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#and while i don't think like... the party would be outright mean about it... but mike is a fucking asshole in my eye
i-miss-lotor · 9 months
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My third eye suddenly opened and now I'm stuck thinking about a crossover between Stranger Things and Voltron, specifically the parallels between Billy, Max and Lotor
I mean. Just think about it. They had Neil and Zarkon as abusive fathers. Lotor had to kill his own dad, since Zarkon did try to enslave or kill everyone who didn't agree with his species, and all he got that it was for the greater good. No one said anything, not a 'sorry you had to go through that', not a question about his feelings on the matter. Just a 'good job, moving on'.
And Lotor spent so much time trying to be good. Trying to connect with others, trying to be better than his dad. He thought he finally had a place in the world, had people who understood and loved him. Only to get betrayed again and again and no one was even willing to hear him out. Between the pressure and the quintessence, of course he snapped. And they didn't try to save him.
Billy, on the other hand, didn’t try to be good, because he knew there was no point. He knew he was never going to be good enough even though part of him wanted to. He couldn’t keep inside all that hurt and he tried to be more like his dad, he wanted to feel like he has power and not just some weakling, so he took his anger out on others all the time. Of course people didn't like him. Of course they hated him. He was a mean asshole.
So when he died, I wonder what the others told Max. I wonder if Max got the same treatment Lotor did about Zarkon's death, because Billy was mean and killed people (possessed or not) even if he did die a heroic death, I wonder if she had to hear things like 'it's for the better', 'he deserved it'.
And it hurts to think about that Max saw Billy as he was, late or not, that Max was willing to be there for him, while Lotor didn't have a Max. He should have had people to care for him and hear him out, he thought he did, but well. There are no happy endings for them.
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noistanaccount · 19 days
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Ryoko Kui Does Not Believe in Epiphanies (or: why Marcille and Mithrun's endings are great actually)
I have seen a couple of people who are upset about the way that Mithrun and Marcille's stories were resolved so I'm writing this to clear some things up. Ryoko Kui does not believe in epiphanies. An epiphany is a sudden and usually brief realization, an "aha" moment. Epiphanies are emotionally powerful moments. Both Marcille and Mithrun have powerful moments of realization, epiphanies.
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Whether or not you like these resolutions, there's something you need to understand, Ryoko Kui does not put that much stock into these moments. Immediately after Marcille has her realization, Tansu responds like this:
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While this is mostly his own opinion, what he is pointing out is that epiphanies are brief, they are singular moments that do not define a life. Life is long, and epiphanies do not sustain you. Marcille might feel like this now, but what about tomorrow? what about nex year? ten years, a hundred years, five hundred years from now? How often have you felt a sudden understanding? a burst of inspiration, or perhaps a realization that everything is pointless? It generally passes quickly, and you make dinner, and go to bed.
Think about the best meal you have ever had, it was probably a special occasion, maybe it felt like something magical, in the moment you might have felt like your life was changed. Then, in the morning you were hungry, so you ate breakfast. You cooked, you did the dishes, you went on with your life. What "meaning" did that meal have if you were hungry again the next day? Mithrun has to rebuild everything, every day he has to come up with new desires to do the very basics. None of it comes naturally, he has to find a reason to eat beyond being hungry, a reason to want to do anything when he doesn't want anything. Ryoko Kui tells us outright, that there is no magical solution:
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The same thing applies to Ryoko Kui's representation of racism in dungeon meshi. Around when the orcs appeared in the anime I saw people gripeing about the way racism is treated. They seemed to think that Laios's party having dinner with the orcs was presented as them "solving" racism. Once again people misunderstand, they did not solve racism in a single moment. A few people, understood each other a little better, came to an arrangement and then parted. This was merely a moment in their lives. The characters continue to do micro-agressions, hold stereotypes, and have implicit biases. In dungeon meshi, characters don't suddenly stop being racist in the course of an evening. Life is a process, learning about others is a process, it's about the accumulation of experiences through the meat and potatoes of life, the daily activities that we actually fill our lives with, not the sudden realizations. Once you make learning about and living with other people into part of your routine, once it is embodied, then it is part of your life.
This is the real conclusion: life is not lived in a state of epiphany. Life is about chores, cooking, eating, shitting, working, and sleeping, it's everyday. Life is about doing simple things and doing them well. An epiphany is a useful tool for telling the reader that everything is going to be alright, we love to read epiphanies and be swept up in them. They can also be a breaking of a pattern, an escape from a spiral.
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This is the other take away, it's about the people you do those things with, the way they rub off on you, the way they help you be human. For Mithrun and Marcille their paths would be impossible without other people pushing them back on the path as they stray. Mithrun literally would starve to death except for the thought that kabru and others don't want him to. Eating is a communal activity, so is living, you can have an epiphany on your own; you can't live on your own.
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animentality · 11 months
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Dude I'm so confused
Why are the redditors refugees here-
Whats up with the tag 196
AND WHY IS EVERYONE BEING SO NICE WITH THE TWITTER REFUGEES CAME WE GAVE THEM HELL (almost)
The Reddit refugees are here because several subreddits have gone private in protest of reddit's new policy of charging third party developers for access to its API.
Hence the term reddit blackout.
196 specifically was a very queer friendly subreddit that had one rule: that you post before you leave. 196 is trending because those Redditors have come here and they're basically sharing their memery here instead as they protest reddit's greed.
As for why we're welcoming them when Twitter refugees were seen with a little more irritation, well.
Think of the culture similarities.
Tumblr and reddit have far more in common than Tumblr and Twitter.
Twitter is about clout and manipulating algorithms and discourse in 280 characters or less. It's about bad takes that reach the right people and it forces you to see things you don't want to see and it's crawling with the worst people imaginable and you're forced to see them, all the time. They also brought bad tagging and 2016 Tumblr discourse with them, because Twitter culture really involves starting fights for clout and braindead opinions that no one really wants to come back to Tumblr culture.
There was a time when Tumblr did the same thing, but worse, with more words...but nowadays, it's really calmed down.
The worst people...went to Twitter after the porn ban. Ironically, it made the site less toxic and hostile.
But then they came back.
And it was like...hm. no thanks. Stay back where you came from.
But Tumblr and Reddit have much more in common.
Both have a more streamlined way of customizing your online feed. You can choose what subreddits you see on your home screen, just like Tumblr only shows you the content of your followers, on your dashboard, and in chronological order rather than what's trending. You can join a very specific weird niche group of freaks with a shared obsession, and not care about the rest of the site at all. You also don't have a character limit on either site, which lets you ramble more and share weird detailed stories.
Reddit might have karma, but like Tumblr, the majority of people are lurkers and not posters. It also allows you to downvote bad opinions, and moderators who have to adhere to certain guidelines of behavior, which means a lot of banning disruptive people.
Granted, sometimes their mods are power hungry, but. You know.
It does more to control its users than Tumblr do, and that's a good thing in terms of keeping toxicity and illegal shit off its subs.
Reddit also has a way more leftwing attitude than you would think.
It has a reputation for being full of incels but I honestly think that's outdated.
It's cleaned up its act quite a bit since the old days.
I see way more vile shit from Twitter and TikTok. Like seriously.
Twitter is crawling with conservative bots and propaganda machines and just outright inflammatory lies. TikTok literally has the worst comment sections I've ever seen, like edgy teenagers cracking racist and misogynistic humor and acting like it makes them different and special. Its algorithm also spoon feeds you garbage and is designed to be as addicting as possible.
At least reddit's culture, while chauvinistic and regressive in certain subcultures, is mostly on the tech positive, atheist libertarian side.
It can be a little pretentious and caustic about certain subjects, and a little full of itself. Some reddits are also very male leaning and disregard female concerns in favor of moaning about how men have it worse than anyone else on earth.
But for the most part?
...well.
I welcome them here, because if they left reddit in protest, then we always support protests. But 196 specifically is also a queer subreddit, and we support that even more.
Plus they're funny as fuck.
What's not to like, really?
You should welcome them with open arms too.
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amomentsescape · 6 months
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Heyyy darling,IM POLITELY BEGGING,for some stu and billy with feral ,hyper,punk gremlin s/o headcanons. Simply the boys trying to be as casual as possible so they dont get suspected for the previous murders but then they’re running around with their own little bundle of chaos. Im talking like a real troublemaker,just for the fun of it but always just watching all the drama happening,never being involved even though they caused it. For example: •causing misunderstandings in other friendgroups •cutting someone’s car wheels (or similar stuff) after they’ve been rude to someone in their friend group,maybe when gale didnt respect sidney‘s privacy in the first movie •S/O has a collection of anything shiny and glittery things they stole (from spoons to necklaces) just cause they like how it looks and they know it will cause some chaos. •Flirting with randy,tatum and stu to piss the boys off a bit •Oh or maybe billy getting them one of those vertical cloths or swings for their living room,I feel like that would fit cause billy would be a bit tired of his S/O letting their hyperness out on him. •When they come home from killing a bit later sometimes,they just find their s/o sleeping in the most uncomfy position (criss cross apple sauce type of shit) on their swing,drooling a bit,their body twitching every now and then
I dont know if any of this made sense my head is all over the place right now. <3
Billy and Stu (Separate) with Feral Gremlin Reader
Billy Loomis x Reader, Stu Macher x Reader
A/N: This was honestly so fun to write!
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Billy Loomis
Boy, he didn't quite know what he was getting into when he first became interested in you
But he's in it for the long run, so here we go
Making Billy jealous is a common theme with you
Outright flirting, giggling, and dancing around with other people automatically makes Billy see red
But there's something about his possessiveness that you love so much that you keep doing it anyway
It almost always leads to a fight between Billy and the other party
And damn, isn't it fun to watch?
But that's not to say that you don't also feel your fair share of anger as well
Someone pisses you off even slightly? They're gonna regret it the next morning
Keyed cars, egged houses, graffitied threats
There is no limit to your creativity to get back at them
Billy simply huffs and puffs at you, berating you about being too "loud" with your actions
He's trying to keep things down-low by all means
And the last thing he wants is one of your actions getting him caught and put in jail
But there is something kinda attractive with how you stir up drama and give Billy some attitude
He doesn't like easy
He wants a challenge
And boy do you give him one
But on days where he simply cannot have you running amuck, he has you lay down in your own little hammock he bought you
For whatever reason, that always has you relaxed
It's like you become a whole different person with it
And Billy lets out a little "thank you" to the Gods each time he sees you just swinging away
He loves you, but damn, it's hard to keep up with you
Stu Macher
Stu on the other hand, is not phased at all by you
In fact, he matches your energy about 80% of the time
A friend pissed you off? You're both screaming and laughing while talking badly about them
Things are getting a little boring? You and Stu tell different people made up stuff that someone else is "saying" about them
You both love to stir up drama and watch how badly things can unfold
Stu is less concerned about getting caught than Billy anyways
What's even the point in killing if you can't have some fun outside of it?
So having you around is the perfect way for Stu to let out his hyper energy and keep things exciting when he isn't killing teens
But when he is out and about, he's thinking of you
You're probably at home eating all of his snacks in that moment, but he doesn't care
After his victims meet their fates, he is happy to dig around in their pockets and their homes, looking for anything even the slightest bit shiny to bring back to you
Nothing compares to the way your eyes light up at the gifts
Hell, you have a drawer in your room just filled with all things shiny and captivating
But Stu knows he'll have to wait until the morning to give you your gift
Because just about every night he comes home, he finds your head handing off the couch with your legs and arms splayed out, snoozing away
Remnants of chips and chocolate can still be found on your lips and fingertips
Stu secretly has made a photo album in his phone just for all the pictures he takes of you when you're sleeping
It's about time Stu had someone who met his chaotic energy
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Been thinking this a while but
You ever think about why the House and King in SASASAaP is so much worse than it is in ISaT?
Like, at first I put it down to just 'different timelines/different worlds' but the more I think about it, the more I've realized it is very much the same world and King and the difference specifically lies with the two game's respective Siffrins.
Why the House is so different: In Act 5 of ISaT when Sif 2.0 is running around losing his mind, the House very clearly warps around him. At first this seems to be just Sif's perception of events but when the friends come to rescue him, they bring up that the rooms were warped around, which means that Sif's Wish Craft doesn't just warp time but also space. Because ISaT Sif on some level didn't want the loops to end, the House grew longer, pathways stopped making sense, they were lead to every room of the house where they had any kind of precious memory with their family (but notably not the rock trap room) etc...
And clearly the same thing is happening to the House in SASASAaP, the difference is Loop/OG's mindset: They want to get through the house as fast as possible without 'distractions' like the very helpful Hidden Library they don't know exists but at the same time they dread the king (dread their friends dying over and over and over) so the path is short and free of bosses (including those 'Nostalgia' star crest Sadnesses), but full of time consuming and tricky puzzles to delay them -even just a bit longer- from what they see as the inevitable end. ...Also the path no longer requires the Keyknife and OG Sif gets outright angry at the Change Statue when the others pray at it so make of that what you will.
Ok, so the Houses are affected by Sif's mental state, but what about the King? The King is a totally different kettle of fish. He very much is not effected by the respective Sifs' Wish Craft but he can pick up on it. And well, how does he react in ISaT when he realizes Siffrin 2.0 is using Wish Craft?
... *Thinks about a hand, squeezing*
So yeah. My theory for why the King is so much worse, especially in the Perfect Route in Start Again is simple: Loop/OG Sif had been looping so long that their reek of Wish Craft's sweet smell was basically covering the whole party and the King, not knowing who to torture directly, responds by trying to kill them all especially horribly, especially on the 'Perfect' route where Sif likely continues hiding their looper status even as they are dying. ...Trying to mentally break them just as he tries to break Siffrin 2.0 in ISaT.
...Which is also why he doesn't auto kill everyone in the 'True' route - because that's the route Sif gives up pretending they're not a mess, meaning the King can identify that Sif is the Wish Crafter by the party's concern for them and their lack of reaction (much like the King did in ISaT), can see that Siffrin is already breaking, and thus being the 'merciful ruler' he is, decides to toy with them a bit, only going for the killing blow when he gets lower on health and starts getting concerned he might lose (which in turn means most of his attention in the fight was on the clearly not ok Sif, the party likely noticed and that's probably why Isabeau was able to jump in and block the King's fatal attack in time).
So um. YEAH. That's my thoughts on SASASAaP's King; he's the exact same as ISaT's King the only difference is that by the time OG Sif reached him the first time, they'd already looped a horrific amount of times and reeked so strong of Wish Craft that the King never even entertained the 'talk them down' facade and went straight for the kill/'torture them into submission' option every time.
Not sure these details matter too much really but I figure it might be helpful to all the Loop lovers out there making wonderful fanfics to consider (circumstances Odile can theorise about if Loop ever gives her enough hints to try, perhaps?) so... yeah. Hope my thoughts were interesting and would like to hear your thoughts on the stuff I didn't manage to figure out like the skill differences between the two parties, and various people frozen in the House having different pronouns and things (currently going with: Loop/OG Sif is not really listening to anything and is possibly misremembering details they don't care about for the later but the former is very much 'I know this is probably because refined mechanics but what if-?!' area for me and I'd love to see in-setting reasoning for it) <3
Edit: Realized I forgot to mention a thing: A sweet scent is never brought up in SASASAaP probably because that might've been a later addition to the plot but I like to think it's more because everyone in the prologue is just so used to it at this point that the party are putting it down to being part of the 'King altered' House while OG Siffrin is completely numb to it at this point, and the King's not interested in talking so... yeah. No one brings it up. ...Might also explain why Bonnie doesn't offer the Melanga fritters: the sweet scent could potentially alter the taste (and also they're not 100% sure Sif likes them) so instead they offer sweets like the candy and Palmiers that would be less effected, the burnt samosas which are 'already bad' and the fish head which probably tastes so strong that Bonnie's less worried about it's taste being masked. But that's just my spitballing for excuses so hope that's helpful for anyone wanting to use this info? XD
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litnerdwrites · 19 days
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"We don't treat Elain and Nesta the same because Elain Apologised,"
Elain and Nesta aren't the same people. They can't be compared. While I understand that Nesta said some cruel things in that cabin, so did Feyre. While Nesta could've made things a bit easier on all of them, so could Feyre. They both have reasons to apologise to one another, so if you're going to condemn Nesta for not doing so, then Feyre deserves the same treatment.
But if Nesta did want to apologise, what makes you think it would be the second that Feyre got back? And in front of fae, no less. Nesta is complicated character who carries herself with pride and is considered a very private person, and is described as being queen like multiple times. The two have more issues to work through than just a few mean comments, and the moments they have the most sincere heart to hearts, are when they're alone. Without Rhysand peering from behind a door way, listening in and commentating whenever he feels like.
Looking back, in ACOTAR 1, we learn some of the myths humans tell about the Fae including that they can't lie, and they have to and that if you catch one, then it has to tell you what you want to know. Both of those turn out to be false, since fae can lie, and Ianthe caught the Surreal, but we learn in ACOWAR that it wouldn't tell her anything.
We can assume this means that the rules the fae follow in our mythology are the same ones that humans believe about fae in ACOTAR, meaning it's a fair assumption that one of the many stories about fae include never letting yourself be indebted to them. Saying things like 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' comes across like as owing them something, and Nesta is, at this point, under the impression that doing so will cause the fae to hold it over her head and use to demand things of her for as long as she lives, if not ask something straight up impossible to make her more indebted to them.
On top of that, Feyre just asked her for a favour that could get her and Elain killed. The Mortal Queens could've just decided to have Elain and Nesta arrested and executed for collaborating with fae, or have them exiled even. It wasn't a small thing that Feyre asked for, and basically peer pressured her into, with Elain. So it's understandable that pleasantries and apologies are the last things on her mind, when her and Elain's life could be forfeit at any moment.
Even if Rhysand offers to protect them, what could he do? Nesta's under the impression that the Fae hate humans, look down on them and would treat them horribly if she crossed into their lands. Moreover, she has a whole life there, that they're suggesting she could drop to move to the other end of the country without so much as a message to their father? Or an idea of what's waiting for them? To abandon their home, friends, family and peoeple?
For what? Potential servitude? Amongst creatures she were taught were slave driving monsters? To live under her little sister's rule (cause even if she wasn't HL at this point, as fae, she has significant power over Nesta. Plus the ruler of said land they're offering to take her too openly favours Feyre, and kind of Elain but hates her, so she'd basically still be living by Feyre's whims) for the rest of her short life? Literally what part of that is appealing?
So Nesta not apologising to Feyre at that dinner, makes sense. Our girl had bigger things to worry about. She probably would have if she Feyre didn't outright abandon her to deal with her trauma alone, only showing up when she wanted to parade Nesta around at parties for her own joy, without considering how it feels to her. Or when her court, who don't like her and whom she doesn't like either, show up to insult her, and blame her for having trauma.
If Feyre and Nesta had more moments like the one in the library, or the one all three had after Az and Feyre rescued Elain, Nesta would've likely healed and apologised on her own. If the IC had just stayed out of it, then all three sisters would've figured things out, on their own. The IC just want something to complain about, so like the CON and the HC, they make a problem, and they complain that it exists.
Also, if I remember right, Feyre herself said she wanted to start over at that dinner. So unless Feyre or Nesta want to bring it up or talk about it, why does any of her family get to hold it over her head for the rest of immortality? Feyre literally just called it water under the bridge and all three of them were going through their own shit at the time, so let them actually work through their own issues privately, and I'll bet that they'll solve it on their own within a year.
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magewritesstories · 1 year
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I’m not sure if you write for this version of this character in particular but I saw you did an incorrect quote for Harry Osborn, and I was wondering if you could do tasm 2 version Harry Osborn headcanons like a dating him includes?
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Harry Osborn // Dating Headcanons
Note: ofc, ofc I would love to share some hc's (btw AU where he doesn't have the Goblin Disease) TW: mentions of fighting, possessiveness (but not in the Wattpad mafia way y'know)
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okay so for starters, buckle up for enemies to lovers office romance
but it's one-sided; you dislike him, 'cause y'know he's kinda an asshole, but he just likes teasing you and doesn't actually mean anything he says
after a very drunk confrontation at an office party, you tell him you think he's an absolute asshole, and how much you hate working for him
after a while it just devolves to stupid things you dislike, like the way you hate that he drinks black coffee or that he has to have take-out all the time, or that he just randomly cancels meetings for no apparent reasons
the next day, you just find a box of chocolates on your desk
after that it's a little more smooth sailing
after a few months— which is enough time for harry to fully mourn the death of his dad— things start getting better
he's fully taken over as CEO of oscorp and proven to everybody, that despite the fact that he's young, he's still a good businessman
i imagine it's been a year, and now that you're both fully adjusted to the job, things start getting a little more spicy
at first you don't even notice the change; he puts down a cup of coffee— you're favourite order— on your desk when he arrives at the office, or he asks you to join him in eating take-out when you two are the only ones left in the office after a long day
then it escalates, you complain about the old coffee machines, and he has them replaced, or you offhandedly mention the fact that one of the lifts is always out of order, and the next day you see some poor mechanics who've been working at it all night walk past you, complaining about how much of hardass the "baby osborn" is
your friend is the one that mentions it first; "hey, weren't you complaining about those yesterday?"
at first you just shrug it off, he was being a good boss, so what?
but after a while, it gets into your head anyway
i mean, there are only so many sentences with a flirty undertone a girl can take
so, being you, you decide to outright ask him
"are you flirting with me?"
"i have been for the past three months, but thanks for noticing."
after that he just gives you one of those typical harry osborn smirks and walks off, hands in his pockets 'n everything
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Once you guys actually start dating though, he's a total sweetheart
His love languages are most definitely gift giving (giving) and physical touch (receiving)
Speaking of, you bet you're closet goes from being worth 200$ to being worth 8000$ within weeks
It starts off as small things, a cup of coffee on him, or some dinner in the office, just the two of you
But it escalates quickly
By the time you're three month anniversary rolls around, he's bought you just about the entire Jimmy Choo collection, and your amazon wishlist
He remembers everything you tell him, from the fact that you love a certain colour or dislike a certain food, he'll definitely remember
When you tell him you feel bad about the amount of money he spends on you, he just shrugs it off
besides you can pay him back by wearing that Victoria's Secret gift he got you a few weeks ago
Princess treatment all the way
The entire thing, holds your bags, opens the door, has his card out and has paid before you even reach for your wallet
Just loves spoiling you
Dates are usually one of two things:
One: Super extravagant, oh there's this cool restaurant in LA you want to check out when you go there? He has two tickets booked, and he's written it in his agenda for next saturday
Two: Super chill weekend in. The two of you just relax, watch some movies, have breakfast in bed, maybe even some pillow forts if he's feeling fancy, and of course, pillow fights that somehow always end up in make-out sessions
Extremely touch-starved, so will have his hands on you all the time
And he isn't even ashamed about it
Like, y'all will be at dinner, and he'll casually put an arm around your shoulder and pull you closer to him, to the point that you're almost in his lap
"Harry, we're in public!"
"So?"
"People are staring!"
"I reiterate: So?"
Just a sweetheart in general, he loves you and he isn't ashamed of it at all
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But of course, there are some downsides too
For starters, he's very unaware of just how privileged he is
He doesn't do it on purpose though, he really doesn't mean to seem like an arrogant jerk. But it just shows
For example, this one time, there was a super sale at Costco, and you were super excited to tell him, and he just stared at you like, "What's the big deal??"
You'd think hanging out with Peter would make him realize that not everyone has the same chances and problems growing up
It gets annoying sometimes, like how he just shrugs off employees overworking themselves with a "So, if they're so stressed, just take a day off."
He's trying though
Secondly, he's extremely possessive, so he gets jealous super easily
For example, the two of you will be at one of his rich people gala's—as you very fondly call them— and this random guy will have a chat with you, normal conversation, but with an obvious flirty undertone
And he'll get very annoyed
"Why didn't you tell him you had a boyfriend?" *insert pout*
"Harry, we were talking about the stock market, where would I just casually add that piece of information?"
He's annoyed for the rest of the night, as well as the car ride home— in which you tell him he's being childish— but the moment you get home he just sighs and tells you he's sorry for overreacting
Those fights usually turn into long night conversations, with tea and blankets
He also has the habit of forgetting dates
This is usually when there's a big project presentation coming up and he's nervous
Usually you don't mind, after all, you've seen first hand how brutal the board can be
But sometimes it's just a little too much, and all the other little things that have been bothering the two of you blow up into one big fight
You're both very stubborn so it just turns into a waiting game of who'll give in first
If he's the one who gives in, he usually turns up at your door with a huge bouquet of your favourite flowers and your favourite chocolates
Definitely the type to drive across the city to get you that one sweet, from that one shop you really like
If you're the one to give in, he'll just pout, and tell you he's still mad
He already gave in the moment you walked in though
He just likes to tease you, but after the third sorry he feels bad and tells you he's sorry for neglecting you too
He likes the idea of communication, and he's trying to get better at it
But when he can't find the words, he just defaults back to buying you stuff
That's how his dad always fixed stuff, so it's the only way he knows
But he tries, because it's you and you deserve nothing less than the best
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I'm probably going to do a terrible job of articulating myself here but every time I think about the worldbuilding in Hatoful Boyfriend, I think about the implications of having the birds simply have adopted the structure and policies of human society and go insane.
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It's clearly originally just for the ridiculousness of it all for the players, but AGH it explains so much regarding the extremely rampant classism/racism/speciesism and how apparently normalized it is. It also, to me, adds a bit of moral nuance to the Dove - Hawk Party conflict.
(Long post under the cut. I'm so sorry I just kept going.)
First off, I'm obsessed with the concept of the birds becoming sapient and simply... taking over a society that was not structured for them. It leads to difficulties in universe! Bird wings are not made for doing tasks that human hands can do naturally - there's a couple instances where the characters ask for Hiyoko's assistance or express envy since she can just do the task more easily than they can. The birds are outright disadvantaged in certain areas of life, and yet, the society is in such turmoil due to the newness of it all that there still aren't really any workarounds for stuff like this.
Not that there haven't been any suggested solutions, such as the Labor 9 series, put forward initially by the Dove Party. Yeah, you know, that one throwaway line about how the party that up until this point have been the "good guys" wanted to take still semi-conscious human brains and make robotic slaves out of them Cyberman-style? What the hell. And what gets me is that Shuu was able to find the initial proposal, which he really only made tweaks to, which means that the project was at least close to being finished on the conceptual/planning/design phase before somebody went "hey this is a little fucked up actually".
The Dove Party wants peaceful coexistence with the humans, while the Hawk Party wants to eliminate humanity entirely. But we don't really go into how these two lines of thought evolved. I believe I have a suggestion for at least one part of the puzzle though.
Of all the birds in Hatoful, who enjoys the most privileges and the highest status? Fantails, it would seem. A breed of pigeon that is popular as a pet, considered beautiful and sought after, and achieve high accolades in shows and competitions - for clarity's sake, fantails were valuable in human society, and this status appears to have transferred when birds became sapient and took over. Conversely, which birds are ranked lower and often blocked from entering certain higher class places? Rock doves, who, in human society, are given an unfairly bad reputation, and considered anything from unclean and dirty, to nuisances, to pests. Again, this status transferred over when the birds took over.
So, while we don't know too many of the birds who make up the agents of the Dove and Hawk Party, let's take a look at who we do know of.
Fantails (Yuuya, Dove Party) are considered valuable over other doves and pigeons for being specially bred for their striking tail feathers
Cockatiels (Leone, Dove Party) are some of the most popular and beloved companion birds, kept as pets and considered very friendly
Rock doves (Ryuuji, Hawk Party) are considered unclean pests who receive a bad reputation, and are generally not treated with respect or appreciation &lt;;- notable thing to mention here is that Ryuuji actually does like humans - I think he was only Hawk affiliated for the grant money and research facilities, which... fair enough man.
Chukar partridges (Shuu/Isa, Hawk Party) are game birds, specifically bred and released to be killed and eaten, and considered a delicacy
...do you... see what's going on here?
(I haven't mentioned Tohri as he's a special case. Give me a minute and I'll get to him!)
The birds we see in the Dove Party are those birds that were already viewed in a more favourable light by humans, a favourability that transferred over to their new society. Of course they are more likely to advocate for coexistence! They have less to lose, overall. And the Labor 9 series, and how that could've ever been suggested in the first place, suddenly makes a lot of sense. For many of these birds, society the way it exists now benefits them. Some of these high ranking Dove Party folks may be less about actual peace and justice (like Yuuya or Leone) and more about maintaining the current order of things - humans coexisting under their control, while they get to maintain their status... which is itself a product of human invention.
The birds we see in the Hawk Party, by contrast, are looked down on or hunted. Historically, even before bird sapience, they did not have a harmonious relation with humans - and it's likely this status carried over to their new society also, with many of these birds being more likely to have been disenfranchised. Their goal of elimination is therefore reactionary towards perceived threat. After all, the people who suffer when things go wrong aren't the ones at the top - it's all the people who sit at the bottom of the social rung; the vulnerable members of society who do not enjoy the same advantages as others.
Of course, the Hawk Party has built itself up into such a powerful group that they may have lost touch with this starting foundation - the only thing that remains is likely that reactionary fear. After all, people caught up in the actual conflict - Nageki, Hitori, Ryouta, and Hiyoko - see this kind of horrible bloodshed firsthand (firstwing?) and just want it to stop.
Again, it's not usually the people in these political factions who are the ones caught up in their conflict. It's the individuals who lack power or influence.
But that's just the political groups themselves. On an individual level, it's kind of interesting to look at and theorize where along the spectrum our core cast falls based on their species/breed.
Ryouta (rock dove) is actually rather indifferent towards humanity as a whole - he just likes Hiyoko. However, his witnessing of the Heartful House tragedy led him to abhor violence and unnecessary loss of life, and I'd imagine his mother's later illness solidified this. Ryouta doesn't seem overly interested in political struggles or the broader implications of a lot of things - he's actually a rather self-oriented character when it comes down to it (this is not a judgment, nor a bad thing! I love my boy!). Ryouta just doesn't want to lose people, really. A conflict would mean more loss, and rock doves seem to have to struggle enough as is.
Hiyoko (human) is the daughter of two diplomats, but interestingly, we don't get to see much of her political views on things - perhaps because even if she expressed them, it wouldn't really matter - she's not herself a diplomat, and humans are the lowest of the low - her going to a fancy school doesn't really change that. Social-wise, except with her friends, she is tolerated, not accepted. Yet, it's safe to say that Hiyoko strongly disapproves of people who flaunt their status - she's quick to not take crap from Sakuya, to get angry on behalf of Ryouta and herself over the gull clerk's assholery, and also to defend Miru and Kaku as living beings worthy of respect. Interestingly though, she also uses Okosan's status as a fantail to get Ryouta to let go of him and let him do whatever he wants so... it's kind of unclear what her firm beliefs are. Perhaps, as a human, she still values fantails more highly. I don't know honestly. Implicit bias?
Sakuya, Yuuya and Okosan (fantail pigeons) may share the same breed, but their experiences are highly different. Sakuya is largely separate from the human-bird conflict, as he is unlikely to be directly affected by it. As such, a lot of his story and development has to do with actually learning and un-learning about the world outside of the limitations of his "father's" classist views, which he simply mimics without understanding the larger implications. Yuuya and Okosan, on the other hand, may be fantails, but are also looked down on and often treated as inferior - Yuuya for being a "half-breed" and for his reputation, and Okosan for being closer to feral than a lot of other doves. Interestingly, these two show more interest and respect for the individual than Sakuya does, who often makes sweeping generalizations based on status - which makes sense to a degree, as they've been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, whereas Sakuya hasn't. Okosan believes that each person has their own "wonderful names" (read: identity outside of breed or status), while Yuuya is a genuine fighter for justice who is able to get to the heart of people, especially in Holiday Star. However, even though they have experienced classism, they still have certain privileges with regards to species/race - take Okosan's shock when Hiyoko and Ryouta are barred entry from his favourite store. None of them are quite as out of place in everyday society as some of the other birds here, and it's notable that "diverse" St. Pigeonations still apparently has a significant fantail student population.
Shuu (chukar partridge) is really interesting, as he doesn't particularly care for the politics of the Hawk Party, and yet his role as a killer/hunter of both his fellow birds and humans is an interesting reversal of the chukar being a game bird. Shuu also has a disability (his semi-paralyzed right side) which hinders him in bird society even more than most. His extreme, yet coldly logical solution to kill all humans to stop the fighting between them, could be as much his rationality, as his joy in the sadistic, as a reactionary survivalism (remember he was caught up in a human terrorist attack as a child - while overall he considered this beneficial to him, he also did lose much of his colour vision and the use of his right side, so it did leave him weakened). Shuu attains control by "flipping the script" as it were.
Tohri (golden pheasant) starts out in the Hawk Party, but much like his colleagues, doesn't seem to care much for their politics. Golden pheasants are game birds whose eggs can be eaten, but are more often bred and kept for their plumage - they're not prey, but they're not exactly pets either. All this puts Tohri in this interesting position of being somewhat in the middle of this conflict, and indeed he goes on to be a part of (found?) the Crow Party - an opportunistic group that seeks to benefit from the overall conflict. Golden pheasants are birds intended to be admired for their beauty and intelligence more than anything else, benefitting in some ways from humans without a strong connection or a reliance, and Tohri's opportunism fits nicely with that. (As an aside, our sole crow character, Albert, is also something of an opportunist, being an assassin on the fringes of society.)
Hitori and Kazuaki (button quails) are somewhat interesting. It would be both expected and understandable if Hitori held hatred for humanity after the Heartful House incident, or even before then, considering they were all war orphans. Instead, he doesn't seem to harbour any particular ill-will - he seems totally fine around Hiyoko, and her being a human has nothing to do with his reticence with letting Nageki hang out with her in the shrine universe. Kazuaki, too, doesn't seem to mind Hiyoko being human and isn't afraid of her any more than he is anyone else. While quails are game birds, with both meat and eggs being eaten, button quails are too tiny for that and are mostly kept as pets - they are considered cute, silly, and entertaining, though a bit too jumpy to be outright companion birds. The quails don't seem to experience too much in the way of speciesism (except arguably with the whole mistaken identity of Kazuaki's corpse... there may be a bit of an "all quails look the same" thing going on perhaps). At the very least, they are able to occupy teaching positions at a renowned school as respected intellectuals, and did go to university. Still, it's kind of a known thing that you don't put button quails with bigger, more dominant birds, since larger birds will often pick on them or even outright try to kill them simply because they're small and shy - this may, in hindsight, explain some of Kazuaki's demeanour.
Nageki (mourning dove) and Anghel (luzon bleeding heart dove) are the two who are uncommon bird species in Japan. Nageki is another war orphan, who would be forgiven for harbouring resentment for humanity, but instead is appalled at the violence and made a huge sacrifice to get it to stop. It's kind of unclear how Nageki fits into this society, as mourning doves are not prey or pets - they're wild birds. They live on the outside of the human world, and while Nageki exists within current bird society, he likely doesn't have a designated status within it. Nageki is unfortunately also alienated from much of the action due to his illness and later his untimely death - this is why a lot of Nageki's thoughts are somewhat from an observer's perspective, with his most emotional moments being derived from his rare direct experiences - specifically the Heartful House tragedy and the human killings he was forced into, which solidified a really firm stance of not wanting anyone to suffer like that. Anghel is another outsider, this time genuinely a foreigner, as opposed to Nageki. Again, Luzons are wild birds, not prey or pets, and so it's a bit unclear what his status is. This might explain why Hiyoko repeats Sakuya's remarks towards him without apparently realizing they're actually insults - Anghel is removed enough from the conflict she is familiar with that it seems she doesn't quite... get it. Again, Anghel's role is as this strange kind of omniscient observer, whose perspective is closer to the player's than to the rest of the cast. He definitely frowns on the Hawk Party's overall goal - the Demon Spores are evil to him, and his main objective is to stop them from spreading, as they would cause damage to both birds and humans. I attribute his morals to his mother having raised him right lol. The lack of a clear status for both of them may be why they appear to take the stance of judgment based on individual actions, but are not heavily involved in the conflict itself - while humans tend to like mourning doves and luzons, there isn't much interaction that goes on between them. Nageki and Anghel are simply less embroiled in bird society's human-derived status conflict, which makes them both outsiders and observers.
As a bonus note, Azami, Rabu and Kenzaburou are all species of birds that can be kept as pets (java sparrow, budgie, parakeet), which may account for some of their friendliness towards Hiyoko, and Kenzaburou's willingness to hire her. Kenzaburou is even a bit old-fashioned it seems - he sleeps in a cage, which implies his ancestors were probably pet birds themselves. It's likely he, in particular, has more positive views on humans.
...Please tell me I'm not the only one who spent ages thinking about the implications and workings of a fictional post-apocalyptic bird society. Also I hope this made sense I kind of went off the rails here.
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cosmicanamnesis · 8 months
Text
little self-indulgent fic that I'm posting without proofreading, enjoy
steddie, modern AU, idiots to lovers | read on ao3
"It's not a big deal!"
Eddie's crush on Steve was a secret both short-lived and ill-kept. His first mistake was telling the band. Well, no, his first mistake was forgetting that Gareth and Will were dating and that Gareth had the physical inability to keep his fucking mouth shut. But Eddie telling his closest, most trusted friends about the guy he liked was definitely Up There on the list of mistakes.
Which was how Eddie found himself mildly hungover drinking black coffee in his living room while Dustin paced up and down the length of the trailer, berating him for not confessing his doomed love to his alleged "favorite child" sooner.
"HOW is it not a big deal, Eddie?" Dustin said, just a few notches too loud for Eddie's looming headache.
"Because it's not! He doesn't like me! He's never gonna like me! I'm an adult, dude, I have critical thinking skills. I know how to pick my battles."
"It's not- Eddie," Dustin suddenly went stone faced. "It's not about your chances with him. You're moving in with him. He deserves to know."
Oh yeah. There was that. Robin was starting college and there was no way she wasn't taking her Emotional Support Pretty Boy with her. The only place they could find was a 2-bed just slightly out of their budget, and had asked Eddie if he wanted to join them, finally striking out on their own in the city. The agreement was that Steve and Robin would share the bigger bedroom, and Eddie would get the smaller room to himself. Their move-in date was less than a week out when Eddie made his inebriated love confession at his quote-unquote Going-Away-Party.
"It's not about what he deserves, man!" Eddie said, sinking back into the couch. He rubbed his eyes hard to try and relieve some of the pressure building in his head and sighed. "If I don't say anything to him, nothing changes. If I tell him, everything changes!"
"Oh, please. Steve's an adult too, dude, if we tell him you like him but you're well aware that he doesn't like you, he won't make it weird!"
"Wait wait wait, hold up. Rewind. We? Who is we?"
"You and me!" The boys stared at each other in bewilderment for a moment. "Oh come on, Eddie, we both know that if I don't sit here and watch you do it, you're just gonna lie and say you told him when you actually just hid under a blanket listening to Metallica and wishing you had the balls to-"
"OKAY!" Eddie yelled, loud enough for the very shock of his volume to trigger his headache in full force. "Jesus H., kid, you don't need to call me out like that. Fuck. Fine. I'll do it right now, how about that?"
Eddie pulled his phone out and Dustin dropped down hard on the couch next to him, arms already crossed, smug satisfaction already settled on his face.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Dustin scoffed. "Here's what you should say-"
Eddie held up a hand to cut him off. "I'm not listening to you anymore. You had one long distance girlfriend ONCE, you're not some kind of Cassanova here… oh, son of a bitch."
"Son of a bitch what?" Dustin asked, scooting closer to read over Eddie's shoulder.
"I can't do this right now… The last thing I sent him was asking his opinion on the D&D movie and he hasn't responded yet."
"What the absolute fuck does that have to do with any of this?"
"Well I can't be like hey what's your opinion on this movie you know I love because I'm the one who told you to watch it, also I'm in love with you but it's no big deal. Like, what the fuck is that?"
"Oh… Yeah, you have a point." Dustin shifted back away from Eddie, covering his mouth with one hand in concentration.
"I mean… It can wait-"
"It can, but it shouldn't, dude! Shit… I mean, I could tell him, if you want."
Dustin had expected an outright "no" and was shocked when Eddie paused, apparently seriously considering the option.
"Actually… Yeah, could you?"
"Sure, but I'm not letting you see what I say until after I send it."
"You drive a hard bargain…" Eddie said, drumming his fingers on his knee. "Fine. Go for it."
Eddie stood and grabbed his coffee off the table, wandering slowly towards the kitchen, both to find some ibuprofen and to quell his temptation to watch Dustin quickly type a message to Steve.
"Okay. Sent. Now you can look," Dustin announced, beckoning Eddie back over as he downed the medicine. Eddie felt like he'd never moved so fast in his life. The message read,
Eddie wants you to know, before you move in together, he has a crush on you. he won't make it weird if you dont
As Eddie read, the three dots that meant Steve was typing popped up. Suddenly Eddie regretted ever agreeing to this, and pushed Dustin's hand and phone away so he wouldn't have to see Steve's rejection first-hand.
"He responded… Do you wanna know what he said?" Dustin said. Eddie was leaning hard against the armrest of the couch, staring into nothing, imagination running wild.
"Yeah, hit me," he said.
"Oh, alright. Thank you for telling me," Dustin read. "I don't feel the same way about him. I assume you talked to him about telling me."
"So he gets back to you right away but he won't tell me- oh. Never mind. He just responded to my text." Eddie was doing his best to not feel completely devastated by Steve's frankly predictable response to Dustin's text.
"So… What did he think of the movie?"
"Uh… Rob?"
"Yeah?"
"Um… Come here and… Just read this."
Steve and Robin were taking a break from packing up Steve's childhood bedroom in preparation for the move when Dustin's text came through. She quickly chugged the last of her soda and came around to Steve's side to see what he was seeing.
"Oh," she said, not bothering to conceal her surprise. "I mean… We knew this was a possibility."
"Yeah, I guess, but… What do I say? I don't like him like that."
"Then say you don't like him like that, dingus. He's probably breathing down Dustin's neck right now waiting to see what you say."
"Yeah, you're probably right…" Steve said. He typed and backspaced and typed something else until Robin got sick of watching and grabbed the phone out of his hand to answer Dustin's text for him.
"Just trust me!" Robin said, actively walking away from Steve as he sputtered indignances, chasing after her halfheartedly. As soon as she sent the text, she turned and shoved the phone roughly back to Steve's chest.
"Oh… Yeah, okay, that makes more sense than anything I was trying to say…" Steve conceded, reading the text Robin sent on his behalf.
Steve, Robin, and Eddie saw each other next when they were loading up the U-Haul. No one said anything, and Steve tried as hard as he could to act like nothing was different. It put Eddie's mind at ease while simultaneously driving Robin nuts.
Since Dustin sent the secondhand confession, the only thing Steve had on his mind was Eddie, and how he definitely didn't reciprocate Eddie's feelings, how he was definitely bisexual but Eddie… Eddie wasn't his type. He was pretty, sure, but he was so… Himself. He was loud and unapologetic and into things Steve had never even heard of. They had nothing in common besides their love for the kids.
But Robin saw it coming a mile away.
"It" finally came to fruition a month after they had all moved in together.
It turned out, Steve and Eddie were practically the same person. Same sense of humor, same taste in TV, they even took their coffee the same way. They really only differed in their music tastes, fashion, and theater snack preferences. 
Robin got the text in the middle of her French class.
shmuck: i think i have a crush on eddie
bobbin: FINALLY. please just kiss him and put me out of my misery
Steve came out of the kitchen, bag of chips in hand, to see Eddie just as he'd left him: cross-legged on the couch, demolishing a bag of Sour Patch Kids to the tune of the Criminal Minds theme music. He tucked his phone into his back pocket and rejoined his maybe-crush to watch trash TV until Robin came home.
He didn't know why he was so nervous. He knew Eddie liked him. There wasn't a chase here, he didn't have to flirt or try to win Eddie over… He just had to say yes and Eddie was his. It was different from any other relationship he'd ever been in. Maybe that was why it was so scary. Because it was new.
They watched the episode and bantered back and forth about it, same as always. But before the next episode could start, Steve hit pause.
"Bathroom break?" Eddie asked, hugging a throw pillow to his chest.
"No, uh…" Steve started, unable to even look Eddie in the face. "No… Can I… Can I kiss you?"
Eddie didn't answer right away, which finally inspired Steve to really look at him. His expression was completely unreadable.
"Uh… Yeah, I mean. Yes, absolutely. Um. But what happened to you don't like me like that?" It was such an Eddie response, Steve could almost laugh.
"I, um… I guess I spoke too soon," Steve laughed, trying to be cool and suave and everything else people thought he was in high school. Eddie brought the pillow up to hide his expression.
"Really?" he asked, muffled behind the pillow so that Steve almost couldn't hear him.
"Yeah, really. Just… Since you told me-"
"Dustin told you," Eddie corrected.
"Whatever… I dunno, I guess it put the idea in my head and now… I haven't been able to stop thinking about it… About you- what?"
Eddie was giggling quietly behind the throw pillow, gently rocking himself back and forth as Steve talked. 
"Nothing," Eddie mumbled into the pillow. "Go on."
"You're such a pain in the ass, y'know that?" Steve laughed again. "Can I kiss you or not?"
Eddie slowly moved the pillow away from his face to set it aside, revealing himself to be smiling like an idiot as he turned slightly to face Steve better.
"You understand I've been uselessly pining after you for like, two months now, right? Please kiss me, oh my god."
Dustin's phone lit up with a Snapchat notification; a message from Eddie to the D&D group chat. He expected a meme, or for Eddie to ask Jeff for a ride somewhere because his van broke down again.
Instead, it was a picture of Eddie looking smug, leaning against Steve's chest. Steve, apparently unaware he was having his picture taken, had his fingers tangled up in Eddie's curls. The text overlay simply read "hey guys guess what."
The first reply came from Gareth, a picture of him leaning against Will in the exact same position as Eddie was with Steve. "Gross," it said.
Dustin rolled his eyes. Eddie was about to get so much more insufferable.
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sholangagaga · 10 months
Note
What do you think happened to Glamrock Bonnie, using all of your info that you gathered through the game? your analysis on Bonnie's disappearance was really indepth
I was putting off this ask for a while because I wanted to properly gather my thoughts (and I wanted to replay Ruin like another 2 or 3 times just to make sure I got all the lore I could) but I think I have a grasp on what I want to say
BTW, Spoilers under the cut per usual, also, this theory is going by the premise of Ruin's ending. I'll reference my previous theory as well. This is also a carry over of this post.
Now, I had said in that previous post that the three Dufflebag notes told a patchy and incomplete story. Because to me, they do. But in order to decipher the story they tell, you need to think about what was happening in the Pizzaplex during that timeframe. (there's also a couple more Dufflebag notes that help the story as well, I totally forgot to put them in my earlier post)
as I said before, Bonnie and Monty were already co-existing at this point. Bonnie was the bassist, and Monty was just an animatronic with his own attraction (like how Foxy is the animatronic at the theatre and Sun/Moon/Eclipse are the animatronic for the Daycare)
Now I'm gonna preface all of this theory and information with the fact that I do not believe Monty killed/attacked Bonnie.
I simply don't.
I know what the OG Security Breach story wants us to assume, but from a logical standpoint, it simply makes no sense.
Now, let's go through this chronologically. There will be some conjecture here using the information we've seen outright, so please don't strangle me if this doesn't necessarily match canon or what-not.
First, Bonnie was the original bassist of the band. Alongside Freddy, Roxy, and Chica, they were the original cast. (I don't know why Foxy wasn't part of the original band. Maybe he WAS, long before Roxy took over, or maybe they decided Foxy would be better in the theatre/child area since prior incarnations of Foxy weren't considered bandmates, they were simply side attractions for kids)
I think it's pretty safe to say that Monty was enamored with Bonnie in some regard. At the very least, he looked up to him. In the Gator Golf attraction that shows you Monty's rise to fame, you see Monty playing something akin to a bass or a banjo all alone in his swamp. He was a One Man Band, as they say.
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I think his One Man Jug Band probably played in the Gator Golf, maybe he had his own little party bookings there judging by how popular his attraction is. (Like how Roxanne's parties can be booked at Roxy Raceway/Glamrock Salon or Freddy's parties can be booked at the Atrium and main stage)
At some point, Monty became acutely aware of the main band and the stardom they enjoyed. Of course he did, they were the main focus of the Pizzaplex, and the main band had their own greenrooms along Rockstar Row, the FNAF equivalent to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, if we had to compare it to something in the real world.
It seems very obvious that Monty looked up to Bonnie. Bonnie, who shared the same instrument as him, who probably was friendly to him and maybe gave him some pointers on how to refine his playing.
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You can see Monty looking up towards the band, but his gaze is localized on the star and Bonnie. Bonnie is also the only one looking at Monty. I think that, at least at this point, they were on good terms in some regard.
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Now, for what happened to Bonnie. When we look at Bonnie's body, you can see that he was apparently clawed open and parts of his endoskeleton and machinery was removed and taken away.
You might be thinking, "Well, he got clawed open. So that means that Monty did it, of course."
and You'd be wrong.
If you recall, Monty got his claws in order to play the bass. Now why would he need to play bass if the band was still full and there was no need to replace Bonnie since he was still active? This is mentioned in the note MONTY UPGRADE
MAINT LOG: MONTY - Montgomery's Claw upgrades allow him to play the bass. Following performances, he mostly uses them to cause damage. The fence repairs are getting costly.
So, whoever clawed up Bonnie couldn't have been Monty. And if Monty had clawed up Bonnie, why did he rip out his hardware when he'd have no need for it?
Now what exactly happened to Bonnie can be tracked through his last night active in the Pizzaplex. Seen in the notice MISSING, we are able to see Bonnie's final movements.
SECURITY REPORT - 12:24AM - Bonnie is seen leaving his green room in Rockstar Row heading East towards the atrium. 2:40AM - Bonnie enters the East Arcade. 4:12AM - Bonnie enters Monty Golf.
Now I went into deep analysis of this in my post explaining how Bonnie is considered missing in canon, so I'll summarize it here.
Bonnie spent 3 hours and 48 minutes following a specific path in the Pizzaplex only to disappear after entering the Monty Gator Golf attraction. It took him 2hr16mins to enter the Fazcade from Rockstar Row, and then 1hr32mins to get to Monty Golf.
There's no reason it should have taken Bonnie so long to move from Point A to B. So there must've been something that he was doing during that long walk.
So my theory is that Bonnie was already injured when he exited his green room and started his journey towards the Fazcade.
My reasoning for this is mostly because of how long it took Bonnie to get to the Fazcade, but also because it doesn't make sense for him to take the path he did in the first place in the middle of the night.
I believe Bonnie sustained his injury and then left his greenroom to find help or someone to help get him to Parts and Service. He trudged his way to the Fazarcade and then went towards Monty Golf. And then something happened in Monty Golf that must've fully incapacitated Bonnie, making it so that he was unable to leave. And then at some point, he was abandoned at the back of the Bonnie Bowl and left to rot.
Now, as for what attacked him, I'm a bit up in the air about it since I don't know what exactly is the true canon-line for the game. I've heard some people imply the Burntrap and Blob ending was deemed noncanon and instead the ending of Ruin involving the Mimic IS the true ending. That confused me because the Mimic didn't appear at all in SB (as far as I recall, and I poured over that game pretty intensely) and in the Ruin ending, you see the area where the final battle against Burntrap took place. (And this isn't even touching on what exactly Malhare/M.X.E.S is, I'm assuming hes some remnant of Glitchtrap?)
After playing Ruin (and using Ruin as the main plotline) I have two theories of what attacked Bonnie.
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Bonnie was attacked by the Mimic (who does have huge, sharp claws) in an effort to either build on itself or repair itself, and then maybe followed or lured him across the Pizzaplex towards Monty Golf. And then it fully shattered him there, maybe using the Hurricane Bucket that was mentioned in the Monty Mischief notice. Then in an effort to hide the "body" and be able to take it apart without technicians or FazEnt getting in the way, the Mimic brought Bonnie so the back of the Bonnie Bowl and further removed his endo and parts.
My other theory is that Bonnie injured himself. Remember, Monty didn't have claw upgrades by that point so he couldn't have been the one to claw open Bonnie. But you know who DID have claw upgrades? Bonnie.
I think in some way, Mimic or some glitch entity (maybe Malhare/M.X.E.S) got into Bonnie's head in an attempt to lure him somewhere secluded so they could harvest him for parts, but Bonnie fought the conditioning much like Freddy had and ripped himself apart to get these strange voices/entities out of him. And then he wandered the Pizzaplex presumably looking for help before he was finished off in the Monty Golf and brought to Bonnie Bowl to be harvested.
This would explain Bonnie's injuries, why the Mimic (or Burntrap if you want to go that route) looks so brand new and put together, and also why Bonnie apparently disappeared without a trace.
BONUS
There's another notice in the Dufflebags that seemingly adds more to Bonnie's fate, Understudy
MANAGEMENT REPORT - With Bonnie out of commission, we are making Monty the new bass player. Parts and Service has already done the proper adjustments. This could be a good thing. Monty could be even more popular than Bonnie.
This notice apparently takes place before the notice Re-Theme since it takes place DIRECTLY before Monty gets established as the new bass player in the aftermath of Bonnie's disappearance/shattering. However, Bonnie being "out of commission" doesn't allude to anything about his actual fate. It must be that Bonnie disappeared suddenly, and in an effort to smooth things over and re-complete the band, they pushed Monty into the role. As we know, repairing and fixing an animatronic is not a hard thing to do. There's no way Bonnie would be so destroyed that it'd be impossible to put him back together, and from what we saw of Bonnie's condition, it was certainly bad but it's not like he was completely turned to ash or destroyed and unrepairable. They could have repaired him if they got a hold of his body. But it was apparent they didn't, and they had no idea where it was. So instead of rebuilding/remaking an entirely new shell and endo from scratch, they simply grabbed the next best thing and put him into the role.
Which explains why Monty seems to openly use Bonnie's old props, like his glasses and his bass. Monty never had a problem with Bonnie, he idolized him. And after his idol disappeared, he took his place and used his props to allow Bonnie to live vicariously through him. Not to mention how maybe Monty feels responsible for Bonnie's disappearance since it happened in his own attraction, but if Monty was the one who hurt Bonnie then I sincerely doubt the other animatronics would be okay with him taking his place and using his props. Especially Freddy, who was the closest to Bonnie.
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slasher-male-wife · 1 year
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Slashers with an airhead s/o part two
What inspired me to write this is me finding out almost 17 years into my life that New England is not a state. I've had so many airhead moments lately that I kind of needed to write this.
Includes: Jason Voorhees, The Grabber, Mark Hoffman and Amanda Young
Warnings: Talk of manipulation, mentions of kidnapping, slashers being a little mean at times, readers air headedness is played up a bit
Jason Voorhees
Y/n, he loves you so much, but he's also so worried to leave you alone in case you forget to turn off the oven and burn the cabin down. He knows you're not completely stupid but, you're a little dumb.
He gets frustrated sometimes when he has to explain to you for the third time that day how to hold something the right way while helping him with yard work.
Will have to write you lots of instructions on how to do things so you don't mess it up. He'll be more confident when he leaves you alone if you have a list of things to get done and how to do them.
He's not letting you leave the house alone. He's coming with you while you're going on your walks or doing tasks. He trusts you not to run he just doesn't trust that you won't try to pet a raccoon.
The Grabber
He's been stalking you for a bit before he actually kidnaps you and he's just so surprised at how air headed you are at times. He watched you pour yourself a glass and try to drink butter milk because you thought it was just normal milk but richer.
Actually kidnapping you is surprisingly easy. You ignore your instincts to run away from him and actually try to help him with whatever he's using to lure you in. Then it takes you a good few days to realize he's The Grabber if he doesn't outright tell you.
He knows you're not like super dumb but it's just enough that you won't notice him manipulating you into trusting him. He's a little shocked at how fast you'll warm up to him. Partly because he's the only human contact you've had in weeks, partly because you're just kinda dumb.
He feels like he's doing the right thing in a way by keeping you with him. He thinks that other people would try to hurt you or manipulate you if he wasn't "keeping you safe" even though he's doing the same thing.
Mark Hoffman
He gets annoyed very quickly with how air headed you are. He still loves you don't get me wrong, but after having a 10 minute talk with you about why you can't just adopt a random stray cat you found he needs a drink.
He'll lie to you at times if it's going to keep his identity as a jigsaw apprentice safe. He knows you won't really come up with that on your own unless he actually spells it out for you but he thinks it's just safer to say that he had to work late or something.
He's somewhat relived when he learns that you're not totally dumb. He'll listen to you talk about a topic you know a lot about because it makes him feel better about your intelligence
He'll be a little mean at times if he gets frustrated with you but the most he'll do is say you're pretty dumb or call you an airhead, he'll always apologize after however. But if anyone else is mean to you for being dumb he's not letting that slide.
Amanda Young
She's going to laugh at all of your airhead moments, but not in a mean way, in a 'that's adorable' kind of way. Like if you ask her where your sunglasses are and they're on the top of your head she'll laugh and tell you.
She's also not worried about you finding out that she's working for Jigsaw. She could legit come home covered in someone else's blood with a pig mask in hand and you'll think she was at a costume party.
She's going to keep you far away from Hoffman. She already hates him but she knows that he's going to be a real dick to you. But she'll probably introduce you to John on the condition that you don't get put into a trap because you're a little dumb.
She'll be more understanding than other people I think. You're not a harmful type of dumb you're just more of a "Why can't you just use vegetable oil for your car?" kind of dumb.
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weebsinstash · 11 months
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So, hear me out, but; what if y/n was totally aware that Miguel is into them? It's flattering, having this huge, incredibly dangerous man that's really obviously weak in the knees when you give him doe eyes, or lean over him and press your chest up against his back to point at something on his screen. You never treat it seriously, always flitting in and out of Nueva York and in and out of Miguel's reach. Teasing, flirting, but never going further than that, simply enjoying the attention and warm fuzzies that come with making a man break the mug he's holding because you stretched and your shirt rode up enough to expose your belly.
And it's not like he's gonna do anything bad! It's just flirting, and he's a fellow Spiderperson! You're all good people here... Right?
This is kind of different but similar but, I find myself drawn to Reader inserts/characters that like, maybe if they don't hate themselves, are like inherently incapable of even considering that someone might like them romantically, like you're not constant gloom and doom but you find the concept of someone loving you romantically outright wacky crazy
Miguel throws a lil tiny experimental flirt towards Reader to test the waters, and Reader flirts right back because they think he's JOKING. Miguel takes that as a sign and starts giving you more compliments and little flirtatious remarks and you just think this is like, platonic teasing, that he's ribbing you, you think Its Like A Friend Thing Like A Gimmick, and it takes him a while to notice you have absolutely no idea he's being 2099% serious when he makes those corny comments about how he gets lost in your eyes, saying shit like he's the hunky male lead from a telenovela or something
Combine this with the alternative dangerously risky concept of "Reader who jokingly says foul/raunchy shit" which is also a Val/Reader concept I've had. But like. Idk. Miguel sees you slurping a soda or sweet drink or idk even smoking and he jokes like "wow those are some lungs" and without blinkijg before you can even consider the consequences you hit him with "yeah I can suck dick like this too" and he chokes on his own food in shock, red as a tomato. Or Reader jokingly slaps his butt like some real football locker room go team shit or maybe you're teasing him and telling him he's "fat" and he has to excuse himself while the skin is still stinging because, oh my GOD did you just give him the biggest hard-on and it's about to EXPLODE--
Just accidentally making him totally crazy about you because you're literally too doubtful of him potentially having feelings for you or being interested in you in any capacity besides platonically that you accidentally act your unhindered full charisma self. You're too doubtful of him loving you to be self conscious and embarrassed of anything you say or do and think he just sees you as like, a sibling. Someday you'll learn to regret all those times you jokingly kissed him on the cheek because you thought it would gross him out or the time you got too drunk on spiked eggnog at the Christmas party and kissed him right on the mouth, but like, almost as you would a brother or a cat, as you coo how handsome he is, hes such a pretty boy, and "why hasn't he found himself a wife yet-- wait shit I am so sorryyyyyyyy i forgot 😥" because. You know. poor guy. But also. Gotta love the dilf factor
Ughhhhhh there really are a lot of us feeling the "baby trapping" energy from this man. Miguel who pokes holes in condoms because the second you get pregnant "oh, in that case well, I'll take responsibility and marry you and we can raise the baby :)" which I mean, considering his losses that's its own significant undertaking for him, that entire process and line of thinking is some sort of combination "healing" while getting ten times worse. Not to say he doesn't adore you or the thought of having kids with you, just... he might not be considering the most noble of methods anymore, for anything really. Getting drinks with you and biding his time until the alcohol slowly loosens you up and he gets you alone and you're too tipsy and sex hungry to stop and realize he isn't using protection until he's, you know, finishing inside of you. He'll use a drunken one night stand to try and weasel his way into dating you, if you're not already pregnant from that one night. I mean shit he's just so like large and imposing and just, God, he's hot though, I feel like it would be so hard to not visibly be flustered at the very least, and he'll use any reactions you make as cues for what he can try next. Even just suddenly grabbing your hips or waist or sides and making you suddenly squeak and he can tell by the look on your face that he's totally getting you hot even if maybe you're embarrassed and might not inherently want to act on anything (yet? Imagine wanting that Thick Dilf Dick and being physically attracted to him and respecting him and so you legitimate pursue him if only hust for sex and somehow you Accidentally Unlock The Crazy In Him)
One day you think he's just a harmless coworker, the next day you're finding he's got extensive stalker ass records for you, pictures, videos, just surveillance things, and he's not quite as Charming and Valiant to you anymore. In fact you're just about starting to realize all those comments he made that made you swoon before are now starting to make your skin crawl, but hey, just like you stumbled upon his secret, he stumbles upon you and catches you red handed, and well, he's sorry you found out this way but he was going to confess to you more seriously eventually right? Is THIS enough of a clear signal for you yet?
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swallowtail-ageha · 7 months
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Scrolling through your asoiaf tag and you have such good and correct opinions like how can anyone love just Dany or just Sansa or just Arya like how can anyone not see the parallels between Dany and Sansa it makes me feel so crazy like why are there so few people who love all the girlies?? I genuinely love every single female POV character and can’t imagine hating any of them. I mean sure yeah Cersei is a villain but you’re telling me her tragedy doesn’t touch your heart? Watching this woman desperately try to avoid her prophecy as it unfolds before you doesn’t have you in a death grip? Or like are you unmoved by Sansa telling an annoying snotty little boy how brave he is because she wants him to feel better? Dany comforting Missandei when her brother dies? Arya getting to the house of the black and white and immediately thinning to being a man a cup of water (or at least what she thought was water)? How about Sansa telling Joffrey she hopes Robb cuts his head off? Dany sassing the man who wants to open the fighting pits? Arya telling Jaquen to kill himself? Like please come on. All three girls are obviously different but they share so many very endearing traits. I am fiercely holding tight to my delusion that Dany and Sansa will bond over stories and songs and Arya will teach Dany about all the flowers in Westeros and then Sansa will show them how to make flower crowns and embroider little emblems on Arya’s clothes
First of all tysm!!!!
The whole arya vs sansa vs dany fandom fight frustrates me to no end, mainly because all parties involved seem to have little to no empathy to the characters whose stans they oppose. It's all maliciously extrapolating some parts of the text to make them see worse than what they are (ex: daenerys' "if i look back i am lost" getting twisted from "dany knows that dwelling on what ifs and turning your back after you have taken a commitment will only damage you in the long term" in "dany doesn't want to reflect on her past mistakes and will go mad and get stabbed to death" or sansa getting frustrated at sweetrobin being a sign of her being ableist and classist while it's. Just a normal reaction of a stressed and traumatized 13 yo who is otherwise very sweet to her cousin)
For loving the female characters same! Even those who commit outwardly villainous acts do get lots of humanizing moments, Cersei, as awful as she is, is simply a product of the hyper misogynistic society she lives in plus years of parental and spousal abuse (and the doomed by prophecy vibes) and. I genuinely don't get how people can look at the walk of shame and say it's a fitting punishment to her crimes
Overall all the hate for female characters that are more complex or more driven or more morally ambiguous than what most female characters are presented as in other media in a fandom who (supposedly) prides itself in liking morally ambiguous characters is.. frustrating, really. I blame both fandom misogyny but also the GoT series, as it's outright changes in female character's actions and stories to make them look better or worse than what they originally were skewered the visions of almost everyone in the fandom (arya is an egregious victim of this. Scenes such as her caring for Weasel or her befriending sex workers in braavos don't exist and they added that "all girls are idiot" scene that i hate and they removed all her plan to free the northmen from harrenal and she got turned from traumatized child to hashtag no one super cool assassin and her character got straight up murdered in the tv series.)
Oh and also for kickstarting the whole jonsa vs jonerys thing which i'm pretty sure is the origin of the stupid dany vs sansa wars
And yes!! Dany Sansa and Arya should get to meet and reunite! While i do think that there will be some slight tensions between Sansa and Arya because they left on Not So Well terms, they have also matured a lot, so i do think they would have an heartfelt reunion. Meanwhile Dany and Arya could bond because of both their connection to Braavos and Arya's admiration for those who free slaves, and Dany would empathize (and feel a common ground) with Sansa for her being a child who had all her family die and got married extremely young while beeing creeped on by older men, while Sansa, who is shown to admire women like Margaery or Myranda, who are shown to be very keen regarding politics or social issues, something that Dany is
In the end, i genuinely hope that all three of these traumatized little girls get their happy ending and none of them dies, they all are interesting and complex characters that share parallels with each other, and it sucks that because of stupid ship wars or discussions on who would get the throne they get pitted against each other. THEY WOULD BE FRIENDS Y'ALL
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utilitycaster · 6 months
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As a fellow DM, weren't you at least a little irritated of how Matt handled the shard situation? He once was so open and receptive when it came down to a players choice influencing the campaign, but now he let Tal roll and even after he succeeded he was like "nope, not gonna happen".
Nope!
It was, and I cannot stress this enough, really clear this was a terrible fucking idea. I know a lot of people started to nitpick how Matt said this "might" and "may" shatter Ashton instead of "definitely will", but like...as I said before, as someone with a severe allergy, I don't eat foods that say "may contain peanuts"; the idea that it was a massive risk was abundantly clear, and frankly the fact that in-world Ashton went “well, I’m built different” instead of “hmmm maybe I shouldn’t do Thing That ‘Might’ Make Me Explode” is highly relevant to the discussion. It's no different to me from how DMs (myself included) will often say "are you sure?" to mean "hey pal, this is a really bad idea FYI.” The successful saves mean “this did not kill you permanently.”
I also strongly suspect that Matt and Taliesin discussed this because Taliesin seemed pretty unsurprised by the top of the episode when Ashton’s Con score was reduced. I don’t know for sure - I’m hoping either Matt or Taliesin will be on the next 4SD to talk about it - but that’s the impression I got. If I had to guess I would say it was a choice between “the powers are somewhat nerfed because you already have a shard in you,” or “hey do you want the opportunity to do a much needed dramatic breakdown,” and I know which one I’d take. I could be wrong, but if this was the case, it would be a very thoughtful way to DM this.
Setting aside any DM-ing experience: I’m interested intellectually in what might have happened had Ashton successfully absorbed the shard, but also, I have watched that first half conversation literally every day since it aired except today, because I am on a train and my internet is unreliable and it’s not out as a podcast yet. I’m an episode 2x72 and C1 Feywild arc girl. I would like to see my favorite character have a complete breakdown at some point in the campaign. This is probably my favorite episode of C3 so far. I think this makes for a far, far superior story than the alternative and is not only giving a much needed shock to the Bells Hells character dynamics on the whole, but is also opening up some room for another character to take the shard and, now, for cool things to happen during the Feywild retreat. If Delilah eats the shard? If Fearne learns some deep secrets? If Chetney makes a deal with Morri? That is going to be because Ashton was rejected by the shard, and I’m far more fascinated by those possibilities than “Ashton gets super powerful, learns nothing.”
To that point: I know as always that it’s hard to convey tone via the written word on anon, but this feels frustrated toward the campaign in general, and while I do have my thoughts about the railroading earlier on, there’s actually only a few points where I really feel Bells Hells were outright shut down and honestly they were relatively minor (I do not personally mind the solstice episode cut scenes; that feels right for an event of that magnitude). I think it’s valid to feel that way, but I guess the best way to put it is that if you’re frustrated on the whole this feels like an odd place to vent it, and if you’re mad because Ashton is also your favorite character, I am interested in my favorite characters in part because of their development and their dynamics with others in the party. I am not here to watch the Ashton Is Super Cool And Everything Works Out Well For Them show; I’m here to watch the Ashton Goes Through It show.
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the-unconquered-queen · 5 months
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With Blades 2 coming to an end, I just wanna get it off my chest that I'm really not a fan of how they wrote Nia for a great part of this one, particularly vis-à-vis the way they wrote MC. I know I've been saying some stuff along those lines for ages now, but it hasn't left my mind so now I'm gonna actually get into it.
For starters, I think a lot of the issue with Nia's writing was captured pretty well in the tags of this post, particularly on point 2. Like I've said, Nia unfortunately falls into the category of a Mary Sue in that every "flaw" she's given just serves to elevate her to perfection. Hell, even when corrupted—when a person is supposed to be in their most volatile state—the worst she does is be snarky that first chapter (she is aggressive toward MC at one point before this, but it's neither acknowledged nor repeated later). After that, she is entirely normal, just not as much of a pushover, and while I much preferred shadow!Nia, I do think that this really undermines the whole gravity of corruption and b2's emphasis on shadow-light balance, since shadow!Nia comes off as quite balanced already, especially compared to other corrupted characters we've seen.
But here's the thing, that post that got me thinking is months old, and we have gotten more story since then, and what I have noticed is that Nia does, in fact, have one real flaw in canon, but it's the one flaw she's absolutely not meant to have: Nia in canon can at times come off as self-absorbed. She either makes things about herself or doesn't stop people from doing this, and there are multiple examples of it. There is the instance in Riverbend when MC is taking a moment to finally try to process Kade's capture (which, following their own capture, they never got the chance to process) and Nia derails the conversation and makes it about her own grief and is comforted by MC and Mal. Another example is the moment on Gerhard's ship when she vents about the pressure she's been under and lets MC comfort her without at any point considering that MC might have been under similar pressure.
And don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a character putting themselves first. But when the book doesn't waste a single chance to tell us that Nia's character is the complete opposite and that she is chronically incapable of not being considerate 25/8, it's quite contradictory. I mean, you can even call out Ethan Ramsey, PB's golden boy, on making things about himself at some point in OH, but because, unlike Ethan, Nia is written for you to consider her super sweet and wholesome and perfect, the Blades MC actually contributes to this by performing mental gymnastics to turn something around to be about Nia.
Which brings me to my final point: Blades 2 pushed MC to the side to revolve around Nia, but MC is exactly the person they meant for Nia to be, by virtue of the dissonance between showing and telling. They tell you that Nia is selfless because she always puts everyone else first. Well, I can and did name examples showing the contrary, meanwhile, MC is the one who was been through the most traumatic ordeal and is constantly checking in on everyone else without expecting and without receiving much of the same courtesy in return, even apologizing to Nia because she was "carrying all that weight on her own", never mind that MC always has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They tell you that Nia is the heart of the party, but they both told and showed us that everything fell apart without MC.
Even some of Nia's most defining character traits, MC has in similar measure. Nia sees the best in everyone? MC can be the #1 believer in Aerin's redemption after all the shit he pulled. Nia is trusting to the point of naivete? MC literally trusted Valax while she outright told them at every turn she would turn on them at the first opportunity, and was genuinely hurt by the betrayal. Miss me with MC calling Nia "our better self".
Every trait that they've gone out of their way to tell you Nia has they've shown twofold in MC, which is why it's so exasperating to me that they reduced MC to the conduct through which other characters' (particularly Nia's) stories get told while their own is an afterthought. I am by no means saying that two people can't have similar traits or that two people can't be good people at the same time, but there is something about praising these traits in Nia when, based on these, MC should be held to a similar standard. Instead, they relegated MC (main. character.) to a supporting character in Nia's story, elevating every trait that MC possesses only in Nia while ignoring them in MC to the point that many scenes felt frustrating to play.
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romeulusroy · 1 year
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Pig (Lukas Matsson × Roy!Sibling)
Characters: Lukas
Word Count: 1,368
A/N: Do I love, love, love Roman for going off on him? Yes he is my baby boy!!! I don't really know what this is, I just know he'd be v creepy to the Baby Roy sibling and it would definitely get backlash from the older siblings 💞 Feedback is always appreciated 💜💖💜
FIC MASTERLISTS/TAG LIST 
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You are like your father. He speaks in a way that is thoughtful, though not kind. Forward, as if he were scared to waste a second of time on frail pleasantries. He is frank, honest, his humor bordering on indistinguishable. And yet, there is something about it you cannot resist. Cold, calloused, and cruel? You ask lightly, staring down your drink. He laughs with his whole chest. Its a strange thing to hear from him, a man like him, who uses his humor not in a defensive way, but an offensive way. It drives your brothers mad, and your sister can’t stand the look of him, but there is something about him you can’t quite piece together. A puzzle you can’t solve. The fact that you don’t know him makes him all the more intense, more of an unknown. He knew your father though, and that in itself is enough of a red flag. He trusted men made of barbed wire without morals. He had a type. Unpredictable, he offers, but intelligent. You both see the whole picture. What kind of picture were you looking at now? Matsson reclined in his chair, drinking carefully. You stood opposite to him, leaning against the back of the chair, swirling your drink, too aware that you were only people in the room. Too aware of the silence between you was thick, obtuse, that there were the muted sounds of your parties mingling just outside the door. You didn’t want to claw your way back to them, making small talk while they talked poorly of you in their mother tongue. You weren’t eager to see your own kind either. Equally as indigestible, they questioned why you were even here. Couldn’t even wait for the body to be in the ground. You said without thinking, watching your drink spin. He doesn’t look at all surprised. Do you think that makes me barbaric? From anyone else, it would have come off egocentric, feigning worry, fear. The way his eyes widened, eyebrows raised, he seemed genuinely concerned. Had he never thought about it? Really? Something in him must’ve known the timing, the demands, they were off. Thoughtless. You let the question linger in the air for a moment, watching, waiting for his expression to change. It never falters. Who are you? What kind of game are you playing? We all do what we have to, you shrugged finally. That’s the truth. In this life, this game, there is never a right moment, only the correct move. He nods, his eyes moving from you to the floor. The lulls in conversation are natural. Never awkward or painful. The ice in your glass clinks together. It’s all you can do with your hands. Behind him, the night, the mountains, everything sleeps soundly under the dark blanket of the night sky. 
Can I ask, what are you doing here? Here, where? Here in Norway? Here in his room? Or, here in existence? You couldn’t do it, be left behind. Take care of the funeral arrangements. Connor was there, but he kept calling you, Rome. You didn’t have the heart to pick up, to deal with him, with any of this. When you found out they were going, you packed a bag. They didn’t say no outright, but they didn’t say yes either. Too bad. It wasn’t rainy enough on New York. The corners of his lip turn up for a few seconds. Funny, you can practically see the thought form in his mind. Funny, yes. No, no I mean what are you doing here, now. Your eyes meet his. Because you found me wandering alone, trying to get away from the collegiate mayhem, and you invited yourself in. You shut the door. You locked us in. You poured us drinks without asking, assuming, getting comfortable on the couch. Was it deeper than that? Trapped with a man who wanted your company, your everything, to take from your brothers and sister in the comfort of his own land. Sort of. Almost his land. A hell of a way from home, that’s for sure. 
You’re nothing like them, you know. He says this so seriously, so matter-of-factly, it makes you want to laugh. How so? Clearly, he’s seeing someone you aren’t, a fictitious replacement of the person standing before him. You’re exactly like them. All of them. Connor, Kendall, Siobhan, Roman. All of you responsible for your own faults, your own misgivings, equally fucked up by your father one way or another. You figured he was smarter than this, at least you would have hoped so. Pick up on the things others didn’t. Notice you weren’t sitting across from him, not wanting to get too comfortable. Swirling your glass, never taking a sip. You wouldn’t dare get sloppy in his company. Or how about the facial expressions you make when his party speaks, matching theirs. Förstår du detta, motherfucker? You weren’t an idiot, far from it actually. He seemed to be though. You just are, in a good way of course. Was this going to get you take your clothes off? This “sweet talk”? He had to be better than this. Has anyone ever told you you’re a complete fool when you open your mouth or are you too busy surrounding yourself with yes men? You bite your tongue. The thought lingers than you’d like. Why are you talking to me? You ask instead, your glass sweating, the alcohol becoming watery, runny. I have no stakes in this company, not really. My brothers and sister are in charge. They make the deals, agree upon the numbers. I’m here on vacation. You go on, the words falling from your mouth before you can catch them. Of all of us, it should be Ken in here, making small talk, trying to figure you out. Not me. His grin made your skin crawl..
I like you the most. If you had been drinking, you would have spat it out, though the shock of that didn’t read in your expression. If I could, I’d make all my deals with you. Only you. He didn’t even know you. You could count the handful of times you’d ever interacted. It was always full of snarky comments on your part, the kind your siblings had to come in and rescue you from, though you preferred them not to. You take a step back, needing space, air. Please, sit. He pats the space next to him. No way would you get any closer than this. You got the sense that if you got too close, he might try to bite you. Stick his hand between your legs. Worse. You can only shake your head in response. No thank you, your father would correct. He wasn’t here to do so, though. Still, this deal is a big one. You had to be respectful, right? You’re just saying that to be nice. I’m sure you would rather talk with Ken or Rome, they know a lot more than I do. I wouldn't even know where to start. You laugh, hoping this is the end of the conversation. Hoping someone could come in and rescue you. No one ever did. Shadows passed beneath the door, but there was no knock, no clearing of the throat, no one to notice you were gone. That he was gone, too. Those airheads? He chuckled. You slammed down your glass. This was your out. Truthfully, your brothers could be idiots. They were idiots. Together they shared a single coherent thought once every blue moon. Still, he didn’t have to know this. Your ticket out. Your anger was beautiful, your disgust just perfect. He stood quickly, trying to self-correct. Y/n, I didn’t- that wasn’t meant to- what I mean. . . Too late. You moved to the door before he hand the chance to block you, jiggling the handle, fiddling with the lock until it opened. Outside, you could finally breathe in something that wasn’t his cologne. You needed a shower. You needed to talk to Ken, Rome, Shiv, whoever. Let them know who they were really dealing with. Jävla kryp. You hissed loud enough for him to hear before slamming the door shut. Fucking creep.
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