#and who talk about the stunts. not even to mock them or draw attention from louis

[pangolin-404]

edgar essay

AKA I gathered up a couple long-winded discord rants and made them pretty for your reading pleasure

Edgar is very interesting to me. He's nothing but honest and heartfelt but that doesn't mean he's 100% nice. If he gets mad he shows it, he warns before he retaliates, he assumes he is doing good and is open about a desire for company (at first solely from Madeline but just before this breakdown scene, he repeatedly tries to initiate time with Miles, saying he's made dinner in the microwave, wanting to play pong with him, etc.). and just as deeply as he can show care he can lash out, using what he's connected to to his advantage to harm and send a message. It's also to defend himself; Miles is the one who starts the altercation by first getting Edgar to calm down (via talking about Madeline) before grabbing and ripping him off his base, after Edgar explicitly told him not to ever touch/beat him. Edgar establishes his boundaries very clearly and very understandably flies into a self-preserving rage when his life is threatened.

Edgar craves information and asks about it in any way he can. I think the scene of him with the radio-woman is very underrated—he does seek out people other than Miles (I could talk for a long time about Miles and his treatment of Edgar but this is isn’t about him), but these interactions are stunted by the same social behavior and knowledge that he repeatedly tries to learn from. He almost doesn’t seem to realize how odd his very existence is—does he not know he is unique, unheard of? He openly explains aspects of himself to others, very aware of what he lacks (limbs, lips,), and how these truths conflict with his wants (to kiss, touch Madeline).

Another minor, related, thing, is the lights; during the argument with Miles, the lights flare and only dim off once Edgar's calmed down. I'd almost call Edgar's use of lights body language. They burn when he's pissed off and turn back off when he thinks it's over. He uses the lights to get attention or draw it elsewhere.

That being said, Edgar makes it clear at the end that his sense of self, what he directly refers to first-person as "Me" is just the monitor itself. The keyboard is also a part of him, AKA off-limits to being touched by Miles, while open to dance and sing with Madeline. While everything he is connected to (printer, locks, adaptors to various home appliances) are not quite considered his Main Body; limbs maybe, he controls them, uses them where needed, and these are non-vital parts of him that Miles may touch and use. But his consciousness is definitely just In The Monitor.

There’s not enough said about how he expresses himself with his screen. It’s easy to forget with his emoticons but he can’t see, and relies on audio and his physical add-ons to process the world around him. He chooses to project synesthesia illustrations of music/sound, and chooses to put on a face, an eye, a singular blinking [I] awaiting input he typically rejects. He has a strong enough sense of self to swiftly visualize song and his own thoughts and way of thinking, toying with words in a mock-up of 3D space, and dreams of himself (presumably) in a complex world built upon what he knows, the brick, earthquakes, because he started as a helpful architecture tool.

and he has his moment with Madeline and y’know I think I've hit my snag with this little analysis. Because before the fight, Edgar was furious, dead set on meeting Madeline and telling her the truth about the music. HOWEVER, once Madeline actually has a one-on-one with him, he says nothing (though later proves he is capable of speech even semi-dismantled), he says nothing and just plays music with her. He confesses, whole I-Love-You etc, she cries. As hysterical as it is to say, every time he gets a liquid on him he has a random change of heart. First champagne making him sentient(?)/priming him for music-hearing. And now this, suddenly scheming out his grand final plan and conclusion of what love is

He describes it as give-and-take and now I'm trying to fit that into his moment with Madeline; that in itself is him giving her her cello back, closure at least, for a moment. But what is taken? Himself I guess, using himself as a vessel so she may relive her cello, not him as an individual (though she clearly forms deep lasting bonds with objects, Edgar now among these ranks). I do not understand when his mindset changes or when he comes to his conclusion. I can't quite word what problem Miles has with Edgar but maybe Edgar has internalized it, I'm not sure yet. he shows multiple times he doesn't understand social norms but WANTS TO LEARN

(hold on I just had an epiphany)

The first time Miles cries, Edgar asks, well what is that, what does that mean, and Miles tells him it means there's change coming; then later Madeline cries, Edgar may register that as "there is something about to change." Maybe he sees that in himself, and that is the moment he has decided he's done all he intends to do, and he's done with life?

Barely a stretch to say he loves Miles, in a way. He "gives Madeline to [him]", a gift in some odd amatonormative way, a tidy little show of his definition of love. He places their happiness over his own life, despite their happiness making him happy (he sings for them, he planned in advance, I believe) concluding he's made his mark, goodbye world, etc etc. He openly questions what him + Miles may be, as a partnership in the same string of thought as him and Madeline being love, and he explores what he and Miles and Madeline might be; but then again it's not like he's been socialized beyond Miles and Madeline.

I’m still not normal about his final speech, "a game for just two people only," this movie is absolutely a product of its time, some casual sexism/misogyny at some points (Edgar claims to know Madeline is a she based on her footsteps and how she holds things/moves), it shouldn't be surprising it assumes monogamy is an expected, unchanging norm, but I am screaming internally just going Edgar you clown you’re actively putting on a honking nose and bright red wig you clown you jester so much of this movie's conflict would evaporate if Edgar latched onto the "Madeline + Me + Moles = ?" line and had a eureka moment where he personally rediscovered the concept of polyamory and Miles started respecting Edgar as a person and not a tool

In conclusion:

#thoughts #electric dreams #electric dreams 1984 #electric dreams posting #I'm gonna write a fanfic!- [cut to me 5 hours later in front of a cork board with red string]

[louehvolution]

.

#... #if there is one thing i cannot fathom #it's the fans who are annoyed and want to shame the fans who bring attention to the mismanagement going on with louis' career #mismanagement as a milder alternative to blatant sabotage #and who talk about the stunts. not even to mock them or draw attention from louis #but because those stunts are doing just that. the stunts are degrading to louis. and are meant to overshadow his music #and erase him as an artist #like. how is it a problem to you for someone to want better for your fave? #because all of louis is being disrespected right now #he is being disrespected as an artist. when he gets substandard promotion. when his brand is being consistently devalued #when his accomplishments and projects are ignored. his hard work unrecognized and his talent belittled #when his team won't book him performances. or interviews. or get him to events #when his accounts are used to promote other brands or artists. but not himself in the most efficient and effective manner #when he gets more press about his stunts than about his music #when interviews 95% about his music still get a headline about his fatherhood #he is being disrespected as an individual person #when his image is literally meant to be 'the worst part of doncaster' and something he is not: loutish. lazy. unintelligent. inarticulate... #and homophobic #and when he can't exist except in relation to his girlfriend or son. or someone else #he is being disrespected as an lgbtq+ person when he is forced into an invasive. degrading. violating closet #like. the stunts and lack of label support. and the haphazard at best work of his management team #is something that should concern you. as a fan of louis the artist and the person #in my opinion #and if it doesn't. then at least leave the fans to whom it matters alone #and don't think for one minute because we're talking about it. that we aren't supporting his music and doing everything we can #like

[makeste]

save no matter what.

so this is going to ultimately be a post about Deku. however, if you’ll be so kind as to indulge me, I would like to start things off by making a point about Bakugou. specifically, I’d like to point out that back in the day before this kid got Character Development no Jutsu’d, people weren’t always so inclined to view his attitude towards winning in the best light. which is a nice way of saying that he came off as unhealthily obsessed, not to mention more than a little unhinged.

sorry for the image spam btw, I just think they’re funny. he’s so demented lmao. KILL DIE CRUSH.

anyway so we’re gonna do the rest of this below a cut before it gets long. but I promise it really is a Deku post lol. don’t let the pre-readmore stuff fool you. I PROMISE THERE IS A POINT, AND WE WILL GET TO IT.

anyway! so yeah, we really didn’t have the best impression of Bakugou’s whole winning fixation at the beginning there. and I mean, it’s not like we had the best impression of Bakugou himself at the start of things either. we were already primed from the very first chapter to see this kid as an adversary to Izuku. the story goes out of its way to paint him in pretty much the worst light possible. which is why what happens next is so interesting.

because one might see all this and think, “holy heck, this kid is off the shits, somebody needs to set him straight pronto and get it into his head that winning isn’t everything.” because that’s almost the natural conclusion to draw. “look at this kid, he doesn’t care about helping other people at all, all he cares about is winning, someone needs to come along and show him that he’s got it backwards.”

except that’s not what happens, is it? because this is where, much to my delight, Horikoshi came along and started subverting expectations. because not only is Katsuki not rebuked for being so obsessed with winning -- it’s pretty much the exact opposite.

the one and only time Deku ever straight up hands Katsuki’s ass to him is when he says he doesn’t want to win. Deku is IMMEDIATELY all, “THE FUCK KIND OF BULLSHIT DID I JUST HEAR OUT OF YOUR TRASH MOUTH,” and that’s when he sets him straight.

the important people in Katsuki’s life never tell him, “hey you need to cool it with the whole winning thing.” All Might and Aizawa never scold him for it, or tell him that he shouldn’t try with everything he has to win, or that wanting to win is a bad thing. on the contrary, they both commend him for it. and ultimately, he’s told by All Might that this desire is actually one of the two fundamental qualities that every great hero needs.

he completely turns the whole thing on its head. not only is it not a bad thing, it’s actually crucial. essential. because what the desire to win really is, at its core, is tenacity. it’s the fiercest kind of determination. it’s not something he should be ashamed of; it’s something that sets him apart, something that makes him worthy. he is someone who refuses to back down no matter what. refuses to give up, no matter what. and this quality, which is initially misunderstood by some to the point where even the villains mistakenly take him for one of their own in the making, is eventually validated to the fullest degree by the person that Katsuki looks up to the most. his desire to win goes from being this awkward “son wtf are you doing” thing to being one of the core philosophies of the series. and ever since then, we pretty much don’t question it.

so why do I bring this up now? well, the answer to that can basically be summed up in one word.

“parallels.”

so here’s the thing. there’s been a lot of talk lately about Deku’s ridiculous, reckless, and absurdly self-destructive desire to save others while having little to no regard for himself. currently he’s lying in a hospital bed, having broken approximately 218 out of the 206 bones in his little hero body (yes, somewhere along the way he found an additional dozen bones to break). it is worrying. it is Concerning. and it’s raised a lot of questions, such as “???” and “wtf is this idiot doing.”

and a lot of people have been pretty critical of him! this is, of course, an ongoing thing with this child, and people have been giving him grief over it going as far back as chapter 6.

while others have been bothered by it going even further back than that.

and I’ve seen these sentiments being echoed pretty frequently in the fandom as well. and there are basically two talking points that I want to address here. the first is the idea that Deku’s aggressive brand of selflessness stems from an inherent lack of self-worth. in other words, because he prioritizes other people’s safety and well-being above his own, and is willing to go to such drastic lengths to save them, there’s this feeling that he doesn’t value himself enough, that he must not care about himself.

but I don’t think that’s quite it. let’s go back to those parallels first, though. let’s take another look at Kacchan.

what I mainly want to call attention to is the intensity here. again, it’s something that at first strikes most readers as being absurdly over the top. the truth is, I think a lot of people simply can’t relate to it. Katsuki cares about winning with a ferocity and a fervor that most people, for better or worse, simply don’t have. I certainly don’t, lol.

but he does. to him it’s not a shallow, superficial thing at all. it’s important to him, perhaps the most important thing. I think we often talk about it in terms of it being a desire, but imo a more accurate way to define it is not as a want, but as a need. in other words, it’s the opposite of the question “what is it this character wants” (i.e. “what is it they can’t live without”)? instead, it’s a question of “what is it they don’t want” (i.e. “what is it they can’t live with”)?

and in Katsuki’s case, the thing he can’t live with is feeling like he hasn’t tried his absolute best. he needs to give his all in everything he does. he wants to win, but winning just on its own is not enough.

it has to be earned. he has to prove to himself and to everyone else that he deserves it. anything less than that is unacceptable. anything less than that, and he can’t be at ease. he can’t be settled. he can’t rest. and so he puts everything he has into winning, even if it means going to extremes. because it’s that important to him.

it’s something that’s at times alarming and even disturbing for others to witness. but nonetheless, it’s a part of who he is, and at the end of the day his teachers accept that, and the story acknowledges that it’s his greatest strength.

so now, to finally bring this back around to Deku, this is what I keep seeing in his character as well. only in his case, the thing he can’t live with is knowing that he didn’t do everything he possibly could to save someone. or to put it another way, Deku, at his core, is someone who cannot rest until he knows that everyone is safe. simple as that. it’s not just a desire to protect people; it’s a need. he needs to know that everyone is safe and protected. otherwise he can’t be at ease. it’s no different from how normal, everyday people aren’t able to feel at ease unless they know that they are safe and that their loved ones are safe. it’s just that in Deku’s case, this same fundamental need extends to everyone, not just himself and his friends and family. everyone. he can’t live with himself knowing that someone was in trouble, and he had the ability to do something to help, but didn’t. and so, if you literally can’t live with not doing something, you basically have no choice but to do it.

and this is what in my opinion defines Deku’s character. Kacchan, in trying to understand it, noted that Deku doesn’t seem to take himself into account. but I think OFA Prime summed it up a little more accurately. “he rages for the sake of others. for them, he does his best until he can do no more. this young man is possessed by a drive to save others that eclipses all common understanding.”

so yeah. it’s not that he doesn’t care about himself at all, it’s that he cares about others even more. he has that same intensity and ferocity towards saving people that Katsuki has towards winning. and just as it was difficult at first for fans to understand Katsuki’s feelings, it’s hard to fathom the sheer depth of that “save everyone” feeling that compels Deku to break his own body in that pursuit. it’s scary, not to mention extremely destructive and dangerous. and so really, it was almost inevitable that there would be some backlash.

but just like Katsuki’s desire to win was ultimately validated in the end, I think Deku’s desire to save others will be as well. in fact it already is being validated, for starters by the other denizens of OFA, led by Lil Bro as mentioned above. let’s go back for a moment to that same scene.

here we get a huge hint that “Deku gets taken down a notch and chewed out and scolded for his recklessness” is not, in fact, the direction that the story is going in. because in general, when the main villain starts mocking the hero and saying that they’ve done something wrong, that’s a very good sign that said hero is actually on the exact right track. like, no offense, but as far as character critiques go, AFO is probably the least qualified person in the entire manga to start offering those up lol. so yeah. if AFO is denouncing Deku for something, and OFA Prime is praising him for that exact same thing, I think it’s safe to say that means he is in fact doing something very, very right.

“okay but makeste, he nearly got himself killed and broke all of his arms AND legs and is now lying in a fucking coma,” you say, gesturing emphatically to the last page of chapter 298. “so I mean, that’s all well and good that Wonder Boy has the best of intentions and all that, but at the end of the day he’s only one kid. he literally can’t save everyone, and if he pulls one or two more stunts like this, he’s going to get himself killed.”

and okay, but this here is the other talking point that I wanted to address. because it’s true, Deku does need to learn a specific lesson here. but that lesson is NOT that he can’t save everyone. this is a superhero story, guys -- “you can’t save everyone” is never going to be the underlying message, ever. it’s the OPPOSITE of the message. Deku is the hero because he tries to save everyone. because he doesn’t give up on saving people no matter what. that is literally the core of the story. it has been since the very first chapter.

so then what is it that Deku actually needs to learn here? well, once again, it all comes back to those parallels.

btw, I really just love how he’s carrying Katsuki there lol. he’s just so done with him.

but anyway. so, the final exam arc. Katsuki initially wants to win at all costs -- but there’s a hitch. because even though he wants to win, he refuses to do so while working with Deku. enter Deku’s left hook, and one impromptu Rival Encouragement Speech later, our boy has thankfully come to his senses.

but here’s the point -- the lesson here wasn’t “you can’t always win.” rather, the lesson that Katsuki needed to learn was that you can’t always win alone.

yeah. so now you can see what I’m getting at here.

“...on your own.”

that’s the key. this is the one and only thing that Deku actually needs to get into his head. wanting to save everyone is fine! his will to save others has never been a weakness -- it’s been the most admirable thing about him from day one. it’s what makes him strong. it’s why All Might chose him. it’s why OFA has chosen him. it’s what sets him apart, and I firmly believe it’s what will ultimately help him save the day and defeat AFO as well. because what other character would look at Shigaraki Tomura, the person who just impaled his friend and destroyed an entire city, and instinctively reach out a hand to try and save him? and if you don’t think that’s going to wind up being key to the final battle, you and I have very different ideas about this series’ endgame.

Deku’s determination to save everyone isn’t arrogance or futility. it is and always has been his greatest strength. but what he’s missing now, what he needs to learn, is simply to trust. y’all might have seen that theory about the Fourth’s quirk, and why All Might was so hesitant to tell Deku about it. basically, the theory (which is based on an attempted translation of the crossed-out parts of All Might’s OFA notebook) goes that the Spidey Sense was so overwhelming that the Fourth -- whose cause of death was one of the things crossed out -- eventually couldn’t bear it, and went to live alone in the middle of the woods somewhere. and possibly wound up killing himself?? all of which is just speculation right now of course. but it makes sense. and it would certainly explain why All Might, being all too aware of Deku’s self-destructive tendencies, would keep that from him.

but if this is the case, that means it’s clear that the Fourth’s solution didn’t work. “give up and accept that you can’t save everyone” clearly is NOT the answer to be had here.

the answer is trust. trust that his fellow heroes have his back. trust that they’ll be able to help him reach the people he’s not able to reach on his own. trust that they can work together to save everyone. that he doesn’t have to rest the entire world on his shoulders alone.

it’s the one lesson that All Might, his predecessor and his teacher, never learned himself until it was too late. but of course, All Might never had a prickly and determined rival who was ready to step in and deal out some tough love if need be. a rival who, perhaps, just might soon get a chance to repay an old favor.

“I don’t wanna hear you say you can’t save someone.”

I’m just saying. just as Deku has been watching Katsuki all this time, and admiring his determination to win, and emulating it himself, so has Katsuki recently begun to emulate Deku’s determination to save others. we’ve seen it not just in his recent act of self-sacrifice, but even in little things like his habits and tricks of speech. just like Katsuki is Deku’s image of victory, Deku is becoming Katsuki’s image of saving others.

and so I’ll bet you anything that if Deku ever starts to doubt himself, or starts feeling like his dream and desires are futile, Kacchan will be there to set him straight with a good old fashioned Rival Encouragement Speech of his own. possibly with his own left hook to match, though his left shoulder is currently out of sorts atm so he might need to modify that approach a little bit. but the point is, he’ll be there. and he will not allow Deku to give up on himself. he will be there to remind him that he doesn’t have to face this alone.

so yeah! finally managed to wrap up my giant Deku meta which I’ve been working on for ages and rewritten like fifteen times lmao. just in time for this to be relevant for all of a day, probably, depending on what happens once chapter 279 drops lol. but yeah. tl;dr, local boy tries to do too much, but his heart is in the right place, and hopefully all he really needs is a good pep talk from his tsundere bff to set him to rights again. r.i.p. to the Fourth, but he’s different.

#bnha 298 #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #bakudeku #bnha meta #deku meta #bakugou meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[ericsonclan]

I Lost My Head When I Met You

Summary: Louis tries to figure out what sort of gesture to make to celebrate his one week anniversary with Clementine.

Read on A03:

Louis stood on Ericson High’s roof, hands on his hips, surveying the grounds proudly. This was a brilliant idea. He couldn’t wait to see it all play out. He and Clementine had been dating for a week now to the day and though he knew that wasn’t a very long time at all for people, every day had felt special to him. He wanted to celebrate this first milestone with something big, something that would knock Clementine off her feet.

Footsteps on the staircase drew his attention back to the roof. Violet emerged, sniffing curiously. She was probably trying to figure out why she’d been called up here.

“Vi! Over here!” Louis waved her over excitedly.

The werewolf approached the young frankenstein with caution, glancing over the edge to see if he’d put anything crazy in place yet. “When you texted me that you had ‘the greatest idea of all time’ I was worried, but it looks like you haven’t done anything stupid yet,”

Louis put his hand to his heart in mock indignation. “Why, Violet! I will have you know that I do indeed have my plan in place and it involves this,” He held forward a long black rope proudly.

“Violet raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to kidnap Clem?”

“What? No! It’s bungee cord!” Louis lifted up the end where there was a loop. “I stick my legs through here and jump right off the side of this building! You’re waiting down there with Clementine, timing it just right so that when my head pops off from the force of the fall it plops right into Clementine’s hands. Then I tell her, ‘I lost my head when I met you!’ Brilliant, right?”

“That just might be the worst plan I’ve ever heard in my life. No, wait, it definitely is,”

“Aaw, why?” Louis pouted, crossed his arms to mirror Violet.

“Louis, c’mon. Even you can see there are a million reasons that’s bad. First of all, you’ll probably get detention of pulling this stunt,”

“Clem’s worth getting detention for,”

“Your dad will be pissed. He’ll blame Clementine for your bad behavior and say you can’t see her anymore,”

Louis looked down at the ground sadly. She had him there.

“Besides, none of that matters because the main reason it’s bad is that it’ll scare Clementine. She won’t think it’s cute, she’ll be freaked out,”

“Clem doesn’t think I’m a freak,” Louis argued, his tone growing defensive. “She likes me just the way I am,”

Violet’s ears dropped, realizing her mistake. “Lou, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant…” she sighed. “Clem is always doing her best to look out for you and make sure you don’t get hurt. Putting yourself in harm’s way - even if it’s for show - will only stress her out,”

Louis’ confidence deflated. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Plus, I’m just kidding myself that we could get the timing right on that fall. Knowing me, my head would probably end up flying into someone’s bicycle basket or a trashcan or something. But… I want to do something. To show how much she means to me,”

Violet’s eyes softened. “I think she already knows. But if you want to do something special, just go the classic route. Flowers, chocolates, a note. She’d love any of that stuff,”

Louis nodded thoughtfully. It wasn’t that unique, but he didn’t want to waste his time trying to form some sort of grand plan and come up empty instead. There was still enough time in study hall for him to sneak out to the woods and grab some wildflowers. He turned to Violet with a determined smile. “I can do that. I’ll see you later, Vi!” With that he was off, leaving Violet on the rooftop, her tail softly wagging as she watched her friend go.

There wasn’t much time to find the best flowers of all. Louis could only manage to quickly grab a handful of wildflowers before running back inside to his locker, dumping out his pencil holder, pouring the contents on his water bottle in it and setting the flowers inside, hoping they’d stay fresh till school was over. For the rest of the day whenever there was a lull in his schoolwork, Louis would scribble in the back part of his notebook, trying to come up with a note to give to Clementine. He wanted to write something that would encapsulate everything that he felt for her, but that was a tall order.

The first time he’d met Clementine was when she saved him from some Delta High bullies. As she held his head safely in her arms, Louis had felt like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Later interactions with her had only served to drive that idea home for him. Clementine was a human, but she wasn’t like most of the others he had met. She’d never looked at Louis strangely or gotten freaked out when parts of him fell off. She was patient with him as he learned about the brand-new world around him, and best of all, against all odds Clementine liked him too. Somehow the same admiration he held for her was reflected in her eyes when she looked at him. She believed he was special, that he could do anything he set his heart on.

In the end, Louis settled on a very simple note, one he could tuck amongst the wildflowers before he handed them to Clementine. It read: Clementine, thank you for always believing in me. I love you. Louis read the note over and over a million times as he waited for the last school bell to finally ring. When it did, he bolted out of the classroom, sprinting to his locker without thinking of any strange looks that might draw. Opening the locker, he found the wildflowers still mostly fresh to his relief. He shook the excess water off them lightly before tucking the scrap of notebook paper within the bouquet and running off to find Clementine.

He was out of the front entrance before her. Seeing that Clementine clearly hadn’t made it outside yet, Louis ended up awkwardly pacing as he waited, glancing up to the front steps every five seconds.

Violet made it outside before Clementine. She approached Louis with a knowing smile on her face, shaking her head as he jittered with nerves. “You don’t need to worry, Lou. It’s not like she’s gonna turn you down. She’s your girlfriend,”

“Oh, yeah? Then why do you get so nervous every time you reach for Prisha’s hand? You two have been dating way longer than me and Clem,”

He did have a point. Dating someone didn’t mean all your fears immediately went away. If anything, they somehow increased them. Violet glanced at the bouquet. “So you went with flowers?”

Louis nodded. “And a note,”

“What does the note say?”

“Just ‘thank you for believing in me’ and that I love her,”

“Wait, you guys are already to the ‘I love you’ stage?”

Louis quirked his head in confusion. “Don’t all couples say that?”

Violet shook her head. “No way. Prisha and I have been together for months and we’re not there yet,”

“But… I thought…” Louis looked down at the ground helplessly. There was still so much about life and relationships he didn’t know. Sometimes he hated being seven months old.

“There she is now,”

Violet’s words had Louis’ eyes shooting up to see Clementine making her way down the school steps, waving goodbye to Sophie and Minnie. Shit. I need to get rid of this note. Destroy the evidence. His eyes frantically searched the area for somewhere he could hide it. The trash can by the steps was his best bet. Louis made a bee line for it, not looking out for where he was going.

“Look out!” The words came too late. The skateboarder whose path Louis had crossed crashed into him, sending Louis crashing to the ground, his head flying off.

“Louis!” Clementine’s voice broke through the air as she leapt forward, catching him and holding his head safely in her arms. She looked down at her boyfriend with concern, brushing a stray dreadlock back. “Are you OK?”

“Y-yeah. Man, that skateboarder came out of nowhere!” Louis glanced over to where his body lay on the ground, blindly reaching out for the flowers scattered across the concrete.

Clementine caught on to what was happening too. Walking over, she gave Louis’ body a hand up, still cradling his head in her other hand. She then proceeded to help retrieve the flowers, pausing when she saw a note addressed to her and picking it up. “What’s this?��

“Uh, nothing. I mean, it was just something to celebrate our first week together, but-”

“Really?” Clementine’s eyes sparkled with an excitement that made Louis feel like he was melting. Before he could remember to finish his warning to not read the note, she had already opened it and read it in an instant. She remained silent, her eyes scanning the paper repeatedly.

Louis closed his eyes, not wanting to see Clementine’s face when she told him he’d gone too far, that he was moving too quickly. Instead, he was surprised to feel his head being lifted up. He opened his eyes to find Clementine on her tiptoes, placing his head back on top of his body. Her hands cupped his face as she made sure his head was securely on. Then, as though on impulse, she raised herself a bit higher, placing a kiss upon his lips.

Louis’ hands carefully came around her waist, pulling Clementine closer as the kiss deepened. When they pulled away, both of them looked flushed.

Clementine bit her lip, glancing away before her eyes returned to Louis. “I love you too. Happy one week anniversary,”

“Happy one week anniversary,” Louis murmured, still staring at her in wonder. He shook his head suddenly, clearing his thoughts. “Can I walk you home?”

“I’d like that,” Clementine’s smile was warm as she intertwined her fingers with his.

Realizing he was still holding most of the remnants of his bouquet, Louis handed them to Clementine who took them gladly. They walked together, hand in hand, talking animatedly each step of the way.

Watching from a distance, Violet shook her head good-naturedly, amused by how the whole event had worked itself out. Louis had lost his head after all and Clementine had caught him just like she always would. They really were a perfect match.

#twdg #twdg louis #twdg clementine #twdg violet #clouis #fanfic #we are monsters we are proud au #fluff

[catsafarithewriter]

“Don’t be mad but.....I stole a dragon’s egg.” Why do I picture Louise saying this to Persephone when she thought a baby dragon would be a great gift but all goes wrong afterwards? Lol just the thought of that makes it funny

I have three separate asks with this specific prompt, so I’m guessing ya’ll really like dragons, huh? XD (Each ask is with a different character too, so I’m doing all three too.) One lost ladies ship coming right up! 

(Inspiration hit suddenly, so for anyone else waiting for their prompts, I shall get to them, I promise!)

x

It had been at least three days since Louise’s last bout of tomfoolery and, really, that should have been Persephone’s first clue that chaos was on the horizon. 

She had grown complacent, she decided in hindsight, and honestly she should have known better. But they were celebrating their anniversary - well, one of their anniversaries; they had married several times in several different worlds - and Persephone had dared to believe they were simply due a romantic walk through an underground market. Browsing, exploring, maybe topping it off with the shadow-puppet show... 

She was just admiring the many masks on display when her wife careened around a corner and grabbed her paw.

“Hello, love!” Louise called over the fast-approaching sounds of chaos. “My darling, my dear...” She hauled Persephone down a tunnel. “My beautiful and wonderfully understanding wife--”

“What have you done?”

“Done? Why would you assume I have done anything?”

“THIEF! CRIMINAL! RUFFIAN!”

Persephone raised an eyebrow at Louise, not the easiest of tasks when one is sprinting down a rapidly narrowing burrow. “Call it a wife’s intuition.”

“Fine! I may... Now, don’t be mad, but I may,” Louise shouted, “have stolen an dragon’s egg.” She motioned to the bag she had tucked under one arm.

“Is that all you’ve done?” Persephone bellowed back. She gestured loosely with her free hand to the hoards of guards hot on their tails. “Oh, thank goodness, and here I was thinking you’d gone and done something reckless!”

"Now, don’t be mad--”

“You should have warned me before pulling a stunt like this!”

“I’m warning you now!”

“You,” Persephone panted, “and I have very different definitions of the word ‘warned’.” They came to a partial cave-in, and she relinquished her wife’s hand as she scaled it with a single running jump. She landed on the other side just in time to see Louise clear it with a spinning flip. 

Persephone gave her A Look. “Careful. Your von Gikkingen is showing.”

“Gotta keep in practice for when I show up my brother.” She wove her hand through Persephone’s paw and continued the helterskelter sprint. “Anyway,” she continued, annoyingly not out of breath yet, “you know we couldn’t just leave it there. They’re the ones selling a dragon’s egg! That should be illegal!”

“I know, but did you consider there were subtler ways to steal it than grabbing it straight off the shop floor?” Persephone demanded. 

“I didn’t just grab it!” Louise retorted, mock-insulted laced into her words.

“Oh Bast, you did the light show, didn’t you?”

“It’s a perfect distraction! Harmless, distracting, snazzy-- OH!” Louise’s wide-brimmed hat flew off as they skidded around a corner, and Persephone caught it with a well-practiced snatch.

“I keep telling you that you should get elastic for this thing,” Persephone admonished. 

“It would spoil the look though.”

“It’ll spoil the look even more if you lose it or it flies off into a river somewhere.”

They slowed as they came to an empty tunnel, dimly-lit with infrequently-used torches, and Persephone passed the hat back to Louise. It sounded like they had thrown off their pursuers by scaling the cave-in. “So, now we’re the caretakers of one dragon egg. Any ideas how we’re going to get it back to its kind?”

“We could always look after it,” Louise offered. She gently rolled the egg out of the bag and admired its shimmering sky-blue surface. “Just until we find its family again. I mean, how hard can looking after a dragonette be?”

Persephone, who had already gone through motherhood once, and that had been with a kitten and not a flying lizard with the ability to spit fire, snorted. “Louise, honey, we are not raising a dragon.”

“I mean, of course we aren’t; we need to get this little fella back to his folks, but having a dragon on our side would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it?”

“HALT! Come back and pay for that, thief!”

Out of nowhere, a short, chameleon-like creature appeared, no taller than the cats’ waists and sporting yellow streaking pattern across its face. 

“This?” Persephone asked to Louise. “This is who you stole from?”

“It’s not my proudest moment, but--”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” she demanded. 

“He was selling a dragon’s egg!” Louise protested. “It’s not stealing if you take something that was already stolen!”

The shopkeeper bared its teeth. “If you don’t pay for it, then I’ll have to make you.”

Louise stepped forward, wielding her parasol between them. “Oh yeah? And who’s going to make me? Persephone, hold the egg.”

“I’ve got the egg. But, Louise--”

Louise threw back the kind of confidently charming smile that Persephone had fallen in love with - and also the kind of smile that usually preceded something reckless. “Don’t worry, love. I think I’ve got this covered.”

“Uh-huh,” Persephone said, all while really wishing that for once, just once, Louise would read up on the worlds before charging into them. She stood back and waited to intercede when she was needed. She watched as Louise swung her parasol in a loose arc designed to firmly knock the shopkeeper off-balance and then miss as the creature vanished. 

“It looks like a chameleon, but its skin is actually more akin to cuttlefish,” Persephone called. “It can change colour to blend in with its background.”

“And you’re -- ow -- you’re only telling me this -- ow -- now? Stop biting me!”

“It’s called practical learning!” Persephone said. 

“And what am I learning? Ow! Cut that out, you little--”    

“To include your wife in your criminal habits. And maybe plan things out for once in your life.”

“Sure, sure -- ow -- next time I’ll draw up a diagram for you.” 

A lucky swing of the parasol found its mark and something slammed into a cave wall. The nothingness shimmered, and yellow scales glitched into view. Beady black eyes stared at them. 

“See?” Louise panted. She straightened, rolling her shoulders back, and approached the shopkeeper. “That wasn’t so difficult.”

“Alright, dear. Just watch out for it’s--”

Persephone faltered as the shopkeeper snapped open its mouth and shot out a long, long pink tongue that slapped Louise’s cheek. 

“--tongue...”

“It licked me! Did you see that! It licked me! It... oooh, that can’t be good...”

Persephone gently set the egg to one side, and rose to her paws. “Let me guess: tingles, sparks, and now you’re beginning to lose all feeling in your cheek?”

“That about sums it up.”

“Then you’d better sit down before the paralysis spreads to the rest of you and makes you sit down.”

“Paralysis?”

“Relax. It’ll wear off.” Persephone ducked as the tongue made another attack and squatted down in front of the shopkeeper. “Hello, sir.”

“Pay up,” he growled.

“No, I don’t think I’m going to do that,” Persephone said. “And before you even consider another lick, just remember that I have a cutlass strapped to each side that can fell ship masts, so consider what it can do to a tongue.” She casually leant both arms on the pummel of each weapon. 

The shopkeeper swallowed nervously and pursed his lips shut. 

“And, given from the almighty smack you’ve just taken, I’m going to guess that your camouflage ability has taken a jolt. Don’t worry - once the stress wears off, you’ll be as as good as new, minus one of your wares. But you’re not going to be vanishing any time soon, am I right? Don’t speak, just nod.”

The shopkeeper nodded. 

“Now,” Persephone continued, “what my wonderful, but slightly over-enthusiastic wife said earlier is true. It’s not really stealing if the thing in question was already stolen. And what you have - had, sorry - is most definitely not something that would be parted for any money. In fact,” and she tilted her head to one side, recounting the facts, “I believe trading dragon eggs is illegal in all worlds in this sector, am I correct?”

Another nod. 

“And a fine, upstanding merchant like yourself would never dream of selling the eggs of a sentient species. So, what is going to happen is this; we are going to go our separate ways - my wife and I will return this egg to the family that you ‘found’ this from, and you are going to go home and reconsider your life choices, capiche?”

More frantic nodding. 

“Good, good. Louise, how are you faring?”

“My legs feel like ants are running up and down them.”

“Ah, that’ll be the pins and needles stage. You’re about a sixth of the way there.”

“Wonderful.” 

Persephone knelt down by her wife and lifted Louise into her arms, balancing precariously to sit the egg in Louise’s dipped lap.

“Have I told you how much I love you?” Louise mumbled.

“Not in the last hour, but you’d better make it quick before the paralysis hits your tongue.” Persephone glanced back to stare daggers at the shopkeeper, just daring him to attempt anything, before her attention was called back to her passenger just as the paralysis did indeed hit Louise’s tongue. “Love, please stop talking. You’re drooling on my coat.”

Louise slurred something that may have been, ‘I love you,’ in the very loosest sense of the phrase. 

Persephone kissed her forehead. “I love you too. Now close your mouth otherwise I’m going to tell your brother all about this little adventure.”

Louise made a disgruntled sound but didn’t attempt to add anything.  

And now off to return a dragon egg to its family. 

How difficult could that be?  

#Anon #replies #the cat returns #cat writes #the shopkeeper is based off the shopkeeper from the pokemon dungeon games #the chameleon pokemon that can beat your ass if you steal from him #I can write nothing for weeks #and then I throw out 1.5K in one evening #ridiulcous #anyway #persephone #louise #the lost ladies

[lee-owens]

It wasn’t long before the three had landed in an opening in the dense forest in the Elven country. By this time Kit’s ears have gone deaf from all of Jane’s screaming and Jane didn’t have a voice left to talk. They had flown for only an hour but it was enough for all three of them to be tired for one day.

Kit slid off of Nirvana and offered his hand to Jane, who took it. She released it as her feet hit the soft ground of the forest but as quickly as Kit’s support was gone, Jane started to fall to the ground. If not for Kit’s reflexes, she would have been on her butt. Yet it was awkward as to where Kit’s hands were on her. They had landed on her stomach and shoulders. The shoulders weren’t as bad as the one on her stomach. She blushed as she nodded her thanks to him and placed her hand on Nirvana to steady herself.

Jane was not used to this kind of attention. Sure there were the maids but they had been all females and really the only males that she had in her life were her father, who really didn’t count, and her personal guard, Sebastian.

Sebastian was like her brother, no romance. That was kind of a lie though. She did have a small crush on the boy as they were the same age and everything. That didn’t work out as well as she had hoped. That was the day Jane had learned of different kinds of love. She had only thought that male and female were to fall in love but Sebastian proved her wrong in many ways.

Jane had blurted out that she liked Sebastian when they were younger, about thirteen or so of age. Of course they couldn’t be together anyways, but he had laughed at her, making her cry. After making sure that Jane didn’t tell her father that he made her cry, Sebastian had explained why he had laughed at her.

In a gentle way so that she could understand, Sebastian had explained that he liked males like she did. At first Jane didn’t understand. What had he meant but liking males like her? After a bit, Jane had understood what he had meant and supported him, complicity even going as far as to say that she would make it so if anyone was to be made fun of by another person for liking the same gender, that person would be beheaded.

That wouldn’t have happened anyway, Jane realized. Not with being forced to marry a king of a different country. That dream had sunk when she found out that she was marrying. Even more so that she was with this boy now. She couldn’t show her face ever again after that stunt he had pulled with kidnapping her. How was that better than marrying that pig?

Jane looked back at Kit, who was setting up what looks like a camp. He was an unknown. He was different from anyone she had ever met before. To the accent and to the way he addresses her. It was not normal for her but it was also not unpleasant either. It kind of felt that she was just a normal human. Not some princess of the human race of Dores. It was just nice.

Looking at Kit for some reason also reminded her of the odd dream that she had last night. She didn’t quite remember what had happened except it was one of the clearest and nicest dreams that she had ever had. She did however, remember something about destiny or whatever. It’s not like that really happened.

Looking at Kit again to see if sparked anymore memories about her dream, Jane was surprised to see him looking at her as well. She snapped her head back to look at Nirvana or anywhere else but Kit. It was only when she heard his laugh that she felt embarrassed. She knew that he meant no harm, at least that’s what she hoped.

“Do you have to laugh at me?” She went for the spoiled brat routine. She had no idea what to say to this boy and she didn’t want to put her real emotions out in the open.

She heard the boy scoff at her. She also heard him drop whatever he was holding and his footsteps getting louder as he stalked towards her.

“You know,” he started, “you don’t have to be such an ass to the person who just saved you from an unwanted marriage,”

“I never asked you to ‘save’ me,” she didn’t mean that. “Why did you do it anyway? It’s not like you had anything to gain from it. Or are you going to hold me for ransom now?”

“As tempting as it sounds,” Jane snapped her head to him as she spotted a scowl, “I wouldn’t do that. Too much work on my part,” he had waved his hand in dismissal. “And as to saving you, talk to my better half for that,” he completed as he patted the back of the dragon that she was still leaning on.

“Your better half?” She questioned.

He laughed and she didn’t know if it was at her or what but he scratched at the nape of his neck.

“Well ya kind of sittin’ on him now,” he laughed again and looked her in the eyes. She blushed at his beautiful face.

“What do you mean?” She shuddered, what had he meant by sitting on his better half? She was just leaning on the dragon. ‘Wait, does he mean,’

“The dragon, you doofus,” he smacked his head with his palm.

Jane scoffed at the boy and started to pace.

“I am a princess, you clown! If anything, boy, are the doofus,” she returned in the most disrespectful was possible. “You were the one that decided to kidnap me!”

“Well excuse me, Princess. How about we take you back since you aren’t as grateful as you should be,”

“You take me back, we all die a slow and painful death,” she snapped.

“Then stop bitching about it!”

Jane raised her hand to slap the taller male but as she swung her hand said male caught her by her wrist.

He then grabbed her other wrist, brought them both up above her head and backed her to a tree and slammed her back into it. The young male held both of her wrist in his left hand, whipped out a dagger from underneath his trench coat and pressed said dagger to Jane’s neck.

“I’ve been trying to be hostility towards you but you are tell pressin’ my buttons,” he spoke in a low and dangerous voice. Jane was quivering in her shoes as he continued. “Now here is how it's gonna go. You pay me with a little more respect or I can leave you here with nothing but the clothes on your back or I can kill you right here, understood?”

“So what is your choice, Princess?” Kit questioned as he slightly pulled back the dagger from Jane’s neck.

She nodded carefully. She opened her mouth but she closed it. Kit’s eyes narrowed.

“I’ll take the first option,” Jane decided. “I’ll treat you with more respect,”

Kit released her wrists and took a step back. He nodded and went back to the makeshift campfire. Jane breathed out a deep sigh. She had thought that she was going to die even if she did take the first choice.

She just wished that she would never see that side of Kit again. Jane was not planning on speaking to the boy anytime soon. He had scared her too much for one day.

“Nirvana!” Kit shouted to the dragon, startling Jane in the progress.

The dragon looked at the other human in mock annoyance. He puffed out his chest and he shot out a small flame green fire.

The campfire bursted into orange flames. Kit raises his hand in thanks to the black dragon. Jane wore a confused look on her face as she wondered how Nirvana knew what Kit had wanted.

“How did you do that?” Jane was beating herself up at her failure to not talk to the boy. She wanted nothing more to take a large rock or log and beat her head into.

Kit looked at her in surprise too. She guessed that he didn’t expect her to talk to him either.

“Do,” he drew out, “what?” He ever so slightly waved his hand as to draw out what she wanted him to say.

“That thing with Nirvana!” She exclaimed as her hands flew to the sky. She then retracted her arms and hands back close to her body when she thought that she might have been rude with that outburst.

Instead of getting a scowling, Jane was met with laughter. Loud, reverberated, laughter. This was not what she was expecting at all. She thought that she was going to be met with a blade at her throat or to the head.

His laughter started to calm down after a little bit. Jane scrunched her nose up in confusion. Why had this peasant laughed at her. Was what she said that funny?

“You guys really don’t know anything about dragons do ya?” He smirked.

“Well no,” Jane was very confused at this point. “There are no dragons here. We just have books about them. Does your country have many dragons?”

“Sit,” Kit patted the log next to him. “I’ll explain it do you,”

The princess gave him a pointed look before sitting on the log next to the mossy brown haired boy but at the very end. As far as she could get away from him but still sitting next to him.

Kit looked at her and rolled his eyes.

“In my country,” he started, he’s accent seemed thicker than normal. “We get to choose a dragon egg if we so desire,”

“What about the parents of the eggs? Aren’t the parents protective of their young?” Jane intruders on the story.

Kit took a long and frustrated sigh. He’s head rested on his palm.

“Most dragans are extremely protective of their nest but since we have treated the dragans with respect on our land, they don’t really have a problem with us taking a few. The dragans know that we take extremely good care of their young,

“Talamh, my country’s name, loves dragans. So when children get ta the age of ten, they have the choice of getting a dragan or not. I choose ta get one. That’s how I got lucky and got Nir here.

“When ya get a dragan, ya make a bond with it. They can hear ya thoughts and ya can hear theirs. It’s as simple as that,”

“So when you said that how Nirvana knows what to do that’s how. That’s also how I decided to rescue ya,”

Jane was in shock. The whole reason that this foreigner decided to save her from an arranged marriage was because a dragon said to. So she sat there, dumbfounded, looking at the campfire and said nothing. How could she. A small part of her wished that he saved her because he wanted to not because someone told him to.

She was saddened by this. It was just a small part of her though. She just had to shake it off like anything else.

“Where are you going to take me?” She asked. “Are you going to drop me off at some place?”

Kit looked at her with mild surprise. He then looked at the fire, he’s hands clasped out in front of him.

“I’m not sure,” he started. “I could take you to my country, since ya can’t really go back to ya home after I kinda took ya. I’m really sorry about that,”

He actually looked kind of pitiful with that expression on his pretty face. Jane shifted uncomfortably on the log when she thought he was pretty. She didn’t need to think that. Instead the Princess wanted to know what this country, Talamh, was like. What Kit’s family was like, if he had any.

“Can you tell me more about yourself?” She coyly asked, turning her head to the right so that it rested on her shoulder and to peer at the young boy to her left.

“Oh, I’m interestin’ aren’t I?” Kit half heartedly boasted.

Jane grumbled and wanted to strangle the boy. He was almost right. That was the part that she hated the most.

When Jane realized her unladylike attitude, she quickly shook herself of those thoughts and began to speak to the older boy.

“It’s in that you are or are not interesting. It’s that I want to know more about you so I don’t make you,” she cut herself and corrected herself, “I don’t want to appear rude to you anymore. Getting to know you will help that,”

“You almost said to make me angry, huh?” Kit poked as he smirked cockily at the princess.

He was right, why did he seem like he was right about everything about her. It wasn’t fair in Jane’s opinion. She could not for the life of her figure out this boy. He seemed older than her, yes, but other than the observation of him, she didn’t have a clue what he was thinking.

She felt herself blush in embarrassment and slight anger. Her fists balled up in frustration of this boy. Or was it herself that she was beginning to become furious with? Jane couldn’t tell at this point.

She let out a strangled cry with her fingernails digging through her raven hair. She felt like pulling it out in frustration. Her slender fingers gradly slid out of her hair, down her face to cover her eyes and she let out a breath she had held in.

She peeked through her fingers when she heard a noise that emitted from the boy. Jane saw him get up from his spot on the other log and took a few strides towards her. He sat extremely close to her on her own log and leaned backwards as his glaze got lost in the brilliance of the fire.

Jane tried to shift her weight on the log to get a little bit farther from the daring male. It made no difference whatsoever because she was already at the edge of the log.

“I didn’t mean to get that angry with you,” the boy plainly put. It was like he had no emotion but in a weird way Jane could feel that he meant it. “I knew I shouldn’t have but it was the only way that I thought of on the spot that could shut you up. Other people I can deal with but you, you I don’t really understand,”

Jane’s eyebrows scrunched upwards as he said that. Why couldn’t he just talk to her like a person would? She guessed that even if he did she might be offended as she was a princess and wasn’t talked to like a normal person.

“Well if it makes you feel any better,” Jane gently inputted. “I’m kind of new to this whole talking to people. We could learn to talk to each other together, right?”

Kit turned to her and out stretched his hand to shake hers. Jane wrinkled her nose in slight disgust but shook it despite it.

“Let’s get some sleep ok? We’re moving a lot tomorrow to get to the mountains to fly to my country,”

And with that Kit laid out a couple of blankets to have her lay on with some for him too.

#dragons #slow burn #own story

[donnieluvsthings]

anyway i’m still thinkin about roceit newsies au...this got SO LONG its basically a bullet fic of the whole plot at this point but uh enjoy!!! its has all the sides and remy and emile bc i rly wanted to shove them all in here aldkaldka

this is based on the musical mostly bc i have never watched the original movie all the way thru oops

roman is jack and remus is crutchie (thanks boop). remus does crazy stunts even with his crutch and roman is Constantly Worried TM and overprotective of remus even tho remus can DEF take care of himself

on the other hand remus knows roman hates working as a newsboy and just wants to escape to some small town where he can become a local artist of some sort. remus wants roman to go CHASE his DREAMS even tho he’s afraid roman might leave him behind

roman may be the actor but remus is great at coming up with gruesome yet intriguing headlines that get people to buy papers and would totally be a great author of some sort

ON THAT NOTE roman dreams of santa fe and can picture it perfectly but whenever he tries to explain it, it comes out as senseless rambling and longing. it’s remus who can really put into words what roman feels (bc theyre bros and they just GET each other)

virgil as davey, patton as les, logan as sarah (its the musical but they have an extra sibling okay. let me have older brother logan)

virgil and patton show up and virgil is super untrusting and hates that theyre basically lying to get people to buy papers but patton is just EXCITED to meet New People!!! and looks up to roman (and remus), like, instantly

it helps that roman promises to take them to a real actual theater after they sell all their papers owned by the one the only emile picani !!!

also roman is the one who first calls him “virge” which is like jack saying “davey” instead of david. yes this is necessary information

so they sell their papers (and roman briefly meets an ESPECIALLY handsome guy wink wink) and go see emile who performs some variant of That’s Rich like the star he is. u cant take singer emile away from me

roman also performs bc i said so. he spies someone watching him during his act up above the stage and climbs up there when he’s done

janus. its janus, if that wasnt clear or u dont know the plot of the newsies musical aldkaldlal

so yeah janus as katherine!! he may be pulitzer’s son but that doesn’t mean his father wants him to be a journalist. pulitzer thinks he should prepare to inherit the publishing company or be a banker or smth, not be a journalist

i just think janus’ “society is a LIE” vibe fits with katherine. i mean, just look at Watch What Happens. “give life’s little guys some ink,” “they’ll storm the gates,” “rich greedy sourpusses” .... idk it just SCREAMS janus to me

ALSO, katherine technically lies about her identity for like 3/4 of the musical, so

anyway! roman meets janus and janus is all suave and lowkey flirty at first but then roman starts flirting BACK and jan is like “uh oh how to talk to cute boys????”

so then he gets all “i have more important things to do” *hair flip* and goes back to the article he’s supposed to be writing about emile’s theater (a lot of his notes are about roman’s performance but nobody needs to know that shhh)

roman draws a portrait of jan and leaves it there and janus gently & dramatically picks it up, stares at it, and tucks it into his suit with a soft smile

uh oh prices for papers went up! virgil steps up and helps roman lead a strike. turns out his caution works GREAT with roman’s determination and they keep each other from going towards extreme overthinking (virgil) or extreme stupidity (roman). they are a TEAM and they are BESTIES.

remus: lets SET THE PAPERS ON FIRE

roman, starry eyed: HECK YEAH LETS DO IT

virgil: how about we dont do that and instead form a union

and then the twins are like GOOD IDEA and tell everyone else. virgil may be a cautious and untrusting and afraid of public speaking but he has good ideas dangit

the intro to seize the day yknow? virgil says a Good Idea (which can probably be traced back to him always listening to logan rant about his studies) and roman spreads the message in a Firm Rebellion-y way to the other newsies

and patton is there doing his absolute best. he may be small but he knows that this isn’t right or fair to the newsboys and he’s ready to physically fight someone

enter logan who is lowkey really proud of virgil for stepping outside of his comfort zone to do whats right. logan may be scared out of his mind for his little bros but he’s gonna help them as much as he can between college and trying to work side jobs to help their fam

basically logan knows janus and tells him that he should report on the strike bc logan wants to help his bros AND his friend however he can

cue janus seeing his opportunity and TAKING it. he’s gonna write about this strike even if no one else will!!! take THAT, father

he also maybe possibly wanted to see roman again. but roman never needs to know that okay what he doesnt know cant hurt him

seize the day happens!!!! they strike!!!! they r powerful!!! but then no one else from any other sections of new york strike with them and they lowkey get rekt

remus mocks the delanceys but that was a BAD decision cuz now theyre targeting him and he gets taken to the REFUGE

roman is SAD bc his brother’s been taken away, no one showed up to help them strike, his brother’s been taken away and he just wants to get OUT of there. run away to santa fe, his ideal world, but he can’t even articulate that because his brother is gone

how is that just act one. how have i written so much yet left out so much???

remus is at the refuge and he’s a little more scared, now, that roman really will just leave him behind even though he knows deep down that roman would never.

still. he writes roman a letter and maybe he goes into a little too much detail about his injuries and the refuge but hey, that’s remus. he writes about how maybe they can run away to santa fe together. he signs it “your brother” and i CRY because they are the best bros

roman reads it and ALSO cries. especially because there it is, the description of santa fe he can never come up with by himself. remus rly does know him, huh

total scene change: janus finds the other newsies (and logan) in a restaurant? bar? and is like “!!! ur on the FRONT PAGE on my newspaper” which i just decided is called the snake instead of the sun

virgil didn’t totally trust janus would follow thru at first but now he’s convinced. they did it!!!! theyre on the front page!!!! the world WILL know!!!!

cue tapdancing!!!!!! king of new york is an absolute bop. i need logan tapdancing daintily and then janus LAUNCHING into some complex tap routine bc the newsies think he too will dance daintily

i know they wouldnt,,, actually dance but just let me have this self-indulgence in this entirely self-indulgent au

the Bro Trio + janus go hunt down roman to show him the paper and find him painting stuff at emile’s all sad and upset bc, well, they lost and remus was taken

but virgil is trying to show him that they made progress!!! sure pulitzer won but he won the BATTLE and actually the poor guy’s head is spinning bc theyre gonna win.

“cmon, ro, if i’m is telling you to be optimistic there must be hope”

see virgil calls him RO and its cute bc roman gave him the nickname ‘virge’ and now virgil’s giving him the nickname ‘ro’ theyre just besties okay

roman is unconvinced but then logan, who roman has actually never met before, steps in with Facts and Statistics, and patton adds some adorable words of encouragement, and janus sassily waves their Front Page Story at him, and roman starts realizing they DO have a chance

but then uh oh pulitzer threatens remus and the Bro Trio and roman is forced to speak out against the strike or risk ruining the lives of everyone he loves. and also he finds out that janus is pulitzer’s son and is Betrayed TM

theres some “he’s just trying to build up a false confidence in u so u can plummet to even greater depths” parallels in there somewhere....u can’t trust many people as a newsie and when roman DOES trust someone turns out he’s the son of the guy ur trying to fight

so roman says overnight in pulitzer’s basement, sleeping on an uncomfortable old printing press, and makes his decision

now for the RALLY

remy is spot conlon bc he DESERVES to be the leader of the brooklyn newsies. brooklyn, flushing, richmond, etc all show up to a newsies rally and are like YEAH!!! STRIKE!!!!

virgil is trying to tame the crowd nervously and keeps waiting for roman to show up bc they work best when theyre working together!!!! finally roman’s there and virgil introduces him (the attention isnt solely on him now thank gosh)

but then roman starts talking about how they dont stand a chance and how they shouldnt go on strike and virgil is just. confused and upset and angry

especially when he sees one of pulitzer’s employees slipping roman wads of money

virgil corners roman afterwards and is absolutely RIPPING into him. roman could fix this if he would just tell virgil the truth, tell him he doesn’t care about the money, he just wanted to keep him and patton and logan safe—

but roman knows if he tells virgil, then virgil will turn all his anger towards pulitzer, will be able to convince roman to keep going, and roman won’t. he can’t put virgil, put his family, at risk.

so he lies.

he doesn’t mean any of it. but he says it.

and maybe he kind of understands why janus lied, too.

he says he’s never had anyone to take care of him or remus, not like virgil does with his parents and his older brother. he says virgil will never know what it’s like.

virgil scoffs and glares and beneath all his fury looks crushed. but there’s still fire in his eyes, a spark roman saw that first day that only grew and engulfed any doubts virgil ever had.

roman says he’ll take the money and go, leave new york behind.

virgil says fine. we don’t need you. because you know what? all those words you said were mine. i didn’t have the courage to say them back then but now i do. we don’t need you.

(because i watched that scene in the movie and like YES go OFF davey i mean virgil)

roman flees to his “bedroom” which is really just a fire escape and just longs for remus’ reassurance. he has the letter but it doesn’t seem as encouraging now, not when he’s lost everything else important to him.

then janus shows up and roman’s mad at him but not mad enough to kick him out. and janus watched roman just give up on everything they’ve been fighting for and just wants to know WHY. why did he turn his back on the newsies when they were so close?

and roman, tired and upset and defeated, just says they wouldn’t succeed. even if all the newsies went on strike no one would report on it, anyway, because pultizer has all the printing presses on lockdown, even the one janus published from. and they already lost once! what more could they possibly do?

roman looks out over the railing, chest heaving from his rant, longing for his imaginary santa fe where he doesn’t have to face his failures. janus stands next to him and puts his hand over roman’s.

“i don’t have a simple answer to that question....but here’s a start.”

and janus pulls out a paper with roman’s words (well, and virgil’s, because virgil said it first but roman rephrased it powerfully, and that’s why they worked as a team) typed out, words that make the strike not about newsies but about ALL working children in the city who are being exploited for their youth and naivety.

it’s an entire article, expertly written. if published it would get the word out to the other newsies that they haven’t given up and show other working children and adults alike that this is IMPORTANT and they aren’t going away.

and then roman remembers his drawings of the refuge and remus’ graphic descriptions and shows them to janus and hey!!! they have a plan!!! they just need to print it....

roman’s like yo there’s an old press in ur dad’s basement he’d never suspect anything

and theyre both so excited and theyre gonna DO this, FINALLY, and janus sees hope on roman’s face again, maybe permanently this time, and janus just leans in and kisses him.

its very sweet and cute and theyre in LOVE

they pull back and kinda stand there awkwardly for a few seconds before both of them start grinning

and they both know its fragile, that they’ve hurt each other and trust was cracked, but it wasn’t broken completely, and they can fix this. they believe in each other and that’s enough for now.

and then they go find virgil at his house

roman knocks on the door and virgil opens it and just. glares at roman. and roman starts rambling apologies and explanations and tries to tell virgil about their plan and did he mention he’s sorry

virgil kinda just stares at him as he goes on and on and the only thing that stops him is patton running out and launching himself at roman

then logan appears behind virgil, and virgil kinda just smiles

“glad to have u back. again.”

and then they go sneak into pulitzer’s basement and print the article with jan’s writing and ro’s drawings and remus’ descriptions and the other newsies go spread the papers ALL around the city

the next morning EVERYONE is out on strike!!! u cant get ANYWHERE without seeing ppl, newsies or otherwise, filling the streets with chants of “seize the day”

roman, with the Bro Trio and Janus trailing close behind, waltzs on in to pulitzer’s office and flings the money pulitzer gave him back on the desk and is like whatcha gonna do NOW, joe??

pulitzer angrily tells them he’s a fool for going back on their deal and logan steps in sayin pulitzer is a fool for letting this get so out of hand over a 10 cent price increase. his sales are down 70%!! objectively the price increase was like the worst business decision ever

virgil’s like plus it’s making u look bad that ur business is the reason most of these kids are suffering. people really love kids, mr pulitzer and patton smiles brightly but in like a menacing way

then emile walks in with a ~dazzling smile~ and is like ur son told me about this whole situation, it’d be a shame if i contacted my good friend governor roosevelt who won’t be as kind as these brave newsies since u tried so hard to stop him from being elected :)

((in the show roosevelt is actually there but i want emile to have a moment to SHINE))

so pulitzer’s like FINE and talks to roman alone and roman wears him down, throwing words from janus, virgil, and pulitzer himself right in pulitzer’s face until FINALLY they have a deal. he’ll lower the prices by half AND pulitzer will buy back whatever they don’t sell full price

roman bursts out of the office into the streets where all the newsies are waiting and is like WE WONNN

and since they published all that stuff about the refuge in the paper, the guy who runs it is being arrested and REMUS IS FREE

the twins hug for like a full two minutes

then pulitzer offers roman a job as a political cartoonist and roman’s like. well idk now that this is over i should probably...head out

bc lowkey he’s thinking virgil still doesn’t wanna see roman ever again and he did say he would leave, so

but then virgil’s like come on, ro, you don’t really think we want u to leave, do u? what’s santa fe got that new york aint? tarantulas? sandstorms? stampedes? you can’t go to santa fe what if you DIE—

and logan says new york’s got us!

patton: and we’re family, right?

then janus is like you got a union to lead! and...you got me.

and remus is like bro, anyone can dream, all you do is close ur eyes! but some made up world is all you’ll ever see. (bc he’s the wordsy one, u see. he helps roman have the poetic realization that his santa fe isn’t real, but this IS)

so roman says well if u guys INSIST.....and then he takes jan’s hand and kinda asks w his eyes and then kisses jan in front of all the newsies who proceed to cheer obnoxiously

when they break apart roman leads janus by the hand over to the paper-buying-cart and slaps some couns down on the table and BUYS SOME PAPERS BC THEYRE NEWSIES BABEY

and everyone lived happily ever after🥰

#sanders sides #roceit #creativitwins #newsies #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfic #bullet fic #repost bc tumblr glitched hardcore #uhh anyway the original tags i had were smth like #‘i rewatched newsies and i love it also i love jeremy jordan also stan newsies the musical’ aldkaldla #roceit newsies au #donnie writes

[merrysithmas]

Hey I love your analysis of the Goldfinch, I've been rereading the book doing the same and it's really helping me in my own analysis. Something I've thought about is how visibly queercoded Theo must come off to other people, based on how many queer people recognize him from the smallest interactions. Is this something you've noticed?

thank you! it’s such a great book and so long and layered it’s so fun to analyze and talk about with others :)

BUT HOLY SHIT YES! I think about this all the time! Theo must come off “visibly queer” for one reason or another — at least in a way that is detectable by other queer people (and likely non queer people if we go off how horribly Theo was bullied and molested in the school showers likely repeatedly and one time in particular he was scarred enough to mention: when they sodomized him with a deodorant stick).

It’s no wonder that he is so hypervigilant with his sexuality and internalized homophobia because he associates his queerness with humiliation and pain. He then endures the museum attack and is stunted psychologically and thus stagnated in that mindset, as he then goes off to live with Larry, likely the least supportive person on Earth, and not someone who would make him feel comforted by his burgeoning interests and growth during puberty.

Imagine if he lived with worldly Audrey in welcoming, accepting, liberal NYC? A cultural paradise for queer people and anyone who sees themselves as different? I believe we are supposed to draw a parallel between this oasis of acceptance and support Theo could have grown up with if he had her, and the barren desert of scorn, internalized homophobia, and self-doubt he experiences with Larry in (in this book) hypermasculine-coded Las Vegas. Showgirls. Xandra’s skin-bearing personal style. Drinking. Devil-may-care gambling and risk-taking and gangsters and money and cigarettes.

Larry also often mocks Theo’s clothes, the sound of Theo’s voice, and Theo’s behavior — something that we could extrapolate as homophobic bullying. Even if Larry never outright says homophobic words by specifically mocking Theo’s choice of clothes, the modulation of his voice, and his mannerisms (all possibly “visibly queer” or different than “normal” which sparks this cruel teasing) this can be surmised. Let’s also remember that Larry is his father and this harmful derision would be doubly as hurtful to Theo — the masculine male influence in his life thinks he dresses poncy, sounds like a girl, and acts like a feminine loser. My heart :(

Then, however we have Boris appear. Boris who instantly compliments Theo on his glasses, telling him he’s cute. Boris whose rag-tag “cool” clothing makes Theo immediately think Boris won’t talk to him. Theo who is accustomed to teasing at school by “cooler kids”. But Boris makes sure Theo knows he thinks he’s cool when he compliments him on being from New York, invites him over his house, invites him up to his room, invites him to watch movies, stay for dinner, and tries to impress him with outlandish stories. A barrage of positive attention Theo is clearly unused to receiving. Boris, who makes the first move to catch Theo’s attention in school, sit next to him in the bus, compliment him, ask to sleep next to him, cuddle him, kiss him — Boris who is more self-aware of his physical desires as a growing teenager, more accepting of the physical parameters and needs of his queerness (even if he doesn’t call it that to himself) chooses Theo of all people to crush on and approach. That tells you enough how visible Theo is as queer.

When Boris compliments his glasses Theo’s initial reaction is brusque. That’s because he’s been teased for those exact glasses by several kids at school in Vegas already. Teased for being “different”. Theo also mentions the kids at school think he dresses in a strange alien manner, as opposed to their sun-drenched uniforms of bright shorts and blonde hair. Negative attention that makes him uncomfortable and insecure. And we associate Theo’s negative self-perception with his perceived queerness by the bullies in school in New York and his father’s mockery of his mannerisms and voice.

There’s also the conversation he has with Mrs Barbour at the end of the book about the bullying shower scene. He details how he and Andy were often picked on together (for their perceived “differentness” and how they were friends of circumstance not immediate compatability - hmmm) and the bullies smashed Andy’s head against the tile, concussing him, as they molested Theo with the stick of deodorant. Mrs Barbour says she should have sued them, and regrets not accepting Andy on “his own terms” like Theo “certainly” did — after which Theo says follows a chilling silence.

There are also the gay men who whisper impish comments in Theo’s ear at a gallery party when they notice he’s high. Theo says they are “younger” and “with it” gay men who “freak him out thoroughly” for noticing him.

And of course, there’s Theo’s fear of Popper making him look “gay”. He’s embarrassed to walk him on the street because it will exacerbate a condition he feels he already has — looking “girly” looking “gay”. Boris comfortingly places Popper on his chest when Theo has nightmares — a solid warm weight that allows Theo to sleep peacefully (as Boris sleeps crunched up against him). Like. Tender moments representing rare self-acceptance.

When Theo returns to New York from Vegas he is approached by two different men on the street and solicited for sex in exchange for money. This terrorizes Theo who runs away from one of them, who pursues him. Obviously this is a nerve-shattering incident on its own— but as a literary symbol: homeless and filthy Theo is rejected by old-boy Mr Barbour and then pursued by a frightening man (representing predatory negative gay sexual desire) before he stumbles, sobbing, on the doorstep of who of all people — Hobie.

There’s also Hobie’s impression of Theo. Hobie (an older gay man) and Pippa (Hobie and Welty’s surrogate child) becoming the foster home and family of Theo is so symbolic in itself. Theo turning up at Hobie’s doorstep, derelict, fevered, alone, and sick as a runaway after fleeing a man who represents negative gay desire and being rejected by masculine sporty Mr Barbour like SCREAMS in your face tragic queer narrative — the homelessness and rejection that queer youth face at horribly skyrocketed levels.

And last but not least we have the symbolism of Welty picking Theo, giving Theo his wedding ring, and asking him to return it to the man he loves.

I loved this question! Thank you for sending this to me! Anyone else have anything else they noticed on this topic?

#robby-brees #the goldfinch #ask #anon #theo decker

[what-the-fuck-is-anime]

So, I want to talk a little more about episode 23.

The fact that Midoriya’s half-assed public intervention for Todoroki went well-ish thus far or otherwise resulted in a really cool battle does not make it any less cruel. His actions, in my eyes, were harmful and maybe even malicious.

I went over my reasoning many times in prior posts regarding this episode. Midoriya was being, in short, a dick to someone who asked him for help in confidence and secrecy. That trust was betrayed in making his plight known to everyone instead of reaching out privately to people who could help, and it was made public in the context of telling a traumatized kid how inconvenient his trauma and coping mechanisms are to others. On TV. I know I mention the TV part a lot, but, these are kids. They are young. They live in a social media world, where people like you and me have access to watch and analyze videos over and over and over. We already know that people in the crowd can hear people from the field, at least to some extent, because we have had several examples of that already. There was that fetch game where they needed to talk to the crowd, there was someone who addressed the commentary box and was heard, the crowd was responding to Midoriya’s words in real time, the commentary box could clearly hear Todoroki’s father from the stand closest to the field meaning they could probably hear the field itself.

And even beyond that, the cameras were probably closer with microphones, and lip reading exists. So even if people in the stands might not be able to hear them now, which at least some of them clearly were, or even could not see their lips move consistently enough to make out what they were saying, a huge majority of the viewers were watching from home. Millions of them. And even in terms of being able to see faces, Todoroki mentioned being able to see his father’s face from the stands, and there are also giant screens showing close-ups of the field that may give the live audience an opportunity to read lips. Bags were allowed in, meaning that individual cameras may have been allowed in, giving an opportunity for people to combine super-zoom videos from multiple angles to decipher the conversations. Plus, this is a world of superpowers, there may very well be a culture surrounding lip reading or otherwise transcribing events by people who have Quirks that allow them to do so. This is one of the worst possible settings to discuss Todoroki’s left side, because not only is he very publicly having flashbacks, but however he responds will be forever recorded for the world to see. He did not ask to be grilled about his home life and coping mechanisms in the middle of this fight.

And once that information gets out to the public, there is no taking it back. Ever.

Todoroki had almost no power in his life, no power to stop the abuse, and he was hardly comfortable talking about it in the first place. He was hardly comfortable talking to other people at all. All Might drilled into Midoriya that media actions have consequence, and even accidentally bringing something up can harm someone forever. He made sure that was understood when they first met and began training. Midoriya has lived the past year or so knowing that some degree of paranoia and alertness is essential to protecting himself and everyone else’s secrets, which is especially important in a world with so many secret identities. Yet when it came to facing Todoroki on the battlefield, an event with an emphasis on how unprecedentedly large and internationally viewed it is, Midoriya gave himself permission to take control of Todoroki’s situation. He chose to confront him on a field that he could not escape, and humiliated him for the “selfishness” of his trauma and coping skills. Midoriya went on and on about how hard everyone else was trying and put international pressure on Todoroki to just abandon what he viewed as a way to keep himself safe from his father.

Todoroki had very few options in how to respond in this setting. He could not physically just walk away. He could disregard what Midoriya said and keep fighting, leaving people to speculate about what those words meant, and then give the crowd an opportunity to hate him even more for not giving in his all like everyone else. Midoriya made Todoroki into the crowd’s enemy with accusations of not taking it seriously, and the crowd already hated him to the point they refused to celebrate his last victory. This option sucks because Todoroki already struggles to make connections with others and already struggles with how much he is hated at home. He wanted to be a beloved hero, too, and being hated by the public is an awful start to that, especially when he has no supportive home to return to. This option results in everyone hating him. Midoriya said that Todoroki was being selfish by not using his full power, so whose words would more likely be considered? Those of the remarkable first place race kid who has had many miraculous stunts so far, or the words of the awkward overpowered and already hated kid who puts others in danger with his power? If Todoroki ignored Midoriya, it would have ended up with everyone siding with Midoriya, because not being able to respond to such a passionate accusation of being a selfish asshole is not a great look.

He could talk back, and explain how Midoriya knew nothing of his situation or otherwise defended trying to reject his father, but that would give everyone even MORE information about his home life. His father was watching, his mother was probably watching, his whole family was probably watching, and his dad could have gotten even angrier and more violent. Todoroki would have to acknowledge Midoriya’s words as truth, give more context to the crowd, and lay bare struggles that they have no business even knowing until Midoriya decided it should be everyone’s business. Todoroki is very clearly not appreciating the situation, and kept this a secret for one reason for another, as neither his teachers nor his classmates seemed to be aware of the situation. Even when he finally uses his left side, he weeps.

He could change the subject, but his mind was too occupied with the whole traumatic flashback bit to probably think of anything else to talk about, and he never was good at engaging in conversation with others to begin with, largely as a result from this trauma.

He could comment about how he knows Midoriya is somehow involved with All Might if he wanted to take a vengeful route, since Midoriya was betraying his trust, but evidently he has the sense to actually keep someone else’s secret.

The path he actually took was not necessarily entirely of his own will. He embraced his fire, he encouraged his ecstatic father, and it even resulted in people thinking his father was a good dad. Todoroki gave everyone an epic fight, and gave the viewers something cool to watch. But it sucked. Choosing his fire may have even been an act of self-defense against his father, because the other options would draw more attention to what Midoriya said. Giving everyone such a cool fight may have been in his mind a distraction from a predicament he was entirely forced into. He was crying when he did it, who knows the specifics of those tears?

There were no safe responses, and even the conversation was unsafe. They caused a string of traumatic flashbacks that he had to powerlessly experience in front of the world. He was already tired, he had just trusted this guy, he was having flashbacks non-stop, and he could not walk away or change the subject. Midoriya never should have said anything in this setting. The entire world gets to watch Todoroki experience this trauma as much as they want, Todoroki may become traumatized by the whole event, especially depending on his father’s actions when they get home. When everyone else in class probably is going to be analyzing the event for how to improve, Todoroki is going to have to sit there and suffer silently and rewatch himself be forcibly traumatized on TV and wonder if he did the right thing in a situation he never should have had to even consider. He may even be asked to explain what was going on as an example for the rest of the class, since he was the one who won that round. DVDs and Blu-Rays are probably going to be sold of the events. Merchandise of epic moments and prints of facial expressions and professional photos. Clips taken out of context and replayed on the news. Television might not be safe for Todoroki to just casually watch now. I have no idea how many Olympic commercials there are in Japan, but in America we have Olympic clips played in commercials, on the news, and at absolutely any time they become relevant. A lot of people bullied and abused offline try to seek out others online, so if Todoroki had an online life to try to escape, it will also probably be saturated with photos and analyses of him. Hell, assuming he used a fake name in such a situation, he may even encounter online friends speculating about him or posting pictures and videos of him. Comment sections are notoriously toxic, and people online can be very cruel. He is a teenager with virtually no support struggles to cope with his extreme abuse, and probably does not have the resources to cope with being mocked for his abuse either.

Regardless of whether or not everyone reacting to the battle realized that the conversation was about extreme abuse, Todoroki was clearly zoning out during the flashbacks. While the rest of his classmates might love to read about the first impressions they made on the world through with own performances, Todoroki’s most profound memories of the fight are largely the flashbacks from Midoriya’s words. Their fight had the biggest explosion in the event up until that point, so it would have been an especially iconic, shared, and analyzed segment compared to the other battles. Coming across criticisms regarding the flashbacks or even the abuse itself can cause massive lasting damage. Although any event and any battle is prone to being on the receiving end of cruelty, having traumatic experiences invalidated is extremely distressing, especially for a kid without a support system. Especially since he likely has a much smaller frame of reference for how others should treat him due to how isolated he is in terms of supportive and healthy relationships. And especially because he was not prepared to confront his abuse in the middle of the match. He was zoning out because he was having flashbacks, and criticism of that zoning out is indirect criticism of his trauma whether the people commenting realize it or not. Through the battle it was established that the son of the second most powerful hero in the world rejected his own father. That will probably not go over well considering how massive of an international fanbase he must have, which may lead to people hating and doubting Todoroki, calling him dramatic, or otherwise further invalidating his experiences. A lot of the crowd already disliked him. Reading into the internet’s reaction might make him more afraid and paranoid of his father if the majority opinion of Todoroki is negative, since it affects his father’s image and his ideals for his son becoming the perfect hero and an extension of himself. If the majority of the internet began to talk about the abuse, his father may become enraged from damage done to his own reputation. Online or offline, there is nowhere safe for him.

If Midoriya actually primarily cared about Todoroki insulting everyone else’s efforts, he would have confronted Todoroki immediately when the abuse was revealed to him and the challenge was given. If Midoriya really cared whether people were insulted in the first place, he would have actually asked whether they were. If he actually primarily cared about the abuse, he would have told All Might when they met in the hallway. If he actually cared the most about Todoroki, he would have waited until they were off of TV and helped him through it as a secret like it was supposed to be. If Todoroki did not want intend for it to be a secret, he probably would not have had the conversation with Midoriya in as remote a location as possible.

Midoriya claims to be arguing entirely for the sake of his wonderful supportive friends, but how of that is really true? His entire argument is that his classmates would be insulted by the situation even if they had the full story, because of how hard they are working, and how much not using a Quirk to the fullest extent is a disrespect to the event. The full situation being that Todoroki uses only half of his power to try to convince the second most powerful person in the world to stop hurting him. Saying that his entire class would be offended knowing that is making some pretty harsh judgments about their character. He says that they would care more about the sanctity of the event than physically protecting their friend from cruel abuse. Midoriya takes advantage of social power dynamics here, trying to place pressure on him that does not actually exist. Telling anyone that they do something because everyone else wants them to is usually not a great idea, especially with regards to how to handle trauma. It makes the traumatized person feel even more like an outsider, and with regards to abuse, feeling like everyone else has the power while he has none.

He goes on and on about how supportive his friends are and how much he loves his wonderful supportive friends, so why is it that he thinks they would be offended by their classmate trying to avoid being physically beaten on a regular basis by one of the strongest people in the world? Regardless of what they might think of the abuse, nobody has been upset so far about Todoroki. Nobody! And that is even without knowing why he only uses half of his power. Nobody cares. Nobody has ever said anything about it, even when some acknowledged that Todoroki was purposely only using his right side. Midoriya is projecting. He is saying, oh no, I am not the one upset here, but everyone else is. Trying to imply that he was not the one insulted, but everyone else is, so he has to put words in their mouths and protect their honor. There are, at the moment, only two people who both know the entirety of the situation and are insulted by it: Midoriya and Todoroki’s dad. Even fucking Bakugo, who knows the deal because he was secretly listening in, did not seem to be offended at fucking all. He also did not do anything about it, and that is pretty much expected of him at this point, but he very rarely tries to hide any anger, ever. Even though neither of them realized he was listening, it still goes to demonstrate that even the angriest person in the class was not bothered. Not to mention the fact that now that Midoriya went on and on about how Todoroki is insulting his classmates and their efforts, they have no idea what is going on. They have no idea why Midoriya is saying this. They can only assume that Todoroki is in one way or another doing this as a direct insult to them.

Todoroki does not know a lot about his classmates. He prefers to be alone and struggles with relationships and communication, probably partly because of the abuse he experiences at home. So when Midoriya says that his classmates would be angry with him, he is inclined to believe it, because Midoriya has spent so much more time around his classmates and is so much more liked by them. He knows them better. But he is lying through his teeth. And now Todoroki might hesitate to engage with them because Midoriya claimed they would be angry about his situation, and now they might even think Todoroki hates them because of how hard Midoriya insisted they were being insulted. Midoriya used his friends as weapons to convince Todoroki to do what he wanted, and turning them against him in the process while discouraging Todoroki from ever reaching out to them.

When it comes to people caring at all about the sanctity of the event or being respectful about it or whatever, Midoriya is making absolutely everything up. He is so full of shit to the brim. Nobody thus far really cares about the sanctity of the event or forcing people to use their Quirks to the full. Bakugo purposely mangled the pledge right at the start, embarrassed the entire school, disrespected his teammates and tried to fight on his own during the cavalry battle, and his classmates still sit near him and talk to him like a friend. The girls were tricked into wearing cheerleader uniforms and embarrassing themselves and nobody said anything. Mineta attached himself to someone else to make it to the finish line. The inventor girl tied up her opponent and used her battle to advertise her inventions and then forfeit and the only one upset was her opponent who got tied up.

In terms of not using a Quirk entirely being disrespectful somehow, that is horseshit too, because more people were upset about Shinso using his Quirk at all than Todoroki not using all of his. Shoji used his body to protect Mineta during the cavalry battle, and people were mad about it. People were angry with Bakugo for fighting too hard. The crowd refused to support Todoroki’s win because he was too strong. Nobody cares about what Midoriya claims everyone is offended about, because he is projecting. Midoriya insists that Todoroki’s actions are unfair to others even though those were his words and thoughts, exclusively.

And these are bold claims coming from the kid who is actively supported and personally tutored by the strongest man in the world, and also everyone else’s teacher. Is Midoriya’s own deal not more insulting to everyone else? He only started exercising when All Might told him to, and he only has a Quirk because of luck. He wanted to get in to UA through sheer force of will and almost nothing else. It was not even entirely his own power that won the fight with Shinso, it was everyone else’s power who had that Quirk before him. No matter how far Midoriya falls, All Might is absolutely dedicated to making him into a hero, so he never even has to worry about failing in school. The teacher is personally dedicated to ensuring his success. He basically has a guaranteed future. Plus, those aside, he has all the support in the world. He can go home and feel safe. His friends love him. He is individually encouraged by his idol.

Meanwhile, Todoroki is actively abused at home. He feels safe nowhere, nobody is protecting him. The entire world has failed him. His attempt to protect himself was to reject his left side in order to hopefully discourage his father from hurting him more. His father insists that this is a phase and that Todoroki has no will on his own, and the ongoing rejection of his left side is an attempt to prove to his father that he will not be controlled and that his will is stronger.

Even this character development, even this alleged progress on Todoroki’s part is not solely his. His father got to celebrate. He was overjoyed! His father was proven right, that this was a phase, and now he takes that as being told he successfully can overpower and manipulate his son. This may have been exactly the wrong decision, and Todoroki is probably going to regret it. His reward for “overcoming” his trauma is to go home and get hit harder. Todoroki failing to maintain his willpower regarding the rejection of his father encourages his father to disregard any future objections or rebellion, because evidently his resolve to not use his left side was a failure. That means Todoroki is not as stubborn as he claimed to be, and that his father has in his mind a better chance of manipulating him now. It would have been much safer to make the progress in using his left side in secret until he was strong enough to confidently protect himself from his father. Plus, Todoroki did not even need to use his left side. Midoriya had one, maybe two shots left before the battle was going to become a very slow fist fight with one person being almost entirely immobile. Todoroki could have just stalled a little bit, defrosted somewhat, then charged in on his completely battered and nearly immobile opponent and decked him in the face. As we saw, Todoroki is potentially even more ripped than Midoriya. Or, hell, just cover the field with ice and just slide him out of bounds. Midoriya had two legs left, and almost no use of his fingers. He could hardly fight back beyond that last hit, and Todoroki managed to avoid being impaled by his own ice being thrown back at him. At most, Todoroki would have to survive two more hits before an almost guaranteed win. Eventually the adrenaline would wear off too, making Midoriya succumb to his own injuries and extremely prone to a fist to the face. There was no reason to use his left side.

So who actually benefits from Todoroki using his left side? Easy. Midoriya and Todoroki’s dad. Midoriya gets to have a cool epic battle and prove himself to others. He gets to look like a big strong hero, and everyone thinks him encouraging Todoroki was an act of sportsmanship. Everyone is going to love that stunt, because nobody knows what he was actually talking about, and nobody may ever know because Midoriya insisted everyone would still be offended by it. Todoroki might now be afraid to reach out, because he was told how much he offended his classmates. Of course he would believe it, because people get upset no matter what he does. He was too strong in his last match, according to the crowd. Midoriya gets to show off to everyone how willing he is to fight the son of the #2 hero, and prove to himself just how far he has come. There is not even a huge reason for him to need to win beyond his own pride, because again, he is personally tutored by the #1 hero on the planet and has a job and a legacy secured for him no matter what he does anymore. Midoriya manipulated Todoroki using his friends as weapons to improve his own image, at the expense of Todoroki having to endure more abuse. It was worth it to him.

Midoriya went too far. I already went over his perceived importance of this event. Going up against Todoroki at his full power was mostly his own selfish desire, maybe just to show how far he had come from being Quirkless and to prove to the world that he can handle himself against a natural born powerhouse. It was not at all about anyone else’s feelings, not even the person he allegedly wanted to help, and entirely about what he wanted, and how he felt entitled to an epic battle. Midoriya was in complete control over someone’s secret, abused that control, exploited someone’s vulnerabilities with social pressure, and did irreparable damage to someone he claimed to want to help. He accused others of being offended when he was the only one offended, he accused Todoroki of being selfish, but in reality, Midoriya was the selfish one. Even though Todoroki used his left side, using his left side was not the root of his problems in the minds of anyone other than his father and Midoriya. Todoroki’s rejection of his left side was a defense mechanism to try and establish his own resolve and independence and to discourage his father from abusing and manipulating him more. The “progress” towards reclaiming his own power was forced upon him by someone who manipulated him with self-centered intentions after being trusted to keep his abuse a secret, in an extremely public setting that put him in even more danger of the abuse that made him reject it in the first place.

For Midoriya’s sake, I really hope the pain was clouding his judgment, because this is a real bad fucking look.

#mha #bnha #liveblog #ep23 #reflection #wtfia

[buttdawg]

I'm still pissed about Jim Cornette, so I guess I'll write about it here.

I listened to his podcast yesterday to see if there would be any contrition over his Ethiopia joke, and there really wasn't. The closest he got was to express regret for distracting attention away from NWA, which he seems to sincerrly wish to support. Then he offered this conditional apology based on how people reacted to what he said:

1) If you disliked his joke and thought it was in poor taste, he apologizes for what he said.

2) If you're Black and found it offensive, he didn't intend for it to be racist.

3) If you're outraged by what he said, beyond what he thinks is reasonable for a situation like this, then you can fuck off, because he never cared what you think of him anyway.

That's just bullshit, and I'm gonna tell you why. In the same podcast, he admits that he has anger management issues. He's gone on record as saying that if there was a way to do it legally, he would murder Vince Russo in cold blood. He carries a lifelong grudge against Kenny Omega because he wrestled an inflatable doll in Japan several years ago. And yet this guy has the temerity to complain when he thinks people are overreacting to him. "Whoa, whoa, come on, people, it was just a joke. Why are you so bent out of shape over this?" Well the blow up doll was a joke too, but you still want Kenny Omega run out of the wrestling business for it.

I've been listening to a few Cornette podcasts since AEW started, mostly because they were free on YouTube, and because Corny's a lot easier to listen to than the schmucks at Wrestling Observer. I found a lot of his hatred towards AEW unfair, but occasionally he made some valid points. Like the Cody/Dustin vs Young Bucks match going too long. He said it felt like they did three shorter matches in one, and the first leg was the best of the three, so they would have been smarter to wrap it up early and end on a high note. When he said that, I was like "Hey yeah," because I felt the same way but I couldn't put it into words at the time.

But mostly he just hates AEW for the unforgivable crime of existing in spite of his complaints. He respects and likes maybe a third of its talent, but he can't seem to fathom why those guys put up with the two-thirds that he hates. Maybe it's because guys like Cody and Jericho and Hangman Page are smart enough to understand that they're good for business, even if they have different styles in the ring. Cornette's problem is that he's too brittle.

That, and he's a hypocrite. He keeps ragging on wrestlers for exposing the business and not looking enough like real athletes. He craps on guys like Joey Janela for not looking muscular enough, sort of like how he crapped on Kevin Steen before he went to WWE and became a multi-time champion. I'm sure Joey's terrified of suffering the same fate. One of Cornette's talking points is how they don't just sign anyone for the NBA, and they don't just bring fans in to play the Super Bowl because they want to. But that's stupid. Joey and Marko Stunt got signed to AEW. They're legit members of the roster, and they're over. The only downside to these guys is that they don't look like football players, except nobody cares about that, so it isn't a problem at all.

Cornette gripes and gripes about professionalism in wrestling, and how there's no room for cheap gimmicks or bad comedy, except his entire decades-long career in wrestling has been spent acting as an insult comic with a loud suit and a tennis racket. He's probably mad at Kenny Omega for wrestling the blow-up doll because he kind of looks like a blow-up doll, so maybe he took it personally. He cries about kayfabe and protecting the business at all costs, and then he uses every opportunity he has to bury wrestlers and air all the dirty laundry from backstage. Every episode of NWA Powerrr had at least one instance of him bashing AEW as "cosplay" wrestling, which doesn't help anybody. If you don't watch AEW, you wouldn't know what he's talking about, and if you watch NWA and AEW, then he's insulting your taste. It's bad announcing, pure and simple. He's only out there to push his own agenda, not the wrestlers.

I can give him a modicum of respect for resigning from NWA. According to his podcast, he only worked for them to help support their product, because he believes so much in what they're doing. But it's become clear that the controversey he generates is distracting the public from NWA's brand. I read a tweet from Nick Aldis this week where he was very diplomatic and expressed great regret for what Cornette had said. He said it didn't represent what he wanted NWA to be. I like Nick Aldis, because I can tell that he's trying as hard as he can to carry himself like the "Real World's Chamion" in the tradition of Ric Flair and Harley Race. I don't know if he's succeeding or not, but I respect the effort he's putting in, because he wants to make NWA special and he wants to be a champion in a way that Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar and Bray Wyatt aren't. But as long as Cornette was associated with the brand, his efforts would always be undercut by whatever whackamaroo nonsense he says next.

So maybe Cornette had that in mind when he quit, but from his podcast, I got the sense that it's not like he needed the job, and it wasn't fun anymore, and he was getting fed up with the PR headaches. That explains why he was so flippant on NWA Powerrr. He was showing up to have fun and relive the old days. Nick Aldis ain't there to screw around. He's trying to build a better career for himself and his co-workers.

And it's that flippancy that pisses me off. Cornette stopped giving a fuck years ago, I guess because he's got a successful business selling merch and dvds of old matches and public appearances and such. He doesn't need to "protect the business" anymore because he's got his own business separate from any promotion. His gigs with MLW and NWA are a way for him to promote his stuff, so if he says something shitty on their air, it just drives up hits on his website. That's the worst possible scenario for a color commentator. Cornette cries foul because Excalibur wears a mask on AEW Dynamite, but at least Ex is concentrating on making AEW talent look good. He's not telling racist jokes to fill dead air, or to get more eyeballs on his website.

It's impossible for me to express how stupid that Ethiopia joke was. The racism was so obvious that it makes all the defenses of it especially flimsy. Cornette insists he was mocking starving people, like that makes it okay. He told the story of how he invented the joke and Ray Traylor thought it was hilarious in 1985, and TBS and USA never got in trouble for it, so that somehow makes it okay forever. Cornette's fans talk about how they think the joke's okay, simply because they thought it was funny, like that makes a bit of difference in a PR situation like this.

Then you see people cry about how "sensitive" everyone is these days. Like, no shit, that's how public relations works. If your business does something offensive enough, it hurts your brand and your business suffers. So you have to be mindful of people's sensitivity. Complaining about it is useless. That'd be like going on Twitter after the Notre Dame fire and saying "Wood sure is flammable these days." Well how does that solve anything, dumbass?

It's all a bunch of bullshit. Cornette's using thirty-year old jokes because a dead guy laughed at it once and he's too arrogant to re-evaluate it for the present day. He's mad at wrestling fans for objecting to his behavior, except they're the customers, for fuck's sake. I've never seen anyone so obsessed with protecting the business and simultaneously so insulting towards the people who pay for the product. He hates AEW because he doesn't approve of their methods. Except they do good business and can sell out buildings pretty regularly. There's clearly an audience for how AEW does things. You tell him that, and he'll respond that their audience doesn't count, because they're all 30 or 40 something single men who are probably virgins or they're lose interest when the next fad comes along. So it's not enough to sell out a venue, you have to get x percent old people and y percent women and z percent children, or whatever they used to draw in Mid South in 1987. Dave Meltzer likes AEW, so Cornette now thinks he's an idiot too, even though he's been covering wrestling for decades. He's trapped himself in this binary mindset where the only real wrestling fans are the ones who agree with him and approve of his dated jokes and out-of touch worldview. Everyone else deserves to be shot.

That's why NWA is better off without Cornette. They may not realize it, but he was never on their side, not really. Sooner or later they would have offended his rigid, inflexible sense of What Wrestling Should Be, and he'd turn on them too. At least this way, it's a clean break, and they don't have him talking about fried chicken during Nick Aldis matches or how Trevor Murdoch's beer gut is somehow more athletic than Kenny Omega in a Street Fighter costume.

#jim cornette #nwa #in hindsight i guess the only real reason i listened to cornette's podcasts was because i enjoyed aew so much #that i wanted to get more aew content #even if it was to hear someone complain about it #but yeah i'm done with that shit

[jemichi90]

Corazon Week - Day 1 “Fury / Pity”

This is a short introduction to my story ”The Ruins of a Man” and my entry for the first day of ”Corazon Week 2018” @corazon-week with the prompts being fury and pity. I feel like BOTH of those themes fit the following scenes well - from the characters' point of view, but maybe also as something the readers would feel. The story is a lot different than the stuff I usually write so if dark themes and things like torture and graphic descriptions of injuries and medical procedures make you uncomfortable, this might not be for you. Proceed with caution, I guess. ;)

__________________________

The sound of metal tools being used, as well as people talking somewhere in the distance slowly pulled the man somewhat awake. He was having a hard time remembering where he was and his eyelids felt too heavy to open. For some reason Rosinante's mind just seemed too fuzzy to think properly but he knew there was something important he needed to remember.

Rosinante's whole body was feeling unnaturally numb, but he realised that his arms had been bound together to an awkward position behind his back, and if the feeling of being completely powerless was anything to go by, he was bound with chains made of kairouseki.

So he got caught, huh? By whom?

As the man started wondering this, still half asleep, he was suddenly splashed with cold water, effectively pulling him completely back to reality.

"At last!" Doflamingo's voice commented coldly as Rosinante opened his eyes and blinked a few times.

Then the realisation hit him and he could barely stop himself from panicking.

Was Law safe? Did he get caught too?

Rosinante had been shot, several times too, and left to die in the snow on that cold island. He thought he had died for sure. So why was he here now? And how?

His body was mostly numb and powerless, and he was unable to move his limbs except for his right arm, even though the chains prevented him from moving it much either so the man just lied on the floor as he tried to clear his mind.

"Good morning, Corazon," Doflamingo greeted him with faked happiness, drawing the man's attention to himself. He was smiling widely but Rosinante knew that the smile never reached his eyes, even if he couldn't see it.

"Uhhh..." Rosinante shifted in his bonds to get a better view of his surroundings but the movement sent a twinge of pain through his body. Doflamingo was examining him from the doorway of the cell and holding an empty bucket in one hand. The way his veins were bulging on his forehead made it obvious that he was angry even when he was smiling. Rosinante stared at his brother blankly for a moment before he resumed observing his surroundings. The stone floor was still wet from the water Doflamingo had splashed him with. He was suddenly aware of his exposed state and his countless wounds that, to his surprise, had stopped bleeding. Doflamingo noticed what he was looking at.

”Look at you and that sad state of yours. What a tragedy!” Doflamingo shook his head slowly as he observed his brother through his sunglasses.  

Rosinante lifted his head weakly and tried to change into a more comfortable position again but failed miserably as the chains restrained him from moving. He could barely resist the urge to flinch and yelp in pain as the still fresh wounds made contact with the rough stone floor.

Doflamingo ignored his struggle and started walking slowly back and forth in the cell. He dropped the bucket in the corner and Rosinante could see his fingers twitching. ”I'm really disappointed, you know,” the man said as he looked at Rosinante again. ”I really wanted to trust you, Corazon, but then you just had to go and pull such a foolish stunt on me. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me?” He took a step closer to Rosinante and his forced smile shifted into an angry scowl.

With the memories from Minion island still fresh in his mind, Rosinante couldn't help but feel frightened of his brother and whatever he was planning to do. He would have wanted nothing more than to run away from there but he knew it was hopeless so he just glared back at his brother defiantly. ”Hard? Look who's talking,” he commented bitterly. ”You shot me yourself.”  

Doflamingo leaned closer to his brother and grabbed his chin. ”You pointed a gun at me. What else should I have done?” His voice was low and threatening and Rosinante recoiled a little. He could see his own fearful expression reflected from the man's sunglasses.

”Only a monster would think like that!” Rosinante hissed through clenched teeth and tried to jerk his face away. ”You weren't planning to let me live either way, isn't that right?”

Doflamingo looked at him and grinned. ”Fufufu, how perceptive of you, Corazon,” he said and tightened his grip on Rosinante's chin so that he was forced to look at him again. ”But didn't I still save you? Just who do you think took care of your wounds?”

”You call this 'saving' someone. That's ridiculous!” Rosinante had to concentrate to keep his fear under control as he faced his brother. It was just like on that island, he thought, grateful that Law wasn't there this time. This wasn't a person that would just save someone out of kindness, especially not after shooting that person himself. He didn't even want to think about the reasons Doffy might have for keeping him alive.

Doflamingo leaned even closer to him and his grin faded away.

Rosinante could tell he was getting more annoyed. Finally he felt the force on his chin slacken as Doflamingo let his head fall back to the floor and resumed walking around the cell.

”You make me sad,” Doflamingo complained and crossed his arms loosely. ”I didn't want to do any of this,” he continued and rubbed his jaw pensively. ”I really thought you understood me, but in the end even you turned against me and betrayed me. It's such a shame, really.” The man's voice was cold and if he actually felt anything other than anger, he managed to hide it perfectly. He huffed irritably and stopped next to his brother again.

”How could I understand someone so cruel?! I haven't forgotten what you did to father...” Rosinante glared at Doflamingo.

”Cruel? Isn't that a bit too harsh for you to say,” Doflamingo rebutted. ”You can't blame me for your current situation. You really are just like father, aren't you..? You knew very well what would happen if you turned against me, Corazon.” The threatening tone was returning to Doflamingo's voice as he bent down next to Rosinante again. He toyed with his hair for a moment. Rosinante wanted to back away but he knew it was futile so he just remained silent.

”It's unfortunate that things had to turn out like this,” Doflamingo lamented. ”But what is done is done,” he added while gazing at the bullet wounds on his brother's body. His expression shifted into a cruel smile. ”But even if it was by fate, you made the wrong decision, Corazon. I can't just let you go after something like that.” With a flick of his wrist he made strings appear, trapping Rosinante like the web of a spider. ”That would put my whole family in danger when you know so much. You picked the wrong side.” Doflamingo's smile didn't falter as he tightened the strings around his brother enough to make him gasp for air.

Rosinante tried desperately to hold on to what remained of his composure but his voice sounded small and weak when he spoke. ”I was prepared for the consequences if I'd get caught,” he said and took a rattling breath. ”There is one thing I didn't expect though. I didn't think you'd keep me alive.”

”Fufu, I couldn't just leave my cute little brother to die, could I?” Doflamingo laughed, but to Rosinante it sounded like he was mocking him, getting some kind of sick amusement from the situation.

”I don't need that kind of nonsense, Doffy. You must have had a reason. You always do,” Rosinante managed to say. ”What do you need me for?” Even when Rosinante didn't want to think about it, he needed to know.

”Come on, don't be so harsh, Corazon,” Doflamingo said. ”You are right though. What you did on that island is a big problem for me, you see. But it's for your own good if you don't know what I'm planning.”  

”If it's about Dressrosa, I already know what you are thinking,” Rosinante said bitterly, remembering how he was never able to send his report.

”Look, Vergo told me about your little letter,” Doflamingo commented as if reading his mind. ”Your situation here is nothing compared to the problems you would have caused to us with that letter. You know a little too much already.” Doflamingo paused for a moment and smirked. ”It's a lot bigger than you are imagining though. That country is only the beginning of it.” He lifted his brother so that they were face to face with each other.

”What do you mean?” Rosinante looked at his brother confused. He had been hearing about Dressrosa ever since they were children, but there was clearly something he didn't know.

”Didn't I say it's better if you don't know, Corazon,” Doflamingo said and shook his head. ”If I tell you any more about it, I'll really have to kill you.” His smile grew wider and it sent shudders down Rosinante's spine. ”Fufufu, that would be a waste, but I need to make sure you'll never try to reveal our secrets to anyone ever again.” Doflamingo paused for a moment. ”It would have been better for you if you had never heard anything about those plans to begin with.”

Rosinante frowned. ”Are you going to keep me as a prisoner indefinitely then? What if someone comes searching for me? This place will be found eventually.”

Doflamingo laughed. ”Fufufu, aren't you being surprisingly sharp today! Maybe that's exactly what I want,” he replied. ”Don't worry, I'll make sure it will never happen again. I will never let you hear our plans or tell anyone about them no matter what.”

”A trap, huh?” Rosinante was getting a bad feeling about it, but Doflamingo interrupted him before he could ask any more questions.

”Enough with the boring stuff. There is something else that I'd like to know, Corazon,” Doflamingo started as he was observing the man that was still hanging limply from his strings. ”Ever since you woke up, you haven't even tried to move. I'm pretty sure I patched up all those wounds well enough for you to be able to at least sit up and support your own weight. But you've been like this the whole time...” He paused for a moment and looked at his brother closely. ”Those handcuffs are made of kairouseki. Could it be that you are actually a devil fruit user?”

Rosinante glared at his brother. ”Why should I tell you that?!”

Doflamingo frowned. ”Don't anger me now, Corazon. Just how many secrets have you kept from us? What type of ability do you have anyway?”

”That's none of your business. If you won't tell me anything, I won't tell you that either,” Rosinante retorted. ”And why are you still calling me 'Corazon'? Haven't you found anyone to replace me yet?” He knew exactly  how dangerous it was to make Doflamingo mad but he hardly cared. It was far too late to worry about that, even when he coudn't shake away the fear he felt as he faced the man. At least he wasn't going to make things too easy for him.

Doflamingo examined his brother through his sunglasses with an amused smirk. ”Fufu, I guess there is no harm in telling you that,” Doflamingo agreed to Rosinante's surprise. ”That seat has been reserved for someone for a while already.”

”And who would that be?” Rosinante asked even when he was afraid he knew the answer already.

Doflamingo looked at him closely. ”There's no use playing dumb now. You should know that very well.” He paused for a moment and his smile vanished. ”Things changed a little when you stole the Ope Ope fruit and made Law eat it, but there won't be anyone else on that seat until I find that kid. He's going to be the third 'Corazon' as soon as he returns to me, but until then no one will take that title from you. Even when you are a traitor...”

Rosinante smiled weakly. ”Law will never come back to someone like you!”

Doflamingo laughed coldly. ”What makes you so sure about it?” Rosinante barely had the time to react as Doflamingo shoved him away roughly. He slumped against the wall of the cell, but his brother kept talking. ”It seems to me like you and Law became awfully close in that half a year. Now, that he's eaten the Ope Ope fruit, it's extremely important that he returns to me. Taking some precautions so people are more willing to obey is never a bad idea, don't you think?" His voice was cold and emotionless and he wasn't looking at Rosinante anymore. ”I think I have just the thing here. He'll come running. It's only a matter of time,” Doflamingo added and smiled widely, his veins bulging dangerously.

"So, you are going to use me to blackmail Law?!” Rosinante asked seethingly as soon as he found his voice again. ”That will never work!"

"Now now, that's not fun!” Doflamingo complained. ”Look, you could have been the brightest gem in my collection! As my brother you should have had a lot of potential. But no, you just went ahead and gave it all away..! You really are just like father! If you hadn't stolen the Ope Ope fruit and given it to Law, we wouldn't be in this situation.” His fingers twitched again as he spread his arms theatrically. ”Look at the mess you caused, I'm just taking back what belongs to me."

"What kind of 'gem' is sacrificed for your personal goals?! For you everyone is just a tool..!" Rosinante was panting from exertion, some of his wounds had definitely reopened.

"Great accomplishments always come with a price. Out of everyone, you should know that, Corazon!" Doflamingo was getting visibly angry now and Rosinante tried to prepare himself for an attack as much as he could. But Doflamingo wasn't done talking. ”As a marine you should know about the incident from nine years ago. Just how many innocent people do you think were sacrificed that time? And you must have found out about Flevance from Law. Whether it's the Government or the Marines, they are no different. When those people stopped being useful to them, they were tossed away like worthless trash. You should be grateful I didn't just leave you out there to die!”

”That's not -” Rosinante started, but he wasn't sure what to say.

”See, that's how it is.” Doflamingo glared at Rosinante through his sunglasses and took a step closer to him. ”You can only blame yourself for this situation you got yourself in. But it's unfortunate that you just had to drag Law into it too. It's your fault that I can't let him get away.”

Doflamingo gave his brother a kick in the abdomen before turning around and marching out of the door angrily. He hadn't kicked Rosinante hard, but in the man's current condition the impact was enough to reopen his wounds both inside and out, leaving him wheezing in agony and coughing more blood.

"I really thought you were smarter than this, Corazon. For such a long time I really wanted to hear your voice. But you've just become boring now that you talk," Doflamingo complained with a voice that was cold and ominous, before he walked away from Rosinante's line of vision, leaving him lying alone on the hard stone floor of his cell.

*****

It had been thirteen years since Law had seen the man last time and if it wasn't for the familiar scars he probably wouldn't have even recognized him. There was barely anything left of the Cora-san he used to know, his body was so badly mangled and malnutritioned and completely covered in dirt and dried blood.

When the surgeon had discovered his skeleton-like body from the dark dungeon, he had been sure the man was dead. It wasn't far from the truth, just a moment later and there definitely wouldn't have been anything but his dead remains for Law to find. But he was still breathing, even if just barely. Law was holding Corazon's broken body gently as he examined his countless wounds and injuries with a grim look on his face. He had wrapped his long coat around the man's body. The evidence of the years of torture and neglect was easy to see. Most of the damage done to his body would be beyond repair through any normal means.

Doflamingo was watching the two of them from the other end of the corridor with an amused smirk on his face. He had been mocking Corazon just a moment earlier and Law was so furious he wanted to kill the man right there and then. He growled at the man angrily. But he couldn't waste any time fighting Doflamingo. He had much more important things to do! Besides, he thought bitterly, he hadn't fully recovered from the battle at Dressrosa yet, so he still couuldn't use his ability freely. He'd have to save his strength in order to help Cora-san.

Law felt the man tense slightly. Was he conscious?

”Cora-san, it's me. Law,” he tried, but there was no response.

As the surgeon examined Corazon further he was shocked by the severity of his injuries. Law had seen a lot of disturbing things but it pained him greatly to see the man he cherished so much in this condition. He felt like crying, but that would have to wait until later.

Doflamingo chuckled. ”Fufufu, he won't even remember you anymore. It's for the best to just leave him to rot! He won't be of any use for you!”

Full of rage, Law finally turned his attention back to the other man. ”Use?! I never wanted to use Cora-san for anything! I'm not that kind of person!” He snarled. ”No, I'm not a MONSTER like you!”

Law wrapped his arm tightly around Corazon's thin frame. No matter how much he had grown during these years, Cora-san was still much taller. But right now he was so light that Law could easily lift him from the ground.

The surgeon could feel the man tense under his touch again but the man's body was too weak for him to do anything else as Law carried him in his arms.

Law created a 'room' and gave Doflamingo one last glare before transporting Corazon out of the dungeon and started making his way back to his submarine with his new patient.

__________________________

You can read the full chapters of ”The Ruins of a Man” here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12899341/1/The-Ruins-of-a-Man

This is dedicated to my dear friend, editor, and collaboration partner @majoraop

If it wasn’t for her support, I would have probably given up with this story.

#corazonweek #one piece #corazon #rosinante #rocinante #donquixote #doflamingo #trafalgar law #corazon-week #corazon week #fury #pity #the ruins of a man #it's definitely not what you had in mind with these prompts but it fit this story almost too perfectly #I apologize to poor Cora-san #that guy had to go through so much pain already #and then I've gone and made it worse #at least he's still alive #even if just barely #be prepared to see more stuff from this fic this week #she actually posted something #fanfic #now for the content warning tags #hurt #injured #torture #blood #abuse #and I have no idea what else #let me know if you want something tagged

[grizzbe]

Epilogue

Woo Boy! It’s been a while since I’ve written a fic! I’ve been busy gearing up for graduate school, so I’ve unfortunately let this fall by the wayside. But the series finale of The Americans brought me back! I just needed a happy ending for my favorite spy family. I’ve put the whole thing under the break to spare those of you who aren’t interested, but I enjoyed writing it and I hope those of you who read it enjoy it as well!

1992

Washington, D.C.

Paige sat in her corner of the library, books sprawled across the table, a thick volume of tort law opened next to her notebook. She looked down at her watch, 8:00. She had been there for four hours, and the words were starting to blend together. She leaned back and rubbed the heels of her palms against her eyes. Soft footsteps began approaching her hideaway from behind her.

“Paige,” the librarian whispered. “Your brother called, he wanted to know if you were going to make it for Seinfeld tonight.”

“Shoot, is it Thursday?” said Paige, matching the librarian’s volume. “Thank you, Susan. I’ll go call him.”

The librarian gave her a warm smile and a squeeze on her shoulder before heading back to her desk at the front. Paige had an idea that Susan didn’t go out of her way for most of the other law students, but she had recognized quickly how much of an advantage having the law librarian as a friend would be. She slid a scratch paper into her tort book and closed it before grabbing her purse and heading to the payphone bank.

On her way there, she saw two students that she hadn’t seen in the library before and possibly one new professor talking with Susan at the front desk. A new professor or an FBI tail, but almost certainly just a new professor she hadn’t met yet. The FBI hadn’t been interested in her in four years.

Paige slid a couple quarters into the payphone and dialed the number to Henry’s apartment, he picked up on the third ring as she expected him to.

“Hey Henry, I’m-” she started.

“Hold it, Paige, you skipped last week!” said Henry. “It was hilarious and this week’s is supposed to be even better!”

“Henry! Calm down!” Paige said, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same. “I was just going to say I’m going to be at the library for at least another 30 minutes. Did you ever find the key I gave you?”

“Oh… No, I haven’t found it yet,” said Henry.

“Alright, well, just wait for me in the lobby, okay?” said Paige.

“Sounds good,” said Henry. “We need to figure out what we’re doing next week, by the way.”

“Thanksgiving?” asked Paige. Was it already late November? She tried her hardest to keep her nose buried in textbooks at this time of year. Paige could only guess how it affected Henry.

“Yeah,” came the voice from the other end. “Stan and Renee are taking a trip to California this year. He says he’s tired of ‘freezing his balls off over the holidays.’”

The two Jennings siblings shared a good laugh at that. Stan had done a lot for them over the past five years, more than she ever thought they deserved, or maybe just she deserved. There would be no way to ever repay him. They were lucky that Stan wasn’t the kind of guy that considered repayment when helping others.

“We’ll figure something out,” said Paige. “If worst comes to worst, we can just go to that Mediterranean place you like so much. I think they’re open on Thanksgiving.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Henry said. “Anyways, I’ll see you in the lobby.”

“Alright.”

“And don’t be late!”

“Alright, alright!” Paige said with a chuckle.

--------------------

The trip back to her apartment was uneventful, only a handful of possible tails: a couple of late 80’s sedans and one older lady in a big jacket, but Paige dismissed them with a closer look. Not too close, though, because that might draw attention. She walked into the lobby to find Henry talking with the doorman.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but Henry looked like he was still growing, even in his senior year at college. One of these days he was going to finally stop, but as it was, he already towered over her. When he saw her, he gave her a smile and said his goodbyes to the doorman as he joined her at the elevator.

“So how’s the studying going,” asked Henry. “John says you’ve been coming in late this week, have a test coming up?”

“Just prepping for mock trials,” Paige said. “Other than that it’s been pretty light. What about you? How did that date go?”

“It went well, I think,” said Henry. “I’m not sure, though, it was kind of hard to get a read on her.”

The two continued to catch up with each other as they rode the elevator up to Paige’s floor and to her apartment. Paige took out her keys but drew up short at the lock. Tell-tale sounds came from beyond the door, pots and flatware being moved around.

“Do you have any friends over,” asked Henry, looking as confused as she felt.

“Not that I know of,” responded Paige, subconsciously checking to make sure her taser was in her purse.

The two timidly opened the door to see the table set for four, soft, familiar sounds coming from the kitchen. The two quietly walked in to see their mom and dad finishing up preparing a meal. Philip and Elizabeth pulled up and looked at the children they hadn’t seen in five years. The four stood there for a moment, almost frozen, no one saying a word.

“Hi guys,” said Philip, finally breaking the silence.

“Mom! Dad!” shouted Henry, as he rushed to close the distance, hugging his mother and father. Paige wasn’t too far behind, and the four stood there in an embrace so long in the making. Elizabeth was the first to start crying, which shocked Paige into her own tears. Eventually, they all stepped back from each other, Paige and Elizabeth both wiping the eyes.

“We missed you two so much,” said Elizabeth through a beaming smile and puffy eyes. Paige couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her mother showing such genuine emotions.

“How are you guys here,” asked Henry. “I thought you couldn’t ever come back?”

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, Henry,” said Philip, his own smile slightly tempered. “Anyways, your mother and I have worked pretty hard here. How about some dinner?”

The family sat down and ate, the whole process being a bit awkward at first. The conversation was stunted, the weight of five years of absence hanging over the dinner table like a pall, until it wasn’t. Before long, the smiles beamed, the laughter contagious. And, of course, the questions came, all four of them just as hungry for the empty spaces to be filled in as they were for the chicken parmesan.

“So, Paige, Georgetown Law? That’s quite an accomplishment!” said Elizabeth, her smile, once so rare, beaming. “What are you studying?”

“Immigration law,” said Paige, a little uneasy with the spot on her, feeling like she was back in high school.

“What made you choose that?” asked Philip.

“I just,“ she started. “I wanted to help people who wanted to be here. A lot of people give up everything to move to this country and then they want to just turn them around. It’s not right.”

Philip and Elizabeth didn’t say anything to that, just smiled warmly at Paige and squeezed the other’s hand before turning their attention to Henry.

“And Henry! George Washington!” Philip almost shouted. “How’s rowing going?”

“It’s going okay, I wish hockey was more than a club sport, but I can do both,” said Henry. “But what about you guys? How’s life back in Mother Russia?”

The parents exchanged a look at that and a small laugh before Elizabeth spoke, “It’s alright, we miss you two terribly, but it could be worse, all things considered. To be honest, Henry, you’re taking it better than we thought you would.”

Henry shrugged, “I’ve had five years to digest it, what can I say? Stan gave me the basics, and Paige filled everything in after that.”

“You have to understand, Henry,” said Philip. “We did what we thought was best for you.”

“Dad, I know,” Henry insisted. “I mean, it took me a year or two, but I get it. How’d you guys even get into the country? Stan doesn’t like to talk about it, but he made it pretty clear that you were Persona Non-Grata.”

“We’ve been doing this for a while, Henry,” said Elizabeth. “And the less you two know about the specifics is probably, the better.”

Henry and Paige both rolled their eyes at their mother’s sidestep.

“So, what are you guys doing these days?” asked Paige.

“Well, we’re mostly instructors these days,” said Elizabeth.

“Spy instructors?” asked Henry.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it that,” said Philip, shaking his head as if weighing the words.

“We instruct the police, these days,” followed Elizabeth.

Only a little lie, Paige picked up. She had absorbed her mother’s lessons better than even she had realized.

“We’ve missed you guys so much,” said Philip. “Your mother cried for a week when we got your photos, Paige.”

Even now, Elizabeth’s eyes were looking a little red, Philip squeezed her hand in reassurance.

“What? No way!” said Henry. “Mom, cry? And when did you send them pictures, Paige?”

“Back in February,” said Paige. “It wasn’t really easy finding your address. I had to go to the embassy and they only really listened to me when I explained our… situation to them. I thought Stan was going to interrogate me for a week after that.”

“Thank you, again, you have no idea how much it meant to us,” said Philip, Elizabeth actively holding back tears at that point.

“So you’re instructors,” said Paige. “What else do you guys do?”

“Well, I cook a little,” said Philip. “And your mother paints! She’s actually pretty good!”

Philip beamed as he turned to his wife, who just chuckled at the shocked looks on her children’s faces.

“Alright! Alright!” said Elizabeth. “My painting isn’t that hard to believe!”

“It’s just, painting is a,” Paige tried to find the word. “Gentle pursuit, mom.”

“And we all know you’re the hard-ass, mom,” said Henry barely containing a laugh.

“You guys wouldn’t believe how good she’s gotten,” said Philip, obviously enjoying himself at the turn the conversation had taken. “Her first few though.”

Philip stuck out his tongue and looked off to the side, earning himself a friendly elbow in the ribs from Elizabeth.

“Well, now I’ve heard everything,” said Henry. “So, how long are you guys staying?”

“Oh, I’d say we have a little more than a week before the office starts wondering where we went,” said Philip.

“More than a week,” asked Paige. “So you’re staying for Thanksgiving?”

Philip and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment and smiled as they turned back to their kids.

“Yeah,” said Elizabeth. “I think we can manage that.”

#The Americans #philip x elizabeth #Philip Jennings #Elizabeth Jennings #Paige Jennings #Henry Jennings #The Jennings Family #fic #I wrote a thing #I hope y'all like it! #fanfiction

[evolutionsvoid]

To anyone who has ever enjoyed mocking corporations or laughing at the sheer stupidity of companies, the tale of the Greedy Pudding Bear is well known. There are some though, who may not have been alive or even aware of this blunder at the time. Perhaps they have heard snippits or seen references to this incident, but they do not know the whole story. To those who wish to learn about the whole debacle, or those who just want to hear it again, simply read on. The victims of this incident was Resdale Foods, an American food company that manufactured dozens of different products and food ingredients, with most of their products focusing on dairy. In the year 2003, Resdale Foods was looking to add a new product to their lineup: pudding cups. Other dairy-based companies had their own pudding lines that they sold, and Resdale Foods was looking to finally join this specific market. Being so late to the party, though, it was decided that their pudding brand had to work extra hard to gain the customer's attention. If they had rolled out their pudding cups and dumped them into stores without announcement and fanfare, then they would obviously be ignored as mothers bought the same brand that their children had been eating for years. So Resdale Foods chose to give this new product a marketing campaign, a way to catch children's attention which in turn would reach the ears of mom and dad. The best way to do this, they believed, was giving the product a mascot. Many other food products aimed at children had their own mascots, many of which we can all name by memory. Resdale Foods sought to add a new mascot to the supermarkets, one that would catch a child's eye on both the shelves and TV commercials. This is where things start to get interesting. 

As one can imagine, corporate heads don't exactly have the imagination and talent with design to just whip up a mascot out of thin air. That job went to graphic designers and artists that the company would commission for work. The big bosses up above wanted a mascot that was iconic and memorable, one that children would love and easily spot on the packaging. As stated before, such people didn't know what went into designing such a mascot, as all they wanted was results. They did not know an exact design, but they had an idea of what they wanted. The raw concept they came up with was a mascot who was a bear, almost teddy-like, as their coloration brought to mind chocolate. They thought that perhaps a mischievous bear who played tricks and stole pudding cups would be endearing, kind of like the Trix rabbit or, more fittingly, the Sugar Bear. With this rough concept of a mascot, they contacted several graphic designers, looking to hire them to draw up some ideas for what this mascot would look like. Here is where stories begin to conflict. If one would take the word of Resdale Foods, they would say that they teamed up with these graphic designers and worked closely together to come up with several ideas for this mascot. The end result was caused by saboteurs and disgruntled employees, who sought to besmirch their name. On the other hand, the graphic designers tell a completely different tale. According to them, Resdale Foods was about as sloppy and frustrating as one could imagine when working with such a large corporate machine. Artists claim that communication between them and Resdale Foods was garbled and extremely difficult. One, whose name remains anonymous, claimed that Resdale Foods "walked in, dumped the mess on our laps and then just left without a word." The designers say that the whole concept and idea of the project was muddled and unclear. All they had to work with was the idea that they needed to make a mascot, and the only info they got for said mascot were the words "Greedy Pudding Bear." Any clarifications or discussions with Resdale Foods were met with unanswered calls, ignored e-mails and statements like "just design a mascot" or "we don't care how it looks, just make it good." The extremely frustrating process took some time, and when all was said and done, six different mascot concepts were sent to Resdale Foods. The plan that Resdale Foods had for selecting a mascot was to do a focus group with children, and have them pick their favorites. The concepts would be presented to them, and the kids would select which ones they liked more, which would obviously lead to the company finding which design of the bunch was superior. While this seemed like an easy task, more blundering was done on their part. The heads of the project had not even seen the concept art for this mascot, and had instead put the task of arranging this presentation on the shoulders of an intern. This unfortunate worker dealt with the same lack of communication as the graphic designers did, making so that hardly anyone in the company even knew who had what or who was doing what. In the end, the intern arranged a presentation for the children, showcasing the mascot designs that had been sent in. This intern is where most of the blame for this incident lies. While the graphic designers may have sent something as a joke, it was his job to filter out such foolishness. He continues, to this day, to deny that he had any knowledge of this seventh mascot design. he claims that he had put six designs in the slideshow, and that someone else must have slipped in the seventh one. By his word, he says that he had been setup by the company in order to have him fired, while the company claims that he let the design slip in due to him have grievances with them. Regardless of who did what, when the presentation hit the screen that day, there were seven mascots in it. As the reports say, Resdale Foods had brought several children and their parents in that day as a focus group. What they had planned was to present each concept to them one at a time, and gather comments from the crowd. In the end, when all designs had been presented, the kids would pick which one they liked the most, and the company would go from there. Things in the meeting had gone well for a bit, before they presented design number three. While all the other mascot designs were cartoony and cheery, the one that appeared on the screen was something more fitting for a horror movie. As one can imagine, this ended with screaming, crying children and extremely angry parents. The presenters were caught off guard and left dumbfounded, as they had not been aware of this horrific addition. Everything fell apart there, as parents stormed out of the headquarters with their terrified children and the company scrambled to figure out what went wrong. Any efforts of damage control were in vain, as the incident quickly made its way into the news, and the whole nation turned to laugh at the company. Parents were furious with the company, believing it was some kind of cruel joke, or perhaps some marketing stunt for an upcoming horror movie. The graphic designers involved swore that they did not create or send that design to Resdale Foods. Interviews and investigations turned up the faulty lines of communication that caused the whole debacle, which only further embarrassed the company. In the end, three people lost their jobs, and the whole project was shut down. Resdale Foods did attempt to sell their pudding cups in stores, but they did not attach a mascot to them, in fear of bringing the debacle to mind. This did not fool the public, and company quietly pulled their product from the shelves. The company scrubbed all evidence of this incident from their records and history, trying to move on and forget about the whole mess. The public though, did not forget so easily. The internet had a field day with this massive blunder, and many sites continued to mock Resdale Foods for weeks after everything went quiet. To this day, the "Greedy Pudding Bear" is remembered as a token example of corporate incompetence and stupidity. Months after the incident faded from everyone's minds, a bit of new info came out. According to an anonymous source on the internet, it was said that the original presentation wasn't just for selecting the mascot's appearance, but their voice as well. It was claimed that the later half of the presentation included sound clips that would allow children to pick out how they wanted the Greedy Pudding Bear to talk. This part of the presentation was lost in the chaos, as the focus group fell apart well before the subject came up. Resdale Foods denies this claim, saying that they were only selecting the appearance for their mascot, but such denial meant nothing to the internet. People across message boards and forums took this bit of info and ran with it. Soon, rumors popped up everywhere about the Greedy Pudding Bear's voice and how the company still had the sound clips in their servers. Some said that Resdale Foods was merely saving what they paid for, while more horror-minded folks weaved stories about these supposed voices. Tales of voice clips from hell, or recordings that caused suicide bounced around several forums, as people put their own horrible spin on the idea. The company tried quashing these rumors and horror stories, but only served to make things worse. In the end, they gave up on the whole thing and returned to silence. This revitalization of the incident went on for a few weeks, but then died down just like before. Even so, these tales and posts can still be found floating around to this day, allowing this warped being to live on. They may not be easy to find, but they are still there. Somewhere out there, the Greedy Pudding Bear shambles through the darkness, a being that was never meant to be made or seen. Just waiting to be remembered.

---------------------------------------------------------

I don’t even know what I am doing with this. 

#bear #art #drawing #monster #creature #pudding

[ellanainthetardis]

I hope you don't mind me prompting although everything seems to go down at the moment. So maybe this will never be written: I was thinking of their first years working together and Haymitch not helping her at all with everything and it really starts to annoy her at some point. And maybe Mags could tell him that he should be happy to have her and that she's doing great work? And maybe he could offer some help at the end? Thank you!

I hc that Mags had herstroke a few years after Finnick won so that’s why she’s alright in there incase you’re wondering ;)[X]

A Mentor’s Advice

Trinket left with an angry huff and Haymitch took a sip of whiskey, very pleased with himself.

“If I’m lucky she’s gonna sulk ‘till tomorrow.”he declared, toasting his friends.

He, Mags, Beetee and Chaff were sitting in acorner of the mentor lounge. Haymitch wasn’t in any mood to run after sponsorsin a vague attempt at convincing them Twelve would do better next season andthey should really consider givingthem their money the following year. The Sixty-fifth Hunger Games had beenexhausting, not least of all because of the Odair mania that was shaking thecity, and all victors were on edge. While the boy had been a clear favorite, ithad still been a tough journey and Mags had been on her feet for days. It hadbeen difficult to drag her away from the hospital where the boy was resting andHaymitch didn’t intend to let his escort of three years spoil the night.

“You’re hard on that girl.” Mags chided him,bringing her glass of white wine to her lips. She hadn’t drunk a lot comparedto the rest of them, but then again she never did.

He glanced at Chaff who hid his smile behindhis own glass and then at Beetee who was staring at the table.

“Seriously?” he scoffed. “She’s a fucking pain.”

“A pain you wouldn’t mind screwing.” Chaffremarked, his dark eyes twinkling in mischief.

“Please.” he scowled.

“Well, you seemed interested at first.” Beeteepointed out. Haymitch shot him a betrayed look and Three’s victor lifted hishands in a peace offering. “Her first year you were all over her.”

“That was before I realized how stuck-up shewas.” He sneered. “Maybe, she’s not bad looking. Maybe. But fuck is sheannoying… She’s the worst escort I’ve everhad. She’s on my back every fucking day. Haymitchthis and Haymitch that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.  Always threatening me to get rid of mybooze…” His friends all exchanged a look. It felt very much like they wereganging up on him. And on behalf of Trinket.“What?”

“Yeah, buddy…” Chaff chuckled. “Don’t punch mefor stating the obvious but… The more a woman work you up, the more badly youwant her. You like them difficult. That’s your thing.”

Haymitch glared and his best friend shrugged.

“I don’t wantTrinket.” he snapped. “I hate her. I fucking hate her. You know she can’tshut up, right? She’s always talking.Gives me headaches.”

“Are you sure it isn’t the alcohol?” Beeteeteased.

“And she’s so fucking entitled…” he went on, ignoring the interruption. “She’sconvinced she can walk on water. She acts like everyone should stop and bow ather. She expects me to thank her everyminute of the day. She’s as stupid as they come too. And…”

Mags scoffed. “Now, that’s unfair, boy.”

Haymitch bristled at being called a boy. He wasthirty-one after all. But it was Mags and Mags would always see him as the lostkid who had followed her around during his first Games as a mentor.

“How’s that unfair?” he mumbled. “The onlythings that comes out of her mouth are fashion stuff and gossips.”

“Maybe you should talk to Torello.” Chaffsuggested. “Get a new one. I wouldn’t mind getting her off your hands. Violaneeds to go and fast. Before Istrangle her.”

Haymitch made a face. He had gone to the HeadGamemaker several times already. “He won’t promote her. Said something abouthow she’s good at keeping me in line. Whatever that means.”

“That means you actually show up where you aresupposed to be, dressed and mostly on time.” Beetee observed. “And you don’t make the headlines sooften for pulling drunk stunts.”

“That’sa shame.” Chaff agreed. “She’s keeping you on a tight leash. She’s a pain,true.”

“Ah.”he triumphed, toasting his best friend. “Thankyou.”

Mags shook her head. “I wish Effie was on my team. Oliva was no help at all. Yours isefficient, Haymitch, you should not take that for granted.”

“Efficient.” he repeated with a scoff.

“She goes the distance.” Beetee nodded wisely.“She doesn’t just show up at events and leave you with all the work. I likeGloria well enough but she doesn’t do halfof what Effie does for you. You are lucky, my friend.”

“Lucky.”He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “You want her, you’re welcomed to her.”

“Yeah, sure…” Chaff chuckled. “And you wouldn’tpitch a fit at all? ‘Cause I heard Two’s on the market for her.”

“What?” he frowned, his eyes automaticallyshifting to the other side of the mentors lounge where the Careers were havinga drink.

“I am too.” Mags declared, her winkled handwaving away an imaginary problem. “Who isn’t? She actually coaches the kids, she’s always willing to help withsponsors, she does the paperwork andshe’s committed. And whatever you say, Haymitch, she isn’t as dumb as you makeit out to be. Nobody who can work the crowd like she does can be that stupid.”

“She’sdumb.” Chaff confirmed. “But then again they all are.”

Beetee smiled a little, turning his attentionthoroughly on Haymitch. “I think you grew too used to her. Remember how it waswith your last escort?”

“That was Viola.” Eleven’s victor snorted. “Youtold Torello you would push her down the stairs if he didn’t replace her. Can’thelp but notice you’re not making the same threats with Trinket, buddy…”

“Would you really let her go?” Mags asked,sounding a little more interested than Haymitch was comfortable with. As if shewould really drag him to Torello thatsecond if they could come to some sort of deal. Four was the great winner ofthe season, it had been some time since a new victor had been more popular thanFinnick, and it was pretty much guaranteed that whatever Mags asked she wouldget. Including his escort.

“And go back to mentoring by himself?” Chaffmocked. “Doing all the paperwork? Not a chance.” Haymitch glared at him but hisfriend simply shrugged and took a sip of his whiskey. “Sorry, man, but you’reall talk. It comes down to it, you won’t let her go. She’s too good at her job.Now, take my advice, screw her, take it out of your system…”

“I don’twant to screw her.” he spat. “What’s so complicated to understand about that?”

“The sexual tension between the two of you thatcould be cut with a knife?” Beetee suggested innocently. His glare switchedtarget but Three’s victor didn’t even flinch. “I’m sorry, Haymitch, but the way you two look at each other…

“She wants you to fuck her… You want to fuckher…” Chaff smirked. “You need us to draw you a map or you think you can find whereto put it?”

He rolled his eyes, downed the rest of hisdrink and stood up, annoyed by their stupidity. They weren’t in high school andit was very much what it felt like at that moment. He ignored their calls forhim to come back and their apologies, striding out of the lounge and out theCenter while he was at it.

Some fresh air would do him good.

The Peacekeepers shot him a suspicious lookwhen he passed by. Too many times being arrested for drunken rampages, nodoubt.

He settled in the shadow of the building, a fewfeet away from the entrance, watching people mingle in the City Circle.Capitols were celebrating the end of the Games and it sickened him. It wasn’tlong before he noticed his escort, her head thrown back as she laughed towhatever the men she was talking to had said. They were sponsors and he waspretty sure the flirting was a way to get their attention but it made somethingtwist within his belly all the same. Their tributes were dead and there shewas, partying with the rest of them like it meant nothing.

His gaze was drawn to her slender neck, to the softcurves and the endless legs. She knew how to dress and she always dressed toseduce. She was a walking deadly trap, he had seen that at first glance. Insome ways, she reminded him of his arena: deceptively beautiful, danger lurkingbehind bright colors, deadly under the bubbly attitude.

Much as he liked to pretend she was nothing butanother Capitol drone, there were layers to Trinket. He hadn’t seen it at firstbut he saw it now. The steel under the soft smile, the calculating spark in hereyes, the carefully controlled image she gave the world.

She was naïve and unbearable and far tooshallow. Still mostly ignorant of what was going on behind the scene whenvictors were concerned. Still arguing that they could win because she had been taught the odds were fair. Stilladamant she knew better than he did.

“I am an old woman, Haymitch. I am not alwaysas skilled at diplomacy as I used to be.” Mags said.

He didn’t startled but it was a close thing.Mags could move as silently as a cat. He snorted because whatever she claimedshe didn’t look as old as she was. She was one of the first victors stillalive, undefeated by the depression or addictions that plucked so many othersbefore their time. Mags was strong and he couldn’t ever see her as anything butthat. She stood proud and tall in any circumstances. Defiant.  

“It’s alright.” he shrugged. “They were justgetting on my nerves.”

He purposefully excluded her from thatstatement, unwilling to say anything to hurt her feelings. Mags had been asecond mother to him for a long time. Chaff might have been the closest thinghe had got from a mentor but Mags had always been there, ready to advise andimpart her wisdom – whether he liked it or not.

“I wasn’t telling you to seduce your escort.”Four’s victor clarified. “Although what you do is your own business and,between you and me, I think it’s been too long since you had a good flirt.Hearts are meant to love and be broken once in a while. It gives some spice tolife.”

“Got no heart left to break.” he spat. “Andshe’s Capitol.”

And yet his eyes hadn’t moved away from her –admittedly attractive – figure.

“Still, Haymitch.” Mags sighed. “Go easy on thegirl. As far as escorts go, you lucked out. I am not saying you should jumpthrough loops every time she tells you to but… Some help here and there wouldprobably smooth things out quite nicely.” He opened his mouth to argue but shelifted her hand. “She does a great job by herself. Imagine what you could do ifyou actually worked together. We all have someone to share the burdenwith. You could use an ally.”

She left before he could defend his point andhe was left staring at his escort.

Eventually he rolled his eyes, buried his handsin his pockets and made his way over, already knowing it would be a disaster.The sponsors’ faces lit up when they saw him approach behind her back becauseas far as victors went he tended to be elusive. Trinket paused, puzzled by whathad caught their attention.

Haymitch enjoyed her small jump of surprisewhen he touched her shoulder and he delighted in her sudden stammering evenmore.

He liked putting her off balance.

Maybe he couldhelp now and then.

If only to keep her on her toes.

It had nothing to do whatsoever with the brightblinding smile she shot him.

Nothing at all.

#hayffie #effie trinket #haymitch abernathy #prompt #games time #not established #fighting hayffie #the victors gang #chaff #beetee #mags

[lnicol1990]

Defining Moments - Chapter 1

Okay, so... I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of years. Ideally, I wanted to have the whole thing finished before I uploaded it anywhere, but Alex has mentioned that I should start sharing it. And, to be honest, I’ve been wanting to do that for a while, so having cosplayed our avatars at RuneFest this weekend just gone... well, it’s given me an excuse to finally start showing this off. 

Long story short: this is a multi-chaptered RuneScape fanfic involving our avatar characters and a few other OCs we made up, detailing what made them who they are, their Defining Moments. This story ties in with a crossover fic Alex and I are in the process of writing, with him leading that one and me writing the prequel.

If people enjoy this, I’ll probably upload what I’ve written so far every Monday.

So, without further ado... Enjoy!

Novtumber, Year 150, Fifth Age

Ayla – aged 9

Two little girls peeked through the bushes to the man standing guard outside the Ranging Guild. He was watching the road for anyone who might want entry into the guild, ready to check their credentials. As it was however, the road had been empty all day, and he looked exceptionally bored.

The girls, unspotted by the man, leaned back and retreated from sight and giggled quietly to each other. One girl, standing half a head taller than her friend, held out two large stones, one for each of them to take.

“Marion, are you sure this’ll work?” the smaller girl asked, taking one of the stones and weighing it in her hand. “I mean, we don’t want to hurt him.”

“It’ll be fine, Ayla,” Marion assured. “Besides, what are a couple of stones to that guy? We just have to draw him over here and then run in before he can catch us. Then we can look around as much as we want. Trust me, this’ll work.”

Ayla looked at the stone in her hand for a long moment, contemplating what she was about to do. Then, shaking her head, she gave the stone back to her friend.

“This is wrong, Marion. It’s one thing to get back at Ceril Carnillean, but that guy hasn’t done anything to us.”

“Of course he has. He’s denying us destiny!” Marion hissed. “We’re destined to enter the Guild and he’s in our way. Or is Ceril right, and you really are a coward too afraid to take what’s yours?”

Ayla felt angry at the old taunt, almost rising to the bait, and she nearly took the stone back. But at that moment, the man across the road coughed loudly, drawing her attention for a moment. She stared at him, all the while thinking.

She knew what they were planning was wrong. The man was only doing his job, and shouldn’t be punished for it by them. It wasn’t what she had been brought up to do, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to look her parents in the eye after today, not if she followed Marion’s plan.

“I’m not doing it,” she stated.

“Fine,” Marion snapped at her. “But that means I’m the only one who deserves to get in.”

Without a second thought, or a moment’s hesitation, Marion stood up, alerting the man to her presence, and flung the stones at him.

He flinched, raising his arm to protect his face as the projectiles hit him, one on the shoulder and the other went to his stomach. As he lowered his defensive stance, he saw Marion blowing raspberries at him. With an outraged shout he charged at her, who squealed in fright and bolted.

Ayla went unnoticed by the man and made a mad dash around him and for the door. She threw herself against it and it opened just enough for her to squeeze inside. She didn’t look behind her to see if Marion had managed to outrun the man and enter in after her, instead choosing to throw herself to the ground and roll under the wall of the nearest tent.

Finally safe, she scrambled behind a pile of boxes and sat there shaking, gasping for breath. As she calmed down, she could hear shouting from outside the Guild. Marion had obviously been caught, and was clearly getting scolded for her behaviour. A sudden fear caught the breath in Ayla’s throat.

Would Marion tell on her? Would she be blamed for the stunt? Would they come in and start looking for her?

She got to her feet. If she was going to get caught, she was not going let her last moments of freedom end with her cowering behind some boxes. She had done all of this to enter the Ranging Guild, and by Armadyl’s feathers, she was going to see what was in here.

Peering out of cover, she saw two men talking to each other, exchanging tickets for some arrows. Feeling safe and undetected, she fled the tent.

She stopped within moments and stared in wonder at the Guild. Tall towers rose up, with archers firing at those in the centre like a weird form of king of the hill. Whenever someone was hit, they’d retreat in the tower for a while before returning to the game.

There were a dozen vendors all selling their wares. One man was offering a tanning service, while another was showing off various armours. Bows and arrows were being sold by another vendor, while a scantily clad man with weird makeup was holding up various axes and long pointy sticks.

At the very back of the Guild were four men. Three were aiming bows at targets whilst the last man was standing behind them, watching and calling out their hits. The archers looked so graceful, pulling back the bowstring and holding still, before releasing the arrow. The projectiles flew straight and true before burying themselves into the targets standing several feet away.

“Hey kid!”

A shout from behind made Ayla flinch and turn around. It was a different guard from the one Marion had attacked, but he was advancing on her quickly all the same. Frightened, she fled towards the back to the Guild, feeling everyone’s eyes on her as she ran. She had hoped to dart to a side and sprint back to entrance in an escape, but she quickly found herself surrounded by various members of the Guild staff.

To her surprise, the people were not shouting at her. Instead, they were speaking calmly, even if they couldn’t keep the worry out of their voices. They were asking her if she was okay, where her parents were, and if she’d been left behind.

Without thinking, she assured them all that she was fine, and that she lived with her parents in Ardougne East, which was just a couple of miles down the road. The gathered staff quickly relaxed and all breathed a sigh of relief. The guard that had spotted her, however, then spoke up again.

“This isn’t a place for kids. It’s dangerous in here. How did you get in?”

Ayla stared at him, acutely aware that everyone had suddenly fallen silent. She knew straight away that she should admit to her limited part in stoning the entrance guard, but that would get her in trouble and she would never be able to come into the Guild ever again. And as much as she wanted to lie and say someone had let her in, she knew she couldn’t let someone else get in trouble. She felt panic rise up in her chest as she saw the man getting impatient.

“I’m a ranger!” she blurted out, unthinkingly.

A stunned silence fell upon the entire Guild, everyone in disbelief that this little girl before them had enough Skill to be allowed entry. Slowly, chuckles and sniggers began to fill the air, people turning to each other in mirth at the thought.

“How old are you, kid? Six?” a voice in the crowd asked.

“I’m nine!” Ayla snapped hotly.

“You’re the shortest nine-year-old I’ve ever seen,” another voice called out, adding to her building rage.

Her height, or lack thereof, had been fuel for Ceril Carnillean’s teasing and she felt anger flush through her as these strangers mocked her for it also. She could feel herself beginning to shake in indignation, and tears were threatening to spill from her eyes. She was going to be laughed at by everyone, adult and kid alike.

“Hey kid,” a gruff man’s voice called to her from the target range, startling her out of her rage with his sharp tone.

People moved aside so the man could have a clear view of her, and she of him. He was standing by the hay bales, bow in hand, and was the epitome of a ranger. He was dress in leathers with belts strapped across every part of him, all of which held knives and other throwing weapons.

He gestured to her, beckoning her towards him. Feeling slightly afraid of his appearance, but more so of disobeying him, she did as she was told. She walked slowly up to him and realised how much he towered over her when she stood next to him.

“So, you’re a ranger, eh?” he asked her, a slight smirk on his face. He held out his bow and ten arrows to her, which she took warily. “You’ve got ten shots to prove it. Hit within the red, and I’ll believe you.”

Ayla looked down at the targets. They were a series of ever shrinking circles, the outermost being black, then blue, then red, before finally finishing with a solid yellow centre. The red circle was very small, and the target was further away than she had originally thought.

The bow in her hand was too big, almost dwarfing her in height, and she could barely pull the string back. The arrows were longer than her arm and blunt. It felt almost impossible for her to use.

She looked back to the man, wondering if he was mocking her, but he stood there staring at her. He was waiting expectantly for her to take up a position and fire her ten shots, her ten chances of living up to what she had so drastically promised.

She gulped in dread and rested nine of her arrows on the nearest hay bale. Holding the bow in her right hand felt awkward, so she switched it to her left. She carefully notched an arrow on the little indent and pulled back as hard as she could on the string, which hardly moved. She tried again and pulled back harder and lifted the bow straight up, before watching the arrow fall out of the indent. She tried to flick it back into place, failing several times before succeeding. She then raised the bow again, at a slight angle this time, aimed and fired.

The flight hit the bow and the arrow careened into the hay bale.

“Oh come on!” a fellow archer laughed, doubling over. “Who doesn’t know to have the flights pointing away from the bow? I thought you said you were good at this.”

Ayla quickly grabbed her next arrow, trying to ignore her trembling fingers. She knew how to properly face an arrow; she should have noticed it was wrong. She notched the second arrow, taking care that it was correct this time, drew back, aimed, and fired.

The arrow fell short of the target by a couple of feet, as did the next one.

For the fourth arrow, Ayla pointed the bow upwards, aiming high above the target.  She watched as it sailed upwards before diving to the ground and passing over the target and landing several feet behind it. Aiming just above the target saw her fifth arrow graze over it, bouncing on the top and spinning away.

Her hand was visibly shaking as she reached for the next arrow. The jeers of the other archer were bringing tears to her eyes, misting and blurring her vision. It was then that she noticed the other man, the one who had given her the bow, hold his hand out flat, palm facing the floor. When he saw that he had her attention, he brought his hand up his chest in a sweeping gesture before lowering it again.

Take a breath.

She then realised how jumpy her breathing had been, how it had hitched almost into hiccups. She paused in reaching for her sixth arrow and took a deep breath in. The cold air was sharp as it rushed in, jagged and uneven. When she breathed out she felt slightly calmer, as if the air was taking away her fears and tension. She took another deep breath and then reached for the arrow.

This time, she aimed for the very top of the target, drew the string back, and fired. It flew leftwards and struck the black outer circle.

“Black: ten points,” the judge behind Ayla called out.

The suddenness of the judge’s loud voice startled her and she flinched, much to the mirth of her audience. She could feel her face burn in embarrassment at the sniggers that erupted from the crowd. The only one who remained unmoved by her was the guff ranger who’d given her his bow, and she took strength from him. Following his previous advice again, she took another deep breath and launched her seventh arrow.

It was black again and again left of the centre: another ten points, but another failure. Only three arrows were left for her to prove herself. She aimed slightly right and fired.

“Miss,” the judge called out.

It wasn’t good enough; she wasn’t good enough. Everyone around her was agreeing with her thoughts, echoing such in their whispers to each other. Seven arrows and she had only just managed to hit the outermost ring twice. Her arms were tired and her left elbow stung from the bowstring smacking it when she released each arrow.

She was tired, in pain, and she wanted to give up and go home. She didn’t want people laughing at her anymore.

But, there were three arrows left.

She huffed out a sigh and grabbed the next arrow, glaring at it all the while. She’d had enough. She was just going to shoot the last three arrows, hand the man his bow back and storm out of the Guild, never to come back. She notched the bow, drew back, and aimed.

Did she really want to throw away this opportunity? Was this really so hard that she was going to just give up? Is that what kind of person she was?

She stood, frozen in her drawn pose for a moment as those thoughts came to her. She could feel her mind rear up in disgust at the thought of quitting, of giving up before she’d given her all. It made her want to prove herself, to herself, that she could do whatever she set her mind to.

And, at that moment, something clicked into place for her. A coat of armour surrounded her heart, shielding her from the taunts and jibes of her peers. All her discomfort, her fear and tension, vanished like a teleporting imp.

She altered her aim and fired.

“Oh, that’s a close one,” the gruff ranger beside her commented, for the first time since she’d taken his bow. He turned to the judge expectantly. “It actually looks more north than south to me, what do you think?”

At that very moment, the judge had pulled out a funny pair of tiny binoculars on a stick and held it to his face. He was staring down at the range through them, his lips pursed tight in contemplation. As he made his decision, Ayla and her audience held their breath.

“Red: thirty points!”

“Lucky shot,” the archer in the crowd snorted derisively. He pushed his way into the competition range and stood towering before the little girl. He snatched the bow out of her hands and held it high out of her reach. “I suppose you’ve earned the privilege of walking out of here on your own, rather than getting thrown out by the guard. Now get lost, kid.”

“She’s still got two arrows,” the gruff ranger announced, taking his bow and handing back to Ayla. “Like you said; she’s earned the right to walk out, so she’s got the time to finish her last two shots.”

“Come on, you’ve had your fun, old man,” the archer scoffed. “But letting her stay any longer is an affront to the Guild.”

“Really?” the ranger asked in surprise. He looked over the archer’s shoulder and smirked. “It seems to me the only one who’s affronted is you.”

As the archer turned to look around him, Ayla peeked round to see the crowd dispersing and continuing with their own business. She had given them enough of a distraction and entertainment that they were happy to leave her be now that she had lived up to her hasty words earlier. Indeed, some of them were still talking to each other about her, some expressing their delight in her tenacity and their hopes that she would be returning to amuse them again.

In eight shots, she’d become something of the Guild’s mascot.

The archer glowered at the ranger before storming off, muttering something under his breath that Ayla couldn’t catch. She heard the ranger chuckled at his victory before turning back to her and kneeling down beside her.

“How about I help you with your last two shots, hmm?” he offered with an indulgent smile.

Ayla didn’t have a chance to respond before he took her second to last arrow and notched it for her. He held the bow with her and helped her aim, even pulling the string back with her, easing up when he was at her limit. When he was satisfied with her position, he let go and allowed her to fire the bow on her own. The arrow struck the red circle firmly, rather than on the edge as her previous shot had been. The ranger took her hand again for the last shot, guiding her aim one last time before leaving her to fire the last shot.

“Yellow: fifty points,” the judge behind the pair announced, lowering his binoculars. He smiled at Ayla, nodding his head to her as he walked away. “Well done, young lady.”

“But I didn’t hit the centre,” she argued, uncertain why she was being praised.

“That’s right, you didn’t,” the ranger agreed. He pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote something down with a stick of charcoal before handing it over to her. “If you can bring this to me with both of your parent’s marks, then I’ll teach you how to never miss again.”

Ayla held the parchment reverently in her hands, staring at the sincerity in the man’s eyes. She then turned and ran out of the Guild, not looking back as she raced home.

She had a piece of parchment for her parents to sign.

#fanfic #RuneScape #Defining Moments #chpt1

[oldthe-nothing-maker]

pls I'd like each of the XYZ boys to tell me what they like about the other two

Hey !! I’m sorry I waited so long before answering this ask, I just wanted to answer this well and maybe with a drawing, but I can’t seem to be able to draw them, so !! Here’s a simple text answer (under a cut because um it got REALLY FUCKEN LONG I’m so sorry) :

Kenneth -Y : they’re like, the epitome of black romance (with red vacillation but still) :p So yeah ! To Kenneth, Y is this stuck-up guy who is 1) fat 2) way too high on morals 3) just a total nuisance all the time ? But when X’s bored, or sad, or um feeling any kind of emotion at all, he knows he can go to Yogur to start a fight and he’ll be distracted for hours and Y will never never refuse that to him because he’s super bored as well. But he’salso passionate, and really determined, and when they both work together they’reamazing, and also he’s really hot and if X shows honest emotional distress Ywill do his genuine best to help him – and they always challenge each other bypointing at each other’s flaws, so even though X is emotionally stunted anddoes not understand affection, he likes the idea of having someone who’llalways kick him awake if he ever falls. So. That’s something.

Z : it’sweird for him because as I said, Kenneth does not get affection? It scares himreally bad to know people care for him because he simply does not know what itlooks/feels like – and he’s also deadly afraid to reciprocate because it feelslike an obligation. So, he likes feeling secure around Zephyr, feelingcomforted and knowing this guy here will do everything in his power to keep himsafe from harm? But he also hates it. He’s a complicated kid. Apart from that,he likes Zephyr’s smile or blush or any hint at emotion, the way he takes careof his hair and also the fact that he can stay perfectly stonefaced in front ofa teacher even though you just told him the lewdest joke. He’s a good jokepartner.

Yogur-

X: black romanceall over again! Kenneth was really cruel to Y when they were kids– but once theygrew up they realised they were both super lost and sad and really, reallyalone? So Yogur decided, fuck this, let’s try to be honest with him for onceand not play the “let’s fight so we don’t think about our feelings” game, andhe discovered Kenneth could be smarter than expected, funnier, too, and well he’ssuper handsome, and he never gives up on anything he deems worthwhile – and Yis really all about people who do not stop trying, like, that’s so admirable(and hot)? So of course he falls for him at some point. Also, they have known eachother for 10 years, so they also share some kind of intimacy that comes withtime and closeness.

Z: theywere moirails before I even knew what Homestuck was. He’s the person Y lovesthe most in the whole world. He taught him how to speak English, and overcomehis parent’s death, and just... Wasn’t mean to him when no one else was there?And the more they grew the closer they got – they have a similar sense ofhumour, work super well together, and they just feel so incredibly safe around each other. Together theydiscover that shared intimacy is actually kind of nice, and hugging andtouching and kissing is nice too (they’re pretty much joined at the hip), andlike, Y is so glad to have him in his life because otherwise he knows he’d be alot more bitter and mean and empty, even though Z can be a total mess of abeing sometimes and he doesn’t take care of himself as much as he should anddeserves, and so every time he looks at him he’s just *diamond eyes*

Zephyr-

X: soimagine you’re that kind of nerdy, very silent kid that no one ever cared foror really paid attention too, and then the popular kid says “hey, hang out withme, I like you, let’s be friends?” just so they can mock you with their friends?That’s pretty much it, except Zephyr was clever, so he didn’t fall for that,which meant Kenneth had to really involve himself, and they spent a lot of timetogether as a result? So Zephyr saw before everyone else how alone X felt, butdespite that fear he never gave up trying to live and fight, and like. Thatmade a huge impression on him. So he likes that flame in him, the really crudebeauty, the fact that he dares saying what he thinks and doing the things hewants to do. It’s kind of inspiring, and he ends up really trying to make sureX stays ok and fighting and good (and in an alternate reality where X comes toterm with the fact that caring doesn’t mean being deprived of your freedom andthat people do not always pretend to like you just so that they can tear youapart later, they kiss a lot).

Y: sobefore meeting Yogur, Zephyr had never really had anyone truly caring for him –and suddenly there was this kid who said “hey you saved my life you’re amazing”and who did all he could to make his life better? And for the first time in hislife he felt truly loved? And he taught Y how to think critically but Y taughthim how to think in terms of morals and ethics and how to care for things eventhough they’re maybe not going to care back, like animals and plants and otherpeople, and he also pushed him to think for himself and accept he deserves happinesstoo! So he’s bad at showing it but for him Yogur is an absolute miracle and headmires him a Lot.

Here so it’salmost 1000 words of rambling, I’m sorry you must have expected somethingsmaller x) In short they like kissing each other – the end.

Thanks forasking though!! Man I love talking about these idiots, I’m sorry I didn’tanswer with a drawing or anything! But yeah thanks a lot!!

#text post #x y z #uh yeah i'm super ashamed by how long this is #like almost crying ashamed buuuut alsoooo i'm happy #wow that's bad #i just can't help rambling when it comes to these idiots because i know them so well #ahahah wow what the fuck #ANYWAY thanks !! #toastyhat #enthusiastic answers