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pearlsinmyhair · 10 months

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₊ ⊹ the price of the name.

synopsis: reader has had a hard life, and now she’s an orphan. but someone just as lonely comes into her life to take her under his wing.

warnings: there’s death in this one. miles being injured. self deprecating thoughts from miles (brief). suicidal themes (brief). cursing/language.

let’s do this guys. reminder that birth miguel and star girl have trauma that hasn’t been dealt with.

part i | part ii | part iii

word count: 3.3k

pt iv: the price

　　　. 　　˚　　　　*　　　　✦　　　.　　.　　　✦　˚

prophet girl,

chosen by the sun,

do you hear the gods whispering

those silent stardust words?

it had been three months when hobie jumped through the window of your bedroom to tell you what was happening.

you had been cooking at the stove, boiling water and checking the seasoning cabinet when you heard the tell tale thump of hobie’s boots on your floor.

you expected the usual: hobie wanted to hang, maybe listen to music, maybe take you to his dimension for a show.

but then he stepped out of the bedroom doorway, wearing a look of cold disdain, and you realized something was truly wrong.

but you were getting ahead of yourself.

₊ ⊹

the three months without fighting anomalies or training with miguel had been fine. typical. normal.

but you hated normalcy, especially after the madness of inter-dimensional travel.

and on the quiet nights, where hobie was too busy to visit and there was no crime, you felt lonely.

you didn’t have close friends in your demension, all thanks to how much time you dedicated being spider-woman. when you were just defending your own new york you spent most of your time fighting. but the addition of miguel’s apprenticeship had left you with very little free time to make friends.

the three months without company had worn you down, to the point where you nearly used your watch to go back to Nueva York multiple times.

and that’s how you came to the realization that miguel meant much more to you than you originally thought.

and it felt like shit. because miguel was stubborn. he would not change his mind on bringing you back. and even after three months you were sure that he was still pissed.

you shouldn’t have mentioned gabriella. it was unfair and below the belt.

but your words were not lies; you didn’t want to be treated like you were fragile. you weren’t.

yet you craved it, being held like you were something to be cared for.

you missed your mother. you missed your old friends. you missed the stupid shenanigans of the spider society. you missed…

you missed miguel.

his glares. his scoffs. his chuckles. his smiles.

hell, you missed the way he and peter b bickered. or when he would yell at lyla. or when he would criticize your notes on complex cellular functions.

if it weren’t for hobie, you were pretty sure you would have risked the trip back to Earth-928.

so you had got up from your bed, still in sweatpants and a tank to cook. productivity was hard, but you could try by at least making dinner.

₊ ⊹

and here you were with your head in a spice cabinet, trying to find three seasonings that it looked like you didn’t have. you promptly pulled back upon hearing a thump from your bedroom, greeted with an uncharacteristically grimacing hobie.

“hey” you said simply, trying to figure out what was going on.

he looked up.

“miguel’s chasing down a kid from 1610.”

“wait, gwen’s kid? miles?”

“that’s the one.”

you paused, watching as the steam began to make the pot cover rattle.

“why?” you asked, turning the stove off and fully facing hobie.

he sighed, dropping his head back to look at the ceiling. “his dad’s the captain. and he wants to save em.”

your hands tightened on the countertop. “and miguel will have none of it.”

of course he wouldn’t. he had spent so long holding the canon together, why should he let it crumble for one kid’s father?

you had never agreed with that logic.

which was exactly why hobie was here.

“so what can we do to help miles?”

hobie smiled, passing you a box covered in various stickers and sharpie drawings. “i need help finding him. i’ve already sent one to gwendy, so i’m gonna get her and touch base. but miles doesn’t have one.”

you opened the box to realize that ‘one’ was a homemade watch, just as decorated as its box.

“miguel’s gonna murder you, hobes.” you whispered as you studied the make of the invention.

“yeah, well, he’s had a while to do it, and he hasn’t yet.” came his reply.

you smiled, closing the lid. “so, what’s the plan?”

₊ ⊹

universe 42 was a hunch, an educated guess that left you swinging through a world with no idea of what ‘spider-man’ was.

all around you, roof tops were burning, cop cars were blaring sirens, and thieves were running ramped. it took all of your self restraint not to pause and help.

but you had a mission, and barely enough time to complete it. you needed to find miles morales, before miguel did. you had no doubt that if the kid wasn’t in his dimension that miguel wouldn’t figure it out, so you had to be quick.

you hadn’t expected to find the kid so quickly, running from this universe’s prowler through the streets.

well, swinging.

the kid was fast and unpredictable. but the prowler matched him easily, keeping up with him and even getting a few hits in.

it took you webbing miles and tugging him against a building for the chase to end.

miles threw his elbow back against you, no doubt assuming that you were one of the spiders sent to find and detain him. but then he glitched and went momentarily limp.

you had just enough time to drag him under a covered rooftop and snap hobie’s watch onto his wrist.

that gave miles pause, and you watched as he slowly figured out that you weren’t going to kill him. for good measure, you pulled off your mask, and that seemed to relax him a bit more.

“we need to get you to a safe house, away from the open. can you swing?” you asked the boy, quickly taking inventory of the various injuries on his skin.

you were going to kill miguel when he came.

miles nodded, his eyes drooping slightly with exhaustion. you grabbed him under the armpits to pull him to the edge, and together you webbed to a warehouse not too far away, just on the outskirts of town.

it was a place that you had established long ago. if you ever needed a place to sit and tuck away, you came here.

hobie didn’t even know. and miguel especially didn’t. at least, you thought so.

miles landed unsteadily on his feet, and you once again circled you arm around the younger boy, leading him to a small cot tucked away behind a wall.

he went willingly, practically collapsing onto it as you left him to get some water and first aid. when you returned he had an arm thrown over his eyes.

“hey hey. i know you’re tired, but we don’t have time to sleep right now.” you murmured regretfully, handing him a water bottle and a protein bar. “i need you hydrated and energized. now, let me see your injuries.”

when he removed his sweatshirt and jacket, you inhaled sharply.

forget killing. you were going to gut miguel alive.

as you cleaned his scratches and iced the bruises, he watched you, searching. he may have been young, but he was attentive.

“you’re miguel’s apprentice.”

your fingers halted against his skin, holding a bandage over a small cut.

“yes.” you said. there was no point in lying. “but i assure you that i don’t want to restrain you, nor beat you into a train.”

peter had told hobie about what had happened, and hobie had relaid it to you before you had disappeared into the portal to this universe.

miles winced, from both the hydrogen peroxide and from the reminder. but he didn’t talk about it more. you took it as a sign to drop it.

“this place is terrible.” he muttered, and you noted the way he shifted the conversation.

“yeah, it is.” you agreed, more so to get him to continue talking. he was tight as a wire, this kid. he needed to release some tension, and these words seemed like a trickle before a flood.

miles looked up, studying the metal beams of the warehouse. his jaw tightened, and his eyebrows knit.

he was starting to cry.

“it’s my fault that it is.” came his quiet voice.

you stopped, watching his face as he refused to look at you.

“and what makes you think that?” you whispered, moving your hand to rest over his in an attempt to calm him.

a single tear rolled down his cheek as he looked at you.

“i’m an anomaly. i…the spider wasn’t mine to take. if i hadn’t been bitten, then this world would have been better.”

your heart thumped hollowly as you registered his words. here was this boy, so young and wonderful and strong, torn apart.

by someone who you cared for.

“are those his words?” you asked, and he turned his face to the side, attempting to recover.

but you reached up and pulled him down, and he bent his head to tuck against your shoulder. you pulled him close, letting him cry, granting this one moment of release.

the eye of the storm.

“you are worthy of this suit, miles. it was not you who took that spider. it was fate that you be bitten by it. you couldn’t control that. you are not an anomaly.”

his arms tightened. you held him fast against you.

no kid deserves this. no child. he was only fifteen for fucks sake.

your spider senses tingled. then they roared.

you pushed miles behind a crate, and he went invisible, already sensing as well.

he was hidden right as you heard a portal open below.

your chest tightened, and you pulled your mask back on. you stepped out to the balcony, looking down to find him already looking at you.

miguel ohara.

“long time no see.” you called, and his eye marks sharpened.

hobie had warned you that he had gotten harsher since you left.

“where is he?”

“the child?” you countered, anger already boiling. “the fifteen year old that you beat the shit out of?”

miguel didn’t relent. “he will break the multi-verse, y/n. i don’t have the time to bicker with you. where. is. he?”

“not here. i searched already, and he’s not in this dimension. maybe you should tune up your go-home machine.”

he was in front of you in an instant, towering over you. it would have been intimidating if you had just met him, but you had seen this man shed a tear at holding a newborn mayday, so you stood your ground.

“i’m not playing games, y/n. tell me now.” he growled, and for an instant you felt actual fear.

before you could even open your mouth to reply, a screw dropped from the ceiling.

miguel turned, and miles’s invisibility shivered as he lost his concentration.

“shit.”

miguel launched forward, but you threw a web and tugged him back, quickly webbing him against the railing until he couldn’t move.

you hadn’t stopped training just because you didn’t have miguel.

he yelled after you as you and miles left the building, swinging faster than you ever had before. you needed to make a portal quickly, but your watch was blocked.

“lyla!” you screamed at the watch, and the ai-woman appeared. “let me through!”

“i can’t do that, star girl.” came her reply, almost sounding mournful.

so it was up to miles to open the portal. but hobie’s watch wasn’t as perfect as the one on her wrist. where the portal popped up was unpredictable, and it didn’t stay open for long.

and because the universe loved you so very much, an orange web stuck to both your bodies and hauled you back.

you both rolled onto a nearby rooftop, but you quickly recovered, dragging miles forward as miguel slammed into the ground behind you.

“you run, i’ll distract him. whatever you do, get through a portal.” you shouted as you turned.

you webbed a long string into each of miguel’s shoulders, then pulled so that you slammed your feet against his chest, throwing your bodies off the building.

miguel was fast, but you were smaller, more agile. you kicked at his back, slicing his webs as he tried to sling them. he tried to restrain you, but in the open air of the city, you easily avoided the webs.

but miguel was still gaining, and you were nearly physically incapable of stalling him.

hobie’s voice cut through the watch. “we got ‘em, star girl. you’re doin great.”

“hobie!” you cried, panting as you kicked against miguel’s chest again. “how are you doing that?”

“spider-byte.” he replied. “y’need help?”

miguel caught your foot and threw it to the side.

“nah, i got this. just like old times.” you said back, ignoring the way your muscles burned with overuse. “just get miles out of here.”

“yes ma’am.”

miguel’s fighting tactics were aggressive, almost always throwing and punching. but now, it seemed like he refused to even touch you.

he wouldn’t scratch or aim to hit. he just moved you away and kept going.

you didn’t know if it was pity or mercy, but either way it was pissing you off.

you were swinging forward when you suddenly glitched. hard.

which didn’t make sense. you were wearing a watch, which should have prevented it.

miguel caught you with a web when you fell, and you lifted your wrist to check it.

only to see a blaring ‘CANON EVENT DISRUPTED’ warning on it.

“lyla, explain.” you heard miguel call from above you. you still dangled from his web, and you utilized that to catch your breath.

“there was a canon event in y/n’s universe, but it snuck up on us. the algorithm has never seen it before.” said lyla’s hologram.

miguel looked down at you, cocking his head to the side in question.

you shook your head: you had no idea.

he pulled you up to a roof, where you stood up on unsteady legs. he rested his hands on your upper arms, letting you lean your weight on him for support.

your spider senses were going haywire, and it felt like your head was buzzing. your knees buckled, and miguel sank with you.

you realized he had pulled off your mask when the cool wind hit your face, and opening your eyes, you saw that he had removed his as well.

he looked exhausted. even more than the last time you saw him. how this man was even on his feet was astonishing.

“i’m gonna kill you.” you said as you set your forehead against his shoulder. he chucked, and you punched his chest.

“m’not joking. you traumatized that kid. he was shaking when i got to em.” you muttered, and for a moment you felt like you could fall asleep, warm against miguel’s shoulder.

but then your spider senses screamed, and you jumped up with a rush of adrenaline.

“hey guys, hate to mess up this reunion, but y/n’s universe is collapsing. fast.” lyla spoke up.

you sat up quick, stumbling to your feet. miguel reached to steady you, but you were already pulling from him.

“lyla, open a portal.” you asked, and she did immediately, understanding the urgency of the situation. but a hand closes around your wrist.

and there’s miguel, keeping you from rushing into danger.

your conversation three months ago flashed through your head.

you can’t lock me in a tower and call it love.

his grip loosened as he met your eyes.

“there’s a high chance that i can’t protect you in there, y/n.” he said, voice low.

“does that mean you’re coming with me?” you asked, daring to even hope.

he exhaled, looking to the side. you turned away, your stomach sinking as you remembered who exactly you were talking to.

you jumped through the portal.

₊ ⊹

you had seen the hologram of what the world miguel had been in looked like when it disintegrated, collapsing in on itself. you figured that you’d be prepared when you were faced with your own.

you were so very wrong.

the instant you exited the portal, there was screaming.

hundreds of people flooding the street, trying to escape the black void approaching them. children crying for their parents, families huddling together in a last goodbye, others standing still and letting themselves be taken away.

the plan formed in your head as you zipped through the streets: grab as many as you could and put them in hq. there had to be a way that you could save some of them.

but then your web hit a building, and the void traveled down it with a speed that made you stop. the black mass nearly reached you when a blade cut the string, and you were pulled into a hard chest in midair.

“miguel, let me go!” you screamed, pounding a fist against his chest in an attempt to get free.

“it’s too far gone! there’s no way to save them!” he called back, finding a rooftop that was still safe.

“no!” you screamed again, shoving him away. “i have to try, miguel! i have to! this is my home! i know these people!”

the blackness was seeping towards you two, approaching with an ominous humming that made your hair stand up.

“i can’t let you die.” he whispered as he pulled you against him again, trying to force your through the portal.

“let me! let me die with them! it’s what i deserve!” you were crying, voice so loud and desperate that your throat aches. “let me die miguel.”

he looked down at you and webbed you close, tucking your chin against his shoulder.

“i’m sorry.”

and then there was nothing but the sound of universes rushing around you.

₊ ⊹

you were launched through the portal, rolling across the floor to land face down. your body ached, wanting to give in to sleep. but your mind was racing.

“what was the canon event?” you demanded, getting on your hands and knees in an attempt to rise.

miguel looked at you, a terrible sense of deja-vu flooding his mind as he watched you break down.

lyla scrolled through her charts. “y/n, i don’t think you’re in the right mental state to-“

“i don’t give a fuck what mental state im in right now, i need to know.” you yelled, pounding a fist against the ground as your gut rolled.

miguel rested a hand against your back. “mi estrella, you need to calm down. por favor-“

you slapped his hand away, flinching at the contact. “no. you don’t get to call me that. not now, not ever.” you seethed, turning once more to lyla. “please, i need to know. tell me.”

your voice trembled as emotion stopped up your throat, and tears threatened to spill. your chest was heaving as your body tried to get enough oxygen to fuel the rapid pace of your heart beat.

lyla bit her lip and looked at the screen. “it’s a unique event, and the algorithm didn’t know what number to give it. so…it’s called event 0-star girl.”

you waited as she read the screen, watching her projected expression slowly drop.

“event 0-star girl description. spider woman of universe-328 meets universes doc oc. fight ensues. and…”

she paused, re-reading the page, searching for anything but the words that appeared to her.

“no, no, no…” she whispers, frantic.

“lyla.” you beg, tone desperate as your shoulders start to shake and tears trickled down your face.

she looks at you, with an expression so devastated that your heart drops down to your stomach.

“you…

you die.”

masterlists. | next

one more to go. are you ready?

btw if it seems like i rushed through the whole universe-has-collapsed thing, i did. next chapter will address it. star girl hasn’t fully let it hit her.

edit: guys i kinda…i kinda hate this? idk, what do you all think. i feel like it’s not we’ll written.

taglist:

@brittany69 @ladyfairenvale @teamwolverine @kinkybandages @lunamhm565i @dhadiirah @pearlssdiary @zeyzeys-stuff @alexisabirdie @ifuckyourmom @hagdgishr @migueloharaslxt @ladynecromancer

#ANGST #GIMME ALL OF IT #—the price of the name #miguel ohara x fem!reader #miguel ohara x reader #miguel ohara #miguel angst #miguel ohara angst #miguel o’hara #across the spiderverse #spiderverse x reader #atsv x reader #platonic!miguel ohara x reader #dad!miguel o’hara

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usssnarfblat · 7 months

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Did Anastasia deserve to die for her family's crimes against Fieval's family?

I've always found it interesting that "Anastasia" and "An American Tail" were made by the same guy...

My mom got us "An American Tail" as kids, since we were Jewish, and a Disney-like movie with Jewish characters was a one-of-a-kind thing. ("The Prince of Egypt" was still a few years away. Yes, I'm that old.) More to the point, my dad's side of the family is largely Russian Jews, who immigrated in the early 1920s, for exactly the same reasons as the Mouskewitz. Being a child of this background and very literally obsessed with cats, I had mixed feelings about the movie.

When "Anastasia" came out a few years later, Mom didn't let that history stop us from enjoying the new princess movie, but she didn't shelter us from it either. We regarded it like we did the real history behind any sugar-coated princess movie. She even got us some history books about the real Romanov family, and we were fascinated by the subject.

Still, it's an odd elephant in the room, watching "Anastasia" and knowing that her granddad was the one who sent those Cossack cats after Fievel's village, and her dad himself continued doing it to the Jewish mice who didn't leave.

"Go, Pompom, Kibble and Fluff-Baron! Kill those Jew mice, and I'll give you extra catnip treats tonight!"

Don Bluth presents both the Romannov family and their victims with equal sympathy, even opening both movies with the family celebrating a holiday, with the kid heroes getting a plot-specific present, before being viciously attacked.

"Wow Grandmama! Fieval and Tanya could use this as a merry-go-round!"

*Cough* "Yes uh, about those Jewish mice Sweetie..."

Bluth's portrayal of the Romanov family is not entirely inaccurate. By all accounts, Nicholas II was a deeply loving father who both doted on his children, but raised them not to be spoiled. Despite being royalty, the princesses shared bedrooms and did charity work at hospitals.

It's a baffling irony that Nicholas was nevertheless was a tyrant, and not remotely just to his Jewish subjects. When I was about twelve, Mom got me the Dear America book A Coal Miner's Bride, about the Catholic Polish immigrants who also fled the oppression of the Russian Tzar. (Anastasia's family conquered part of Poland in the 1800s, banning the Pols from speaking their own language and drafting their sons into the Tzar's dick-measuring contest wars.) Anyway, that's what my mom's side of the family was fleeing when they immigrated. Yes, my family has double reason to hate the Romanovs.

So, I personally don't have a lot of sympathy for Nicholas II. But the horrors his poor wife and children endured in their final moments never fails to get the reaction from me.

The rationalization for the murder of the children and queen was that it was the only way to ensure that the monarchy never returned. But I assume most modern-thinking people would say that the ends do not justify the means in this case.

That said, millions of families like Anetka's and Fievel's suffered as bad or worse than the Romanovs, because of the Romanovs, and no one remembers them because they didn't wear tiaras. This no doubt was another factor that killed sympathy for the Romanov children. But they were still children.

The question today is, if we can feel for a family that was literal royalty, despite their father being an undeniable tyrant against our own families...can we also feel for Palestinian and Israeli families, during a conflict that is vastly more complicated than Imperial Russia?

Or do they need to be cute mice and glittery princesses to get our attention?

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girlswhowantboystobegirls · 2 months

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"Kissing Classes" ♡ Luke Castellan x M!Reader

1st chapter ☆ you're here ☆ 3rd chapter

2nd chapter summary: why was luke asking you for a second lesson? doesn't he have a girlfriend at this point?

1.2 words

warnings: miscommunication, queer depression, reader is not the best at reading a certain son of hermes, bad words (again).

tags: pre-tlt, friends with benefits (??), friends to lovers, luke castellan is head over heels, reader wants to forget about luke, reader loves blur (the band) and goes crazy when they are mentioned, luke isn't very good at hiding feelings anymore.

II. "How to impress a girl a second time?"

Luke's audacity to ask a second time how to kiss surprised you in a negative way. But what came from his mouth was way more frustrating.

— I think she wants the kiss to be more intense — he shrugged —. Do you know how to?

— Luke, is she not your girlfriend yet? — you consulted, eyes unable to hide your discomfort or rather surprised expression —. You know, it isn't right to kiss someone else if you have a thing going on with her. Plus, you didn't get me the CD player yet. And THAT was part of our deal — you sounded angrier than you wanted to. But it was such an idiotic thing to be furious at. He was your friend, even if you wished something else.

— She's not my girlfriend yet and I am working on the CD player thing — he reassured you without any signs of being nervous or angry.

— But if she's like- """an almost something""", don't you think it's right to only kiss her for now? At least until you have it sorted it out? — you seemed desperate —. I don't even know her name, gods... — you muttered.

— You are way too worried — Luke affirmed calmly —. You should calm down. I am your friend, and I'm asking you this because I need to. If we get in trouble, just say it was my idea, no need to take the blame.

— It's not a crime, but it feels so wrong. Luke. I don't think this is okay. — Well, you did sign up for the first time. But a second time? It was too much.

— Come on, it's not a crime, you said it — the Hermes Cabin Counselor repeated your words and sat down on his bed, you were still standing up —. I can get you anything this time too, please — he pleaded, now he seemed desperate.

— What is her name?

— Why do you want to know?

— Why wouldn't I? If this girl is real I should know her name by now, Castellan.

You almost never called him by his last name. He didn't hate it, but it seemed weird coming out of your mouth.

— She's called Sofia, it's like Sophie but-

— In a Spanish version, yeah yeah — you sighed —. I don't know her, but I don't care. There are so many in the Aphrodite Cabin that I wouldn't even like to meet.

— Well, you didn't like them since the beginning. But she's nice.

— Yeah. I get that.

You fiddled as a way to stop your nervousness, it wasn't helping. You sat beside Luke.

— So, what does she want this time? — you asked to know what it was all about.

— I was thinking of... something more intense. Perhaps tongue?

You stopped moving your fingers and a slight blush felt through your cheeks. "Damnit"

— I am *not* the indicated person for that. Thank you but I have to-

— I'll get you the rare CD of that band you like.

You raised your eyebrow:—. Which one?

— Blur? Was that it?

— MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH DELUXE? — your mouth exclaimed surprise —. No fucking way, Luke. You are going to get me a 24 dollar special CD for teaching you how to do something.

— But I can and will.

You thought about it a little. Modern Life is Rubbish wasn't that hard to get, maybe your help was worth a little more than that.

— Wait- do you know guys my age who could like me?

Luke furrowed his eyebrows:—. I could get one. Why?

You hesitated for a bit:—. I want you to get me a date. I've been single for so long I'm helping you how to kiss. But you pay the date. I'm going to save for a Japanese Blur CD. You get me a date and pay for it — you proposed.

You weren't happy with leaving your silly crush, but you had to move on. Specially after the Kissing Classes™️.

— Alright. That's more difficult than the CD but I already owe you a player — the curly haired boy sighed and turned to you, marking a beginning to the lesson.

— So, if you want to deepen a kiss... — you started explaining —. I think a girl would like you to grab her by the waist or hips. Then you can give place to your tongue or something.

— Could you show me? — there was his stupid smile again —. Kiss me how I should kiss her — you made a disgusted face but then erased it and got closer to Luke.

— You get close to her. Maybe grab her waist — you did so with Luke's —. Look at her lips. Wait for her to give the yes, because it's important and... — you kissed him.

The kiss was more experienced than last time, maybe because you commanded it with your hands at your friend's waist and a slightly wider mouth than the first.

At some point, you introduce your tongue to Luke's mouth. He's into it, which is weird to you. You decide to ignore it.

The kiss deepens so much that at some point you grab his dark curls. Then pull away.

— You go with tongue when it's intense enough. You'll know the exact time — you wiped your now red lips.

The Hermes Cabin Counselor was starstruck. Like you just took him to the moon and back, when it was just a kiss over a lesson.

— You should tell me about Sofia — you told him with half a smile —. And the boy you are going to introduce me to.

— I'm not sure how I'm going to do that — he came back to Earth.

— Deal with it. I already taught you how to do this stuff. It's only fair for me to get what I want.

Luke nodded. He seemed upset for a second.

— Good luck — you said and greeted him once again to go to your cabin. This time it was earlier than usual.

Fuck Luke Castellan. You couldn't take this one-or-two-times-thing anymore. He was probably using you for his identity discovery or something. But this time you were more convincing, you tried so hard not to feel the actual kiss. Maybe you did. But that didn't matter. You were soon going to meet a boy Luke Castellan felt right for you, who was anywho but him.

Such an 'in my life, why do I give valuable time to people who don't care if I live or die?' day. Maybe it was time to listen to The Smiths, if you only had the CD player.

You fell on your bed. Another day, new chores to do. You were replacing the head counselor of your cabin tomorrow, since they were on a quest. Hopefully it was temporary.

But there was a certain boy you couldn't help but think of. He wasn't a child of Aphrodite, yet you always liked him. Maybe it was hopeless to keep being his friend, it only took you to these situations where you end up bad.

"I fucking hate Luke Castellan. He gives me the CD player and the date and I'm going to ghost him" you thought, if it was even possible to ghost him in real life.

You fell asleep, finally.

#luke castellan x reader #luke castellan #pjo #pjo tv show #percy series #percy jackon and the olympians #Spotify

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ceruleanwhore · 9 months

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Since I’ve seen so much Silvio hate since his route release, I wanted to take a minute to talk about why all 3 of the visiting foreign princes make me uncomfortable because I believe in equality. Please keep in mind that I am on a break from the ikepri app rn so I have not actually played Silvio’s route, though I did read a translation of it on here previously, but I’m going to try to avoid using stuff from that.

Starting with the man of the hour, first to be released, I’d sum up my feelings about his character as “eat the rich — literally not sexually ya numpty.” He is the embodiment of everything I’ve ever hated about capitalism and the 1% and genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, it would delight me to watch him die because of how he represents that. His jangling, the way he throws his money around (the fact he has, what, 10 billion for Rio to waste on a gem at auction in Rio’s route), and, most importantly, the complete lack of any apparent morality or humanity. He demands everyone respect him because of that money (respect as in deference that comes with authority) while he throws around his bullshit bootstrap rhetoric and refuses to treat anyone at all with respect (respect as in the basic human decency kind). There’s also a seriously sadistic streak in him and so it’s not enough to be a billionaire prince, he also has to take this random woman as his indentured servant and constantly upset her on purpose and demean her to punish her for someone else’s accident.

Next up is Gilbert who, to me, is just plain annoying more than anything else. He and Chev never really scared me or anything with all the violence since it’s super predictable with them, so that doesn’t really bother me, per se, but the way he’s a pushy little dick in social situations pisses me off and if I were Emma I’d be dead because I would’ve yelled at him within like 5 seconds of meeting him. The hell of it’s that he’s supposed to be this master manipulator but he doesn’t seem to even be all that good at manipulation since his is so ham-fisted, he’s just a pushy asshole. My thing with both him and Silvio is that I fucking hate money and I fucking hate authority and I believe that no one, including myself, should have it the way they do, and it makes me immensely angry to watch them use those things to abuse others.

Now, I saved Keith for last because he’s actually the worst of the three in my opinion and he genuinely scares the shit out of me, and not because he happens to have DID, but because of what sort of people main!Keith and alter!Keith are.

WARNING! MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE AND TRUE CRIME

Main!Keith just strikes me as being the kind of guy who would beat his gf and eventually kill her and, every time I see him, he reminds me of the Yellow Dress assembly my high school did about domestic abuse. He seems like the shy, insecure nerd who, in the early days, would worship the ground his gf walks on and just be so grateful that she decided to give him a chance, etc., until that turns into possessive jealousy over time, which then would feed into him isolating her, turning more violent, and then maybe killing her and hiding her body in the woods. Genuinely, the last event story I read with Keith made me INTENSELY uncomfortable from the very beginning because he had these vibes and I don’t know if I’ll be able to read his story because, in my head, Emma will already be dead, basically.

As for alter!Keith, he seems like the kind of guy who would literally be a serial killer, just going off the event stuff I’ve read, plus the second prologue and other act II routes. I could genuinely see him killing with no real rhyme or reason, unlike Chev and Gilbert who are so completely predictable. If main!Keith gives me true crime vibes in a OJ Simpson way, alter!Keith is more like a David Parker-Ray sort of true crime, and they both scare the living shit out of me. I can’t tell you how uncomfortable it is seeing so many people in the fandom talk about how much they love Keith and how nice and cute they think he is when, to me, he’s one of the scariest fictional characters I’ve ever encountered, mainly because I know he’s supposed to be a romantic lead in spite of everything I just said. Silvio and Gilbert would annoy me to death but Keith would do arts and crafts with my skin and hide my chopped-up body in the woods.

#ikemen prince #ikepri #ikeprince #ikepri critical #ikepri salt

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horizon-verizon · 1 month

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Thoughts on Daenerys publicly executing the former slave and how she went about it in S05x02?

In a word? Not great. Boo.

The show rewrite & repurposing of Mossader &seems like it was meant to rewrite progression of the "error" Daenerys makes with her dragons by essentially adding another one that I'm sure they didn't think was an serious error. A way for them to try to make Dany seem a worse leader & thinker than she really is. I don't like how the show basically tried to make her look tyrannical by making her violently suppress the actions of someone who was both devoted to her and really had already been shut down before when he was saying the right thing. Which was to just get rid of this harpy-hire dude at the very least and at most what she said abt sending a message.

I also hated how it made Mossader look irrational & nearly "savage" through a display of fanatics--in how he almost dreamily said he did it "for her", posing Daenyers' goddess-like stature as easily shiftable to threatening. Foreshadowing that horrible erroneous ending of her becoming a Hitler figure. Like the scene was saying to us she inspires generationally brutalized and dehumanized brown people to the point of irrational "frenzy" and she cannot even be nuanced or sympathetic as she had been before in her ruling for Mossader. This pathetic-ized person who had at one point called her Mhysa and believed in her.

But the narrative the show pushes is not even fair itself to this man (hypocritically) & is just using him to denigrate Dany; becasue why are we making the only male brown former slave besides Grey Worm do such a thing AND be as I said "fanatical" towards the white Dany??! This man, who was put on their council as the voice and reason of those freed Meereenese...appears to us as totally unreasonable bc we know and he "should" have known that there were consequences for disrupting the Westerosi-style of "fair trial" and "honor"...The trial would be a false one, bc this guy will not be let off or go free. His crimes are obvious. Even if we did posit him going free, he'd likely just go back to being a hire for the harpy!

Plus we saw how actual ineffectual and emotion-based/false honor-based actual Westerosi trials can be through both of the trials against Tyrion: at the Eyries; esp the one at the Red Keep after Joffrey dies. So much for fairness of the superior Westerosi style of justice! (another hypocrisy of the writing itself)

So the show has Dany simultaneously "fails" Mossader, and utterly. As if the bonds she has with the slaves and her mission really don't mean anything to her.

After all, does she not marry Hizdahr, reopen the fighting pits (later) to stop the killings of the freedmen...Then she kills the freedman who was supposed to rep them all??

And the points Hizdahr & Barristan Selmy tried to make against killing the dude besides the trial..."poor and young"; "Why should he want to bring back slavery? What did it do for him?"; " I don't know it, and I'm the head of a great family."...why are we even indulging in these stupid protests?!!! We know his presence is so the other nobles feel they have say and influence over Dany, but there was no rebuttal (or at least a sign from her dismissing Hizdahr, whether he sees it or not) from show!Dany against his absurd "logic" about "going easy" on this guy. Huh?!

Subsequently, she loses a lot of faith from the freedmen who beg for not only Mossader's life but for her to not bend to the masters' clear attempt to confuse the priority. Which is their total freedom at those masters' expense. Which is exactly what D&D wanted bc they hate her, refuse to understand her, and lost interest in this series.

It was just a huge mess!

CONTEXT for comparison

Mossador died differently in the original book series ("A Dance with Dragons -- Daenerys II"):

In the show, he gets executed because show!Daenerys wanted to re-establish a peace of between the freedmen and the former (not so former) slavers and elites of Meereen. Some, if not all, of these elites formed the group "Sons of the Harpy", and in the show one of these are captured. Show!Mossader didn't believe that any of the Masters would just lie down and allow Daenerys' end to legal slavery in Meereen stick. And that they'd eventually somehow either get this prisoner out OR this Master would be somehow saved in the process of a the trial that was planned for him:

MOSSADOR: Sons of the Harpy, they want to put a collar back on my neck. On all of our necks. Please, Your Grace, you must kill him. DAENERYS: It would send a message. BARRISTAN: I think you should exercise restraint, Your Grace. DAENERYS: Why? BARRISTAN: For one thing, he may have valuable information. DAARIO: The Son of the Harpy has no more valuable information. BARRISTAN: How do you know that? DAARIO: Because I questioned him. HIZDAHR: And the information you did get, he is young and poor. MOSSADOR: He is born free. HIZDAHR: Why should he want to bring back slavery? What did it do for him? DAENERYS: Perhaps the only thing that gave him pride was knowing that there was someone lower than he was. MOSSADOR: They pay him. Great families afraid to do a thing. They pay poor man to do it for them. HIZDAHR: And how do you know this? MOSSADOR: Everyone knows this. HIZDAHR: I don't know it, and I'm the head of a great family. BARRISTAN: We do not know what this man did or didn't do. (to Daenerys) Give him a trial, at least. A fair trial. Show all of the citizens of Meereen that you are better than those who would depose. Teach them a better way. MOSSADOR: I do not know the place from where Old Ser comes. Things maybe are different there, I hope. But here, in Meereen, before Daenerys Stormborn, they own us. So we learn much about them or we do not live long. They teach me what they are. Mercy, fair trial: these mean nothing to them. All they understand is blood!

So he preemptively and vengefully kills the prisoner, and as you see here, he expresses no regrets about disobeying Daenerys and doing it:

DAENERYS: Why? MOSSADOR (Valyrian): For you, Mhysa. You wanted the Harpy dead, but your hands were tied. I set you free, as you did all of us. DAENERYS: He was our prisoner, awaiting trial. You had no right. MOSSADOR: He would rather rip your city apart than see slaves lifted from the dirt. DAENERYS: There are no more slaves. There are no more Masters. MOSSADOR: Then who lives in the Pyramids? Who wears gold masks and murders your children? When Grey Worm came to us, I was the first to take up the knife for you. I remember the look on my father's face as I struck down his Master, who had traded his infant son for a dog. My father died in the fighting. If we allow the Sons of the Harpy to return us to chains, he never lived. DAENERYS: The Harpy's life was not yours to take. Once, the Masters were the law-- MOSSADOR: And now you are the law! DAENERYS: The law is the law. Take him.

Mossador died differently in the original book series ("A Dance with Dragons -- Daenerys II"):

He's one of the many freedmen murdered by the Sons. And it's not until the 4th episode that her 2nd husband will appear, and he matters bc this is about how she gets on Drogon and re-orient her goals.

b) Attempt at a Summary (How Dany Actually gets to Marry Hizdahr, his role, and Riding Drogon out of the Pit.)

Bk!Dany does have an arc where she at first tries to acclimate or compromise with the former slave masters for the sake of peace in Meereen but comes to realize that her efforts is simply not going to work. She reopens the fighting pits where former slave gladiators would fight after Hizdahr zo Loraq petitions her several times and brings some famous gladiators to beg her to reopen them. She, like in the show, marries Hizdahr and makes him her royal consort when he meets her condition of bringing some 90 days of peace (the high priestess, the Green Grace Galazza Galare suggested a marriage to him). Absolutely no murders or attacks against freedmen nor those few nobles who actually are obeying Dany. In this observation and despite what another noble, Skahaz mo Kandaq, warned about Hizdahr being the the Harpy, leader of the Sons of the Harpy. He was one fo the nobles who decided to abandon the slavery society and "ways" other nobles want to keep going. Again, she wanted that peace and dismissed his warning, and Hizdahr starts to show his true colors in his dismissing Skahaz from his position as the leader of the new Meerenese "city watch", or police, and appointing one of his own cousins. He says that this is to get more of the nobles on her side. (He's not the Harpy, but he's definitely closely tied to them.)

They reopen the fighting pits to celebrate the wedding; Hizdahr insists the fighters volunteered. Hizdahr offers Dany locust treats, it turns out they are poisoned later on when we see Strong Belwas get very sick from them and it's only due to his large and heavyset body that he survives. Dany sees that he's very into the violence, in a way that gets mixed with a sexual excitement at it. During another fight, Drogon appears, Hizdahr calls for people to kill Drogon, and Daenerys jumps into the pit to calm and try to bring Drogon to heel, she's flies off, Drogon basically leading her. Dany, half starved & dehydrated, dreams of her brother and hallucinates Jorah Mormount (those close to her who've betrayed her) but it's also her reflecting on her persistent guilt for the girl Drogon killed that motivated her into the mistake of locking up her dragons. Narrowly escaping a Dothraki scout, she and Drogo fly to another place, eating horse, and that's where the scout's khal, Jhaqo, and his warriors find her. Resumably to try to rape & kill her or to to take her back to Vaes Dothrak to the dosh khaleen and become one of them forever.

In all the time Dany was gone, Hizdahr has been trying to use his marriage to Daenerys to rule Meereen in her absence and a plot (he likely enabled even by just taking instructions) to retake the city gets foiled under Barristan Selmy, Missandei, and Grey Worm's leadership. There are prisoners they take & essentially they are now running the city in Dany's name, waiting for her return. Hizdahr is one of those prisoners. But in the show, Hizdahr died at the pits when a Harpy stabs him.

#asoiaf asks to me #Hizdahr zo Loraq #Hizdahr's characterization #Mossador #got s5e2 #Galazza Galare #Skahaz mo Kandaq #game of thrones 2015 #got #game of thrones

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 21 hours

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"Then you should understand people choosing the bear"

I'm a sexual assault survivor. When I was 15, a 55-year-old woman assaulted me and three of my friends at a party where she served a bunch of 15-year-olds alcohol. Way to go Granny.

And I don't hate women. I've stepped in to defend women against attacks from men in city streets or bars. I can't say if they're all sexually related or sexually motivated - they probably were.

But when we get to the question of this, I mean, like I do empathize for victims. I get that.

But the question isn't real. And we all know the question isn't real. It's hypothetical.

I was just at a store. There are hundreds or thousands of people at this Walmart, men and women walking around, doing their thing minding their own business. Not a single woman in there was shifty eyed, dysphoric or afraid of any of the men in that store.

I was just at a restaurant. I was at a bank. I was at a coffee shop. I was walking through a park. No one was afraid of men.

Replace any of those men with one bear and see what happens.

So, because we know it's hypothetical, let's have an adult conversation. Ready?

The existence of the question at all creates bias against men. I can trick you just the same way. I'd say, what do you think more Islamic men use to murder their wives with, guns or knives or rope?

The fact that I asked the question, you go, well why is he asking that question? Do they murder their wives a lot?

The queston is: safety, bear, man, alone. Right, those are the four real words in that question. It is embedding a bias against men. Every woman that has answered that question "bear" has stepped out in public since, has interracted with hundreds of men. The average woman will interact with 300 men per day.

Maybe they'd opted for the bear just cause they wanna mix it up. They're like, I'm getting so bored with the thousands of men that I see every week that maybe I just wanna see a bear.

I don't think you understand the gravity of this question. As a abuse survivor, I'm standing up against a false claim against the nature of men, where one in a thousand men - or maybe just a hair over one in one thousand men - will commit a crime of this nature. It's a very thin number of men.

And as a man whose family was responsible for starting World War I - you know, the assassination by the Black Hand, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, my family paid for that assassination. We started World War I, which is why World War II happened. Because I'm so closely tied to that genocide, I've studied it.

And, Hitler and the Germans use the same type of questionings and comparative logic to wage war against Jews. I am literally trying to stop thousands of women who don't know any better but than to participate in a trend from creating this wave of propaganda against men.

Someone is trying to use this question against men, and women think it's a cool, dramatic way to say, "I'm afraid of men." But they're really actually not afraid of men. Cause they wouldn't go outside. They wouldn't go shopping. They wouldn't walk through the park. They wouldn't do anything. They'd be so actually mortified of men.

The question appeals to a logical fallacy called the Fallacy of Relative Privation. They're trying to say that because a single man could do more harm than a single bear, that all men are more dangerous than all bears on average. Regardless of the context of the interaction. That strips away all sense of goodwill or truth to the fact that women interact with 300 men per day on average. That strips away the truth that a woman, per male exposure, if you walk down the sidewalk and you see a guy, you have a 1 in 35 million chance of being forcibly [g]raped in that walk by on the sidewalk.

That Fallacy of Relative Privation strips all logic to the fact that men are, by and large, safe. But yeah, 81% of women will report being sexually harassed or assaulted. 43% of men just the same.

The number of people who will experience unwanted sexual contact, men and women, are roughly the same[**]. Men will underreport at three times the rate of women. Men are victimized just as much, but we're stigmatized against talking about it.

Both sides are victims, but men are not doing this campaign to smear women to try to damage the entire, like, gender of women.

Except for me, now. I'm doing what's called logical parallels. My whole argument for the last two weeks has been such: since women assault children, their children, their biological kids at 2.5 times the rate that all men assault women sexually, then women should lose custody of their kids until they stop it. Because, the phrase going around online right now is all men until no men. So, until no women, all women. Women do not deserve custody of their biological kids if any of them are capable of harming a child. Because children are innocent and honestly, all parallels aside, it's the abuse of children that is propagating people who are becoming monsters later on in life.

So, if anyone could make a decision right now to make the world a better place in the next 15 years, it's women not abusing their kids. It's already too late for us as adults. We're already screwed. We all have our trauma that we have to work through, and that's gonna be a dog fight. But if we wanna guarantee the world's gonna be a better place, let's stop abusing kids.

So, the reason why women are choosing the bears is cause it's not a real question and they won't have consequences if they answer in a dramatic way for effect.

Just like the 30-something percent of boys are like, well, dude, if like, there's no consequences, I'd totally take advantage of a chick. See, yeah, maybe people are bad people by nature, but people still obey the law. And that's why if 32% of college men would commit SA if there's no consequences, but then only one out of every thousand men will commit that crime, that shows how much people have discipline over their nature.

And you cannot say the same thing about a bear.

** The following numbers are taken from the CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016/2017.

P.S. I'll just leave this here.

#bear vs man #man vs bear #man or bear #bear or man #relative privation #fallacy of relative privation #misandry #facts #yikes #unwifeable #religion is a mental illness

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ad0rechuu · 8 months

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★ MILKY WAY. ━━ (000) ASK THEM ANYTHING part 2

💌 ZERO SAYS. wow it’s over! it feels bittersweet and emotional! i can’t believe it to be honest, it doesn’t feel real yet but i am very grateful for everything and also for the questions! i deleted the asks bcs i’ll answer it here but i got nearly teary eyed reading trough them again! i wanna be sappy and continue talking but ill keep it to myself for now because i think i should say everything in the afterword <3 i love you and i hope you’ll enjoy the last (special) chapter of mw! you can find part 1 here

❪ # i ❫ : What inspired your solo "Milky Way"? ━━ to yn

from @meginthebuilding27

YN : i was watching a drama when i wrote the music but the lyrics wouldn’t come to me, that was until i started writing with hwa, san and mingi, afterwards it was easy and i just wrote how they made me feel

❪ # ii ❫ : Did you ever think about the fact that she would find your fan accounts / So my question is would you all have ever told Yn about your fan accounts if sera never put two and two together? ━━ to psh, csn & smg

from @meginthebuilding27 & anon

SEONGHWA : I feel ashamed saying this but I don’t think I expected our relationship to ever progress to the point where telling her could be considered a possibility to be honest

SAN : I considered telling her when she found out about my crush but then I just couldn’t

MINGI : No it never even crossed my mind

❪ # iii ❫ : What did you feel when you finally released your first single? And how do you expect it to be perceived as from fans, what feelings should we get? ━━ to yn

from @jaehunnyy

YN : It was insane, I released it as a distraction for myself but instead it made me miss them more. As for the fans, it was a lot better perceived than I expected but I think everyone should make up their own meaning about it, it’s more fun that way. (However I wrote it with the intention of capturing the feeling of falling in love)

❪ # iv ❫ : What team are you guys on? Team Hwa, San, or Mingi? If possible please justify your answers ? ━━ to ateez (except psh, cs & smg)

from @seonghwaddict

HONGJOONG : Team Hwa! I hate to pick favorites but I was going to try to set Seonghwa up with Yn before I knew that she was his idol just because I think they would fit together like puzzle pieces

YUNHO : Team Mingi! Because he’d commit a war crime if I would say anything else

YEOSANG : Team Yuna! I like chaos and she can do so much better than these losers

WOOYOUNG : Team San! I trust Yn with san, San can’t be handled by just anyone you know, it takes a special kind of person

JONGHO : Team leave-Jongho-out-of-this.

❪ # v ❫ : I just wanna know their love languages! ━━ to yn, psh, csn & smg

from @tocupid

YN : I think my love language is words of affirmation! I like them all!

SEONGHWA : Definitely quality time, I think the ultimate type of love is the type where you can just be around your person doing whatever comfortably

SAN : Physical Touch!

MINGI : Korean!- Oh that type of language… hmm maybe gift giving, I’d love to spoil her

❪ # vi ❫ : What qualities of Yn made Seonghwa, San, and Mingi fall in love? (You don't have to go into major detail but I want to know about this from your perspective as the author) ━━ to psh, csn & smg (but answered by zero)

from @alixnsuperstxr

FOR SEONGHWA : I think Yns kindness and caring side made Seonghwa go from being a fan to being in love with Yn, the way she treats the people around her makes him want to take care of her in return. He tried really hard to separate the Yn he got to know as an idol and the Yn he got to know as a friend but he found that they were identical which made him want her even more

FOR SAN : For San it was Yns passion and love, this one is quite straightforward! San adored Yn the moment he saw her but what pushed him over the edge and made him fall in love was that she has so much love for everyone around her and craft

MINGI : Yns sense of identity and vulnerability, Mingi would always worry about the hate Yn received and get worked up about it (he still kinda does) but after seeing how she handles everything he was so impressed, the administration turned into love. She allows herself to feel hurt without changing herself because of what others think and he thinks she’s the coolest for it

❪ # vii ❫ : I know that in the group chat, each member has a different endgame and an idea of who Yn should pick, but why is that?? What makes them think they are suitable for Yn?? ━━ to ksg, fts, psj & syn

from @alixnsuperstxr

SEULGI : I chose Seonghwa because I know him the best out of the three, I’m not saying the others are not great but he’s just so sweet, I trust him to take care of my little sister well

FATOU : To be honest at first I chose Mingi just because he’s hot but then I noticed that she never has not a smile on her face when talking about him, which is sickeningly adorable

SWAN : *sigh* I’m guessing I can’t choose Park Taegyu huh? Just kidding! I choose whoever makes the Yn happiest

YUNA : Obviously I’m team YNNA first and foremost but I like how open san is about his feelings, something about him makes me think that Yn would always be his top priority

❪ # viii ❫ : How long has Sera had feelings for Yn?? ━━ to srw

from @alixnsuperstxr

SERA : I guess it started a while before I left, I’m not sure but I remember that it was very intense feeling that I haven’t felt since then

❪ # ix ❫ : if you could go back in time do you think you would change your mind about leaving (during trainee years)? If no, you would still leave, would you keep contact with yn this time? ━━ to srw

from @kodzumo

SERA : There is no point in crying over spilled milk but I do think the idol career was never meant for me, so yes I would leave but I’d keep contact with Yn and love her without being a coward… maybe in our next lives

❪ # x ❫ : What were you guy’s favorite songs off ‘Le Astre’? ━━ to psh, csn & smg

from @ kodzumo

SEONGHWA : I love the intro Body Language but I don’t think that counts so I choose Blue Flame

SAN : Loveade, no question!

MINGI : Other than the title track, I’d choose Deep!

❪ # xi ❫ : Has Lee Hyori answered any of your mail yet? ━━ to jwy

from @ kodzumo

WOOYOUNG : Sadly, no. However I’m now friends with Yn and Seulgi and Seulgi knows Boa who probably knows Lee Hyori so I’m staying hopeful!

seulgi’s note : Am I planning to give Wooyoung Boa’s number-?! Why in the world does he need her number?

❪ # xii ❫ : How is it seeing how far Yn has grown as a person from when you guys were younger? ━━ to khj

from @ kodzumo

HONGJOONG : It makes me super proud of her, I didn’t know she’d become an idol but I always knew she’d do great things- Don’t tell her I said that though

❪ # xiii ❫ : When are you free for a date (I’m literally spiderman pls)? ━━ to jyh

from @ kodzumo

YUNHO : I’m can plan something every day other than Monday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s (because I work on those days), I love you so much Spiderman!

❪ # xiv ❫ : Have you shown yn your star wars lego collection yet (i also collect them hehe)? ━━ to psh

from @ kodzumo

SEONGHWA : We should be friends then! But I told her about it and she thought it was very cool, hopefully the next time I can show her them

❪ # xv ❫ : Not a question but I love you guys <3 ━━ to kys & cjh

from @ kodzumo

YEOSANG : You love m-me?

JONGHO : …Okay

author’s note : despite their answers both participants are blushing profusely

❪ # xvi ❫ : Also not a question but you guys are so cool I love you guys so much as well ━━ to star

from @ kodzumo

STAR : Thank you so much! We love you too of course!

yuna’s note : You love us more than them right??

swan’s note : Please feel free to ignore Yuna’s note

❪ # xvii ❫ : I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you and I hope you have the best day, mwah <3 ━━ to yn

from @ kodzumo

seulgi’s note : Yn is currently crying about how much she appreciates this message but I’m here to say that she is having a great day and she’s proud of you too

fatou’s note : She’s going on a date soon!

❪ # xviii ❫ : Now that we know that sera likes Yn, how do you feel? Also how does it feel to be part of this whole thing where MinSanHwa like Yn, Yn liked you, you like sera, and sera likes Yn????? ━━ to ptg

from anon

TAEGYU : Sera likes Yn? Her liking someone other than me hurts less than I expected… to be honest I kinda started to lose feelings after Sera started getting distant around the time Yn confessed. Anyway I’m not surprised she likes Yn, after all my dongsaeng is great! And the whole Yns crushes situation stressed me out a little, so the only thing I really have to say is that I’m glad it worked out but I wish that Yn and me were both less oblivious haha! I also don’t think they like me very much

❪ # xix ❫ : Did you guys have any hope that Yn was going to forgive you the moment your accounts were revealed to her? ━━ to psh, csn & smg

from @ jaehunnyy

SEONGHWA : I didn’t think about hoping in the slightest, when she said that she needed time I thought it was just a nice way of saying “I don’t want to see ever again’

SAN : I definitely hoped that she did, because she’s a really sweet person and I couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t but I didn’t think she’d ever consider a relationship like this again

MINGI : I don’t know if I would be able to forgive me but I always wanted keep hope so I was torn the entire time

❪ # xx ❫ : When did you guys know that Yn was the one for you? ━━ to psh, csn & smg

from @ jaehunnyy

SEONGHWA : I started feeling something when she was so genuine to everyone in one of our first conversations (ch 013)

SAN : Oh my god it was when I met her in real life for the first time, I think I liked her before but this was different! (ch 025)

MINGI : I’m not sure, at first I just liked spending time with her and talking to her but then all of a sudden I couldn’t imagine a world without her anymore (ch ???)

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never-forget-viva-la-pluto · 6 months

Text

For the people in my asks

Yes the last of us 2 is still my favorite game and the article being shared is from a perspective of someone being hypercritical of the zionist message(rightfully) while completely ignoring that the game is actually NOT a zionist message.

My main arguments against this article:

-Dina being proud of her Jewish heritage happens long before the game even introduces the serephites and wfl, thus there is no narrative tie-in to Dina being Jewish and the conflict among the two factions. Free palestine is not an anti jew thing, its an anti-israel apartheid state thing. And by extension, acknowledging that anti Semitic genocides did happen and still do, is not anti palistine, like the article author implies the game is suggesting.

-"at the end of the day Ellie's journey of revenge seems especially cruel, even idiotic, because we are never given a good reason for why she keeps recommitting to it" Yeah, only if you don't know what ptsd is or that she recommits to revenge because she grew up in a world that simply COULD NOT churn out anyone well adjusted.

-this is an article from a jewish-pro palestine woman that argues that this is a bad take from a guy who clearly took his own interpretation as the only interpretation there was. She is the same author as this article that's been on many anti zionism posts going around this website. She asserts that the game itself is not actually pro isreal, but is "a catalyst for more difficult conversions."

-the main point of the article is that the game is bad and zionist bc it treats the conflict as essentially a cycle of hate in us people and that that is a mentality that is learned, not inate. Which is bullshit bc there are many stories that have those exact tropes that aren't zionist at all. And the last of us isn't either.

THAT BEING SAID: NEIL DRUNKMANN IS A ZIONIST BASTARD! Outright he has supported Isreal despite the irony that the game he made was the condemnation of exactly what he is now supporting. This guy in the video puts it best how drunkmann accidentally made a game that went against his own beliefs along with some other good things to say on the topic of celebrities sudden support of isreal:

youtube

The last of us 2 is still my favorite game and i stand by that. HOWEVER, I will likely NOT be watching the second season of the show bc the game was so phenomenally good, by accident, it seems. I have no doubts that the show will be more pro isreal as drunkmann doubles down on his pro genocide stance, and that is kind of the opposition of the game's point.

If you like the last of us 1 and 2, then support Palistine!(or if you hate the game, there is a fucking genocide happening and this all feels very small in comparison to the war crimes being committed. Do something more productive than hang out in my inboxes or tell me to off myself):

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shoichee · 2 years

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Can i get a soulmate fic for kise please? What i was thinking was that they have this "hate" relationship (where they passed the line between love and hate, but they just don't know it yet). Like they argue because it's like routine for them already. Manga (and jealous?? but doesn't know that what he's feeling is jealousy :P) kise please!! It's up to you what kind of soulmate thing, but maybe something that takes time to show since they've been interacting and all that. Thanks so much!!

Paradox

[Kise x f!Reader]

soulmate!au, enemies to lovers!au, manga!kise, cursing!kise to bits, LONG SERIES FIC

Hana is the name I decided to give to the brunette who flirted with Haizaki in s3

Synopsis: Kise despises people like you more than anyone else, the type of people who are shallow, coquettish, and so high-strung on acquiring a soulmate more than anyone else. Nothing good ever comes out of someone who hangs out with the brunette girl along with Haizaki.

You despise two-faced people like him... that's what you like to tell yourself. After all, you're only honest about what you want with people, and if it can help you get a soulmate faster... Where's the crime in that? High-and-mighty people like Kise who didn't believe in soulmates were pretentious, and he was no exception. And you'll do whatever it takes to get what you want, even if it means throwing away your heart in the process, because happiness will come to you once you're with your soulmate... you just know it.

Chapters 3-4 can be found here!

Word Count:

Part 1: 3386 | Part 2: 2131

A/N: This post includes both chapters 1 and 2! Well, it's here... I have the entire brainstorm of where I need this plot to go, but writing it out in fic form as opposed to long headcanons? ... Not my strongest suit but here I go? Please support this series through reblogs/likes and comments! I'd love to interact with everyone!

current 🏷: @nadav-ii, @carinacassiopeiae, @kendrex13, @roppongiperfume, @thesongstressayre, @kimigiri09, @takatul, @evierena, @one-one-one-one @seijurosempress @inum4k1

Chapter 1, Kise’s POV

»»—————　☼　—————««

Addressed to Kise Ryōta:

You will meet your soulmate in a place where there are many other people. You will have your first real encounter with them in a place where you always spend your time through the years. Be careful to keep track of where you are at all times. Your soulmate is always with company, and they are never lonely. You must be careful to not actively seek out for your fated encounter, for you’ll certainly miss them. You must remain committed and seek out things that keep you steady and motivated. Only then is it possible for your soulmate to come to you instead.

Kise would like to think he’s a romantic at heart—cheesy guy even, but on the other hand, he actively scoffs at the letter’s content… that he’s had memorized for years now. He has no choice on the matter of whether or not he’ll remember it. Not when his “letter” was just a measly paragraph. He remembered being awfully jealous and whiny of his past classmates bringing their 2-page letter to class to show off and getting the “ooh’s” and “ah’s” from everyone else. That was one sure-fire way to distinguish yourself from the crowd and make a name for yourself. Over the years, Kise’s learned that it would become a separate type of “popularity hierarchy,” whereas those with the most elaborate, mysterious, or unique soulmate letters are the ones at the top of the social ladder. Bonus points if it somehow involves all three factors.

And somehow, he also ended up at the popular side of that hierarchy too. Not like he cared, but it’s wildly convenient sometimes to get what you want from people. Still, no benefits from being popular this way could ever outweigh the massive inconveniences; he made the grievous mistake of revealing his letter contents to a casual friend in “good-natured fun.” And before he knew it, the entire school ended up knowing about it too… and then the entire neighborhood… and somehow, it went even into the ears beyond that.

Thus, it started his chronic illness of being tailed after by girls of all backgrounds. With no cure in sight for the ailment that he certainly didn’t ask for. It’s almost terrifying how a single day transformed every single girl into a parasitic bee on a search for the brightest, most colorful flower. Kise, already popular for his looks to begin with, suddenly was shoved under a more blinding spotlight of public scrutiny. If he was going to be completely honest… he liked it… at first. The newfound attention was euphoric and foreign, and he relished in it. But just like anything else, it got… boring.

Some might call it the ultimate blessing: it could make searching for a soulmate much easier and less effort on his end, they’d argue. Kise had come to beg to differ. Not when hundreds of the same faces with hundreds of clamors claimed and cried that they were his soulmate. How do fourteen girls suddenly have the “other half of the puzzle” to his own letter when there were… thirteen other girls claiming the same thing?

See, one soulmate gets a letter describing a general location of where they’d meet their soulmate. The other soulmate gets a letter describing a general timeframe of when they’d meet. Not like it actually helps narrowing down the process of pairing up people. Because he knows this shit can take years—decades, in fact—before he can even get a first glimpse of his soulmate. And the ordeal of people constantly screaming in his face that the time they’d meet their soulmate is now and hence, “it must be Kise” got old really quickly.

It’s utterly stupid. Who does this sender think they are to decide how Kise gets to live his life? What type of sadistic game were they playing by forcing the other soulmate to have the other half of the information, which would be, no doubt, just as annoyingly cryptic?

He stopped denying all the rumors of a girl claiming to be his soulmate; for every rumor he clarified and quashed during his naive youth, three more sprung up the next week. Ignoring them sounds counterintuitive, but when he allows the many rumors and girls to multiply and fester, the number of annoyances are still relatively the same: nearly infinite.

Such has become the life of Kise Ryōta.

Worst part of this whole damn thing was, he won’t be able to know when he’d meet his soulmate, not until he shares a “kiss of genuine integrity” with them… and he doesn’t even know where to begin with that requirement. Supposedly, after you kiss the right person with the right intention, something changes in the mysterious letter that would indicate he found the soulmate. Problem is, it’s different for everyone: some get a drawing of their soulmate at the end of the letter; some simply have the name of their soulmate written at the end; some get an engraved stamp; and the list goes on and on. The main takeaway from it all is that his letter should have a visible change at the end… if he could even get to that point at this rate.

“Oh my gosh…! Is that—That’s Kise-kun!!”

“Eh?! Where, where?! Let me see!”

This is ludicrous. What kind of deity up there decided to put a twisted spin on this sappy, fairy tale trope? He gives a harsh exhale before he puts up a polite smile and continues on with his day. His first day at Teiko.

“Please join our club…!” Several girls huddle around the table, eager to show the good-looking boy their information trifold-cardboard and flyers. Unsurprisingly, every single one of them had eyes of ulterior motive. At the sight, Kise resists the urge to roll his eyes at them. He stands there for a bit, watching their mouths move, but in truth, he’s not hearing a single thing out of them.

This girl looks decent… her hair is a bit weird, though.

Oh, she sure has a strange accent… and this girl has odd eyebrows.

Ugh, this one talks too much at a too-high pitch.

“Ah… well…” He puts up a chagrined smile, not knowing where to look before he smoothly waves goodbye. “I have something else to check out. Keep yourselves well, ladies!” With that, he immediately prepares his ears for shrieks of admiration and lovesickness.

Good riddance.

———

As much as he hates to admit it, he still doesn’t know what that letter exactly means to this day. Some of the sentences that consider themselves as “hints” or “instructions” are way too vague to be considered such.

He begrudgingly opens up the envelope containing the letter for the umpteenth time again. Kise sits on his desk in his own room, illuminated by the sunlight filtering through the glass pane. Floating dust particles are instantly revealed where the light hits, but he doesn’t care, his attention only on what’s important. Chin on his desk, Kise lays the envelope and letter on the flat surface, trying to see what he could be missing. By now, the paper is slightly worn out from years of Kise thumbing, flipping, inserting, folding, unfurling—you name it, in hopes of finding any hidden clues as to who’s the sender and how to solve this “riddle” that ultimately determines the rest of his life. The seal wax on the envelope is beyond recognition, cracked and no longer aesthetically pleasing to look at.

An unassuming creme-white envelope laid tactfully on top of the same desk years ago, the light from his room window shining on it like a natural spotlight. Stray dust floated around, acting like confetti to announce its unexpected, (yet important) quiet arrival. Adorned with a wax seal, the middle of it was impressed in the center of the seal with a perfect copy of his “hanko” that clearly had the kanji for his name. Which was weird… wasn’t counterfeiting hankos illegal? Being beyond skeptical even for his young age at the time of the discovery, Kise thoroughly checked every crease and fold of the paper. Yes, he even dared to open the window and looked around in case someone had the gall to play a prank on him. Opening up the envelope did nothing to calm him down as soon as he realized it was the infamous “soulmate letter.”

So God help him.

“Well…” he sighs, picking up the letter closer to his face, chin still firmly on the wood. “It wouldn’t hurt to double-check one more time, right?”

[You will meet your soulmate in a place where there are many other people.]

He frowns not even a second into the letter. Well that’s not EXACTLY helpful, is it? he ruefully thinks, recalling the constant faces surrounding him with hopeful, shining eyes. How am I going to figure out which of them is the right person? He groans in frustration before reluctantly moving on to the next part.

[You will have your first real encounter with them in a place where you always spend your time through the years. Be careful to keep track of where you are at all times.]

This also makes no damn sense. He blows a strand out of his hair in annoyance, but he stops at a realization. I guess I’ve been in the studio for a long time… It has been a couple years since he started out as a casual model, so perhaps he’s on the right track. He allows himself a small grin of triumph.

[Your soulmate is always with company, and they are never lonely. You must be careful to not actively seek out for your fated encounter, for you’ll certainly miss them.]

His grin grows wider. This is it…! It only makes sense that they’re also involved within the modeling industry. Are they a photographer, makeup artist, stylist… or even, are they also a model like him? It would only make sense if they’re never alone like he is. And maybe trying to seek them out when they also attract other people to them would make it harder to face them alone? He frowns. Or maybe it’s because they’re one of my many admirers? That one is still a bit muddy. But he remains hopeful.

[You must remain committed, and seek out things that keep you steady and motivated. Only then is it possible for your soulmate to come to you instead.]

The most cryptic part of the letter. If he’s going to try to base this off of the premise of his soulmate being near his modeling job, maybe he should pursue the pastime beyond just a hobby and turn it into a career? But other than that, all the things he’s tried out, especially sports, have gotten boring and thus, been abandoned. He bangs his forehead on the table, grin wiped off of his face realizing how he instantly got kicked back into square one.

This… this doesn’t make any sense!

———

It’s been two years at Teiko. Still no sign of this soulmate. He’s not surprised that by now, nearly the entire school somehow caught wind of the contents of his letter…. though, rumors have been getting wilder and wilder as days pass.

“Kise-kun.”

“Ee-ee-eeeee!!” The sudden voice makes him jump out of his skin before he whirls around in a panic. “Kurokocchi!! Could you stop doing that??”

Kuroko merely gives his signature blank look before he continues walking on like nothing happened.

“Y-You’re really gonna ignore me?!”

“It’s almost time for practice,” he says, turning back to face him expressing theatrical tears. “We don’t want to be late, or Akashi-kun will find out.”

At the mention of the captain’s name, Kise merely gulps before he catches up with Kuroko’s stride with no further complaints.

“But did you have to pop out of nowhere?”

Honestly, I still don’t get that part about him.

“I can’t help it,” he deadpans, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s not much different from your popularity.”

“When you put it like that,” he sighs, putting his arms behind his head. “I guess I can see it.” He eyes the back of Kuroko’s head—who’s been walking ahead—for several minutes before he finally musters up the courage to ask.

“Say, Kurokocchi…”

“Yes?” Kuroko continues keeping up his pace, but he slightly looks back to Kise in acknowledgment.

“Did you get your soulmate letter yet?”

At the question, Kuroko merely blinks before he replies. “I received an envelope in my locker yesterday. I thought it was strange since no one ever notices me to begin with, so I thought someone must’ve mistaken my locker for someone else’s.” Kise waits with bated breath for him to continue.

“And?”

Kuroko looks away for a second. “Yeah, it had my hanko on it. I opened it to make sure it wasn’t an error on the sender’s end. Sure enough…” he nods before finishing his reveal, “it was in fact, about my soulmate.”

“What did it say?!” Kise nearly jumps on Kuroko out of anticipation, but he barely manages to keep himself in check.

“That I’ll find my soulmate when I’m 17 to 18,” he says matter-of-factly. “So that means… I’d be a 3rd year in high school. But it also said I would already encounter them at several points in my life prior.”

Kise face-palms at his answer. “What the hell? How come yours is so straightforward?”

He only shrugs as a response, because they were already at the front steps of the gym. It looks like they got here on time. Kuroko announces the two of them before he helps pull out the ball carts. As shoe squeaks and ball dribbles echo throughout the interior, Kise stands there mulling over Kuroko’s information.

So Kurokocchi had the part of the soulmate information that only told the approximate time frame… Still, his was way too simple… or did he somehow decipher it really easily?

Kise makes a loud noise of frustration as he grabs and shakes his head, completely ignoring the concerned looks from the other first-string players.

Eurghh!! Why is mine too complicated?!

———

Kise looks at the letter in his hands again. Looking at it sort of pisses him off at this point, the wrinkled font clearly mocking and challenging him to solve it… if he could even do it to begin with. He holds the top of the paper with his two hands, his thumbs and forefingers gripping tighter. He can just rip it. He really can… who’s stopping him?

Actually, has there been anyone who ripped their letter like this before?

He intensely stares at it for a few moments, juggling his options and weighing the consequences if he did choose to shred his fate into pieces. He gives a resigned pout when he comes to the conclusion that maybe it’d be best if he didn’t test that theory out. With a huff, he roughly folds up the paper and shoves it into the envelope before tossing it haphazardly onto a low shelf.

“That’s it,” he declares out to the room. “I’m not going to bother with this soulmate shit. I’m going to live my life however I want, and no one can stop me otherwise.”

And suddenly, he feels ten times better, like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. I should’ve done this sooner, he thinks, yawning as he gets ready for a good nap in his bed. Thinking about this is way too tiring and troublesome. Why should I even care about it anymore?

———

Somehow, his admirers became bolder and bolder, realizing that they should try to push his boundaries and see how much they can get away with. It started with tentative brushes of his shirt and his arms, thinking he didn’t notice. Of course he fucking noticed, when ten other girls had the same idea. Birds of a feather flock together—something he remembers, snorting derisively in his mind yesterday. But what does he do? Put some distance between them and himself with a cheery smile and a fastbreak walk. And then today, they have the audacity to actually grab him?

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“Is it true that your soulmate letter told you that you’d meet someone so beautiful in a place no one goes to?”

“No, that’s wrong! I’ve heard that he’s looking for someone in a place where he works.”

“Should we also apply there then…?”

Kise drops his sunny disposition like a drop of a hat, and those who had their eyes and hands on him immediately flinch at the sudden change. All the loud whispers cease.

“K-Kise-kun…? Is there something wrong?”

“Is there someone bothering you?”

How do you guys have no self awareness?

“Ah, sorry…” Kise gives a placid smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “You see—”

“Oh!!~ Ryōta-kun!!”

Everyone jumps at the sound of his first name used so familiarly, but Kise is more shocked than the rest of them because he doesn’t recognize the voice one bit. What the hell is going on?

A girl ruthlessly pushes through the crowd before she bounces to his side with such a saccharine smile that Kise is almost impressed by the feat. But his thoughts short-circuit when she comfortably wraps her perfectly-manicured hands around his left arm, her brunette hair swept across her shoulder and touching his sleeve. He gets a full whiff of her fragrance, and he slightly grimaces before his thoughts finally catch up to register what just happened.

What the f—

“Everyone is so touchy today!!” she declares with a slight pout, ringing her voice loudly for everyone nearby to hear on purpose. “Don’t you guys know Ryōta-kun is my soulmate?”

“O-Oi—who said—” Kise immediately tries to jump in, but the girl is quicker to cut him off.

“He’s mine! Sorry girlies!” she says with a playful innocence before narrowing her eyes maliciously at the crowd. “... So you’ll have to leave, ‘mkay?” No sooner she speaks those words, the group disperses, and for the first time, Kise’s relatively alone in broad daylight in the middle of a public space. Though, he now has a bigger issue at hand. This girl.

There’s no doubt the entire school would talk about this the next day and weeks to come… probably months too. He drops his nice facade completely with her. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop it. The shit you’re doing right now isn’t cute in the slightest.”

“Oh! Ryōta-kun… don’t you know how attractive you are when you look at me like that?” She leans forward with a sneer of her own. “But you should be thanking me, no? I got rid of the pests for you, didn’t I?”

“I didn’t need your help,” he scoffs, beginning to turn away to walk. “If anything, you sound more desperate than I am.” There’s only one reason why she’s here.

He fumes to himself. She’s annoying, trying to use me for my status as a model to boost her own reputation in a hopeful “scandal.” Fucking hell. I’ll have to ask my manager about this later for rumor control… He clicks his tongue, making it loud enough for her to hear.

At least he knows 100% that she isn’t his soulmate. That’s one girl down out of infinity.

He walks with such controlled anger brewing within him that he almost didn’t notice another girl walking past him. Almost.

“Hana-chan!” a voice called out. He presumes that the brunette is who the voice is looking for. “Why’d you ditch me like that? You left me with these boys all alone! You know how starved they are—They totally looked at me like a piece of meat!”

“Aish, (y/n)-chan!” He hears her annoying voice echoing behind him. He walks faster. “Don’t you know you have that charm? Can you blame them?~ I wouldn’t, hehe.”

“Mou—! Hana-chan!” You speed to Hana, completely ignoring Kise as you storm past him. “You’re mean!”

He takes a quick side glance at you before his scowl turns harsher.

Who the hell in their right mind is friends with that bitch??

“Sorry, sorry!~”

But Kise can obviously tell she isn’t sorry in the least. He’s even more pissed off when he hears you pleasantly laugh with her, completely accepting her half-assed apology.

Chapter 2, Kise’s POV

———

“Huh? What’d you say Ryōta?”

“I said I want to play for the starting position.” Kise’s voice takes on an arrogant tone, dropping all polite facade—a rare occurrence, especially around so many people. The other first-string players watch the interaction anxiously, tension building in the gym.

This guy isn’t taking me seriously at all, is he?

Haizaki merely gives him a condescending look when he turns to face Kise. “You just joined the team. Hah—don’t be stupid.” He cocks a brow to taunt him further. “Besides, you can’t even beat me at practice. What do you think you’re doing, eh?”

I know what I’m doing, and you damn know it.

Kise merely gives a cocky look of his own. “I may not stand a chance against the other four, but I think I’m ready to take you.” More than ready. The mentioned Generation of Miracles stand aside to watch Haizaki’s response, not making any particular move to interfere.

“Heh, you must not think much of me.” Haizaki puts his hands casually on his hips. “It’s obvious I just don’t take practice seriously.” He licks his thumb as another taunt. “Fine. I’ll give you a taste of what I can really do.”

Honestly… what type of sick guy even does that? I can’t stand him.

. . .

A dunk there.

Another dunk.

Steal.

Backtip.

“Uh-oh. Kise-chin’s getting destroyed,” a lazy voice rings over the shoe squeaks and echoing ball bounces in the one-on-one match.

Damn it, you didn’t have to say that out loud, Murasakibaracchi… Damn it.

“More! I’m not done yet…!” Kise breathes hard, wiping sweat off his chin with the back of his arm and takes on a defensive stance.

“It’ll end the same way every time.”

“W-Wha—!”

“You and I…” Haizaki deals the finishing blow with a brutal dunk. “... are cut from different cloth.”

Ah… shit. Damn it, I thought I had it this time… I thought… damn…

“Shōgo-kun!” a feminine voice calls out from the doorway. A brunette girl pops her head to peep in. Hana. “Are you done with practice?”

Ugh… not her. Kise inwardly blanches at hearing her nauseating voice filling up the room and remembering the stunt she pulled the other day. Of all people to see me like this too…

“Yeah, sorry. I just finished,” Haizaki calls out, voice turning casual. He walks to her with an outstretched arm, eager for a touch before she recoils in disgust.

“Eurgh—!” she shrieks. “You’re still drenched in sweat!”

“Pft, I’ll take a quick shower.” He leans forward to her face, hands on his hips. “Do you wanna come with me?”

“Oh, come on!” she chastises him with that sickenly sweet voice, knowing fully well of his implications.

Kise huffs a small breath of annoyance, though it doesn’t do enough to convey his irritation for her. What a fake. People like her are so unbearable—the worst.

Aomine sighs, watching from a distance away. “That bastard…”

“Hey,” another player calls out. “Isn’t that… That’s Kise’s new girlfriend. Are they soulmates?”

Bullshit! She’s not—

“Ryōta-kun?”

Don’t use my first name like we’re familiar—

“Yeah.” Haizaki turns back to stare down at Kise, still on the ground with his hands and knees. “This guy just challenged me and lost.”

“Seriously? Talk about lame~”

“Anyways, that’s that.” Haizaki prepares to leave with the brunette. “Later, Ryōta-kun.” He adds an emphasis on the honorific to further humiliate him as he turns around.

Kise begins to tremble, fists tightening. All of you piss me off. He grits his teeth, willing himself to get up from his total loss and stand on his feet again. His hands are hanging loosely at his sides—stance relaxed, but no one around him can tell what he’s actually feeling from the way he hides his face under his bangs. But he can’t blame Haizaki… that’s the most infuriating part. He’s right… I challenged him and didn’t stand a chance—That can only mean I have to get stronger.

“Hey, wait!” Another voice cuts through his thoughts when more running footsteps echo down the gym hallway. Kise looks up with a disinterested expression at the source of the noise. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you! Aren’t we going to the arcade together?”

Haizaki merely smirks at you, giving you a once-over before flicking his hand towards himself to beckon you over. “The more the merrier, eh?”

“Oh, Shōgo-kun! You’re so sly!”

“Ehhhhh?” You dramatically gasp, turning to Haizaki. “But you agreed on going on a date with me today, didn’t you?” Haizaki stops with a raised brow to try to recall before his grin grows wider at you.

“My bad. So I did,” he hums. “Then,” he turns to the brunette, “After the shower, I’ll be with (y/n), yeah? You’re more than free to join, though.”

“Whaaaat?” You tilt your head at him. “We agreed to go alone together, geez…”

Kise merely tunes you out from that point on, no longer interested in you and whatever shit you were going to spew out. Anyone involved with Haizaki like that isn’t good to begin with. He slowly walks to use the exit on the opposite side of the gym to avoid the group for good measure.

She’s just like the rest of them. He yawns.

———

Another day, another practice. Even after Teiko destroyed Meiko in the national finals, there is no excitement buzzing among the basketball players from such an accomplishment, when such wins are simply obligatory and frequent.

“Midorimacchi? Where’s everyone else?” Kise enters the gym nonchalantly but stops to do a double take to see half the room empty. It’s supposed to be another regular day of practice isn’t it?

Midorima pauses, his hands on a plastic bottle before he narrows his eyes. “Those fools chose to ditch.”

Fools? Kise widens his eyes. “You can’t mean…”

“I don’t understand their way of thinking,” he continued, putting down the bottle before picking up the ball. “Those who don’t do everything humanly possible within their limits—I can’t be friends with such people. Luckily, my soulmate will not be the same.”

Soulmate?

“Aominecchi and Murasakibaracchi? And hey, where’s Akashicchi?”

“Quiet,” he says, going into a shooting position with the ball in his left hand. “You’re ruining my focus, nanodayo.” He shoots a half-court shot. All net, as always… nothing less from Teiko’s shooting guard.

“I’m serious,” he slightly sulks, eyeing the ball bouncing out of the court before looking back at him. “I don’t know what’s going on here.” Midorima, sensing the serious tone, turns back as he adjusts his glasses.

“Kuroko quit yesterday. Akashi is most likely gone regarding that. Though, I doubt losing Kuroko would make a huge impact to the starter lineup. Despite that, I believe Akashi wanted to be thorough and make sure there’s a temporary sixth man installed in the meantime.”

Kurokocchi quit? Well, it’s not a big deal. It’s almost the end of our 3rd year here anyways… before we graduate.

Kise further raises a confused brow. “And what’s with the soulmate comment? Did you already…?”

“Obviously not.” Midorima frowns at his insinuation. “It is far too soon for me to get one.”

“Then why do you sound so confident?!”

“Because I know,” he replies, closing his eyes briefly before looking down at the ball cart next to him. “… and trust that they’ll give me someone capable. Naturally, if I were to do everything possible on my end, that would only mean I would be granted someone of the same caliber in the future, nanodayo. There is no room for error or doubt.”

“Uh…” Kise merely gives a judgmental stare. “So I’m assuming you have a soulmate letter, and it told you this?” Midorima stops himself from shooting to stare at him incredulously, as if Kise was the most idiotic thing he’d ever laid eyes on.

“Of course not. I’m not opening that letter until the oha asa predicts the luckiest year for cancers yet.”

“I… wow.” That’s Midorimacchi for you, always the weirdo. Can’t believe he really thinks like that.

“You have no place to speak when you also are nowhere near to finding your soulmate, idiot.” He shoots the ball again. He grabs another one without looking at Kise, who’s currently no doubt giving him the look of a kicked puppy.

“I don’t believe in soulmates,” he grumbles. “Not anymore, anyways. It’s too annoying to think about.”

Midorima widens his eyes to stare at Kise, registering the foreign words coming from his mouth.

Midorimacchi, don’t look at me like that… can you blame me? It’s not that weird for a lot of people to think that, too.

Midorima merely sighs. “Say all you want, but you can’t deny the fates, nanodayo.” He goes back to ignoring Kise again, this time for good. I guess he finds that really strange on his end.

“Well…” Kise gives a heavy sigh of his own. “I guess I can get some drills in.”

———

Kaijo’s nice enough. Nothing’s really changed since becoming a 1st year here for a couple months. The campus might be twice the size of Teiko’s, and the basketball team isn’t that bad. Kasamatsu might be scary, though, but he has no real complaints about him. Well… he reconsiders the thought, feeling his lower back throbbing. Actually… he COULD try to lessen up on his kicks… But I guess he means well. He’s a bit too serious, though.

He still has plenty of complaints about girls following him around, but by now, he’s used to it. Call it a staple of Kise Ryōta, of some sorts. Kise of Kaijo… he thinks, remembering Kasamatsu’s lecture on his first day of scouting. It really does have a nice ring to it after all.

He smiles, recalling the new bonds he’s forged with his teammates these past matches. The Winter Cup is coming soon, so everyone’s buzzing with excitement and anticipation to take home 1st place this year. Kurokocchi might be right about doing what’s good for the team. I need to get stronger for our rematch. His simper only grows bigger.

Thinking about basketball and not worrying about the unnecessary things at hand is so liberating that he pretty much forgets the ordeal. (Like the business of soulmates, but he’s not thinking about that! That’s not even remotely in his consciousness, not one bit.)

Unfortunately for him, his smile is wiped from his face the moment he enters the gym.

“Heyah, heyah, heyah!” He furrows his brows in slight confusion at the voice, most definitely not belonging to any of his teammates. That sounds… familiar.

Your voice reverberates throughout the gym, but it seems like you have no regard for an indoor voice as your eyes sparkle (how creepy) at his teammates. And your own smile widens as seconds pass (definitely creepy). Kise’s frown becomes harsher when he finally recognizes you.

I don’t remember what she looks like… but that damn voice… wait a second—

Kasamatsu sighs at you, but he tries to keep a polite tone with you. Even so, anyone can sense how exasperated he is. “Sorry, look,” he says cordially, eyeing Kise at the door before turning his gaze back at you. “If you’re looking for Kise, he’s not here right now, and if you are going to wait for him, he’ll be occupied with practice from soon until hours later.”

You do that same head tilt you did back at Teiko. “But I’m not here for him.”

His teammates merely sweatdrop at your answer. Right, like anyone believes that. Kise takes a quiet step in to put his duffel bag on an empty spot, no longer even bothering to give you his attention anymore.

“Yeah, sorry.” Kobori steps in with an apologetic smile of his own. “If you want to leave any gifts, you can leave it with the coach.”

“No, no!” You widen your eyes theatrically, waving your hands around in front of your chest to emphasize your statement. “You misunderstand me, seriously!”

Kasamatsu, having enough of you, shoots an exhale before turning to yell to the other players, “Everyone! Start warming up! And don’t slack off, or I’ll kick your ass!”

“I’m not here for Kise,” your voice rings out loud and clear. “I’m here for Kasamatsu-senpai.” Everyone freezes at the mention of the captain’s name. What business did a 1st year have with a 3rd year? They spare a look in the captain’s direction, but even he’s caught off guard. Kise looks up at you from behind, a few meters away.

Does she even know that I’m actually here, or…?

“Because,” you say, a little too brightly. “I think you’re my soulmate, Kasamatsu-senpai!”

Said captain immediately chokes on air.

Every single person in the gym has their jaws dropped.

A few seconds of silence take over the gym.

“WHAT??????!!!!”

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shortbreadly · 1 month

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which is your favourite saw film ? (mine is iii)

i’m taking that as an opportunity to rank them and go into detail

saw 2004 obviously. only film with adam (conscious adam anyway) only film with a decent amount of lawrence screen time since he’s in 3D for like five minutes. it’s the first one i ever watched obviously, and also i beat my friend playing snooker while we were watching it so good times

saw vi. INSANELY close with my third ranking but this gets the edge because it not only has a good trap plot but we also see hoffman get his face ripped open. and of course the ‘right now you’re feeling helpless' scene which is just amazing

saw v, like i said very close to saw vi. it’s got hoffman and strahm, like what else am i going to want from a saw film. also the glass coffin and the water cube are two of my favourite traps ever

then saw iii. amanda makes me so sad man and that film has made me cry (so have the majority of them for some reason). VERY good traps (the angel trap will always be a favourite of mine), and plus it's the only film with lynn

saw X, very good film. i loved the john and amanda bits and the idea of everyone just abandoning hoffman while the go to mexico is very amusing to me, i just wasn't that into the trap victims

saw ii. i know it sounds low on the list but honestly i love all of these films almost equally so that doesn't mean much. that being said, as much as i hate eric matthews as a person he was a fucking great character in the film and daniel as well was great (it's a crime i've never drawn him). also the plot twist at then end is brilliant, like i remember sitting with my mouth wide open when i first watched it

saw iv. first major roles for hoffman, strahm and perez so of course i love it for that reason. it's just that to this day i still find it confusing to follow, other than that it's great

saw 3D. yes i know it's not great and i hate bobby dagen with a burning passion, but credit where credit is due i did love lawrence's appearance and twist as well as hoffman acting like a rabid animal. the ending is very bittersweet for me and i choose to believe he lived somehow

i haven't watched spiral because i can't get hold of it, however i still believe it would probably be above the next one

i fucking hate jigsaw. i hate logan, i hate that none of the original characters bar john were in it (because if john was realistically at least amanda could've been), and also it makes no fucking sense. also why doesn't the cop guy have a skull when the lasers cut him open???

#that was a pretty long rant #don't get me complaining about jigsaw i genuinely despise that film #it really rubs salt in the wound that they took the first two films off netflix but left that monstrosity #shortbreadly answers

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saikokirakira · 2 years

Text

Steven Has a Girlfriend (Steven Grant x Bakunawa!Reader Intro pt.2)

a/n: i know, i know. it's been dull and short. layla's up next, and i promise it'll be more interesting. next update will be next tuesday, same time. :)

Prev: I. Steven pt.1 | Next: II. Layla pt.1 | AU Masterlist

warning: steven being a sweetheart; bakunawa committing steven hate crime; proofread and edited one (1) time

It was odd.

It was definitely odd.

Steven’s dating life has always been bleak and ended up with a lot of confusion on his part.

But his relationship with you has been running… way too smoothly.

Since the first ‘date,’ you conveniently showed up to his work, having looked him up on the National Art Gallery employee list.

Steven mentally heaved out a sigh.

At least he wasn’t being a creep since he did exactly the same thing, only bad at it.

All searches he pulled up were your works rather than where to find you.

“I heard the best guide is here in the gift shop.”

Steven’s heart swelled at you remembering what he said at dinner three days ago.

Most of your dates were showing up during Steven’s lunch break every other day and him showing you his favourite exhibits.

Being your own personal tour guide — it was almost too good to be true.

Steven’s sleep disorder was still running rampant with him blacking out for a few days.

He finds some texts in his phone of him still oddly replying to your messages every day.

He also noticed how you would also go missing for a few days.

Steven believes it’s you acquiring a few art pieces or delivering finished pieces for clients.

There was absolutely no reason for you to suspect each other of any secrets.

It was simply two individuals in a casually going on dates with each other.

When you and Steven hit the one-month mark, he wondered if both of you were going too slow.

You knew right away that Steven was uncomfortable.

How couldn’t you? Bakunawa berated the guy's timidness in your head all the time.

Yet the serpent deity was also the very reason why you were able to find Steven, so you weren't in the right spot to argue.

“Steven, is there something you want to tell me?”

Steven immediately stiffened up before fidgeting from where he stood.

You held his hand and sat him down on the park bench.Spit it out, wimp.

You mentally shushed Bakunawa in your head, then smiled assuredly to Steven.

“Why are you dating me?”

Okay, you did not expect the question.

And Bakunawa was also iffed on your behalf, hissing threateningly.

The deity seal marked on your back began to slither over your shoulder.

Even though it did nothing, you still gripped at your wrist with your free hand as if it would stop him from moving.

You controlled your shared temper with the deity and squeezed Steven’s hand.

“Because I like you, silly.”

Steven smiled, his cheeks growing warm. Then he raised your joined hands, bringing them to his lips.

“I’m… not well.”

He proceeded to tell you about his sleep disorder, his missing time, why he was always late for work.

It didn’t make sense to you. You and Steven texted every day.

“I guess I still want to talk to you even while I’m asleep.”

“Then we’ll make it work.”

“What?”

WHAT?

Mastering it for the past decade, Bakunawa’s roars barely made you flinch now despite the booming volume making your ears ring.

“Nobody said this will be easy, Steven. I like you; you like me. We’ll work on our issues together, okay?”

Steven can only nod dumbly.

You proceeded to lean in. “Can I kiss you?”

“Please do.” Steven nodded with fervor.

He actually met you halfway out of his own eagerness.

It was sweet and shy with a little yearning for something deeper, something more passionate.

In due time. You mused to yourself.

A clink of coins a few feet away broke the cloud of your romantic spell.

"Hey, old chap! I got meself a girlfriend!”

You laughed at Steven’s gleeful cheer and glanced at the elderly man donned in golden statue clothing.

He was busy entertaining a group of tourists but managed to give Steven a side glance.

If he could smile, he would probably return Steven’s cheers.

“Let’s go, puppy.”

Steven happily held your hand right until you drove him home to his flat.

#moon knight fanfic #moon knight fanfiction #bakunawa au #bakunawa!reader #steven grant x reader #moon knight x oc #steven grant x oc

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stranger-rants · 11 months

Note

Sorry I also forgot to specify Harringrove pops up later in my dream as well, post killing the first shooter guy and running away from the crime scene. (Supermarket) They were there. They were the third pair of assassins sent after the assassin killer guy who was dubbed that after continuously slaughtering every one that was sent after him (a 13 year old.)

I remember the entire time I was running away with my BFF and when I saw Harringrove ominously doing the Michael Myers stand in a park gateway amidst the chaos I remember, out loud saying, “Oh we’re not making it out of this one.” My best friend was in hysterics as I said that one. I remember thinking, as I was slowing down from my constant running, “Well at least they haven’t started chasing me yet” and they instantly shot off like a pack of hounds on cue. This is when I started screaming and running away. I was now being chased by 2 pairs of killers and one of them was a pair of gay lovers not unlike Spartas gay military. I was fucked. The other two were lesbians who were not strangers and really hated kids

The two literally backed me into corners so so many times like I’d pause and be like “Whew the girls are gone!” And I’d look to my right and There They Were, faces always painfully neutral, coming at me abnormally fast. They came at me abnormally fast too the first time they ran btw that nearly made me pee my pants

Eventually I ran into an eerily empty park with beautiful pink wildflowers and lavenders, and at this point I think my brain knew I’d never be able to beat these two, so they shifted into two old wrestler men wearing shitty Mario and Yoshi cosplays and coming towards me slowly, like the actual Mike Myers might do. The women were there too and I managed to take the long haired one down in a really extended struggle and then the other woman ran away without my notice and then I shot the other two old men down while screaming the entire time. This time I decided to pocket the gun that seemingly just didn’t run out of fucking bullets instead of leaving it at the crime scene. Wait I also just remembered being hysterical and yelling at my BFF the entire time about me being a dumbass and literally leaving a trail of evidence everywhere I went. So yeah that was Harringrove in my dream trying to shoot me down but being too used to hand-to-hand combat to think about using their guns. I think at this point my brain constructed a new BFF for me to run around with

Also I forgot to mention but every single pistol in my dream was like a purple Thanos toy version it whatever and I think it’s because I genuinely forgot what they look like

PART II... I guess??? Literally what is happening???

#hELLO?#asks

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stillness-in-green · 1 year

Text

On Riots and Resolutions (Part Two)

The remaining ask round-up portion, building on the answers from last night's post.

Content Warnings: Discussion of real-life hate groups; one ask conflates mental illness with radicalism and makes some bald statements that there can only be one correct opinion about the canonical material in question.

This post has its usual share of footnotes, but I’ve put them at the end of their associated ask reply rather than all at the end like usual.

Two thoughts: Firstly, Japan’s extremists, as I understand them, tend to be either rampantly nationalistic—war crime deniers, people who hate Japanese residents who don’t match up to what the nationalists see as really Japanese (*waves to Part One*), sometimes they like the U.S. but they don’t want to be seen as being submissive towards it, that sort of thing—or outright cultists.

Using the nationalists as a model is tricky because, as so many have said, heteromorphs aren’t of a different ethnicity/nationality, so they nominally shouldn’t be objectionable to those whose chief issue is people/influence from other countries. (Nominally. *waves to Part One again*) They’re also a very fraught group to parody, given Japan’s to-say-the-least unresolved issues with exactly those nationalistic sentiments, historically speaking.

As to the cultists? Well, Japan has piles and piles of those. Indeed, the country has so many that one of the most common terms for alternative spirituality groups, new religious movements (NRMs), is actually a direct translation of the term Japan itself uses, shinshūkyō. So far as I’ve been able to gather, the proliferation is a result of the country having been loosed from the mandate of following the state religion (Shinto) just as a huge influx of Western theology came flowing in after World War II. That developed further in the 60s and 70s—indeed, it’s quite easy to see Western ideas of what religion is and how it looks coming to Japan in the same general period as New Age spirituality in the West forming with elements borrowed ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern religions.

While Japan has hundreds and hundreds of NRMs—over 2000, according to one op-ed I read—the country also has a sizeable suspicion of them, for one big, glaring reason: the sarin gas attacks carried out on the Tokyo subway in 1995 by Aum Shinrikyo. Those attacks led to a huge backlash against new religious movements in the country, including the passing of some very targeted laws.

Obviously, with so many of them around, I can’t say for sure whether or not Horikoshi based the Creature Rejection Clan on any of them in particular, but Twice does point out that they have some religious elements, and certainly there are plenty of NRMs in Japan that hew to the arch ethnonationalism of the country’s extreme right. The kegare thing, too, can hardly be called secular; it stems directly from Shinto belief. There aren’t any NRMs I’m personally aware of that use gothic trappings and skull masks, but then, neither did the KKK.[1]

That all leads into my second thought, which is, “Well, is the CRC based on the KKK? Or is that just us assuming because it’s what we relate them to?” As I said a few times in Part One, I can’t read Horikoshi’s mind—but I have reservations about just assuming that some random Japanese guy is that familiar with a U.S.-based hate group that has never been active in his country.

Horikoshi is a noted fan of American comics, so I suppose it’s possible he’s heard that anecdote about Superman taking on the KKK, but if I were reading an American comic with a plot about a doomsday cult planning an attack on a public transit system, I wouldn’t assume it was a reference to Aum Shinrikyo just because I knew the author liked anime, you know?

For another example of Western fans projecting their own concerns onto a non-Western work, it was widely assumed among American readers that the Ishvalan plot in Full Metal Alchemist was a comment on the Iraq War. However, when asked about it, Arakawa actually said she based it on the way Japan treated the Ainu. That desert setting completely fooled people!

So, even if the CRC feel a little too on the nose to not be based on the KKK, it’s worth considering that Horikoshi could have any number of inspirations there. He may well have been just picking and choosing the visual indicators he liked to get the point across, and the ones he landed on say “KKK” to a U.S. reader without them having been an intentional model.

-- 1: The Nazis, now, they used skull trappings, and are of course much more known for black uniforms, too. --

Would that such were more normalized! But even if it were, the time crunch on Shonen Jump publication is such that I doubt most of its authors would have the leisure to do a bunch of back and forth with sensitivity readers anyway. I imagine a lot of those authors have pretty limited hours and energy to spend all week working on their manga to also add a bunch of supplemental reading that also basically counts as “work for the manga” as opposed to literally any other kind of media intake that would let them turn off for a while.

I’m not going to say readers shouldn’t ask for better, or should just shut up or go read something else if they have problems with what an author is writing. Obviously! That would be massively hypocritical of me, given all the time I’ve spent complaining about this very issue, or the mass arrests, or whatever-all else. But then, I’ve always approached the issues Hori raises with his villains with the view that they’d fall flat eventually. Shonen Jump is just too mainstream an environment for me to think that Horikoshi would be allowed to say anything truly radical, if he even wanted to to begin with.

And maybe he’ll get feedback on this aspect of the story from readers and reviews and rethink some of it. I’ll always remember this article about an interview with the author of Sword Art Online, Kawahara Reki, in which he talked about how visiting American conventions had inspired him to try to do better by his heroines.

Of course, some people double down instead, like One Piece’s Oda Eiichirou, or reflexively lash out when criticized, like Vanillaware’s George Kamitani. Maybe Horokoshi will just go on thinking like he does because he doesn’t work in an environment that’s going to challenge him on his views; maybe he’ll seek out more mature environments to tell the more mature stories he clearly wants to tell.

In the meantime, though, it’s not as though he’s the only game in town. There are other manga out there, ones that have lists upon lists at the back of their volume compilations detailing the resources and contacts the authors used as they were writing their stories.

Just of what I read or have read, Blue Period, Golden Kamuy, Ancient Magus’s Bride, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, and any of Mori Kaoru’s historical works, like Victorian Romance Emma or Otoyomegatari, come to mind. Shonen Jump stories can be fun, but I don’t exactly read them expecting the manga equivalent of high literature, you know?

…On the other hand, even fellow Shonen Jump series Akane Banashi credits a rakugo supervisor every week. I suspect this speaks to a certain uncomfortable truth that many authors are going to be a lot more aware of their own ignorance—and, crucially, far less defensive about accusations of being hurtful, irresponsible, or discriminatory—when it comes to portraying things like art, specialist hobbies, historical periods or foreign countries: subjects that are legitimately distant from their day to day lives. That, in turn, may make them more willing to do the research with an open mind, as opposed to just winging it on things they believe they already understand well enough or have already formed opinions on, like the lived experience of minorities or how the legal system treats (or should treat) people who break the law.

The fact that lazy or offensive portrayals might come out of privileged ignorance rather than maliciousness doesn’t make them less lazy or offensive, of course, especially if an author chooses to double down after criticism! But I’ll get into that more in the last ask in this post.

H’ooookay, I’m going to lead with saying that, while I agree with your broad point that this resolution is messy and disappointing, I have some significant issues with your points here, things that I cannot just let stand in good faith.

Firstly, as far as comparing heteromorphs to burakumin goes, I have not and would never say that they’re only an analogue to burakumin because I don’t think heterophobia is a 1:1 analogue for any kind of discrimination. It takes elements from a lot of different things: anti-burakumin sentiment, racism, ableism, ethnocentrism, and so on.

I talked about burakumin discrimination in the post you’re responding to because the kegare thing is burakumin-specific. While I’m sure you could find individuals willing to level that word at groups they don’t like, I’m not aware of any other groups that have had kegare weaponized against them on such a widespread, systemic, legally codified level; therefore, burakumin are the reference I used to talk about kegare as it’s used against heteromorphs to police their movements/contact with others.

Secondly, saying burakumin have “the benefit” of looking like everyone else unless they’re outed feels insensitive to me. It’s the same thing as mixing up genuine privilege with being in the closet. Yes, burakumin lineage is something that’s not immediately visible right on their faces,[1] but that’s not the same thing as them being able to live openly without fear of discrimination, especially when there are still resources on the internet that purport to list burakumin neighborhoods, resources that are easily findable on a web search for e.g. the company hiring director vetting job applicants or the paranoid parent who wants to make sure their daughter isn’t getting involved with someone Undesirable.

Thirdly, conflating Qanon extremists with mental illness is a big, wholehearted NOPE for me, especially in saying only individuals who are mentally ill would attack innocent people. I’m certainly not going to say that no one who has ever carried out a mass attack was mentally ill, but it’s absolutely not an identical vector as radicalized resentment.

Fourthly, “making up a massacre” is, I suppose, true in that we’ve never heard of the incidents Scarecrow cites before now, but it’s not as though it’s completely out of the realm of the possible based on what we knew before this arc. We knew law and order broke down around the time of the advent of quirks; we knew there were (and still are!) groups that committed hate crimes against heteromorphs; we knew there had been bloody conflict for years upon years by the time things finally started to settle down circa Destro and the legalization of Pro Heroes.

Hell, the longer I gather evidence and mull it over, the more it seems likely to me that Horikoshi was aware of heteromorph discrimination from almost the very beginning. Shouji’s character profile, in which he pointedly did not have a face reveal and Horikoshi dropped hints about “Shouji’s episode,” came out in Volume 3. Ultra Archive, which talked about how Shouji was told he had a scary face since he was young, was released in 2016; Ultra Analysis, which first raised the crying little girl angle, in 2019. We’ve known for ages that Horikoshi likes to think about the stories of background characters, even if he can’t find room to show them.

Historical massacres? We may not have heard about them specifically before now, but it’s not like it’s a big reach. The CRC really ought to have clued everyone in that heteromorphic discrimination is much worse than Deku, the viewpoint character, ever knew, so I remain aggressively baffled at the constant accusations that all this is “coming out of nowhere.” Yes, I think it could have been more thoroughly developed in advance, but I really do think it’s not that Horikoshi didn’t know, or that he “made it up”; it’s just that he failed to incorporate it organically.

If the story were still the elegantly constructed narrative we were enjoying up through the Endeavor Agency Arc and the early stages of the war, I’d be more skeptical, because Horikoshi back then really was much better at those early hints and teases. But everyone can tell that the story has been a garbled, rushed mess since then, so it’s no big surprise to me that a better-paced exploration of heteromorphic discrimination was a victim of whatever kind of compressed timeline Horikoshi’s now operating under.

Finally, I broadly agree that the portrayal of this conflict was a damn mess on both sides—I particularly share your frustration that fifteen thousand members of an oppressed minority would be willing to attack a hospital under the direction of a known villain yet have given the optics of that attack so little thought that one (1) high-schooler and the sight of a handful of hospital employees standing well away from their line of advance could change their minds—but I’m wholly uncomfortable with your intimation that anyone who doesn’t agree with your specific read on the sides involved doesn’t know what they’re talking about. If you didn’t mean it that way, that’s cool, but I don’t see much other way to parse, “People who empathize more with one side or the other are either uneducated or don’t have discrimination in their daily reality/family history.”

“If anyone disagrees with me, either they’re white people whose opinions don’t count because they’re white or they’re people of color whose opinions don’t count because they’re ignorant,” is just not an opinion I’m going to back up. I saw plenty of POC on twitter and tumblr both who definitely did sympathize more with one side or another and had perfectly cogent, self-aware articulations as to why; declaring their opinions de facto invalid is no way to engage in media criticism OR fandom discourse.

-- 1: Though back in the days when burakumin were legally required to dress and style their hair in certain ways to make themselves obvious to those around them, you would have been able to tell they were burakumin just by looking at them, unless they were actively breaking the law and thus subject to punishment if they were discovered. --

Everyone is, of course, going to have their own read on this, but for my part, I’d rather see people try and fail than just never try at all. That’s assuming, anyway, that the attempt is made in good faith, which I think this plot was—at the very least, it never felt malicious towards the crowd of heteromorphs themselves,[1] though I am still squinting distastefully at the whole Outside Bad Actor element AFO/Skeptic/Scarecrow/Spinner present.

Of course, it’d be nice to know whether Horikoshi’s going to learn anything from this portrayal or whether it’ll just be a full round of backpats for a job halfway done, but saying he should just never have tried at all—well, it’s the same with his writing of women, really. There are some enormous problems, but I’d still rather read the version with all the flaws than the version without all the women.

That’s the long-time fandom participant in me, I’m sure; my stance will always be to take what works and jettison what doesn’t. For all that this resolution desperately does not work, all the reasons that it was something worth looking forward to and getting invested in are still there, too!

But again, that’s something everyone has to draw their own lines on, and I have nothing but sympathy for the frustration of those who, like myself, would never have believed such a facile resolution could be offered to such a fascinating set-up.

-- 1: I’d be more willing to assume malice if the heteromorphs were the only civilians in the story portrayed as so desperately gullible and impulsive, but Horikoshi’s been writing civilians that same way from the beginning. --

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

That wraps up the asks in my inbox about this plot, at least the ones that were expressing specific anger with Horikoshi or fellow fandom members. I have one or two left that are more directly about the material, which I'll be getting to in the order in which I received them soonish.

I do apologize if these posts came off as preachy in that, "I am allowed to complain, but suddenly when I have anons in my inbox complaining, it's time to talk about nuance and context," kind of way. I do, perhaps, have a certain feeling that I can and will complain about the material to my heart's content, but I don't want to get too pulled into spiraling bitterness about Horikoshi personally because he didn't deliver the challenging resolution I never really believed his editors would let him deliver to begin with.

I promise I still hate the way the arc fell out! And I appreciate you all sharing your thoughts with me. 'Til next time, everyone.

#bnha #heteromorph discrimination plot #bnha culture gap #cw: hate groups #stillness answers

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