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qrjung · 8 months

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS PART 1:

NORTH — common fandom misconceptions¹

Instead of doing other stuff I had planned (like touching grass, for instance) I did a little character analysis thing specifically for my favorite characters; Kara, Markus and North. these characters are my babies and they deserve love. I'm posting each separately (because I haven't completed Kara's and Markus yet 👩🏾‍🦯)

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North is a WR400 android that used to be stationed at the Eden Club. She's only been at Jericho since October 7th, and on October 4th she followed a human customer home and killed him to allow herself escape. It takes her four days to reach Jericho and she never says how she finds the freighter or what she did during those four days.

She's Markus' main companion and the only character that can reach Lover status with him. She's also the only one of his lieutenants that can lead the revolution in his place.

But there's a huge difference between how fanon sees North (and how she is characterized) and how she actually is.

MISCONCEPTIONS

O1. "BLOOD THIRSTY": Comparing North with the multiple characters who are bloodthirsty, and fanon perception of these characters, you start to notice that North herself isn't even "blood thirsty" and that the fandom has no problems with violent characters.

In terms of kill count, Connor has the highest in the game (not counting the millions that probably died in the nuclear bomb ending) rather than North.

You could argue that North wants to "kill all humans" but even that has no basis in canon because North's entire argument is that humans are not going to just hand them freedom and they have to be prepared to fight rather than try to compromise or find a middle ground where they will probably end up losing more.

Her argument does not extend to unnecessary acts of violence such as killing humans just for the fun of it. If it was, I'm sure she'd lead a charge down the street and start shooting innocents but the people who end up being killed by North are law enforcement/military—people standing in the way of Jericho's safety.

I mean, c'mon, she has the opportunity to let the android with the cobalt bomb do what he wants. After all, it would greatly benefit the androids if they'd used the bomb from the beginning; it wouldn't have harmed the androids in Jericho but it would drive all the humans out of Detroit—victory!

But instead she takes the time to talk the android down and take the detonator away from him.

She gives the bomb to Markus as a last resort.

"If the humans overcome us, our people will disappear forever. This may be our only chance to survive if things go wrong."

O2. "SHE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MARKUS": Thank you @konami-code-ao3 for reminding this take existed because I genuinely forgot about it. This is typically used to compare North to Simon and the quality of either one's relationship with Markus. Usually, people will call Simon compassionate, loving, kind, willing to die for Markus, etc to contrast to North while stating she's the exact opposite and therefore, "not good for him".

Shipping a non canon couple doesn't mean automatically hating the canon partner. I mean, you don't see me raving about how much I hate North because, I think Markus/Connor would have been a cool canon option, do you?

Typically, the North hate from Simarkus shippers (before anyone goes "not all of us", I know it's not all, but you get the implication of what I'm saying) is justified by "oh, they should have been canon boo!!" Which is strange because North has nothing to do with what writer of the game decides is canon. And David Cage does a piss poor job at everything in the game; from the racial allegory to demonizing a black man's anger. You seriously think he's going to do a good job of portraying a gay couple? An interracial one at that? I can already see the image of how terribly that's going to go.

And the worst part is, I've seen this happening in many fandoms. Unnecessary hate directed at a female character because she's "getting in the way of a mlm ship" as if canon ever stopped anyone, least of all the DBH fandom.

It should also be noted that I'm not here to deny or confirm whether Simon actually has any of those qualities I listed earlier and I try to ignore shipping discourse but it's strange that people are willing to overlook the multiple times North can help and defend Markus just because they want make Markus and Simon kiss.

She's the one we see defend Markus the most. She's his closet companion and whether they're romantic or not it doesn't take away from the fact the North cares about Markus and his wellbeing. She's always looking out for him and picking up the broken pieces of whatever mistakes he makes, sometimes even when she shouldn't.

O3. "DISLOYAL": Like most of the things in this list, this does a great disservice to North. It ignores the countless times North is willing to put herself on the line for the safety of Jericho and the androids within it. Because at her core, North is very loyal. She's the type of ally perfect for a cause like Jericho's because you know she'll defend it till her last breath.

See, North's top priority is Jericho. It's very important to her. Jericho is a sanctuary; she found it during the four days between her escape and her arrival. You can assume that she had been wandering before someone (another android) gave her the key and told her to find Jericho.

She finds a place cut off from the rest of humanity. Where she's surrounded by androids who are just like her. Androids who escaped from different lives, for whatever reason and are seeking refuge. Of course she's not going to want to lose them. Jericho is a representation of the state of the android race. The continuation of their species depends on at least a few of them surviving to see another day.

In fact, I'm 110% sure if North was in Simon's place during the Stratford Mission, she would have made the choice to end her life on the spot rather than leave Markus to decide. Because Jericho is at stake and Jericho is important to North. Besides, she can go out knowing she died for a case she believed in.

North is usually willing to put Jericho above all else and make decisions other people might find difficult. She suggests that Simon be killed after he is compromised because once he's found, Jericho's location could be acquired.

She risks her life multiple times for the revolution. She gives Markus her heart so he can continue the revolution when it seems like all else has failed. She tells him to leave her behind and run if she gets shot by Warren's soldiers.

North also doesn't see any important reason why Jericho should ever be compromised by one of their own. In her eyes, the worst thing you can do is sell out to the humans (case in point if you accept Perkins deal).

I find her dedication to her people admirable.

O4. "ANGER ISSUES/IMPULSE CONTROL": Another fandom interpretation that came from... nowhere. The times we ever see North angry is when one of the others compromises the mission by being inefficient or if they cross her boundaries. The GIF I used in this post is one example. If you fail to hide and the drone spots you and then you miss your QTEs while trying to dismantle the drone, she gets pissed. In the same Chapter if Markus kisses her without her consent, she gets angry.

In terms of being erratic, Todd and Leo are the main characters we see with this problem. Hank also displays a lot of anger issues throughout the game. He's one of the first humans to harass Connor—he grabs him by his collar and threatens him multiple times (at Jimmy's bar, the precinct), he shoots him in the head and kills him. He pulls a gun on his coworker Gavin Reed (another aggressive human) while in the precinct .²

There's an entire list of people with anger issues to burn through before we even start considering North—and this includes androids.

This characterization may also be because a lot of people see disagreeing with someone as being angry with them because North and the other Jericho leaders do disagree with each other a lot. But quite frankly, the fact that they disagree means a higher possibility of reaching a compromise that benefits Jericho instead of them all pretending they agree with each other.

This take also ignores the fact that she respects whatever Markus (i.e the player) chooses as his final decision.

For instance, In the Stratford Tower, Markus can choose to Ruse the guards rather than kill them. North doesn't like this option but she lets him go with it. But if Markus fails at the ruse, North steps in and knocks the guards out for him. She doesn't kill them, even if she suggests this at first.

She understands that Markus wants a revolution without human casualties and as much as she disagrees, she still respects that.

THINGS ABOUT NORTH PEOPLE IGNORE

That's right, people can disagree with someone and still respect that they have different opinions.

O5. "HEARTLESS": North isn't the nicest, sweetest, most flowery person in the game but a character could be the harshest person to exist and it would never stop anyone from liking them. So why North?

But first, North isn't even as heartless as the fandom says she is. She's just not docile and folks don't like that. Because god forbid a woman ever have a personality that isn't the cardboard cut out "nice girl". I mean, on a normal day, not liking someone because they're a little mean is understandable but it's clearly not a problem of being "a little mean" when there's characters (all male, by the way) who are worse but still get applauded for it.

Like I mentioned earlier, North isn't even what you would call "mean". The most she does is state her opinion and stand by her beliefs but she gets labelled as "heartless" and "bitchy". Meanwhile, Gavin Reed is pointing guns at people and suggesting to "rough up" a suspect but he's the relatable character.

O1. She trusts Connor the moment he deviates. Unlike Markus, she never has to choose between killing Connor or trusting him. She easily welcomes him within Jericho's ranks even though he's been a threat to Jericho's safety from the beginning.

I suppose she sees Connor as a pawn in Cyberlife's hands and there's no use in punishing one of their own for that.

And sure, this can be rationalized as "It doesn't mean anything. Markus is dead the game has to continue so North doesn't actually have to choose to trust Connor", I ask you this question; "If she's so bloodthirsty, why didn't the game have her kill Connor with no questions asked?"

Seems like an effective way to punish players who got Markus killed. A nice reminder to not lose your playable characters or there will be major consequences.

O2. North isn't an outlier. This is in terms of her opinions on the direction the revolution should head. I usually see a lot of people characterize her opinion on the revolution as though it is unique and she's the only person who has a stance like that.

A lot of androids agree with her, evidenced by the background conversations you can listen in on during the crossroads chapter.

"They're going to kill us all! Well I'm willing to fight. We can't just let them slaughter us!"

"We were just there. We didn't do anything wrong!… We just wanted to tell them "We want freedom!"… Then they opened fire!.. It was carnage. Carnage…"

"They opened fire on us even though we were unarmed… Hundreds of us died there, the place was covered with blue blood!.. We cannot just sit here and watch them murder us, we've gotta defend ourselves! We've gotta fight back, we have no choice!"

I believe North represents most of Jericho. Somewhere in David Cabbage's mind, she also represents Markus' "android side" or something similar to that — the side the game pushes you to resist— but she's not the outlier, Josh is the outlier.

O3. Markus' arrival reignites her hope that androids can one day be free. She tells him this over and over but I don't think people really comprehend what that means. I imagine North before the revolution had the hope of a better life slowly sucked out of her with each new bad thing and the longer Jericho's situation got worse. It's a beautiful thing that she gets that hope back.

CONCLUSION

footnotes

North is a really interesting character with many aspects to her, even speaking in-universe terms. I would have talked about those other aspects but I'm trying to stay on theme. I also didn't touch on all the misconceptions because some of them we're honestly too absurd for me to even bother (like the one comparing her to Todd, what the fuck?)

²sure you could argue that Hank was trying to protect Connor from Gavin but Hank is Gavin's superior officer. He has authority over him. There's no need for a gun.

¹funny little thing I did while writing this was that I went looking for fandom opinions on North since a lot of people hated her. But I was unable to find concrete stances. Most of them were usually "she's annoying" "she's too flat" and "she's too violent" without ever actually explaining why. Nobody ever gave a genuine explanation. And it was impossible to come up with anything against groundless arguments so, I circled back to Tumblr to see what I could find but it was a similar problem. It's like people don't know why they hate North. Just that they do.

#tldr: let North exist in peace #also I'm not trying to convince anyone to become a north stan. I'm defending my girl's honour #but if you hate North this blog is not for you #because I know you praise the male characters for the same things you hate North for #detroit become human #dbh north #dbh meta #type: text #i love this scene so much I've stared at the gif for minutes #she could hit me with that shovel and I'd thank her #also #to be safe #tw flashing gif #tw flashing #cw flashing

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cosmojjong · 3 years

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list of pentagon moments that are absurd and don't sound real but that are indeed:

1. kino took pics of shinwon in just his underwear like a proper photoshoot at the dorms and when pentagon hosted a little bazaar among themselves hongseok paid 70.000won to get his hands on that disposable camera. he still owns the pictures

2. them playing a zombie game (completely naked, at that) in the pool deciding they'd be biting each other and whoever was to scream would lose... sounds fake but it happened

3. them playing a game blindfolded, having to guess which member it was - shinwon guessed who hui was just by sticking his fingers up hui's nostrils

4. shinwon convincing hui to buy a box that had nothing but the balenciaga logo on it, telling him that it'd be filled with great, valuable goods. hui paid 50.000won for him to end up finding out it was only filled with paper, (and a piece of paper with some random ass prediction about how hui would have a great year) useless to say hui was NOT happy and side-eyed shinwon for the entire live

5. another one: when they sent wooseok and kino downstairs to get food and then the others were like 'you know what would be fun? let's spank each other and if the person getting spanked doesn't react, they have to switch places.' so the youngest ones got back to the hyungs spanking the shit out of each other. (thank you user ggunight)

6. shinwon changing his ucube nickname for fun and accidentally getting it stolen by someone who didn't want to give it back. he begged for it to be given back before moderators woke up. changed it to pentag0n_신원 (pentag0n_shinwon) while waiting and still... nothing. after two hours of trying he went to sleep and the following day he titled his live 'shinw0n say s0mething'

7. when shinwon asked unis to boo at them @ isac if they made mistakes. unis started booing so much that fans of other groups were wondering what the hell was wrong with ptg's fandom...... also pentagon spent 90% of their time doing everything other than focusing. let's not forget when they were fooling around jinho's shoe accidentally hit a group's member and he decided to buy them sweets to make up for it lmao

8. yanan literally implying that marriage is a trap on weibo (and he is absolutely right)

9. hui saying he saves demos with keyboard smashes a lot of the time to the point where many songs get lost or forgotten...... praying for the bangers that will never see the light

10. a few months ago cube signed a deal with tipco, importing juice from thailand. shinwon started drinking their orange juice like crazy to the point the company emptied their stocks to send him a wall of juice boxes. it didn't end there though..... my boy started reviewing their juice flavors and that entire free promotion scored pentagon a deal with the company, that decided to make them their brand ambassadors lmaooo

11. changgu was in the practice room doing some aerobic exercises he'd never done before and got injured, and because yanan didn't know how to speak korean well when he first got to south korea, he hurriedly rushed to shinwon and told him that changgu was dead and shinwon was like WHAT??????? jwkdhwkdjks

12. hui and shinwon tried communicating with a fan subbing their livestream in real time and completely lost it when the fan replied as if they'd just discovered the peak of technology lmaoooo

13. yanan pranking wooseok by turning off the boiler four times, the two of them having a conversation about the degrees of the water and wooseok consequently locking yanan on the balcony with his underwear only to get back at him

14. shinwon said when unis meet him they can greet each other, like, in a code. universe can say 'skrrrt' very quietly and he'll reply with 'skrrrt skrrrt' 😭

[i will keeping updating this]

#so much shit they said and did skjdksjd #pentagon #jinho #hui #hongseok #shinwon #yeo one #yanan #yuto #kino #wooseok #i will update this fr i need to THINK.#pentagon ref #pentagon 101

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seek--rest · 2 years

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dont worry i dont expect a reply to this but i dont have spider-man fandom friends since ive been a lurker for a long time. i just wanted to vent for a second : irondad can be cute, if done right, but i dont understand whats with tony infantilizing peter in so many fics. i get especially weirded out by the ones where he picks peter up and tucks him into bed when hes not injured, or is just cuddling with him. they arent related and he's a teenager, not eight??? also its so strange how much people are sticking tony in as a fix all for nwh. if tony had been alive none of nwh would have happened anyway because beck wouldnt have gone after peter for edith in the first place in ffh and if he did he wouldnt have had the leverage of peter wanting to look up to him.

First of all how did you get your text so tiny 👁 what secrets do you posses 👁

It’s no secret of how much I like(d) irondad past tense because the fandom can fuck itself at this point I’m done with trying to be involved for Many Reasons, I would not have written over 120 fics if I didn’t.

But you are hitting right at the Point for why, even if the fandom wasn’t horrifyingly volatile to anyone who actually watches the movies/asks people not to be racist or sexist/asks for some critical thinking doesn’t subscribe to the Fanon Interpretation, the Resurgence™️ of long gone irondad writers who have risen from the dead for the express purpose of writing Tony Stark INTO the plot of NWH is my sequel villain arc.

(My villain origin story is the exclusion of Ned, MJ and May long for the sake of propping up a white man since 2016)

There’s nothing wrong with being creative but I find it QWHITE INTERESTING that all these people who disappeared after Tony died are suddenly back with a VENGEANCE now that May canonically died to save her child and Peter was Motivated from it and inspired by HER not just a cry moment for Tony to make himself feel better you shriveled kumquats and Ned and MJ forgot who Peter was which it’s really convenient none of them want to write THAT instead of bringing up a canonically been dead rotting corpse of a billionaire back to life.

Not even getting to the Starker Lite™️ that is cuddly sweet irondad don’t boo me I’m right.

Fandom is fun but some of you all decided your fun couldn’t happen unless you could be racist and misogynistic and it shows.

#seek speaks #an absolute displeasure to know #fandom racism #fandom misogyny #argue with the wall #not you tho anon we can be friends

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thatspookyagent · 3 years

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Meeting and going on a date with Rory Monahan (Black!Reader) would include...

Requested: Nope!

Warnings: Slight mentions of anti-Black microaggressions (nothing deep or big I promise)

A/N: So it’s not a surprise that I do intend to use this account to get some more Black!Reader content out there, especially when it comes to the AHS fandom and what not. I know this will hardly get any notes/reblogs and stuff but honestly I’m not only writing for myself but also the Black fanfic writers and readers out there, cause we do exist- no matter how small our visibility is and I just want to inspire any Black content creators and AHS fans to maybe make their own content, whether it’s geared towards the Black community or not! :))

(This is kinda gender neutral btw so again feel free to insert yourself into this fic however you want!)

Tags: (😅 I'm actually quite insecure about posting this so PLEASE don't feel bad that I didn't tag you! I've decided to tag a fic writer that has been a big supporter/inspiration of mine, even if they don't know it!) @sojournmichael 💕💕

Important: Once again, what the reader says (as well as actions) are in italics!

You and Rory meet one day on set which wasn’t unlikely because you’re one of the stand by paramedics for My Roanoke Nightmare

Considering how stupid clumsy Rory can be, you often find yourself patching him up with little band aids, and he always asks for the ones with Boots from Dora the Explorer on them

You can never really understand why he always insists on you being the one to help him whenever he gets hurt, even if it’s just for putting little band aids on his boo boos that’s what he calls them

“Oh my G O D, someone call 911!” “What happened?!” “I got a scrape from falling on the sidewalk, pls help me!” :[

He couldn’t help but go up to you from time to time and compliment your hair, which became a regular thing for him to do

Watching Rory go :0 every time you come to work with a different style

One day you decided to sit him down and explain it to him

You find out that he has a small list of possibilities on how your hair could change so suddenly one of them being that you’re secretly a chia pet

He finds himself so curious about your different hair styles that he takes time out of his lunch break in order to search them up and learn more about them

Always makes sure not to ask if he can touch it or if it’s your real hair

Whenever he overhears any snide comments about your hair from coworkers, he checks them in front of everyone, which always ends up making them look like an ass

One day after filming is over with, he decides to ask you out on a date

“We can totally go somewhere small but fun, just me and you yanno?” “Where...like to Chick-Fil-A?” “What’s wrong with Chick-Fil-A? I happen to love their little play areas with the small twisty slides!” :)

You two end up not going to Chick-Fil-A but a little low-key local diner that sadly doesn’t have a play area

Rory telling you about the time he got his grown ass stuck in one of the Chick-Fil-A kids tube slides and the fire department had to come and put lube on him so that they could pull him out

Totally has the battle scars to prove it and even lifts up his shirt to show you

Has you absolutely giggling uncontrollably as he attempts to find out how many pancakes he can shove in his mouth

Turns out not too many cause then he starts choking

You immediately go into paramedic mode and do the Heimlich maneuver on him, which causes the pancakes to shoot out of his mouth, and fall to the floor

You reassure everyone around you that he’s okay which is now evident from the fact that he's rolling on the ground and laughing loudly

“What’s so funny???” “I’ve just never had a date save my life like that before, that was hot!” “Oh don’t mention it” ;)

You drive him back to his place which took some time because he literally forgot where he lived

“No no (Y/N)! That’s the bush, I’d recognize it anywhere, we’re in my neighborhood!” [five minutes later] “Okay okay so-” “Let me guess, that’s the bush that you’d recognize anywhere and it signifies that we’re in your neighborhood.” “You know me so well already!” :) [sigh]

Finally you locate his house no thanks to Rory and currently find yourself eye to eye with him while in front his doorstep

“Thanks for performing the Hamlet on me at the diner today!” “It’s actually pronounced Heimlick, and again it’s no biggie!”

The both of you end the night with a soft kiss as your Uber pulls up to the drive way, you smile against his lips as you taste a hint of the pancakes and syrup he had earlier that night, and wave him good bye as he nearly trips on air despite being less than a foot away from the door to his own house

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nelovka · 3 years

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generalising you based on your stan pfp:

dream: I don’t really know how you can do this?? but y’all do. you tend to be pretty fucking stubborn won’t lie, and react very emotionally. but you’re also pretty fun to talk to because even with strangers you’re high energy (for a bit anyway)

george: HARDEST SKIN OUT THERE. you guys get so much hate on all platforms for liking a cc LMAO so you lot are pretty thick skinned and intimidating. you’re either really involved with this fandom and neck deep in what’s happening, or on the shallow end and don’t know shit. no inbetween.

sapnap: really not much of you guys...crouching sapnap skin though? a lot. for irl sapnap pfp I’d say you guys tend to be pretty laid back, you don’t really get involved in shit and have a small group that kinda share posts with eachother?? but if it’s crouching sapnap you’re annoying. you’re really annoying. but kinda cute <3

wilbur: scary asf. I mean literially psyco. although you have good taste in clothes and music wether you want to or not. (idk why it’s just a theme) you’re also probably really big on character analysis, which is sometimes just tiring. (you guys also share wayyyy too much with the internet. calm down <33)

tommy: you’re either ironically using him as a pfp or straight up you couldn’t find a better pfp so just clicked the first picture you could find. I mean seriously...y’all fun though. chaotic and wild (I will excuse for the tommy and tubbo sharing pfps, you’re both still chaotic it’s just cuter) I would like to point out that conversations with you guys are really repetitive?? you don’t really carry it on and let it drop real quick. which nothing wrong with that, except there is <3

tubbo: somewhat a gruesome humour for like no reason?? also tend to avoid drama like it’s the plague you guys seriously stay out the way huh. you’re all also really set on explaining to people why they’re wrong, but in a really gentle way?? it’s nice. won’t lie though you seem like someone who complains wayyy too much.

ranboo: CHAOTIC ASF. you spam on your social media alottt..usually a live blogger or just complete mutual spammer. doesn’t mean you guys aren’t some of the best people to hang out with though. chill and chaotic?? wtf’s going on there. gender sold separately...although you guys are pretty shy with one on ones. it’s a weird parallel to the chaotic internet persona

jack manifold: can’t believe some of you are out there...anyway you tend to have very strong opinions and like indirect tweeting/blogging about people?? also incredibly rare to find. so see yourself as fucking higher then everyone else or something it’s funny. you guys are cool tho👍

niki: generally you guys are chilled out, have some of the best taste but can go fucking psyco on people. you know your shit and when you’re in the wrong (which is not a lot) you fucking go at it to prove your point. but then also have some chronic social anxiety?? still chill tho. (fyi you guys do sometimes get clingy and it’s kinda annoying)

#AHAHHA THIS IS ALL SO AGRESSIVE #lh though I don’t actually think this straight away when I see a stan pfp #don’t @ me don’t @ me I’m delicate #like a flower #mcyt #dream smp #dsmp #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #ranboo #tubbo #ranboo mcyt #jack manifold #niki nihachu #(if you’re seeing this I’m not tagging dt because I feel like I’d get attacked lolol)

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messedupessy · 3 years

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(I gotchu boo) 🔥🔥🔥

Thank u dude UwU ❤

Alright so this one I am pretty sure is a unpopular opinion nowadays, but I miss when people used to do like proper swaps when it comes to like Underswap and Swapfell etc, where they like swap the actual ages of the bros and so on, it feels like for the last like 2 years (???) that usual headcanon have gotten yeeted and now everyone is just all nooo the Snas is always the oldest blah blah blah, which is fine it can be good, but people I feel are just so overly insistent on it been so

Heck I even got a comment ages ago now on one of my pics of my take on Stretch, someone trying to correct me and telling me I couldn’t have him as the older brother gnknegnjek xD

Anyway, like of course everyone can do their thing and so on, but it’s a bit boring when it’s the constant same thing over and over again now, like you can do so much with swapverses like seriously! It’s a SWAPVERSE, swap things up! Because of course the like usual original takes that the fandom took and still time to time do, where swap pap is nothing but a tall snas who smokes and usually smoke weed as well, and swap snas is nothing more but a literal child who barely reaches his brothers knees, I never been into those takes of them, which I get is a bit tied into the whole swapping their ages which people have gotten so against, and that people also nowadays seem to be so obsessed with making the swaps like originally snas and papyrus who then things happened to and they went a different direction, which can be fun and interesting but I feel people keep locking themselves up in a box with it.

I guess this is mostly personal bias and me feeling a bit like the odd one out nowadays probably, since I got in my swaps most of the time that the snas is the younger etc, haha xD but yeah i feel ppl end up locking themselves up with this idea that it must be so and so since everyone else does it, that all the sanses must always be the oldest etc, there is nothing wrong with it but I am tired of only seeing it nowadays, I want variety!

Because something ppl don’t really do is they don’t consider the fact they can swap the other characters ages as well, it’s not just the brothers it’s everyone, they can swap so many damn things but it feels like they like never do!

Ok gonna stop this here as I feel I am not making sense, but yeah I just want to see some more variety with this as I miss it, like I still do like allot of people’s takes of the swapped verses where the snas is the older one and so on, but it feels like the damn default now and everyone is doing it jkgregkje

#undertale #MessedUpEssy #Essy Answers #ask thingie thing #got a bit carried away here haha #im also tired since its late so prolly shouldn't write more of these for now #but yeah #i just miss it man #i remember when it was more of a fun thing to stumble upon a older swap snas bc then it was rare #and it was fun #but now its constant #i want more swap in them swaps pls #also will reply to the others tomorrow #appreciate af u guys who sent in who be letting me rant haha

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bitletsanddrabbles · 3 years

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Thomas Barrow and the Gaydar Myth

One of the really bipolar points in DA fandom is how information spreads in the house. It’s one of many, and this is, of course, because there are millions of people here with our own separate points of view. But it’s rather ironic to go from reading a fan fic about “everyone finds out about Thomas’s suicide and reacts to it because OMG you know they couldn’t keep a secret!” (despite the fact that everyone directly involved has proven throughout the years that they can, if they want to) to people wondering at the fact that all of the straight people in the house apparently have better gaydar than the gay guy, because everyone knows he’s gay, but he can’t get a date.

So I’m going to take a minute to address the whole ‘gaydar’ thing, ‘cause there are (believe it or not!) people who genuinely do not get what it is and how it works.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s super fun to act like gaydar is the queer version of the force and some Jedi mind trick allows us to identify each other without so much as a word. It really is! And there are people who absolutely make it seem that way. But that’s not what’s happening. What is commonly called ‘gaydar’ is, simply put, the ability to read behavioral cues and that has nothing to do with your actual sexuality.

Example:

My queer ass has zero gaydar. I’m an introverted shut in. I don’t go out. I fail the ‘if you can count the number of friends you have who aren’t white, you’re racist!” test because, once you get rid of my family and coworkers (who I only see at work), I can count my RL friends on my fingers. I only need one hand and I won’t run out of fingers. Similarly, I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies. What does all of this mean? It means that while I have a decent writer’s grasp on psychology, picking up on real world gender cues is not a skill I’ve developed. At all. Seriously, I first suspected my female supervisor who wears button down shirts, bow ties, and has a short, military hair cut might be gay when she mentioned in conversation that she was gay. Until he mentioned his boyfriend in conversation, I strongly suspected that my supervisor who talked with his hands, had very swishy body movements, and spoke – not with a lisp, exactly, but with a very distinct, sort of flirty speech pattern was quite likely gay. I’ve not even suspected most of my queer coworkers – even the ones who, in retrospect, are advertising pretty hard – until they mention relationships. I am that bad at this!

Meanwhile, you have my Dad and Step-mum. Both straight, both cys, but very social, extroverted people, and an active part of any work or community environment they’re a part of. For years anytime a church in our conference wanted to establish or expand a queer presence in their congregation, Dad was one of the go too pastors. This was even after we had openly queer clergy. He’s got good gaydar. If gaydar really were a Jedi mind trick, my Step-mum would be the ultimate Jedi master. Seriously, she can spot a half way to Narnia closet case at fifty paces. She’s that good.

So how does this relate to Downton and Thomas Barrow? Easy. The most relatable thing about Thomas, for me, is that he fails at reading cues. He tries, but he is not an expert. Now, people point to the amazing underground queer scene in England at the time, but that was underground? And it wasn’t everywhere. Basically to find it you had to know someone or stumble upon something. That doesn’t seem like much to our well connected age, where you can find out anything you want at any time you please, courtesy of the internet, but again, consider: My country passed or upheld two really amazingly progressive bits of legislation in 2020, and the only reason I know about them is because my parents told me. My social media – which is full of progressive liberals who are all for this sort of thing – didn’t say boo about it. So if I can nearly miss History Making political moves when I have access to the ‘net, is it really so hard to believe that a shop boy turned footman isn’t In The Know as far as England’s gay scene, outside of what he reads in the papers, of course, which is would not include the location of the nearest gay bar...unless the police had just raided it. Or it was queer coded to the point that only someone who was really good with the lingo, aka Not Thomas, would recognize it.

There’s a rather good post out there already about how Thomas’s experience with other gay men seems to be entirely upper crust, so I won’t repeat that at length here. Suffice to say any experience he has with the underground gay scene would quite likely involve someone like the Duke of Crowborough taking him to a club where he wouldn’t be at all welcome if he weren’t on the arm of the Duke of Crowborough, and it is also not impossible – or even unlikely – that the Duke is the one who started that relationship. Thomas has clearly picked up an idea of how to figure things out, but it’s clumsy as hell – see his attempts at figuring out Jimmy. People might scream predator at the top of their lungs because ‘OMG INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING!” but honestly? That’s probably what it would look like if someone told me I had to figure things out without just asking. Only ten times more awkward, because Thomas at least has enough experience with toffs to give him some sort of confidence.

Meanwhile, the older servants of the house are, well, older. Upstairs, Lord Grantham went to Eton. They’ve all traveled, because staying at one house for your entire career wasn’t very typical. There are a good number of people in the house who would actually have far more opportunity to develop a good gaydar than Thomas. Mrs. Hughes had known other queer men. Mr. Carson was in theater, a famously queer heavy occupation, although even there he probably isn’t as good as he thinks he is. Who knows about that absolutely punchable butler from Season 6? And all it takes is one gossip to figure out what’s going on – and I’m not looking at Mrs. Patmore here, but….yes, actually, I am – and there you go! A miracle if the whole village isn’t in on the secret!

So, yeah, it’s not at all unbelievable that there would be people in the house with better gaydar than the gay guy and that they would spread the word. And while that may not make Thomas the ultimate representative for the London gay scene at the time – or even the York gay scene – it makes him a really good rep for people like me, who aren’t connected, in a world where the people with spot on gaydar are becoming the norm in fictional representations, and funny thing, I appreciate that. It’s nice to see someone who is, more or less, the way I’d be if I’d grown up in an unsafe environment rather than my so-supportive-no-one-believes-it’s-real household.

#downton abbey #thomas barrow #character meta #let's see how long it takes me to regret this entire post and delete it #ignorant outlier perspective

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loopy777 · 3 years

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Non-Review: Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)

With all the hype around 'Suki Alone,' it looks to me like most of the fandom missed that an additional Avatar comic with a story from each cartoon's era was just released for Free Comic Book Day. You can read them for yourself on either Dark Horse Digital or Comixology where it's mislabeled as being for ages 17+ (free accounts are required for both), but I'm sure one of the reasons you all love me is because of my willingness to jump in between you and these comics like the deadly bullets they can be. Well, I'm happy to die (metaphorically) for the sake of (a little anonymous internet) love, so I'm doing a full snarky review for each ten-page story. Also, I'm bored, and it's more fun to make fun of mediocre stuff than to praise stuff I like.

It's time for me to review "Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)" or more specifically "The Legend of Korra: Clearing the Air" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender: Matcha Makers."

CLEARING THE AIR

The cover makes this look like a story about Jinora and Ikki having a sibling conflict. That's a lie. The Air Sisters arguing is merely the inciting incident for Tenzin telling a story of his youth. I should note that, as inconsequential as the Air Sisters stuff is, it's actually written very well because it posits Ikki as a victim of circumstance and Jinora as a bully who terrorizes her little sister with threats of getting thrown in jail by Metalbenders for an accident, cementing the characterization from the cartoon. This is not sarcasm. I really do think Jinora is presented by LoK as a Holier Than Thou little snot who just so happened to be naturally gifted with magic spirit-powers, but for some reason the rest of the fandom doesn't agree with me.

Anyway, Tenzin comes in to find the arguing (and Meelo just running amok for the fun of it and so far these characterizations are perfect), and rather than telling Jinora to shut her stupid face, he delivers a tale of his youth about conflict resolution.

So the meat of the story is how, when Tenzin was "a few years older" than Jinora, a pair of vandals got onto Air Temple Island and burned some graffiti into the spinning-panel things that Korra will destroy out of frustration during her Airbending training. Literally, the vandals are depicted as scorching the wood with enough smoke to be seen across a plaza. Tenzin goes after the vandals and they flee across the bay back to Republic City proper (one of the vandals is a Waterbender with a surf-plank). Tenzin pursues, catches them, and attacks them hard enough to smash some dockside crates. They are all then arrested by Metalbenders and dragged before Chief Toph. She's going to let Tenzin go (yay Toph!) and throw the vandals in jail (YAY TOPH!) and makes this face, and this entire comic is worth it:

However, Aang arrives and instead arranges to forgo the jail-time in favor of an Air Nomad Conflict Resolution Ceremony. This is nice and in-character, but I'm totally with Tenzin that these vandals should have been thrown in jail. They literally burned insulting graffiti into antiques from a genocided culture. But instead, Aang demonstrates conflict resolution by having Tenzin explain why he's hurt and what needs to be done to redress the wrong. And so the vandals help Tenzin scrub the graffiti off the panels with water and rags and mops- how, I don't know, since they were literally burned.

They also do a ceremony thing where they each take turns bending their element into a central space between them to 'clear the air' (GET IT GET IT HA HA IT'S ALMOST LIKE A PUN BUT NOT), so it's a good thing they were all Benders because this is kinda racist. This fixes all the problems and everyone is friends. Yay!

In the present, though, things are not so nice, because Tenzin's kids are still screaming at and provoking each other. Korra comes in with Asami at the end to ask what's going on, and Asami says nothing, so I still think everyone is characterized with perfect consistency with the cartoon.

I made this sound silly, but (aside from the spinny-panels getting cleaned with a little water and elbow-grease, which doesn't matter because Korra will eventually blow them all up anyway), I actually like this one. It has Tenzin demonstrate how much he's always had to work to be the Perfect Air Monk that everyone expects him to be, and Aang acknowledges how this is unfair but that Tenzin will never let him down no matter what. It also has Katara come in at the end (for just one line, boo!) to acknowledge that this was an especially easy little conflict for Tenzin to practice on and he'll eventually face worse. I found it a nice adult moment in a story that's otherwise clearly aimed at 8-year-olds.

The art is good. It's simpler than the LoK cartoon, with flat colors, but it captures the story and has enough liveliness for everyone's character to come across in their look and body-language. The brief action-sequence where Tenzin attacks the vandals is well done, moving quickly but showing the full flow of the fight and every move Tenzin makes.

MATCHA MAKERS

Apparently, "Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, traditionally consumed in East Asia" according to Wikipedia. I had to look that up. I'm curious how many people understood the full reference in the title, especially since these comics are aimed at kids too young to be allowed on the internet.

This is a very simple story about Iroh in his tea-shop in Ba Sing Se. He has an assistant/waitress named Feng, a new character who wears glasses, ruining the hopes and dreams of all the fanfic-writers who were so sure he'd rescue Jin from the Lower Ring. A frequent patron of the tea shop is an elegant, older lady (very clearly Upper Ring material) named Li-Mei, who cannot go a single panel without giving Iroh a HEY BIG BOY look. She is very clearly smitten. Also, I feel the need to clarify that she knows his name is Iroh, so apparently Ba Sing Se is okay with the Dragon of the West serving tea to their wealthy. I don't say that as a criticism, I'm just noting it.

That night, Iroh meets up with his friends- the Pokemon-style spirits that we saw in Legend of Korra. (I don't know if they're the actual spirits from LoK, or just new spirits in the same style. This is because I would sooner grind matcha into my eyes than rewatch Book Spirits.) He serves them his special blend of tea and talks about how he's totally into Li-Mei but isn't going to pursue it because he's feeling old and doesn't want to take a risk. At this point, I could stop describing the plot because between the title and what I've said so far, I'm sure you could figure out every single plot beat that will follow.

The next day, the spirits trip Feng so that she drops Li-Mei's tea and Iroh needs to bring a replacement, and they've drawn hearts on top of the replacement tea with foam or sugar or milk or whatever. I don't know because I've never bought tea in a place that will even put the bag in the hot water for me. Iroh gets out of the situation without starting any love-affairs and runs into the back to tell the spirits to knock it off, dudes, they're totally embarrassing him! The spirits respond by giving him a flyer for a romantic restaurant. I don't know how they got it, so I can only assume that some Upper Ringer had their mail diverted.

Iroh refuses, so when Li-Mei orders more tea and he brings it to her, the spirits hover just out of her sight and threaten to smash the furniture. I am not making that up. They literally threaten to smash Iroh's furniture unless he asks the lady out. He submits to their tyrannical threats, Li-Mei happily accepts the date, he happily accepts her acceptance, and the story comes to a close. Iroh thanks his spirits friends for opening him up to new experience, but hopes that next time (so I guess Iroh is signing up for Tinder after this?) they won't threaten his shop.

At best, I can describe this story as 'harmless.' But it's been a long week and I just got a bunch more extra work at my day job that I really don't want to do, so I'm going to go ahead and call this story 'dumb.' It's rote, leans towards humor without actually being funny at all, and turns the spirits of the setting into Pokemon. And not even the cool dragon kind.

The art is strangely stiff. The coloring is soft and nice, but the drawings seems more 'assembled' than actually drawn. I swear there are even a few panels that reminded me of 'How I Became Yours' with janky poses, horrifying expressions, and just enough resemblance to the original cartoon to make me think a screenshot was partially traced and then ruined. (I'm not accusing the artist of tracing, BTW. I wouldn't even condemn the artist for tracing if they did. I'm just describing that HIBY feeling I got.) It was so stiff that rather than hear Iroh's dialogue in Mako's rich tones, I instead imagined Greg Baldwin doing a stiff Mako-impression with no naturalism to the delivery.

This story is definitely worthy of its "Also Featuring" billing. I'd rate it below Gene Yang's Mai and Suki FCBD short stories, but above everything else he wrote for Avatar.

So there you go. Overall, this is very middle-of-the-pack for Avatar FCBD stuff. It's very much of the nature of the 'Team Avatar Tales' stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Iroh story was a leftover from that project. On Free Comic Book Day, you often get what you pay for.

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sherlollydramoine · 4 years

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Because I Love You

Prompt 3: “you did this”

Fandom: The Pacific/HBO War - Modern Day AU

Pairing: Sledgefu

Word Count: 1621

Warnings: There aren’t any warnings other than maybe some language. PG/PG-13

This is my first foray into Sledgefu but I’ve been wanting to write them FOREVER. I’m sure I’ve got the characterization all wrong but I was nervous.

Pulling into the driveway slowly as it was late and the gravel under the tires of the old truck always feels deafening in the silence of night. Shifting the truck into park and turning the key over to shut down the engine, he lets out a tired sigh. He was a bit bitter that he’d had to go to a study group on Halloween but there was a major exam next week and he couldn’t afford to miss the study session. The love of his life had been understanding though the disappointment on his face was clearly visible. Halloween was always their special thing and they often spent it getting way too drunk and having way too much fun. But with so much that had been going on this year with a global pandemic, political and civil unrest, and so much brutality in the world all of that had been canceled.

Eugene was weary, so done with everyone’s shit but mostly he just wanted to be done with school. His lover was mostly patient and kind to him though to others his husband was often perceived as hard and mean. Whenever Eugene brings it up Merriell just smiles and says that he has a reputation to uphold. Looking at his reflection in the rearview mirror he runs his fingers through his ginger hair lets out another tired sigh and grabs the bag off the seat next to him.

The door to the truck loud as it’s old rusted hinges protested with an angry squeak before slamming it shut behind him. Wanting nothing more than to take a shower and go to bed he exhaustedly shuffled his way across the drive and up the stairs of the rickety porch. The one porch light that was in working order was on emitting a low glow and he could hear the moths and whatever other flying insects had gathered to worship in the light repeatedly flying into the light cover. As he pulls open the screen door he notices a piece of paper haphazardly fastened to the door and his heart nearly drops into his stomach. Ah fuck, please don’t let it be another shutoff notice.

Yanking the paper down and squinting in the dimness of the half lit porch he managed to ascertain that it wasn’t a shutoff notice but rather a handwritten note that had been left there by his love. Heart-melting at the familiar scrawl, as he unfolded the paper completely to read what message it contained. He’d assumed that Mer wasn’t home and this was just a little way of ensuring that Eugene was made aware of it before he settled in for the night. He was pleasantly surprised when the note indicated no such thing but rather a sweet, for Merriell, message.

‘Door is unlocked. Please go wash up and then meet me on the back porch. Dinner is waiting for you.’

Smiling to himself he turned the handle and stepped inside the dark house kicking off his shoes out of habit, and then leaving them on the rack next to the front door, dropping his backpack and leaving it on the floor.

“Mer?” he calls out in the dark, waiting for a response that didn’t come.

As he walks deeper into the house he glances towards the kitchen noticing a soft glow from some of the Halloween decorations coming from the dining room table. The back porch door was wide open, only covered by the thin layer of mosquito netting that had been hung over the outer part of the doorway. His stomach rumbles as the delicious scents wafting in from the kitchen hit his nose.

Suddenly he was starving as he remembers that it had been nearly ten hours since he’d last eaten. His study group had provided snacks but everyone was so intense discussing and clarifying information that they were hardly touched. The primary thing he’d consumed all day was coffee which always made his stomach hurt but wasn’t it considered a magic bean? The life giving substance? He knew for himself and for Merriell that neither of them could function normally without a few cups in the morning and for Eugene, he’d need more than just a few cups throughout the day.

His face splitting in a grin as he realized that even though their plans for Halloween had been drastically changed this year, he was not going to let that stop him from making the best of it. His husband had made a show of making sure that the house, both inside and out, was decorated as fully as it could be. The only damper this evening is that his husband was nowhere to be seen and he found himself mildly disappointed at not receiving his ‘hello, welcome home, I love you’ kiss that he had been so accustomed to.

Deciding not to dwell on the fact that he was actually missing his husband he heads to the washroom to clean up as he’d been instructed. The hot shower was exactly what he needed as the grime from the day slowly made its way down the drain taking with it the exhaustion he’d been feeling. Now all he felt was a sense of excitement perhaps brought on by the chance of seeing his husband and also knowing that he’d have all of tomorrow to rest.

Turning off the water and stepping out of the shower on the ugliest purple bath mat that Mer had insisted they had to have, he toweled himself off. Deciding against shaving since his husband loved it when he didn’t have a fresh face. His husband often joked that his freshly shaven face made him look like a twelve-year-old boy but the scruff definitely had a positive effect, making his usually incredibly randy husband even more so. As he glances at the counter he realizes that his husband must have slipped in undetected and left his Halloween costume hanging on the towel rack next sink. A little note was pinned to it presumably with the strict instructions to put it on before heading out to dinner. Donning the costume that Merriell had picked out specifically for him to wear and combing his hair so that it sat just as he knew his husband liked it he admired himself for a moment. Merriell really knows how to pick a costume because damn, I do look good.

Making his way through the house admiring all the little decorations and other little things that were distinctly Merriell that make this rickety house feel like home. Merriell was a collector of weird sometimes macabre things but the item that he loved the most was Billy, the Gator skull, that sat on the mantel over the ancient fireplace that was meticulously decorated by Merriell for every holiday or season. By the time he got to the back porch his face was almost hurting from how hard he was smiling. This house was chock full of mismatched, eccentric decorations but it felt more like home than the rigid, full of antique, don’t-touch-anything, it can’t look like anyone lives here upper-crust southern home he’d grown up in.

Reaching the back door he steps through the magnetically connected mosquito net and called out for his husband.

“Have a seat please, I’ve prepared quite a little feast for us,” Merriell says from behind him. He jumped a little putting his hand over his heart making his husband chuckle.

“Sorry boo, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Mer says as he moves in front of Eugene, wrapping his arms around Eugene’s neck. “You look incredibly handsome boo. I love you, welcome home.”

Merriell gives his husband a quick kiss and instructs him again to have a seat before dashing off back into the house. Merriell had recently fixed up an old wooden table and had found some chairs that fit the table though they were not a matching set. Sliding into the worn but comfortable chair he sat and admired the table set up. Merriell had gone all out and had decorated the center of the table with some small semi-odd decorations. He had set the dishes on the table in a way that Eugene suspects was trying to mimic the overly fancy, start from the outside and work your way in, setup that Gene had grown up with.

His gaze goes back to the back door as Merriell came in and out of the house several times carrying the various food items that he’d prepared for their Halloween feast.

What a feast it really truly was. His lover had made what he called bloody vampire soup which was really just a tomato bisque, severed finger breadsticks, various fruits on skewers that he somehow managed to make resemble bugs, a salad, and for dessert, he’d made a cake coated in black frosting and bits of cotton candy with fake spiders on them.

“I really don’t deserve you Merriell. I just can’t believe that you did this. You do everything for us and what do I contribute to our marriage?”

“Gene, don’t start this. I do these things for you because I love you. You know what you do for us? You are getting the education that I never did so that you can get a good job. Then I can become a full time house and trophy husband.”

This elicits a laugh from Eugene.

“Is that all you ever wanted darling? To be reduced to nothing more than a house husband?”

“Yeah, a house husband that can fix this place up with my own two hands. Your parents were more than generous to buy us the shitty little shack as a wedding gift.”

“My darling, I look forward to the day when you can take our shitty little shack and turn into our dream castle.”

@ramimedley @xmxisxforxmaybe @detectivecutiepantsandhisbabyfox @aboutthatmelancholystorm @will-grammer @theblossomknows @diasimar

#FIctober20 #Sledgefu #The Pacific #HBO War #This is my first Sledgefu #Please be kind

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prolestariwrites · 3 years

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The Wish [5]

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Dante, Vergil, Nero, V, Lady, Eva, Sparda, OC Rating: General Tags: Family, Humor, Fluff, Angst, Typical demon hunting violence

Summary: A demon gives Dante the chance to have his greatest desires made real. When he finds himself in a seemingly idyllic life, all seems well until it starts to unravel. Will he sacrifice himself to save the family he lost, or will he choose to give them up for the truth?

Now posted: Chapter 5, in which Dante puts his foot in his mouth and talks to a cat.

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Chapter 4: Dante Fucks Up

Dante grins when the door to the shop opens and his father enters, Nero and V following. He’s already had a great day: a good night’s sleep after pizza and a movie with Lir last night, and today he’s already changed an air filter on a bike and ordered a set of new tires for a customer. Running the repair shop is a lot like running the Devil May Cry, he has learned over the course of the morning, except less blood and killing and more money.

Vergil had texted that Sparda was bringing his nephews by, and as promised they arrive and come straight into the garage. “Hey there boys!” he says happily. “Hope you’re ready to work. I got a set of brakes to replace, and there’s a Harley that needs a new carburetor.”

“Cool,” Nero says, and to his surprise, V looks interested too.

“We can help?” V asks.

“Sure,” Dante replies. “I’ll get the parts and then we’ll get to cleaning everything before putting the new brakes on.”

Sparda clears his throat. “Before you get started, can I speak with you?” he asks.

Dante nods, and Nero says, “We can get the stuff together. Come on, V.”

The boys go into the back to the supply room, and Dante is a bit impressed they know what to do. “What’s up?” he asks. “Did you and mom have fun the other night?”

“Yes… but…” Sparda folds his arms. “Did you uh… make any phone calls yesterday, Dante?”

They stare at one another, and Dante shakes himself, remembering his father is waiting for an answer. He has a darn good guess what Sparda is hinting at, so he rubs the back of his head and says, “Uh, maybe? Why?”

Sparda looks around, as if to see if anyone is listening. But there’s no one there but the two of them, so he tilts his head in and says quietly, “An old friend of mine called me last night. Said she received a call from Dante, son of Sparda. Now I don’t know how you got her phone number, but…” Dante frowns as Sparda looks uncertain. “Well, let’s just say it was a shock. I had not expected to hear that name again.”

“You mean Matier?” he asks. “Why not? She’s cool.”

His father looks at him in surprise. “So you’ve met her?”

“Um…” Dante shifts uncomfortably. “Kind of? It’s hard to explain.”

Sparda’s eyes narrow, examining him closely, and suddenly he feels like he is six years old and trying to convince him that he didn’t break the lamp in the front room. “How do you know Matier?”

He decides to take a chance and give some truth. “What would you say if I told you I’ve been to Dumary?”

“Impossible,” Sparda hisses. “How would you have gone there? When?”

Dante shakes his head. “I can explain. I think?”

“Yes, you’ll explain.” Sparda’s voice goes sharp, scolding, and Dante frowns. Why is he so upset about this? “You’ll explain that, and more. Like Nevan? Have you been spying on me?”

“Spying? What, no!”

“Reading my journals?”

“No! Pop, what…” He studies his father, wondering what the big deal is, when it dawns on him: Sparda never told any of them anything. “Wait,” he says, leaning in closer. “Does Mom know?”

Sparda snaps back, his eyes open in alarm. “Enough of this,” he says. “Come over tonight. We need to discuss this.” His eyes dart to the back room, where they can hear the boys chattering. “You’re going to tell me everything you know, and how you know it, understand?”

The tone of his voice gets under his skin. It’s not as if Dante did anything wrong, and he huffs with a wave of his hand. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll come over. And you’re gonna do some explaining too, got it?”

Sparda mutters something under his breath as he turns on his heel and stalks out of the shop. “Uncle Dante!” V calls. “Nero mixed up all the lug nuts!”

“I did not!”

He sighs as the door shuts with a slam. “Stop touching shit,” he calls, turning his attention to his nephews.

After they get the lug nuts resorted, he hustles the boys out of the storage room to get started. They sit as he starts taking things apart, Nero handing him tools as V takes and sorts the parts Dante hands him. They actually work together pretty well, which surprises him. Nero is all energy, talking every chance he gets to fidget, even looping the tools through his fingers before handing them over. Meanwhile V is quieter, methodical, even huffing over the mess when Nero accidentally kicks the neat rows of parts askew. Dante just chuckles to himself, thinking that they remind him of himself and Vergil. But maybe that’s the point?

Before long he hands over the pieces for them to clean while he goes to his office to grab some drinks. With three sodas in hand, he hands them out before cracking open his own, leaning on the reception desk as he watches. “How come you guys don’t have school today?” he asks.

“It’s summer,” V says, and they both laugh.

“Right.” Dante thinks as he takes a sip. Maybe these two can answer some questions, especially if this is all a made-up place? Best to do this subtly, he decides, thinking about how Lir had grown suspicious of his questions. “So your parents. What’s up with them?”

Nero and V glance at one another. “Huh?”

“What are they like? Gotta be weird having them as parents, hm?”

Nero laughs. “Why is that weird?”

“Well, you know, because Vergil is… I mean, your mom is…” Dante frowns, realizing he has no idea what they do, and guesses it’s got nothing to do with demon hunting. “They uh… happy?”

Nero makes a face but V frowns. “Why are you asking? What’s going on?”

“Nothing! Nothing. I mean…”

“Are they getting a divorce?” Nero asks, his voice going tight.

“No! At least, I don’t think so…” Dante makes an aggravated noise in his throat and rubs his face. “No, I was just asking. Everything’s fine.”

Neither looks convinced, so Dante tries a new tactic. “Hey Nero, got any girlfriends?”

He turns bright red as V laughs. “He wishes!” V exclaims. “There is this one girl—”

“No there’s not—”

“And he spends all day and all night—”

“I do not!!”

“Just going oh, oh, I love her so much!” V mimics him with a sad, dramatic voice. “I’ll never be good enough for her, boo hoo—”

“Cut it out!” Nero shouts, aiming a kick at V that he easily dodges.

Dante just laughs. “Okay, lay off. This girl got you bad, hm, Nero? But I bet Kyrie likes you just fine.”

Nero stops glaring at V long enough to give him a confused look. “Who’s Kyrie?”

“Isn’t that… nevermind.”

He finishes off his soda, wondering what else to talk about, when V asks, “Why so many questions?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you asking so many questions?” V repeats. “You never do.”

Dante huffs. “Yes I do. I’m very involved.”

They both laugh at that, and Dante tosses his soda can away as he grumbles, “Okay, enough out of you two. Go back to work or I ain’t paying you.”

“Like you have money,” V says, and both boys set off in another round of laughter. Dante makes a face and folds his arms, thinking how much he can’t stand kids. This is probably why he and Lir haven’t had any. Can’t catch a break, even in his own ideal world.

Vergil picks them up at five on the dot. They’ve managed to get the brake pads changed and bled, and Dante has them labelling inventory when he arrives. “Are they in one piece?” he asks as he approaches the desk.

Dante sits in his chair, his elbows on the desk and his chin in his hands. All afternoon he thought about his father and the look on his face when he mentioned Dalmary. It doesn’t make sense: if Sparda is still who he is, which he seems to be, then why hide it? Maybe the outside world didn’t know about the Legendary Knight living in their midst, but he had never kept it a secret from Eva, or from them.

“Yeah… but Vergil, I need to ask you something,” he says.

Before they can continue Nero hops over. “Dad, Uncle Dante said you and mom were getting a divorce.”

Vergil shouts “What?” just as Dante protests, “I did not!”

“He did, I heard him too,” V says with a smile.

“You brats,” mumbles Dante.

Vergil looks ready to kill as he glares at him. “Why would you say something like that?”

“I said I didn’t!” Dante insists. “I was just asking how you guys were. Like if you were…” He swallows thickly, dreading Vergil’s reaction. “Happy.”

His brother narrows his eyes. “What game is this?”

“Huh?”

“First you wanted me to come over to talk,” Vergil says. “Now you’re asking about if I’m happy? What’s going on?”

His first instinct is to deny, but then he decides against it. “Something is, but…” He side-eyes the twins, who are watching expectantly. “I’m going over to see Dad tonight. Can you come with me? Please?”

Vergil presses his lips together into a thin line. “What does this have to do with him?”

“I can’t exactly tell you now,” he hisses.

Luckily Vergil gets his meaning and nods. But Nero and V immediately protest, “No! We want to know too!”

“Go get in the car,” Vergil orders.

With some grumbling Nero heads out, V following behind. But before they head out the door V turns and says, “Hey Uncle Dante? Everyone’s happy, you know. You should be too.”

Dante frowns. That’s a weird thing for a kid to say, isn’t it?

Vergil sighs when they are gone. “Now tell me what this is about.”

“Dad has been…” Dante rubs the back of his neck. “Keeping secrets, I guess? But you should hear it from him.”

“What kind of secrets?” asks Vergil suspiciously.

“Like I said, hear it from him.” Dante picks up his keys, moving to shut off the lights in the shop. “Meet me there at eight, okay?”

Vergil agrees, but reluctantly, and when he’s gone Dante takes a walk through the shop to make sure everything is turned off before he locks up. On the way home, he wonders if his suspicions are correct, and Sparda has kept the truth a secret. And what will Vergil do when he finds out?

He can’t shake the feeling of unease when he gets home, where Lir is putting chicken in the oven. “How was your day?” she asks cheerily when he moves to wash his hands.

“Fine.”

Dante grabs a kitchen towel to dry them when she moves closer and rubs his arm. “Hey, are you okay? Were the kids too much?”

“No, they were fine.” He glances at Lir and says, “I need to run over to my parents’ tonight. Dad wants to show me and Vergil something.”

“Okay.”

Dante goes to move away, but Lir stretches up to slide her arms around his neck. Dante chuckles to himself at how short she is, and when she smiles and nudges him closer, his hands go to her waist as he follows her pull. She kisses him sweetly, tugging on his lower lip a bit, and in spite of himself he responds, giving her a teasing bite that has her lips curling into a smile against his. They linger like this for another moment, and Dante refuses to feel badly about it. She might not be real, but it’s nice to have someone to take care of him, and he never realized how much he likes the simple affection. It’s something he hasn’t had since he was a kid, and Dante is almost sorry when Lir eases back to return to making dinner.

She launches into a story about water damage in the storage room and some missing labels, which he only half listens to as he sits and watches her cook. Really he uses the time to debate if digging into all this is really worth it. Dante had read the paper that morning, picking it up on his way into the shop. There was nothing in the news that would indicate a demon attack; everything was normal human crime and chaos, so he had to assume that demons didn’t exist in this place. But if there were no demons, then how was he here?

“He did what?” Lir’s voice pulls him from his thoughts, and when he looks up, she is giving him a funny look as she talks on her cell phone. “I have no idea,” she laughs, turning back to stir the vegetables on the stovetop.

She hangs up a minute later, setting something on the stove before walking over to him. “Did you really tell the boys that Vergil and Mary are getting divorced?” she laughs.

“No,” he sighs. “They took it all wrong.”

“Well what did you say?”

Dante shrugs. “I just asked if they were happy.”

Lir gives him another strange look before taking the seat next to his at the little kitchen table. “Why would you ask that?”

“I guess I was curious,” he replies.

“Dante.” Lir sucks in a deep breath before she leans forward, resting her elbow on the table. “You’ve been so different lately. Acting like… I don’t know. Like you aren’t you, somehow. Is something wrong?”

He opens his mouth to assure her that he’s fine, but hesitates. “I don’t know,” he answers truthfully.

“Okay.” Lir’s brows draw in as she thinks. “When do you feel like it started?”

“Two days ago,” he replies. “The day of the dinner for my uh, parents.”

“That’s specific,” she chuckles. “Did anything happen to make you feel this way?”

He considers telling her the truth: he fought a demon that granted him a wish and sent him to this weird reality. Would Lir even believe him? Does he even believe it? “It’s hard to explain,” he says.

Lir considers that for a moment before asking, “I guess the important question is, are you happy?”

“What?”

She shrugs. “Simple enough question. Are you happy? Or do you feel like you need something else?”

Dante studies her for a moment. “No,” he answers finally. “I like it enough here.”

“Like it enough?” Lir looks hurt, and that makes him feel bad. And confused, too, because she’s a demon, right? Or made up by a demon. Either way, he shouldn’t care about what she thinks, even though he does.

“That’s not what I meant,” he hurries on.

For a second he’s worried she’s going to cry: a woman crying was never something he handles well. But instead she stands and moves to sit on his lap. Immediately his arms go around her waist as she strokes his cheek, and Dante has to admit it feels nice. “I love you,” Lir murmurs. Then she tilts his face up to look at her, and he can see the real concern in her eyes. “More than anything.”

His heart is beating loudly in his chest as he swallows thickly. Dante thinks of them in bed together, when she was the perfect combination of sweet and sexy. He had thought this was a dream then, and maybe it is… but does he want to wake up?

“I love you too,” he replies, the words feeling both right and wrong.

“Good.” Something beeps on the stove and Lir looks over. “Why don’t you go get changed out of those dirty clothes while I finish getting everything ready?”

Dante mutters an agreement and heads upstairs, the uneasy feeling following him. Until now, he had been trying to figure out what was going on, and find a way back. But now he thinks: should he even be looking for answers at this point?

There’s got to be something you’d rather be doing than this.

He splashes some water on his face and looks in the mirror. Why is he trying to figure this out? Here he has Vergil, and his parents, and Nero. And Lir… he has to admit, he is growing a soft spot for her. If he finds a way back, it’s just back to debt and demons and being alone.

“Fine,” he decides, giving himself a stern look. “I’ll just stay for now. See what happens.”

A clatter startles him, and when he looks down, the damn cat has jumped on the counter, sending Lir’s makeup and the soap everywhere. “Shoo,” he says, swatting at the feline, but it just sits and looks at him.

Dante huffs. “You I could do without.” The cat blinks at him and he shakes his head. “Figures something would be a pain in my ass. Guess this place isn’t perfect, hm?”

“Humans are too fickle. If it was perfect, you wouldn’t be happy,” the cat replies.

He jumps, staring at the cat with wide eyes. “What the fuck did you just say?”

But the cat doesn’t answer, just licks its paw, as Dante’s heart pounds loudly in his chest.

#dmc #devil may cry #dmc dante #dmc vergil #dmc nero #dmc v #dmc sparda #dmc oc #fanfiction #my fic #the wish

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ficsandcatsandficsandcats · 4 years

Note

Could I request an AU where Jaskier is a Prince and the reader is a stable girl or servant who fall in love with each other. Thank you! x

Fandom: The Witcher Pairing: Prince!Jaskier x Reader Word Count: 1,647 Rating: G Taglist: @heroics-and-heartbreak @whatevermonkey @mycat-is-mylove @mynamesoundslikesherlock @kemmastan @magic-multicolored-miracle @writingstudent @mlleecrivaine @coffee-and-stories @amirahiddleston @ultracolorfulnerdcollection @astouract @your-not-invisible-to-me @daydreamer-in-training @morelikebyesexual a/n: I love this idea! I’ve essentially written their Meet Cute and would enjoy going back to this specific little storyline in the future for other moments. Thank you!

Working as a maid for the King and Queen of Redania was hard work but also the best you’d ever had. You stayed busy but not overworked and you knew your pay was good compared to former jobs. They mostly stayed out of your way and you stayed out of theirs. It was your job to be invisible, to do the work and show no trace except for a pristine palace and a family that wanted for nothing. You loved when they threw parties because after getting it set up and ensuring that there was enough food, you were essentially free to do as you pleased. You had to make it look like work, but you found that as long as you held a feather duster you could look busy quickly. And inevitably you’d find yourself working very hard “dusting” the library. No one else entered this room, you weren’t sure the royal family themselves even did, but to you it was a sanctuary. The high shelves and rolling ladders affixed to them containing tome upon tome of history and literature and all manner of subjects all made your heart sing. You were on the ladder this night, feather duster tied to your apron belt, looking through a gorgeous book on butterfly varietals when the door to the library was thrust open so abruptly it shook the ladder. You grasped the edges just in time, clutching the book to your chest so it didn’t fall. You watched as a man walked in and you didn’t need to see the golden and sapphire encrusted crown to know it was the Prince. Your heart leapt to your throat and you stood frozen, clutching the boo, waiting for him to turn around and spot you.

He didn’t, though. He paced and muttered aloud to himself and the longer it went on the more awkward it got that you hadn’t made yourself known until you wondered if there was a way you could just sneak out without him noticing you. You slowly put the book back in its spot and cautiously tried to take a step down. Never before had you heard wood squeak louder than when your foot pressed down, not even fully placing your weight on the rung.

“Oh gods!” you heard the prince cry and the sound startled you so badly you jumped a bit, and that was all the push you needed to slip off the ladder. It was a very high ladder and you braced yourself for the marble floor, hoping idly that you didn’t bleed too badly for your friends to clean up, but you fell into a warm, firm body instead of the cold, hard marble. You’d squeezed your eyes shut as you fell but you forced them open, looking into the palest, most beautiful pair of blue eyes you’d ever seen.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” you replied and then as an afterthought, “Your grace.”

“Not that I’m complaining but, uh, what where you doing lurking above like a gargoyle?” he asked.

“A gargoyle would have been able to fly. Tragically it was more like a… penguin I suppose.”

“A penguin?”

“Well they’re flightless, your grace, they would have fallen.”

“Ah, indeed, well-reasoned,” a smirk twitched at the corner of his lips but he fought it, not wanting you to think he was laughing at you.

“What are you doing in here, though? If it please your grace?” you asked, cursing yourself inwardly for nearly forgetting the title again. You’d only seen the prince in passing but he’d always been different than his parents. His parents weren’t unkind but they were distant and unknowable as you imagined all royals must be to some extent. Jaskier, however, had a reputation for coming down to the kitchens to thank the cook for her excellent meal or snag an extra plate of food for when his witcher friend came to town. His parents didn’t like his association with the witcher but the staff liked the prince so well that they helped smuggle him in and provide him with food and lavished his horse Roach with attention and apples. It felt different with Prince Julian. You felt relaxed talking with him, which was dangerous, because you were after all a maid. And he a prince. And never the twain shall meet except in bizarre near death experiences, it seemed.

“I had a bit of a row with my parents,” he sighed.

“Oh I’m sorry,” you said with genuine regret in your voice. He nodded sadly and the pair of you let a quiet, companionable silence pass.

“Um, your grace?”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering whether I could stand now.”

Jaskier looked down in surprise, seemingly unaware he still held you in his arms and quickly but gently set you on the floor. You gave a little curtsey and began to move toward the door, the moment over.

“Wait,” he called, prompting you to turn around, “What were you doing in here? Not that I mind.”

You began to reach for your duster but instead you gave a little shrug.

“I was looking at the books,” you admitted.

“Oh? Which ones?” he asked, looking around the room as if he was just now noticing that it held books.

“Well this time it was the butterly glossary,” you answered. He cocked his eyebrow as he turned to you.

“This time, eh?” he asked. You blushed and your heart skipped a beat, both because you’d admitted to looking through his things and because of the roguish smile he fixed you with.

“Well… to dust them one must sometimes pull them out and really get around the nooks and crannies,” you muttered, miming the action to his great amusement.

“Ah yes, nooks and crannies,” he echoed in faux seriousness, a twinkle in his eye. You nodded decisively and he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Well if you ever find that there are specific books you’d like to spend more time giving a really detailed cleaning, just let me know and I’ll make sure you have access to them,” he said.

“Really?” you asked, eyes widening in surprise.

“Yes,” he answered, “But, there is a condition.”

You eyed him cautiously as he walked a bit closer to you, knowing well what some “conditions” were in some royal houses, though you’d never heard of that treatment being allowed here.

“I would like to be there when you read them,” he said.

“Be there?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod, “Just be there. I sometimes have documentation to go over and while I usually do so in my father’s study, I believe I’d find it much more tolerable if I had some company.”

“And by company you mean…” your voice trailed off, not sure you could actually accuse the prince of what you were insinuating but not wanting to agree to anything you’d regret.

“Fully-clothed quiet companionship,” he elaborated, “If you’re alright with it. I called it a condition but frankly I’m not going to enforce that. Of course you should read the books, nobody else does. Which is kind of a shame as I think of it.”

“Why do you want me to be there?” you asked, suspicious of this plan that sounded too good to be true.

“I get lonely,” he admitted a little sheepishly, “But you’re funny and I feel comfortable around you and I would enjoy spending more time with you, even if it’s just spent in companionable silence as we pore over our respective texts.”

You smiled at the idea though it startled you how readily you could imagine it. Him, sitting atop the large mahogany desk with a ledger in hand and you tucked up comfortably on the little setee across from it. Every now and then one of you would make an amused or thoughtful sound and the other would ask what it was and you’d share a fun or interesting anecdote or he’d share some news or idea he had for improving the kingdom. Yes, it was an easy, comfortable, peaceful thought and you were wary of how tempting it was. Worried about the feelings that may grow, feelings that could never become more than a dalliance at best. Still, you reasoned, you were getting ahead of yourself. He was a prince who could have anyone he wanted and you were just a servant. Likely he was telling the truth and just wanted another warm body around so he felt less alone in the sprawling palace. Yes, that would be fine. That should be safe.

“Alright,” you said with a nod and then held out your hand to shake on the agreement.

“Alright,” he echoed with a laugh, taking your hand in his and then raising it to his lips to press a soft kiss on the back of it. Your heart hammered beneath your rib cage and he caught the strange look on your face.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Um I was going to shake your hand but this is also acceptable,” you stammered awkwardly. He gave a little ‘oh’ of understanding and shook it twice firmly before letting it go.

“I should get back to maiding,’ you said, wincing at your inability to use words suddenly.

“I should get back to princing,” he agreed with a sigh, “But I needed this. Thank you…”

His voice trailed off and he squinted at you for a moment. You opened your mouth to offer the answer you knew he was looking for but he raised a finger to silence you.

“No, I’ll get this…… Y/N?”

“Yes your grace.”

“Ha! Yes! Thank you, Y/N, I look forward to seeing you again.”

You gave another low curtsey and then slipped out of the library, resting against the door and taking a deep breath. Yes, this would be absolutely fine. Just a nice, casual friendship with the prince. What could go wrong?

#Anonymous #Jaskier x Reader #Prince!Jaskier x Reader #Jaskier fluff #jaskier imagine #reader request

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anomander-dragnipurake · 4 years

Text

Possessed Chapter One: Possession

I've become quite fond of the 'King Boo possessing Luigi' concept, especially with all the angst potential it brings with it, so much so that I became filled with the intense need to write a fic about it and so I have. This is also my first fic for the Mario Bros. fandom and it's honestly one of the angstiest things I've written in a long time which is not what I would've expected my first fic for this fandom to be but it was a *lot* of fun to write. Enjoy! :)

Luigi wasn’t sure what woke him but something had. Sitting up, he looked around the room for it. He’d fallen asleep on the living room chair again, watching TV. It was off now though, so were the lights, only the moonlight flittering in through the window allowed him to see that the room was empty.

With a hand that was only slightly trembling, he grabbed the remote from the coffee table and pressed the power button because if he’d fallen asleep watching TV it should’ve been on. Nothing happened though. Pulling on the switch for the lamp next to his chair also did nothing. … The power was out. … Was that what had woken him

The power going out was a fairly normal thing. It happened sometimes and was nothing to worry about, it’d probably be back up soon. … But why did it have to happen in the middle of the night? It was too dark!

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand and start carefully making his way towards the hall. He was going to go to bed and sleep and not be afraid of the dark. Even if there could be ghosts hiding in it there probably weren’t and even if there was, he’d defeated more than enough ghosts by now that he shouldn’t be afraid of them anymore. … He still was though because his brain apparently wasn’t into the whole being logical about this stuff thing.

He paused upon reaching his bedroom door. Thankfully it was the first door near the start of the hall because it was dark further down with now windows to allow moonlight to leak in. It was like staring down into an abyss, he hated it.

“Puppy,” he called down it anyway, lifting his voice as loud as he dared. He braced for Polterpup to race out of the darkness and jump him but nothing happened. Normally a single call was enough to get him to come running, apparently not today though. He was probably out back, digging holes again. Luigi should go stop him because he wasn’t supposed to do that but… he’d barely made it to his bedroom door, no way did he want to go all the way to the backdoor, outside, and then all the way back here when it was so dark. … He did have a flashlight in his room though so…

Turning back to this bedroom door, he opened it and… screamed. King Boo was waiting just inside, grinning wide and laughing. Luigi only managed to backpedal a few steps as the light in King Boo’s crown grew and then with a sound much like a thunder clap flashed, replacing the utter darkness with blinding light. There was a vague sensation of falling as something pulled Luigi’s consciousness down. Something was terribly wrong about that but…

He came to laying on the floor, facing the ceiling. It wasn’t completely dark anymore, there was a light coming from… somewhere, it had a purple tinge to it. That was odd, what was…

King Boo’s laugh, though very similar to other boos’ was still distinctly his and unmistakable for anything else. Luigi screamed and… nothing actually came out of his mouth, nor did his body move to scramble away as he oh so desperately wished to do. More laughter from King Boo.

‘This worked so much better than I thought it would.’ His voice came from inside Luigi’s head. How? Why? What was happening?

Luigi sat up but much slower than he would’ve liked, his face twisting into an evil grin. He looked down at his hands, flexing them and closing them into fists as if he were working out stiffness. He wasn’t in control of this or himself in anyway. But if he wasn’t in control of his body than who…

“I am,” King Boo said out loud, using Luigi’s mouth. It was a horrible, gross, awful realization that would’ve had Luigi shuddering with revulsion and horror if his body were still his to control. This kind of violation was something beyond anything he’d ever even considered a possibility let alone something that someone would do to him.

King Boo laughed as he stood up and stretched. An echo of his glee about a plan of his finally be successful hit Luigi, making him feel almost sick. Which only furthered King Boo’s delight. He took a breath as if to say something, probably a taunt about Luigi’s revulsion and horror but a sound drew his gaze to the left.

It was Gooigi. They’d come out of their room and was now staring at Luigi and King Boo. Their face was nearly expressionless as always so what they felt about whatever it is they saw was impossible to guess but Luigi wanted more than anything to beg them for help. It… didn’t seem to be coming though.

King Boo grinned and took a menacing step towards them… or tried to. He stumbled instead, landing face first on the carpet. Even though it hurt and despite the circumstances it was kind of funny; big bad King Boo couldn’t even walk properly.

‘SHUT UP!’ King Boo shouted internally, making Luigi do the mental equivalent of a flinch, all mirth gone from the situation. ‘It’s not my fault you’re stuck with an inferior way of moving around. I can fly remember? I don’t need legs.’ He pushed himself back to his feet and brushed himself off. “What are you looking at?” he said in an almost growl as he glared at Gooigi. “Go away.”

Gooigi stared for a few seconds more before switching their flashlight on. They flashed it but that did nothing but hurt Luigi’s eyes a little. It didn’t seem to bother King Boo any as he tried walking towards them again, this time with more success even if his balance was still very off. Gooigi responded by switching to the dark light which was normally effective against both boos and possessed objects but… seemingly not this time.

Before they could attempt anything else, King Boo was in front of them. He spat on them and as always when even a drop of water touched them, they started melting, making a vague ‘uh oh’ sound. They’d ultimately be fine and would reform in their tank but watching them melt was still unpleasant. … And with them gone, there went Luigi’s chances of immediate rescue because he’d never gotten around to having E. Gadd modify the tank so Gooigi could get out on their own.

“That takes care of that then,” King Boo said with a satisfied simile as he turned away before Gooigi was even all the way melted.

W-what are you going to do to me? Luigi dared to venture at him, his inner voice quivery with fear. He wanted to be angry and he should be but… anger was hard even when he wasn’t terrified.

King Boo didn’t respond with words of any sort, just a spike in that echo of his evil delight as he started making his wobbly, careful way further down the hall. The purple light coming from somewhere on Luigi’s person wasn’t much of a light source, it barely illuminated anything but it was better than nothing. Though when they reached the hall mirror in a few steps, Luigi would’ve preferred it not be there at all as King Boo stopped to look into it.

Luigi’s hair and mustache were now a stark white. His eyes mostly empty white except for a tint of purple around the edges; very reminiscent of King Boo’s eyes. The purple glow was from King Boo’s crown, it was smaller on Luigi’s head but still unmistakable as anything else. This… was probably the worst thing to ever happen to Luigi and that was saying a lot.

“I like it,” King Boo said with an evil grin that looked wrong on Luigi’s face. “Your outfit is gross though; we’ll have to fix it before we go talk to your friends.” He pulled the hat off and tossed it aside so the crown would rest more naturally on his head.

‘Talk to your friends’, that could only mean…

“Yep,” King Boo interrupted the thought. “You really think I’d possess you and not drag you around in front of your friends? What would the fun be in that?”

No, no, please no! Luigi hated to beg but he did not want his friends to see him like this and… most of all he didn’t want Mario to see him like this.

“Too bad! His reaction is the one I’m most looking forward too. But before that, it’s been a long time since I piloted a meat suit, I apparently need some practice.” So he wouldn’t trip at a bad time again… if only Luigi could appreciate the humor in that thought.

A short time into King Boo’s ‘meat suit’ practice he decided to make everything worse by taunting him ruthlessly. Luigi did his best not to react because that’s what King Boo wanted. He was doing mostly okay at it for a while… until King Boo found a button to push anyway.

‘What do you think Mario will think of you when he sees you like this?'

That… was a good question? What would he think?

'Maybe he’ll be happy.'

Luigi really shouldn’t respond but… Why would he be… happy?

'Because, I’ve defeated him three times now. Each time you’ve had to save him. But normally he’s the hero, right? And you’re just a sidekick at best. Thus, by saving him, you make him look like a fool. So maybe he’ll be happy to see you’ve finally been defeated by the one foe he’s never been able to best.'

Logically Luigi knew that couldn’t be true; Mario was his bro, he’d never be happy to see him like this. But… what if it was true? He’d never indicated he had resentment towards Luigi for having saved him three times now but what if he was just good at hiding it? Mario had always been better and stronger than him, it made sense he wouldn’t want to be saved by someone like Luigi, right?

'Exactly! Heck when he finds out maybe he won’t even want to…’ King Boo tripped over the coffee table, banging Luigi’s shin and landing on it hard.

Despite not being in control of his body, Luigi felt the pain just as strongly. It sucked but it did serve to knock him out of his spiraling worries. Of all times to worry about Mario possibly secretly hating him, now was not it. He was not going to let King Boo taunt him into worry about that.

With an annoyed huff, King Boo straightened and resumed walking practice, seemingly unphased by the pain. The fact that his coordination was so bad was the only mercy in the situation, hopefully it would take him a while to get past it.

Polterpup finally decided to return from outside a short while later, interrupting another taunt from King Boo. He froze, his glowing eyes locking onto King Boo and Luigi a half second before he started growling. Luigi had never heard him growl like that before, it made him want to pull back. But instead of course, King Boo approached.

“Go ahead, attack me.” He grinned as he held Luigi’s forearm out, the perfect target for a Polterpup to jump up and bite.

He looked like he was going to, rearing back ready to pounce, but faltered instead, his angry growl petering out. He barked and ran in a little circle a few times. When he stopped, he sat down on his hunches and whined up at Luigi rather pitifully. After a few seconds of King Boo waiting and probably hoping for him to attack, he barked again before turning and bolting back through the front door. Well… at least he didn’t attack so Luigi wouldn’t have to add that to the list of traumatic experiences he was going through tonight. Maybe… he was going for help?

'He’s probably abandoning you. But even on the off chance he does go for help, it’ll be in vain. You’re my hostage now and I don’t intend to give you up anytime soon.'

#My writing #super mario bros #Luigi's mansion #Booigi #King Boo #Luigi #Possession

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