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archaictold · 1 year

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[everyday my plans to kidnap zhilan comes closer to fruiti—i mean yeah, yeah i like him fine, he's a good kid and a great friend whose fluffy levels are sugar-inducing levels of high and i think taking him as part of your daily diet is good for overall health!

from a roleplay perspective though my personal take is that it's hard to play "nice" characters without making them predictable (at least for me), because the world is full of nice, ordinary people (again, personal experience). after a while you know what to expect and there's no surprises! but zhilan has his shining points and quirks to balance the expectations of "nice" with the richness of personality, so you DO have fun RPing with him and discovering bits of his inner world and backstory.

on that note it does feel rather hard to uncover his inner world, partly because he's too dense to recognize double meanings/probing comments, partly because he (so far) seems content and happy enough that what you see is really what you get. i am looking forward to whoever does dig deep enough to uncover more characterization secrets, whether they be long-buried desires or fears or anything else! i'm guessing it'd take either a strong external force (*inserts trauma/death here*) or a powerful internal force (like he falls in love or something) to make that happen though, so i may have to wait for Season 2 of this marshmallow head's adventures a bit longer.

in terms of relating him specifically with this muse, i like how zhilan (whether he realizes it or not) unlocks the softest part of wang yi, the side of his he's only really shown little kids if anyone. i think it's because he sees the same kind of innocence in zhilan (not that he sees him as an actual child ofc) and wants to share in that himself, because it's probably the closest he's gotten to normal so far in this island of eccentrics (himself included). though the "average boring author haha" act is more or less an idealized lie, wang yi's gentleness is 100% honest, and at present zhilan's the only one soothing and kind/gentle/good enough to get it consistently so...congrats on winning the weirdo lottery.

anyways, to me zhilan is bright, not only in terms of intelligence but in just existing...a literal light (but not blinding) that warms (without burning) and changes enough (to not be boring). those are my thoughts on him, hope they make sense and that i answered ur meme right.

also i enjoy putting him in all the fluffy drabbles, but that's just my writing preferences for soft scenes coming through hahahah.]

⧼ 🌱 ⧽ ┊ ❛ HOW'S MY PORTRAYAL?

AAAAAAAA GOSH!! GOSH GOSH GOSH!!! lethe i am gently shaking u, this is so!!!! KIND agh..!!!! i definitely understand this sentiment, absolutely! mun-wise, i'm a person who typically plays "nice" characters. most of my roster is made up of hearts casted in gold, noble spirits, and kind souls. i write a large spectrum of these (mainly canon) characters, and some just... are "nice." when writing them, i feel limited in what i can do with them because they're always going to choose the "right" option, the morally good and just option. and with zhilan, the way i want to present him is very nuanced. he's a gentle soul, but yes! he'll help you study torture methods because it's interesting, wang yi, sure. he's a noble spirit, but yes! he'll befriend a trouble-causing pirate wanted by the qixing because he thinks they're fun and exciting and he can see them for their heart. he's "good" but his outlook on life, on people, is anything but black and white, nor is it strictly within the rules of good or evil. humans are complex, living is complex, and zhilan gives each person and experience its due complexity. i'd like to think he's not so simple either, full of quirks and strengths and weaknesses that i can expand on with every interaction he gets. his inner world is hard to pry into, but it's a subconscious though purposeful effort on zhilan's part, and something i actively incorporate into his portrayal. zhilan is a talker, but he doesn't really... talk about himself any deeper beyond a surface level. zhilan does not let his inner mechanisms be known, because sometimes they're painful, sometimes they aren't smiling, sometimes they aren't comfortable in their own choices, and that's not the person he wants to be in the eyes of other people. not to save face, but to avoid bearing the load on others shoulders. i've mentioned this to you in our DMs, but zhilan was a very sensitive child and he's still a sensitive person. but at some point, in order to accomplish a lifestyle felt was pre-destined for him, he picked himself up by the bootstraps, barreled ahead with all the zest and vigor he could muster, and never looked back. he's a naturally bright soul, but any hurt or frustrations that could dim it are effectively buried lest he shine dimmer for others. what i think he doesn't realize, and what i hope to challenge him on as he develops further in isola, is the idea that it's okay to not always shine with such brightness or intensity, because you will eventually burn out. the stars flicker for a reason. and i think his actual challenge (the rank up kind!) would hopefully bring into question zhilan's personal goals and their 'justness.' is the pursuit of knowledge always the answer? or sometimes, is ignorance bliss? i LOVE, love, love, love and adore how zhilan brings out wang yi's softness. they're a little like... you know how the moon only glows because of the sun's light? they feel like That to me. zhilan's earnestness is normalcy to wang yi, a chance to just be a person. and false author personas aside, zhilan would always accept him as a friend no matter what. wang yi is always going to be wang yi to him. that's his friend! he trusts him! you are stuck with him, wang yi! thank you SOOOO much for this wonderful feedback on zhilan. it was such a touching thing to see in my inbox, truly. 😭😭😭 feel free to keep stuffin' him into feel good drabbles.. i'll take the sweetness induced cavities ANY day. (and if u kidnap him, remember to water him.. ur zhilans need their sustenance!)

#slamdunks this MASSIVE thing onto the dash at 4am and scurries away #AGHGH LETHE I AM GRABBING U THIS MEANS SO MUCH TO MEEEE #nobully #answer tbt.

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ufonaut · 4 years

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#jordan mahkent #stargirl #icicle #sofus mahkent #lily mahkent #dc #u can reblog #PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT BUT U KNOW ITS CANON

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shanastoryteller · 3 years

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on one hand i’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while, and on the other hand i’ve been avoiding it for the massive potential it has to go from us having a conversation to devolving into the most annoying discourse possible

but i got another comment that just broke the camel’s back so i’m going to talk about it anyway

a lot of things i see people are saying are “wrong” in untamed fanfic are actually just translation preferences and just because someone chooses to translate something differently than you doesn’t make it wrong

first, before we get into what i’m talking about, we have to talk about what translations are and the motivation behind them

translations are taking something from one language and making it understandable and consumable in a different language

this can be as big as the differences between chinese and english or as small as the differences between british english and american english, which are considered different enough that books published in both places will have words and phrases translated to make them more digestible to the population it’s being marketed towards

there are few different ways someone can translate something

there’s a direct translation, which is just finding the closest applicable word and plopping it in there like a smarter google translate

there’s translating to preserve the intention and cultural significance behind a word/phrase as closely as can be replicated in the foreign language

there’s translating to convey the vibe/feeling as closely as can be replicated in the foreign language

there’s not translating at all, which doesn’t technically count, by definition, but is brought up often enough that we’ll talk about it

there’s an infinite number of ways this applies, but for simplicity’s sake, and because it’s the one people keep bringing up to me, we’re going to go with jiujiu / maternal uncle

because i don’t speak chinese, my first job is to gain some level of understanding about what this word really means in the original language and the way it’s used. only once you understand that can you make a semi-educated choice on how to translate something (since most of us aren’t fluent in the language or culture, semi educated is about as good as it gets, but for smaller words like these i think it’s easy enough to get most of the needed context). so we need to start off with: maternal uncle, respectful, people don’t use names to differentiate between uncles like we do in english, using first names and/or birth names is either intimate or disrespectful depending on circumstance

now, the simplest way to translate this is just as uncle. in english, referring to someone just as uncle is a little unusual, but common enough that this works as a good translation all around. if one wants to translate the maternal aspect of it, then “uncle lastname” works pretty well. the issue with that is that naming convention only ever happens in english maybe with grand uncles or “uncles” that fall more under shushu than jiujiu, so if i was translating it then that’s something i would avoid, because i wouldn’t want the readers to think that the characters have a less close relationship because o this, but it’s something that’s easy enough to do without distorting the original meaning so i think it also works

if the character only has one uncle

but we are, specifically, talking about jin ling here

so if he’s talking about both jiang cheng and wei wuxian in the same scene, and referring to them both as uncle, how do we differentiate them?

uncle wei and uncle jiang work here, because they’re both maternal uncles but they have different last names, which is really just us getting lucky in this situation. but it presents the problem we have earlier.

to an english ear, that creates distance between jin ling and jc/wwx. if i want to show them as being close to an english speaking audience, that’s not a translation i personally want to use

the most obvious solution is to then have jin ling refer to them way most english speaking people would refer to their uncles (that’s not just straight up having him call them by the their names, which is what i actually think is most common. i only refer to my uncle as uncle when i’m talking ABOUT him to someone else) which is “uncle first name”

however first names also present a problem in untamed because of courtesy names and because courtesy names are used ahistorically and inconsistently in canon

wei wuxian uses jiang cheng’s birth name but jc doesn’t use wwx’s. wwx is basically the same age and lower in rank than jc, so it would make sense for jc to call him wei ying in turn, but he just ... doesn’t. same for jiang yanli. she’s arguably the one wwx is closest to and has the most positive relationship with through out the show and she’s older than him. it would make a lot of sense for her to call him wei ying, or even a-ying to mirror the way she calls jc a-cheng rather than calling wwx a-xian. lan xichen calls lan wangji by his courtesy name rather than birth name, and i’m pretty sure lan qiren does the same to both his nephews, which doesn’t really make sense to me in world

i think the real purpose here was to give wwx and lwj names that they only call each other for special intimacy reasons rather than to create a consistent more in the untamed universe

however, going with that and jin ling obviously being so much younger and wanting to retain at least some of the respectfulness that would be inherent in the original language, i do think that uncle wuxian and uncle wanyin are good translations

u n l e s s

see the thing is that jin ling refers to wwx as “wei ying” before he knows him as a way to be disrespectful to him because he believes that he killed his parents. i personally like the symmetry in him shifting to calling him that in a positive manner to make up for him calling him that in a negative manner, which isn’t something that can really work in chinese, but can work in english

as for jiang cheng, probably because the story is told from wwx’s pov even in the show, we’re used to seeing his birth name rather than his courtesy name, and honestly no one uses his courtesy name unless he’s being a bitch. because of this, the use of wanyin creates a cognitive sense of distance that the often used wuxian just doesn’t. so if someone uses his birth name for that reason, i think that makes sense too. so i think uncle ying and uncle cheng can also work

there is, of course, just using jiujiu and trusting context to take care of the rest, but that’s less a translation choice than it is just choosing not to translate

i’ve done different things in different works with different contexts. in rotten work specifically, i had jin ling refer to jc as just “uncle” because i imagine that’s what he’s been doing for 16 years with no other maternal uncle, and because he’s the uncle he’s closest too among all of them, and i wanted to reflect that. i have jl refer to wwx as “uncle ying” a little bit because of the reasons above, but also a way to stake a claim on him to everyone and to demonstrate that they have a close relationship before the really have one as a way to partially shield wwx and to goad those around him (plus a bonus plot reason that doesn’t get revealed until the final chapter)

my point here is that there’s a lot reasons why someone could choose to translate something one way versus another. i used this one thing as an example, but this same thought process applies to lots of things

you do not have to agree with everyone’s translation choices, or like them, or think them appropriate. but translation is by its very nature imperfect and there’s a lot of different potential reasoning behind people’s choices and i really don’t think there’s one perfect way to translate something and that all other ways are wrong

#this is your grandma talking #if you disagree we're going to do it nicely and have a normal fucking conversation #or you're getting blocked #i am not getting into a bitchy fight about translation opinions

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becomewings · 3 years

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The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>

BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 1 / 4

» pt. 2

Introduction

BTS Universe Story, a mobile game published by Netmarble, was released on September 24, 2020. While the majority of the app is essentially a sandbox and engine for users to create their own interactive stories, it also includes official and canon BU content. The first eight segments were introduced between the release date and December 2020, gathered under the title The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>.

“I’m Fine” is half of the I’m Fine/Save Me ambigram introduced in the Love Yourself era. Notably, all of the BU content available in the game so far falls between events of the webtoon Save Me (also called HYYH0 in its logo) and The Notes 1—chronologically, that is, while bearing in mind that time resets to the morning of 11 April Year 22 whenever SeokJin fails to avert a tragedy among his six friends. I want to assure anyone who is unable to play the game that you are not missing any new, major plot beats from the overall BU narrative. Instead, the stories provide more insight into the motivations and consequences of SeokJin’s decisions in the earlier time loops, as well as more depth to individual characters and their circumstances.

The goal of this guide is to summarize each of the eight stories and highlight noteworthy details, especially if they are not yet present in other BU media. Within each story (which I often refer to as an arc, due to their character-focused nature), episodes must be played successively, but the stories themselves can be played in any order. I will present them over a series of posts in the order they are listed under the <I’M FINE> heading. The Prologue and NamJoon’s arc are free to play; the rest are paid content. Please note that due to the app’s Terms & Conditions, I will not include in-game footage here. The images in this guide are sourced from the official trailers/videos and the live action MVs as appropriate.

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

Game Mechanic

Before diving into the summaries, I would like to address the primary mechanic of the game: the user’s control of character choices at designated moments in the stories. It’s a primary marketing point that the player can influence the progression of the narrative, with a frequent in-app tip also declaring, “stories’ endings can vary depending on your choices.” The latter is not strictly true—and it cannot be true due to the structure of the game. Choices are presented within most (not all) episodes, but each episode is an isolated unit: episode 2 provides the same content regardless of what you choose in episode 1. Since the consequences of your decisions are not cumulative, each episode reaches the same ending, and each decision inevitably rejoins the “main” story path (effectively reducing the script size).

So what is the point of this mechanic? While the system is not nearly as complex as what major platform titles are capable of nowadays (I suspect due in large part to the story creation portion of the game), it does foster a sense of interaction with the narrative that isn’t present in static visual media like comics or film. The episodes with choices also have incentive for replay to discover the impact of changing a character’s dialogue or action. Sometimes the differences between the outcomes are inconsequential, but other times you unearth new details, interactions, or memories that are missing in the other path.

I say this partially in reaction to all of the comments and tweets I read for the game trailers and even Smeraldo Book twitter’s choose-your-own-adventure style teasers with The Notes 2 excerpts released last summer. Many users expressed excitement, through words or memes, about finally being able to give the boys the happy ending they deserved. I don’t fault anyone for wanting that happy ending—I wish for it, too. But no matter what the rather overzealous marketing has claimed, I don’t believe that the canon ending of BU is ever meant to be in the audience’s control. But I do feel that this mechanism fits the BU narrative. It echoes the “countless loops” SeokJin has experienced in an effort to save his friends, the choices he must make at every crossroad, and the butterfly effect those actions have on all of their lives. I think it is reasonable to interpret the simple branching paths in the game as alternatives SeokJin has explored across multiple loops in his struggle to find the “right” way forward. I’d love to hear if you have theories of your own!

Prologue

The prologue is a brief episode introducing SeokJin’s repeated struggle and failure to save his friends. He wakes up yet again in his bed on 11 April Year 22, the beginning of the time loop. After reflecting on the tragedies that keep befalling the others, SeokJin realizes that he has only tried to fix the problems he can see. He wonders: “Have I tried to understand the root of my friends’ misfortunes? How much do I really know about my friends? Maybe I was never brave enough to confront their real scars and the worlds they’ve been living in. But I need to do it. Because it may be the key to saving them all.”

How to Offer a Hand

In this story, SeokJin attempts to prevent NamJoon’s arrest after he gets in a fight with a rude customer at Naeri Gas Station, his place of work. The first episode opens on the night of 11 April Year 22 with NamJoon curling his fists, glaring as crumpled bills lie untouched on the pavement. (The money looks similar to the shot from the I Need U MV.) SeokJin reaches for his shoulder, but NamJoon shrugs him off and strides away to punch the customer who deliberately dropped the bills for him to pick up. The gas station owner runs over at the customer’s furious shouts and orders NamJoon to apologize. He refuses, and police officers soon arrive and charge him with assault. No one listens to SeokJin’s protests that the customer started it first. The man sneers as NamJoon enters the police car. “Do you even have money for a settlement? Hey, you’re done for.” NamJoon is sentenced to prison again, and SeokJin hears glass shattering before the loop resets.

Rising from his bed on the morning of 11 April, SeokJin reflects on his failed efforts so far. He has hit the customer’s car, called for NamJoon in the middle of the incident, and stopped the fight himself, the latter of which caused his friends to avoid him later. The fight has even escalated; the details are unspecified, but the audience is provided an ominous shot of SeokJin speaking to a police officer alone at the scene. NamJoon is not the kind of person who would normally respond to that kind of provocation with his fists. SeokJin realizes that he cannot merely stop the fight but must discover and fix the true cause of it.

With this in mind, SeokJin heads to Naeri Gas Station during the day and tries to engage NamJoon. This is their first time meeting since they both returned to Songju, although SeokJin has experienced it in many loops already. “It’s been a while,” he greets (as he does at the end of the Blood Sweat & Tears Japanese version MV). Before SeokJin can dig deeper in their conversation, NamJoon is called away by his boss. SeokJin enters the small employee break room which serves as NamJoon’s living space when he’s not at the container, hoping to find some clues about his friend’s life. SeokJin locates something bundled in newspapers. If the player chooses to open it, he sees a strange shard of glass inside that may belong to a car or motorcycle headlight. He continues on, finding the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan and a notebook. SeokJin hesitates over the invasion of privacy but decides to read it since he needs all the information that he can gather. The journal entries detail NamJoon’s daily life since returning to Songju: his work at the gas station isn’t too bad despite the occasional rude customer; he purchased a book and hopes to get more in the future; he picked up a second job at a wedding hall to help catch up on bills; his brother NamHyeon got in trouble again, leading to more expenses; and his dad’s health has worsened, with hospital bills after an emergency surgery rising to levels that the family cannot afford. SeokJin knew that NamJoon was the de facto head of household due to his father’s illness but was unaware that it was to this degree. He feels sorry for NamJoon yet is also impressed by his maturity, for NamJoon never writes how difficult his situation is.

NamJoon arrives and asks what SeokJin is doing in the room. If the player chooses to answer “reading” instead of “just sitting there,” SeokJin privately observes that the conversation flows more easily when they talk about books. NamJoon says he must leave and declines when SeokJin offers to wait for him there. SeokJin knocks over a pile of books along with money and receipts as he stands. He thinks it is unusual that NamJoon picks up the books before the money. The books seem to be more than a hobby to NamJoon, holding special meaning. Walking to his car, SeokJin wonders if it is pride or determination not to falter that keeps NamJoon from journaling his grievances. He realizes that money is a constant source of frustration and misery to NamJoon, and that’s why he can’t stomach being insulted over the customer’s dropped money. SeokJin’s new plan is to prevent NamJoon from picking up the money. He also calls Palgok County Hospital and offers to pay the patient bill for NamJoon’s father. Anticipating that NamJoon will be angry if he finds out, SeokJin says the payer is Songho Foundation.

That night, SeokJin returns to the gas station with the excuse that he forgot to fill up earlier. The luxury car arrives with a honk, and NamJoon hurries over to assist. He shakes with anger when the customer drops the money on the ground. “Why aren’t you picking it up? You don’t want it? What’s with that look? Pretty arrogant for a part-timer, aren’t you?” goads the customer. SeokJin intervenes. Whether the player chooses to have him advise NamJoon not to pick it up or to order the customer to pick it up himself, the end result is the same. SeokJin asks the customer, “Why are you harassing a pitiful part-timer?” The customer drives away, and something about NamJoon seems off. His face is expressionless, not mad or humiliated. “SeokJin, you…” He stops. “Never mind. Thank you for your help.” The words sound difficult for him to speak.

SeokJin believes that he has saved NamJoon, although this ending feels sloppy. He continues on in the loop to rescue JungKook and later YoonGi, but uneasiness plagues him. Though he meant to help NamJoon with his actions, SeokJin wonders if he hurt him instead. On 5 May Year 22, he returns to the gas station and follows NamJoon when he leaves work early. NamJoon enters a bookstore, and SeokJin sneaks in after him to watch from afar. He overhears employees talking about NamJoon, worrying that he might dirty the pages of the book he’s perusing. NamJoon is too absorbed in the book to notice one of them calling for his attention. SeokJin recalls a memory from their school days when he found NamJoon reading alone in their classroom hideout: he asked why NamJoon read so diligently, and his friend explained that he found it comforting to empty his thoughts of everything else while focused on the book. In the present, SeokJin wonders how he forgot how much books mean to NamJoon. He sacrifices some of his food and transportation budget to afford them, but they enable him “to endure the weight of the world he’s forced to bear on his shoulders.” After realizing this, SeokJin wants to apologize for carelessly sympathizing with the reality that NamJoon has weathered alone.

The next episode is from NamJoon’s perspective, revealing his excitement over being able to purchase a book for the first time in two months. He wants to buy two but can only afford one. The employee at the register sighs and asks why he leafed through a book he wasn’t going to buy. NamJoon apologizes, and she mutters, “So dirty.” He notices his reflection, clothes worn and smelling of gasoline, and realizes she’s talking about him, not the book. He tries to shake off these depressing thoughts, but he is still not accustomed to this treatment despite experiencing it regularly at work. As NamJoon begins to exit the store, the security alarm goes off. The employees demand to check his bag despite his insistence that he didn’t steal anything. Their certainty of his theft angers him. NamJoon allows them to look through his bag, and they are suspicious of the like-new book in it which he brought from home. One begins to call the police until SeokJin appears, vouching for NamJoon by saying he saw everything. The employees accept that the alarm malfunctioned and excuse their suspicions as a mistake.

Outside, SeokJin asks NamJoon if he is all right. NamJoon is thankful but wonders how SeokJin materialized right when he needed him. “How’d you find me here?” he asks aloud. SeokJin explains that he happened to notice him while walking through the neighborhood. NamJoon wonders if it’s because they said goodbye on a weird note last time. He thanks him and turns to leave. SeokJin calls after him. “I’m sorry. I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you that day at the gas station. It was a mistake to have called you pitiful. If my rash actions hurt you, I’m really sorry.” NamJoon accepts his apology, believing it to be sincere, and says that things would have turned out a lot worse if SeokJin had not intervened. Thunder rolls overhead, and NamJoon uses the impending rain as his excuse to depart. He declines SeokJin’s offer of a ride and runs home, feeling his friend’s eyes on him.

Before he can settle down to read at home, NamJoon receives a call from his cheerful mother. She thanks him for paying off the entire hospital bill. NamJoon is perplexed and asks what’s on the receipt, since he didn’t pay it. His mother wants to leave it be, but he insists that they investigate so they don’t get in trouble or sued. She reads that the Songho Foundation is credited as the payer. NamJoon calls the hospital, introducing himself as the guardian for Kim YoungMin, but they can’t transfer him to the administrative department at this time. Disappointed, he looks up the foundation’s website, unable to recall why it sounds familiar. He wonders why a scholarship foundation in the city would get involved with him. Spotting photos of a recent launch ceremony on the site, he recognizes a few people: Songju High School’s principal, the familiar-looking face of the foundation’s chairman, and SeokJin. First, NamJoon forces a laugh, and then it’s difficult for him to breathe. He thinks that SeokJin really had pitied him at that moment. The only thing keeping NamJoon going is the idea of getting through life on his own strength. Why does he have to live like this?

The last episode opens on 5 May back in SeokJin’s perspective. He is confident now that he has saved NamJoon, although it occurs to him that a better alternative may have been to simply pick up the money himself instead of stepping forward. (This decision is enacted in a later loop and depicted in the Euphoria MV.) While reflecting on what comes next to save his other friends, he receives a text from NamJoon. “What’s your account number? I’ll pay you back for the hospital bills. I don’t need your help. I’ll handle my concerns on my own.” Heart sinking, SeokJin wonders how he found out. With a sense of foreboding, he tries calling NamJoon, but no one answers. SeokJin texts him back, pretending that he doesn’t understand, and tells NamJoon to call him. SeokJin’s second attempt connects while he’s gathering his car keys to visit the container. “That’s enough. Just send the account number over text,” NamJoon instructs. SeokJin coaxes him to talk for a moment, and NamJoon asks flatly, “Are you going to apologize again?” SeokJin attempts to salvage the situation, but his friend turns cold when he insists that NamJoon is misunderstanding and that he just wanted to help. “So, why? Why are you helping me?! Yeah, you’re always a good person. You’ve done nothing wrong and I’m the one misunderstanding.” SeokJin apologizes again. NamJoon refuses his request to meet in person. “No, I thought maybe there was a reason for everything you did… But I guess I misconstrued it. I’ll pay you back, so I’d prefer if you stopped contacting me.” Long after the call ends, SeokJin stands holding his phone, feeling that the glass is going to break at any moment. He wants to believe that it’s not over, but hope is slipping through his fingertips.

The episode finishes in NamJoon’s perspective. On 8 May and 9 May, he accepts part-time delivery work and reflects on his three jobs. Whenever he thinks he’s at his breaking point, he focuses on his new goal of returning SeokJin’s money. On 10 May, NamJoon wakes up to his buzzing phone and is called in to work. On a scooter, he passes by a bus stop and notices graffiti. (This is the same bus stop, with matching graffiti, that appears in the Highlight Reel.) Mesmerized, he wonders if it’s TaeHyung’s. As soon as NamJoon looks up, the scooter’s brake fails, and he crashes. The shattered glass on the cold pavement reminds him of the headlight shard and the kid who looked like TaeHyung. (So the piece of glass SeokJin saw in April was really a memento NamJoon retrieved from the scene of the crash in the mountain town, where the delivery boy whom he privately called TaeHyung died. This event is described in NamJoon’s 17 December Year 21 entry in The Notes 1.) NamJoon’s vision grows blurry, and the distant sound of an ambulance doesn’t come any closer.

The arc concludes there, but it obviously marks another reset for SeokJin. It is interesting to note that in this failed loop, NamJoon suffers the same fate that he narrowly avoided in the snowy mountain town before returning to Songju.

Please stay tuned for the next Highlights post featuring JungKook and YoonGi!

#armiesnet #networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #armysource #dailybangtan #bts universe #hyyh #bangtan universe #bts universe story #bts universe story highlights #seokjin #namjoon #namjin #bts theories

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unfinishedsweetsimphony · 3 years

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celebration

[requested by anon ‘m’]

~Tommyinnit x Reader (Gender Neutral) x Tubbo ~ !PLATONIC!

Summary: They were the ultimate trio, the Three Musketeers (as they were fondly nicknamed) consisted of Tommy, Tubbo and (Y/N). Soon Tubbo and (Y/N)’s birthday was coming up, so Tommy came up with the brilliant idea of throwing a joint Minecraft birthday party. After which, fun and hilarity ensues.

Genre: Fluffy friendship with friends being pals.

Pronouns: They/them (Gender neutral)

Warnings: Cursing and a bunch of capitalized words to add v o l u m e. I mean c’mon. Tommyinnit is in this story.

[a/n: wOHOO!! Another request :DD I really like this prompt idea since it’s been a while since I’ve written a friendship fic. This is loosely based on what I could remember from Tubbo’s birthday live with my own twist on things. This is also more of a reader insert than an x reader]

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUBBO!!”, (Y/N) practically yelled into the mic. Looking at the facecam, Tubbo frantically throws off his headphones and lets out a scream. When he calmed down from his fright, he puts his headphones back on and scooches his chair back into place. “THANK YOU (Y/N)!!”, he yelled back in matching fervor, “HAPPY ADVANCE BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO!” (Y/N) flinches and pulls their mic even closer for maximum earrape, “THANKS TUBBSTER!” “WHY ARE WE YELLING?!”, screamed Tommy; making himself known. “I DON’T KNOW WHY ARE YOU YELLING?!”, Tubbo’s voice is starting to get hoarse. “I dunno I just wanted to feel included.”, Tommy’s sudden shift in tone caused (Y/N) to burst into laughter.

They take a moment to greet their respective streams. “So Tommy, you have gathered us here on the magnificent Dream SMP. What’s on the agenda for today?”, (Y/N) says in their best posh accent. “Well that was terrible, but anyway”, Tommy moves his Minecraft player while he speaks, “Today, we are going to be celebrating the BIRTH of my two best friends. So, come on, follow me. We got lots to do.” Tubbo happily follows Tommy while (Y/N) whoops in excitement and quickly checks chat, “No chat, this isn’t canon...I think.”

The first thing they did was make a TNT canon by the shore, which took some time. However with Fundy and Sam’s help, they were able to finally get it work. “HOLY SHIT!”, Tommy exclaims as his character gets absolutely launched into the air. Tubbo gleefully chimes as he sets the device up for another launch, “It really goes get you flying doesn’t it?” (Y/N) lets out a ‘Weee~’ as they land into the water, “I know that this is literally virtual, but this is actually kinda fun.”

When they were done, Tommy says that it’s time to move on to the next activity. “C’mon (Y/N), Tommy is gonna go on without us!”, Tubbo urged as (Y/N) launches themselves with a cow on a lead for the fifth time...only for it to die upon impact for the fifth time. “Goddamit, it keeps hitting the shore!”, (Y/N) finally calls it quits and they both sprint to catch up with Tommy.

Tommy leads them to a trapdoor that leads them to an underground railway. They grab their minecarts and head off. Along the way, the halls are decorated with funny edits and memes of Tubbo and (Y/N). “Oh god (Y/N)innit is so cursed.”, Tubbo laughed at the huge picture of a blonde (Y/N) in Tommy’s iconic shirt while (Y/N) snickers and plays Paralyzer by Finger Eleven to match the image. “Oh my god I almost forgot about that one.”, Tommy points out a picture of Tubbo photoshopped as a snail. “EY ITS TURBO!!”, (Y/N) realizes and absolutely loses it.

Farther down the long mine cart ride are normal photos of times where the trio meet up causing the three to calm down and reminisce those memories. The chat absolutely melts at the soft atmosphere filling up the comments with ‘Aww’s and hearts. The occasional copy pasta ruining the mood.

Upon reaching their destination, they all hop out of their carts and meet a dark oak door. “Okay, I want you guys to close you eyes.”, Tommy’s character steps in front of them. “In real life?”, (Y/N) asked. “How are we going to see?”,Tubbo questioned the obvious. “Yes, just put your finger on the forward key and I’ll guide you. Now, no peeking alright?”, Tommy crouched as the two gave confirmation that their eyes are closed. Tommy opens the door and quickly goes in first to check if the surprise is ready. He quickly types in chat to join the voice chat they were in, “Okay, go forward and I’ll tell you when to stop.” Miraculously, there were no mishaps in getting them through the door. Their characters walked until they reached a wall of the dark room. “Stop!”, Tommy instructed, “Wait (Y/N) you can go forward a little more.” (Y/N) complied until Tommy told them to stop again.

“Alright you can open your eyes.”, Tommy flipped a lever causing the lights to turn on.

A chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’s rang in Tubbo and (Y/N) ‘s ears as they looked around, mouths agape. “Oh my god, this is awesome!”, Tubbo’s character jumps around happily while his head spins around. (Y/N) bursts out laughing at the banner saying “Happy ‘Coming out of your mother’ Day” to the point of wheezing their lungs out. “Thank you for noticing my banner (Y/N).”, Big Q notices before turning to a disappointed BadBoyHalo, “I told you they would like it.”

The rest of the day was spent enjoying Minecraft cake, passing presents virtually even some just gifting subs and donations. It was a fun party with friends...until Technoblade joined the game.

#blood for the blood god :)#im sorry this took so long #im watching quackity's stream while doing these tags lmao #jackbox with quackity has so much flavor #tommyinnit #tubbo #reader insert #tommyinnit fanfic #tubbo fanfic #platonic #dream smp #mcyt #mcyt fanfiction

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tigerseye46 · 3 years

Note

Heres another PeachPig headcannon for u soul: that theory/speculation about Wukong shapeshifting himself taller and is in fact still the shortest one here? Well, every so often, if Pigsy's clearly had a rough day, Wukong will just... take on his actual size for cuddling purpouses. Its super embarrassing for wukong bc hes sensitive about his height but Pigsy seems to love both not being the short one and having his partner the size of one of those beeg plushies thats perfect cuddling size. So its whatever

sjdjdjdsj I like this- I've heard about that theory and I like it because it does seem something he would do. I’ll add this to the list later. I got encouraged to write a fanfic about this head canon so here it is:

Pigsy grumbles as he walks into his apartment, he clenches his fist tightly, turning his knuckles white. Today had been slow and horrible, for some reason, there were more rude customers than usual, complaining about how the soup was icky, not well cooked, that the recipe changed without warning or how the customer service was low and poor. He had to swat those rude customers out, he could handle the yelling and the curses, he knew how to fight back but one of them made the mistake of screaming at Xiaotian for not giving him his order even when the kid explained that he was a delivery boy, not a waiter. So Pigsy did something about it, tempted to punch the guy in the face and give him a black eye. Instead, he settled by threatening to call the cops with Xiaotian backing him up and the guy stormed out.

No one yells at his kid.

If that guy showed up again, he was going to punch him in the face, who cares about consequences? Certainly not him.

He mumbles under his breath about the situation, his eyes cast down at the ground, not noticing his partner with his side pressed up against a wall, near the couch. Wukong has an eyebrow raised and arms crossed, practically seeing steam come out of the pig’s ears. “Pigsy,” he calls. Pigsy stares at him with eyes blown wide, hands still curled into a fist.

“Wukong,” he mutters startled.

The king approaches him and presses a light kiss to his head like a light flutter that comes from a butterfly’s wings. “Hi, babe.”

“Hi. Didn’t realize you were here.”

“I can see that,” Wukong replies with amusement. “What’s up?”

“A lot.” He grips the monkey’s shirt and face plants into his chest, taking note of the muscle underneath. His cheeks light up pink as he nuzzles him with his snout, hoping to subtly get more of it.

Wukong laughs and brings a hand to the back of the pig’s head, pulling him closer to his chest so the pig could feel the mass that has built up from years of fighting. The king wraps an arm around his partner’s back. “What happened?”

Pigsy explains what transpired, lifting his chin to see his partner’s reaction, watching as the monkey grows from concerned to angry, his teeth bared.

“I’m going to string that man up,” he threatens, “and all those other rude customers.”

Pigsy pecks his cheek. “Later. Just want to forget about this whole day and cuddle,” the pig vocalizes, exhaustion present in his voice.

“Alright.” Wukong takes a step back, knowing exactly what to do to boost his partner’s mood. A soft golden glow wraps around him, when the glow disappears, Wukong is mostly the same, only shorter, his normal form. The king rubs the back of his neck shyly which usually happens even after the dozen times the pig has witnessed his partner’s shorter form.

Wukong doesn’t show the form off often, it is a sensitive subject with the king, he’s used to people towering over him, pointing out how short he is, despite his big reputation but he is aware Pigsy loves it.

Pigsy coos at his boyfriend’s height and the king is half tempted to find a place where he can sink into the ground. The pig cups his cheeks and smooches them gently, his lips linger. “You look adorable,” Pigsy comments with a wide grin. A warmth fills the pig’s chest, he knows the king is insecure about this form, it makes him happy that the monkey trusts him enough to show it and uses it to make him happy on nasty days.

“Th-thanks,” the monkey stutters out, his face is a bright red.

He is led to the couch where the pig puts his lower jaw on the top of his boyfriend’s head, soft purrs slip out of the pig’s lips. Wukong’s shoulder hunch out of embarrassment while the pig is in complete bliss. “Thanks, babe. I needed this.”

Wukong swallows and the corners of his mouth rises to form a smile. “No problem. You know I love you and I don’t mind doing this once in awhile.”

“I know and I love you too. You’re like a plushie!”

“I- don’t say that or I’ll transform back!”

Pigsy laughs and smooches him on the lips, they hum as their lips press together. “Uh huh, you wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh I will,” the king does a low hiss that has no malice behind it.

“Mhmm.” They share another kiss. “I love you.”

“... Love you too.”

Pigsy pecks his cheek, more purrs emit from his mouth followed by his partner’s own rumbles and the swish of his tail. With all that combined, Pigsy can feel the stress of today melting away, thanks to his short and adorable partner.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #peachpigshipping #lmk pigsy #pigsy monkie kid #pigsy #sun wukong #mk sun wukong #monkey king #monkie kid wukong #my fic #headcanon #asks #anon asks #peachpig

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kakiwrites · 3 years

Note

Tamaki has always been ostracized due to his origins as an elf, the only person that treats him with kindness is the daughter of the town druid Aizawa (reader)

falling into a flowery paradise

Genre: slight angst then fluff

A tamaki amajiki x reader

Synopsis: A time where elves, fairies, dragons, and other wonderful creatures live in harmony, how would you choose to live? On a pirate ship? Making potions? Who do you stumble upon along the journey? A soldier, a poet, a king? Well, that’s for you to decide.

(masterlist is under navigation!)

a/n: hey guys! Time to write for more elf Tamaki. Honestly, I feel like Tamaki can be canonically some kind of elf, either that or because of his genes, he has those cute pointy ears. Idk, I have a small soft spot for the anxious baby~ I kinda changed this request, hope you don't mind anyway, requests are still open so please don't be shy to leave anything in my inbox! Let's begin!

"I hereby decree that Tamaki Amajiki will now be banished from the land of the elves."

His heart dropped to his stomach. Why did he do it? For once, he finally gathered the courage to stand up for himself against his bullies but that got him here, prosecuted by the court. His bullies' smiles piercing through him and pulling him down into the abyss even more.

Tamaki did no more but nod his head, dragging his feet out of the court and into the wilderness. He brought this among himself. If he just stayed quiet then he wouldn't be banished.

But maybe being away from his kind is a good thing for him.

He was considered as one with his kind. He was always considered the black sheep. Everyone shone and he was there, blending into the shadows. While everyone tried to stand out, he stayed the same. It did the opposite effect he wanted. He stood out. He wished that he wouldn't be a target.

And targeted he was.

He was picked on for everything imaginable, his appearance, his personality, and how he presented himself. He had to endure years of harsh words and shoving. His inner demons started eating at him each passing day until the day arrived where he couldn't handle it anymore and stepped up to them, fighting with the same flame they used to burn him down over and over.

But nobody cared, they turned a blind eye and made everyone believe he was a monster.

A monster?

Maybe he was.

Maybe-

Tamaki sat up to see the orange sky. Did he fall asleep? He looked around to see he was in a beautiful flower field. The wild grass and flowers following the direction of the wind. He got up on his wobbly feet and walked blindly in a random direction before stumbling onto a small cottage, vines growing up its foundations, flowers blossomed in its cracks. Smoke started to rise from the chimney just as a cool breeze went through him.

It was going to a cold night.

Should he approach the house?

No, the inhabitants wouldn't like that.

The elf was just about to turn back the way he came when he saw a figure walking towards him. The person wore a dress made out of thick vines and flowers. her hair was dolled up into a bun, little petals stuck into it.

Wow.

you looked like a goddess.

Tamaki was frozen in place as he watched you walk toward him. He could finally see your face, A druid people always praised and worshipped. You were the daughter of the village chief, Aizawa and you were raised to be humble and help everyone in need and that included the smallest of flowers that need more sunlight. You finally stood in front of him, hands resting together. The townsfolk weren't lying when they said you were a blessing from the gods.

"Tamaki amajiki correct? One of the wonderful elves?" you started. Little strands of hair started to fall out of your bun. Tamaki decided to fix his attention on there instead of into your (e/c) eyes. He always got anxious when he had to look someone in the eye but why did he feel that same dread when you were the one staring at him with kindness and patience. He nodded his head, not trusting his voice.

"How are you? What are you doing far away from your village?" you asked. You started walking toward the little cottage. Tamaki hesitantly followed behind you. Was he even allowed to follow you? You didn't seem to mind his presence.

"i-I was b-banished a-after standing u-up for m-myself," he muttered, thinking that you wouldn't hear him.

But you did.

You stopped in your tracks and turned to face him. This was the first time he saw you without your smile. It was replaced in a frown. "now that's just not right." you simply said. It looked like you wanted to say something else but you decided against it, turning your back and continue down the path to the cottage.

Tamaki just followed you.

He met your father soon after. He was a stern-looking man but he had a good heart. He let Tamaki stay in his humble abode for as long as he wanted to and even talked to him like a son. For once, Tamaki felt happy.

It was the first time he felt like he belonged.

Don't get him started on you. You've been anything but mean to him. You've treated him with compassion. He felt like he could talk to you. He found your life interesting and in turn, he started falling in love with it, even joining you when you planted some new flowers in your little garden or when you fed some stray rabbits hoping around.

You found out that Tamaki had a soft spot for life, especially animals. He can usually talk to them and calm them down quicker than you. You admired him for that.

You went out to the village with your father while Tamaki stayed home with the cats and the bunnies. He never really minded. It was the least he could do.

You got home to hear him humming to his favorite bunny, thumper. He stopped for a moment before piping up. You pressed your ear against the door to catch his muttering. "you know thumper, ever since I came here… I feel at ease. Mr. Aizawa treats me like a son and (y/n)… don't get me started on her." your hand went to your mouth to stifle a giggle. You could tell from his voice he had the soft smile on his face you love seeing on him.

Love. You loved him.

"(y/n) is so kind and caring. Not just to me, but to you." he paused to think of his next words. "i-I think I love her, thumper."

What?

You felt your face heat up at that. He… loved you back. You opened the door, making a flustered Tamaki jump up from his seat on the floor. His face a crimson red and you could tell from his expression that he knew that you heard him.

"i-I c-can explain-" he tried to say before he could, you ran over to him and pressed your lips onto his. He stiffened up for a moment before easing in and kissing you back. You could feel how soft his lips are and how sweet he tastes. Just like you imagined him.

He pulled away, breathing heavily. For the first time, he finally gathered the courage to look into your (e/c) irises to see them swimming with happiness and affection. His embarrassed smile grew wider.

"s-so does this m-mean…?"

"yes Tamaki, I love you too."

From that day on, all of the plants bloomed brighter and vibrant as ever.

And there you have it! It was kind of short but hopefully, you guys still enjoyed even though it was kind of short. Working on the noremma fic tonight, hope you guys are as excited as I am! Love you 💖💕❤️

General taglist (don’t be shy to comment your tumblr @ below): @tokyoghoose @macaronnv @reogou @lnarizakis @midnightangelfox @wumboho @seiijixcia

series taglist (don’t be shy to comment your tumblr @ below!): @astrxrism @kurookinnie @isentsworld @inkumistuki

#bnha x reader #boku no hero academia #mha x reader #amajiki tamaki x reader #tamaki amajiki #tamaki x reader #my hero academia #my hero academia x reader #soldier poet king

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human-person234 · 3 years

Text

UPDATE UPDATE UP DATE U P D A A A T E

I'm sobbing with relief, you guys. I've been so stuck on this. I can't believe it took me two months to update. Things were getting better, over the last week or so I managed to write a few sentences here and there, but today it just clicked and I banged out the whole chapter like nobody's business. It feels so good. I don't have the next one written, but I have it outlined, and I have a tentative outline for the rest of the fic--not that we're too near the end, yet. It's just a good sign.

I have some thoughts about the chapter, the fic, and its effect on my mental health, but I have a feeling this will get long so I'm going to put a break. Click if you want to read my rambling about all that, I guess.

Writing this fic ended up being a bigger part of my personal mental health journey than I anticipated, so it's natural that they'd be intertwined. I only wrote it because I was so obsessed with the Suicidal Midoriya Izuku tag I ran out of fics to read and had to make my own. Not exactly "mentally stable" behavior.

If you read Wish I Hadn't Got So Much Better, esp my notes and comments, you know that suicidal ideation is a very real issue for me, both in my past and (surprisingly, like for the Izuku of that story) my present.

I'm not opposed to talking about it, so if anyone wants to chat about that kind of stuff, my DMs and asks are open, seriously, I love talking about mental health and any excuse to talk about myself is welcome. But I won't get into it too much here.

Basically, I was depressed, and dealing with some other physical health issues (TURNS OUT I'VE BEEN BREATHING MOLD FOR MONTHS NO WONDER I'M EXTRA LETHARGIC), and when I started to fall behind on updates, that only exacerbated my anxiety and guilt and, thus, depression.

Something else that came up for me was that I don't totally feel qualified to write about suicide recovery, because I never experienced it in the way I'm writing it.

I basically dumped this on Izuku in Wish I Hadn't Got So Much Better, but essentially, I do have experience with being suicidal, just not the "getting help" part. I do see a psychiatrist for my disorders, but no one ever found out about the suicidal part.

So, like Hizashi and Shouta say in Chapter 13, "Who do I think I am? Why do I think I could take care of a child?" I have no idea what guided recovery looks like, because I did it alone. I kept thinking, what if I'm doing it wrong, what if I'm missing something important, what if people who really had these experiences think I'm taking it lightly?

So that's part of the source for my end note for this chapter--I realized that as long as I'm doing my due diligence, I don't have to feel guilty about getting it wrong, because real people get it wrong too. Also, it's fanfiction, I'm allowed some wiggle room. I've read and loved and recommended fics with far looser basis in reality, and never considered complaining. I'm just a harsher critic of myself than I am of others, as are most people.

On a more technical note, I also struggled with pacing the story. I kept feeling like I was stuck in a real-time pace, and I couldn't figure out how to stop describing literally every action my characters took. How hard is it to zoom out and do a fucking timeskip, for goodness' sake?

For me--very hard, it turns out.

So I kind of gave up, gave myself permission to stop trying. I even stopped reading MHA fics for a little while (no way I could stop reading fics, though). I went back to one of my all-time fave fics, from what might be my favorite anime--Run With the Wind. The fic is Beyond the Wind by kstar2091.

Honestly, I thought my first fic would be in this fandom. I figured it would be a poor homage to this fic, a continuation of canon events finally giving us the romance that had been simmering all 23 episodes. My pfp is best boy Kiyose Haiji for a reason.

Uh oh, that was a bit of a tangent.

My point is, re-reading my fave fic (with delicious new chapters) inspired me, bc kstar is legit VERY GOOD at exactly what I was struggling with--passing a lot of in-story time without sacrificing content or intensity.

So, the little interlude in Izu's POV covering a week or so in the chapter I just posted--that's thanks to kstar2091, Beyond the Wind, and ofc my best boy Haiji. Once I got through that bit, it all started flowing like chocolate sauce at a Golden Corral.

There's a lot of juicy bits upcoming, some of which people have been eagerly awaiting. One of them is obvious. Others, you might hate me for?? But also I hope you'll love them, because you're all screwed up like me.

So yeah, I'm not promising weekly updates anymore, but the juices are flowing, the sun is shining, the mold is blooming in my bedroom, and I'm slowly getting back on my mood stabilizers.

If anyone wants to talk about mental health, or ask me anything personal, feel free, you won't offend or upset me. Or, don't say anything, and just keep reading! Or stop reading, idk, it's your life.

#ao3 #bnha fanfiction #suicidal izuku #tw suidice #author's note

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betrayher · 2 years

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SIX MONTHS!!! six months to the DAY since i started writing this absolute hot mess of a lady. since then so much has happened - i’ve made so many new friends, and my life has changed in so many ways, most of them for the better. the community around this show is small but mighty and absolutely all thanks to @doctorobinson, bc without her i don’t think more than half of us would have ever seen it?? like. raise ur hand if it was stella who talked u into it. yeah. i see u.

writing smith comes with its challenges, but i think my favorite part about it is the evolution of her identity. i love nothing more than a sympathetic villain with a redemption arc but it goes beyond that even, into the territory of complete reinvention. the way she thinks of herself/presents herself changes completely over the course of the show and the way it’s coded (in both dialogue and occasionally costuming) makes me, a genderqueer mun, really happy. if you’ve been around for awhile u know i quietly hc her as genderqueer too. i just... really connect to this character, even if i think she’s a nasty little gremlin for like,, MOST of canon. especially then. i too am a nasty little gremlin. it is what it is.

anyway, here’s the “party” part. i want to celebrate those of you i’ve been writing with for awhile! those that have done intricate plotting with me, or that have developed a relationship between our muses through a bunch of threads since june. if you think that applies to you, feel free to comment and i’ll chuck her in your inbox with a little something that commemorates that relationship!

and for all the new friends - consider this a bit of a plotting call! i’m so excited to get to know you and your muse/s. i have so many aus that smith can fit in and i always love adapting new ones! let’s go on some adventures together :)

aside from all that, i will be rbing memes (and character posts from my archive) all day as i work on the bio i’ve been trying to put together for like,, a week now. i do owe a few starters, which i will be attempting to get through over the course of the day as well. you’re probably gonna get sick of me on dash! im sorry! such is the way of the smithaversary!

#* we interrupt this program ( PSA . )#this is long and rambly and im not sure it even has a point. how on brand <3

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normal-thoughts-official · 3 years

Note

Fandom racism anon here and yeah absolutely (I didn't realise I had anon on lol)

Because while LOTR has problems within its themes (ie the orcs can be seen as to be coded as people of colour, especially since they ride elephants) the explicit message of the book is evil bad

Because the only people who work for sauron are evil. There are no morally grey people, they aren't misguided or tricked they just are evil and want to take over the world

And yeah I totally agree that this is more of a literal take on like empirical war (is that the word) and that makes total sense considering Tolkiens history

Whereas I would say that the allegories in shaowhunters is way more based on racial conflict within a country itself especially slavery, I can't remember if this is show Canon but is it that they have the warlock tropheys? I remember that in the books magnus talks about shadowhunters hanging warlock marks on their walls? (sorry to bring the books up)

Idk it's very hollow to me, unlike with LOTR though it's a different allegory it's totally irritating to show many of these supremecists as morally misled. LOTR says bad guys are bad guys, shadowhunters says well yeah they did follow a guy which thinks that downworlders are subhuman and should be eradicated but they just made a mistake

I want to compare this to tfatws which while it isn't really fantasy I just feel like it shows how the priorities of the writer can impact the message of the show so powerfully (I know u aren't up to date so I'm gonna be pretty vague)

There's a scene in tfatws where the new white perfect captain America does something bad and doesn't pay for the consequences - done to comment on white privelege and how America condones white supremacy and how Sam is in comparison to that

Mayrse and Robert revealed to be part of the circle! And paid no consequences Shock horror my parents were the bad guys (even rho they were either implicitly or explicitly extremely racist the entire time) also I haven't finished the seires but do the lightwoods ever try to get their parents to face the consequences?)

Only one actual really critiques the situation and the reality behind it whereas the other one is just to centre the white characters once again and present them in a further sympathetic light

AND ANOTHER THING! I was mostly talking about show Canon here and I'm sorry to bring up the books but I literally can't believe I hadn't picked up in this before.

So like downworlders = people of colour, Simon is a vampire so is coded as a person of colour. However in the books in the last one he stops being a vampire and becomes a shadowhunters instead, coincidentally that's also when he starts dating Izzy HOW IS THIS ABLE TO HAPPEN!!????

I mean I know cassandra clare is lazy right? The original seires is by far the worst of all her writings but come ON!!!!! By the allegory has he become the white man!????? These books made no fuckin sense when I read them at 15 and they make no sense now I'm digressing anyways

I don't know man I wrote this ask because I was trying to find some fantasy book recommendations on booktube and SO MANY of them were about slavery or general ly extrême préjudice with à White protagonist to save this 'poor souls'.

Also I was watching guardians of the galexy the other day and realised nearly every movie set in space is just bigger stakes imperialism - planets instead of countries. Literally star wars, star trek, guardians of the galexy 2, avengers infinity war - all are facing genocidal imperialistic villains without actually paying much, if any attention to those effected

Just writing this ask made me exhausted I'm so tired of lazy writing and exploiting other people's struggle. I'm white and I'm trying to be more critical about the movies, shows and books I watch and read but let me know if I said something off here❤️❤️ you gotta get up to date with tfatws man, Sambucky nation is THRIVING!!!!

i'm not sure i agree that the whole "the evil people are evil" thing is a good thing, because i feel like more often than not making the bad characters just like... unidimensionally evil just means that the reader will be like "lol i could NEVER be that guy" and when it comes to racism that is a dangerous road to take because white people already believe that racism is something that Only The Most Evil People, Ergo, Not Me, Can Do, which makes discussions of stuff like subconscious racial bias and active antiracist work become more difficult because people don't believe they CAN be racist unless they're like, Lord Voldemort

which is not to say that racism should be treated as morally ambiguous, just that the workings of racism should be represented as something that is not done only by the Most Hardcore And Evil, but rather as a part of a system of oppression that affects the way everyone sees the world and interacts with it and lives in it

yes the warlock trophies are mentioned in the show, albeit very quickly (there is a circle member who tells magnus that his cat eyes will make "a nice addition to his collection" and then it's never mentioned again because this is sh and we love using racism for shock value but then not actually treating it as a serious plot point or something that affects oppressed ppl). and you are absolutely right, shadowhunters (and hp, and most fantasy books) has genocide as its core conflict and treats it, like you said, in a very hollow way, treating racism as both not a big deal and not something that is part of a system of oppression, but really the actions of a few Very Bad People. it's almost impressive how they manage to do both at the same time tbh

i think you hit the nail right on the head with this comment, actually. for most of these works, racism is SHOCK VALUE. it's just like "lol isn't it bad that this bad guy wants to kill a gazillion people just because they are muggles? now that is fucked up" but it's not actually an issue. in fact, when this guy is defeated, the whole problem is over! racism is not something that is embedded into that world, it's not a systemic issue, it's not even actually part of what drives the plot. the things that led to this person not only existing but rising to power and gathering enough followers to be a real threat to the whole world are never mentioned. it's like racists are born out of thin air, which is dangerously close to implying that racism is just a natural part of life, tbh

anyway my point is, it is never supposed to be questioned, it is never part of a deeper plot or story, its implications are barely addressed except for a few fleeting comments them and there; so, it's not a critique, it's shock value, even though it is frequently disguised as a critique (which is always empty and shallow anyway. like what is the REAL critique in works like hp or sh/tsc other than "genocide is bad"? wow such a groundbreaking take evelyn)

about simon and the book thing: i actually knew about this and the weird thing about this is that, like... simon is jewish, and he's implied to be ashkenazi (calls his grandma bubbe which is yiddish, which is a language spoken by the ashkenazi ppl), and it seems like cc is always toeing the line between him being accepted by shadowhunters and then not accepted by them, which sounds a lot like antisemitic tropes and history of swinging between (ashkenazi) jewish ppl being seen as the model minority myth and thus used as an example by white christians, and being hated and persecuted. i'm not super qualified to talk about this since i'm not jewish and i'm still learning about/unlearning antisemitism and its tropes, and i don't really have a fully formed thought on that, tbh; it just reminds me of the whole "model minority" swinging, where one second simon is part of the majority, the other he's not, but always he is supposed to give up a part of himself and his identity in other to be "assimilated" by shadowhunter culture. this article (link) covers a book on jewish people and assimilationism into USan culture, this article (link) covers british jews' relationship with being considered an ethnic group, and this article (link) talks a bit about the model minority myth from the perspective of an asian jewish woman

it just really calls to my attention that cc chose to make her ashkenazi jewish character start off as a downworlder and then become a shadowhunter. i don't think she made that decision as a conscious nod to this history, because it would require being informed on antisemitism lol but it's incredible how you can always see bigoted stereotypes shining through her narrative choices completely by accident. it just really shows how ingrained it is in our collective minds and culture

and anyway, making a character go from the oppressed group to just suddenly become the oppressor is just. wtf. not how oppression works, but most of all, really disrespectful, especially because she clearly treats it as an "upgrade"/"glowup" that earns him the Love Of His Life

also, out of curiosity, are you french? it seems like your autocorrect changed a few words and i'm pretty sure extrême and préjudice are the french versions of these words, and since u said ur white, that's where my money would be lol

#anti cc #anti tsc #anti tmi #anti sh #racism tw #antisemitism tw #reference #ask #residenthottiesamwilson

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writersmacchiato · 4 years

Text

seeing stars | charlie dalton

Summary: Charlie is in the unique position of falling in love with his fiancée while knowing nothing about her, only that they’re arranged to be married and she already has a boyfriend.

Request: Hi! Could I request a Charlie Dalton x Reader where they're set up for a marriage? And at the beginning they're not really happy about it cause either Charlie has a girlfriend or reader has a boyfriend but they end up liking each other. I'd love for it to have a LOT of fluff. Thanks in advance :) love u + Hi! I was wondering if you could write a really fluffy Charlie Dalton x reader please?? Thank you.

Warnings: angst with a happy ending, unnecessary detail about Charlie’s parents that isn’t canon, 2k words!!

You've got me seeing stars, brighter than ever Shining just like diamonds do

The rain splattered against the window, a roaring pour that offered no mercy to those unfortunate to be caught unawares by it. Charlie stared dismally at the passing cars and running people through the mirror, his expression was cold.

"Just a few more measurements, Mr. Dalton, then we'll be done."

Charlie hummed his acknowledgement, but he wasn't thinking about the suit he was wearing. The heavy material that weighed down his shoulders, tight around the chest, feeling more like a noose than something fit for a wedding.

"All done then." The tailor stepped away, folding his measuring tape away before making a few more notes in his notebook. "The alterations will be done by the 15th. Plenty of time before the happy day."

Happy day.

Charlie had to physically stop himself from scoffing. "Thank you."

His father clears his throat, looking up from his newspaper. He manages a tight-lipped smile at his son."Your mother will be pleased."

"Will she?" Charlie said, enjoying the way his father tenses.

The answer was no. Nothing pleased his mother; not the wealth of his father, the pride of a mother - she took her enjoyment by controlling those around her and bending them to her whim. She was pretty, beautiful back in her prime, but her relevance in high society was fading. A fact she hated more than anything.

. . .

There are rows and rows of fabric, cards with the names of the color written neatly in cursive.

"Purple or yellow?" Charlie flashed the two color cards at you, looking at the fabrics in disdain. Why were there so many?

"You can't just say a color! There are shades of purple and shades of yellow." You wrinkle your nose at him, looking between the two he held. "That canary yellow clashes with the plum. A darker yellow, like gold, would look better."

Charlie had to refrain from rolling his eyes. "I don't see how it matters. Or why they're making us plan so many things."

"They planned the marriage and can't even plan this?"

You catch his eye, both of you straight-faced, before you're looking away with a smile.

Charlie smiles to himself, flicking through the cue cards. It's only as he watches you walk away that he realizes it's the first time he's smiled genuinely around you.

. . .

You frown at the rich taste of buttercream; a velvety swirl of vanilla that is topped by a fondant white rose. The cake is vanilla bean, a soft and spongy delight that is overwhelmed by frosting.

Malinda Dalton, Charlie's mother, sighed in satisfaction. "This is the one."

Charlie sits with his arms crossed, looking at you with an unreadable expression.

"Are you sure? It's the first cake. We've prepared five cakes in total for tasting."

Malinda twists her mouth to the side, something she does when someone goes against her.

"It would be rude not to." You speak up with a smile, hiding your smirk at Malinda's side-eye in your direction. "In fact, we'd be delighted. Isn't that right, Charlie?"

"Absolutely." Charlie said.

The other cakes fall within the same line of the first one; delicious, but entirely too decadent. Malinda goes out of her way to make her distaste known, set on the first cake. You share a look with Charlie.

"I like the red velvet cake the best." You said.

"Really? Me too." Charlie fakes his surprise, noticing how you hold back a laugh.

An ugly look passes over Malinda's face before she covers it with her picture-perfect smile. "Well if it's what the couple wants..."

. . .

"Listen, Benny, when I say she's a momzilla--"

Charlie only hears the tail-end of your phone conversation, walking in with two glasses of champagne.

You're wearing a beautiful blue dress, an overlay of gold embellishments. Gold earrings catching the light as you turn away from the phone. There is no mistaking the sadness in your eyes, how much they glitter with melancholy.

"Talking to Ben?"

"Yeah."

Benjamin Jay West, your boyfriend of two years, or ex-boyfriend. Charlie wasn't sure what relation you still had with him.

"I'm sorry." Charlie said. "I know you'd rather be doing all of this with him."

Sometimes, Charlie forgets that you have a life outside of this. That you take classes at the state university, that you hang out with friends, that you have a boyfriend you love. This being the bullshit that is high society.

You don't say anything, but you offer a tepid smile. "I'm sorry, too. I know you don't want this either."

Charlie offers you the glass, watching the bubbles travel through the liquid. It's odd that this is the most you've talked without being forced to. You hold out the glass to his, clinking it gently.

"Cheers. To being in an arranged marriage like it's the eighteen hundreds."

Charlie smiles, genuinely smiles. "Cheers."

He can't help the small voice that says 'maybe this will be okay'.

. . .

Charlie doesn't hear from you in a week. Which isn't entirely unusual, but there was often something that had to be planned for the wedding that required some form of communication. It was two months away now. Invitations were sent out, RSVPs being received.

It was odd being outside of your studio apartment. Located downtown, it was close to the university. A graduation present from your parents. Charlie knew the address; had picked you up several times, had seen Ben peeking through the curtains.

Now, there was no sign of life.

The flowers on the stoop were wilted, a surprising neglect given your love of them. No lights are on that can be seen from the front entrance. It's quiet and suddenly he can't remember if anyone has heard from you.

The doorbell echoes throughout the building, before he hears the small patter of footsteps. Charlie can't help the way he visibly relaxes upon seeing you, even if your hair is messy and there are visible bags under your eyes.

"Charlie?" Your voice is tired, a little hoarse from disuse. "What are you doing here?"

"I was worried." He said. It surprises him how true that is.

"Do you want to come in?" You trail away, leading to the kitchen where you put on a kettle and grab two mugs.

You're quiet, the glittery look in your eyes that he's accustomed to seeing is gone, the air around you is filled with a sadness.

"Ben broke up with me." You said through a croak. "It's stupid. So stupid. I knew it would happen eventually, but I didn't expect it now--"

The kettle starts to whistle and you turn away from him, taking a long time to prepare the cups of tea. Charlie doesn't comment on it.

"I'm sorry." Charlie isn't sure how many times he's said that now, but it feels insignificant. Not worth enough.

"I wish I was brave enough to leave him when I found out, but I was too selfish." There are steady tears trailing from your eyes, finally putting a dull sparkle in them that is nothing compared to your usual brightness.

"I'm sorry." He says it again, like maybe if it means enough something will change.

. . .

You throw yourself into finishing the final details of the wedding.

Charlie didn't expect it. If anything he anticipated more resistance. It scares him, how eerily perfect your mask is.

He knows that is what you did; form a mask that hid your heartbreak over losing Ben. You never indulged much information about him. Only small tidbits that slipped out, everything Charlie knew about him was gathered from how you behaved after talking to him. The smile that was radiant, eyes shining with stars.

His father looks at the venue, carefully watching his wife from the corner of his eye as she walked around with a clipboard in hand. Pen in hand, making notes.

"You know, all things considered...you're lucky."

Charlie tosses a nasty look at his father, daring him to keep speaking with the sarcasm dripping. "Really?!"

"Your bride-to-be has a good head on her shoulders, she's funny, smart. She isn't like other young ladies her age."

Charlie follows his father's gaze, finding his mother meticulously smoothing out a tablecloth. Despite the burst of anger that rises at his father's words, he sees the reason behind it. They could have set him up with a stranger, someone like his mother who cared about money and status. At least he somewhat knew you before the arrangement was made. You were smart, incredibly witty. He was surprised how often you made him laugh. There is that voice again, louder;

'maybe it won't be so bad'.

. . .

The suit, with its alterations, looked perfect on him. The navy crisped and starched, looking pristine against the bundle of flowers pinned to his breast pocket. His hair was combed, full of gel that crunched his hair in a way he hated.

There was no denying that he looked every part of the handsome groom, though on the inside he was anything but.

His feelings had wavered for you over the months, but he was certain that he didn't feel anything close to love. Perhaps he liked how you smiled at him, how your eyes crinkled at the edges. The way you stood up to his mother and father. How intelligent you were, devoted to your studies but never letting them rule your life.

In different circumstances, Charlie might have fallen in love with you.

Instead he hears the organ begin playing, watching as you walk down the aisle in a white dress that looks extremely extravagant and nothing like you would pick out.

Your hands are cold in his, your expression empty. The necklace around your neck, a gift from your mother, shines brightly under the light - a stark contrast to the lack of light in your eyes.

"I do."

Never had two words been more damning, Charlie thinks as he kisses you for the first time. It's brief, awkward, and cold. Pulling away, his hand holds you as he leads the way out of the room.

The guests in attendance clap politely, showing no real enthusiasm, as if they too know that this wedding is unwanted.

. . .

Silence.

The apartment was full of deafening quiet, something Charlie eventually adjusted to. Instead he took note of mundane sounds: the scratch of your pen on paper while you studied and did homework, the soft patter of your socks on the floor, clinking of cups in the morning as you made enough tea for two.

It wasn't an unbearable existence. Charlie quickly beginning to notice your quirks and habits.

The silence is broken one early morning when he wakes up and sees that you're not in your room or kitchen. Worry picks at him before he sees the open balcony door. You're huddled under a wool blanket, cup of tea in hand, looking at the sun setting.

"Hey." You scoot over on the small bench, leaving room for him.

For once the silence doesn't feel cold or tense.

"I love sunrises."

"It's too damn early."

Maybe, Charlie thinks as he looks at your laughing face and starry eyes, maybe it will be okay.

. . .

The air is cold, fresh, as the morning dew collects on grass blades and leaves. There is a thin film of fog slowly dispersing as the sun creeps over the thicket of pine trees.

Charlie opens the door to the back porch, a blanket folded over his arm, with two mugs of tea in hand. The mugs touch the table with a gentle clank. You lean into his side, tucking the blanket under your chin. His hand runs over your arm, nose nestling against your head.

No words are exchanged as you watch the sunrise, finishing the tea in slow sips before it grows tepid. Pink blends into blue, a soft purple giving way to a peach that slowly slips away until it's only an ebb of yellow and blue.

"Can't believe in two days it'll be one year." You whisper, playing with the simple gold band on his finger.

Charlie presses a kiss to your cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Charlie feels his heart soar when you can't contain your smile, beaming up at him. Your eyes glittering with stars as you look at him.

#charlie dalton x reader #charlie dalton imagine #dead poets society x reader #dead poets society imagine #dps x reader #dps imagine #dps #charlie dalton #i feel like this doesnt flow very well but oh well

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monolithrose · 4 years

Text

Happy holidays. Have some holiday whiterose. No, how dare u assume I wrote this in a couple hours bc I forgot. I did not. how could u assume that. Shush, Weiss’ bday is on x-mas in this fic, this is my fic, I will use whatever head canons I want . and bees have already become canon.

<<<<0>>>>

It was Christmas Eve, Ruby should be running down the halls with a pair of reindeer antlers on while singing Christmas carols, but she wasn’t, because Christmas Day happened to also be her partners birthday and she hadn’t gotten her a gift for either of those important dates.

Weiss was for sure getting flowers, chocolates, and every other common gift under the sun from suitors and their friends, but Ruby wanted to get her something special. Something to show she cared more than any of those bozo suitors wearing 2,000$ ties. She had considered getting her a puppy because of how much she loved Zwei, but they would never allow a dog in the atlas dorms. Then she thought about every other animal she could adopt as a sort of loophole, but then remembered how strict the rules herein atlas are.

She had even considered getting some new parts for mytrenaster, but Weiss would be expecting that. Ruby was lost deep in thought and was only dragged back when she heard Yang calling her name.

“Earth to Ruby, you there?” She jokingly asked

Ruby spread her fingers to look at her sister “What?”

“What's got you so stressed out?” Yang hopped up onto the bed next to Ruby, wrapping an arm around her shoulders “y’ know you can tell your big sis anything”

“I haven’t gotten Weiss anything for Christmas…” She groaned

“Did you get her anything for her birthday, I’m sure you’d be able to play it off if you did”

Ruby looked up and shook her head

Yang took in a sharp breath “Ouch. You dug yourself into a hole, didn’t you?”

“I did…do you have any ideas”

“Do what I did, get her some flowers and chocolate”

Ruby groaned again “But everyone to ever know Weiss is getting her that! I want to get her something original, something from the heart, y’ know?”

The blonde raised a brow before she seemed to understand “Something from the heart…” she placed a hand on her chin like she had a beard “Wait, that just gave me an idea…I’ll be right back!” With that, she sprung from the bed and dashed out of the dorm

“wait nooo! don’t leave me!” The brunette whined, dramatically flopping on the bed.

When she rolled over she noticed that when Yang went running top speed out of the room she flung a flyer into the room, it had bright colors and the words Winter carnival written across it in big bold letters. She stood from her bed to grab the flyer, as expected it was a winter carnival held in the center of atlas. Strange, why hadn’t Weiss ever mentioned this before? She didn’t have much time to dwell on it before the said girl had entered the room.

“Whatcha got there?” Weiss asked, looking at the paper her partner held.

Well, this carnival was the best thing she had birthday/Christmas present wise, and people didn’t usually tell other people what they’re getting them, so she shoved the flyer into her pocket and stuttered out

“N…nothing! Nothing at all!”

“Uh-huh, let me see it” Weiss held out her hand expectantly

“Oh haha would ya look at the time! Gotta go! Talk later!” Ruby dashed out the door, using her semblance so her partner wouldn’t be able to grab her.

“That was…weird” Weiss muttered, she just assumed it was Ruby being…well…Ruby and didn’t pay to much attention to it.

<<<<0>>>>

Ruby ran to hide in the bathroom, knowing there was nowhere else Weiss couldn’t get to her. She opened her scroll to do more research on the carnival, she found out quite a bit, like how it was the perfect place to visit for Christmas, and probably the perfect place to buy time with fun games, rides, and popcorn so she could find a present perfect for Weiss.

She came up with a plan, she’d go to the carnival with the rest of the team, Yang and Blake could go off on a date, and Ruby would try and find a present for Weiss while they both hopefully had fun at the carnival.

“Okay, okay, plan to go to the carnival and find Weiss a present is a go!” Ruby whisper yelled, smiling and doing a quick fist bump.

<<<<0>>>>

A few hours before nightfall was set to come and all of team RWBY was finally in the dorm. the team's leader set her plan into motion.

“Team meeting!” She yelled out, not so gracefully jumping off of her bunk bed

“What is it? Are we out of cookies again?” Weiss sarcastically commented, putting the book she had been reading down.

“That, and I’ve decided we are going to the winter carnival!” She excitedly announced, pulling the flyer out of her pocket “Like, right now”

“Winter carnival?” Blake asked, sending her white-haired teammate a questioning look

“Yeah, I found a flyer for it and thought it’d be fun to go! Y’know, ride roller coasters, win prizes, eat cheap popcorn”

Yang shrugged “I don’t see why not”

“Well if Yangs going…” The raven-haired faunas answered, tucking a lock of hair behind her (human) ear.

“Weiss?” Ruby questioned, looking at her partner with puppy dog eyes

“please”

“Fine…” Weiss sighed “But only because you said please”

“Yay! Team bonding activity!” Ruby cheered “we leave in an hour! Get ready!”

<<<<0>>>>

An hour later they were boarding a train to the center of atlas where the carnival was being held and even from almost a mile away they could see the Ferris wheel built in the shape of a snowflake. Ruby was practically vibrating from excitement, shaking Weiss’ arm and gushing to her about how fun it would be.

Weiss was listening with a little smile on her face, she only heard half of it because of how fast her partner was talking, but she still listened anyways. Yang was talking to Blake about how she used to win all the carnival games when she and Ruby were kids and how their dad kept a shelf full of plushies won from the games.

As they were getting off the train Ruby began tugging at Weiss’ arm

“Come on! Come on! You walk so slow” She whined

“I swear you’re still a child” Weiss teased, playfully rolling her eyes

“Hey! I just turned 18! I’m not a kid anymore”

“But you’re still a child”

Ruby pouted and wrapped both arms around Weiss’ arm “Weissss!” She began trying to drag her towards the ticket booth and was successful. Weiss was pretty surprised that she was strong enough to drag her, but she was worried she’d chisel down her heels.

“Hey! Careful! You’re going to break my heels and then we’ll have to go home”

Ruby turned around “Then walk faster, silly! Yang and Blake have already abandoned us” She pouted and muttered, “This was supposed to be a team activity…”

Weiss felt bad, so she patted Ruby’s head and moved her hand to hold onto her partners “hey, you’ve still got me, we can turn this into a partner activity, I know we haven’t had that much time together”

That seemed to brighten Ruby’s spirit “Yeah, that sounds nice…” she began tugging on Weiss’ hand again “Let's go, I promise no dragging this time”

“Good, because I’d like to keep my arm in its socket”

“Heh, sorry” Ruby chuckled, itching the back of her head sheepishly.

“It’s fine, now, how about we go to eat cheap popcorn”

“yay!”

Ruby set off towards the ticket booth, this time not attempting to accidentally pull Weiss’ arm off. The line wasn’t very long, it was pretty late after all, so they got their tickets within a few minutes of waiting.

“This one's on me” Weiss announced, attempting to pull out the lien from her pocket.

Ruby put a hand on the one trying to hand the bored teenager behind the counter lien, then grabbed her own money out of her pocket and handed it to him.

“No, no, this was my idea, I’ll pay”

“But-” Weiss protested

“Weiss, you don’t have to ‘treat’ everyone constantly” She chuckled, taking the wristbands and tickets from the teen.

When they entered the smell of cotton candy and butter hit Weiss directly in the face and she gagged a bit and covered her nose, it smelt like a trash can. Ruby was attempting to put the wristband on…with her teeth…but laughed when Weiss gagged.

“What, have you never been to a carnival?” She still had part of the paper wristband in-between her teeth so it was muffled slightly, but released it when she finally managed to tighten it around her wrist.

“No I have not, my father rarely even let me out of the house, let alone let me into a ‘commoners activity’” She said the last part with a bit of venom in her voice, she didn’t like the way her father described anyone that wasn’t him “His words, not mine”

“Well tonight we’re going to make sure you have the most fun you can have at a carnival” She began fastening the paper onto Weiss’ wrist, who sent her a confused look “Trust me, you don’t wanna have to use your teeth”

Weiss laughed “You’re a dolt, you know that, right?”

“Mhmm, but I’m your dolt”

“Got that right”

Ruby’s eyes landed on something and she smiled with a look of pure joy “Ooh! Ooh! Can we play that shooter game! I bet you I can beat it because of my super awesome sniper skills” Ruby exclaimed, pointing to a game that had tiny moving cardboard aliens and nerf guns set up to shoot at them.

“Lead the way”

Ruby hadn’t let go of Weiss’ hand when she put the wristband on, so she dragged her to the booth. A dog faunas stood at the booth, playing on her scroll. Without Ruby asking, she held out her hand and began chewing her gum even louder to show her disinterest.

“3 tickets”

Ruby ripped the correct amount of tickets off the role she had been given and placed it in the girl's hand.

“Shoot the alien. Get a prize. you look older than 12, I’m sure you know the rules” She explained, not looking away from her scroll the whole time. She pressed a button and the aliens lit up while LED’s in one of the guns turned on and began flickering

Ruby smirked and put her hands on the gun, it was just like crescent rose’s sniper form. She managed to shoot almost every single alien, all except one that was worth like 5 points so she didn’t mind that much. The girl looked up, rolling her eyes, and pointed to the stuffed animals on the wall.

“Pick one” She looked back at her scroll and began typing

“What one do you think?” Ruby asked Weiss, turning to her

Weiss’ eyes scanned the wall of toys, and her eyes landed on the giant cookie wearing a Santa hat she knew her partner would love “I think you should get that one” She pointed to it and Ruby beamed at her

“Good idea, I like that one” She turned back to the unamused faunas

"That one” She pointed to the cookie and the girl finally put her scroll down to grab it for Ruby, then handed it to her before going back to texting.

“Told ya I could beat it!” Ruby exclaimed, with a smile

“I didn’t doubt you” Weiss laughed “Guess you were right, this place seems… decent”

“Geez Weiss, you sound like your sister”

“Oh haha,” She grabbed Ruby by the arm and dragged her forward.

Throughout the night they did end up having fun, Ruby won Weiss a few more prizes, who blushed whenever she was handed a new plush. They saw Yang and Blake a few times, who both had mountains of prizes stacked mile high that just seemed to get bigger every time they were spotted in the crowd.

“How are they going to fit that on the train…? Or in the dorm…” Weiss muttered, eyeing the gigantic teddy bear that was at least 7 ft tall hanging off of Yangs back “Or the rest of those stuffed animals”

“Awww, Weiss, do you wanna bear to?” Ruby asked, positioning a stuffed fox and a tiger so she could hold both under her arm and eat cotton candy.

“Like either of us would be able to carry that thing” Weiss huffed

Ruby was about to make a come back when she saw a stall selling jewelry, then she saw it. It was a necklace that had a snowflake on it, but in the back was what looked like rubies and some sort of clear cast over it to keep everything in place. There were a few blue gems on the chain as well. It was perfect, but now she needed to distract Weiss so she could snag the necklace.

Luckily a food court just so happened to be next to the booth, the perfect diversion.

“Hey Weiss, could you go grab us some food? A hotdog is fine for me” She asked

“uh, sure, if you could grab a table” Weiss answered, a bit confused

“Got it! Okay, see you in a sec”

Weiss sent her a weird look then walked off to get food. Ruby placed her stuff down on a table right next to the gate separating the food court from the main area, everything was going to plan.

Ruby walked up to the booth and smiled “Uh…excuse me, sir?”

Unlike all the other people running the booths, this man seemed happy to be there, he had a bright smile and a cheery sounding voice “Yes ma’am!”

“How much would that necklace be…?” She pointed to the snowflake necklace and the man smiled even brighter when he saw what she was pointing to

“Glad you asked! Lemme see here…” He reached back to grab the necklace and showed Ruby the price tag.

She winced when she saw it, but it was for Weiss, so she smiled softly “I’ll take it, it’s the perfect gift for a friend of mine”

His smile somehow got wider “Great, I’ll box it up for you, would you like a special message for this special friend?”

“Yes please,” She realized what he had said and looked confused “Special friend…?”

“I get a feeling this friend is more than a friend,” He said in a low voice like he only wanted Ruby to hear it “Anyway! What would you like this message to say?” He added the statement quickly so the brunette didn’t have a lot of time to process what he had said

Ruby thought for a sec before she told him, and he gladly wrote it on the inside of the box. She handed over the lien and gave a small wave before heading back to the food court where Weiss was approaching, food in hand.

“Whatcha get?” Weiss asked when she sat down.

“Uhhh nothing! Let's hurry and eat, I wanna show you something” Ruby explained, putting the box in the pocket of her sweater.

Weiss raised a brow but chalked it up to her partner doing some last-minute Christmas shopping.

<<<<0>>>>

Ruby had bought a bag to hold all of the prizes in specifically for this situation so she could put her hands over Weiss’ face.

“Ruby, where are you taking me?” She asked, reaching up to hold onto one of her partner's arms, just to make sure she didn’t get ditched.

“You’ll see” She chuckled

Little did Weiss know that Ruby was leading them to the Ferris wheel in the center of the carnival, and just in time for her to enact the last part of her plan. aka the part, she added in 15 minutes ago. She silently paid the ticket taker and helped her into the gondola that was also very winter themed. When they were both sitting in the winter-themed cart she finally removed her hand from Weiss’ eyes

“Ta-da! Since this carnival is all night, I thought why not ride a Ferris wheel into Christmas!” Ruby chirped “Since y’know…it’s 11:50 and I DID pay for a 20-minute ride”

Weiss sent her a soft smile “Sounds perfect”

Ruby’s cheeks turned a bit redder and she was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cold. Before they could say anything else the gondola began moving, startling Weiss.

“Woah, please don’t tell me you’ve also never been on a Ferris wheel” Ruby piped

“Well, I have bad news for you” Weiss grumbled, scooting a bit closer to the warmth radiating off of her partner.

The wheel stopped at the top and those pretty cerulean eyes sparkled when she looked over the edge at the city

“It’s really…pretty” She gawked

Ruby smiled “I’m glad you like it” She glanced at the time on her scroll…almost time.

They went around one more time and ended up frozen on the top of the wheel when the clock chimed midnight, it was Christmas and Weiss’ birthday. It was time.

“Hey…umm Weiss” Ruby muttered

“yeah?” Weiss answered

“I got you something for Christmas and your birthday…since it’s midnight…I think it’s the perfect time” She grabbed the box out of her pocket, fiddling with it in her hands

“I left your present at home though..” Weiss confessed “I didn’t think we’d be doing this” She laughed softly

“It’s okay, I can wait until morning” She took in a deep breathe and handed the box to her partner, who gingerly took it “I know it’s not a lot…but…I uh…Uhm” Uh oh. here comes the stuttering

“it's alright, if it's from you, then it’s my favorite gift I’ve received” Weiss smiled that lopsided smile she seemed to have reserved for Ruby.

Ruby was about to stutter something out but Weiss had already opened it and looked shocked. in her eyes, the necklace was beautiful. Then she noticed the note. It was tucked beneath the necklace, but it looked important.

She grabbed it and unfolded it, and what she read made her heart stop.

Dear Weiss,

I know this probably isn’t the most lavish gift you’ll receive, but there’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now. If you don’t think the same way, I completely understand, you don’t have to talk to me ever again if you don’t want to. But, I love you. More than you know. You’ve supported me more than anyone else, and in my book, that means you’re my best friend, and I’d love to be able to call you my girlfriend…if you’d allow it.

- Ruby R.

Ruby was sitting, she faces a bright red and looking incredibly nervous. She was playing with the cloth on her sweater with shaky hands and was visibly sweating as she stared directly at the floor with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed her it, too much of a chicken to say anything. Of course, Weiss felt the same way, and she was more than willing to let Ruby know.

“Ruby…” Weiss whispered “I’d love to be called your girlfriend” She gently ran her thumbs over the letter, smiling softly.

Ruby looked at her “D…does that mean…” She croaked

“Yes, Yes it means-” She took in a shaky breath “-it means I love you…”

Weiss wasn’t able to finish her sentence before a pair of warm lips were on her own, and she was more than happy to kiss back.

She slowly wrapped her arms around Ruby’s neck so it looked like a moment from a cheesy Christmas movie. When they pulled away the younger girl giggled, holding her new girlfriend close.

“I’m so glad that worked…” She sighed, pressing her head against Weiss’

“You didn’t need to do all of that just to woo me, dolt”

“But I wanted to prove to you how much I love you” She sighed again, this time it was more of a happy sight than a tired sigh “merry Christmas Weiss”

“Merry Christmas Ruby…”

~~~~Bonus~~~~

Yang looked down at her stopwatch, staring up at the Ferris wheel.

“They’ve been up there for almost 20 minutes now…” She sighed

“Do you think Ruby finally confessed like she planned to last Christmas?” Blake asked, squinting to try and look at the two atop the snowflake wheel.

“Knowing Ruby, probably not…”

“I wouldn’t be so sure” Blake chuckled, pointing upwards.

Yang looked up, just barely making out the two kissing “By the gods she did it…”

“I’m proud of her, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, she learned well from her awesome big sister”

Blake laughed and kissed her cheek “Come on, we have to go take care of all these stuffed animals…” she turned to look at the huge crate filled with plush toys “What am I going to do with you…”

Yang laughed “Love me and give me all the affection”

“Sounds like a good plan”

<<<<0>>>>

Hey all, hope ya liked that, that was a bit longer than I planned, but longer the better right? It’s 3 am but X-mas Ain’t over! And yes, I will write the bee POV of this, just later.

#whiterose #bumblby #weiss x ruby #iceflower #fanfiction #rwby #christmas fics #hhhhh I pumped out 3k words in one sitting in 3 hours #then spent 2 editing #my fanfiction #writing

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zhonglisimper · 3 years

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`` the city of unity `` | dystopia au

⇢ 1,028 words of a flash-forward several millennia of a godforsaken world.

⇢ Contains profanity, dead animals, implications of rotting corpses, mentions and/or implications of police corruption (bribery).

⇢ Any similarities between characters, timelines and places is purely coincidental. This is nothing but a work of fiction. All rights reserved to Mihoyo Inc. for the canon characters, titles and locations to be named.

⇢ Cr. to Liam Wong for the banner used below. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5Lnn9Lg48jv1RvvvLnKKrJK/neon-dreamland-atmospheric-photographs-of-tokyo-after-dark

OTHER NOTES:

will be cross-posted on my AO3 once i finally set that account up. ();u;)

oh shit school will be coming in like 30 hours at the date of posting on tumblr so i can’t promise i’ll post regularly, especially since i signed up for this one event,, fuck

another reason i can’t promise i could even continue with this is because 1) this was very impulsive and was actually an attempt for me to go to sleep at 4-5am 2) i didn’t plan far into this, the last thing i worked on were the characters and even then i doubt i’m finished bc i’m not satisfied bye

also this doesn’t strictly follow the official lore, whether from the manga or not. the official lore definitely did serve as a basis, but there might be statements in the narrative that are deviated from the official facts and that is perfectly intentional! damn right i beta read but only bc i had to write everything from my broken phone to my laptop manually

Only the dead archons from long ago know what millennia it currently is.

In any case, speaking from the perspective of a human being currently reading this - presumably one from a distant present, considering the methods I have undertaken to preserve this: my envisioning.

I’m sure the overbearing gods and goddesses in Celestia will strike at me with a snap, which is why I am in a hurry to note as much detail of my revelation as possible. I am no priest, nor chieftain of a tribe, but a mere... dreamer? Or delusional? Perhaps both; regardless, my identity is but a trivial matter, now and in the future.

Let me begin by the strong iron gates I envision myself stumbling upon every weekend. The gates are tall and proud, and thicker than Madame Lisa’s bookshelves. It is evident that this holy gate is meant to keep away the unwanted. Which is understandable - for the world beyond the gate, once one looks behind themselves, is nothing but the never-ending void. It is dark and will certainly suck the life and joy out of someone.

Perhaps that is why so many outcasts line themselves up to get to enter the sacred City of Unity, the only cluster of civilization left standing after the Interstellar War. Surely, the darkness beyond the walls of the thriving city are all because of the towering mountains of garbage that take up all the light. The dusty haze of unknown substances wafting in the already-putrid air don’t aid in letting sunlight in either.

This, my lieges, is the price the denizens of Teyvat shall pay for being blinded by words and revelations of Celestia and its power-hungry archons. They (the archons) are just as much of tyrants as the Lawrence Clan was. You’d think that they had it all - beauty, grace, brains and power - so what was there to thirst for, especially in the mortal realm?

Much to my dismay, even I, who is but a mere mortal, cannot answer such a complex thought.

Nevertheless, the city appears to be very futuristic; there are significant technological and scientific advances. Alchemy is but a dead folklore, and the mysterious denizens have evolved to “cyberpunk” technology. Visions have also become nothing but dead folklore. After all, what on Earth would any of the denizens need a Vision for when cutting-edge technology was at their feet, giving them the power to alter their godforsaken appearances? Their physical and mental capabilities? Their senses? It gave that damned civilization a sense of security, a sense of wealth and elegance and power, regardless of social status.

But tyranny has revived itself once more; the ever-so-humble wishes of the Lord Barbatos have blown away with any sanity left during the War. All of the Geo Archon’s hard labor into shaping the lands into precise perfection have gone down the drain, and Fontaine’s famously just system has evaporated into nothingness. Tyranny hails in the City of Unity, and the wealthiest of entrepreneurs take their holy seats. For in the City of Unity, it is widely believed (and affirmed, even a drunken fool can see the facts and statistics) that the said city would certainly not be where it is now - eternal florescent lights, advanced machinery, unparalleled science and evolutionary bio-alchemy that not even dear Miss Sucrose can match - without the diligence and intellect of the leading entrepreneurs. After all, they are the ones that funded the scientists who discovered and created all the blessed machinery that the city so desperately depends on like a drug and its pusher. Like an alcoholic and his wine.

Because of their seemingly endless wealth and sheer social power, the military turn a blind eye to the graft and corruption of the famed entrepreneurs. Even when a brave soul speaks up with the appropriate evidence, that evidence will never be able to compare to the five lawyers hard at work for their single client.

And it’s not like Miss Angelica, founder and chief of Honey Entertainment, can indulge on the secrets of her fellow business partners, for everyone in the business realm has something to say about everyone. One misstep could lead to the ultimate downfall of any entrepreneur, with all of them equally knowing the way the general public despises them. They are arrogant, but not ignorant - no good businessman would get where the holy seven are now if ignorance to the general public’s opinions blazed in their cores.

But who are they (the general public) to comment, the rich ponder, when it’s all thanks to their ‘philanthropy’ that the rats below their aristocratic asses have food to eat in the first place.

And at the end of the day, the rats below can only hope to make it another rainy day in the ever-raining city as they snake through the cramped alleyways that still hold the scent of cigarettes, beer and cup noodles, all combined in one nauseating scent altogether. And goodness, it’s been two weeks, haven’t the exterminators stopped by yet? The corpses of the actual rats are beginning to pile over the dark corners behind the trash cans. Do they not get paid enough? Probably not. No one in the general public ever does.

Mora is still a thing of the future. No one has ever bothered to change its name, despite the God of Mora dead during this future. Honestly, it’s not that they still want to honor him, rather, nobody cares. In this world, money is money, and it’s only the value and profiting this money long money that matters. Where it came from, how it came to be, what the fuck others call it is irrelevant. Besides, it’s not like the entrepreneurs could think of a more fascinating title befitting for the very currency that feeds their mouths and provides all their pleasures.

And although Mora had been a name for eons, its value had, for once, been disputed. ‘Tis but a powerful curse laid upon the techy city by the entrepreneurs. Still, Mora has, fortunately, been the only currency the City of Unity uses. Even if they’ve converted to online banking and “ATM.”

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panharmonium · 4 years

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@merlinobsessionist you understand me on a spiritual level

[putting the rest of this under a cut because it just ended up being me grumping at length about fandom trends - which, yes, i am well-aware is a silly endeavour in all cases, but sometimes you just gotta have your little grump regardless, you know, for health reasons. X) and in this particular case the grumping is probably relevant/entertaining only to myself, and you, and one or two other people here, so, tucking it away to spare everyone’s dash :) ]

the other day i was exploring the mostly abandoned wasteland that is the merlin fandom on livejournal (since that’s my original fandom home and obviously i missed out on being involved in that particular niche of lj when merlin was active, so i was feeling nostalgic and kinda curious as to it had looked like) - i stumbled over a merlin fic-finders comm and looked up my boy william just for kicks, and surprisingly, a couple of the old requests sounded like maybe i WAS involved in the merlin fandom on livejournal back then and i just don’t remember it

i think i wrote this in a past life

this is an eleven year-old comment in a mostly defunct fandom community but i felt it in my BONES

oh, my dear commenter from 8 years ago, i WISH XD

it made me laugh, and then it made me grumpy, because obviously there were very few suggestions offered in response to these asks - the fics just don’t exist, not in any numbers.

and like, the thing is, i don’t particularly care about the shipping side of things for the most part; i always lean towards gen and that’s mostly been it, for me; that’s always been my MO in every fandom i’ve ever participated in, but - look. if i have to witness (*checks ao3*) 23,830 (twenty four thousand. twenty four THOUSAND!!!!) instances of merlin getting together with arthur hecking pendragon, over and over and over again, in every AU configuration under the sun, then you had better believe i am ready and willing to plead the case of the only person in the merlin-verse who did not think arthur pendragon deserved merlin’s entire life.

and of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with arthur and merlin as an item, obviously (i mean, i can name a few things about it that don’t appeal to me personally, but that is not the same thing as a value judgment) and everybody should have fun with their own ships, always - but for me, personally, there is just...enough of that out there. i have seen Enough. it’s hard for me to even determine where the rest of the fandom is, under the ever-present spread of merlin/arthur content; a picture of merlin/arthur should literally be next to the dictionary entry for steamroller.

and of course, i knew it would be like this from the beginning, and i know complaining about the ubiquitousness of a particular ship in fandom is utterly silly, in the end, because it’s not like there’s anything wrong with something being ubiquitous - the whole point of fandom is to make what you love, and if that’s what everybody loves, well, hey, that’s just how it is! that’s what people should be making - the stuff they love! that’s what fandom is here for! i only mutter to myself in the bubble of my own blog because the ubiquitousness makes it almost impossible for me to find what *i* love, because i don’t want to read about arthur/merlin in the first place, no matter who else appears in the fic, and also because my fave minor character, while he gets a pretty good amount of fannish screentime for someone who showed up in one episode, also suffers from the curse known as “virtually everything he features in is actually about merlin and arthur getting it on”

like - by the numbers, when you exclude merlin/arthur from will’s character tag, will retains less than 20% of his fics, some of which are already like...you know, he’s dead, or just mentioned, et cetera.

and his poor ship tag...he and merlin have 136 fics in their tag, and at first you wanna look at that and be like - ‘hey, not bad, pal, that’s p. good for a rarepair!’ but in actuality, less than 20 of those fics are actually about him and merlin. like...12% of his own ship tag actually belongs to him, and the rest is him being used as a plot device to get arthur and merlin together.

and i am sure that a lot of other side characters probably suffer from this, too, given the general fic distribution in this fandom, though the only person i’ve looked at for comparison purposes is freya, who is a (mostly) one-ep character like will. she, despite that, doesn’t appear to get hit quite as hard - she seems to keep more of her fic for herself, which is nice (when i exclude merlin/arthur from the freya/merlin search, freya still retains about 65% of her fics, as opposed to will’s sad little 12%). i’m glad for her, though - she of all people does not need to be losing fic to arthur; she has suffered enough.

to put things in perspective, though - merlin and uther have more fics in their ship tag that earnestly focus on the tagged....hnhhmgnhn i can’t say it...relationship than merlin and will do - even filtering out every instance of dubcon/noncon.

(and yes, i did in fact want to die when i had to actually click the merlin/uther tag on ao3 in order to check that factoid, thanks for asking.)

so, that said - i don’t generally read canon-era fic anyway, when i’m actively writing for a fandom, but since the merlin fandom sometimes feels like it consists solely of modern AU’s anyway, all i am trying to say is that it would be nice if i could pick up an AU including a character i enjoy without seeing him constantly reduced to:

merlin’s loser ex

merlin’s abusive ex (w h at)

merlin’s ex who’s kinda sorta tolerable-ish, maybe, if you squint, but just ultimately Not Right for merlin - holding merlin back, or being too overbearing, or too pushy, or Just Not Enough - or being someone who merlin stays with only bc he’s familiar and merlin’s settling for something safe and unrisky and stagnantly unfulfilling

the dude who merlin cheats on to be with arthur

the dude who cheats on merlin, bc the fic needed a reason to break up merlin and will so that white-knight!arthur could swoop in (cue me shouting ‘IN WHAT UNIVERSE DO YOU THINK WILL WOULD EVER - ’)

the dude merlin “makes mistakes with” when things with arthur aren’t going well

the friend-with-benefits who’s apparently chill with a casual arrangement, thus keeping himself conveniently out of the way of the oncoming merlin/arthur train

the friend-with-benefits who’s secretly NOT chill with a casual arrangement and who’s pining for merlin, except we all know that ain’t ever going anywhere because arthur exists, and in the meantime merlin only ever gets together with will to try and forget his problems

the friend-with-no-benefits who’s still pining for merlin (which situation, i might add, would be read completely differently if it were arthur in will’s shoes, because if that were the case then the audience would 100% be rooting for him)

the “best friend” whose only purpose in fic is to provide space for conversations/debriefs about merlin’s relationship/pre-relationship with arthur (like - i’m sorry, but there desperately needs to be some type of bechdel-esque test for will; e.g. do will and merlin have a conversation about something other than arthur pendragon? if yes, u win, u may pass go, collect 20 dollars, congratulations)

the friend whose dislike of arthur always, ALWAYS ends up being framed as a mistake. as will’s stubborn unwillingness to give arthur a chance, until at last will sees the light and succumbs to the irresistible beauty of merlin and arthur’s eternal love. -_- there is vanishingly rare acknowledgement in fic of the fact that in the canon universe, all of the criticisms will makes about merlin and arthur’s relationship are not only accurate, but made in merlin’s best interests (and also, ultimately, proven right, by the end of the show - merlin tanks his whole damn life for a series of empty promises prophesying arthur pendragon’s future potential, and he gets NOTHING for his devotion. merlin is more alone at the end of the show than he was at the beginning, when his only dream was to be loved and accepted by more than the two people who’d comprised his entire life up until that point. and he spends at least half a decade in between the show’s hopeful beginning and its miserable end being told that he’s evil by the very person for whom he is expected to sacrifice his future.

so what, exactly, makes will so wrong to be wary? who among us wouldn’t be angry if we saw somebody we loved being forced to sacrifice themselves on an unforgiving altar like this?

i don’t know the answer. i’m not sure what it is that earns will his spot on the “destined to be shafted for arthur pendragon” list. i don’t know if it’s an unconscious backlash to will’s refusal to hop on the arthur/merlin train, or if it’s just a superficial understanding/lack of genuine interest in his character, which, in that case, sure, i’ll give people that one, in all fairness; not everyone has spent a year picking his character apart (though i still don’t think it justifies tossing him in there just because the fic needs a random insert who can be positioned as inferior to arthur’s gloriousness). either way, the end result is that we usually end up seeing a will who has very little in common with his source material, or who needs to ultimately step aside to make way for arthur - arthur, who never displays the same level of care toward merlin in canon that merlin shows toward him, and who actively oppresses merlin’s people for the entire duration of their relationship.

like...it’s all just fic, obviously, and we can make characters as OOC as we want; have fun; go wild. but at the same time, it’s impossible for me not to balk at how arthur in some of this fic is just - utterly unrecognizable. in comparison with fic!will, arthur is the most Solicitous, Gentle, Understanding, Deeply Concerned, Invested-In-Merlin’s-Welfare-and-Inner-Thoughts creature you ever did see, and I’m just over here like - it is not like that! it is NOT LIKE THAT! IT HAS LITERALLY NEVER BEEN LIKE THAT. arthur pendragon in fic sometimes interacts with merlin like - he tilts his head and listens like a therapist and affirms absolutely everything merlin says and tells him ‘gosh, i understand. tell me more. how can i help you’ - he goes about his day thinking about merlin and putting merlin first and i just - i literally have never seen this person before in my life. who is this man? who is this unbelievably attentive paragon of caring? i’ve never met him before.

the entire running problem with merlin and arthur’s friendship in canon is that arthur, while he absolutely does care about merlin, tends to take merlin for granted. merlin is just another feature of arthur’s landscape, until something dramatic happens and arthur has a little scare and saves merlin’s life, and then things go back to the way they were. arthur doesn’t See merlin the way he should, not in the ordinary moments. merlin goes home and spends his evenings thinking about arthur’s life; he ties himself in knots trying to help arthur develop as a person and to keep arthur safe and happy, but arthur just goes home and eats supper with his wife. arthur does not go home and spend his nights agonizing over how he can improve merlin’s life. he never once thinks, ‘my purpose on this earth is to serve and support my friend merlin.’ he never feels like he’s supposed to be half of some two-sided coin. i know people like to give arthur this quality in their fic - and that’s totally fine, of course, it’s fic, have as much fun as you want - but in canon, that is just not something arthur pendragon does. it’s not who he is shown to be.

and yet almost every time when i go to explore fandom, i find that the person who does put merlin first in canon is perpetually elbowed aside for this extremely generous interpretation of everyone’s favorite prince.

and i just...i always try to find the good bits in everything, and i am sometimes willing to overlook a ship i don’t personally enjoy if there’s something else about the piece that i think is great, but there’s only so many times i can read the sentence “merlin had never felt like this with anyone, not even will” in fics where merlin and will are supposed to have been dating or even married/engaged, or “will was merlin’s best friend, but he just didn’t understand” (not like arthur, of course, who merlin literally just met a week ago), or “will was great, but there was only so much of him merlin could stand in one sitting/will was great, but he was best enjoyed in small doses.” there’s only so many times i can read a hundred different variations of that before i start to get real grumpy. and that’s not even touching the fics where will’s portrayed less favorably than that, even.

so, you know. i feel grumbly about it sometimes, how this particular character is trapped in a perpetual net of always being less-than, when one of the nicest parts of fandom for me is that every character/ship can have an infinitude of possibilities, even the ones i personally think are unbelievably bizarre (which category merlin and will do not even fall into, like - it’s not an incredible leap. merlin/mordred is a leap, okay; mordred is like seventeen years old! leon/morgana is a leap - how on earth did that become so popular??? - but will and merlin? that’s not a leap.)

what is it about will that makes him so tempting to trample over? will’s only sin in canon was to look at arthur pendragon and pronounce himself utterly unimpressed. his only crime was to tell merlin ‘this dude isn’t good for you,’ about which fact he was CORRECT, by the way - he is the first person who ever chooses to care about merlin, the first person merlin ever chooses to trust, the first friend who loves real!merlin without needing to be coaxed and convinced and taught that it’s okay. he is the only one who ever tells merlin ‘you deserve better than this mess,’ the only one for whom merlin has always been priority number one and in whose eyes arthur isn’t even on the map. merlin’s friendship with will (and lancelot, afterwards) is the healthiest one merlin ever gets to experience, and i wish more fannish material acknowledged it as such, as opposed to using will to set up merlin and arthur’s epic romance.

all of this, i suppose, is just a very long way of saying that now that i am no longer avoiding spoilers and have actually started testing the waters of the wider fandom, i have come to the obstinate, utterly inflexible conclusion that will deserves his own collection of happy endings, and i don’t care if i have to write them myself. i’ve already got the gen angle covered. and even though i’ve never written ship!fic in my life, the fact of the matter is that spite can be a hell of a motivator, and i will bite the bullet and learn how to do it if i have to. if people can really be out here tagging their merlin/uther fics as “schmoop” (YES. REALLY.) then by GOD, i swear, there are no excuses - this fandom can accommodate literally anything; there’s no reason it can’t accommodate stories where will wins. let this kid have his good ending. arthur pendragon can fall in love with merlin 23,830 times despite his and merlin’s ship flying in the face of canon, and that means will deserves his own tiny handful of stories to be actually about him, without his and merlin’s relationship being used solely as a stepping stone on the way to merlin and arthur’s 23,831st triumph.

i am just saying - if uther pendragon can fall in love with merlin and have it tagged as ‘fluff,’ then for the love of all that is good, we can give will his moment. let will enjoy the respect he should have earned from us when he died saving both merlin and arthur’s lives. let will be a person in his own right, instead of a plot device sacrificed to the (in)glorious altar of merthur. let will have an inner life of his own. let will have a best friend who doesn’t treat him like an accessory to The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. let will himself live out The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, for once. let will get his guy. i may tend to focus on friendship in my own work, but there are a lot of universes out there, and when it comes to someone who has always been so alone, and so singularly focused on merlin’s wellbeing, i’m not entirely sure if friendship even feels anything different to “in love” for will at all, in at least some of these places.

let will have his happy tags. he’s been on his own for so much of his life - let him have his simple ‘friendship’, his ‘platonic love,’ his ‘found family.’ let him have his lovestruck ‘pining,’ ‘friends-to-lovers,’ ‘angst with a happy ending,’ too, and let him keep those tags for himself. let characters who aren’t arthur pendragon have their love stories.

i may not care much for shipping, and i would rather read gen any day of the week, but let me tell you right now, i would rather write will and merlin settling down in a haze of domestic bliss 23,830 times before i would ever want to watch merlin ditch him yet again for a dude who never matched merlin’s level of caring and investment in the canon ‘verse.

#the once and future slowburn #no kings no masters #fandom #thank you for coming to the extended version of my ted talk #ultimately i know it's silly to be so invested #in something this small #and i constantly struggle with feeling...bizarrely self-conscious about like - even writing things like this because #it's so inconsequential and then i feel silly for being so interested #and using so many words for such a little thing #you know like when you're young and you get embarrassed about being so passionate about some niche interest #i feel like someone is looking at me and being like 'BOY THAT GIRL IS STUPID'#(why you ask???)#(i don't know; it's ridiculous!)#but then there's like another voice in my head yelling 'THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT FANDOM IS FOR'#'fanatic domain'#you're SUPPOSED to be fanatically obsessed about something; that is literally the point #people devote whole blogs to their tiny niche interests and their favorite pairings and they post incessantly about one thing #and i never think that's weird #that's just fandom #so i just have to like - chill out about myself lol #i am allowed to make innumerable posts about something only i care about #and i am allowed to be as passionate about tiny niche things as i want #that is literally the purpose of fandom and i just have to keep reminding myself of that #i have no trouble remembering it when it comes to other people's interests #but i always get self-conscious about my own #ANYWAY I'M WORKING ON IT #but in the meantime i'm having fun #which is the entire point of being a fan so #all is well #:D

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wowweeharrystyles · 5 years

Text

can’t help falling in love

Oh man okay. Wedding!harry had me feeling some type of way & @rainbownialls helped with the idea & told me ‘cancel your plans we need this’ & I’m grateful she told me that. so here we are.

(this is the 1st time I’ve ever written a one off drabble like this with the full intention of posting it. so here we goooooo)

SOOOO here’s wedding date harry.

I recommend listening to some great love songs, specifically “Can’t Help Falling In Love” but the Kina Grannis version.

Harry x Y/N | 2.6K words.

Seeing him walk out of the bathroom in a suit that looked all too familiar triggered a bit of a nostalgic feeling in the pit of your stomach. You hadn’t realized that he picked that suit when you were discussing just rewearing one of his hundreds of custom suits that linger in that huge, white walled closet back at his, well now your, home in London. The charcoal grey, double breasted suit lays open against his black button down, which was barely buttoned might you add. The last time you saw him in this suit was around when you two had just started dating and he was making his was out of a London hotel room, quite similar to the one you were in now, heading to the Dunkirk premier with Anne.

A chuckle leaves Harry’s mouth when he sees your face, bringing you back to reality. You had most definitely been looking at him like he hung the moon - even the stars, every single thing in the universe - just for you.

“Like the suit choice, love?” He asks, his cheeky, narcissistic side peaking through.

“Harry,” is all you manage to get out. Shaking your head, you gather your composure and stand up, walking to meet him a few feet in front of you. The emerald green silk dress that Harry Lambert had helped you pick out, followed behind you, a touch too long without your heels on. You reach up to place a quick peck to his cheek. One of your hands rests lightly on the opposite cheek, the feeling of his stubble tickling your palm a bit. Then it clicks. He’s still the same Harry but the Harry that wore this suit 2 years ago had just released his debut solo album, a movie hitting the box office in a few days and a world tour that he was eager to start. It was all new to you then, your relationship, Harry’s world. All of it.

The scruff on his face ages him. As does his longer, less styled hair. He’s not so fresh faced anymore and you don’t mind. His lips on yours brings you out of your nostalgic thoughts.

“Love the suit just as much as I did when you wore it the 1st time,” you comment finally, placing a haste kiss to his lips. “Quite timeless.”

“Thought you would.” The grin on his face pulls out his dimples. You shake your head at him, pulling out of his arms to get your shoes.

Harry escorts you and Anne to your seats in the church before the wedding starts and he has to walk with Gemma down the aisle and stand with the wedding party. Pachelbel’s Canon in D has started playing and you immediately feel a hitch in your throat. You were always a sucker for weddings. As the bride makes her way down the aisle you can’t help but steal a look at Harry. Turning subtly, you catch Harry’s eye. Tears are already starting to collect in his eyes and you can’t help when they collect in yours too. He mouths an “I love you” and you mirror the gesture after a silent hiccup. A tear rolls down your face and you will yourself to hold back from sobbing right there and then. Blinking softly, you let a few more tears falls before you break eye contact and look back at the beautiful bride walking down the aisle.

When you take your seat, you reach for your purse for a kleenex. You know yourself all too well to attend a wedding without something for the inevitable tears. But much to your surprise, the plastic travel pack of kleenex isn’t there. Instead, there’s a cream coloured handkerchief in its place. When you pull it out, you notice the small lettering that’s embroidered into a corner. H E S. The smile that has already covered your face somehow gets bigger. Looking up at Harry, only a yard or 2 in front of you, he winks at you, a soft smile on his face. Another tear rolls down yours and catches in your smile. Anne notices the cloth in your hand and reaches out to rest a kind hand on your forearm.

“Robin gave that to Harry. He always said a real man has a handkerchief, if not for himself, for his girl,” Anne whispers to you. She opens her fisted hand to reveal a similar cloth but with Robins initials. Your heart feels like it could burst at any moment.

You cry during the personalized vows and take the entire ceremony to gaze up at Harry. You’re used to seeing him presented before you and really do love getting an excuse to just watch him, but it’s different. Standing on a stage in an arena full of thousands of people is much different than standing with his family, a boutonniere pinned to his lapel and a church alter as his background. You can barely let your mind wander enough to think about a wedding with Harry waiting up at the alter for you before he’s giving you a wink as he walks with Gemma out of the church. Before you and Anne even get a chance to start walking out with the rest of the guest, Harry is back to escort both of you out.

You’re standing slightly behind him, your left hand is intertwined with his right. With your right hand wrapped around his bicep you let your shoulder lean into the relaxed muscles in his arm and back. Harry has always towered over you but it’s blatantly obvious how tall he is compared to you while you’re standing like this. Your chin barely reaches the top of his shoulder. The heels on your feet definitely help the height difference a little bit and right now you do have a clear line of vision above his shoulder. In sneakers, it’s a completely different story.

Harry’s happily chatting with some family while you listen along. You really love seeing him interact with his family and are perfectly happy as his plus one to this family wedding. The conversation ends when his aunt excuses herself to check on her kids. Leaning forward, you press a soft kiss to his shoulder.

“All good?” He asks, now looking down at you.

“Mhm…,” you hum, pressing another kiss to his arm.

“Hey,” he says quietly and you look up to him through your lashes. “Love, sure you’re good?” he asks again. Rising up a little on your toes you press kiss to his lips this time. You can feel him smile into the kiss. “Good,” he says matter-of-factly when he pulls away..

“Very good,” you confirm, squeezing his hand and leaning into him more. There’s this warmth in you that makes you all lovey and snuggly. Being here, with him, you can’t help but fall a bit more in love. The romantic ease of the evening only encouraging you more.

“I love you,” he says before pressing a kiss to the top of you head.

“Love you more,” you say back with a light shove.

“Love you-” he’s cut off by Gemma approaching the two of you, Michael tailing behind her.

“Hey there, you two,” Gemma greets you with a smile. She’s got a grin on her face that you recognize well as it’s the same grin that you’ve seen plastered on Harry’s face countless of times. “I’m just so glad you’re both here. Feels like I haven’t seen you in ages,” Gemma comments directly to you.

“It’s been too long,” you say, reaching your right hand out to hers to give it a squeeze to somehow relay your joy and happiness right now. Honestly, you don’t think anything you say or do could really show how much you love today.

“You need to come visit Michael and I more often,” she squeezes your hand back. “You can leave him behind for all I care,” she jokes, motioning to Harry.

Harry’s face scrunches up, “Heyyyy,” he whines at his older sister.

“Oh Harry, I’m only joking,” she reaches a hand up to caress his cheek before giving it a pinch. Harry groans at the gesture. “Join me on a trip to the bar?” Gemma asks turning to you now.

“Absolutely” you say with a smile and link your arm with hers as you release your grip on Harry.

“Hey, kiss,” Harry says, not letting go of your hand. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to your lips before releasing his grip. “I’ll come find you in a bit,” he finishes as Gemma pulls you away towards the bar.

Giggles fill the air between you and Gemma as you take your now full glasses of wine to the dance floor with you. Across the room, Harry got caught up in a very important conversation about what dinosaur is the best kind of dinosaur with one of his little cousins. It’s not until he hears you singing at the top of your lungs to the chorus of “Don’t Stop Believing” that he looks up to find you on the dance floor. The emerald green silk effortlessly follows your dancing, the wrap style of the dress showcasing your legs once and a while as you twirl. Harry excuses himself to make his way closer to the dance floor. He doesn’t join you just yet but takes in the sight in front of him. Harry thinks his heart could burst now.

When you catch a glimpse of him lingering on the edge of the dance floor the smile on your face becomes so big that your eyes are almost closed. Your gesture for him to join you for the ending of the song is met with an outrageous shimmy that somehow releases his suit jacket from his shoulders, which he tosses on a nearby chair. You roll your eyes without even thinking. Harry’s dancing his way over to you, using his moves to maneuver through the crowded dance floor. Instantly, he’s wrapping an arm around your waist, pulling you close into his side, a fist pumping in the air. You gaze up to him and you don’t think you could be more in love. The feeling is almost too overwhelming and you have to pull your gaze away from the actual rays of sunshine that is radiating from his face, his whole body. He places a light kiss to the top of your cheek before he releases his grip on you and shifts over to Gemma and dances around with her. The sight is something you don’t even think you could properly describe. Suddenly they’re dancing in unison, clearly a mini dance they must have come up with when they were little. You can picture it now, little Harry and Gemma dancing around the living room while Anne blasts a classic, Fleetwood Mac or Shania Twain, a song you know Harry has played a countless amount of times just to get a bit of inspiration or feel like he’s home. The thought makes you giggle just as much as the actual show in front of you. As “Don’t Stop Believing” wraps up, Harry tosses an arm around Gemma’s shoulder pressing a kiss to her hair, just barely, before she’s pushing him away, jokingly disgusted. There’s only a moment of silence between songs. When the 1st few strums of a guitar come over the speakers Harry is instantly coming to stand in front of you.

The song is familiar but you can’t put your finger on it just yet. The atmosphere in the reception hall instantly shifts as the new song playing is a much slower tempo. You see the newly weds join in each other’s arms and they share a sweet kiss before swaying along to the music. The feeling of Harry wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you closer to him brings your attention back. Harry has a soft smile on his face and you can’t help but mirror it.

“I don’t think I’ve told you enough how beautiful you look tonight,” Harry whispers, dipping his head down lower so his lips are only centimeters away from yours. His lips hover over yours, your smile not falling one bit. Reaching up to his neck with the hand that isn’t entangled with his and resting on his chest, you weave it through the hair at the back of his head. Your foreheads only touch for a moment before you’re kissing. His mouth is warm and tastes of whisky. He kisses you like you’ve got all the time in the world. It’s when you break apart for a moment that you recognize the song.

Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you.

Cradling his face in your hand, you press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. You move your hand back to its home in his hair at the bottom of his neck and pull him closer to you. You don’t think you could be pressed up against each other any closer. You can feel his chest rise and fall against yours. The low buttoning of his shirt causes his chest hair to tickle against your sternum slightly but you don’t mind. You can feel Harry’s lips near your ear and his hot, steady breath makes the bits of loose hair near there move back and forth, grazing the shell of your ear. His voice is low when he starts singing along, only loud enough for you to hear. Though it’s not the original Elvis version of the song, Harry still doesn’t miss a beat. Closing your eyes, you let your weight fall against Harry’s and follow his minimal foot movements that move you both around in a circle from time to time. You continuously press lazy kisses to the column of his neck and sometimes to his collarbone if a particular note vibrates against you just the right way.

Darling so it goes,

somethings are meant to be

You pull your face away from the tucked away home at his neck and meet his eyes. The guitar cuts out then, before the vocals start again, only their acapella this time.

“I love you,” you whisper against his lips.

“I love you,” he says, his eyes sparkling, candle light flickering in his green irises. Harry closes the short distance between the 2 of you and lands his lips on yours.

So take my hand,

take my whole life too,

His lips are still warm, kisses slow and well thought out. His hand around your waist somehow pulls you in even closer and your body responds just as he likes. Bending back at the waist a lightly, he dips you slightly, deepening the kiss. You peel your one hand away from his grasp so you can use both hands to cradle is face, thumbs resting on his cheekbones. You can’t help melting into his every move. You can’t help falling in love - over and over again.

The rest of the night is spent never too far from each other, both too much in love to even think about physically separating. Fleeting thoughts pop up every so often as the night closes out. How could you feel even more in love with the man at your side than you do in this exact moment? It’s intriguing, but also scary, to think that this isn’t even yours and Harry’s wedding. If you feel like this now, how will, how could you feel on that special day?

Marriage has barely come up between the two of you, but the possibility of getting engaged and getting married and starting your family together isn’t scary. Nothing could be scary with Harry at your side.

Little do you know, Harry has had the same thoughts running through his head all evening evening. Every single glance, smile, kiss, and laugh, only makes everything feel that much more possible and exciting.

He’s also thinking about the tiny black box that has been burning a hole in his hiding spot back home.

OKAY! Thanks for reading this, seriously i really do appreciate it. I’d love feedback, comments, whatever. okay. love you mean it byeeeeee.

#Harry styles writing #harry drabble #harry styles one shot #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles blurb #Wedding!harry #Harry Styles

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