Tumgik
#haha this section is so long
ghost-of-ecruteak · 4 months
Text
Good of you to come.
Hello. My name is Morty. I am Ecruteak's Gym Leader, and a Spirit Medium. I figured that this would be a good place to talk about Ghost Pokémon, Johto's history and culture, and myself, if anyone is interested.
You are always welcome to send an ask, and I will try to respond to the best of my abilities!
Tumblr media
About!
Hello Hello! This is the mod behind @the-drayster! Morty is one of my favorite characters from Pokemon, as well as being from my favorite region (Sorry Drayton!). So, I've decided to make a ghosty boy blog.
The ask tag is #a whisper on the wind
Pelliper Mail is ON!
Magic Anons are OFF!
Sentient Pokemon may interact, though due to both the nature of the blog and my own headcanons, interactions may be deemed "Noncanon," viewed in-character as a roleplayer, or based on alternate universes. I won't personally seek sentient pokemon interactions, but by no means does that mean don't interact with ME!
The same rules apply for legendary blogs for the most part. The EXCEPTION to that is Ho-Oh, Lugia, Suicune, Entei, or Raikou blogs. Morty will automatically assume it's someone roleplaying, and will be likely to chastise them for assuming such important figures' identities. Ho-Oh and Lugia, and by extension the legendary beasts, are incredibly important to Morty. If you aren't okay with him getting upset with your blog because it's about one of those Pokémon, do not interact, or specify that beforehand.
Some general information:
This blog will be very headcanon heavy, for multiple reasons. The main one being that, Morty, as an older game Gym Leader, didn't get a whole lot of character building.
The other main reason being that I have a lot of headcanons about the Johto Region. It's history, culture, religions, all of it. Morty, as a character who is very invested in a major legendary/deity, gives me a way to talk about the random worldbuilding I've thought up without going out of character.
Another thing is that this blog will contain themes of death. Morty is a ghost type trainer, and one who can speak to ghosts themselves. You can always ask me to tag something with a content or trigger warning, I won't get mad.
So if that isn't your cup of tea, I apologize. This may not be the blog for you. If it is, then great! Always feel free to send an ask about whatever. Those are what keep me going.
Now some less general information:
I already linked the about up in the main part of this post, which has most of the information that you "need" to know about Morty. But, on a more behind the scenes note, here's some stuff.
I personally am a fan of Honorshipping (Morty/Falkner). For the most part, I doubt that I'll make direct comments about Morty being in a relationship with Falkner, but I may hint at it. For an in-character explanation, while Morty isn't against being open about his relationship, Falkner is more reserved, and Morty respects that. Posts about Falkner will be tagged with #little bird
What I will make direct comments about is Morty and Eusine. While Morty isn't in a romantic relationship with Eusine, and has no want for one, the two are very close. They have a sort of queerplatonic relationship going on, and that isn't going anywhere. Morty is always happy to talk about Eusine. Posts about Eusine will be tagged with #an old friend
Both Falkner and Eusine may occasionally appear as characters on the blog. Posts by Falkner will be colored blue and tagged with #the wind blows , while posts by Eusine will be colored purple and tagged with #suicune searcher
All of that being said, I hope you all enjoy this blog as much as I hope I do. Thank you!!
20 notes · View notes
Link
i see you shine and the dark disappears
written for @sockfus for the @atlawintersolstice! <3
Sokka’s favorite part of the day was going to bed.
And sure, he loved snuggling up in blankets and gazing out the window, basking in Yue and all her light. He loved dreaming about fun things like math and his family and friends. He loved the silence that came with the night, so still and different from the bustling palace in the day.
But that’s not why he loved going to bed.
There were lots of things to love about the night, but his favorite by far was seeing Zuko.
[or: sokka, zuko, and sleep
🌻4,650 words | zukka🌻
91 notes · View notes
red-hemlock · 5 months
Text
Your Muse's greeting methods; insp.
Tumblr media
Hostile: Sarcasm dialed-up to 11, and it's not the cute kind either. She's all smirks and sneers, with a cold predatory gaze that will follow the object of her ire's every move. River will usually pick at the person, with mocking greetings: "Oh, look what the cat dragged-in! Too bad it couldn't keep dragging you on, I hear the dumpster behind Pauli's is vacant." She'll continue to refer to someone as 'dear' and 'darling', though with much less frequency. However, depending on how much she doesn't like the other person, they're words filled with the most scathing verbal-venom she can muster.
Neutral: River is usually a pretty outwardly-friendly individual, even to someone she barely knows... She doesn't trust them, of course, but prefers to give strangers a chance instead of just writing them off. She smiles, says hello, will shake hands and may even give a hug; however, it will almost always be her initiating any physical contact. Those who try before her will usually either be side-stepped, or have their attention diverted. People often earn a nickname at this stage that she'll use to greet them with, but depending how the interaction goes, it may not always be the 'nicest' one.
Friendly: There isn't too much difference between 'neutral' River and 'friendly' River, but what differences there are, are very noticeable. One might get themselves a sparkly new nickname, if their current one wasn't the nicest, or there will be a very notable tonal change in which she refers to them with it. She's warmer and more relaxed, more trusting and excitable, because she's always interested in what her friends have to say; and is rarely bored by it too. Hugs, shoulder or full-on, are the bread-and-butter greeting now, and she might even invite them over to her more 'domestic' hideouts. On occasion, she might let herself into her friends' homes when being pursued by cops/heroes/etc and greet them with a comment on how much or how little food they have in the fridge.
Romanced: Trust absolute. She uses 'darling' more than 'dear', and knows how to make 'hello darling' sound like honey-dripped gold to her partner's ears; and she'll look at them like they're the most beautiful person in the world while she says it too, because to her they are. Touch, touch, endless touches filled with her want and love. A hand on the shoulder to announce her presence, sliding into a hug from behind. A face buried between shoulder blades or the neck. Deep kisses. She'll touch their face, and will allow them to touch hers in turn, often seeking this attention outright.
Tagged by: @cxpperhead Tagging: @corvidamned, @king-crane, @ghosts-of-gotham (For Minerva!), @luposcainus, @brokentoys, @ratwhsprs, @onopoeia (For Onomatopoeia!), @ofdeomnes, @lylebolton, (And anyone else who wants to do this! <3)
8 notes · View notes
skater110599 · 10 months
Text
"It's another thing Henry does—whipping out these analyses of what he reads or watches or listens to that confronts Alex with the fact that he has both a degree in English literature and a vested interest in the gay history of his family's country. Alex has always known his gay American history—after all, his parents' politics have been part of it—but it wasn't until he figured himself out that he started to engage with it like Henry. He's starting to understand what swelled in his chest the first time he read about Stonewall, why he ached over the SCOTUS decision in 2015. He starts catching up voraciously in his spare time: Walt Whitman, the Laws of Illinois 1961, The White Night Riot, Paris is Burning. He's pinned a photo over his desk at work, a man at a rally in the '80s in a jacket that says across the back: IF I DIE OF AIDS—FORGET BURIAL—JUST DROP MY BODY ON THE STEPS OF THE F.D.A." -Red, White, & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston (p. 161)
8 notes · View notes
squidcandy · 10 months
Note
I dont understand how you can stand to be active on twt if i saw so many ppl so proudly declaring theyre illiterate id become an international terrorist mailing them bombs. Or whatever. Youre so strong 4 this, i think twt enstarries might be worse than tiktok
Oh It's because I produce akatsuki and nobody reads enough about them to have super annoying takes besides the occasional soumaP that only read Meteor impact
14 notes · View notes
claire-starsword · 10 months
Text
Shining Force World Book translation - part 4
Previous part here
Last force member entries, next part is the villains. I’ll also shove here the species and classes pages from further on the guide, just don’t get any expectation for those, they are very short and generic descriptions.
Tumblr media
A knight who drifts carefree like a cloud
Pelle Class: Knight Species: Centaur Gender: Male Age: 33 years old Height: 233 cm Weight: 198 kg Place of Origin: Runefaust Starting Level: 8 Starting Weapon: Bronze Lance
Traveling lots of countries in the world while looking for his birthplace!?
A free man who wanders aimlessly while working as a mercenary knight. He doesn't know much about where he was born or who his parents are, but doesn't care in the slightest and continues to live as he pleases.
His pride and self respect as a knight are exemplary, and he never forsakes those in his actions.
Being an elite knight who has served in countless battles, he is also quite fearsome.
Strength is not all you need to win! His sense for battling is excellent!
Fitting for his personality, his growth by leveling up is uncertain, and can be fast or slow. He's a reputable knight, but that doesn't mean his attack is extraordinary or anything. In the end, his worth in battle might depend on how well he uses the spears and lances available.
He's more effective fighting as part of a team than taking the lead at the front.
_____
Alcohol is a source of power!
Vankar Class: Knight Species: Centaur Gender: Male Age: 44 years old Height: 231 cm Weight: 195 kg Place of Origin: Runefaust Starting Level: 8 Starting Weapon: Bronze Lance
The unhealthy lone wolf who does as he pleases
A centaur who drinks lots, and has more pride as a knight than anyone else. In his youth, he was an excellent knight of some country, but lost the job after getting in a fight with the minister. Even though that was due to the alcohol, he did not bother and has not quit drinking, working as bodyguard for taverns and traveling merchants in towns.
He cannot stand the heinous path Runefaust has gone down, and decided to fight alongside the force.
[Note: in game he joins by Koron’s orders, though it’s not hard to believe he also disliked Runefaust at the same time.]
Tumblr media
He loves building more than fighting!
Lyle Class: Assault Knight Species: Centaur (subspecies) Gender: Male Age: 34 years old Height: 204 cm Weight: 181 kg Place of Origin: Rindo Starting Level: 8 Starting Weapon: Robin Arrow
A centaur who keep messing up with his laid back personality
Like Vankar, he couldn't stand Runefaust's ways and joined the force. As a centaur with a great sense of justice, he used to serve a kingdom. However, his laid back personality caused a lot of disaster and he was fired. After that, he immersed himself in his beloved inventions, and nowadays uses weapons he created himself. He joins the battle with his prized cannon.
His slow movement is a problem, but his power is outstanding!
Using a unique destructive weapon, his attack is great. But because his movement is low, he can't make the best out of that power. If you manage to support his low movement, defense and agility with the other characters, he can still be a power up for the party. If you want certain victory, he's a must have in the team.
[Note: Most other sources including the other guide book credit Crock for creating the cannon, but it’s not hard to believe they worked together, they’re just bickering over first author credit like any other academic.]
_____
An intellectual and poweful knight!
Guntz Class: Steam Knight Species: Armadillo Gender: Male Age: 21 years old Height: 142 cm Weight: 68 kg (not counting the armor) Place of Origin: Rindo Starting Level: 8 Starting Weapon: Bronze Lance
An armadillo who hates fighting but hides terrific power!
Member of the armadillo race, of which there are few around. He wears a heavy special armor. Unlike what you'd assume by his tough exterior, he's quite sensitive. He's hardworking and has dexterous fingers. Like Lyle, he works as an assistant to the inventor Crock, and has made a bunch of inventions.
He looks like he enjoys battling, has actually has more inclination to be an advisor.
The heavy armor is both his strong and weak point
Because he uses a heavy armor, his agility and movement are low, however his defense is quite high. His attack is also high, and he'll certainly be useful if you let him fight.
The most effective strategy would be to put his attack and defense to good use, slowly approach the enemies and then defeat them at once. But if you push things too far, his small amount of HP becomes a problem so you must be careful.
Tumblr media
Species
A game world with countless species
In the world of "Shining Force", 17 species are shown, including humans. To help you understand what they are like, we explain ten of them here, from the common humans to dragonewts and the mysterious Yogurts. At the end of the explanations we list representative characters of each species as well.
Humans
Compared to other species they are short lived, weak, and have no special abilities. However they may acquire special abilities through the way they are raised and trained. Representatives: The protagonist, Ramladu, Anri
Hobbits
They are generally short and robust. A race that prefers using their heads as opposed to fighting. Representative: Lowe
Elves
They look much like humans, and are slender, tall and dexterous. They are skilled with bows and magic, and have long lifespans. Representatives: Hans, Tao
Dragonewts
A humanoid dragon species. Superior to other species in power, skill, intellect and everything else. Representatives: Nova
Centaurs
A species with a human upper body and a horse lower body. They use the same weapons as humans, and are drawn to fighting. Representatives: Mae, Arthur
Birdpeople
A humanoid species with wings on their backs. Many like toying with their enemies with their distinctive swift movements. Representatives: Balbaroy, Amon
Dwarves
They grow long beards, and have sturdy bodies. With very lively personalities, they usually work as warriors. Representatives: Luke
Giants
They usually have large bodies, and are a violent and savage race. They are easily fooled by people, but their strength is superior. Representatives: Gong
Wolfling
A species with wolf faces much like werewolves. They excel in fighting, and are proud of their own species. Representatives: Zylo
Yogurt
A mysterious species that only appears in this game. Weird creature from the evil planet Yogurt. Representatives: Yogurt
[Ah yes, this one makes some rounds on random trivia websites. The other guide book also brings it up in a section I didn't care much for translating, since it was just explaining secret items, Musashi and the Sound Test.]
Tumblr media
What's the Yogurt Ring?
The weird animal, Yogurt. It is said he came from Planet Yogurt to turn all people into Yogurts. The Yogurt Ring is supposedly a tool for that purpose, but no one really knows the truth.
Tumblr media
Classes
There are lots of classes!
We explain here in detail 8 classes, from the typical swordsmen and knights to the odd ones like birdpeople!
Swordsmen
They fight with smart moves, using mainly swords. They don't use heavy armor or big shields, having to rely on the sword for both offense and defense. In terms of constitution, many tend to be stout yet slim. In this game, the protagonist is a swordsman.
Knights
Usually elite knights at service of a sovereign. The king's orders are absolute, and they act on them even when having misgivings. They are loyal to the point of sacrificing their own lives to protect the king, They usually use lances, and fight mounted in horses. In the game, centaurs are the knights.
Warriors
A class for people who can use any sort of weapon. Not worrying with the loss of mobility and agility, they use armor to raise their defense. Their constitution is great and their have vitality, being capable of resisting wounds to some extent.
Archers
Skilled at shooting down prey from afar with a bow. Due to using long distance attacks, they usually have great sight and high concentration. But, they cannot use heavy weapons or armors, and many have low endurance as well.
Mages
A class lacking fighting skills in exchanging for acquiring magical abilities. They have no strength or endurance and cannot use heavy equipment, so they are weak in terms of defense. They also can only use staves as weapons. Tao and Anri are examples of mages.
Priests
Primarily a class that serves the gods. Instead of offensive magic, they use mainly defensive spells. Unlike mages their defense is high, and they can fight. Those of this class are intelligent, quiet and level headed. Lowe and Khris are examples of priests.
Monks
Usually ascetic monks training their body and spirit. Monks don't use weapons such as swords and axes, nor equipment like shields and armors. Their fight with nothing but their own body. The only force member of this class is Gong, who joins in Chapter 1.
Birdpeople
A class of winged people who used to fly freely through the skies. They patrolled their borders and castles using their wings. With superior movement, they are very useful for surveillance. Balbaroy and Amon are birdpeople.
3 notes · View notes
ilaiyayaya · 7 months
Text
I Just Really Want To Like Everything Ever
There are so many things I just desperately wish I could get interested in but like, I just can't no matter how hard I try and it fucking sucks. I have a lot of friends that I've met through a lot of weird places, both online and in-person, and like every friend group I have just has completely different interests that sound so cool, and I would love to share those interests, but even when I try, some things just like, aren't for me, and that's okay I guess, but it's still kinda lame. Why can't I share every single interest every single one of my friends have this is so sad 😔.
Gacha games are a really big one. I love Genshin Impact, I have played it since launch, but it is the singular exception, and when I first learned about it I didn't know that it was a gacha game, I was told that it was an MMO; and the reason I still play it isn't really because of the gacha elements, I just have an unhealthy obsession with min-maxing and watching number go up, and Genshin is prime for that. Most gacha games do not appeal to me at all, I don't enjoy gambling at all and the idea of spending a significant amount of real money on any game gives me extreme anxiety, and the gameplay outside of the gacha systems are usually super uninteresting, so much so that almost every gacha game has an auto-battle system so you don't have to sit through the tedious part of the game and can just get back to rolling for pretty women. Despite this, I have tried out like every gacha game that I have even the tiniest bit of interest in for at least a few minutes, and I almost always drop them all within an hour of playing, they're just so boring and a lot of them are also really needlessly confusing when you start, especially ones that have been around for a few years, like idk wtf I'm even supposed to be doing. Almost every person I know is into at least 1 gacha (and they're all into completely different ones too lol), which I technically am too, Genshin Impact is a gacha game, even if I don't really play it very much like one, but I have attempted and failed to get into almost all of them. I'm just gonna list off a few in very recent memory that I have played and then dropped almost immediately: Touhou Lostword, Honkai Impact 3rd, Arknights, Fate/Grand Order, Blue Archive I TRIED PLAYING ALL OF THESE WITHIN THE LAST LIKE 3 MONTHS THEY ALL FUCKING SUCK I was really hoping I would like Honkai too, now I'll never know firsthand the deep lore of why Luocha in Star Rail is carrying around a coffin filled with printed out low quality jpegs of the queen of England 😢. Also why do all gacha games have to have such good character designs, like I know the actual answer is so you spend more money rolling for them but like, these motherfuckers-
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Maybe I should try Uma Musume next maybe that one will be good surely... Oh yea I forgot I also played Puzzle & Dragons for a few years when I was like 12, but like I don't think I ever even rolled in that I just really like puzzle games. Oh and I guess Xenoblade 2 is technically a gacha game, that counts right? Dam I guess I actually am a gacha gamer! WAIT A SEC, COUNTING XENOBLADE 2 MEANS I CAN INCLUDE URSULA IN MY LIST!!!
Tumblr media
Look at her, she's so oomfie-core. And she's the best healer in the game. Objectively. You are not allowed to disagree with me. I WILL cry.
Fighting games are probably the absolute biggest example of something I want to get into, but just cannot. Every single person I know plays fighting games, and for a large portion of them it's the main genre they play, even the ones that aren't that into fighting games still have like 1 that they play pretty often. I know several people that have played at high level tournaments in multiple fighting games, idk shit about the Smash Melee competitive community except that there's this guy named Hungrybox, and one of my friends has had some really bad experiences with them, and like, edgeguarding is bad I guess. This sounds like bragging about like, knowing people in high places in the fighting game scene, but like, this is literally a bad thing for me lol, why can't I know high level Tetris players or like, a single person that has completed an ultimate raid in FFXIV my friend group fucking sucks I hate my friends (I'M JOKING DON'T YELL AT ME AAAAAAAA I LOVE MY FRIENDS I FORCED ONE OF THEM TO READ UMINEKO AND THEY ONLY COMPLAINED LIKE, A FEW TIMES). Recently the desire to get into fighting games has been like, especially strong because one of my closest friends who was one of the only people I knew that wasn't into the FGC, started getting really into them in the last year so I've been hearing about it even more than usual, even one of my irl coworkers is into fighting games (later edit: forgor she follows me on here, she probably doesn't read these hopefully, but if she does see this, hi lol, I promise I'm only unhinged when it's funny and also most of the rest of the time), so like I just can't escape it no matter what, god is real and he's mocking me for not liking beating people up digitally (what an asshole). I played Umineko Golden Fantasia today (now like, 4 days ago), which like, I knew beforehand was not a very good game, like obviously it was just gonna be a mediocre at best doujin fighter, but like, I was really hoping the Umineko brainrot would carry me into it becoming a gateway drug and me finally getting into fighting games as a whole! It didn't work :( I played it for like an hour and decided it sucked (big surprise who would've guessed). I was also going to try Guilty Gear XX, but like, now I'm afraid to, cause I'm not confident I'll like it (even tho Xrd is by far my favorite fighting game and the only one I've been able to put any significant time into) and if I don't like it, it's like, so over, everyone I know plays XX, it's the only game that I know more than one person that plays at a tournament level. I feel like if I play XX and don't end up enjoying it that's like, the final nail in the coffin, I'll never get into fighting games ever, I'm fucked, life is doomed, it's so joever. But on the other hand, if XX did end up being the game that truly gets me into fighting games, it's like, the best one, I'd have so many friends to play with, I literally know like, 8 people that play XX all the time at multiple different skill levels! But like, that's why the stakes are so high to a point that the idea of playing it just gives me really bad anxiety, cause like, if I don't like it, and I feel like there's like an 80% chance that I won't, I'm just fucked, I'll never be able to relate to all my FGC friends 😔.
Also like, ngl, fighting games kinda have peak character designs, like gacha games are literally sold on their character designs and yet fighting games somehow have them outclassed most of the time imo. Like, dam, how they so cool frfr???
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Really it's just Guilty Gear that has the best designs for the most part but like, other fighting games do too, I'm just not digging to find them and Guilty Gear is the only series I've put more than 30 minutes into.
Ngl kinda not just the character designs, I love the art, the music, the community, the metaphysical concept, the idea, literally everything about fighting games, except the gameplay, and more specifically the progression structure of them. Most fighters have like, no in-game form of progression outside of like, an arcade mode for each character and maybe a mediocre story mode, and beyond that it's usually just up to you to get your own value out of the game by just improving yourself and matches against others, and like, that's cool, and that works for most people, but not for me I need funny little lists that I can put checkmarks on every time I do a thing. Fighting games are pretty much entirely intrinsic enjoyment with little to no extrinsic motivation, which I want to make clear, is not necessarily a bad thing at all, and is probably why people who get into fighting games get so into them for such a long time, the enjoyment comes entirely from improving yourself and getting better and that's like, really based, but also uhhhh I'm bad at that lol. I suck at intrinsic motivation, I need to have some kind of external force motivating me to do anything long term, and fighting games just don't give that external motivation, the most they'll do is like, give you a checklist of combos in the training mode and every time you complete a combo you get a little check (which tbh is probably the only reason I was ever able to get into Xrd lol), and like, that motivates me to learn characters and actually get good at the game, but then once the combo lists for every character I want to play is finished I just lose interest. Idk, like I say that I can't get into any game that requires motivating yourself, and that generally is the case, but like, I also play Tetris, and I have like, probably close to 10k hours across all versions of Tetris and that also has absolutely no outside motivation, but like, Tetris is special, idk why it's special, but like, it's just special okay? Maybe Tetris stole all of my internal gamer motivation and therefore I'll never find another game ever that I'll want to put effort in to get good at 😔.
One more final thing that I have no interest in that my friends like: Gunpla! Specifically Gunpla, like the model kits, not Gundam as a whole, I know I'm not interested in a majority of the Gundam franchise beyond G-Witch and some of the games like Gundam Dynasty Warriors, and I don't really care enough to get into the rest of it, it's just not for me and I've accepted that long ago. Gunpla tho is in like, a kinda weird spot compared to those other 2 things, those I want to like, but just can't get into even slightly despite trying over and over, Gunpla I do like, but only sometimes. I like Gunpla, I've built like, 7 or 8 model kits in the last 2 years, but I only ever really feel like building a kit like once every 2 or 3 months, and only for like maybe an hour or 2 at a time, the issue tho is that I'm really slow so an hour or 2 is not nearly enough for me to finish even a high grade lol. I bought the Figure-rise Standard kits of Miorine and Suletta like 3 months ago, and the box for Miorine is still sitting on a shelf unopened, and the kit for Miorine has been sitting on my desk for over a month, half built, and like I need to finish it, I want to finish both of them, but like, I just never feel like it. Luckily Gunpla isn't really something I want to talk about very much with others, it's kinda just, a solo hobby for me. I initially got into it through a friend that used to participate in a lot of Gunpla building competitions, but unlike with fighting games or gachas, I don't really have any interest in talking about it with others, so I don't really feel the need to get super into it, but I wish I at least liked it enough to motivate myself to finish these 2 kits cause I really want to put them together on my shelf, and I also really want Suletta out of the fucking way she is taking up 2/3rds of my desk. Also I really want to paint Gunpla, that's the main reason I got into it, but like, that requires so many supplies, and it takes a lot of time and you need a well ventilated space to do any kind of airbrushing and aaaaa thinking about how many steps there are to even start painting hurts my brain I'll just thinking about Suletta and Miorine kissing instead.
Writing this took too long and also has too many words and also I'm getting eepy disease and I wanna talk about something else instead I started writing this like a week ago. But yea maybe someday I'll finally buy SONOHIGURASHI VS. TOUHOU UNIVERSE2 and my life will be changed forever and i'll finally be a fighting game fan life will be good ok byebye byeeee!!! honk shoo honk shoo hooooooonk mimimimi...
Tumblr media
1 note · View note
kadoodles-on-ao3 · 1 year
Note
It seems like you have a vendetta against Shulk/Fiora. Like, not just disliking it and preferring Shulkelia but straight up hate the canon ship of the game. Why?
Thank you for asking this! It's an interesting question and I have a quite a bit to say about it (as usual with me aha). So I'll put the details under the cut, but yes, I personally do not like any aspect of the canon relationship/writing of it at all (although I don't go into that here since I talked about much more than I expected lol, if you're curious specifically about what my opinions are on the dialogue/choices in the game regarding Shiora feel free to send me another ask!). Also if you've read my fanfics (genuinely not trying to plug my work haha I swear) and see how I write Fiora and her friendship with Shulk, and especially the fic where I write from her pov for the whole thing, you can see I don't hate her and try to be respectful to her creators and fans! Anyway, for a TL;DR:
Aside from my personal history (which also is part of why I like Shulkelia as much as I do) causing the way Fiora's attraction to Shulk is written to not come off very well to me, and even ignoring what I've seen on the Internet about how people react to these ships and those who like or dislike them, it's just A Thing About Life that there will be parts of media you really like and parts of the same media you really don't, and that's what makes art engaging and impactful and personal and fun to talk about! I'm just someone who always has a lot to say about anything, so don't take my diatribes as anything more than me being passionate about analyzing stuff haha. I still love Xenoblade 1 with all my heart, and me not liking parts of the series such as Xenoblade 2 (very much) or Shiora (at all) doesn't affect how much I enjoy what I do like! It's just another fun facet to delve into for me, whether it's a thing I like or a thing I dislike.
And when all you see and know of me is from a blog that's specifically just for talking about a small facet of one piece of media, I can come off as more melodramatic about my liking of Shulkelia and disliking of Shiora since I don't talk too much about the rest of Xenoblade as a whole, nor anything else for that matter, on here. I promise I don't truly care that much about this fictional love triangle in my day-to-day life, and I'm sorry if I came off as rude about it! If you like their relationship then... I do want to say more power to you, and count this as me having said so, but also I don't feel like I need to because, as you said, it is canon so the Xenoblade devs have been (and probably will be!) providing plenty of enjoyment for you, and so no one should care what a silly singular stranger like me thinks at the end of the day haha.
But if you do, then here's what I have to say:
First off, I just enjoy really thoroughly dissecting everything I like, as well as dislike (as you will soon see!). I like delving into details and analyzing stuff, and sometimes that passion can be a little too obsessive, which can come off as me being passionate in my hatred of The Thing rather than passionate about analyzing why I hate The Thing (which is what's really going on). So it's important to me to say that when I talk about anything I dislike in depth like this, it's not ever meant to be hating on or attacking people who do like it! I just really find it fun to put things under a microscope, both when I really like them and really dislike them, because I enjoy discovering what, specifically, about them makes me feel that way.
I also think it's important to repeat that point about how this blog is both 1) meant to be near-exclusively about Shulkelia and 2) the posts I make here are pretty much my entire online footprint (outside of my fanfic account which is p much about the same topic aha), and as such these are the only things that strangers have to form an opinion about me (much like the common criticism brought up about parasocial relationships). When I log on to this blog I'm here to talk about my Xenoblade OTP or things related to it, and so that's all you see of/know about me. And even though the reason I made this blog is because of how much I like it (I'm kind of obsessive about the things I'm really passionate about, I've been that way my whole life, so that certainly doesn't help either haha), there are things I may like equally or even more, but because they aren't what this blog is for I don't mention them, and so anyone who doesn't know me won't know about them unless I talk about them. When you only see the fraction of me that I'm willing to share, then of course it'll seem like that fraction is the whole me if you never get to see the other 99%.
So much in the same way that I can seem super obsessed about Shulkelia (which, to be fair, I do get that way some days haha) it can seem like I really really hate Shiora too, since the only time I'm going to talk about it is on a blog that's dedicated to a different ship, and since I'm not really a multishipper nor do I enjoy the writing of it in canon, I won't ever have much nice to say about it. And because it's a canon ship that most people seem to enjoy, it's going to come up from time to time on art that either has Fiora/the love triangle involved or in the comments I see on it, and since I have something to say about it I do. Although I do genuinely not like it at all, I try to do it in a way where it's clear I'm not hating on people who enjoy it, either by trying to hammer home that it's just my personal opinion about it, or being super hyperbolic about disliking it in an attempt at humor. But tone and meaning can get lost from brain to text and I'm surely not the best at wording things sometimes, so I don't blame anyone for getting the wrong impression, and if that's happened I do apologize!
For example, if this blog was instead about my love of Mexican food (which is true!) and was meant for being a catalogue of recipes I come across, I'd probably talk in the tags pretty often about how I lament that so many recipes have cilantro in them because I have the weird cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene and so it tastes awful to me (which is also true!). When this happens over and over again on so many recipes that have cilantro, and when this repetition is all you ever get to see about me, it would probably seem like I have a burning hatred for cilantro, when in reality I barely think about it at all, and if something I want to eat has it I'll just politely ask for no cilantro or silently pick it off. I do think the weird gene is interesting, and I have a fun story about how I found out I have it which I enjoy telling, but I'm also just fine eating my food if no one wants to talk about it.
But that comparison isn't perfect, because there's a lot more going on in interpersonal relationships (fictional or not) and why people enjoy them or not. So let's get into that!
I did mention there were personal reasons why I feel the way I do, and to the extent I do, about these pairings, so it's only fair to explain what that's about. All throughout my life up until college I never had anyone show any romantic interest in me, even in high school, while in contrast all my friends as well as my sister had been in multiple relationships, so I felt rather lonely and figured there was something wrong with me if no one would want to date me haha. But I did of course have crushes of my own (that because of the aforementioned thought I had that I was unlikable I never acted on) and one of them was on a mutual friend that my best friend at the time also knew, as well as knew that I liked him. And all of a sudden one day they were going out and being affectionate all the time, including right in front of me even though my friend knew I liked him. That plus my loneliness from before obviously hurt really bad and made me pretty upset for a while haha.
Then on top of that later that year I would connect with someone like I never had before in my life and he "felt the same way", the very first person to ever tell me they liked me and I believed it. I honestly do still think he did like me... yet he would go on to get into a relationship with someone else and all the while repeatedly promise me that I was special to him and that she didn't get him like I did and he'd leave her for me but of course we can still have our deep talks about his personal problems and blah blah blah. There's a lot more to it than that but I'll cut it short and just say this happened for literally every single day for an entire year of my life, and it really deeply affected me for a long time, though I'm fine now of course. Well, it did change me as a human being, but you know what I mean haha. I don't say this to elicit pity (really, don't, I promise I'm fine) but to give you some puzzle pieces to help figure out the mystery of why I dislike Shiora.
So I'm sure you can see the parallels from my life to what Melia goes through, and that's precisely the mechanism that everyone uses to relate to and love fictional characters: they deal with horrible stuff that we can connect back to horrible stuff we've been through, and we empathize with them. That's one reason why so many people love Shulk (including me!), and Melia, and countless other characters. That's kind of what they're here for: to relate to. He just like me for real and all that. So, in the same way my life experiences make me relate so much to Melia, I can also relate those who I liked but never could be with to Shulk and relate their girlfriends to Fiora. And knowing how those real-life relationships ended up and why they didn't work out, I can really see parallels to how Fiora and Shulk's relationship is written, at least with the vibe I got from it on first and second impression. Therefore I both dislike it for personal reasons and the information those reasons gave me about good and bad relationships.
On a lighter note though, there's another aspect to the whole we-like-characters-we-identify-with thing with regards to shipping: I really do think the ships we like (if any) are based on and a reflection of ourselves and what we want in a partner (should we want to have one). Or in simpler terms, our OTPs are often made up of a character we can self-insert as and a character we would marry if they were real haha. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all! It's fun to make up fake scenarios with fake characters that you want to kiss, even when you're not writing direct-self-insert or xReader stuff (which I also don't bash)! I'm certainly guilty of this myself, even as much as I try to write them true to their character, relating so much to Melia and finding a lot about Shulk attractive for reasons that Melia also does means I'm just like everyone else haha. But on the other side of the coin, the fact that I cannot relate to Fiora in so many ways as well as do not vibe with how she treats her attraction to Shulk means I can't really enjoy the thought of them as a couple.
But outside of talking about the canon for just a second more, I think there's an interesting phenomenon(? idk what to call it lol) here that is in this ask as well as many other people's vocalized opinions regarding this game's love triangle: said canon. As in, the concept that someone could like Xenoblade 1 overall but dislike the canon relationship either confuses and/or upsets some people. Which is strange to me on its own, like do these people also get confused and/or mad when someone says they love hamburgers but hate when they have pickles on them? Everyone has their own tastes, and what you like or how much of it you do is just part of being an individual. (Plus I must say it's extra odd with regards to Shulkelia, as I've never seen the same comments/reactions to ships like Meliora, Shulk/Reyn, Shalvis, Dunban/Melia, etc, despite the fact that they're all equally as non-canon as Shulkelia. Maybe it's because the game firmly shoots down Shulk liking Melia so hard? But it also shows how much Fiora likes Shulk, so wouldn't Meliora [which is pretty darn popular as far as Xenoblade 1 ships go, at least from my browsing] be just as "anti-canon"?).
For extra context too, there are. SO. many friendzoned/"haha Shulk doesn't like Melia" memes and jokes out there (and if these people are so concerned with canon, it's weird how often they make Shulk and/or Melia act out of character super hard to push the joke!) which don't really exist to be pro-Shiora and more just anti-Shulkelia. I even came across a guy on reddit who would post Melia fanart every day, and so many of his posts were stalked by this one dude who would write a little rant about how Melia sucks and Fiora is the best, and would really go off if the fanart showed Melia's crush on Shulk in any way. Now he was super downvoted every time but... I've never seen anyone do that for Shulkelia. And yet I have seen quite a few posts of people complaining about Shulk/Melia fans shoving their ship in their faces and how much it sucks as a ship and I'm like i have been trying for MONTHS to find a single scrap of shulkelia content yet find barely anything and what i do find has SO many comments saying they still like shiora or that they hate the art since it's not shiora literally WHO are you talking about??? Like maybe I just am unlucky and have seen literally all 20 or whatever number of instances of Shiora fans being rude that ever existed but... they still do exist. I'm not making this up, in fact I encourage you to go out and search for Xenoblade fan content regarding this love triangle and see how people react to it! That's what I did and that's how I came across all of this!
Anyway, like was there a huge ship war in the early fandom days or something??? If so why can I find no mention of it anywhere except from salty Shiora shippers/Fiora fanboys, like barely any Shulkelia art even exists and I see zero talk from the supposed pushy Shulkelia fans? They have like 30 freaking fics in existence and half of them are Melia sulking about how Fiora is being lovey dovey with Shulk and showing they actually got together after all so don't even really count as Shulkelia fics!! In my searching for Shulkelia content I come across so many comments from people who like the ship trying to downplay their enjoyment of it and placate any potential Shiora fans reading their comments with "oh but Shulk/Fiora is cute too! i still like them together! i only like Shulk/Melia in a close friends kind of way, or just to make Melia happy idc about the ship i just like seeing her smile!" so like... What reality do these other guys live in where they got bombarded with Shulkelia over and over because I wish I lived in it!!! Something's up with some Fiora fans idk. Maybe I just had back luck in my searching, but try it yourself and see. I'm not crazy or making this up, I could just have been seeing all 20 or whatever number of Shiora's rude fans but... they do exist, and I have yet to see similar behavior from Shulkelia fans.
And this isn't all just me being a lurker looking at rando's comments as well. I even have a bit of a secondhand-experience story to tell about it! (The specific timeline of the initial details might be jumbled a bit, but I do remember the gist of it and still have the DMs to confirm some of the facts!)
I used to be active on Twitter, and I followed a lot of different Xenoblade fan artists on there. One day a certain artist posted a WIP of Melia and Shulk laying next to each other on a hill where Shulk was smiling at her, and although the artist deleted it (for reasons you will soon learn about) I think they wrote the Japanese ship name of the two on the tweet for it. Either way, I do recall before the WIP was posted they tweeted about liking Shulkelia, or rather ShuMeri as the Japanese ship name is called, (although in much the same "i like Melia so i like the thought of her being happy. Shulk belongs with Fiora though! i still ship them!" please-don't-be-mad-at-me way that I have never seen a Fiora/Shiora fan do) and wanting to draw something for it. Even though this particular artist posted in Japanese, a language I don't know 99% of, I was able to get the gist of their tweets through the translation feature and my knowledge of what the characters' names are in Japanese. And despite how hard this artist tried to be nice, tried to show how much they weren't trying to be mean to Shiora fans (they even had drawn Shiora art months earlier!), they got a wave of hate directed at them from Japanese fans which I saw in real time.
And if you doubt this because the tweets are now deleted, and because even when they were up I only read them through an A.I. translation, I felt so bad for this poor artist that I DM-ed them (regrettably in English, since I didn't trust my knowledge of Japanese to not end up making me say something I didn't intend or in a rude/informal tone) to show there was at least one other person out there that enjoyed ShuMeri and was excited to see their art. And they fortunately understood my message and knew English to message me back and told me direct quotes of what was thrown at them, which I still have in my DMs and will quote:
"'You are denying the original story. It's too unsatisfying and ugly' 'It's not right to make Shulk and Melia lovers.' someone said. At other times, people have replied to my art, complaining about Melia's behavior in the story, as I tweeted the other day. I've had a lot of negative comments about ShuMeri and Melia." (With regards to the whole "complaining about Melia's behavior in the story" thing, if I recall that was from people saying she had no right to have a crush on Shulk in the first place, which... I thought you guys said canon is sacrosanct? It is canon that Melia had a crush on Shulk, and if you don't like that then you don't respect the canon/story and aren't a real fan. Do you see how silly this sounds???)
So. Tell me if you have ever seen any Melia fans or Shulkelia fans ever behave like this. Because I sure haven't. (Like even this ask [which I am not upset about nor trying to be rude to the anon at all, on the contrary I'm super enjoying talking about this topic! it's just the dichotomy here is interesting to me!) is proof to me: how many times can you say you've seen comments on Shiora art or asks sent to Xenoblade fanblogs asking why someone doesn't like Shulkelia, do you hate Shulkelia, what's wrong with Shulkelia? Like I get one is canon and the other isn't, but like... have you seen shipping culture? Literally all of the most popular ships for any given media are non-canon, that's half the fun of shipping!!!
"Don't let mean fans sour the original work" (and again, just to make sure I'm clear, I do not consider the anon who sent this ask to be mean or rude in any way! I'm referring to other randos here!) and all that, but it's kind of hard for me to like a ship when it has fans that act like this... going around projecting by accusing fans of a different ship of their own behavior, or saying things that contradict their own points about how important canon is to them. Thinking back on how we like characters we can relate to, isn't it interesting how fans of a brash, headstrong, do-what-I-want-and-fuck-the-consequences character who gets everything she wants in canon act in a pushy or even rude way to fans of a reserved, self-reproaching, I-will-do-what-is-best-for-others-first character who has so much taken away from her, and the latter fans always defer to the former and feel guilty when they talk about liking their character even as they do so much to be nice to them? It's pretty interesting I think, it's like when dogs look like their owners or something haha.
To end this off, since even though I have more to say (which if you would like to hear please let me know!) I've talked for far too long now haha, I really want to post the rest of the DM that the artist I talked to (who to this day hasn't made another Shulkelia/Shulkelia-esque fanart again, and interestingly never gets hate on their Shalvis art which is again a non-canon "story-denying" ship, too. Maybe they just blocked the rude people and if so good for them, but it's interesting still that they haven't draw Shulkelia since):
"I think it's useless to argue about who is better, Fiora or Melia, and I don't want them to get me involved in that fight. However, I received words of encouragement from many kind followers like you. I now understand important things; 'Don't worry about mean people' and 'Draw what I like.' Fan art should be free, shouldn't it? If I draw ShuMeri, some mean people might appear again. But there are many more kind people like you. When I think of that, I'm not afraid anymore. I will try to draw ShuMeri one day. Maybe I'll get depressed again because of mean people, but then you can tell me, 'You draw fanart freely, right!'... Please tell me that. You made me feel better and made me cry with happiness. Thank you so much. :)"
-Mirim, who can be found here currently, and their old account where the drama happened is here. This is the piece of artwork they got so much hate for. Shulk and Melia aren't even touching in it and Mirim didn't even mention their ship name.
#ask#please support mirim they're a very skilled and underrated artist!!#anyway every time i get an ask i get so excited haha i really like talking to people about things i/we like#(well if i got a mean/''kys'' ask i wouldn't be excited but you get what i mean haha)#and to be clear i do not think this ask was hostile at all! and even if it was meant to be... so what?#i enjoyed answering it and i hope what i had to say was interesting and satisfied the anon's curiosity#also i *do* want to talk about other things in xenoblade i like because there's **so** much i have to say#like if you could see the size of my notes section in my voice line doc you would know. you would KNOW how much i like basically#every single thing about this game haha. probably too much. it's over 700 lines of text long#i just don't feel like there's an audience most of the time for me and it feels a little sad talking into the void haha#hence my enjoyment of getting asks of any kind!#so if anyone has any questions for me about literally anything at all please send me an ask!#in return i will write you a thesis paper about your question free of charge as you can see here lol#i really hope i didn't come off as mean or bitter here it's just there's a huge dichotomy going on with shulkelia from what i've seen#as i mentioned if it's about canonicity why don't shalvis and meliora get hate? i've literally never seen a single mean comment about them#unprompted on a random one-off comment or directly on fanworks of it#maybe it's more about melia than shulkelia since there's also a lot of hate towards her that i've seen too#in a ''ew melia fans are so conceited thinking she's the best-written character and fiora is shallow'' and it's like#congratulations! you have just encountered a ''different opinion''! perhaps they like melia because they think she is well-written and#not to spite you in particular! maybe they think fiora is shallow bc a lot of her character objectively revolves around her crush on shulk!#and it's okay to not like it! it's also okay to like it! this is what art is about: having your own thoughts on it!#it is fun to share these thoughts and i enjoy it! but i do not enjoy when people are mean to others because they like#Fake Person/Relationship A but other people like Fake Person/Relationship B! it's silly to get super mad about it and it's rude to be mean!
3 notes · View notes
datastate · 2 years
Text
very fun drawing young ytd cast, but esp for the asu-agents. you have no idea what’s coming up huh...
4 notes · View notes
zwei-rhunen · 7 months
Text
WAIT
Tumblr media
THIS BETTER NOT BE A REPEAT OF ARRS MFING HEROES FEAST or whatever it was called. swear to god
Literally, my ongoing train of thoughts were:
Tumblr media
"lol i just had the MCH feast but okay sure"
Tumblr media
........ wait. why does this feel.. familiar.
why do i feel disgust and dread and irritation?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
/war flashbacks to the overly long and tedious endless, useless chain of fetch quests for the company of heroes
oH, NAH. this better not be like that again.
no. No!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
NONONONONO
/deep sigh
i'm not afraid to abandon the MSQ for another 6-9-12 months if it turns out to be like THAT experience lmfao. absolutely not.
they could have cut out that ENTIRE segment and played a bunch of cutscenes of the WoL helping out that useless group.
it didnt even contribute to the storytelling, apart from making IRL me irritated. like there was zero value in suffering thru it all.
you can torture my character all you want, but you can also do that without pissing the human off lmfaoooooo
#i literally enjoyed the rest of ARR. I LOATHED THAT SECTION.#i wouldnt be surprised if that was the drop off point for when ppl start quitting in ARR lmao#i enjoyed the whole 'zero to hero' buildup throughout 2.0. i did NOT enjoy running around providing zero value or progression to the story#just bc they thought that tongue in cheek comments about it being a time waster would be enough to forgive the sins of that questchain#cut the whole thing out and replace it with cutscenes and you will literally miss out on nothing lmao. it would be a massive QoL.#that part of the MSQ literally punishes you for wanting to progress thru MSQ bc all the useless running around doesnt do anything for#the story iteslf lmao. you want to continue on with the story? too bad. do these fetch quests where NPC says youre wrong each time#or whatever it is that happens during that company of heroes segment. i just remember thinking 'man wtf i actually feel like i'm wasting my#time here but it sucks bc it's baked into the MSQ so i'm forced to continue wasting my time for as long as they deem it necessary until#the MSQ can actually resume telling the story >:(#i want to continue on w the MSQ! i do NOT want to continue spending time on whatever THIS -frantically gestures to COH fetch quests- is!!!#like it was palatable up to a point but they really REALLY beat a dead horse and ran too long with the joke of 'haha theyre wasting ur time#look how you must slave for them while they dangle a carrot in your face until they agree to work with you!'#fuck those quests from the bottom of my chest#zwei writes#ALL of my dark knight resentment energy is sourced directly from JUST those specific chain of events in Zwei's life LMFAO
0 notes
Text
I watched James Somerton's final video, and all I got was this 6 page document
As soon as I learned his final unreleased video was on Revolutionary Girl Utena, I knew I had to hate watch it. I didn't know that I'd spend the following 4 hours making a comprehensive doc on everything I hated about it. But here we are.
The TLDR (is this too long to be a TLDR?)
The intro section, as well as Part 2, are directly plagiarized from wikipedia. The rest is unclear.
He makes a “haha this show is so weird right guys” joke 10 different times
He reads Anthy as so emotionally stunted she literally has to be taught how to think for herself, and believes that being the rose bride makes her feel good
He says that his reading is ‘vastly different” from the rest of the community, before boldly stating that this is because he sees it as a “deeply allegorical and symbolic story”
He sees the sexual abuse as “not to be taken literally”
Insists that the show be separated into parts that are strictly literal and strictly allegorical for the entirety of parts 3 and 4, before making the contradictory move of analyzing characters as allegories during part 5
The only characters that get dedicated sections are Akio and Dios, who he doesn’t believe are the same person. 
He says Dios gets his powers by “deflowering women”
He calls Akio, known child predator, a chaotic bisexual
Uses 14 year old SA survivor Anthy’s passive personality to make a joke about her being a bottom
His final point is that Utena was the real prince all along
There are no citations
Anyway, full version for people who hate themselves under the cut. With time codes, because I cite my sources.
Part 1: Intro
This entire section is almost exclusively quoted from the Wikipedia article for Revolutionary Girl Utena. Words have been changed, but the order at which certain topics come up is not. Highlights include:
0:56 In his introduction of Be-Papas, lists the founding members in literally the exact same order as Wikipedia.
1:40-2:00 His list of Be-Papas previous works is lifted entirely from wikipedia, only with the words changed. This leads to a strange moment at 1:52 where he claims Be-papas ‘lent their talents to’ Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show which started production at least a year before Be-papas was founded. On the wikipedia article for Utena, this is instead referring to the previous work of Shinya Hasegawa and Yōji Enokido
4:23 he uses a quote by Yūichirō Oguro describing the production as a “tug of war”. He seems to have lifted this in its entirety from Wikipedia, as he does not cite the actual source it is from (the box set companion book, btw)
As for James Somerton originals, at 0:44 he claims that out of all magical girl series,”none to my knowledge have been more discussed and dissected than the 1997 series Revolutionary Girl Utena” He will go back on this at 5:05, where he states that “Sailor Moon takes the lion’s share of discussion” in regard to influential magical girl anime
Part 2: Part 1
(At least I know I’m not funny, unlike James Somerton)
Speaking of which. Here is every single time he makes a “wow this show is sooooo weird you guys” joke: 6:00, 8:50, 10:40, 10:58, 13:46, 17:07, 24:16, 30:34, 41:19, 48:01
Here’s every time the punchline to the joke is the existence of Nanami, a character who he otherwise completely disregards: 10:56, 12:05, 16:22, 42:40
6:16 Claims that the “Apocalypse saga” and “Akio Ohtori saga’ are two names for the same several episodes, depending on the release. This is untrue. Instead, different releases either only have the Apocalypse saga, or split the episodes into an Akio Ohtori saga and then the Apocalypse saga. 
7:58 Claims Utena intervening on Anthy’s behalf begins the first duel. While this happens in the movie, Touga intervenes in the scene he uses clips from (like literally right after the shot he uses in the video). Utena only gets drawn into the duels when Wakaba’s love note to Saionji is posted. Youtuber Noralities’ Utena video also gets this wrong, which makes me wonder if this was copied.
9:09 Claims Akio’s “End of the World” moniker is actually more closely translated to “Apocalypse”. In reality, the translation moves away from a more apocalyptic reading, with 世界の果て (Sekai no hate) apparently translating closer to “the furthest reach of a known world” or “edge of the world”. (Love the implications of this translation, but I digress)
9:10 As can be assumed from the previous point, this means I can’t find any sources that point to them not using the title “apocalypse” for religious reasons
10:10 Uses Anthy’s extreme passivity under her Rose bride persona to make a top/bottom joke. I’m gonna repeat this in case you’re just skimming. He uses a trait that likely stems from years of abuse, (possibly exaggerated by the persona Anthy uses to manipulate people), and uses it to call her a bottom. 
He also just doesn’t seem to understand how the whole point of Utena constantly telling Anthy that she's just a normal girl who should make more friends is framed as Utena imposing her will on Anthy, just as much as the previous Engaged have done. 
11:54 Apologies in advance for my most “um, actually!” point yet, but technically his statement that Anthy stops being host to the Sword of Dios is wrong. Akio literally pulls a sword out of her chest in the final duel. It's a more evil-looking sword of Dios, granted.
13:02 !!! CANTARELLA SCENE ALERT !!! He interprets it as them fighting over Akio?? Which like. I will allow people to have their own interpretations of vague and symbolic scenes. I will. I swear. This is not technically incorrect. It just makes me want to eat my own intestines.
14:44 Bad Anthy take #1: He states Anthy “is emotionally stunted to the point where she needs people to make decisions for her because she does not know how to think for herself” This ignores several moments of Anthy clearly making her own choices throughout the show, including the suicide attempt Somerton mentions about a minute prior. This also strips Anthy of what little agency she has throughout the story, usually exerted through messing with Utena or Nanami. (The fact that she repeatedly makes choices that contribute to her own abuse is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting parts of her character, and it's a shame that Summerton’s ‘reading’ of the story completely disregards that)
Additionally, he once again reads Utena ‘urging Anthy to think for herself” in the first arc as an unambiguously good move, and not as something critiqued in the show.
14:52 Summerton reads the Swords of hatred as symbolizing men’s hatred specifically. Again, I’m trying not to completely disregard differing interpretations to a show like Utena, but this feels very simplistic, especially considering the harm we see aimed towards Anthy by other women
16:42 Here he claims that his reading of the story seems to be “vastly different” from the bulk of Utena discourse. What is this reading? That the show shouldn’t be read literally. Or, in his words, “[we can interpret] Revolutionary Girl Utena as a deeply allegorical and symbolic story about the struggles of coming of age amidst widespread institutional corruption in a high school and which describes a passive culture of inaction in regard to brazen instances of domestic exploitation in which there is not only a question about the caporeality of the events transpiring but also which events can be taken for granted and which events are meant to signify abstract sociological institutions.” The idea that he believes this is in any way a new reading of the material honestly baffles me.
Part 3: Part 2
17:48 through 18:50 differently quotes the Wikipedia article for postmodernism. He even makes a joke at 17:55 about Wikipedia. Please kill me. 
The first three themes he lists at 19:11 are just the three main themes listed on the Revolutionary Girl Utena Wikipedia page. What was that about a “vastly different” reading, James?
You’re gonna have to take my word for it, but this section is so short because it's just him talking about the various ways the story can’t be taken literally. He does, ironically, call this a hot take.
Part 4: Part 3
Here’s where the reading falls apart folks
At 23:15, he states that some things in Utena are allegorically coded, while others are to be taken literally. This is true. However, he seems to take this to mean that some parts of the show are Strictly Literal, while others are Strictly Allegorical for things going on in the Literal World. 
This is apparently why he prefers the Anime to the Movie, where there basically is no separation between the Literal and Allegorical
This take is bizarre to me for several reasons, but here is my favorite. At several points, he mentions how Revolutionary Girl Utena is a work of Magical Realism. Magical Realism is literally defined by its blending of the “literal” and “allegorical”, the mix of fantastical elements in a mundane, realistic setting. This idea of the impossibility of a blurred line, that Utena must either have lore where the magic is all real and means nothing, or dedicated allegory segments quarantined from the rest of the story, is contrary to the very idea of Magical Realism.
I can’t help but wonder if Somerton took his mentions of Magical realism from a previous work, due to how little it is consistent with his final argument. Either way, this section suggests a great lack of creativity in his analysis, a shame for such a creative work.
24:36: Shiori slander, for those who care
After this he gets really worked up about people assuming symbolism in everything, even when the author ‘doesn’t make it clear something is symbolic’. He shuts down a reading of a shot in the Lord of the Rings. Miley Cyrus is there? Very The Curtains Were Blue of him. 
28:22 Claims that Wakaba is the key to telling where the Strictly Literal segments end and the Strictly Allegorical segments begin. He states that, under this lens, deeply personal moments of character suffering such as all of the sexual abuse and Anthy’s suicide attempt (which he literally cites) should be read as symbolic and be “approached with uncertainty rather than confusion”. (28:24-29:13)
This also somewhat falls apart when you consider Wakaba is the jeep in the movie's car chase
And then he rants about people not liking his Attack on Titan video for a bit. Since its potential symbolism also doesn't follow hard enough rules to be symbolism. Once again, the separation of “fact vs allegory” I haven’t watched AOT, so that's all I’ll say.
Part 5: Part 4
Thank god this part is short. Much like Dios’ on-screen presence.
32:55 Makes the extremely bold claim that Dios is not Akio. As in, never even became Akio. because Dios is Strictly Allegorical.
Just to be a pedant, this is pretty explicitly disproven in the show
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Confusingly, both earlier and later he will address these two as the same character. 
33:04 he also explains the root of Akio’s name in a tone that suggests this is supplemental information and not like. Literally something he explains out loud in the show?
Part 6: Part 5
This section is nearly entirely about Akio Ohtori. I would like to note that him and Dios are the only characters with dedicated segments.
38:30 The part where he states that Dios gets his powers from deflowering women.
38:46 Claims, once again, that Akio’s abuse of Anthy “may not be literal”. 
38:59 “the instance of exploitation here is used because assault has deep roots as indicating that akio's gender is the source of his imbalance”  THE ASSAULT IS ABOUT AKIO NOW???
39:45 Bad Anthy take #2: “Anthy’s conformity to the Rose bride is based around the fact that she feels good being subservient because this is the only thing in her life that has ever brought her any kind of positive reward”. This is a direct quote. Anyway, I can’t think of any instances in the show where Anthy’s subservience gives her a positive reward, except maybe when she’s intentionally using it to manipulate others. As for her feeling good being the rose bride. She tries to commit suicide. Dude.
Side tangent, but isn’t this exactly what Akio says during the final 2 episodes? That Anthy enjoys being a witch? Is the main villain, who consistently says things during that very episode that are blatantly false, our source of information for this take? I guess so, since this is the dedicated Akio section.
At 40:20 he decides to introduce the concept of Anthy, Akio, and Utena as stand-ins for wider concepts, which is antithetical to his approach in analysis beforehand
Part 7: Part 6
42:40 he finally acknowledges that he’s been spending too much time talking about Akio, and literally no time on characters like Nanami
46:10 states that Utena’s exclusive motivation “is to protect Anthy from the predatorial intentions of the other dualists”, which disregards the fact, which she states herself, that she was largely participating in the duels and protecting Anthy to feel like a prince
48:04 The part where he says that Akio has ‘chaotic Bi vibes’ in regards to him sleeping with Touga, who is 17 and implied to be a long-term victim
Part 8: Part 7
54:01: His concluding point is that Utena was the real prince all along. 
In true Somerton fashion, the video then ends over a scrolling wall of patrons, with not a single citation in sight.
2K notes · View notes
suiana · 10 months
Text
✎ yandere! loser headcanons . . .
Tumblr media
✎ warnings . . .
― stalking, manipulation, delusional yandere, mentions of p0rn, slight nsfw, stockholm syndrome (?) etc.
(gn! reader x male yandere! oc)
✎ yandere! loser who's basically a shut in, rarely coming out of his apartment except for compulsory lessons at university. he's a huge loser, shit talking others during games, messy apartment, dark eye bag circles, always ordering delivery for his food... he's practically the embodiment of the word loser! if it weren't for his rich parents he would not survived a day past his 18th birthday.
✎ yandere! loser who sees you as his salvation, the only hope in his dark life. through your streams he found purpose in his life - to be with you. and when he found out you went to the same university as him? he just knew that you were meant to be with him! why else would you speak his username so lovingly every time he donates to you?
✎ yandere! loser who's obviously a big virgin. I mean, what would you expect from a guy who hasn't held a girl's hand since he was 5? plus he doesn't even come out of his apartment! the most experience he has is from the pornography he used to watch. don't worry! he doesn't watch it anymore! because now all he has to do is imagine you sucking him off and he cums instantly. he's a true loser. but he's your loser, yours! :D
✎ yandere! loser who stalks you both online and physically. at this point he knows more about you than all of your friends do, maybe even you yourself! he's also the type of guy to like something you posted 69 weeks ago just because he liked how you looked in it. but does one post from long ago matter when he literally spam likes everything you post?
✎ yandere! loser who tries to rizz you up with tips and tricks he read online from sites like Reddit. he read all those success stories in the Reddit comment section so surely it must work out for him too, right?! wrong. because when he tried to pin you against a wall and call you 'baby', you only snorted in laughter, calling him funny and walking off with your friends. why didn't it work?! it was from user @/masterrizzler3000 on Reddit so it should've worked! he's sad now :(
✎ yandere! loser who isn't actually that bad looking. if he put in some more effort into his appearance he would've been a solid 10/10 in your opinion. but unfortunately he doesn't and that brings him to a 6.5/10. don't worry, there's something about his loser self that makes him cuter :) and that's when you decided to give him a chance and go out with him. best worst mistake of your life.
✎ yandere! loser who's actually a pretty good gaslighter and manipulator, so good that you actually agreed to date him. though he isn't aware that he's actually manipulating you so to him, you're falling for him because you genuinely love him. looks like religiously watching monster and death note worked for him. and that kids, is the story of how I (21m) landed myself a solid 100/10 with my loser self!!! -him, probably.
✎ yandere! loser who believes wholeheartedly that you and him are meant to be. sure, you may be a little more lifeless than you used to be, he's not sure why, but you love him! you tell him that every morning after you wake up in his bed! the soft 'i love you's' and 'im yours' from your sweet mouth are practically proof that you love him too, right?! fret not, for he loves you too ♡
✎ "please! I'll die without you-! you... you won't let that happen, would you? haha... of course you won't. you love me after all ♡"
3K notes · View notes
redflagshipwriter · 3 months
Text
Hot Ghouls in your Area ch 4 progress
(read other sections of this and more stories here)
Danny floated miserably through the stacks, pulling out books that looked remotely plausible. Maybe he needed help. Jazz would help him without laughing at him, right?
Sam and Tucker absolutely would not. They would think it was hilarious that he had so little game that the universe assigned him a boyfriend via Jeremy Waters. 
‘As if I could pull a guy who looks like that,’ Danny thought wryly, and then felt a little bad about himself in comparison. Jason was, uhhhh, physically blessed. He was tall and well proportioned and his hands- Danny fought down a shiver and resisted the urge to steal another look. Jason was out of sight anyway.
Well. He still hadn't seen Jason's face. Maybe he was ugly! You never know. Or maybe under the helmet it was totally smooth, no face. That would be neat. Danny paused mid motion to imagine that.
Haha. Sick, man.
That concept cheered him up a little as he grimly opened the first book and started skimming for likely words like marriage, spouse, and concubine. 
He didn’t bother reading anything in detail. He stuck a post it note on each page with a relevant term and then put the book in a pile to take back to his dorm. This wasn’t going to get solved in a day.
Ah, shit. Danny paused. This wasn’t going to get solved in a day. He bit his lip and looked off in the direction where Jason had disappeared to do his own research.
He truly didn’t have time to devote to this right now. He was not willing to drop his school life in order to solve a sudden problem. Jason was just going to have to cope with whatever timeline Danny could manage without setting his life on fire.
On the other hand, Jason was a human guy who probably had a life of his own at the biker bar/fight club. Whatever the hell required that kind of outfit probably kept him busy! So Danny couldn’t like, just leave him in the castle to chill.
“Not to mention the fact that he shouldn’t be able to live here very long anyways,” Danny muttered to himself.
That was troubling him. Frankly, Jason should have been intolerably uncomfortable in the ghost zone for this long without specialized protective equipment. It wasn’t meant for humans.
‘What did Jeremy do to this guy?’
Yikes. Did this mean… Did this mean Danny should have given that little cult thing more credit? But Jeremy was just such a doofus. He grimaced. Embarrassing. Why were his enemies so embarrassing? This shit didn’t happen to, like, Wonder Woman.
Danny buried himself back in the books to avoid the growing suspicion that Jason might have been uhhhh magically altered to make him an appropriate concubine to a dead king. That thought sucked! He didn’t like it. He really didn’t like the idea of bringing it up with Jason.
When he had what he thought was a good first round of research, Danny shelved the books he’d gotten out and went to find where his …
He whole-body flinched at the point where he needed to plug an appropriate noun into that sentence. 
“Jason?” Danny called, juggling books into a stack. “I think we should probably get you back to the re- the human world. Before something inexorable happens.”
A pause.
“I don’t think you know what that word means,” Jason said. A book shut. Danny headed towards the sound, phasing through shelves effortlessly. A spark of curiosity lit up at Jason’s voice. He sounded relaxed, even through the helmet’s filter. 
‘I want to hear his real voice. Bet it’s nice.’
Wait. What? Danny shook the thought away, discomforted. He plastered a wide grin on his face. “I don’t know any words,” he lied breezily. “I’m just ad libbing. Anyway!” He flopped dramatically down onto the big chair next to Jason’s, making sure to be extra physical to get a satisfying whumpf. “We really should go! I can get you to the human world, but, uh, I can’t promise to put you back where you came from.” He scratched at the back of his neck. “I think this is going to be a more than one day affair.”
Jason was watching him. There was nothing visible through his helmet, but Danny got the sense that he was tense, waiting for a threat. 
Which, what? Why would Jason feel threatened by-
Oh. Danny felt a knot in his stomach. Right. That made a lot of sense. He felt kinda sick. 
He didn’t let the feeling show through and barreled on speaking. “I don’t exactly have an easy way for you to contact me, but we probably need to stay in touch to fix this. Do you have any ideas?” 
The lie felt kind of gross. But he could hardly tell the guy; “I’m an engineering student in Gotham, you can just call my cell or come to the dorms.”
Jason seemed to relax at the cessation of control. “If you can stick around, yeah. I’ll get you a burner phone, exchange numbers. You’re not going to…” He trailed off. Danny felt a frown somehow. “You won’t have any signal here, actually. That won’t work.”
“I can make it work,” Danny assured him, hands up. “I mean, I can’t make it work here, or I would have offered to help with your tech. But I can pop in and out of the human world and check my messages.”
“That’ll work.” Jason’s helmet turned ever so slightly. “About the books…”
“You found something good?” Danny asked, impressed. “Yeah, awesome. Just be really careful with them, the librarian is a scary guy.”
Jason’s hand flexed over the closed book on his thigh. “I can take- how many can I take out?”
Danny scoffed. “I’m not your dad,” he said. “Whatever you can carry, man. You ready to go or do you need a minute?” He flipped back to his feet with a grunt. 
640 notes · View notes
kasarasun · 2 months
Text
what if I made a thing or it already was that while Airplane wrote the world, Peerless Cucumber illustrated it (only the animals. And Binghe, fighting the animals.) And then then then
He'd totally do it on an alt account, right?? Peerless Cucumber can't be seen making fanart!! (And he's good at it. Like, wiki is using his art in the monsters and beasts pages (that Peerless Cucumber volleyed for. He also separated it from the plant section.) Because 1 its good 2 the artstyle is consistent 3 there isn't a lot of monster official art, other than that one with the black moon rhinoceros python and those other ones and 4 it's really that good)
Haha incomprehensible parenthesis nesting aside, Airplane is watching the forums, right? Not sure about other stuff in canon but he looks at the forums and the fanart and the fiction and most of it is probably corn and binghe and just a little bit of mobei-jun and also the wives tm but!! There's also that guy!!! The monsters guy!! (People would probably suspect 'Drawing the Beast's Ire'- or some other sex euphemism I'm not good at making those- of being Peerless Cucumber because 1 the writing style is the same 2 Peerless Cucumber is the number 1 contributor to the PIDW wiki and a lot of it is the monsters and beasts section and it makes sense, yes??) Anyway, Airplane shooting towards the sky suspects but not too seriously suspects Mr ire of being cucumber's fanart alt but uh uh that ends pre-transmigration section
So, Shen Yuan starts running about, right? Things seem really... familiar, maybe thats the word?- for some reason. This is because every animal and plant he's ever drawn, sketched- maybe even thought about but that's a stretch?- is his design. The firefly parallels hold their forelimbs like butterflies. That is how far down it goes. Maybe it doesn't come up until later, but beasts and monsters from fanfiction get involved, oc species, too... anyway,
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky transmigrates 30 years (iirc) before Peerless Cucumber. He was an avid enough follower of Drawing the Beast's Ire to recognize that these are their designs! Here's where it gets really crazy. Xiao-Mobei comes along, and while he's still pretty young, Airplane can tell that this is Drawing Ire's design! Some aspect, maybe his ears or teeth, (this isn't a well built theoretical tangent) of Mobei isnt canon. Its Drawing Ire's. From that one Northern Kingdom collection. Whatever stretched his world building into coherence, completion, didn't just pull from fanwork, official art, whatever it could find, it went for Drawing the Beast's Ire's designs specifically. Damn that's crazy Airplane ahahaha moving on,
This is getting really long so I'll be a bit more concise, (want to know more? Talk to me. Please talk to me. I want to interact with the fandom. Ask me questions. Poke your fingers into my cage.) This all comes to head at the Immortal alliance conference. The monsters and beasts really start pouring in! And Shen Qingqiu/Yuan remembers his creations. However, he assumes that this is because like 1 other person maybe was Drawing ghost head spiders.
Hey, Peerless Cucumber really liked the monsters, right? The deadlier, crazier, more intricate, the design the better! So maybe, when he was drawing, he... added some things, really believable, logical additions, really just small creative decisions...
Anyway, the monsters that Drawing the Beast's Ire made were where it came to a head.
Lets have another Canon divergence. Maybe, during or after Binghe gets pushed in, out of the rifts comes a species that Drawing Ire created. It's beautiful, poisonous, beloved, and really quite deadly. Shen Yuan/Qingqiu, Peerless Cucumber, Drawing the Beast's Ire... realizes, quite like airplane before him, that he's illustrated, practically sculpted with his own hands, monsters from the Endless Abyss with claws and teeth and poisons as deadly as Peerless Cucumber thought that the really cool monsters could deserve. It feels like he's the one cutting, biting, poisoning his sweet little sheep. It feels like he's digging out the marrow from his little white lotus disciple's bones.
Ok it is shut up time 👍
453 notes · View notes
cinnbar-bun · 4 months
Text
Smooth Operator- (One Piece Men X Reader)
Scenario: “His eyes are like angels but his heart is cold.”
Featuring: Benn Beckman, Crocodile, Rob Lucci, Shanks, and Smoker (separate)
Rating: NSFW
Notes: Rough sex, GN reader (no specific genitalia described), slight angst but oh well haha, possessive Lucci, reader is a pirate in Smoker’s section.
Word Count: ~1.1k
You can read on my AO3 here!
Work is under the cut!!
Benn Beckman
“Fuck… sweetheart…” he whispers into your ear as he lifts your leg higher up. “Tightenin’ around me so well.”
His hand that is gripping your waist rubs gentle circles with his thumb. He can’t stop how addicted he feels pressing into you, having you clench around him so deliciously, and your lovely, sweet voice crying out his name. It’s a beautiful sight to see whenever he drops by. But you both know he won’t stay long, so you try to savor as much as you can. You, the gentle touches and looks in his eyes that make you believe that this time, maybe, just maybe, he’ll take you with him. Him, the way your body feels around his and the way your face contorts with pleasure at every thrust. He has half a mind to run off and leave everything behind for you. To say screw it and keep himself beside you.
“Beck-! Beck!” You choke out his name, pulling him in closer, and lord, it takes everything in him not to collapse onto you and confess how much he fucking adores you.
“Easy there, darling. I’m right here,” he smoothly replies, for both of your sakes. He feels how close you are and works himself faster. “Just relax and enjoy yourself.”
Crocodile
The smell of alcohol and cigar smoke is heavy in his private room. You always say it won’t happen again, but then those dark eyes of his lock onto yours, and now you’re back at it. In his office, a disheveled mess, bouncing on his thick cock while he grips your waist tightly.
“S-Sir!” You whine, as he taps his cigar on his ashtray and takes another puff. You feel the cold metal of his hook around your back. Despite his attitude, he’s made it a point to never let that golden hook cut you or slice your delicate skin. He just prefers the hook tearing the fabric of your clothes apart.
“Good little thing,” he states, a chuckle rumbling from deep in his chest as he tilts your chin up to him and kisses you roughly. The rings on his hand press into your skin coldly. As he does so, his hook tugs at the remaining bits of fabric and lets the shreds fall to the ground.
“You don’t need them when you’re with me,” he says. A partial lie, to obscure the truth that he wants you to stay longer and desire his help. You moan quietly before he silences you with his lips once more.
Lucci
“I thought I told you to avoid him,” he states, unimpressed with the man who has been getting too comfortable with you. Lucci’s possessiveness towards you has increased for some reason, despite him insisting it was just casual- that he can never love and will never love you. You somehow agreed, and now here he was, covering your mouth with his hand while he fucked you from behind in an attempt to remind you of his prowess. He shoves two fingers inside your mouth, and without any hesitation or instruction, you begin to suck on them.
“Do you need me to punish you for your foolishness? Or did you think I was stupid enough to not find out?” Lucci hisses. You haven’t done anything wrong, he knows this deep down, but god, seeing that man think of trying to be around you sends Lucci’s blood boiling.
He doesn’t love you. He can’t love you. He never will love you. This is just for pleasure, and you’re just his stress relief, a toy he uses for his own sake.
He grips you tighter and tugs at your earlobe with his teeth. “You belong to me. Not him. Not anyone else.”
Shanks
He's never serious. He’s always arriving at your house with that damned smile of his, always easing you up and promising “it’s just a reunion between old friends!” Then he always manages to fold you over any piece of furniture within your house. You wouldn’t be shocked if he had managed to fuck you in every part of your house.
“You’re so….!” You struggle, all while Shanks chuckles and continues to thrust into you. Despite being a bit tipsy and only having one arm, Shanks manages to hit all your sensitive spots- spots he’s become very acquainted with after all these sessions with you.
“Dashing? Handsome?” He begins. You let out a loud moan at particularly rough thrust, which makes him laugh boisterously. “Ah, am I too good for you? No words to describe how amazing I am?”
You want to say he’s awful, that he’s ruining your life with how crazy he makes you, but then he hits that spot again and you crumble.
“Shanks… please…” you beg pathetically, and Shanks nods.
“Anything for my darling~,” the redhead smiles as he leans down to kiss your neck. “Gods, I love you.”
He states it so casually, that you can never tell if he’s being genuine or just messing with you. You don’t know if you can even handle the truth from him anymore.
Smoker
“Think I wouldn’t have noticed, huh?” He growls in your ear. You throw your head back, resting it on his shoulder as he bullies his thick cock into you. You don’t even know what he’s noticed this time, as it’s probably another one of his lame excuses to get you close. Not that you care, as you enjoy this game of cat and mouse with him.
“Wearing all that… sitting in that bar and acting all innocent,” he answers for you. “Think I’m stupid? That I wouldn’t catch you there? You’ve gotten too brazen, pirate.”
“Captain,” you begin, and you feel how he twitches inside you. “You’ve gotten too brazen yourself. How many times has it been now?”
“Don’t ask a question to mine. I’m the one who is asking the questions here,” he cuts you off, continuing to bury himself within you. “I don’t wanna hear shit from that mouth of yours except what I want.”
You smirk at how he’s doing his best to retain his hardass personality, but it’s clear he’s faltering. You taunt him further.
“Yes, sir~.”
At that, Smoker groans and fucks you at an even rougher pace.
“Say that shit again and I’ll turn you in!” He yells, as if he even had the heart to do such a thing to you. For some reason, you were someone he never could capture.
1K notes · View notes
ginkgo-phyta · 2 months
Note
heyy do you write for hotch? If yes can I request a fic with hotch falling asleep on reader's shoulder on the jet. like there are so many fics with reader sleeping on his shoulder and he's all soft about it and lets her. how would the bau react to see their tough boss just cuddle up with his girlfriend after a long case (it can be established relationship or before that too). thanku!
A/N: im screaming HAHA i LOVE THIS! i made this an established relationship hehe i hope you enjoy, my love! 
tagged spencer reid x reader because i want more people to see this teehee pls dont hate me i have spencer fics yall should read if you havent already but also you should still read this too
Tumblr media
fluff, BAU!reader, gender-neutral reader, mention of cannon type violence/hostage situation/nothing explicit or detailed, 1.8k words
“Hey, you okay?” Your tired eyes peered up at Aaron as he neared your seat on the jet, tie loosened and top button of his shirt undone. He had just gotten off the phone with the section chief, who, undoubtedly, scolded him as if he were a wayward adolescent. Although the smile he offered you in response was tight lipped and less-than-giving, his eyes told a different tale. They softened as they met yours, shedding their cold and hard façade to reveal a weary truth, littered with hints of desperation. 
This case had been long and grueling, tensions insurmountably higher than usual with Erin Strauss breathing down Hotch’s neck, scrutinizing every decision he and the rest of the team made. You barely got a chance to talk to Aaron about how he was doing, always being waved off by the older man with “We can talk later,” or “It doesn’t matter right now, let’s focus on the case,”. Begrudgingly, you obliged, understanding there was no point in pushing him. It would only add to his stress. Although the case was solved, the end was arduous. The unsub had taken a hostage and, with the rest of the BAU’s input, the negotiation tactics went a different way than what Erin deemed appropriate. 
A heavy sigh parted Aaron’s lips as he slumped into his seat, you could practically see steam of stress billowing off of him. “It’s fine, everything’s fine.” He spoke quietly, eyes closed, but you could tell he didn’t believe it to be true. 
“Strauss tear you a new one?” Rossi piqued from across the table. 
The unit chief huffed out a short laugh. “Nothing out of the ordinary.” Rossi just nodded at this, turning his attention back to his notepad. Hotch looked to the rest of his team as they settled into their desired spots, “Let’s all get some rest, alright?” 
Everyone wordlessly nodded, not having to be told twice. 
Aaron lazily turned his head to you with a book in your lap, “You, too, Agent.” He gave you a playfully pointed look.
You breathed out a quiet chuckle, “I will, don’t worry.” You shut the book and turned to give your beloved undivided attention, gazing into his suddenly undecipherable, deep hickory eyes. “You wanna talk about it?” 
He gently shook his head, eyelids feeling heavy as his blinks became slower and slower, “At home,” he whispered, your stomach doing a somersault at the notion. Aaron tried to fight sleep for just a few seconds longer, wanting to just stare at you for a bit.
You faced him, head leaned against the headrest, smile so warm and endearing. The way you chuckled at him was like getting a glimpse of heaven. He couldn’t wait to go home and have you all to yourself. The feeling of your arms wrapped around him was his life raft in the tumultuous storm of his emotions. It was hard for him to express what he was feeling all the time, but with you around his walls of reinforced concrete tumbled. Aaron gave you a small, sleepy smile.
Before he could say anything else, you spoke up. “Sleep,” it was a simple command, and the usually stubborn man melted into his seat at your word. 
You took a couple minutes longer to watch him immediately fall into a deep slumber, his breaths becoming deeper and longer, lips parted ever-so-slightly, eyebrows twitching here and there. With a breathy laugh, you fought the urge to reach up and caress his face and move the little stray strands of hair off of his forehead, still aware that your coworkers could witness such an intimate moment. The two of you had begun dating five months ago, but it wasn’t until three months later that you broke the news to the team. 
It had been a long time coming; for quite a while everyone knew about the feelings you harbored for your boss- even Hotch himself knew. You didn’t do a very good job of hiding it, taking every opportunity you could to blithely flirt with him. Some might just assume you did so in a similar way to how Penelope and Derek toy with each other, but the profilers knew in the back of their minds it wasn’t the case. Aaron fought you at first, pleading with you to stop calling him “handsome”, “big man”, or even “honey” in one case. You never gave in, though, buckling down on your efforts upon seeing the way he would chuckle caught off guard and almost blush in many instances. Slowly yet surely, he gave in to your teases. You burrowed your way into the stoic man’s heart, creating a place you would die before giving up. Aaron didn’t even realize it was happening until his world came crashing down on him one fateful evening. 
A routine questioning of a suspect had led to you getting held hostage, the man whose house you went to turning out to be the unsub. This had happened many times before in the history of the BAU, but for some reason Aaron was more on edge. There was no covert entrance into the home and the unsub refused to open up a line of communication with the agents, leaving everyone in the dark wondering what the state of your wellbeing was. Aaron had begun pacing back and forth in the tent they had set up outside the house you were being held in, hands held to his head. 
“Hotch, it’s going to be okay.” Derek stepped forward, trying to calm his superior’s nerves. 
“He’s right, Aaron.” Rossi piped in. “We’ve dealt with this before, we can fix this.”   
“No,” Hotch murmured back, “This isn’t the same. It’s not the same.” His pacing didn’t let up. “This is my fault, I should have told someone to go, too. I could have prevented this.”
The others held unspoken conversations within the glances they shared. 
“Hotch-” Emily tried to speak up, to convince him that wasn’t the case.
“NO!” He yelled suddenly, stopping in his tracks. “You don’t understand, I can’t lose them!” His voice was heavy with despair, eyes wide in anguish.
All eyes were trained on him, his coworkers at loss for words at the confession. 
“I can’t lose them…” Aaron mumbled this himself before roughly pushing out of the tent.
You smiled to yourself as you took a last glance towards the sleeping man next to you before turning back to your book. Safe to say, you were incredibly shocked when Aaron showed up on your doorstep in the dark of the night all those months ago, soaked in the rain, kissing you with a sense of urgency before you could even ask him what he was doing there. You bit your lip at the memory, but shook it out of your head to try and focus in on the jumbled words swimming in your lap. From the get-go, the two of you decided you would remain extremely professional around your coworkers, and you did just that. You stopped your teasing, for the most part at least, and made sure to never initiate physical contact on the job. Anyone that didn’t already know you were in a relationship would never have guessed. The most you allowed yourselves was sitting next to one another on the jet, just like you were doing now. 
An unintelligible murmur and huff sounding from your side drew your short-lived attention away from the delicate pages in front of you. Just as you were about to look over to Aaron and make sure he was okay, a heavy weight thumped onto your shoulder. His head. You were taken aback, a giggle slipping through your lips before you could help it. Your fingers flew up to your mouth, trying to keep yourself quiet as you noticed him shift a bit, making himself more comfortable. Sure, you’d accidentally fallen against Hotch’s shoulder in your sleep a couple times before the two of you entered a relationship, but never in a million years did you expect him to do the same to you. On the jet. In front of everyone. Of course, he couldn’t control his actions in his sleep, you reasoned. And maybe you should gently shrug him off to help retain his authority around the teasing profilers. But, this time, you fought off that thinking and gave in to your instinct. He had been so tense and strung out this entire case, you knew he needed this.
To hell with professionalism. You thought with a devilish grin, happy in your resolution. And so, you gently closed your book and slid it onto the table in front of you, trying your best to move as little as possible before leaning your head against his own and closing your eyes. With the gentle hum of the jet engines and the comforting sounds of Aaron’s breathing, you were lulled into a wonderful slumber in no time.
“Oh my God,” Emily breathed out, garnering the attention of Spencer who rested in the same group of seats as her. He looked up at her with one eye from where he was slumped over in his window seat, trying to get some shut-eye. 
“Huh?” the sleepy doctor grumbled, pushing himself a bit more upright when he noticed Emily looking at something on the other side of the jet, her face a mixture of shock and glee. 
The raven-haired agent began slapping Derek’s shoulder, who sat peacefully next to her with his eyes closed and headphones over his ears. His eyes flew open, looking over to Emily with annoyance as he took off his headphones, “What! What!”    
Immediately Emily shushed him, “Look!” she whispered, hand flying wildly in the air, eyes still unmoving. 
Derek followed her line of sight the scene before him pulling a laugh of disbelief from his lungs. “Well, well, well…” 
Emily’s hands covered her mouth in astonishment. “JJ!” she whispered over to the blonde who lay curled up on the sofa next to them. “Ugh,” she groaned quietly, unable to wake her coworker. 
“I can’t believe this,” she whispered mostly to herself, settling back in her seat, garnering a shake of Morgan’s head.
The view of their hard-headed unit chief sleeping peacefully on the shoulder of his subordinate, the latter’s head resting sweetly back on his was suddenly blacked by the side of Rossi’s body as he stuck his arm out, trying to get the best angle to immortalize this moment on camera.
“Good for them,” Morgan grinned, his voice proudly announcing his amusement as he put his headphones back over his head.
“Rossi, you better send me that!” Emily spoke up just a little bit louder, the old man looking back and motioning his phone towards her in acknowledgement.
“What? What!?” Spencer whisper-yelled, unsuccessfully craning his head above and between the seats to get a glimpse of what all the hubbub was about, “What are you guys looking at!?”    
“Penelope’s gonna flip,” Emily mumbled to herself, a teasing smile playing on her face as she looked down at the picture Rossi sent her. Without a second thought, she saved the photo onto her phone. They’re never gonna live this down.     
Tumblr media
A/N: i hope you liked this!! i had a fun time writing it ehehe hotch is such a dilf, like an ACTUAL dilf im not even attracted to fathers but hotch?? all day, every day, baby!
321 notes · View notes