#i generally have to be in a pretty good place to consider new characters without getting itchy but

[theresattrpgforthat]

@alizarinessence thank you for your patience as I took my time to respond to you! PbtA games can be pretty daunting, and I certainly didn't understand how the play flow was supposed to work at first. I personally learned through trial and error, as well as watching other GMs who had figured it out - I am blessed to have a friend who is very experienced in running PbtA games so I was able to play in some of his games and ask him questions.

That being said, there have been a few things that I've also found helpful that I can refer to you, so I'm going to put them up here.

The Flow Chart

This flow chart was originally posted in a Dungeon World reddit post, and later referred to me when I started asking for PbtA advice. You'll likely see a similar flow chart in Apocalypse Keys, where Rae Nedjadi illustrates how a typical session of play is likely to look like.

In any given PbtA game, you as a GM are going to be presenting pieces of information to the players, just as you would in any other ttrpg. PbtA codifies this information as "moves," and each game will present you with information that is considered useful for the kind of story that it is design to tell.

In Masks, the players are teenage superheroes, so the game encourages the GM to introduce facts such as "civilians are in danger" or "your dad thinks you're being irresponsible."

In The Ward, the players are medical doctors in an Emergency Ward, so the game advises the GM to introduce truths such as "a patient's condition is worsening" or "someone's dad is fighting with a nurse in another room."

This reinforces the common maxim that the game is a conversation, a cycle of presenting new information, letting players decide what they want to do with that information, and making a roll if the fiction calls for it. This is a rather simplified cycle of course - the "see what happens" sections may include moments when players may jump in with their own characters' reactions, generating more events that the GM doesn't need to add to in order to make them interesting. Many PbtA games thrive off of player conflict, which can occupy the table for a couple of hours without the GM needing to add anything (Last Fleet is a good example of this kind of play.)

Listening to Others

Listening to other people play PbtA games can give you a sense of how the game is meant to feel, especially when the GM's and players take their time to talk through their moves and how they work.

I found Monster Hour to be exceptionally helpful; they started out as a Monster of the Week podcast, and even though I've never run MotW specifically, listening to Quinn talk the players through how to ask questions or use different moves made the game very easy for me to understand.

Joining a Community

Joining a community that loves a specific PbtA game, or PbtA games in general can be very helpful when seeking out advice. The PbtA Discord channel has a number of players and designers, who have a lot of game experience and are more than happy to dish out advice.

Start With Games That Have Guide-Rails

Not all PbtA games are created equal, and while the original spirit of the game was to make sure you didn't plot out a story-line, there's still some games that have a certain amount of prep that will give you the tools you need to gain confidence as a GM. Here's some of my favourites:

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths can be played as a one-shot, and doesn't require players to make a lot of decisions when putting their characters together. It has a number of scenarios that you can throw at your players, a mapped-out mall with details on all of the NPCs (and whether or not you can flirt with them), and some pretty hard limitations on what you can and cannot do. You can't leave the mall, for example - go through an exit on one side of the mall and you'll just pop back in on the other. You can visit the stores throughout the day, but each team of players can only go to so many places before the mall is closed for the day, therefore bringing the mission to a close.

Apocalypse Keys has a game structure that looks daunting but can be broken down into steps, and also comes with pre-written scenarios as well as instructions on how to create your own. The concept is pretty straightforward - you're solving a mystery, and you need to do it before one of the Doors of the Apocalypse is opened. This puts the game on a timer, which helps GMs keep their players on task, and also provides the Game Master with a list of clues to drop into the story as the players look for them. I've heard very good things about how Brindlewood Bay, which inspired some of the mechanics in Apocalypse Keys, makes itself easy to run for new GMs, so if you can get your hands on that book, you might find it helpful!

Last Fleet is laser-focused on a very specific premise - you are humans, in space, running away from a terrible and insidious threat. What is more, this threat has the ability to infiltrate your fleet. The laser-focus brings everyone at the table to the same page pretty quickly, and the setting includes a mounting pressure track that will make sure things keep happening, so as the person running the game, you won't have to do much after you set up the initial scenario. The game also comes with some really good advice on where you want to start with your players, to make sure they're on edge, but not fully panicking yet. Then you just need to tip the scales enough to cause them to ask questions, make questionable choices, and start a series of actions that snowball into catastrophe.

Wrapping Up

This is all the advice I have for stepping into PbtA, but more than anything, I recommend just diving in and giving it a go! As with any GM-ing endeavour, you will likely walk away from your first session with a list of things that you'll want to do differently the next time around, but that's just a sign that you're learning.

#mint speaks #asks #tabletop games #pbta #powered by the apocalypse

[gamerwoo]

Hyunjin: Age-Restricted (Part Eighteen)

Characters: Hyunjin x female reader (ft other skz members)

Genre/warnings: nanny!reader, ex-porn star/neighbor!hyunjin, generally inexperienced and painfully shy virgin!reader, fluff, humor, mentions of porn and sex work, hyunjin is stupid in love and also has a thing for tall girls (it doesn't necessarily say reader is taller than him but he does beg her to wear heels so interpret that how you want), hyunjin is very much not straight, lots and lots of flirting and teasing, mentions of kinks and stuff but no smut happens sorry <;3 (minors dni!!!)

Word count: 6,074

Summary: You think it’s luck when the new family you nanny for is so stupid rich that they rent you a fancy new apartment just so you can live closer to them. You think it’s luck when the guy across the hall is the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen in your entire life and makes an effort to talk to you. But that’s just about where your luck runs out, because Hyunjin is more out of your league than you could ever imagine, and you’re just some hopeless virgin who never had good luck in the first place.

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He knew you’d have questions. Hyunjin expected nothing less, but you made sure to tell him you were curious but would only ask questions if he was comfortable with it. Considering you found out everything about him when he’d ended things, you never really got a chance to ask him anything. But he was 100% okay with answering any question you had, and he planned on being fully open and honest.

That first night that Hyunjin apologized, he was fully prepared to go home alone, but you told him he could stay. Even if you were mad still, you missed him. And that was where your questioning started.

“So then how did you get into porn?” was your first question, and it was the one he expected to be first.

He had gone to his apartment to change into clothes to sleep in, and the two of you were laying in your bed, inhumanly close. You missed each other and he didn’t know how to tell you that he still didn’t feel close enough even with your entire body on top of his without sounding weird.

“Changbin,” he stated simply.

“So you both got into porn when he said he was gonna do it?” you assumed.

He nodded, “I also really needed money, aaaaand I was basically going nowhere. I really liked art and I wanted to be an artist, but getting into that industry is fucking hard, so I just…went for porn. It was pretty easy for anyone to get into, anyway – at least in that area of Vegas. There were so many sleazeballs looking for amateurs.”

“So how’d it go in the beginning?”

“Honestly, shockingly well,” he scoffed. “I don’t mean to, like, sound like I’m bragging, but I kind of took off almost instantly. Directors and producers and shit were saying I just had the perfect face and a good body, and everyone wanted to have me in their videos. It was actually really overwhelming, but I needed all the money I could get so I just ran with it.”

“That actually sounds kind of terrifying,” you nodded.

“Oh, I think you would’ve gone into shock and died,” he nodded along with you.

You narrowed your eyes at him and he just grinned.

“Anyway,” you stated.

“Anyway,” he laughed.

“What about Changbin?”

“He was only a little salty that I was getting more jobs than him, but he worked his way up there. Plus, I paid most of our rent so he couldn’t complain that much.”

You suddenly realized something, letting out a gasp, “Wait, were you the mutual friend that got him and Kit together?”

“Yup.”

“What happened?!” you squealed.

“‘Kay, so as I said, I got popular fast. I caught the attention of bigger producers and directors who worked with bigger names. Big names like…”

“Kat Valentyne,” you finished, saying her name with pizazz and doing spirit fingers to really sell her porn name.

He laughed and rolled his eyes, his laugh making you shake as you laid face-down on top of him, “She’s been a big name almost since she started. Word got out to the people she went to school with that she got hot and was in porn, so it got spread around along with old photos of her, so it kinda made headlines online.

“But anyway, I got cast in a scene opposite her, and I knew–”

“Hang on a minute,” you interrupted him, and that was when he realized what he’d just given away. “So you mean to tell me that you fucked Kit?”

He was quick to point a finger at you and look you dead in the eyes, “I never had feelings for her and I still don’t. Never will.”

“No, Hyunjin–” you sighed and shook your head. “You’re telling me that you were mad that she only flirted with me and looked at me a certain way, but you already had sex with her?! That’s not even fair!”

All he did in response was roll his eyes before continuing, “Anyway, so I knew Changbin had a fat fucking crush on her since forever, so I figured I’d throw his name out there. I showed her a couple photos of him and she thought he was cute aaaaand yeah. Rest is history.”

“I still can’t believe you got mad when you had sex with Kit…” you mumbled.

“Are you even upset that I had sex with her or just that I got jealous over her?”

“I know it was your job,” you scoffed, waving away his concern. “I trust you. I mean, she’s also dating your best friend.”

“I also just don’t want to date her,” he added.

“But how come you get to fuck her, but god forbid she look at me the wrong way?” you huffed.

“I think it’s suddenly bedtime,” he told you before he pulled the covers up over your head, and then rolled over on top of you.

“Hwang Hyunjin!” you squealed between laughs.

“Can’t hear you, goodnight!”

-

Hyunjin wanted to do the proper thing: take you on a fancy date. And what better way to do that than using your ex-boss’ certificate to go to that fancy restaurant? It seemed like a very fitting way to celebrate the two of you making up.

Unfortunately, the only fancy thing you owned was your old prom dresses, so that meant shopping.

As far as you could tell, Hyunjin would be an expert at fancy. While you mostly ever saw him in t-shirts and sweatshirts – you had still seen him in other clothes like jeans, button-ups, and such – they were always expensive. So he must’ve owned fancy clothing, right? He must’ve known what rich people considered acceptable since clearly the dude was loaded.

You were pretty sure you’d never seen someone look so goddamn good in just some black jeans and a baggy button-up shirt with one half tucked in, but Hyunjin was just another level. You were wondering if he was even human, actually. Maybe he was actually an android or something.

“You’re staring,” he noted as you watched him brush through his dark hair before leaving the apartment.

“Yeah,” you nodded.

He just laughed, eyes turning into crescent moons.

You missed his smile.

While you were browsing through clothes at a store you felt far too out of place in, Hyunjin mentioned, “Pick out whatever you like. I’ll cover it.”

“Um, no?” you turned around to tell him. “You’re already paying for my apartment – which, by the way, still stop.”

“I can afford it, don’t worry about it,” he promised, waving the worry away.

Which then sparked more questions about him.

“Did you just make a ton of money back then?” you wondered.

He shrugged, “More than most. I did save most of it, but– …Actually, we’ll talk more in the car. I gotta take you somewhere for you to get it.”

“Get what?”

“It.”

You made a face at him and rolled your eyes before going back to looking at dresses, “So, uh…what’s considered…fancy?”

“Do you want form fitting or more flowy?” he asked as he started perusing the racks as well.

“Do you also want to pay for my shapewear?” you asked sarcastically.

He shrugged, “If you think you need it, I’ll buy whatever you want.”

You frowned, obviously not happy with his answer. But again, he grinned back at you.

-

Dress and shoes acquired, you were back in Hyunjin’s car, driving to an unknown location. All he’d said was, “I’m gonna show you something.”

You didn’t plan on getting shoes, but Hyunjin was quick to ask after picking out a dress if you had any shoes for the occasion. You’d said something about wanting to find just a cute pair of flats, but Hyunjin turned to face you with wide eyes.

“Please wear heels,” he begged, clinging onto your arms for dear life.

“I never wear heels,” you told him. “I’ll be too tall.”

“No you won’t,” he stated very seriously. “Wear. Heels.”

You did end up getting a pair of heels that you were totally not persuaded to get due to the fact you were very positive that Hyunjin found it hot when you were taller. As if he wouldn’t have bought them for you anyway because he liked how you looked in them. If the way he eyed you up and down and almost drooled on the marbled floor was any indication.

“Soooo,” Hyunjin began, one hand on the wheel and the other resting on your thigh, “have you ever noticed anything in my apartment?”

“Are we talking about the mirrors?” you asked.

“You need to get past the mirrors, baby.”

“So that’s a no. What was I supposed to notice?”

He chuckled, “Maybe something on the walls…?”

“Art!” you gasped, recalling the times you’d been over and noticed that large canvases were always evenly spaced across the walls of the hallway, and a few were put in his living room and his kitchen.

He nodded, “Very good. What about the art?”

“It’s…there!” you pointed out, much less enthusiastically. “It’s on the walls!”

Thank god he was stopped at a stop sign because he looked at you with an unamused look for a painfully long time.

“Hyunjin, when have I ever had time to sit in your apartment and look at the art?” you asked him, trying to prove a point. “We were usually in your bedroom, and even when we were on the couch, we were cuddling and watching something or laying down and watching something, or we weren’t even watching anything because we were doing other things!”

He scoffed with a wide smile and asked, “You can’t even say making out? You have to say ‘other things’?”

“What about the art, Hyunjin?” you asked sharply, wanting him to move on from the route he was about to take.

After a bit of laughing, Hyunjin replied, “Most of the art has the same signature.”

“That’s so interesting,” you deadpanned, still not getting it.

You also weren’t paying attention to where he was driving, but he finally pulled into a lot outside of what looked like another apartment building. He put the car in park and pulled out the key before he looked at you again. Again, he was unamused.

He eyed you up and down before noting, “You’ve gotten more sassy, huh?”

“I’m not trying to be, I just don’t understand!”

“Come on, babydoll,” he patted your thigh before he got out of the car. “I’ll show you.”

He took you into the building and into an elevator. You noted that he stuck a silver key from his keyring into a keyhole in the elevator, turned it, and pressed the button for the top floor. You and Hyunjin waited side-by-side at the back of the elevator. He was on his phone while you were watching the numbers on the LED screen above the doors.

“Have you talked to Kit or Changbin?” you asked him.

“They know everything,” he nodded, still not looking up from his phone. He assumed you were asking because you wanted to know if they were caught up. “I told them after you fell asleep last night.”

“After I was suffocated,” you corrected.

“Don’t be dramatic,” he scoffed, finally looking at you to smirk.

“Oh, says you of all people.”

“Touché.”

Finally, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. The top floor seemed to be a penthouse, but it was all open space with large windows all on the back wall. The rest of the walls were exposed brick and covered in half-finished and fully-finished paintings. Scattered around the space were easels that either held canvases, white stained drapes, or nothing at all. There were a handful of stools around the area, and lots of art supplies. There were two large desks on either side of the room, with more art supplies and sketchbooks and canvases.

“Since we’re being completely open and honest now,” Hyunjin smiled at you, gesturing with an arm to the space while he guided you in with the other around your waist, “welcome to my studio. This is how I’ve made so much money.”

You looked at him, eyes bugging out of your head, “What, you’re some huge artist?”

He pointed at a painting that seemed to be finished, leaning up against the wall as it stood on the floor.

“There’s the signature. On most of the ones at home.”

You walked over and bent down to get a closer look. It looked mostly like a bunch of scribbles, but you could make out a large S and a large H.

“No offense, but what does it say?” you ask. “There’s no S in your name.”

“Sam Hyun,” he replied. “When I lived in Vegas, I went by Sam Hwang, and my name is Hyunjin. I combined the two.”

You turned around to face him again, head tilting slightly to one side as you studied him, “You actually do look like a Sam…”

He shrugged, “Thanks, I think.”

“It’s a good thing. Sam’s not an ugly name, y’know? You could’ve been something ugly like…Frank. Or you could’ve been a Kyle.”

He gave you a strangle look as he chuckled, “What’s wrong with Kyle? It’s a common name, no?”

“Kyle itself is a red flag,” you stated knowingly.

“Would you still love me if my name was Bartholomew?” he asked suddenly with a giggle.

“Fuck no,” you replied immediately.

“Just take a fucking guess what Changbin almost made his stage name.”

You gasped, “You’re kidding.”

“He’s so fucking lucky we went back to Vegas for our first auditions because he met one of my old buddies names Xavior and thought his name sounded cool, so he used that as his stage name instead. But he was dead set on Batholomew.”

“Why?” you asked with a disgusted face.

“His mind works in mysterious ways,” he shrugged.

“So…Kat Valentyne and Xavior…something?” you asked.

“Xavior Chang,” he scoffed. “He couldn’t come up with a second name but he didn’t want to copy me and use just one – even though I told him I didn’t think he was copying me, but whatever. But honestly, after the movie with him and Kit, she kept slipping up and calling him Binnie so now that’s basically all he’s known as now.”

You nodded slowly as you started to look around the large space. Hyunjin just stood and watched you, hands in his pockets.

“So…how did you come up with Sam Hyun?” you wondered. “Why not just use your name?”

“Because I was in porn and I was afraid of ever being connected back to it,” he explained. “Anyone could google my stage name and find out my real one. With being an artist, I wanted absolutely everything to be separated from what I was doing during the day. Nobody had a face to the art, either. Sam Hyun is untraceable. As far as anyone knows, Sam Hyun is my real name. Separate from Hwang Hyunjin, and therefore, separate from Jin.”

“So…you’re like Banksy.”

“Yeah, like Banksy.”

“So how’d it happen, then? The switch between porn and art?”

“I was doing art at the same time, but more as a hobby. I kind of gave up when it never took off. But one day, out of nowhere, I got really lucky. Something I made got noticed at a show by some big name and they offered a lot more than it should’ve been worth, honestly,” he laughed like he still couldn’t believe it. “That just kinda…put my name on the map, I guess. And once I had that break, I left the industry and focused full-time on this.”

A small smile broke on your face as you looked at him, “That’s kinda sweet. You get to do the thing you actually love.”

He nodded, “I got very lucky. Still am very lucky.” he added the last part with a warm, happy half-smile at you, just looking at you with the most lovesick expression anyone had ever seen.

You started looking around again, wandering between easels and canvases, looking around at everything Hyunjin had made. You never knew he could draw, but fuck, was he talented. It was mostly people and a handful of scenery pieces thrown in there, but everything you saw was so insanely good. 

You hadn’t noticed Hyunjin had wandered over behind you as you studied a seemingly random couple he’d drawn, their bodies filled in with a watercolor sunset, until he softly asked, “Do you wanna see something?”

You looked at him to silently say you were paying attention to whatever he wanted to show you, and he guided you over to an easel that was covered by a white drape. It was obvious that there was a large canvas underneath, but you weren’t going to uncover anything that was covered. That would be rude.

Hyunjin reached up to gently pull the sheet off so as to not knock over the painting. Your mouth fell open as your eyes widened in awe, seeing the portrait of you and Hyunjin. It was done in the same exact style as the piece you were just looking at – just the messy-on-purpose black outline from the shoulders up, and being filled in with warm tones that blended together – but this was very clearly supposed to be you and Hyunjin staring deeply at each other. Your lips were only inches apart as one of his hands cupped your cheek, looking at you with his signature smirk, but even in a picture, he was able to capture the way he looked at you like you were the entire universe. And you looked back at him in a way that very much mimicked how you looked at the piece: in pure awe. Your eyes were wide and your lips were parted, your hand holding lightly onto his arm just a couple inches down from his wrist. The colors used to fill in your bodies were similar to the first painting but the reds, yellows, and oranges were put in different spots. It was somehow more pleasing, but maybe you were being biased.

“The one you were just looking at was based off of this,” Hyunjin explained to you softly. “I made this one a while ago, but when things got…really shitty between us, I tried to replicate it to sell it. As you could probably tell, I gave up. Wasn’t as good as the original.”

“Holy shit, Hyunjin,” you breathed, unable to take your eyes off of it.

“If you think this is insane, you should see my most recent sketchbook,” he chuckled. “You’d probably think I’m a psycho.”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you realized what he’d said before, looking back at him, “Were you going to sell this?”

He scoffed, “Absolutely not. I was gonna keep it, but I like the style of it and thought it would sell well. But this is priceless – even if it’s half a self portrait.”

You frowned at him and lightly whacked him in the stomach, making him laugh, “You’re literally a God, you freak.”

“Yeah, well,” he sighed as he draped an arm casually around your shoulder, “you really are your own biggest critic. Drawing myself took the longest fucking time.”

“You definitely look at me like that,” you promised, pointing at him on the portrait. “And I definitely look lost all the time like that.”

“You’re not lost,” he scoffed again, rolling his eyes. “I’m literally right there.”

You started laughing, “That was stupid cheesy.”

“The cheese gets worse, don’t worry,” he promised with a smirk as he started to lead you over to one of the tables. He brought you to a closed sketchbook that looked much less beat-up than the other ones. “This is my newer sketchbook. I got it a little bit before I met you, actually.”

He gently pushed you forward to stand at the table and open it. You flipped it open and started going through it slowly, seeing him use different mediums to make different things. It was mostly people – people you’d never seen before, but a couple that you’d seen at The Brooke. But after about 5 pages, you flipped the next page to see you, holding a moving box. It was a charcoal sketch from your thighs up, and it was only somewhat shaded. But it was very clearly you, laughing as you carried the cardboard box.

The next page was you again, but from the side, and only from your shoulders up. Your expression was neutral and you seemed to be looking at something. The next page was, again, you, smiling with your eyes closed. The next page was you, and the next, and the next, and the next.

“I like to draw people that I see,” he explained. “Clearly, I saw you once and couldn’t get you out of my head. I’ve drawn you a lot since I’ve met you.”

You kept flipping, and every single page was you. But then you got to the last few sketches in the book, and you only looked sad. You looked disheveled or upset. There was even one of you with tears on your cheeks with your eyes casted down.

“I kinda never stopped drawing you,” he admitted quietly. “Even when I was mad at you, I still thought about you all the time.”

There were a couple drawings of you scattered in the sad ones where you looked happy again, and it tugged at your heart. Even when you were both upset, Hyunjin seemed to still think of you when you were happy, like he wanted to see it again.

The last 10 pages or so were still blank, so you closed the sketchbook again and turned to face Hyunjin, cheeks feeling hot from seeing how often he drew you. He could tell you were flustered and grinned widely at you.

“I’m pretty cute, huh?” he asked with a modest shrug.

“How come I never knew you could draw?” you asked him, poking his chest with your finger.

“Changbin and Kit have seen me doodle on stuff here and there, but they don’t know about all this,” he explained. “This is top secret. Nobody knows about it because I don’t want there being any possible ties between Sam Hyun and Jin, y’know? They’re both me, but nobody else knows they are. I want to make sure it stays that way. But since we’re working on honesty, I figured you’d be a good first person to tell.”

You nodded, “I won’t say a word.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t,” he promised with a mischievous grin before he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours.

-

You’d never seen Hyunjin dress up before, but boy did he dress up. There was a lot of black, but a lot of chains and silver and mesh. Everything just looked expensive and extravagant, and despite having Hyunjin help you pick out what to wear earlier that day, you somehow felt severely underdressed beside him.

Despite that, the way Hyunjin looked at you made you feel like the best looking person at the restaurant. When you first got dressed and you were doing your makeup in his bathroom, he was sitting on the counter by where your makeup was spread out, going between looking at his phone and glancing up at you with a soft smile.

But when you put on the heels, he was gone. His eyes only left you so he could drive, but he kept stealing glances. He looked at you probably the way you looked at him. Like you were God and had descended down in front of him. You weren’t even sure if you’d make it to the restaurant because you were almost positive there were a couple times he almost passed out.

“You’re oddly quiet now,” Hyunjin mused as he looked over the menu with you – he had to help you with some things because you’d never had a lot of the food they offered. It was all fancy stuff with big words.

You glanced away from the words that didn’t even seem like real words to look at him, “What do you mean?”

“You’ve rambled off so many questions today and now you’re dead silent,” he chuckled. “Feeling okay?”

You felt your cheeks warm a bit as you mumbled, “I’m not gonna ask those questions out in public, Hyunjin.”

He chuckled and rolled his eyes, “Oh, as if anyone is listening to us. They’re all talking about business and nannies and vacations and shit that’s important to rich people. Dates are meant for talking to get to know each other. You should feel comfortable asking me anything.”

You knew he was right about dates being made for getting to know each other, but you still felt nervous to ask questions about sex and porn where people might hear it. What if some rich person overheard and thought you were weird and got you kicked out?

It took a couple minutes of silent internal encouragement, but you finally asked in almost a whisper, “What…kind did you do…?”

His laugh was louder than your words but nobody seemed to notice, “Both. Gay and straight. Does that bother you?”

You shrugged like he told you it was a little cloudy outside, “Not really. I mean, unless you prefer guys, in which case, that would make me kinda insecure probably.”

“My preference is you, dummy,” he told you with a playful smile.

“I meant…sex-wise,” your voice got quieter on the last word, which made Hyunjin laugh again.

“No preference there.”

“Okay, maybe this is a dumb question–”

“No dumb questions.”

“Sure. How did you, like…not fall in love with every single person? I get it’s mostly acting and stuff but that’s some serious acting. I would be convinced everyone actually loved me and cared about me and would catch feelings everyday.”

“I learned how to separate my feelings from my work,” he explained. “To me, sex was just sex, and my feelings were basically shut off when I was doing it. But that was only when I was working. It’s different with you.”

“We’ve never…done that,” you reminded him.

“I mean with everything else. We’ve done other stuff. Unless you forgot about that when we were mad at each other,” he smirked.

“Trust me, Hyun, I remember,” you promised.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his smirk growing and making you feel things you did not want to feel in the middle of a restaurant full of a bunch of important and rich people. “Because I don’t mind jogging your memory.”

-

Despite the first conversation at the restaurant, the rest of the date was the most romantic experience you’d ever had. You were starting to learn that despite Hyunjin’s line of work and claiming he could turn off his feelings, he was a true hopeless romantic – not that you didn’t know before, but now it was painfully obvious. He ordered for you, held open doors for you, and asked a lot of questions about you. The two of you had already caught up on new happenings since you last spoke, but now Hyunjin was asking you questions about your future. What field were you going to look for a job in? Have you considered going to school for something? How did you get into nannying in the first place? Did that mean you wanted kids?

You learned more about him, other than just his previous job. You learned more about his friendship with Changbin, his life in Las Vegas, and everything outside and in between. How he got out of the industry and how he found himself living at The Brooke and befriending the two bellhops who worked the night shift. More about his early life pre-porn and even some stories from his life while he was in that industry, but about stuff that was separate from it.

You felt like the whole time, his eyes never left yours. You weren’t even sure if he ever looked down while eating his food to see what he was picking up with his utensils, but his plate was cleared by the end of the date. 

To be fair, you weren’t sure of many things because Hyunjin kept refilling your wine glass whenever it was empty. He got some fancy bottle brought to the table in an ice bucket and while it was meant to share, you weren’t sure if he had any of it or if you’d drank the whole thing. You saw him with a glass but then you were too lost in his eyes to notice much else. When his stare got too much and you felt nervous like you had to look away, you looked down at your own food instead of focusing on whatever he was doing.

Back in the car, Hyunjin drove with a hand on your thigh and the other on the wheel. Despite your tipsy state and him teasing you about forgetting the things you’d done together, he was being a complete gentleman. The most he’d done was just then as his warm palm rested on the exposed skin of your leg. 

“I have a follow-up question,” you announced suddenly between Hyunjin humming along with the music.

“Yes, angel?”

“Can you elaborate on the ‘sex without feelings’ thing?” you asked.

He chuckled and glanced at you, “How long have you been thinking about this?”

“Just now. Just going over stuff in my head, y’know?”

“How much wine have you had, my love?” he continued to laugh.

“Whatever you didn’t drink, I did,” you stated surely.

After his laughter had died down, though, he replied, “The people I worked with, I never had romantic feelings for. When I was starting out, it happened a couple times until I learned. I had a couple…situationships, I suppose during my time in the industry, and I didn’t try to disassociate from my feelings because obviously they were supposed to be relationships. But with them, it always felt like they were trying so hard to make it like a scene that I just auto-blocked it all out anyway. It kinda sucked.”

Your eyes widened slightly as you looked over at Hyunjin, “That doesn’t happen now, right?”

“Absolutely not, angel,” he looked back at you with a soft smile before looking back at the road. “With you, everything is so much better than any sex I’ve ever had. Feelings really do make it. I actually get turned on and everything feels more intense. It just feels… I don’t know how to explain it other than everything is better because there’s feelings. I can’t not feel things for you, _____.”

“Awww,” you giggled as your cheeks began to warm. “Shut the fuck up, you’re too cute.”

“Not to say,” he quickly added, “if you did want to do anything a little…raunchier in the future, that I would hate it. I think in that case, it would be okay because the feelings are still there. It was just with those people, they made it seem like they only saw me as Jin and not Hyunjin, if that makes sense.”

You nodded, “No, I get that. That does make me feel better, though."

 The two of you fell into a comfortable silence for another moment until you thought of another question, shyly asking, "So, um…what’re you…into…?”

You could see the smirk growing on his face as the streetlamps flooded through the windshield as he drove, “I’ll do just about anything if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But what are you personally into?” you pressed curiously, though you were sure Hyunjin would be able to tell how flustered you were. “Like, if you didn’t have to worry about your partner.”

“Hair pulling,” was his immediate response. “I love having my hair pulled.”

You eyed his hair as it currently was. He kept it on the long-ish side and it was almost always half-up. Even in the one video of his you saw, his hair was at his shoulders.

“Yeah, that math adds up,” you nodded. “I think you like dirty talking, too.”

He let out a laugh as he glanced between you and the road, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

You were smiling, too, because of his laugh as you replied, “You would always talk a lot to me. You’re just really vocal.”

“You react well when I do talk to you,” he pointed out before he leaned over toward you, his lips almost brushing your ear. “You like the dirty talk, _____.”

A shiver went down your spine as he pulled away, and you were pretty sure Hyunjin noticed from the way his smirk widened and his chest quickly rose and fell like he scoffed. But he didn’t say anything about it, and you were too shy to confirm or deny. So he went back to quietly humming along to his music.

-

Both Felix and Jeongin were behind the counter when you and Hyunjin returned back to The Brooke. When you left that evening, it was only Jeongin who was punching in for work and making a comment about how dolled up the two of you were. When you came strolling into the empty lobby with your hands intertwined, Felix’s jaw was just about on the floor as Jeongin started smirking.

“Nice to see the two of you still look presentable,” the younger boy noted. “I thought for sure Hyunjin was gonna pounce at some point.”

“I don’t blame him,” Felix choked out a laugh as he started to regain his composure. “Either of you. You both look incredible.”

Your face had already been warm from the wine and Hyunjin’s compliments, but Felix made it feel hotter, “Thanks.”

“What’s the occasion?” he wondered.

“Make up date,” Hyunjin stated, stopping at the front desk to chat with them. “We went somewhere nice for free, thanks to _____’s asshole ex-bosses.”

Jeongin nodded, “You love to see it.”

“Now,” Hyunjin released your hand to place his hands on your shoulders, “I need to get this one to bed since she drank almost an entire bottle of wine by herself.”

“You kept pouring!” you insisted.

“But you kept drinking,” he countered with a playful grin.

“You can’t start gaslighting her when you just got back together,” Jeongin told him with a sigh and a shake of his head.

“But it’s official now,” Hyunjin pointed out with a wide grin that made his eyes crinkle.

Felix nodded in understanding, “Oh, then it’s totally okay now.”

“See ya later, guys!” he chirped as he turned you and started leading you toward the elevators.

“Don’t be too loud, please!” Jeongin laughed after the two of you. “I don’t feel like getting a ton of noise complaints tonight!”

That’s where your mind was, actually. Hyunjin had done this big gesture for you. He made an entire day out of it, too. He brought you to his gallery and showed you all of the art he made, and half of it was of you. He brought you shopping and got you expensive clothes and accessories for the fancy date he brought you on. This all must’ve been leading up to him taking your virginity now, right? Hyunjin definitely seemed like the type of person who wanted to make that something big and romantic and special. You half expected to go into his apartment and see rose petals leading to his bed.

Even if it wasn’t that far, he’d probably want to do something, right?

But instead, he stopped with you outside your apartment. You looked up at him in confusion, “Are we staying at my place?”

“You are,” he chuckled.

“What?”

“_____, it’s our first date,” he explained, still laughing softly at your confusion. “I’m doing things traditionally. It seems right. So you sleep here, I sleep over there, and I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

You pouted but mumbled an, “Okay…”

Did you feel disappointed? Kind of. But did you also feel relieved? A little bit. You were pretty sure you were wearing some ugly cotton thong you’d gotten at the department store, anyway.

Hyunjin kissed your pouting lips, which brought a small smile to your face as he beamed back at you, “Goodnight, _____.”

“Goodnight, Hyunjin,” you replied before turning to unlock your door.

And once you were inside, you had to call your friends to tell them everything.

————✧♡✧————-

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#k-labels #hyunjin #stray kids #stray kids smut #hyunjin smut #stray kids au #stray kids imagine #stray kids scenario #stray kids fic #stray kids series #stray kids x reader #hyunjin au #hyunjin imagine #hyunjin scenario #hyunjin fic #hyunjin x reader

[writingwithfolklore]

Level Up Your Settings

                When I was a younger writer I always considered my settings last in scene writing. It went action -> Characters -> Maaaaaybe setting if I felt like it. This can work—a lot of stories get by without having very memorable or strong settings—after all we’re there for the story within them. But once I got older and started moving and leaving places behind, I began to recognize how much a setting or place can hold—in memory, symbolism, feeling.

                These aspects of a place are just as important to imbue in fiction—they can convey an emotional impact, reinforce the tone, provide details on background. More than anything else, I find setting is where you can imbue your story with magic.

                (Specifically, I’m talking more about individual settings rather than worldbuilding. Check out my worldbuilding posts here!)

Most important to start with is consider what this place means to the character. For example, “home” is a concept as varied as the people who use it. It can mean safety, love, belonging, alienation, escape, confinement, freedom, etc. etc.

                What memories reinforce that meaning of home? How does the character’s background relate to and lead up to their concept of home?

                Then, once you know this, what decoration or ‘look’ would convey this?  A character who views home as a temporary place to be abandoned at the drop of a hat would have very few personal items in their home. Maybe hardly any furniture—maybe they live out of a suitcase and keep only a carton of milk and a box of crackers in their kitchen.

                A character who has lived in the same childhood home for their entire life may have just as much of their parents’ things as their own—their surroundings reflecting generations of loved ones.

                These objects hold memory as much as their surroundings do. This is where we can really explore background and the emotional ties to a place. How loved is it? What does loving a place look like for that character? Maybe love looks like keeping it perfectly clean and tidy—maybe it looks like filling it to the brim with pretty things.

                What makes two characters’ homes different? We want to avoid stating the obvious. You don’t really need to mention that your character has a bed, a nightstand, and a lamp in their bedroom—unless you’re making a point of how little or how much they have. You may want to mention which items are new and which are old—especially if it’s a room that they’ve been in since childhood, or throughout several periods of their life.

                Just like levelling up description—what makes a place unique? What message are you trying to convey?

Good luck!

#writing #writers #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspiration #creative writing #writing community #books #film #filmmaking #screenwriting #novel writing #fanfiction #writeblr

[dalekofchaos]

Friendly reminder. Bruce Wayne hung up the suit and retired after THREATENING someone with a gun and this was his reaction.

And then his immediate reaction is to shut down and close the Batcave and his only words were. "Never again"

A truly tragic, but fitting way for Bruce’s career to end. Powerful stuff. Batman's career ended the same way it began: with a desperate man wielding a gun

Batman choosing not to be weak like Joe Chill >>>> Batman going on a killing spree because fighting crime is hard.

And by the way, since Zack Snyder says his inspiration was Dark Knight Returns, I got news for you, TDKR Batman doesn't kill either.

Zack Snyder is a complete blithering fucking idiot.

his statement on Batman just lines up with what I’ve seen from all of his work. He likes the idea of the comics he makes movies out of but he doesn’t actually understand their themes. A Batman that kills is pointless. An edgy Superman is not only the most boring way to write him, but doesn’t make any sense without the wholesome one. That’s why injustice Superman/brightburn/Plutonian/omniman/homelander kind of make sense in their own ways because the original exists to compare them to.(mostly also boring though) His take on watchmen was pretty much devoid of any of the actual commentary from the graphic novel, but instead was just a dark justice league that were pretty bad at their jobs. Rorschach was just framed as a kind of unhinged Batman, but still a badass that does good, which is wildly generous compared to the way he’s originally written. I can understand turning your brain off and coasting through an action movie, but his fans are delusional if they think he does any of these stories justice. I wouldn’t take any of his comments seriously if they would stop letting him make these mediocre movies.

Zack Snyder is all flash and no substance. His films are visually stunning but utterly lacking in compelling storytelling.

The point of Batman is he cannot 'stoop to their level'. He HAS to be better, he HAS to believe these criminals can be rehabilitated, because if he kills them, he becomes just like them. With his wit, his intellect, he could future proof the city against crime ever happening by just killing the criminals before they commit crimes based on probable statistics and similar themes. But a Batman who refuses to kill is a murderer by inaction. Every time he chooses not to put Joker in the ground, he's allowed him to slaughter dozens, hundreds more, just for a laugh. Batman is equally guilty for every one of those deaths, because he could simply kill the Joker, and stop him from ever killing again. But he doesn't. Snyder saying Batman can kill, Batman SHOULD kill, is to say that without batman doing so, or being able to, he is just as bad as the villians. Except dipshit doesn't even have his Batman kill The Joker. "Oopsie daisy, Joker got out and bombed a hospital full of people, sowwwwyyyy, I put him back in jail again dunt worry TeeHeee :3". And then next week we do it all over again. OR. You kill the Joker, and he never hurts another person again. Which is why Jason Todd works so well as a counter to batman, and SHOULD be what Snyder is looking into. The reason why Zod works so well as a villain is because Humans are flawed apes who cant be trusted to govern themselves and should be conquered, and Superman, a literal God, could fix all that, but doesn't, because of Hope. Its foolish, childish even, to consider that a solution. And when placed in the vacuum of a comic book it works because you have to suspend disbelief, and forget that Superman let a city full of people die while he punched Zod through skyscrapers.

If you want Batman to kill people, just go and read one of his 1784956th copies that kill people. Go read Midnighter. Go read Punisher. Go read Moon Knight. Go read Peacemaker. Go read Nighthawk. What is stopping you?

I'm sure all those characters have brought about the peace and prosperity and the crime-free society that a "killer Batman" was supposed to. "Punisher would clean Gotham in under a week", right, just like he cleaned Marvel's New York, didn't he?

It has to be Batman specifically the one doing the killing? The number of superheroes that kill is nowadays much higher than the number of heroes who don't. Remember how Hawkeye spent the better part of his existence being the most anti-killing Avenger? Nowadays he is known as a super-assassin that "never had a non-kill rule". Should heroes who don't kill go extinct?

I like that Batman doesn't kill people. I feel no need to turn him into something he isn't like it was done to Hawkeye. If I wanted a Batman that kills, I would go and read one of the thousand "Batman who kills" out there.

Batman should not kill and should never kill.

"Gotham would be better off if Batman just killed The Joker"

You. Miss. The. Entire. Point.

Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime and Bruce Wayne is a child who died alongside his parents and was reborn as a creature dedicated to insuring it never happened to any other child. He made a vow never to reduce himself to the criminal scum’s level or to Joe Chill’s level. He never kills for a reason.

Batman not killing is what makes him so compelling, if he kills criminals, there is no moral conflict, he is no better than the Punisher, Wolverine or any other dark edgy hero. Hell, if he starts to take a life, Batman is no better than Ra’s Al Ghul.

In the Daredevil Netflix show, Frank Castle told Daredevil this “That’s not how this works. You cross over to my side of the line, you don’t get to come back from that. Not ever.” That alone is why Batman should not kill, not even The Joker. Bruce Wayne is not Frank Castle, stop trying to make him Frank Castle. I mean…Stan Lee was absolutely disgusted when someone called The Punisher a hero, Frank Castle is a murderer, not a hero. How is this so hard for people to understand?

I don’t want to hear that Batman killed in the old comics and I don’t want to hear Elseworld stories. It’s an established fact that Batman does not kill and it’s a big part of his character.

Guess what? We already got a Bruce who killed The Joker, it happened in the Burtonverse/Schumacherverse and he was disgusted with himself. “So, you're willing to take a life.” “Long as it's Two-Face.” “Then it will happen this way: You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why.”

A huge part of Bruce’s character is that he doesn’t kill, no matter what. Same with Clark. But edgelord writers from the New 52, DCEU and the Injustice abominations think it’s cool to make heroes kill. Heroes should not kill. You can’t be a hero and a killer. IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY!

Guess what would happen if Batman kills The Joker? The Joker wins. The Joker and Batman are each trying to prove a point to society - and really to us, the readers. The Joker wants Batman to kill him because he perfectly embodies chaos and anarchy and wants to prove a point to everyone that people are basically more chaotic than orderly. This is why he is so scary: we are worried he may be right. If the Joker is right, then civilization is a ruse and we are all truly monsters inside. If the Joker can prove that Batman - the most orderly and logical and self-controlled of all of us - is a monster inside, then we are all monsters inside, and that is terrifying. The Joker is terrifying because we fear that we are like him deep down - that he is us. Batman is what we (any average person) could be at our absolute best, and the Joker is what we could be at our absolute worst. The Joker’s claim is that we are all terrible deep down, and it is only the law and our misplaced sense of justice that keeps us in line. Since Batman isn’t confined by the law, he is a perfect test case to try to get him to "break.” The Joker wants Batman to kill a person, any person, but knows that the only person Batman might ever even remotely consider killing would have to be a terrible monster, so is willing to do this himself and sacrifice himself to prove this macabre point. Batman needs to prove that it is not just laws that keep us in line, but basic human decency and our natural instinct NOT to kill. If Batman can prove this, then others will be inspired by his example (the citizens of Gotham, but again, also the readers), just as we are all inspired every day to keep civilization running smoothly and not descend into violence, anarchy, and chaos. This ability to be decent in the face of the horrors and temptations present all around us is humanity’s superpower, the superpower of each of us. The struggle of Batman and the Joker is the internal struggle of each of us. But we are inspired by Batman’s example, not the Joker’s, because Batman always wins the argument, because he has not killed the Joker.

Batman not killing matters. Batman stories to me are the ultimate tale of turning pain and suffering into something positive. That is a story that everyone can relate to because let's be honest here. The world can suck. I've experienced and probably will always experience feelings of fear of depression of anger of angst. It's in my nature as a human being to experience those things. It's in all our nature it is what we choose to do with that pain that we all feel that defines us. Batman chose to turn all those negative emotions, he feels into a symbol that can bring people. Hope that Batman will save us from pain but more importantly hope that we can all be Batman. Why do we fall? And Batman Begins explains this best “Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Yes, Bruce Wayne is a flawed crazy person. He is at times mean stubborn and even abusive but he is still good. He is still someone we can aspire to be. We can try our hardest to be Superman but no human being can fly, but we can still try to be Batman We can all try to turn our pain into something good when I see Batman killing people or fans saying he killed before and he should kill The Joker, It pains me. It actually hurts my soul. Batman is not about finding a way to kill evil. But try to redeem it. His mission is an impossible task. Maybe he should kill people. Maybe he should kill The Joker, but what makes him fascinating what makes him a hero Is the fact that he has that moral code and stopped himself from crossing that line That's why I always looked up to Batman even as a kid despite all the adult subtext or mature themes superheroes are for kids. And killing is not Batman and it is not Bruce Wayne. This is why I hated the portrayal in the DCEU and the Burtonverse and why I really hated the implication that Batman killed The Joker in Batwoman. A Batman who kills is certainly not Bruce Wayne, that is an interpretation of Bruce Wayne that completely misses the point of Batman. It's easy to kill. Batman does not make the easy choice… Batman does not kill.

#DC #Batman #Batman Beyond #Bruce Wayne #Anti Zack Snyder #Anti DCEU

[comradekatara]

What do you think makes the original ATLA so good when practically every subsequent piece of spinoff media ranges from mediocre to downright reactionary? Considering some of the stuff the og creators were responsible for counts among the very worst, I don't think it can be blamed on their lack of involvement. Idk I've always wondered about this because it's so strange. Did ATLA end up being good purely by accident & nobody involved in its creation actually understood what they were doing or what?

lmfao i definitely do think masterpieces can be created purely by accident. not that there aren’t elements of careful deliberation and a lot of collaboration involved, but it really was a lightning in a bottle sort of project. like this is just conjecture bc i haven’t seen any of their other projects but apparently the creator of black sails has made some other, bad shows. or the creators of utena as well. see, even, the stupid lame ass ending to fionna and cake. there’s no guarantee that just because someone (or a creative team) can create a coherent, nuanced work means that they can replicate that success ad infinitum.

i think that where atla truly excels is in its character writing, which is why the fandom (a fundamentally character-focused phenomenon) still endures (not that they really get the characters lmao, but at least we’re all way too deeply attached to them in the first place). and the anti-imperialist politics are almost incidental to the show’s success. i’ve said before that it was much easier for liberals to critique american imperialism during the bush administration, because the invasion of iraq was completely inexcusable, and also very easy to criticize if you dress it up in children’s fantasy and always have the defense of going “no, don’t you see, the fire nation isn’t the us, it’s the prc, it’s imperial japan!! you know, our enemies…!” which a lot of people to this day actually believe — not that there aren’t allusions to other imperialist histories (esp wrt the air nomad genocide), but zuko’s whole speech to ozai in “the day of black sun” is literally a critique regarding what it means to live in the imperial core. it’s a western, american show for americans first and foremost.

…. and then lok was made during the obama administration. neoliberal identity politics abound. and don’t get me wrong, some of those identity politics were a good thing, because i love seeing milves and bisexuals and korra just like. in general. but it’s also a show that fundamentally revolves around capitalism as its central theme without every actually participating in a coherent class critique. the closest we get is mako and bolin visiting their family in the lower ring, which doesn’t count, bc that was established in atla.

however, just because atla endures in our consciousness, and i am truly finding new things to appreciate about it all the time, does not mean that it is without flaws, and so i do think that it’s pretty fair to assume that its success as a work of fiction and a work of art would of course be undermined by the economic forces that demanded it continued to expand its franchise for profit rather than out of any narrative or thematic need to do so. it always comes back to liberalism and capitalism. lol

#bickazer #asks #lok crit #they just need to put their pens down . just stop

[antianakin]

@auditect

You seem like you're being genuine about this and asking this in good faith, so I'm going to say this as respectfully as I possibly can: no, she's not.

When thinking about what's canon and what's not, there are 2 things to consider. One is, was it explicitly said or shown in the canon material (in this case, Rebels)? For example, did you hear anyone CALL Ahsoka a Gray Jedi, or discuss Gray Jedi and then have Ahsoka pretty clearly get associated with said concept? Two is, have you ever heard the main creator of a canon material explicitly state somewhere that Ahsoka is intended to be understood as a Gray Jedi by the audience? In this case that would probably be Filoni, but you can probably count the other writers and even Lucas in this category.

The answer to all of those questions is no. At no point has the concept of Gray Jedi ever been brought up in a high canon piece of media in Star Wars (in case high canon is a new term for you, this includes all of the movies, TCW, Rebels, and the Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, TBOBF, TBB, etc.). Gray Jedi are FANON because they only exist in a piece of extended universe Star Wars media which, in many ways, works as basically official fanfiction. Nobody working on the more "high media" stuff is ever obligated to keep extended universe stories in mind and adhere to their continuity, but the people working on extended universe stories have to adhere to high canon continuity as best they can.

Obviously there are things that have been brought from extended universe into high canon, but Gray Jedi simply aren't one of them. And, in my own opinion, this is because the entire concept makes no sense with the actual worldbuilding of high canon Star Wars. As much as Filoni shits on the Jedi, he does generally seem to understand Lucas's worldbuilding which makes the fanon concept of Gray Jedi literally impossible. Using a little dark side without it having an impact on you isn't possible. That's not how the Force works, as the saying goes.

So no, Ahsoka's not a gray Jedi in Rebels. She's a former Jedi who happens to keep using her training and her lightsabers to help people in the Rebellion. Even in the trailers for the new Ahsoka show, the tagline says "rebel, outcast, JEDI." There's nothing in there about being gray, there's no acknowledgment of Gray Jedi as a thing. Ahsoka is someone who was once a Jedi and will likely end up a Jedi again by the end of her show because that's the journey we've sort-of seen her going on throughout the different things she's been in.

In Rebels, we see Ahsoka actively working with other Jedi (Kanan and Ezra) to continue work that the Jedi Order had started, we see Ahsoka specifically come along on missions that are Jedi specific problems. She says she's not a Jedi, yes, but in her time, being a Jedi meant something very specific, you couldn't just identify as a Jedi if you weren't someone who was adopted into the Order officially. Ahsoka was expelled and then refused to come back, so she's no longer an official member of the Jedi Order and can no longer take on the title of Jedi. And then the Order is destroyed, so all roads for officially rejoining the Order are now closed to her effectively forever. And this leaves her with trying to figure out what being a Jedi means to her in the wake of that destruction, how can she re-identify as a Jedi without an Order to be a part of, does she even have the right to do so when she hadn't been a Jedi when the Order was destroyed? We've seen characters like Kanan and Cal go through similar arcs and both of them became full Jedi by the end of them. There's no real reason Ahsoka won't do the same given that it's the most obvious place for her to go.

Now, none of that means that if you like the fanon concept of Gray Jedi that you can't just headcanon Ahsoka as a Gray Jedi after she leaves the Order. More power to you! But just because it's a headcanon you like doesn't make it canon. Until it's made explicit via dialogue or something similar in high canon, or at the very least said in an interview by one of the creators, it's NOT CANON.

#ahsoka tano #star wars #star wars rebels #jedi #gray jedi critical #grey jedi critical

[soupdots]

Hey, I haven’t posted on here in a while, but! I read Azula in the Spirit Temple (finally) and I wanted to give my thoughts on it.

Overall rating, 7.5/10

Things I liked:

• These two panels:

I love how her humanity is shown in both of them. I don’t know if we’ve EVER seen Azula given the humanity shown in the second panel— fear, specifically trauma-motivated fear (and a traumatic experience not frequently discussed, her institutionalization). It’s significant because she’s showing fear without anger, which is rare for her. And I was blown away by the first panel. I didn’t expect them to be so explicit about it. It’s almost too explicit, but honestly, it’s needed (because people clearly don’t pick up on subtext). It made me very happy to see what we’ve all been saying stated outright and in canon. These two panels pushed the comic up from more of a 6/10.

• I liked the idea of spirits and avatars (no pun intended) of Azula’s past friends and family talking to her (This is something that’s planned for my fic, if I ever get that off the ground again). It allows Azula to directly confront what has been done to her and what she has done, which is important for a redemption arc. It also allows for some healing, because she’s able to talk to those who hurt her.

• Azula is not given a quick redemption arc in 80 pages. Thank god. While of course she deserves a redemption arc, a rushed Kuvira-style redemption arc would be awful.

• I like that, true to her classic hair symbolism, Azula has her hair down throughout her time in the temple but puts it back up when she goes back to meet her Fire Warriors.

• She looks like a child in most of the frames. It’s good.

• This may have been unintentional, but I like that it’s Zuko who yells at her about how she’s hurt everybody, she’s a monster etc; then he turns into something of a monster himself. This shows that Zuko has hurt her, that he’s not perfect.

• I think the writing in general was better than past comics (definitely better than Yang’s writing) and it bodes well for the future. I think, all things considered, Faith Hicks did a remarkable job with the barely salvageable remnants of Azula’s character.

Things I didn’t like:

• Azula is still hung up on her “rightful place on the throne!” She never showed any real desire for the throne in the show, and yet for some reason that has become a key piece of her identity. It really doesn’t make sense. Also, didn’t she drop that in S&S? She is still seeking to destabilize Zuko in AITST, but appears to also have regained the desire for the throne. It’s confusing and weird.

• I think Azula could’ve been shown being a little nicer to her ‘Fire Warriors,’ given that she doesn’t have the same pressure to keep them by her side as she did with Mai & Ty Lee, but it’s fair that she’s not. In S&S she’s a pretty terrible person and takes several steps back in her redemption arc (several extremely OOC steps), and while I want to forget the Yang comics ever existed, Hicks still has to adhere to them and that means not suddenly making Azula a lot more chill.

• It felt rushed, but of course it did, it’s 80 pages long. Still this did affect the satisfaction I got from it.

• Azula ought to have been more distressed when she found out that her friends left her given that that’s literally her biggest wound. However I also kind of like that she wasn’t, especially at the end, because it hints that she’s getting tired of the whole friendship through manipulation thing.

• I wish Azula had gotten to talk to the spirit in its monk form a little bit; we could’ve had an Iroh moment for her which would’ve been cool to see.

• In general Azula’s character has really been through the ringer so it’s hard to get anything good out of it, but again I’m impressed at what Hicks has been able to pull off. Still, it felt kind of unsatisfying that at the end of the comic Azula said that she would “find new followers, a new place to rule,” which is like, oh okay, so you kinda haven’t really learned anything? It would be nice to at least get a bit of an idea that she’s on a path towards redemption and healing.

Again, overall, 7.5/10, I really enjoyed this, honestly. There were some parts that made me roll my eyes but ultimately I was surprised at the amount of kindness given to Azula (not a lot, but more than usual). I’m thankful to Faith Erin Hicks & the rest of her team for doing the best they can with our girl. I hope this means she’ll get more good content in the future.

#atla #azula #avatar the last airbender #azula in the spirit temple

[damianbugs]

do you have any good tim fic recs? without him being massively woobified or fanonised

tim centric fics are not something i usually read (though that IS changing recently) BUT i do indeed have some recs that to me, personally, really encapsulate his character and i think about like all the time. a good tim drake fic can truly change the chemicals in your brain FOREVER.

woobified tim and i have personal beef with each other that will withstand all the generations to come, so i will not be touching him with a ten foot pole. do not fear.

TIM DRAKE CENTRIC FIC RECS ON AO3

Talk To Me by A_Canceled_Stamp

Bruce and Tim have a long-overdue heart-to-heart

MY NOTES: ohhh just the bruce and tim fic ever to exit. i reread this often when i just need a little comfort after things are rough, because it is so well written and i will never get over how sweet it is. happy tears in my eyes forever. bruce and tim is a dynamic that is so special.

lift this curse of bein' seventeen by arguablysomaya

When Tim first dreamed of becoming Robin, he’d been admiring Dick. When he became Red Robin, hurt and alone, he’d thought about the person Jason used to be. But after years of watching his older sister, Tim can’t help but reflect on how much he respects Cass and what she stands for.

As Batgirl, as Orphan, as Black Bat— as Cass, the woman that could face down pure evil and still sneak into Tim’s apartment to pull the laptop out of his hands and shove him into bed.

Or: In which Tim Drake gets a new name.

MY NOTES: oh my GOD. THE TIM DRAKE MOVES ON FROM ROBIN FIC EVER. i never once considered black bat tim but after reading this i genuinely have ascended to a new plain of tim drake understanding. not to mention wonderful tim and cass writing. i love their duo so much. (also!!! asian tim!!!)

by any other name would smell as sweet by misspickman

A dare and a couple of offhand comments set off a domino effect, sending Tim down one or two identity crises. Apparently everyone thinks it's time for him to do some self-reflection.

MY NOTES: i have said this so many times in these recs that it should be a given now to always expect a trans character fic as well. trans girl tim fic u are SO REAL. a friend recommended this to me and i read it all while standing up for a good half an hour unable to do anything else. changed my life forever. good lord

a soft place to land by unchosenone

Tim rubs the back of his head, trying to affect a joking tone. “I knew I should’ve just gone for the new escrima sticks.”

Dick is ready to be a good big brother to his grieving little bro. Tim flips the script.

MY NOTES: dick and tim are truly the brothers of all time i tear up just thinking about what they once had and everything they've lost. this fic is not about that though. this fic is about what a caring little brother tim is.

Check your mic by Lilac_hyacinth

“That wasn’t—” he stared at his bike’s display through fuzzy eyes. “I mean, Bernard’s not my—”

“It’s okay, Tim,” Steph said gently.

The comm felt like a knife in his ear.

“I’m not,” Tim said.

He didn’t know if he was saying "I’m not gay" or "I’m not okay," was pretty sure nobody else did either, and the next thing Tim knew, his comm was a crushed pile of plastic and tech in his clenched fist.

MY NOTES: first and foremost, if you are a fan of timber you NEED to check out this author. the best timber fics out there. this fic is especially special to me and i love the way the comfort was handled. seeing tim traverse through different parts of the queer experience will always be important to me.

#gee i wonder who this anon is from! #tim drake #batfam #saki batfam fic recs #bruce wayne #dick grayson #bernard dowd #timbern

[5eraphim]

Your monster mash au is so cool!! i love when writers go up and beyond n arent afraid to get creative with the canon. Do you have any hcs for how they met their S/O?

i currently have a 3 characters per request limit goin on rn, and i used RNG to pick the characters for this request which wound up being Werewolf Scout (BLU), Satyr Demo (RED) and Bogeyman Spy (BLU) hope thats ok with you! (but i have requests open currently, so if u were hoping to see someone else, here's a link to the monster mash AU. these were pretty fun to write and i'd love to do more!) thank you so much for the request, I hope you enjoy!

Characters: Scout 🐇, Demo 🐏 and Spy 🐍 (Team Fortress 2)

Content Warnings: Yandere, toxic relationship dynamics, possessive behavior, implied sexual relations, somnophilia, reader is gender neutral

Rating: M (MINORS DON'T INTERACT, GO PLAY OUTSIDE)

Word Count: 2.3k

MASTERLIST

TIP JAR

Werewolf Scout (BLU)

Wild, savage, fearsome, and brutal, Scout is the living embodiment of what a proper wolf ought to be. Once the runt of the litter transformed through sheer determination and force of will, Scout would do anything to maintain his position as the leader of the pack.

All his life, Scout's possessed the primal need to be accepted as well as applauded by others by other wolves as well as by other mortals and monsters desperate to convince himself it will somehow be enough to purchase the childhood trauma of being known to all as the weakest of the family.

Consider Scout falling for a friend from childhood who hasn't seen him since his days as a weakling, only to move away and disappear for years and years and return to see a radically different Scout, practically the opposite of what he once was.

Scout always had a soft spot for you but never had the nerve to confess his feelings to you before on account of his certainty you would reject him, as well as generally being much less assured of himself when he was a child. But to meet up with you again now that he's stronger and more dominant than before, it's like getting a second chance too good to be true. If he were to let you go again, he knows he'd never forgive himself.

Initially, Scout's ready to start making moves on you without hesitation. There's no way you'd forget about him or all the time spent together, and he believes with all his heart that just seeing the man he's become would be enough to convince you to start an entirely new life together. And when you inevitably refuse such an outlandish proposition, Scout's left heartbroken, confused, and unable to control his jealousy and wrath.

But he knows if he really wants to impress you to prove he's worthy of becoming your mate, Scout knows who needs to do something drastic to get your attention. Nothing less than taking the life of another in a bloody brawl, where only one will live to see the end of the fight. But not just anyone. It must be someone close to you, so when you see as a protector. Surely, if he were to kill someone close to you, you'd have no choice but to accept him as your lover, your guardian, you're everything.

Scout's never been one for subtlety; he doesn't care if taking you as his lover by force leaves you terrified and resentful. As a leader of the pack, it's his responsibility to handle tough choices like this and watch out for the well-being of the rest. Whether or not you wanted to join in the first place hardly matters to Scout. He did what he had to, and you're his living reward

Satyr Demo (Red)

Like almost all the monsters in the monster mash AU, satyr Demo never really imagined himself with the idea of a single "true love" kind of partner, though not for the same reason as the others. While many of the other monsters view themselves at odds with humanity and, by extension, incompatible with the notion of human monogamous romances. Demo, on the other hand, is more hung up on the monogamous part of these relationships rather than the human part.

Satyr Demo is seldom alone, spending his days leisurely indulging his desires for sex, wines, feasting, partying, and whatever other whims cross his mind. In a realm populated by other satyrs, nymphs, centers, naiads, primordial gods, titans, and other similar creatures in a utopia beyond human perception.

Despite his physically off-putting appearance, drawing in mortals has never been an issue for creatures like Demo. Humans are such easy prey, with fragile minds so easily swayed by temptation and eyes so easy to deceive. All it takes for Demo to get in bed with another mortal is to share a bit of wine of the gods and to only appear late at night, using the cover of darkness to his advantage to hide his inhuman appearance. And the look on the mortal's face after realizing they've given into the ethereal temptation or hypnosis and made love to a half-goat creature is priceless to Demo.

In Demo's leisurely existence, life is nothing but an endless buffet of lovers; to limit himself to one monogamous relationship forever would be self-cruelty. The idea of a mortal retaliating against him for his treatment of them never even crossed his mind, but the day that happens if his entire world shifts.

Consider yourself a mortal living in the world near Demo's realm, where mortals are endlessly tormented and played with by gods and supernatural creatures like pawns. While you can do nothing but keep your head down and try not to invoke their ethereal wrath.

Imagine yourself in a situation where a close family member of yours has just been lured by Demo. Her chastity broken, and left in a compromising position in the woods. What little garments she has left desecrated with his seed, the goat hair left around the scene of the crime, making it obvious to all around town who was the culprit. With her reputation ruined and her family disgraced, she goes catatonic. Unable to leave her own bed, practically dead to the world, unable to cope with the suffering and shame of living as one of Demo's conquests.

Her despondence fuels within you an anger you kept bottled up all your life. You could no longer live in a world where mortals were used and discarded at the discretion of the supernatural creatures. You were willing to do whatever it took to fight back, to get even a fraction of justice for all the harm they'd caused.

Against the wishes of your loved ones, you sought the help of an ostracized spinster at the edge of the town, said to know the ways of witchcraft, and willing to make bargains with mortals for supernatural favors so long as they were willing to pay the price for it.

You came to her asking if there was some way to bind the sexual appetite of the monster who hurt your loved one beyond repair, offering her the still-desecrated clothing of your loved one, knowing some trace of the beast was likely necessary to enact the hex. You wanted to end his predation of the mortals of your town no matter the cost, even if that meant invoking dark magic to do so. Offering as payment everything of value owned put the clothes on your back. While you didn't have much, the old witch smiled, assuring you this was all payment enough and that the prospect of attempting such a powerful curse was enough of an incentive, though she accepted your belongings all the same, asking again if you were really willing to do anything to put an end to Demo's reign of terror. And without a second thought, you replied yes.

The witch held up her end of the bargain, binding Demo's lust and desire, but what she didn't tell you was the actual cost of finding one's heart to perform her ritual, specifically requiring a willing volunteer to bind Demo's lust to. She needed a token of a physical object of significance from the bound one and from another, which you offered as unknowingly as payment to bind in the victim's desires to.

The night you meddled in the affairs of the supernatural, you unknowingly offered up your own soul to the witch, which she bonded with Demo's successfully. And from that night on, cursing you to bear the burden of all Demo's desire.

Demo awoke the following day with a hole in his heart and a mind-numbing need to find another lover in the mortal realm, but not in a way he'd ever felt before. Demo felt like someone was waiting for him, someone he needed to find desperately but had no idea who it could be. In a town as small as yours, it was only a matter of time until you were discovered. And the moment he set his eyes on you, he knew it had to be you.

In the following days, you had to come to your own realization of what it meant to bind someone's heart. To understand it wasn't a hex to do no harm but to force one person alone to endure the entire weight of his desire.

Living as Demo's' sole lover was a paradise, but not from your perspective. Bestowed with eternal youth, food of the gods, orgiastic dances with supernatural creatures, the suffering of humanity far away, and the undying devotion of a god. You had no choice but to comply.

You were given all you could ask for so long as you never long to stray from Demo's side, or god forbid, ever asked to go home.

Bogeyman Spy (BLU)

No one knows the meaning of need like Spy. He's watched the rise and fall of empires, the brutality of war, and the skirmishes between mortal and the supernatural. The only thing he's never found was another creature like himself.

As long as Spy's walked the Earth, and for as long as he's interacted with humans, he's known nothing but hunger for human fear and pain, seeing them as merely a food source.

This life of isolation and callousness is all he's ever known. Perhaps existence is a lonely one, but Spy fails to see the value in a human emotional connection. He never had a heart to hold.

But just because he doesn't believe he has a heart doesn't mean one never existed at all. Despite his years upon years of emotional repression, he too yearns to be understood and cared for like the mortals he claims such dominion over. Still, he refuses to admit it to himself.

He may be immortal, but despite what he would like to believe, Spy is no god. And he was just as susceptible to the strings of fate as any other, and it was only a matter of time before the gods fated his heartstrings to be pulled by another ordinary mortal, the last kind of person Spy would've ever expected to foster sympathy for.

He couldn't even comprehend what was happening the night that finally happened.

It was just another night like any other Spy approaching you while you slept soundly, the optimal time to put you into a deep nightmare. But something about the sight of you, a vision of tranquility made beautiful by the moonlight and mysterious by dark shadows, he couldn't help but hesitate to disturb you.

Nevertheless, Spy was prepared to do what he must to get his nightly fix, but before he could enter your dreams, Spy realized your psyche was already charged with sexual energy, the sign of a dream already in progress. Nothing he hadn't seen before, but in the moment, he was paralyzed and entirely captivated.

More cautiously than ever before, he dared take a taste of the energy flowing through you, and after just one sampling, he was hooked.

Hours stretch on, but Spy can't bring himself to leave your bedside, watching your energy waxing and waning as you fall in and out of a state of deep slumber. Before he realizes it, daylight comes, forcing him to concede he's out of time.

Deep within, Spy feels a different kind of hunger awakening, but something more complex, more akin to a yearning. A hunger that cannot be satisfied with a full stomach.

For the following few days, he couldn't bring himself to feed as he normally would. His hunger was there, as it always was, and he could feel the pain of an empty stomach but couldn't work up an appetite for anything but you.

By day three, he could stay away from you no longer and caved to the desire to feed, finding himself back at your bedside, his hunger for you as strong as ever. 

He will try to convince himself he's better off without you, lying to himself that it's only a matter of time before his obsession fades and what he feels now won't last. After all, you were only a mortal, though it's impossible to ignore the instant panic he feels thinking of you passing away. Not only because this would mean the end of you as a food source but as that pesky yearning perks up, and he can't help but fear you dying before he could properly commune with you.

Being an immortal shapeshifter with immense psychic power meant Spy had more than a few friends in high places, powerful and indebted friends.

It isn't long until he strikes a bargain with a powerful witch, granting you immortality as well as keeping you in a perpetual deep slumber, forcing you to become Spy's own personal little sleeping beauty. Eternally preserved just for him, keeping you alive by nourishing your spirit with safety and fear.

While in this state, it isn't long until the confusion sets in. You feel alone, have no idea where you are, and can't shake the feeling of being watched. You feel like you're trapped in a cage, a comfortable one, but a cage you can't escape from. Stuck in a dream you can awaken from.

Spy knows he could awaken you at any moment and might even understand some level he will have to eventually, but he still intends to keep it like this as long as he can. He's too addicted to the high of his hunger, finally satiated, and too sullen to bring himself to truly meet you in the real world. For the time being, he's content flirting with you in the dream world, stalking from shadows, always watching it, keeping just a step out of reach.

#IM SORRY SPY'S SUCKS SO MUCH BUT HE WAS FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE TO WRITE FOR IN THIS SCENARIO #like he's supposed to be a heartless void of emotion alright there's only so much to work with there 😭 #request #yandere #self ship #tf2 x reader #x reader #anonymous #yandere tf2 #monster boyfriend #exo #yandere x reader #tf2 scout x reader #tf2 demo x reader #tf2 spy x reader #yandere team fortress 2 #monster mash au #bogeyman #werewolf #monster x human #monster x reader #gender neutral reader #satyr #male yandere #exophilia #yandere self ship #yandere headcanons

[homemadegirlbossbattle]

ROUND 1 / SIDE B / POLL 1

Lady Ignis Solon (@containmentbreach, art by @mechanomorphic) vs. Alice Luoja (@cantdanceflynn & @pyxehastoomanyinterests)

Lady Ignis Solon info:

Description: ignis is a member of a noble family from her home dimension, where shadowy, demonic creatures make their home and occasionally emerge to hunt, kill and eat lesser beings (who are pretty much anyone, by their standards). ignis takes a lot of pride in her position, despite not seeming particularly…happy. but "happy" is a relative word. she has mothered thirteen children (demon noble families are expected to be large and can include up to 20-25 children. twins, triplets, etc. are also more common) with the king of the realm, despite not being attracted to men in the slightest. she views this as her duty granted to her through her position. commoners from her realm are allowed to marry freely without regard to gender, but ignis isn't jealous of them.

not even a little bit. seriously like not at all.

ignis' preferred hunting grounds is the planet known as "earth," and she has personally trained each of her thirteen children to be the toothy shadows that hide in your house when you think you're alone. well, she's trained twelve of them. she's run into a slight hiccup with the thirteenth, who seems to be getting a little attached to her human target. but that's all right. she'll come around.

ignis enjoys black tea, playing the piano, and horror novels. she views them as some of the few things humans have gotten right.

Crimes:

-well the cannibalism. she did like tons of that. i guess it's not really considered cannibalism if she herself is not a human? but she ate humans is the point i'm trying to make

-she has also committed some regular murders. of humans and of other members of her species.

-does not understand her kids. she loves them but she does not Get them. it tends to frustrate her.

-she basically has very little regard for human laws in general and breaks them as often as she can get away with. if she does get in trouble she lies low for a little while in her dimension, then sets up a new place to live. this means of course that she does commit tax evasion often and well.

Other notes from the submitter: ignis is in a lot of ways a love letter to moms who get shit on by fandom for not understanding their kids. 90% of the time the amount of hate they get is just misogyny tbh! ignis is bad in a lot of ways but she's not a bad mom, even if she comes off as that at first because the story she's in is from the perspective of her daughter and the human she got attached to. people would probably still make discourse about her and shit on her but i do not care because i adore her and i adore fucked up moms in general. and if you don't that's a you issue.

Alice Luoja info:

Description: A Phineas and Ferb background character design turned oc, an old woman basically obsessed with finding or creating godlike perfection. How she does it doesn't matter to her, even if she has to go to lengths beyond what any respectable evil scientist would. She practically adopted Professor Mystery, taking him in as a son when his parents disappeared, although she tends to use him for her own purposes rather then taking good care of him. Greatly manipulative and ruthless, she attempts to run things from behind the scenes all while constantly, zealously, searching for that perfection. Depending on her role in any given au or story with the cast, what she's searching for in that perfection is different, but in her major ones, godlike perfection is more literal. She's also a disaster lesbian cannibal.

Crimes: Well, murder, dismantling of bodies, eating the bodies, child abuse, child murder, platonic (and only platonic I promise she's literally a mom) grooming, basically being a mini cult leader, generally being a mad scientist as part of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.s inner circle with no respect for Doof's morals, blood letting in this day and age for both trans and non-trans reasons, dismemberment, eye gouging of both dead and alive people(including an approx 9 year old), not fucking staying dead like she's William Afton, several curses on items, hoarding, desecration, religious zealotry, being a piss-poor mother even tho she'd actually be a rly good parent if she wasn't scared of being emotionally attached to her own fucking son, lots of murder if you hadn't got the drift she's basically a slasher horror villain in disguise, giving multiple people eating disorders, letting a sentient robot escape tower back onto earth in Knife Roomba form, doesn't know how stores work and just steals everything, poisoning so many people alive, general war crimes, mass murder, attempting to destroy the universe, breaking several peoples limbs, creating a time loop to trap Candace in a state of never being able to avoid killing her loved ones, using her son to specifically torture the cast consistently regardless of how he feels about it into seeing visions of their loved ones being destroyed horrible and usually killed at their hands, encouraging self harm and suicide, she breaks peoples bones a few times, I can't stress the manipulative cult leader thing enough this bitch does blood sacrifices whenever, she's just kinda a loser also.

Other notes from the submitter: SHES CALLED "THE BITCH" BY US FOR A REASON

#poll #oc poll #hmgbb

[mysadcorner]

Can I pls request being childhood friends with the batboys and Bruce and confessing your feelings for them?? I'm not fluent in English so this may not have made sense so sorry

Confessing To The Batfam Headcanons

- Credit to the gifs owner - Please be specific about characters wanted in requests -

Masterlist Navigation

Bruce Wayne

• A confession is one of the last things Bruce would expect from you, or anyone for a matter of fact. He isn’t the type of person to just open themselves up to someone, so he’s very surprised that he’s done it towards you without even noticing.

• He certainly didn’t expect a person like you to fall for someone like him and then confess your feelings. He doesn’t have much experience in relationships after cutting himself off genuinely from the world, so it’s nice and refreshing to have a new aspect to his life that can be healthy, and non-violence related.

• Of course, Bruce likes you back, he just isn’t the best at expressing it at first. He’s awkward and fusses around because he doesn’t know how to act, but once you reassure him that he doesn’t need to change to be with you then he’s able to accept the situation more gradually over time.

• At first things would progress slowly, but that’s because he considers caution in everything he does. But once he’s comfortable with you the relationship is at a steady pace, and he only goes further with you if he knew you’d be okay and comfortable with it.

•Bruce would have had a crush on you for a long time, and maybe even a small one from the first time he ever met you. You’re irresistible to him, and just having you in his presence brightens the life he’s seen as dull for so long.

Dick Grayson

• Dick would be happily surprised with finding out that you like him so much, and he wouldn’t be that surprised after how close the two of you have managed to become. He isn’t the type of person to be very loud about this revelation, so if you’re shy about the situation you won’t need to worry about him telling others about it.

• Dick never expects anyone to fall for him, but it does happen because of how generous and lovable he is as a person. As long as he’s close to you and feels a deep connection with you then he won’t be too surprised by the whole thing.

• After getting to know you so well, and learning so much about you, it would be hard for Dick not to fall for you. There are a limited number of people he is actually pretty close to, so the fact that he’s allowed you to see many intimate sides of himself emotionally is a sign to both you and him that he feels something important between the two of you. 

• Dick would want things to progress at whatever speed you felt alright with; he’s patient and doesn’t need to rush things that he knows will turn out really well for him in the end. He’d be very sweet about the whole things and would reassure you if you weren’t too experienced in relationships, but other than that, progression would come quite naturally. 

• Dick reciprocating his feelings for you is probably the thing that encouraged you to confess to him, as he’s certainly been liking you for a while. Dick can always tell when someone is truly a good person deep down, and since he sensed that he’s had a special place in his heart for you.

Jason Todd

• Jason would be completely shocked when you confess to him as he isn’t used to people being affectionate or having such a positive look towards him. He’ll gladly take it though, and once he does, he finally realises how much he’s been missing out on.

• He wouldn.t have expected it if you hadn’t showed any sign of you being interested in him before, but if you had then he wouldn’t be completely clueless. He can be quite flirty, so he doesn’t know how-to pick-up signs of attraction and interest when it’s obviously directed towards him; you won’t be able to fool him easily if you tried to hide it from him for a while.

• Jason probably likes you back, after all, he wouldn’t have been so kind to you if he didn’t like you in some way. It’s hard for him to admit his feelings at first, but he does try once he realises that he really wants to be with you too.

• Things would have to go slow at the start while you’re both laying out your boundaries and other aspects of what you expect out of the relationship. He makes sure to do this as he isn’t the most responsible or reasonable when you first met, and healthy relationships do eventually come to him after you show him what they’re like.

• Jason gets attached easily so it’s pretty likely that he has feelings for you before you confessed to him. It doesn’t stop him being surprised, but the mutual feelings do reassure him and make him feel less insecure about certain things.

Tim Drake

• Tim would be very sweet about you confessing to him, and since he knows that you’re going out of your own way to express your feelings then he’ll try his best to be polite and not make you feel bad about it. He won’t let you down, but he doesn’t want you to think that he isn’t taking you seriously.

• Because of how well he’s able to read the people around him and figure out what’s going on, he probably knew that you liked him before you confessed. Despite this, he would keep it to himself and let you decide what to do with your feelings as he wants you to do only what you would feel comfortable with.

• He probably likes you back too but just never said until you approached him first. He gets shy when expressing his own emotions, so he wasn’t too inclined to tell you about how he felt before you took the chance to tell him yourself.

• Tim would take you on a few dates if he wanted things to progress slowly and at a simple pace. But if you had known each other for a long time and were already extremely close then he wouldn’t have a need for dates and would progress however you would like.

• Tim could have possible liked you for a while even, without realising it himself. He always felt a deep connection to you, so the fact that you’ve confessed to him on top of this is probably a sign that things will work well between the two of you.

Damian Wayne

• Damian may come across as stoic and insensitive at first, but he really doesn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or any offence to you. He just isn’t used to these types of feelings being expressed around him, especially towards him, so he does need a little time to process things.

• He’s pretty oblivious to these kinds of things so he probably wouldn’t have expected it, and he may have not noticed your liking to him before you confessed too. However, he wouldn’t be disappointed about it, so it comes as a nice surprise once you’ve decided to let him know.

• There would be no reason for Damian to not like you back in this way, as he would have to trust someone completely for them to get close to them. Eventually, after spending time with you on a regular basis his feelings for you would only develop and grow until he felt the same way you did for him. 

• Progression in your relationship with Damian would come very naturally, and the two of you have a good set up of communication because of this. Communication and a mutual understanding are essential to be with Damian, so it’s very rare and unlikely that the two of you wouldn’t know about how the other is feeling.

• Damian would have had a strong sense of belonging with you for a long time before romantic feelings even developed. He’s slow with things like this, so even though he didn’t know he liked you in the way that would spark a relationship, you would still be the closest person he’d allow to be near himself. 

#bruce wayne headcanons #bruce wayne x y/n #bruce wayne x you #bruce wayne #bruce wayne x reader #dick grayson x y/n #dick grayson headcanons #dick grayson x you #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #jason todd headcanons #jason todd #jason todd x reader #tim drake headcanons #tim drake x y/n #tim drake x reader #tim drake x you #tim drake #damian wayne headcanons #damian wayne #damian wayne x y/n #damian wayne x you #damian wayne x reader

[weather-cluddy]

(Replied as a new post to avoid the character limit)

It doesn't bother me at all! This sort of question is something I've been turning over for quite a while, actually. I tried to make a post pointing out comparisons between non-paired prisoners, because I feel like people focus too much on number pairs without considering other thematic parallels, even with Milgram pointing some out (Eg: Shidou-Amane, Fuuta-Kotoko, Haruka-Muu, Yuno-Kazui). It stalled around Muu though, because it turns out that's a whole lot of entries, and also I wasn't sure that people would be interested in a post that's dozen of paragraphs long (though still much less elaborate than this post, of course).

Personally, I think Mikoto and Haruka have a lot in common and share many themes, but I hardly ever see it brought up. Some of it, I think, is the fact that Haruka's trauma gets a lot of focus while Mikoto's mostly implied, so there's a lot of people who don't look beneath the surface. So they just get slotted in the boxes of "sympathetic" and "unsympathetic", meaning fans miss the similarities even when it's them doing literally the same thing (Like trying to kill Es to protect their self-worth).

But at the end of the day, we have two people extremely afraid yet dependent on other people's opinions of them, whose every interaction is shadowed by the after-effects of their early-childhood trauma in a way that seems "cute" or harmless at first but really isn't, who committed premeditated murder because they saw it as the only way to make their lives bearable, who have artistic inclinations but can't find the self-confidence to pursue them, who are dealing with mental illnesses they have no (healthy) frame of reference for, who are okay with being used and abused (even physically!) so long as people approve of them...

Well, I don't want to drop the entire essay on the intro part. Onto the first section!

(I didn't particularly mean to organize it like that, but the two sections basically came out as Bokukoto- and Orekoto-centered, respectively. Funny how it worked out.)

Children and adults.

What are Haruka's goals? To be loved and cared for, even if it means taking on a subordinate role. To have his weakness acknowledged yet not be shamed for it, to be have his strengths bring joy to those he loves yet not have people ask more of him than he can give.

What are Mikoto's goals? To be a good, responsible, capable person and have people acknowledge him as such. To have his efforts rewarded, even if it means overexerting himself. To find conventional success and prove to those he loves (his mom, in particular) that they needn't worry for him.

In other words, Haruka wants to be a kid, Mikoto wants to be an adult. Haruka wants to be protected, Mikoto wants to be admired.

Why this difference? Well, I see two possiblities. One, Haruka has a golden past to retreat to, a time when he felt loved and safe. Mikoto might not have had that, or he might not remember it: after all, DID forms from trauma very early in childhood, as early as 5 years old and generally no later than 10. And of course dissociation itself tends to make remembering difficult, even before actual alters get involved.

So, Mikoto most likely doesn't remember any 'good old days' he could yearn for, either because he was extremely young or because they never existed. His only option, then, is to place his hopes on the future.

The second thing is that, in spite of Mikoto most likely having earlier trauma, Haruka is far more obvious in his dysfunction. Pretty much every person he meets will at least walk away with the feeling he's kind of weird, if not worse. This only manages to reinforce his feelings that he's inferior to everyone else, and that that's an inescapable part of his being.

Meanwhile, Mikoto can trudge through life well enough to believe that achieving what he wants is within his reach, even to be expected. Surely if he works both hard and smart, he can accomplish his goals without problem. He can get a good career if he just focuses on what he's good at, choosing 'efficiency' over his interests. And he can get everyone to like him, if he just remembers to always, always be nice to them, no matter how much he'd rather not. Then he'll reap the reward of succeeding at life!

That's just how things work, right? You put in the effort to treat others well, and your reward for doing so is to have other people do the same for you. That's the basis of society! And that's also how Mikoto makes himself feel safe. If his own actions determine other people's actions, then he can stop bad things from happening to him by just not doing anything that would invite punishment. Everyone knows monsters only eat the misbehaving kids!  Just follow the rules and everything will be fine.

(That's another big difference between Mikoto and Haruka: Haruka knows he can't do what's expected of him, so by the start of Milgram he's pretty much given up on the idea of ever being accepted or sucessful. Mikoto does believe he can cut it, but that brings its own kind of helplessness: he can never stop striving with all his might, because if he ever does fall short his self-esteem will crumble to pieces.)

The trouble is, sometimes even when you do follow the rules, other people just... refuse to reciprocate. Why is that? Did you do something wrong? Well, you can't exactly go up to them and ask. Now that would certainly be a faux pas! Clearly the only choice is to figure it out yourself by ruminating on it. All night long. Hey, remember when Mikoto said that he wouldn't be able to sleep if Kotoko didn't wish him a happy birthday? Sure sounds like somebody who worries a normal amount about gestures that might possibly be snubs.

But another convo I'd like to bring up is one with Fuuta, where Mikoto shows up unprovoked to tell Fuuta that being upset about being kidnapped is dumb and childish and will get him nowhere in life, and anyways he's just doing it for attention.

This seems a bit OOC, doesn't it? Mikoto basically never criticizes anybody. When Yuno basically calls him fake to his face, he just laughs and calls her a straight shooter. When Haruka said that he's been avoiding Mikoto because he's scary, he just shrugs and goes, that's fair, I'd have done the same. Hell, even knowing that Kotoko tried to beat him half to death, he still goes to congratulate her on her birthday. So what did Fuuta say that was so much worse than all of those?

The problem, really, isn't what Fuuta said or did to Mikoto, but how Fuuta behaves with everyone. Mikoto can put up with being openly disliked; see his interactions with Kotoko. But seeing somebody so brazenly ignore the rules he's based his life around, now that affects him a way that goes beyond Mikoto as a person.

If you asked Mikoto, he'd probably say that it's because he's sad to see somebody younger than him waste his potential with such stupid, meaningless stubborness. But really, it comes back to the fact that "nothing bad will happen as long as you behave" is one of pillar's of Mikoto's life. So how is he supposed to handle seeing somebody misbehave constantly, repeteadly, and still do just as well as him? What's that supposed to mean? Do things not actually work that way? Was he just being taken advantage of? That can't be. If being nice doesn't ensure that you'll get treated well, what does? He endured so much pain because it was supposed to pay off someday. Were all his efforts so far just make-believe, a kid hiding under the blankets thinking it'll do anything?

No, no, no. It's the others who are wrong. All his suffering until now was meaningful and helpful. He knows what he must do and he's not going to stray from the right path. Those who do are just bringing punishment down onto themselves. And while he's not capable of consciously acknowledging his anger, he can always try to share some "friendly advice" about what happens to those who fight against forces greater than themselves. You can't win those battles. He never won, so of course you can't win them. Stop struggling, it's for your own good.

(Amane-Mikoto parallels? In my Haruka-Mikoto parallels post? It's more likely than you think!)

Saviors and weaklings

You might be thinking that the title says it all, really. Haruka is a weakling, Orekoto is a savior, those are opposites, the end.

Well, yes, but it's not quite that simple.

Haruka in the second trial has also taken on a protector role towards Muu. This is a fairly uncontroversial reading, so let's go take a closer look at their similarities:

-Both Haruka and Orekoto put emphasis on Es not scaring/stressing their charge any further.

-In both cases, what they're looking for is acknowledgement from the one they're protecting and a sense of being useful ("Rely on me, praise me with your song, I am your savior")

-Haruka says that Muu is the reason why he can be who he is now. The same could be said for Bokukoto and Orekoto: without the latter, the former would not be able to remain his current self.

-At the same time, the 'saviors' need their charges, just as if not more than the other way around. Haruka's life has revolved around the concept of mothers since basically forever, and we literally don't know a single thing about Orekoto outside of his role. Honestly, considering he only seems to come out during stressful situations, it's possible even he doesn't know who he is outside of being Mikoto's savior.

Even the structures of Metamorphosis of the Weak and John Doe are similar. Consider:

-The interrogation starts with the prisoner being fairly unthreatening. Mikoto is rather nervous at the start, but as soon as Es starts pretending to entertain the idea that he really hasn't committed any murders, he calms down significantly. -The prisoners feel safe thanks to Es' temporary affirmation, but this is soon swept away by Es themselves. Even as the prisoners become more and more obviously distressed, Es presses on dispassionately.

-Eventually, they become totally overwhelmed by emotion and attempt to kill Es. Haruka is stopped by Milgram's rules, Orekoto isn't.

-At this point, a different prisoner makes their appearance, whether physically or just in conversation, and the rest of the drama revolves around them. In John Doe it's of course Kotoko fighting off Mikoto, after which he's literally unconscious for the rest of the VD (except for one line), and instead the remaining time is dedicated to Kotoko and her deal.

For Metamorphosis, it's when Haruka proclaims that Muu is his real mom and starts talking about their relationship. In both cases, there's a clear shift in focus from the OG character themselves to how their actions would affect Milgram overall (Kotoko offering to stop Mikoto if he attacks again, Haruka threatening suicide).

Well, we can probably agree that Haruka is a savior of a sort. But can we close the circle and bring the comparison back around? Is Orekoto also a weakling of a sort?

To answer this, we'll need to define weakness. For this, I'll actually refer not to Haruka's voice drama's, but to Muu's. Namely, this part in Queen B:

"Es: (…) One-sided violence and mistreatment… I’m sure it was difficult to handle. It’s not unreasonable to come to the conclusion that murder is the only way for a weak person to get out of that. That’s exactly why I forgave you." Muu: Yeah… If I hadn’t done that, I could have died some day."

We hear Haruka argue something similar after Es tears him down, asking "So what should I have done!? Was I supposed to give up on myself too!?" So we could say that a weak person is somebody who's trapped by their circumstances, somebody with the deck stacked so far against them that they have no choice but to take extreme measures.

I think that's pretty much how Orekoto views his own situation. Looking at his parts of MeMe, most of the what-if sentences basically come down to "I don't want to do this, but I can't not do it either". We also have lyrics like "It’s like what’s wrong isn’t wrong" and "Is this selfish?", showing that Orekoto is also full of self-doubt about this being the right thing, but doesn't see any other choice. After all, "Hurting it, holding it down, it doesn’t change anything, does it? Ahhh, It’s the same anywhere I go".

Like Haruka, nothing he tries seems to work and he's desperately trying to survive in any way he can. Whether this "death" is on a purely emotional level or if, like Muu, it's hinting at suicide ("Maybe it’s ok to try to keep on living"), he needs to get away. It doesn't matter anymore if it's "good", so long as it works.

Of course, I'm sure Orekoto wouldn't take well to the idea that he's weak. His breakdown in John Doe was, of course, because of Es pushing Bokukoto, but his rant was almost entirely focused on how weak and pathetic Es was. It seems that in that he resembles Fuuta (who was, after all, the first prisoner to try violence): when he's scared, he tries to intimidate the threat to feel safer.

(Of course, there's something to be said for Haruka also despising his own weakness, even if his reaction to it is to worship others for being different rather than project this hatred onto them.)

(And while we're in the topic of Fuuta, it's worth noting that he's also part of the overall protector theme spanning several characters. He even relates to Haruka and Mikoto directly, in that those two are the ones he picked as "weak" people he needed to look out for)

Muu and Haruka, even before the second trial, they were both weaklings and saviors of the weak (themselves). But this doesn't apply to Mikoto, because the roles are split between the alters. There's a clear separation between the 'good', pitiable, socially acceptable Bokukoto and the 'bad' and violent Orekoto. And you know where else we see something like this? Haruka's MVs.

This is most obvious in Weakness, where the separation is at its starkest, to the point where many people didn't think Haruka's younger self was him at all. Basically, every bad thing in the video is attributed to older Haruka. Li'l Haruka plays happily with his maybe-sister, older Haruka attacks her. Li'l Haruka pets his dog while his mom smiles by his side, until older Haruka bashes its skull in. And of course, in the end older Haruka is so consumed by hatred that he chokes his terrified younger self to death. Not the first time he attacks him(self) either; back at almost the start, older Haruka shoves him into a crayon puddle, with the camera making sure to show kid Haruka's terrified expression and Haruka's cold glare.

(I want to point out the dog scene in particular. Specifically, how the younger Haruka is horrified to find blood on his hands even though he never actually laid hands on the dog. This is quite reminiscent of the scene in MeMe where Mikoto becomes afraid of his reflection's evil expression and falls backwards, only to have the devil card fall on him and corrupt all the water into blood. But an interesting difference is how, while Mikoto not remembering is just a literal retelling of events, the same shouldn't apply to Haruka. And if the girl is the same age in AKAA and in Weakness, suggested by the fact she's dressed the same in both, then she couldn't have been playing with same-age Haruka either.)

In AKAA this divide into a good, young Haruka and a bad, older Haruka is less stark, presumably because after a forgiven verdict Haruka feels less disconnected from his past as a 'good kid'. It's not gone, however. We do see his younger self kill fish and a butterfly, but the harder-hitting murders of the dog (and possibly the girl, it's hard to tell) are left to his 17-years-old self. Not to mention the sequence when his mother opens the door, which is probably the part where Haruka is framed in the most threatening way across the entire MV. That too shows us only the current Haruka, notable because just seconds before it kept switching between the two of them.

At the same time, there's also a disconnect in Weakness between current Haruka and his murders. When we see him killing somebody he actually killed in real life (that is, the girl and the dog), it's followed shortly by him waking up in his bed, framing it all as just a dream. This is very similar to how in MeMe the second scene shows Orekoto killing somebody, with the third starting with Bokukoto gently waking up, completely unaware. There's of course also the line "I’m probably just having a bad dream, I need to wake up soon", which only drives it further home.

Well, I think that wraps up my points. To TL;DR it, some themes to consider are: fixated on past/fixated on future, giving up/trying too hard, dependence on others, wanting to feel useful, black and white thinking re: oneself and viewpoints warped by childhood trauma.

For a bit of extra fun, I'd like to note some shared visual motifs between MeMe, Weakness and All-Knowing and All Agony. There won't be much meaning analysis from me here, so feel free to supply your own.

Music Videos

(Some of the screenshots repeat, that's intentional)

Surrounded by eyes: Most obvious in Weakness, but the Hanged Man in Mikoto's shirt (and less obviously, the Magician) also show something similar.

Water turning into blood: This one is somewhat dificult to show in still screenshots, but it's present in both MeMe, Weakness (when one of Haruka's teardrops fall onto the water) and arguably AKAA as well.

Red skies with a moon visible: Interestingly, this one seems to be associated with younger Haruka in Weakness (most obvious at the very start, when he and older Haruka switch rapidly, with the scene outside the window also changing). There's one very obvious moon in a red sky near the end of MeMe, but there might be another one shown in the Fool card. Lots of Mikoto's cards show circles in the upper corner of the cards (but interestingly in the Hanged Man it's at the bottom, near their head, like an halo). Whether we can consider them all moons is up to speculation, but few of them match the color scheme anyways. Speaking of which, while Weakness almost always uses grey/blue moons with red skies, there are two exceptions: when Haruka is shown killing the dog (blue sky, red moon) and in a piece of official art that shows a red moon on a red sky.

Confusion between indoors and outdoors: If you notice, literally everything in Weakness happens indoors, except for the bits where Haruka is floating in water. Even the forest has floorboards, except for a single scene. The opposite also happens: we see kid Haruka out for a walk with his mom, but they're still inside the house, with the city just being images on the wall. Meanwhile, the mindscape in MeMe shows a ruin (no walls) on an endlessly extending sea and sky (natural-ish settings), but it also reflects the structure of Mikoto's house. So is it inside or outside? Looking at the shoes, both Mikoto and younger Haruka are dressed as though they're outside, but older Haruka is wearing slippers.

Reflections not matching "reality": Note how neither Mikoto nor the coffee table show up in the water in the second image, or how the paintings go from having no reflection to having each other's reflection, with those facing the wrong way. The fourth and fifth images are also an interesting example of the reflections not even matching each other, even though the timing and framing suggest we're still looking at the same scene.

#I think that the discussion of weakness and saviors could've benefited from including Kotoko since it's also a big theme for her. But. #The last thing this post needs is scope creep. Especially if it'll take half a year of waiting just to start. #I didn't even say EVERYTHING I wanted to here. Like I think comparing their relationships with their little sisters (?) is very interesting #but it's also 90% headcanons and assumptions #milgram #mikoto kayano #long post #haruka sakurai

[tizzyizzy]

There are two approaches to writing a narrative, and a good writer employs both techniques.

In the plotting/outlining/planning approach, a writer observes their narrative from a distance. They consider what the big plot beats should be and where to place them for the desired emotional effect.

Viewing a narrative like this helps a story become more than the sum of its parts. However, if you only approach a story from a distance, you're more likely to end up with something soullessly generic, the characters actinf based on what the plot demands regardless of characterization.

Then there's the improvisational approach. Characters are fleshed out and put in situations, and the writer chooses what happens based on intuitive understanding of the characters.

This approach tends to allow more originality, as plot elements emerge organically instead of being imposed from outside. Without an overarching view, though, plotlines can end up sprawling out of control. The writer can lose track of the overall point they were trying to make, failing to trim loose plot threads or properly build up to a brilliant new idea.

I am now pretty convinced that David Jenkins leaned too hard into the second approach. He allowed the actors a lot of freedom with their characters, and found a lot of the story as it was being filmed. That's why so many of the characters, interactions, and situations felt so organic.

So by the time he'd followed Ed into a full on abusive homicidal-suicidal breakdown, he hadn't actually looked ahead far enough to truly follow the ramifications of that. The plans he did have, like Izzy dying, no longer fit with what had developed

#ofmd critical

[ranboo5]

The Beeduo Meta

So, c!beeduo is unimaginably hard to analyse for the same reason the entire SMP is hard to analyse, especially in post-Doomsday DSMP when a lot more Offscreen Time became relevant: there are different backfilling assumptions. This is also complicated by the fact that it’s, well, a dynamic, and this fandom has an unimaginably hard time dealing with dynamics, because of “show me the clip” analysis being the norm. This kind of emphasis can be unsuited to dynamic analysis, because individual interactions cannot be taken as by themselves definitive of a dynamic without examining the framework they exist within. 

My aim with this post is to establish the patterns we see in c!Ranboo and c!Tubbo’s interactions, to examine each successive one with the context of established precedent in mind, and to assert the thing I have known since February 2021: the framework assumed by the fandom and the framework that actually exists and makes sense to exist (regardless of authorial intent!) are incongruous, to put it lightly. 

Will be dropping character tags from now on, but obviously all c! and /rp

Disclaimer also that this is very much coming from a c!Ranboo main – I am trying to do c!Tubbo as much justice as I can but being a boober is going to influence how I come at this, pretty obviously

Ranboo will be referred to with it/its pronouns in a couple places throughout, a) for clarity and b) because I want to

Under a readmore because it’s unimaginably fucking long there is a TL;DR at the bottom

Beeduo starts with imbalanced expectations because of the situation Ranboo shows up into and how Ranboo interacts w/ situations he considers high risk. In New L’Manberg, Ranboo quickly becomes functionally the only one in Tubbo's corner in several important respects. They are genuine friends, dgmw, and at this point it hasn't quite spiraled, but from the start the established dynamic is Ranboo thinking he has to care for Tubbo bc no one else will, and Tubbo ending up with Ranboo being the only one who really appears to respect him as president and stand by his side. Even before the cabinet actually has tensions in it, this is a suspected thing, which is evidenced in the manner in which the cabinet’s dynamics deteriorate as New L’Manberg wears on 

Even before this deterioration, this setup is immediately extremely high stakes for Ranboo. One of their first interactions, while Ranboo is still calling Tubbo honorifics uncertainly (which Ranboo doesn't even do generally man is still throwing spaghetti at the wall in terms of how to interact with him), is Ranboo having to talk a tripping-balls Tubbo off a cliff edge while he's standing there high and rambling. Stakes of this kind are not immediately damning, but they can be something that complicates matters if handled poorly. They will be handled poorly. 

This precariousness is also immediately dangerous for Tubbo, because Ranboo is a yes man. It knows it needs to comply, or appear to, to maintain its safety and autonomy. In other words, this is a tendency to partial duplicity and disingeniety in the interest of one’s own safety. Ranboo’s apparent alignment with anyone or anything cannot be assumed to be exclusive or even genuine. At this point he genuinely does think the best of Tubbo and his decision making, but this does not last, bc Ranboo takes ppl on good faith and gets disappointed.

As Ranboo befriends like 30 enemies of the state and is also repeatedly reminded of the danger he faces (the Butcher Army, the armor thing, "be loyal"), the stakes only get higher, especially as Tubbo gets more and more unpopular. This culminates in Ranboo’s statement on Doomsday about how he's literally expecting to be executed. This Is Indicative of the stakes he has been and continues to be living under. 

Tubbo, meanwhile, has had it told to his face with receipts that Ranboo is a traitor... and immediately enters copium central, blaming it on Ranboo's memory issues. This is setting out a pattern that will continue all the way to Tubbo absolutely refusing to implicate Ranboo in Tommy’s death and beyond – Tubbo cannot consider Ranboo to have the capacity to be a threat. This will be bad for both of them.

For now we go into Snowchester. It is important to note Ranboo is actively afraid of Tubbo at this point. The urgency in his mind ebbs some by the time they get married, but at this point he is actively considering Tubbo a more-than-latent threat. The tower scene happens, which is a continuation of Tubbo being ableist to Ranboo, this time to the point of trying to experimentally cure its memory issues against its wishes – people will say Ranboo said yes technically, and it did, but again remember: Ranboo is a yes man, and it is residually afraid of what Tubbo might do to himself or to Ranboo if it missteps. Consent given under threat is not consent, and it is extremely indicative of what Ranboo actually feels about this happening from his initial resistance, his attempts to weasel out of the procedure/leave early throughout, and his reaction after. In true fashion of a yes man who is trying not to set off alarm bells while keeping his head, he is resistant without openly refusing throughout. To be clear: this is not Tubbo intentionally violating Ranboo's consent (nor are any of the other ensuing experiments and/or proposals). This is their heldover power dynamic. Tubbo is not evil or malicious or anything – the two of them just have a fucked set of expectations, and that set of expectations is not going to improve, because neither of them have the framework to challenge it. Even if Ranboo recognizes something is wrong on a conscious level (which he refuses to as part of the strat), he will not acknowledge it, because of aforementioned tendencies, and Tubbo will not recognize something is wrong, because Tubbo does not have the healthiest ideas abt individual consent and personhood in general, because when in any of DSMP history has anyone shown Tubbo that as a priority? In fact, What Tubbo Thinks about a situation has been repeatedly dismissed, and at this point he has long learned this. To the Joker Tubbo this is just a normal interaction, and he continues to see Ranboo as someone who is at least mostly reliably in his corner, and at least mostly reliably his friend (especially after Exile fucked up his relationship with Tommy), so he has no reason to believe this would be a problem. Bringing this up as an issue is a threat to the stability of their relationship and the surrounding circumstances, which is not tenable; Tubbo has been looking for stability this whole time and is not interested in losing it again, and Ranboo is staking a lot of self-convinced morality on the fact that he's being good to Tubbo technically, and also is still extremely afraid of what Tubbo might do if he isn't there to catch him.

(Literally catch him! There is a scene where Tubbo jumps off a roof shouting for Ranboo to catch him, which idk if cc!Tubbo thought he was in character for, but cc!Ranboo definitely was. You do not react with off-trailing closed-off genuine fear and worry to your friend maybe doing a clown in video games. I know my little guy’s voice that was c!Ranboo I know it was.)

In the absence of being able to unpack the problem, they go for the next best solution to this threat of losing stability, which is to codify that stability by getting married. Michael is part of this. We never got a deeply in character discussion for why they decided to adopt Michael, which leaves us with the interaction where Tubbo is (jokingly?) threatening to “commit adultery,” and Ranboo replies that he can’t because “Michael is our son, Michael is our adopted son." This is evidently news to Tubbo – unsurprisingly, because this is the first time Michael is referred to as anything more than a pet.

Again, absolutely do not get me wrong – both of beeduo are genuinely affectionate for and extremely attached to Michael (Ranboo has so much sentiment and love and kindness in his hearts). The aforementioned scene is also dubiously canon at best – I only mention it at all because the essence of it is consistent with the previous established dynamic and with how it keeps going. They care, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to pretend they don’t, but Michael’s ultimate importance outside the (again, very extant) sentimental aspect is as a prop in the game of house these morons are playing because they are so so so afraid of losing everything – in Tubbo's case, of losing everything again, and in Ranboo's case, of failing to be there for Tubbo and prevent whatever Tubbo does.

Including with the nukes! I didn’t forget about the nuke scene! We’re talking about the nuke scene!! 

For those who do not remember the nuke scene, a summary: it takes place shortly after the silo’s inception, before the marriage. Tubbo, obviously jumpy and nervous, asks a visiting Ranboo out of the blue if he wants to see smth secret, and  says he’ll just stress Ranboo out to make him forget it afterward. Ranboo, to this offer, says no, he would rather not be intentionally triggered into situational memory loss. This was, however, not an actual offer, as Tubbo ignores him and leads him into the silo anyway.

Tubbo’s literal world destroying weapons bolster the stakes I’ve mentioned earlier that Ranboo perceives in this dynamic; Ranboo, trying to hang on to what could become an extremely dangerous complicating factor, goes to write it down and Tubbo tells him to put the book away. When Ranboo hesitates, Tubbo threatens him. Tubbo is counting on Ranboo’s memory loss here to be able to trust him, after all, as he has before and as he will again.

In fact, this is relevant in the literal next arc beeduo have relevance, which is outpost arc. 

I've gone off abt Ranboo's ideology 40 million times and I'll go off abt it more; for Ranboo to function safely he needs an environment where he does not feel surveilled/scrutinized, where he is not subject to others' whims, and where he is not expected to be specifically and exclusively allegiant. See earlier discussion of his yes-man tendencies – he doesn’t want to be that way! These are character flaws and he knows it! But he must keep yes-manning for the sake of surviving in a society that will not give him the ability to breathe!! Ranboo is a mf anarchist for a reason he needs his agency!!! 

And you will notice this is not raising green flags for his dynamic w/ Tubbo. Outside of the implicit coercion elements, Ranboo has actual positive motivations to align with Tubbo: he shares Tubbo's desire for peace and stability, and he feels genuinely sentimental and affectionate to Tubbo. Both of them want the same things, because wanting to have a peaceful happy life is a generally appealing goal, and they want to have it together, because they’re friends and care about each other. Unfortunately, they have a radically different understanding of most everything about how to get there, including in regards to personhood. Including what it means to value someone. What it means to be happy. What it means to love someone. 

Ranboo does not want to confront this, but outpost-burger arc beeduo is where this conflict makes him. This is the arc where it is made absolutely unambiguous that Ranboo and Tubbo have a dynamic where neither can love the other like the other loves him, because they have fundamentally philosophically different understandings of what that even means. "Maybe he built those walls to protect me" KILLING ME WOULD HURT LESS, RANBOOLIVE 

(While we are here, and I am getting a glass of water to calm down, re: the love point: the romanticity, platonicity, queerplatonicity, etc. of it is not the relevant part the point is that it's philosophically in com fucking patible. Are we clear. Are we clear this is not relevant discourse. Good. Okay)

Ranboo is suffering increasing confusion and confabulation and stress as the arc goes on, almost certainly bc he is again in a political situation; he makes explicit that this is another instance of it "happening again", like he did at the worst parts of his spirals irt his situation in New L’Manberg. Tubbo is not the only factor in this; Ranboo has complicated dynamics w/ Quackity and the cookieduo (Ranboo and Slime) arc is also relevant, but Tubbo is Ranboo's first priority and Ranboo is putting his brain thru the blender for him! We do not see him in a comparable consistent state like this at any point except New L’Manberg! Ranboo is fucked up in outpost arc!! And Tubbo obviously is too; the entire arc is about his lash-out and he is obviously paranoid doing it. And both of these only make it clear that the unbalanced expectations the whole dynamic was built on, of reliance on Ranboo as specially in Tubbo’s corner, are still fucking there

Ranboo’s behavior is extremely worth scrutinizing here. When Q sends Fundy and I am pretty sure Foolish? to go check out the outpost and they trash it on the way there, Ranboo cleans it up (and leaves threats, which is not a Hinged Action and is something he knows is self-compromising, which goes to show his state of mind) w/ the explicit motivation of keeping it from Tubbo. Ranboo talks to Quackity abt Tubbo and repeatedly makes excuses abt how Tubbo is neurodivergent and a minor, and sure, it says the same thing about itself, but then it continues saying similar shit to rationalize Tubbo's behavior on its own. Ranboo has very expressed interest in portraying Tubbo, both to any audience it has AND to itself, as someone who is not responsible for his actions, because he’s Going Through A Lot, and it has been doing that since the mention of the experiments/tower scene in character.

Tubbo has to cling to the idea that Ranboo's treasonous tendencies are tied to his memory loss. Ranboo has to cling to the idea that Tubbo’s erratic and violent behavior all doesn't really matter bc Tubbo is ~ twaumatized ~, because he “has a lot of problems,” and they both have to cling to their ableist copium, because if they don’t, then each has to admit that his husband would hurt him, and in fact has.

Outpost arc is also where we get "you'd tell me if I was a bad person right" "yeah I’d tell you if you step out of line" – I talk about it in connection to the things I’ve discussed earlier more in depth here, but further: it’s extra chilling when you consider 1) Ranboo does not genuinely concur with Tubbo's philosophies, is not kept safe by them and he knows that when in his right state of mind as evidenced by his active ever-present weaseling-out-of-this maneuvers; 2) that Ranboo is demonstrably extremely good at aforesaid weaseling; and 3) that he is extremely ideologically critical and fiercely independent and arrogant, all the time! And this is the evidence point for what I say in the tags of that ask: Tubbo is the closest on the server to come to ever having control over Ranboo ideologically

Ranboo is so good at 5D chess. Ranboo outmaneuvered Wilbur and Quackity and Dream. Ranboo, increasingly freely, is able to disagree and bring up concerns to Phil and Techno (not fully obv but more than everyone else he talks to lmao), whom broadly he agrees with and has seen the benefit of the philosophies of, but still doesn’t think are Fully Correct, because he doesn’t think that about anyone but himself. But with Tubbo, Ranboo conceded so much that he could have lost the game if Tubbo hadn't proceeded to fold during the burger arc. And Tubbo didn't even know! He didn't even realize anything was off!! 

That fold is the next relevant point in this torrid saga. Tubbo reaches a breaking pt with Wilbur's return; Ranboo gets even more visibly freaked out at all times bc of the complicating situation; it’s here when we get the conversation where Tubbo talks abt the outpost and having signed it over. 

This hits Ranboo in a way Tubbo is going to miss, because, again, when has anyone on the DSMP given Tubbo a precedent for caring about that? He has literally 0 example reason to consider all the work™ that any individual put into a project as far as he’s concerned that’s not going to work. Ranboo, unfortunately, not only does, but also has RSD. This already hurts. And then Tubbo makes the to-him extremely innocuous statement that yeah, now that he has a job and a faction and a direction that he isn't buckling under the weight of losing, he's finally happy

Ranboo, who is extremely dubious abt LNV's labor conditions anyway, fully hears that Tubbo never needed him. Tubbo is finally happy in service to the exact construct that Ranboo has repeated concrete evidence fucks himself and everyone around him, Tubbo included, up. Ranboo hears that he has been soundly cucked by the concept of sides, to put it a little facetiously. He has been checkmate liberals’d.

(This, understandably, does nothing for his mental state.)

And before I continue I must mention again: Ranboo and Tubbo do care about each other. They do legitimately want the best for each other. They have legitimately bonded, and are genuine friends (&c). 

But you also have to remember that Ranboo is extremely calculating, and if you’ll also recall, he is still in a high stakes and high delicacy political situation where he has to be making a lot of those calculations. Now, he's just heard that he was never needed for one of his primary goals. Yes, this hurts, but it carries an important second significance to those calculations: if keeping Tubbo stable was never Ranboo’s doing, this is a reason to deprioritize it.

And that is how we go into Hitting on Sixteen/The Wilbur Van. That is why Ranboo is able to snap at Tubbo in Ho16/TWV. The sheer contrast between the "I'll tell you if you step out of line" agreement and Ranboo dismissing and yelling at Tubbo in this is the biggest and clearest indicator – and the deciding difference is that in Ho16, Ranboo has the goddamn burger van interaction in his information bank, the one where Ranboo was told that his concerns were useless and could be deprioritized. He has been functionally dismissed from his post – he no longer has to worry about appearing good and trustworthy and respectful to Tubbo, and with greater things hanging over his head than maintaining those appearances, he goes full mask off. He prioritizes mitigating Wilbur over mitigating Tubbo in that scene, and he feels bad about it bc he likes Tubbo, and he feels bad for yelling at him, especially considering he is lying – dismissal of everyone who isn’t himself aside, Ranboo knows just fine that Wilbur is dangerous and doing something harmful! He is lying!! 

But that's the thing with Ranboo. Ranboo will lie to fucking anyone. It will lie to your motherfucking face with full confidence, and then it'll feel soooo bad about it later, it'll tear him up inside, and you will hear about none of it, and he'd do it again, because it'll be another calculated concession. Because Ranboo is a yes man and a survivor and a political agenda haver and is balancing like 478363 conflicting priorities at any given time because he has to

So it lies. It mansplains Wilbur Soot to Tubbo (and I do not use that word as a joke I use it as shorthand) and it lies and it can do this so immediately because it did not have to lose or shake a long-standing respect for Tubbo – at that point, its initial wisps of respect for Tubbo had been disintegrated and gone for months. He was never trustworthy to Tubbo – Tubbo put his trust and his reliance in a liar and a traitor, because Ranboo's lies were the only semblance of respect and understanding he got, and it was against what both of them wanted for Tubbo to realize that ever. Tubbo is married to a motherfucking stranger.

Tubbo appeals to a better person that Ranboo isn't, to a loyalty Ranboo never really had, and bc Ranboo doesn't have to pretend to respect him anymore Tubbo gets berated and condescended to, again. Like I cannot emphasize this shit enough! Ranboo was shit to Tubbo in that scene, and even if he had sacrificed himself for Tubbo, it wouldn’t have done fuck anything to address how awful he was in that moment and why it was so deeply such. And Ranboo didn’t even “sacrifice himself”! People made that up! 

Yes, Ranboo's political motivation was in large part that Tubbo, someone he cared about, was being repeatedly endangered and used as a prop from where Ranboo was standing, and Ranboo found that kind of mistreatment of a person he cared for the wellbeing of untenable. He cared about that, genuinely, because he cares about people and about their individual safeties, and even when he hurts them it’s, again, a concession. It’s something he wants to avoid. So Tubbo is in danger and Ranboo acts in the capacity of his care for Tubbo and gets Tubbo out, makes sure that materially his loved one is safe – and then, having dealt with the danger to people, turns around and deals with ideology.

It's not for Tubbo that it kills itself, because Ranboo, again, cares about people. Ranboo killing himself did nothing for Tubbo, and it fucking knows that; Ranboo’s critical eye is extremely good at seeing past the notion that benefit to some ideology is necessarily the same as benefit to some person without being able to draw a clear line to the effects that ideology has on that person. The division between effect on people and effect on system – the concept that the ideologies one live under affect people rather than breathe as them, and that they thus have to justify that effect being good rather than having symbolic gestures take priority over individuals – is the whole motherfucking point of people not sides.

Ranboo killed himself as a symbolic gesture in service to a rhetorical point he was making to Wilbur and Quackity. Ranboo killed himself to win at 5D chess. Ranboo thoughtlessly made it so his husband watched him die, because after saving Tubbo, he had bigger things to worry about.

Ranboo killing himself is, extremely intentionally both in universe and out, evocative of Wilbur doing so because in a sense it was for Wilbur, and it was thought out. Ranboo’s suicide was not nonsensical revenge; it was not emotional protectiveness; it was the callous, cruel, condescending, twisted logic of a man who has shown this flaw in its ways of thinking again and again and whose lack of sleep the night before was specifically emphasized. Ranboo reaches drastic action and violence when he finds himself when he finds himself desperate and alone in the corner he’s backed into, and left with his own mind and only his own mind, he thinks himself into the deranged awfulness of the brainspace he was in when he made the decision. Though the choice itself was likely spontaneous, it was a culminating manifestation of a thought process that had been building for this kind of opportunity the whole time.

Yes, Ranboo is emotional; yes, Ranboo is sentimental; Ranboo does, however, think with his fucking head. He does it too much, in fact, and here he thought with his head into deprioritizing Tubbo, and functionally leaving Tubbo behind while he pursued his own agenda – which is really what he had been doing all a-fucking-long; he'd just been lying about it out of worry and fear, and Tubbo had believed him out of desperation. 

The love was there, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was the need, and the desperate belief from both of them that the other could fulfill that need. 

TL;DR: - Beeduo is based on a fundamentally imbalanced dynamic where Tubbo trusts Ranboo to be in his corner in a way no one else really is - This is bad because of the expectations it places on Ranboo and because of the way that it’s not something that Tubbo can actually rely on - The second Ranboo was no longer coercively held to pretending, everything fell through - Both of them clung for the longest time to ableist copium that dismissed the other’s capability to harm him to get away from the fact that they have already hurt each other and continue to - While they care about each other, their understandings of personhood, love, relationships, agency, and happiness are fundamentally at odds

TL;DRTL;DR: Ranboo is a liar and Tubbo is an auth

#Dream SMP #Tubbo #Ranboo #beeduo #c!beeduo critical #c!Ranboo critical #c!Tubbo critical #you are not immune #for the approval of the forum #FINALLY. FINALLY AFTER ALL THIS TIME #SEVENTEEN MONTHS. 4.1K WORDS.

[slowfae]

A few things i like to do in my free time to help me visualise my Drs

This is all a bunch of stuff i do in my free time anyway, so might as well playing around with it for shifting. It works for scripting, if you are not an artist, and want to picture your Dr self.

I am a very visual person, so it’s something that help me personally.

Life Makeover

This app is my obsession lately. It allow you to customise your character almost entirely. It’s definitely targeted more towards women, but i have seen people playing around with the character customisation to make it look more androgynous.

There is also a sims 4 like building feature. It’s not as great as the sims itself, but i managed to do a cute build. The proportions feels more realistic than the sims 4, and the general 3D and light quality is very nice for a mobile game, it’s very pretty to look at.

I recreated myself, since i don’t really change my appearance (outside the fact i am a fairy in pretty much all my drs). But it’s fun playing around with the outfits, what i would wear if i was in this universe, since there is a lot of fantasy outfit in the game.

The sims 4

I mentioned it earlier, I’m a big sims player. Every time i start a new script, i make a house or an apartment to visualise where i would live. Especially since the sims 4 base game is free now, you could just install aesthetic CC to make your dream house.

If you don’t like to build, there is plenty of option you can download in the gallery. A lot of the place I’m shifting to are fantasy setting, so i don’t always find good visualisation on Pinterest .

I made this apartment for me and my best friend MHA Dr, for our attempt on group shifting. I didn’t shift yet, bit she stayed in her DR for 3 days and she said the floor plan was pretty accurate. She just said the couch was different in her dr, but I’m pretty sure it’s because she didn’t like the one i chose 🤣

Of course the fun part of the sims is to create your dr self and your dr friends and see how they interact with each other. I created a save with the intention to channel my dr through it, if that makes sense.

I have seen some unexpected things playing out 😆

For exemple my Dr parents kept wanting to make more children, and did 2 without me controlling it, my mom called me telling me they were considering doing another kid, asking me what I think. I responded it was not really for me to decide and next time I saw her in the game…she was pregnant!

I think it makes sense, since I was making the perfect parents I never had, that they like parenting and having a full house, so now I consider it part of my script. I’m the oldest of four siblings now I guess.

Room Planner

Another app, for construction this time. You don’t have to pay to use it, the free version is just a little bit more limited. It’s meant for real life building, so the proportion reflect real life and you can find plenty of ikea furniture in the catalog.

That’s everything for apps, I’m sure it has been talked about before, but I hope it can give some inspiration to other shifters

🧚🏻‍♀️

#reality shifting #shiftblr #reality shift #desired reality #shifting script #shifting

[reverie-starlight]

I'm absolutely down bad for Hawks and also not caught up with the current plot, therefore this seems like the perfect opportunity to ask for some general headcanons with a shy reader!! 🥲🛐🤍

Have a wonderful day (and ofc take all the time you want I just found your post and HAD to request) <33

AHHH thank you so much for this!!! I really hope I didn't mess it up too badly- I'm still trying to get his character figured out so this is going to seem a bit more "trial and error" esque until I get more comfortable with him. It's literally my first time writing for Hawks ever and I'm very excited!!

{Hawks with a shy!reader HCs}

gn!reader, as always :)

much fluff, possibly some inconsistency, a lot of effort lol. tried to keep it as general as possible cause it manifests differently for everyone. 

(I haven’t written in this format for a long time so the beginning is pretty messy and just me organizing my thoughts i’m so sorry you deserve better)

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okay so.

he is not shy at all

but he's not like,,, suuuuper outgoing either

you know what i mean by that, right?

he's easy going but also pretty direct and serious when the occasion calls for it

he radiates comfort and good vibes to me, so i think a lot of people would find it very easy to talk to him

he's also pretty confident

so I think he'd work well with a s/o who's more on the shy/reserved side, you'd compliment each other well

and however your shyness manifests (if it’s on the subtle side or more obvious) he’s prepared to help you out

if it’s something you want to work towards getting over, he’d try bringing you to his office on slower days to meet new people and help you build up some confidence

or to work events where there wouldn’t be any cameras or the general public. he would never throw you into the spotlight like that, but bringing you to places where there’d be a lot of people would be good for breaking you out of your shell

and if it’s something you already have under control and know how to work around, he supports you with that too!!

either way he loves you and accepts the fact that being social isn’t your thing

absolutely melts when he understands you’re finally 100% comfortable around him

he realized this basically the same moment you did- you were in your apartment just hanging out and you started singing along to an overplayed commercial on the TV (you once told him that singing around people wasn’t something you liked doing but it happened so naturally in that moment that his wings rustled in pure happiness). You both just looked at each other for a second in surprise before pulling you onto his lap and kissing all over your face <3

it was pretty early on in your relationship, which makes it that much sweeter to him. it means a lot that you were able to warm up to him so fast.

when you’re alone together, or with your friends/family and you’re comfortable enough to fully be yourself??? lives for that

he’d also never tease you about how different you are in public vs with him. because you’re still YOU, it’s just a more reserved and quiet version of you and that’s okay!! he loves every side of you without a doubt

if it ever got so bad (like to the point where it could be considered social anxiety and not just normal shyness anymore), he’d either wrap his wings around you to calm you down and give you some privacy 

or he’d send a feather to you to hold on to and discreetly comfort you with that

the bird man loves you that’s all <333

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I hope you enjoyed this!! I’m really sorry it took so long to publish, and i’m sorry if it wasn’t exactly what you wanted!! University is insane and I finally had time to write today. 

likes and reblogs appreciated <3

#reverie asks #reverie requests #hawks x reader #hawks fluff #mha hawks x reader #keigo takami x reader #keigo takami fluff