well, he reminds me of Mega Mind. He always wanted to do something great, but he was always categorized as a player for the Villain role at a young age and was never given the chance to prove himself capable of the hero's role. His unique magic isn't just a reference to the Evil Queen, but also a manifestation of what he doesn't want to become, but was always the roles he was set as in front of the camera: a curse. Something unwanted, an obstacle, a disposable, selfish person who only wants to get in the way of the protagonist. What makes this so sad is that he was never given the chance to be something else, something better. People would always categorize him as the bad guy and never give him the opportunity to something greater. It's no wonder he hates the role so much. He wants to survive till the end instead of constantly being defeated.

What they could be

So, what about the rest of the students of RSA? (Besides Chenya. He's cool. I like him.)

Comparing the depressing and traumatic lives of the NRC students, the RSA students... well, it really depends. I could be wrong about this, but...

They could have two sides to them. One side that shows the world that they are the best, that they are successful and they always win. That their lives are perfect and that anyone who wants to be successful must follow their example.

The other side shows what's really going on on the inside, away from the adoring public. And that...is that their lives aren't perfect at all. They have trauma, or bad experiences that they try to cover up with a facaude that hides their true emotional pain. What other things could come out of this side?

A desire...no, a need to try and make their ideal images a reality. To show the world that they are right and they are perfect. That anyone who doesn't agree with them are wrong. They feel the need to cover up all of their pain, and continue on the path that the world sees them taking, the path that the world believes is the path of betterment. They are desperate to prove that they are perfect and successful in any and everyway. And they work together to support each other, making it easier for them to handle their pain and move on.

NRC doesn't, or didn't have that support. But unlike RSA, they aren't desperate to prove that their way of life is perfect, they're more focused on their individual futures, goals and objectives. They are more independent and creative on their own lives and march to the beat of their own drums. When a fellow student is doing something, and helping them benefits the assistant, then they will help, not for the sake of kindness, reputation or perfection, but for the purpose of getting themselves closer to their goals. This isn't a bad thing, but if you try to bring others down so that you can go up, then that isn't good.

But they don't have the same support system RSA has, meaning that instead of sharing their pain to make it easier, they are forced to bottle it up. And we all know how well that ends up going sooner or later.

But that leaves the question: Why does NRC want to beat RSA in the Magift tournament? Or anything else, really?

There are a few reasons. One, for honor's sake, of course. You'd definitely want to beat the people that won last year... and the year before that... and the year before that...

But this is a better reason for wanting to win besides just petty feuds and honor: personal goals and agendas.

Think about it. If a well assembled and trained team managed to beat a seemingly flawless academy's team that's been victorious for almost a century, then that would put you on a pretty high pedistal. You would be incredibly famous and popular. New opportunities would open up for you and your teammates. You could meet your goals and your dreams a lot faster and easier. And your life would improve greatly.

But, do you know what that means for the losing side?

That they were wrong. That they don't always win. That their lives are flawed. That the path they follow doesn't always guarantee success. That they aren't the best example to follow. RSA and it's reputation would decease considerably if they lost to their rival school, making NRC the better academy, making them the perfect academy. This means only one thing for RSA...

They can't afford to lose. Even if it means using tactics that involve questionable actions.

Like CHEATING.

That's right. I just accused the very popular and professional academy RSA of an act as large as cheating. Why? I must have some pretty solid evidence for them to do such a nefarious act. And I do.

Firstly, the fact that despite the constantly changing students and staff, RSA has won the inter school Magift tournament for 99 years in a row. That's a pretty weird fact. It must mean that either the players are really good, or they staged it with tactics that are against the rules.

Second, think about the next chapter. This theory about cheating would fit in perfectly with the character story arch for Ignihyde. I believe that the next chapter is going to be about fitting in. Belonging somewhere. Idia and Ortho are our protagonists. Both are charecters who like games. I imagine Idia having family issues with his cousins constantly playing games with him and Ortho as kids, but Idia always seems to lose to them because the cousins or family members change the rules of the game so that it turns in their favor. They do this for their own amusement and to make themselves feel like winners while Idia and Ortho are always left out of the fun, and called the losers. The Shroud brothers are cast out, only to discover later that they were playing a game that they could never win because it was always rigged against them. And this makes them mad. Idia vows to go above and beyond to be better than them in every way and to win fairly for once. Besides losing against his relatives, what else do you think he lost? Any chance for friends, his brother's life, maybe more. And he is not about to lose anything else ever again.

He works and studies hard and in the end he ends up winning, but also going a little bit to high at the same time. He maxes out on technically and magical power making him better than his competition, but also putting him in his own class of competition. This makes him feel nervous and unworthy of those who are higher than him, and distant from those beneath him. So he's basically drifting in the space between earth and mars.

If he ends up competing in the tournament, only to discover during, or worse yet, after the tournament that the game was rigged against them again, that they were never going to win anyways again, then the flashbacks would race over him with the speed of a bullet train, and he would snap. Hard.

It would make things worse if Ortho was also there and they both Overblotted together. It would be our first match against two dangerous Overblot victims, and it would be all RSA's fault.

Not only that, but it would send an even more dangerous message to the people than the one RSA sent at the VDC about not needed effort to accomplish your dreams. It would be: In order to succeed, do whatever it takes to win. Remember Kronk's New Groove? Where the little kid cheats so that their team can win that competition? Yeah. We would see the same thing happening here. This is a very dangerous way of thinking because that means that if you're crafty enough, then you can win anything and get whatever you want. Not only that you don't have to work hard, but you can take the easiest way and cheat your way to the top.

And how would that sit with the parents of the mages attending RSA? The school teaching their students, their children, that cheating is the only real way to win? That lying and stealing from those below you is the only way to succeed in life?

"But wouldn't NRC be the most likely school to pull a cheat move in the tournament? Heros don't cheat."

...(*pulls the wallpaper back and peeps a concerned face through*) ..."ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?!"

Because last I recall, I've seen numerous cases where the hero manages to outsmart the bad guy, pull out a trump card to cheat the system and do whatever the heck they want, and get away from the consequences of their actions because they are protagonists who are ment to win from the start. I can think of an example for all three of these, and all examples are from the movies twisted into twisted wonderland.

Aladdin outsmarted Jafar and Jafar turned into a genie and got trapped in a lamp for the rest of time. Alice angered the Queen of Hearts, but managed to escape the consequences of her actions. (Who was right or wrong in these scenarios isn't the point. What they did is.) And Hercules pulled the "I'm a god" trump card out of his back pocket at the last possible second to throw Hades off and get away with Megera's ghost. (This last scenario about Hades losing against a trump card and losing his temper afterwards is a great example of what could happen at the Magift tournament.)

And HOLY COW!!! I thought Crowley was the one who needed an interview about questionable morals, because if RSA was caught cheating against their rivals, who are completely oblivious to the fact that they were being played this entire time for a century, then it would make the students of NRC look like saints compared to their competition.

So wouldn't cheating be a terrible idea? If they got caught the consequences would be dire. But they've been getting away with it for almost a century now.

It's a risk they're willing to take to protect the reputation of their perfect academy.

But does this look perfect to you?

Thanks for reading!!! I stayed up really late to get most of this down sacrificing valuable sleep! Have a great day!!!☺️☺️☺️☺️

Eh... sleep is for the weak, anyways...zzzz.

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imperiuswrecked · 3 years

Note

To me, it doesn’t make sense to make Magneto the main villain because it has been done so much before and it would connect it so much to the Fox Films. Also I think there is a GREAT laziness in writing Magneto especially in films. He generally didn’t want to kill all humans, subjugate them yes because he doesn’t trust them. Which isn’t a ‘good guy’ move in itself and he slips in and out of.

He legit murdered genocide I think when he was going to kill all humans. Like no.

I also think that the average cinema goer likes Magneto too much… or maybe that is me. It would also require them to recast the most famous faces of the franchises?

Like is anyone going to care if they recast Jean, Scott, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty, Beast even Mystique but Magneto? I don’t know. I have long been a fan of an actual Jewish actor playing Magneto but following Ian McKellan would be difficult for the casual fans to accept. I don’t think Fassbender left such an amazing impression.

Even my most average MCU fans friends (and god they love the MCU 😤 but I see past it) still talk about how much they want to see a Magneto solo film.

To me I would put the focus on their reveal and sentinels. Then again I thought they’ll go through Krakoa stuff. Like it turns out the mutants have been living on this Island etc

With the ‘simpler times’ comment I have to for the sake of my sanity have to think that it was because Pietro knew where he was. Things were clear to him, as much as it hurt he had his sister. The following trauma had not occurred. Again I don’t think this is true but I am trying to reason bad writing. He didn’t doubt his morality but was indebted and controlled. Shitty actions were out of his control.

I don’t read Avengers so I didn’t know he was shelved for so long.

I think the Trial of Magneto is trying to ride on the coattails of Wandavision because even though she’s not a mutant a lot of the internet was wanting Magneto to show up. So what is the best way to get those fans who wanted to see that? Set up a family comic book where they establish the family again because I guess the MCU fans heard they’ve changed their background and themselves didn’t like it.

I see the Trial of Magneto as something poorly thought out as they saw what the audience was interested in. The timeline kind of clashes uncomfortably with Inferno. Which makes me think it was wedged in there to ride the Wandavision train and undo the retcon on the side of the main storyline.

Thank you for reading my essay/rant

Ok so I'm going to first say you have a lot of great thoughts and great on picking up the whole forced feeling. You are right, it does feel wedged in there and it does feel forced because that's exactly what Marvel did.

The Trial of Magneto was supposed to be an X-Factor plot, it was Leah Williams next arc, here's an article link talking about her podcast: link (yes I know it's bleeding cool but I don't have time to listen to the podcast)

Leah Williams tells us that X-Factor was canceled because Leah's pitch for the Magneto/Wanda story for X-Factor, now called Trial Of Magneto, became such a popular pitch at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn't big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic. And canceled X-Factor #10 rather than seeing it run as originally planned, with the Trial beginning in X-Factor #15. Williams says she only learned about the cancellation of X-Factor when she was writing #9, so as she had to finish the series quickly, squeezing six issues worth of story into those last two issues, calling it "cramped and rushed".

So I'm not a fan of Leah but the way Marvel treats it's writers has always been terrible so this cancellation doesn't surprise me. Could this be about W*ndaVision? It's likely, but it's more likely this has to do with Hickman bowing out. It's no secret literally everyone hated the retcon and I always knew it would be undone but I didn't think it would take 6 years but here we are.

Hickman leaving is a bigger thing, he stated in an interview ( link ) that he had planned Krakoa and X-Men to be a 3 arc story, and he wasn't allowed to move onto the 2nd arc because the clowns at Marvel liked the idea of Krakoa too much and I'm so mad because that's exactly the kinda behavior that annoys me with the fans, them thinking Krakoa is just a fun playground for the mutants to mess around with.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot." Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

I'm so MAD because the thing I was predicting, that Hickman would have it come crashing down and everything would be revealed to be terrible and Mutant Death Sex Cult Island wasn't a paradise is never going to happen because the fucking CLOWNS at Marvel don't want him to move past it. I may have my personal gripes about some of Hickman's writing but we can't deny the man wrote one of the best if only the best Marvel Event with Fantastic Four/Avengers/Secret War.

As for the simpler times comment, like I have my theories that I wrote out here, and that's what I think is most likely but I do think Pietro's life has never been easy or simple once his adoptive parents died. Pietro could be drinking to a time before the Brotherhood.

I would love for a Jewish actor to play Magneto and any other characters who are Jewish. I would love for a Jewish writer to be able to write them too. However Ian's performance literally set him in the minds of the people as Magneto, not even Fassbender's bleh one note Magneto could compare. Imo the only reason people liked the younger Magneto was because he was young, handsome (? ig idk i dont simp for him) and they could ship him with young professor X (cowards. where is the old man ship???) But I feel like a new actor could definitely fill the role if they are Jewish and the writing was good.

Magneto's writing in comics... well I just wish we could have a Jewish writer for him. There's some great stuff for him but I feel like characters like him and Doom could be written better by non white/american writers.

Although by today's standards the og X-Men trilogy doesn't hold up I will defend the first two movies with my life simply because after Blade these movies opened up the idea that a good serious, non campy version where characters called Magneto and Cyclops were taken seriously. X2 in my mind was the definitive X-Men movie. Was it totally comic accurate? No, but it doesn't do what the MCU does, it doesn't treat the watcher like they need to have their hand held through all the military propaganda and "hints to the comics". Also side note; the reason no one cared about any of the other X-Men being recast is because all through most of the X-Men movies the focal story point has been Professor X vs Magneto. If they really want people to care about those characters/actors then we would need stories that focused on them. Not like how Storm barely had any character growth or plot in the og X-Men and even young Ororo got mishandled by the script. This is why I feel we should have "origin movies" for the X-Men that don't do what Wolverine Origins did and try to make a whole new cast but instead should use the stories as they are. If it was Kurt's story then we would see him join the X-Men, and have the other actors revolve around that. Same with each of the others, the X-Men work best when they are working off each other and each given enough screen/page time to shine. Unfortunately we all have our favorites, even movies and writers, so those are who are going to be pushed for fans to love.

Thank you for your long rant and sorry for my own long rant/reply.

#xmen #x men #comic talk #xmcu #magneto #erik lensherr #imp answers

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penny-anna · 4 years

Text

A Strange Mirror

“I suppose it wouldn’t do to be leaving little witchers around the place, would it.”

“Witchers are sterile.”

“Hm?” Jaskier glanced up from his notes, doing a startled double-take. “What, all of you?”

Jaskier learns something new about witchers.

(on AO3)

The air in the room was thick with the smell of rain from their damp clothes drying by the fire. Their hosts’ voices carried from downstairs, muffled by the walls and the sound of the beating rain. Jaskier sat upon the bed, already changed into dry shirt and breeches and humming to himself as he scratched away in his notebook.

The farmer and his wife had given them a bed for the night and invited them to supper. Geralt didn’t used to get invited to supper. The last few months it had been happening more and more.

“Don’t suppose you could kill something more interesting next time.” Pausing in his scratching, Jaskier glanced up at him and added, “no offence.”

“Interesting?” said Geralt.

“You know,” said Jaskier. “Something a bit sexier than drowners, so I can make a song out of it.” He went back to his notes.

Geralt paused in the act of unlacing his damp shirt. “What kind of monsters do you think are sexy?”

Jaskier drew a line under a significant word in his notes. “Wyverns are pretty sexy.”

“They are?”

“Basilisks,” said Jaskier, gesturing with his quill. “Very sexy.”

Geralt looked at the darkened window. “The fuck are you talking about?”

“Just offering some constructive criticism.” Jaskier took in Geralt’s face and said, “alright. Point taken.” He went back to scribbling, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth. “The daughter was making eyes at you.”

“I noticed.”

“She’s pretty.”

Geralt grunted. He’d noticed that too, but he wasn’t about to encourage him.

“Not your type?”

The window rattled in the window. Geralt threw his shirt over the rack by the fire and turning away began to unlace his breeches. Behind him Jaskier’s pen scratched away.

“You must get a lot of that,” he said. “With your whole – thing.”

“A lot of what?” He stepped into his dry breeches.

“You know.” Jaskier drew a meaningful circle in the air with his quill. “Beautiful women making eyes at you. Throwing themselves at you. Terribly grateful to you for –”

“I don’t,” said Geralt, “do that.”

“Right.” Jaskier cleared his throat. He went on writing.

Geralt shrugged on a dry shirt, and laced it. “I’m careful about who I bed,” he said. “Have to be.”

“I see,” said Jaskier. “I suppose it wouldn’t do to be leaving little witchers around the place, would it.”

For a foolish moment Geralt couldn’t grasp what he meant. Then it struck him, and he didn’t know what to say to it. People’s knowledge of his kind was – patchy, and unreliable. It was hard to predict what a person might know, or not know. He had assumed Jaskier knew this. Jaskier did not know this.

He said, “witchers are sterile.”

“Hm?” Jaskier glanced up from his notes, doing a startled double-take. “What, all of you?”

“It’s by design.” He reached for his boots.

“Oh,” said Jaskier. “Oh – I see.” He fidgeted with his quill. His posture, which had been so idle, one leg crossed over the other, one foot drawing lazy circles in the air, was suddenly tense. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know.”

Lacing his boots, Geralt didn’t reply.

“I’ll not bring it up again.”

In truth, he didn’t care if Jaskier brought it up again, or didn’t. There were few subjects in the world that had the power to hurt him and this wasn’t one of them.

He said, “hm.”

The kitchen was too full of people, too warm and too humid. The family was large enough without two extra bodies crammed in. They were too poor to pay him for clearing their well, so they did their best to make up the debt by filling his belly.

He wasn’t about to complain. He was grateful for Jaskier’s presence, for his keeping the conversation going while he ate. The farmer’s wife and her oldest daughter doted on Jaskier, the whole family hanging off every word of his stories. It was easy for them all to forget who the guest of honour actually was.

When the meal was over and the plates had been cleared, the youngest of the children scrambled into Geralt’s lap, babbling at him cheerfully, eager to tell him all about the farm, to tug on the ends of his hair. The farmer and his wife shot each other nervous looks. They said nothing.

He excused himself early.

Though it was barely nightfall Jaskier came up to bed not long after him, stumbling a little on the stairs and cursing to himself, fumbling with the latch.

“Oh,” he said as he stepped over the threshold, stretching out his arms in an exaggerated yawn. “Oh, it’s been a long day.”

“Hm,” Geralt agreed.

Jaskier was a little tipsy from dinner. His cheeks were pink and he smelled faintly of wood smoke. Stripped down to his shirt, he climbed into bed. He lay alongside Geralt, propped up on one elbow, regarding him intently and clearly not meaning to sleep any time soon.

“Go on, then,” said Geralt to the ceiling.

“Hm?” Jaskier’s eyes were big and innocent.

“You’ve been chomping at the bit all evening.”

“I haven’t.”

“I’d rather you ask than lie there all night making faces at me.”

“I’m not making faces,” said Jaskier, though he was. “And I don’t want to pry.”

“Just,” said Geralt, “ask.”

Jaskier shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “When you say it’s by design,” he said. “What do they do, exactly?” Before Geralt could answer he went on, “I mean, do they – do something to you?”

“Depends what you mean.” He’d lost track of what Jaskier was driving at. Do they do something to you. Of course they did something.

“Well, do they –” Jaskier broke off with a sigh. “Is it a.” He motioned in a way that meant nothing at all. At Geralt’s blank look, his eyes flicked anxiously to his crotch, and it hit him what he was trying to ask. “Do you – have everything you’re –”

“I’ve got all my parts.”

“Oh thank the gods,” Jaskier said in a rush. Geralt snorted. “Don’t you laugh! It’s been worrying me all evening.” He smacked Geralt’s chest by way of chastising him. His hand lingered there, resting on his sternum.

“And it all,” he said after a moment, “works as normal?”

Geralt grunted.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Well.” Jaskier patted his chest. “That’s splendid.”

“I don’t see why you care,” said Geralt.

“Why wouldn’t I care?”

“They’re not your parts.”

“I suppose I just don’t like the idea of a man having his parts tampered with,” said Jaskier. “Is that so wrong?”

“No. I suppose not.” Jaskier was still looking at him, his gaze no less intent for having got an answer to his burning question. He wasn’t used to people looking at him the way Jaskier looked at him. Sometimes the way Jaskier looked at him made him feel stripped bare.

He didn’t hate it.

“So, um,” said Jaskier. “What is it they do, exactly?”

“It’s a by-product of the mutagens.”

“I see,” Jaskier said. “But an – intentional one?”

Geralt grunted an affirmation.

“Now, if you want to stop talking about this, do say so.” Jaskier sat up a little more. “But – I don’t see why.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not – not really. No.”

“Witchers are mutants,” said Geralt. “Any children we had would be mutated. It wouldn’t be pretty.”

“Well, when you put it like that it does sound reasonable.” Jaskier sighed to himself. “But it doesn’t seem fair.”

“How so?”

“People ought to have a choice in these matters,” said Jaskier. “Oughtn’t they?”

“No-one chooses to be a witcher.”

“No,” said Jaskier. “I suppose not.” He clucked his tongue. “Just seems like a pity.”

“Hm?”

“I just can’t help thinking you’d be a good father.”

Geralt turned to look at him, incredulous. “What?” Jaskier shrugged, as if to say, isn’t it obvious? “No. I wouldn’t.”

“I think you would,” said Jaskier.

He wondered, not for the first time, what it was Jaskier saw when he looked at him. He didn’t think Jaskier saw the hero he put in his songs – he was sure Jaskier knew that much of what he wrote was bullshit. But he didn’t think Jaskier saw the truth either. He saw something between fantasy and reality. Jaskier’s eyes were a strange mirror to look into.

“You can’t have a child on the path.”

“Well – leaving the witcher thing aside for a moment –”

“You can’t leave it aside,” Geralt snapped, in spite of himself starting to grow heated.

“Say you could,” said Jaskier, unfazed.

“No-one would want a witcher for a father.”

“Why not?”

You know why, he wanted to say. But Jaskier was pretending not to know. “Witchers are monsters.”

“Oh – yes,” said Jaskier, drawing his brows into a stern mock frown. “You are a truly terrifying monster.”

“Jaskier –”

“I quake in my boots at the sight of your hideous countenance, for you are such a fearful beast and I am so very afraid –”

“Maybe you should be.”

Jaskier cocked his head. “Why?”

So very many reasons, he thought. “I could tear you apart if I wanted.”

“Ah, but you haven’t.” Jaskier patted his chest warmly, as if he’d made a conclusive argument. “You’re in a mood,” he pronounced.

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” said Jaskier. “A gloomy one.”

“I’m always gloomy.”

“Untrue,” said Jaskier. “You’re often gloomy but sometimes grim and I’ve known you to be grumpy.”

Geralt grunted at the ceiling.

“Anyway,” said Jaskier, “children aren’t afraid of you. That little one tonight loved you.”

Geralt thought of the way the farmer and his wife had looked at each other when the child had crawled into his lap. “Children aren’t old enough to know better.”

“Or, alternatively, one might say that they’re too young to have been taught to be afraid,” said Jaskier.

“It makes no difference.”

“It makes all the difference.” Jaskier’s hand shifted, sliding up his chest to his shoulder. He took a lock of Geralt’s hair and began idly to twist it around his fingers. “Anyway. I feel safe with you.”

“Do you?”

“Completely safe,” said Jaskier. “What else could you want out of a father?”

“A lot of things.” Geralt looked at Jaskier, bewildered. “Are you trying to say you think of me as a father?”

“What?” said Jaskier. “No. What – no.” Dropping Geralt’s hair as if it was hot he sat up. “Absolutely not. No. Don’t say things like that.”

“Why not?” It seemed a reasonable enough question to him. He’d never got the impression Jaskier thought of him that way – didn’t like the idea of Jaskier thinking of him that way – but he couldn’t imagine what else he might be driving at.

“It – upsets me,” said Jaskier. “It just does. And this conversation has got wildly off track.”

“Was it ever on track?”

“Briefly.” Jaskier lay back down. “Anyway, please don’t ever suggest that you’re like a father to me again.”

“I wasn’t,” said Geralt. “I thought you were suggesting it.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” said Geralt. “I was confused too. What were you trying to say, if not that?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Jaskier vaguely. “Look. All I’m trying to say is how sorry I am that that was done to you. It’s not fair.”

The thing of it was, Jaskier wasn’t the first person he’d had to explain this fact of his biology to. He’d had to explain it now and then, mainly in whorehouses, and the reaction, even when not explaining it to women anxious that they might end up carrying a mutant child, had been one of relief or understanding. He’d never had someone express their condolences at the loss before.

He said, “hm.”

Sighing, Jaskier shuffled in closer to him. He draped an arm over his chest. “I wish things were different.”

“If things were different you’d never have met me.”

“True.” Jaskier yawned, a genuine yawn this time. Long minutes passed, and were it not for his breathing Geralt might have thought he had fallen asleep. In the grate the fire was burning down low.

At length, Jaskier said, “what they did to you. Did it hurt?”

Geralt breathed out. “No,” he lied.

#the witcher #geraskier #infertility cw

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep22

All of this ‘the culprit’s motives are super shallow and they’re just unhealthily obsessive’ discourse is giving me war flashbacks to . . . . basically every other part of the entire When They Cry franchise, lol.

Thoughts under the cut. [Plus spoilers for Umineko]

I feel like at the end of the day we’re all just gonna have to agree to disagree about how we feel about how Ryukishi is handling Satoko as the culprit here, since I don’t really think any amount of social media posts detailing our interpretations of her character are gonna change anyone’s minds, lol. But I’m still gonna give my thoughts on her anyway because it’s fun, even if I’m basically just preaching to the choir.

To be honest, this feels pretty much in line with how Ryukishi already wrote characters like Takano and Beatrice, in terms of them having unhealthy obsessions that lead them to mass-murder. The amount of violence Satoko has caused is arguably worse than either of them, but they’re all pretty awful if you think about the reality of what they all did as villains.

Sorta like with how a lot of the old-school Umineko discourse went, I think people are too focused on the whole idea of Satoko hating studying, and ignoring everything else about her character and her circumstances. Although even then I feel like people are being kinda unfair toward Satoko about how strongly she feels about academics, but maybe I’m just biased because of my own history with schooling and the intense levels of anxiety and self-hatred that can go along with it.

Plus the fact that Satoko already has a long history of sever abandonment issues, and has basically always had HS that amplified her feelings of paranoia and persecution. It’s pretty obvious at this point that she never really got ‘cured’ in the first place, though it’s less important to think about HS as an in-universe fictional disease with it’s own rules, and more important to just think about it as a representation of real-life mental illnesses which aren’t bound by the rules of made-up brain-worm parasites and aliens or whatever.

Also, the Satoko that started all this looping in the first place was one who never dealt with Teppei returning to the village, and thus never went through her whole character arc related to that. The series is kinda ambiguous about how it handles the idea of people’s character development carrying over between loops, but it explains a lot about Satoko’s attitude here if you go with the idea that she never really had to overcome any of her trauma or coping mechanisms in the “good ending timeline”, and this is the consequence of that taken to it’s logical extreme. The idea of her view of the world being skewed by the fact that she only remembers the “good ending timeline” is also kinda lamp-shaded by the part where she hears about Rika’s looping and is like “oh yeah, that’s the month where we had that cool action movie stand-off with the Mountain Dogs :)”. By the time she really got to understand exactly what was going on beyond the specific timeline she had experienced, she was already way over the edge.

I get why people don’t like the idea of Gou ‘tainting’ the VN’s happy ending, but I honestly like the idea that it’s examining the consequences of how Matsuribayashi was such an overly-specific timeline where basically nothing bad happened and everyone just banded together to beat Takano. It kinda glossed over a lot of the personal problems that the main cast had in the rest of the series, and this really goes to show the effects of some of that stuff not getting properly addressed. It also reminds me that Minagoroshi is a timeline that even in the VN, Rika completely lost her memories of, so I can see how even post-Matsuribayashi she might have never let Satoko know about the details of that one timeline where she overcome her abuse.

I also feel like it only really got to this point because of Featherine’s meddling. In the original Matsuribayashi timeline, Satoko just started drifting away from Rika and ended up wandering into the Saiguden and meeting Featherine before anything actually serious happened in that timeline. I think that if she had just been left to her own devices and that timeline had just kept going, Satoko probably would have either found a way to reconnect with Rika, or they would have just slowly drifted apart for good. But then Satoko got given the power to time travel, and only started going off the deep end after going through another five years of identical suffering.

And on that whole note, it reminds me of how in Umineko, Lambda had a whole conversation about the idea of an abused person becoming an abuser themself if they’re given the power to lash out. Which is basically what’s happening here. Satoko is being given the tools to completely detach herself from reality and try as many times as she likes to get what she wants.

Which also reminds me that this episode in particular REALLY lays the Umineko parallels on thick, lol. Particularly the whole ‘Satoko is turning into Lambda’ thing, which feels just about 100% confirmed now. They straight up have Featherine bring up the exact same ‘monkeys using a typewriter’ analogy to explain Rika’s situation that Lambda uses in Umineko to explain Bern’s situation.

I know a lot of people don’t like the increasingly blatant Umineko tie-ins, and that a lot of people still think it might just be misdirection, but considering how much stuff in Gou has been surprisingly straightforward and predictable, I think it’s pretty much exactly what it seems to be.

Though to be more specific, this is probably more about the start of Lambda and Bern’s relationship, and their appearances in Umineko, rather than the very first origins of them as individuals, if that makes sense. Obviously the concept of Bernkastel as an identity has been around since Higurashi itself, and we’ve known for a long time that Lambda was the one who originally gave Takano her blessing of certainty, but we’ve never known the full details of how those two started their relationship, and Featherine’s whole series of name-drops in the last episode makes it seem like Lambda as a meta individual more or less already exists, with Satoko being an iteration of her. So I think they both technically already exist, but this is how the two of them come into contact and start their whole unhealthily obsessive relationship.

I guess it’s still possible that, even if she’s already existed for a long time as a meta individual, she hasn’t actually come up with the name ‘Lambdadelta’ for herself yet, and this might be where she does so. Even with the list of names Featherine referenced, she didn’t technically bring up Lambda’s name directly. So in that sense this might be ‘Lambda’s’ origin story, even if she already exists.

Considering how basically the entire story at this point seems to be acting in service of setting up the whole LambdaBern relationship dynamic no matter what, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that this will end with Satoko and Rika fully embracing their codependency and mutually ascending to the meta plane so they can stay together once and for all. There might still be human versions of them that stay behind in the real world and continue living normal lives, though.

At the very least, it feels like that’s the logical outcome of the whole Chekov’s Sword Fragment plot device that’s been hanging in the background for ages now. I think it’ll just be the in-universe explanation they use to show the mechanics of how exactly that process works. It’ll probably be used to ‘sever’ Satoko and Rika’s meta consciousnesses from their physical bodies and allow them to basically become witches.

Mainly I just can’t really see this having a ‘happy ending’ at this point, aside from the whole idea that maybe the severing process leaves behind ‘normal’ versions of the two of them who stay in Hinamizawa and go back to their normal lives. I dunno if that’d make people happy, but it’d at least be a way for Ryukishi to have his cake and eat it too, lol.

I just don’t think that there’s any real chance of this ending with them just talking to each other and agreeing to put an end to all this, though. For one thing that’d just feel kinda anticlimactic and honestly make Gou’s story feel even MORE pointless, if it just ends with literally the exact same ending as the VN with nothing really being changed. But I also feel like Featherine wouldn’t be willing to just let Satoko ‘give up’ without having one of them definitively win their current game. In general I just feel like Ryukishi should just commit to the story he’s setting up at this point, instead of just backing out at the last minute and circling everything back to the same ending we already had like nothing in Gou ever happened. If we’re gonna have this whole new story to begin with, it should at least have some lasting consequences.

Anyway, I think in the next episode we’re finally going to loop back to the Damashi arcs and see how they played out. At this point I don’t care too much about getting answers to the ground-level mysteries of those arcs, and I doubt the story will spend much time on that, but I’m curious to see how it progresses Satoko’s whole development through these loops, since I think she goes through some changes with her motives and methods over the course of them.

Specifically I think that the actual experience of being physically present in her own set of loops and causing so much pain and suffering started to get to her, and she might have almost given up in her own way during Tataridamashi and wanted to just stay in that arc, but things went south anyway. Maybe, if that’s what happened, Featherine basically let her know that she won’t let her give up, and will force her to keep looping until one of them ‘wins’ no matter what. Either way, I think that arc was a turning point for her. Like how she asked Featherine to arrange things so that Satoko can make sure that she and Rika’s loops are synced up, she probably asked Featherine after that arc to change the rules again so that Rika will start remembering the details of her deaths. At this point it’s pretty obvious that the Hanyuu fragment Rika was talking to earlier in Gou was more or less just Featherine putting on an act and manipulating her, so the scene of Hanyuu giving her the power to remember her deaths was probably just Featherine telling her about the rule change.

And going by how the Nekodamashi arc went immediately afterward, I think that rule change was related to Satoko becoming increasingly desperate to put an end to the loops as soon as possible. And considering how she was willing to spend so much time reviewing Rika’s hundred years of looping just to prepare for this, it’d make sense to me if she becomes desperate because she basically gives up, but realizes that she isn’t actually allowed to give up, so she has to try and make Rika give in as fast as possible. Either way it’s pretty obvious that Satoko’s methods start becoming more violent in that arc, and she basically tries to brute-force Rika into submission, leading up to the loop where she just spawn-camps her and straight up starts screaming at her to just stay in the village while tearing out her guts. It’s still possible that her attitude in that loop was just one big act, but I think that was the result of her being genuinely desperate to just have Rika give up once and for all, and her starting to crack under the pressure of doing all of these things with her own hands across so many loops.

So now we’ll just have to see how the confrontation between them at the end of Nekodamashi plays out once we get back to it. In the long run I just think it’ll lead to the ending I talked about before, with them using the sword on each other. The exact nuances of how that sorta ending might play out are up in the air, though.

Either way, I think there’s probably enough time to wrap up all that in two more episodes, but there’s still reason to believe that there might be some kind of sequel in the works. I don’t really want to bet on it, though, so I’m just gonna assume that there’s two episodes left and base my theories on that. In which case I think the next episode will go over the Damashi arcs and end with Rika and Satoko’s confrontation at the end of Nekodamashi, and then the final episode will wrap everything up. Considering that they both more or less know exactly what’s going on with each other by that point, there isn’t really that much that needs to be wrapped up. I think that will be the final loop we get, so it’ll all just come down to how their confrontation plays out, and what decision they come to about how to handle each other.

I honestly don’t really know how I think a full sequel would go, if it’s at least one cour long. Assuming that it’s not just a new Umineko anime that more or less continues Rika and Satoko’s arc via Lambda and Bern, but is a straight up ‘Higurashi Gou Season 2′. It just feels like there isn’t really that much that needs to be done to wrap things up, now that everything’s being laid out in the open, and Rika and Satoko are both aware of each other’s looping. They might switch it up so that they both end up teaming up to take down Featherine, but I kinda doubt that’ll happen.

I’m still hoping this is leading into some kind of new Umineko anime though, lol. That feels like it’d be the main reason for putting so much effort into this whole elaborate LambdaBern origin story we’re getting here.

I’ve heard rumors that there’s been listings for a 25th episode of Gou, so it’s possible that rather than another full season, there’s just one extra episode at the end. I’m not exactly sure what the point of doing one extra unannounced episode at the end would be, though. It might end up being a bridge between Gou and a new Umineko anime.

At the very least, if it’s just ‘Satokowashi Part 8′, it makes me wonder why they haven’t announced it yet, and why they didn’t just split that arc into two BD volumes with four episodes each, instead of having it be one big volume with seven episodes, and one random episode at the end for some reason. But if it’s more of an epilogue or a bridge of sorts between Gou and something else, with Gou’s story concluding with episode 24, then I guess it’d make some sense to do it that way.

We also know there’s gonna be a panel for Gou at a convention around when ep24 comes out, so if anything gets announced it’ll probably happen there.

Anyway, this whole episode can be summed up as “Satoko does a gay little psychological torture that pisses Rika off”, in the most morbidly entertaining way possible, lmao.

#murasaki reblogs #higurashi #higurashi gou

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cloud9in · 3 years

Text

The Half of It

A Mc x Poppy fic inspired by the film

Summary: Bea, the town’s outcast is recruited by the school jock to win Poppy’s heart. But what happens when she starts falling for her as well?

Author’s Note: So this will be a multiple part series that includes scenes heavily inspired from the movie “The Half of It”. I certainly recommend watching it. My version will have different twists and a different ending, and definitely more angst. It will include mature themes as the story progresses.

Warnings for this chapter: Swearing. This is a good thing for now.

Chapter 1-

“Love is simply the name for desire and pursuit of the whole.”

- Plato, The Symposium

It is said that when one half finds its other, there’s an unspoken understanding. A unity. And each would know no greater joy....than this.

...Except this is highschool. And in my opinion, there is no other half. Maybe the other half is a paper on Greek God philosophy due at midnight. But make that four papers, including mine.

My name is Bea Hughes and let’s just say...this is not a very happy story. Well maybe some parts are, but you’ll have to read to find out. I come from a small town called Farmsville, and when I mean small, I mean really small. Except the highschool seems fucking huge, with never ending hallways and when you do somehow find the end, there’s usually two inbreds eating each others mouths off. Lucky for me I am the epitome of antisocial, reserved, an introvert, or whatever the inferior beings, aka every other senior, calls me when they think I can’t hear. But I hear everything, including that one time Bradley Denbrough, upcoming hotshot actor, or so he claims, found out about a crush a poor unsuspecting freshman had on him. Everybody knew what Bradley and his goons did to that boy, even the adults, but no charges were pressed. This town is as conservative as it gets, but no one knows of my secret. I carry this school on my back when it comes to having everyone graduate, but that’s all I am to them, a pawn. And that’s all I wanted to be, nothing more and nothing less. I preferred to be in the shadows.

***

...Except the mandatory Senior Talent Show forced Bea out of her hibernation hole. The thought haunted her as she sat in the dance studio, the last fucking place she wanted to be. Dance was so not a Bea kinda thing, but the blonde knew exactly why she granted herself the misery of picking the class. Poppy Min Sinclair, the golden girl of Farmsville High, the preacher’s daughter on a more serious note. She is...the most fascinating girl Bea ever laid her eyes on even if her boyfriend was a complete asshole who sermonized his duties as her future husband. Like seriously? Poppy has got to have some screws loose to date such a fake loser who plagiarizes all of his speeches at sunday church, and once literally begged Bea to write an apology letter to his father for him after completely upending their summer cabin. Except the blonde wrote the opposite of an apology, it went something like this…

Dear beloved donkey, I mean dad,

I am terribly sorry for inviting 20 hookers to the summer cabin. I have these strange impulses and you should at least be grateful I didn’t invite the big boss as well. His wife came though, in many, many ways. You should get the carpet changed.

Sincerely, your STD free son

It was safe to say that Mr. Denbrough had a near heart attack after reading it, and Bea did kinda feel bad, kinda. He never mentioned the letter to Bradley though, instead silently calling up the owner of Teopoli Catholic Summer Camp and essentially deporting the boy to Canada for the summer. No son of his would end up in hell was what the old man preached everyday from then on. It was the quietest summer Bea had ever experienced.

Being the towns outcast, Bea could have her fun when she so chooses to, but that didn’t pay the bills. In fact, the multiple essays that people paid her to write was her way of surviving and taking care of her mother. They weren’t very rich but Bea worked with what she had, helping her mother manage the farm, which included getting on her knees and wrestling the pigs. And that’s how she was gifted the name “pig girl”, stupid Bradley and his fake friends just had to wander too far and catch Bea in the act. She swore a remixed video of her hog calling surfaced the web at one point and that gave the blonde her five minutes of fame. Boy was it an awful time in her life.

Bea worked her mother’s previous job as station master or signalman for the trains that passed through, even if it barely paid her shit. The secluded feeling of sitting in that booth and having a moment with her thoughts was enough to give her purpose. Bea was fond of poetry and it usually helped her come up with song lyrics.

Song lyrics…

That she would have to sing at the talent show. A huge sigh escaped her lips as she slumped further into the ground, maybe hoping she could bury herself six feet under. It wasn’t that Bea hated singing, no she absolutely loved it. Playing her guitar at night and belting out lyrics that only resulted in her mother banging on the ceiling below in efforts to shut the blonde up. But the mere fact that she’d have to sing in front of the ruthless seniors rubbed her the wrong way. Something would go wrong, it always did. Bea was shaken out of her thoughts when Poppy crossed the center of the room, moving her hips slowly to the sound of Rihanna’s voice. The class chose a slow r&b song to choreograph today and of course all eyes were on Poppy.

If i’m your girl say my name boy

let me know i'm in control

Her silky blonde locks swayed as she danced to the beat, hands thrusting sensually along her sides. Bea stared in awe, almost like Poppy was the only one in the room and a spotlight illuminated every movement, every curve. Except she definitely wasn’t the only one picturing Poppy in that way. Carter, the school quarterback leaned against the railing, arms crossed and eyes trailing the rise and fall of her chest.

Got me wondering, I’m wondering if i'm on your mind

Bea sat up straighter but nearly lost her bodily functions when Poppy locked eyes with her before spinning away. It was simple eye contact Bea, don’t let it get to your head. You already have multiple lyrics inspired by Poppy offering the bare minimum in human interaction. She doesn’t actually like you. Poppy is popular and has the perfect life...and boyfriend, even if Bea heavily disagrees. Poppy was a bitch of course, but not a bitch bitch. Unlike the other wannabe mean girls, the blonde didn’t give Bea hell, well that was because the girl paid her zero attention. She seemed distant, off in her own world, or well in her parents world learning the strategies of business. Poppy was expected to follow in her parents footsteps and keep up with her reputation of being the richest in town, and of course a faithful future wife. So fun. But the blonde had other prosperous dreams of travelling and following her passion of music and dance. Highschool was her only outlet and she took advantage of it any chance she’d get. Bea knew this because she would ride her bike every friday night to the school and watch Poppy dance from outside the glass window. Maybe Bea realized it was kinda creepy, but she’s dumb enough to not realize her obvious growing attraction. I mean who pedals miles just to watch someone trip on their feet?

***

The sound of the bell caught everyone's attention and the teacher slowly lowered the music. Bea watched as Bradley approached Poppy and smothered her with kisses and praises. She rolled her eyes painfully, this kind of PDA definitely wasn’t it, she could have gone her whole life without seeing that. She walked silently through the crowd of kids in the hall, everyone was laughing and talking to their friends. All Bea could allow her mind to focus on was the very intimidating billboard of names a few feet across from her.

Winter Talent Show Sign-Ups (Mandatory For Seniors)

Bea glared at it quietly before signing her name on the sheet, sealing her inevitable fate. Through the hustle of students, Carter watched the blonde with a yearning look from afar. This should be great…

The next few classes were a blur and Bea eventually found herself getting up to hand Ms. Kingsley her paper. The older woman looked at her with a knowing glance as she took a generous sip of her coffee, which was 75% tequila.

“6 different interpretations on Plato? Colour me impressed Miss Hughes.”

Bea shrugs nonchalant, “yeah well would you rather read their actual essays?”

“Oh hell no.” Kingsley feigns shock as she looks at the stack of papers with a comical expression. She takes another sip, watching her younger, prodigy of a student carefully. “You know there are places outside of this godforsaken town where you can put your talents to use... Real use. I teach at Belvoire University occasionally.” Ina winks and slides Bea an application, studying her initial reaction. “It’s...in New York.”

“Damn right! The Big Apple.”

“Kingsley you know I have to stay here. It’ll be easier for me to manage the farm and be close to home”, Bea says confidently even though her body language displays otherwise. She predicted the big sigh filling her ears before it actually happened and it still managed to faze her. “Who ever said you had to do anything? What about what you want to do?” Bea doesn’t make eye contact with Ina, that woman could convince you to do just about anything with a certain look. “No we are not doing this. You can take your reverse psychology and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. I’m outta here.” The blonde stomps out of the classroom, the sound of Ina’s chuckles still ringing in her ears.

“Hey! Everyone in this town fears God, but you know what God fears? My ability to hide a bottle of Don Julio in my left boot.” Ina pulls out the newly bought bottle and cradles it. “Come to mama.”

***

Bea rode her bike alongside the dirt road, Kingsley’s words on replay the entire ride. Maybe she did deserve to experience something more than what this town had to offer. But would her mother manage without her? Sacrifices, sacrifices. Bea was used to making those for her mother after her father’s death. What would her dad think of all of this?

“Hey!”

He’d surely smack Bea upside the head for the little antics she pulled occasionally. And then he’d buy her vanilla coconut ice cream and ask for every single detail of what happened as they sat and laughed together. That’s the kind of relationship Bea would have had with her father, she liked to assume so. She also liked to assume that she’d get home safely everyday without a scratch, but then there’s Carter.

“Hey wait up!”

The jock seemed to be running ridiculously fast and crashed right into the rear end of Bea’s bicycle, sending her face first into a mount of dirt. The initial impact was enough to boost the blonde straight back up like nothing happened and into a fighting stance, fists out and eyes wild. Very scary Bea. When she realized it was him...well it only pissed her off even more. “What the fuck Carter! You asshole!”

“I’m sorry Bea! Here let me help-”

“No! Move away! You- my bike- I…” Bea groans frustratingly, stepping away from the wreck as she tries to catch her breath. Carter watches her sheepishly, rubbing an envelope between his fingers awkwardly. After a few minutes of painfully uneasy silence he speaks up, “Okay...I didn’t want to ask you this way but I was wonder-”

“Oh, so you practically break my ass and now you want me to do you a favour? Real nice way of communication you have there Mr. Quarterback. What is with you and those freakishly large muscles anyways? Maybe it’s my fault I didn’t hear your avalanche built ass coming from behind.”

“Hey! They are not freakishly large!”

“I hate to break it to you Jackson but mine are significantly more appealing to look at.” Bea smirks widely, flexing her arm as best as she could. It’s a work in progress… just bare with her.

It didn’t take much effort for Carter to break out into a smile and look at her fondly. Maybe there was more to this girl than just being a human dictionary. Well that’s what people called her, and he maybe believed it at first.

Bea noticed the lack of response and shifted awkwardly, clearing her throat. “Listen, its $10 for three pages, $20 for three to ten, I'm not in the over-ten-page biz.”

“No..no I’m not here to cheat!” Carter blurts out. “But I’ll let you know if I do plan on- anyways. I uh..” He hesitates before handing her the envelope. “What’s this?

“Well you see it’s a letter..”

“Yeah but who writes letters these days?”

“I thought it seemed romantic..”

“And I thought women writing Jeffrey Dahmer letters in jail seemed romantic”, Bea says sarcastically, her smile dropping instantly after catching a glimpse of Poppy’s name at the top of the paper. It was like the blood stopped flowing through her body for a few seconds as her mouth went dry. This had to be the work of the so-called God everyone praised in this town, or it was one cruel coincidence. Bea wasn’t sure why seeing her name made her heart beat ten times harder, but it also wasn’t a necessarily uncomfortable feeling…

“I- I can’t help you.”

“But if you just add a few more words-”

“I’m not writing a letter to Poppy Min Sincla- to..to some girl for you. Letters are supposed to be authentic, from the heart, your own words, your...feelings.” Bea hurriedly turns to grab her bike, suddenly losing all interest in being social.

Carter was afraid this would happen. But he was stubborn. “But I can pay more for authentic!”

Too bad Bea was stubborn as well. “Just get a thesaurus...Good luck, Romeo.”

***

Bea sat in her room, strumming away softly at the strings of her guitar. Some of the keys were off but the old thing still worked, and that was good enough for her. She could hear the tv blasting downstairs, her mother most likely watching the news. There’s something about old people and news, were they secretly ogling the news anchors? Just like Bea ogled Poppy any chance she could. The blonde frowned to herself, her eyebrows crunching together in question. What so hard about writing a letter to Poppy? It’s not like it's coming from her. Well it technically is, but Carter is taking the credit and Bea never had a problem with people taking credit for her words. So why did this very thought prove to be such an inconvenience? Lucky for Bea, her mind drifted elsewhere when she heard a painful snap. Even if it wasn’t physically connected to her body, she felt a horrible ache. Slowly peering down at the guitar in her hand, Bea found that the neck of the guitar had miraculously split almost clean off, a splinter of wood just holding it intact. She wanted to scream but nothing really came out, except air of course. Much to her disapproval, this was definitely a result of her strength. Stupid muscles couldn’t contain themselves at the thought of Carter being with Poppy. Now how could that be?

But now she had no guitar. And no guitar means no strings to strum, and no lyrics to sing, and no talent to show at the talent show. Now she was in trouble. Probably because she knew that the only way to get the money to replace the guitar would be through sealing the deal with Carter. Oh fuck it!

***

“One letter. And enough money to buy a new guitar.”

“Deal!”

Bea turns away with a sigh, completely ignoring Carter’s high five. Now all she had to do was write this letter, and pray that Poppy wouldn’t completely consume every fiber of her being in the process.

-------------------------------------------

End note: So how we feelin’? Carter and Bea Brotp??

Tags: @samanthadalton @somewillwin @clowneryme @baexpoppy @zigxryanz @uselesslesbianfr @aleiramacaii @thedaft1 @alexlabhont @iamsimpforpoppy

#queen b #poppy min sinclair #poppy x mc #mc x poppy #playchoices #I couldn't come up with a unique title #throw some ideas if you have #do share your opinion on this #it is valued #oblivious bea is a pain in the ass #but certainly fun to write

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msoogabooga · 3 years

Text

Wasting Away (Tom Riddle x Reader)

Chp. I - A Sworn Enemy

Warnings- None

Word Count- 2146

Summary- You have singlehandedly decided that Tom Riddle is to be your sworn enemy until the end of time.

A/N- Hello! This is my first chaptered Tom Riddle fic. Hope you enjoy and tune in for more!

•••

Tom Riddle was the loneliest boy that had ever existed. You were certain of it whenever you witnessed him walk alone in the corridors or when he picked at his food in the great hall while everyone around him chattered amongst themselves, leaving him be. Ever so often you take a glance at his parchment paper in Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he sits next to you, and you catch him writing lines of beauty. Words that flow together and create great works of art. That is until he catches you staring and covers his paper with his arm, not before cursing under his breath at you of course.

Oh yes, though you felt a sense of pity for the lonely boy, you swore to hate him until the day he died. It wasn’t always this way, of course. You wouldn’t be so cruel as to hate an innocent peer. In fact, you even thought to befriend him of course. The unforgivable day happened outside on the castle grounds. It had been raining quite heavily that day. You ran through the downpour of the storm as your house scarf floated behind you and your mary janes began to stain from the wet dirt. You had finally reached the shelter of an arched corridor and began drying yourself with your scarf. A sudden clatter startled you as you turned your head towards the direction of the noise. The black-haired Slytherin boy was crouched on the ground picking up a bundle of textbooks and parchment papers he had dropped. He began to grow more frustrated when he realized they had become soaked from the seeping rainwater that came through the window. With a pitiful frown, you rushed over to help him.

“Better the books than yourself,” You said with a smile, acknowledging your rained-out state as you began to pick up pieces of parchment. “The storm came so suddenly. I hardly had any time to rush to safety and, well, this happened. I was playing Quidditch you see. It was a bit cloudy, sure, but not even the greatest prophecies could’ve predicted this storm. You’re quite lucky, though. You don’t seem to have a drop on you, except on your schoolwork of course.” Tom Riddle snatches the parchment from your hands so fast that it leaves you with a papercut on your hand. You wince and take your hand back before shooting him a glare.

“Do you mock me?” He spat.

“I was just trying to help,” you explained with a grumble in your voice. “You didn’t have to be so harsh.”

“What makes you think you are allowed to talk to me?” Tom picks up the rest of his items and stands up. You stood up right after.

“Well excuse me all high and mighty. I didn’t know I needed to sign a prerequisite form before daring to stand in your presence. As I said, I was just trying to be of some assistance.”

“I never asked for any assistance. You’re making me seem pitiful.”

“Or maybe, get this, I was just trying to be nice!”

Tom scoffs. “Nice? Yeah, alright.” He makes a sharp turn and begins walking in the opposite direction of yours.

“What is wrong with you?” You shout. “I don’t even know who you are!”

Tom stops. He began walking towards you once more. You take a step back, unsure of what caused him to turn around. “Of course you don’t. I don’t expect you to. But I know everything I need to know about you. You’re the type of person to befriend a lonely kid because you feel it’s your moral obligation. Because you think that this will help boost your popularity points. Don’t think I don’t see right through you. I see the way your friends whisper and giggle at me in the corridors. You may not think I hear it but I do. So if you think you’re going to make a fool out of me for your own benefit then you’re clearly mistaken. So you can go back to your friends and tell them all about our interaction because I know you will. Now, goodbye.”

He walked away before you even had a chance to respond. You wanted to clarify. To say that you don’t approve of your friends gossiping. That you genuinely meant to help him out. But your saltiness took over and you only replied with, “AT LEAST I HAVE FRIENDS.”

You were unsure if he heard you or not because he had already disappeared from view. But you were satisfied. You knew who he was, obviously. That part was a lie. Tom Riddle was quite infamous for his knowledge in Defense Against the Dark Arts and is an acclaimed member of the Slug Club as well as yourself. You had even made eye contact with him a few times while you had dinner with Slughorn and the rest of the Slug Club. But you never expected this innocently kind looking boy to be so cruel at your act of kindness. You didn’t know much about him but you did know one thing: Tom Riddle was now your sworn enemy.

This is made extremely evident at his increasing side glare while you two sit together in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Not by choice, of course. Assigned seating was never more painful than this moment right here. Still, the most you can do is glare back while everyone silently reads. You open your textbook as a way to distract yourself and flip to the unit you are currently on. Iguanas, iguanas, iguanas. Though you are puzzled as to how they were linked to dark magic, you took down notes anyway. You follow the pattern of dipping your quill in ink and writing line after line. All while you feel the hot glare of Tom’s eyes on the back of your neck. The bell signifying the end of class rings and you take a sigh of relief. Enthusiastically to get out of there, you begin gathering your materials, scooping your textbook in your arms all at once. Tom clears his throat quite obnoxiously enough to gain your attention.

“You miswrote something.” Tom states. You shoot him a dazzled look. “In your notes. I couldn’t help but look at your sorry excuse for parchment paper. It just reeked of misinformation. Sure enough, you wrote down that iguanas were omnivores when they are in fact herbivores.”

“Since when do you care so much about iguanas?” You ask, raising your eyebrow at him. “And why do you even care about what I write in the first place?”

“Well, one, I don’t. And two, I would just rather not be sitting next to the girl who got low marks on the iguanas exam. It would be quite embarrassing to witness.”

“Oh go suck an egg,” You retaliate. Tom Riddle scoffs and leaves without responding to your comment and your best friend, Wendy Slinkhard, replaces him.

You had met Wendy in the Slug Club. She was top of the Ravenclaw class, earning high marks that introduced her into the Slughorn's group. The first thing you noticed about her was the way her doe-eyes lit up every time someone mentioned writing. It was all she ever talked about. Her grand aspiration to become a famous author in the wizarding world. She had quite a euphonious voice when describing her life, casually mentioning the fact that she is indeed muggleborn and unafraid of any criticism. How her entire family is made up of writers and she is thrilled to follow the legacy. She had the most elegant way of describing things you had ever seen, almost like works of poetry roll off her tongue. When you ask how she comes up with these unique words she just responds with, The wizarding world seems to give a great muse to the imagination. Whatever that means, you are unsure, but it seems important enough.

“Well hello there,” Wendy says in her wispy voice. “Seems you have quite a charmer for a partner.” She looks over to Tom Riddle who has just left the room.

“Right.” You reply, getting ready to leave alongside Wendy. “It’s like nails on a chalkboard every time he speaks. I’m telling you, Wendy. You couldn’t bear sitting next to him for an hour.”

“Oh, I am sure of it. I’m not sure if I feel too keen about my partner as well. He is, to put it shortly, not quite attentive. Constantly asking me for notes or an extra quill, it’s quite annoying really! But overall, nothing compared to who you have to deal with. Tom Riddle. I always knew there was something off about that lad. Merlin knows why Professor Slughorn chose him of all pupils for the Slug Club.”

“Well he is exceptional at the Dark Arts, I’ll give him that. He has such a crude way of showing it as well. Constantly showing me up. Making me seem as inferior in knowledge as opposed to himself. A real nightmare.”

“Well, if it means anything to you, nothing good can ever come from being exceptional at the Dark Arts.” Wendy gives a slim smile and nods.

You and Wendy walk alongside each other on your way to your next class. Coincidentally, both of your classes are right next to each other. Though you really do miss having her in the same class. You speak to no one in History of Magic. You just sit alone with your face in your hands, hearing your professor go on and on about some troll war you don’t care too much about. Your quill picks up every once in a while to jot down scribbles of information. Something, something... Troll War. Not the most exciting subject if you were to be honest. But it sure beats suffering another hour with Tom Riddle constantly pointing out every minor flaw in your notes. Something about your professor’s voice sends you into a bit of a drowsy state. The way his words flowed so slowly and sterile. Slowly bringing you closer and closer into a…

“Wow. You look bloody awful.” You jolt awake at the sound of Dahlia Ferdinand looking down on you. She is dressed in her Hufflepuff Quidditch jumper and stands with arms crossed and a smirk spread across her face. You lift your head from the desk and detach a piece of parchment that had stuck on your face.

“How long has class been over?” You ask groggily.

“For about an hour, give or take.”

“She’s joking!” Wendy calls out, running into the room and standing beside Dahlia. She adjusts her giant red glasses and flattens her skirt. “Only a few minutes. No need to be so childish, Dahlia.”

“Oh come on. You never appreciate any of my jokes.”

“Dahlia, you know I hate your immature remarks. They are plain and unfunny.”

Dahlia rolls her eyes. “You must be real fun at parties.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been invited to one.”

“Don’t worry. We can tell.”

You let out a snicker before covering it up with a cough. Wendy, seeing right through you, shoots you a glare before adjusting her glasses once more.

“Speaking of parties…” Dahlia continues, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a green envelope. “Marcella Rosier invited me to the Slytherin common room party tomorrow night. From what I gather it’s going to be a grand event. Her uncle supposedly is bringing in firewhisky from Hog’s Head. Naturally, I expect you two to come with me.”

“Firewhisky, Dahlia?!” Wendy interjects before you can respond. “You know that is very much against the school rules. Not only that but against the law as well. And don’t even get me started on the policy of dorm-hopping in the middle of the night. I don’t even trust that Rosier girl to begin with. I’ve heard a load of terrible things involving her. Why are you even friends with such a person?”

“You know, Wendy, you sound like nails on a chalkboard sometimes. A simple no could do. What about you?” Dahlia responds, now addresses you.

“Oh,” You say suddenly. “Well if you’re going then I guess I’ll go as well.”

“So will I,” Wendy adds on, much to both you and Dahlia’s surprise. “Only to drag Dahlia out and scold her when she gets carried away with the firewhisky which I know she will.”

Wendy and Dahlia glare at each other and you cough. “I promise you, Wendy, that I will keep Dahlia outside range of the firewhisky.”

Wendy nods, satisfied. The three of you go your separate ways. You head straight to your dormitory, ignoring all work assigned for this weekend and your rude encounters with Tom Riddle. You raid your closet and begin the hunt for an acceptable outfit to wear to the biggest party of the semester.

#harry potter #tom riddle #tom riddle fanfiction #tom riddle fic #tom riddle x reader #tom riddle fluff #tom riddle x y/n #tom riddle angst #tom riddle x you

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flclarchives · 3 years

Text

Amusing Himself to Death, an Akadot.com interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of FLCL and assistant director of Evangelion) from around December 2001. In the article, Tsurumaki explains a few things about Evangelion, his mentality behind FLCL as a whole, and the meaning of the name ‘FLCL’.

Full article text is under the cut, or read the article in its original form [here].

Kazuya Tsurumaki was a relatively little-known animator when Hideki Anno selected him to work as the assistant director on Neon Genesis Evangelion. For the TV series, which became a smash hit in Japan and one of the touchstones of the current surge of interest in anime in the US, Tsuramaki served as the main storyboard artist as well as assistant director, and when Studio Gainax began production on a trio of Evangelion films Tsurumaki got his first directorial assignment.

As he tells the story, Anno came to him after Eva and announced that he was out of ideas and that it was up to Tsurumaki to dream up the next project because, "you are next." Tsurumaki let his imagination run wild, but by the time he had written a script, Anno - despite his declaration that he had no stories left to tell - was already several steps ahead of Tsurumaki and in pre-production for his next series, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, leaving Tsurumaki a chance to have complete and unsupervised creative control of his own series FLCL.

FLCL, referred to as "Fooly Cooly" (or "Furikuri" by its American fans), is unlike any anime series to come before it. Wild, maniacally fast-paced physical comedy; exaggerated, exuberant animation alternately pushing towards surrealist- as when mecha exuviate from a bump on young Naota's head - and deconstructionist - as when the animation literally stops and the story is told by a camera bouncing across a page of black and white manga art panels; and obsessively, often irrelevantly, referential to obscure Tokyo-pop bands and anime insider trivia; FLCL was hyperkinetic and disorienting, yet mesmerizing, almost transgressive, and undeniably original. It inspired enthusiastic admiration for Tsurumaki as a creator, even amongst the perhaps 90% of the series' fans who were absolutely baffled by much of it. One is tempted to refer to it as announcing the arrival of full blown post-modernism in animation, or perhaps as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable of the anime industry.

When Tsurumaki visited Baltimore to speak to American fans at the recent Otokon Convention, predictably, many of the questions were along the lines of, "Hi, I really loved FLCL [or Evangelion], but could you please explain this part of it to me?"

Tsurumaki answered all questions genially with a self-deprecating and often mischievous sense of humor. For example:

Why does Haruko hit Naota over the head with her guitar?

Kazuya Tsurumaki: Naota is trying to be a normal adult and she belts him to make him rethink his decision.

Why does Evangelion end violently, and somewhat unhappily?

KT: People are accustomed to sweet, contrived, happy endings. We wanted to broaden the genre, and show people an ugly, unhappy ending.

Why is the character of Shinji portrayed as he is?

KT: Shinji was modeled on director Hideki Anno. Shinji was summoned by his father to ride a robot, Anno was summoned by Gainax to direct an animation. Working on Nadia [Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, one of Anno and Tsurumaki's earlier projects] he wondered if he still wanted to work like this. He thought that working on Eva could help him to change.

Is there any particular reason why so many Gainax series feature very anxious, unhappy young male protagonists with no parents?

KT: Yes, the directors at Gainax are all basically weak, insecure, bitter, young men. So are many anime fans. Many Japanese families, including my own, have workaholic fathers whose kids never get to see them. That may influence the shows I create.

Could you explain the mecha bursting from Naota's head in FLCL?

KT: I use a giant robot being created from the brain to represent FLCL coming from my brain. The robot ravages the town around him, and the more intensely I worked on FLCL the more I destroyed the peaceful atmosphere of Gainax.

Why doesn't FLCL follow one story?

KT: In the third episode Ninamori was almost a main character, a kid who, like Naota, has to act like an adult. After episode three her problem was solved so we wrote her out. She has many fans in Japan and we got plenty of letters about that decision. For FLCL I wanted to portray the entire history of Gainax, and each episode has symbols of what happened behind the scenes on each of Gainax's shows. Episode one has many elements of Karekano; episode two, a lot of Evangelion references, etc.

Where does the title FLCL come from?

KT: I got the idea from a CD in a music magazine with the title Fooly-Cooly. I like the idea of titles that are shortened long English words. Pokémon for "Pocket-Monsters" for instance, and an old J-pop band called Brilliant Green that was known as "Brilly-Grilly."

Is there any reason why the extra scenes added to Eva for the video release were cut in the first place? Did you think the story would mean something different with them intact?

KT: The scenes that were added to Eva for its video release aren't that important. We added them as an apology for taking so long to get the video out. Maybe they'll help people understand things, because the episodes were done under tough deadlines the first time around.

Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?

KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.

After the panel, Mr. Tsurumaki sat down to speak with Akadot.

Do you enjoy confusing people?

KT: I have a twisted sense of humor. I'm an Omanu Jacku, a contrarian. [Writer's note- Omanu Jacku is a folk character a bit like Puck, a mischief maker]

What do you see differently now that you're working as a director rather than only as a visual artist?

KT: As an animator I have only the art; as a director story is really big. I still feel as an animator and I often have trouble putting the needs of the story first.

Did you intend from the start for FLCL to be as bizarre as it wound up?

KT: From the very start I wanted a different flavor. To achieve this I had to re-train the animators to be as stylized as I wanted them to be because I wasn't drawing it. I knew that not everyone would get it. I deliberately selected very obscure J-pop culture and anime sub-culture jokes and references. Because Eva was so somber I always intended to make FLCL outrageous and wacky.

Why the choice to break out of conventional animation and use manga pages? Was it at all a response to how many anime are using computers to achieve smoother and more realistic visuals? Were you trying to go the opposite direction?

KT: I like manga, not only to read, but the visuals. The pen drawings, the frame breakdowns and layouts . . . This is the first time I have used digital animation, and those bouncing manga shots wouldn't have been possible with cel animation. Personally I'm not interested at all in using computers for realistic animation. I'm impressed by it sometimes, but I'm interested in using computers to do what was once impossible, not to do smoother versions of what has already been done. I want to be less realistic.

Has using digital animation techniques changed the way you work, or the way you feel about your work when you see it? Does it still feel like it's yours if a computer did much of it?

KT: Before I got into digital animation I saw other shows that were using it and I felt that there was no feeling, it was empty. As an animator, there's a sense of release when you draw a cel. There's something there. Working on FLCL, though, I learned that computers can do more, and, most of all, that they allow room for trial and error and revising, more freedom to experiment. That is why I now feel that cel art cannot win against computers. For actual animation everything is still drawn on paper. That work hasn't changed. It's the other stuff, the touchups, and coloring. If we didn't use paper, maybe the feeling would change.

Earlier today you said that you were trying to broaden the genre by giving Eva a sad ending. Does the sameness of much of today's anime bore you?

KT: First of all we didn't use a sad ending to annoy fans. When they're upset, that really bothers us. Personally, I think a happy ending is fine, but not if it is achieved too easily. That's no good.

For all the fans that are confused at all, if you had to define in one sentence what FLCL is about, what would you say?

KT: FLCL is the story of boy meets girl. For me it is also about how it's ok to feel stupid. With Evangelion there was this feeling that you had better be smart to understand it, or even just to work on it. With FLCL I want to say that it's okay to feel stupid.

Even though it may be strange to us, do you have in your head a logic behind it? Are you trying to portray a story that follows the logic of dreams, or is it supposed to make sense symbolically?

KT: I'd like you to think of FLCL as imagination being made physical and tangible, just as it is for me when I take whatever is in my head and draw it.

So what are you working on next?

KT: Right now Gainax has told me that they'll support anything I choose to create, but I'm having trouble coming up with any ideas.

Why is that?

KT: Releasing titles for market, I know I have to make something to please fans, but I'm not a mature enough person to accept that fact. If I'm not amusing myself I can't do it. I feel bad that fans have to put up with such behavior from me. I apologize.

#FLCL #Evangelion #archive.org #Kazuya Tsurumaki #also i can upload the text as a PDF if anyone would like it!#things like these articles make me realize the people who say FLCL is too confusing aren't artists. because as an artist this is cathartic-#-to read. i'd kill to be able to make something as high-strung stylized and full of weird references as FLCL.#and with GAINAX too? holy shit #interview #article

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