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sage-nebula · 1 month

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"Suffer No Fools" - Shiver vs. Marina Analysis

It's been a few days since "Suffer No Fools" released, but I wanted to go ahead and release my analysis of Shiver's and Marina's verse since that's the one that has caused the most discussion within the fandom. I've seen a lot of debate over Marina's section in particular, with people unsure whether she was being sincere or sarcastic, and I think the actual answer is a little more complicated than one or the other, at least with regards to the first couplet of lines both she and Shiver sing. Of course, people are free to interpret this song however they wish, but after seeing numerous interpretations I personally didn't vibe with, I just wanted to put my own out there, breaking it down line by line.

So! Here we go.

Exchange 1:

Shiver: "Your haunting voice -- there's no escape. How nice it must be for your fans." Marina: "You're far too kind! I love your vibe. I can learn so much from your style."

Analyzing from dialogue only:

Shiver is insulting Marina's voice by calling it haunting and saying there is no escape, insinuating she wishes there was one. She says how nice it must be for Marina's fans, again implying that she isn't one.

Marina says that she loves Shiver's vibe, which on the surface could be a compliment, but given the context (a music battle) it could also be a Mean Girl "ooh I love your [thing] :)" passive-aggressive drawing-attention-to-something-ugly insult. More direct though, is the "I can learn so much from your style"; you can learn what not to do from someone just as much as you can learn what to do from someone. Marina's engaging in plausible deniability here.

HOWEVER. Lyrics are NOT the only thing that need to be analyzed from this first verse, which is arguably the MOST important exchange between these two. Instead, we need to look at how these lines are delivered.

Shiver is singing in a traditional Japanese folk singing style, specifically a style based on Shima-uta, which her voice actress has a background singing in. Unfortunately, I don't know the actual term for this style of singing, only that it's not kakegoe, something Shiver also does that is different from this. Anyway, in these lines specifically Shiver is singing in her Shima-uta style, a style that she has presumably been practicing since she was a small child, a style that is probably culturally significant to the Hohojiro clan. Singing in this style is not something that just anyone can do. It's completely different from singing in a (for lack of a better word) "western" style. The way you breathe is completely different. The way you incorporate your voice into your breathing is completely different. So by singing in this style, which Shiver has been doing practically her whole life and which, presumably, only she of the four there can do, Shiver is FLEXING on Marina regardless of what lyrics she chooses to sing.

But then Marina, who grew up under the domes in Inkadia, who presumably has never heard Shima-uta before she started listening to Deep Cut and heard Shiver sing, who presumably has had absolutely no training whatsoever on this style of song . . . mimics it perfectly and flexes on Shiver right back.

Could Marina's words to Shiver be interpreted as passive-aggressive in turn? Yes. But does it matter? No, not really. Because in this first verse, Marina's ACTUAL comeback is to take the style of singing that Shiver has been perfecting her entire life and throw it right back in her face despite having never (as far as we or Shiver know) practiced it herself. Shiver was flexing by presumably doing something Marina couldn't do, only for Marina to do it flawlessly, being every bit as divine with a voice so fine as Pearl said she was previously. Marina says "I love your vibe" so she takes it. Marina says "I have so much to learn from you" but does she really, when she can already do exactly what Shiver can, and has, just now, right in front of her?

And Shiver noticed, hence:

Exchange 2:

Shiver: "You remind me of my neighbor's little daughter . . . What's that saying? 'Octo see, octo do.'" Marina: "Glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved. Thanks to your notes, I'll find my groove!"

Shiver drops the Shima-uta singing, because now there's no point. Marina can also sing in that style, so it's no longer a flex. Shiver lost ground on that one, so instead we're back to the same (again, for lack of a better word) "regular" style of singing that everyone else is using. For that reason, we can go back to analyzing purely based on the words alone.

Shiver is calling Marina a copycat, essentially, because Marina copied her Shima-uta singing style in the previous verse (hence why Shiver had to drop it, as previously noted). Marina then gives her "glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved" . . . basically noting that by Shiver accusing her of copying, Shiver is saying that Marina -- someone who just tried the singing style off the cuff right there on the stage for the first time -- was just as good as Shiver, someone who has trained in that style her whole life. The audience saw for themselves that Marina was able to emulate the style, but Shiver saying, "you copied me!" is basically admitting that Marina was just as good as her in Shiver's own eyes, and Shiver is a pro. That's Shiver's aggravation handing Marina the win and Marina smiling wide as she accepts it.

Exchange 3:

Shiver: "Oh, look at the time. Isn't it getting late?" Marina: "Not at all! I could go on like this all night long."

This one doesn't even really need an analysis. For all that she prides herself on being "so cool even sharks call her cold-blooded," Shiver is known for being easily irritated and riled when she's losing due to her competitive nature. Marina successfully got under her skin, and this is her trying to end the battle fast because she didn't have any further comebacks. Marina, meanwhile, gives the classic "I could go on all night" because she's not riled at all, and is instead perfectly comfortable in this environment, knows what she's doing, and has had the upper hand from the start.

It goes back to another post I made about Experience vs. Inexperience. Shiver and Frye are still new idols, whereas Pearl and Marina have been at this for a long while. And while off the stage Marina is a sweet, kind, gentle person who will go out of her way to help others, and can sometimes be a little spacey or naive, she's also a 23-year-old literal genius who has been in the music industry for years now and knows full well what a rap / music battle is and knows her way around a stage. Personally, I found it to be a little infantilizing to insinuate that she "didn't realize Shiver was insulting her," when not only do I think she knew full well, but also she was the one with the upper hand not because of sick burns (that's Pearl's department), but because of sheer innate musical talent.

But those are just my thoughts! Everyone else is free to have their own.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #suffer no fools #off the hook #deep cut #shiver hohojiro #marina ida #keep in mind that Shiver is my favorite Deep Cut member please #i mean no disrespect to her in any of this #i really do just think it's her inexperience in the music industry etc #and Frye's as well #i think that in Splatoon 4 we'll see that Shiver and Frye have matured some & made some headway in their own careers #(and Big Man too ofc but tbh he's already there with the maturity imo)#(hence his collabing w/ Squid Sisters & non-hostility toward OtH)#then again maybe Deep Cut wants to stay indie. idk! we'll see

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sneezypeasy · 1 month

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Why I Deliberately Avoided the "Colonizer" Argument in my Zutara Thesis - and Why I'll Continue to Avoid it Forever

This is a question that occasionally comes up under my Zutara video essay, because somehow in 2 hours worth of content I still didn't manage to address everything (lol.) But this argument specifically is one I made a point of avoiding entirely, and there are some slightly complicated reasons behind that. I figure I'll write them all out here.

From a surface-level perspective, Zuko's whole arc, his raison d'etre, is to be a de-colonizer. Zuko's redemption arc is kinda all about being a de-colonizer, and his redemption arc is probably like the most talked about plot point of ATLA, so from a basic media literacy standpoint, the whole argument is unsound in the first place, and on that basis alone I find it childish to even entertain as an argument worth engaging with, to be honest.

(At least one person in my comments pointed out that if any ship's "political implications" are problematic in some way, it really ought to be Maiko, as Mai herself is never shown or suggested to be a strong candidate for being a de-colonizing co-ruler alongside Zuko. If anything her attitudes towards lording over servants/underlings would make her… a less than suitable choice for this role, but I digress.)

But the reason I avoided rebutting this particular argument in my video goes deeper than that. From what I've observed of fandom discourse, I find that the colonizer argument is usually an attempt to smear the ship as "problematic" - i.e., this ship is an immoral dynamic, which would make it problematic to depict as canon (and by extension, if you ship it regardless, you're probably problematic yourself.)

And here is where I end up taking a stand that differentiates me from the more authoritarian sectors of fandom.

I'm not here to be the fandom morality police. When it comes to lit crit, I'm really just here to talk about good vs. bad writing. (And when I say "good", I mean structurally sound, thematically cohesive, etc; works that are well-written - I don't mean works that are morally virtuous. More on this in a minute.) So the whole colonizer angle isn't something I'm interested in discussing, for the same reason that I actually avoided discussing Katara "mothering" Aang or the "problematic" aspects of the Kataang ship (such as how he kissed her twice without her consent). My whole entire sections on "Kataang bad" or "Maiko bad" in my 2 hour video was specifically, "how are they written in a way that did a disservice to the story", and "how making them false leads would have created valuable meaning". I deliberately avoided making an argument that consisted purely of, "here's how Kataang/Maiko toxic and Zutara wholesome, hence Zutara superiority, the end".

Why am I not willing to be the fandom morality police? Two reasons:

I don't really have a refined take on these subjects anyway. Unless a piece of literature or art happens to touch on a particular issue that resonates with me personally, the moral value of art is something that doesn't usually spark my interest, so I rarely have much to say on it to begin with. On the whole "colonizer ship" subject specifically, other people who have more passion and knowledge than me on the topic can (and have) put their arguments into words far better than I ever could. I'm more than happy to defer to their take(s), because honestly, they can do these subjects justice in a way I can't. Passing the mic over to someone else is the most responsible thing I can do here, lol. But more importantly:

I reject the conflation of literary merit with moral virtue. It is my opinion that a good story well-told is not always, and does not have to be, a story free from moral vices/questionable themes. In my opinion, there are good problematic stories and bad "pure" stories and literally everything in between. To go one step further, I believe that there are ways that a romance can come off "icky", and then there are ways that it might actually be bad for the story, and meming/shitposting aside, the fact that these two things don't always neatly align is not only a truth I recognise about art but also one of those truths that makes art incredibly interesting to me! So on the one hand, I don't think it is either fair or accurate to conflate literary "goodness" with moral "goodness". On a more serious note, I not only find this type of conflation unfair/inaccurate, I also find it potentially dangerous - and this is why I am really critical of this mindset beyond just disagreeing with it factually. What I see is that people who espouse this rhetoric tend to encourage (or even personally engage in) wilful blindness one way or the other, because ultimately, viewing art through these lens ends up boxing all art into either "morally permissible" or "morally impermissible" categories, and shames anyone enjoying art in the "morally impermissible" box. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people responding to this by A) making excuses for art that they guiltily love despite its problematic elements and/or B) denying the value of any art that they are unable to defend as free from moral wickedness.

Now, I'm not saying that media shouldn't be critiqued on its moral virtue. I actually think morally critiquing art has its place, and assuming it's being done in good faith, it absolutely should be done, and probably even more often than it is now.

Because here's the truth: Sometimes, a story can be really good. Sometimes, you can have a genuinely amazing story with well developed characters and powerful themes that resonate deeply with anyone who reads it. Sometimes, a story can be all of these things - and still be problematic.*

(Or, sometimes a story can be all of those things, and still be written by a problematic author.)

That's why I say, when people conflate moral art with good art, they become blind to the possibility that the art they like being potentially immoral (or vice versa). If only "bad art" is immoral, how can the art that tells the story hitting all the right beats and with perfect rhythm and emotional depth, be ever problematic?

(And how can the art I love, be ever problematic?)

This is why I reject the idea that literary merit = moral virtue (or vice versa) - because I do care about holding art accountable. Even the art that is "good art". Actually, especially the art that is "good art". Especially the art that is well loved and respected and appreciated. The failure to distinguish literary critique from moral critique bothers me on a personal level because I think that conflating the two results in the detriment of both - the latter being the most concerning to me, actually.

So while I respect the inherent value of moral criticism, I'm really not a fan of any argument that presents moral criticism as equivalent to literary criticism, and I will call that out when I see it. And from what I've observed, a lot of the "but Zutara is a colonizer ship" tries to do exactly that, which is why I find it a dishonest and frankly harmful media analysis framework to begin with.

But even when it is done in good faith, moral criticism of art is also just something I personally am neither interested nor good at talking about, and I prefer to talk about the things that I am interested and good at talking about.

(And some people are genuinely good at tackling the moral side of things! I mean, I for one really enjoyed Lindsay Ellis's take on Rent contextualising it within the broader political landscape at the time to show how it's not the progressive queer story it might otherwise appear to be. Moral critique has value, and has its place, and there are definitely circumstances where it can lead to societal progress. Just because I'm not personally interested in addressing it doesn't mean nobody else can do it let alone that nobody else should do it, but also, just because it can and should be done, doesn't mean that it's the only "one true way" to approach lit crit by anyone ever. You know, sometimes... two things… can be true… at once?)

Anyway, if anyone reading this far has recognised that this is basically a variant of the proship vs. antiship debate, you're right, it is. And on that note, I'm just going to leave some links here. I've said about as much as I'm willing/able to say on this subject, but in case anyone is interested in delving deeper into the philosophy behind my convictions, including why I believe leftist authoritarian rhetoric is harmful, and why the whole "but it would be problematic in real life" is an anti-ship argument that doesn't always hold up to scrutiny, I highly recommend these posts/threads:

In general this blog is pretty solid; I agree with almost all of their takes - though they focus more specifically on fanfic/fanart than mainstream media, and I think quite a lot of their arguments are at least somewhat appropriate to extrapolate to mainstream media as well.

I also strongly recommend Bob Altemeyer's book "The Authoritarians" which the author, a verified giga chad, actually made free to download as a pdf, here. His work focuses primarily on right-wing authoritarians, but a lot of his research and conclusions are, you guessed it, applicable to left-wing authoritarians also.

And if you're an anti yourself, welp, you won't find support from me here. This is not an anti-ship safe space, sorrynotsorry 👆

In conclusion, honestly any "but Zutara is problematic" argument is one I'm likely to consider unsound to begin with, let alone the "Zutara is a colonizer ship" argument - but even if it wasn't, it's not something I'm interested in discussing, even if I recognise there are contexts where these discussions have value. I resent the idea that just because I have refined opinions on one aspect of a discussion means I must have (and be willing to preach) refined opinions on all aspects of said discussion. (I don't mean to sound reproachful here - actually the vast majority of the comments I get on my video/tumblr are really sweet and respectful, but I do get a handful of silly comments here and there and I'm at the point where I do feel like this is something worth saying.) Anyway, I'm quite happy to defer to other analysts who have the passion and knowledge to give complicated topics the justice they deserve. All I request is that care is taken not to conflate literary criticism with moral criticism to the detriment of both - and I think it's important to acknowledge when that is indeed happening. And respectfully, don't expect me to give my own take on the matter when other people are already willing and able to put their thoughts into words so much better than me. Peace ✌

*P.S. This works for real life too, by the way. There are people out there who are genuinely not only charming and likeable, but also generous, charitable and warm to the vast majority of the people they know. They may also be amazing at their work, and if they have a job that involves saving lives like firefighting or surgery or w.e, they may even be the reason dozens of people are still alive today. They may honestly do a lot of things you'd have to concede are "good" deeds.

They may be all of these things, and still be someone's abuser. 🙃

Two things can be true at once. It's important never to forget that.

#zutara discourse #the colonizer argument #anti anti zutara #text post #long post #anti maiko #anti mai #tagging just in case #anti purity culture #this is not an anti-ship safe space

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smusherina · 13 days

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yard work - chapter 10 (regina george x reader)

fandom: Mean Girls (all media)

pairing: Regina George x OFC/Reader

summary: You'd been in the same class as Regina George since kindergarten. You'd lived on the same street even longer. Once upon a time, when life was sandbox disputes and who got the swing first arguments, you'd even been friends. Now, in junior year of high school, you doubted she even remembered you. The same couldn't be said about you. You definitely remembered her.

chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / chapter 4 / chapter 5 / chapter 6 / chapter 7 / chapter 8 / chapter 9 / chapter 11

You saw Regina around. You could spot her pink convertible miles away. It was impossible to ignore her in the hallways as the crowd parted for her like the Red Sea. Hard as you tried, there was no real way to ignore Regina George.

Your friends had been keeping a wide berth from you, probably due to your recent affiliation with the lamest of the lame, Janis and Damien, so you spent most of your time at school alone. It was fine. You couldn't go skating with the guys anyway, with the snow and stuff.

No friends, no Regina, and definitely no Janis or Damien. You spent the majority of your time alone. With the fog of your emotions and the constant whirring of the wheels in your head, you couldn't say you minded. You would've probably been shitty company anyway.

You were constantly distracted and away in your own world. Questions kept rolling around your mind, doubt saturating every decision you'd made that night.

At the same time, you couldn't see a world in which that could've gone well. Kissing Regina George, regardless of who had initiated it, was an omen for bad things. It ruined the life of Janis 'Imi'ike and that of Aaron Samuels once and then twice. It ruined yours.

And even if you were being dramatic, because life did go on and you'd graduate and go on, the turmoil you felt now very much felt like it. The only one that'd been spared was Shane Oman unless there was something beyond the surface about him. You doubted it. The guy was shallow like a puddle.

You knew—a lot of things you knew but never said a thing about, so did you really know?—that there had been dysfunction in your relationship with Regina for a long time. Back then, she'd been possessive and jealous, would monopolize your time, would keep you at her beck and call constantly. You'd liked it, liked how she seemed to need you, how you felt wanted around her. And then it stopped. She stopped asking you to her place and eventually began blatantly ignoring you.

You'd learned to take hints early on, particularly when you weren't welcome. You'd learned to stop knocking on the bedroom door after nightmares because while dad would allow you to sleep in the bed, he'd do it with a scowl on his face. You'd learned to not ask for things, learned to fade into the background, learned to watch out for clues.

So when Regina left you alone, you didn't fight back. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how miserable it made you, you didn't beg or cry for her. That was something you shared with Regina. Emotion was a private thing.

That's where your similarities ended, though. Whereas she'd learned to control her innermost feelings, you'd just pushed them away for later. Where she seemed to be completely immune, your condition was fragile, prone to fissures.

Or maybe she was more like you than you thought. Maybe she just had a bigger bottle than you did in which to seal away the bad things.

The thing was, you'd never know. A while ago you'd come to the conclusion that you'd take her back every time. You weren't sure if you could stand by that, but you also did not know if you could resist.

The end of November was spent anticipating Christmas, resisting the melancholy, and praying for snow days. You'd never done better in school because you were putting all your energy into homework and studying. The teachers liked it, but with the SATs already over with there wasn't much use for it. Still, you kept doing it. You managed to surpass Cady Heron with your math grades.

You had a feeling she was playing dumb for Aaron Samuels. You had to resist laughing at the irony. Cady hated Regina so much and yet was acting exactly like her. Why she tricked Aaron when he was single, you did not know. Maybe it was a power play.

Grudgingly, you admitted Regina looked better than ever. She was slow to lose the pounds she'd gained with the help of the Kälteen bars, but if somebody were to ask you she looked better that way. She was actually a normal weight, looked human and not like a mannequin.

"So, still not over her, huh?" You startled, banging your head against the lockers you were leaning against.

"Ow, what the fuck, Janis?" You snarked, whirling to look at her. You rubbed at the spot where you hit your head, frowning down at her. You didn't want to talk to her and the pain only made you more irritable.

"Jeez, it was just a question." She held her arms up in surrender, though the evil smirk on her face spoke otherwise.

"It's none of your business." You fired back and turned to walk away from her. The hallway had gone back to chaos once Regina had passed, so you had a little trouble trying to navigate the throngs of people.

"C'mon, don't be such a spoilsport!" She stubbornly walked after you, Damian trailing behind you two. "We have some very important information to share. And also questions."

"I'm busy."

"With what?"

"No comment."

"Cool, so that means nothing. Grab her, Dee!" With that, you were yanked back by the hoop of your backpack. Damian did not react to your indignant squawking as you were swiftly transported to the back of the school.

"This is your spot, right?" Janis declared as she ducked under the bleachers. "You got any cigs?"

"I thought you weren't allowed to smoke in front of your boyfriend." You said, crossing your arms stubbornly.

"Har har, you're so funny." She smiled cheesily at you, her face going slack as she searched through her pockets. "Today, please." There was a coin in her hand.

"That'll be seventy-five."

"You can't up the price!"

"Watch me." You shrugged, smiling in the same sarcastic way she'd done. Damian was watching you two like a tennis match.

"You're a fraud." She muttered as she procured a quarter. "Is next time gonna be a dollar?"

"I sincerely hope there will not be a next time. In case you have not noticed, I do not like you."

"Yeah, you've been real subtle." Damian piped in sassily.

You reached into your coat pockets and pulled out your pack. You offered it to Damian, who scrunched his nose and waved you away. You shrugged and flicked the lighter to life.

"What, he'd get one for free?" Janis watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. "You got a thing for gay guys?"

"He's got that feminine energy." You said as you handed her the lighter.

"I feel like that's offensive."

"Hey, I'm not saying all gay guys have a feminine energy." You said, taking a drag. "You do." You nodded at Damian. He only nodded back, a little smile on his face.

"Amazing, we've established there's no prejudice here in this space. Now," She took a drag. "Mind telling me why Regina isn't performing with the plastics this year?"

That was news to you. "She isn't?"

"I was hoping you'd have known something about that. We've gathered intel that Gretchen's freaking out about it."

"Cady's info isn't reliable anymore?"

"She's not in anymore. She's turned into one of them, there's no hope." Janis sulked, leaning against the metal. Damian patted her on the shoulder.

You hummed, unsure of what you should say. "You haven't, uh, heard any rumours about me, have you?"

Janis perked up like a dog at the word treat. "What, should there be?"

"No." You stated and took a drag. "Just wondering."

"You haven't asked before." Damian piped in. "And you don't seem the type to care."

"It was just a question." You defended, sounding fake even to your own ears. "Honest."

"No," Janis breathed out. "You- she- oh my god, not you too!" She took you by the shoulders and shook. "She kissed you!"

"No, she did not!" You tried to protest and dislodged from her hold. "Don't jump to conclusions."

"Oh, my friend, she's- she's plotting something big." Janis looked like a kid on Christmas day. "She's gonna ruin you in the most spectacular way. Maybe she's gonna do a solo and a slide show about you being a lesbian. No, that's too much. What if-"

As Janis went on, sounding way too excited about your demise, you kept smoking. Damian kept her going, humming and saying affirmations at the appropriate times, all the while eyeing you. You didn't know what his deal was.

He was a pretty loud, friendly guy most of the time. Not around you, though. What his problem was, you did not care to know. You could tolerate them for a smoke or two, but you had no desire to be their friend. As Janis continued to ramble, cigarette basically forgotten, you inclined your head at Damian and left.

Regina and Co. had done their Christmas dance routine at the talent show for years. It began all the way in middle school. Breaking the streak was a big deal. Mrs George was always there, filming the whole thing and dancing along. Secretly, you'd always thought it was more silly than sexy, but you'd never been one to complain about seeing Regina in latex.

Once school finished for the day, you wasted no time getting home. After the weekend, the last week of school would begin. The talent show was on Friday, exactly seven days away. So, the last seven days of your life, basically.

If Janis was right and Regina was going solo, the chances of your survival were little to none. You weren't self-centred, but it'd be dumb to ignore the signs. Something pretty big had gone down even nobody else knew it. If you were wrong for assuming the fight had been a big thing for both you and Regina, well, then you were wrong.

You'd most definitely have to switch schools. If Regina was gonna go ahead with her other accusation as well, that you'd done stuff to her without her consent, you could be facing charges. Dad would not be happy.

That could be something you needed. Maybe you would've gotten over her faster back then if you hadn't had to be around her. Maybe this was the last hurrah.

Toeing your shoes off, hanging your jacket on the hook, and throwing your backpack onto the couch, you headed for the kitchen. You were a little short on food. You'd have to make do with cup noodles for the weekend before dad sent you more money on Monday.

Boiling cup of flavourless noodles and bland broth in front of you, you got to thinking. Maybe you could cook something for her. A simple recipe, both an apology and a goodbye. You'd have to find an opportunity to give it to her alone. Too hard. It had to be something you could put into her locker.

(In addition to selling things at school, you'd done some paid burglary on lockers. It'd been fun, but the one time you'd been caught had been enough to stop you in your tracks.)

Your mind drifted to the Burn Book. You'd never actually seen it, but you figured it was some sort of scrapbook. Cady had made it seem like one, at least.

A scrapbook for Regina George. Now that was something. Cheesy. It would most definitely end up in the garbage. But, hey, you did have all the pictures Abuela used to take of you. And you could write in it too. She'd probably take better to reading about your feelings than hearing about them. If she would even read it.

You could try, though. You didn't want to give up like last time.

Notes: Slightly less polished than I'd like, but I'll return to edit at a later date.

Taglist: @autorasexy, @wedfan2, @unadulterated-moron, @modernsapphicism, @9unknown0, @sage-rose2000, @massive-honkas, @nattys-swiftie, @likefirenrain, @luz-enjoyer, @dandelions4us, @natashamaximoff-69, @alexkolax, @jareaul0ver, @here4theqts, @charleeeesworld, @natsbiggestfan1, @brocoliisscared, @yellowwallflowers, @scarlettbitchx, @ayoungexwife, @cyberbonesworld, @syddie-reads, @screechcat, @theenglishswiftie,@gabby-duhh, @sweetmissnothing, @masterofpuppets-10, @l1lass, @starved-mortal, @nothanksbye07, @nenas19, @jvuyii

(btw guys, make sure to check you've got your settings so that you can be tagged! some of the tags don't work (i think??) unfortunately)

(if you want to be added to the list, say so in the comments!)

#mean girls #mean girls 2004 #mean girls 2024 #regina george #regina george x reader #regina george x you #regina george x oc #regina george x ofc #mean girls x reader #lesbian regina george #wlw #fic: yard work

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fairy-writes · 6 months

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Hellooo, can I request Hcs with Jouno Saigiku whose Partner Has a similar ability to Atsushi, just not a tiger but a Cat? And they absolutely love it to be in cat form and just walk around [[:

Thank youuu and I wish you a good day/night^^

HERE KITTY, KITTY!

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

__________________________________________________________________________

Fandom(s): Bungou Stray Dogs

Pairing(s): Saigiku Jouno x Reader

Genre(s)/Tag(s): Gender Neutral!Reader

Notes: I’m trying out a new format of HCs! Let me know if you like it or not!

__________________________________________________________________________

Jouno

I’m gonna be honest, he probably doesn’t care much about your ability at first. Like you can turn into a cat, no big deal; it’s not that impressive.

But if you are a part of the Hunting Dogs, he’s… civil with you.

As civil as someone who is as much of a rat as Jouno can be. (Does this sentence even make sense? Idk, I'm tired lol)

You are likely part of the Hunting Dogs (or maybe you aren’t), but regardless, you specialize in espionage and information gathering.

Like no one bats an eye at a cat lounging around (usually at least), so it gives you the chance to eavesdrop and gain important information on your targets.

Fukuchi finds your ability to be very useful, so it’s understandable that Jouno begins to sense your presence around more often than not.

“What are you doing?” Jouno asks and, for a moment, hears nothing but the sound of a cat purring. He knows it’s you. The Hunting Dogs don’t keep cats around just for shits and giggles. Then, there’s the jingle of a bell and the cracking of bones as you morph and change back into your human form.

The bell had been Teruko’s idea. Something about making it so Jouno doesn’t step on you on accident, given his blindness. Didn’t she know that he wouldn’t step on you accidentally anyway? His senses were much too enhanced for that. On purpose, though? That was another story.

Jouno hears the rustling of clothing as you put your uniform back on. Your clothes didn’t change with you. So whenever you changed back into a human, you made sure to have some clothes lying around so you weren’t walking around in the nude.

“I was sunbathing. I already submitted my reports, so I had nothing better to do. What are you doing here anyway?” You reply, and he can hear your heartbeat get closer as you mosey on over to his side. You wrap your arms around his side and kiss his cheek.

He’d never admit it, but it makes his heart stutter whenever you do that.

But instead, he shrugs you off and tugs you down the hall to where everyone is waiting.

“There’s a meeting. I was sent to come find you.” He says, and you sigh grumpily, muttering under your breath about how “couldn’t it have been an email?”

The meeting didn’t go as planned.

You end up back in cat form, alternating between being curled up on Jouno’s lap or stretched across Tetchou’s shoulders or sitting still as Teruko scratches underneath your chin. All the while, your rhythmic purr rumbles through the room. Jouno listens to your happy heartbeat as he runs a gloved hand over your back when you return to his side.

Eventually, Fukuchi sighs and sets down his papers.

“It’s clear we aren’t going to get anything done today.” He says and dismisses the lot of you. Jouno makes sure to pick up your clothes and heads out, your paws padding behind him as you follow him to your shared sleeping quarters.

Maybe the meeting could have been an email.

#jouno x reader #jouno saigiku #bsd jouno #saigiku jouno #saigiku jouno x reader #fairy writes #bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader

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theaveragepsychoticbitch · 2 months

Note

Idk if your ask box is open or not but, (Jataka, Buddha, your choice)

[if its not open,I want your thoughts]

I feel like the out humans would trip out🤣

Adam would would cover us up lmao

Qin would absolutely kick everyone out of the room ect...

Loki might not have much control...

I feel like Thor would like this,

Lmao regardless have a god day/night📗🐍💚

It's not but I defo love this idea and this outfit. Jataka's so nice, he loves it, but it makes him sooooo shy. Love isn't a strong enough word- he's not sure any one word could encapsulate the full body shivers you gave him, the increasingly familiar feel of blood rushing south and the need to have you close to him all in one. So for now, he'll run his jaw sore telling you how good you look, and later, regretfully rub one out thinking about what he should have said.

As for Buddha? It's giving.... Eyes pop outta sockets, tongue rolls out of mouth, awooogaaaa- yk the works. He's downright obsessed, and boy does he let you know. Showing you off to everyone who will and won't listen, showering you in compliments and laying the flirting so heavy you might fall under the weight of it all. There's not a shameful bone in his body, and he shows you his least shameful one not too long later... Hehe<3

Thor is what I like to call perfect balance. He admires the coloring, the design, the sexiness of it and how confidently you wear it. He's not shy to tell you, but he's not borderline overbearing the way Buddha is, or reserved the way Jataka is. He admits rather freely that seeing you like that is doing things to him, but he rather show you just how much you affect him rather than speak it.

Now, I don't know much about the humans as I'm anime only (cough broke people problems) so I'll take your word on Qin. Adam walks around with a leaf over his damn crotch, I'll be damned if I let Mr Bare Ass tell me to cover up!!! But frfr, he'd probably be respectfully appreciative, viewing it less from a sexual standpoint and more from a "wow my partner is gorgeous in everything" view. And Loki....

Well, either you better find a private room quick or everyone in the area needs to evacuate, cause he's on go the moment he spots you. Id say there'd be no talking, but this S tier yapper won't shut up the entire time for sure. It's all compliments though!!! Very, very lewd compliments<3

Anyways goodnight/day to you too hon<3 and this seems like a great time to remind that I update my pinned with request info!! And fandoms I write for!!! Bye guys love youuuu

#record of ragnarok thor #shuumatsu no valkyrie #record of ragnarok x reader #record of ragnarok #the psychotics writing #just talking #loki record of ragnarok #buddha ror #jataka ror #loki ror #thor ror #adam record of ragnarok

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gonzo-rella · 4 months

Text

Headcanons: Abed Nadir and Annie Edison Taking Care of Their Sick S/O

MASTERLIST | AO3 | KO-FI

Requested by: Anon

if you’re still open to doing the Sick reader headcanons, could you maybe do one that’s Abed Nadir x reader (in a romantic way)? Thank you so much, I love your work!!

Relationship(s): Abed Nadir x sick!gn!reader (romantic), Annie Edison x sick!gn!reader (romantic)

Warnings: The reader has a cold so... yeah. Also, since I'm sick myself, my brain isn't working at it's normal level so apologies for any mistakes! (Let me know if I need to add any)

(A/N: Thanks, Anon- that's incredibly kind! Anyway, I'll always have time to write about Abed, my beloved. I figured I'd throw in Annie too, to make up for how short these are going to be and because if I'd want anyone taking care of me right now, it'd probably be Annie. Also, feel free to request more characters from different fandoms for the sick!reader hcs series I seem to be doing now (I've already done the Yellowjackets ladies).)

ABED

Abed is more than happy to keep you company whilst you recover.

If you go to Greendale with him, he’ll ask Annie if you can borrow her notes to help you catch up when you’re feeling better.

He will also ask Annie for advice on what to do to help you recover.

He’ll bring you snacks and water, and pick up any medicine you might need.

But, his main strategy in taking care of you is hanging out with you to take your mind off of how awful you’re feeling.

He doesn’t really care about getting sick himself, so he’s more than happy to sit in bed with you.

He just loves to spend time with you whether or not you’re disgustingly sick.

He’ll bring over his favourite movies that he watches when he’s sick, and even when he has to go to college he’ll leave you with plenty of DVDs to get through when you’re by yourself.

He’ll also watch whatever you want to watch, regardless of whether or not he actually likes it.

(Again, he just likes spending time with you)

If you haven’t yet watched Inspector Spacetime with him, he might use your bedridden state as an excuse to force you to watch it with him.

ANNIE

Annie is very much a natural caretaker, and she’s completely prepared to take care of you and help you get better.

She can be a little strict, but it comes from a place of love.

If you go to Greendale with her and share some classes, she’ll make sure to catch you up when you’re better.

And, if you plead with her enough, she’ll complete any assignments you might have missed.

She’s able to balance school and taking care of you.

Between classes and at lunch, she’ll call you to make sure you’re alright and to make sure you’ve drank a sufficient amount of water, eaten and taken any medicine you need to take.

And, to everyone’s surprise, she’ll skip her study group meetings to take care of you.

Well, she’ll still study, just in your room instead.

She’s also pretty cautious not to get sick herself, so she insists on keeping a safe distance and limiting physical contact with you.

She can be guilted into giving you a hug, though.

Also, not to completely recycle my Misty Quigley headcanon but I can 100% see Annie feeding you soup.

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funishment-time · 16 days

Note

for the ask game, Toko Fukawa :D

you got it! i'll include Syo as well. this is a bit Incoherent, but with any luck you all can Parse what i mean

Sexuality Headcanon: Toko's...tough, because she's got so much going on. regardless, i think if you strip everything away she's genuinely Bisexual, as is Syo. they lean towards Men, but Komaru is special. additionally, i say "comphet" for a lot of the girls, but in Toki's case it's a bit different: hers was less societal and more the abuse of her peers and parents. had she never met Komaru it may have never occurred to her that she could love and partner up with a Woman.

brief aside on this: i don't think Toko would ever identify as gay or queer or anything remotely accurate or healthy (ha). nor would Syo, but Syo would probably use a Slur as a label to get a rise out of people, avatar of rebellion and grunge that she is. Toki in particular is on my list of personal "what are you, gay or something?" characters while actively being married to a woman, next to Miu and a few others. good times

Gender Headcanon: okay, hear me out on this one, and sorry if this doesn't make sense, but...

the Fukawas are generally cis to me, though i've imagined a few scenarios where they're trans. when they're cis, however, i headcanon that, if they're with Komaru, only Toko ends up actually being cis. Syo becomes a sort of...genderweird she/her because she sees herself as the fantasy-masc Byakuya to Komaru's femininity. for lack of a better term: Syo thinks of herself as Komaru's husband (hersband...) a lot.

i have no idea how else to explain this without getting mildly NSFW. my thoughts on it aren't really pornographic so much as, like, Psychosexual? you know? and i want to keep the blog somewhat PG-13, so i'll leave it there!

A ship I have with said character: i am a diehard Tokomaru shipper and they're probably the one OTP i don't like splitting up in the whole franchise. they have a game together. they are the Girls of all time

A BROTP I have with said character: i've always loved the idea of Komaru being the entryway into Toko genuinely befriending (or at least earning the tolerance of) a lot of her fellow survivors in the main timeline. i do think Makoto would sincerely be Toko's pal, though, and i adore positioning him as the sweet bachelor brother-in-law in their nasty little family

A NOTP I have with said character: are there people out there who genuinely ship Fukawa System x Byakuya? if so...i'm sorry, but why? whyyyy. again, i try to Live and let Live in this fandom, but lorda mercy you chose poorly in this case, no offense

A random headcanon: to expand on my previous point...i will add, however, that my Fukawa Headcanons generally don't exclude Byakuya. i've said before that, for me, the Fukawas never really lose their crush on him, but it becomes purely, well, NSFW. if you excuse me being blunt for a moment: they still want to rail him, he figures in many of their fantasies, but they don't want to wake up next to him, and they certainly don't want to have his kids or make him breakfast.

Komaru, however, is the Fukawas' WIFE. she is Love, she is Healing, and she is their very best friend at her core beyond all the romance. she is pancakes and shitty manga and joy. Toko (and Syo) may not dream of Komaru kicking them around, but they do dream of creating a peaceful life with her. well...as peaceful as things can get in that timeline. some shit is always Happening

anyway: and Komaru just accepts this, because she knows she's got the girl(s) in the end!

General Opinion over said character: 10/10 i love my Toki so very much. Toki kinnie 4 life. stinky little insect creature. vile and perfect and lovable

#danganronpa #genocide syo #genocide jack #genocide jill #toko fukawa #fukawa system

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dragon-chica · 1 year

Text

Wednesday Addams NSF W Headcanons Part 6

Fandom: Wednesday

I've gotta say, I'm really surprised how much you guys like my Wednesday NSFW alphabet, been a hit for sure.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?): Wednesday had zero experience before getting together with you, she never wanted a relationship nor tolerated someone enough before you, and had much better things to do than the thought of having sex with someone who she found repulsive anyway.

But she definitely knows what she's doing. She's not nervous even when it is a completely new experience because she has the mind of "I want to do this, so I'll do it regardless of nerves" and she does a Lot of research, not so much porn as reading up and manuscripts and rather professionally written out techniques she wants to try.

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual): Wednesday keeps a very thorough handbook of different positions with footnotes on how it could be altered or used while doing more. She's willing to humor you in anything you may want to try (even if it's just wanting to try a simple position) but most of the time either one of you will be tied up either eagle spread on a bed or standing with your arms tied over your head, at the other's mercy.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc): Wednesday is hardly humorous normally, and when she is it's morbid humor that most people are unnerved by. If she makes a joke during sex, it'll be something that would honestly make you a little concerned for wellbeing if you didn't trust her so much.

Like how what she's doing to you is derived from an old torture technique she enjoyed reading about, and how long the painfully slow death would be. Wouldn't you look beautiful left here for the same fate? But unfortunately she's rather...attached for you to be gone so soon.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.): Her carpet matches the drapes with thick, dark and straight hair. She doesn't let it get too bushy, when it starts to bother her she'll trim it down because it's annoying. She's not bothered either way with what you do as long as you're clean.

#Wednesday Addams x reader #Wednesday Addams imagine #Wednesday x reader #Wednesday imagine #my stuff

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x-authorship-x · 1 year

Note

Jokes aside the idea of Shisui smartly winning a place as Fugaku's right-hand man and using Mangekyō fuckery against ROOT is so cool? Also Fugaku doesn't strike me as someone who would be a super bad Hokage- would he be the best? No. But would he be the worst? I don't think so, especially with Shisui at his side

And who knows?

Maybe with time things will get better and Konoha will accept Fugaku as their new Hokage. I know I would 🤭

- Koto-anon

It depends on how you judge success/badness/goodness specifically towards leadership in Narutoverse!

Disclaimer! This is all my opinion! I don't want to be lectured! I'll keep deleting bullshit!

I'm gonna try really hard not to start spiraling into historical analysis of power structures and perspective bias etc etc but knowing me that's what's going to happen anyway so let's just get into it 🤣

So, fandom usually looks at Hokage candidates by their raw strength which makes sense, considering all the talk of "Strongest in the Village" and looking at who we have in Canon:

Hashirama was the God of Shinobi

Tobirama was a genius with Jutsu and assumed to be a good policy maker too

Sarutobi was 'the professor' and was pretty spry against Orochimaru even as an old man

Minato was a genius sealing master and the 'fastest man alive'

Tsunade could crush mountains and perform healing miracles

Kakashi is a (you guessed it) genius and the man of a thousand Jutsu

Naruto is literally the Jinchuuriki Favourite Child of "God-God" Sage

But, honestly, discounting Tobirama... Who here is actually fit to be a leader and not just...a glorified general?

We need to understand what the Hokage actually does. Jokes about paperwork aside, how does the mantel of Kage fit within the broader sociopolitical framework, what role do their advisors and council play into the system?

So let's make some assumptions.

From examples across time and space, we know that Generals can be just as much in power as a civilian politician or the biological heir to a dynasty. I'd recommend looking at the Hokage as a hodge-podge of these:

The Hokage are all connected to each other. Hashirama-(brother)->Tobirama-(student)->sarutobi -(student's student)->Minato-(sensei's teammates/saru's other student)->Tsunade-(predecessor's student)->Kakashi-(student, sensei's son)-> Naruto

They're military leaders and the power structure of the villages are based on this Shinobi prowess

They are also in control of their civilian population (if there is a civilian council, I doubt they report to anyone but the Hokage) and they mediate with Daimyo etc.

Hashirama was the Senju Clan Head, a mantel that maybe passed to Tobirama but more likely passed to Hashirama's mysterious children.

Tobirama was, at the very least, his brother's closest advisor. That's some political practice, right there.

Sarutobi, we assume but then...maybe not!, was the pretty important to the Sarutobi. And there seems to be a fair few of them looking at that one panel of them all breathing smoke and shit (assuming that they're not just a huge pack of brothers but most are part of their own family unit)

I don't think Asuma has a dozen brothers. Maybe he does but, frankly, I'd be disappointed if they all didn't have daddy issues with the Sandaime as well.

I'm going off tangent🙃

MY POINT is that Sarutobi possibly had some experience with bureaucracy before becoming Sandaime. Maybe Tobirama punished them all with paper pushing, idk

Minato.... I don't know what to tell you but I'm tempted just to...skip... him because frankly his term of office was so short he probably hadn't even redecorated or got the smell of smoke out of the furniture yet! Regardless, being smart with seals doesn't mean he's a good judge of politics, economics, or social welfare! He gets brownie points for being a thinker, tho

(Does Konoha function as a welfare state? Surely with the injuries on a regular basis, as well as the crazy working schedules and the turn over of retiree veterans, they've got to have some impressive infrastructure- No, don't get me started-)

Tsunade. Right, listen, she's a doctor yeah but this woman really had no clan left to learn leadership for and she's been wandering the continent for a decade in a drunken stupor. I love her but there's a reason she's smashing desks and it's because she's been confronted with problems she can't pummel or resuscitate. Tsunade didn't get a medical degree (did she????) just to have to study MORE bullshit. She's frankly wasted here but better her than some of those fuck-wits.

Kakashi. 🥹 Leading the Hatake? No. ANBU? Does Captaincy really count as anything but even more field experience. Result: Why (i love you but SEND THE MAN TO THERAPY AND GO TO THE SPA)

Naruto. Well... They wouldn't let him jump from Genin to the Hokage. Is this because they know he's so uneducated and needs to go back to school or is this purely because you HAVE to climb the pecking order in order to hit the top. Both? Both is good

So there's just... A lot here. And I can speculate to fucking hell and back but there's very little actually elaborated on in Canon. What do they even do in the Hokage Tower? Is it just all mission paperwork or does Konoha function more like... Idk a principality? What is the involvement of the Daimyo?

This is where fanfiction reaaally takes the reigns and I love that for them ✨😤

So what would make a "bad" Kage?

Danzo.

Danzo is a SHIT Kage and not just because I hate him. We're looking at someone who poisoned the previous - relatively successful - leadership, worked with foreign powers to manipulate other nations as well as his own village, orchestrated and then ordered the slaughter of thousands of Konohan citizens, kidnapping and experimentation, sabotaging political rivals (whether they considered themselves rivals is a different matter all together), bolstered social conflict and international tensions, bloodline theft and forming a private army who were indoctrinated and sealed to his will-!

So if that's the "shit" end of the scale, where do the other Hokage line up?

Hashirama: congrats on building the village! However, it's really contested whether you actually met your new allies on equal standing and it's left a lot of social pressure that will explode down the line 🥺 you get points for spirit but the execution (whoops) might prove a bit wobbily

Tobirama: congrats on being the best of an....interesting bunch. You seem to have had a good head on your shoulders and, pre-founding antics aside, you've committed to the bit. Unfortunately, you have an evil student :/ oh, right, and those social issues? You're probably making them worse

Sarutobi: well. You sat there. Congrats on living so long, I guess. You taught a few loose canons big names, you signed your name on the top of the exam, you held onto peace for a good while by the skin of your teeth. Unfortunately any good you mightve done or process made has been massively underscored by allowed your live-in nuclear-weapon-child to be abused and reviled, your students have either fucked off or were chased out after performing atrocities against the population, your teammate tries to get the last student of your (brief) successor to kill you... Yeah. It's a lot. Oh, also your own son flipped you the bird for a decade to go live in the Capitol instead. Oh, yeah, and you must either live in a bubble of ignorance (ignoring that crystal ball you've got going on) or you're wilfully ignoring Danzo squirreling funds to his private army ;/ all in all? Not great signs of leadership control, you rotten motherfucker

Minato. Is it even fair to list him when he martyred himself before anything could happen? All i can say is... Yikes. Also congrats on dying so quickly that you were immortalised as the faultless golden hero of the village ☺️ all in all, Minato is just lucky to be here

Tsunade: um. She fucked off for decades, loudly proclaiming her disgust/revulsion of Konoha and how stupid anyone would have to be to become Hokage, and hasn't exactly been graceful or pleased since being strong armed into taking the job. I'm not saying I don't sympathise but at the same time... Not a good start. Idk about anyone else but if my (dictator?) leader loudly hated the job and the village and had also gone AWOL for years living it up whilst the village was kinda imploding... I would be pretty resentful. Girl Power can only fly you so high 😔✊

Kakashi: I'm sorry that they made you do this 🥹 you are smart and you've seen a lot of shit but... He might be long-suffering for his duty but, like with Tsunade, you've got to weigh up if they'd be better elsewhere. Kakashi is high on the list of Hokage we've got to work with, however. Well. If you ignore that he was hated for most of his life, first for his father and then for being a little brat, and then for being an "eye thief", and then for being a Friend Killer, and then for being a Pervert- well. His reputation abroad is much better but there's a reason most leaders have, at least loosely, a cult of personality (Narutoverse is bad for this, btw). He has similar problems to Tsunade but he wins out on loyalty.

Naruto. I'm not going here because it's Boruto territory and that's a hard pass.

So what makes a bad Hokage? The usual things, I'd imagine:

pathological power grabbing (war mongering isn't good for your own minions and it's not good for international friends)

ignoring the wants and needs of the wider population (revolutionaries 🤷)

Inconsistency (people watch their leaders extremely carefully and so do their enemies)

lack of attention (^^^)

lack of control (you're running a military dictatorship, commit to the bit)

too much control (Danzo, I'm looking at you)

selfishness (it always bites in the ass)

pure ignorance (Sarutobi, I'm looking at you)

a focus on the brute side of things instead of the subtler arts (Sarutobi isn't brute strength but, unfortunately, he's on the other end where appeasement is making things worse)

So, looking at this, what makes a good Hokage?

Someone who knows what they're doing? 🥴

Someone who wants to be there or at least has dedicated themselves to the roll in its entirety without going on a power trip or burning out in a short period? 💀

Dedication

sensitivity

an awareness of social pressure and tensions (literally read the room)

a firm hand to the law (you gotta keep the minions in line)

support for both the backbone of society (Shinobi and Clans) as well as attention to the majority and minority (civilians hold a lot of sway in the every day realities of Konoha, don't let the Jutsu fool you) and knowing when to invest so neglect doesn't bite you in the ass (or rip everything up by the roots - ROOT, lol)

You need intimidation/respect (they are mercenaries after all) abroad as well as devotion and reverence at home (good old propaganda to keep the masses contained)

looking at the various downfalls of previous Hokage, you gotta deal with threats close to you with scary efficiency.

Another disclaimer: this is a profile for a leader in Naruto. I don't want to hear shit about me promoting aggressive foreign policy or totalitarian ideology, omfg

So! Bearing all this in mind, and incorporating an awareness of canon context... Would Fugaku be a good or bad Hokage?

I think he'd be a very important and decisive one. Good? That's a little more nuanced. Let's get into it-

Fugaku has the "good" qualities:

He's Clan Head, so about as much experience as any of the others had, but then he's also Police Chief (ACAB, whoops) so we're dealing with someone with intimate knowledge of the letter of the law, navigating Konohan crime and punishment as well as legal bureaucracy, and he's already a direct authority within the village and - get this - with the civilians.

Fugaku didn't personally want the Coup but he's a leader listening to his clan and they're getting desperate (and, therefore, more explosive). He's managed to hold his own against all these influences around him. Should he have completely shut them down? Maybe, but then what if they tried to usurp him? The Uchiha Clan can't exactly afford to split into fractions

He's called Wicked Eye for a (mysterious Mangekyou) reason. The fact that his skills aren't discussed in canon only gives us even more leeway to make him a total BAMF. He could also, apparently, go head to head with Golden Boy Minato. Am I sensing a badass? I think I am

He's surrounded by trustworthy BAMFS. Hashirama had Mito and Tobirama (Madara too, not to incite commentary, lets stay focused). The others struggled with this: Tobirama's successor is a little bitch and Danzo was devil spawn, Sarutobi was trapped between Danzo and his wild-card/war criminal students, Minato's Kushina died with him and everyone else doesn't seem on the level, Kakashi's bestie is literally a major antagonist, Naruto is (BORUTO REDACTED). Fugaku, however, not only has a bamf Clan who seem pretty devoted to him as a leader (we don't see a lot of dissent) but he's got Itachi and Shisui right there. They had a problem with the Coup, not necessarily with Fugaku himself although I think (looking at their characters) interpersonal strife would be set aside in favour of the bigger picture. All in all, there's a reason why he was thought of as the 'father' of his Clan (but what if you have daddy issues 👀)

Does Fugaku also show signs of being a bad Hokage?

Well, the timing might prove deadly against him. A revolution when the wider population is so anti-Uchiha would tear Konoha in two. But... That's if you're thinking that a Coup would be... Well, what you'd imagine. But if it's performed by Uchiha, the masters of genjutsu and manipulation? Taking liberties with Fugaku's Wicked Eyes and possible OC Uchiha characters, who knows if it would be a seamless transition? (In a fic, maybe Shisui's use of Kotoamatsukami on Danzo and ROOT would be the tip of the iceberg on what happened in the Uchiha Revolution. The Sandaime deciding to united the fractions of Konoha with Fugaku as his successor....?)

Fugaku isn't power snatching and, if he was, it wouldn't be directly for himself like Danzo's is. Danzo might sugarcoat it as an ideological difference, a variation in his vision of Konoha compared to others, but it's really all about him. Fugaku feels... vindicated.

Fugaku wouldn't be unwilling, uncomfortable, under qualified, or underpowered.

Personality-wise? He'd be like Tobirama, who i think was the best previous Hokage. Would this turn Konoha into a police state? Wasn't it always that in some form, anyway?

Overall, I think Fugaku would be a good Hokage, if he was extremely careful and played his cards right (and, considering his dedication and shrewdness, there's no reason to think he wouldn't be)

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abybweisse · 6 months

Note

With how certain parts in the story play out or are portrayed, do you think Yana exploits or down plays O!Ciel’s trauma sometimes? For example, during Noah’s circus arc, that panic attack he has is caused when he was exposed to Kelvin’s doings which triggered his trauma. Yet at the same time, actions like Ran Mao hugging O!Ciel and pushing him into her chest makes him flustered. The interaction doesn’t make him panic in the same way even though he suffered at the hands of both men and women in the cult. I can mostly chalk it up to Yana putting in fan service in when it comes to how he is framed in certain instances or in situations like the corset scene, but overall, is his trauma only there when the plot needs it?

Our earl's trauma on display

I'd say the trauma is there all the time. It's just that much of the time he can somewhat control how he reacts. He regularly suppresses his emotions, anyway, because it's the only way he can move forward on his goals. Consider this part of his act, pretending to be the "better" older twin. He knows real Ciel went through the same ordeals, but he probably assumes his older brother would have faced each new day with all the strength he could muster... if he had survived instead. It's probably on his mind more often than we actually witness, but since he's not the main, title character, we don't see his thoughts as often.

If he were constantly displaying the effects of the severe trauma, he'd pull a revolver on Sebastian when he's called upon to wake up each day. He'd be jumping out of his skin to run away whenever a creep like Druitt showed up. Or crouching down to go into the fetal position and scream. That sort of thing. He'd be too much of a mess to let the plot progress. He wouldn't be able to function very well. Basically, he'd be like he was during the witch arc, until Sebastian was 90% serious about devouring his soul then and there.

Honestly, the series would be hard(er) to read, if we were constantly getting the full brunt of the effect those traumatic events have on him. As a victim of childhood abuse myself, with the repetitive intrusive thoughts and flashbacks I already have regarding those long-past experiences, reading and seeing illustrations of similar ongoing suffering would be somewhat detrimental... possibly. What I experienced wasn't as terrifying or horrific as what happens to him and his twin (though the abuse lasted way longer for me), and I don't have any real triggers. Regardless of what happened to me, I do my best to carry on with the day-to-day, even on days I'm thinking about it more than usual. Whatever PTSD I might have isn't nearly as severe as it could be. A series written that way -- our earl constantly showing us how he suffers from trauma -- would be downright unreadable for a lot of people. Some find it too emotionally difficult, as is, and dropped the series.

I expect that what he mentally goes through, after the abuses, is pretty much the same thing all day, every day. It's repetitive, pestering him, and he has to brush away thoughts about it. He does the best he can to hold himself together. He tries to focus on revenge. On Funtom. On his duties as watchdog. Whatever... to think about something other than that timeframe and those memories. What's shown to us (of the trauma) are the times when it's just too much for him to maintain that composure... as well as what caused the trauma in the first place. I'd say that is quite enough to get the point across.

It's sad that a lot of those scenes are given fan service treatment. Sad mostly because it means there's still a large chunk of the fandom that practically demands it. I'd prefer a lack of glamor and sexualization in those moments. I know a lot of fans would agree with me. But she can't please everyone all the time. And what sells, sells.

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #our earl #tw: csa #tw: child abuse #ptsd #living with ptsd #ptsd in literature #coping #coping abilities #portrayal of ptsd #childhood trauma #portrayal of trauma #anon asks #i answer #answered asks #nov 14 2023 #sorry for the delay

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epickiya722 · 1 year

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🌙 🐇 THE RABBIT DUO 🐇 💚

I just thought about this thinking about my BotB AU because I have a side story planned for it.

Anyways!

You know what else I find appealing about the idea of Miruko being Midoriya’s mentor during the Work Studies?

Her learning from him.

Listen, listen, hear me out.

Look, the majority of us find that Miruko could have been just as good as a mentor for Midoriya because their fighting styles is so similar. I mean, truth be told it did make more sense for Midoriya to have trained under Gran Torino because he works with speed and kicks. He even learned a new trick from him.

(And as iffy a lot of the fandom feel towards Gran Torino, take note he trained All Might who later became Midoriya’s mentor, who initially Midoriya was using similar punching moves from. When you think about it, Midoriya was already learning from Gran Torino before even meeting him. Hm. But I digress!)

So no doubt, Midoriya would have progressed just as much under her guidance like he did with Endeavor.

But! Let's consider the other way around!

I'm not talking powering up or anything adjacent.

I'm talking about morality, character and values. Those sort of things.

Miruko is all about working alone, right? She's brash, she's fearless, she speaks her mind. She goes in fighting with the instinct to end things right then and there.

Opposite of early!Midoriya who was more timid and insecure about himself. By the time, Work Studies came around, he was a lot less so. But who is to say he still couldn't learn to be more confident in his abilities under Miruko?

And it could work in reverse!

Here's something I noted about Endeavor during the Work Studies when it comes to Midoriya.

He gains empathy and even respect towards Midoriya. Even before that Midoriya serves as a catalyst to the Todoroki Family's changes in their relationships. Shoto would probably still wouldn't learn to hone his fire powers, pursue rekindling his relationship with his mother and probably would have became more cruel. With Shoto changing, thus a chain of events within the Todoroki Family happens.

That is just an example of how Midoriya can affect people, make them realize something about themselves they haven't recognized before.

They learn from him. We seen this with plenty of characters.

Miruko would be no different.

With Midoriya, she could learn to be a little bit more compassionate. She would have grown attached to him and soften up because who doesn't? It's Midoriya!

Also, self reflection.

What I don't think what's realized is while she shares personality similarities with Bakugou, she holds a lot more similarities with Midoriya.

I already wrote a post about their similarities and I just mentioned their fighting styles, so let me just note the one other similarity they have.

THEY DO NOT KNOW WHEN TO QUIT IN A FIGHT.

They both hold their drive to win, not because they have this ego to win. But because they don't want to have regrets. They get reckless.

Miruko herself says she fights for the greater good, regardless of her condition in a fight. She wants to get the job done because there are people who need saving. Even if that person is stronger than her, she doesn't give a damn and continue on until she can't. It took her to pass out to not fight anymore.

JUST LIKE MIDORIYA.

Both have got into fights where they disregard help, but don't mind assisting others. They're selfless and selfish.

They're practically immune to pain at this point. They improvise and are attentive.

With that, when it comes to bettering yourself, changing your flaws and whatnot who is the biggest influence into doing that?

Yourself.

You can have other people in your life change who you are and make you realize your character, but it starts and ends with you.

And sometimes, it takes someone who is a lot like you to finally see those flaws.

Midoriya is just a taller, male version of Miruko with a nicer personality, green curls and eyes and freckles.

If Miruko, who does pay attention to others, stood on the sidelines and watch Midoriya in a fight, she will probably see those similarities. She will have that self-reflection because she's looking straight into a mirror.

She will learn her flaws from him because she feels them.

Let's be honest, it's how a lot of us recognize our own issues. By seeing the same ones in someone else.

So, in my opinion, Miruko training Midoriya during the Work Studies, hell, just being his mentor in general would have been great. Maybe even better.

Midoriya could have still learn how to handle his powers with her guidance, learn some more skill sets from someone who shares a similar fighting style. But also Miruko could learn from him, see how she is as a person, built that connection.

And really, they could have been this (the current in story) generation's Nana and All Might.

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ineffable-grimm-pitch · 3 months

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summerland

fandom: Simon Snow

relationship: snowbaz

rating: Teen and Up (for some big kid language)

additional tags: high school au, non-magic au, slowburn, idiots to lovers

chapters: 14/26

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BAZ

Snow builds on the ground outside my car as I drive to school. It’s probably unsafe for me to be driving right now, but I find that I don’t seem to care. The heater is turned all the way up and it’s making a valiant effort blasting at full power through the small vents on my dash, but it does little in the way of combating the biting cold that finds its way into my car anyway.

I keep telling myself that I just need to get through this week, but it’s February and I’ve been repeating that same mantra to myself since at least October. And regardless, it’s only Monday, so I’ve still a long way to go before I can consider this week gotten through.

My windshield starts fogging from the cold, and I adjust the settings to have the air blow on the glass instead of on me. I pull my sleeves over my hands. Maybe I should have just walked today.

Weather like this reminds me of a time when I didn’t know any way to feel except alone. The cold months bring me back to a time I should barely be able to remember, but that I can recall in vivid detail; a five-year-old Basilton watching my father spiral after the loss of my mother, wasting away and appearing less and less frequently. I’d almost started to wonder if he was going to leave, too. I was just a kid. I didn’t know what had happened. I couldn’t have.

I kept wondering what I could do to make it better, and I became infinitely disappointed when everything I tried didn’t work, despite my best efforts. What was the magic I had to do to fix this thing I’d caused? But try and try as I might, the answer was nothing.

And I did believe I’d caused it. After all, I was with my mother that day, and she was alive, and then she wasn’t, and things like that didn’t just happen for no reason, so it had to be somebody’s fault, so it had to be mine. I was just a child wondering what atrocities I had committed to keep Father Christmas away from my home during the holiday.

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keep reading on ao3!

#simon snow #baz pitch #snowbaz #carry on #simon snow/baz pitch #snowbaz fanfic

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pandora15 · 8 months

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okay I didn't sleep very well which means that this is the perfect time for me to write a very obnoxiously long post about my very complicated feelings about ahsoka (both the show and the character).

there will be vague spoilers for what we've seen for the show so far (as of this writing, the first three episodes).

okay

also this will definitely be ramble-y and probably a bit controversial? idk man it's the star wars fandom, I'm sure to piss someone off regardless of what I say here, and I don't really care.

anyways

I'm gonna start with a simple statement.

I don't like the idea of one Jedi being better than another.

Clarification: Obi-Wan is by and large my favorite character of all time. He is my favorite Jedi. However, in my eyes, that does not make him better than all the other Jedi. That does not make him a better Jedi than all the others that we've seen in canon, just because I (or a lot of us in this specific fandom circle) like him.

make sense?

okay cool.

In a similar sense, Ahsoka is not better than all the other Jedi, including all the ones who taught her and helped shape her to who she ultimately becomes. Don't get me wrong, she is an incredible character who has gone through so much and has survived it all. And I take comfort in her character nearly as much as I take comfort in Obi-Wan's.

The way the show is going so far seems to imply that the approach that she's taking with Sabine by training her at all, when Huyang has said multiple times that the Jedi of old (ie. up until the end of the Clone Wars) would not have trained her, is absolutely the right and wonderful thing to do. So the fact that Ahsoka has previously taken this chance on Sabine and is doing so again seems to imply (to me, at least) that she is better than all the Jedi who came before her, since all of them would not have done such a thing.

The whole Sabine being practically Force-null thing but still trying to be a Jedi is a whole other conversation for another post, but…a part of me is intrigued by the idea, I guess? But I still feel like it steps back on her characterization in Rebels, and I am worried about the direction they're ultimately going to take with her.

Add this to the fact that the show demonstrates that Ahsoka has complicated feelings about the Jedi Order and being a Jedi. The fact that she calls Sabine her Padawan (a Jedi term afaik) eases my concerns slightly, maybe? I don't think it's clear quite yet how she feels about the whole thing.

But all of this stems from what happened to her during the Wrong Jedi arc.

And in the lead-up to this show, I rewatched that arc. On this rewatch, I felt a lot of sympathy for what Ahsoka goes through. She's on her own for most of the time that she's on the run, and obviously I can't say what would have happened if she'd chosen not to run away and investigate to the extent that she did, but it does seem to pile up even more evidence against her — but it also gave Anakin the stepping stones that he needed to figure out it was Barriss and Barriss the opportunity to sort of expose herself as the culprit. Like if Ahsoka hadn't run away to the lower levels to try to figure it out, would she have been better off?

We don't know. I'm not gonna make assumptions.

As for the Order and the Council, I'm going to say about that arc what I've said before: they were placed in an impossible situation. The war has drained them of the trust the public had once had in them, their dependence on the Senate made it so that they couldn't go against them.

Ahsoka says in the arc that she believes that no one in the Order fought for her, besides maybe Anakin. Yet we literally see Obi-Wan tell the Council that they can't expel her, we see the Council invite her back after her name is cleared because they still see her as one of them. A Jedi.

And yes, maybe they could have done something differently to change things. Maybe they could have taken a stand with Ahsoka against Tarkin and all the other Senators who called for Ahsoka's expulsion/trial. Maybe they could have refused to expel her to prevent all of that from happening.

But I can't imagine that things would have gone well for them or for Ahsoka if they'd done that.

Needless to say, Ahsoka could have done things differently to lead to a better outcome, and the Council could have, as well — but we don't actually know if it would have worked.

Putting all of that aside though, the way Ahsoka's character is approached after the Wrong Jedi arc aired is changed drastically, compared to how it was approached before that arc. Which makes sense, since she walks away from the life she knows and has to figure things out and all that. I know it must have been really tough for her, walking away.

Ahsoka's arc in Rebels is beautiful. I love it. The way she contends with the knowledge that Vader is Anakin, ultimately leading up to her duel with him and her sacrificing herself so that Ezra and Kanan can get away? It's so heart-wrenching to me, even now. Learning that Ezra ultimately saves her with the WBW made me so happy because she is such an important character to me, and to see her ultimately die at Vader's hand would have been completely heartbreaking.

And to see her again the Rebels epilogue, with the implication that she survives the events of the OT, was one of the most glorious endings I've seen in Star Wars. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

But after this is where the cracks begin to form for me.

We go back to Season 7 of TCW. I found the Martez sisters arc pretty fun, having rewatched it recently. However, there is this plot point of Ahsoka seeing that the Jedi are not doing anything for the people of Coruscant, since they're. you know. busy fighting a galaxy wide war and all that. (Also like the welfare of Coruscant's people is not strictly the Jedi's responsibility like assuming Coruscant has a Senator or maybe even the Chancellor would also have some level of responsibility, yeah? but people love to blame the Jedi for their problems, in and out of universe).

Anyways, the arc indicates that the Jedi are in the wrong, even though, once again, they're in this impossible situation for one thing, and they're also being "blamed" for things that aren't even their fault? And Ahsoka is like the only person who can see that so now it makes her better than all of them?

We see that play out a bit at the beginning of the Siege of Mandalore arc (which is still incredibly painful to me, thanks). We see Bo-Katan take shots at Obi-Wan for literally just saying that he has to speak to the Council about her request (I could be remembering wrong, I'm trying to double check this but youtube is literally refusing to load right now), and Ahsoka just stands there and lets it happen because "wow why are they not helping us how dare they be busy with a war omg after everything they've done to me"

And to be fair to ahsoka, it hasn't been that long since TWJ and it's totally valid for her to still be upset about it! I guess it's just painful to see especially for me because I've always loved Obi-Wan and Ahsoka's dynamic and it was just. yeah.

And yeah, Ahsoka decides to do the same to Obi-Wan later on when he says they have to go to Coruscant because their people are in danger, and Ahsoka's upset that they're not prioritizing Mandalore's people over Coruscant. Which like. Coruscant's people literally includes the two sisters you became friends with last week Ahsoka what do you mean —

anyways

in those opening moments of the siege of mandalore, it's clear that she still has a lot of emotions over what happened, and Obi-Wan takes the brunt of that. let's also not forget that she doesn't seem to want to talk to Anakin until later on, yeah?

and the way it's framed in the show, they really make it seem like ahsoka's in the right for treating Anakin and Obi-Wan like this. Like they deserve it for doing something differently than her.

When Mace Windu calls her a citizen when she LITERALLY called herself that first, people say he deserves to die? like what the fuck? it's not that serious y'all.

It's like Ahsoka has suddenly become the perfect character who can do nothing wrong ever and any time another character tries to go against that, it's implied that she's in the right and she's better than them all, actually. it's canon because dave filoni says it is.

skipping over the mando and tbobf episodes mostly because I don't have much to say about those episodes as it relates to this topic, this brings us back to the ahsoka show today.

I think it's a beautiful show with incredible music. like I'm obsessed with the end credits music. the premise is extremely interesting. I do think it should have been animated, even though the actors have worked extremely hard to get the characters down and I've literally seen how excited and passionate they are about the project while watching their interviews in-person at star wars celebration, I don't think it would ever feel the same as having the original voice actors back for all the characters.

that being said, I'm enjoying the show so far, but I am concerned. I'm worried about what the show is going to communicate about the Jedi Order and that it's going to continue to imply that Ahsoka is better and knows better than all the Jedi who brought her to where she is now.

I hope that the show is able to communicate that Ahsoka wants to be respectful of those Jedi, instead, and that they paint the concept of being a Jedi in a more positive light, instead of continuing to imply all this negativity.

I love the Jedi, and I just wish we got to see more of them in a positive light in canon.

#ahsoka tano #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka show #so tldr if you see me like. contradicting myself a lot when it comes to this show it's because that's literally how i feel about it #i like it and i love it but i also am deeply concerned about it and i don't like what they've implied about the jedi order so far #it's complicated #and i think my complicated feelings all stem from me not liking the concept of a single jedi being better than all the rest #and just to be clear. ''better'' doesn't equate to having higher force sensitivity or anything like that #i think that's obvious from my post but. yeah.#anyways i'm gonna get up now it's a reasonable time for me to be awake now afslkjadjklfkjlakfldsaf #rip to my sleep schedule #long post

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lake-archive · 10 days

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Track 7

Fandom: Hypnosis Mic

Series: The Past Is The Past... Right?

Characters: Eli (by @watersofcamelot) (mentioned), Ole (OC)

AO3 Link

Track 6 - Track List

It was an exhausting few hours before Eli would return home. Searching for a plush doll in the entirety of Nagoya… Most would call him insane yet he had found the doll in some punk’s possession. A beating later with the help of Kuko and the plush was secured. So, as soon as Eli had returned to Shibuya he gave it back to the little girl. This one was overjoyed and thanked him yet he wondered what for. After all, he was doing exactly what had been expected of him, didn’t he? Yeah, this was nothing special… At all.

Though now he was thinking that he could kick his legs back for a while… As he probably should have. But technically he had not been following Jakurai’s instructions anyway so what’d be the point to start now? He was doing fine anyways and he could get back to work. All he had to do was sneak out of the house, behind Ann’s and Ole’s back. Neither of them hadn’t known, surely.

Or so he had assumed because right when entering his home he was greeted by the Boss himself. He was sitting there on all of his paws, his head up and his green eyes wide. His expectations seemed to be high, very high even, and he was waiting for a while now. Apparently Ole had taken note instead of sleeping in all day long but honestly Eli may have known way better than this. After all, cats could be very observant, pretty sharp even. And this cat, Ole… He was no ordinary cat. That much could be or has already been established.

And yet, when Eli had entered Ole just remained silent. No meow nor complaints. The two were only staring at each other for a while… That was until the leader of CATZ pulled out his own Hypnosis Mic and wandered out of the house with it, right past Eli. Yet he stopped for a short moment to turn his head back, as if waiting for something. Should Eli follow? Maybe that was what Ole had been waiting for… And thus, he nodded while shrugging, then following very close behind.

Where Ole had led Eli in the end was a place more deserted than the rest. It was not often to find such a place in Shibuya as this part of Tokyo was always hustling and bustling, filled to the brim with people. And yet Ole had managed to find a more deserted place, with no one there but a massive concrete wall with lots of graffiti on it.

It made Ole stop for a moment, forcing Eli to watch how the cat was observing the area before spotting a few trash cans on the side, closed. He wagged his ears for a moment before suddenly hopping on top of the trash cans, then the wall itself before placing the microphone in front of himself. Then a loud meow echoed through the place, a beam shooting down before a massive cloud of dust appeared. And as it cleared one could see the following right then and there…

A tall man, very tall, with short, slightly spiky yet curly, black hair. Though the inside of said hair had been all white. Skin pale, eyes wide and green yet also tired. A wide, black coat which was almost like a cape while wearing something close to a black and white business uniform. On top of that cat ears and a cat tail, each moving on their own. One would think that this was a mere human… But it was not. He was not a human, it was the Ability of the leader of CATZ, Ole himself. His name then? O. Just O. Or that is what it sounded like. It would be read as O(le) but was that really important to keep in mind.

Regardless, O was eyeing the boy it seemed before speaking, then suddenly pointing at him. Yet his mouth did not move while the voice echoed through the area. “Battle me, right now!”

Eli only looked at O, caught off guard by this of all things. He had the energy to battle? That was rare, very. But at the same time one could not deny his wishes. Never deny your elders. And… Well… O had his way with words. But Eli was curious, there had to be a reason.

“Why? Something came up Boss?”

“If you want to see it that way, I will accept it.”

“You will accept it? I’m not sure I follow…” This was confusing. But would he get an answer? Not clearly, no. Because all Eli earned himself was a sharp glare before a sigh occurred, then O stepped a little closer and pulling out a microphone from his inner pockets, then pointing at the boy.

“I don’t have time to chit chat with you right now. I need to see something myself.” Was all he explained before suddenly:

“ Time passes and people change

Yet where do you land?

Are you a man of the past?

Or perhaps of the present?

How much did you truly change?

Don’t answer me with your words

Show it to me instead! ”

A wave hit Eli pretty much right away and he had to cover his own body, holding his arms up, in front of his body, trying to keep his feet on the solid ground. The wind was just too strong however yet it was nothing hurtful either. No… What game was O playing?

“B… Boss? Are you provoking me?” Eli decided to ask yet he would not get an answer, not a direct one at least.

“If you don’t launch an attack soon, I will not hesitate.” And he was serious. Why was he suddenly picking a fight like this!? It made no sense! Or did it? Someone understand cats sometimes…

And yet, he knew that O was going to be dead serious about this. So he really had no choice whatsoever… Thus pulling out his own microphone, though this being instinct if anything, because he was not left a choice. If Ole wanted to duke it out, then so be it.

“ Show you what?

Boss, you ain’t making sense…

But fine, if that’s your order, I gotta do my part.

Past? Present? The hell is that supposed to mean?

You talkin’ to a man of none.

Lived his life, living right now, not going to live long.

Left his life behind

Turned a new leaf

But that’s really none’s business. ”

Did it work? Hard to say, given the man in front of Eli was nothing but a mere illusion after all. And he did not go for an attack either. Instead, he was just rapping away, the best he could manage. A part of it was the confusion but on the other… Ah, a sudden strike!

“ Dancing around the question, the classic.

You’re answering nothing boy, task failed.

F Minus!

Try again, I dare you! ”

“ What’s this, school?

You ain’t teachin’ now, are ya?

Just forget, I ain’t tellin’.

Why even bother? ”

“ A youngster talking back… ”

“ What else did ya expect? ”

“ Yeah, you’ve got quite the tongue.

So you’ll keep being stubborn? ”

“ That’s what ya callin’ it now? ”

“ Trapped in your own beliefs? ”

“ Yeah.

With all due respect…

I gotta tell you shit! ”

A constant back and forth, clashing between words. O would not quit it for some time and Eli felt himself becoming more tense. Never a direct attack, none of the two were going for it. And yet, it was all just becoming less and less comfortable. He really didn’t want to do this any longer. Eli would have gone for the finishing blow but this was Ole… His leader. And he was not going to harm him. He couldn’t. But why—

“ Half hearted. ” A quick whisper before Eli spotted a sudden glow in these eyes, bright green… As if on a prowl. And then, with only one sentence he ended it all… “ We’re done here! ”

It was a simple sentence yet had an intensity behind it, one Eli did not expect to feel anytime soon if at all. Thus, before knowing it, he was pushed far away, slammed right onto the ground. He dropped his microphone from one moment to the next and the last thing he saw of O was him staring down at the boy, not saying a word. Well, except for one thing which hit him harder than he would want to admit…

“Despite you having more experience… It is still too early for you as well to do anything right now. Stop living in the past.”

But before Eli had a chance to ask, O just disappeared and Ole himself left. It is… Too early for him to do anything? What does that mean?

Living in the past… Ole really liked to talk in riddles sometimes, didn’t he? And yet… Eli couldn’t let go of it in the end.

However, he had no idea how to approach it… At least not yet. But little did he know back then that a moment would present itself soon… A moment which is going to change everything, even if only a little.

Track 6 - Track List

#Nimue's Lake #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #hypnosis mic #hypmic #hypnosis microphone #hypnosis mic oc #hypmic oc

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kitspindles · 2 years

Text

anyway time for a hot take that's probably been discussed a million times already but. essay time!!

I don't think that Will was meant to be Rick's solution for Nico's trauma-- the main solution as in, "Oh, he has a boyfriend now. Everything is all better, no more trauma, he's cured!" I don't think it's like that, though I can definitely understand how some people might see it that way. Putting aside the issue of whether or not their relationship was rushed for the moment... When someone is trying to heal from and process their trauma it sometimes helps to just have another person around to be there, to talk to, to have a friend in.

For a character like Nico, who spent seven books since his introduction (subsequentially four years) pushing away everyone, never opening up about himself, and feeling like he had nowhere to go, having a friend, a real friend, to fall back on is an integral step in overcoming his trauma. We saw this in his friendships with Jason and Reyna, where he was able to share important aspects of himself to them and come away feeling like a bit of the burden had been lifted, even for a moment-- or at the very least like he could speak to another person without scaring them away (tbh, Rick did Nico dirty with the way the majority of the Seven treated him, but that's a discussion for another time). Having someone close to confide in is something that Nico desperately needed but wouldn't allow himself to have-- something he hasn't really had since Bianca died. (Yes, Hazel came along eventually, but even then Nico kept quite a bit from her).

That's where Will is important. Again, yes, maybe Rick didn't need to push them together as boyfriends right off the bat (though they were arguably barely bfs in The Hidden Oracle, still in that "new relationship" phase, and by this point it had been about 6 months since they officially met in The Blood of Olympus, so I like to believe that they were friends first during that little time-skip between series), but regardless of the status of their relationship, Will is still immensely important to Nico taking that step in the right direction. He's one of Nico's first true best friends. They clearly care for each other and help one another.

Anyone who's read the Trials of Apollo fully knows that Nico's trauma is not gone just because he has a boyfriend. I mean, the poor guy has to sit near Mr. D, Dionysus, the god of madness, just to keep it together most days. It's literally stated that he has PTSD and waking dreams. Not even Will can make these problems go away, and he says as much himself. It hurts Will that he and Nico's other friends can't help him more, but that's just the reality of trauma and healing. Having someone to lean on certainly helps, but it isn't a magical cure, and I think Rick knows at least that much.

On that note, I have faith that the Solangelo book will tie up the loose ends of the relationship and answer the fandom's lingering questions and concerns-- how did they start dating, how are they actively working to help each other, more about Will's character and his own trauma (and gods know this boy has to have some), etc., etc. I think we're in for a good wrap-up since the book is co-written by Mark, who knows how to write about trauma and sexuality, and was brought in to help because Rick knew he couldn't do it on his own.

Anyway, all of this just to say: Will is the friend that Nico always needed, and regardless of the status of their relationship (friend or boyfriends), that's an important role for Nico's character to have in his life and a necessary step in healing from... everything.

#nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo #pjo #pjo fandom #percy jackson and the olympians #the heroes of olympus #the trials of apollo #hoo #toa #rrverse #rick riordan #jason grace #reyna ramirez arellano #bianca di angelo #hazel levesque #my stuff

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