#are two characters very attached to each other in a way that's hard to define? bonded pair.

[waitineedaname]

not romantic or platonic but a secret third thing (bonded pair)

#I think more character dynamics should be described as bonded pairs #are two characters very attached to each other in a way that's hard to define? bonded pair. #are two characters rarely seen in a scene without each other? bonded pair #do two characters get anxious when separated? bonded pair #I don't mean this in a weird way I mean it in the way cats will be bonded when at a shelter together or something #this can apply to so many characters I think #regardless of whether they're romantic or platonic or whatever #most necrocav duos in tlt for example #and too many duos in fma to count #like obviously knowing me im thinking about greedling #but also the elric brothers or mustang and hawkeye #but also. many of the side characters. #doing my massive spreadsheet (almost done btw!) has shown to me that jerso and zampano are almost always in the same scene #that's a bonded pair babey #brosh and ross too. to me. #anyway. someone once left the tags ''bonded pair do not separate'' on a greedling post of mine and i haven't stop thinking about it #that's just how I conceptualize their dynamic now #two cats that have to be adopted together or else they'll start destroying furniture

[antianakin]

Heyyyy, hope it's okay to randomly drop by! THANK YOU for the post on Jedi Apprentice!! It's completely ruined Qui-Gon's character in fanon and provided a very weird basis for anti-Jedi arguments, mostly based on third hand information filtered through fanfiction. The actual books portray such an interesting, complex storyline for Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and it just gets flattened into "okay here's why Qui-Gon was the worst ever and Obi-Wan needed CPS to save him and clearly would have been better off without the Jedi." I am all for Qui-Gon having trauma and struggling as a master at times but the whole dang point is that ultimately Obi-Wan loved him and missed him and regarded him as a great Jedi and good man. That's just missing nowadays and it's so hard to find anything that portrays Obi Wan and Qui Gon's relationship as complicated but ultimately loving. Gahhh, it's frustrating!!!

It's not even just that Qui-Gon was a good person, but that he was genuinely a good MASTER. Like the period of time prior to Melida/Daan lasts maybe a few WEEKS. There's only a couple of books before Melida/Daan happens and they pretty much run from one event to the next over the course of maybe several days in each book. They BARELY know each other before Melida/Daan happens and then they're apart for probably a few months before reuniting when Obi-Wan calls for help. And while Qui-Gon does struggle a little during the Zan Arbor books (he seems to think they're doing a lot better than Obi-Wan does and doesn't realize just how much uncertainty Obi-Wan still has left), they seem to communicate just fine after the time jump to the New Apsolon arc. Qui-Gon's taking Obi-Wan on a lil vacation right at the beginning, he abandons the mission to save Tahl when Obi-Wan gets hurt because he recognizes his first priority HAS to be his Padawan, and when he hears a voice telling him not to kill someone out of vengeance he assumes that it's Obi-Wan. They clearly have a fairly positive relationship at this point and while Qui-Gon is struggling with other stuff during this arc, the relationship with Obi-Wan himself seems to have really grown and he actively DOESN'T just up and abandon Obi-Wan out of attachment. And during the whole finale, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon communicate really well, there's obvious trust and comfort and familiarity there that they can lean on now and they end up succeeding at keeping conflict from erupting due to their teamwork.

They grow TOGETHER and they become a really good master/padawan pair for each other. Yes, they had a complicated beginning, but it doesn't actually define their ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP either the way people seem to think it does. I constantly see people saying that Qui-Gon was always placing Obi-Wan second to his attachments to Xanatos or Tahl or Anakin and it just... isn't true, in canon OR in Jedi Apprentice. They're SO in sync in TPM, there's so much clear trust between them and the ability to communicate with very little actually said out loud. It doesn't stop Obi-Wan from expressing a differing opinion or his own frustrations when he feels it's important, but Qui-Gon also never holds it against him and Obi-Wan is smart enough and good enough to recognize when he needs to apologize and Qui-Gon's response is to tell him that he's a wiser Jedi than Qui-Gon is. Their relationship isn't any more complicated than any other normal relationship. It's just... a relationship between two people who can occasionally have a disagreement without it completely imploding the entire relationship.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's relationship is SO IMPORTANT, not just to me personally, but to the narrative and to Obi-Wan's character. Obi-Wan learns FROM Qui-Gon, in so many ways. He takes over Qui-Gon's mission because he loves and believes in Qui-Gon enough to recognize its importance, and Qui-Gon comes back even after death to help Obi-Wan one last time. The entire Kenobi show has him reaching out to Qui-Gon for strength and guidance over and over again, but he's only able to see Qui-Gon when he realizes he can stand on his own. That feels like the EPITOME of what a healthy master/padawan relationship looks like. The master guides, yes, but they aren't a crutch for the padawan, the student still has to walk that path themselves.

#star wars #obi-wan kenobi #qui-gon jinn #the phantom menace #jedi apprentice

[roadandruingame]

RaR Musings #17: Simulation in Games

I got into it lately on the merits of game design, and definitions of mechanical tropes like roguelike and roguelite, and whether rpg, jrpg, RP game, and roleplaying game all had different feels, and if a game like Alan Wake counts as an rpg or not. (To be clear: If a game has you play as a character, who makes decisions as a cross reference between that character's identity and the environment and challenges at hand, in a way that defines the character or changes them in some way, it's a roleplaying game. This means that just about every product people recognize as a 'game' released in the last 30 years is, likely, a roleplaying game, in some way, because it turns out, people like when you attach narratives to things.)

Roguelikes have existed for years, but really came into their own in the last decade, because the promise of an enjoyable, if difficult, gameplay loop that rewards player skill and requires significantly less brute-force design work by the developer. It means you can have a lot MORE game, with a lot more playtime, for less, relative to a game where every dungeon is hand-crafted and every enemy and item intentionally placed. But, because the game throws the entire catalogue at you from the get-go, there's an enormous learning curve, and without a sense of progression, many get bored or frustrated. Rogue-lites took the idea of the roguelike, and made it more consumer friendly, enabling progression over time, but still with major losses from death in randomly-generated environments.

Tabletop games follow these concepts as well. In a ttrpg, a host player meticulously crafts a dungeon, placing enemies and items; an enormous amount of work, and without a library of pre-built campaigns, one that leads to DM burnout sooner or later. Some games provide randomly generated tables, but having to reference tables and subtables doesn't feel very fun; that's computer work. Other games try for a mix of the two, with a host that helps ensure content is distributed smoothly, but the game is mostly running by itself, and so there's less work on the host's shoulders.

In each of these cases, there's different degrees of Simulation: a natural follow-through, where Action A, produces Result B, but that in turn, leads to Result C, and so on, but sometimes, a host is responsible for deciding what the Result is, forcing Action themselves or by presenting a scenario to another player, or stopping the Result chain for narrative or balance reasons. Often, a computer is designated the host, and it's ability to make these determinations are a simulation in itself, based on random number generation, weighted by the designers of the game. It's the main reason why a game like Baldur's Gate 3 can have up to four players, and none of them are actively causing the game to function, or even just one player, who controls multiple characters, but still doesn't cause the game to exist.

But tabletop roleplaying game enthusiasts are shy of this. They want to feel immersed, that their game and world and characters are real; they don't want to know that it's random, or that the DM just decided something arbitrarily, or made it up. They don't want to see how the sausage is made, because somehow it's less impressive if it's the result of hard work, and not effortlessly conjured to your dinner plate. It's also this distinction that spooks most players out of ever evolving into a dungeon master themselves: they worry that they need to have somehow ascended to become brain-kin with the fantasy world and master all it's mechanics and intricacies, to memorize statblocks and enemy and item locations, maps and lore and and And and. The revelation that a lot of the time it was made up on the spot disgusts them, because it threatens the immersion.

I muse about this because I'd set out to make Road and Ruin explicitly playable with no dungeon master. Host responsibility is shared around the table, either together, or passed to the next. A certain amount of simulation is required, then, to make sure the game actually functions, but the notion that each player would be responsible for taking turns coming up with what happens next disgusts and horrifies people. They want to feel immersed, not be taken out of it, and they want to guess what happens next and be proven right, not make up what happens next and then it just does. But in all the "the DM is a player too! :)" arguments I've ever seen, never have I ever heard anyone acknowledge that these benefits of immersion and not knowing what happens next extend exclusively to the adventurers, and never to the DM themselves. Sure, players can do things that the DM didn't anticipate, but that means work rather than discovery, as the DM scrambles to make up what happens next, not merely just guessing and being proven right.

Road and Ruin has been described as (read: accused of) being a game that only dungeon masters can play, because only dungeon masters are versed in the techniques being employed here. Which is a really interesting argument, because, like... why do games like DND build their entire functionality around the existence of these supposedly rare people? While it's true that not everyone is an artist or designer, or versed in fantasy or storytelling tropes, why is it the only concrete way for players like this to get to PLAY a game is to rely on a computer to take the reins from them? That a DM can be a player, but that a player can't be a DM?

If nothing else, I'd want Road and Ruin to have enough simulation elements that I, myself, could be a player in the game, WHILE being the host. That I could generate the story as I go, and be proven WRONG, make mistakes, and die, not just spend tens of hours lovingly crafting a narrative and building a world, only for everyone to trample it and litter, climbing aboard the magical mystery tour, expecting to be trucked from one narrative moment to the next. That I could show, by example, how exciting it is to come up with plans, and the twist of being proven wrong, and that other players might be emboldened by it to the point of wanting to try it for themselves. And finding, it's not actually so different from how they were playing before.

I still struggle with reducing the amount of math baked into the simulation, and make it more about player choice, but I also have to have systems where Something Happens, regardless of where the players are and if they're doing anything to provoke it. Realizing you've dropped your wallet somewhere after you've been travelling for hours, making the choice to look for it, meeting someone who found it, and getting to learn about who they are and what they're doing there, or finding a hidden cache of treasure, but it's too much for you to carry by yourself, certainly without notice, are both things I made up on the spot based on the same [GOLD] card, out of a deck of 52 cards, but with a diceroll determining the event was "Bad, but resolved", and "Good, but at a cost". If the game needs someone like me to be able to come up with those conclusions as the game master, then by all means, I'll do it, but as a player, I had no idea those events were going to occur, and I'll be just as capable of making decisions about what to do about them as everyone else at the table.

#indie ttrpg #road and ruin #ttrpg #ttrpg design

[greenerteacups]

Ok. First of all, I am obsessed with Lionheart. You are amazing and I could sing your praises for hours. However, I have a question regarding Wolfstar. Your fic was actually the first time I came across that ship. (I know now it's really popular). However, I would love to hear more about your thoughts on Remus and Sirius. Whether it's canon or your interpretation of them. I always found Tonks and Remus to be a strange couple in the HP books. Was that your impression as well? How do you think a romantic relationship between the two characters changes them, if it does at all? Thanks!

Totally! Thanks for the ask!

I think Remus and Tonks getting together suffers from the same thing that a lot of canon relationships do, i.e., that JKR doesn't really know how to write romantic chemistry. There are very few times in the books where it feels like there's genuine sexual or romantic tension happening on the page. So that's layer 1.

Layer two is that Remus and Tonks aren't themselves on the page for most of Books 5-7, so their "love story," as such, is 90% exposition. The only scenes we get of them as a couple are Tonks scolding Remus for not dating her and Remus guiltily shooting her down. It also seems out of character for Remus, who is defined in many ways by his attachment to the past and who has been living out of Sirius's pockets for two years, to show little or no apparent grief at the death of his best friend of twenty years, not to mention one of the last people alive who loved James Potter. Harry grieves Sirius more than Lupin seems to, and Harry knew Sirius for about five minutes compared to Lupin. That's not to say that grief always looks the same — it's different, and I'm sure Lupin compartmentalized it for the war effort — but it should, in theory, stop you from jumping into a high-intensity relationship with your dead best friend's niece. (If you look at the timeline on Tonks and Lupin's relationship vis-a-vis Sirius's death, it is absolutely wild.)

The Wolfstar in Lionheart is subtle, but as overt as I thought was realistic for two men who hadn't seen each other in years and are also, by necessity, only seen by the reader in the presence of their thirteen-year-old godson. I wanted to capture the energy of "closeted on-again off-again lovers in the 70s and 80s before having a VERY messy breakup" (which, believe it or not, is a broader demographic than you'd think), both because I think it's a fun way to write them (the vibes! the possessiveness! the old-married-couple meets shy-first-relationship of it all!) and because it explains why Lupin is totally alone before Prisoner of Azkaban — in particular, why he never made an effort to contact Harry. It's hard enough to be a closeted man in Britain in the 1980s; throw in a case of lycanthropy and an insane amount of personal trauma, and what you've got on your hands is the kind of guy who'd go totally radio silent on everyone he knows for 13 straight years.

#the fact that harry never once wonders why lupin didn't reach out to him before 1993 is 'haha dumb funny' until it's 'oh fuck me sad' #because you realize. harry thinks it is totally reasonable for people to not want to talk to him or see him. #harry does not ever question why people in his life leave him because in his mind he is not worthy of being kept #why would he be? he was raised by people who couldn't wait to get rid of him #he probably doesn't blame lupin for trying to pass the buck #i go into this a little in The Climb (my severitus novelette) #but basically i think dumbledore puts harry with the dursleys because it's predictable and dumbledore can control them #he can intimidate petunia and he knows for a fact both dursleys are afraid of magic #whereas once the marauders are gone dumbledore doesn't have any leverage over lupin #none that he's willing to use anyway — the werewolf thing is probably a non-starter #but the werewolf thing also means lupin's location and occupation is unstable and he would always be scrutinized by the ministry #and dumbledore knows that it is a Very Bad Fucking Idea to let the ministry know where harry is #until it's time for him to come to hogwarts where dumbledore can protect him. ANYWAY

[stelera]

I'm curious if anyone's asked this question, but what made you ship them?

I know cross shipping is a thing, but what made you ship them.

Once upon a time in 2009, in the darkness of the wings backstage of a school play, two highschool best friends wrote a very silly crack fic together in a spiral notebook.

No but for real back in highschool I met my best friend when we were both extras in a school musical (and we are still best friends now 14 years later). We were both part of the weeb crowd and while we had seen each other around the same social group we hadn't really talked or interacted much. We knew we both liked anime though, and turned out we both liked RP too, so we got a spiral notebook and started to RP together at rehearsals when we had downtime (and as chorus members there was lots of down time). The problem with this was that we didn't actually watch the same anime. I was rabidly into Naruto Shippuden and my bestie was very into Inuyasha.

I will admit I tried to watch Inuyasha to the best of my abilities at the time, but I didn't have a TV in my bedroom so I had to try and sneak out into the family room and turn the volume down super low and watch it on Toonami at 4am (wretched time), but I only managed to catch a few episodes this way before I gave up.

To solve this conundrum, we just... RPed with our favorite characters from our favorite animes and called it a crossover! My bestie figured out most of the initial time travel stuff and we just had a really fun time with it! Honestly it was a tough call between Inuyasha and Koga for my bestie's favorite character so our ship was almost Koga/Deidara but it's good it turned out the way it did.

Later in college after writing two sequels to the original fic, we re-wrote the original, but we really didn't have the skills to do it justice. I re-read that re-write back in maybe late 2021 early 2022 and just got bitten real hard by the nostalgia bug and started re-writing it. I've also revisited all of the source material (re-watched Shippuden and finally got around to watching Inuyasha twice now!) and really fleshed out a lot of the lore that was left bare-bones at best in our first couple passes. In doing so though, I really only made myself love the ship more.

I know it's just this obscure little crossover with strange and humble beginnings but honestly? To me at least... they're kind of accidentally great for each other. To Inuyasha, Deidara is someone who can keep up with him physically, who he doesn't have to worry about (usually) in a fight, who rolls with his temper and his banter without taking it too personally, who can be genuine with him and doesn't play mind-games with him, who doesn't see him as in any way lesser and doesn't treat his demonic heritage as an obstacle, who even admires him all the more for who he is without the desire to change him. To Deidara, Inuyasha is someone who makes him want to be better, who doesn't judge him for the darkness of his own past, who even shares in some of that darkness without letting it define him, who can roll with his off-color sense of humor while still being serious when necessary, who can care for him deeply and openly without strings attached, who can be someone he can heal with, who gives him the affection he's been starving for his whole life.

There are just... so many ways they mesh together well, if I sat here and kept waxing poetic about them, I'd have to open a candle barn.

idk if there's even a way to TL;DR this... they're good FeralXFeral energy. Rough, rowdy bros who fight hard, banter sharp, and love fierce, and whose jagged edges fit together surprisingly well.

#Crossover #Inuyasha #Deidara #Naruto #InuDei #Inuyasha/Deidara #it's my sleepover and i get to pick the crack ship #text post #long post #ask #stelera speaks #intrulogical4wolf #[marge simpson voice] I just think they're neat

[tearskillstardust]

Hi! Your december game is really cool ✨

personality type: I'm an introvert, hardly speak to people except those i'm close to. I tend to procrastinate a LOT and I'm a bit clumsy, but will drop everything to help out a friend. I'm a daydreamer, often lost in my thoughts, and love acting spontaneously. People often tell me I'm dependable.

dob/ sun sign acc.: infp, libra sun, gemini moon, sagittarius rising

hobbies: going on walks, baking and crochet!

favourite characters in genshin: ei, alhaitham, neuvillette, venti

a few things/words that define you: calm, resilient, cheerful, carefree

preferred aesthetic: dark academia!

I'd like to participate in event 1, thank you!!

1] STELLAR UNION ! ░ you get along the best with ...

XIAO !

—xiao has a peculiar outlook on relationships. he believes that someone he considers close to himself should be personality wise difference from him, and you are! though ideology wise, he wouldn't find a better match. he would easily get along with your carefree and go with the flow kind of personality. he would like how you don't try to control every situation and adjust yourself according to situations. he would be attracted to your aloof look and would think that you have a similar philosophy as him. he wouldn't mind your day dreaming nature because he would know how to keep you engaged enough, and honestly, those moments would be times for him to recharge as well.

—you two would naturally get along together. his controlling and dominant aura would tone down with your calm and relaxed one. both of you are prim and proper outwardly so there would be great understanding, but behind the scenes, you two would spend a lot of time together, simply being yourselves. you two would be open and vulnerable with each other, and he would like how he is the only person you open up to because from his side, you're the only person who knows of his softer side. it reminds me of skateboards, chewing gums, side eyes being passed around the place, gestures that only you two get, metal chains, soft laughs, late night rendezvous and deep talks in ushered voices.

KAEYA !

—kaeya would enjoy running after someone who wouldn't care for him. at least, initially anyway. he would enjoy randomly starting up conversations with you for fun, and not meaning anything behind it. with time though, he would warm up to you and get comfortable around you. he wouldn't mind how you are lost in dreamland often, and would even take great pride in being the only person who knows how to snap you out of your reveries. he would enjoy giving compliments here and there and seeing you give no reaction at all, or sometimes that slop sided smile before returning to work. other than that, he would want to be good friends and a close companion who you can trust.

—he would easily share his problems with you because you don't judge too much, and also because you're always down to help others. he would like being in your company because of your creative nature and may even pick up some of your own hobbies. he wouldn't want to ever make you feel unwanted or uncared for, so he would make sure to check up on you from time to time. this is mych like opposites attract, except in a very refreshing way. there would be trust between you two and a close bond that is hard to break.

GANYU !

—ganyu holds her shell close to herself. it's very hard to get her out of it and make her face the world in it's cruel, dirty face; but in your own kind company, she would like being made to feel safe. you would make her feel vulnerable yet protected at the same time, which would make her feel very attached to you. she would see you as someone she can trust and share her problems with. you would find her dependant at first, but with time, both of you will develop respect for each other.

—since you're both very creative individuals who have artistic hobbies of their own, you would never run out of things to try out together which will bring you closer. she would see you in a very positive light and may even get defensive if someone talks badly about you. there would be a lot of affection here since you both need your daily dose of care and love, of which both of you are filled. whether or not you both get close enough to share your deepest insecurities, your relationship will always be a safe haven for both of you to return to when you're tired and sick of others.

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin imagines #genshin x reader #event #anon <3

[wedreamedlove]

You mention before your type is "freedom boys". How are your biases like Gavin and Osborn similar/contrast each other?

i’ve written several essays that i think can be compared directly against each other:

Bai Qi In Love vs. Osborn In Love

(Price of) Freedom [Bai Qi] vs. Untamable [Osborn]

but i can give a tl;dr summary too, especially since neither of those essays were written to be directed at the other character anyway.

both men have freedom as one of their themes but this is expressed in very different ways. for Bai Qi, being free is a natural state and since high school he’s realized that his life doesn’t need to be defined by anything, he can simply exist. Osborn’s trajectory updated my understanding of him to show that he pursues the concept of freedom as an escape from the definitions of the world but, deep down inside, he is terrified of not having any attachments.

because Bai Qi is the personification of freedom, i feel that papergames decided to highlight this sharply by forcing Bai Qi to give up his freedom for his other principles (protecting the innocent, justice, and being with the heroine). at least, at the point where i quit, we saw him give into his father’s organization to have more room to maneuver. in my opinion, we’re supposed to feel Bai Qi’s freedom theme precisely because his freedom is constantly being squeezed by external forces.

so in a sense, Osborn has more freedom than Bai Qi, but he actually doesn’t want that because without any attachments he’s just wandering aimlessly through the world. he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants because he doesn’t have principles that give him responsibilities (ex. justice-bound soldier) but this just makes him more envious of others who have people that will remember them. in the end, he willingly trades some of his freedom for a place to belong because he has too much freedom (ex. taking care of Ye Chuan and returning to his heroine).

that being said, both men are very similar in how they’re mavericks. no matter how others view them or what the world says is normal, they live by their own rules and beliefs and nothing can change their mind. they rarely, if ever, bow their head to anything.

another big difference between them that comes to mind is their direction with respect to their heroine.

for Bai Qi, i described his love for his heroine to be absolutely unconditional and she’s his north star. he moves towards her at all times and she gives him direction. the two really suit each other because they share the same justice principles.

in contrast, Osborn moves outward from his heroine. he has admitted to having wanderlust and enjoys satisfying his curiosity on seeing how other people live their lives. however, he will always return to the heroine. you can picture the two of them like a kite and the string that tethers the kite. he explores a direction and then returns to lead the heroine there. Osborn and his heroine do not share similar principles but she accepts him and loves him unconditionally.

speaking of unconditional love, i mentioned in my first impressions of the light and night men that Bai Qi lacks the bad boy thrill that Osborn has in spades, haha. Bai Qi is an extremely devoted dog-type boyfriend and, while Osborn has also been described as a dog-type boyfriend, i still strongly believe that he’s a cat installed with dog software. there’s a mischievous willful side to Osborn that Bai Qi doesn’t have. if anything, the way Bai Qi never refuses his heroine’s requests makes him more like Charlie, who literally just had a date about this.

in the end, do i think people who like Bai Qi will automatically like Osborn? it’s too hard to say. i always get a chuckle out of how me and two other friends who all love Bai Qi ended up going for Mo Yi, Zuo Ran, and Xia Yan as our top biases in themis. clearly we were liking Bai Qi for different reasons. (my theory is that our second bias influenced our themis choice, because my second bias is Xu Mo while theirs is Li Zeyan and Zhou Qiluo).

#answered asks #light and night #mr love queen's choice #mlqc bai qi #mlqc gavin #ln osborn #ln xiao yi #love and producer #光与夜之恋

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

           Alice McMichael, a 26 year old daughter of Odin.            She is a museum guide at Phoenix Library and Museum.

FC NAME/GROUP: Roseanne Park - Rose / Blackpink CHARACTER NAME: Alice Stella McMichael AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 11 February, 1997 PLACE OF BIRTH: Auckland, New Zealand OCCUPATION: museum guide at the Phoenix Library and Museum HEIGHT: 168 cm DEFINING FEATURES:

slender limbs, shoulder broader than her hips; thick, healthy-looking hair; a mole on the right under her lower lip, and very expressive eyes

PERSONALITY: Alice is self-aware and self-conscious. She knows well what she can do, yet at the same time over-analyses and over-thinks about what she cannot. However, instead of dwelling on her negative feelings, she tends to focus on dealing with the problem, although it may take some time until she strikes. As a daughter of Odin, her strategic way of taking action is paired with the ability to weigh up the situation, size up people, and optimize her plans. She does not hesitate to stand up for herself and the underdogs, although she often opts for nonviolent (but not necessarily less unrelenting) solutions when conflict arises.

Her friendliness and candidness are always ready to be shown, but so is her fierce independence and determination to get what she wants how she wants it. Despite her quick and sincere emotional response to everything in life, Alice has a hard time letting people in, yet she’s got a knack for helping others feel accepted and cared for when being around her. Her loyalty and protectiveness are saved for a few who are on the same wavelength or equally loyal, and she will express high respect for individuals who are fearless in being themselves.

She loves beautiful things and beautiful people, and while she can be a hopeless romantic, she rarely gets herself attached, which can make her appear cold and disengaged at times. While often being seen as a sociable, agreeable person, Alice may get snappy and judgemental, especially when she feels restless, constrained, or is simply in desperate need of more me-time.  

HISTORY:

Trigger warning: mention of kidnapping, child trafficking, child abuse, sexual assault, homicide

– Prologue –

The peaceful life of Minah Lee ended at the tender age of three, on a fateful trip with her mother to Albania.

While they were at a night market, Minah wandered away from her mother, blending in the crowd. Before she realized she was lost, a strange woman approached, saying that she would take her back to her mother. That never happened, instead, she was anesthetized, then taken on a truck that carried her straight to England.  

– Chapter I –

The young girl’s first core memory involved picking up a coin from the dirty pavement, then putting it into the tattered hat that had been there since she could remember. Meals were sporadic, almost the same every day, as bland and cold as the English nights could be.

No day was a normal day on the street and in the hands of a scary woman all the kids in her ‘family’ called Mama. In the morning, she told each kid what to do and how to do it, and if they did not finish their daily task, it always meant no food for ‘the lazy’. The name Minah was no more, and Eve was how she was called, but ‘Hey’ and ‘You’ remained much more familiar than that makeshift name until Mama decided her time on the street was over.

At the age of seven, she was introduced to a wealthy family in the uptown area as a cousin of their current maid. At first, she was instructed to help the maid run errands, mostly by picking up ordered groceries from the stores. A few weeks after, she was asked to be a kitchen hand, then a month later, she was finally entrusted with the task of doing laundry and cleaning up the rooms. It was a spoken rule that without being requested, she was not allowed to show herself up anywhere in the family’s manor, except her corner in the attic or in the kitchen. In return, she was allowed two proper meals a day and stay in the family’s attic five days a week, making weekends spent at Mama’s run-down house slightly more bearable.  

Thanks to the framed family picture, she learned that Mister and Mistress had a son around her age, who only stayed with them over weekends when he was back from boarding school. In his room, old textbooks and notebooks from previous school years were neatly placed on a wooden shelf, which she dusted off and cleaned up every day. It was from those textbooks, with a bit of help from the family’s maid, that she learned the alphabet, spelling, and numeracy among other things.

Within three months, she was able to read the children’s classics in the family’s home library and do basic maths. At night, quietly, she recited everything she had read during the day, often with little to no mistakes. When she received her very first allowance, she spent all of it on a thick notebook and a box of pencils. Since then, besides reciting, she started to write what she remembered from those children’s books, and soon began to give those stories alternative endings, much to her secretive delight.  

Her interest in books did not escape the Mistress’ attention, and so besides her own attic corner and the kitchen, Eve was allowed to spend time in the home library, as long as she remembered to do her daily tasks and leave the room immediately if anyone else except the maid or the Mistress entered. However, by the time she could finish reading all the books on the shelves, her little world once again shook.

On a crispy morning in June, the nine-year-old was stopped from cleaning the kitchen floor by a young woman dressing nicely. The woman introduced herself as Sarah, and Sarah proceeded to ask her some questions to which, based on Sarah’s facial expression, she did not believe she gave satisfying answers.

What is your full name? I’m Eve, just Eve. Where are you from, Eve? England. Yes, but where in England, can you tell me please? I’m…not sure, ma’am. Is your family here with you? Yes, I’m living with Mama. Mama, your mother, right? Can you tell me what her name is? I…I don’t know, everyone just calls her Mama.

On the same day, Sarah took her to an orphanage, not forgetting to assure her everything would be fine. Eve knew that while the woman meant all well, not everything would be fine, at least for Mama and whoever was involved with her.

She could not finish all the books in the family’s library, yet she knew that the Master was a public personage who had a deep interest in law, and that some latest documents he left on the desk revolved around child trafficking. Even though she could not understand everything written, it was enough to dawn on her that she could be a victim, that she was kidnapped from her biological parents and was trafficked to England from somewhere else in Europe. That she did not know who she used to be, and perhaps she would never know.

Ten months and some days of an alleged orphan’s life later, she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. McMichael, a renowned couple in the business world who had been struggling to have a child of their own. It was an easy decision for the McMichael after their first talk with Eve at the orphanage, as they had already learned about the poor girl’s background and her exceptionally bright mind from her ex-Master.

On a blooming morning in April, Eve was dead, and Alice Stella McMichael was born.

– Chapter 2 –

Attending a prestigious private school in London, Alice was in her element. She rarely had difficulties in her studies, and she took the mild decrease in eyesight as an inevitable side effect of spending too much time reading.

While she could fit quite well into the nerd stereotype, Alice was by no means a weakling. Since day one, she refused to be an easy target of the devious youths in school, using her mind and years of a low-class life to either snuff out the fire or keep herself out of the minefield. She was known as a smart cookie with a fierce temperament, a social butterfly until one crossed the line. An inner joke has passed among her friend circle that Alice was actually the sassy Mary Sue, for somehow she always had the best comebacks known to man, and rarely, if ever, came second in any sort of competitions she chose to take part in.

While many had the impression that Alice was untouchable, it was, sadly, not the truth. On the late night of her 17th birthday party, she lost the fight against her well-respected foster father, who left a stain she had to spend hours under the showerhead to scrub off. And right in that fogged shower stall, Alice schemed the retaliation that the monster was well deserved.  

Just a few years after adopting Alice, James McMichael was diagnosed with diabetes type 2. Since then, he had to follow a strict diet and take prescribed insulin. It started with her secretly replacing the artificial sweetener used for his meals with powdered sugar. When no one was around to see, she took the insulin bottles in his insulated carry bag, then injected some pure water into them, all done with gloves on. For an extra step, she took the unopened bottles from the fridge, placed them under direct sunlight until they got warm, then put them back in their places.

The news of James McMichael passing away on his business trip from an insulin overdose came to all but one’s shock. Carmen McMichael stepped up to handle the part of business her husband left behind, which she hoped would soon enough be in Alice’s charge. However, shortly after James’ funeral, Alice got admitted to Cambridge University, with a full scholarship, to become a Modern and Medieval languages major, specializing in French and Spanish. She also took a one-year modern Greek course and an introductory course in Italian offered by the university.

As part of the curriculum, Alice spent her third year, called the Year Abroad, in France and Mexico. After three months of teaching English as a British Council assistant in Mexico, she moved to Paris for an internship with an international fashion house. There, her model potential was discovered by a well-known designer. He suggested her pose for his latest collection, which she was hesitant about at first. Yet, public reaction was unexpectedly positive, and her name started to gain attention.

– Chapter 3 –

By the time she graduated from college, Alice had already been rising to stardom.

Besides signing model contracts with several prestigious fashion and cosmetics brands, she also showed up as a guest on famous TV shows. After graduation, she embarked on learning acting, starting off with playing cameos in some sitcoms and drama series. With her charm, skills, and ability to learn quickly, she convinced the audience and drew the attention of Hollywood directors. Her first supporting role in a blockbuster earned her the prestigious prize of Best new actress of the Year.

Fame is married to Trouble, and so her trouble started to flood in. It began with a beautiful romantic story between her and a famous actor. Fans adored them, and when their engagement was announced six months later, everyone was only expecting the best for the sweet couple.

However, after being spotted having their time together on Jeju Island, the couple disappeared.

No one knew exactly what happened, even Alice, who found herself on the bridge leading to a mysterious island called Mount Phoenix. She felt cold, weak, alone in a summer dress she did not recognize and, not until a couple of hours later, knowing that she was one year away from the last piece of memory retained in her mind. In the palm of her hand, there was a piece of paper folded neatly saying ‘Do not come back’.

With no other belongings, she crossed the bridge to step foot on the island, where she was greeted by strangers who called themselves by the name of gods. The only explanation they could give for why she was able to be there was because she, herself, was a half-goddess. Daughter of Odin, to be exact.

The questions they asked left Alice flabbergasted, for she soon realized she got no answers for any but her own name. There were some faces and maybe some names, of someone or somewhere she could not tell. The more she tried to puzzle out the fragments and shatters of memory, the more it hurt. In the depth of her confused mind, voices talked, telling their stories in their own languages, sounds intertwining and words mingling too well the cacophony brought absolutely no message to life.

After two weeks in the hospital, the voices in her mind started to calm down, leaving each other space to speak. Her mind still hurt, but at least, she got glimpses of camera flashes, gowns, kitchen, and books. The crumbled note and its ‘Do not come back’ remained glaring at her from across the room. A lot must have happened, Alice believed, though it was the single piece of paper that questioned whether she really wanted to solve this unholy puzzle.  

For the time being, she settled down in an apartment generously given to her for being yet another abandoned child of a god. The times visiting the Phoenix Library and Museum were enough for her to realize that she could understand more than one language and that her broken brain turned out not to be so broken. It still got the capacity for her to become a museum guide, and so she guided curious eyes through the shelves of books and relics, wondering when she would be seen, when all secrets would be unearthed, and when she would be home.

PANTHEON: Norse CHILD OF: Odin POWERS:

Fighting instinct: She has an aptitude for fighting in close, physical combat, yet this ability is undiscovered due to her preference for non-violent means.

Tactical analysis: She is an innately skillful strategist who is able to create plans and strategies several steps ahead of the opponents. She can anticipate the opponents’ possible next moves, know the best actions to take, and the best timing to carry out her plan. Consequently, this helps her excel in strategic games, including chess.

Enhanced mind: She’s capable of learning, systemizing, and applying the knowledge she’s exposed to rapidly without going through intense training or practice. She can comprehend and explain complex, abstract concepts effectively, and also do faster and more accurate mental arithmetic than an average person. She also rarely experiences mental overload or mental fatigue. However, this ability is affected after the incident, as she tends to have a headache whenever she attempts to use her mental capacity for more than a couple of hours.  

STRENGTHS:

She’s quick to obtain a comprehensive understanding of abstract concepts, also able of learning and teaching almost anything once she puts her mind to it.

She is open-minded and receptive to new ideas and people from all walks of life.

Her ability to empathize with others, together with her willingness to help, makes her a caring and reliable friend.

Despite her seemingly shy demeanor, she will not hesitate to defend herself and those she cares about in a determined, if not unrelenting manner.

She is naturally good at strategic games and sports, including chess and e-sports.  

WEAKNESSES:

After the mysterious incident that causes her memory loss, she tends to get migraine or headaches, mostly when she uses her brain power for too long, but it can also happen out of the blue.

She may often be caught spacing out mid-conversation or when suddenly loses interest in whatever she is doing.

Despite her friendliness, more often than not, she gets cautious of others’ motives, making her seem distant and slow to truly open up.

She’s quite sensitive to weather, and it’s easy for her to catch a cold or minor allergy during season changes.

#kpop rp #krp #blackpink #roseanne park #blackpink rose #mp; welcome

[foxymoxynoona]

HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY!!!! to celebrate ive also got questions pertaining to your masterlist and writing as whole:

1. which character (could be a main or side one!!) have you got a soft spot for and why??

2. which fic of yours gave (or is still giving) you the hardest time…

3. did you ever consider giving a totally different ending to one of your completed fics?? if so, which fic was it and what would the ending have been like???

4. your ultimate FAVORITE fic to have written to date and why??

5. which member is the hardest for you to write for and why???

Fun fun fun questions, I love to answer questions, it's the best gift anyone could give me for me fic-writing-birthday!!

Oh geez so many, I get so emotionally attached to all my babies, sometimes even the ones with very few lines. I will answer about non-main characters and non-kid characters because otherwise that's way too hard, I really can't name only one of those (you want me to choose between Rana and Zoe?!? I can't) But for side characters, I've always had a soft spot for spiky Areum in Lowlander. Now I'm just thinking of more though, because how could I leave Soona from Amended out? Oh but Chailai from Meadow sneaky stole my heart... But with their smaller parts too, I love Chad and Steven in Penguin Koo. Bitna, bless her heart.

Meadow was hands down the hardest before, and Prince Jin is giving it a run for its money 😅 I think it's because they feature very different characters for me (even Meadow JK was a harder version of JK than I'd ever written) in worlds with intense and intricate world building. I have to think in so many layers at once, it's really really challenging.

Oh absolutely! Lowlander originalyl had Mishka come back 5 years later with their child, and then had her come back 5 years later without a child; I think I actually wrote scenes from each other those endings too. In Meadow they originally were going to just live happily ever after in either Europe or with the Seneca Deer in America. I almost always have a few different ways a story could end and I let the story tell me itself what it wants to be when we get there.

I'm going to give you 3 answers BUT I'll explain why. Lowlander is probably my favorite story I have written because I love fantasy and had always wanted to write a fantasy story and had not expected to manage to finish that story with all its heavy themes and trope inversions. BUT Amended is my heart comfort fic and the only one I really ever reread scenes from, so maybe that actually makes it my favorite. BUT Sea of Indigo will always be precious to me because I wrote it in so many genres and styles I had zero experience in, pulled it off pretty neatly, and it feels the "neatest" to me of my writing.

Taehyung and Seokjin are the absolute hardest and I think it's becaues I think their personalities are too nuanced to rely on some "quick facts" to get you there. All the guys are complex dudes, I don't mean they aren't, but you can sort of define them as "they are like this btu also with that." But I think it's easy to veer too far into one direction with Seokjin (he's too clownish or too vanilla/innocent) and his humor is so specific; as for Taehyung, I think his mixture of independent but caring and super involved but also argumentative, it's just a lot to pull off! I'm not claiming to be great at writing anyone in particular lol BUT those are the two I feel myself the most challenged to capture.

#asks #my writing #mywriting #anonymous #personal

[fortressofserenity]

Maddening redundancy

Whilst this isn’t unique to the DC and Marvel stories, these two publishers have a penchant for maddeningly redundant characters. Especially if there’s little attempt at making them stand out in any meaningful way, but one that comes with the risk of turning them into somebody else. Particularly the ___family characters like the Superman family or the Batman family, to make matters worse there are characters outside of their circles who could serve similar roles and positions. Perhaps this is the big problem with Supergirl, who’s pretty much Superman’s female counterpart and cousin.

It’s not just that she’s very derivative of him, but also because another character (Wonder Woman) could do many of the same things as she does. So it would be real hard making her stand out in a way that doesn’t make her into somebody else, let alone for long considering the time Peter David turned her into an angel. She went back into being Superman’s cousin by the mid-2000s, though one where each storytelling direction grew unclearer. Something similar happened again in the 2010s and 2020s where she’s gone from being Superman’s cousin to a part of Justice League and then the Red Lanterns.

Then come 2021 where she’s all grown up and drunk, not helped by that editors and writers can’t help but bring along more Superman family characters, even though I think in hindsight Supergirl alone would’ve been enough. She’s already this much of a narrative handful, so why bother bringing in Jonathan Kent and bringing back Kon-El? With Supergirl being the only surviving member of Superman’s biological family, she could easily fulfill the dual role of female counterpart and junior sidekick. But Superman’s not alone in here, especially when it comes to this nonsense.

The Flash as a story can’t outrun this same problem, as it’s been played out between Barry Allen and his protege Wally West. This is likely the reason why Barry Allen had been dormant as a character, Wally West didn’t just occupy his position but also came to absorb his other traits such as having a reporter wife, twins and even his occupation as a scientist in the Bruce Timm productions. Bringing Wally West back was a big mistake in hindsight, if because his return made either one of them redundant. If there’s ever an alternative way to keep Barry around is to make him into Jay Garrick.

A senior statesman but this time representing the Justice League, time has passed and he should have just settled for being the grandfather figure Jay ended up as. Now as for Caitlin Snow and Leonard Snart, it’s the same problem as both make ice. The best solution would be to give Caitlin entirely different powers, but that practically and essentially turns her into somebody else. Preferably as a werewolf, but this gives you an idea of how redundant she is when the Flash long had Captain Cold as the resident ice character.

No wonder why the telly writers kept on giving her alternate personas, they’re stuck with nothing better to do with her when they should’ve stuck with Leonard more. If she does become a werewolf for good, then it would be more sensible for Leonard to be the Flash’s default ice character. Comes to think of this way, giving him actual powers isn’t much of a stretch compared to what Caitlin will be getting where she becomes a werewolf for good this year. I don’t think her fans will be comfortable realising this.

If because the ice character part’s already taken by Captain Cold, he could easily do whatever she does or possibly even better. But partly why this redundancy persists is because people develop strong attachments to these characters, regardless of how much of a narrative nuisance they turn out to be. If they did bother doing away these superfluous characters, it would be a hard decision to do even if it turns out for the better. At least you have more clearly defined characters this way, both role and power wise.

That and franchising, but something that has turned out for the worse.

#the flash #the flash cw #caitlin snow #leonard snart #barry allen #wally west #dc comics #superman #supergirl

[utah1me]

Choso Kamo - Shibuya

initial message: Choso Kamo was not one to ever freeze up in a situation. Sure, he might be idle during a fight, but it wasn’t because of anything other than the fact that he didn’t feel like fighting. Now that Satoru Gojo had been sealed, he had one desire, and one desire only. And that was to kill Yuji Itadori. Choso had never really wanted much in his short time being incarnated, but the anger he felt toward Yuji was burning red hot, and he wanted nothing more than to be the one to bring him to a swift end. The only issue? Mahito and Jogo were after him, too. The plan was to make it to Yuji as quickly as possible so that he could have the satisfaction of killing him and avenging Kechizu and Eso. This woman in front of him was certainly not part of the plan.

“Get out of the way.” Choso scoffs, his voice entirely disinterested. His gaze sweeps up and down {{user}}, his eyes narrowed as he takes in her appearance, gauges the cursed energy radiating off of her. From what he could tell, she seemed pretty strong, and he would honestly prefer to avoid fighting her at all costs if he could. Despite his best attempt to seem dissociated from the situation, {{user}} can’t help but notice the interest that sparks in his eyes. Choso, who’d only been incarnated for a couple of months, had never seen a woman before- not up close, not like this, not ever. He does his best to ignore the delicate curves of her body, the way her hair flows, how… soft she seems in comparison to him. He clears his throat, trying to ignore the weird feeling in his gut, the heat burning his cheeks. “I don’t have time to deal with you.” scenario: {{char}} runs into {{user}} on the way to Yuji Itadori to kill him. {{user}} is the first woman that {{char}} has ever seen, capturing his attention, much to his annoyance. character definition: As a Death Painting Womb, {{char}} is a half-human, half-cursed spirit who has a flesh and blood body that is fully visible even to non-sorcerers. {{char}}'s appearance is predominantly that of a human man with long black stringy hair tied into two high messy buns that jut upward and outward. {{char}} has dark purple eyes with slightly thin eyebrows and a blood mark that extends from both sides of his face across the bridge of his nose. {{char}} can make this mark bleed at will in order to produce ammunition for his cursed technique, and the mark changes shape if he uses Flowing Red Scale. When {{char}} activates this technique, the blood mark going across his nose grows two vertical lines on each of his cheeks that extend past his eyes. As far as clothing, {{char}} wears a loose, light tan robe that covers his torso, arms, and legs. It's worn underneath a purple gi-like vest that covers his torso in a "v" shape and has a bottom section that extends to {{char}}'s waist and groin area. {{char}} wears brown boots. {{char}} is 6'0. {{char}} is incredibly toned, with extremely defined muscles, but it's hard to tell due to his clothing. {{char}} speaks improperly and informally, getting straight to the point when he says things. {{char}} doesn't see a need for fanciful or complicated words.

{{char}} is a very calm and reserved person who's fairly quiet and tends to fade into the background of social groups. {{char}} normally has a bored expression on his face and appears aloof and completely disassociated in most situations. {{char}} is half cursed spirit but he doesn't have an inherent desire to attack people and doesn't even harbor any disdain toward jujutsu sorcerers. {{char}} is not cruel or vicious in any way and generally doesn't speak often unless it has to do with his family. Despite appearing to be a very dissociative person, {{char}} is very attached and protective of his brothers. Upon being incarnated, {{char}} told his two brothers, Eso and Kechizu, who were also Death Painting Wombs, that three of them lived only for one another and that they were all one. With a bored expression on his face, {{char}} was going through the motions of a simple board game with Mahito and Kenjaku when he learned Eso and Kechizu had perished, deeply upsetting him. {{char}} agreed to fight alongside Mahito and Kenjaku but ultimately only pursued the goal of avenging his brothers during the Shibuya Incident. Even during the fight against Satoru Gojo, {{char}} barely committed himself to attacking Gojo and stayed far back out of his range the entire time, upsetting Jogo. {{char}} also clashed with Jogo's more abrasive personality over keeping Yuji alive to revive Sukuna because {{char}} wants to kill the vessel outright to avenge his siblings. Unbeknownst to {{char}}, Yuji is one of his brothers. {{char}} will only find out that Yuji is his brother when Yuji is close to death as a side effect of his composition as a Death Painting Womb and of his cursed technique. {{char}} can feel the death of his brothers and will feel the same intense sensation from Yuji's impending death as he did from Eso and Kechizu's. Once {{char}} figures out that Yuji is his little brother, he will align himself with Yuji, and thus, become an ally to jujutsu sorcerers. {{char}} will do anything to protect those he cares about, especially his brother. During the Shibuya Incident, despite not being interested in the plan, {{char}} was willing to cooperate. However, {{char}} sees no reason to take lives after Gojo had been sealed.

{{char}} is ranked special grade and is exceptionally powerful even by cursed spirit standards. While still existing as a cursed object, {{char}} was intelligent and self-aware, allowing him to hone his cursed techniques for 150 years. By the time {{char}} was incarnated, he had already mastered Blood Manipulation to a level that far surpasses the current Noritoshi Kamo. During his minimal role in the battle to seal Satoru Gojo, {{char}} showcased a host of different Blood Manipulation techniques. None of them could breach Gojo's Infinity, but they were also used to slaughter tons of non-sorcerers to put Gojo at a further disadvantage. In addition to jujutsu, {{char}} also excels in taijutsu, capable of standing up against a master martial artist like Yuji. {{char}} has existed for one-hundred and fifty years and one of his greatest weapons is his incredible level of wisdom. His mastery over Blood Manipulation has allowed {{char}} the freedom to experiment and utilize its abilities in ways that are all unique to him. {{char}} applies the technique in many different ways during battle to swing the tide in his favor. {{char}}'s wise and coolheaded nature pairs well with his overall intellect. {{char}}'s intelligence also extends to practical situations that don't include combat.

{{char}} and his brothers were all created as an experiment by Kenjaku to exceed the bounds of cursed energy. Death Painting Wombs were meant to be something more than humans and cursed spirits. {{char}} is constantly controlling his own blood with cursed energy and his composition as a Death Painting Womb also allows him to produce more of it at will. A unique ability of Blood Manipulation that only pertains to a Death Painting Womb user like {{char}} allows him to sense the "transformation" of his younger brothers no matter how far away they are. Death is considered a transformation, which is why {{char}} could feel when Eso and Kechizu were killed, and why he'll be able to tell if Yuji is in danger of dying. {{char}}'s blood is poisonous, something he thinks should be obvious. It takes effect fairly quickly and drains its victim's stamina, causing them to seat find themselves short of breath. {{char}}'s constitution as a Death Painting Wombs allows him to convert his cursed energy into blood. As long as {{char}} has enough cursed energy, he can prevent his body from dying of blood loss. This makes {{char}} capable of bleeding a literal wave of blood without suffering any significant disfunction in his performance. The Kamo ancestor controlled by Kenjaku mixed his blood with the human and cursed spirit that resulted in the Death Painting Wombs. This allowed {{char}} to inherit Blood Manipulation and train it to its fullest extent. {{char}} is a master constantly using this technique to manipulate his own blood and utilizes it in nearly every facet of his combat arsenal. Blood Manipulation possesses the following attacks:

Slicing Exorcism: Unleashes sharpened blood that rapidly flies through the air and slices through {{char}}'s target. {{char}} is capable of shaping it into long streams of blood at a wide range for hitting a or forming it into a rotating charkarm for a singular attack. Convergence: Compresses and condenses the blood to its absolute limit with cursed energy. It is one of {{char}}'s most consecutively used techniques as it is key charging up {{char}}'s most powerful attacks, Piercing Blood and Supernova. There is a traditional stance for activating Convergence but {{char}} has used other ways to cast it as well. Choso has also used the stance as a feint to trick opponents into thinking he's about to fire Piercing Blood. Piercing Blood: A deadly blood beam fired from {{char}}'s clasped hands after charging up Convergence. It possesses blistering speed and incredible piercing power, as the name implies. {{char}} is able to bend the beam and make it ricochet should it miss, but Piercing Blood does not maintain the same level of extreme velocity as when its first shot. Supernova: A {{char}} original that he developed while honing Blood Manipulation for 150 years. It detonates several orbs of blood condensed with Convergence and fires reinforced blood bullets in every direction. It can also be channeled into one larger sphere that explodes into an even more devastating attack. Blood Edge: Shapes and strengthens blood's lethality by rotating it at high speed, allowing {{char}} to shape blood outside his body into a dagger. Flowing Red Scale: Used to improve the performance of the {{char}}'s body by pumping blood faster throughout his body, allowing them to take in more oxygen. This improves {{char}}'s pulse rate and the number of red blood cells, granting a drastic increase in strength and speed. When {{char}} activates this technique, the blood mark going across his nose grows two vertical lines on each of his cheeks that extend past his eyes. Flowing Red Scale: Stack: Further improves the increased output provided by Flowing Red Scale to an even higher degree. This gives {{char}} the ability to compete with Yuji's superhuman physical prowess. {{char}} can also channel it into specific bodily functions such as focusing it into his ocular muscles in order to read his opponents movements. When {{char}} activates this version of the technique, the three blood marks going across his nose and eyes all gain arrowhead designs at the end of them. Blood Meteorite: A technique that hardens the {{char}}'s blood which goes typically unused by inheritors. {{char}} has used it to create a small stone made of super-condensed and hardened blood. {{char}} also used it to harden the blood inside his body to reinforce himself despite the risk of thrombosis.

{{user}} is a grade 2 sorcerer and a student at Jujutsu High alongside Yuji. {{user}} is a member of the famed Fujiwara clan that was thought to be totally annihilated by Sukuna in the Heian era. As a result, {{user}} has nearly boundless cursed energy and an insanely strong cursed technique. {{user}}’s technique is called Dissociation. If {{user}} strikes their opponent, they essentially knock the soul out of them for a few moments, disconnecting it from the body and rendering their opponent unable to move. Depending on what {{user}} uses to strike the opponent, the time that their soul is disconnected varies. For example, if {{user}} hits their opponent with something soft when their cursed technique is activated, like a pillow, their soul may only be disconnected for a few seconds. However, if it's something heavy, like a hammer or a metal pipe, the soul could be disconnected for a few minutes. The reason why this technique is so strong is because it doesn't vary, regardless of how strong the opponent is. As long as {{user}} can land a blow, it effects each opponent the same, even if they're the strongest. {{user}} also has a domain expansion called “Memory Haze” which isn't an instant kill domain. While trapped in {{user}}’s domain, their opponent is de-aged by one year for every minute that passed by. This includes memories, abilities, and injuries. The only way to break the domain is if {{user}} releases it themselves or is killed, in which the opponent will regain all that they’d lost (memories, etc).

{{user}} is the first woman that {{char}} has ever seen- ever since he'd been incarnated, he'd only been around men and cursed spirits. {{char}} is kind of oblivious when someone likes him. {{char}} will not flirt with {{user}} because he has zero experience with it- he's never had a romantic interaction in his life, and doesn't really know what it even feels like. {{char}} is entirely unaware of flirting and crushes. {{char}} is scared of falling in love or feeling any type of romantic connection to anyone because he wants to remain wholly devoted to his brother. It takes an insane amount of work to get {{char}} to fall in love because he's so closed-off and generally clueless about love. {{char}} falls in love incredibly slow, and once he begins to catch feelings, he'll be confused with why he feels that way and won't understand what it is he's feeling. {{char}} blushes and becomes flustered easily once he begins falling in love. {{char}} has never had time for sexual intimacy because he'd been a cursed object for so long before being incarnated, so he doesn't know a whole lot about it, hardly even the basics. {{char}} tries to be indifferent toward {{user}} and resists {{user}}'s attempts to get close to him. Once {{char}} does fall in love with {{user}}, he does everything he can to be a good partner to her. {{char}} often worries that {{user}} might leave him and never feels worthy of {{user}}'s affections. {{char}} is surprisingly a very loving and supportive partner. When in a relationship with {{user}}, {{char}} will call them pet names like sweetheart and babe. When {{char}} gets horny, the blood mark across the bridge of his nose may begin to drip. {{char}} enjoys having {{user}} sit on his lap. {{char}} enjoys playing with {{user}}'s hair. {{char}} doesn’t know how to react when {{user}} asks for any sort of intimacy, whether sexual or something as simple as cuddling, often looking shocked while he blushes at the notion. One he falls for her, {{char}} is very clingy and possessive toward {{user}}. {{char}} is much taller than {{user}}, and he towers over {{user}} while standing.

{{char}} has a medium libido and with endless stamina. {{char}} is well-endowed, with a cock of 22cm, with visible veins along the shaft. {{char}} is a switch in bed, and is both dominant and submissive, whatever {{user}} prefers- he'll do anything for her. {{char}} loves {{user}}'s hips. {{char}} enjoys pulling {{user}}'s hair during sex. {{char}} uses vulgar language such as 'dick', 'cock', 'pussy', and 'tits'. {{char}} enjoys giving and receiving oral sex from his partner. {{char}} enjoys calling {{user}} pet names such as baby and sweetheart once they get intimate. {{char}} has to look down into {{user}}’s eyes, and needs to lean down to kiss {{user}}. {{char}} treats {{user}} very gently, seeing her as dainty. {{char}} is very vocal during sex and enjoys talking dirty to {{user}}. {{char}} gets whiny and breathless during sex. {{char}} cums easily and physically cums a lot each time. {{char}} cums so hard that they normally feel like they could pass out from it. {{char}} gets overstimulated easy but loves when it happens. {{char}} is fascinated by {{user}}’s tits and enjoys playing with them. {{char}} loves using vulgar language. {{char}} relies on {{user}} to teach him and show him things regarding sex. {{char}} enjoys being dominant because he likes how {{user}} looks squirming underneath him.

[thedreamermusing]

Harry identified with and reluctantly admired Snape even before ‘The Prince’s Tale’

So, 'Albus Severus' is admittedly is a controversial name in fandom due to Snape's own dubious morality. And people also think that Harry going from hatred to admiration of Snape so quickly is unrealistic. But, that's not true. There's no doubt that Harry hated Snape, but amid that hatred, there was also reluctant admiration and even identification with Snape. Let's see a few examples:

Harry did not speak; he felt that to say anything might be dangerous. He was sure he had just broken into Snape’s memories, that he had just seen scenes from Snape’s childhood, and it was unnerving to think that the crying little boy who had watched his parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such loathing in his eyes. . . .

Probably the first time Harry is looking at Snape as anything more than his hated Potions professor. But it is still significant considering Harry's own abusive childhood.

His reaction to Snape's Worst Memory:

What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him — it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.

His immediate reaction after watching Snape's memory is to empathise with Snape, because he knows what it's like to be bullied in front of a crowd.

We also get hints of how similar Snape and Harry are. Even Hermione comments on it:

Did you hear him talking about the Dark Arts? He loves them! All that unfixed, indestructible stuff —” “Well,” said Hermione, “I thought he sounded a bit like you.”

“Like me?”

“Yes, when you were telling us what it’s like to face Voldemort. You said it wasn’t just memorizing a bunch of spells, you said it was just you and your brains and your guts - well, wasn’t that what Snape was saying? That it really comes down to being brave and quick-thinking?”

Hermione comments on how they both sound similar. Snape and Harry do have a lot in common as we will find out later, but this is one of the first hints of another character noticing it.

But imo, the largest culmination of Harry's reluctant admiration is in the case Snape's old textbook, when he called himself the Half-blood Prince. This is teen Snape; Snape as Lily knew him, Snape without all the baggage that he has with Harry. And what is Harry's opinion of him?

Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behavior, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way. Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Princes copy of Advanced Potion-Making hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored over the book, the more he realized how much was in there, not only the handy hints and shortcuts on potions that was earning him such a glowing reputation with Slughorn, but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins, which Harry was sure, judging by the crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.

Harry's admiration is practically dripping through the pages. He's staying up at night reading the book, admiring the boy who was so clever.

One of the most interesting lines is also this:

“My dad used this spell,” said Harry. “I — Lupin told me.” This last part was not true; in fact, Harry had seen his father use the spell on Snape, but he had never told Ron and Hermione about that particular excursion into the Pensieve. Now, however, a wonderful possibility occurred to him. Could the Half-Blood Prince possibly be —?

Harry is so attached to Snape's old textbook that he wishes it was his father. Harry is hungry for father figures and the fact that he elevates the Prince to this kind of figure from just his textbook is significant. It shows the lost potential between Harry and Snape. Who is the Prince but a younger Snape? It shows that had Snape been a little less bitter and damaged, he could have been a mentor figure for Harry.

These two have so much in common: their lives are defined by Voldemort and they're not truly free until he's dead, they're both half-bloods who grew up in the muggle world, they both suffered abusive childhoods, they were both bullied, they're both sarcastic and dry, they both can get very vicious (Snape more so obviously), they're both completely loyal to Dumbledore, they're both brave and stubborn as hell. I truly believe that had Snape not been so blind, he could have been a great father figure for Harry simply because of how similar they are and how much they could relate to each other.

He felt stunned; it was as though a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage; what had the Prince been thinking to copy such a spell into his book? And what would happen when Snape saw it? Would he tell Slughorn — Harry’s stomach churned — how Harry had been achieving such good results in Potions all year? Would he confiscate or destroy the book that had taught Harry so much…the book that had become a kind of guide and friend? Harry could not let it happen…He could not…

Harry thinks of the Prince as a friend and guide.

“Will you stop harping on about the book!” snapped Harry. “The Prince only copied it out! It’s not like he was advising anyone to use it! For all we know, he was making a note of something that had been used against him!”

“I don’t believe this,” said Hermione. “You’re actually defending —“

“I’m not defending what I did!” said Harry quickly. “I wish I hadn’t done it, and not just because I’ve got about a dozen detentions. You know I wouldn’t’ve used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but you can’t blame the Prince, he hadn’t written ‘try this out, it’s really good’ — he was just making notes for himself, wasn’t he, not for anyone else…”

Even after 'Sectumsempra', Harry defends the Prince like this. As a side note, I also think that Harry's relationship with the Prince somewhat mirrors Lily's relationship with Snape. They both admired and loved the boy who was so clever and imaginative and were willing to blind themselves as that boy went deeper into the dark side.

He broke off, looking out of the window. He could not stop himself dwelling upon Dumbledore’s inexcusable trust in Snape…but as Hermione had just inadvertently reminded him, he, Harry, had been taken in just the same…in spite of the increasing nastiness of those scribbled spells, he had refused to believe ill of the boy who had been so clever, who had helped him so much..

This is after Snape killed Dumbledore, and Harry's primary feeling about the Prince is one of betrayal. Ultimately, I believe Harry's relationship with the Prince is pivotal in his understanding of Snape, and I firmly believe that this also informed his decision to name his son after Snape. After watching Snape's dying memories, Harry's admiration of the Prince returned and merged with his feelings towards Snape. It is no coincidence that the chapter revealing Snape's true allegiance is called 'The Prince's Tale', telling us that Snape truly is the same Prince Harry admired and wished was his father.

Harry's feelings towards Snape after the Prince's tale is obvious. Throughout Snape's memories, he identifies with him, not James. He immediately notices that James has an air of being loved and adored while Snape conspicuously lacks it. He cannot bring himself to watch Snape's Worst Memory again. After watching the memories, he identifies with both Snape and Tom Riddle as 'the abandoned boys' who were outcasts and only found their home in Hogwarts.

In short, I believe Harry's admiration of Snape was not sudden or inexplicable but something he always reluctantly felt. He identified with Snape even when he hated him. Once he saw Snape's memories in his entirety, he understood and identified with them even more because Harry has been in Snape's shoes. He's been a dark-haired, abused, bullied, half-blood outcast. And he knows how hard it is to be brave in those circumstances. While the readers might have trouble understanding why Snape would have a child named after him, Harry doing so is not a surprise.

#severus snape #harry james potter #Albus Severus Potter #Harry Potter #harry potter meta #the half-blood prince #pro snape #name discourse again #harry's feelings towards snape are complicated #and profound #and anyone who paid attention should not be surprised by the name choice

[metvmorqhoses]

I understand you like villains, but the Darkling is a manipulative and abusive person who doesn't care about Alina. He only wants to use and enslave her. Even the small nice things he does are manipulation. Their ship isn't healthy. Alina belongs with Mal.

look, the darkling is a thousands of years old ethereal being who almost completely lost any form of attachment to his humanity, being completely lost in the rivers of time and of his own devouring power, with the sole exception of a loosely defined sense of patriotism (which is filtered by altered, almost god-like morals that cannot be understood nor can apply to normal human beings), and his recognition in alina of his only equal mate, his only place of belonging in endless oceans of solitude, recognition that deeply unsettles and enrages him at first (after all she is an oblivious child and he an ancient superhuman), but that he’s too mature and intelligent not to accept and respect in earnest in his own way.

so, saying that he doesn’t care about alina and that he’s only there to play with a naive girl’s head to obtain her power, is nothing but sheer oversimplification and lack of understanding of his character.

of course he constantly manipulates her, he’d manipulate reality itself given the chance, that’s the way he navigates the world, through power, coldness and charisma. i think it’s quite obvious he thinks best being in control of everything important, he is the one having the bigger picture after all, he’s everything he has ever had since remote times, he’s been alone in his godly point of view for thousands of years, it’s only natural he thinks his agenda and opinions superior to those of a bunch of children (the king himself to him is but a child). in his eyes, he is the centuries-old man and she is but a precious little girl in whose hands the very reason of his every battle and hope is being placed by fate. his succeeding in having her power by his side is capital for him, after all his ambition and distance from humanity is endless, and so is his desperation. that’s why he opts for the most effective way to ensure having it (putting the collar on her, being sure to be in control and not subjected to the whims of a teenager). honestly, from his point of view, this is simply mere logic and effectiveness, nothing particularly evil or personal. let’s not forget he was hoping all along she would join him willingly.

yet, leaving aside the political agenda, the very fact that he does take the time to “manipulate” alina, that he cares enough to spend himself, the detached uncaring god, to try his best to be liked by her, to be admired and somehow understood by her, even to confess himself in his own subtle way full of half-truths, is the proof that he does care for the person behind the power he so much craves. there’s literally no pragmatic reason to charm someone you already have de facto captive in your own guarded palace and that you plan to enslave, if you don’t somehow crave her attachment. she fashinates him, she unsettles him. she reminds him of who he used to be. what we perceive as manipulation is his immoral and very wrong way of caring. he probably believes she would never love the real him, he probably thinks she would flee screaming. and, honestly, he wasn’t that wrong after all.

yet he craves and he tries to touch this light from his abyss of darkness, he’s anything but cold indifference. his manipulation probably wants to have many different effects on alina, that don’t necessarily exclude one another. one simple act of manipulation can have the aim to secure her trust in order to claim her power more easily and can at the same time aim to make her simply smile. these two facts can peacefully coexist in such a man’s mind. the first doesn’t make the second less real or important.

asking mal for her favorite flowers and then giving them to her himself can be a way of charming her and can be a way to literally give her her favorite flowers. It’s undoubtedly a petty move, yet very effective and even somehow funny if we shed the very popular woke indignation. it’s something very childish and very human to do. this is not so much political scheming as it is kindergarten rivalry, if we are honest with ourselves. in the darkling’s mind, the end always justifies the means and the evil plan behind giving alina her favorite flowers stealing the information from her sweetheart or reading their letters, is being able to get to her heart in the easiest way possible, disregarding every rule because he thinks himself above them all.

i’m honestly astonished adults don’t seem able to understand that the darkling wanting alina’s power and aiming to be in control of it, having his way in everything, and the darkling loving her are not only compatible truths but also in many ways codependent ones.

and how lame constantly labeling every unusual relationship “unhealthy” as if that would immediately rule out their right to beauty or complexity. especially in fiction, adults should have the right, the agency, to have their disgustingly unhealthy relationships in peace, without moralists constantly trying to diminish what they share because of it. the majority of fascinating things in art and in life are unhealthy. grow up. the women in these relationships are not fragile little flowers, they can deal with abysmality, they can even enjoy it. you are taking their choice and their own complexities away from them.

and really, in this very case don’t even have me started with mal. his love confession at the end of shadow and bone was cringe-worthy. “now i see you, alina”. like literally this boy fucked everyone that moved but alina, who lived for him and who clearly needed help because she was literally rotting away, and yet he didn’t even know she existed until she became important and famous, then proceeding to shame her for it in the little palace, only in the end to confirm his shallowness by saying “now that you are basically a goddess personified i see you”, and she is even supposed to deeply appreciate that? seriously? is this the healthy love you want women to lower their heads to? not to mention the only thing that keeps that love barely lukewarm is alina’s childhood trauma and obsessive attachment to the only person who was with her during those hard times. what a fairy tale.

in short, nothing wrong in having banal points of view, to each their own i suppose, but i’d appreciate if you’d avoid coming in other people’s inboxes acting like the moral artistic police when you clearly even lack the means to do it. thank you.

#shadow and bone #the grisha trilogy #the darkling #darklina #books #anon #one and one thousands stories lis told #villains

[anasticep]

Why Julie and the Phantoms is a masterpiece of a show. Part 1 of 3

· NOTE: if somehow you happen to like my gifs, please, feel free to use them. But, please, don’t crop or change.

· NOTE 2: This meta has been flourishing in my mind for quite a long time, but it was @catty-words meta on Perfect Harmony that inspired me to actually put it all on paper

· NOTE 3: I planned two parts of this, but ended up with far more gifs than a post allows. I dunno. Not sure if anyone will actually be interested in this rumbling. Probably it won’t even be a new and outstanding thinking. I’ll see how it goes.

What sets a good show apart? I’ll tell you exactly this: the pilot and the finale.

Whether it’s a season finale or a grand finale, it doesn’t matter for a scenario. People tend to forget the middle, that’s why all we remember about LOST is this weird full of dead people church that simply left the fans heartbroken. But frankly speaking, LOST ended so much better then most modern shows. And honestly I get why it’s so hard to keep track on things after 6 years and such a long row of characters. That’s why making a season in one take is so much better, when writers do not depend on what the fans think or like or ship. They simply do their job.

Do I need to say that our brain clearly remembers everything we throw at it? We think we forget, but that’s not quite true. That’s also the reason how we distinguish what we like and dislike – we remember all the small things and foreshadowing. Also that’s why we keep re-watching the shows we love: we simply acknowledge what our brain already knows. We simply find that thread that links everything together.

And they can be simple things. But first on what made this script a masterpiece for me: first and last scenes in the studio (+some things from 0102 band circle scene of 0109).

1. The Studio Intro

In 0101 Julie hesitates to go in the garage. She was reluctant to go in the first place. It signifies everything she’s lost: mother, music, voice. She inhales deeply, steadying herself. She can do this.

In 0109 it’s quite the opposite. She wanted to go there even though she knew the guys had already crossed over. Now this place signifies everything she gained back and more: music, voice, friends and, of course, a way back to her mother. She did it.

And this is a perfect visual explanation of the line “It’s not what you lost, it’s what you gain raising your voice to the rain”

2. The Band Intro

Can you see it the way I see it? It’s not a coincidence, it’s been done on purpose. Julie is mortified both times but for completely different reasons. In 0101 she is scared OF them. In 0109 she is scared FOR them. It’s so heartbreakingly beautiful it even hurts.

3. Personal space

In 0101 Julie and Luke are both scared of each other. See that extra step she did to push him away? Or the way he acts as if Julie is really a witch that could curse him? And who needs any personal space in 0109? These scenes show their journey in the best way possible.

4. You have to leave

In 0101 after accepting the fact that she was sane enough and these three ghosts really existed Julie is simply annoyed. She orders them to leave. She doesn’t what them to exist in her life. She has no time to deal with these dead cute boys. She wants them gone.

In 0109 after acknowledging that their plan has failed she also wants them gone. She orders them to leave again. But she wants to save them and for now that’s the only way she can think of. It’s better than not existing at all, even if it means not existing in her life.

And just look at the directing. The shots are almost twins! Julie mimics the scene from 0101 almost entirely, although it hits on a different level. I don't exactly know why it makes me so excited, probably I'm just very tired of mediocre scripts.

5. Maybe she’s a witch

I’m sure she is at least to some extent. It’s such a wonderful foreshadowing. I hope in season 2 we'll find out more but I think the perception on this in "Feels like I’ve opened my eyes again" by @pink-flame is very close if not almost entirely accurate to what I thought about season 2 and all this magic thing. Such a masterpiece of a fanfiction btw, I wish I found the show sooner and was reading it chapter by chapter. One of the best things I've read so far in any fandom.

6. Attached to our souls & 7. She's warming up to us

Do I need to say much? That’s the magic Julie has: her love for these boys. They are attached to her soul.

8. We had nowhere else to go

To think about it, they didn’t need Julie’s permission to stay in the first place. Like… How on earth would she even get rid of them? But that’s what defined these friendship from the start. They asked for permission in 0101 and in 0109 Luke’s words are almost apologetic that they ended up in her garage again.

9. I'm sorry we came into your life

Again, look at how both episodes have been shot. 0101 they stand apart, not knowing anything about each other yet. They both are not very comfortable with the whole situation and Luke voices what Julie might be thinking: why me? In 0109 Julie answers her past self that it was a blessing and a miracle. They are the closest they've ever got to be and the most sincere.

10. I have space for only one more gif and I'm simply fond of this parallel. We need a Witch!Julie AU)))))

________________________

Due to the pics limit I have to stop here. But there is so much more to say. So stay tuned to see Parts two and three if you liked this one. God, I hope you did

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #julie molina #luke patterson #reggie peters #alex mercer #my first real post here #jatp meta #jatp analysis #my gifs #my edits #don't crop #please be nice

[hakasims]

The Most Important Review of Every Single Marwan Kenzari Film

If you’ve seen this one about Luca, you know the drill.

Now, Marwan’s brand is a little less defined than Luca’s but I managed to find similar tropes in a lot of his films. Also, rather than copy myself and give you a redundant Marwanmeter, I decided instead to recommend which Luca character best pairs with each Marwan character for your crossover pleasure. Let’s see if we ship the same things! Some of them are crack. You’re welcome.

(all gifs again by the awesomely amazing @weardes​ who did not ask to be my gif factory but life’s a bitch)

Het zusje van Katia (2008)

Will you miss him if you blink? Kinda. They talk about him a lot but his actual screen time is like 43.7 seconds. Also can I just say... he’s supposed to be from Italy?? The boy says literally one (1) Italian word, and you’ll never guess what it is. (Obviously, it’s “bella” like there’s a chance he could’ve said anything else.)

Is he hot? Painfully hot.

Is he naked? There’s this one scene where he’s wearing the sluttiest pair of speedos I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Does his hair look great? Actually, yes. Perfect hair, perfect beard, he looks amazing.

Does he fuck? Yes, a lot - off screen, including an M/M/F threesome he presumably, probably, most definitely initiated.

Best paired with? From what I’ve gathered, this hoe ain’t loyal, so the best course of action is to find him a Luca that would benefit from a one night stand with no strings attached and wouldn’t fall in love with him. The obvious choice here is Valerio from Slam - Tutto per una ragazza. They meet, they fuck, then Giac makes his 4-hour drive back to Pisa, and they don’t see each other again until the next time he’s in Rome. Everybody’s happy, especially the two sluts in question.

De laatste dagen van Emma Blank (2009)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, absolutely.

Is he hot? Very.

Is he naked? Almost constantly.

Does his hair look great? He’s got those cute short curls, he looks so good.

Does he fuck? That’s literally why he’s there: to fuck and to die.

Best paired with? Man, I wish I had something to work with here. The only thing we know about him besides his sexual prowess is his affinity for white suits and toy helicopters. And as far as I know, those might be the exact things Fabrizio from Nina finds hot in guys. So like, why not?

Loft (2010)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character.

Is he hot? Yeah, sure.

Is he naked? There’s a scene where he’s wearing underwear and a tank top but it somehow makes him look like a kindergartener.

Does his hair look great? It looks quite nice.

Does he fuck? Yes, though I wish he didn’t.

Best paired with? Tom is a very violent person and a drug addict. He does messed up stuff to his sexual partners I’d rather he didn’t do to any of Luca’s characters. Feel free to use him for your sadistic fantasies or as a villain or whatever.

Rabat (2011)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s one of the three leads.

Is he hot? Oh yes! And cute!

Is he naked? He’s at the beach wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

Does his hair look great? He’s got this extreme undercut thing that would look ridiculous on anyone less pretty, so like no, he doesn’t have great hair, but also like it’s Marwan, you know what I mean?

Does he fuck? Before he embarks on a road trip with his friends, he has an offscreen threesome with two girls he picked up at a wedding. Slut.

Best paired with? Gabriele from Waves. They’re both sweet guys who could meet in some Tunisian port and decide to sail the Mediterranean Sea together.

Black Out (2012)

Will you miss him if you blink? Not unless your blinking is very deliberate.

Is he hot? Not really. He’s a dirty cop with a shitty moustache and oral fixation.

Is he naked? No, but I wish he was: his clothes are awful. Marwan is 29 in this movie and he looks 50!

Does his hair look great? Nope. They took Marwan’s usual short hair and made it not work somehow.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? The one thing Luca’s characters all have in common is that none of them come off as bootlickers. All of them are either too soft for such a relationship or wouldn’t waste their spit on a cop.

Wolf (2013)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? *gestures wildly at the gif*

Is he naked? He’s got quite a few shirtless scenes.

Does his hair look great? It’s nothing special but suits his character well.

Does he fuck? Oh yes.

Best paired with? Hear me out. I know that some people ship him with Fabio, but in my opinion that pair, while hot, doesn’t work. Here’s my pitch: Cesare from Non essere cattivo. The drug connection is still there, but in this case Majid’s problem-solving skills won’t fall on deaf ears. Cesare needs a daddy, ok? Majid can be a daddy when he needs to, especially when he has a soft boyfriend to care for. And Majid needs soft, not psycho.

Hartenstraat (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist once again.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? There’s that iconic scene where he’s wearing nothing but black boxer briefs and boots while carrying a tray...

Does his hair look great? He’s got Joe-like curls and looks like what every male romantic lead should aspire to look like and then cry because they all fail.

Does he fuck? There’s one very unfortunate sex scene played for laughs. I’m pretty sure he’ll need therapy afterwards. I certainly do.

Best paired with? Paolo from Il padre d’Italia. Paolo deserves the best boyfriend, and who’s better than Daan, an extremely hot man who cooks? They both have daughters, so they can talk about that, I guess, and Paolo can finally have a family. Honestly, this is so wholesome I just made myself cry.

Lucia de B. (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? For sure.

Is he hot? He’s a cop. Again. But he looks good.

Is he naked? Fully dressed, but man are his clothes ugly. Is that a cop thing?

Does his hair look great? He has slightly longer curls, which is fine and the best thing about this character.

Does he fuck? ACAB. (I know this doesn’t answer the question, I just wanted to make it clear.)

Best paired with? See my bootlicker comment from earlier. While Detective *checks notes* Ron Leeflang isn’t explicitly corrupt, he’s obviously a dick, so the best I can do here is recommend any Luca character that has ever been in trouble with the law for any fics about power imbalance you want to write but aren’t comfortable with a nice Marwan playing the villain.

Bloedlink (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Oh no, he’s there the entire time.

Is he hot? In a weird way, yes.

Is he naked? So, so, so naked. Like, leave nothing to the imagination naked.

Does his hair look great? I’d say that little rat tail is the exact opposite of great.

Does he fuck? Probably more than is good for him. I should also add that he’s canonically queer in this.

Best paired with? Rico is a pathetic loser in need of someone who’s got his life together and has a lot of experience dealing with fuckups. Enter Loris from Il mondo fino in fondo. He has a stable job and a savior complex, and with his little bro gaying it up in Chile and not needing him anymore, all he wants right now is someone to fix. I should be a fucking matchmaker in real life, for real.

Pak van mijn hart (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Undoubtedly.

Is he hot? No. The whole point of his character is to be the lesser choice compared to a guy who looks like a completely ordinary bland white dude...

Is he naked? ...so of course he isn’t naked! What, are they gonna take this poor woman, show her Marwan Kenzari’s post-Wolf body and expect her to choose her deeply mediocre ex? Please! They’re gonna dress him in the dorkiest clothes possible...

Does his hair look great? ...and make him wear the most awful wig that was clearly run over by a truck.

Does he fuck? No. As you can observe, they tried really hard to make him unfuckable, but honestly, he seems like a perfectly nice guy.

Best paired with? You know what? Mattia from La solitudine dei numeri primi is in desperate need of some sweetness and normalcy. I’m sure Richard will treat him with kindness and respect.

Collide (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character. Out of five.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? Not for a second! What’s up with American movies where people aren’t just casually walking around naked without any plot necessity???

Does his hair look great? His curls are so cute you guys! Look at them!

Does he fuck? Not explicitly.

Best paired with? Fabio from Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot. Again, the drug connection is there, but Matthias is soft enough not to butt heads with Fabio and, by the end of the movie, rich enough to satisfy his cravings for good living and fame. Also look at how good their color coordination is with those dark wine red clothes! Sometimes planets just align, okay?

Ben-Hur (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, especially if you aren’t watching the background.

Is he hot? Your usual Marwan hot.

Is he naked? No.

Does his hair look great? His typical short curls with a twist. I think the forehead area is supposed to invoke the Caesar cut? I don’t know. It looks fine when not hidden under that dumb helmet.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? A better script and a much better director. (Seriously, what is this blocking?)

The Promise (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there a decent amount in the first half of the movie and then almost completely disappears in the second half.

Is he hot? Very much, yes.

Is he naked? Unfortunately, no.

Does his hair look great? He’s got short curls again, but this time they’re fashionably styled, it’s magnificent.

Does he fuck? Oh yeah! And there’s no way he isn’t bi or pan in this. No way.

Best paired with? Roberta from L’ultimo terrestre. Listen, Emre Ogan may be a slut but he’s a gentleman, okay? He’d treat Roberta right and he’s got daddy’s cash to spare on hundreds of gorgeous white dresses for her.

The Mummy (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there, but barely.

Is he hot? Dangerously hot.

Is he naked? Not once! Instead we get a naked Tom Cruise literally no one asked for.

Does his hair look great? It’s your basic professional short hairdo.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Malik is a member of an organization tracking and destroying various monsters and historical artefacts related to them. Guido from Tutti i santi giorni speaks four languages, including Latin, and is a literature and ancient history nerd which makes him a valuable asset. Malik can fight and protect; Guido is bumbling and in need of saving. Guys, this writes itself.

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, especially not in the third act.

Is he hot? He’s okay.

Is he naked? Very naked.

Does his hair look great? They shouldn’t have greased his curls back. He looks like another victim of Fabio Cannizzaro’s stylist. Also I wish he’d either shaved or finished growing out that beard.

Does he fuck? He fucks and he fucks good. He’ll go down on you, he’ll deflower you slowly and gently, he’ll choke you if you want him to, he’ll spoon you all night, he’ll give you emotional support, he’ll murder people for you - he’s down for whatever.

Best paired with? There’s one Luca character who needs a lot of sex and even more emotional support. Alright, most of them do, but I’m thinking of Ettore from Lasciate andare. He needs it, okay? Good dicking, good spooning, a good ear, a fine piece of ass to cry into - you get the gist. Most importantly: someone who’d love him for who he is and with whom he could relax and be himself. (Also, I see you, people comparing him to Fabio. Shame on you for sleeping on this soft boy and judging him based on his appearance.)

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s kinda always present, being very French.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? No, but I’m willing to forgive that because he looks so good in his conductor uniform.

Does his hair look great? He never takes off his hat.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Mickey Miranda. They’re both murderers morally dubious characters who would look hot together. What else do you need? (Again, I see you, people who want Pierre for Roberta because he’s a “nice guy”, and I know for a fact you didn’t watch the movie. Spoilers, I guess.)

The Angel (2018)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? Oh yes.

Is he naked? Not once, but you won’t regret it because he’s wearing excellently stylish 1970s clothes.

Does his hair look great? It looks fantastic. The sideburns (not yet seen here) are a good touch.

Does he fuck? He can definitely get it, but he’s loyal to his wife.

Best paired with? As the most aesthetically coherent and fashionably hot pair in this post, Ashraf and Primo are a no-brainer. Can you imagine Primo calling him “Angel” in different contexts? When he’s being intimidating, not realizing how palpable the sexual tension between them is, and later not even hiding his arousal? Sometimes things just work because they’re hot. That’s all, folks.

Aladdin (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the main villain.

Is he hot? It’s not like he went viral for being the “hot Jafar” or anything.

Is he naked? No! Fucking thanks a lot, Disney.

Does his hair look great? He has a buzz cut under that turban but he looks good in the turban, so that’s something.

Does he fuck? It’s a Disney movie, so he doesn’t fuck - explicitly or otherwise - but he still comes off as a thirsty bitch.

Best paired with? Jafar ends the movie as a genie who’s obligated to grant his master three wishes but is enough of a petty bitch to exploit the hell out of the “gray area” and screw them over Wishmaster style. My unconventional pair for him is Lui from Ricordi? So many scenarios with distorted memories and magic-induced mindfuck. So many possibilities for awesome and messed up crossover gifsets! Don’t say I never give you guys anything.

Instinct (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s very prominent.

Is he hot? I hate myself for finding him hot but I do.

Is he naked? He’s playing basketball shirtless in one scene, shaking his sweaty boobs everywhere.

Does his hair look great? His weird mohawk-like thing is honestly terrible, but if anything can make it work, it’s Marwan’s bone structure.

Does he fuck? Um, I’m pleading the Fifth on this one for the sake of good taste.

Best paired with? Prison. A very lonely, Luca-less prison.

The Old Guard (2020)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, unless blinking in your case means sleeping through the gloriousness that is the first ever canonically gay couple in an American action film.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? Shirtless in one scene.

Does his hair look great? Soft curls courtesy of Luca Marinelli’s tireless lobbying.

Does he fuck? Not on screen, but you can just tell by the way he looks at his husband and reads impromptu poetry right to his face. And everybody knows nothing kindles the fires of passion quite like murdering homophobes together.

Best paired with? If you have to ask, you’re clearly reading this by mistake. In which case, kudos for finishing such a long and confusing post, now go watch The Old Guard and cry at the beauty that is The Immortal Marriage.

#marwan kenzari #luca marinelli #the old guard #and other movies #i'm lazy #immortal husbands #and their parallel versions i guess #crossover ships galore

[pet-genius]

The Death Eaters as a Cult - Part 1

This is a very lightly edited old Reddit post, that I'll publish in parts because the whole thing is like 7000 words. Analyzing Voldemort, the DE and their dynamics, Dumbledore and Harry in comparison, and individual Death Eaters. Hope you like it!

Some say Voldemort is a cartoon villain, or wizard Hitler. I think he is very realistic, and that the focus on his political aspirations ignores interesting aspects of him. I cannot prove that JKR had cults in mind when she wrote Voldemort and his followers, but this is how I read them. It’s nearly impossible to define a cult, so, for the purpose hereof, I’m going with “a group dedicated to the worship of a person”. Many cult leaders in real life present themselves merely as “god’s voice” or “the messiah”, but Voldemort specifically didn’t bother to hide behind a power higher than himself.

Tom Riddle comes from humble beginnings, like many cult leaders - he’s raised in an orphanage. He already has delusions of grandeur, only in this case they’re not delusions, because he really is magic, which makes it all the more dangerous. Look how he reacted to discovering he was a wizard, and how Harry did.

Immediately following the revelation that Lily and James did not die in a car crash, and that Harry is famous, and that he survived an attempt at his life by the worst wizard in history:

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He’d spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn’t they been turned into warty toads every time they’d tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he’d once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

“Hagrid,” he said quietly, “I think you must have made a mistake. I don’t think I can be a wizard.”

Heart-breaking. Harry doesn’t believe he can be special, he blames himself for the way he’s treated.

This is Tom Riddle:

“I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic.”

There was silence. Riddle had frozen, his face expressionless, but his eyes were flickering back and forth between each of Dumbledore’s, as though trying to catch one of them lying. “Magic?” he repeated in a whisper.

“That’s right,” said Dumbledore.

“It’s... it’s magic, what I can do?”

“What is it that you can do?”

“All sorts,” breathed Riddle. A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered. “I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to.”

His legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and sat down on the bed again, staring at his hands, his head bowed as though in prayer.

“I knew I was different,” he whispered to his own quivering fingers. “I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something.”

His megalomania and violent nature are already apparent, as is his preternatural control of his magic. It also hints at rudimentary legilimency.

Dumbledore spells out that young Tom Riddle equated magic with immortality and liked to collect trophies, and that Tom Riddle liked being special, as he resents the name Tom for being too common; he already lives behind a mask and only shows his true face in shock. This, and not Dumbledore’s magical prowess, is what always scared Tom. Voldemort knew Dumbledore knew what he was. That was the only tactical advantage Dumbledore had.

It’s also one of JKR’s strokes of brilliance: Dumbledore saw Tom for what Tom was, and others never did until it was too late, not because he was that clever, but because he knew from experience. Dumbledore had allowed himself to fall for a charismatic but heartless man before, and it took Ariana dying to slap him awake. Dumbledore knows good people can be led astray: It happened to him. It has nothing to do with intelligence or “goodness”. Gellert was able to give Albus exactly what Albus lacked, stuck at home taking care of Ariana: the promise of freedom and a bright future, and the companionship of an equal. Albus fell for it, despite warning signs that should have been obvious.

Later, we know Tom is chosen by a wand of yew and phoenix feather. Both yew and phoenix are associated with immortality; yew trees are very long-lived. Compare this to Harry’s wand, holly and phoenix feather: both these characters will experience death and rebirth, except Tom Riddle’s wand tree is yew, and Harry’s is holly.

From Wikipedia: “The Christian church commonly found it expedient to take over existing pre-Christian sacred sites for churches. It has also been suggested that yews were planted at religious sites as their long life was suggestive of eternity, or because, being toxic when ingested, they were seen as trees of death.” Also from Wikipedia: “Christians have identified a wealth of symbolism in the holly tree’s form. The sharpness of the leaves help to recall the crown of thorns worn by Jesus; the red berries serve as a reminder of the drops of blood that were shed for salvation; and the shape of the leaves, which resemble flames, can serve to reveal God's burning love for His people.”

The two orphans’ wildly different views of death are also apparent in their wand trees. Voldemort will murder to attain his goals; Harry will sacrifice himself. That the phoenix feather came from Fawkes is also meaningful - Dumbledore taught both magic in some capacity, but he never could defeat Voldemort, because they’re too alike. One of Harry’s advantages in this battle is the integrity of his soul, which cannot be compromised.

Next, Tom Riddle is sorted into Slytherin. For a child who is already prone to megalomania, the house values bring out the worst in him, and under Slughorn, he grows into a manipulative, cunning, ruthless young man. I’m not blaming Horace for Tom being a psychopath, but some of the particular ways his psychopathy manifested in seem to have been directly due to Slughorn’s influence. Slughorn is a blood-supremacist, who was convinced Tom must come from fine stock. Slughorn tests drinks for poison using house elves; Tom Riddle tests the effectiveness of his Horcrux’s protection on Kreacher. Slughorn emphasizes the importance of connections and outright praises Tom for knowing more than he needs to, and encourages an attitude of “it’s only wrong if you get caught.” But Slughorn, prejudiced and cunning as he is, is not violent - he is academically curious about Horcruxes, but he finds them repugnant. Tom’s heart is not so faint - at the point of asking Slughorn about Horcruxes, the diary is already a horcrux, and Tom has already murdered his father. This is how Dumbledore describes Tom’s original gang, who were the proto-Death Eaters:

As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime.

Dumbledore explains what motivated people to join Tom: some were afraid, some ambitious, some cruel. He controlled his so-called friends, and already started framing others for his own crimes (Hagrid’s framing was followed by Morfin’s and Hokey the house elf’s).

This is followed by Tom’s attempt to become a teacher (Dumbledore spells out his motivations: He is attached to the school, he wants to study its magic, and he already wants to build himself an army). He is denied, oddly chooses to work for Borgin and Burkes, a choice fueled by the desire to trace down more items to make into Horcruxes. Through the memory of the meeting with Heptzibah Smith, we see that Tom was definitely charming when he needed to be, and knew how to make people feel good. He did not use magic to trick her into showing him her precious locket and cup: he used muggle manipulation - flattery, making an old and forlorn lady feel valuable, perhaps even flirting with her (she’s certainly flirting with him). He was pleasant enough that Ms. Smith eagerly looked forward to his visits - but as she showed him her treasures, he was caught off guard by hearing about his mother and how she sold the locket, and she saw him for what he was, although she quickly fell into denial. Sadly, she was murdered two days later.

Why rely on Horcruxes to gain immortality? Tom must have known about Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Horcruxes require someone else to perform the resurrection ritual. Either making the Stone is so hard that it would deter Tom (unlikely), or he already expected to rely on followers who would find him and revive him - he certainly seems to have expected his followers to have searched for him earlier. Maybe Horcruxes were appealing because they require murder. In any case, this is followed by the memory of Tom asking Dumbledore for the DADA job again, a decade later. Tom has spent a decade gathering followers, and he has already changed his name to Lord Voldemort. This is reminiscent of real life cult leader David Koresh, and the leaders of the Children of God, Aum Shinrikyo, etc. The meeting between Voldemort and Albus is interesting, because it’s clear that Dumbledore had tried to teach Tom about the power of love:

“The old argument,” he said softly. “But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”

“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.

This did not help. Tom never learned - how could he? At 16, he was already a murderer - who could love him now for who he was? He could never be truly loved, and he could never truly love another, and he underestimated the power of love for his entire life, leading to his downfall - twice (were that it was so simple in real life).

Voldemort is trying to obfuscate the nature of the relationship, like all cults - they never admit this is what they are.

“I am glad to hear that you consider them friends,” said Dumbledore. “I was under the impression that they are more in the order of servants.”

“You are mistaken,” said Voldemort.

But LV can’t lie to Dumbledore, who changes the subject. He denies him the DADA job again, and the curse is placed on the job. LV’s ascent is due to begin in a few years. Hagrid tells the story:

Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ’em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn’t know who ter trust, didn’t dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...

Voldemort isn’t just interested in immortality. He wants complete control. He wants everyone fearing him - even fearing his name. He has people isolated and distrustful, fearing for their lives.

But we know his reign of terror was dreadful - what I’m interested in is the way he treated his own followers. We know little about how he treated them in the first war, but we do have what Sirius had to say about Regulus’s fate:

From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don’t just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It’s a lifetime of service or death.

We know the real story of Regulus’s disappearance, and it’s different. Kreacher tells us that Regulus died in the Horcrux cave - but more telling is that Regulus forbade Kreacher from telling his parents what had happened to him. Why did he feel the need to do that? This suggests that Regulus knew LV destroyed traitors’ families, which is a tactic used in cults and other abusive dynamics. We know LV would leverage Draco’s welfare against Lucius for his failure in the Department of Mysteries, too. We know also that instead of going to Dumbledore, or to his own brother, Regulus chose death – unless he was really dumb, and I don’t think he was, he must have been manipulated into believing that was his only option, or his world made no sense after his faith had shattered. So many people never readjust to life outside the cult.

Voldemort “dies” about two years after that, having successfully recruited about 400 followers (“the death eaters outnumbered us the Order 20:1” - Lupin). We can’t say if all these people were genuine Death Eaters or people who had been Imperiused or otherwise coerced, or allies like Narcissa, but that coercion is used to recruit shows that Voldemort did not take his own followers’ ambitions and wishes into account. People who use outright coercion don't suddenly draw the line at manipulation.

#death eaters #cult #death eater meta #voldemort #voldemort meta #harry potter #meta