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rikichie · 1 month

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Just don't ask me how that huge plush was thrown there

Under the cut, things I imagine in YOI pre-canon, with the ways my thoughts tie into canon to explain why I think them. These are personal headcanons and interpretations.

With Viktor, I imagine his family being high achieving, and Viktor having a lot of expectations on him. And he matches then successfully. But this means his parents think he's doing well, even in moments where emotionally he isn't. They look at achievements rather than looking at him. It's not intentional neglect, they just don't have the awareness of mental wellbeing. He has a bed and food and he's doing well in school and skating, so everything must be okay. It's fine when he's fine, it's lonely when he's not. And it's the first environment that teaches him to match himself to what's expected and wanted of him, fulfilling a role rather than just being.

When he's older, he quietly creates distance. Not cutting them off, but not reaching out. They don't mind. They follow news, and they can show off his success.

When he's young, Viktor loves having fans and being known and admired. Af first he doesn't see downsides to it. And then something happens, as simple as "did you see him throwing the flower at Christophe Giacometti? He was flirting, how cute" - and Viktor realizes his fans will draw their own conclusions and won't believe him if he tries to say they're wrong.

So he starts adjusting his approach. Building a persona, and building walls. Charming smiles that get him anything he wants. Practicing the skill of giving people what they expect. Being what they expect. And then flipping it on its head and surprising them.

If you're focusing on matching and subverting expectations, you're not necessarily being yourself. Any personal exploration of identity is hidden and alone. But on the ice, when he's performing, he can be honest. He can be seen. Because they're going to take it as fake. Think of how Minako reacted to Stammi Vicino - Viktor's earnest plea for someone to stay by his side, well, he's too charming for this to tug at the heartstrings. So he can play with stories that he won't share with anyone any other way, and he knows they'll take it as pretend.. The walls he builds don't allow him to be truly close to people. He has good relationships with other skaters, but emotionally keeps them at arm's length. He doesn't notice he's isolating. Chris and he have fun joke-flirting, but when Viktor steps away from the ice Chris doesn't seem to realize he needs this, isn't close enough to know what he's struggling with. He talks like Viktor is taking away the motivation he's entitled to by choosing to coach Yuuri. His rinkmates see him on good and bad days so they know when he struggles, and Yakov is the only person close to knowing him deeply, but even he doesn't take it seriously when Viktor burns out, so that is still limited.

For Yuri, I think his mother was going through a lot to let his grandfather take care of him. He has a lot of responsibility in that setting, and it all starts when he's so young.

I think, with Viktor being present in his life consistently from such a young age, Viktor is one of the people he sees as family. He absolutely looks up to him, just like he absolutely looks up to Yuuri. And I think he resents the emotional distance Viktor maintains.

He's not very attentive to people in general, but he's the one that explains to us how Viktor feels early in the show. When Viktor left to Japan so suddenly, I think Yura felt abandoned beyond just Viktor forgetting to choreograph a program for him. If it was just the program - he did end up getting Agape, he could have just asked for that, but he tried to get Viktor to go back. I feel like he hates that Viktor went to look for a way to get his spark back somewhere else, instead of staying and finding a way out of his slump with his rinkmates. If what Viktor needs is to coach someone, why isn't Yuri good enough? He's a talented skater and he sees himself as continuing Viktor's legacy, but Viktor chose someone else for that role.

And Viktor did choose Yuuri to continue his legacy. Because Yuuri skates so beautifully, because Yuuri has so much love for Viktor's skating, because Yuuri has drive and ambition and pride and skill and he finds joy in skating, and Viktor wants to nurture all of that into the performance Yuuri deserves to show.

And along the way, he learns how to connect with people as himself. His relationships with Yuuri and Yuuri's family open doors for him to better and deeper relationships with Yuri and Chris and anyone else he wants to be close to.

About Yuuri, there's very little I can say because we know so much. So I'll just share a lighthearted headcanon a few friends and I came up with as a story idea and I just adopted.

I don't share the fanon that Phichit got him into pole dancing. In my mind, he either started himself, or it was Chris - unintentionally. I think they're friends, because of how Yuuri reacted to him in the show, like he's used to him. And I like to think Chris kept saying things that made Yuuri feel competitive. Talking about how it's great for core strength, "but it's probably not your thing." Sent pictures of himself performing difficult moves, and got pictures back because Yuuri was trying to match him or do more difficult things than him. And meanwhile Chris thinks they're showing off to each other for fun. It's how Chris knew Yuuri can keep up with him at the banquet.

I still want to write something for that last bit.

#yoi #yuri on ice #yoi fanart #yuri!!! on ice #victuuri #viktuuri

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sixstepsaway · 7 months

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so here's the thing

i've seen a bunch of people say on twitter and stuff how... ed's behavior is very abusive and his anger is dangerous and he isn't romantic lead material because of it

and i get where they're coming from

but to me the main issue isn't putting ed in the position of a romantic lead, but not crafting the narrative around his characterization so that it allows for a spicy romantic pirates-in-love narrative instead of...whatever this is.

i'm going to try and explain this. idk if i'll do well but i'll try

the way she show presents stede is as an innocent baby who isn't really equipped for pirate life. he goes into a fugue/disassociative state whenever there's any real violence, apparently, and needs protecting by other characters when things get too rough - for example when ed is telling ned lowe not to take the poker to stede.

that's fine! it's honestly adorable to see a masc character being so soft around the edges and being protected by other characters this way.

(i'm not going to touch on stede's... eh... not great characterization this season rn)

then there's izzy, who is shown as a bit violent, a bit rough around the edges. he's more likely to draw a sword or throw a punch or hit someone with a chair or take a punch like a champ. violence is just part of life for him and that's okay, it just Is, from small things like smacking stede on the ass to bigger things like being wall slammed, it's not all that big or bad for violence to happen around and with him, he tends to give as good as he gets (there's some nuance here but i'm talking the macro themes not the micro of what izzy does vs is done to him)

and finally there's ed

ed is presented as violent (stabbing knives at guys, telling fang to use the snail fork etc) and used to a life of violence, and then in season 2 he's presented as really violent, his anger coming out in dangerous and terrifying ways

and frankly, i'd be super into it if he and izzy were the main ship and that twisted dynamic from the first two episodes of s2 was explored and fleshed out into something deeper

friends to enemies to lovers who fight and fuck. angry pirates who lay hands on each other, who break the whole ship with each other in the heat of passion.

except instead, s2 gives us... abuse. it gives us izzy cringing and lowering his head and trying to protect the kids crew from ed's angry outbursts.

so when stede comes back and he's still soft around the edges and ed headbutts him and it's deliberate, it's... not a great look, and the vibes are a bit skewed

if stede fought back, if when ed struck out at him he struck back, if they fought rather than it being one-sided, if it was friends to enemies to lovers and not presented as healthy, but maybe they can work their way there, who knows, maybe even more like anne bonnie and mary read because hey, they were doing something very similar?

except they were both into it. they were both enjoying the fighting and the fucking and the burning down the house.

stede's not enjoying it.

i cannot describe how much i hate this sequence just because of the way stede flinches

anne and mary don't!! mary jumps at the unexpected bang but she doesnt flinch, she doesn't cover her face like she thinks the vase will be coming for her not the wall and anne? looks so into it

and the thing is that in real life, no, you don't want to date someone who throws shit around, or headbutts you

but in fiction when it's two fucked up people doing this shit together like anne and mary?

that can be fun.

but instead what we've been given is stede flinching and apologizing to ed and then all of ed's...what, semi-redemption???? is done away from the other collection of people he abused, and then he spends some time on a fishing boat wearing a dog collar and everything is fine because he's good now and won't be doing anything bad ever again

and it's just... poor writing. the vibes are rancid.

i spent a really big chunk of time between s1 and s2 defending ed. i kept saying how what he did to izzy by making him eat his toe wasn't abuse, it was a one-off and abuse isn't a one-off thing it's a pattern, and then s2 made it a pattern.

explicitly. explicitly a pattern.

not just one toe but three.

jim saying "you're in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard"

and all ed offered izzy was a "sorry about your leg" which might've been fine if izzy survived and they could work on this more, but instead that's all the apology and closure izzy will ever get

ed threw a chair and a vase and made stede flinch in fear and stede was right to do that. what part of any of this implies this will never happen again? that stede won't press the wrong button at some point and be on the receiving end? none of it

and if we'd been presented with a s2 stede bonnet who could handle himself and stand up for himself and fight back, then maybe i could imagine that turning into a weird sexy fucked up anne/mary like thing and maybe that could be why they put that episode in, but instead it feels like that episode was going, "look, see, ed's violence is fine because these two are fine with it with each other"

but stede isn't

ed and izzy or ed and stede in an unhealthy battle of a relationship could be such a fun, interesting and downright sexy thing to watch unfold on tv, and could honestly end somewhere far more down the chill end of the spectrum, but that's not what we've been given here

i cannot argue that ed isn't an abuser anymore, and not just of izzy but of the whole crew. he terrified frenchie.

it's not good writing to try and lean into the idea that ed and the pirates are violent and live a life of violence, so it's okay that ed's been violent, while simultaneously presenting his violence as traumatic and abusive, and then less than three episodes later saying oh it's fine now, he's just a little meow meow who can do no wrong, see?

especially considering they had him murdering people at the end of the season. and sure, you can say the english are just cannon fodder and they dont 'count', but they did before. ed explicitly did not kill before, and that included the english, or the spanish, or anyone else. so either they count or they don't, but flipping him on a dime makes no sense.

ALSO

having ed be the son of an abusive man who threw plates at his mother and made her cringe and then having ed kill his father to protect his mother and then a season later having ed become the kind of man who throws chairs and vases and makes his love interest cringe is, again, not bloody optimal

i want to say again i dont CARE about tv always presenting healthy relationships or tv always giving us aspirational goals. i want messy fucked up dynamics and terrible people making terrible choices, and still, to this day, i fucking love ed teach. i would honestly love to have seen them continue with ed's darkness and bring stede into it and see where they went with that, to have stede kill ned lowe and not just bury his feelings in ed but get off on it, enjoy the violence, and see where that led, but no

and so instead all we end up with is a protagonist who is being set up for a lifetime of abuse from an intimate partner, and a romantic lead who abuses his love interests (and yes. izzy is a love interest, he is set up like one and positioned like one and treated like one), frightens his love interests with his violence, is erratic and most of all inconsistently written. he was so sorry about scaring fang as though he hadn't been deliberately terrifying the whole crew for fuck knows how long? what?!

the whole fandom has spent so long saying, "no no, i know stede bonnet irl was a slave owner, but ofmd is using the names and not any real piracy, it's more disney piracy, you know? so that kind of stuff doesnt exist!" and then they flipped around and went "blackbeard is blackbeard and so he is evil and does all these horrible things" and i dont know how to rationalize the two sides of that because it feels so out of place

i'm getting rambly, this isnt a particularly well constructed thought process, i just feel like we were robbed both of a toxic, violent relationship that could be fun to see explored on tv and a soft and sweet love story between two middle aged men exploring their first loves in one fell swoop and there's no way for s3 to bring either of those things back because they got utterly torpedoed by making ed a horrible person

ugh

#ofmd critical #i hate that i'm using this tag now :c #edward teach #ed teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #i guess #izzy hands #stede bonnet

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imagine--if · 7 months

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hey! i hope your doing well, i would love to see anything fluffy for mike (headcanons, blurbs, whatever you feel like suits it most!) - he deserves the whole world and sm more to me 😭

A/N: I get youuuu, hope you enjoy 😁 started off with the relationship hcs but let me know if you wanna see anything more specific!!

Warnings: FNAF movie spoilers, mentions of violence

⋆✮ Dating Mike Schmidt Includes: ✮⋆

➳ Mike's been through a hell of a lot ever since his little brother got kidnapped, so I'm seeing major protectiveness and sometimes even clinginess involved from him when you end up dating because 😭 guy's been through stuff and he's not letting anyone else he's close to get hurt

➳ To be honest, at first he's pretty closed-off with people, vulnerable with a tough exterior, so if you meet him in some scenario where you're tied up with the Freddy's murders and job, he'll try to be distant and professional and all... ending up failing 🙃

➳ Eventually you start. talking more about personal things, hobbies your lives, and he'll mention his sister Abby and having to take the job because he needs the money and is in the middle of the custody situation with his sister. He's got a lot going on and the trauma of what happened all those years ago still wringing at his guilt, so being able to talk with someone who doesn't judge in a relaxed place is a nice change for him having to be on guard all the time.

➳ When Mike befriends you, which is what happens first, he's got your back. If you need someone to vent to or hang out with or whatever, he'll do whatever he can to help, and when it comes to you being in a sticky situation or someone trying to hurt you or play you, he always seems to realise and is in no way afraid of confrontation to get them to back off.

➳ Like if William tries sizing you up a bit... and Mike gets annoyed with that cool, defensive glare as he asks if he needs anything (I've got to make an imagine of this nowwww). I think Mike would only realise that he's actually jealous if you teased about it, or if he really loses his temper with someone that's not leaving you alone or something. Then it really nags at him and makes him think about actually liking you as more than a friend, and then that initial reluctance because everyone he gets close to seems to have something bad happen to them, like it's a curse. At the end of the day, he just wants you to be safe.

➳ It would take something big for Mike to confess to you, unless you take the first step (aka Abby begging you to tell him you like him too because she's getting bored of him not concentrating on what she's talking to him about or the conversation somehow curving to you and the stuff you're into). Maybe you're attacked at Freddy's and you're all in on the crisis together when Mike stands firmly in front of you when William reveals himself, or he shoves you out the way so you won't get hurt, ultimately jumping in front of the threat without a worry of him getting hit instead. It's then that he realises how much he needs you in his life, how he needs you alive because you add some joy to it that he hasn't felt in all these years, a change from the darkness that his head's stuck in.

➳ It all comes out of him in a rush as he looks you up and down with wild eyes and a firm grip, asking if you're alright and saying in a rush that "you're one of the most important people in the world to me, and I don't know what I'd do if you got hurt... I- I couldn't live with myself, okay?!"

➳ Okayyy Mike, just kiss them 😏

➳ After you fight Afton together and get Vanessa looked after, you can finally breathe and properly start dating, which includes that familiar protectiveness and slight clinginess... and also being best friends with his little sister, which you 100% would be. You'd spend time drawing or chatting or playing random games while Mike was out working, eliminating the need for a babysitter because you're the perfect fit and get along with her great. And when he is home, you do a lot of stuff together, like a mini family, and there's finally that security and stability in that life she needed.

➳ I feel like Abby would find it hilarious to tell you all the sappy things Mike says about you on the rare occasions where you're not around, ending in Mike's cheeks flushing beet red and him picking her up and whirling her around playfully until she's in fits of laughter. "I heard Mike say that he found another reason to keep going when he realised he was in love wi- hey!!"

➳ Mike would be a bit clingy, again because of what happened with Garret; Mike being distracted for one moment and then blaming himself for the rest of his life because it was that moment where his brother was taken and killed. So if you are out, on a date or just around, this guy will not leave your side. He's the kind of person to text you again and again if you don't respond to the first message, and it's kind of cute how much he worries, but then he doesn't need to, and every now and then he'll need your reassurance that you guys are safe and that you won't leave him, which stills ends with him burying his face in your neck for a long tight hug for a while.

➳ MIKE'S A BIG HUGGER. CHANGE MY MIND.

➳ Whether you're watching a movie with him and Abby, or you're out on a date or sleeping or whatever, Mike will always have some contact with you if you've told him you're okay with it: fingers linked under the table, pressed into his side while you're watching TV (with an affectionate forehead kiss every five minutes 🥺) or being half crushed to death while you're trying to sleep when he rolls onto you and traps you under his leg... good luck if you need to go to the bathroom. Chances are he'll end up trailing after you with mumbled protests.

➳ That protectiveness always kicks in when someone looks at you for too long, or in a way that he doesn't like the look of, or if you're obviously uncomfortable with. If you're quick, you can just convince him to walk away and you two go somewhere else, because Mike will end up getting annoyed and giving the guy a line to get him to make them go away. If he's not careful, he might end up getting in a fight again, but he'll really try not to when you tell him off for it and promise him that things are okay and you're not going anywhere.

➳ You and Abby are basically Mike's world, after all that's happened, there are only really two people left that he truly cares for and would do anything for. Once you're in a relationship with him, he'll do everything he can to make sure you're safe and won't have to go through anything he had to. If ever you're upset, he'll listen for hours with no judgement and major support, whatever mood you're in somehow rubbing off on him. Mike will admit his feelings in a rush, and when he does, he's not afraid to tell you that he loves you whenever you need to hear it, or whenever he wants to say it and wants you to be reminded. It's something that you can never doubt.

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star-anise · 17 days

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So, Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper-Jones is not by any means a straightforward tale of the specific traumas and experiences of being a disabled woman. In many ways, it's an examination of how holding onto those traumas too tightly can keep you not just from positive chances for connection and experience, but understanding when your choices and behaviours are hurting other people.

But. It does talk about the trauma. And specifically, this splinter I've spent months now slowly drawing out of my soul, because this never happened to me except for the version of it that did happen to me. In her case, it was a conversation with a friend in high school:

I approached him in the library of our school. He was studying for a geometry test. He saw me, closed his notebook, and smiled. “I feel like,” he said, teasing me, “there might be something you want to talk to me about.” I told him yes, there was, and I said that I wanted to go to the homecoming dance with him and would he take me. “Of course,” he said. Relief flooded through me so quickly it turned my stomach. “But,” he continued, “there’s something very important I need to talk to you about first.” He proceeded to tell me that our female friends had been pressuring him for weeks to ask me to the dance, not wanting me to feel left out. “They love you,” he said, “but they pity you and their pity won't help you in the world.” I can, to this day, recall the exact even tone in his voice, his smile. He reached across the table and took my hand. “I want to tell you something as your friend,” he said. “I want to protect you. When you ask a man like me on a date, you put us in a bad position.” He was still smiling; I was having a cute delusion and was in need of his loving, if uncomfortable, correction. “It’s just the truth,” Jim said. “No man will want to date you unless he, too, is desperate or ugly.”

What I've felt, since I was very young, was this sense not just that no one would ever love me, but that I was so pitiful, so unlovable, such a complete failure of femininity, that expressing interest in another person was tantamount to forcing them to pity-fuck me. And how could I do something that horrible to them?

Well, at least in the years since then, I've learned that actually people feel no compunction about rejecting me!

I have almost always felt like such a complete failure at femininity, to the point that discussions about the female experience feel hypnotically surreal, because these things never happen to me. Y'all get catcalled and hit on? I'm struggling to dredge up memories of experiencing that firsthand. I grew up with grownups always warning me about men who'd want me for sex but didn't actually love me, and now I'm like... being wanted for sex? What's that like? I have literally ten seconds of experience of my desire for someone else being something that excited and interested them.

This is my own personal neurosis, not a prescription for widespread behaviour. But I've always kind of hated when people talk about slowburn romances and stories with pining as "two idiots in love" because on a visceral level, it doesn't feel stupid to me to believe you're repulsive and nobody will ever want you. It has always felt like the natural and obvious conclusion to enter adulthood with.

Up until two weeks ago I've always been very careful to describe my feelings about my body as part of me being crazy--I hate the way I look, I don't like seeing or hearing recordings of myself, I think I'm not pretty. Because obviously that means I'm actively working to rid myself of those emotions and attitudes! I've got it handled! I've admitted that I have a problem!

And that's because I always had it locked away in my heart that if I tried to make a factual claim about being ugly, people would say "No you're not!" just to make me feel better, and then I would never ever know if anyone who found me attractive really meant it, or if they were just doing it out of pity.

That is crazy. That's holding onto the lesson of that fucking shitbag who found Chloé attractive and fuckable two months fucking later once he got over himself. That's sitting around waiting for someone to come climb up into my unfuckable tower and do all the work of establishing a relationship themselves. That's lesbian sheep behaviour.

It's only just begun to feel possible that I could begin to take steps to seek people out and express interest in them, instead of holding perfectly still and making someone else do all the heavy lifting to get to me, when I haven't even made it known I wanted them to.

But this doesn't get talked about as part of "the female experience". When men talk about women's experiences in the dating market, they absolutely never mean women like me. Why bother with the experiences of women they wouldn't want to fuck anyway? It's not like we're people or some shit like that.

#staranise original #body image tw #ableism tw #feminist discourse #easy beauty #chloé cooper jones

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klmp11s · 9 days

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Hello! Hope your requests are on! I was hoping you'll do my request (M reader)

First years where they were having a ruckus and broke one of the reader's favorite and proudest paintings (ripped and wood broken in pieces) COUGHACECOUGH. They tried to hide it but sadly they had to show it. Reader tries not to show any hard feelings against them because it's an accident but they were really devastated because their hard work was basically thrown out of the window but they try not to show their sadness to a painting! It's a painting, it doesn't matter at all obviously! They've been spacing out and their mood is slightly down because of it but yk they try not to show it :3

HELLO BB, SORRY FOR MAKING YOU WAIT SO LONG 😭😭I loved this request so much.(English is not my first language, sorry for any mistakes)

Summary: The first-year students accidentally broke a reader's painting Characters: Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Jack Howl, Epel Felmier, Sebek Zigvolt Warning: male!reader, slight hurt/comfort? I'm not sure, it's mostly soft, ooc(?), (the boys themselves draw a painting for you)

Ace Trappola

Lmao this request was totally for him He is literally sure that now you will not talk to him. The moment when he broke the picture: his heart stopped for a moment and he just looks at WHAT EXACTLY broke with the thoughts that firstly, he will be killed, and secondly, he will kill himself, when he sees your upset face When instead of swearing and arguing, you just quietly say something like “it's just a painting, Ace, it doesn't matter.” He definitely feels worse than if you yelled and kicked him out. He definitely doesn’t believe everything you say like “it’s okay/you can go, I’ll clean everything up/don’t worry so much.” He sees how your hands are shaking, you know? He cleans everything himself. Seriously: boy won't even let you touch the broken frame. After that, he almost runs to his dorm to ask what he should do. Like, he just broke that thing that you kept so carefully and admiringly told and showed him how to make amends? They literally give him a plan with point by point advice so that he doesn’t ruin anything. 1. Bring you a gift to replace what he broke. He definitely wasn't thrilled with the idea of painting you a picture with his own hands, but it would still be fair. Effort for effort, understand? 2. Apologies. From the bottom of his heart, with words through his mouth, so that you can see and HEAR that he is very sorry and he really didn’t want this to happen. 3. Don't put pressure on you. Give you time and not pry into your personal space, you need to think about everything, right? 4. Next comes action based on the situation. No matter how crookedly he got it, he definitely painted you a picture from the bottom of his heart. Well, now you just need to apologize, right? … Okay, this is a lot more complicated than he thought. What should he say? “please forgive me for breaking your most beloved, dear, beautiful painting that you spent many hours on, I’m very sorry”? He doesn’t know at all how to choose the words to make it right. As a result, he decides that the apology can be sorted out as the situation progresses. Literally as soon as he crosses your threshold, RIVERS of words and sentences flow from his mouth. With one hand he pulls the picture towards you, and the other frantically waves it in different directions. You can literally hear him begin to choke while he non-stop tries to apologize to you. Eventually, he stops talking and holds out his hand with the painting and looks at you. The longer the silence lasts, the more he thinks he did something wrong. Maybe you didn’t want to see him, but he almost burst into your room? Could it be something even worse? Then he hears you quietly giggling. Okay, super, great, that's a good sign. His eyes are glued to your face and he sees how you look at his “painting” that he painted for you. It's not so bad, you're even surprised. Okay, maybe art from the heart really does matter. You carefully walk past Ace and he watches as you carefully hang his painting in the place where your painting previously hung. Okay, OKAY THAT'S definitely a VERY good sign. Okay, now he sees your sly look and understands that now he will have to explain himself about the new love language. And perhaps someday in the future he will receive one painting especially for him?

Deuce Spade

Please, he's so sweet, I'm sure he caused a cauldron that accidentally flew into the wall. 😭 But now, he is literally in PANIC when he sees that it is not a vase or something else that has broken, but YOUR FAVORITE PAINTING I'm not sure he would try to hide it because he would literally try to put the pieces and pieces of the painting back together while looking like a panicked puppy The moment he sees you, he will begin to apologize, cling to your sleeves and ASK TO FORGIVE HIM because he didn’t do it on purpose, really. Afterwards, when your face turns from confusion to slight grief, he realizes that everything is VERY BAD When he is already returning to the room, he calls his mother to find out what to do. He has absolutely no idea how to improve the situation. Even if his mother jokingly says to paint a painting for you, he takes it seriously. It will be fair! He will definitely need a few days and advice from older students, I think this is his first experience in something so creative. Especially if the painting is for you. He loves you, he is sorry that this happened and he wants you to not be sad anymore, understood? At the same moment when he finishes the picture, he almost runs towards you. Does the paint take some time to dry? Well, they'll dry while he's running, lol. You are sitting in your room sad because of him, so he should bring a smile to your face as soon as possible! (He didn't hurt it, really. He is very careful with what he does for you.) When you open the door to let him in, the first thing you see is the canvas he holds out to you. Unusual? Unusual. His apology is quiet. Of course, there are many of them and they are really sincere, that he tries not to ruin the moment and speaks quietly. When he sees your soft gaze focused on the painting, he becomes silent and looks at you. He was never an artist, but what he did for you is priceless. You look from the painting to the empty wall, and say that his idea to fill the void is quite good. You decide to give the painting time to dry, carefully leaving it horizontal. Well, now all your attention is focused on Deuce, you still have to talk to him, right? By the time he leaves your room, the painting is almost dry. (I'm sure he will also hang it on the wall himself. It was his fault that it fell, and it was his initiative that it will hang.)

Jack Howl

I can't even imagine how this happened A second, the picture is already on the floor and he is completely confused. Afterwards he sees the reason for the loud sound and he LITERALLY: 😦😧😨 Okay, he definitely, like Deuce, will try to collect all the pieces so that you don’t accidentally get hurt, but there’s literally a crisis going on in his head. He accidentally broke something you've been working on for just over a month, it's a disaster. At the moment he is ALREADY thinking about how he should apologize to you. As soon as he sees you and your sad eyes, his ears literally press to his head. To all his apologies you respond “I know you didn’t do it on purpose. It's okay, it's nothing more than just a painting." Well, now he is more than sure that he needs something more than a verbal apology. The first thing that came to his mind: something that he himself would treasure, at that same second an idea comes to him: Make something for you that is equivalent to what was broken. Jack knows he's not an artist or anything, but for you, he's really willing to try. And after that, you will again be able to have fun with him and you will take care of the cacti in his room together! Oh. He definitely decided that it would be an apology for you. He would also ask the older students in his dorm for advice, and maybe even Vil, since he doesn't really understand art. But, I am more than sure that he is trying to paint a picture for you as neatly and pleasing to the eye as possible. The day after he finished the painting, he would pick up one of his cacti for you along with any little thing you like and head over to you. Once you let him into your room, he hands you a carefully wrapped canvas and a small patterned bag. Okay, now he's trying to find words for you. As soon as you open the package, he starts apologizing to you. Sincerely. Out of the corner of your eye you see how nervously his tail is darting and you turn your gaze from the cactus he gave him to the painting. Did he draw this himself? You hear him quiet down a little when you take the picture in your hands and looks into your face with hope. A soft smile touches your lips. And really, he tried so hard to make amends to you that he was ready to paint a painting for you himself? You hold out the canvas to him and ask him to hang it in the place where your painting previously hung. You carefully take the plant he gave you and place it nearby with your new decorative item. Did he really try that hard for you? Now, you can go somewhere together and relax, and when you return, your new favorite painting will be waiting for you.

Epel Felmier

Please, I’m not sure that in principle he could reach your painting /j But let's skip this point. Now all that was left was: him, the broken picture on the floor that you had been telling him about for a week, and panic. He is literally ready to hide all the evidence the moment he realizes that you will be broken just like your painting. When he hears your steps behind him, he is ready to be thrown out of the room and not be spoken to again. But all you told him: “Epel, it’s just canvas and paints. Tell me better, weren't you hurt? Did you accidentally cut yourself?” ok, now it would be better if you silently kicked him out of the room. He begins to apologize to you and words like “to a strong man, the fragments could hardly harm me” definitely slip into his speech. After that, he immediately headed to his dorm. Perhaps he definitely needs help. As he tells Vil his problem, he sneaks a glance at Rook, who looks like he's already aware of what happened. Okay, now all hope lies with these two, he doesn’t know how best to apologize to you. The idea about the painting was definitely suggested by Vil himself, but Rook added that he should apologize to you in detail. Not as Rook himself would have done, but approximately. Fine. There is a rough plan of action, but one problem: Epel has absolutely no idea how to paint. It looks like he will have to spend even more time with these two, but you are at stake and for your sake he is ready to spend as much time with the members of the verbal dorm as necessary The phrase “art takes time” becomes one of his least favorites. He wants to finish as soon as possible and come running to you with all the speeches he could come up with, but he has to wait until the painting dries. In the morning, when everything is finally ready, he almost knocks over a couple of students as he runs towards you. As soon as he crosses the threshold of your room, one of his hands is in yours and the other is holding out a painting to you. Well, this is the most unusual morning you could have. You, still sleepy, look at the painting in your hand and distantly hear Epel's apology. A smile touches your lips. Was he really that worried about this all this time? You remove your hand from his and ruffle his hair. HE WILL NOT LET YOU HANG THE PICTURE I'm serious. If necessary: HE IS READY TO CLIMB ON A CHAIR, TABLE, IT DOESN’T MATTER, BUT HE WILL DO IT

Sebek Zigvolt

He did this because it wasn't Malleus in the painting/j To be honest, I don't even know how this could happen. Most likely, he hit something, and that “something” dropped the painting… But okay, now he’s confused What fell? Oh.. OH WAIT He just dropped and broke a painting of his loved one. He would help you pick up the broken pieces and try to apologize to you. Moreover, I am sure that the apology will be quiet, in a whisper, rather than his usually loud voice. He's really sorry that this happened when you respond with something like, “It's okay. It’s just a painting” he really feels guilty. Okay, now he needs help apologizing to you properly. A true knight should not upset those he loves. And now.. His Diasomnia group is trying to help him. But I'm more than sure that Silver came up with the idea for the painting. (You can start fighting me, I'm ready.) Malleus and Lilia offered more ideas for verbal apologies, maybe even written ones, but the moment Silver woke up and listened to part of their conversation, he offered to give you a painting. Still, the painting that was dear to you was broken, so why shouldn’t he make amends by painting a new one for you himself? But even so, I think that all three helped Sebek in painting the picture. He must do it with love, right? And love is a rather fragile thing, so he shouldn’t rush so much. He could have written you a letter of apology, but I think he decided to stick with a verbal apology. When he finished the picture, I think that his Diasomnia group lastly gave him advice or some quotes for an apology 😭 The moment he entered your room, he began to ask for your forgiveness more loudly than last time. In the middle of his monologue, he handed you a picture from behind and He didn’t look at your face anymore. Yes, he painted this picture, please forgive him, but he can't look you in the eyes, he will stumble and forget what he was talking about 😭 When he hears your quiet laugh, he falls silent and watches you approach the empty wall. A couple of seconds and he understands what you want to do. Okay, honey, he's glad you forgive him, but take your hands off and let him hang the picture. He will do it himself, you understand? Afterwards, he could invite you to take a walk with him, but, of course, when he is absolutely sure that you feel better than before

The characters do not belong to me, they belong to their rightful owners, please do not edit, translate, repost my works on other platforms, also without my permission and @

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

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oneatlatime · 3 months

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The Painted Lady

Air Bison, Sea Bison, and now Sludge Bison.

I have no idea how Aang is swimming through a solid. Must be an Avatar thing.

I bet there would be time for more potty breaks if Sokka hadn't spent 100+ hours of their time drawing up the schedule. A very Sokka thing to do though.

Because hills often have horns. Great disguise.

You can't tell me that a factory that close to their town wouldn't also become the town's primary employer.

That is a lot of town.

I sense a return of preachy Katara. This episode is going to suck.

I'm with Sokka on this one. Buy fish, move on, defeat Firelord, return to help with environmental remediation if time permits.

I like Doc. And Shu. Nice people.

Writers: if you have to make one of your characters an entirely different person to set up the episode's lesson of the week, maybe the lesson doesn't fit your chosen characters. This is the Warriors of Kyoshi all over again. Funny how that's happened to Sokka twice.

We are all Sokka.

And where exactly did this mysterious painted lady get the food to deliver to the village, if the reason the Gaang stopped in the village in the first place was because they needed food?

Let the record show: I lost the last of my patience with this episode 8 minutes and 9 seconds in.

Waterbending healing has never thrown off that much light before. Even the spirit oasis water wasn't that bright.

Also where is the water she's healing with? Usually she has a big bubble of it.

Impersonating a religious figure. That won't end badly.

"Well I hope she returns every night otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was." YES!!!!!! THAT'S THE POINT!!!!!

What was Katara's plan? Forget about the eclipse, forget about fighting the Fire Lord, we're going to stay here for the rest of our lives so that the painted lady can put in a nightly appearance. THIS IS WHY SOKKA DOES THE PLANNING.

Spirit magic is more doing the worm than doing the wave. Good to know.

Bold of a kids' show to advocate for ecoterrorism.

Aang's like "Hey spirit lady! Here's my resume! Here's my connections on LinkedIn!" Why did Katara think that faking being a spirit within two feet of the bridge to the spirit world would be consequence free? Actually that presupposes that Katara thought. Which she didn't. Sokka does her thinking.

"I don't get to meet many spirits. But the ones I do meet, not very attractive." I am OFFENDED on Yue's behalf. And Sokka's. I guess Aang doesn't like Water Tribe girls after all.

"I guess I just became her." No. That's an excuse and a deflection. I don't want to hear it.

What was I saying about Aang and Katara enabling each others' bad tendencies?

Sokka is horribly out of character this episode, but Aang is as well. In what universe would Aang be so unbothered by Appa being sick, and then so unbothered by the reveal that Katara had been faking Appa being sick? Like, this is Appa. He nearly skinned a bunch of sandbenders over the guy. And he finds out Katara's been messing with him and calls her 'great' and 'a secret hero.'

So this factory, despite being operational 24/7, has no night staff, not even a night guard? Because if it does (which it absolutely does - automation is a problem for factories in our world, not the ATLA one), Katara and Aang just killed A LOT of people.

And so she follows up one short term solution with another short term solution, which causes a third problem she will no doubt solve with a short term solution. You think there won't be reprisals for the only obvious suspects to this industrial sabotage? You think they won't rebuild the factory?

Sokka was kidding when he said that the Spirit Lady had better blow up the factory, but not in the way Katara thought he was kidding. Katara thought he wasn't being serious. But Sokka was serious, in that blowing up the factory is as short term a solution as appearing every night. He thought the joke - exchanging one bad solution for another - was obvious.

Somebody's enjoying himself a little too much.

Unfortunately, serving as Exhibit A is the most Toph has had to do all episode.

It is cathartic to see someone finally call Katara on her nonsense. But I'll bet everything I own that the narrative is going to side with her anyway.

Welp. I won that bet.

"You need me." Correct! Katara unsupervised needs bailing out after five minutes. "And I will never turn my back on you." A much more realistic goal than never turning your back on anyone who needs you, and also Sokka summarised in one sentence. Impressive for an episode where they had to Flanderise him beyond recognition to make Katara somehow the good guy.

Oh for fuck's sake. It's not about having a heart. This late in the game it's pure damage control.

So that's where the Painted Lady's food came from. I guess Fire Nation factories count as pirates?

I like the jetskis. The seem far more stable than actual jetskis.

It never occurred to Katara to obscure the evidence even a little bit? At least rub some dirt on the emblem. Look at me assuming Katara has thoughts.

Actual reprisals for once. About time.

This kid is annoying.

Toph gets to be a haunted house sound effects machine.

That's awfully waterbendery for a Fire Nation spirit.

I don't buy for a minute that anyone would be able to stay perfectly upright and balanced after an air blast from below without extensive trampoline training.

This won't work. His superiors, or the next shift change, or the first recruit wanting to climb the ranks quickly, will rise to the challenge presented here by the "painted lady." And as soon as one FN attack goes unchallenged by the "painted lady," the village is toast. I give them a week, tops.

Kudos to some clever in-universe bending special effects. Doesn't save the episode though.

Katara's preachy speech here makes absolutely no sense in light of the rest of the episode. Scolding them for not saving themselves, when waiting around for someone to save them appears to have worked perfectly? And having little miss I-must-save-the-whole-world-on-a-weekly-basis-otherwise-my-sense-of-self-implodes deliver that scold?

Who are these people wearing the Gaang's skin?

Yeah, nothing screams undercover in enemy territory like an entire village knowing that you're a waterbender. Good thing the only competent tracker in the Fire Nation is Zuko, otherwise these kids will absolutely be dead long before the eclipse.

Hi Bushi! You're about the only part of this episode that doesn't drive me nuts!

At least the animators had fun with this one.

Is this guy mopping the river?

Exactly how many days did they take out of Sokka's schedule to restore the ecosystem? I don't care how overlevelled these kids are at bending, you cannot mechanically separate an entire river's worth of dirt from water in an afternoon.

Well that's just he piss icing on the shit cake, isn't it? It wasn't enough for Sokka to lose all reason and come around to Katara's very flawed way of thinking, it wasn't enough for Aang to call her a hero, it wasn't enough to have a village worshipping at her feet, Katara needs affirmations of how right and special and correct and perfect and morally justified she is from the spirit world itself. This is Mary Sue stuff.

Final Thoughts

This is the first time an episode of Avatar has felt like a waste of my time.

It's also the first time I've felt like an episode has gone out of its way to insult the audience.

Katara talking about how she knows what she's doing is wrong is worth absolutely nothing when a) she goes right back to doing it; and b) literally every other part of this episode trips over itself to assure Katara that she's in the right.

Katara is downright punchable this episode. Sokka is Flanderised; Toph is non-existent; Aang is just there; poor Appa is an unwitting accessory to crime; and Momo has as much impact as a housefly.

So the execs forgot about the existence of The Spirit World Part One and demanded a save the environment special episode. The writers responded by forgetting that they'd already established that Katara was ride or die for literally anyone with a pulse in Imprisoned, and gave us this to remind us of that fact. They also forgot that they'd already established that Katara has no moral code whatsoever the minute her personal interest is involved in The Waterbending Scroll, so they decided to recycle the "narrative sides with Katara endangering them all over Sokka being reasonable" plot from that episode and hope we wouldn't notice. We did.

At least with Imprisoned, Katara kind of sort of caused the problem that she fixed. She was super tangentially involved in that kid's arrest. Here, she causes problems by trying to fix problems that she didn't really have any business getting involved in.

The more of this I watched, the more I wanted someone to slap Katara. What I wouldn't give for an episode where she is wrong (has happened a lot) and the episode doesn't pretend otherwise (has never happened). For god's sake, LET HER BE WRONG AND FEEL IT. How else is she going to progress past being self-righteously fourteen? Why is she being so consistently insulated from consequences? Aang chooses power over family at the end of season two and gets actually murdered for it. Katara steals, lies, skirts dangerously close to being a false prophet and does a nifty little ecoterrorism (with Aang's help), and she gets villagers being a bit shouty before big brother comes in and fixes it. Then she gets divine sanction for her actions so even the shouty bit is negated.

There's an interesting contrast in Katara's "I will never turn my back on people who need me" and Sokka's "I will never turn my back on you." It shows which of the two doesn't have their head in the clouds, and has actually formulated realistic expectations of how much a single person can do. It also speaks to the fundamental difference in how they operate. Katara acts; Sokka mitigates. Sokka does Katara's thinking for her; Katara outsources her thinking and then gets pissed when rational thoughts don't conform to her emotions' view of the world.

Why haven't the villagers moved away? If the water was poisoning them this much, why are they still here? Was the early 2000s too early to have a theme of climate refugees? Or the pollution equivalent? That would have been more interesting than this.

I hated this. Why isn't this the episode that gets hated on like the Great Divide? Its sins are nothing compared to this.

Doc, Shu, and Bushi were the only good thing in this episode, but they weren't enough to make this one remotely rewatchable.

One out of Three so far on season three episode quality. No other season has had this bad a ratio this early. This does not bode well for the rest of this season.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #the painted lady

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heavyhitterheaux · 2 months

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Got Me Thinking

Part 6: Don't Make it Harder On Me

Synopsis: You and Jack have to deal with the aftermath of your paparazzi pictures being posted for the world to see, and Jack finds out you weren't coping as well as he thought you were

Pairing: Jack Harlow x Reader

Series Masterlist

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

After Jack had put your phone on the bedside table, he turned his attention back to you and he knew that he needed to get you to calm down before you sent yourself into a panic attack which he could tell that you were on the verge of.

“Baby….” He calmly said as he moved you to sit on this lap and simply wrapped his arms around you in the hope that you would stop shaking.

“Shh, just breathe. Take a deep breath for me because the last thing we need is you going into a panic attack.” He quietly told you as he placed several kisses on your cheek, but you were still in a daze.

“This is bad. This is really bad.” You said quietly as tears welled up in your eyes before turning your head to glance at him.

“It's going to be fine, babe. Trust me.” Jack told you and you immediately shook your head no.

“No, it's not. It can't be fine. They have pictures of us. I told you we should have come inside and now look.”

“All this is going to do is…”

“No. In the end, you're going to be fine because it's you. Your fans love and adore you and you can do no wrong in their eyes. And the most important part is you're a man. I however am going to be seen as the homewrecking whore who broke up a marriage.”

“No, you won't. Just… I'm going to fix this.”

“Jackman please stop talking for five minutes because how the HELL are you going to fix this? Give me details.”

“I… but you told me to be quiet.”

You knew that he was trying to make you laugh and put you in a better mood, but you couldn't help but to roll your eyes as you started playing with the comforter that was laying across your lap.

“There are just some things that you are never going to experience or have to deal with because you're a man while women get criticized for breathing too hard. They are always going to paint me as a bad person and Kelsey as an innocent angel who didn't deserve any of this despite her cheating on you first that she will probably deny until she's blue in the face. And did we forget how I'm an influencer and I actually have a following on social media with actual endorsement deals that I could lose simply because of what my name is now going to be attached to?”

“I know we can figure something out. I know you're scared but I refuse to lose you over this. Now when we get back, we both need to file for divorce.”

“Only if Xavier and Kelsey haven't done it already.” You muttered as you grabbed your phone and started scrolling through it.

You were surprised that there wasn't even a call or a text from him because you knew for a fact that he had been alerted to what was going on by now. Because your siblings along with your parents had sent you a few messages that you haven't bothered to respond to. Knowing your mother, she was probably happy about it right along with Maggie.

“We're going to get through this, Buttercup but you just have to trust me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you or to us. Do you trust me?” Jack asked you and you nodded your head, not trusting that the actual words would come out of your mouth.

“Baby, look at me and tell me you trust me.”

You did as you were told and you were now facing him as you straddled him and he started drawing small shapes on your skin that was exposed to him.

“I trust you.”

“I'm going to take care of you and you know that at the end of all this we get to be together how we want. We just have to wait until this blows over and baby it will blow over and people will be onto something new. And we might be bringing a baby into the world too. But I'm going to need you to stop being scared and take the test. Whatever happens, you know it's me and you until the end of time. That's how it should have been from the beginning.”

When you didn't say anything, Jack placed his finger underneath your chin so that you would look at him and placed his lips on yours. You eagerly kissed him back and his hands started roaming your body and he pulled you even closer.

“I wish we could stay here forever and not have to be bothered with anyone anymore.” You quietly confessed as Jack captured you in another kiss.

“We can't stay forever, but we can definitely stay longer.”

“But I'd rather hurry up and get back home and get this over with.”

“In due time, baby. But for now let's focus on us and enjoy the time that we have together before we have to go back out into the real world. But first, I'm going to need you to take a pregnancy test. I'll text Neelam to get it for us.”

You stayed with Jack in Paris for two more days before making your way back home in order to face your husband and to officially file for divorce. You were dreading having to face him, but at this point what did you have to lose? He stepped out on you and had an entire child and you were absolutely done with trying to repair the relationship and it took Jack explaining that there was nothing left for you in that marriage for it to finally click and stop your thoughts of wanting to repair it despite what he did to you.

Even though he hadn't tried to call you at this point in time he had to know. It was everywhere and you honestly couldn't escape it. It did help that when you got back to L.A. it was three in the morning and there weren't a lot of people out, but that wasn't going to be the case on a day to day basis.

Before you and Jack had to leave one another, he simply told you if you wanted to quit your job when you got back home and move back to Louisville, he had already bought a condo for you.

You didn't know if you were quite ready for that just yet, but then again why not? Some of your things were already in Louisville and this would make it feel like the end of an era.

Walking into the house, the light was still on in the kitchen and you were confused as to why he would still be awake. Leaving your suitcase by the door, you stepped into the kitchen to see him nursing a glass of some type of alcohol and he was the first to speak.

“Hmm so you finally decided to come back? You should have just stayed with him.” He said before taking a swig and putting the glass back down on the table which instantly made you roll your eyes.

“Don't even start with me because it's not like you actually give a damn about me so you can stop pretending.”

“Of course I give a damn about you! Last time I checked you were MY wife, but I found out that you were cheating on me with your so-called “friend” Jack Harlow. He's a friend from high school, my ass.”

“I'm your wife, but you leave me for weeks and even months at a time and barely communicate with me and you've been this way for almost a damn year. So you can fucking save it. He actually cares about me while you are too busy taking care of your newborn child.”

The expression on Xavier's face was priceless and if you weren't so mad at him you would have pulled out your phone to take a picture.

“Oh, we don't have a lot to say now, do we? You've been cheating on me for almost a year and got the bitch pregnant. You aren't as discreet as you think and I know everything down to where she lives and what the baby's name is. Congratulations I heard it was a girl so don't you dare tell me shit.”

“You don't know anything.”

“Hmm, funny because not once did you deny it. If I don't know anything, tell me I'm wrong and PROVE it. Yeah I cheated on you with my ex-boyfriend and I don't regret it. He fucked me in our bed and I didn't even care if you had walked in and saw us. You could have probably used some pointers for him because I can't even remember the last time you actually found my clit so it was definitely news to me that you found someone that actually wanted to have sex with you and had actually gotten someone pregnant. So I'm saying all this to say that I'm fucking divorcing you once and for all so you can go and be with sweet little Kristina and baby Olivia all the time because I am taking you down for everything you fucking have. I'm not putting up with this any longer.”

“So, you think that the two of you are just going to live happily ever after? You failed me as a wife and you aren't going to do anything but fail him and be seen as nothing but a homewrecking whore.”

“You have some fucking nerve saying that shit to me. Hmm, I could say the same thing about Kristina. At least you could've gotten with someone who was at least on my level, but all you did was downgrade. She can have my sloppy seconds because the potential is gone. I didn't fail you as a wife, you failed me as a husband the minute you decided to step out on me instead of coming to me and fixing the problem. You didn’t even fight for me and that's what hurts most of all. I don't have anymore else to say so we're done here and you can get the fuck out of my house and go see your baby.”

“I… I never meant for it to come to this.” Xavier said getting up from the kitchen table and walking over towards you but all you did was take two steps back and shake your head no.

“You only feel some type of way now because you got caught. I don't want you anymore and I haven't wanted you for a very long time.”

“Y/N… we can fix this.”

“After you had a baby on me AND called me a homewrecking whore? Yeah, not a chance and let the door hit you on the way out because at this point, I don't give a damn.”

It was around 4:30 in the morning when Xavier had finally left and simply took his clothes and shoes with him and told you that he would be back for the rest later.

You were now laying in your bed staring up at the ceiling and you let out a sigh of relief. The weight that you had felt being in this marriage was no longer there and a few tears couldn't help but to slip out and you quickly wiped them away. Those were happy tears because you finally stood upp for yourself and it was long overdue. Now that you had faced your husband, you had one more thing left to accomplish. Now you had to go out and face the world.

Avoidance of your social media accounts were at an all time high especially when that was one of the first things Jack had told you to do and Neelam quickly agreed. You could only imagine the things that people were saying about you.

It was hard to fall asleep so the idea of calling Jack came to you knowing that more than likely he was still awake. He had let you know earlier when he had gotten home and that he was going to be up for a while. It rang a few times before you saw his face pop into view.

“Why is my girl still awake? I thought you'd be asleep by now? And have you been crying? What's going on?” He asked when he laid his eyes on you. It looked as if he was also laying down and had just woken up by his hair being all over the place.

“Oh no, did I wake you up? I didn't mean to. You can call me back when…” Jack immediately cut you off.

“No. Obviously my girl needs me so tell me what's bothering you.”

“I kicked him out the house… finally.” You said with a sense of relief.

“Hmm, how'd that go?”

“Tried to blame me for ruining the marriage by cheating, but then I pulled out all the receipts about him and his newborn child. He looked like a deer caught in headlights and didn't even know what to say.”

“I mean at that point, what could he say? He got caught red handed.”

“And proceeded to call me a homewrecking whore but then said that our marriage could be fixed.”

“He has some fucking nerve saying some shit like that to you after what he did. So, how do you feel now?” Jack asked as he was now sitting up against the headboard.

“A sense of relief and I feel like a weight has been lifted. I told him that I want nothing to do with him anymore. He took it better than I thought, but I mean at that point he had to know that I was going to say no. I also mentioned howywe fucked that night and that he can never find my clit. Anyway, I know for a fact Kelsey said something and had A LOT to say when she saw you.”

Jack shrugged before responding to you and it was clear that at this point he just didn't care anymore.

“First thing out of her mouth was ‘you told me not to worry about her’ and I was like Clay told you that because I know for a damn fact that that statement never came out of my mouth. Like she knows that we dated and by the end of that conversation I asked… no told her we were getting a divorce and that I didn't love her anymore.”

“We're doing the right thing, right? Tell me we're doing the right thing.” You said as you were making yourself more comfortable.

“Yes, baby, we're doing the right thing. Matter of fact, why are you in that big house by yourself when you could be up under me in your new condo in Louisville?”

“I..”

“First thing tomorrow, file for divorce and then I'll send the jet to come and get you.”

—--

You had been in Louisville with Jack at your new condo for about three and a half weeks and it seemed like the world was crashing down around you.

Being curious one night when Jack was at the studio your first week back, you logged into social media to see blogs tearing you down at every chance they could get and you ended up sending yourself into a panic attack.

The next week, numerous calls came to your phone letting you know that you would be essentially dropped from your endorsement deals because the companies that you were under didn't want their name being tied to any type of scandal or putting their company in a bad light even though they didn't even know the full story of what had actually happened.

Jack didn't know anything about that because you failed to tell him. You had known from the beginning that it was going to come to this and your mindset was that you were simply going to deal with it and not try to worry him about it.

You confided in Tania how you felt ever since the paparazzi pictures were posted and she was immediately blowing up your phone. You were once again hiding out in your condo when a call from her came through on your phone since when you called her earlier she was unable to talk. Once you explained everything to her, the first thing out of her mouth was that you had to tell Jack.

“And you didn't tell him this because?”

“He has enough to deal with and I feel like I keep adding to it. Being with me is probably more trouble than what it's worth. I have literally created a shitstorm.”

“Do not EVER let me hear you talk about yourself that way again. You are worth it and deserve to have happiness and Jack is all in. That man worships the ground that you walk on and if anybody needs to know how you're feeling right now, it's him. Do not keep this from him, because how is he supposed to help you?”

“Tania, how is he supposed to help me with this? My mental health has literally gone to shit since all of this happened. I quit my job, lost all my damn endorsement deals.”

“The two of you want to be together and that man is moving hell and high water to make it happen so I know if you tell him, he will do his absolute best to make sure you get the help that you need. Why are you so scared of just letting go? You've been this way since our first year in nursing school. And he said from the beginning that he's going to take care of you, so let him. Stop running away from the man who wants to love you.”

“None of this would have happened if we didn't break up in the first place.”

“Well we can't do anything about that now and we have to deal with the cards that are dealt.”

“I'm so overwhelmed, I can't do this.”

The wheels immediately started turning in Tania's head because any time she heard you say that, you disappeared for weeks and no one had any idea where you were and she was afraid that you were going to do it again. She knew when your panic attacks and anxiety got the best of you that's what you did in order to reset. It wasn't the healthiest coping mechanism, but when you came back you felt better each time.

“Y/N, don't you dare run. You are done doing that. Talk to him when he gets back home. Do I need to come to Louisville or do I need to call Janelle and Jeremiah?”

“I….. Tania, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. Maybe this is all too soon.”

“No. Stop it. Stop it right now. You made the right choice and I know it's overwhelming because of how famous Jack is and people are going to now be following your every move, but it's going to be okay.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I know you and you always come out on top. Now get some rest and let me know how it goes when you talk to Jack. If I don't hear from you in the next 12 hours, I'm hopping on a plane to Louisville.”

When Jack got to your condo, he was surprised by how quiet it was but figured that you would be sleeping. He made his way into the bedroom to find it empty and was suddenly confused since you hadn't mentioned to him that you were going anywhere, because at this point in time he didn't want you going anywhere by yourself knowing how people are.

After searching the entire condo, he pulled out his phone to call you but it had gone straight to voice-mail and Jack wasn't quite sure if he should start to panic or not.

It wasn't until a piece of paper on the counter in the kitchen written in your handwriting caught his eye.

Jackman,

Please don't be mad at me for doing this even though I get it if you are. First off, I love you with everything in me, but I just need to reset. I'm overwhelmed and I just need time to myself. I'll be back soon. Don't come and look for me.

Love, Buttercup

Jack felt that his heart was beginning to race as he read your words over and over again, not believing what he was seeing. He immediately started to feel guilty and believed that this was entirely his fault. He thought that you were coping with everything just fine or, it seemed like you were. If it was the opposite, surely you would have told him, right?

He immediately picked up his phone once more and dialed.

“Hello?”

“Y/N isn't here, and I don't know where she could've gone. She left a note saying not to look for her, but how am I supposed to just sit here?”

#jack harlow #jack harlow fic #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x black reader #jack harlow fanfic #jack harlow fluff #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow fanfiction #jackman thomas harlow #jackman harlow #jack harlow angst #jack harlow imagines

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hansoeii · 7 months

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Not a Sylki shipper, but do you genuinely believe they won't be endgame? Like I get it, it seems like Sylvie is not in love with him and they're kinda pushing Lokius (might be just mocking us), but don't you think they could do a 180 in the last episode? It would make no sense, but the writer is a cishet man, who ships Sylki. Marvel is not good at writing romance. I feel sad, because I'm seeing all these people say that Sylki is over, celebrating and I feel like they'll be crushed on Thursday. They could absolutely do a 180, rush the romance with "she was always in love, she was just pushing him away" and make them endgame. Again, it would be bad writing and it'd make zero sense, but the majority of the people don't care about the romance, including my irls, they only want to see the multiverse stuff. So they won't care. And I feel like Disney/Marvel don't care either.

Yes, I totally believe that Sylkie is over and that nothing will happen between them again.

What makes me say that? It's simple. All Sylvie wants is a simple life on the timeline, they've made that clear several times. She only ever follows Loki once that life and her timeline are in danger. And I can't blame her for that. She has no interest in Loki and his friends and what's even more important: she has even less than zero interest in the TVA. She's selfish, she admitted that herself.

The TVA is what's important here. The TVA has become Loki's home, it's the place where he found his family. He (and Mobius) is the heart of the TVA. And he won't part with it, and Sylvie would never willingly stay there for longer than necessary.

She has made it clear by telling Loki to write his own story that their stories are separate ones.

This season so far has been incredibly well written, and I don't believe they're gonna do a big 180 in the finale. I could totally be wrong, but I don't think it's likely.

I believe that Sylvie will be the one to restore everyone's memories in the last episode as her final heroic act and then once the timelines are restored, she will go back to her simple life.

And when it comes to Eric Martin: just ignore him. He's a troll, and I don't believe a single thing he says about any ships. He constantly likes Sylkie tweets and then suddenly switches to liking Lokius tweets. It's best to just watch the show and ignore what any of the creators have to say (besides Tom Hiddleston, I adore his commentary) about it, just draw your own conclusions! And so far, we have gotten 5 episodes that made it clear that there's nothing even close to romantic going on between Sylvie and Loki anymore.

#ask #anon #loki

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maxzinn · 2 months

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off topic but also on topic its so clear that the genshin/star rail (saying both cause theres a large overlap) have no capability of thinking.

there are so many fics where *reader* somehow becomes a (sex)slave or is forced to do horrible shit and just general dead dove behavior. the fact that the author used INGAME LORE, CANON BACKSTORY FOR THE CHARACTER proves how braindead so many people are.

like people try to free slaves/captors in media isnt a new thing. theres a lot of art of that angelhusk ship where one gambles for the others freedom (never watched it but its an example)

like having slaves/captors in media isnt new and never has been but the only reason people truely care is because its a hoyoverse game and cant handle anything darker or complex then a PG rating

(sorry anon, I got carried away with this one tee-hee)

YOU'RE SO REAL FOR THIS!!! y'know I was sooo confused when people started screaming for blood when the authors are using his IN-GAME LORE in their fics and then claims that the people who enjoyed writing those have "white-knight syndrome" like cmon sjsadhjg you're giving me a fucking stroke.

I'll say it again, wanting to give slave aventurine or someone a better life DOESN'T mean they have "white-knight syndrome" when they have good intentions!!! We were all were crying for him and his tragic past, we all wanted to comfort him, and we at some point also wished for his salvation and the betterment of his life. These people need to stop throwing these "white-knight syndrome" accusations cuz it's definitely not about that. And like you said, it was his IN-GAME LORE. I already expected some authors to write about reader saving him from his slavery and there's nothing wrong with that! Cuz please, don't tell me you won't help the guy out of his abusive owner, let's be fr here.

Like you also said, many have been writing yandere/heavy dark themes about reader being literally SA'd and R'd by said character (do not tell me you guys haven't read all those fics where Aven was our debt collector and in paying our debt, he noncon or manipulated us into sleeping with him 💀) and now they wanna talk about morals?

And please, don't even try bringing up Romania or irl people in here. IT'S A FICTIONAL RACE IN A FICTIONAL STORY. it may be "inspired" like they said, but it's not directly addressing Romania!!

I get their point alright, I truly do. Like I said in my other post, I do not condone the sex slave! aus about aventurine and the master/slave bdsm cuz his story truly hurt me and I'm uncomfortable sexualizing his slavery when I know about his story and what happened to him as a slave. But I won't go as far as to actually send death threats to those authors and act like a hypocrite💀 people can write what they want to write and I don't have to read those writings if I don't wanna.

Just to say, I'm a yandere/dark-content enjoyer as well, it's just that I draw the line when it comes to aventurine cuz I just wanna cuddle and dote on that man and give him all the love and affection in the world. but like I said, am no hypocrite as well. (sorry if I can't explain it very well but I hope you get the gist of it)

It's just funny and baffling how people are like "eww this person wrote a fic about reader buying slave aventurine so they can be a good owner to him".... this is leaving me speechless how they turned an act with good intentions into something malicious... that poor author doesn't even have bad intentions when writing that fic.

When you apply their logic, it's like saying "this person adopted an abused child so that they can be a good parent to that child, disgusting" do they even realize how stupid they sound??? 😭

#aventurine x reader #I just cannot with this #y'all giving me a headache with this one #funny how they turned a person's good intention into something malicious

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strawb3rry-acid · 3 months

Text

Being König's S/O

Just my own personal takes here ♡

❁

◐ König definitely has a tough shell to crack. He's most likely a fairly isolated man, and has some pretty damn high walls due to his past with being bullied as a child. A relationship with him would require some form of deep rooted friendship at first, and a lot of patience. I wouldn't say he's rude too people not close to him, I think he's pretty cordial and fair, but he can unintentionally come off as standoffish due to his quietness, intimidating appearance, etc.

◐ It'd probably take him quite awhile too confess, and you might have too take the reins with that one. He wants to make sure he's absolutely certain of his feeling's beforehand. He's also terrified of you rejecting him, and possibly laughing at him though he logically knows that wouldn't happen. If he were to confess, it'd either be a thoroughly planned confession he's worked on for quite some time with carefully planned word's, or a mutter underneath his breath when he thought you were out of earshot.

◐ Even if you've dropped several hints before getting in a relationship with him, he'd be shocked if you confess. Probably gets fairly embarrassed, and locks up for a second. Of course he's not embarrassed because of you, he's just easily embarrassed in general. You'd get a hushed confession in return once it sinks in after a few moments of very awkward silence.

◐ Lot's of longing, affectionate stares. He most likely doesn't even realize he's doing it most of the time, and will beat himself up internally for coming off as a creep unless you've already been in a relationship for awhile. He just can't seem to take his eye's off of you, as you're the most precious thing in the world to him.

◐ He's a very attentive, good listener, and remember's even the most minor of details about you as well as the thing's you ramble about. Even the thing's that seem meaningless too you, mean the most to him.

◐ Likely struggles with communication, and properly expressing his feeling's because he feels embarrassed about them at times, specifically his social anxiety (which is a key factor in his difficulties communicating.) I think he's more likely to isolate himself for a bit (not for an absurd amount of time) to clear his head, then pretend everything is fine. He will talk about it if pushed in the right direction though, it just may take some time.

◐ He strikes me as someone who struggles to admit that they're wrong. He tends to be (lovingly) a stubborn ass at times.

◐ Some thing's are limited, or completely off limits due to his social anxiety. Give him a push, but not a shove that heavily crosses out of his comfort zone. Definitely prefers dates where it's just the two of you in your home, instead of venturing out. He'll do it if you truly want too, he'll make accommodations to your needs too of course, but it's not something he'd like to do often.

◐ Speaking of his social anxiety, there's time's where it'll get bad enough too the point where he'll need quite a bit of alone time to calm down, and will not be social with anyone as it'll only make it worse. This unfortunately includes you as well. I don't think his social anxiety would go away around the people he's close to, especially since it's mentioned as being severe(I speak as someone with severe social anxiety.) It won't chain him down like it does around stranger's, but it's still there, and will act up at times. Don't worry though, he'll come back after he's had time to calm down. He'll always come back to you after all.

◐ Not a big fan of PDA. Once again, nothing against you, it's just that he doesn't like to draw attention too himself. Simple displays of affection are fine in public most day's, but it's limited. An exception to this is when you're being harassed, then he doesn't mind PDA in the slightest as his protective instincts kick in. Despite this, he's all over you in private.

◐ You're likely the only other person that helps him cope with his social anxiety, which is something he's deeply grateful for.

◐ Prefers too express thing's through physical affection, act's of service, and quality time. He's never had many people in his life, and deeply cherishes not only you, but the time you two spend together like he'll never get it again.

◐ Congrats, you now have a designated driver, bag holder, lifter, and human ladder! He prefers to do most thing's, and take care of you. He's also a big show off when it comes to his strength, and will absolutely jump at any opportunity too help you when it comes to grabbing thing's high up, and carrying heavy thing's. That top shelf at the grocery store will no longer be a problem, yay! However, it's a bit of a double edged sword because he will purposely put thing's high up so you'll ask him for help.

◐ He's loyal too a fault, and is a very helpful, protective affectionate lover. He may have issue's putting his feeling's in word's most of the time, but you'll damn sure know that he loves you. This man will do absolutely anything for you, and he proves that any chance he gets. He may be distant, and intimidating at first glance, but once you take the time to dig deeper he's a very loving man who absolutely adores you. Once you've got him, you've got him. He's very appreciative that you've put in the time and effort too get to know him, accept him, and see who he is without even the slightest hint of judgement.

#cod mw2 #konig cod #konig mw2 #könig #könig call of duty #könig cod #könig mw2 #cod mwii #mw2 #cod x reader #cod #cod mw3

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neverinadream · 1 year

Text

Once Dance, Chérie

Summary: Charles gets you to do the one thing most fail to do: he gets you to dance.

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x Fem!Reader // Arthur Leclerc x Fem!Reader (briefly mentioned - strictly platonic)

Requested: Nope.

Song Inspo: Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Edison Lighthouse

Warnings: fluff, the reader is technically younger than charles - like arthur's age, not necessarily a friends to lovers but like maybe a hint at it - maybe...

Notes: i don't even know what this is or if i like it but i can't lie, i was listening to the glee cast version of unchained melody and then i got this idea of charles trying to get arthur's best friend to dance with him at a wedding so this happened....yeah....anyway, feedback is always appreciated, it helps a lot

"Say cheese!"

"No, Charles," you shake your head, covering the lens of the cheap, disposable camera. They had been left out on the tables, with people being encouraged to pick them up and take pictures. You had enjoyed watching your baby cousins running and sliding around the ballroom on their knees, avoiding the discipline of their parents, giddy to snap pictures of other guests, plates of food, the wedding cake, and close-ups of each other's faces pulling various funny expressions. What you didn't enjoy was fending off your best friend's older brother trying to take pictures of you. "Charles, please, stop," you pleaded, finally pushing the camera away, "I really don't think Daphne wants an entire camera roll full of blurry images of my face."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that would be a bad thing," he replies, giving up on his mission to snap as many pictures of you as possible. His mouth curls into a smile as he catches you rolling your eyes, mumbling something incoherent under your breath, hiding behind your champagne flute. "Well," he clears his throat and rises from the table, "you'll at least dance with me, won't you?" He watches your eyes travel to his hand extended in front of you, the smaller glimmer of hope he had melting away as you reject him. "Why not?"

"Simple answer," you shrug your shoulders, "I don't dance."

"It's a wedding, chérie," it slipped off his tongue with ease, "everyone dances at weddings."

"Not me," you continue your protest, folding your arms across your chest.

He wiggles his fingers in the air. "Come on," he tries to entice you with a smile, "I know you like this song." You did like the current song playing. It was 'Love Grows' by Edison Lighthouse. It reminded you of Saturday mornings as a child, watching your dad float around the kitchen, twirling your mum around until she was laughing, before doing the same with each of you and your sisters. "Just one dance."

"Arthur won't like it," you tell him, trying to find a new excuse not to dance with him.

He raises his eyebrow, the corners of his mouth dropping and the smile he once had before now disappearing. "Now you're just making up excuses not to dance with, chérie," there it was again, so easily said like it meant nothing at all to him, "Arthur has been telling me to stay away from you since you were both fourteen years old. It hasn't exactly worked, has it? Why don't you really want to dance with me? Hmm?" His arm finally drops, his hands tucking loosely into his pockets. "I'll have you know, I'm an excellent dancer," he boasts, drawing a soft chuckle to spill from your carefully painted lips, "just ask Eloise." Eloise was your baby cousin and someone who had taken a fancy to Charles, tugging his hand and dragging him away to dance as often as Charles would allow it to happen.

"Eloise is seven years old, Charles," you fire back, shaking your head, "she would tell you you're an amazing singer if you were to sing her favourite song to her."

His bottom lip falls away from his top lip. "The little liar!"

"If you must know, I don't dance because I can't dance," you fold your arms, plucking your champagne flute between your fingers, tilting it to take a long sip, "I have two very clumsy left feet."

"I'm going to let you in on a secret," he says, removing his suit jacket in one simple, fluid motion. He leans forward, bending over you as he hangs the jacket over the back of your chair, all an act of his so he could get close enough to you to whisper, "I have two left feet too," into your ear. He swears he could feel the heat that pinched your cheeks, quietly chuckling when you avoided his eye contact as he straightened up.

"I, uh," you take another sip of your champagne, just enough to lubricate your dry mouth, "I thought you just said you were a great dancer?"

"I believe I said an 'excellent' dancer," he corrects you, unbuttoning his cufflinks, proceeding to roll his sleeves up, "and I've been told that my source might be unreliable." Satisfied with his sleeves, he extends his arm, offering you his hand as he attempts, one last time, to ask you to dance. "Doesn't your date deserve at least one dance with you tonight?"

"Your date?" You scoff, repeating his words back to him. He doesn't reply but grins back at you instead. "And how exactly did you end up being my date?" You push for an explanation, "because I thought I came to this wedding without a date."

He gestures his hand between the both of you, like he was trying to mime out his answer. "I have no date," he continues to wave his hand back and forth from his body, "you have no date." You failed to see an ounce of logic in his answer.

"And neither does my sixteen-year-old cousin," you fire back, pointing to the dance floor, "I'm sure he would love to have Charles Leclerc as his date tonight."

"One dance, chérie."

A sigh pushes past your lips. You knew Charles could be persistent, but you didn't think he would be this persistent. "You won't stop pestering me until I say yes, will you?" He shakes his head, grinning with a playful glint in his eyes. "If I say yes, will you promise that you will never ask me to dance ever again?"

"I pro-"

"And you'll promise to stop trying to take pictures of me?"

He rests his hand over his heart. "I promise never to ask you to dance ever again," he tells you, his face softening as you finally take his hand, "except on our wedding day." You look off to the side, biting back the urge to laugh or smile. "We'll have to dance at our wedding, chérie," he chuckles, offering you his other hand and helping you to your feet, "or did you think I forgot about it?"

When both you and Arthur were four, your mothers made a joke about the two of you being so attached to the hip that you would one day get married to each other. They were met with a chorus of disgust, the two of you shaking your heads and Arthur pretending to be sick. Charles, however, announced that he would marry you instead, because if Arthur wasn't going to marry the prettiest princess in all of Monaco, then he would instead.

"You're still the prettiest princess in Monaco, chérie."

"Five," you count, unable to ignore the flutter in your belly as he repeats it, "that's five times you've now called 'chérie' tonight. Some might say you've used it over excessively tonight. Enough times to last a lifetime."

"Would you like me to call it you again?" He asks, tilting his head to the side. He takes a second to study your face, painting an image of your beauty in his mind to remember you by until the next time he saw you. "Or, perhaps you want me to call you something else?"

"Perhaps I just want us to dance."

He nods, releasing one of your hands, and interlocking his fingers with the other. "Then lead the way, chérie," he feigns a gasp, the corners of his lips tugging into a smile, "that was number six."

TAGLIST:

@lovelynikol16 @bracedes @chelseagirl98

#charles leclerc #charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc one shot #charles leclerc blurb #charles leclerc fluff #charles leclerc fanfic #charles leclerc x reader

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zoeykallus · 8 months

Note

Ello!! Zoey how are u doing? 😚

Can i request a funny hc’s with the bad batch where the batcher sees their gender neutral s/o bending down thinking they’re gonna propose but they’re actually tying their shoe,

Batcher: “yes I will marry you!”

S/o: “oh I was just tying my shoe.”

Batcher: “we’re still getting married anyways 😒”

😁

I think I'm gonna have fun with this one!

The Bad Batch x Reader HCs - Accidental Proposal

Warnings: So far none/Mostly Fluff and Fun

______________

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

______________

You've been a happy couple for quite a while, so this misunderstanding doesn't really seem that far-fetched.

Hunter

As you bend down to tie your shoe, which has come loose, you hear Hunter draw in his breath sharply, and a moment later, a soft, "Oh my God." Just before you reach for the laces, you pause in confusion and look up, alarmed, already prepared to perhaps be in for an unpleasant surprise. But Hunter stands there staring down at you, downright expectant. Suddenly, a smirk appears on his lips, and he asks, "Too nervous to pop the question?" You blink several times, completely perplexed. "Uh..." His smirk widens, and he waves it off, his ears turning red. "It doesn't matter sweetie, honestly I thought I was going to. But I'm certainly not complaining, and I'm saying, 'Yes'" You stare at him. "Okay? That's fine. But what's the question to this yes?" Hunter freezes in his movement, his smirk disappearing. "You're on one knee in front of me, looking up at me," he says, pointing at you with both hands. "Yeah, right. My shoelace is untied." Hunter's eyes go wide. "Oh..." Then he says defiantly, "We're still getting married". You stand back up and look at him with raised eyebrows, "Oh yeah?" "Yes, and what just happened here, we won't tell anyone. If anyone asks; I proposed to you, romantically and all"

You giggle softly and he raises a brow critically. But then he smiles and gives you a gentle kiss.

Echo

He turns to you and at the same moment you go down on one knee because of your shoe.

"Oh my God."

You look up, startled.

Echo is standing there, one hand on his chest as if he has to stop his heart from racing away.

"Are you okay?" you ask.

Echo takes a deep breath and then says with a soft laugh, "Sure, everything's fine, I just wasn't prepared for this."

You frown and say, "Well, neither was I, I was sure I made a double loop thus the shoelace wouldn't keep coming undone."

Echo blinks, holding his breath, freezing in his movement, then his gaze moves to your fingers, already gripping the laces.

"Goddamn it," he curses softly, rolling his eyes.

He turns away again, and you stand up, confused.

"What's wrong?" you ask in alarm.

"Nothing at all, it's fine," he says curtly.

"It doesn't sound like it"

"Just forget it," he waves it off and plunges back into work.

It's not until a few weeks later, over a small barbecue and some spotchkas, that Echo tells you what he was really thinking and misinterpreted your kneeling as a proposal. That same night, you propose to him for real. You've never seen Echo so radiant before.

Wrecker

As you kneel to tie your shoe, you hear Wrecker say breathlessly, "Oh boy…"

You look up questioningly.

"What's wrong?"

"This is so unexpected," he says, grinning sheepishly with flushed ears.

You frown, imagining all sorts of things about what he must be thinking you're up to.

"I don't know," he says slowly, "Are we there yet? I think we might really be ready. Are you really ready?"

You say dryly, "To tie my shoe? Yes I think so, in any case I am in the right position already."

His eyes get big, and he stares at you stunned, suddenly he laughs so hard that tears come to his eyes. You grin at him, but you don't really know what he's laughing about. Then you think about what he said and join in the laughter.

Finally, Wrecker wipes the tears of laughter from his face, grabs you by the hips and sits you down on a waist-high wall in front of him.

"That was funny, but we'll keep that between you and me, right?" he asks gently.

You nod with a grin and kiss his strong chin.

"Don't worry, big guy, it'll be our secret".

Tech

As you get down on your knees, he begins to stammer uneasily. "Oh gods, oh my goodness, this is unexpected.... uh, okay, take it easy." Astonished, you look up at him. "You okay, Tech?" His hand runs over the back of his neck, as he often does when he's very nervous or having a particularly shy moment. "Um, well, I'm fine. I'm just not sure if we're ready yet. Both of us as a couple, I mean. This gesture is wonderful, and I've been thinking about it too, we'd make a great couple I think..." "Tech." "Maybe even great parents. So when I think about spending my whole life with someone, I have to say you're the only person I can really imagine that with..." "Tech?" "But there's so much to consider, finances, living situation, family and so on. That's a big, heavy decision-" "TECH!"

He blinks and looks at you, startled. "Why are you screaming like that?" "Because you completely misunderstand me and have drifted back into one of your tunnel modes. I was just tying my shoe, my shoelace had come undone. There are no serious decisions to be made at the moment" He blinks several times and looks at you from wide eyes. "Oh" he says softly, "Somehow I'm very embarrassed right now". You smirk and draw his attention back to you as his gaze wanders with his ears reddening in shame. "Tech?" "Hmm?" "I love you." He blinks, then smiles and gently reaches for your waist to pull you close. After a soft kiss, he whispers, "I love you too".

Crosshair

As you drop to your knees, he almost immediately pulls you back up by your shoulders in a downright panic.

You stare at him in confusion.

You ask startled, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"No," he says sternly, "No, we're not there yet, I'm not ready for that depth of commitment."

You frown, at a loss for words at first.

"I'm not ready yet," he says sternly, "But I will be, at a later time, okay?"

You blink and look at him calmly, even though you're suppressing a laugh right now. But Crosshair obviously misunderstands your demeanor.

"Don't look at me like that," Crosshair murmurs, "You know I love you, but that's a step too far okay, I can't go that far yet."

"Neither can I," you say dryly, "Because my shoelace is untied."

He stares at you, and you stare back, hard-pressed not to laugh.

He clears his throat and says, "Okay, that's a good one, I'll give you that, the one about taking the next step and leaving your shoelace untied."

You start grinning broadly, and he says dead serious, "You won't tell anyone about that, or I'll make myself a widower before we get married."

You laugh and let him pull you into his arms. He kisses your neck and murmurs, "I mean it".

"Sure, honey," you say with a laugh and wrap your arms around his shoulders.

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

@ttzamara

@arctrooper69

@padawancat97

@agenteliix

@allsystemsblue

@palliateclaw

@either-madness-or-brilliance

@ortizshinkaroff

@andy-solo1

@hunterssecretrecipe

@heyitsaloy

@greaser-wolf

@extrahotpixels

@hated-by-me

@hunterxcrosshair

@malicemercy

@bebopsworld

@echos-girlfriend

@cpnt616

@dangraccoon

@jediknightjana

@pb-jellybeans

@antishadow2021

@sleepycreativewriter

@projectdreamwalker

@1vlouds

@starwarsnerd111

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ouroborosorder · 3 months

Note

Do you have an instance of Arknights VFX that gets frequently praised that you as a VFX artist think is mediocre or bad?

EBENHOLZ' SKIN "EINE VARIATION" IS A CRIME AGAINST ME SPECIFICALLY.

Look. I love Ebenholz, a lot. His effects are really strong, too! Some of my personal favorites. But this skin. Jesus Christ this skin.

I have seen so many people praising this skin as having good effects or being better than his original and it genuinely makes me wonder if half of the effects are actually rendered in some sort of shrimp colors that everyone but me can see.

There is not a single part of this skin's effects that I don't hate. Not just because I find them ugly, uninteresting, and unclear, but because I think they fundamentally misunderstand who Ebenholz is.

You asked for this.

Part 1 - The Colors.

The actual art for his skin has a beautiful striking blue and light gray background, with the light pink Arts accentuating it, and then the blood red and pitch black of his outfit meant to draw the eye to the center. This works perfectly in the art, so what's wrong?

First problem. Ebenholz doesn't have the blue background in gameplay. Meaning that his effects are red (not pink, like the art, they are red) and his skin is red. So there's extreme monochrome happening, with absolutely no interesting contrast between him and his Arts. His Elite Charge is blue, at the very least, so his signature gimmick stands out uniquely, which is quite nice! That's a great decision that won't cause any problems down the line at all.

"Oh, but Keys, it's so that the red Arts stand out when he uses his S3 and summons that giant goat spirit in the background!" That's a great point, person I just made up. Please remember this excellent point for later.

Part 2 - General Effects

The effect starts with a deploy animation wherein Ebenholz is surrounded by sparkles like some sort of magical girl. The deploy effect is genuinely bad in so many ways, mostly related to timing and motion, but this rant is going to be long enough. And I'm gonna need to focus and talk about the sparkles.

The biggest thing to know about Eine Variation is this image. Get acquainted with it. If there was a recurring visual motif in Eine Variation, it is this piece from the original art.

And yeah, as an effects artist, I'd be amped to work on this. This looks fucking sick as shit. It's dynamic, it's chaotic, it's got harsh lines to contrast the flowing music staff, it's great. So let's see how this texture looks in g- okay what the fuck.

In the game, it looks nothing like the art. It's literally just the stock glimmer effect. It's not even a new texture. This thing's been in the game since release. It looks. Bad. It's way too simplistic. Because it wasn't meant to be the center of attention, it's meant to appear for an instant and then fade. Like, you know. A glimmer.

What you just saw in the screenshot above is one of Ebenholz' Mystic Caster charges. And it is easily my least favorite part of the entire skin.

Ebenholz (Original Flavor)'s Mystic Caster charges has one of my favorite visual touches in the entire game. Ebenholz fights using artifacts from the Witch King whose power he inherits - a wand and a set of five Originium dice. So he wields the wand, and has die rotate around him as he fights. In-game, they represent this by his charges being the dice, rotating around his hand. This is, as we say in the vfx industry, fucking badass. So naturally they removed the dice entirely in Eine Variation.

Fuck.

Fine, alright. Maybe it's him... moving further from the Witch King's influence, then? We'll go with that hey stop looking at his S3 what are you doing don't get ahead of me.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "hey, Keys, this is unfair. You're asking us to judge an animated effect based on a static picture of it." Well, my dear reader, I have bad news. You just saw the entire charge's visual. The whole thing.

They are a glimmer of light that does not pulse or twinkle. They just. Sit there. Floating. Again, it's just so simplistic, it's not even interesting to talk about.

The only good thing I can say about it is that it's way easier to tell how many charges he has since they're bigger, more spread out, and not moving. Also the Elite charge is WAY more distinct, since it's bright blue now to contrast with the red normal charges. Which is nice! A good decision! It would sure be a shame if it bit them in the ass later!

Part 3 - Attack and Skill 1

Did you think I was kidding when I said that the sparkles are the sole visual motif in this skin?

I hate these attack trails. Not only are they too simplistic, they're just too cute. I joked about magical girls before, but dear god, this just doesn't fucking look right. This skin is literally described as him being apathetic and miserable as a noble, so why are the effects so... Colorful and cute? Ebenholz isn't a cutesy goofy music-themed magical girl, Ebenholz is a sad gay goth kid who would create a fake My Immortal confession for attention.

I also hate the musical notes. I know I complained about the glimmers being too one-note (pardon the pun), but they just don't interact with the rest of the effect at all. There's nothing else musical about what is happening here. They feel added to remind you that he is casting music.

God I fucking hate the sparkles so goddamned much. I also find it really funny that one single musical note bursts forth with each hit. These shapes are just... So boring, so simple. But put a pin in that for a later.

His S1 uptime comes with an awful aura. he glows red. There is only red and white. this is all there is. This is all there will ever be. That's all I've got about S1.

Part 3 - Skill 2

Oh jesus go back to the red and white

First off, I find these goat so fucking ugly. The synths are a truly terrible choice, because synths and digital music don't come up in any capacity throughout the rest of the effects. So. Great work. This doesn't make sense.

Anyway I hate the color here. The original has a great two-tone black smoke with bright blue glowing eyes, contrasting with Eben's orange Arts. In the skin they slapped an awful blue glow haze over them. This makes them just completely draw visual attention, while they don't match up with Ebenholz' aesthetic at all. if you could see the black, there would be a clear visual link between them, but... Nope. It's ONLY blue, motherfuckers.

Also, they passively emit triangles, which is the only time in this entire effect that the Arts = Geometric Triangles visual idea appears in the entire skin based around an arts caster. Yay for recurring game-wide motifs!

Shockingly, I hate the explosion. It's passable, it's fine. But the timing is absolutely awful. The original's feels like an explosion that is pulling the target in, but the skin's feels like an explosion followed by absorption. It makes it feel less like an explosion and more like a contrivance. Also, it spawns only like, four notes total, which is just so low. Please have more notes, you even have the musical staff, you're so close to having this look like musical arts. I also hate the random swirl of red. The goat didn't have any red in it. Why does this have red. Monochrome would have actually worked better, this is just a summon.

Part 4 - Sound of Silence

Eine Variation S3 features Ebenholz getting hoverhanded by a goat.

I wish I had any other way to put it. But he gets hoverhanded by a goat for the entire uptime of this attack.

What even is this thing? Obviously, it's the goat behind him in his splash art, but what is it? Is it the Witch King? That would make sense, but why is the Witch King's avatar blue? The Witch King has literally never been blue, he's always been associated as being red. Unless this isn't The Witch King, in which case, what the fuck is it then?

I hate this effect more than anything else in this game. The ghost looks absolutely awful. it is very blatantly just the art from the actual skin, slapped behind him with no regard for aesthetic consistancy. Or even regard for if the image is readable at the distance Arknights is played at. The goatghost.jpg is not animated at all, but the hands move up and down, which weirdly only further reveals how static the ghost is. Also the hands aren't animated outside of going up and down which is just so uncanny and uncomfortable. It just reveals how desperately they needed to have some animation to make it not look like absolute hot garbage, and they still failed.

After an entire skin of absurdly simplistic geometric shapes and basic ass textures, suddenly they think they can pull off some shit that looks like a granblue render. This doesn't even look in-line with the rest of the skin's effects, let alone with the chibi artstyle.

Now. Why I truly, truly hate this attack.

When you activate S3, all of Ebenholz' Charges become Elite charges. Meaning they all become blue.

The charges all finally become blue.

In the only part of the skin where you have a blue background.

I just. I can't figure out how you'd fuck this up this bad. If the Elite Charges were red, it would look like the fucking skin art, with the red notes on the pink staff. They'd stand out, or at least look fucking decent. How many charges does Ebenholz have? Oh I don't know THEY'RE FUCKING BLUE ON BLUE.

WHY. WHY ANY OF THIS. WHY ALL OF THIS. I'M IN HELL. THIS WAS MADE TO TORMENT ME PERSONALLY RIGHT

anyway I will give credit where credit is due. I actually quite like the trail when he casts his stocks in S3.

The slight orange two-tone and complicated trails add a lot of nuance and depth to the effect, and the glimmer is toned down to the point where I can see the diamond shape hidden underneath. There is one singular silver lining to this cloud. It could use more musical touches and less fucking sparkles but at this point I need to compliment something.

Finale - Why Do I Give A Shit

Eine Variation launched as part of the Bloodline of Combat skins that came out with Lone Trail. It released alongside Specter the Unchained's Born as One; my personal favorite skin in the entire game. It is a skin that perfectly conveys Laruntina's love of natural beauty and Specter's love of poetry and recitation, bringing them together into poems reflected in a starry lake. The effects are serene and dreamlike, peaceful yet chaotic. It conveys who they are going into the future, who they are together.

Born as One is Bloodline of Combat at its best. Bloodline of Combat is at its best when it tells you something about who this character is at this part of their life. How they change, how they grow, how they look at the world in this point of their life. This is the story that good effects can tell.

So I ask you: What story does Eine Variation's effects tell?

If this an Ebenholz who is growing further from the Witch King's legacy into his own man, then why does the avatar of the Witch King appear behind him? Why does the flavor text describe this as clothing worn by every Graf Urtica? Why does it not lean further into the synth aesthetic to separate himself from the classical music of Leithanien?

If this is an Ebenholz who is currently stuck within the confines of nobility, why is he not wielding the dice associated with his title as Graf Urbica? Why do his fucking goats have synths instead of traditional instruments? Why is the Witch King the wrong color?

And most importantly to all of this: Why are all the shapes so simple?

Yes, Arknights' Arts are geometric. They're usually represented by simple triangles. This is true. But think about who Ebenholz is.

Ebenholz is not a simple and elegant person. Ebenholz is a man who nails complicated, difficult, strange flute solos, but who fails to do simple rhythms and scales. He excels at the complex, the elaborate, and the detailed, and fails at the simplistic. This is always how Ebenholz has been.

So a skin full of simple shapes, easy language, and flat colors... Isn't how he'd fight. It's not who he is. It's not how he'd act. It doesn't just feel wrong, it feels like it's not made for him.

I don't just hate this skin because I think its effects are bad. I mean, I do, and they definitely are.

I hate this skin because it just... Fundamentally does not understand who Ebenholz is. And it definitely does not understand why he is so special.

#(feel free to skip to the ending if you don't want to read an unhinged amount of text about something I hate)#arknights #arknights vfx breakdown #emphasis on breakdown

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amypihcs · 20 days

Text

So i'm dead.

@contact-guy's beautiful comic (i loved it, truly, it killed me.) and watching Hellsing with an offline friend of mine killed me THROUGHLY.

And since i fear i'm figuring out how Holmes and Watson's relationship will evolve into @contact-guy's comic serie i'll curse you with the HCs i made with my dear @i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end today talking about my future drawing of Watson with his loves, Holmes and Mary.

You can probably tell i'm emotionally devastated because my writing is more inconsistent than my usual.

So.

For me is very important that Mary gets treated well, since she exists in canon and is a fantastic woman. And i also love to think that she and Holmes are friends, after all they both love Watson.

My take is, Watson and Mary have kind of a façade marriage based on good friendship and comradeship but without love and generally without sex.

This could work in two ways, both of which are incredibly nice one:

Aroace Mary who needs some sort of social respectability coming from a marriage and got lucky enough to find a man as good and kind as Watson who is more than willing to help her to achieve it without endangering her

Lesbian or Bi Mary in a relationship with a girl, probably her ex employer, could be someone else, who still needs the respectability and stability coming from a marriage and is still lucky enough to find our favourite bisaster, Dr John H. Watson, who is also bisexual and in a relationship with a man and would benefit a lot from the cover of a respectable marriage.

The first one is rather easy to treat. Watson and Mary make good friends during Sign of Four, Holmes notices/guesses that Mary is acespec like him (my Headcanon for Holmes is that he is demigay) and when Watson proposes and she accepts they put immediately straight that it won't be a consummated marriage, ever.

The second one develops in the same way, and this makes so much more explainable the many times Mary is mentioned to be away visiting relatives in canon. Mary is with her partner, Watson is with his partner.

Now angst warning!

Sherlock Holmes looks very favorably upon Watson's marriage, he is in fact the one that pushes Watson into it, and for very good reasons.

Let's put sign of four in 1887, alright? Chances are high he was already pursuing Moriarty, or that he generally was realizing more and more the risk of dying on the job, well, Holmes is a smart man. And a clever, practical and caring one as well. he is a man who loves deeply and cares deeply and wants to always have his affairs in order.

Is it too much of a stretch to imagine that he realizes the higher and higher risk of SOMETHING BAD happening? I don't think so. And he knows that Watson could get caught in the crossfire and he wants of course to protect Watson and offer him some saving net.

He pushes Watson into this marriage that will not mean the end of their relationship but the creation of another meaningful relationship for his love, so that SHOULD I DIE he will have someone to help him weather the storm (would watson care, would he? nobody ever did, but WATSON. Watson cares for everyone... would watson care...). The marriage also means that he will go back into practice, and this is an economic safe net, something always good. Their relationship is of course carefully concealed but such a handsome, sociable, perfect man as Watson is staying unmarried and living with a bachelor friend might give rouse to suspects, marriage will give his incredible partner respectability, something Moriarty or anybody won't dare to attack without sure cards in his hands, and Holmes will make sure NOBODY has any such cards.

Holmes is no coward, but he's not stupid either. He knows his job is dangerous and it might lead to really bad things happening, so he is happy when Watson tells him Mary said yes. He is happy on the morning of the wedding, he is the man who ties Watson's tie and then kisses his lips. He tells his husband to go marry, enjoy his honeymoon and start his life with his wife. And then come back to him, to their rooms and their love. And they both will have tears in their eyes. Holmes will not be at the cerimony, nor will Mary's wife. But they will always support their partners.

Holmes OF COURSE will sulk for a bit, until Scandal in Bohemia. He did what was right, but he still feels lonely. And then Watson comes back. And they're together once more, they're in love and they can break the world apart. And then comes 1890. Watson is a bit more settled down, Holmes has his affairs in order, he can set to the work of his life. And then comes 1891.

Holmes is afraid.

They set fire to their rooms. Home is not safe anymore.

Reichenbach comes.

Holmes is not suicidal, he is terrified. And yet he will once more put Watson's happiness in front of his own. He will not put his husband in front of an impossible choice. He drafts a letter in his head. He leaves it under a silver cigarette case.

He can't imagine he will only see his husband three years later.

His plans worked and failed. But they're back together. Holmes will finally talk. There's a broken window in 221b Baker Street, they're both older, more tired. A bit sad at how things turned out. Mary is dead. Holmes couldn't have forseen that. And yet after some days, after a dinner. Watson will pat the empty spot on his left on the couch, he's still sitting in the center. He will hug Holmes close to his chest, they will remember the times all three of them hugged, Watson and his loves, Mary on the right, Holmes on the left. Holmes on the heart's side, Mary on the reason's side. They will cry. And remember. And be glad for what have been and look forward to what will be.

They're older, more sure of themselves. Watson's status as a widower is respectable enough, he murmurs in the dark. He will only be married to one man for the rest of his life. The following morning, Holmes presents Watson with a French gold coin, for his Watch chain. That will be their ring, their memento.

Years will pass, they will retire, they will always be together, because they never lived, so they can never die. Outside the rain pours and the cabs rattle in the streets.

And it is.

Always.

1895.

Okay, sorry for the immense rant, i have tears streaming down my face, my j'accuse is up in the first lines and it's also my thank you for getting the balls to write this rant on holmes, watson and mary.

#victorian husbands #sherlock holmes #john watson #mary morstan #mary watson

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