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mega-ringsandthings-world · 5 months

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I'm really curious design-wise about scars when it comes to the boys? Mostly because when I draw them, I want them to look like they do in your head.

I'm assuming a few, for the loguetown years though probably not a lot, on the face, due to propaganda reasons, but the less visible places must be free game.

I'm thinking of a scene we've talked about, 'wink,' where Mihawk gets scars all over his back. He must be disgusted by them, probably takes steps to not look at them whenever he's near a mirror after a bath or a shower or changing. After all, wounds on a swordsman's back are their greatest shame. His hands and arms also must be full of nicks and slashes from where they punished him to scare him about losing his hands.

Not just those; he must hate the scarring in general, seeing it as a point toward his weakness. Because a reason I see why canon Mihawk goes tits out half the time is to show off the fact that he barely has any scars—to say, "I'm the strongest, and I got here without barely ruffle. And all the years I’ve lived at the top I’ve been here without a scratch.” They only time I can see him getting a scar with out complaining is if its for Shanks.

But Shanks, maybe scars near his mouth and along his cheekbones, maybe a broken nose or two from the number of times he got punched in the face until they needed him in front of a camera. Maybe his feet and legs are scarred to try and keep him from running away? Both their wrists must have weird scarring from rubbing them raw with their bounds. Maybe even their necks have scars too.

That doesn't even account for the amount of scarring they must accumulate on their escape, as well as those years of speed running to get powerful. Like I just realized Mihawk must be absolutely pissed that he'll have to retrain everything from the ground up to get back to where he was sword-wise, same with Shanks, and they'll need to do it fast, so not a lot of time to take their time and be careful. Probably why canon Mihawk and Shanks don't have as many scars. They weren't and aren't speed running for power.

Not to mention the boys are taking on the World Government full-on head-to-head. They have a lot stronger and deadlier opponents, while being a lot weaker and more desperate—both are suicidally scared of losing each other and protective enough to burn the world down in that pursuit. So their faces most likely get a little more beat up after loguetown.

What do you think of Shanks having the same three-line scars over his eyes but longer, starting on his temple and curving down to his cheekbone? It's a little more jagged, a little less even. The last concept sketch I sent should have it if you want an example. I'm surprised Blackbeard is still alive in this AU after he did that to Shanks. This version of Mihawk would have at least tried to rip him into pieces with his bare hands and put his had on a spike as a warning.

Let's break it down, lol. I figure on them having permanent scars each that they'll carry the rest of their life, and secondary scars that eventually heal over almost all the way. And yeah. Propaganda purposes would mean their faces are relatively untouched, and the scarring kept to easily concealed places while they are in captivity. So, they get half their permanent scars in Loguetown, the other half in their escape, and the rest are secondary scars, that halfway disfigure them but clear up by and by. So, ideas. For Shanks' secondary scars, Armament Haki burn scars. On the side of the face, neck, clavicle, ribs, hip, and the backs of both hands/down the forearms. A result of Mihawk misusing his Armament Haki to protect Shanks, he used it with such force/will that the Haki's signature black color is imprinted on Shank's skin. It fades away to nothing as time passes, but is very distinctive while it lasts. Then there's the ringing from manacles on his wrists/ankles/neck, patches of scarred skin on shoulders/sides. For permanent scarring, the crooked nose from him getting it broken over and over, (love that in a character) a downturned scar along his cheekbone that mimics Luffy's (inspires Luffy's) that he hides with his hair, the nicks along the corner of his lips. A lopsided scar between the shoulder blades. There's a stab scar on his stomach, from Mihawk. And he has thin scars on his palms, from one side to the other. Speaking of which, let's talk about Mihawk. He'd have the same set of secondary scars as Shanks, wrists/ankles/neck, skin scraped off at the shoulders/side, various abrasions/missing patches on his hands, arms, legs. For permanent scars, there's a long raised scar on his right leg from ankle to knee, from the escape, and he has stigmata-like scars on the center of his palms and the backs of his hands. He has a scar shaped roughly like a asymmetrical cross on his chest, and when he goes shirtless and the scar frames his kogatana, the effect is something. Then he has a cut eyebrow, a scar down the side of his face, later concealed by his sideburns. Permanent burns on his knuckles. And a scar that stretches from the top of the hipbone to hipbone. And last but not least, the scars on his back, which everything else pales in comparison too. While he works the rest of the scars into aesthetic and presentation as he grows, the back scars will always be hated. It only reinforces his position about them being a swordsman's greatest shame. Canon Mihawk is flawless, metaphorically and literally, and he knows it. Thus tits out at all times. AU Mihawk has to decide to present his scars as proof of what he had survived, rather than make a show what he never did. The opposite of canon Mihawk. Oh yes. When they train/spar, it's going to be fast, furious, with the goal to push eaach other to the limit and then over the edge. They always come off of bloody and covered in kisses from each other's blades. And then when they take on enemies, marine fleets, other pirates, they wreck themselves over and over. Canon Mihawk and Shanks were never tortured for two and a half years at the behest of the World Government with all the ensuing mind-fuck that follows, so they never extend themselves past neatly finishing the job. AU Mihawk and Shanks want to be hurt and hurt ten times more in return. I love the idea/look of Shanks' enhanced scars! It makes sense for him to be given more severe scarring, in lieu how he fights in this AU. The reason Blackbeard wasn't hanged, drawn and quartered on the spot was because Mihawk wasn't physically around at the time to do so. Rest assured, this means nothing good for Blackbeard in the future.

#one piece #op #opla #dracule mihawk #akagami no shanks #hawkeye mihawk #red haired shanks #mihawk one piece #shanks one piece #mishanks #mihawk x shanks #op marines

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soleminisanction · 2 months

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I deleted this ask because I'm not interested in engaging with people who aren't reaching out in good faith, but man, people on this site really need to get more comfortable with the fact that historical gay men have long been associated with and explored their own sexuality (in an abstract sense) through fictional characters who are explicitly young and associated with the concept of youth, like Peter Pan, Dorian Gray, the cast of The Wizard of Oz, and, yes, Robin the Boy Wonder.

This is a known Thing in queer literature, people have done papers. And yeah, a bunch of homophobes looked in on that sort of thing from the outside and cried pedophilia, the same way that a bunch of dumbass modern puriteens look in on a whump fic and cry rape apologism or incest or whatever other buzzword they can misuse. Because they're deliberately reading it in bad faith to paint the people who read that material as bad instead of considering where their emotional investment actually lies and what catharsis they're receiving.

With Robin specifically in the 40s and 50s, what few records we have from the time indicate that young, gay boys were projecting onto him specifically because they found themselves attracted to the idealized hyper-masculine presentations of characters like Batman and Superman, and Robin was the focus of Batman's care and attention. He filled the narrative role of "The Beloved," the one that Batman cares for, whose safety can be used to raised the stakes of a scenario -- a role more commonly filled by the hero's opposite-sex love interest, ie, Lois Lane or Steve Trevor. Bruce did occasionally and often save beautiful young women who were in love with him from peril, but at least as often he was rescuing and protecting Robin, and Dick would return the favor.

At a time when homosexuality was pathologized and you just didn't get portrayals of men loving each other openly and fully, it was a central part of the Batman & Robin partnership that they cared for one another, deeply and loyally. And while that bond was neither sexual nor romantic in the comics themselves, it still represented something desirable for young gay boys who didn't have many other fantasies to latch onto.

Which isn't to say that anybody has to start shipping the pairing or anything, it's just, I'm not incline to give up this fascinating intersection of literary analysis and queer history just because some people decided to be squeemish and/or homophobic about it. This was important to people. That means something.

#batman and robin #literary analysis #queer history #comic book history #pedophillia mention

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unbrcakablc-hcart · 3 months

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I've just been kind of... stewing on this for awhile.

Deserve isn't a dirty word. It isn't a dirty concept. Sometimes it's misused, yeah, but. That borders more on entitlement and says more about the person than it does about about the concept itself.

Like. I'm saying this as someone who hated the idea as a concept, too. At least for myself. I believed other people deserved to have their basic needs met, but not me because I was inherently a burden who couldn't do anything in return, who fucked things up for everyone, who placed a burden on my sisters who work so hard keeping people alive when I couldn't do anything as a plant or as a human.

And I've been... alive for a long fucking time. After I lost Rem, after I originally cut ties with Nai, after leaving Ship 3 and finding that people in towns wouldn't like me for long... it all just kind of compounded.

I'd say "eventually", but... I came to this point really fucking fast. I wasn't even quite two years old when I came to decide that I didn't deserve food or water unless I'd actually done something useful for people. That I needed to earn it. Brad and Luida were... they'd tried their best to fix that, but. There was just. Already a lot of damage done and I saw no reason to course correct.

I let people hurt me. I thought it was better for everyone that I let them do as they pleased to me so long as it didn't kill me or keep me captive somewhere or experimented on me. I'd just... walk from town to town trying to make myself useful for other people and otherwise operating on the barest minimum I could because I didn't deserve to have my own basic needs met, hadn't been useful enough, hadn't atoned enough.

I literally never saw an actual reason to try to change until I met Fukuchi, until I met Roberto and the insurance girls, until I met Wolfwood. I had all these people who cared about me and wanted to see me well and I didn't know how to deal with it, didn't want to change, didn't want to change for a couple months because I was certain that they'd see I wasn't actually as worthy of basic care as they thought I was, that they'd realize I was a lost cause and something to fear and something to hate.

Shit, I made Wolfwood cry a few times because he was so damn afraid for me, and made him feel worthless because if he couldn't help me, then what good was he to anyone?

I mean. I'm still not well. I don't think I'm going to be for awhile.

Just... the point I'm tryin' to make is that it's not evil to deserve basic care and respect and love. Everyone does, and no one is uniquely awful enough to not deserve it. Even that person. Even you.

It's hard. I get it, it's hard. It's nice to feel like you've earned something, but... at least for me, it's something largely unsustainable. It hurts the people around you who care. I'm not saying you'll drive them away, or that they'll stop lovin' you. That's not what I'm saying at all.

But if you feel this way, you deserve to have help if you decide to seek it out. I know I ain't gonna change anyone's minds. You have to want to decide for yourself that you want to try to believe you're worthy of the same care and respect you give other people.

And I guess I wanted to say all of this because even if you mean it for just yourself... like, you can't control how other people will look at what you're sayin' and how they'll respond to it. Even if you don't want people to react the way they might. And it's up to the people who see these sentiments to disengage and try to ignore it.

But there're folks who'll see this sort of talk, and they'll use it to fuel their own self-loathing, because if someone you care about truly believes this about themselves, and they're in an iffy place themselves... it takes... a lot of effort on their part to go, well, if they don't deserve basic care and respect, why should I? I'm no better than them.

I guess I'm rambling at this point but like I said. I've been thinking about this for awhile.

#Like I know I shouldn't REALLY say this but it's been on my mind for a couple months now.#vash blogs

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daidaiiro-kaminari · 13 days

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Gave Islets a try, it wasn't good

The game was very badly optimized/coded. It's literally 2d particles with flat textures, and yet it managed (probably misusing deltatime or something like that) to load badly (for reference, I've played heavier games in this PC at decent graphic settings, like Warframe or CS2, and on the client it run perfectly). Apart from this, which was super annoying because sometimes it moved way too fast and sometimes it was sloooooow as fuck, the game itself lacks character and personality. It feels halfway done. yeah, sure: it's super wholesome and the textures are cute and all, but... the map design isn't great, every room feels the same, enemies don't seem to belong in their "biomes" apart form a few of them... boss fights don't make any sense either, like lore-wise (the concept was nice! they had something interesting going on but fucked it up!) they are just there and you don't know why you're fighting them or anything. Like the clockmaker, for example. why is it evil? why am i fighting it? didn't it like, help the island? whatever. Halfway done, very very rough edges, the playability is bad, the ambiance is not great either. It is a good attempt, a good beta (or alpha) of a game, but that's it. It's if like the devs dedicated all the time they had for gameplay and play-style smoothing to, idk, make the fonts a bit better or the speech bubbles wobble around. Meh. I got it for free at the Epic games store, but... this one is a flop, i'm sorry.

#islets #video game review #complaining #meh

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honeydelasoul · 2 years

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There is not one rational argument on the pro choice side that makes abortion a moral good. If people admit that the act itself is immoral, but they have their reasons for justifying it, I could respect that a lot more than those that just plainly refuse basic biology and ethics. A lot of the arguments are clear denial of science or hollow grasps on philosophical concepts like bodily autonomy…just not bodily autonomy of the child though. Arguments that “life is predicated on brain function” but not considering that adults who are comotose or lacking in brain function, cannot be ethically killed because they lack the same. Would you pull the plug on a person who was in a coma if you were informed that in a few months they’d wake up and regain brain function? No, but you’d kill a baby that doesn’t have consciousness even though in a few months, the child would definitely develop its own brain function? Ah. That a baby “is not a fully formed human until the baby leaves the birth canal” begs the question then, at what stage in the development process is it considered “not a human”? Are those born through c-section suddenly not humans since their exit isn’t through the birth canal? Personhood isn’t marked by location. Don’t get me started on the “clump of cells” argument. Ethically, where is the line drawn at for a developing human baby to be considered human, alive, and inherently valuable?

Nobody even likes to say what an abortion is. And I don’t mean the conceptual idea of a woman’s right to choose (to either keep or murder the baby yeah let’s conveniently leave that out), but I mean the literal act. During an abortion, what specifically happens? What occurs? Go ahead and say it. Most can’t bring themselves to. Listen… people justify killing all the time. But let’s stop pretending like killing a defenseless child in the womb is a moral good. One doesn’t get to murder a child that’s inside the womb due to inconvenience, and if you’re defining whether a baby is a human life based on your own convenience, that’s very eugenicist like behavior and pretty damn evil. A baby has its own specific DNA, own organs, hands, feet, everything, therefore it is living and a developing human, and a human being isn’t less valuable because you at the time, perceive their potential life as a burden or a mistake to yours. Ahh you think the child will have a “lifetime of suffering” so it’d be better for you to end the life of the child than for them to live their life out? Where do y’all get off on this thinking??? You’re not a “baby oven”, the child is not a “horror”, and no one is forcing you to be a “reproduction machine”. Please let’s get a grasp on reality and seriously own our decisions for what they really are. More often than not, what’s occured through selfish and irresponsible decision making leads to more selfish and irresponsible decision making.

Because if you are not financially or psychologically capable of taking care a child, or at the very least able to carry it to term, then you should not be having sex without protection. A lot of people in this generation do not use protection anymore whether it be condoms or birth control. And we’re fortunate enough to live in an era where it’s possible to double up on it, so there’s only so many “accidents” that can happen. The word accident itself is often misused as if this happened through no fault of your own participation. There are soooo many forms of birth control, it’s not even funny. There are 4 true choices — contraception, abstinence, adoption, or having the baby. Never murder! You 100% have the right to decide to NOT put a baby inside your body. But once you do, you have no “human right” to end its life. Abortion is not a contraceptive measure! And it’s not even a mystery that with the rise of 3rd wave feminism, there’s more single people than any other time, more divorces than ever before, more promiscuity than ever before, more out of wedlock births than ever before, more births with multiple partners, and far, far more abortions. This is a selfish and irresponsible generation. Social norms that say, having sex freely with multiple partners is necessary and the solution to the potential consequences of free sex needs to be a million abortions a year, is a definite sign that society is broken.

“My body, my damn choice” well guess what, it’s not just your body because there’s another human being that we’re talking about. And in the pro life movement we say her body and the baby’s body have inherent equal value because they are both human beings.

#pro vida #pro life #a

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onceuponanaromantic · 2 years

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I have achieved peak evolution from ‘the weird kid who remains quiet during social events unless it’s to give a deeply disconcerting insight’ to ‘that one researcher who actively has research plans and frameworks on human psychology and behaviour who is a really good source if you need insight on a social situation’.

#my friend: oh by the way I have new data for you and a new research subject you might find interesting #me: heart eyes instantly ‘oh?’#and then I came up with an internal research proposal and methodology and am in the process of implementing it #my work on queerness and the social construction of gender and attraction is surprisingly valuable!#the best ppl I know just come like ‘I know you’re running some sort of experiment and you’ll tell me the results at some point’ when I ask #Then recently I was like ‘btw I have new information on a certain social situation’ and my friend was immediately like ‘meet me for lunch?’#I wld probably be better at studying if I was worse at this but #It’s a very useful social behaviour to have and I rather like it so I’ll just compensate #Brought to you by a neurodivergent queer studying queerness in literature #Oh actually I disagree with my old frameworks when I reread my paper #could have done more with the concept of the counterpublic and based it more deeply in queer theory #because I misused a few concepts but yeah #Syl’s ramblings

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astromechs · 2 years

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hi bestie let me hear your rant induced by my gifset :3c

so! for context, i'm a psychologist, and one buzzword that tends to get my attention in media/fandom is when a character is being referred to by their writer or their fans as a psychopath — because it's a term people frequently misuse.

psychopathy as a clinical concept has its most clear origins in the work of robert hare, a canadian psychologist who developed the psychopathy checklist — our best symptom measure of the construct to this day. hare defines psychopathy as a disorder characterized by shallow emotions, blunted affect (blunted emotions), a lack of empathy, a tendency toward impulsivity, and an increased likelihood for antisocial behavior, behavior that disregards the rights or well being of others.

now, some of that sounds like adrian; he is regularly going around engaging in antisocial behavior, but i wouldn't say he has blunted emotions or a lack of empathy. i wouldn't say he's detached from the things and people that really matter to him, and i wouldn't really describe him as someone who's callous (other than, you know, the whole periodic murder thing).

adrian cares a lot about, and has empathy for, chris, but we see him have empathy toward others, too. he expresses worry that economos might die from his unhealthy habits, and he'd just met the man days ago. he grows closer to the team over the course of eight episodes. hell, he even worries that tying the vet and the nurses up with duct tape might hurt them. yeah, he might have a few screws loose, but that doesn't really sound like a psychopath to me.

furthermore, adrian claims he doesn't "have emotions like people do", but i don't think that's really the case; he has emotions, and we see him having a lot of them! he's just really bad at identifying them. in my opinion, that's much more characteristic of the autism spectrum, as are a lot of things about adrian's behavior: sensory issues (he doesn't like things touching his butt when he's peeing), asking for indicators of sarcasm because he struggles to pick up on social cues, intense and repetitive interests, etc.

so, in short: in my professional opinion, adrian is autistic, and probably has adhd as well. he might could qualify for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder based on his regular antisocial behavior, but i don't believe he clinically qualifies as a psychopath.

#asks #andharleys #adrian chase #vigilante #peacemaker #thank you sm for asking!! here you are ghfdjsk #i'm not currently practicing therapy but my graduate degree is in clinical psychology so here is my humble onion

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lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks · 3 years

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fuck I still haven't done the rewrite of the Mutant Town AU that I specifically came off hiatus to write, like the Plant Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts were written to prep this au and I just got wildly distracted so uhhhh

yeah the concept is in the link but the gist is that the people and town becoming mutated by constant ectoplasmic contamination, we all know and love this concept right but I'm gonna expand on it

this is a direct result of the portal being opened, but they aren't getting infected from the portal, the issue is that creating a permanent opening into the ghost zone has weakened the veil between their worlds and Amity Park and the Ghost Zone sort of slip in and out of each other constantly

and because ectoplasm responds strongly to emotions (poltergeists being made from atmospheric emotions for example) it all tends to converge very heavily at the school full of hormonal teenagers

so Casper High becomes its own god damn cryptid, the teachers get so jaded about opening the door to a classroom and finding just a whole ass ghost zone on the other side that they just put a sign on the door telling kids to go to a different room, lockers swap contents with other lockers so kids have started putting their names on the inside so they know who's stuff they've just found

this also means the kids get super affected, like super affected, literally, they all get ghost powers, some are just physical mutations, some are just super abilities, or a general increase in natural ability, like a member of the track team getting super speed

it takes a while for Danny and co. to figure this out, Sam and Tucker should have been warning signs as they've spent the most time around ghosts and the ghost zone, but that's why the Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts are important

they have powers, but they thought they came exclusively from outside sources, they had no idea that their abilities were also strengthened and influenced by being highly contaminated by ectoplasm, which is why when one day Mikey sneezes and green acid shoots out of his nose and melts his desk, everyone is a little bit startled

the teachers have long since started using ghost detectors after the time Paulina spent a whole week overshadowed by Kitty, so Mikey gets a check over and other than the usual atmospheric reading Lancer gets nothing especially strong from him

there have been concerns about the gradually increasing ectoplasmic content in the air messing with ghost detector results, the devices have to be recalibrated constantly, so Lancer asks the one and only son of the local ghost hunters in the room if he has some other way to check

Danny's parents make him keep a few protective items in his schoolbag, so he tries some gear on him to see if anything comes flying out, but nothing does, Danny isn't too surprised seeing as he couldn't sense a ghost in the room anyway, but it definitely makes things a little concerning

even if it were a repeat of the Spectra incident and he wasn't being overshadowed, the Fenton's tech would have still gotten rid of whatever was causing this if it were an external influence

Mikey is sent home for the day and his parents are told to keep an eye on him

and then the next week, Star drops a pen off her desk and a strand of her hair whips out to grab it, she's also checked for ghost influence and sent home

a few weeks after that it happens again, a kid on the basketball team makes a leap to the net and stays in the air, they have to call in the cheerleaders to climb on top of each other to reach him and pull him down

Danny has been trying to figure out what's happening from the first moment with Mikey, and his parents have also been getting calls from worried parents who want to know if they can fix whatever's happening to their kids

over the next couple of months, every kid in the school has some kind of ability or mutation, Dash heals whoever he touches, which he discovers after punching Nathan in the face and curing his acne, Paulina turns invisible, which freaks her out at first until she realises it's great for eavesdropping, Wes can conjure fire (because I desperately needed him to have a polarising ability to Danny), Kwan becomes empathic and can feel and influence people's emotions

Valerie also had an early mutation that she didn't know about, when Technus gave her a new suit, her body pretty much just absorbed it as a part of her, Technus had not intended this to happen, and was pretty peeved about it, Valerie found out that she had stolen control over the suit when Technus had a big rant about it during a fight, and she put the pieces together once other kids started developing abilities

this whole thing causes a ton of chaos as kids are struggling to control what they can do, so Danny has to step in and help them out, he often has to run off to change into Phantom in order to protect everyone from an ability that's gone haywire, he ends up pretty much running ghost power training courses after school to help them control themselves

he's also gotten stuck in situations where he's had to step in and help someone without having the time to change forms, meaning he has to make up a cover story about having developed his own powers way before everyone else since he's been living on top of a portal for years, he only tells people about his ice powers

Jazz has always had a tendency to be able to reign in her emotions and keep a cool head, (the only ones who can really push her buttons are Danny and sometimes her parents, at school around other kids who look up to her she's often very in control) meaning she doesn't draw ectoplasm to herself all that much, and though Danny uses the excuse of having lived on top of a ghost portal to explain why he's already so familiar with using his power, it's actually not even remotely true, because the Fentons use specialised air purifiers to keep the atmospheric ectoplasm at a manageable level, the Fenton house ironically has the least atmospheric contamination compared to the rest of the town, that's how Maddie and Jack have had limited mutation to themselves (though they aren't wholly free, they've mostly just gotten physically stronger and tougher)

so even though Jazz develops her power a little earlier than everyone else's, it's not that far ahead, and she actually doesn't even realise she already has one until half the school has developed theirs

Jazz has the power to slow time in a little bubble around herself, she'd been using it without realising while studying, having gotten through hours of work in half that time, she always thought it was just her losing track of time or she was just getting faster at reading, she also spends a lot of time counselling other students and trying to help them sort out their problems, and they'd often comment that they felt like they'd been talking for so much longer than they had, again she just chalked it up to losing track of time

a lot of students had wondered why Danny developed a power early and Jazz hadn't, until someone walked in on Jazz helping a girl through a panic attack in the bathroom, and found them both talking extremely fast, a lot of her friends realised in hindsight that she'd been doing that unwittingly for quite a while, nobody had noticed because she always talked to people privately, so nobody outside her little time bubble had seen it happen

Sam and Tucker come clean about their abilities too, but they also don't give the full rundown, still keeping some things close to the chest to avoid standing out from everyone else

then there's the teachers

adults typically have a better time regulating emotions than teenagers, meaning much like Jazz they aren't drawing as much ectoplasm toward themselves, but this doesn't exempt them from developing something after a while, especially with the heightened stress of managing a school full of volatile super kids

Mr Lancer discovers that he can create shields, after an incident where he jumps in front of some students to protect them from another power gone awry

Tetslaff ends up with a sonic ability, able to project her voice like a megaphone (yes this is a Coach Boomer from Sky High reference don't @ me), Principal Ishiyama develops a physical mutation, growing to twice her size, she likes that she can tower over the students while delivering speeches, but she doesn't like having to stoop through doors all the time, she has the one to her office resized, along with her chair and desk

so as you can imagine, the town ends up erupting into chaos, a lot of kids very much misuse their abilities, Danny does his best as Phantom to teach people to be responsible, but sometimes he has to resort to literally kicking their asses to get them to straighten up

but for the most part, a ton of kids were already looking up to him, and are generally pretty happy to follow his example, especially the more popular kids, it's generally considered not very cool to get your ass kicked by Phantom, so weirdly enough a lot of kids get peer pressured into not causing any real damage or injury with their powers

this doesn't mean they don't absolutely misuse them, they're just more subtle about it

until a ghost shows up, a lot of the kids are more than happy to let loose to protect themselves and their friends, and Phantom for the most part is happy to let them, with some supervision of course, he still has to make sure nobody gets too hurt (including the ghosts)

the entire debacle makes Danny's life simultaneously a whole lot easier AND so much more fucking stressful

#lula's aus #mutant town au #danny phantom #you have no idea how hard it was to find the links to the other posts #tumblr's search system was fucking me around so much

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imthepunchlord · 3 years

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The Draw of Magic

When Nooroo sent out the beacon of his misuse, all kwamis near felt it and rushed to the location to try and see what they can do to help save him. As complex as the kwami community can be, it was Law that when one was in a dire situation, all were to help.

And help Luuna and Plagg would, soon.

The time was now to pick their humans. And who they picked would see the two to Paris, just in time to assist Nooroo and see to his freedom.

But it wasn’t going to be as easy as they expected.

“It has been decades since I’ve been so torn!” Luuna declared dramatically, her bright blue eyes flickering between two spots. Near her, Plagg grunted, sharing a similar issue, though not as vocal about it. They were perched upon a gargoyle, their gazes locked upon two promising humans that had great potential for magic, just what these two would need for their avatars.

The issue was who should go to who?

It has been so long since they’ve found a pair that evened each other so well in terms of magic.

Majority of the time, it was easy to know who should have what. Who would be better to have black magic and who should have white magic.

There was a girl with her family, chatting away merrily. She shown like a flame, full of goodness and warmth and light. Both could see that she was a creative sort, full of promise and potential. But there was so little darkness to her, it was clear that she would have little for herself.

Across from her was a boy with his own family, as dark as a void, full of cunning, anger, hurt, and spite. There was love in him, but it was closed, offered only to a few. There was promise for much destruction and chaos in his wake. They could see that he would give much to a few, but take from many more.

Luuna let out a loud groan, starting to babble, “Do we go with what matches and have immediate results? Or do we go with opposites? Achieve balance but see struggle first?” She started to hop around her counterpart, restless in her torn musing.

Plagg ignored her, eyes on the duo, ears twisting as he considered them. He voiced, “Maybe we consult the cheese?”

She skidded to a stop, making a face. “No!” she sharply protested. “The last time we enchanted cheese to tell the future, it exploded! That hotel room was covered in cheese for a week!”

“Personally, I didn’t see much problem to that,” Plagg said, humming in delight as he recalled the memory fondly.

Luuna shook her head, insisting, “No, no, we should... let the carrot decide!”

It’s was Plagg’s turn to make a face. “Spin the carrot always goes your way!”

“That’s because I go with the natural flow of the world, and not take matters into my own paws, cheater.”

“I batted the carrot one time.”

“Yeah, and all of Camelot was gone, because you couldn’t bring yourself to forgive Merlin.”

“Well I’m sorry I didn’t want to forgive an old man who wanted to bottle us up like a djinn.”

The Cat and the Rabbit sat still for a moment, having a tense stare off between the two. After a moment, they both turned back to the two promising magic users, both of which uniquely called to both in different ways.

Luuna felt drawn to the girl for she was of light and warmth and promised her much good would be done through her. But the boy called to her in need of light and guidance, to help him find balance.

Plagg felt drawn to the boy for the darkness and promise of absolute bedlam with him, the pure chaos they’d have together. Yet the girl had so much light, too much of a selfless giver, she had no concept of taking.

Oh to go with what matches, or to offer the struggle of growth and succeeding balance?

Luuna broke the silence first. “Ok. Well, I would go with the flow of things. I would aim and suggest that we go where we match most.”

“Very helpful,” Plagg said dryly.

Both pulled them in so naturally. Light desired to be with light to make is brighter, and shadows to shadows to make it darker. Yet light also wanted to go to shadows to chase them, and shadows wanted to go to light to dim it. These two really could go either way.

“Which is why you should decide.”

Plagg turned to Luuna in slight surprise.

“If you can’t decide,” Luuna warned, “then we’ll resort to the carrot.”

Plagg turned back to the two, stretching out his senses, giving one last evaluation before he decided for them both. He picked up on concerns and fears from both. Both afraid of this coming year.

The girl afraid of an angry golden flame, one that sought to gluttonously consume everything.

The boy for his father, who Plagg felt then felt weaker. A life soon to go out.

Plagg withdrew when both of them perked and looked towards them, him and Luuna ducking down to secure that they won’t be seen.

“Pushing the limit a little,” Luuna noted.

“Had to be sure if I’m going to pick for us,” Plagg said.

“And?” Luuna prompted.

“I think you should go to that kid,” Plagg said, nodding to the boy. “For his near future, I think you’ll be better for him than me.” He’s not the best with that emotional stuff. And sure, the girl was going to be more emotional than the boy, what was coming was some heavy stuff that Plagg knows that he’s not the best for. His answer would be necromancy but Tikki would seek him out if he helped this kid with that.

“Are you certain?” she asked, floating up, “I do sense that the girl will return to Paris sooner.”

“Yeah it’ll be fine. I can have her use Purgatory. Paris can deal with some damage.”

Luuna frowned at that. She hoped Tikki at least will be there as the boy feels like he won’t be there as soon as the girl. But she had bid Plagg to decide. No matter the choice, she can feel that things will play out as they should. Whether they turn towards the sun or moon, bare a cloak of white or black, and walked a path of light or shadow; it will head towards the same destination. Of that, Luuna is certain.

Plagg took initiative and darted to the girl’s side.

Luuna hesitated before she moved, giving the boy one last look over, just to be sure and certain of this. Cats could afford to be reckless, they had power to back that confidence. Rabbits though were creatures of prey, that only had their wit and speed to secure their life. Certainty was far more preferred than risk.

The boy once more looked towards her, frowning in confusion at the feeling of being watched. Luuna though was out of sight when his gaze settled on the gargoyle. He didn’t see there, he didn’t see her when she came up near his bag, picking up at what Plagg hinted at.

Feeling more certain, she burrowed into his bag.

By the time he arrived in Paris, he’d be a sound White Rabbit.

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michaels-blackhat · 3 years

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thoughts on evil Forrest 😈

We are going to start out by apologizing. This is very very late. I’m sure when you sent this ask, you meant it to be in the same joking tone that I approach all of my other propaganda posts. Sadly, this is actually going to be a deep dive into a few Evil Forrest related things, including the moment I feel they changed directions, the perfect wasted build-up, and the implications of the change/how it then negatively impacted the story. As I’m sure you already know, by being on my blog at all, I don’t think the story was good to begin with, so we are going to focus on the weird hoops they made themselves jump through to make that story still work. Additionally, I am only going to mention once, right now, how much of a waste it was to not have Forrest ‘fall for his mark’ and complete one of my absolute favorite tropes. Honestly, I think “because I want it” is a completely valid reason to like Evil Forrest. But, the question was “Thoughts on Evil Forrest” and these thoughts have been developing for over a year and a half. So, I apologize in advance.

The majority of this is under a cut, with highlights in the abstract. If no one wants to read this, I understand completely. Go ahead, skip it.

Note: it pains me greatly to not actually have full sources for this essay. Just know that in my heart I am using proper APA citations, I just absolutely do not feel like digging through tweets to find sources to properly cite.

Abstract:

Previous research indicates that Roswell New Mexico has a history of repeating excuses to explain mid-season changes to plots. This essay explores how those excuses are not only loads of crap, but how they hinder the show’s ability to tell a coherent story, misuse the multiple-plot structure to enhance the themes being explored, and lead to decisions that mean the show continuously goes over budget. This also means that characters are not used to their full potential and has led to what some fans consider to be “out of character” behaviors. While these behaviors are not universally agreed on, evidence can be shown that these behaviors directly contradict emotionally important character arc/plot points in the show.

The author of this paper acknowledges that the show took some strides to mend this problem. However, once again no consensus could be found on whether Forrest was a low-level member of Deep Sky and thus just allowed to fuck off on a bus, or his job was recruitment because he did a piss poor job of making Alex not join.

The concept of Evil Forrest has been with the fandom as early as New York Comic Con (NYCC) in 2019, when it was revealed that Alex had a new “blue-haired love interest”. Speculation abounded within the fandom, with some people, including the author, going “yeah, he’s evil” while others rejoiced in the concept of Alex having a loving partner. Speculation increased as fans discussed Tyler Blackburn’s seeming disinterest in his new love interest, prompting some once again to scream “EVIL” at the top of their lungs to anyone who would listen. Very little was revealed, beyond the fact that the new character would show up somewhere around episode 3 of the second season.

Episode 2.04 aired with some commenting on how he barely interacted with Alex- prompting more evil speculation- and others excited to see the characters interact more. The character appears again in 2.06, where he invites Alex to dubious spoken word poetry (which Alex attends); 2.08, where they have a paintball date and go to The Wild Pony; 2.10, where the two are seen writing together briefly at the beginning of the episode; and 2.13, where Alex performs his song at open mic night, tells Forrest his relationship with the person in the song was long over, and they kiss. Forrest was not revealed to be evil during season 2.

Amidst the season airing, Word of God via Twitter post announced that yes, Forrest had originally been planned as a villain, though not the main villain, but it was changed as filming progressed.

The Word of God Twitter post revealed that Forrest had originally been planned as a villain, but they decided that they could not make their “blue-haired gay man” a villain. This mirrors a similar situation and excuse used the previous season, where the character of Jenna Cameron was originally planned to work with Jesse Manes against the aliens, before it was changed because they just “loved Riley [the actress] too much”. Both of these examples occurred while already filming and reflect on a larger problem with the show. Though not the topic of this essay, it is important to note that both characters are white, both in the show and by virtue of being played by white actors. The fact that they couldn’t be villains for one reason or another is not a courtesy extended to the male villains who are all the most visibly brown, and thus ‘other’, members of the cast.

This also highlights the fact that, via Twitter, it has been revealed two other times that occurrences that were reported in season 1 also occurred in season 2. During the airing of episode 1.02, it was revealed that the single best build-up of tension in the show- when Alex walks to the Airstream not saying a word to Michael after a dramatic declaration- happened because one actor was sick at the time and they had to go back and film the kisses later. At the point of airing for episode 2.08, it was revealed that one of the actors were sick and unable to film a kissing scene. Allegedly, this caused the writers to retool the entire scene and deviate from the plan to make that subplot about Coming Out. The execution of this subplot will be explored later in this essay.

The last occurrence revealed via Twitter also revealed larger issues within the show: lack of planning and poor budgeting. During the airing of season 1, Tyler Blackburn was needed for an extra episode beyond his contracted 10. A full explanation was never given, but speculation about poor planning and to fill in because Heather Hemmens had to miss one of her 10 episodes due to scheduling conflicts for another project. During the airing of season 2, yet another tweet came out saying they made a mistake and Tyler would once again be in an additional episode. No explanations beyond “a mistake” were given, though once again speculation occurred. It is the opinion of the author that this was due to changing plot points over halfway through writing, while episodes were already in production. It has been speculated by some that these changes occurred during the writing of 2.08, which was being finished/pre-production was occurring roughly around the time of NYCC 2019.

Previous Literature:

A brief look at different theories of plots and subplots

Many people have written on the subject of plotting, for novels and screen alike. The author is more familiar with film writing than tv, but a lot of the concepts carry over. Largely, the B- and C- (and D- and E-… etc) plots should reinforce the theme of the A-plot. This can be through the use of a negative example, where the antithesis of the theme is explored to reinforce the theme presented by the A plot, or through other examples of the theme, generally on a small scale.

A movie example of this would be Hidden Figures (2016), where the A-plot explores how race and gender impact the main character (Katherine Johnson) in her new job. The B-plots explore the other characters navigating the same concepts in different settings and ways- learning a new skill as to not become obsolete and breaking boundaries there (Dorothy Vaugn) and being the first black woman to complete a specific degree program and the fight it took to get there (Mary Jackson). A TV example that utilizes this concept of plot and theme is the 911 shows. Each of the rescues in a given episode will directly relate to the overall theme of the episode and the overall plot for the focus character. This example is extremely blunt. It does not use any tools to hide the connection, to the point you can often guess the outcome for that A-plot fairly quickly.

This is not the only way to explore themes within visual media. Moonlight (2016) looks at three timestamps in the life of Chiron. Each timestamp has a plot even if they feel more like individual scenes or moments rather than plots as some are more used to in films. Each time stamp deals with rejection, isolation, connection, and acceptance in different ways. So while there is no clear A-, B-, or C-Plot, each time stamp works as their own A-Plot to explore the themes in a variety of ways, particularly by starting out in a place of rejection and moving to acceptance or a place of connection to isolation.

Please note that there are many ways to write multiple plots, there are just two examples.

While there are flaws within season 1 of RNM, overall the themes stayed consistent throughout the season, mainly the theme of alienation. The theme threads through the Alien’s isolation/alienation from humanity which is particularly seen through Michael’s unwillingness to participate and Isobel’s over participation. There is Rosa’s isolation from others, how her friendship with “Isobel” ended up compounding her existing alienation from her support system due to her mental illness and coping mechanisms. We see how Max and Liz couldn’t make connections. This theme presented itself over and over in season 1. While this essay is not an exploration of the breakdown of themes in season 2, it should be noted that there were some threads that followed throughout the season. The theme of mothers/motherhood was woven throughout season 2, with some elements more effective than others. Please contact the author for additional thoughts on Helena Ortecho and revenge plots.

One of the largest problems within season 2 was the sheer number of plots jammed into the season. These plot threads often ended up hindering the effectiveness of the themes and made the coherence of the season suffer. Additionally, a lot of them were convoluted and difficult to follow.

Thesis:

Essentially, season 2 was a mess. To look at it holistically is almost an exercise in futility. Either you grow angry about the dropped plots and premises, you hand wave them off, or you fill them in for yourself. Instead, this essay proposes to look at individual elements to explain why Forrest should have stayed evil.

We first meet Forrest in 2.04 when he is introduced on the Long Family Farm, which we later learn was the location where our past alien protagonists had their final standoff. He’s introduced. He’s largely just there. The audience learns he has more of a history with Michael. In 2.06, we meet him again with his dog Buffy (note: poor Buffy has not been seen again and we miss a chunky queen). There’s mild flirting, Alex is invited to an open mic night, which he attends. For the purpose of this essay, the author’s thoughts on the poetry will not be expressed. Readers can take a guess.

It is after this point that the author speculates the Decision was made. This choice to make Forrest not evil- paired with the aforementioned ‘can’t kiss, someone’s sick’- impacted the plot. We have Alex have a scene with his father- which the author believes could have been pushed to a different episode- and then have Alex go on a date and then not kiss Forrest at the end of the night. Here, the audience sees Forrest hit Alex in the leg, allegedly not knowing he had lost his leg despite ‘looking him up’, which parallels the shot to the leg that happens to Charlie. Besides wasting this ABSOLUTELY TEXTBOOK SET UP WTF, it also takes Alex away from the main plot and then forces a new plot for him. Up to this point, Alex’s plot was discovering more about the crash and his family’s involvement. Turning Alex’s date from a setup for evil Forrest to a Coming Out story adds yet another plot thread to a packed season. It is also the author’s thought that this is where the convoluted kidnapping plot comes in. With Forrest already in 2.10 for a moment, a plot where Alex is evil has Forrest attack him for Deep Sky rather than Jesse abduct him for a piece of alien glass Alex was going to give him anyway and then for Flint to abduct Alex from Jesse. It’s messy. In a bad way. Evil Forrest would have been a cleaner set up: no taking back a piece of alien glass Alex gave to Michael in a touching moment. No double abduction. Instead, there is only Forrest, who Alex trusts, breaking that trust to take him as leverage over Michael.

Implications:

Now, Alex has two plots (Tripp & Coming Out). The Coming Out plot is largely ineffective, as they are only relevant to scenes with Forrest and have the undercurrent of there only being a certain acceptable way to be out. This could have been used for Alex to discover his comfort levels, mirroring Isobel’s self discovery, but there was not enough screen time for that. Additionally, Isobel’s coming out story was about her allowing herself the freedom to explore. Alex’s story was about the freedom to… act like this dude wanted him to. Alex’s internalized homophobia played out often in the series but it was also informed by the violence he experienced at Jesse’s hands and the literal hate crime he and his high school boyfriend experienced. With that in mind, the “kissing to piss off bigots” line comes off poorly. This is a character who experienced what a pissed off bigot could do- reluctance to kiss in public is not the same as not being out. There is more to be said on this topic, but as it is not actually the focus of the essay, it will be put on hold. To surmise: Alex’s coming out is attempted to be framed as being himself, but it is actually the conformity to someone else’s ideals. It does not work as an antithetical to Isobel’s story, as the framing indicates that the conformity/right was to be out contradicts Isobel’s theme.

Further Research:

MAKE FORREST EVIL YOU COWARDS

Author Acknowledgements:

The author of this paper acknowledges that the show took some strides to mend this problem. However, once again no consensus could be found on whether Forrest was a low-level member of Deep Sky and thus just allowed to fuck off on a bus, or his job was recruitement because he did a piss poor job of making Alex not join.

#anti forrest long #i guess #evil forrest propaganda #I asked and no one said don't post it so...#here it is #I started writing this roughly 7 months ago

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superanimeidiot · 3 years

Text

Karma decks Gakuhou (or: the moment we’ve all been waiting for)

Haha, yeah, you know that time Gakuhou hit Gakushuu and sent him flying into a wall?

Yeah, Karma kinda has a problem with that.

TW: discussion of child abuse. Not super graphic, but be aware.

As a kid, Karma always thought he would be the one to first know the feelings of his father’s hands against his face. He’d longed for it, almost - that sign his father cared about him enough to get angry, to be angry enough to hit him. He’s constructed the entire scene in his head and played it on a loop: Karma, saying the wrong thing or moving the wrong way as he always seemed to do in his father’s presence; Gakuhou, frustrated and empty of patience; the sight of his father’s hand rising in the air; the helpless knowledge of what was to come; the numb acceptance of the blow; and, finally, the loud smack! and sting of flesh. Karma knows this fantasy like he knows the scars on his hands. Gakuhou never needed force to hurt him, though; his words and the ever-present look of distant disapproval was more than enough to leave lasting, if not physical, scars.

Still, if his father ever was to hit one of his children, Karma would have bet on himself. The idea of his father hitting Gakushuu - his precious, perfect golden child who mastered every lesson taught with haughty ease - has never even crossed his mind. Until today.

Karma stares at the bruise blooming ugly across Gakushuu’s cheek. He thinks he knows what it’s from and who caused it, but he doesn’t know. Gakushuu is staring right back, eyes hard as steel, and he wonders if this is how Gakushuu felt when Karma was showing up to class bruised and angry.

“Was it him?” he asks, and he doesn’t need to clarify who him is; they both know who he’s referring to.

“Yeah,” Gakushuu says. “Guess he finally got tired of using his words.” He smiles too, like this is funny. Like this whole situation - like the purple and green mark on his face - is one big, funny, ha-ha, hold-your-sides-until-you’re-crying joke. Karma wants to strangle him.

No, actually, he wants to strangle Gakuhou. Karma turns on his heel and moves to do just that, but Gakushuu grabs his wrist and drags him back.

“Stop,” he says, exasperated, as though talking to a child. “I’m fine. I’ve taken harder hits when sparring.”

“You think that makes it better?” he asks, incredulous as he tries to free himself from his brother’s iron grasp. “You know the difference between being hit while sparring and being hit by your father? One of them is illegal.”

Gakushuu frowns. Karma, sensing the waver in his brother’s certainty, takes full advantage. He twists his wrist away and breaks the hold, but immediately seizes Gakushuu’s own wrist, holding him still and demanding his attention.

“Gakushuu,” he says. He taps a gentle finger against the bruise marring his stupid, perfect face. “This is not okay.”

Gakushuu breathes - a long, slow inhale he holds for a few seconds then releases in a gusty sigh. “I know.”

Karma chews at his lip, hesitating, before asking, “Has he ever-”

“No,” Gakushuu denies, quick and firm and leaving no room for argument. “He’s never done this before.”

“You’d tell me?” Karma presses. “If he has, or if he does again?”

“Yes.”

“Promise me,” he demands.

“Who’s the older brother here again?”

“Promise me.”

“Okay, okay,” Gakushuu relents, cracking a tiny grin that looks more real than any of the smiles he pastes on for his lackeys. “I promise I’ll tell you if he hits me again.”

Karma, solemn as a funeral, holds up a single pinkie.

Gakushuu eyes it. “Seriously?”

He nods.

Gakushuu sighs again. Rolling his eyes, he wraps his pinkie around Karma’s. “I promise,” he repeats.

Karma releases his pinkie, mollified for the moment. “Okay,” he says, then abruptly changes the subject. “So I was planning on making you buy me ice cream since, you know, I scored the highest on finals.” He flashes a smug grin at his brother’s groan. “But now I feel bad for you, so I guess I’ll buy you ice cream. I am the kindest, most loving and adorable little brother in the world, after all,” he preens.

Gakushuu stares at him. “You’re insane,” he says flatly. “You have so many screws loose, I’m surprised your head is still attached.”

Karma squawks indignantly, poking his brothers harshly in the ribs while crying mean! mean! while Gakushuu tries to fend him off. The tense atmosphere has faded, for now, and they’re both happy to see it go.

The conversation isn’t entirely finished, though. Later, Karma will probe into what life was like with just Gakuhou as a parent, and Gakushuu will ask pointed questions about the origin of the injuries Karma would always show up to class with and brush off. They will both get angry, they will both shout, and they will both part ways frustrated and hurt and so, so scared. Even later than that, though, they will both apologize (with a hug) and all will be forgiven, but not entirely forgotten.

They both learned a long time ago to always look after each other, even when no one else would, and those instincts, while rusty from misuse, still hold as strong as when they were little boys whispering promises through the sound of their parents screaming.

****

Later, Karma knocks on the front door of his childhood home. He hasn’t been there since he was eight years old, and maybe if he could feel anything other than the ice cold rage flowing through his veins he would be afraid or lost in the melancholy of past memories, but he can’t and he’s not. He pounds on the door again.

He expects a maid to answer the door, but when it opens he’s greeted with the sight of his father, barefoot and dressed casually, blinking at him in surprise.

“Karma?” he says. Maybe he was going to say something else too, but that’s all he gets out before Karma punches him in the face.

Karma has had a lot of practice hitting people. He’s good at it. He knows how far to pull his arm back, how to keep his wrist locked against impact, how to twist his hips for more power, and how to pour his whole body into a punch that leaves his target breathless (or, once, unconscious). He was good at it when he was fighting thugs on the street, and he got even better when Karasuma drilled proper martial arts concepts like form and technique into his head. Karma is naturally strong, and a year of hardcore physical training only added to that strength.

The point of this being: when Karma slams his fist against his father’s face, Gakuhou, unprepared for such an attack and faced with a trained, rage-fuelled combat assassin, goes down like a sack of rocks.

Karma doesn’t follow him. He stays standing in the doorway, chest heaving with barely-contained fury. His father pulls himself up so he’s sitting rather than sprawling across the floor, staring up at Karma with wide eyes as though he’s never seen him before. He hasn’t, really - not like this, anyway. In his father’s presence, Karma had molded himself into the perfect child; he was quiet, and sweet, and well-behaved. He said please, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry. He was everything he thought his father wanted, but it didn’t matter because it still was never enough.

Karma hasn’t been that kid in a long time.

“That,” he says, flexing his hand and ignoring the sting of split knuckles, “was for Gakushuu. Maybe he won’t punch you back for your crap, but I will.” He crouches down, then, so he can stare his father right in the eyes. “This is your only warning. If you ever, ever, lay a hand on him again…” He flicks his wrist, and his switch-blade makes a brief, grim appearance before disappearing up his sleeve again. He looks directly into his father’s eyes, and he lets him see the resolve burning in his own. “I swear to God, it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Gakuhou nods, both an acknowledgement and acceptance. Karma smiles the cold, satisfied smile of an assassin and stands, knocking his knuckles against the door-frame as he leaves.

He shoves his hands in his pockets as he walks off down the street, whistling merrily to himself. Gakushuu will probably be mad at him later - if he finds out, of course - but Karma refuses to regret his actions. No one, not even their father, is allowed to lay a hand on Gakushuu and get away with it. That is Karma’s promise, made to himself and sealed with his father’s blood spilled in retribution.

He’ll keep it until the day he dies.

#assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #akabane karma #asano gakushuu #fanfiction #fanfic #au #brothers au #families shatter like glass series #tw: child abuse #child abuse #i finally let karma punch gakuhou #as a treat

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transfemlogan · 2 years

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👀 you have chosen...

4) my criticisms of janus's line in svs

so the full quote is: "courts and laws are some of the higher powers in society. and society is made of lies. society itself is a lie." [...] "you get enough people to share a piece of land and breathe the same air and, you've got a society. why? it's just a bunch of people in the same people in the same area. it's an abstract concept as real as the monster under your bed. but we obey these rules, or get punished for breaking them. all in the name of society. it's absurd and terrifying." [...] "i don't want thomas to be disadvantaged in a world where you can die for not following the laws made in the name of a lie."

okay so that's a few lines lmao, but mainly it's the last line that really gets to me.

and to be fair, this one i don't have as much to say about bc forming my thoughts around why i dislike it so much is difficult, but i'll do my best.

like i know virgil makes fun of him right after, and then a little later, i think thomas and logan exchange some words about having these laws and rules are important for a functioning society, but simply pointing it out doesn't really do much. bc he's already said what he wanted to say--he's already communicated what he's wanted to communicate

and i just vehemently disagree with everything he's said. it just irks me to listen to it

bc yeah, societies are constructs. so are most things. language is fake. we're making a bunch of random noises that we've given meaning to, to be able to communicate to each other. why were we so desperate to communicate with each other? bc humans are social creatures. we're built on the bedrock of cooperation. our brains, our genes, are hardwired to seek out and find people to live and grow with. most namely bc it helps our species survive, but the consequences of being social creatures are things like shared languages and societies with (mostly) shared rules and laws

it's not to say that societies aren't flawed bc they most certainly are. social norms are also extremely and very flawed, and it's important to talk about and discuss them critically.

but we're able to do that bc we decided this string of random noises (and lines if you're writing) meant something. it's a construct, but it's not fake. it's not a lie. it's real and it's wonderful. we were so desperate to connect with our fellow humans, we created

i suppose, as i write this out, part of why it irks me so much that he would call society a lie is due in part of him equating constructs with lies. and it very much feels a lot like how social media has misused the terms trigger, and gaslighting, and love bombing (among others) that they've been made into jokes, rather than taken as serious issues people encounter.

and while little white lies aren't serious, per se, lying per its usual definition can cause great harm when done with malice. it can lead into something like gaslighting, in the very extreme cases. and it's frustrating to me that he would write into his show that something so amazing as creation to be a lie just because it's a construct.

most things are constructs. that doesn't mean they don't exist.

hope that makes sense!

we're in the endgame now, adventurer...

1) my concerns for the writer's room bc of specific segments in the five year anniversary episode

2) my criticisms of c!thomas's (and presumably thomas's) view on empathy

3) my criticisms of thomas's pof/svs:r video, specifically focusing on the mentions of charity

4) my criticisms of janus's line in svs

I don't really have anything to add to this. Idk if I agree or disagree w/ u (more on that in a second), but this is a rlly interesting perspective.

I'm really struggling to elaborate. We are BOTH struggling 2 elaborate on our opinions, hand in unlovable hand (/lyr) or whatever. Because I do somewhat agree with Janus, but mostly because it sounds more like he's criticising hierarchies, not necessarily society (he does say society). To me, it sounds like he's criticising the government and people in power and laws, which involved society. Which, I, as an anarchist disabled black queer, also do not the governement or people in power or people who make laws, etc etc. And, as you brought up, certain societal norms are not that great.

Of course, I do like the concept of society. I am all about community! I agree with your point about how it is beautiful that humans have created connections and such, etc etc.

I just do not necessarily disagree with Janus, especially because of the last sentence. I think it's important to think critically about the laws and rules out government is making. Gay marriage used to be illegal, while slavery is still legal, it's just in another name (cough cough. Prisons. Cough cough.) People used to be killed for being queer, because it was against the law. There are disabled people losing their benefits by marrying people, because it is legal for that to happen.

While I don't think society is a "lie" I do think it's important to criticise it often. I, too, do not want to live in a world like that.

ALSO. I would argue lying, in its usual definition, is not always bad and that white lies aren't the only "good" lie. Lying about being queer or lying on job resumes or to your boss aren't bad things, but they also arent little white lies. Lying is very, very complex & there's a million reasons someone would lie. Yes, it can become something like gaslighting (which is awful), but lying isn't necessarily a bad thing.

(I am a proud supporter of liars.)

But, yea, ur point is completely right. Calling constructs "lies" is lowkey kind of weird, especially calling society a lie?? Like I understand what he was going for and trying to explain, but it was just... really bad? I talk about how bad Thomas is at writing but like... he's really bad.... the entirety of LNTAO where Logan feels like hes coerced the entire episode, or POF where he the talk abt empathy is highkey ableist, or Logan's arc. Etc etc wtc. There's lots if examples but those are the 1sthat pop in2 my head as of rn.

IDK BUT YEA !!! UR RIGHT . VERY WEIRD ?

Oh man! This last choice is SUPER hard. .... which 1 do i pick!??!! /j /s I THINK OUR OPINIONS ABT THIS WILL B THE SAME.

#ask #long post #qlso i hope this made sense i wanted 2 elaborate nore but i just could not #& i couldnt explain my opinion as. elo. eloquently as i wante.d </33

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mcmansionhell · 5 years

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The Brutalism Post, Part 2: What Brutalism is Not

Why open a series about Brutalism by discussing what is not Brutalism? The answer is simple: of all of the terms in the history of architecture, Brutalism is perhaps the most misused and misunderstood by the general public.

Pictured: Citizens Bank Tower, 1958-66. Not Brutalism (it’s just plain ol’ International Style modernism). Source

The main issue here, as we will discuss later, is not that people are ignorant for using the wrong definition of the word Brutalism, but that the word Brutalism has come to mean or refer to a variety of architectural phenomena that are linked to one another via overarching similarities, the most important being an expanded set of buildings that elicit a specific emotional response in the viewer.

“Brutalism”, a specific architectural movement with its own ideology and history, has come to encompass a wide range of colloquial meanings. Some of these meanings are common misconceptions that reflect a need for broader architectural education (the purpose of this series), and some of these meanings reflect a deeper, more philosophical, interrogation into how we perceive and discuss architecture and the complex emotions it arouses within us, exposing a need for new means of communicating a common architectural sentiment.

Let’s start with the most common misuse of the term.

Brutalism is not: every single building made primarily of reinforced concrete.

Blame this one on the dictionary. The term Brutalism, while being derived from the French term beton brut, meaning raw concrete, does not apply to all buildings made from reinforced concrete. Developed in the 1870s, reinforced concrete is one of the most commonly used building materials in the world. Because of its inexpensive price, its structural integrity, and its ability to be cast into a variety of shapes and forms, many buildings were - and continue to be - made from it.

Let’s look at three examples of buildings I have found labeled “brutalist” in various places.

Not Brutalism: (from left to right): Tadao Ando, Vitra Conference Center (1993) Photo by Wojtek Gurak (CC BY NC 2.0); Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye (1929) Photo by Scarlet Green (CC BY 2.0); Albert Kahn, Highland Park Ford Factory (1910) Photo by Thomas Hawk (CC BY NC 2.0)

All of these buildings are constructed primarily from reinforced concrete. As you can see, they are all very, very different from one another. In these three cases, the key piece of information discrediting these buildings as being Brutalist is when they were built. Brutalism was a specific architectural movement from spanning a defined period of time (1940s-late 1970s). Buildings constructed outside of this time window are rather unlikely to be Brutalist.

Let’s look at why these buildings might be mislabeled brutalist.

Our first example is the Vitra Conference Center by Tadao Ando, which was built in 1993. Even though 1993 is far outside the time frame that brutalism spanned, this building has many characteristics that are “brutalistic,” specifically its extensive use of unpainted reinforced concrete, its heavy, geometric massing, and its intense visual weight. Ando’s architecture falls under the term “critical regionalism” - which is best understood as being modern in form (but not in dogma), with a heightened focus on the surrounding ecology and landscape as well as other geographical, cultural, and social contexts.

The Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier, finished in 1929, is one of the most iconic 20th century houses and works of modernist architecture in the world. This house, though made of reinforced concrete, belongs to the movement known as the International Style, which was developed in Western Europe after World War I, is known for its rejection of ornament, flat surfaces (especially roofs), extensive use of glass, and visually lightweight and repetitive forms. While the International Style makes use of concrete, it differs from Brutalism in its visual lightness - the Villa Savoye seems to float effortlessly above the landscape - very unlike Brutalist architecture, which is characterized by its massive scale, hulking forms and visual heaviness.

The Highland Park Ford Plant, built in 1910 by noted factory architect Albert Kahn, was once the premiere factory building in America, helping to advance not only the Fordist system, but the city of Detroit, Michigan as being the automobile capital of the world. It is a touchstone of factory design, notable for its pioneering use of the assembly line to facilitate mass production, a concept that remains central to factory design today. Although made of reinforced concrete, the Highland Park plant is not a brutalist building. It frequently is mischaracterized as being brutalist because of its massive side, imposing features, and the close association that has developed between brutalist architecture and urban exploration photography (More on this later).

TL;DR: All brutalist buildings are made of reinforced concrete (or heavy masonry), but not all reinforced concrete buildings are brutalist. Moving on.

Brutalism is not a catch-all term for Late Modernist architecture

Architecture got so weird and complicated in the period from the 1960s through the early 1980s that it inspired the architectural theorist Charles Jencks to create the first of several delightful and mind-bending charts to try and categorize it:

Yeah.

What is Late Modernism? The concise definition is that it is an umbrella term encompassing the various architectural movements that transpired after International Style/Mid-Century Modernism but before Postmodernism. (For more on what Late Modernism is and why you should care, see my post from 2016.) Brutalism elides with Late Modernism, but not all Late Modern buildings are Brutalist. Because Brutalism is contemporaneous with Late Modernism, the distinction can be confusing. Often the case is that Late Modern buildings that are described as ‘Brutalist’ should be recategorized or reassigned to a different, equally obscure and hyper-specific architectural sub-movement happening around the same time. This might seem nitpicky, but look on the bright side: now you get to correct your friends.

Late Modernism encompassed a lot of smaller architectural movements, most, but not all of them ending in -ism. Some, like Brutalism and High Tech, are more well known; others, like Metabolism, Structuralism, Critical Realism, and Neo-expressionism, not so much. Some buildings don’t fit into any of these categories and must (frustratingly) be referred to as simply “Late Modern” or “Transitional” (referring to the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism.)

Here are three Late Modern buildings that are not Brutalist:

Left: Richard Rogers, Lloyd’s Building (1986) Photo by Lloyd’s Insurance (CC BY 2.5); Top Right: Kisho Kurakawa Nakagin Capsule Tower (1972) Photo by scarletgreen (CC BY 2.0); Bottom Right: Herman Hertzberger, Centraal Baheer (1972) Photo by Apdency (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Lloyd’s Building, the headquarters of Lloyd’s of London, located in, unsurprisingly, London, was designed by Richard Rogers and completed in 1986. Despite the relative lack of reinforced concrete, the building is frequently categorized as being Brutalist. The fact that it lacks reinforced concrete as a defining architectural feature is all one needs to eliminate Lloyd’s from the Brutalism category - why it is put there in the first place we will discuss more in depth in the next section of this post. Lloyd’s - along with most of Rogers’ work - is part of the architectural movement known as “High Tech” because it is, well, High Tech.

High Tech buildings are the apogee of the modernist mindset in terms of glorifying the functions of a building and the technological elements of structural engineering. They take what are usually internal systems such as structural frames, circulation systems (such as stairs and elevators) and services (electrical, plumbing, etc) and integrate them into their external architectural form. (Lloyd’s is colloquially known by Londoners as the “inside out building”). High Tech was relatively short lived because it turns out that when you decorate the outside of your building with its internal services, when winter comes, your water pipes, exposed to the elements, tend to freeze.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower, built in 1972 by Japanese architect Kisho Kurakawa (one of my favorite architects ever who more people should know about), is one of the buildings most commonly labeled as Brutalist. This building illustrates the gray area that arises when one uses vague aesthetic attributes (concrete, visually heavy, geometric massing) to designate a building as Brutalist instead of the actual history and context of the building in question. The Nakagin Capsule Tower belongs to a different (if coexistent) architectural movement that, frankly is a lot weirder than Brutalism: Metabolism. Take the formal concept of organic biological growth and systems and combine it with the urbanistic concept of megastructures (an entire city contained in a single continuous structure or via several interconnecting structures) and you get Metabolism. Because of the practical issues with building an entire city within a single building, Metabolism lived mostly on paper, however a few built examples were executed, the most famous being the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

The Centraal Baheer office building was built by Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger in 1972. Like the Nakagin Capsule Tower, it satisfies many of the aesthetic signifiers commonly attributed to Brutalism: it’s made of reinforced concrete, composed of large geometric massing, and it’s visually heavy. Also like the Nakagin Capsule Tower, it belongs to a different, coexisting architectural movement, primarily developed by the Dutch, called Structuralism. Structuralism is a complex set of architectural ideologies developed in the 1960s and 70s, centered around a few key concepts: the rationalist idea that people’s behavior can be directly changed (or manipulated) via design; designing built structures that correspond in form to social structures; an emphasis on cultural and geographical context; an urbanism and design approach based, like Metabolism, on a biological growth analogy (called Aesthetics of Number); the integration of a variety of uses and programs within the same overall structure; and, finally, the aim to architecturally reconcile the needs of both “high” and “low” culture.

Brutalism, Metabolism, and Structuralism arose from a similar origin, and are ideologically more alike than different, something we will talk about in the next installment of this series.

Brutalism is not a feeling.

But also, it kind of is. It is, as the folks say, “a big mood.” A large reason why buildings are incorrectly labeled Brutalist is because they bring forth a very specific emotional response to architecture shared by many people across the world. Some of the buildings that cause people to feel this complex and nuanced set of emotional and aesthetic reactions are, in fact, Brutalist, but many are not. To me, what this demonstrates, is a broader need for architectural education and discourse that goes beyond the most common system for classifying architecture: stylistic labels.

To talk about this, we’ll bring back Lloyd’s Building, Kahn’s factory and present it alongside a few other examples.

Left to Right: John M Johanson, Stage Center Oklahoma City (1979) Photographer unknown; Yuri Platonov, Russian Academy of Sciences (1968) Photo by Raita (CC BY 2.0); Boris Magasto, Haludovo Hotel, Krk, Croatia (1972) Photographer unknown; Kevin Roche, The Pyramids (1972) Photo by jikatu (CC BY SA 2.0)

All of these buildings (and all of the photographs of these buildings) are very different from one another, and yet, they have all been classified mistakenly as being “Brutalism.” The only real link between them is emotion.

Like many folks in the late aughts/early 2010s, I nurtured my then-juvenile love of architecture through spending hours lurking in the Skyscraper City forums looking at thread after thread of pictures of 20th century architecture. Why? Because those images made me feel powerful emotions that I still find difficult to put into words.

When talking about Brutalism as a feeling, perhaps the closest idea comes from the English philosopher Edmund Burke in his 1756 treatise “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”. I am, of course, talking about the sublime. The Burkean sublime is emotionally complex. To quote Burke directly:

“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

But the sublime isn’t just negative. It overwhelms us with its awesome power and in this moment, “the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain another.” Burke’s concept of the sublime was initially applied to such things as the ocean or the Alps - natural features that are so large, massive, and inherently dangerous that they put us in a state of awe-inspiring disbelief - and yet, and despite their mass and their danger, they give us feelings of deep pleasure and joy.

To the people (including myself) who love Brutalism - it does engender feelings of unknowing, of mystery, and sometimes, especially when said Brutalist building is in disrepair or photographed at a particularly menacing angle, of fear or grief. It shares this, rather than a stylistic label, with the buildings featured in this post.

Because of Brutalism’s association with the State, such as in the case of the former Soviet Bloc, East Germany, the welfare state in England, or its use in governmental buildings around the world, lingering political sentiments can also contribute to this complex mix of emotions - whether one longs for the halcyon days of eras past or fears them as being domineering or totalitarian. It can also cause people to associate buildings that are not Brutalist with buildings that are because they share a same political history. Similar to how the post-industrial society left behind a trail of industrial ruins along the American Rust Belt, so too has neoliberalism gutted and left for dead the monuments of these modernist utopias.

An actual Brutalist building: Paul Rudolph, Endo Laboratories Headquarters (1964). Photo via Library of Congress

Brutalist or not, these are enigmatic buildings - their forms are strange and unusual, alien even; their contents and even their purposes remain mysterious. Their siting makes them seem either imposing relative to their surroundings or isolated and alone. There is something dark and lonely, sad and longing about them. They are beautiful, partially because of their striking, form-bending architecture, and partially because they once lived different lives in times so unlike ours.

If you like this post, and want to see more like it, consider supporting me on Patreon!

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Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs are used in this post under fair use for the purposes of education, satire, and parody, consistent with 17 USC §107. Manipulated photos are considered derivative work and are Copyright © 2019 McMansion Hell. Please email [email protected] before using these images on another site. (am v chill about this)

#architecture #design #architectural history #brutalism #late modernism #structuralism #metabolism #modern architecture

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escxpedes · 4 years

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loopholes (cont.)

I literally can’t even begin to tell you how much everyone’s support meant to me on the last chapter. All your comments and tags were so sweet, it was seriously the highlight of my day. I’m sorry for the delay, I meant to get this out a couple of days ago, but I’ve come down with a bad cold. This part, while fun, was so hard to get right. Angus Macgyver is a genius, his mind goes a mile a minute, and I wanted to do my best to replicate that. This part is a little slow in getting to the Macriley stuff, but I wanted to show how much he really thinks about things. He’s such a complex character, that if I didn’t do him justice, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. Also, there’s dialogue in this one! Sadly, Jack isn’t mentioned in this chapter, but he’s there in spirit. Clearly, we all love and miss him. I hope you guys enjoy, the last part will be out soon! x

loop·hole

noun | A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system

Riley finally moves into her new apartment, but struggles to adjust after the events of Codex and the realization of her feelings for Mac. When Mac finds her passed out over her keyboard after a late night of coding at Phoenix, he decides a talk is long overdue. Just some slightly angsty soft!macriley to help you cope with this season 5 hiatus.

of lips that i am yet to kiss (and eyes not met my own.)

It's highly unlikely that you'll find Mac walking down the halls of the Phoenix Foundation so late at night. Without the bustling energy of his coworkers fetching important documents or discussing the best way to break down one of the many mysteries the foundation deals with, the darkened hallways and quiet atmosphere can be unnerving.

Sure, he spends nearly every waking hour employed there, but he'd rather be outside the office in different countries, doing hands-on work and saving lives. When you work in his profession, It can be difficult to separate business and pleasure, but that only makes it more important—if only to conserve what mental health he has left.

However, in the haste of putting together last-minute preparations for yet another meeting with the Department of Justice and trying to make it back to his house in time for something Desi whipped up, he managed to forget his cellphone.

It's funny, mainly because of how little the small device truly matters to Mac.

It only goes to show how insignificant material objects, or even human beings in general, are. The idea that something so meaningless can affect someone's life so much when, if they just looked past that obsession and considered its part in the profound scope of the universe, another perspective would take shape.

It's fascinating stuff, really.

There's a concept essential to understanding Japanese aesthetics, otherwise known as an ancient set of ideals important to Japanese society, called Yūgen. When applied in the right context, Yūgen underlines this deep awareness of the universe and the experiences we have within it. It's often the feeling interpreted when you gaze at the stars late at night or watch the sunset dip behind a hill.

Mac wouldn't think twice before breaking his phone, or rather, breaking the phone of his nearest friend, open for an obscure part that might make one of his many homemade devices come together. However, when he's the only person able to communicate the scientific specifications of an unheard-of-until-recently base plan for saving the planet, he's practically on call 24/7.

He remembers having it in the labs earlier that day when he stopped by before his meeting to remind Bozer to come by his house on Friday for the team's new weekly attempt in group-bonding.

After the betrayals that surfaced during the climax of taking down Codex, the team collectively decided to spend more time as a group in hopes of eliminating any lingering doubts.

They used to hang out all the time before the government dismantled the Phoenix Foundation.

Mac still can't believe that, after everything they had been through, he allowed his friendships to dissipate over the year they had been separate.

Bozer is his childhood best friend, and Riley had become a solid foundation in his life. He didn't have anyone outside his team at Phoenix, and while he deeply cared for Desi, their first relationship was proof that too much time—and too little communication—with each other can do severe damage to one's sanity.

If Russ hadn't brought them back together, would they have tried to reconnect at some point?

Mac wants to say they would have but wouldn't blame them if they didn't; they all lost something they cared about, and each served as a constant reminder of it.

It would've been hard, but part of him feels like living without them is a lot harder.

When he manages to access the lab, flipping his shiny new I.D. card over his fingers and into its place in his wallet, his eyes scan the room. It's empty, which isn't unusual at this time, but years of military training have rewired his brain to notify him of threats, even if there aren't any.

Just like he thought it would be, the device sits untouched a few tables behind Bozer's workspace where Mac had been sitting.

Quickly, because he left the house in a hurry and forgot to leave a note, he scoops up his phone and makes his way towards the exit. There's a couple of missed calls, but it doesn't seem like he missed anything too important.

Not that they would let him.

At any rate, they would probably show up on his doorstep if they couldn't get a hold of him. With days off so few and far between, that's the kind of interaction he's hoping to avoid. Hence, why he came to pick up his phone when he realized it was missing instead of waiting until the next day.

He's nearly made it to the end of the hall when a light flashes in his peripheral vision, coming from the I.T. department.

His body is tense with apprehension; his mind races with several different kinds of possibilities and outcomes. He slows his pace, his movements fluid, silent, and controlled from years of stealth practice.

The light is soft, he notices, as if only one or two monitors are in use.

When he gets to the doorway and nudges open the door, hands at the ready, his entire body sags in relief to see the dark wavy hair he's come to associate with one of his closest friends.

"Riles?"

The nickname falls from his mouth before he can stop it, and even though the light from the monitor creates a halo above her head, shadowing her features, it's unmistakably her.

She doesn't move.

It becomes abundantly clear why as Mac moves towards her and notices the monitor's screen filling up with a sequence of letters that look nothing like coding despite his lack of knowledge in programming languages.

Her elbow balances precariously on the edge of the table, her arms creating a makeshift pillow for her head. The weight of her forearm bears down on the keyboard, causing the side of her hand to press down multiple keys at once.

He shakes his head a little, amused by the situation unfolding.

Her cheek rests comfortably on her hand, a serene expression masking the signs of exhaustion that showed on her face.

Mac's lips curved into a soft smile, seeing Riley in any state that wasn't cloaked in layers of worry or anxious determination always washed away any doubts he might have about working in such a stressful field.

The scars that covered his body, the secrets he has to keep, and the pain he has to endure are so unbelievably worth it as long as she out of harm's way and able to sleep peacefully.

Of course, he couldn't imagine anyone else by his side on a mission, knowing they share the same love and passion for kicking ass and saving lives.

However, he also knows that more lies underneath the surface.

He wouldn't wish the hardships of this job on anyone. Seeing it affect someone he cares about, watching it break them down slowly pulls at his heartstrings and fills him with a knowing sadness.

When a piece of hair falls into her face, his fingers don't hesitate to gently brush it behind her ear, lightly tracing her cheekbone and caressing her cheek.

Kneeling, his hand drops to her shoulder in an attempt to gently wake her.

After a couple of shakes, the expressive brown eyes he's come to look forward to seeing begin to flutter open and nearly render him speechless.

She blinks a couple of times, inhaling slowly, "Macgyver."

Her voice is full of sleep and breaks from misuse, but the way she says his name—like there's nobody else she'd expect to see when she wakes up —has him grinning from ear to ear.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

Rising from her position on the table, she scans the room before meeting his eyes and scoffing, "It's hardly the morning."

He laughs softly, holding back the urge to mention that technically it is morning considering its past twelve. Instead, he focuses on the matter at hand, or more likely, the question at hand.

"What are you doing here so late?"

She's more alert now, sitting back in her chair and lifting her arms to stretch out the muscles that stiffened while she slept, glancing at her work on the monitor.

Her face drops into a grimace when she notices her mistake, "Matty and I were talking about updating the foundation's firewall and spyware," she yawns, "I must have been more tired than I realized."

Mac's eyebrows scrunch in thought, remembering something Bozer said earlier about Riley spending quite a few nights this week working late.

Between going over his mother's scientific data, trying to patch up whatever relationship he had left with Desi, and making sure he didn't go off the rails with grief, his effort to check in on everyone decreased significantly.

"Yeah, you've been doing that a lot lately," his hand returned to her shoulder to emphasize his point, "Everything okay?"

She waves him off, "There's too much work that needs to be done around here before we can get things running the way they used to."

Riley doesn't lie to him—if you overlook the whole situation with her ex, Aubrey, that is, but the movements she's making indicate otherwise.

Her eyes refuse to meet his, flickering down and to the right. When she talks, her head shakes lightly, and she purses her lips in an attempt to give off a careless impression. Maybe someone who doesn't know her or didn't train to pick up on it would believe her, but he knew better.

She was definitely hiding something from him.

Part of him understands that if she wanted to talk about it, she would. However, his instincts urge him to press harder, locate the problem, and bring back her contagious smile that always seems to fill him with warmth.

As much as he doesn't want to admit it, you can't patch some things together by sheer will and sellotape, so instead, he stands up and drops his hand from her shoulder.

"Let's get you home."

#macgyver #macriley #angus macgyver #riley davis #i really hope you like this

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flightfoot · 3 years

Text

Let It Be Enough To Reach The Truth That Lies Ch. 3

AO3

Thanks to Miabrown, Marby, and Khanofallorcs for betaing!

-----

“You failed.”

Adrien flinched. “Yes, Father.”

Gabriel didn’t even look up from his screen. “We will train more tonight. For now, go to your room and work on your piano lessons.”

Adrien sighed, a mixture of dread and relief coursing through him. “Yes, Father.”

At least while he was playing piano, Father was unlikely to come through his door.

He’d never imagined he’d dread his presence.

He also never imagined his father would force him to attack someone.

---------

After ‘training’ with Adrien for a couple weeks (read: beating the snot out of him until he got good at dodging), he’d deemed Adrien ready for combat.

Or maybe he’d just gotten sick of his akumas being defeated by a teenage girl and wanted to try something different.

Adrien had been keeping up with the Ladyblog, watching every new video of her exploits he could get his hands on.

His respect for her had only grown.

As had his dread at the prospect of facing her.

None of his research prepared him for actually meeting her.

Watching her through a screen, none of it seemed real.

Actually bumping into her? Being tied up with her? (He flushed at the memory.) That was a different story.

She’d been expecting him, been worried about him — or at least about Plagg.

He’d wanted nothing more than to hand her the ring, get Plagg somewhere safe at least… but that wasn’t an option. Especially with his father watching through one of the drones he’d commissioned.

At least Adrien could always tell when one was nearby. They were quiet, but not quiet enough to conceal from his hearing.

He was pretty sure his father didn’t know about the additional perks his Miraculous granted him, like his improved hearing and night vision. Father didn’t appear to have those.

Did Ladybug?

Digging through his cabinet, he threw a piece of cheese to Plagg. He caught it handily, devouring it in a single bite.

The corners of Adrien’s mouth pulled up.

These might be horrible circumstances and he’d prefer Plagg was somewhere safe, but a small, guilty part of him was glad he wasn’t trapped alone.

“Sooooo what did you think?” Plagg asked, finishing off the camembert.

Adrien blinked. “Of what?”

“Of your Lady! You know, the one you’ve been watching on loop for the past few weeks? The one you’ve been fretting about constantly? ‘Oh no, Plagg, Candy-butt wants me to hurt her, what will I do?’ ‘She’s so amazing, Plagg, did you see how she used that Lucky Charm?’ ‘She’s so kind and brave and is the best thing since stinky cheese!’”

Adrien flushed. “Plaaaaaagg.” He meant for it to be a reproach. It came out as more of a whine.

He let out a sigh. “It’s not like she’s ‘My’ Lady, anyway. I’m her enemy, remember?”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Suuuuuure you are,” he drawled sarcastically. “And that’s why you just-so-happened to get distracted by a nearby bird when the last dot on her Miraculous started beeping.”

He looked down.

She was fast, but it wasn’t like he was any slouch in the speed department either. They were pretty evenly matched, which didn’t bode well when her transformation was bound to run out first.

So when a pigeon fluttered by, he may have pretended that catching it was a more enticing prospect than it actually was.

He ran around on all fours a lot, it wasn’t crazy to think he’d have a cat’s instinct to hunt as well.

If it happened to give him another weakness to be exploited, that wasn’t something he could help, now could he?

It was just the cat in him.

“I still have to fight her,” he said in a small voice.

He didn’t have much of an option on that. If he outright refused…

Well. Just because his father preferred using the Butterfly Miraculous, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use the Black Cat Miraculous as well.

And as an adult, he could use the special power repeatedly without cooldown.

He waged enough destruction while going through his akumas. Having the actual power of destruction literally at his fingertips? Adrien didn’t want to think of the damage it could cause.

Especially if his father touched Ladybug.

Adrien’d asked Plagg what would happen; if the kwami had Cataclysmed a living being. Once.

Plagg didn’t answer. But his expression? Told him he didn’t want to know.

At least, so long as he was allowed to have Plagg instead of his father, he could make sure Plagg wasn’t used like… like that.

Maybe he could even persuade Father to stop this! Or at least… at least rein him in. Stop him from going too far.

He- he hadn’t specifically tried to kill. Maybe he could reason with him if he started going too far.

Right?

Right. Of course he could. He was his father. He might be a supervillain, he might be awful, but he had limits. He had to.

Something small brushed at his hair.

Mom? Wait, no, she was-

Looking at his computer monitor he saw Plagg sitting on his head, patting his hair.

“You know… you don’t have to fight her,” he said.

Adrien frowned. “If I don’t Father might decide someone else would be a better Black Cat wielder,” he argued. “Or maybe just torture you, me, or both of us until I agree to his wishes.”

Plagg shook his head. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. You already faked some cat tendencies, faking fighting isn’t that big of a stretch.”

“Fake fighting…” Adrien’s eyes lit up. “You mean like acting?!”

Plagg nodded. “I’ve seen those new movies you humans came up with. They’ve got some of the most impressive moves I’ve ever seen, but they still don’t get hurt, right?”

“Some of that’s done with special effects,” Adrien told him, mind whirring. “But not all of it. It helps if you know what angle things are being viewed from, what the audience is able to see-”

“Which you know, right?” Plagg prompted.

Slowly Adrien nodded. “Yeah, since I can always sense the drones. And if I can just get Ladybug to play along…”

This.

This could work.

-------

Marinette chewed on her pencil distractedly.

Why had her partner sided with Hawkmoth? The butterfly man wasn’t exactly subtle about being the bad guy! Granted, it didn’t seem like he was happy about it…

Tikki hadn’t been too interested in looking further into it. Marinette’d gotten the impression that this had happened too often for her to be all that sympathetic to whoever misused Plagg. She just wanted him back, safe and sound.

She couldn’t blame Tikki for that viewpoint. If she’d had a close friend who’d been repeatedly abused, she wouldn’t be too interested in finding out the specifics about the latest person who was holding them captive, either.

But that didn’t mean she, herself hadn’t considered it.

He’d looked to be about her age. Granted, it was hard to tell with the suits having some sort of magical glamour (Tikki had called it “quantum masking”, whatever that meant).

Was he being manipulated into it?

What would his parents think?

Or were his parents…?

She stopped, shuddering. She knew awful parents existed, of course, ones who mistreated and manipulated their kids, ones who did not deserve to be in their children’s lives.

Even seeing movies and TV shows with some awful parents, it was a hard concept to wrap her head around. Her own Maman and Papa were always so kind and caring with her. Maybe stern if she did something wrong, but they always let her know what she’d done, talked it out with her, and let her know how she could do better. They were never unreasonable, and she never felt like they loved her any less, even if they were unhappy with her in the moment.

“Earth to Marinette!”

“WAAAUGGGH!” Marinette startled, flailing around wildly.

Alya ducked, barely avoiding getting hit. “Woooah there, girl! Just wanted to ask what was on your mind. You’ve been staring off into space for the past five minutes.”

Marinette looked away. “It’s nothing. Just personal stuff.”

Alya quirked an eyebrow. “Well if you don’t feel like sharing right now, I had another reason for getting your attention.”

Marinette blinked, straightening up. “What’s that?”

Alya handed her phone over to Marinette, pressing play on a video. “The footage the person sent me was captured from a distance,” she explained. “So the audio quality’s nonexistent. But look! There’s a new supervillain!”

Marinette just stared at the video, watching Catboy collide with her, chase her, only to get distracted a moment later by a bird.

So that was why he hadn’t caught her! She’d been wondering. He’d seemed pretty fast, and unlike her, he hadn’t been exhausted from a fight.

“Do you think he’s a full partner to Hawkmoth or just a villainous sidekick?” Alya asked excitedly.

Marinette hummed. “He seems pretty young… listening to Hawkmoth before, he sounded like an adult. This guy looks like a kid.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not a full partner,” Alya said.

“True, but…” Marinette hesitated. The video didn’t capture audio, and wasn’t at the right angle to show Chat Noir’s expression before he started chasing her. “I just don’t get that vibe from him,” she said at last. “I get the feeling that he’s not the one pulling the strings.”

Alya looked at her a moment, then shrugged. “Whatever you say. You’re not the only one to think so, anyway. I’ve had a lot of forum activity speculating on whether he’s as evil as Hawkmoth is.”

So she wasn’t the only one?

“Really?” Marinette asked.

“A lot of it’s down to him being cute,” Alya said. “I’ve had to monitor certain threads VERY closely since he came onto the scene yesterday.”

Marinette blushed. “I, uh, hadn’t noticed.”

Alya narrowed her eyes. “Uh huh,” she said, not sounding even the slightest bit convinced.

“It doesn’t matter, anyway, because he’s a villain and he’s only appeared once and Alya stop looking at me like that-”

Alya continued smirking at her.

Burying her head on her desk, Marinette groaned. This was not how she’d been planning to start the day.

*beep beep*

Turning her head to the side, Marinette cracked an eye open. “What’s that?” she asked, her voice still muffled by her arms.

“It’s the new akuma alert app the city just set up,” Alya said distractedly, scrolling through the alert.

Akuma alert-

Marinette bolted upright. “What does it say?!” she asked hastily.

“There’s a new supervillain over near the Eiffel Tower. Calls himself Mr… Pigeon?” Alya frowned. “Wow, Hawkmoth is failing HARD at the intimidation factor. What sort of name is that? Marinette, you’ve gotta look at this outfit, I mean as a designer-”

Alya looked to the side.

And blinked.

“That girl is way too good at disappearing, I gotta get her to teach me how to do that,” she muttered at Marinette’s empty chair.

-----

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

The swarm of ladybugs flew out, repairing what little damage had occurred.

It wasn’t much. Mainly just pigeon poop. A LOT of pigeon poop. Annoying, but a far cry from the collapsed buildings and major injuries from other akumas.

It’d had one other, unexpected benefit as well. The Black Cat wielder had shown up again (her stomach twisted at the thought) but he hadn’t been able to do much. Beyond constantly sneezing and the birds distracting him, he’d barely even been an obstacle.

Hm. She’d have to ask Tikki whether she’d get ladybug instincts. Would she start eating bugs? Emitting noxious odors when scared? Cuddling up with people when she got cold. Okay, granted, she was prone to that last one anyway, but the others would be noticed!

A black blur rocketed towards her.

Oh. Right. With Mr. Pigeon deakumatized, there was nothing stopping the Black Cat wielder from going after her.

Crap.

He collided with her again, sending her skittering across the pavement.

She did a back handspring away from him (thank you, Miraculous reflexes!), landing on her feet just in time to start spinning her yo-yo into a shield. He tried pounding on it a few times with his staff, but it simply bounced off.

Nonetheless, he kept on pressing forwards, closer and closer.

Her earrings beeped four times.

CRAP.

SHE ONLY HAD A MINUTE.

She couldn’t let this turn into a battle of attrition. She had to get out of there NOW.

She turned around, preparing to bolt.

That was a mistake.

He tackled her to the ground, landing squarely on top of her. He reached for the earrings. She tried to punch him, but he just caught her hands.

“Why are you DOING THIS?!” she asked him through gritted teeth.

His ears flicked to the sides. Leaning in close he whispered, “Play along!”

She blinked, going still for a moment.

What?

His grip on one of her fists suddenly loosened.

*CRACK*

She winced as her fist made contact with his chest. The suits were protective, but she’d experienced enough hits to sympathize with the Black Cat’s shock. It still sucked to get punched.

He flew off her, sailing several feet away.

Uh… that… should not have happened. She knew that she was stronger while suited up, but she had a decent idea of how much force she put behind each blow. He should’ve been knocked back a foot at most, it wasn’t like she’d had the ability to gain momentum for the punch!

The Black Cat wielder backflipped several times, eventually landing on his feet. With a yell he ran towards her once again.

He’d told her to “play along”. What had he meant?

She couldn’t stay here and fight him. He KNEW that.

And he’d let her punch him off.

So… so, maybe…

He moved his fist forward to punch her.

Her eyes narrowed. Was it just her, or was his fist slightly off-center?

Just as his fist was reaching to the side of where her face would be, she flung herself back, forcing a wince.

He kept on coming, not showing the slightest bit of surprise at her sudden movement.

Because he’d WANTED her to do that. Had planned for it.

He didn’t want to hurt her. He just needed to put on a show.

“Come here, kitty kitty!” she smirked. There were some alleys off to the side. If she could just get them in there…

She was trusting this stranger a lot, she knew that. Especially since he was apparently working with Hawkmoth.

But some part of her DID trust him. Maybe it wasn’t totally rational. He’d only given a few hints that he wasn’t on Hawkmoth’s side, and for all she knew he could be luring her into a trap, waiting for her to lower her guard.

It was a risk she would just have to take.

He screamed, running at her with his staff held aloft. Immediately she started doubting her plan.

Still, she darted to the side, slipping into the dark, narrow alleyway.

He followed her, smashing up some trash cans, making a lot of banging noise and yelling - but not trying to get any closer.

Quickly she ducked behind a nearby dumpster, knowing full well that the Miraculous wielder’s eyes were on her. If he wanted to discover her identity, all he needed to do was round the corner.

He came no closer, instead cursing loudly. “I don’t know how you escaped, Ladybug, but beware! CHAT NOIR is coming for you!”

Chat Noir, huh? Not the most creative name, but she was hardly one to talk.

A moment later she heard his pole extend. She peeked around the corner just in time to see him pole-vaulting off away from the alley.

She sighed in relief, sinking down against the dumpster. Tikki flew over to her, putting her hand on her chin like she was “The Thinker”.

“You might’ve been right, Marinette,” she admitted after a moment. “I don’t think I gave Chat Noir enough credit.”

Marinette smiled, scratching Tikki’s head. The little kwami giggled, flying up to her for a cheek cuddle. “Maybe Plagg’s in a better situation, too?” Marinette suggested.

Tikki hummed. “I hope so. I’m beginning to think his kitten this time isn’t a bad kid.”

Her expression darkened. “But even if HE’S not, the person he’s working for — or pretending to work for — is. And he seems to have some sort of hold over Chat Noir — and subsequently, over Plagg.”

Marinette grimaced. Tikki was right. Chat Noir’s reluctance to oppose them might be a bright spot, but their situation was still pretty bad.

Holding her hands out for her kwami, she scooped the little bug up, safely stowing her in her purse.

“We’ll just have to encounter him again,” she said, looking towards the light of the open street. “And maybe get some more answers.”

And turn him fully to their side, her heart whispered.

#let it be enough to reach the truth that lies #ml fanfic #Miraculous ladybug #ml enemies au #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

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