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wonyopout · 3 months

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(cw: semi-public sex, threesome, manipulation oops, g!p yujin, g!p rei)

dukongz being scheming little pervs to try (and succeed!) to get in your pants.

you’ve been a manager for ive for just a little over a year and it’s all been smooth sailing. when you applied for the job you weren’t a huge fan of ive and honestly your only motivation at the time was that it paid fairly well. it was of course a lot of work making sure things were in order and the girls got to there schedules on time, but honestly a lot of the time it was really fun! it also helped that as time went on you got closer to the members. it wasn’t uncommon for them to invite you out either individually or with another member or two, always citing their want to “show how much they appreciated you” or just to spend a little extra time with their “favorite” manager. while you felt grateful for how much affection the girls showed you day after day, it was important to you to keep your relationships with them professional! this was a principle of yours and you didn’t wanna break it no matter how tempting… it’d be a lie if you said you didn’t get off, at least a little bit, on how much attention they showed you and while you’d love to relish in that and blur the lines, if just for a day, you really wanted to keep your job. for the most part you would come up with flimsy excuses as to why you couldn’t stick around, it was obvious the older members especially took a liking to you but for what reason you weren’t so sure about… it was always rei and yujin who gave you the most trouble, rarely taking no for an answer. you end up getting cornered by the two after countless rejections on your part. you’re used to them being little shits and giving you a hard time but the look on their faces this time around was… different..

“don’t you think you’re being a little unfair y/n? i mean if you really cared then you’d let us do what we please right? it’d suck if what ended up getting you fired was the fact that you refused to meet our needs…”

you don’t really understand at first what yujin means, you always make sure the girls are taken care of. her not giving you a second to question her as she grabs your hand and places it on her clothed dick 😵‍💫 oh. so that’s the game they’ve been playing at. you could hear rei giggling behind you before you felt her arm snake around your waist, pulling you flush against her as she started grinding against your ass. her leaving feather light kisses along your neck,

“yujin unnie’s right you know, we’re always so nice to you and all you do is cast us aside”

you’d feel guilty if it weren’t for the fact that you could hear the smirk in her voice. gasping when reis free hand suddenly cups your clothed cunt, your self restraint immediately melting away as she pets at your clit making you whine. them whisking you off to a deserted bathroom or some dark corner somewhere so that they can fuck you silly 😋 the second the 3 of you cram into the stall reis forcing you into a kiss while yujins groping you 😵‍💫😵‍💫 to think you were so big on keeping things professional just moments ago and now you’re dropping to your knees to fish rei and yujinies cocks out of their pants hehe. taking reis cock in your mouth without a second thought, let’s put a loud moan at how wet and warm your mouth is 🥴 grabbing a fistful of your hair as she roughly fucks your mouth while you pump yujins length in your hand. yujin telling you how pretty you look getting your throat fucked, obviously getting off to watching you being used as each thrust into your hand gets sloppier. right when you think yujins gonna blow her load she’s pulling away from you only to grab you by your hips, rei still steadily fucking your mouth, and get you up on your feet. the position is awkward but you stop caring once you feel yujin yank your bottoms down and press her dick along your cunt, bumping your clit with her cockhead in the process 🥴 of course she gives you no warning when she bottoms out in one thrust, the force of it causing you to take rei’s dick even deeper into your throat, gagging you 😵‍💫 the sound of skin slapping skin and all 3 of your whines bounce off the walls as they both pound away at your holes, chasing after their own release. your mind getting hazy at the feeling of being full at both ends, your pussy clenching around yujin’s length as you swallow around rei’s. yujin drilling her dick into you even harder then before, hearing her whine out “fuckfuckfuck”, painting your tight cunts walls white with rope after rope of warm cum 🥴🥴 rei following close behind, forcing her cock as far as it can go as she empties down your throat with a groan. pulls back just far enough to let you get a proper taste of her seed, letting the head lay against your tongue as she finishes 😵‍💫

didn’t know how to finish this 🧍

#ive imagines #ive smut #ive x reader #girl group smut #girl group x reader #ahn yujin x fem reader #ahn yujin smut #ahn yujin x reader #naoi rei x reader #g!p ahn yujin #g!p naoi rei #naoi rei x fem reader #naoi rei smut #wonyopout #wonyopout 1st comeback #writing 3somes is confusing

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thoughtspresso · 9 months

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Aqua plans to die.

And his death will be necessary to take Kamiki down.

While the full details of Aqua’s revenge plan isn’t entirely clear to all of us yet, his intention to place himself in danger as he tries to take Kamiki down is a very clear, and very crucial part of the plot that he anticipates.

Before we can dive into how Aqua is going to achieve his revenge, we need to back up a little bit and understand who he is as a person, how he makes decisions, and what he personally wants.

What is Aqua’s Goal?

From a top-level view, Aqua has a singular emotional goal:

Aqua wishes to take responsibility for the deaths of his mothers.

Aqua/Gorou absolutely believes that after two lives of the same thing, that he was the common denominator. He was the fault his mothers both died, because he was useless and helpless. Had he never been conceived, and more crucially, if his mothers did not have to lie about his existence, they would have both stayed alive. If Gorou’s mom didn’t have to conceal the pregnancy from her parents, or did not have one at all, she would have lived a long life. He believes that perhaps his second chance at life was to save Ai, but he was paralyzed and helpless during her murder. He blames himself for Ai’s death too.

This is a driving force in Aqua’s character, and informs all of his decision making, even to the detriment of his own plans most times. It leads us to his supplementary goal:

Aqua wants to keep the people he loves safe.

Whether it was shielding Ruby from entertainment or making sure she’s in a safe agency with good group members, or Akane not going too far in enacting his revenge plot for him, or Kana from steering clear of a career-ending love scandal, Aqua’s key traumas has led him to feel compelled to take action and do whatever it takes to save people if he had the power to do so.

Here is a breakdown of Aqua’s plans, and some key questions we have to ask about each one.

1. Why make a movie called The 15-Year Lie? And what is “Ai’s true wish”?

I have reason to believe that Ai’s DVD for Aqua would have either been a message about wishing to be loved truly and be hated with full honesty for the person she really was, that she wanted her actual self to be revealed to people. In line with that, I think Aqua’s DVD included Gotanda’s original documentary for the B-Komachi dome event. Which is why Gotanda tried to defend Aqua's decision to reveal her secret in chapter 112, and why in chapter 108 Gotanda says about the script that “this is finally my time to fulfill that promise.”

2. What does he mean by “using Arima Kana”?

There were theories circulating that the person who texted Frill Shiranui could have been Aqua, trying to get her to encourage Ruby to play the role of Ai in the film. However, that couldn’t be any farther from the truth. As we know, Aqua was saying that Gotanda should “grow up” and understand that the most important thing for a movie is to succeed commercially first before we talk about artistic value.

If Aqua had full control over the situation, he would have just straight up casted Akane. After all, that was what he initially proposed, and even contacted her for it despite saying he’ll never have anything to do with her again. What he needed, more than anything, was for the film to succeed commercially. And with the headlining actress no longer (a) the most famous celebrity of their generation, or (b) the heralded genius of their generation, Aqua has no other options.

Except: Arima Kana.

I think the aspect of him using her or manipulating her is mainly to encourage her publicity activities. He’ll be encouraging her to do well in her work to garner more star power for the movie to really be a success, and for her to help his sister be the perfect lead for the show. He’s also going to bank on the idea that Kana will do things for him because she has a crush on him, which he only realized in Chapter 102 after Mem-cho points it out, that he can pursuade Kana to get out of the way of his revenge plot if necessary to keep her safe or place her in the spotlight to attract people’s attention for the movie.

While unlikely, he might even encourage her to stay on a little longer until Ruby gets to the Dome performance.

Or, and maybe this is my shipping delulu talking, but it can also be that he’ll try to just be around her frequently to garner media attention about their relationship. In this way, keeping her close without actually dating her could serve a dual purpose: get people talking about them and the movie, but also make sure that Kana stays safe and nobody makes a rumor of pairing her up with anybody else.

Lastly, also not super likely but another option could be to convince her to headline the show, and play Ai in Ruby’s stead.

3. Why does Kaburagi say that the film is bordering on illegal?

This is a truly crucial piece to unveiling Aqua’s plot. We know Kaburagi likes producing shows that include good-looking young people, and that seems to be his main strategy for raking in young audiences and cashing out.

So why would he have hesitated, even for a second, on a plan to cast the top talent of this young generation, on the biggest news Japan has been talking about, handed to him by a first-hand source--the son of Ai himself?

On all accounts, this would have been the perfect formula for a smash success. So why would Kaburagi say things like, “do you have enough evidence”, when everybody already knew about the University student stalker that murdered her? What was so controversial?

Unless, when they said Aqua will play the culprit, they didn’t mean the Ryosuke.

They meant he was playing Hikaru Kamiki.

Here’s what we know about the film, and what I think Aqua is trying to do:

1. Portray Kamiki in the worst possible way and destroy his reputation.

The 15-Year Lie will be a biopic about Ai’s life from when she was starting out as an idol. Ai will be portrayed as a poor girl abandoned by her parents, searching for the true meaning of love. We know that this framing will be part of Ai’s characterization because of the scenes where Ruby struggled the most:

In the search for love, they will show her falling for a young man and talented actor at Theatre Lalalai--that being Hikaru Kamiki. Once he gets Ai pregnant, he abandons her, and she runs off to the countryside to hide from the press. When Ai asked him to come visit her, Kamiki, in wanting to protect his career, attempted to send out a stalker. A few years later, seeing his kids wotagei on social media, he manages to find them again and kill Ai.

It is a complete and utter character assasination of Hikaru Kamiki, and while revealing Ai as a flawed person, draws for the sympathy of the viewers to love Ai for who she truly is. Which is exactly why Gotanda keeps insisting for Ruby to play the role, even when Aqua and Kaburagi have sensible recommendations for Akane and Frill.

At that moment, when Ai dies, Aqua will reveal his face, and openly declare that it was his father who orchestrated it all. Then he might even portray his father murdering Ryosuke himself, instead of the suicide that was reported in the media.

2. Aqua will use himself to bait his father out, and force Kamiki’s hand to kill Aqua.

The main reason why Aqua finds it necessary for the film to be a commercial success is because he needs the general public to be one hundred percent in agreement that Hikaru Kamiki is an evil man that deserves to be jailed. (Whether or not he reveals his name in the film, which he could but doesn’t need to.) This public lynching is his first control.

But here’s the thing: Kamiki didn’t directly murder Himekawa Airi and Hoshino Ai himself. At this point in time, Aqua is not aware of Katayose Yura’s murder either. And there is no evidence that connects Uehara Seijirou and Ryosuke’s suicides as murders by Kamiki’s hands.

And on top of all that, when these things happened, Kamiki was fully a minor.

Akane’s fears and interpretation was that Aqua would murder his own father because it’s the only form of revenge he could enact himself.

But she’s wrong, there’s one more thing Aqua could do: make Kamiki commit murder again. If he kills Aqua, there will now be a murder that the public agrees without a doubt was done by Kamiki himself.

He can go to jail once and for all, or he can also get stabbed by an angry fan--Aqua doesn’t care. All he cares about is that it’s a sure win, and it’s over forever. He launches his sister’s career into the spotlight, he keeps everybody safe, and he atones for the death of his mothers with his own life.

In summary: Aqua plans to get killed by his father, so that an actual murder has occurred for which he could be jailed or publicly ostracized or even killed.

And here’s why I think Aqua will fail:

Aqua’s assumptions about his father are incorrect.

He believes that Kamiki’s reason for killing Ai was because her pregnancy would ruin his reputation and career as a rising actor. That’s why Aqua tries to hit him there. And he believes defaming him might provoke him to get killed.

But I don’t think Kamiki cared about his reputation at all anymore. He left his career as an actor behind after Kindaichi kicked him out of Lalalai, and went on to graduate from Faculty of Science. He never went back in front of the spotlight, instead opening a talent agency around the exact time he believed his kids might be joining the industry.

I have reason to believe that Kamiki thinks murdering Airi and Ai was to protect his children or some other great act of justice against his rapist(s). And that even killing Katayose Yura was done because he didn’t want a liar like her to take the spotlight that was supposedly for his daughter Ruby.

I don’t think Kamiki will harm Aqua.

But I do think he will come forward and expose himself and his twisted justification, and he might even openly give interviews to the media.

Instead, I do believe Kamiki might pay attention to Kana’s honest acting--something he’s never seen before in a person, and try to get close to her somehow. And if Kamiki’s name is not revealed, and if the theories are true that Frill works for Kamiki’s agency, he might recruit Kana to join him.

All this is to say, get Kana out of this manga. Somebody, please save her.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #onk spoilers #onk fantheories #oshi no ko fan theories #Hoshino Aqua #Aqua Hoshino #Arima Kana #Kurokawa Akane #Hoshino Ruby #ruby hoshino #Hikaru Kamiki #Character Analysis #If you're reading these tags please know that Aqua is like Edward Cullen planning to walk in front of the Volturi in broad daylight #And Arima Kana is Bella driving a yellow sports car in full speed trying to not get him murdered #But seriously he blames himself so much we should get Robert P to play him in the live action good god #The Chuunibyou is strong with this one #These are the gambles #I am allowed to be incorrect

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thefrontofmymind · 2 years

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Hi, I really like your Joseph Quinn stories! I would like to request a story where Joseph and the reader are both famous but they are trying to keep their relationship lowkey and private. So the reader is asked on the late late show with James Corden and everything goes really smoothly until they start playing spill your guts and James asks something like "there's been some photos with you and a certain someone" (then a picture of you and Joe getting ice cream and him hugging you from behind goes up) "is it true that you are dating?" and then she admits it because she can't eat whatever disgusting food James picked for her :D Really like this idea, hope you can write it! Thank you!

Salmon Smoothie; Request (Joseph Quinn x costar!Reader)

REQUEST: i have this idea for Joseph x costar reader fic. They've been dating ever since season 4 started shooting but they're really private so only family and friends and costars know about them. They're doing an interview and maybe Noah like accidentally almost spills that they're together so the internet goes wild and starts speculating. something funny and cute

a/n: hope its alright i combined these two requests and changed them around a bit!!! loved them both and i thought they'd work well together! thank you for reading <33

SYNOPSIS: Reader plays Spill Your Guts Or Fill Your Guts on the Late Late Show and has to hide their relationship with Joe

WARNINGS: just gross food, and like a little bit of kissing and that's it

Your romance with Joe most certainly took you by surprise. At a time when you felt most alone–isolated like the rest of the world, he came into your life and swept you off your feet.

You’d met filming the fourth season of Stranger Things, of which you were a recurring cast member while Joe was a newbie. There was an immediate…fascination, you’d say, from the moment you’d locked eyes at the first table read back at the beginning of 2020. It was new, exciting, and then you didn’t see each other for months while the world went into an all-encompassing health emergency. Though you never forgot about that Englishman with the big brown eyes and the winning smile.

When you were finally allowed to come in to actually film the season, your infactuation remained–thank fuck for that, you thought. You felt grateful that a good portion of your scenes were with Joseph so you were able to spend as much time as you could with him–chatting in between takes and grabbing dinner together after a long, hard day of work.

You’d decided quite early on not to act on your crush on him, it was frankly quite unprofessional and you’d hate to make him uncomfortable–as you’d grown to become quite good friends in the short time you’d been filming, it would kill you to lose that over a passing fancy.

So Joe was the one to make the first move–unknown to you, he was in the exact same position. He thought of you like the sun that lit up a part of his life that had been quite difficult, between the stress of the world, the lack of acting jobs popping up because of said worldwide situation, and simply his loneliness during it all, he was in a pit that you’d dove into to pull him out of. It was pure admiration for you on his end, and that quickly turned into desire, and it was beginning to eat away at him.

He decided to make the move in your trailer, so that way if you reacted negatively he’d be able to leave you and never speak to you again, if that was what you wished. He wished he could’ve had a shot of something before he sat you down with the preface that he ‘had something very important to tell you’.

“So we’ve become very close-uh-recently,” he started, both of you sitting on the sofa in your trailer at the end of the day, back in your regular clothes, but still with the heavy-duty makeup for the cameras on your face. “And I just wanted to tell you…”

He paused, and it felt like a thousand years between the two breathes he took to ease himself into it. You were worried you’d done something wrong, that you’d upset or offended him somehow or he was going to tell you something horrible–you could feel your heart rate begin to elevate.

“I admire you so much, not just as an actor, like the way you’ve been bringing the scripts to life this season has been an honour to watch and work with you….” he rambled before stopping again. He really should’ve written a few dot points to keep him on track. “I’m just…infatuated with you. As more than a friend. And I can’t go through life without telling you because it’s killing me and-”

“Joe?” you interrupted him, cutting him off. You didn’t quite know what to say, so you leant forward, pressing your lips to his. He put his arms around your waist and slightly pulled you onto his lap, before pulling away, smirking into the kiss, still.

“So you feel the same way?” he asked.

“If you have to ask, I don’t know what to tell you,” you joked, earning a small chuckle from him, still with his arms around you so you were right against him. “I like you, Joseph Quinn.”

“I love when you call me ‘Joseph’.” You couldn’t help but giggle a little as he pulled you in for another kiss–the air between you settled and you couldn’t deny how right it felt.

You were lucky there was already a couple in the cast of Stranger Things in Natalia and Charlie, there was a precedent, so you felt almost immediately prepared to let your relationship known to the rest of the cast–after a few weeks of keeping it to yourselves, of course, just to test the waters.

After filming ended, yourself and Joseph went back home, you met each others’ families and friends soon enough, and you felt like any other couple for a time, as hidden from public life as any other regular couple.

That was until the lead-up of the new season, which meant press, and public appearances, and interviews, and the cast being as active as ever on social media. It put you and Joe on edge, you loved being able to love each other without having to deal with any kind of pressure from the media and general public–you were glad you could go out grocery shopping together and no one would really be any wiser to the fact that the two of you met and started dating on the set of one of the biggest television shows this decade.

You’d both been media trained to help with hiding spoilers and whatnot, as well as the rest of the cast, but you still had the feeling that the thread was being primed to pull, and everything was getting closer and closer to unravelling.

It truly didn’t surprise you when it was Noah who let it slip–accidentally alluding to two relationships in the cast, one known and one unknown. With a little bit of sleuthing, fans had begun suspecting that you and Joe were together–the two of you were always very close and were out and about together frequently and somehow they’d manage to find a couple of blurry pictures from inside the season 4 Premiere of you and Joe standing very close, hands intertwined and faces a mere few inches away from each other.

Joe convinced you it would be okay. “They don’t know for sure! We can just deny, deny, deny… And it’ll all be okay, I promise,” he said, as he held you–shaking with anxiety after a particularly bad downward spiral over it.

And it was fine for a few weeks, neither of you mentioned it, Noah also hadn’t said anything, and the rumours began to die down. That was until you were set to appear on the Late Late Show with James Corden to promote Volume 2, including what would be a fun game of Spill Your Guts.

The lights were very bright, which made you begin to sweat–not to be confused with the sweat from your nervous state of mind over the possibility of having to eat cod sperm or something else horrible.

The game began as normal, with James explaining the rules before moving onto the selection of ‘food' on the table in between the two of you; bull penis, salmon smoothie, cow tongue, water beetle, bird saliva, and fish eye.

You did alright to begin with, avoiding eating the cow tongue by telling James about the time you accidentally poured a drink on Taika Watiti at the Oscars and skipping the bird saliva by half-heartedly ranking your Stranger Things cast members’ music, while making James eat the bull penis and the water beetle.

“Okay this is the last question, ladies and gentlemen,” Jame began, looking to the table. “And I think I’ll let you finish with a….salmon smoothie.”

The stench hit you before you could fully comprehend James’ choice, you couldn't help but gag a little bit. James picked up the final question card, silently reading it to himself, before letting out a menacing chuckle, causing the audience to laugh.

“You may be aware of a rumour your fellow castmate Noah Schnapp started a few weeks ago…” Oh here we go. “That there are two different couples in the Stranger Things cast. Now, we know of Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton, who have been together since 2016-”

“Very cute couple..” you cut in, trying not to let the anxiety you were feeling show on your face, that was as good as letting the whole can of worms out.

“Yes, but the other couple is unknown. There’s been photos-lots of photos-of you and Joseph Quinn, who plays Eddie this season, out and about and seeming very close. It’s a simple question, are you and Joseph together?”

You felt like everything slowed as you thought over your response. You could no longer hear the audience, nor the band beginning to play tense music. You felt bad lying and denying, you couldn’t confirm either…

“Well…Joseph is just such a talented actor and we grew quite close over filming the season…so…” You quickly grabbed the glass and took a hearty sip of the smoothie, immediately regretting it, eliciting a cheer from the crowd as you swallowed and opened your mouth as proof. You gagged slightly.

James couldn’t stop cackling as he ended the segment, telling the cameras that they’d ‘be right back’ with a wink.

A troupe of AD’s dressed in all black approached the table and began disassembling it during the break, while you were corralled to the sofa to get ready for the interview portion of the show. You knew your phone was placed behind the sofa, so you quickly fetched it when you had a spare second to send Joe a text message, wracked with a feeling of guilt for fueling the fire.

‘Hi love, filmings going well but i maaayyy have neither confirmed nor denied the RUMOUR and im shitting it a bit….sorry baby i wasnt thinking xoxo’

You received a reply almost immediately–thankfully since you knew you would have a hard time getting through the interview without speaking to Joe first, to ease your worries if nothing else.

‘Oh darling, dont worry about it! i LOVE you and people can say whatever tf they want it doesnt change that i bagged the hottest piece on the face of the planet xxx’

You laughed at his response, he always knew how to cheer you up and make you feel relaxed. The cameras and microphone operators began getting prepared as James made his way to the small stage to sit behind his desk.

“Who’s got you all giggly and flustered, eh?” he asked, looking over his palm cards and getting comfortable in his seat.

“Oh, just this guy I’ve been seeing…” you teased.

#joseph quinn #joseph quinn x reader #joseph quinn imagine #joseph quinn blurb #joseph quinn drabble #joe quinn

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winterxgardener · 1 month

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I genuinely think Shourtney is the greatest love story in the history of YouTube. Possibly the internet?

Starting with "see you at work" coming from Shayne after the audition, it's coming up on a decade of working together through all the eras and ups and downs. They are the two longest-standing cast members (the rest of the squad becoming part-time). You can't be a Smosh fan without being aware of the ship being mainstream at one point.

They have been with each other through major life events. You can see how close they've grown to each other over time. Ian and Anthony are the brains of Smosh. Courtney and Shayne are the heart and soul.

Smosh wouldn't be the institution it is today if it wasn't for Courtney and Shayne becoming part of the cast and sticking through until now. Smosh could have fallen apart if only Ian and Anthony had carried the channel when Anthony left Smosh. This isn't to discount the other cast members' contribution and hard work keeping the channel alive through defy and the shutdown, but Courtney and Shayne have helped shape things in a way no one else has.

What could possibly be a more insane and beautiful story of two best friends growing into adulthood together and falling in love? They have a dynamic that I'm yet to see in fiction. I saw a comment on a video once saying they lost their chemistry, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Trivial Pursuit TNTL episode is a small window into their relationship that we don't see much anymore. In my eyes, at the beginning, all of their flirting was on camera because that was when they could interact the most. As they became closer offscreen, onscreen wasn't their only chance to banter that way anymore.

However, since there hasn't been explicit confirmation of this by them, it will always be a bit of speculation on our part.

If they choose to go public and it is something they are comfortable sharing, a Smosh Mouth episode with just the two of them giving a brief overview of this story through all of this would be really sweet. It could even be fun for them to point out moments on camera and give insight into how things grew between them. That episode would be so fun, but it is all up to them. I unfortunately see that as unlikely.

Disclaimer: This is solely based on speculation and has not yet been proven.

My initial reaction when I read this:

I love how their story evolves from being strangers to co-workers to best friends to lovers (check my disclaimer).

To anon, thank you for this; it really encapsulates the important factors of their situation.

If, in the future, they decide to publicize their relationship and have a smosh mouth guesting, I don't think I would survive. My fragile heart and lungs won't survive 🙉🙉

#this is purely speculation #dont mind it #dont fact check me #i am still delusional #shourtney #shartney

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awhimproned · 8 months

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"you don't actually want the thing you think you want", a nandermo retrospective

In this post of mine deep diving into the decision of guillermo staying human, I said I wanted to make a nandermo analysis at one point. I absolutely have no self-control so I immediately started working on it. So, welcome. This is it.

This post will attempt to analyze in depth two implications of the infamous quote from above by Yana Gorskaya:

It’s shipbaiting and we’ve got a storm coming

It’s slowburn and the importance of recognizing toxic dynamics even when enjoying the drama and the potential

The quote comes from this interview question right here:

It can be interpreted in a lot of ways and directions, the most prominent one being “and they were platonic all along. trust us you dont want them together” — it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth because I can see the showrunners dangling a carrot in front of a target audience until the finish line. Especially when one of the directors herself says and proves outright that nandor and guillermo have been framed romantically on purpose just by having the line “will they won’t they relationship” in the interview.

Keep in mind the admittance of will they won’t they directly out of Yana automatically eliminates the argument that the writers were strictly going for platonic friends. There’s no refusal. No going: yea no we dont know. They wrote nandor and guillermo to be romantic.

From there we have two routes we can take:

1) On the direction that they’re not having nandermo be a thing: This makes everything shipbaiting.

At least it’s not queerbaiting, I hear you say, both characters are queer. I’d argue shipbaiting is worse in this situation, because in this frame, it rather looks like the showrunners are using the certain attachment and sentiments of the audience to string people along:

Both of these characters are people of color, one is plus size, both of them queer. If it’s shipbaiting, this kind of alludes to discrimination, I’m afraid. It does not look good on the showrunners/producers’ part (when Taika’s name is attached, too. This man is literally in OFMD. Help)

And you don’t want to be like Jason Rothenberg; beefing with your own fandom, making writing decisons to spite them, kill a lesbian character after exploiting your sapphic audience and be infamous for the worst case of bury your gays, shipbait for seven seasons to hold the largest fandom in the audience to keep your views up, mistreat your POC cast members... etc. God, yeesh.

It’s almost incriminating in that sense, when they stopped floating around the idea of them and made it canon by dropping the “maybe he has feelings for you as well” line in season 3 and while guillermo was disguised as nandor. And have him be bitchy about gail. Everything about s3 told us that guillermo had a thing for nandor.

If nandor and guillermo were intended strictly as just a couple of pals, they could easily shut down the excitement and expectation for the ship, but instead they did those. It was a confirmation more than anything rather than a rebuttal.

But I guess for the shipbaiting case, the “rebuttal” was s4 when Guillermo was in his healing era, Nandor wanted a wife, and they resetted allathat in s3 to practically nothing.

As much as I’m going to use this as an opposition argument in section two, it also is a potential support for shipbaiting case, and that is the repetition of “friends” for nandor&guillermo that started becoming more of a thing in seasons 4&5. Especially s4.

It saw Guillermo outgrowing Nandor for a potential love interest when s3 had the biggest plot twist in their favor ever, it was going somewhere, and then they immediately established not only Guillermo finding a boyfriend in London, but also him having no hard feelings about Nandor wanting to find a wife when we all know how hard he’d taken Gail — and most important of it all, Nandor just wanting a Freddie of his own. It’s really weirdly romantic drama-centric with each of them getting partners & setting up for jealousy, but the writers subvert every trope, and instead do this weird shit with Nandor’s storyline where it’s purely a horror story from Marwa’s POV and he’s a horrible, selfish monster (and I was flabbergasted at the downward spiral his character took) — yet he’s incredibly “generous” to Guillermo because he chose to make his own Freddie rather than take his and let him go in the end, it’s all so very bizarre.

Which makes the shipbait even more outrageous. Because now it’s personal since it has more shipbait moments inbetween that don’t have heterosexual explanations. KEEP IN MIND THEY’RE STILL FRAMED ROMANTICALLY THEY KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING AND THE WHOLE THING WITH DEREK IS A WHOLE CHEATING METAPHOR.

The equivalent would be that one scene in Sherlock BBC when irene goes “of course you are [in love with him]” to john and how the show keeps bringing up how other characters think they’re in a relationship and saying it. You never want to be like Sherlock, either. Ugh.

I’ve been in through enough queerbaiting&shipbaiting to know that it could definitely turn out this way, and I’m still half-expecting this to be honest. I’m also a big fan of ofmd and go, but they’re exceptions, not the norm, and as much as wwdits is a wildly revolutionarily queer show, there is enough material for it all to turn out to be nothing.

So, in conclusion: shipbaiting turns out to be worse than it is because it’s on purpose and there’s no salvaging it after the “it was friendship all along ❤️” insistence, there’s receipts and the actors are on board with it. And in a situation like things, there is only one thing to say:

At least we have fanfiction and the actors like the pairing.

2) On the direction that nandermo is a thing: “you don’t know what you’re asking for and you won’t like it if we give it to you right now” dilemma, aka “you don’t actually want the thing you think you want” —

which basically rounds up to yana meaning, if nandor and guillermo were to be a thing right now at this point in their relationship, it would be messy, abusive and toxic [and there are still other plots to explore and directions this pairing could/have to be taken before they become canon.]

“Yeah they are messy, toxic characters, we know what we’re asking for,” I hear you saying. And I say to that, no, you really don’t, and you would end up hating what they did with nandor and guillermo if they became canon before they were true equals. One example of this would be people switching on Olicity (Oliver and Felicity from Green Arrow, wildly popular crackship there was no hope and only the teasing of in the fandom before it became a real thing) after the writers rushed to make them canon and did them very wrong afterwards.

The allure of nandermo is guillermo breaking the status quo and catching nandor slipping by establishing himself as his equal, destroying the power imbalance completely, them standing as individuals with equal power if not guillermo flipping the dynamic upside down and asserting dominance over nandor this time when he was a mere familiar nandor couldn’t care less about before.

This process is still in progress as of season 5 and let me tell you this, them becoming canon during Guillermo’s familiar status would have been downright icky.

This show’s only other canon ship ladja is the most healthy, gomez and morticia-esque thing ever, they’re in love, they’re horny all the time, they are queer, they fuck other people all the time and encourage each other, they’re wildly protective of one another, the man steps up to be a single father of a child he isn’t obligated to look after and he doesnt let it derail his wife’s career or force motherhood onto her, like. Do you really expect they wouldn’t let nandermo cook enough before they are on this level of iconic and healthy before they become a thing?

Nandor wasn’t even able to admit that Guillermo was a friend to him (and to Guillermo’s face) up until season 5. In season 1 he was weirded out by even saying it, in season 4 he could only manage to say “best man” and immediately reverse when the word friend was brought up — “closest companion for 13 years” in the market fight & “i may have killed my friend” muttered to himself before guillermo comes bursting out the door, it’s like he didn’t want to admit out loud that Guillermo became very important to him in a very short amount of time. Half of the pairing consisting of a person who is unable to make it clear and known to the other how important and precious he is just doesn’t sit well in the case they are in a relationship.

And the power imbalance is still there even if you don’t see it or think it’s gone, albeit knocked almost even by “I can kill you if I want to but I don’t” assertiveness from Guillermo.

Because even in season 3 and 4 in instances Guillermo was able to best Nandor in power, he’s still inferior to and is in service of him — because he’s working for something he wants from Nandor, which Nandor of course keeps taking advantage of by treating Guillermo like a subservient familiar (although it keeps getting better as things change more and more) even if in name he’s a bodyguard.

Their relationship is that of employment in name, the nature of it is give-and-take, Guillermo says it himself in s3 Nandor is a boss more than a friend and he would still be have to be “friends” with him because he’s his boss. And let’s be honest, before Nandor really became found family to him and he himself realized that over the seasons, Nandor was a means to an end for Guillermo, he’s “Master”, not “Nandor”.

And from Nandor’s perspective, Guillermo is with him because he wants to be a vampire. Simple as that. It’s what allows Nandor to exploit Guillermo.

Imagine a premature romance happening in these circumstances, it’d be absolutely in abuse territory, you don’t make your significant other do the dirty work for you like that. It’s why boss-employee relationships are most of the times, forbidden in the workplace, because the boss holds some power over the employee and can very much have them do things that they don’t want to do.

Nandor would not be able to see Guillermo as an equal even when there are feelings involved, because I have to remind you, Nandor is a cruel bastard, and it would turn into one of those AITA posts real quick between them when Guillermo is fully in service of Nandor still.

And remember how Nandor treated his “love” Marwa, how fast he dropped her from his life once that “phase” was over, all the things he did to her, she was his significant other — yet he never connected with her, not really, she was just an accessory to him and this was supposed to be “love”; and the other side of the coin, how he keeps self-sabotaging and ignoring his real problem by filling the void with what he thinks is the solution, getting in the way of his own happiness.

This can’t be ideal from Guillermo’s perspective when imagining a relationship with him.

And now, change Guillermo’s gender. Imagine it being a woman who’s going through this. It’s putrid toxic when you think about it like that. And to think “she” would receive Nandor’s respect and equal footing once she became a vampire same as him — uhh... No, please, thank you. It’s less fun and more this is problematic when the tables turn, isn’t it?

Not to mention how open the vampires’ relationships and sex lives are, they are not monogamous. Guillermo is a very repressed and private Catholic, he wouldn’t be able to handle Nandor and Laszlo’s trysts. He has his own journey to go through for him to be also into open relationships because Nandor sure as hell won’t turn monogamous for him, this is wwdits.

Which is why the progress of “work relationship” to “official declaration of friendship” over the course of season 4 & 5 is very important in their dynamic, because it takes things into a more attentive, caring and intimate territory in which both openly care for each other beyond being Master and Familiar. They both grew tremendously as individuals. Guillermo admits he loves Nandor the most, Nandor is finally able to say that Guillermo is his friend and openly do acts of service and somewhat redeem his selfish actions in s4 when he was lashing out making dumb decisions and actively self-sabotaging because he was given the power instead of confronting leftover problems he was repressing from s3.

This solidifies their connection, makes it something undeniable that it affects a vampire who immediately is able to move on from another’s death. You’re shown again and again how they react to death and how insignificant it is to them, yet Nandor is close to tears when he thinks Guillermo is dead, falls to his knees even, and is even more disturbed and outraged when he thinks Laszlo is violating his corpse.

For the first time you see that more than an unhealthy codependency or a symbiotic relationship between a vampire and a slayer bodyguard/familiar, Nandor is emotionally attached to Guillermo.

Like, really attached that he will actually be kind and giving and forgiving — not only did he violate a vampire society taboo to kill a fellow vampire, but also overcame the pride and humiliation because he finally realizes Guillermo is much more important to him and that he actually doesn’t want to kill him when the anger lets up enough for him to see that. (Thank you Patton Oswald for your service)

And we don’t stop there. He accepts him as an equal and invites him to live together in the house, which proves that even when he was a slayer bodyguard Nandor didn’t see him as an equal, and after Guillermo is having problems with the killing side of being a vampire, he doesn’t humiliate or shame Guillermo through this. You‘d think he and the vampires would make fun of him endlessly, but they let Nandor organize this intricate ritual so all of them together can allow Guillermo’s decision to be as authentic and without pressure and shame as possible. You’d think that ritual room was prepared by Guillermo but everything is done by Nandor, so he proves he’s not entirely unable to function as a normal being who can live by himself, he’s just dramatic and likes to be pampered.

If you thought The Roast was an incredibly generous nandermo episode for me to think we collectively hallucinated it like a Goncharov moment, this final episode is downright fanfic. Nandor has never been this nice with Guillermo, EVER.

All of this is done right after Nandor’s official admitting that Guillermo is his friend. This is a crucial step in their relationship for Nandor to consider Guillermo to be more, and Guillermo to question just what they are.

And love can only work where there’s mutual affection and respect for one another. And the writers are gradually working up to achieve that while tackling individual character arcs for nandor and guillermo to get there.

The power imbalance I’m talking about is a thing that exists beyond the powers they hold over the other’s head, it is about what they think of each other as. What Nandor is to Guillermo, and what Guillermo is to Nandor.

They could only become canon without it being toxic is when Nandor can look at Guillermo and think — “This is my friend and not my servant” and when the carrot of vampirism isn’t hanging in front of Guillermo and he’s naturally an actual part of the friend group (so that he wouldn’t be mistreated while he’s Nandor’s partner too.)

And I really don’t think nadja out of nowhere saying “my best friend” about laszlo was a coincidental writing choice.

And we’re nearly there at this point. Mister Nandor nobody can betray me and get away with it the Relentless just let Guillermo get away with it, and not only that, he fixed everything for him. Everything. He didn’t even get jealous that Guillermo had a choice in staying human when he obviously would kill to be human in season 3. He just went “I will fix”. It’s the most selfless thing he did in the entire series and he only got competent and smart when it was Guillermo in question — he wanted to fix the friendship.

And in episode 8, he told Baron Afanas — “whatever Guillermo’s flaws may be [...]”

That suggests Nandor doesn’t see any flaw in Guillermo, and is unaware if they do in fact, exist. He genuinely likes Guillermo, enough to cry and mourn when he thinks him dead, enough to snap at the Baron and defend him until the end, enough to clutch his favorite sweater like a shock blanket. It was this episode that cemented Guillermo as indisposable to Nandor, and the season finale to establish how far Nandor would go and soften himself up (change) if it was for Guillermo’s sake, he’s never been that tender and considerate, ever with Guillermo,

and you could say at that point it could be because they were “equals” as vampires but Nandor knew what he would choose — the focus on his hands when he’s personally dressing guillermo (pride and prejudice hand flex, dont @ me). "don't be nervous we've all been through it" (gentle). "nothing you cannot handle" (encouraging). Making up an intricate ritual so that he wouldn’t feel pressured or stressed or shamed. "you wanna be a human, there's no shame in that". (These vampires clown on EVERYONE) "we're gonna make it happen". "you want me to do it?". "I don't know" "I do". Keeping Guillermo's old or spare glasses in his pocket like it was something he came across while he was destroying Guillermo’s things like some lover scorned and he saved it like it was some keepsake. “I'm sorry, Guillermo. That was the only way for you to figure out what you actually wanted”. The hand on his shoulder to comfort him and the patting. “It was a horrible and hard decision. I think you made the right choice.” (Nandor himself would have killed derek in a heartbeat if it was his decision to return to being a human, but he still spared Guillermo’s feelings because he knows how hard it was for Guillermo. Since when is Nandor considerate about another person’s feelings? Guillermo is special.)

He was so very unexpectedly gentle and he’s never ever been that way and I am still in shock about his honesty and the effort he’s put into helping. This was the biggest gift he could have given Guillermo, not the vampirism, but a way out of it when he didnt want it anymore, a choice. And he wouldnt have done that if he didnt deeply care for Guillermo —

And with that, we’re almost out of the toxicity zone into a yet new dynamic with them, one that isn’t about who’s dominant and who’s submissive, but them finally being able to stand on equal ground, if Guillermo isn’t asking for vampirism from Nandor anymore and isn’t implicitly going back to being his familiar.

If they’re going towards a romantic relationship, this was an important border to cross and a topic finally handled the way it needs to be addressed. The one thing that’s causing a chain of command in their relationship is gone. And anything can happen. Anything.

I don’t believe that line about cleaning up Derek’s body was meant to imply Guillermo was back to being a familiar for Nandor and that we are back to square one. His phrasing was extremely polite — “Now if you wouldn’t mind cleaning up Derek’s corpse before sunrise that would be great”. That’s not an order. Derek is Guillermo’s mess, so he has to handle it himself, it’s like saying “I’ve done all this and I even killed him for you, and the rest is yours to deal with,” — it’s like saying “I cooked, you do the dishes”, and Nandor is giving him space to deal with his decision, hell, he didn’t even tell Guillermo to clean everything else like he normally would, now that would suggest back to the status quo.

Season 5 was fucking HUGE for nandermo and all of guillermo’s dynamics with everyone. It still feels like a fever dream to be honest. They really went and got rid of what was clogging up the progress of their relationship. They’re just. Happening naturally. It’s a slowburn if it’s meant to happen eventually and the writers are being really careful with doing things in the right way for it to not become toxic.

You just gotta have some faith in the team and wait for it.

In conclusion: Yes fucked up relationships are fun. until it’s canon and people are making discourse on the internet about how abusive it really is when it could have been handled better. The ross and rachel-ification of nandermo is the last thing we need.

There’s definitely things I’ve missed because im purely making this post on mobile and it’s not as coherent as I’d like it to be, if I have, please don’t hesitate to tell me.

#nandermo #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #wwdits meta #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #wwdits s5 #wwdits spoilers #wwdits season 5

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nanabansama · 6 months

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Hi hi! why do you think Tsukasa kisses Nene ? do you think he likes her ? Do you think Nene will start to like Tsukasa after this ?

Hi! You're in luck actually, because I have been thinking very heavily about Tsukasa and Nene's relationship recently and have some #thoughts. (Err, but who hasn't been thinking about them, honestly...?)

Okay, so you're wondering if Tsukasa likes Nene, why he kissed her, and if Nene will start to like him... let's see...

First, do I think he likes her...? Well, I wouldn't say that's completely off the table yet. Look at how happy he gets after kissing her:

Cute, right?! I think saying something like... "he's in LOVE with her"... might be a bit too grandiose, but it's definitely giving off the vibes of a kiddy crush, at least. And like with any kiddy crush, he has a precocious way of showing it.

Consider: him offering her food...

...Leaning in really close to her face while her eyes are closed...

...I mean, it's not totally impossible, right? He even invites her on a PLAY DATE.

Haha, but to be real with you, I am having a bit of trouble believing he has an actual crush on her myself. It's certainly a lower priority to him than getting the Yorishiro destroyed and accomplishing his goals, anyway.

I'm also going to discount any instances of Tsukasa getting annoyed with the reverted child form of Nene as proof that he doesn't like her, because I think it's kind of ridiculous to expect any hypothetical crush he has to stay intact when she starts acting like this:

All this to say, don't let anyone tell you that Tsunene is fake or anything. I personally am undecided on it, leaning more towards Tsukasa not having a crush, but I could just as easily believe he has a small crush on her, too.

So, if Tsukasa doesn't have a crush on Nene, then why would we kiss her? Well...

Honestly, sometimes? I don't think Tsukasa really thinks much before doing things. Not always, of course...! But remember, this is the guy who just randomly decided that he was going to swim to Los Angeles:

I hope this isn't too lackluster of an answer, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Tsukasa only did it... just because! Maybe he saw Amane kissing her and wanted to copy him. Maybe he thought it'd be a funny prank, kissing her when he knows she likes Amane and Amane likes her. Remember, Tsukasa has never been above pulling pranks on his brother or his assistant.

Need I remind you that he tried to eat her?

He's just a bit... mysterious. The comparisons people make of him to an animal or toddler are not completely unwarranted. Still, he is a scheming 13-year-old ghost that has proven levels of intellect and cruelty on par with other members of the cast. It's best not to underestimate him too much... I just really can't see any benefit to kissing Nene other than getting a laugh out of it. Or, potentially, a little treasure for himself! ❤️

Finally, you asked if Nene would fall in love with him... this is actually my favorite part of the ask, because I considered how likely this was to happen and surprised myself with where my mind went, lmao.

The first thing we need to remember about Nene is that she is described as, and demonstrably is, a girl in love with love. She LIVES for romance. (Just keep this in mind always. It might even be the most important part of her character, idk.)

Now, not only is Tsukasa an identical clone to the boy she loves--the boy she's planning on asking to be her BOYFRIEND soon, mind you--but she sees the potential!!! She literally had an entire daydream about him showing up to be Hanako's "rival" for her love.

While she's very clearly still loyal to Hanako, take note of the fact that she made both of the twins look taller and more handsome in the daydream. This could be proof she finds him physically attractive. ...That being said, she seems more into the fact that Tsukasa is into her than anything else... but can you really blame her? She's always dreamed of being popular with boys. To have TWO boys be madly in love with her is something straight out of her wildest fantasies.

Okay, but you know what's kinda funny? This whole... "Taller Twins" fantasy... is um... kind of happening right now?!

While the height difference is obviously greater than the one between her and the Fantasy Tsukasa, it's still hilarious that this is even happening. And, while Tsukasa hasn't exactly been the best babysitter for Nene so far...

...she is having a ton of fun with him!!!

Also, I haven't brought this up yet, but during The Misaki Stairs Arc, Nene brings up having had a crush on her Kindergarten teacher. Is it so unrealistic that Nene might end up getting a crush on Tsukasa, too? Especially for a girl who falls in love so easily?

Well, if not, I'm still expecting her to be totally enchanted by Hanako if she happens to meet him when she's still a child, lol. Could you imagine how cool he would look to 5-year-old Nene, coming to save her?! She already thinks he looks cool when they're at their typical height difference!

JUST IMAGINE HOW STARSTRUCK SHE WOULD BE, NOW THAT HE'S SEVERAL FEET TALLER...!! Crazy.

Anyway. To summarize: I think Tsukasa could have a crush on Nene, I think Tsukasa either kissed her just because or because he has a kiddy crush on her, and I think Baby Nene could develop a crush on Tsukasa. Thanks for the ask!

#asks #tsukanene #tsunene #tsukasa yugi #nene yashiro #tbhk #jshk

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littlepinksapphire · 10 months

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Question for older Critters: Were people this skeptical of long-game ships in previous campaigns?

I started watching campaign 2 during quarantine and didn’t really join the community till campaign 3 started. While Imodna and Dorym are probably the most popular ships of this campaign, they get backlash too. Mostly from people who think there’s no way that it could happen. Even when cast members allude to it both in and out of the game, people will either put their heads in the sand or say it seems forced.

Were fans like this about Fjord and Jester? Jester flirted with Fjord from the beginning and we didn’t know Fjord’s feelings till the end of the campaign. They talked about it on Talks Machina as well, but did people call it forced then?

Prior to recent events, I saw a lot of people saying they felt Laudna seemed uncomfortable with Imogen’s crush on her (ngl, I think they were projecting their own feelings about the ship on to Laudna). Did people say that about Fjord?

I’m sure all the major ships have their haters, and idk what Imodna haters are saying right now (I am quite literally on cloud nine and cannot hear them), but I can’t help but notice this particular brand of criticism directed at two queer ships.

It reminds me of Korrasami back when season 4 of the Legend of Korra aired. Obviously there was studio pushback to keep that relationship censored, but people still refused to read the subtext that was there. And here, we have bafta award winning actor Laura Bailey making subtle, intentional choices to make it clear she’s playing the long game, looking forlornly in the distance with every gay thought she has, as well as king of angst Liam O’Brien pining into a walkie talkie rock about once a month and people are just like “I love strong, same sex friendships”. I just really think if Imodna was a straight ship, way less people would have been skeptical about it.

And on the meta side of things, do people really not think the players talk about this stuff outside of the game? Like do they really think Marisha hadn’t long since given Laura the go ahead to attempt a romance? These are things that have to be communicated about as both players and actors. Making sure everyone is comfortable first is of the upmost importance, and these people are close friends and long time coworkers. They trust one another and are professionals at their craft. Idk, I just feel like this part never gets taken into account on either side.

Ok, I think I’m done ranting. These were just some thoughts and questions that’ve been brewing well before we had a huge sapphic win, I just needed to purge them from my system. Anyways, I fucking love this show, petty ship squabbles aside. Let me know what you guys think.

#critical role #cr3 #imogen x laudna #imodna #dorym #dorian x orym #bells hells #fjorester #cr spoilers

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 7 months

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Shamura meeting a spider s.o who isn't really apart of the cult and lives the life of a traveler but visits from time to time and members consider her to be a 'big sister' and people love to come to her for advice...

like she'll be pulling pieces of debris, leaves, twigs, pieces of mushroom, etc. from the lambs wool (which she had lectured him about a few minutes prior like "Lamb, you got this in your wool AGAIN?? I will not allow you to continue to talk to people when you basically have a FOREST in your wool, sit down and let me help you.") and Shamura is there and I feel like they have real deep conversations, maybe s.o telling him their story after a while, how they think that they might be from the Silk Cradle but aren't sure because they were taken when they were young and raised in the mountains ... just a little thing i thought abt haha

"I-I can assure you, [y/n]..I don't need-"

"Oh no, you absolutely do need this." You tutted as you made Lamb sit down on a tree stump, picking bits of mushrooms and leaves out of their wool.

They winced as you harshly tugged on a twig that was especially embedded in it, casting it aside once it was plucked free. "I need to do my morning sermon," they grumbled. "Can this wait until-?"

"There's still a few more hours till noon. I will not have you walk up to that podium with your wool being a literal Anurian forest! How do you keep letting it get this bad anyways?"

"I-"

"Actually..don't answer that."

"But...!!! Ugh, fine." With a pout, the Lamb sat with their cheeks puffed out, remembering that they couldn't order you around...as you weren't one of their followers. So you didn't have to abide by any of their rules.

You were a nomadic spider who traveled all across the Old Faith. Your heart desired adventure, but every once in a while it would lead you back to these temple grounds, and you'd witness Lamb's cult growing steadily with each visit.

When they weren't around, their followers would flock to you, having grown accustomed to your frequent appearances. You carried a lot of knowledge during your travels, so you'd share stories of your recent journeys and offer advice to those who asked for it.

Whether it's about something personal or just how to navigate through a domain safely, you had plenty of answers for most of them. Some followers even looked up to you as a sister, which made you happy.

The most important part of your visit, however, was ensuring Lamb looked their best before they went to preach in the temple. You always caught them after they return from crusades, finding them covered in earthly debris without a care in the world.

If this new "god" of the lands wanted to be taken more seriously...they had to look presentable to their followers.

But even so, they were quite the fussy one; stubborn like a child: Bleating constantly, kicking their hooves, and sometimes even demonically hissing if you suggest they removed their crown for a moment.

They only acted that way because Narinder saw you preening their wool once and mocked his former vessel until your glare shooed him away.

Fortunately, Lamb chose not to argue with you any further, making your job easier to finish.

It took a few more minutes, but their wool finally looked a lot better, so you sent them on their way to preach the Red Crown's gospel after bidding them farewell.

Whatever debris you plucked out of them went into a bag of silk you've crafted for yourself. Surely you can do something with the twigs, leaves, mushroom stems, and pumpkin seeds they carried back to the cult grounds--you couldn't let any of that go to waste.

"Greetings, traveler. Back so soon?"

The familiar voice made you perk up, looking to see Shamura standing there with a book in their hands. It seemed to be one from Silk Cradle, detailing trap layouts and designs.

You smiled. "Hello, Lord Shamura. And yes. I like to come and go as I please."

".....forgive me, but your name slips past me.."

"It's [y/n]."

"..ah yes, yes...Sister [Y/n]. Welcome back." They bowed their head politely. "I do have a question, if you have the time."

"Of course." You nodded, before frowning as you noticed the somewhat troubled look on their face. "What ails you?"

"...hm?" They blinked. "Do I look sick?"

"Oh, no. I mean..your expression. I've seen it on other followers, and it's usually because something's weighing heavily on their mind-"

"Why call me "lord" if you have not served under me?" Shamura abruptly interrupted, confused as their gaze went to the open book in their hands. "I have seen many spiders in Silk Cradle...but none quite like yourself. If only I could remember..were you a servant? A warrior? A merchant...?"

The more they struggled to recall, the more ichor began leaking through their bandages. And you could see it was physically paining them, too.

It made you wonder how they ever survived losing the Purple Crown, but then again it probably took a miracle from the Lamb to give them a fighting chance--a second chance.

Even so, you felt bad for Shamura. Their memory gaps kept widening despite their desperation to remember things and continue reading.

"Oh dear..allow me to hold that for you." You gently took the book away from them before the liquid could splatter all over the cover, closing it up. "I didn't grow up in Silk Cradle, but I'm sure I was born there. I only remember being taken up to the mountains..perhaps my family became deserters who disliked the violence."

"Hm...under my ruling, deserters would have been swiftly found and jailed."

"I see-"

"No, no..that's not it...they...would have been swiftly found, tried in my court, and publicly executed." They corrected themselves, huffing. "My apologies."

"...oh. Then I guess I'm glad we weren't ever found out." You awkwardly chuckled, having much preferred what they said before. "It seems your memory has been improving since the last time we met."

"Yes, indeed...indeed it is.." Shamura nodded, before you both heard the tolls of the temple bell, signaling that it was time for the sermon. "The Lamb calls..they are speaking now." They looked to you. "Shall we go together, [y/n]?"

"Sure." With a smile, you linked arms with them. "But as a fair warning, I tend to hang around the back and just listen."

"As do I, my friend...as do I." A tiny smile formed between their fangs. "I hope Lamb's wool isn't covered in earthly vermin anymore."

"It's clean as a whistle." You reassured, smiling back at them, before you two headed towards the temple.

Perhaps you'll stay here in the cult for the rest of the day. Just to spend a little more time with Shamura.

You enjoyed the company of a fellow arachnid.

#clanask #anonymous #cult of the lamb x reader #cotl x reader #follower shamura #follower shamura x reader #shamura x reader #platonic #female reader

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lueurichor · 2 months

Note

Cellphone spying! TDA Edition (;TWP)

(I'll be asking this same question to respective other sub-fandoms in the Shadowhunter community so that we have a net-profit of fantastic phone snooping of our own favs)

What are their most used apps, their background photos, their favourite social media, and do they have a pop socket or a special kind of case? etc.! Let's get started!

This ask applies to each TDA cast member of note as well TWP (mainly just to emphasis that KiTy and Dru matter! haha)

❤️‍🔥 Type of Phone: Do they use their phone a lot? What brand is it? What type of model is it? Are they interested in a lot of gadgets or is it very outdated? Does it have a cracked screen? Do they splurge often to buy their phone? Why is it that model?

❤️‍🔥Type of Phone case- Is it utilitarian? Is it branded? Is it funny quirky and often changed up to match certain outfits? Or does it have a string around sometimes just to be useful for i.e. when they take shifts and are on patrol so they have and its very to have a case that wraps around them? What colour is it? Why is it that colour or design?

❤️‍🔥 Most Used Apps: I.e. is it Instagram, Spotify, Mail, Netflix, DC Universe Infinite?

❤️‍🔥 Favourite Random App: i.e. something bizarre like like Hiking trails or Vinted

❤️‍🔥Favourite Social Media App: Is it Instagram? Do they use instagram live a lot? Or reels? Or do they prefer using TikTok for live content?

❤️‍🔥 Favorite App Game: Could it be Candy crush? Or do they not not play games? Is it because of lack of storage?

❤️‍🔥Home & Lock-Screen Photos: What is their wallpaper right now? Do they change it regularly? If so to what? Or is it a generic wallpaper that never changes and it comes wit the phone? Or is it of family members? Maybe a wallpaper affiliated with a sports team or a favourite fandom? Or a fandom ship? Is it a different wallpaper from their home screen?

❤️‍🔥Group Chats (the most frequented): Are they in many different Group Chats? Or they absolutely refusing to be a part of group chats? Or at least a few? If so what, are the group chat's names and who is a part of it? Do they keep the group notifications on? Or muted?

❤️‍🔥 Organization: How do they organise their phone? Is it into sub-folders? How is it organised by theme? How frequently they reach for the app?

❤️‍🔥 Most Called: Who do they call the most? And how often do you say? Or does this person not need to call their person often bc they are often WITH them?

❤️‍🔥Prefers to Call or FaceTime: Video calls or phone calls?

❤️‍🔥 Most Texted: Who do they most text? Their siblings? Their love interest? Their best friend? Who?

❤️‍🔥#1 Emergency Contact: ?

❤️‍🔥Alarms: How many alarms does this person set? Do they use alarms solely for waking up? Or does they set reminders for different tasks or timers for assignments? How much backlog of alarms is there of alarms? Or do they keep only the few they use on the regularly?

❤️‍🔥What news apps do they get their current events?: Do they even check in on current events? Or do they get it from podcasts? Or do they get their news from social media? And if so which?

❤️‍🔥 Social Media Usage: Are they, 'popular' on social media? Thus having a high follower count? What do they tend to post to 'the public'? Are they gearing their instagram or TikTok for a more artistic angle or sharing private important moments to the public? i.e. what they eat, what their favourite show is right now? Do they curate it to a specific aesthetic? Or do they not bother at all? and can go a long time without checking their social media? Do they have a burner account they use to follow all their favourite things and spy on people? Or do they not play that game?

❤️‍🔥 Most Listened to Song (currently): ?

❤️‍🔥Most Listened to Podcast (currently):?

And that's it for now! Thank you thank you for indulging us with your detailed creatives, I hope you will find this as fun as I can anticipate when I go giddy seeing your lovely answers that are at this point as close to canon as real!

xoxo

Regarding the Cellphone-Spying

This is an Answer-Post to a really nice & intriguing question I received from @emmalovesfitzloved.

I really don’t know how freaking long this answer-post will be, so I hope y’all are in for this ride!

We’re starting off with Kit, since he's definitely one of my favorite characters and also one for whom I have lots of personal head canons & theories, which will make this a lot easier. He was also the first one that came to mind!

I also made some categories to please my perfectionistic, organization-obsessed brain. Hopefully, it’ll make everything look less long & intimidating.

The Outside

So, first of all, Kit definitely has an IPhone. I'm thinking maybe 11 or 12 model-wise, and for sure either a blue or silver one (though the light blue one is the most obvious choice for sure)

He would have one of these weird-ass clear cases with the circle thingy, the only reason being that everybody else uses those as well, and he didn't really feel the need to stand out (at least not through his choice of phone case??)

Also, he is one of those people who store absolutely everything in their phone case. Keys, money, hair clips (for Mina), chewing gum, guitar picks (my kit-attempts-to-play-the-guitar-headcanon is very strong), a paper heart (from either Ty or Mina, you decide) and random pieces of garbage

All his wallpapers, not matter if we're talking home- or lock screen, are always pictures of him with his loved ones. Always. Ty basically lives on his lock-screen rent-free at this point.

In terms of accessories, I will definitely stand by the fact that he uses very old, partly damaged wired headphones (instead of listening to his boyfriend!) and is very stubborn about it. He also uses a pop socket, either one of those black-and-white checked ones or one with some sort of comic or movie reference.

The Inside

Apps

He has an average amount of apps, mostly socials and unnecessary games he downloaded because of advertisements but never really uses.

There isn't really an organization to them (like color-coded or something); he just lets them be where they are.

Most used Apps: WhatApp, YouTube and Google (pretty basic)

Personalization

Alarms: He actually only needs like three alarms, the first one being the most annoying sound ever (summit), and the others just in case.

Ringtone: He definitely had a duck-one at some point, simply out of spite and to scare Jace.

People

The people he texts the most are Ty and Dru. I would actually even say that he and Dru have more messages together than he and Ty, for numerous reasons. One of them being the fact that their chats contain many many playful arguments which result in tons of short messages and emoji-spams. Also, Ty isn't really a texter in my mind, and the two of them are around each other the whole time anyway.

In terms of who he calls the most, it's definitely Ty and Tessa, who's also his #1 Emergency Contact. Kit calls Tessa a lot, not only to talk to Mina who does not have a phone, but also just to check in, get advice or just talk for a bit. Him and Ty do both normal calls and video calls, but only if they're away from each other, normally, which doesn't happen too frequently. But when it does, they'll be calling each other a lot!

Group Chats, whew. This is gonna be a long one😅 There is, of course, a family group chat with Jem, Tessa and Kit, that'll have Mina in it later. Just a basic one, I would say, where he always replies (like the good son he is). He's also definitely in a chat with the whole Blackthorn-Family (in which he's mostly active through weird emoji-reactions) and the TWP-Gang (which he keeps muted A LOT, mostly because of Dru). And then there's a really unnecessary Herondale Group Chat, which Jace thinks is very important (it only has him and Kit in it at the moment; they're waiting for eventual children to add😭).

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did! I know I did not cover every single question, there'll be coming more later, hopefully!

#character concept #character design #books #graphic design #my graphics #tid #tmi #tlh #twp #the wicked powers #the mortal instruments #tda #the dark artifices #the shadowhunter chronicles #shadowhunters #kit herondale #kitty tda #kit x ty #tsc

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darkstar225 · 6 months

Text

Twice's 10th member acts in an action drama with a twist (protective unnies incoming!)

A/N: Heyyy, I'm coming up with a lot of stuff for you guys so I can make up for the time I'm gone lol! Sry for taking so long to post :D I hope that the anonwho gave me this idea on Tumblr likes it!

The request: Heyy if it's okay i want to request where y/n got an offer to play in an action drama. Everyone knows that's an action drama, but in the middle of the drama y/n gets a romantic scene (kissing scene). How the unnies reacted to their babygirl doing that scene? Thank you^⁠_⁠^

PS: Tysm for everyone who reads what I write, I hope I can bring a smile to your faces every time I post! I'd like to thank whoever sent me this idea 'cause I loved to write it <3

__________________________________________________________

Y/N had always dreamed of becoming an actress, and when she received an offer to play the lead role in a highly anticipated action drama, she was over the moon with excitement. The drama was set to be a blockbuster, with a gripping storyline and intense action sequences. The maknae was thrilled to be part of it, and she threw herself into her role with determination and enthusiasm.

As the drama progressed, TWICE's little star knew she was in for a challenging experience. The action scenes were physically demanding, and she spent hours training to perform her stunts and fight sequences flawlessly. Her fellow cast members, as well as the production team, were impressed by her dedication and work ethic.

However, little did Y/N know that her role in the drama was about to take an unexpected turn. In the middle of the production, the script for an upcoming episode was revealed, and she was shocked to discover that it contained a romantic scene... a passionate kiss between her character and the male lead. TWICE's youngest hadn't been prepared for this, and the sudden revelation left her feeling anxious and apprehensive.

She confided in her fellow TWICE unnies about the unexpected turn of events. Sana, known for her playful and mischievous nature, couldn't help but tease her little sister about the kiss scene.

Sana - Well, well, our babygirl is all grown up now.

Sana said with a grin, earning a playful punch on the arm from Jihyo.

Momo, the group's dance machine and very protective older sister, tried to offer some encouragement.

Momo - Don't worry, darling. You're a talented actress, and you'll do great in the scene. Just remember it's all part of your character's story. *kisses Y/N's forehead*

Nayeon, the eldest member of TWICE and Mom number 2, took on a more protective role, her maternal instincts kicking in.

Nayeon - We'll be there for you, sweetheart, no matter what. If you're uncomfortable with it, you can talk to the production team. Your comfort and well-being are the most important. *smiles*

Y/N appreciated her unnies' support and took their words to heart. When the time came to film the romantic scene, she gave it her all, but the experience was nerve-wracking. The male lead, a seasoned actor, was professional and supportive, but the pressure of the situation weighed heavily on Y/N.

The drama episode featuring the unexpected kiss scene finally aired, and it sent shockwaves through both the audience and Y/N's fellow TWICE sisters. The fans couldn't stop talking about it, and they flooded the group's social media accounts with questions and comments about the scene.

Nayeon, Jihyo, Momo, and Sana had decided to watch the episode together to support their girl. They gathered in their dorm, snacks in hand, and huddled around the TV. As the romantic scene played out on the screen, they couldn't help but exchange uncomfortable glances.

Nayeon's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth in shock.

Nayeon - I can't believe they made our babygirl do that scene!

Jihyo, always the leader, tried to keep a straight face but couldn't hide her discomfort.

Jihyo - It's just acting, right?

Momo cringed at the on-screen kiss.

Momo - Never again. I can't watch this. *muttering*

Sana, who had initially teased her dongsang, was now feeling protective.

Sana - Our Y/N deserves better than this.

The drama episode ended, and the members were left in a state of disbelief. They had never expected to see their sunshine in such a situation, and it was clear that they were deeply uncomfortable with the romantic scene. The fans, however, couldn't get enough of it and kept asking for the members' opinions.

In response to the fans' requests, TWICE decided to do a live video, where they would watch the episode again and share their reactions. The members were hesitant, but they knew it was an opportunity to address the fans directly and provide their perspective on the situation.

As they settled in front of the camera for the live video, Nayeon took a deep breath and began speaking.

Nayeon - Hello, ONCE. We know you've been asking for our opinions on our child's drama. We just want to say that we support Y/N in everything she does, but we were definitely surprised by the romantic scene.

Jihyo - Yes, it was unexpected for us. But our girl is a talented actress, and we know she's doing her best in her role. *nodding*

Momo - It's just that we're her family, and it was strange to see her in such a situation. We'll support her no matter what, of course.

Sana - We just hope that our little sister's future projects will be more comfortable for her and for us.

The members decided to watch the episode again, this time with their reactions recorded live. As the romantic scene played out, they couldn't help but cringe and squirm in their seats. Nayeon and Jihyo exchanged knowing glances, Momo covered her eyes, and Sana shook her head in disbelief.

When the episode finally ended, the members let out a collective sigh of relief. Nayeon summed up their feelings by saying:

We love our maknae, and we'll always support her. But as for watching this kind of scene again, I think we'll have to say never again.

Their live video was a hit among fans, and it didn't take long for memes and fan art to circulate online, capturing their humorous and protective reactions. TWICE's unique bond with their babygirl Y/N and their frank live video had endeared them even more to their fans, who appreciated their genuine and caring nature.

While Y/N's unexpected romantic scene had taken them by surprise, the members of TWICE would continue to be there for her, offering their unwavering support and love as her fellow actresses and, most importantly, as her family.

And as the youngest saw all of this, she had only one thought:

I love my dear older sisters.

A/N: I'm sorry for any errors. English is not my first language. Pls, let me know if there is something wrong, thank you for reading <3

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fraudulent-cheese · 9 days

Note

Think you would change any of the finalists of any of the seasons? Think you mentioned a Pahkitew redo or something, would that be a part of it?

OH BOY THAT IS. A QUESTION IN A HALF

I'll start off by giving my opinion on all the finalists of each season!

TDI: Honestly, i wouldn't change it. Both Gwen and Owen are pretty relevant characters, they're fun as the finalists and it makes sense they'd make it that far tbh. I wouldn't swap them out for anyone else this season outside of maybe Leshawna if her elimination wasn't so cheap? That or change it to be like "oh yeah we should make them stay in this nice resort instead of that shitty summer camp" as motivation for nominating someone during Haute-Campture. Idk. Id be more in favor of finalist Leshawna if Fresh TV, you know, gave her more relevance outside of being Gwen's bestie towards the end? And just gave her character depth? Or an arc on her own? But she's the only other candidate in my eyes

TDA: I'VE SAID THIS BEFORE AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN: THE FINALISTS SHOULD'VE BEEN LINDSAY AND HAROLD. why was Duncan a finalist. Literally why. What does he do that's interesting enough to justify keeping him for the ENTIRE SEASON. If you wanted to do the Courtney list plotthread, just introduce it earlier on in the season and kick Duncan then! Or better yet, make one of the early rejoins be Courtney instead and have Duncan get eliminated pre-merge and Izzy come back post-merge! Im less against finalist Beth, but her character's plotlines aren't compelling to me at all this season :/

Lindsay on the other hand has a full character arc this season of coming into her own and trying her hand at leadership, has a rivalry with Courtney, and she still keeps her character throughout! And honestly i just think Harold's an entertaining character and him making it further than Duncan for at least one season would've been great!

TDWT: As the season is written? I wouldn't change the finalists at all. Heather and Alejandro are the most important characters of the season outside of the Love Triangle and Cody + Sierra and if you want my opinion, none of them should've been finalists. Now, if you do rewrite the season, i'd say Courtney (or even Eva if you make her rejoin mid season) deserved at least to reach the final three. Don't have much to say here.

ROTI: JO. OMG JO. JO SHOULD'VE BEEN A FINALIST. Again, i've made a post about this earlier (which i CANNOT FIND. WHY) But Jo should've been a finalist! They didn't need to give Lightning a vilain arc in the last two episodes just because! Im not super against Cameron being a finalist, but i don't like Lightning being one. Granted you could argue for different characters making for good finalists if you're going to rewrite the entire season (Anne Maria maybe? Or Zoey)

TDAS: Oh boy, TDAS. Sweet, sweet TDAS. Listen. Listen. In an alternate universe where Total Drama is a good show, Mike and Zoey could be good finalists. Unfortunately for them there is a large, looming Courtney-shaped shadow over that idea, made even worse by how both Zoey and Mike were used throughout the season.

Yeah if you couldn't tell by now, Courtney 101% SHOULD have been a finalist! TDAS should've been her season! It's the only season where she makes it past Duncan! She's a strong competitor, a compeling character, she's been put through shit the entire series, hell she could have interesting interactions with all the cast members! But no, Sundae Muddy Sunday happened instead.

As for possible finalists? Lindsay. And Jo. Yeah look if they're not gonna be finalists in earlier seasons you may as well make them finalists here. You could still make an argument for Zoey if the season were rewritten, but otherwise yeah this is probably the worst season for canon finalists :(

TDPI: Honestly with the direction they took, im... fine, with Sky and Shawn being the finalists. They're relevant characters, they have the more important arcs and outside of Scarlett and Jasmine, some of the most competent characters, enough to get here.

I'll take this as an opportunity to say i haven't landed yet on finalists for my PI rewrite? I know for a fact i want Sammy to be one, but im unsure about the other. All i know is that i don't think it'll be Shawn or Sky.

TD2023 S1: Nothing wrong with Bowie and Priya as finalists i'll be real! Priya might be a bit predictable, but it opened up alot of avenues for different things to be explored within her character (that the show never took rip), and she honestly deserved to get far for this cast's first season. As for Bowie, he's pretty relevant all throughout the season and seeing a more antagonistic character make it to final two is really nice to see! No complaints!

TD2023 S2: ALL OF THE COMPLAINTS! ALL OF THEM! The final 3 kind of sucks this season because every option has at least one gapping flaw in it due to the writing over the season: Wayne is barely a character for half the season and only gets interesting moments before the finale, Caleb has the most dragged out and annoying romance subplot in all of TD (not just because it was boring and artificial but because it dragged down and arguably ruined one of the most interestin characters of it's cast) and Julia's just magically gotten amazing at everything, INCLUDING playing the game because these teenagers just keep! beliving her! and telling her things! for some reason! Urghhh

If i had to rewrite the season entirely i'd have an MK vs Raj final 2. You'd get the antag/vilain rep for a finalist position, and hopefully a more interesting character than Wayne (fuck you Raj's more interesting of the two by default.) Maybe Scary Girl could be a 3rd curveball option. Nichelle or Axel if they were given actual arcs. And characters. Whatever.

Sorry for ending this post on such a sour note! i just really don't like reboot season 2 everytime i think about anything outside of the Finale or Mkulia!

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garfeildfanpage · 3 months

Note

What is your opinion on teru minamoto and how he is as a character :3 I find him and akane’s (boy) interactions very interesting tbh

Woah an ask! And as of the recent chapter(s) I think they help confirm a few things I had already thought, but I’d love to go in depth!

Overall, Teru is probably my favorite. He’s different from the rest of the cast in the sense that he’s not a “hero” nor a “villain”. To me he, Akane, and Aoi all sit right in the gray moral area rather than characters like Kou, Nene, and the members of the broadcasting club, who play the direct roles of protag and antag. But he’s always held my attention over any of the other characters because everything around him is just as morally gray, from childhood to now his values never changed as his view on the world is just as strict, though with a few exceptions (which are pretty important).

His interactions with other characters show his views in the most obvious way. He acts charming and aloof around Nene, but he’s never really paying direct attention to her (ex: the mokke of the dead arc and the current trial arc).

When with Kou his actual softer side is shown a little bit more, acting as normal as he possibly can be; save for the times when Kou goes against Teru’s moral code (Young exorcist, Bound for the far-shore) and he goes on the defensive, when Kou’s view on supernaturals rival his he immediately goes from being on his side to disregarding him and acting on his own judgment full throttle. Which shows how he ignores their differences instead of actually addressing them, since he wants Kou to not only NOT be an exorcist but also to not get in his way. And to him pretending Kou isn’t doing exactly what he doesn’t want him to do, keeps the positive dynamic alive and well in his mind.

Now, Akane specifically is where it gets a bit confusing. I’ll take it chapter by chapter (or arc by arc whatever)

Clock-Keeper (technically the chapter after but I’m not super technical about this and it’s close enough)

Where it gets silly! Their dynamic of not only Spirit v Human but also President and Vice-President is established. Teru’s bias towards Akane compared to other supernaturals is from the beginning pretty obvious (he didn’t kill him so that’s a good start) while he isn’t exactly nice to him, he does value Akane in some way or another. It also shows that Teru knows a lot more than he lets on, and that he doesn’t tell people what he does either (which foreshadows some stuff later) also the glasses stuff is kinda tease-y flirty if you ignore the getting attacked by mokke part. What can I say he’s just so charming!!!

(Finals)

Where the care is more obvious. Showing off the more playful side of their dynamic, along with Akane’s view on Teru, which as of now isn’t very positive. At the end, Teru asks Akane for a favor, showing again that he’s psychic or something. But his cruelty here can mostly be seen as him making sure he gets Akane’s help, so the immoral part of it is debatable, he just seems to go about things the wrong way most of the time. could also be seen as him giving an insensitive to Akane to help up his grades for the final, since his grades for the previous semester are comparatively not as good.

Severance

Oh great heavens. Teru’s continued disregard of other peoples values comes to a head here, where this time he’s shown how the person feels when not told important information. But I understand why he did it. If he had told Akane that Aoi wouldn’t have returned to the near-shore, he wouldn’t have returned either, and there’s no way Teru could’ve dragged him out. But would that have been an issue? If Akane was left in the boundary? He could’ve died, he was kindof already doing that anyway, but was that the reason? Or did Teru do it out of selfishness? Did he want Akane to stay? Maybe he wanted to kick some sense into him, maybe he just didn’t want him to leave? Could be a lot of things, Teru isn’t dumb, and typically he’s pretty rational, but he never said why so everything is always up for interpretation.

Day-Off

To regain lost trust. Hanging out, it isn’t obvious why exactly Teru wanted Nene and Akane to tag along, maybe he and his apparent prophetic mind decided it would be the best course of action to do so, or maybe he just wanted a girls day or something. Akane seems to have gotten over his anger at Teru (possibly due to off-screen conversations cause that’s convenient) but when Teru tells him that Aoi isn’t dead, a little bit of trust in Teru’s judgment is recovered. Maybe he had the whole thing planned out from the beginning who knows he seems to suck at being overt. Akane interrogates Teru about the severance and gets all up in his face. And then the “I like Akane-San” happens and stuff gets confusing again.

Red house

I’m starting to think he doesn’t actually like Aoi. Teru learns to complain for basically the first time! At least in front of Akane. It’s obvious Teru’s trust towards Akane didn’t falter the way it did for Akane, in fact in some way Teru put more of himself out for Akane because of the severance. He brings up the dreaded Akane & Aoi chapter, and remarks about it in a really…strange way. Not upset but more bitter, really. But it also seems that Akane’s view on Teru has improved as well, having Teru go from a nightmarish demon stealing Aoi away from him, to a seemingly doting husband to her, what does this mean? Something gay probably. But nonetheless it seems that Teru wants Aoi back as well, but for what reason specifically? Other than just the general “unjust death caused by some undead demi-god 10 year old”, he wants Aoi back for some “dream”. Or is he just bluffing to tease Akane? I don’t know, dissecting a characters motives is hard when he isn’t nearly fleshed out enough to infer things with any kind of confidence. But overall they end on better terms than the severance started with.

Bound for the far-shore

Back to normal-ish. Teru’s fight with Kou is the main catch of these chapters for him, but his back-and-forth with Akane is fun too. It’s playful, it’s sweet, and it’s also nice to see them show trust towards one another!

School festival / Omen

A subversion of the viewer’s beliefs that Teru would go back to tormenting Akane but in actuality he protects him from a threat and makes a weirdly flirty face at him?? I love literature! Anyway I love their interactions here, it’s fun yet simple! I really hope nothing bad happens right after!

Trial of the Clock-Keepers

Ok gonna be honest this chapter is interesting but dear god is the pacing so slow I’m kindof losing interest. But nonetheless! Divorce. It’s a pretty obvious parallel to the severance; in the sense that Akane blindsights Teru, Teru tries to fuck his shit up, and is then forcibly stopped and dragged somewhere else. And though it’s played off as comical, it’s not silly to assume that this is, just like the severance, another reset of trust. I mean Teru does dick while Akane gets his shit rocked (not like he can actually do anything to be fair). but even so he still shows the smallest bit of concern, concern about why they aren’t actually fighting back in any significant way, even though they’re all well capable of doing so. But since the arc is still ongoing, that’s about where by opinions end.

Overall, I love Teru! And I love his dynamic with Akane! Sorry this is like, really long I’ve been waiting for an excuse to talk about this, so thanks for the ask!!1!1!…,ninja out

#hot cheese #jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #akane aoi #aoi akane #minamoto teru #teru minamoto #asks I guess??#terukane #just cause that’s kindof the overarching point #accidentally though I’m just bad at staying on topic

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space-blue · 1 year

Note

I saw your post about the Na'vi who live near volcanoes! (I loved it so much!) What examples do you have of their clothing? And what rites of passage do they have since making a bond with animals isn't a normal occurrence?

Anon, thank you so much!! I have the day off so I spent the afternoon doodling ideas for the Txepiva, half of them not even what you asked for lol

Here's the full sheet, which you can see in full size by opening in a new page.

Clothes :

Let's say they are mostly pastoralist nomads. They have an animal, an omnivorous creature that lives in small flocks of 20-30 members. They have a scaly/platted back and tail, but also tufts of heat resistant fibers close to a wool, just not nearly as compact. It's designed to keep them cool around the neck and chest.

Txepiva task young children with herding the flocks, making tsaheylu and often riding the flock's leading animal, leading them all by directing the one. They are used for meat, but also for their fibers, which are made into protective veils, as heat reflective as anything Na'vi can produce.

This made me think about masks (made of bone or worked leather) that would use glass lenses and veils made of that material to get extra close to lava. A Pandoran take on the protective suits we wear on earth.

I have had to honour of getting very close to a lava flow, and my experience is that when you're 20m away from it, it feels as hot and oppressive as when you're 1m away from a raging bonfire. If they need to get close, extra protection would help.

Masks could also have simple slits, though idk how much protection that would offer.

And since they can weave heat resistant fabric, but not everyone would get close to lava, you could also have more casual but still protective gear, mimicking Tuareg and other desert dwelling headgears and scarves. You could wrap the queue (tswin) inside of it and have it hidden from view. My adult Txepiva who aren't young herders or hunters have little use of their tswin outside of mating.

They would have access to a lot of precious stones. A lot of jewelry would be crafted there and be part of their main exports to other clans, alongside glass objects. Vials and glass rings would be particularly popular, as well as beads.

They'd import a lot of dyes and dried plant material in exchange. The one thing that is taboo for other clans though is metal.

That doesn't stop the Txepiva from using it for themselves, in earrings, worked plates, kuru clasps, brooches, etc. Copper is particularly easy to obtain around volcanic faults.

The other stone of choice is obsidian. I tried to give her white paint under her eyes instead of the black one I did on my original design.

But at the end of the day one of the most used materials in the clan is Bone. All warriors and scouts wear chains of vertebrae over their tswin. It's to prevent being easily killed by the queue being grasped and severed at the base.

The war chief, leader who takes charge of the clan whenever they face conflict or are readying an assault on another clan, tends to wear more flashy gear. This one collected vertebraes with a long neural spine :

The tswin and its bones are tied to his waist so they don't sway or get in his way. It's mostly ceremonial gear, I don't think he'd bedeck himself like this for war.

Didn't draw any shoes, but the Txepiva are occasional users of the stuff, especially on active volcanic plains.

Rites of Passage :

Not everyone is a warrior, so I assume they'd have different rites for different people.

Those who are warriors might be tasked to prepare their own kit to go on a quest of some sort. A raid to steal an animal, or to go deep into active lava flows to collect precious materials and prove themselves.

Or they might be cast out altogether for a whole year or more, young people forming roving bands from different clans who have to get along and conjoin their skills to survive. That feels a little extreme, though I've explored the idea of the ash people having a yearly meeting where most clans peacefully get together and trade, party, bang, and mate across clans to, you know, clean up that gene pool.

It being the moment roving bands return and have a ceremony accepting them as adults and able to join a mate and a new clan would be great. Another group of youth could be cast out at the end of that meeting, only to return in a year.

That has the advantage that it could include people whose main skill isn't hunting or killing, as they'd be just as valuable for a band's survival.

But otherwise I enjoy the idea of yuong people building a 'dowry' for themselves. It's not about mating at all, but to showcase their skills for the great meeting. Elders of all clans gather and inspect the ivory carvings, dyed weaved scarves, worked stones and jewels, or even the smithed blades and copper beads produced by this youth who claims to be an adult. They might prepare a single enormous project, or present a collection of wares.

If approved, then they would receive presents prepared for them by their friends and family ahead of time in a ceremony welcoming them as adults, and they'd be allowed to go trade all their hard work.

And that gathering place definitely has a fun-time tent for adults but also a massive complex of hot springs. It's a sacred place with a lot of growing soul trees where killing or fighting is completely forbidden.

You have to leave your clan's baggage at the metaphorical door.

They'd also have sport competitions and friendly matches, as well as conflict resolution.

OK going to shut up now because I think I could go on a little too long!!

#Thanks anon #anon ask #avatar meta #avatar lore #(the made up kind)#ash clan #txepiva #avatar #atwow #avatar 3 #fire na'vi #ash na'vi #nomadism #fanart #avatar fanart #na'vi oc #avatar oc #my art #headcanons

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bardraelyn · 8 months

Text

On Disaster Puppies, Anxious Angels, and Applesauce

NOTE: This post has been revised and expanded. To view the updated version, go here:

https://www.tumblr.com/bardraelyn/729218926815379456/on-disaster-puppies-anxious-angels-and?source=share

So the key to understanding the end of S2 boils down to this:

Angel!Crowley = disaster puppy (all enthusiasm, not much sense)

Aziraphale = anxious kid who grew up in a house with plastic covers on all the furniture (this bit is important)

Let’s break it down:

Aziraphale doesn’t warn Crowley off questions because he thinks there’s something wrong with Heaven. He warns Crowley off questions because he lives in a restrictive environment with rigid rules and is terrified of (vague, unspecified) CONSEQUENCES. Anxious children don’t have to have erred or been punished previously in order to be afraid of punishment. In fact, having not been punished (because their anxiety mostly keeps them in line without need for actual adult intervention) makes the fear—not threat, but fear—of punishment that much more powerful because they don’t know what the punishment will be, and the unknown is terrifying. (What’s more, they are desperate for praise and reassurance that they won’t be punished and are doing the right thing, hence Aziraphale’s love language being words of affirmation.) Aziraphale is trying to protect the innocent, joyful angel he just met, even though he doesn’t yet know what he is protecting him from. He just knows you’re not supposed to muss the furniture, and what Angel!Crowley is suggesting feels dangerous.

That also explains why even after the Fall—the punishment—Crowley is willing to bend the rules and “go along as far as he can”: He’s already been punished, so he knows what punishment feels like. He knows where to toe the line and knows what to expect if/when he doesn’t. He’s not a puppy anymore; he’s a old dog with a long memory, who is willing to take a stand to protect those he’s loyal to, even while he still cowers at certain types of threats (“We can run away together!”).

Angel!Crowley was punished and cast out of the restrictive home with all the plastic on the furniture, and the new house he’s been stuck in for the past 6000 years is run by the sort of abusive f*cks who beat puppies and raise them for dog fights. (I have a theory that Crowley was punished less severely than some of the other Fallen. He is, after all, one of the most beautiful demons we see, and that suggests that the person in charge of doling out punishments was more annoyed at him than angry, and so didn’t curse him with the truly nasty afflictions we see on the more repugnant of demons—like Hastur, who delights in pain, or Beelzebub, who had some leadership role in the Rebellion—but that doesn’t matter because his new home was terrible, possibly in part because of that lesser punishment. I bet that prior to the Rebellion, “Lucifer and the boys” delighted in the cliquish equivalent of “throwing sticks for the Disaster Puppy to chase,” and poor Angel!Crowley didn’t realize they weren’t really his friends so much as a different set of abusers who used attention instead of neglect. But after the Fall, they became his keepers, and his eyes were opened to a whole new level of loss and betrayal. Anyway.)

As a member of the Fallen, Crowley doesn’t remember the names of some angels/demons (Furfur, Saraqael, and yes, Aziraphale at first) but clearly remembers others (like the Metatron and Gabriel), even though they remember him. I’ve seen suggestions that this is a trauma response or the results of a partial memory wipe, but I think it has a much simpler explanation: He only remembers the names and faces of entities who stood out to him. That enthusiastic angel who bubbled with joy and absolutely annoyed some of the other angels with his exuberance? Of course, he sticks in their memory! But they barely registered to him because they were each just one in a billion random strangers he played with in the park. The Disaster Puppy enthusiastically plays with everyone. He remembers the ones who had the power to slap him on the nose—and the one angel whose daring and kindness impressed him enough for his name to finally stick after it didn’t during their previous encounters.

At their very first meeting, Aziraphale introduces himself; Angel!Crowley doesn’t reciprocate. Names are irrelevant. He’s too caught up in his nebula to even take note of the introduction. So later, when they meet on the wall of Eden, introductions are needed again: Aziraphale because Crowley didn’t recall his name, and Crowley because he never gave his name at their first meeting (and probably never during any of their chance encounters in Heaven, because remember, Disaster Puppy just isn’t all that concerned with names), but also because even if Aziraphale did pick up Angel!Crowley’s name in passing sometime after their first meeting, he absolutely would not assume that the fallen angel still uses it. Rather than risk dead-naming him, he waits for Crowley (or Crawly, at the time) to tell him what he prefers to be called.

So, it’s obvious why Crowley didn’t remember Aziraphale’s name, but did he recognize Aziraphale at all before approaching him on the wall? I would bet on absolutely, yes, but with the vague sort of recollection of a conversation he probably should have taken a bit more to heart. He sees a being who tried at some point in the past to warn him, whose name he doesn’t recall because it didn’t seem important enough at the time, but who makes him feel comfortable enough to approach: “You tried to help me before, which means you are kinder than those other angels who didn’t, and so you probably won’t hurt me now, even though I’m Fallen. I’m feeling conflicted about this notion that knowledge of Good and Evil is a Bad Thing, and as someone who tried to advise me earlier, I feel like I can talk to you about it.” (What neither of them has yet realized is that knowledge of Good and Evil is the key to recognizing that Heaven and Hell are two ends of the same poison pill, and it’s not only humans who have been kept in the dark; a lot of the Angelic Host are also in need of some applesauce.)

And this is why the memory-wipe theory simply doesn’t make sense. Think about it. Gabriel is the Supreme Archangel, and their intent with him was to perform the equivalent of a full hard drive wipe and reinstall of the base angelic software. They think of him as corrupted beyond repair. If even the highest of high archangels isn’t worth the massive effort of selective file deletion, why would they waste that same amount of effort on Crowley to wipe (and possibly replace) a few select memories from before the Fall? Yes, it’s clear that Crowley was an angel with a reasonably high level of access, given his ability to open the archives, but there’s absolutely no indication that he outranked Gabriel. In fact, his scorn for the Supreme Archangel is exactly the sort of scorn you’d have for someone who used to have authority over you and abused it extremely casually but was mostly the kind of negligent adult who ignored you until you were useful and/or pissed them off.

And that ties back to the question of why angels don’t eat while demons do. Aziraphale eats—with enthusiasm!—so clearly angels can eat, and Crowley mentions “food not that good anymore” in Heaven as part of why he started palling around with the other discontents, so also clearly angels did eat at some point, but now they don’t. Well, yeah. Because somebody in Heaven wants to keep it pristine, so they won’t allow food anywhere near all that Heavenly furniture. I mean, it won’t kill the angels to go without meals, because they are immortal beings, so all the ban achieves is a) starvation, b) loss of pleasure, and c) control. But that’s really all it comes down to: Keeping everything pristine and spotless and perfect. And the Rebellion gave whoever is in charge of those decisions (my bet would be on the Metatron; God seems too self-involved to care about the furniture) the perfect excuse to change the house rules to ban food. And since it’s definitely a cult, all the ones who are deeply indoctrinated just sort of…go along with it.

If Aziraphale feels any guilt over Crowley’s Fall, it’s a mild twinge over the fact that he wasn’t able to convince the Disaster Puppy to stop jumping on the furniture. That’s not the primary motivating factor for why he’s so adamant about protecting Crowley at the end of S2 or at any other time in their long association. Aziraphale and Crowley are both, in their ways, protectors. That is established over and over again, throughout all of their actions and conversations. Protecting is a primary drive for each of them, something that is at the core of their beings, and it often puts them at odds over the exact same objective: Protecting the one(s) they care most about. They withhold information and behave in sometimes appalling ways to protect each other when what they really need to be doing—as they should have learned from the first Armageddon attempt—is working together to protect what they have with each other along with everything else that they love.

Because the reality is that if either one of them sacrificed themself to save the other, that very sacrifice would destroy the other. They are of one heart, and it cannot, WILL NOT live if it is not whole. But neither one fully trusts the other to coordinate a defense because of that same history and past trauma. Aziraphale thinks Crowley won’t listen to him because Angel!Crowley didn’t, and Crowley is still afraid of being kicked if he lets his guard down because he can see how much his beloved is still a victim of the cult programming (and Aziraphale is not above kicking if he feels panicked). Crowley doesn’t think Aziraphale will hurt him on purpose, but rather because Aziraphale doesn’t see all the angles and manipulations and therefore can’t see all of the threats—and in their conversation at the end of S2E6, the angel seemingly proves him right.

I don’t think that Metatron’s intent is to kill Aziraphale. He will almost certainly resort to that if looks like Aziraphale won��t give him what he wants, but right now, he just sees a tool that can help him achieve his goal (provided Crowley is out of the way). Because here’s the thing: the archangels are clueless about some very important things. That has already been established (see: the flashback to Job and conversations about human birth). Metatron is probably a bit less so than most, but there are things the Angels in Charge fundamentally do not understand, and they don’t know it yet, but Aziraphale is one of those things.

Metatron sees an angel who has not only lived on Earth long enough to truly understand humans, but also (and this is key) has collaborated with a demon—a tempter—and then effectively lived in the company of that tempter for the past four years. Metatron sees Aziraphale as someone who can be tempted and manipulated. That’s why he brings him coffee. He’s trying to use that. He wants a tool he can control. But he, like all of the highest of the Host, is guilty of neglect. He has never paid close enough attention to Aziraphale to see the Bastard Angel: the one who pushes back against Crowley, and even against God, who offers his own temptations, who is stubborn and implacable (much to Crowley’s frequent annoyance even while he loves it), and who isn’t afraid to stand firm in the face of Heaven, Hell, and Armageddon to protect the world and the keeper of his heart. Metatron thinks Aziraphale's resistance to Armageddon was the result of Crowley's manipulation, so he figures he'll just get Crowley out of the way or keep him too busy to interfere, and use Aziraphale for himself.

As to why Aziraphale hasn’t fallen yet (and isn’t going to fall, even in S3) in spite of all of his misdeeds and mini-rebellions: it all comes down to the fallout. The Rebel Host—including the poor Disaster Puppy angel running around with them—started a war. In Heaven. They didn’t just individually act up on occasion in ways that could be ignored. They engaged in a violent and bloody act of rebellion. The Fall wasn’t about the small sins; it was about the big one. They messed up the furniture. They had to go. Aziraphale’s not messing up the furniture—yet. By the time he does, it will be far too late for Heaven to do anything to stop him.

See, that smile at the end of S2E6? It’s not pleasure at taking charge, and it’s not determination to fix Heaven. It’s a mask. Aziraphale just spent that elevator ride bottling up his pain and hiding it down deep. I would bet my immortal soul that he put on that smile right when the elevator stopped, before the doors started to open. Heaven is about to learn the hard way why choosing Aziraphale was their fatal mistake. Because the Bastard Angel is broken and angry, and he’s done with their bullshit rules and their plastic-covered furniture. Maybe he pushed Crowley away to protect him. Maybe he really wanted Crowley to come with him to try to change things from the inside. None of that matters. All of the maybes that happened before Metatron came back to collect Aziraphale are irrelevant. Because Metatron doesn’t understand Aziraphale, and he just tipped his hand when he spoke the words “Second Coming.” Aziraphale has long since realized that Heaven is toxic—that’s what he wants to fix—but until that moment he didn’t have the context Crowley had to know why Gabriel left. But he has just learned that his love, his heart, and his world are in mortal danger, and he will stop at nothing to save them. Heaven hath no fury like an angel with a broken heart.

Aziraphale has never worried that Crowley was ever made to forget him. He’s intelligent and observant. He noted that initial un-introduction (and was even a bit disappointed by it), so he knows why Crowley doesn’t remember his name when they meet on the wall of Eden. Their coded-language dance around the depth of their association has never been about fear of rejection over imagined faults but rather the very real threats from their respective Home Offices, which they are too wary to immediately forget even after thwarting Armageddon and their own executions. (They are right not to trust that sense of peace! It has taken them four years to let down their guards even the tiniest bit, and they are still speaking in code—hence the ball: It's Aziraphale's confession of love without saying the words out loud, because it still doesn't feel entirely safe.) And he’s not going to Heaven to throw himself on some sacrificial alter to fix a mistake he thinks he made 6000 years ago by failing to keep an angel who barely acknowledged him from falling in with the rest of the Rebel Host. He’s just doing what he’s always done: trying his best to protect the innocent from Heaven’s caprice.

Only this time, he knows his own heart is innocent too.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #the metatron #good omens theory #good omens season 2 #good omens spoilers #angry angel #rebuttal #disaster puppy #anxious angel #no nightingales

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