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posallys · 1 year

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okay so i'm in the process of rereading pjo and i just got to botl and i want to talk about my girl annabeth. i feel like a good majority of the fandom mischaracterization of annabeth comes from botl, specifically because she was rude to rachel throughout the book, and then everyone just assumed that because she wasn't nice to rachel she must be a bitch inherently, on top of being this fucking emotionless shell of a person, which is wild to me because i don't know how her being rude to one (1) girl automatically discredits everything she's done in the past three books. i feel like it stems from a complete misunderstanding of why she was rude to rachel. let's make this clear: she wasn't rude to rachel because rachel was a potential love interest; she was rude to rachel because she was scared.

everyone she's ever loved has been taken from her in some way: her mom being absent because she's a goddess and not really wanting anything to do with annabeth; her feeling like her dad and stepmom didn't want her around (losing her real family); thalia, her found sister, sacrificing her life to save annabeth, and then leaving her again to join the hunters; luke betraying the camp, but more importantly betraying annabeth on a much deeper level because he was her only family. he promised her that he would be there for her, no matter what, and then he leaves her, just like everyone else. even grover left her, in a way, because he went out to search for pan and wasn't around. the only close person who hasn't left her at the point of botl? percy.

but she knows about the prophecy at that point, so she's spent the better part of three years resigning herself to the fact that her best friend is going to die when he turns sixteen and there's absolutely nothing she can do to stop that. she's spent the better part of three years trying not to fall in love with him because it would only hurt worse when the time comes. if i had to bet on it, the reason she was thinking about joining the hunters in ttc is because if she isn't around him (and also can't because she's a hunter), she won't become more attached to him than she already is. if she separated herself from him, it would hurt less. except here's the thing: by that point, she couldn't make herself do that. she couldn't make herself willingly give up percy yet, because it might not have been him. if i had to guess, when thalia came back, annabeth stopped worrying about percy dying---just for a little while---because she thought that thalia was going to be the child of the prophecy after all. so when thalia became a hunter, she was mentally prepared to lose thalia again. but that means that every fear she had about percy being the prophecy kid before thalia came back to life resurfaced full force, and now suddenly annabeth has a year and a half left with him when she thought that she might have longer. so despite the thought of her joining the hunters to prevent herself from getting too attached, she hadn't metnally come to the point where she was ready to give up the small hope that he would live.

which bring us now to botl. like i said, i'm just now rereading the book (and i'm only on chapter 1 but i started thinking about annabeth and here i am). annabeth is mean to rachel because she's terrified of losing percy too soon. sure, at this point she knows the prophecy is his, she knows come next summer she probably won't have him anymore---but that's just it: next summer. she's preparing herself to lose him in a year, not immediately. so when someone comes along that presents a way for her to lose percy, of course she gets scared, and she gets defensive about it. it's not even the fact that rachel was a potential love interest, it's more so the fact that rachel was a mortal, and not part of their world. if percy was with rachel, there's a good chance he'd try to leave the magical world behind, and, more importantly, leave annabeth behind, which she wasn't ready for yet.

hell, that's exactly what ended up happening in the beginning of tlo! annabeth wasn't upset because he was spending time with rachel, she was upset because he was spending time in the mortal world rather than her world and, in her mind because of all of her past experiences being abandoned, that translates to "percy is leaving her," and it was way earlier than she thought, and she wasn't ready. so what does she do? she tries to protect herself. she puts walls up and tries to act cold and distant because she's coming to terms with the fact that she's already lost him. she's already lost him.

and like, was she jealous of the fact that rachel was a love interest? probably, yeah. but i think it's also just important to know that there's something way deeper to it. annabeth isn't being a bitch for the sake of being a bitch, and she's not just jealous of rachel because she was a girl that liked percy. she was upset because he was getting further and further away right in front of her. he was leaving way quicker than she was prepared for, so a lot of the stuff she said to rachel came from a place of fear of losing percy, and anger at rachel for trying to pull him into the mortal world, effectively leaving her behind and adding another person to the list of people she loves that have left her.

#anyway i'm just thinking about my girl #annabeth chase #maybe as i read i'll update this post lol #like i said i'm on chapter 1 of botl so i haven't even gotten to what i talked about yet #but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people think annabeth is just a flaming bitch #like NO girl she was literally terrified #pjo reread

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beautifulpersonpeach · 3 days

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I was a bit surprised to see that mhj specifically said that newjeans had approved the statement saying that belift had copied newjeans' concept with illit. I'm not the type of person that thinks that you're a bitch for asserting position or your value, so this isn't where I'm coming from, but, especially in an industry where it's so rare to see groups say anything negative about other groups, particular junior groups I would think, it was quite the strong, swift position to take. Do you foresee newjeans continuing to engage publicly with this scandal, and how would you think taking an active part in this would affect their brand?

Ask 2:

bp in your opinion is there any chance that in this Hybe/MHJ situation there's a buried kind of double-blind motivation?

Like the kind i've seen attributed to E|on Musk, where he creates a big scandal to provide cover when he's doing something much shadier (and then maybe it gets out of hand, like the TwiX thing lol)

You've said you're pretty familar with the corporate side machinations - could Hybe be purposefully airing all this, sure to stick it to MHJ, but also to temporarily drive down stock prices for idk easy shares-repurchasing? Or even allowing a mess they can blame for having to report lower numbers to shareholders for whatever reason: boycott actually impacting profit, hedging against lower-than-predicted bts returning numbers, etc.

Or is this too convoluted of conspiracy thinking and BPD/HYBE/MHJ, and by extension from your recent posts basically 'corporate kpop' entire, are really just that transparent and petty?

Ask 3:

Might be a stupid question because I honestly don't have any clue about corporate businesses and how they work. But in the light of this scandal and how BigHit/Hybe developed over the last years: would you say this is what you get when you become too greedy instead of concentrating on what you were good at?

Ask 4:

in your opinion, is mhj truly an indispensable part of newjeans creative output? Also, do you see any way that hybe would let newjeans leave with its name and discography if they try to break their contract to go with mhj like some people are saying?

Ask 5:

I’m seeing a lot of discussion about whether newjeans will try to leave with mhj and break their contract with hybe, but I don’t see this as a realistic scenario, and I especially don’t see hybe letting them leave with their name and discography. You mentioned that there are a limited set of options now, but is this even one of them? In my mind, newjeans as a concept either stays at hybe, with or without mhj in whatever capacity, or can’t really exist legally

Ask 6:

Also this has given everyone (kpop stans, ARMYs, journalists) the go ahead to drag Newjeans in order to "defend" Illit, BTS, Riize, etc by throwing (again) dozens of plagiarism accusations and trying to discredit everything the group has done and achieved. And it was started by Hybe themselves... I have no words, bpp

***

I think these six asks capture most of the talking points in the asks I've received since yesterday, so I'll use these to answer your questions.

The sheer amount of spin happening in the media right now is ridiculous lmaoo. With the mention of BTS in the "escape files", ARMYs have predictably moved from shady bystanders to actively joining in the negative spin, spreading rumor articles and many are now attacking the girls themselves. But honestly, this is nothing less than what I expected. NewJeans is the most popular group in Korea, the 2nd most valuable IP only behind BTS, and Min Heejin is the brains behind the operation - an achievement she's insisted on taking full credit for since inception. Leaving the only option for whoever is masterminding this from within and outside HYBE, to destroy her reputation as an executive completely to diminish her value to outside investors, and weaken the fan support for NewJeans given how closely they are already associated with MHJ. And that's what is happening. It impacts every group at HYBE and nearly obliterates the viability of NewJeans.

For HYBE, it's a tolerable loss given there's only one year left before BTS returns and closes that earnings gap in mere months. Whoever took this action sees it simply as resulting in a numerical loss that can be soon corrected, but personally, I disagree, for the same reasons I objected to HYBE's acquisition of SM even though on paper it made numerical sense.

Anon in ask 1: I can understand your surprise but sad as it is to say, I expected that response from MHJ. She's a creative, not a PR exec or an MBA-credentialled suit. I'm not sure how familiar you are with ADOR's press releases in general, but anybody who reads them can tell there's almost no corporate doublespeak, no vague allusions, nothing that shows it's written by a typical media-trained PR person. Which is why most people, including you, take that statement to mean NewJeans agrees with MHJ that Illit copied them (it's a possibility), when in reality the language shows it could refer to them agreeing with MHJ's assertion that HYBE hasn't duly responded to her requests about inter-label discrimination, or other related matters. That's the kind of detail a trained PR person would be sure to include, to minimize the fallout to NJ, but just as with the press release on Cookie, the one on Minji's rival sasaeng, the response to Hyein's veneer rumours, and practically every press release ADOR has put out, the language is unsophisticated.

"Do you foresee newjeans continuing to engage publicly with this scandal, and how would you think taking an active part in this would affect their brand?"

NewJeans has so far not engaged publicly with this scandal. MHJ has mentioned them to signal any separation between them will likely be contested. It's leverage. If they do take an active part in this scandal, it will completely destroy their brand. Like, it's already on life support. Anything more and we might as well say their last rites.

Anon in ask 2: I'd say that's not a conspiracy exactly but it is kinda pushing it. Anytime there's a stock dip it's a buying opportunity, and HYBE is always guaranteed to be a Buy so long as BTS is slated to return within 12 months of the stock event. But we simply don't have any clear indications that's the case now given the timing doesn't quite line up. If anything, that is more like the 4th order side-effect.

And yeah, people on the corporate side, not just in k-pop, are many times just that petty. But it's also true this case has been sensationalized in particular ways to appeal to k-pop stans specifically.

Anons in ask 4 & 5: The options available are:

MHJ leaves HYBE and NewJeans stays in HYBE

MHJ leaves HYBE and NewJeans leaves with her

MHJ stays in HYBE but is demoted from her exec role and NewJeans stays in HYBE

MHJ stays in HYBE and keeps her exec role and NewJeans stays in HYBE

None of these options are good, but the worst of these evils is option 2. If the members attempt to leave with her, there's no pretty way to say this, but they'll be done. I'm not even going to waste time writing all the ways HYBE and k-pop stans as a whole will rip them to shreds, all I'll say is that whoever is attached to these girls should consider taking a 6 months sabbatical away from k-pop entirely once that news breaks. The law is not on their side and public opinion, especially after all the 'leaks' and spin from HYBE in the last 72 hours, certainly isn't on their side either. It would be career suicide.

"in your opinion, is mhj truly an indispensable part of newjeans creative output?"

Personally, I think yes. Every label at HYBE had similar initial monetary investment as NewJeans and ADOR had, and other groups from the Big 3 have had even bigger investments and resources at their disposal. There isn't a single group, both within HYBE and outside HYBE, that has yielded the same results as NewJeans in the same period of time. Illit comes close, but even with their achievements they haven't reached the same (positive) notoriety as NewJeans did at debut. All HYBE groups have access to HYBE's youtube channel, connections and resources, and yet the achievements of BOYNEXTDOOR, LE SSERAFIM, ENHYPEN, and even ILLIT, are nowhere near comparable to that of NewJeans. And I agree with MHJ that she's the primary reason why. Having access to resources is only one part of the equation. How you allocate those resources and what you do with it is far more important, and this is where MHJ and ADOR excels relative to other sub-labels.

NewJeans without MHJ will not be nearly as threatening to everyone else in k-pop, and I suspect this is one reason there have been calls for her to be removed from managing the group since their debut.

Anons in ask 3 & 6: Yeah there's a fair bit of greed on show here. Generally, for a lot of people in this industry, greed is good... unless the greedy person is a woman. Because the only thing more central to nasty corporate tussles like this, more than greed, is ego.

I'm not trying to play the gender card, but sometimes I do wonder why there are no articles like this about people like Jaden Jeong and Simon Jakob given the reputation those men have in corporate circles, where top officials (in this case, within HYBE) are saying they cannot possibly work with MHJ because she is "overly and excessively opinionated". I'm highlighting this article because despite the initial paragraphs of spin, that bit is the only thing consistent with MHJ's claim that this attack from HYBE started because she'd filed a whistleblowing report on toxic inter-label competition and followed up an email that said quote:

"..is this deliberate obtuseness and unapologetic behaviour consistent with HYBE's founding philosophy of rebelling against unfair practices in the entertainment industry?"

I mean... in corporate Korea, I can see how they were sick of her shit and it was only a matter of time before she got the boot.

The insidious thing about spin is that it mixes the truth with lies, making it easy for people to accept it wholly. It's entirely possible that MHJ wants more compensation, more autonomy and independence, feels that Belift and other companies borrowed her ideas without full credit, and that she was unsupported by HYBE HQ. It's entirely possible that she took actions such as monitoring fan feedback of the group(s) she suspects and filing a whistleblowing report to build a case - according to both MHJ and others at HYBE, these are complaints she's apparently had since last year, but none of those things would justify HYBE's response nor is it enough to turn people against her.

What I find particularly interesting about this case, is that everything that decisively incriminates her of the more sensational and sinister allegations, comes from the person of VP L or CEO A - a person who only joined ADOR in January 2024, shortly after which HYBE received their first tip-off that MHJ was planning to escape. It's VP L who titles documents with the equivalent of "TOP SECRET DO NOT TOUCH" on company computers... the same guy that's supposedly a double agent working in favour of MHJ and ADOR but is situated within ADOR, not HYBE, where simple logic shows he'd be most useful. Unless he's situated right where he's supposed to be.

Anyway...

HYBE has requested for a shareholder meeting on April 30th where they'll likely table the motion for MHJ to resign regardless of what's found in the audit. Far as I know, she's completed the audit questionnaire but not surrendered her laptop as HYBE has requested. Given the play is for HYBE to kick her out while continuing to manage NJ, I can see how she'd rather die than surrender her laptop and hand over her ideas (and potentially incriminating info) to HYBE on a silver platter for them to use in her wake.

Every way this shakes out is bad news for HYBE groups IMO. So long as NewJeans keeps quiet and sides with HYBE, they'll be somewhat okay. But regardless of the fallout from HYBE cannibalizing itself, all HYBE groups have no choice but to take it on the chin and bide their time until BTS comes back to capture the attention back to them.

I hope I answered all your questions. IMO there's really no point talking more about this until there's a firm conclusion.

#min heejin #newjeans #ador #hybe #bang pd #kpop #kpop industry #kpop business #belift

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atamascolily · 5 months

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There's a game I play as a writer that I call "Story Problems" -- I'll stop an episode or a movie halfway to three-quarters of the way through and try to sketch the ending I think the writers have in mind based on what I've seen thus far. Obviously, this is much easier with self-contained mysteries and ten-minute one-shot children's cartoons than extended dramas, but through regular practice, I've learned to pay attention to all the clues dropped in the exposition and how seemingly unrelated details are woven together into a coherent narrative whole.

Some people use the term "Chekhov's gun" for these hints, but I prefer "set-up and payoff". No matter what you call them, writing is essentially a sleight-of-hand performance, where the writer tell the audience exactly what they're going to do while simultaneously distracting them so that they're too busy focusing on other things to notice until the big reveal.

All this is a roundabout way of saying I've spent a lot of time thinking about the "story problem" represented by Walpurgis no Kaiten and how it might unfold.

First and most importantly, why bring Walpurgisnacht back in the first place? What role can a seemingly defeated witch (however mysterious) have in PMMM going forward? What are we, the audience, missing that would allow us to make sense of this? What in her story remains incomplete or unaddressed?

I sympathize with those who wanted Walpurgisnacht's nature to remain a mystery, but I think that ship sailed the moment SHAFT decided to bring her back for the sequel. If indeed Walpurgisnacht is returning--and why name the movie after her if she isn't?--then she must be somehow connected in some way to the main cast beyond her role in the original series as the Final Boss, or else why even bother?

(Seriously, if SHAFT wanted Walpurgisnacht's presence to be a surprise, they could have titled the movie literally ANYTHING else, but they didn't. That was a deliberate choice on their part, so I not only assume that Walpurgisnacht must be important somehow--central, even--but the big twist is not THAT she returns, but HOW and WHY.)

Cut to several years of radio silence after the initial announcement, giving me plenty of time to think. One night in the fall of 2022, the following conversation played out in my head unprompted:

Brain: Hahahaha, you know what, I bet they're really going with the whole 'Homura is Walpurgisnacht' twist after all! "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace", and all that. Plus, can you imagine how angry this will make people on Reddit? Me: Okay, but why are you telling me this NOW?

Brain:

Me: crying You sick son of a bitch.

To be fair, improbable plot summaries have something of a history in this franchise--if I were to travel back to 2012 and tell people that Homura becomes a witch and traps everyone in her labyrinth and then turns into the Devil, I don't think many people would have believed THAT either until it played out in front of them. But this one was particularly disheartening because the "Homura is Walpurgisnacht" theory*--which was initially popular when the series was released--was seemingly discredited in Rebellion with the appearance of Homura's witch Homulilly. To say otherwise was going to be one hell of a hard sell for a lot of people.

(*I know, I know, I know, Walpurgisnacht is a composite super-witch made of multiple entities, but I need a shorthand way of describing it, even if it's not as technically accurate, so bear with me here.)

But even though my assertion seemed counterintuitive on the surface, I was convinced that it would eventually prove to be the case for several reasons:

1) Another game I like to play as a writer is called "The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen" (alternate title: "Put That Character In A Situation"). Essentially, I try to imagine what would hurt/challenge the characters the most for maximum drama or effect, and then I make it happen. Based on Homura's history and her relationship with Walpurgisnacht, what would be the worst thing that could possibly happen re: Walpurgisnacht's return?

Well, given how much Homura has invested in protecting Madoka from this witch--from reliving the same month hundreds of times over to becoming the self-proclaimed embodiment of evil just to make a world where Madoka could be happy--the worst thing that could happen to Homura would be that she discovers that everything she's done, all that she's fought and sacrificed for, has led directly to the one thing she's been trying to prevent this whole time: the (re?)creation of Walpurgisnacht herself.

In other words, this tweet:

I mentioned my theory to someone recently, and their response (paraphrased) was that they felt the original series had already covered this particular form of dramatic irony and they hoped WnK would go in a different direction. Fair enough, but this is a series that thrives on revisiting the same scenes from different angles, to the point of a shot-for-shot remake of Madoka with her family at the beginning of Rebellion to mirror the original series! So just because they've done similar things before doesn't mean it's necessarily off the table in the future--to me, that makes it even more likely, actually. And frankly, I think some amount of revisiting the past was inevitable the moment SHAFT decided they were bringing Walpurgisnacht back in the first place.

Given PMMM's obsession with cycles and repetition, I'd go one step further and make it worse: not only are Homura's actions what bring Walpurgisnacht back, these same actions are what lead to all the Walpurgisnachts in the past, so that Homura created the very monster who killed Madoka and caused Homura herself to become a magical girl in the first place. Essentially, Homura becomes her own ancestor in a massive time loop/bootstrap paradox with no beginning and no end (or at least, that's how it seems at first--I doubt that's where the story TRULY ends, though it would make for one hell of a cliffhanger).

It would be bad enough if Homura directly or indirectly created Walpurgisnacht AND created a time loop, but you know what would make the situation EVEN WORSE? What if the enemy that Homura had been fighting for so long wasn't some other external force outside of her, but her own SELF-- if Homura not only created her own enemy, but also WAS that enemy, too, becoming the thing she feared and hated the most? I've talked in my previous posts about how PMMM excels at making the metaphorical literal, as well as its proclivity for turning characters into their opposites, so this would be a logical next step in that direction.

Given that Gen Urobuchi's nickname is "the Urobutcher", I think it's safe to say he knows how to make characters suffer. Thus, I'd be deeply surprised if he doesn't play the same game that I do--and if so, he might draw similar conclusions to the ones I've outlined above.

2) A major twist in every installment thus far has been that Homura is not who or what we think she is--first a time traveler, then a witch, then the Devil. If this pattern continues, what new revelations would surprise us about Homura? In order for the story to continue, it's likely that she must grow and change beyond her Devil persona--what might that look like? A transformation into the massive super-witch that was her enemy would certainly answer both questions and then some, although it may not be the answer people want.

(If nothing else, Homura will likely have at least one new outfit in Walpurgis no Kaiten so that SHAFT can sell the merchandise, lol.)

3) Not only do Homura's actions drive the plot of PMMM, the franchise is deeply concerned with her emotional life, and she is the center around which everything revolves (although this is not always immediately apparent due to the way each installment is structured). Thus, it's likely that Homura's relationship with Walpurgisnacht is both central to the plot and deeply personal--and what could be more personal than this?

4) In a show with excellent visual design, where every detail is selected with care, and usually means something (even if that meaning is not immediately apparent), there are far too many visual and narrative parallels between Homura and Walpurgisnacht to be a coincidence. Having the two be connected in this fashion would explain all of this in a concise and satisfying manner.

5) One of the things I admire about PMMM from a storytelling perspective is how efficient it is--every character and detail has a purpose, and nothing is wasted. Having Homura be/become Walpurgisnacht is not the ONLY way to establish a connection between them, but it is undeniably the simplest and the most efficient from a purely technical angle, as it only involves one character the audience already knows and cares about vs. adding an entirely new entity to the mix.

That was my answer to the story problem of "What is Walpurgis no Kaiten about?" in late 2022, based solely on the limited information available to me (i.e.m the title of the movie + everything that has come before). But while it seemed abundantly clear to me--almost inevitable--that Homura would somehow become Walpurgisnacht, I didn't have a good explanation for HOW this might come about beyond "timey-wimey reality-bending and/or multiverse shenanigans"--which, while adequate for my purposes, was not enough evidence to convince others of my argument, and so I let the matter rest.

Then the key visual dropped in September 2023, and I burst out laughing the instant I saw the second Homura, because I knew how SHAFT was going to solve the problem that had stumped me: one Homura would create/become Walpurgisnacht and the other would attempt to stop her (and probably fail, at least at first).

Homura is such a complex and multi-faceted character, I think it's a bit simplistic to say that one of the pair will be purely good and the other evil. Suffice to say there will be one Homura that we're rooting for (the one with ribbons) and one that we're probably not rooting for (the one with the headband) and leave it at that for now.

I'll freely admit that I still don't fully understand the mechanics of how and why there are two Homuras or how Walpurgisnacht arises from the actions of one or both of them, but I don't need to: everything we need to know is contained within the framing of that key visual. Homura will be the source of all her problems in this movie; that's all that matters. Everything else is details--delicious, to be sure, and I look forward to analyzing them in great detail, but the core (heh) conflict of the movie is already apparent.

Of course, you could make the argument that my original gut feeling was wrong because the second Homura doesn't "count" as Homura. To me, that's semantic hair-splitting--for my purposes, if she looks like Homura and is voiced by Chiwa Saito and retains all of Homura's powers, abilities, and associated symbolism, then she IS Homura in all the way that really matter, but I'm sure people can and will disagree with me on that. In the end, when it comes to PMMM, it's Homura all the way down--and I think Walpurgis no Kaiten will make that literal before the end.

(not gonna lie, the idea that all the Clara Dolls turn into Homuras too, so that Walpurgisnacht is made up of nothing but Homuras is pretty delicious--but so is the idea of the doppelganger Homura somehow hijacking or corrupting the Law of Cycles, which we know is full of witches, and turning it to her own ends. Or both, both is good, too!)

I know a lot of people hate the "Homura is Walpurgisnacht" theory, but I think it keeps popping up for a reason, and will continue to do so until Walpurgis no Kaiten finally gives us sufficient information to either make it canon or lay it to rest for good. Personally, I love the idea--as a quick browse through my "#vein of gold" tag will attest, I love when characters are forced to confront their shadow selves, their dark sides, and their doubles; I love when the call is coming from inside the house. For me, Homura becoming Walpurgisnacht wouldn't be cliche or boring, it would be a plot twist that would explain everything we've seen to date while simultaneously re-framing it, making it a Greek tragedy of incredible proportions. And a lot of people hated the whole "Homura becomes the Devil" twist when Rebellion came out, so why should Walpurgis no Kaiten be any different in this regard?

One of the things that I love about this franchise is that it's never been afraid to go big and bold and cosmic while simultaneously remaining deeply personal--and solidifying the connections between Homura and Walpurgisnacht would be all of those things at once and then some. I don't know why this particular idea has captured me, or why I feel so strongly about it, but in the end, I don't have any inside information, just an intuition that refuses to let go.

Ultimately, I suspect whether you like this theory or not comes down to whether you think the primary conflict of Madoka Magica is external (characters battling an enemy outside of themselves) or internal (characters battling an enemy within). My gut feeling is that Walpurgis no Kaiten will be an internal battle playing out on an external stage, essentially making this a "both/and" situation, and it will revisit many elements of both the original series and Rebellion while simultaneously breaking new ground.

It may well be that Urobuchi and SHAFT have a different answer to this particular story problem than the one I've outlined here--but if so, I can't see it. In the end, all I can do is imagine the story that I would write based on the clues I've been given, which may or may not be the same as the one they are planning. We'll find out if there's any truth at all to my intuitions or if I'm barking up the wrong tree when the movie finally comes out.

And hey, if I'm going to be wrong, I'd rather go out with a wild and crazy idea than playing it safe with some half-assed guessing. If I can't be right, I might as well be INTERESTING. And there's always fanfic to fall back on if the movie ends up going in a radically different direction and I still feel strongly about this by then.

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm analysis #walpurgisnacht rising #walpurgis no kaiten #madoka magica

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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This is separate from people making Noah’s coming out all about byler, without ever separating Noah from Will, because yes that’s weird. But also entirely expected, like that’s as fandom behavior as it gets.

But for the sake of making a point here, what’s the main argument people use for why byler won’t happen?

It’s that the Duffers are just two straight old white dudes and the actors playing the characters are two straight white dudes. And because of that they’re probably all homophobic so it’ll never happen and if anything the opposite, most messed up ending, is more likely.

Heteronormativity and the assumptions that everyone is definitively straight, until they explicitly say otherwise, is something homophobes depend on.

Now all the people with ignorant arguments like that can do after this news, is bitch about how no one cares that he’s gay and it’s not even a big deal… a concept Noah literally references in his TikTok.

Even though I think straight ppl mean well when they say who cares, they’re ignoring the fact that straightness is the default expectation in our society. And this puts a lot a weight on queer people’s shoulders their entire lives, to essentially live a lie until they finally get the courage to come out.

Noah admitted that it took him 18 years to come out to his family and friends bc he was too scared to.

The reality is straight ppl mostly don’t want to talk/think about it and that’s why they get upset with too much discussion about the possibility in terms of byler and Stranger Things in general.

Unfortunately for all the practicing homophobes in the fandom, they’re going to get a big lesson on heteronormativity and the reality that literally anyone could be/not be gay.

Your best friend. Your brother. Your mom. Your gramma… You.

And that’s what scares ppl who’ve been internalizing homophobia their whole lives. They don’t want to talk/think about it for a reason. And it has nothing to do with actual other queer people just existing, it’s what they’re scared it could or could not mean for them. And they are making a vow to themselves to never find out.

And it’s because they know how gay people are treated and they don’t want to be the butt of jokes like that. They want to belong with people that are ‘normal’ or the default in society. And so hearing those same homophobes try to downplay and discredit Noah for coming out, it’s honestly just sad. The cycle of homophobia/internalized homophobia is so fucking depressing and it affects all of us.

Idec about specific ships at this point, it’s sad that a lot of men/boys in our society still see being gay as a negative thing, something they have to distance themselves from. And by being homophobic, they feel like they’re successful in achieving that distance.

And as much as homophobes piss me off every now and then online and in real life… I know why they’re doing it. Because they’ve been rewarded for it all their lives. They’ve been told doing the opposite made them different.

People forget (or are just unaware I guess) that Noah literally clapped back at byler fans on Twitter post-s2, saying, “why can’t boys just be friends anymore??”… yeah he literally made a textbook Reddit argument… though he has since deleted it…

And so I do hope that future generations of boys and girls are going to feel more comfortable accepting themselves, making it easier for us to be willing to look inward and not be scared and to eventually maybe get to a point where we don’t even have to come out as queer, we can just love who we love and it just is.

But that’s just not reality at this time.

And so yes I’m relieved that Noah himself was comfortable enough to share this with the world and didn’t spend anymore time hiding his sexuality, assuming he wanted to be out!

#noah schnapp #byler #stranger things

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anonymous-dentist · 7 months

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Hi AD, sorry but I can be a bitch for a second in your inbox… I made the mistake of going on Twitter and searching to see what people think about Phil and Q being the only ones so far to have unique tickets, first tweet I see ‘ if it’s not about them being birds the only connection I can think that they both have is q!Wilbur’, I see people in the replies say that means the next arc will center around Wilbur, I close Twitter, muffled screaming.

Ah yes…… Phil and Q have unique tickets because WILBURS gonna have a major arc… YEP… nothing to do with those two at all clearly it’s about WILBUR…

They couldn’t even fucking let q!Quackity’s amnesia be about him no it was all ‘oh no he won’t remember Wil!!!’ Or ‘ dw guys hell see Wil and all his memories will come back!’ Even though not even seeing Richas, photos of Tilin, or all the other people he’s known on the island for longer then he’s actually known Wilbur has done anything for him!!!!! Can his own fucking ticket be about him please!

Like man I get missing your favorite pov, I miss Luzu so much but like… cmon man… Maybe just maybe Q and Phil’s tickets are about… them… and not anyone else!

Okay I’m done. Sorry Im rly tired, angry that I’m working on my day off, and had to let that out, anyway I hope you’ve been having a good October so far!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah I’ve seen that too and it’s pissing me off lol. But don’t worry, it’s just people trying to cope with the fact that their special little guy wasn’t the center of Kameto’s Really Cool Event the other day and trying to deal with the fact that q!Wilbur Soot is as unimportant in the grand scheme of things as a grain of sand in the desert.

They’re saying that Wilbur is coming back this month which is. Not confirmed? He said he might be back in October. Meanwhile he just got back from a huge tour and they’re already working on new music in the band and he has another tour to get ready for in December and he’s going to need to film Sorry Boys at some point and he’s more likely to do a just chatting stream about the tour than the qsmp. So.

But it’s just like the sbi and tntduo twitter stans to ignore actual lore in canon of a relationship that isn’t like. Real. (Looks at q!tntduo, which was never canon) (Looks at q!Wil and q!Phil being family in that Wilbur immediately decided Phil was his dad on the train and Phil going along with it and this only becoming canon as soon as q!Wil realized he needed someone to leave Tallulah with and them never expanding on it, thus leaving it as just a self-assigned Father Son dynamic)

Like sure guys keep discrediting the actual ccs active lore (Phil being a known immortal that the Feds 100% needed to get under control by any means necessary) (Quackity’s Entire Lore So Far?????) to perpetuate highly fandomized relationships with a guy with as much canon relevancy as a graham cracker.

#asks!#discourse #crit

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argumate · 2 years

Text

I know I've bitched about the local student socialists before but I keep seeing their posters and they're still so badly done!

today's started off strong: "Marxists believe we have to smash capitalism because it's fucking us over", like that's a solid hook, tell me more: "capitalism is permeated with sexism, racism, and islamophobia," uhh that's your top three issues with capitalism? no concern at all for say, inequality? the plight of workers? class struggle perhaps??

like yeah sure you can say that capitalism is inherently transphobic or pokes holes in the ozone layer or cancels Netflix shows just as they're starting to get good if you like but are those really your core complaints, about capitalism, as a Marxist?

and I mean a casual passerby might start thinking huh, sexism and racism were a hell of a lot worse in the 1950s, and capitalism has gotten much stronger since then, yet somehow sexism and racism have declined over that period, and a somewhat less casual passerby might note that even islamophobia has fluctuated up and down with the prevailing geopolitical situation in ways that don't seem intrinsically tied to the advance or retreat of capitalism.

you almost hope that the socialist group is an op trying to suck the revolutionary fervour out of people and discredit Marxism, but sadly I don't think it's necessary to assume anything but well-meaning idiocy here.

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girlgerard · 2 years

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Im p sure franks finger tattoos are gonna be lost soul too like…. Emo bitch I love youuuu

he’s literally so cringe i hope he gets the most disgusting commemorative tattoo anyone’s ever conceived for this tour. i’m talking heart that says ‘brotherhood’ in cursive. i’m talking the mcr logo on his ass. i’m talking portraits of their faces. i want him to completely discredit anything nonchalant he’s ever said about mcr

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yuikomorii · 8 months

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I remembered your DiaBoys as kpop artists memes and came to this conclusion:

Ayato is the Wonyoung of DL definitely and I don’t need to elaborate why. Like come on it’s obvious‼️ Shu is Yujin because popular but not very impactful and Subaru is Liz because a lot of his ‘stans’ aren’t actually his stans but only use his name to compare him to others and trash on other diaboys (not cool bro)

// This is low-key so accurate—😭😭

Shu is 100% the Yujin of DL. The stans are mostly chill and nice. I even think he got the friendliest stans in the Japanese DL fandom because I’ve never seen any of them say anything rude or bad and they’re always supportive of other characters. He got some token stans in the Western fandom too, but it’s the WESTERN FANDOM after all, where a bunch of people are toxic therefore I’m disappointed but not surprised. Also, I consider Yujin very impactful even if she’s not on Wonyoung’s level.

Most people who have Subaru as their number one bias are actually really sweet and unproblematic but I don’t get why he got so many token stans?? However, that is essentially the reason he is the Liz of DL. Token stans are the worst since they constantly whine about everything instead of supporting their faves or, even worse, they set them up. I swear, I've heard so many people say things like, "Liz was more popular than Wonyoung during Eleven and Love Dive era, but Starship dyed her hair black because they knew she would steal Wonyoung's hype," and that was so stupid because 1) maybe the hair color was her choice and 2) obviously she seemed more popular than Wonyoung, taking into account that people were too busy hating and degrading Wony in all possible ways for wearing a pink dress in the Eleven MV and showing FaVoRiTiSm. Don't get me wrong, Liz is very talented and beautiful, but I'll only say this in general: If your bias only gets to shine or appear favored when the most famous member is experiencing their hate phase, then hate to break it to you, but your bias is not actually the most popular, but rather the second choice OR their "fans" contributed to the most successful person's hatred in order to uplift your fav. That isn't anything you should be proud of.

When it comes to Ayato, that comparison fits him so much as well. You'll attract a lot of haters when you're well-known, pretty, and talked-about since those people view you as a threat because of their own insecurities. I stand up for Wonyoung, and it baffles me how so many people discredit or dislike her. They try to pull the "Wonyoung isn't the 4th gen IT girl, she wasn't even the most popular in IZ*ONE" card when it's not 2018–2020 anymore, and she has always been loved even before joining IVE, so recently she gained a loooot of new fans because of her visuals, endearing personality, and impact. What is even that difficult to comprehend?

Ayato’s situation also reminds me of how Jennie is treated. Not only due to the “outshining” and favoritism allegations, but also because people are always harsher and show less empathy when it comes to her. She is also unfairly judged as a result of double standards and misinfo. Additionally, a lot of people make her mistakes and bad moments go viral rather than highlighting all of the incredible performances she gave or her good deeds.

We got it, these are fictional characters but there are a lot of individuals who will find comfort in them and seeing people hate or spread lies about something that brings them joy (despite not being written as notably worthy of that treatment) will only hurt those fans and if you get satisfaction out of it then congratulations, you’re a terrible person. Real people having to deal with hate is ten times worse, especially given the likelihood that they will see the offensive posts.

In conclusion, don’t be a mean bitch. Only weak, insecure, and unlovable people behave that way.

#admin

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fabraies · 1 year

Text

LESS THAN ZERO

notes n warnings ❅ *: snowboarder! reader x coach! Iwaizumi, all fluff and cute winter wonderland theme, a little angst, heavily inspired by Taylor swift’s folklore album, bad pacing as always, areblogs are always appreciated, and I hope you all have a great ski season! wc 4.2 k

part 2 of snowflakes are kisses from heaven

DAY 1

You hated this voice. Echoing all over the ski slope, everyone could hear it loud and clear: you had not managed to keep up with the public’s expectations. The distorted voice continues calling out the podium winners, eventually taking a break to build the suspense when he gets to the gold medalist. The gold medalist that should’ve been you.

“First place! Chloe Kim of the United States of America!”

You look down to your feet as the Chinese translator takes over, and play with you bronze medal. You’re not mad at her. You’re mad at yourself. 'If onlys’ quickly fill up the entire functioning parts of your brain. If only you had worked harder. If only you had listened to your coach about this and that. If only you had worked longer. If only you hadn’t brushed off the criticism online. If only.

Looking back at the past months, disappointment takes over. You’re about to enter a self-deprecating inner rant when a someone grabs your hand, and you almost feel bad for wishing it would be somebody else.

“Are you thinking of getting off that podium anytime soon? Or maybe you’d rather sleep there.” A deep voice chuckles. You don’t find it funny.

“Iwaizumi.” You nod, acknowledging his presence. You don’t want anything to do with him at the moment. You two had built some sort of a friendship throughout the games, playful banter making up most of your conversations, but right now, you don’t feel like it. Especially since he’s Chloe Kim’s coach.

“Who pissed in your cereal?” He jokes, again, and this time, you don’t bother answering. You don’t have to, because he gets it. You wish he didn’t. Iwaizumi puts his hands on your shoulders, and continues, “Come on! Don’t act like third place is bad! These were your first games, you’ll have plenty of time to get first place at any other time.” He tries to make you see the bright side of things, knock some sense into you. It doesn’t work, as you just decide to shrug his hands off instead.

You can’t stand the act you’re putting up in front of him anymore. You take off your helmet, step down from the podium, and there it is. The disappointment comes by again, because if only the step was a little bit bigger. Maybe you would’ve been more satisfied then.

“Of course you’d say that.” You scoff lightly, “Your trainee just won. For whom, by the way, I’m very happy. Really, I am. But you didn’t have time after your first Olympics, and that’s why you’re on the sidelines right now. There’s a fifty fifty chance I might end up like you before the next Olympics. So excuse me, but no.” You turn on your heel shortly after that, not expecting the conversation to go any further.

“I get it.” He calls out to you.

For a while, you don’t say anything. The cold mountain breeze blows softly, the snowflakes silently settle on your hair. You realize you forgot to put on lipbalm this morning, and carefully reach up to your lips. The bumps you feel with your fingers confirm that they’re chapped: even more so with the cold.

Hajime catches his breath before starting again. “I get it. You’re an athlete, our careers end early. We don’t have much time and that’s how it is. It’s unfair. And that, is exactly why you can’t let this get to you. You don’t have time to bitch and moan.” He couln’t help adding a personal aside; “Besides, you know, for somebody who’s never been at Olympics before, you actually did great; I don’t mean to discredit Chloe but, she’s been there before. You haven’t.”

“I guess” You mumble quietly. You don’t dare look at him. His gaze is unsettling, his dark eyes never leaving yours.

“Bye, now.” Your attempt at indifference is laughable. Your voice is weak and lacks authority, your words sucked into an empty void as you wave your hand dismissively. You begin your walk up to the Olympic village, and his voice makes way to your eardrums once again.

“Meet me at this exact slope tomorrow, at midday. I want to tell you something.”

DAY 2

Your indexes press both your temples, your elbows lying on your bathroom counter. You look at the time, then back at the mirror, only to find it reflecting an image that doesn’t satisfy you; at all. Concealer, foundation, setting powder, color correcters- you had tried everything, if not more, to get rid of the awful panda eyes you woke up with, but nothing worked.

At this rate, you were surely going to be off the rocker by midday -which happened to be the time at which you were supposed to meet Iwaizumi. You take one last glance at your watch for good measure, only to find out you had a measly quarter of an hour before you’d have to leave. You have 10 left when you realize you’re a desperate case.

Who were you trying so hard for, anyway? You stop dead in your tracks. Who were you trying so hard for? Iwaizumi? Surely not. You feel your cheeks and the tip of your ears get hot at the thought. Inhale, hold, exhale. And again. You repeat this action a few times, in hopes to cool down, clear your head, but it’s not easy. The fact that you’re running late for the meet-up is not helping, either. You’re considering taking a rain-check on it, because you just realized you’re probably in love with someone else’s coach.

“Probably”, smoke forms itself in the cold air after the words escape your lips. “Probably.” you repeat, in an attempt to reassure yourself.

The next time you catch yourself thinking of your impromptu ‘crush’, you’re going up a mountain, the subject of your thoughts staring right back at you.

“A penny for your thoughts?”

The question almost makes you snicker. Iwaizumi had coined this expression after hearing it on an American sitcom you two had watched not too long ago, and your heart aches at the memory. You had no doubt that if he even had an inkling of what was going on inside your head, Hajime would’ve been out of your sight before you’d even be sure of your feelings. You suppose it won’t make much of a difference, considering you’re to leave in a day from now.

“I wouldn’t even sell them for a million, forget it.” You narrow your eyes at him.

At this, the bulky man raises a brow. “So you do have something to hide ?”

“Drop it.” You warn again.

You can see his mouth slightly parting, ready to shoot you another remark, attempting to find out what exactly is clouding your mind, when the lift doors open, and one of the cable car drivers usher you out of the cabin with a disapproving look.

You elbow Iwaizumi in the ribs, asking him what exactly went through his mind for your presence to get such a reaction out of the driver.

He doesn’t answer, and instead grabs your gloved hand to drag you through the woods until you reach a tiny ski shed. It’s slightly old, and the wood is close to giving out, the color slowly fading from a nice brown to a dull grey.

The inside is a nice contrast to the cold outside, and you don’t wait a second to come in and find a tiny loveseat while draping a duvet on yourself.

“By all means, make yourself at home.” Hajime says. At this, you stop moving, suddenly realising how impolite you were being. You raise your head, only to be met with a handsome grin. “I’m kidding” he finishes.

You reply with another smile, turning your head to the tiny scratched square window on the right. The sky is oddly bright, the clouds acting as a screen, reflecting the light. It’s truly a beautiful sight to behold, the snowflakes fluttering down to land softly on the rim of the window. Over time, the snow clumps together to form a thick blanket over the frozen grass. The snowfall is so harsh it only takes a few minutes for the layer to thicken until it’s already reaching 15 centimeters.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Iwaizumi whispers.

“It is.” You answer.

There’s no need for any of you to fill the empty void of silence after that. You fall into a comfortable atmosphere, and it feels like a dream neither of you want to wake up from. You can feel Iwaizumi’s soft stare, and few seconds later, you feel your loveseat dip, and a head fall on your shoulder. you tilt your head, questioning his behaviour, but the slow breathing indicates he’s already fallen asleep.

“Maybe I do like you.” You whisper to yourself, your eyes running over his features. It’s a risky move, but as far as you’re concerned, he’s supposedly asleep. Your heart swells as you notice the droplets of snow on his eyebrows and eyelashes. You don’t think you’ve ever seen anybody this beautiful before. His delicate lips are the last thing you see before you fall asleep yourself.

You wake up, and it’s noon. By then, you’re sure you’ve fallen in love with Iwaizumi Hajime.

“Hey sleepyhead. Look, I’ve talked to the cable cars staff and the last lift is in 15 minutes so, we should get going.” A tall man opens the door and speaks up. You don’t have to open your eyes to know it’s the man that’s been occupying your thoughts for the past day.

You relunctantly get up from your comfortable seat, and put on your jacket, and head out to the cable car station. On the way, you can’t help but ask a question that you’ve been keeping to yourself ever since earlier this afternoon.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” You start, fiddling with you fingers. It hadn’t been your goal to pressure him into telling you, but your curiousity took the best of you.

“Won’t tell you until you tell me what was up with you on the way up here.” He crosses his arms on his chest, determined to know what was up with you.

You raise a brow, clearly unimpressed with the chantage attempt. “I’m not telling you.” You stay firm and focused. You would rather die than have anybody know about your crush about your opponents’ coach, let alone the man himself.

“I guess I won’t tell you what I wanted to tell you, then.” He says nonchalantly, playing with your nerves. You don’t give in to his game, and shrug, “fine by me.”

It was not fine by you.

DAY 3

“Are you sure we’re even allowed to do this?” You shout over the wind, snowboard in hand.

“We used the lift last time and the guy said it was fine. I asked him about it again this morning and he said it was also fine. Don’t stress.” Iwaizumi answers, adjusting his ski glassware.

You huff. “I’m not stressing. I just think it’s very irresponsible, ‘s all.” Your maternal instincts take over as your hands settle on your hips, as if you were scolding a child. “And, your injury. I don’t want to be blacklisted by your twitter stans, they are terrifying.”

He doesn’t do anything but laugh, until he speaks up again. “Thought you were actually worried about me for a second.”

“You wish” A grin takes over your face, which is quickly mirrored by your interlocutor; “A man can dream” the black haired man sighs, looking up. It doesn’t take too long for him to wake up from his daydreaming, as he shuns you forward, and indicates for you to get your snowboarding gear on.

You consider questioning his words from a few seconds ago, but quickly decide against it, and wordlessly comply and count the seconds until your partner was done as well. The view in front of you is breathtaking. Far off, you can already see the steep sides of the mountains and their sloping sides and rounded ridges. They’re not snowboarding friendly, you know that, but their beauty is so captivating, as if they’re beckoning you forward, begging you to come their crooked tracks.

The slopes are untouched, yet to be used, and a fresh even layer of snow broods the land. In moments like these, you remember why you’ve been doing this for so long, why despite the losses, you’re still out there, competing.

“Come on! We don’t have time to loose!” Iwaizumi’s voice fills the short-lived silence, and you start worrying.

“You said the cable car driver was fine with it! Why would there be time to loose?” You reply, fastening your helmet.

“I said the cable car driver was fine with it, not the security!”

You let out a frustrated grunt, unheard by Hajime, who’s already on his way down the slope. In this moment, you can’t find yourself to be mad at him. Not when he looks so happy, so carefree. He’d always looked slightly off ever since you met him, as if he was he was missing something, a particular little thing. So little, but so important. It now hits you that the particular little thing has to be snowboarding.

Iwaizumi is halfway down already, and you get ready to try and overtake him. A few tiny jumps, and you smoothly start gliding on the snow. You’ve always loved it. The speed, the adrenaline, the risk. By now you’ve amassed an incredible amount of said speed; you’ve always been used to things going by pretty fast, but even by your own standards, your eyes start to widen: maybe you’re going a little too fast after all.

You know you have when you suddenly collapse in what you thought was a tree, and land face down in the snow. The wind is knocked out of your lungs when you realize you can still feel the tree. Have I hit it so hard I uprooted the tree?? You start panicking. You were already in trouble for going down this slope when you weren’t supposed to -which your coach would definitely kill you for- and now you were supposed to deal with an uprooted tree? How unlucky could you even get?

A slight groan from the supposed tree gives you an answer: incredibly unlucky.

“Could’ve been a little nicer,” he laughs a little, and you wonder how he still has the energy to do this despite being hit by bulldozer; you. “I’m not as young as you.”

“This,” You take some time to recover from your irregular breathing rhythm, “This is all you have to say?”

“You’d rather have me yell at you or something?” He quirks an eyebrow, “Besides, I’m not too mad about how this whole thing ended up.” At this, you feel his hands go up to your waist, and only then do you realise the compromising position you two were in.

“Shut up.” You seethe, getting off of him and attempting to hide the flustured expression your face is bearing.

The task proves itself to be harder than you initially thought, as both of your snowboards get slightly intwined.

“Let me- Hold on, just-” His slightly out-of-breath tone is making your heart beat at a pace that you are sure was probably much faster than the speed at which you hit Iwaizumi. Your faces are so close to each other, you might pass out. He looks slightly shaken as well, because he holds on to you. Puts his arm around you, draws you close, and waits. You both close your eyes, and for a moment, nothing happens.

The only things to be heard are the ruffling of the trees and the wind’s whistles. You wish you could stay like this forever. You can’t even bring yourself to think about the fact that this isn’t how it should be. This isn’t right. But if it isn’t, why does it feel so normal?

Your helmet makes a noise, and you realize it’s due to both of your helmets blocking each other from getting any closer. Talk about a cockblock.

“The thing I wanted to talk to you about. You know, yesterday, on the lift?” You start. Your hands feel moist from the nervosity wrecking your brain, but this time is right. You’re obviously not the only that has enjoyed this ‘encounter’, and you had drawn two conclusions out of this fact: number one: you probably do have a shot with him after all, and number two: you should probably shoot it soon. Soon as in, right now.

“Oh. Right. Yeah, I have to say something, too. But, you-, you can start.” The position that has him laying on his back adds a slight edge to his voice, and you’re not sure if you feel incredibly attracted by it, or if it’s a sign you shouldn’t confess after all.

“Well. There’s no easy way to say this, and feel free to stop me any time because honestly, if you get weirded out, I won’t even get mad, like, this so out of the blue and totally weird so really just-“

A mechanical click is heard from the woods, behind one of the trees, causing both of your heads to whip to the tree’s direction. A black shadow, and suddenly, nothing. That’s what you see. However, it’s enough for you both to understand: it was a paparazzi.

The cozy and comfortable atmosphere you two had created had now vanished an record time: you two were soon enough messily getting off each other, running back to both of your respective hotels. This was not good. It couldn’t be.

DAY 4

The one time you desperately wanted to be wrong, you weren’t. Your coach woke you up at a whooping five am, with 46 messages et 6 missed calls. Out of the impressive amount of messages you could make out a link to an article; Oh, this definitely was not good.

Your first reaction is a scoff. Star Crossed Lovers? How cheesy could these boulevard journals actually get? Your second is to pick up your coaches incoming call.

“Mind to explain? In what world does somebody get so reckless? With Iwaizumi, no less? Look, I know you’re upset about that bronze medal, but this was not the way to bring the attention back to you. God, how could you just-, what were you thinking?” The rest of his rant you don’t hear, drowning out his voice. All you can think of is Iwaizumi.

You just ruined his career. He had to retire from competitive snowboarding, and now, because of you, he’s going to have to let go of coaching, too. All because of you.

“I-I’m sorry, coach. Really. I know this is bad timing, but I really have to go.” You let out, bracing yourself for yet another storm of anger.

“You have to go? You cannot be-“ you hang up shortly after, having had enough of his grating mechanical voice.

You skip the bathroom; you don’t have time for casualties, you need to get to Iwaizumi as soon as possible. All throughout getting ready, you think about the fact that you would not have to get hastily ready if you had Iwaizumi’s phone number.

You take your jacket off the hook, grab your room’s key, and head out. You try your best to avoid the overwhelming stares. Some flash a sympathetic grin, and others opt for a glare of disdain, such as the woman sitting by the reception of the resort, seemingly waiting for someone else to arrive.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. You couldn’t stand for our Chloe to have the spotlight for a second, could you? You couldn’t steal her medal, so you stole her coach, didn’t you? You poor girl.” The woman comes up to you. The tone of her voice is unforgiving and unyielding. Soon enough, you notice the American flag embroidered on the sleeves of her jacket. She’s part of the American delegation, that’s why she’s blowing a fuse and having a go at you in public.

“Do we have a problem here, ladies?” An amiable voice from the back echoes in the reception.

All of a sudden, the woman, who, just a second ago was standing tall facing you, surrenders, muttering out a ‘no’ and soon leaves.

You turn around and, sure enough, it’s the man you’ve been trying to bump into. He takes your hand and, had you not been in your current situation, you would have felt the butterflies swarming in your belly.

“Come on up, we’ll go to my room, I’m sure they won’t give us any trouble there.” He proposes with a stunning smile, seemingly unaffected by the recent events. You stay in place, unable to move or speak.

“Assuming you’re here to talk to me, I mean. In light of recent events.”

You nod.

It doesn’t take too long until you both reach his suite, and only then does the long-awaited conversation start taking place. “I know about the article, by the way. You didn’t need to come up all the way here and deal with them. Appreciate it, nonetheless.” Iwaizumi reassures you.

“That’s.. great. Awesome. Could’ve avoided all that if I had your phone number, though.” You hold the sleeve of your left arm, unsure where that confidence came from.

“Is that your way of asking for my number?” He chuckles, “You could’ve just used social media.”

“Is that your way of rejecting me?” You comically imitate his last question, “And, not a fan. Besides, your accounts are all set in private.”

“So you did check.”

“You wouldn’t have accepted me either way.”

“What makes you say that?” Hajime tilts his head to the side. “After all the lifts I had to negotiate for you, and you think I wouldn’t have accepted you?”

You shrug. Now is not the time to give in to your delusional tendencies. “Isn’t this what friends do?” You ask, and when you turn your head around to face the brunette, you immediately regret it.

He looks dejected at the conclusion you’ve drawn from the past few days.

“What nice friends you have, then.” He doesn’t waste a second, and gets up from the bed. Clearly, you weren’t the only one that had suffered from an emotional turmoil this week. Your heart jumps at the realisation that Iwaizumi most probably likes you back, and also that the current situation you’ve found yourself in.

“No, I just- That’s not what I meant-“ you reach out to him, in vain.

“I get it. I’m not a child. We don’t feel same way about each other, and that’s fine. I can deal with it, I’ve been there before. Go back to your resort.”

“That’s not-“ you protest, but with a single hand movement, he silences you again.

“Go pack. You leave tomorrow.” The tone is unusual. It’s cold, hard, unwelcoming. It’s an order.

You’d be a fool to walk out of this door. Don’t walk out on him, the little voice in your head says.

“I like you back. I’ve always liked you.” You whisper. And with that, you walk out. Hajime doesn’t try to call you back.

DAY 5

You had never felt so homesick. Not even browsing the airport shops can help you feel better. Every tuft of black hair reminds you of him. You can’t shake him off, and feel like going crazy. The rest of your delegation won’t talk to you, presumably under the pressure of your coach, who was still incredibly mad at you.

The only one who hadn’t succumbed to peer pressure yet was a pretty and quiet girl by the name of Kiyoko. She mostly only listened and hummed as a sign that she was really listening, but that was more than enough for you.

“I just feel like shit for not having done more. I don’t know why I walked out on him. But like, at the same time, why wouldn’t he chase after me you know? If he really likes me. But maybe, maybe I was just being delusional the entire time and turns out he never liked me at all and I literally got it all wrong!” You gasp at that, “Oh my god. I would die if that was the case.”

You turn to kiyoko in panic, and hold her shoulders. “Do you think that was the case?”

In classic kiyoko fashion, she only blinks, and lets out a small ‘no’.

“I mean, even if that was the case, it’s not like I care. Like, Spencer Reid is hotter anyway.” You bite your fingernails, “or is he? Kiyoko, who’s hotter, Iwaizumi or Spencer Reid?”

“I don’t know who Spencer Rei-“

“I’d say Iwaizumi.”

It’s him. The only back tuft or hair you had been looking for in the swarm of people in the airport. You don’t have time to answer, because he takes your hand, and pulls you closer by the waist.

“I’m not sure..” you hum, “I think Spencer Reid might be a little more-“

Your words are drowned out by the sound of Iwaizumi’s lips smashing into yours. You relax into the kiss, and put your arms around his neck, pulling him as close as humanly possible. The scent of his cologne is addictive, and you would’ve stayed like this for centuries if it weren’t for the crowd.

“I’m sorry I didn’t chase after you like I was in a Hollywood movie. I thought you might want space.”

“You’re not forgiven.” You smile, and the grin he wears in response is making your heart jump out of your thorax.

Who knows if he never showed up what could’ve been?

A/n: I swear I really am on a semi-hiatus. This was just like 3/4 finished so I just wanted it to be done and posted

#[魅] — fic #[魅] — queued #iwaizumi fluff #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fluff #hq fluff #iwaizumi x reader #iwaizumi x y/n #iwaizumi hajime #iwaizumi angst #haikyuu x y/n #hq angst #haikyuu angst #iwaizumi fic #iwaizumi imagine #iwaizumi oneshot

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 9 months

Text

Helen Joyce: Something that you may not have thought of is that there's a lot of people who can't move on on this. And because that's the people who've transitioned their own children.

So those people are going to be like you know the Japanese soldiers who were on Pacific Islands and didn't know the war was over. They've got to fight forever.

This is why, this is another reason why this is the worst, worst, worst social contagion that we ever have experienced. A lot of people have done the worst thing that you could do. Which is to harm their children irrevocably because of it. Those people will have to believe that they did the right thing for the rest of their lives, for their own sanity, and for their own self-respect. So they'll still be fighting.

And each one of those people destroys entire organizations and entire friendship groups. Like, I've lost count the number of times that somebody has said to me of a specific organization that has got turned upside down on this, oh the deputy director has a trans child, or you know, oh the journalist on that paper who does special investigations has a trans child, or whatever. The entire organization gets paralyzed by that one person, and it may not even be widely known at the organization that they've a trans child. But it will come out. Like people will have sort of said it quietly.

And now you can't talk truth in front of that person, and you know you can't. Because what you're saying is, you as a parent have done a truly, like a human rights abuse level of awful thing to your child. That cannot be fixed.

There are specific individuals who are really actively against women's rights here, and it's not known why they are, but I happen to know through the back channels that it's because they've transed their child.

And so those people will do anything for the entire rest of their lives to destroy me and people like me. Because people like me are a standing reproach to them. I don't want to be. I'm not talking directly to them, I don't spend my time bitching about them. But the fact is that just simply by saying, we will never accept natal males in women's spaces, well it's their son that we're talking about, and they've told their son that he can get himself sterilized and destroy his sexual function, and women will accept him as a woman. And if we don't, there's no way back for them and their child.

They've sold their child a bill of goods that they can't deliver on. And I'm the one who has to be bullied, to try to force me to deliver on it. So those people are going to be the people who will keep this bloody movement going, I'm sorry to say. Because they've everything to lose. And it's a fight to the death as far as they're concerned.

Full conversation:

youtube

Completely explains Susie Green, former CEO of the discredited organization Mermaids, who drugged her own son, leading eventually to taking him out of country to get illegally butchered in Thailand because her husband was afraid he was gay.

https://unherd.com/2022/11/mermaids-useful-idiots/

“As a toddler, Jackie always headed for the dolls in toy shops.” And if a four-year-old looking at dolls weren’t evidence enough that this child should be committed to a lifetime of medicalisation, Green added, “[Jackie] loathed having her hair cut.” Green put Jack — as he was then known — on puberty-blockers and flew him to Thailand for a sex change operation when he was 16, making him the youngest person in the world to undergo that surgery. [..] In her Tedx talk, Green says that as soon as her baby boy “got mobile” — ie, learned to crawl — “he was gravitating to things that you would think are stereotypically female”. Like what, tampons? Was her one-year-old trying to book an appointment for a cervical smear test? Nope, “the Polly Pocket and My Little Pony”, she says, and then quickly adds “that was fine – but not for Dad”. Green’s then husband disapproved of his son playing with My Little Pony toys and therefore banned them from the house. [..] As Green recounts in her talk, “What I had come to the conclusion, up until she was about two, was that I had a very sensitive, quite effeminate little boy who was probably gay.” So when four-year-old Jack told her he should be a girl, Green felt “it explained so many things”.

A homophobic father is one thing - plenty of gay kids have survived that, and some have even had an anti-gay parent come around later.

But a mother who responds to this by mutilating her own child is already mentally ill and ultimately far more dangerous than the father ever was.

There is no coming back from this, for either Jack or Susie. The only way to not mentally self-destruct is to double, triple, quadruple-down, to deny the blatant atrocity you've committed and insist that it's good and righteous, and everyone else needs to play along with that delusion.

#Helen Joyce #Peter Boghossian #transhausen syndrome #child mutilation #gender ideology #queer theory #transhausen by proxy #munchausen syndrome #trans children #child abuse #gay conversion therapy #gay conversion #religion is a mental illness

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euphorial-docx · 7 months

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i will say as much as i agree w free palestine there are many many ppl who just use it to be antisemitic. jewish areas in britain like all over the country r being filled w antisemitic messaged accompanied by pro-palestine messages and it makes pro-palestine people like myself look bad

i am truly not trying to sound like a bitch, but i will be very very firm about this and my stances:

people who use this as a way to be antisemitic were always going to be antisemitic. about anything. about everything.

those assholes are nowhere near a big enough voice of the free palestine movement, or an actual power inside the movement at all, to be getting as much attention as they are. the antisemitic takes are being amplified for the sole purpose of discrediting any pro-palestine action. it’s another easy scapegoat to avoid any form of accountability or reflection.

additionally, what you’re saying is only anecdotal, and you’re very much inflating how popular pro-palestine stances really are. whether we realize or not, israel has a lot more power not only between governments of countries, but over every day people.

not to mention the general attitudes towards the middle east from western and european countries are already disgusting, and in modern times that almost certainly has to do with a post 9/11 america. this is feeding into those long-standing attitudes. it is soft ground for israel to bury into. but that is a much larger issue to tackle that i am too tired to break down right now.

back to the point!

in my opinion, what you’re saying is not a viable argument because of how disproportionate they are in this context. these “sides” are not mirrors of each other. they are not equal. amping up the antisemitic voices and tying them to pro-palestine stances is cut and dry propaganda, and you are fueling it by doing a variant of the “i agree but” argument.

as much as the media wants to try and complicate it, this is all actually very simple: palestine is being colonized, and has been for decades. we are witnessing ethnic cleansing and genocide. that’s what this is, and while we shouldn’t let go of empathy, we should not lose sight of the injustice palestinians are facing.

it is no coincidence that other movements such as black lives matter and land back are supporting palestine loudly; their experiences are, unfortunately and eerily, similar.

lastly, you should not be concerned about “looking bad.” supporting palestine automatically makes you look bad to many people, and the misinformation takes most of the blame for the negative perception of the free palestine movement. it is not a walk in the park to defend palestine right now. you need to push back against so much, but despite the outside forces, supporting palestine should be an easy choice— and an unwavering one at that— because what has been happening to palestine for generations is appalling.

sparknotes version: stop throwing up propaganda as talking points. you sound like you should be on fox news.

#free palestine

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zaceouiswriting · 2 years

Text

The betrayed and the heretic

Character: Malachai “Kai” Parker x male reader

Universe: Vampire Dairies

Warnings: None

A day like another was the turning point in your life. You always had lived at the edge of everything. Almost perfect in school, almost popular, almost able to do magic.

Instead, whenever you just scraped by at anything, it became worse. The little magic you had as a child, vanished into the air. Your sister, which was the strongest of your bloodline since it had begun, seemingly took all the magic your family had to offer, at her birth. She was three years older than you and made your life a living hell.

She discredited you in school. Destroyed all relationships you ever had. Just so she could get on top, just as she had done with her magic.

And your parents and the rest of your covenant just stood at the sidelines, watching everything happening, cheering your sister on. You tried to run away, but they always found you again. When you turned eighteen, you disowned your entire family and covenant and moved far away from these narcissistic people.

For a while, you searched the country for other witches, vampires, or werewolves. But you actually met something else first. A fairy, so friendly and good, that it made you feel warm on the inside.

He told you all about time and his home place. It sounded wonderful. Before he left you to get reunited with the love of his life, a very old vampire, he gave you a gift. A stone with a strange rune on it, it shimmered in the sunlight and gave you a shining light in the night.

After that, you never heard from him again, even though you asked him to visit you someday. But you guessed that he was way too happy with his love, to come to you. Which you could understand, he seemed just so genuinely nice.

You never forget about him, alone because of his little gift, that had saved your life more times than you can count.

Everything went down this normal day, you just had arrived in a small town, after searching further for others. You visited a restaurant, where the energy of the supernatural was especially strong. It was heavy in the air.

You had sat down, and opened your computer to do some work for your university, as out of nowhere someone sat themselves on the other side of your table. As you looked over your computer, you saw most likely the most handsome man you had ever laid eyes upon.

He had brain short hair, dreamy blue-grey eyes, and a smile, that could destroy every resolution you ever had.

„Can-Can I do something for you?“, you asked but not without stuttering. His flirtatious smile changed into a sinister one at his question.

„Yeah, you can give me your magic,“ he told you darkly.

You were confused at his words, but as he touched you, nothing came. The confusion you had gone over to the unwon man, in front of you.

„What?“, he asked almost disturbed. „But you should’ve had tons of magic!“, he whined as he let go of you again. Ready to leave again. This time it was you, that grabbed him. Desperately you looked at him, his eyes annoyed but he still sat down again.

For a moment it was silent between you two. Until you finally remembered where you had seen this man before. „You are Malachi Parker, right?“

„Yes, you heard of me?“, he asked with a smug smile.

You nod before explaining further. „I met your family. Nice people, they told me disturbing things about you. But deep down they love you, even what you did with your siblings. Except for your twin sister, she is a bitch.“

The reserved face he has shown you the second time around, changes into a genuine smile again. „And you still don’t fear me? How stupid of you.“ The laugh he lot go came from deep down. It was warming to hear it. He seemed psychotic but still a human. Even though no one seemed to see it. Not even him.

„Why should I? I don’t have any magic. I’m no other magical creature and I actually would want to ask you out?“, the last part was almost silent. You feared he would say no to your proposal.

Like the fear you had, he laughed. Loudly. It was humiliating. Tears formed themselves in the corners of your eyes.

„You were serious?“, he asked utterly dumbfounded.

At that moment you could only nod, packing up your things and running out of the restaurant. Not without leaving the money on your table for the food, you had ordered, but not gotten at that point.

You drove in your car around the city, until you found yourself on the outskirts, near a walking trail through the woods. Where you had parked and took. After that humiliating moment, you did not want anyone else to see or hear you cry.

Just like everyone else, even love did not want to come to you. As if everything was against you. Walking aimlessly through the woods, you at some point found yourself near a cliff. „It would be the perfect moment, to finally end everything,“ you thought out loud to yourself. „At least my family would be finally happy, that I’m gone.“

„And let them win?“ The sudden voice, made you jump, so much that you actually took a leap over the cliff. Out of sheer panic, you grab onto the dirt floor.

Sneakers stood in front of your hands. As you looked up to them, the handsome stranger from before stood there. As he kneeled in front of you, playing with your finger, he smiled devilishly down at you. „I could help you, with your death. Just loosen up your fingers,“ he proposed, but you could feel that this wasn’t everything. „Or I could help you get back, what was stolen from you. From your family, which are just as narcissistic pricks as my own.“

„What?“, you asked, just as your finger began to weaken their grip on the ground. You never had much upper body strength even though you trained quite often.

„You should decide quickly, you don’t have enough strength left,“ he taunted you jokingly. It made your stomach turn around. For some reason, you liked the way he was.

„Help me,“ you muttered under slight pain, from the grip you had. With just one movement of his hand, you flew up, directly onto the floor a couple of meters away from the cliff itself.

For a while you laid there on your stomach, hurting every bit of your body. Even though nothing was broken. „Are you still alive?“, the man asked annoyed. You were just so able to turn around and look up at him, to give him a thumbs up. Just for him to pull you into a standing position again.

„Do you still want to go out with me?“, his face blank like a white sheet of paper. Intimidating you nod your head. „Great, because I’m dying from hunger!“

Without any second thought, he grabbed your hand, pulling you with him. You were so overwhelmed, that you just followed him out of the forest and away from the cliff, which could’ve saved you a lot of hardship. But with this man at your side and the secrets he could help you uncover, you believed that everything would turn around in your favor.

[Masterlist]

#Malachai Parker #Kai Parker #Malachai Parker x male reader #Malachai Parker imagine #Kai Parker x male reader #Kai Parker imagine #Vampire dairies x male reder #vampire dairies imagine #Vampire Dairies #x male reader #male reader #male reader imagine #x male reader imagine

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